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Legal Legends (3)
2024.06.10 12:23 Acceptable_Egg5560 Legal Legends (3)
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Memory transcript: Venric, Venlil Lawyer Extraordinaire. Date: [Standardized human time] November 13th, 2136.
“I-I never went up to the seventh floor,” Nhilasi argued. “That’s where long-term patients that can’t be transferred to the main complex stay. I work in the moderate injury ward on the fourth floor, like I said.”
“And yet here's a video of you right after your shift ended entering the room of the victim,” I continued, causing Nhilasi’s head to droop once more. “So how the spehk did you make from there to the exit in [under thirty seconds]?”
Nhilasi tilted her head in confusion, but Serl’s ears would’ve gone rigid had they been able to. “That’s got to be another Kolshian!” she blurted out, her tail blurring behind her as I considered what I was really arguing. Sure, it was technically possible for Nhilasi to make it down the stairs in that time, but she hadn’t been running at all in the footage I reviewed.
I stared at the pad, ears flicking in thought. “You would practically need to fly down the stairwell to make that time. It’s not conclusive evidence, but…”
“But it’s enough for us to investigate,” Serl finished.
“Us?” I asked, looking at her inquisitively. “I am afraid that if I am to take this on, it can’t be an ‘us’ doing it.” I say straighter in my chair, leveling my head with Nhilasi’s. “I am a professional, firm or not. If you want my help with this case, then a renegotiation of legal counsel will be required.”
I saw Serl shoot an alarmed look at me, but I continued. “In short, you would have to fire your representative from Tail Guard and hire me in their stead.” I lowered my paws and awaited a response from the Kolshian at the other end of the table. I could see Serl in my periphery, her features contorted in a mask of complete betrayal. Just wait a scratch and we’ll see how deep your loyalties to those frauds lie.
“I-I don’t know what to say,” Nhilasi answered, looking between me and Serl. “Is it possible that…but why would another…” she looked down at the table for a long while before she finally responded. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“Fantastic! My current going rate is 70k credits,” I said. Serl looked horrified as Nhilasi’s face twisted in shock at the number, as I had expected. “The economy hits me as hard as it does everyone else. If you’re not willing to pay, then I’m afraid that my time is better spent elsewhere.”
Serl bore a hole through my head with her glare as Nhilasi considered the offer. I turned my next inquiry around in my mind as she thought. If Nhilasi didn’t make it a stipulation, then I supposed I would just have to ask the question myself. Finally, Nhilasi spoke again. “Okay, but on one condition.”
“And that would be?” I asked.
“Serl still works with you,” she replied, relieving me of the duty of asking the question myself. “She’s been good to me, better than some of the others have been. I still want her help, even if I ditch her firm.”
“Hmmm, I don’t believe that’s up to me,” I responded. “Tail Guard and I don’t have the best history, I was surprised that Serl even sought me out. And it would also be counter to the reason I said you’d have to fire her. See, it’s against the law for multiple firms to work on the same case due to potential conflicts of interest and legal privacy. If she is to be of assistance to you, she’d have to resign from her firm…and join mine.”
Serl’s ear bases went rigid in alarm as I laid out the final deal. No negotiations, no compromises. If Serl wanted to continue this case, she’d have to separate from the dying firm that was Tail Guard. She looked between Nhilasi and I, her features shifting rapidly as she struggled as to what she would say. Hopefully she was as pragmatic as I pegged her as being, otherwise blind loyalty would be her downfall.
Her ears pressed against her head and she cleared her throat. “I would be… honored to help with Nhilasi’s defense. I will draft a resignation notice to Tail Guard effective immediately on the grounds that I am allowed to continue aiding in this case.”
She definitely had an interesting habit in pressing her ears back when making herself be professional. No matter, I had a new client to deal with. “Indeed, now if you would please set your signature or tentacle mark on my data pad, we can get right to work.”
I placed my data pad in the transfer window and closed the hatch. “Please be sure to read the whole contract before signing, as this agreement will be considered legally binding.” As Nhilasi took my pad and started skimming through the contract, I spied Serl still giving me a death glare. Deciding to face the problem head-on, I faced her. “Is something the matter, Serl?”
“We will discuss that later,” she replied, looking ahead at Nhilasi to signal the end of the conversation. Once the Kolshian had finished, she slipped the pad back through the transfer window. She didn’t have nearly enough time to read every inch of the contract, but who does? I thankfully didn’t hide much in there, so it was largely just to prevent any backing out. Like I just had her and Serl do to Tail Guard.
“Fantastic. I look forward to representing you, Miss Nhilasi,” I said as I bowed my head respectfully at her. I never thought I would do such a thing towards an Exterminator, but I considered this a special case. “Before we leave, is there anything else you wish for us to know? Anything at all?”
“Not really. All I can really give you is this,” she said before pulling out a small paper list. On it were the names of several people and their respective positions. “It’s a promotion list that I managed to copy down before everything else occurred. I doubt it’ll have much use, but consider it thanks for agreeing to support me through this.”
I took the small paper list and filed it away with the rest of the evidence, closing the file and standing from my seat. “Thank you for your willing cooperation, Miss Nhilasi. If you have any issues with how the staff are treating you, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”
I bent down and slipped a business card through the transfer window, holding her gaze with both my eyes. “I am serious, they are legally required to allow you consistent access to your lawyer and suitable living conditions. If anyone here attempts to prevent you from talking to me, taking away your bed, or restricting your food because you’re a Kolshian, they are acting illegally and you must inform me the next time we speak. And we shall be speaking once Every Paw, I will ensure it. Understand?”
Nhilasi seemed shocked that I went through all that effort, but we both knew that it was necessary. I had seen the discolorations on her right tentacle upon entering that would only occur from lack of circulation. I also heard her stomach rumble multiple times throughout the meeting, solidifying my fortitude in telling her this. She swallowed and flurried her frills. “Y-Yes, thank you Venric.”
I stepped back and bowed. “Thank you, I hope you thoroughly enjoy your next meal. Now I am afraid that I must cut this meeting short, as I will need to carefully investigate the discrepancies present in the evidence. So, Miss Nhilasi, I must bid you a good Paw.”
Having bid goodbye, I turned and walked out the door. Serl followed closely behind, and I could feel discontentment radiating off of her, but also a bit of confusion, likely from my final words. I decided to wait until we were somewhere more private to engage with her. However, I did intend on engaging with someone.
As we entered the main lobby area, I spotted the receptionist that had checked in Serl and I was still at her desk. I approached her, making my presence known with my ears and tail signaling positivity. “Excuse me Madam! I just wanted to inform you that our interrogation with inmate 592 is completed.”
“Oh, thank you!” She responded, typing at her workstation. “I’ll have you checked out shortly.”
“Much appreciated,” I started, but I wasn’t quite done. “Oh, just to check, your manager and warden are familiar with Subsection 41n of the Venlil Prime Ethical Treatment of Sapients Interred Act, right?”
The typing stopped. She turned towards me, her head tilting in confusion. “I’m sorry, subsection what? Who are you?”
I waved my tail dismissively. “Oh, I will get to that. The subsection is much more interesting right now! See, it clearly states that all interred persons are to be given livable accommodations until such date as their trial is scheduled for. This includes amenities such as running water, edible food, and a minimum of a padded mattress sheet for resting purposes. It also stipulates that should any persons be denied access to these essential amenities for reasons of their species, the offending facility is liable to fines between twelve million and 140m credits depending on the severity and scale of the offense(s).”
The receptionist had gone pale beneath her wool, studying me with a mixture of concern and fear. “In addition, up to 20% of that fine is liable to be awarded directly to the victims, and the staff of said facility could be placed upon a government no-hire blacklist. Such a list would be quite devastating to any future job prospects as well.”
I tilted my head down to gaze over her desk, spying a picture. “A handsome young man there. You must be proud to be his mother. Certainly hope you can endeavor to keep him in the comfortable life that all children deserve.”
The receptionist’s gaze hardened as she understood the subtext of my words. One that they couldn’t possibly hope to speak of (or even insinuate) aloud without threat of repercussion. It was clear that she had an idea of what I was referring to, and that was exactly what I was counting on. “I trust that no such violations would occur in a place such as this, however?”
“…None whatsoever,” the receptionist slowly said, not taking her eyes off me.
“Of course, I was simply checking. A lawyer such as myself has a civic duty to ensure that such information is made readily available to all who require it. I look forward to our next visit!” I forced a cheery tone in those last sentences to draw away suspicion from bystanders as I made my exit. I could hear the receptionist start furiously typing behind me, indicating that I said all I had needed to.
Oh wait, almost forgot to add the clincher.
“And if you happen to come in contact with your bosses, please tell them that Venric of Heema Lawven stopped by. I might desire to meet them upon my next visit! But for now, have good Paw!” The typing speed increased. Sometimes, I adore the reputation I have built.
Serl had remained surprisingly quiet during that ordeal, but I could tell it wasn’t out of respect for my endeavors to ensure Nhilasi was properly treated. As we neared my Hovertransit once again, I saw her flexing her jaw in preparation of speech in my periphery. But she was hesitating, her mind working out what to start with. I could probably assist with that.
I opened the vehicle's door and held it aside. “Well then, if you are really going to truly be hired on, then we should do this right. Please, step into my office. I expect we have some things to talk about.”
“You’re damn right we do,” Serl confirmed as she closed the door behind her, not wasting a [second] before making her thoughts known. “70k credits?? Are you trying to spiral the poor woman into debt?! Tail Guard charged 40k at the absolute maximum!!”
I made myself comfortable and set the autopilot to start flying us towards the hospital. It would be slow this time, as I expected this talk would take some time. “I have gotten rather familiar with the salaries of Exterminators, and I am quite certain they will be able to afford the payment.”
“You- Former Exterminator!” Serl cried, only sitting in a seat once the movement of the vehicle overcame her sense of balance. “And that’s not the brahking point! I know you’ve got more money than you know what to do with already, and you’re still demanding exorbitant amounts! Baah, why did I think you’d be any different??”
“I can assure you that my prices are very reasonable and necessary for my services,” I stated firmly. “My own reputation is at least testament enough for one.”
Serl huffed across from me, snappily securing herself in her seat. “…I should’ve figured that’s all you were in it for.”
My ear twitched in cautious curiosity. “Oh? And what do you mean by that?”
She stared Arxur claws at me before responding. “Money and stature, that’s all this is to you big-shot lawyers! Like the Tarlim case! You just use it for bragging rights and a sustained paycheck!” She huffed agitatedly as she gestured pointedly to me. “People like you don’t care about the person you’re defending, just what they can offer you!” She buried her face in her paws as she brayed exhausted. “Stars, why did I agree to join you?”
“You think I don’t care?” I huffed. “Really, you think that’s all my personality is about? Going after the money and fame?”
“Wh- did you already forget what you just did?” She sputtered. “You practically extorted Nhilasi and twisted my arm to make me work for you so I didn’t look like a monster to her!”
“You do realize that my reputation isn’t exactly one to be looked up towards?” I asked her, staring at her with both eyes. To my surprise, she met my gaze expectantly. No matter. “My clientele are not exactly the standard fare. I mostly defend those that nobody else wants to defend. Given how you explicitly sought me out, that would include you as well.”
That managed to break her stoicism, her eyes widening and blinking a few times. “Yes, I know that you still wanted to help her, but you didn’t want to help her yourself. You came to me because your career would be ruined by a case like this. For me? It’s just another paw at the office. And you knew that coming in, so don’t expect to have some superfluous moral high road over me.”
She was left speechless by my more in-depth extraction of her motivations, but I wasn’t done yet. “Furthermore, I don’t believe you’re quite aware of the kinds of expenses that pile up just from how I am forced to live. Do you think I didn’t try to establish a physical firm? It just so happens that “service-related accidents” from the Exterminators happen quite frequently to wherever my current address is listed. And even when I was mobile, my vehicles had a strange problem with repair issues and similar accidents as my previous offices. And any place I stored my files had issues with the exterminators having to “investigate potential predator nests” to the point that physical and digital copies always being on my person was the only way to guarantee the continued existence of those documents. And I had to purchase the servers and storage all myself, not to mention maintenance for everything.”
My breathing had become somewhat heavier as I allowed myself to vent the frustrations I had let accumulate in the back of my mind on a consistent basis. “This method of conducting business is not a matter of luxury, no ma’am, it’s a matter of Absolute Necessity. So if you wish to have a professional relationship with me in any capacity, I’d recommend ceasing your ill-informed scrutiny of my practices when you haven’t the slightest of the hardships I’ve come to face for simply protecting those in the most dire need of it! Do we Have an Understanding??”
All Serl could do was look at me blankly as my ragged breathing was showcased centerstage. After a few moments of the two of us looking at one another, I huffed and swiveled my chair around so that I could collect myself once more. It wasn’t often that I raised my voice, but I simply couldn’t help myself. I hadn’t expected this Sprig Lawyer to be nearly as hot-headed as she was, but I was not in the mood to justify my livelihood to her any longer.
We flew in silence for a while before Serl’s voice crept into my ears from behind me. “...Venric?”
As much as I was unprepared to face her again, I swiveled my chair around regardless. As opposed to earlier, she now bore an expression of guilt. “I… I’m sorry for assuming all that about you. I didn’t- I had no idea how much tribulation you’ve been forced to go through. I just assumed you’d be like the higher-ups back at Tail Guard. I should’ve known better.” She bowed her head in apologetic fashion, her already droopy ears slumped even further down her skull. “Brahk, I hate that you’re so right about me. Speh.”
…I didn’t know quite what to say. I had expected further resistance, but instead I received a genuine apology. While the bile in her previous speech still stung, I was willing to look past it. I remembered a time not too long ago where I was in a similar situation, and my unwillingness to back down set me on the path I was on to that day. It would not only be unwise of me to reject her apology, but it would also be quite callous of me to refuse. I sighed, smoothing my mane as I flicked my ears approvingly. “Raise your head, Serl. I accept your apology.”
She looked up at me with a mixture of relief and happiness, her tail thumping against the nearest chair. “Thank you, Venric. I promise that I won’t let you down again.” She leaned forward in her chair, looking over the evidence I had spread across my workstation. “So where are we headed now?”
“Where else?” I offered with an admittedly unnecessarily crypticness. “We are heading towards the scene of the incident: the local branch of the XGC,” I nodded, pulling out my data pad. “We should be there in a bit, which should give us ample time to address your employment situation. Can’t have any holes for the prosecution to exploit with us, now can we?”
“Speh, paperwork,” Serl mumbled. I really couldn’t help but agree.
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And thank you, u/TheManwithaNoPlan for all your help in creating this wonderful project with me! I don’t know where I would be without you!
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Memory transcript: Venric, Venlil Lawyer Extraordinaire. Date: [Standardized human time] November 13th, 2136.
“I-I never went up to the seventh floor,” Nhilasi argued. “That’s where long-term patients that can’t be transferred to the main complex stay. I work in the moderate injury ward on the fourth floor, like I said.”
“And yet here's a video of you right after your shift ended entering the room of the victim,” I continued, causing Nhilasi’s head to droop once more. “So how the spehk did you make from there to the exit in [under thirty seconds]?”
Nhilasi tilted her head in confusion, but Serl’s ears would’ve gone rigid had they been able to. “That’s got to be another Kolshian!” she blurted out, her tail blurring behind her as I considered what I was really arguing. Sure, it was technically possible for Nhilasi to make it down the stairs in that time, but she hadn’t been running at all in the footage I reviewed.
I stared at the pad, ears flicking in thought. “You would practically need to fly down the stairwell to make that time. It’s not conclusive evidence, but…”
“But it’s enough for us to investigate,” Serl finished.
“Us?” I asked, looking at her inquisitively. “I am afraid that if I am to take this on, it can’t be an ‘us’ doing it.” I say straighter in my chair, leveling my head with Nhilasi’s. “I am a professional, firm or not. If you want my help with this case, then a renegotiation of legal counsel will be required.”
I saw Serl shoot an alarmed look at me, but I continued. “In short, you would have to fire your representative from Tail Guard and hire me in their stead.” I lowered my paws and awaited a response from the Kolshian at the other end of the table. I could see Serl in my periphery, her features contorted in a mask of complete betrayal. Just wait a scratch and we’ll see how deep your loyalties to those frauds lie.
“I-I don’t know what to say,” Nhilasi answered, looking between me and Serl. “Is it possible that…but why would another…” she looked down at the table for a long while before she finally responded. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“Fantastic! My current going rate is 70k credits,” I said. Serl looked horrified as Nhilasi’s face twisted in shock at the number, as I had expected. “The economy hits me as hard as it does everyone else. If you’re not willing to pay, then I’m afraid that my time is better spent elsewhere.”
Serl bore a hole through my head with her glare as Nhilasi considered the offer. I turned my next inquiry around in my mind as she thought. If Nhilasi didn’t make it a stipulation, then I supposed I would just have to ask the question myself. Finally, Nhilasi spoke again. “Okay, but on one condition.”
“And that would be?” I asked.
“Serl still works with you,” she replied, relieving me of the duty of asking the question myself. “She’s been good to me, better than some of the others have been. I still want her help, even if I ditch her firm.”
“Hmmm, I don’t believe that’s up to me,” I responded. “Tail Guard and I don’t have the best history, I was surprised that Serl even sought me out. And it would also be counter to the reason I said you’d have to fire her. See, it’s against the law for multiple firms to work on the same case due to potential conflicts of interest and legal privacy. If she is to be of assistance to you, she’d have to resign from her firm…and join mine.”
Serl’s ear bases went rigid in alarm as I laid out the final deal. No negotiations, no compromises. If Serl wanted to continue this case, she’d have to separate from the dying firm that was Tail Guard. She looked between Nhilasi and I, her features shifting rapidly as she struggled as to what she would say. Hopefully she was as pragmatic as I pegged her as being, otherwise blind loyalty would be her downfall.
Her ears pressed against her head and she cleared her throat. “I would be… honored to help with Nhilasi’s defense. I will draft a resignation notice to Tail Guard effective immediately on the grounds that I am allowed to continue aiding in this case.”
She definitely had an interesting habit in pressing her ears back when making herself be professional. No matter, I had a new client to deal with. “Indeed, now if you would please set your signature or tentacle mark on my data pad, we can get right to work.”
I placed my data pad in the transfer window and closed the hatch. “Please be sure to read the whole contract before signing, as this agreement will be considered legally binding.” As Nhilasi took my pad and started skimming through the contract, I spied Serl still giving me a death glare. Deciding to face the problem head-on, I faced her. “Is something the matter, Serl?”
“We will discuss that later,” she replied, looking ahead at Nhilasi to signal the end of the conversation. Once the Kolshian had finished, she slipped the pad back through the transfer window. She didn’t have nearly enough time to read every inch of the contract, but who does? I thankfully didn’t hide much in there, so it was largely just to prevent any backing out. Like I just had her and Serl do to Tail Guard.
“Fantastic. I look forward to representing you, Miss Nhilasi,” I said as I bowed my head respectfully at her. I never thought I would do such a thing towards an Exterminator, but I considered this a special case. “Before we leave, is there anything else you wish for us to know? Anything at all?”
“Not really. All I can really give you is this,” she said before pulling out a small paper list. On it were the names of several people and their respective positions. “It’s a promotion list that I managed to copy down before everything else occurred. I doubt it’ll have much use, but consider it thanks for agreeing to support me through this.”
I took the small paper list and filed it away with the rest of the evidence, closing the file and standing from my seat. “Thank you for your willing cooperation, Miss Nhilasi. If you have any issues with how the staff are treating you, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”
I bent down and slipped a business card through the transfer window, holding her gaze with both my eyes. “I am serious, they are legally required to allow you consistent access to your lawyer and suitable living conditions. If anyone here attempts to prevent you from talking to me, taking away your bed, or restricting your food because you’re a Kolshian, they are acting illegally and you must inform me the next time we speak. And we shall be speaking once Every Paw, I will ensure it. Understand?”
Nhilasi seemed shocked that I went through all that effort, but we both knew that it was necessary. I had seen the discolorations on her right tentacle upon entering that would only occur from lack of circulation. I also heard her stomach rumble multiple times throughout the meeting, solidifying my fortitude in telling her this. She swallowed and flurried her frills. “Y-Yes, thank you Venric.”
I stepped back and bowed. “Thank you, I hope you thoroughly enjoy your next meal. Now I am afraid that I must cut this meeting short, as I will need to carefully investigate the discrepancies present in the evidence. So, Miss Nhilasi, I must bid you a good Paw.”
Having bid goodbye, I turned and walked out the door. Serl followed closely behind, and I could feel discontentment radiating off of her, but also a bit of confusion, likely from my final words. I decided to wait until we were somewhere more private to engage with her. However, I did intend on engaging with someone.
As we entered the main lobby area, I spotted the receptionist that had checked in Serl and I was still at her desk. I approached her, making my presence known with my ears and tail signaling positivity. “Excuse me Madam! I just wanted to inform you that our interrogation with inmate 592 is completed.”
“Oh, thank you!” She responded, typing at her workstation. “I’ll have you checked out shortly.”
“Much appreciated,” I started, but I wasn’t quite done. “Oh, just to check, your manager and warden are familiar with Subsection 41n of the Venlil Prime Ethical Treatment of Sapients Interred Act, right?”
The typing stopped. She turned towards me, her head tilting in confusion. “I’m sorry, subsection what? Who are you?”
I waved my tail dismissively. “Oh, I will get to that. The subsection is much more interesting right now! See, it clearly states that all interred persons are to be given livable accommodations until such date as their trial is scheduled for. This includes amenities such as running water, edible food, and a minimum of a padded mattress sheet for resting purposes. It also stipulates that should any persons be denied access to these essential amenities for reasons of their species, the offending facility is liable to fines between twelve million and 140m credits depending on the severity and scale of the offense(s).”
The receptionist had gone pale beneath her wool, studying me with a mixture of concern and fear. “In addition, up to 20% of that fine is liable to be awarded directly to the victims, and the staff of said facility could be placed upon a government no-hire blacklist. Such a list would be quite devastating to any future job prospects as well.”
I tilted my head down to gaze over her desk, spying a picture. “A handsome young man there. You must be proud to be his mother. Certainly hope you can endeavor to keep him in the comfortable life that all children deserve.”
The receptionist’s gaze hardened as she understood the subtext of my words. One that they couldn’t possibly hope to speak of (or even insinuate) aloud without threat of repercussion. It was clear that she had an idea of what I was referring to, and that was exactly what I was counting on. “I trust that no such violations would occur in a place such as this, however?”
“…None whatsoever,” the receptionist slowly said, not taking her eyes off me.
“Of course, I was simply checking. A lawyer such as myself has a civic duty to ensure that such information is made readily available to all who require it. I look forward to our next visit!” I forced a cheery tone in those last sentences to draw away suspicion from bystanders as I made my exit. I could hear the receptionist start furiously typing behind me, indicating that I said all I had needed to.
Oh wait, almost forgot to add the clincher.
“And if you happen to come in contact with your bosses, please tell them that Venric of Heema Lawven stopped by. I might desire to meet them upon my next visit! But for now, have good Paw!” The typing speed increased. Sometimes, I adore the reputation I have built.
Serl had remained surprisingly quiet during that ordeal, but I could tell it wasn’t out of respect for my endeavors to ensure Nhilasi was properly treated. As we neared my Hovertransit once again, I saw her flexing her jaw in preparation of speech in my periphery. But she was hesitating, her mind working out what to start with. I could probably assist with that.
I opened the vehicle's door and held it aside. “Well then, if you are really going to truly be hired on, then we should do this right. Please, step into my office. I expect we have some things to talk about.”
“You’re damn right we do,” Serl confirmed as she closed the door behind her, not wasting a [second] before making her thoughts known. “70k credits?? Are you trying to spiral the poor woman into debt?! Tail Guard charged 40k at the absolute maximum!!”
I made myself comfortable and set the autopilot to start flying us towards the hospital. It would be slow this time, as I expected this talk would take some time. “I have gotten rather familiar with the salaries of Exterminators, and I am quite certain they will be able to afford the payment.”
“You- Former Exterminator!” Serl cried, only sitting in a seat once the movement of the vehicle overcame her sense of balance. “And that’s not the brahking point! I know you’ve got more money than you know what to do with already, and you’re still demanding exorbitant amounts! Baah, why did I think you’d be any different??”
“I can assure you that my prices are very reasonable and necessary for my services,” I stated firmly. “My own reputation is at least testament enough for one.”
Serl huffed across from me, snappily securing herself in her seat. “…I should’ve figured that’s all you were in it for.”
My ear twitched in cautious curiosity. “Oh? And what do you mean by that?”
She stared Arxur claws at me before responding. “Money and stature, that’s all this is to you big-shot lawyers! Like the Tarlim case! You just use it for bragging rights and a sustained paycheck!” She huffed agitatedly as she gestured pointedly to me. “People like you don’t care about the person you’re defending, just what they can offer you!” She buried her face in her paws as she brayed exhausted. “Stars, why did I agree to join you?”
“You think I don’t care?” I huffed. “Really, you think that’s all my personality is about? Going after the money and fame?”
“Wh- did you already forget what you just did?” She sputtered. “You practically extorted Nhilasi and twisted my arm to make me work for you so I didn’t look like a monster to her!”
“You do realize that my reputation isn’t exactly one to be looked up towards?” I asked her, staring at her with both eyes. To my surprise, she met my gaze expectantly. No matter. “My clientele are not exactly the standard fare. I mostly defend those that nobody else wants to defend. Given how you explicitly sought me out, that would include you as well.”
That managed to break her stoicism, her eyes widening and blinking a few times. “Yes, I know that you still wanted to help her, but you didn’t want to help her yourself. You came to me because your career would be ruined by a case like this. For me? It’s just another paw at the office. And you knew that coming in, so don’t expect to have some superfluous moral high road over me.”
She was left speechless by my more in-depth extraction of her motivations, but I wasn’t done yet. “Furthermore, I don’t believe you’re quite aware of the kinds of expenses that pile up just from how I am forced to live. Do you think I didn’t try to establish a physical firm? It just so happens that “service-related accidents” from the Exterminators happen quite frequently to wherever my current address is listed. And even when I was mobile, my vehicles had a strange problem with repair issues and similar accidents as my previous offices. And any place I stored my files had issues with the exterminators having to “investigate potential predator nests” to the point that physical and digital copies always being on my person was the only way to guarantee the continued existence of those documents. And I had to purchase the servers and storage all myself, not to mention maintenance for everything.”
My breathing had become somewhat heavier as I allowed myself to vent the frustrations I had let accumulate in the back of my mind on a consistent basis. “This method of conducting business is not a matter of luxury, no ma’am, it’s a matter of Absolute Necessity. So if you wish to have a professional relationship with me in any capacity, I’d recommend ceasing your ill-informed scrutiny of my practices when you haven’t the slightest of the hardships I’ve come to face for simply protecting those in the most dire need of it! Do we Have an Understanding??”
All Serl could do was look at me blankly as my ragged breathing was showcased centerstage. After a few moments of the two of us looking at one another, I huffed and swiveled my chair around so that I could collect myself once more. It wasn’t often that I raised my voice, but I simply couldn’t help myself. I hadn’t expected this Sprig Lawyer to be nearly as hot-headed as she was, but I was not in the mood to justify my livelihood to her any longer.
We flew in silence for a while before Serl’s voice crept into my ears from behind me. “...Venric?”
As much as I was unprepared to face her again, I swiveled my chair around regardless. As opposed to earlier, she now bore an expression of guilt. “I… I’m sorry for assuming all that about you. I didn’t- I had no idea how much tribulation you’ve been forced to go through. I just assumed you’d be like the higher-ups back at Tail Guard. I should’ve known better.” She bowed her head in apologetic fashion, her already droopy ears slumped even further down her skull. “Brahk, I hate that you’re so right about me. Speh.”
…I didn’t know quite what to say. I had expected further resistance, but instead I received a genuine apology. While the bile in her previous speech still stung, I was willing to look past it. I remembered a time not too long ago where I was in a similar situation, and my unwillingness to back down set me on the path I was on to that day. It would not only be unwise of me to reject her apology, but it would also be quite callous of me to refuse. I sighed, smoothing my mane as I flicked my ears approvingly. “Raise your head, Serl. I accept your apology.”
She looked up at me with a mixture of relief and happiness, her tail thumping against the nearest chair. “Thank you, Venric. I promise that I won’t let you down again.” She leaned forward in her chair, looking over the evidence I had spread across my workstation. “So where are we headed now?”
“Where else?” I offered with an admittedly unnecessarily crypticness. “We are heading towards the scene of the incident: the local branch of the XGC,” I nodded, pulling out my data pad. “We should be there in a bit, which should give us ample time to address your employment situation. Can’t have any holes for the prosecution to exploit with us, now can we?”
“Speh, paperwork,” Serl mumbled. I really couldn’t help but agree.
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2024.06.10 11:57 icallshogun Bridgebuilder - Chapter 92
Reconstruction
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The two that Amara had introduced, Merana and Teleya, were a researcher and a team leader respectively. They were to take Carbon from the impromptu surgical suite over to where the Xenotechnology teams worked on analysis and replication, and then assist her with anything that she needed.
“It was very unexpected, but I am glad that the Empress requested the Integration project be moved onto the Sword of the Morning Light. The accommodations are much nicer, and the equipment is newer. Some of the things we requisitioned years ago were actually brought in!” Merana was in his forties, gray fur starting to turn silver, and he was extremely talkative. He had started perhaps two steps from where they were introduced and did not let up, speaking at a breakneck pace, hands gesturing with every word, eyes never staying put even when in a corridor that had nothing of note to look at. “Deep layer scanners that were made in the decade. Actual new printers! I do not know if it is too much to ask, but if you were to mention to the Empress that we appreciate these new laboratories...”
“Merana.” There was just a hint of reproach in Teleya’s voice. She was the exact opposite, so far. The definition of reserved, which fit with the crown of silver fur encroaching between her antennae. After a very brief introduction, she had remained silent until Merana had started asking favors of Carbon.
“Do not mistake my intent.” He shushed Teleya with a wave of his hand, but he seemed to pick up what she was driving at with that single word and deflected to a slightly different tack. “I have always enjoyed this assignment, it is fascinating to see what the other species in the universe are up to. But the previous labs were... Those fields were poorly tilled. The integration of the Human ship into the station’s systems was unorthodox but understandable, given how much material we acquire from them. A Proximax cargo hauler. Room for thousands of their standardized containers. Yes, it was quite old, but there were some phenomenal systems on board. The engines were astonishing. Not as efficient as the systems we put on our haulers, of course, but the configuration allowed for an utterly unreasonable energy throughput for sublight acceleration.”
‘Utterly unreasonable’ described about 75% of Human ship design, by her estimation. “I am sorry, did you say thousands of containers?” Carbon inquired as they passed back into the common area, the seating all cleared out now. She had seen plenty of the ships the Confederation had now, including one of the truly massive Pathfinders which also held thousands of their standardized containers.
“Five thousand, if my memory serves. It was an ugly ship, a great brick of protective panels. While the storage area was not pressurized, it did have several inspection gantries that allowed us to access individual containers. We put it to use as a very orderly warehouse. I do miss that.” He added far more than he had to, and he was very pleased to do so. “Doubled the habitable space on the station, as well.”
That was strange. While she was previously aware of the existence of the Xenotechnology Research unit, the fact they had a space station, with a massive Human made cargo ship integrated into it was news to her. It hadn’t really ever been a high visibility sort of thing, of course. The idea the Tsla’o Empire was scrabbling around looking to see what they could abscond with from the other races was not in line with how they viewed themselves. “That is impressive, you must have had much to store if a warehouse that large was called for. Where was it all coming from?”
Teleya took the lead, directing them back into a warren of hallways.
“Oh, we only had about a thousand containers in it, and they were not particularly full. We have a crew using a Human ship, the Serenity, to visit the edges of Human space to trade for scrap or salvage. Humans will part with a surprising array of things when they are operating out at the very edges of their frontiers. That is how I first came to work here, counterfeiting Human manufactured colloids for their construction printers as a trade item. It was an interesting little job - if you presented a product that was too good, it was suspicious to them. They thought it was either recently stolen and ‘hot’ or it was a police operation to catch thieves, and they’d dump it and leave without finishing the transaction. So we roughed the bags up a little bit, tossed them around the floor and kicked them down stairs. Drained a few as though they’d been used briefly - that was my idea - and damaged the cryptoseal enough to render it useless on about two-thirds of the units.” He laughed as they turned down another hallway. “Made them all actually look stolen. They were fully functional, of course. We had a reputation to make.”
“Fascinating.” A little worrisome, too. That was a lot of interacting with Humans, and not the ones that were supported by the Confederation, apparently. That idea in and of itself did not bother her, but... where had they gotten those ships? Had the Empire been doing business with Human pirates? Or just pioneers out past their own borders who didn’t have much interest in exactly who they were doing business with? “These dealings have been equitable?”
“I assume as much. The terms had to be agreed upon by both parties, and the Serenity was a light freighter, no offensive capability to speak of. That’s why it was shadowed by a cloaked frigate.” He stopped speaking for a moment, pointing at the door Teleya was unlocking. “Ah, here we are.”
Teleya opened the door and stepped back to allow them inside. Carbon found the work area to be a bit sparse. Lots of workstations, some obviously claimed by the amount of personalization present. Jackets hung over the backs of chairs, small plants, holos and printed pictures alike. Two conference rooms with big holographic tables in the back wall, and a couple of matter printers - looked like Ke-330 variants, based on the printhead. Not exactly the newest gear, but well maintained.
“I will show you to an available workstation. If you would get the Princess the documentation regarding the PINs, Merana?” She delegated, pointing Carbon to an obviously unused desk.
“Of course.” Merana bowed out of the conversation, literally, and bustled off to retrieve the data.
“Everything is held off network?” Carbon inquired while inspecting the clean white desktop. She had started to reach for the sensor pad to log in when she realized she was still holding Alex’s shirt. Hadn’t even thought to put it down, just absently rolled it up in her hands while Merana had talked. Carbon crammed it into one of the big tool pockets in her work pants, secure in the knowledge that would be the exact thing Alex would do. Several embedded holographic displays hummed to life as she pressed her now free hand to the sensor, logging herself in at that particular site.
“Most of our data is available upon the lab’s internal network, which is classified at Stone level access. Anything at Silver security clearance or above is available from the Index workstation, and is borrowed on station-locked, time-limited codex.” She paused, glancing over at Carbon. “Forgive me - I saw that you had Obsidian clearance and have just assumed you’re familiar with these protocols.”
“As luck would have it, I am familiar.” Carbon hadn’t used them often, though it had come up a few times when performing maintenance on some of the more cutting edge systems on the Kshanev. The codex was a physical storage device, usually fairly large to make them difficult to steal. Station-locked just meant the codex could only be decrypted at a pre-specified workstation, and time-limited was simply a countdown to when the codex would automatically delete its contents.
She didn’t even notice she had slipped a Human idiom into the conversation.
“Ah, of course.” Teleya gave her a stilted little bow, very subtly standing up a bit straighter as Merana returned bearing the codex.
He held it out to Carbon in both hands. Each codex was a specialized computer, and one of the long-standing traditions around their use was that those computers would be contained in something that made it hard to physically access or to steal. Initially they had just made rectangular cases that were too large to conceal, but as matter printing had become more prevalent, so had customized cases. The Military Academy had units shaped like the spear and star from their sigil. The Kshanev used a model of its Macron gun, which had been particularly ironic when trying to troubleshoot that very same system.
This one appeared to be a dark stone obelisk, about the length of her forearm, and heavy like it was actual stone. The edges and letters carved into it were crisp, as though it had just been hewn. She recognized it right off the bat, of course, it was a miniature version of the obelisk that had stood at the river port in old Ama’o - the first city. She ran her thumb down one of the inscriptions, the letters on this side filled with gold. May the winds favor your sails, traveler.
All of that was gone, now.
Carbon set it down on the desk and took a seat. The clean white desktop bowed and shifted, the obelisk sinking partway into it. She fiddled with the left screen, relegating the index of the files within to a narrow strip out of the way. Not that there was very much in there, literally seven files. “All right. Get me up to speed, what should I be looking at first?”
“All but the last of these are items we had not been able to identify until the scans from the Prince came in. They obviously went together, but we were unsure of the use case. They were all found on a single salvage ship. The first four files pertain to the PIN fragments we found on board. Scans kept throwing traces of metamaterials until one of the sweepers located those fragments stuck in the gap between a wall panel and the floor in the head.” Teleya had taken over as the verbose one, pointing out several files on the screen as she spoke.
Carbon opened the first file, the very first picture was piece of metal no longer than a fingertip, caked in dried blood and hair. Notation on the edge of the image informed her that it had been taken on the Serenity, about three years ago. “This is not the same Serenity Merana was talking about, is it? And is that... Human?”
“No. Serenity is their most common ship name. Something like ten percent of privately owned Human craft are named that. Understandable, in a way. There is so much space where there is nothing.” She was lost in thought before she cleared her throat and continued. “That is Human, yes. All the samples found onboard were from the same person. If I recall, there were only genetic traces from one Human on board, and only one appeared on the internal logs. We were concerned that it was evidence of a crime until it became clear from those logs that the previous owner seemed to have some neurological problems and was doing quite a bit of surgical work on himself.”
“That sounds horrible.” The PIN had been thoroughly documented as it was cleaned and run through multiple scanners, the entire thing mapped down to the atom, which was good because the rotating keyways seemed to depend on microns-thick wafers of high lubricity insulator to facilitate movement while isolating electrical impulses. Likely printed in place, given how delicate the entire thing was despite the use of exotic materials. A simple design, made with the most advanced tools and material.
She did not dare dwell on the fact that some lone Human sailor at the edge of their space had equipment to access the same sort of implant Alex had, and certainly not the more immediate worry that the implant could have had a role in pushing him to such extremes as performing surgery upon himself.
“Yes, it gets... We need not discuss the finer details of it.” She shivered and exhaled softly. “The next three are more pieces of other, similar PINs. The first and fourth appear to have been broken, while the second and third are clearly cut. The fifth file is a piece of the adapter between the PIN and driver unit, and the sixth is what we believe to be a portion of the driver unit. The final file is the scan of the Prince’s hardware.”
Carbon skipped directly to the driver unit. The needle seemed straightforward at the moment. They had large portions of it. The driver, on the other hand, was still a few loose design ideas for her. The first pictures of it really made her want to discuss the finer details of what they had found on that ship - it had been cylindrical at one point, but only a partially melted wedge remained, bearing distinct plasma cutter marks. It appeared it was the end that held the PIN, as well, which was good - that could be directly copied with no conjecture.
The chunk reminded her of an old milling machine spindle surrounded by multiple layers made of paired stators and rotors. The scans proved her supposition out, and it was a bit of a relief - most of it should be very easy to reverse engineer as well. The wiring might need a little guess work, but computer rendering should allow her to get that sussed out without having to run a print. “All right, I think we should be able to get this done quickly. Which one of you would be best working on recreating the PIN and adapter unit? I will take the driver.”
Merana piped up. “I have specialized in reconstruction for nearly a decade. Unless Teleya would prefer that task?”
“No, your work is excellent.” She deferred, gesturing towards the Index workstation to indicate he should get to it.
They watched him go, Carbon swiveling her chair around to face Teleya. “I do not think the hardware side of this will be particularly difficult. That said, do we have any of the software that was used with this?”
“Ah. Yes, but no.” Her ears lowered, an annoyed hiss escaping her teeth. “There was data related to the operation of the machine, and possibly the programs used to run it still installed on the Serenity. As it was a very new ship at the time the entire thing and all files on board were seized by Imperial Intelligence.”
“I know a few people who work in the Intelligence community.” Carbon did not specify how she knew them, because historically people did not want to know details about anything to do with Intel.
“As do I. Sadly, the most I have been able to get from them is that all the data onboard was shipped out to Electronic Warfare. I do not know anyone within that division, and having a mere Gold clearance does not sway much over there.” It sounded like she was inclined to continue not knowing anyone within Electronic Warfare, a hint of venom in her tone as she talked about them. “I put in the appeal two days ago, it has still not even been reviewed.”
“I suspect they will be more accommodating to my requests. If that fails, they will kneel at the throne when the Empress calls.” Carbon didn’t really have the ability to toss the Empress’ authority around like that, but Alex had been convincing with his fears about potentially compromising the security of the ship. The Empress would take that seriously, and having one part of the military building fortifications around their domains would just delay confirmation one way or the other.
“I suspect that will expedite things.” She bowed again, deeper this time. While Teleya did not specifically ask for this data as a favor, she clearly considered Carbon using her influence to get it as fulfillment of one.
“If you will excuse me... I will make some calls. Are the conference rooms available?” She was sure they would be. It was just the three of them in the workshop at the moment, but Carbon would prefer a little bit of privacy given what was lingering at the forefront of her mind right now.
“They are yours as long as you desire.”
Carbon stood and offered Teleya the seat. “If you could get started on extrapolating the build on this, I would appreciate the help.”
“Of course, Princess.” She bowed, again.
Carbon took her leave, walking back to the closer conference room. She stole a glance at Merana’s workspace, already deep into pulling the fragments together into a whole. Excellent work ethic on him.
She closed the door behind her and turned the windows into the work area opaque before walking down to the end of the conference table with the holo emitter. Carbon slumped into a chair and sighed, leaning in to rest her elbows on the table and cradle her head in her hands. She allowed herself to feel miserable for a moment.
Was any of this worth it? What even was it, at this point? She enjoyed Alex’s company, certainly, and would absolutely call the feelings she had for him ‘love’ without hesitation. But the idea of being entwined hadn’t truly crossed her mind since she’d put aside that unreasonable fantasy back on the Kshlav’o. Now that was just an offering to get her to let The Empress back in. She hadn’t settled on if that had tainted the entire concept or not.
Even if it had, Alex’s earnest intent might be enough to purify that for her.
Worse was that Alex, her beloved, was forced into this untenable position. What if he was being used as a conduit for some sort of spy program by his own government? She wasn’t familiar with the fine print, but it would violate their treaties. It was a violation of the Confederation’s own citizen, as well. All while being the Empress’ leverage to make their people more accepting of the help. To prove they were trustworthy. Not the sort that would do things like... this.
Her mind raced, working over a thousand threads of what she would do to be free of these constraints. To have a life that was just hers, and perhaps just his. Every one of them felt like an unreasonable fantasy now.
Carbon sighed again and shut it all off. Crammed it back in the hole. The turn of phrase from Alex brought a brief, sad smile to her face. It had initially felt improper, not serious enough for the workings of the mind. It had grown on her, more and more it felt entirely accurate.
She smoothed her fur out a bit and pulled the sleeves of her jacket down to appear a little more professional. Carbon stood and patted Alex’s shirt for moral support before slotting her communicator into the holo display, and set it up for an encrypted call before dialing Admiral Olan. His direct number.
It took a few minutes for each end of the call to negotiate and set up encryption that reached the minimum for Obsidian clearance. While it was the second highest level of security, the real reason she turned it all the way up was that those calls had a tendency to get answered in short order. She waited. The connection was live, but his end was locked down until he was in an appropriately secure area.
“Princess Sorenson.” Olan’s head appeared on the holo, looking both wizened and perpetually aggrieved. He was actually pleasant, his face was just like that while relaxed.
“Admiral. I am here with the Xenotechnology team, and I have a request for data from the Electronic Warfare division of Imperial Intelligence that needs to be expedited.” He had the authority over several divisions, Electronic Warfare included. “Team Leader Teleya put in a request two days ago. It concerns files from a Human ship they acquired about three years ago, the Serenity, which was taken by Intel. We need that immediately, as it now pertains to an investigation into potential security breaches on The Sword of the Morning Light.”
There was absolutely no reaction to this information save for a single, brief nod. “Consider it done, an Index will be brought over as soon as it is filled. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. This is a personal request, and why I have chosen Obsidian.” She inhaled, lifting her chin a little like the Empress did when she wanted to appear a bit more impressive. Difficult to do through a hologram, but she wanted it imparted that this in particular was to be kept at Obsidian levels. “I require a copy of the interior security logs for the same ship. This is related to the investigation, but more sensitive. Gene-locked, with a time limit of ten hours of review should be enough.”
That got his attention, antennae shifting up slightly. While that was subtle, it was there, and that was notable for Olan. “Of course. Do you need them delivered at the same time?”
Did she? “No, but I would appreciate it being done within the day. Have it delivered to my quarters, my Zeshen can take possession of it there. That is all, Admiral.” Carbon would take one potentially horrifying discovery at time right now.
“Your will be done, Princess.” He closed his eyes and bowed, and ended the call.
The fears she had crammed into the hole scrabbled against the door that she imagined held them in place. If the machines - those abominations that Alex had allowed his government to saddle him with - were going to destroy him, she had to know. She had to be ahead of it, whatever psychosis had been inflicted upon that lone sailor would not befall him.
She would see to it.
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Royal Road
*****
Carbon learns some stuff this time! Oh boy. Oh dear.
Unreasonably happy that I was able to find a name that continues the practice of naming classes of cargo ships something-max as well as Panama did.
Art pile: Carbon reference sheet. Art by Tyo_Dem
submitted by icallshogun to HFY [link] [comments]
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The two that Amara had introduced, Merana and Teleya, were a researcher and a team leader respectively. They were to take Carbon from the impromptu surgical suite over to where the Xenotechnology teams worked on analysis and replication, and then assist her with anything that she needed.
“It was very unexpected, but I am glad that the Empress requested the Integration project be moved onto the Sword of the Morning Light. The accommodations are much nicer, and the equipment is newer. Some of the things we requisitioned years ago were actually brought in!” Merana was in his forties, gray fur starting to turn silver, and he was extremely talkative. He had started perhaps two steps from where they were introduced and did not let up, speaking at a breakneck pace, hands gesturing with every word, eyes never staying put even when in a corridor that had nothing of note to look at. “Deep layer scanners that were made in the decade. Actual new printers! I do not know if it is too much to ask, but if you were to mention to the Empress that we appreciate these new laboratories...”
“Merana.” There was just a hint of reproach in Teleya’s voice. She was the exact opposite, so far. The definition of reserved, which fit with the crown of silver fur encroaching between her antennae. After a very brief introduction, she had remained silent until Merana had started asking favors of Carbon.
“Do not mistake my intent.” He shushed Teleya with a wave of his hand, but he seemed to pick up what she was driving at with that single word and deflected to a slightly different tack. “I have always enjoyed this assignment, it is fascinating to see what the other species in the universe are up to. But the previous labs were... Those fields were poorly tilled. The integration of the Human ship into the station’s systems was unorthodox but understandable, given how much material we acquire from them. A Proximax cargo hauler. Room for thousands of their standardized containers. Yes, it was quite old, but there were some phenomenal systems on board. The engines were astonishing. Not as efficient as the systems we put on our haulers, of course, but the configuration allowed for an utterly unreasonable energy throughput for sublight acceleration.”
‘Utterly unreasonable’ described about 75% of Human ship design, by her estimation. “I am sorry, did you say thousands of containers?” Carbon inquired as they passed back into the common area, the seating all cleared out now. She had seen plenty of the ships the Confederation had now, including one of the truly massive Pathfinders which also held thousands of their standardized containers.
“Five thousand, if my memory serves. It was an ugly ship, a great brick of protective panels. While the storage area was not pressurized, it did have several inspection gantries that allowed us to access individual containers. We put it to use as a very orderly warehouse. I do miss that.” He added far more than he had to, and he was very pleased to do so. “Doubled the habitable space on the station, as well.”
That was strange. While she was previously aware of the existence of the Xenotechnology Research unit, the fact they had a space station, with a massive Human made cargo ship integrated into it was news to her. It hadn’t really ever been a high visibility sort of thing, of course. The idea the Tsla’o Empire was scrabbling around looking to see what they could abscond with from the other races was not in line with how they viewed themselves. “That is impressive, you must have had much to store if a warehouse that large was called for. Where was it all coming from?”
Teleya took the lead, directing them back into a warren of hallways.
“Oh, we only had about a thousand containers in it, and they were not particularly full. We have a crew using a Human ship, the Serenity, to visit the edges of Human space to trade for scrap or salvage. Humans will part with a surprising array of things when they are operating out at the very edges of their frontiers. That is how I first came to work here, counterfeiting Human manufactured colloids for their construction printers as a trade item. It was an interesting little job - if you presented a product that was too good, it was suspicious to them. They thought it was either recently stolen and ‘hot’ or it was a police operation to catch thieves, and they’d dump it and leave without finishing the transaction. So we roughed the bags up a little bit, tossed them around the floor and kicked them down stairs. Drained a few as though they’d been used briefly - that was my idea - and damaged the cryptoseal enough to render it useless on about two-thirds of the units.” He laughed as they turned down another hallway. “Made them all actually look stolen. They were fully functional, of course. We had a reputation to make.”
“Fascinating.” A little worrisome, too. That was a lot of interacting with Humans, and not the ones that were supported by the Confederation, apparently. That idea in and of itself did not bother her, but... where had they gotten those ships? Had the Empire been doing business with Human pirates? Or just pioneers out past their own borders who didn’t have much interest in exactly who they were doing business with? “These dealings have been equitable?”
“I assume as much. The terms had to be agreed upon by both parties, and the Serenity was a light freighter, no offensive capability to speak of. That’s why it was shadowed by a cloaked frigate.” He stopped speaking for a moment, pointing at the door Teleya was unlocking. “Ah, here we are.”
Teleya opened the door and stepped back to allow them inside. Carbon found the work area to be a bit sparse. Lots of workstations, some obviously claimed by the amount of personalization present. Jackets hung over the backs of chairs, small plants, holos and printed pictures alike. Two conference rooms with big holographic tables in the back wall, and a couple of matter printers - looked like Ke-330 variants, based on the printhead. Not exactly the newest gear, but well maintained.
“I will show you to an available workstation. If you would get the Princess the documentation regarding the PINs, Merana?” She delegated, pointing Carbon to an obviously unused desk.
“Of course.” Merana bowed out of the conversation, literally, and bustled off to retrieve the data.
“Everything is held off network?” Carbon inquired while inspecting the clean white desktop. She had started to reach for the sensor pad to log in when she realized she was still holding Alex’s shirt. Hadn’t even thought to put it down, just absently rolled it up in her hands while Merana had talked. Carbon crammed it into one of the big tool pockets in her work pants, secure in the knowledge that would be the exact thing Alex would do. Several embedded holographic displays hummed to life as she pressed her now free hand to the sensor, logging herself in at that particular site.
“Most of our data is available upon the lab’s internal network, which is classified at Stone level access. Anything at Silver security clearance or above is available from the Index workstation, and is borrowed on station-locked, time-limited codex.” She paused, glancing over at Carbon. “Forgive me - I saw that you had Obsidian clearance and have just assumed you’re familiar with these protocols.”
“As luck would have it, I am familiar.” Carbon hadn’t used them often, though it had come up a few times when performing maintenance on some of the more cutting edge systems on the Kshanev. The codex was a physical storage device, usually fairly large to make them difficult to steal. Station-locked just meant the codex could only be decrypted at a pre-specified workstation, and time-limited was simply a countdown to when the codex would automatically delete its contents.
She didn’t even notice she had slipped a Human idiom into the conversation.
“Ah, of course.” Teleya gave her a stilted little bow, very subtly standing up a bit straighter as Merana returned bearing the codex.
He held it out to Carbon in both hands. Each codex was a specialized computer, and one of the long-standing traditions around their use was that those computers would be contained in something that made it hard to physically access or to steal. Initially they had just made rectangular cases that were too large to conceal, but as matter printing had become more prevalent, so had customized cases. The Military Academy had units shaped like the spear and star from their sigil. The Kshanev used a model of its Macron gun, which had been particularly ironic when trying to troubleshoot that very same system.
This one appeared to be a dark stone obelisk, about the length of her forearm, and heavy like it was actual stone. The edges and letters carved into it were crisp, as though it had just been hewn. She recognized it right off the bat, of course, it was a miniature version of the obelisk that had stood at the river port in old Ama’o - the first city. She ran her thumb down one of the inscriptions, the letters on this side filled with gold. May the winds favor your sails, traveler.
All of that was gone, now.
Carbon set it down on the desk and took a seat. The clean white desktop bowed and shifted, the obelisk sinking partway into it. She fiddled with the left screen, relegating the index of the files within to a narrow strip out of the way. Not that there was very much in there, literally seven files. “All right. Get me up to speed, what should I be looking at first?”
“All but the last of these are items we had not been able to identify until the scans from the Prince came in. They obviously went together, but we were unsure of the use case. They were all found on a single salvage ship. The first four files pertain to the PIN fragments we found on board. Scans kept throwing traces of metamaterials until one of the sweepers located those fragments stuck in the gap between a wall panel and the floor in the head.” Teleya had taken over as the verbose one, pointing out several files on the screen as she spoke.
Carbon opened the first file, the very first picture was piece of metal no longer than a fingertip, caked in dried blood and hair. Notation on the edge of the image informed her that it had been taken on the Serenity, about three years ago. “This is not the same Serenity Merana was talking about, is it? And is that... Human?”
“No. Serenity is their most common ship name. Something like ten percent of privately owned Human craft are named that. Understandable, in a way. There is so much space where there is nothing.” She was lost in thought before she cleared her throat and continued. “That is Human, yes. All the samples found onboard were from the same person. If I recall, there were only genetic traces from one Human on board, and only one appeared on the internal logs. We were concerned that it was evidence of a crime until it became clear from those logs that the previous owner seemed to have some neurological problems and was doing quite a bit of surgical work on himself.”
“That sounds horrible.” The PIN had been thoroughly documented as it was cleaned and run through multiple scanners, the entire thing mapped down to the atom, which was good because the rotating keyways seemed to depend on microns-thick wafers of high lubricity insulator to facilitate movement while isolating electrical impulses. Likely printed in place, given how delicate the entire thing was despite the use of exotic materials. A simple design, made with the most advanced tools and material.
She did not dare dwell on the fact that some lone Human sailor at the edge of their space had equipment to access the same sort of implant Alex had, and certainly not the more immediate worry that the implant could have had a role in pushing him to such extremes as performing surgery upon himself.
“Yes, it gets... We need not discuss the finer details of it.” She shivered and exhaled softly. “The next three are more pieces of other, similar PINs. The first and fourth appear to have been broken, while the second and third are clearly cut. The fifth file is a piece of the adapter between the PIN and driver unit, and the sixth is what we believe to be a portion of the driver unit. The final file is the scan of the Prince’s hardware.”
Carbon skipped directly to the driver unit. The needle seemed straightforward at the moment. They had large portions of it. The driver, on the other hand, was still a few loose design ideas for her. The first pictures of it really made her want to discuss the finer details of what they had found on that ship - it had been cylindrical at one point, but only a partially melted wedge remained, bearing distinct plasma cutter marks. It appeared it was the end that held the PIN, as well, which was good - that could be directly copied with no conjecture.
The chunk reminded her of an old milling machine spindle surrounded by multiple layers made of paired stators and rotors. The scans proved her supposition out, and it was a bit of a relief - most of it should be very easy to reverse engineer as well. The wiring might need a little guess work, but computer rendering should allow her to get that sussed out without having to run a print. “All right, I think we should be able to get this done quickly. Which one of you would be best working on recreating the PIN and adapter unit? I will take the driver.”
Merana piped up. “I have specialized in reconstruction for nearly a decade. Unless Teleya would prefer that task?”
“No, your work is excellent.” She deferred, gesturing towards the Index workstation to indicate he should get to it.
They watched him go, Carbon swiveling her chair around to face Teleya. “I do not think the hardware side of this will be particularly difficult. That said, do we have any of the software that was used with this?”
“Ah. Yes, but no.” Her ears lowered, an annoyed hiss escaping her teeth. “There was data related to the operation of the machine, and possibly the programs used to run it still installed on the Serenity. As it was a very new ship at the time the entire thing and all files on board were seized by Imperial Intelligence.”
“I know a few people who work in the Intelligence community.” Carbon did not specify how she knew them, because historically people did not want to know details about anything to do with Intel.
“As do I. Sadly, the most I have been able to get from them is that all the data onboard was shipped out to Electronic Warfare. I do not know anyone within that division, and having a mere Gold clearance does not sway much over there.” It sounded like she was inclined to continue not knowing anyone within Electronic Warfare, a hint of venom in her tone as she talked about them. “I put in the appeal two days ago, it has still not even been reviewed.”
“I suspect they will be more accommodating to my requests. If that fails, they will kneel at the throne when the Empress calls.” Carbon didn’t really have the ability to toss the Empress’ authority around like that, but Alex had been convincing with his fears about potentially compromising the security of the ship. The Empress would take that seriously, and having one part of the military building fortifications around their domains would just delay confirmation one way or the other.
“I suspect that will expedite things.” She bowed again, deeper this time. While Teleya did not specifically ask for this data as a favor, she clearly considered Carbon using her influence to get it as fulfillment of one.
“If you will excuse me... I will make some calls. Are the conference rooms available?” She was sure they would be. It was just the three of them in the workshop at the moment, but Carbon would prefer a little bit of privacy given what was lingering at the forefront of her mind right now.
“They are yours as long as you desire.”
Carbon stood and offered Teleya the seat. “If you could get started on extrapolating the build on this, I would appreciate the help.”
“Of course, Princess.” She bowed, again.
Carbon took her leave, walking back to the closer conference room. She stole a glance at Merana’s workspace, already deep into pulling the fragments together into a whole. Excellent work ethic on him.
She closed the door behind her and turned the windows into the work area opaque before walking down to the end of the conference table with the holo emitter. Carbon slumped into a chair and sighed, leaning in to rest her elbows on the table and cradle her head in her hands. She allowed herself to feel miserable for a moment.
Was any of this worth it? What even was it, at this point? She enjoyed Alex’s company, certainly, and would absolutely call the feelings she had for him ‘love’ without hesitation. But the idea of being entwined hadn’t truly crossed her mind since she’d put aside that unreasonable fantasy back on the Kshlav’o. Now that was just an offering to get her to let The Empress back in. She hadn’t settled on if that had tainted the entire concept or not.
Even if it had, Alex’s earnest intent might be enough to purify that for her.
Worse was that Alex, her beloved, was forced into this untenable position. What if he was being used as a conduit for some sort of spy program by his own government? She wasn’t familiar with the fine print, but it would violate their treaties. It was a violation of the Confederation’s own citizen, as well. All while being the Empress’ leverage to make their people more accepting of the help. To prove they were trustworthy. Not the sort that would do things like... this.
Her mind raced, working over a thousand threads of what she would do to be free of these constraints. To have a life that was just hers, and perhaps just his. Every one of them felt like an unreasonable fantasy now.
Carbon sighed again and shut it all off. Crammed it back in the hole. The turn of phrase from Alex brought a brief, sad smile to her face. It had initially felt improper, not serious enough for the workings of the mind. It had grown on her, more and more it felt entirely accurate.
She smoothed her fur out a bit and pulled the sleeves of her jacket down to appear a little more professional. Carbon stood and patted Alex’s shirt for moral support before slotting her communicator into the holo display, and set it up for an encrypted call before dialing Admiral Olan. His direct number.
It took a few minutes for each end of the call to negotiate and set up encryption that reached the minimum for Obsidian clearance. While it was the second highest level of security, the real reason she turned it all the way up was that those calls had a tendency to get answered in short order. She waited. The connection was live, but his end was locked down until he was in an appropriately secure area.
“Princess Sorenson.” Olan’s head appeared on the holo, looking both wizened and perpetually aggrieved. He was actually pleasant, his face was just like that while relaxed.
“Admiral. I am here with the Xenotechnology team, and I have a request for data from the Electronic Warfare division of Imperial Intelligence that needs to be expedited.” He had the authority over several divisions, Electronic Warfare included. “Team Leader Teleya put in a request two days ago. It concerns files from a Human ship they acquired about three years ago, the Serenity, which was taken by Intel. We need that immediately, as it now pertains to an investigation into potential security breaches on The Sword of the Morning Light.”
There was absolutely no reaction to this information save for a single, brief nod. “Consider it done, an Index will be brought over as soon as it is filled. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. This is a personal request, and why I have chosen Obsidian.” She inhaled, lifting her chin a little like the Empress did when she wanted to appear a bit more impressive. Difficult to do through a hologram, but she wanted it imparted that this in particular was to be kept at Obsidian levels. “I require a copy of the interior security logs for the same ship. This is related to the investigation, but more sensitive. Gene-locked, with a time limit of ten hours of review should be enough.”
That got his attention, antennae shifting up slightly. While that was subtle, it was there, and that was notable for Olan. “Of course. Do you need them delivered at the same time?”
Did she? “No, but I would appreciate it being done within the day. Have it delivered to my quarters, my Zeshen can take possession of it there. That is all, Admiral.” Carbon would take one potentially horrifying discovery at time right now.
“Your will be done, Princess.” He closed his eyes and bowed, and ended the call.
The fears she had crammed into the hole scrabbled against the door that she imagined held them in place. If the machines - those abominations that Alex had allowed his government to saddle him with - were going to destroy him, she had to know. She had to be ahead of it, whatever psychosis had been inflicted upon that lone sailor would not befall him.
She would see to it.
First Prev
Royal Road
*****
Carbon learns some stuff this time! Oh boy. Oh dear.
Unreasonably happy that I was able to find a name that continues the practice of naming classes of cargo ships something-max as well as Panama did.
Art pile: Carbon reference sheet. Art by Tyo_Dem
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2024.06.10 09:37 Eager_Question Love Languages (46)
Note: Thank you to u/Thirsha_42, u/tulpacat1, and u/Giant_Acroyear for their invaluable help in editing this chapter and making me feel less hopeless in general. Short one this time, but there should be a longer one up soon.
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Memory transcription subject: Veroth, Former Arxur Farmer at Greatmoon Farms
Date [standardized human time]: December 8th, 2136
Shathel kept talking as the meat thawed on the counter, thin ice crystals dripping down onto the cutting board. I tightened my grip on my cleaver, and glanced around for my whetstone as my son stared at him. Vrith put his arm on Verazel’s shoulder, and his two companions watched in silence.
"I believe Chief Hunter Isif grows readier for the Resistance every day that passes,” he told us all with a smile. My body tensed at the mention of that murderer's name. I didn’t know they would collaborate with that monster. The one he’d bragged about working for, while he held a sword to Nazla’s throat.
“Soon, something will snap, and we can join our forces with the entirety of his–and now Shaza's–sector. The abolition of the Dominion will be a reality if we play our cards well. I am here to ensure we do."
I found my whetstone, poured water on it, and tried to focus on the angle of the blade.
“Are you sure about that?” Vrith asked. “Isif had a chance to side with us mere days ago, and refused it.”
I remained silent, watching the edge of the blade move carefully back and forth on my whetstone. Perhaps Vrith was being diplomatic, as Verazel had told me to be in preparation for their arrival. I pressed my teeth together in an attempt to keep silent.
"There have been some setbacks, but do not be misled by them,” he said, waving Vrith’s objection off.
“Do we have to work with a fanatic like that?” One of Vrith’s companions asked. Presumably the more intelligent of the two.
“He only did what he had to, in order to ensure Betterment did not cast its gaze too sharply upon him."
I could not stop my mouth in time, rage building within me.
"Yes, he didn't want to murder my daughter, of course," I spat, ready to rip out his throat. Shathel faltered, looking at me with an unreadable expression. I hardly cared about dissidents in principle, or about what games Isif might play with the other Chief Hunters and Prophet-Descendants. They could kill the entire Senate inside my lounge if they wanted. Ideally, they could kill Isif too. Or bring him to me, so I could have the pleasure of rending him limb from limb. He redirected his argument. "...Well, yes. I told Nazla that little stunt of hers was foolish. The Resistance survives because it bides its time, and—"
I did not allow him to finish the thought. With a strength I rarely summoned, I launched myself over the counter. I landed against his shoulder, shoving his whole body down. In a heartbeat, he was flat against the ground, one arm trapped under his torso, the other pinned down by my left claw. My legs pressed against his back, my weight too much for him to bear. Before he could say anything else, I pressed my knife’s edge to his throat, his carotid artery pulsing against it. All others froze around us.
I pressed his forearm down at just the right angle. Any brusque movement and he would just dislocate his elbow. Maybe his shoulder, if he got creative. He struggled to uselessly move his legs under me, spasming like a fish plucked from the water, his tail flailing in all directions while his head flinched away from my blade.
I placed my mouth right next to his ear and whispered, "utter my daughter's name with anything but praise in your tongue again, and I will cut it out and wear it."
All were silent for a long moment, but there was no contest, no way for him to turn it around. I was simply bigger, heavier, and armed. A defective farmer had just threatened to mutilate one of their leaders, and not a single one moved to his aid.
"...Agreed," he eventually croaked out. I removed the knife and stood away from him. He rubbed his neck for a moment with the back of his hand, and stretched the shoulder I'd almost dislocated.
"I thought you said your uncle was a farmer," said Vrith’s other companion. The one who had not spoken against cooperating with Isif.
"He is," my nephew said, looking at me with newfound respect. "Has forty years of dismembering Venlil to his name."
I heard a few scoffs from the group.
"Forty-five" I corrected. I was younger than Verazel when I started. They found that funny for some reason.
Shathel cleared his throat. "My point was that the Resistance works best in dark corners. Something Betterment and those educated through its paths are less than skilled at. Thankfully, our human friends are much better versed in the area of espionage, and thus among them I have found an ally."
I scoffed. "Oh, is this your friend you bragged about at the banquet?”
He laughed. "Oh no! Not at all. My dear friend Andes is a scientist. He could not lie if he wished to, and he would never wish to. He is soft. Weak. How do they say? Cute. My ally is the man who interrogated me. He worked with Andes, but is more vicious than any Betterment officer I ever met. He can turn it on and off. Be whatever he thinks you need to see, to act in his interest.”
"Good," My nephew said. “And you're in regular contact with him?”
“Regular enough,” Shathel said, sparing me a glance. “They call him Olivier.” Vrith nodded, again, then turned to me. “So the plan is to use your farm as a base for the Resistance, which will soon gain a lot of support, if Shathel is right about the… direction things are going.”
I gripped my knife and stepped closer to the meat to begin. It was always pleasant to admire my own handiwork, the marbling was particularly exquisite for this one.
“We will arrange for Giznel to visit it under the illusion of getting to eat the last of your cattle. We will try to use Shathel’s contact to see if human meat technology can provide a sample.”
“There is no need. We have a few dozen frozen corpses in the basement,” I said. I’d been saving them for hard times. Verazel preferred tilfish. Something about their faces.
My nephew smiled. “Even better, then. We will invite him in, and my father will do the butchering when the time comes.”
I found it odd to think about how Veralith would come home only after I had left, to butcher cattle we no longer bred. It was unpleasant enough that I sought a distraction.
“Will you provide half of the funds for a large merchant ship?” I asked, thinking back to my original plan.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. You can leave tomorrow, use of the farm is payment enough,” Vrith said. “We’ve already contacted one of our most prolific smugglers. Most of her experience has been in taking people to our hidden bases, but I’m certain she’ll manage when it comes to the humans.”
Once the limbs were well-arranged, I moved on to some more precise cuts. Verazel took out the plates, silently placing them next to me so I could begin the distribution. Given the size of the crowd, I decided on thin slices. My Venlil were well fed, but they were still smaller than an Arxur, ideally a meal for three and not a large crowd of seven. Not that I was very interested in feeding Shathel my product.
Vrith got a leg, a fore shank and a rack of ribs, as did his more thoughtful companion. The other one got shoulders and loins. I cut the tenderloin, breast and flap, but had no appetite to eat it and knew Verazel wouldn’t eat it either, so they sat there until Vrith’s rebel companion came to ask for more, and then I tossed them her way.
Shathel came to the counter, dipping his snout out once he got to it.
“...May I…” he looked at the carcass, mouth watering. “...I put Nazla’s personal effects in storage before her trial. Would you like me to send them to you?”
I nodded. We were silent for a moment, and I decided to give him the heart, liver and kidneys, which he devoured immediately. It made me wonder about Vrith, who was still eating his ribs. How did the Resistance get food? How was he so strong, and less famished than a Betterment Captain?
My son spent the whole night scanning our books. Most of them were already in the digital collection, but eighty books out of three hundred were still enough to last many hours after sunset. Vrith helped, and later helped scan the covers of those who didn't have them in digital form.
He flipped through one of the volumes, admiring the engravings. “These pre-Betterment books are a treasure, Uncle. I shall take good care of them.”
“Good,” I said, tightly packing our blankets inside of the incubators to save space. I went to Nazla’s room, but could not bring myself to touch anything. As though by some miracle, she could return one day and would like it all undisturbed. “See to it nobody enters the sun-facing room.”
“I shall block the door with a bookcase, for our time here.”
I nodded. She always hated when we moved her things.
The night gave way to day, and we stood outside our home for what we knew to be the last time. Everything we could carry was in suitcases, boxes, or incubation chambers. Verazel insisted we did not need to bring my incubators, because Captain Shathel had told him humans would not like it. That the apes saw cattle not as “pets”, but as fellow people. It seemed ridiculous to me, but even then, they might adopt them and raise them as their own. There should still be use in producing them, then. I could hardly believe that he would take Shathel’s words over mine. I should have slit that snake’s throat when I had the chance. My skills were the only tool at our disposal, and we would have to make use of them somehow. Better to have the tools and not need them, than need them and not have them.
Vrith’s smuggler arrived on a ship large as a carrier for fighters, with a dozen modules haphazardly attached, and additional propulsion on its “wings” for added speed. There was no doubt in my mind that this was a smuggler’s ship, designed for speed and cargo over all other needs.
The air around us swirled as it landed, then settled into a gentle breeze. The ramp slid down, and our pilot stepped out of the ship.
Isath.
The years had gifted her new scars, but she was as lovely as ever, her tail just as powerful, her claws just as sharp. She looked as strong as she had the day I met her, perhaps stronger. My eyes became glued to her, my heart indecisive on whether to beat faster or stop altogether. I stared, immobile.
Verazel was the first to speak. “Thank you for escorting us to the humans. I am Verazel, and my father is Veroth.”
“...Yes, I know,” Isath said. I noticed for the first time that, while I had been busy staring at her, she had been staring at him. Has she ever seen her son before? I wondered. Perhaps in one of our commercials. Almost certainly not in person. Verazel had set foot outside the farm perhaps a dozen times in his life, never for more than a day.
She smiled, and dipped her snout. “I’m very happy to meet you, Verazel. You look like a fine young man.”
“Thank you,” he said. “May I carry our luggage onto your ship?”
“Of course. Your rooms should have plenty of space,” she said, “I’ve marked the doors with a red claw, and whatever does not fit can go into the empty storage compartment, second door on the left in the main hallway.”
For years I had imagined Isath’s arrival back on the farm. I never imagined her first words to Verazel would include directions. “Isath, you are–”
“I’m sure we have much to discuss!” she said, her voice loud enough to startle me. “You have always enjoyed talking… We can do so on the way.”
I did not understand why she interrupted me, but I decided to simply grab my luggage, and follow after my son.
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Memory transcription subject: Veroth, Former Arxur Farmer at Greatmoon Farms
Date [standardized human time]: December 8th, 2136
Shathel kept talking as the meat thawed on the counter, thin ice crystals dripping down onto the cutting board. I tightened my grip on my cleaver, and glanced around for my whetstone as my son stared at him. Vrith put his arm on Verazel’s shoulder, and his two companions watched in silence.
"I believe Chief Hunter Isif grows readier for the Resistance every day that passes,” he told us all with a smile. My body tensed at the mention of that murderer's name. I didn’t know they would collaborate with that monster. The one he’d bragged about working for, while he held a sword to Nazla’s throat.
“Soon, something will snap, and we can join our forces with the entirety of his–and now Shaza's–sector. The abolition of the Dominion will be a reality if we play our cards well. I am here to ensure we do."
I found my whetstone, poured water on it, and tried to focus on the angle of the blade.
“Are you sure about that?” Vrith asked. “Isif had a chance to side with us mere days ago, and refused it.”
I remained silent, watching the edge of the blade move carefully back and forth on my whetstone. Perhaps Vrith was being diplomatic, as Verazel had told me to be in preparation for their arrival. I pressed my teeth together in an attempt to keep silent.
"There have been some setbacks, but do not be misled by them,” he said, waving Vrith’s objection off.
“Do we have to work with a fanatic like that?” One of Vrith’s companions asked. Presumably the more intelligent of the two.
“He only did what he had to, in order to ensure Betterment did not cast its gaze too sharply upon him."
I could not stop my mouth in time, rage building within me.
"Yes, he didn't want to murder my daughter, of course," I spat, ready to rip out his throat. Shathel faltered, looking at me with an unreadable expression. I hardly cared about dissidents in principle, or about what games Isif might play with the other Chief Hunters and Prophet-Descendants. They could kill the entire Senate inside my lounge if they wanted. Ideally, they could kill Isif too. Or bring him to me, so I could have the pleasure of rending him limb from limb. He redirected his argument. "...Well, yes. I told Nazla that little stunt of hers was foolish. The Resistance survives because it bides its time, and—"
I did not allow him to finish the thought. With a strength I rarely summoned, I launched myself over the counter. I landed against his shoulder, shoving his whole body down. In a heartbeat, he was flat against the ground, one arm trapped under his torso, the other pinned down by my left claw. My legs pressed against his back, my weight too much for him to bear. Before he could say anything else, I pressed my knife’s edge to his throat, his carotid artery pulsing against it. All others froze around us.
I pressed his forearm down at just the right angle. Any brusque movement and he would just dislocate his elbow. Maybe his shoulder, if he got creative. He struggled to uselessly move his legs under me, spasming like a fish plucked from the water, his tail flailing in all directions while his head flinched away from my blade.
I placed my mouth right next to his ear and whispered, "utter my daughter's name with anything but praise in your tongue again, and I will cut it out and wear it."
All were silent for a long moment, but there was no contest, no way for him to turn it around. I was simply bigger, heavier, and armed. A defective farmer had just threatened to mutilate one of their leaders, and not a single one moved to his aid.
"...Agreed," he eventually croaked out. I removed the knife and stood away from him. He rubbed his neck for a moment with the back of his hand, and stretched the shoulder I'd almost dislocated.
"I thought you said your uncle was a farmer," said Vrith’s other companion. The one who had not spoken against cooperating with Isif.
"He is," my nephew said, looking at me with newfound respect. "Has forty years of dismembering Venlil to his name."
I heard a few scoffs from the group.
"Forty-five" I corrected. I was younger than Verazel when I started. They found that funny for some reason.
Shathel cleared his throat. "My point was that the Resistance works best in dark corners. Something Betterment and those educated through its paths are less than skilled at. Thankfully, our human friends are much better versed in the area of espionage, and thus among them I have found an ally."
I scoffed. "Oh, is this your friend you bragged about at the banquet?”
He laughed. "Oh no! Not at all. My dear friend Andes is a scientist. He could not lie if he wished to, and he would never wish to. He is soft. Weak. How do they say? Cute. My ally is the man who interrogated me. He worked with Andes, but is more vicious than any Betterment officer I ever met. He can turn it on and off. Be whatever he thinks you need to see, to act in his interest.”
"Good," My nephew said. “And you're in regular contact with him?”
“Regular enough,” Shathel said, sparing me a glance. “They call him Olivier.” Vrith nodded, again, then turned to me. “So the plan is to use your farm as a base for the Resistance, which will soon gain a lot of support, if Shathel is right about the… direction things are going.”
I gripped my knife and stepped closer to the meat to begin. It was always pleasant to admire my own handiwork, the marbling was particularly exquisite for this one.
“We will arrange for Giznel to visit it under the illusion of getting to eat the last of your cattle. We will try to use Shathel’s contact to see if human meat technology can provide a sample.”
“There is no need. We have a few dozen frozen corpses in the basement,” I said. I’d been saving them for hard times. Verazel preferred tilfish. Something about their faces.
My nephew smiled. “Even better, then. We will invite him in, and my father will do the butchering when the time comes.”
I found it odd to think about how Veralith would come home only after I had left, to butcher cattle we no longer bred. It was unpleasant enough that I sought a distraction.
“Will you provide half of the funds for a large merchant ship?” I asked, thinking back to my original plan.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. You can leave tomorrow, use of the farm is payment enough,” Vrith said. “We’ve already contacted one of our most prolific smugglers. Most of her experience has been in taking people to our hidden bases, but I’m certain she’ll manage when it comes to the humans.”
Once the limbs were well-arranged, I moved on to some more precise cuts. Verazel took out the plates, silently placing them next to me so I could begin the distribution. Given the size of the crowd, I decided on thin slices. My Venlil were well fed, but they were still smaller than an Arxur, ideally a meal for three and not a large crowd of seven. Not that I was very interested in feeding Shathel my product.
Vrith got a leg, a fore shank and a rack of ribs, as did his more thoughtful companion. The other one got shoulders and loins. I cut the tenderloin, breast and flap, but had no appetite to eat it and knew Verazel wouldn’t eat it either, so they sat there until Vrith’s rebel companion came to ask for more, and then I tossed them her way.
Shathel came to the counter, dipping his snout out once he got to it.
“...May I…” he looked at the carcass, mouth watering. “...I put Nazla’s personal effects in storage before her trial. Would you like me to send them to you?”
I nodded. We were silent for a moment, and I decided to give him the heart, liver and kidneys, which he devoured immediately. It made me wonder about Vrith, who was still eating his ribs. How did the Resistance get food? How was he so strong, and less famished than a Betterment Captain?
My son spent the whole night scanning our books. Most of them were already in the digital collection, but eighty books out of three hundred were still enough to last many hours after sunset. Vrith helped, and later helped scan the covers of those who didn't have them in digital form.
He flipped through one of the volumes, admiring the engravings. “These pre-Betterment books are a treasure, Uncle. I shall take good care of them.”
“Good,” I said, tightly packing our blankets inside of the incubators to save space. I went to Nazla’s room, but could not bring myself to touch anything. As though by some miracle, she could return one day and would like it all undisturbed. “See to it nobody enters the sun-facing room.”
“I shall block the door with a bookcase, for our time here.”
I nodded. She always hated when we moved her things.
The night gave way to day, and we stood outside our home for what we knew to be the last time. Everything we could carry was in suitcases, boxes, or incubation chambers. Verazel insisted we did not need to bring my incubators, because Captain Shathel had told him humans would not like it. That the apes saw cattle not as “pets”, but as fellow people. It seemed ridiculous to me, but even then, they might adopt them and raise them as their own. There should still be use in producing them, then. I could hardly believe that he would take Shathel’s words over mine. I should have slit that snake’s throat when I had the chance. My skills were the only tool at our disposal, and we would have to make use of them somehow. Better to have the tools and not need them, than need them and not have them.
Vrith’s smuggler arrived on a ship large as a carrier for fighters, with a dozen modules haphazardly attached, and additional propulsion on its “wings” for added speed. There was no doubt in my mind that this was a smuggler’s ship, designed for speed and cargo over all other needs.
The air around us swirled as it landed, then settled into a gentle breeze. The ramp slid down, and our pilot stepped out of the ship.
Isath.
The years had gifted her new scars, but she was as lovely as ever, her tail just as powerful, her claws just as sharp. She looked as strong as she had the day I met her, perhaps stronger. My eyes became glued to her, my heart indecisive on whether to beat faster or stop altogether. I stared, immobile.
Verazel was the first to speak. “Thank you for escorting us to the humans. I am Verazel, and my father is Veroth.”
“...Yes, I know,” Isath said. I noticed for the first time that, while I had been busy staring at her, she had been staring at him. Has she ever seen her son before? I wondered. Perhaps in one of our commercials. Almost certainly not in person. Verazel had set foot outside the farm perhaps a dozen times in his life, never for more than a day.
She smiled, and dipped her snout. “I’m very happy to meet you, Verazel. You look like a fine young man.”
“Thank you,” he said. “May I carry our luggage onto your ship?”
“Of course. Your rooms should have plenty of space,” she said, “I’ve marked the doors with a red claw, and whatever does not fit can go into the empty storage compartment, second door on the left in the main hallway.”
For years I had imagined Isath’s arrival back on the farm. I never imagined her first words to Verazel would include directions. “Isath, you are–”
“I’m sure we have much to discuss!” she said, her voice loud enough to startle me. “You have always enjoyed talking… We can do so on the way.”
I did not understand why she interrupted me, but I decided to simply grab my luggage, and follow after my son.
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2024.06.10 09:21 ConsequenceSure3063 Best Full XL Bed Frames
 | submitted by ConsequenceSure3063 to u/ConsequenceSure3063 [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/2fk3vygp3p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d657ace8ad0493aeb3ac8267aa12d387ebae37c Welcome to our roundup of the best Full XL Bed Frames available in the market! Our expert team has scoured through countless options to bring you the most durable, stylish, and comfortable bed frames that cater to your needs. In this article, we will explore the top contenders, discussing their features, benefits, and potential drawbacks, making it easier for you to choose the perfect Full XL Bed Frame for your home. The Top 19 Best Full XL Bed Frames
Reviews🔗Heavy-Duty Adjustable Metal Bed Frame - Full XLhttps://preview.redd.it/f0cmn8ss3p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5dbe6a95a18d8086468e5dc83766692c6432b3af I recently upgraded my bedroom furniture to Kings Brand Furniture's Heavy Duty Adjustable Metal Bed Frame, and I must say, it's been a game-changer. The bed's structure is unbelievably strong and durable, providing excellent support for my mattress and headboard. The most impressive part is the two locking wheels, making it easy to move around without any hassle. Assembly was a breeze, and it only took me around 10 minutes to set it up. No additional tools were required, which made the entire process even more convenient. The steel frame looked elegant and complemented the look of my room perfectly. However, one downside was that the screws to attach the bed frame to the headboard were not included, which means I had to purchase them separately. Overall, my experience with Kings Brand Furniture's Adjustable Metal Bed Frame has been nothing but satisfying. It's strong, stylish, and easy to maneuver, making it an excellent addition to my bedroom. 🔗Sturdy Adjustable Metal Bed Frame with Glide Legshttps://preview.redd.it/dmo4fapw3p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6466bf743369169678b365165807407584ee74f After trying out the Heavy Duty Adjustable Metal Bed Frame, I was amazed at how effortless it was to set up in less than 10 minutes, with no additional tools required. The glides are great for hard surfaces like wood or tile floors. However, I wasn't a fan of the center support bar not working for twin size beds. Overall, this sturdy and durable bed frame is an excellent addition to any home, especially if you aim for a solid structure and top-notch quality. 🔗Industrial Platform Bed with Charging Station & 2-Tier Storage Headboardhttps://preview.redd.it/if9nq1xw3p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af37cfa842405c2511020f71c38e5d93c801ff14 When I first laid eyes on the Amerlife full-sized industrial platform bed, I was immediately struck by its rustic brown color and sturdy structure. The heavy-duty slats exuded confidence, and the dark brown hue gave the bed an aesthetically pleasing charm. One feature that stood out to me was the 2-tier storage headboard, which offered ample space to store items that you'd otherwise have to hunt for. The 12 inches of under-bed clearance was another impressive feature, providing enough room for easy access to stored items. However, the noise-free rubber strip on each slat was a bit of a letdown. While it did its job of minimizing noise, I had hoped it would eliminate the sound altogether. Nonetheless, the convenience of the charging station integrated into the headboard made up for this small drawback. In conclusion, the Amerlife full-sized industrial platform bed strikes a perfect balance between functionality and style. Its rustic brown color, sturdy structure, and built-in charging station make it a great choice for anyone looking to elevate their sleep experience. 🔗Stylish Full Size Bed Frame with 4 Storage Drawers and Comfortable Backresthttps://preview.redd.it/sqc1xt2y3p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dad957ad6cae8c3a58afd3b258f331f9a8ea35e5 I was genuinely excited to try out the Feonase Full Size Bed Frame with all its bells and whistles. It's an all-in-one package where functionality meets style. The ample storage space of four drawers was perfect for my clutter and the lock on it ensured it stayed securely in place. Imagine my surprise when it also doubled as a charging station with 2 AC outlets, type-C, and USB ports right on the frame! But wait, there's more. The ledge on top provided easy access to smaller items! And the frame is built to last, sturdy and stable. It made my bed feel like a rock, in the best way possible. The soft linen fabric and high-density sponge added a comfy touch, especially with the tall 26-inch backrest for ultimate comfort. To top it off, it was a breeze to assemble. Clear instructions, easily labeled parts, and all the necessary tools were provided. It was a two-person job that only took 20 minutes! It was really user-friendly and that made my experience with this product seamless and hassle-free. 🔗XL Bed Frame in Black Metalhttps://preview.redd.it/9qebz5uy3p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad01c8c5c2d393fe97384650784468f1f91391cf I recently came across the Simplie Fun S86 inMotion Silver Power Full XL Bed Frame, Base 54x80x6, and let me tell you, it definitely lived up to its name. As someone who's always in need of a bit of extra storage under my bed, this inMotion Silver Power model was a game-changer. One thing that really stood out was the quality of the materials. Made mostly of metal, the bed frame felt sturdy and well-built. And, the black finish gave it a sleek and modern look that complemented my existing decor perfectly. Setting it up was a bit of a challenge, but once it was assembled, it was incredibly smooth. The wheels made it super easy to move around, and the sturdy construction provided the stability I needed. The one downside I found was the assembly guide. It could have been more clear and detailed, making the assembly process a bit less frustrating. But overall, the inMotion Silver Power Full XL Bed Frame is a reliable and practical choice for anyone in need of extra storage space under their bed. 🔗Stylish Full XL Metal Platform Bed Frame for Comfort and Storagehttps://preview.redd.it/h6z7z8v04p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfe6b842e349ce8202faf0c36e6973a1d46fb9d7 Imagine being in a cozy home with a minimalist metal bed frame standing tall in your master bedroom. No strings attached, just a black matte beauty, perfect for any type of headboard or mattress. You'll love its simple and elegant design which is great for those who believe "less is more. " This full size bed frame is not just a bed frame, but also a reliable 16 inches of storage clearance for your belongings, keeping your room decluttered. But, as a reviewer who tried it, I stumbled upon some drawbacks. Sometimes the stability isn't as solid as promised, with the sturdy legs seemingly going for a trip. Also, the frame is not quite up to the 4500 lbs weight capacity it says it can support. Maybe it's the material difference, not steel steel as advertised, and not quite as sturdy as needed for such a heavy frame. The assembly, they say, is straightforward and easy, but the task can sometimes be cumbersome due to a few missing hardware pieces. Lastly, the lack of leg protectors on the corners made moving into position a bit tricky, requiring some extra caution. In other words, a bed frame that could use some finesse—and the promise of an extra ton in the weight capacity should take this reviewer's concerns into account. 🔗Sleek Full XL Adjustable Hybrid Storage Bed in Light Grayhttps://preview.redd.it/eu00c5b14p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=712f7c4c6a3f14428904176861c906ca9d4b1c91 I recently spent a few weeks testing out the Full XL Standard Bed with Mattress from Homeroots, and I have to say, I was quite impressed. First off, the light gray color looks stunning in my bedroom, and it truly adds a modern, high-tech vibe to the space. The bed itself is quite spacious and comfortable, thanks to the 7-zone mattress and insulated support coil springs. I loved the fact that it comes with electronic controls to lift or recline, making it easier to find the perfect sleeping position. However, there were a couple of things that could have been improved. For starters, the bed could have been higher, as I found myself craving a little more headroom. Also, the bed's overall weight made it a bit difficult to move around, especially when I needed to change the sheets. Despite these minor drawbacks, I must admit the Full XL Standard Bed with Mattress from Homeroots is a great investment for those looking to add both style and comfort to their sleeping space. 🔗Smart LED Wingback Bed Frame with 4 Sliding Storage Drawershttps://preview.redd.it/la9woav14p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6f0ba0ac52eaa41d26ae4f8403f6d9210aa1a55 I recently got my hands on this stylish Full LED Bed Frame, and let me tell you, it's been a game-changer in my bedroom. Firstly, the LED headboard is impressive! Millions of colors at my fingertips, and I love the music sync function. Not to mention, the built-in mic makes it fancy and perfect for setting the mood. The contemporary wingback design is tasteful and adds a touch of elegance. The 100% upholstered premium linen fabric feels luxurious, and the hidden LED lights give an extra edge to the bed frame. One of the things I appreciate the most is the convenience of the four storage drawers. They're huge and the perfect place to stash out-of-season clothing, linens, and pillows. And the LED bed frame's ability to charge phone and tablets is a bonus, making sure my devices are always charged and ready. The assembly process was straightforward, and I appreciate the stable structure provided by the thickened hardwood slats. With 12 slats, it can hold up to 900lbs, and the sturdy frame makes it an excellent choice. Overall, this Full LED Bed Frame has been an excellent addition to my daily life. Its combination of style, functionality, and convenience has made it a standout choice. I wholeheartedly recommend it! 🔗Beige & Gray Full Size Upholstered Platform Bed with Brick Pattern Headboard and 4 Drawershttps://preview.redd.it/8qyd0id24p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0477c7949a97c999ac3cb7f1134d19b331bafb20 Imagine walking into your bedroom and being greeted by a stunning and exquisite piece of furniture. That's exactly what you get with this Full Size Upholstered Platform Bed. It's not just furniture, it's a masterpiece that effortlessly transforms your room's appearance. The brick-patterned headboard is the perfect blend of contemporary chic and timeless elegance. But it doesn't stop there. This bed is not just for looks, it's functional as well. The 4 drawers provide ample storage space, and they're designed in such a way that pulling them out or pushing them in is a breeze. They're perfect for tucking away clothes, blankets, and anything else you need to keep out of sight. Despite its size and solidity, this bed is surprisingly easy to assemble. Even if you're not the most handy person, you'll find the hardware and instructions included will guide you through the process seamlessly. As for the overall product dimensions, it measures 79.9 inches in length, 62.6 inches in width, and 39.7 inches in height. It weighs a substantial 146.73 pounds, which adds to its sturdiness. The bed boasts a weight capacity of 400 pounds, which makes it a great choice for heavier sleepers, and it can accommodate a recommended mattress thickness of 8 inches. In terms of material, it's made of a combination of plywood, MDF, and linen. While these materials might not be the highest quality, they do the job well and are durable enough to last for years. Lastly, it's worth mentioning the pictures provided are actual samples, so there might be some color variation depending on the lighting or display. But don't let that deter you from the overall beauty and quality of this Full Size Upholstered Platform Bed. 🔗Adjustable Heavy Duty Metal Bed Frame for Full XL Mattresseshttps://preview.redd.it/m510r1v24p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f06275f4371a85e9978776883232345d60747c08 I recently tried the KB Designs 7-leg adjustable bed frame and found it to be a practical and strong solution for fitting a variety of mattress sizes. The locking wheels make it easy to move, and its solid steel construction provides excellent support for both the mattress and the headboard. The assembly process was straightforward and took no more than 10 minutes, requiring no additional tools. However, I did notice that the screws for attaching the bed frame to the headboard were not included, which was a slight inconvenience. Overall, this bed frame is a reliable and adaptable option for both Queen and Twin mattress sizes, offering a combination of strength, durability, and ease of use. 🔗Industrial Style Full Bed Frame with XL Storage Drawershttps://preview.redd.it/g1cb1oa34p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5df1f785cf24cdb3c7b82d1137b173d854d9c3a8 Imagine coming home after a long day to find your room transformed, all thanks to Codesfir's Full Bed Frame. The industrial metal platform stands proudly, holding a queen bed frame that's as sturdy as it is stylish. It's like the bed was waiting for me. First off, assembly was a breeze. Detailed instructions and numbered accessories made it feel like a puzzle, but a satisfying one at that. The bed frame, complete with its wooden headboard, fits seamlessly with the room's decor, whether it's rustic, contemporary, or industrial. But the best part? The storage! Four large drawers, each big enough to accommodate clutter, have become my room's new best friend. They slide out smoothly, no fuss or struggle required. And the cherry on top? The bed is squeak-resistant, so it doesn't disturb my peace even during late-night fumbles. It's a perfect blend of comfort and practicality that I never knew I needed. 🔗Upgrade Your College Dorm Bed to a Comfortable Full XLhttps://preview.redd.it/15kwevk34p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35f8c26b239c444b00bffc4841353c17faae3abe As a college student, I was always in search for more space in my small dorm room. The Yak About It The College Converter is a game changer for your Twin XL bed. Adding over a foot of extra width, this product makes your bed feel like a world of comfort - perfect for studying, relaxing, or catching up on sleep. One of the best features is the quick and easy installation process - no tools needed! The College Converter attaches to your existing frame using hook and loop straps. It's just like having a new bed without any hassle. However, be mindful to bring the right size bedding for your upgraded frame. While it may take up a bit more room in your dorm, the added comfort is worth it. The College Converter truly transforms your living space and helps make your college experience a bit more cozy. 🔗Easily Adjustable Full XL Metal Bed Frame - Black Finish, Convenient for Queen and Full Sizeshttps://preview.redd.it/da3w8h144p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11cf917916fef179d115581b947230a166013fc0 I've recently tried the KB Designs 6-leg adjustable metal bed frame for my queen-sized bed, and I have to say, it has made a huge difference in the comfort and stability of my sleeping setup. The bed frame is easily extendable to fit twin, full, and queen sizes, with two center support legs holding it up. The high-tensile steel construction, leg brace, and steel axles ensure a sturdy foundation for my headboard and mattress, making me feel secure and well-supported during the night. The four caster wheels offer easy convenience, allowing me to move the bed frame around with ease. Additionally, the bed frame comes with rug rollers and locking wheels, making it perfectly suitable for various carpet types. The sleek black finish adds an elegant touch to my bedroom decor as well. Overall, I highly recommend the KB Designs 6-leg adjustable metal bed frame for those seeking a durable and stylish foundation for their mattress. 🔗Luxury Adjustable Full XL Bed Base for Ultimate Comforthttps://preview.redd.it/n3ajcrs44p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1a7332ea0c83ee6c225193ca6dd8ea83156bcc4 The Linenspa Adjustable Bed Base has been a game-changer in my bedroom setup. I was initially skeptical about the assembly process, but it took me no more than 30 minutes to have it ready for use. The setup was as simple as unfolding the base, screwing on the legs, plugging it in, and laying down my mattress. The bed base features independent head and foot incline, allowing me to find the perfect position for a comfortable sleep or simply elevate my legs for a cozy movie night. The wired remote is ultra-quiet, ensuring I don't disturb my partner while making adjustments. As someone who values durability, I appreciate the sturdy steel construction and the fact that the product only weighs 11 inches off the ground. It fits perfectly in my standard bed frame and is compatible with any Linenspa or 14-inch mattress. However, I do wish the Linenspa Adjustable Bed Base came with an option for a remote control with a wider range, as sometimes I find myself sitting up or reclining in bed but unable to reach the bed base. Also, the wired remote can be a bit of a hassle if you want to make changes without getting out of bed. Overall, the Linenspa Adjustable Bed Base has greatly enhanced my sleep experience and has become an essential part of my bedroom furniture. It's the perfect addition for anyone looking to optimize their sleep comfort. Buyer's GuideFull XL bed frames are an excellent choice for those seeking a comfortable and spacious sleep environment. This guide will provide you with important features to consider when purchasing a full XL bed frame. We will also offer some general advice and considerations to ensure you make the best decision for your needs.Size and Weight Capacityhttps://preview.redd.it/wy04p7274p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e940a0d96a7a6420a59c33e2b4ef2549ec1fbf5 The first consideration when purchasing a full XL bed frame is size and weight capacity. Full XL bed frames are designed to accommodate a larger mattress than a standard full mattress, providing more sleeping space. Be mindful of the overall dimensions, including the height of the bed frame, to ensure it fits in your bedroom. Additionally, consider the weight capacity of the bed frame to ensure it can support your mattress and any additional items. Material and ConstructionWhen choosing a full XL bed frame, consider the materials and construction. Steel and wood are the most common materials used. Steel bed frames typically offer more durability, while wood bed frames provide a more traditional look. Metal bed frames are often more affordable, but wood bed frames may require more maintenance. Ensure the bed frame has sturdy legs and a solid base to maintain stability and support the mattress.Assembly and InstallationAnother important factor to consider is the ease of assembly and installation. Most full XL bed frames require some assembly, but the process can vary depending on the specific model. Look for bed frames with clear assembly instructions and tools provided. Additionally, consider whether the bed frame comes with wheels for easy mobility or requires permanent installation. https://preview.redd.it/v1non8f74p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=edc00363d70d7fa709589b3e49acbfb2ce084618 Adjustability and ComfortFor enhanced comfort and customization, seek a full XL bed frame with adjustable features. This can include adjustable height or tilt options, which can help to alleviate back pain or improve air circulation. When considering comfort, ensure that the bed frame provides ample support for your mattress and offers a stable, level surface for a restful night's sleep.Maintenance and Replacement PartsLastly, consider maintenance and replacement parts when shopping for a full XL bed frame. Some manufacturers provide lifetime warranties or easy access to replacement parts. This can save you time and money in the long run, as bed frames are designed to last for years.When purchasing a full XL bed frame, consider size and weight capacity, material and construction, assembly and installation, adjustability and comfort, and maintenance and replacement parts. By evaluating these factors, you can find a high-quality, long-lasting full XL bed frame that meets your needs and provides a comfortable, relaxing sleep environment. FAQhttps://preview.redd.it/30g6f4v74p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a4176e28d7cc70f6f9a204f556e294fbc1f11d43 What are Full XL Bed Frames?Full XL Bed Frames are a type of bed frame that is designed to accommodate a larger mattress than a standard full size bed. These bed frames typically measure 54 inches wide and 75 inches long, providing ample space for a comfortable night's sleep.Why should I consider purchasing a Full XL Bed Frame?If you're looking to upgrade your bedroom experience with a more spacious and comfortable sleeping area, a Full XL Bed Frame could be the perfect choice. These bed frames are ideal for larger mattresses and can provide a more inviting and restful space for those who are tall or prefer a bit more wiggle room while they sleep. https://preview.redd.it/aw149w984p5d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c9ab904c58318054bb35f6f57153d9c99eeca726 What are the benefits of using a Full XL Bed Frame?
What materials are Full XL Bed Frames available in?Full XL Bed Frames can be found in a variety of materials, including wood, metal, and even a combination of the two. Wood bed frames are often available in solid wood, engineered wood, or veneer options, while metal frames may feature chromed or brushed steel, black or silver painted finishes, or even a mix of both.What is the difference between Full and Full XL bed frames?While both Full and Full XL bed frames share the same length of 75 inches, their width differs. A Full bed frame measures 54 inches wide, while a Full XL bed frame is typically 54 inches wide but has an additional 6 inches of width, making it 60 inches in total. This added width is what makes the Full XL bed frame more suitable for larger mattresses and taller individuals.What are some popular styles of Full XL Bed Frames?Popular styles of Full XL Bed Frames include traditional, contemporary, industrial, and sleek minimalist designs. These styles vary in materials used, such as wood, metal, or a combination of both, as well as in features like headboard height and storage options.Are Full XL Bed Frames expensive?The cost of a Full XL Bed Frame can vary depending on factors such as material, style, and additional features like storage solutions. However, with the wide variety of options available, there are budget-friendly Full XL Bed Frames available that offer a comfortable and spacious sleeping area without breaking the bank.Do Full XL Bed Frames require special mattresses?While it's not strictly necessary to use a special mattress on a Full XL Bed Frame, opting for a larger mattress can help maximize the space provided by the bed frame and ensure a comfortable sleeping experience. For added comfort, consider choosing a mattress with extra depth or a topper designed for larger beds.As an Amazon™ Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. |
2024.06.10 08:45 GreatRecipeCollctr29 Panera Recipes part 2
So this is Part 2 of Panera baked goods that we all missed since the major change.
I have gone to Panera for any added posts about gaining some recipes on their baked goods. No recipes are evident as they are locked in corporate Fresh Dough facility. But I have found some reference sheets, and other operation troubleshooting guides what to expect, if it helps you:
Here are some links of popular pastries from the past:
Bonus above is Panera's granola used on their parfaits, peach muffins and the granola was the topping. So they have their own muffin mix, added diced fresh peaches into the muffin batter. then they topped with 1 tsp of their granola, topped with 2-3 fresh slices of peach, and 1 tsp brown sugar flour mixture as crumble.
White icing for bear claws and cinnamon rolls - this doesn't give a recipe, but what to look for on applying it - https://www.panerafulfillment.com/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/White_Icing_SBS__660d99535808c.png
Bakery Manual Book 2 - Sweet dough
https://www.panerafulfillment.com/samples/bm2_revised/01_TOC_Sweet_Doughs.pdf
Panera's Bread Reference -
https://www.panerafulfillment.com/samples/bm2_revised/05_Reference.pdf
++++
Some of their signature soups at Panera:
Black Bean soup - https://www.food.com/recipe/panera-bread-black-bean-soup-49737
Broccoli Cheddar soup - https://www.food.com/recipe/panera-broccoli-cheese-soup-150384
Creamy Tomato Soup - https://sweetandsavorymeals.com/panera-bread-creamy-tomato-soup/
submitted by GreatRecipeCollctr29 to TopSecretRecipes [link] [comments]
I have gone to Panera for any added posts about gaining some recipes on their baked goods. No recipes are evident as they are locked in corporate Fresh Dough facility. But I have found some reference sheets, and other operation troubleshooting guides what to expect, if it helps you:
Here are some links of popular pastries from the past:
Bonus above is Panera's granola used on their parfaits, peach muffins and the granola was the topping. So they have their own muffin mix, added diced fresh peaches into the muffin batter. then they topped with 1 tsp of their granola, topped with 2-3 fresh slices of peach, and 1 tsp brown sugar flour mixture as crumble.
White icing for bear claws and cinnamon rolls - this doesn't give a recipe, but what to look for on applying it - https://www.panerafulfillment.com/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/White_Icing_SBS__660d99535808c.png
Bakery Manual Book 2 - Sweet dough
https://www.panerafulfillment.com/samples/bm2_revised/01_TOC_Sweet_Doughs.pdf
Panera's Bread Reference -
https://www.panerafulfillment.com/samples/bm2_revised/05_Reference.pdf
++++
Some of their signature soups at Panera:
Black Bean soup - https://www.food.com/recipe/panera-bread-black-bean-soup-49737
Broccoli Cheddar soup - https://www.food.com/recipe/panera-broccoli-cheese-soup-150384
Creamy Tomato Soup - https://sweetandsavorymeals.com/panera-bread-creamy-tomato-soup/
2024.06.10 08:44 Ginger_Minge13 Ranting about my ex (even though I shouldn't be)
This is a rant about my ex-boyfriend because I want to air out how much of a douche he is since I recently found out some things he’s done to other women since we broke up.
My ex (23 m) and I (24 f) broke up around two years ago in 2022.
Our relationship was pretty rough from the get-go with constant fighting over little things that ended up culminating in resentment later down the line. We only actually dated for about five months before he ended up dumping me over text after a pretty big fight the day before.
He always used to joke about cheating on me, breaking up with me and I distinctly remember one time when I was with him he said “if we ever broke up and we lived together, I would bring girls home and fuck them loudly in the next room.” He also made jokes about assaulting not only me but other women as well. Specifically, he showed me a photo of him passed out in a bed with two other women and his friends joked about him not “making a move” on them. He seemed to think this story was funny since he had no problem telling (and showing) me while also remaining friends with the men who made the joke.
He also often pushed my boundaries sexually. He always wanted to have sex in public (classrooms) and would get mad whenever I wouldn’t put out. One time, he stormed out because I would have sex with him in a classroom at our shared university campus and proceeded to not talk to me for a whole day before calling me and profusely apologizing (I don't know why I stayed). Between that, the anger issues, and always mentioning his “ex” (who I heavily presume he didn’t actually date), he was a pretty bad boyfriend.
All that being said, I don’t want to sit here and act like I was the best girlfriend (I did have my flaws), but I did try my best to deal with conflicts and accommodate him and his emotions, all the while trying to maintain my emotional sanity.
As such, he wasn’t the best boyfriend all of the time despite him claiming he was later down the line. Yes, I ended up meeting him for coffee a few months later. This happened because I ended up getting into the same two-year graduate program as him a year after we broke up since it heavily surrounded my career path and current educational interests. He ended up reaching out to me and congratulating me after a friend of mine posted about it on their Instagram. I was shocked that he still had my number since he was the one who dumped me. Stupidly, I offered to meet him for coffee since part of me wondered if he changed from being the insecure, misogynist that I knew him to be.
When I met him, he bragged about how his friends had set him up on various dates and how much fun he had (still single tho lol). He also gave me an insight into the program and didn’t give me a straight answer when I asked why he agreed to coffee with me. Part of me wants to think he missed me in some capacity but I also think he had a bit of a “grass is greener” mentality. I could see why he thought this since our program is a professional Master's program. Hence, filled with women severely out of his league. Especially because his rap sheet in this program was nothing necessarily phenomenal. He didn’t do any clubs, didn’t engage in research with professors, and didn’t get any fellowships but did manage to get a pretty good job in the government as an analyst for his internship (as it’s part of the program requirements).
After that, I spent the whole of my first year focusing on myself and my career. I joined clubs, made friends, hosted events, and focused on my academics. This year has been pretty good for me since I got a pretty solid internship working for an NGO, got an executive position in a club, and got to engage further with my academic interests despite having to avoid him at all costs (but then again, I did that to myself).
Mind you, I kept pretty out of the loop about him and what he was doing since I didn’t have any friends that overlapped with his. However, I ended up becoming close with someone in his year in the program over the past year and when I met up with them recently, they told me some pretty wild stuff he did in his first year. They told me that he ended up sticking himself to a bunch of girls in the program, basically doing a full rotation. With one girl specifically, he ended up getting close with her and then went around telling everyone he slept with her even though he didn’t and she was never interested in him. Then, he ended up having a crush on a Muslim girl (who is very religious might I add) which would be difficult due to her culture as he’s Asian and that she wasn’t interested in him either. There was also a picture of them floating around on a coffee chat which he ended up coining as a “date” even though she has no interest in him. He also used the same lines he used on me, on them and they’re all the same ethnicity as the girl he was interested in before me. I think he tried to us me to get over her.
So he basically lied on a bunch of girls in the program and made them super uncomfortable. I got pretty validated knowing that my friend in his year also doesn't like him (they're a very morally good and reputable person) and ended up distancing themself from him in the second year.
It’s even more interesting since he said he would “never” date any of the girls in the program. Clearly not since they didn’t want to date him. I’ve told many of my friends this news and many of them feel angry alongside me at him. I understand that we only dated for a few months but why does it still impact me in the way that it does? I know he’s not the greatest person and nothing short (literally) of an evil loser but it makes me feel bad that part of me still cares for him. Ultimately though, I think him breaking up with me was the best thing he’s ever done for me.
Is there any insight as to why he acted this way after our break-up? Was this the person he always was? I don't know why part of me is still concerned about it since I doubt he thinks of me. Maybe it's all of the trauma he inflicted lol.
I'm also sorry I wrote a whole essay, I felt like I needed to get this off my chest since I found out.
submitted by Ginger_Minge13 to offmychest [link] [comments]
My ex (23 m) and I (24 f) broke up around two years ago in 2022.
Our relationship was pretty rough from the get-go with constant fighting over little things that ended up culminating in resentment later down the line. We only actually dated for about five months before he ended up dumping me over text after a pretty big fight the day before.
He always used to joke about cheating on me, breaking up with me and I distinctly remember one time when I was with him he said “if we ever broke up and we lived together, I would bring girls home and fuck them loudly in the next room.” He also made jokes about assaulting not only me but other women as well. Specifically, he showed me a photo of him passed out in a bed with two other women and his friends joked about him not “making a move” on them. He seemed to think this story was funny since he had no problem telling (and showing) me while also remaining friends with the men who made the joke.
He also often pushed my boundaries sexually. He always wanted to have sex in public (classrooms) and would get mad whenever I wouldn’t put out. One time, he stormed out because I would have sex with him in a classroom at our shared university campus and proceeded to not talk to me for a whole day before calling me and profusely apologizing (I don't know why I stayed). Between that, the anger issues, and always mentioning his “ex” (who I heavily presume he didn’t actually date), he was a pretty bad boyfriend.
All that being said, I don’t want to sit here and act like I was the best girlfriend (I did have my flaws), but I did try my best to deal with conflicts and accommodate him and his emotions, all the while trying to maintain my emotional sanity.
As such, he wasn’t the best boyfriend all of the time despite him claiming he was later down the line. Yes, I ended up meeting him for coffee a few months later. This happened because I ended up getting into the same two-year graduate program as him a year after we broke up since it heavily surrounded my career path and current educational interests. He ended up reaching out to me and congratulating me after a friend of mine posted about it on their Instagram. I was shocked that he still had my number since he was the one who dumped me. Stupidly, I offered to meet him for coffee since part of me wondered if he changed from being the insecure, misogynist that I knew him to be.
When I met him, he bragged about how his friends had set him up on various dates and how much fun he had (still single tho lol). He also gave me an insight into the program and didn’t give me a straight answer when I asked why he agreed to coffee with me. Part of me wants to think he missed me in some capacity but I also think he had a bit of a “grass is greener” mentality. I could see why he thought this since our program is a professional Master's program. Hence, filled with women severely out of his league. Especially because his rap sheet in this program was nothing necessarily phenomenal. He didn’t do any clubs, didn’t engage in research with professors, and didn’t get any fellowships but did manage to get a pretty good job in the government as an analyst for his internship (as it’s part of the program requirements).
After that, I spent the whole of my first year focusing on myself and my career. I joined clubs, made friends, hosted events, and focused on my academics. This year has been pretty good for me since I got a pretty solid internship working for an NGO, got an executive position in a club, and got to engage further with my academic interests despite having to avoid him at all costs (but then again, I did that to myself).
Mind you, I kept pretty out of the loop about him and what he was doing since I didn’t have any friends that overlapped with his. However, I ended up becoming close with someone in his year in the program over the past year and when I met up with them recently, they told me some pretty wild stuff he did in his first year. They told me that he ended up sticking himself to a bunch of girls in the program, basically doing a full rotation. With one girl specifically, he ended up getting close with her and then went around telling everyone he slept with her even though he didn’t and she was never interested in him. Then, he ended up having a crush on a Muslim girl (who is very religious might I add) which would be difficult due to her culture as he’s Asian and that she wasn’t interested in him either. There was also a picture of them floating around on a coffee chat which he ended up coining as a “date” even though she has no interest in him. He also used the same lines he used on me, on them and they’re all the same ethnicity as the girl he was interested in before me. I think he tried to us me to get over her.
So he basically lied on a bunch of girls in the program and made them super uncomfortable. I got pretty validated knowing that my friend in his year also doesn't like him (they're a very morally good and reputable person) and ended up distancing themself from him in the second year.
It’s even more interesting since he said he would “never” date any of the girls in the program. Clearly not since they didn’t want to date him. I’ve told many of my friends this news and many of them feel angry alongside me at him. I understand that we only dated for a few months but why does it still impact me in the way that it does? I know he’s not the greatest person and nothing short (literally) of an evil loser but it makes me feel bad that part of me still cares for him. Ultimately though, I think him breaking up with me was the best thing he’s ever done for me.
Is there any insight as to why he acted this way after our break-up? Was this the person he always was? I don't know why part of me is still concerned about it since I doubt he thinks of me. Maybe it's all of the trauma he inflicted lol.
I'm also sorry I wrote a whole essay, I felt like I needed to get this off my chest since I found out.
2024.06.10 08:11 tab_rick Top 8 Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturers in 2023
 | The popularity of solid surfaces is soaring as it is a sanitary, resilient, and great-looking material primarily utilized for countertops. This material is prepared using polyester resin, acrylic resin, or a mixture of two and then blended with color tints and acrylic chips. The solid surfaces feature endless design options. submitted by tab_rick to KKRsolidsurface [link] [comments] As the demand for solid surface countertops is relatively high, there is a high-profit potential for countertop companies. Acquiring premium quality, durable, and affordable solid surface countertops from a reliable countertop manufacturer will be beneficial for businesses. Here is a quick look at the top 8 solid surface countertops brands located around the world:
#1 Kingkonree International Surface Industrial Co. LtdBusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop Supplier, Custom Solid Surface Countertop Distributorhttps://preview.redd.it/bs2cvfloro5d1.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=867ca40becfeed48ca65ef4a1cb5ad7ce8f443ba Headquarters: 1201-1255/F, Dongming Bldg, Minzhi Avenue, Longhua District, Shenzhen, China Main Markets: China and worldwide Years Of Experience: 23 years of experience Certificates & Awards: ISO 9001:2015 Certificate, CE Certificate, SGS Test, CUPC Certificate, GMC Certificate Kingkonree International Surface Industrial Co. Ltd was set up in 2001 in the Shenzhen region of China. As a top-notch solid surface supplier, they offer versatile solid surface solutions for retail, industrial, and commercial applications. They began to export their solid surface products to various countries in 2008. At KKR, only top-grade resins are used to make solid surfaces. In addition, they provide solid surfaces in more than 127 patterns and feature 3000 color options. KKR has a massive 15,000 m² factory and produces about 6000 pieces of solid surface sheets on a monthly basis. They deliver free samples of solid surface supplies to check product quality and offer customization options. KKR delivers sample orders within a week and customized new mold items in about 18 days or less. KKR maintains a strict quality management system and follows lean solid surface manufacturing. Their solid surfaces will undergo various inspections and tests to ensure their quality. They offer OEM and ODM services and completed several solid surface projects. At KKR, their experts offer free client support and technical guidance. This company offers custom packaging options to make its clients stand out from the market competitors. Key Products:
#2 SwanBusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Distributor, Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop MakerHeadquarters: 200 Swan Ave, Centralia, IL 62801, USA Main Markets: USA and worldwide Years Of Experience: 59 years of experience Certificates & Awards: ADA Compliant, NSF/ANSI 51 standard, GREENGUARD® Gold Certification Swan was established in 1964 and retains nearly 59 years of experience producing creative and budget-friendly solid surface solutions. Looking for top-grade solid surface solutions for both residential and commercial kitchens and baths? Then, Swan is the best choice for businesses to acquire solid surfacing products. This solid surface company manufactures swanstone, which is a compression-molded solid surface used for making countertops, shower walls, kitchen sinks, bathtub walls, etc. They have a high-end manufacturing unit in Centralia, Illinois. This company utilizes long-lasting, premium-quality substances and the latest technology for solid surface countertop manufacturing. Key Products:
#3 LX HausysBusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop Trader, Solid Surface Countertop DistributorHeadquarters: 98 Huam-ro Jung-gu Seoul 04637 Korea, Republic of South Korea Main Markets: Korea, North America, Russia, Japan, Latin America, Europe, China, Middle East, North America, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, and India Years Of Experience: 14 years of experience Certificates & Awards: BREEAM International New Construction 2016 Certification, M1 Emissions Classification, LEED Certificate, ISO 14001 Certificate, Greenguard Certificate LX Hausys was founded in 2009, and its parent company Lak Hui Chemical Industrial Corp was set up in 1947. This company produces HIMACS solid surfaces with numerous fire ratings, hygiene, and environment certificates. Their solid surfaces are accessible in a wide range of colors, shapes, and thicknesses. This company strives to produce energy-saving, eco-friendly, and human-friendly solid surfacing solutions. In addition, they follow a strict sustainability management promotion system for solid surface production. As one of the reliable solid surfacing manufacturers, they offer a 15-year limited warranty for HIMACS solid surface material. Key Products:
#4 Durlax Top Surface Pvt LtdBusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop Exporter, Solid Surface Countertop SupplierHeadquarters: 301, Jaisingh Comm Space, Dayal Das Rd, FP 362, W.E. Highway, Vile Parle(East) Mumbai Maharashtra India – 400057 Main Markets: India Years Of Experience: 10 years of experience Certificates & Awards: ISO 9001:2015 Certification, SGS Certificate, CE Certificate, NSF Certificate, and NKBA Certificate Durlax Top Surface Pvt Ltd is one of the popular solid surface countertop brands in India. With about 10+ years of experience in this industry, they offer the best quality, great-looking, and robust solid surfaces. This company is known for manufacturing its own solid surfaces using their state-of-the-art continuous casting procedures. This company produces solid surfaces that are ideal for a wide range of residential and commercial applications. Also, their solid surface products are known for their durability, design flexibility, versatile color options, and enhanced aesthetics. Key Products:
#5 SCF InteriorsBusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop Distributor, Solid Surface Countertop SupplierHeadquarters: Unit 2/ 5-11 Mellor St, West Ryde, NSW 2114, Australia Main Markets: Australia, America, Asia, and some European countries Years Of Experience: 34 years of experience Certificates & Awards: Corian Design Award Winner 2021 SCF Interiors was set up in 1989 and is one of the well-known solid surface manufacturers based in Australia. This company is known for offering versatile residential and commercial solid surfaces along with the fabrication and installation of solid surface items. Their solid surface items are free of crystalline silica. At SCF Interiors, they deliver high-end solid surface materials, including Staron, Meganite, Corian, Hi-Macs, and Marblo. This solid surface countertop company has a massive manufacturing factory with skilled workers to ensure quick production. The solid surfaces are available in a wide range of colors, shapes, and thicknesses. They offer various services like prototypes and samples to the clients before starting with the actual solid surface product production. In addition, they offer showroom consultations to clients along with technical assistance. This company offers after-sales services such as refinishing and repairing solid surface items. Key Products:
#6 BAYROCABusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop Maker, Solid Surface Countertop TraderHeadquarters: Room2210, NO.398, Huli District, Xiamen, 361006, China Main Markets: China, UK, Singapore, USA, Canada, Australia, and Dubai Years Of Experience: 15 years of experience Certificates & Awards: SGCC Certificate Based in China, BAYROCA is one of the budget-friendly countertop companies with a global exporting network. Established in 2008, this company offers custom durable countertops and other solid surface products for various industries, including residential, hotel and hospitality, healthcare, and other commercial areas. Solid surface solutions can be customized in a variety of colors, shapes, and designs. At BAYROCA, the experts will provide CAD drawings and PDF drawings to get the client’s approval before manufacturing solid surface products. They also offer samples of the products and ensure quick delivery of custom bulk orders. In addition to that, this company delivers manufactured solid surface solutions to the client’s businesses without expensive extra costs. Key Products:
#7 CaesarstoneBusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop Supplier, Solid Surface Countertop ExporterHeadquarters: 1401 W Morehead St, Charlotte, NC 28208, USA Main Markets: USA, Australia, India, South America, UK, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asian countries Years Of Experience: 36 years of experience Certificates & Awards: ISO Certification, ESG report, SCS Certified, GREENGUARD Certificate, NSF-compliant, LEED Certifications, and more Founded in 1987, Caesarstone is one of the experienced solid surface fabricators and has been in this industry for over 36 years. This company offers high-quality, durable, safe, robust, and better-looking countertops in various colors and shapes. The high popularity of Caesarstone is because of its sustainable practices. This company gives importance to sustainability and uses only natural substances that are environmentally friendly. In addition to that, their raw materials and solid surface countertops feature several global certifications that prove their sustainable production. Key Products:
#8 DENOLEXBusiness Type: Solid Surface Countertop Trader, Solid Surface Countertop Manufacturer, Solid Surface Countertop DistributorHeadquarters: Al Yassat Tower – 1 Flat No. 104 P.O. Box 35188, Al Khan, Sharjah, UAE Main Markets: UAE, India, and a few Middle East countries Years Of Experience: 24 years of experience Certificates & Awards: ISO 45001:2018 Certificate, ISO 9001:2015 Certificate, ISO 14001:2015 Certificate DENOLEX is one of the multinational countertop companies with head offices in UAE and India. It was originally set up in 1999 in Sharjah, UAE. In 2013, this company built a manufacturing factory in Singanallur and constructed a head office in Attingal. DENLEX is a manufacturer of high-quality acrylic solid surfaces that are chemical-resistant and eco-friendly. This solid surfaces inc offers solid surfacing solutions in over 100 colors and produces products as per the custom requirements of the clients. Their solid surface can be merged, sized and shaped to build different types of countertop with neat finishes. This company produces solid surfaces for residential, laboratory, healthcare, and commercial applications. Key Products:
ConclusionThe solid surface countertops are durable, remain in good condition for a long time, and feature great aesthetics. There are plenty of solid surface countertops suppliers across the world, so it is important for businesses to choose the most reliable supplier to acquire good-quality products.Make sure to contact KKR to order a wide range of solid surface countertops for your business at an affordable price range. Also, KKR offers custom solid surfaces so businesses can get personalized items that can enhance brand recognition and improve their consumer base. |
2024.06.10 00:55 Kindly_Pause_8522 Looking for help on an open source scheduling platform [Backend, Frontend, DevOps, IT all needed]
Agile Planner is a robust, dynamic scheduling platform that provides unparalleled automation for students seeking to generate both daily and weekly planners. It is the only scheduling platform to date that provides its own Object Oriented scripting language fully integrated with a CLI interface for streamlining the pipeline even further. Additionally, Agile Planner offers plenty of proprietary software such as logging, scheduling algorithms, serialization, and as stated before, a custom scripting language. The goal is to continue expanding upon the current CLI iteration and eventually offer a website component.
If this sounds of interest to you, check out our repo here and consider joining our slack group. I've attached a screenshot of a sample session to give an idea about what it looks like to run.
Session: https://ibb.co/CKbcbWQ
repo: https://github.com/AndrewRoe34/agile-planner
slack: https://join.slack.com/t/agileplannergroup/shared_invite/zt-2k0bmf49j-V6avYCrNJFFWVTpdER69tg
Tasks that we have planned for this month:
submitted by Kindly_Pause_8522 to ProgrammingBuddies [link] [comments]
If this sounds of interest to you, check out our repo here and consider joining our slack group. I've attached a screenshot of a sample session to give an idea about what it looks like to run.
Session: https://ibb.co/CKbcbWQ
repo: https://github.com/AndrewRoe34/agile-planner
slack: https://join.slack.com/t/agileplannergroup/shared_invite/zt-2k0bmf49j-V6avYCrNJFFWVTpdER69tg
Tasks that we have planned for this month:
- Updating the table design (currently integrating and offer as an option)
- Designing and integrating a code editor
- Updating our serialization to account for minor changes
- Creating a script wizard (for those who prefer a no code approach)
- Weather forecast integration
- Emulate Google Calendar's day display but with CLI
- Excel data sheet generation with analytics attached
2024.06.10 00:44 Nilly00 The great Furry Atlas of Reddit (SFW)
Categories
- Art
- Commissions
- Fursuits
- Species Specific
- Memes, Humour and RelatablesMemes, Humour and Relatables
- Discussions and Meta content
- Special Interests
- Anti-Anti Furry
- Furry Hate "Anti Furry"
- Uncategorised
Art
| Subreddit | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| anthroswim | 1k+ Members | For the moodier incoherent side of anthros. AdultSwim-esque? Kinda! Though, look deeper through the waters and you'll find something more. Esotericism? Nostalgia? |
| furry | 350k+Members | For All Stuff Fluff! |
| furryart | Inactive | Furry artwork!Furry artwork! |
| FurryArtGallery | Inactive | A furry art sub with quality control that promotes the idea that anthro art can be just as good as the other great art of the world. |
| FurryArtists | Inactive? | This subreddit is dedicated to all of the furries who create art, like to post art online or looking to find their new favourite artist. This place is also for artists to offer commissions and/or requests for other redditors, but also for non-artists to ask for a request and/or commissions! |
| FurryArtSchool | 80k+ Members | A place for beginning and experienced furry artists alike to come together and help each other with their respective art. |
| FurryWallpapers | Inactive | Trade your Furry Wallpapers here! |
| FurryWritingSchool | Inactive | A place for furries to learn about writing and share stories! |
Commissions
| Subreddit | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| FurryArtists | Inactive? | This subreddit is dedicated to all of the furries who create art, like to post art online or looking to find their new favourite artist. This place is also for artists to offer commissions and/or requests for other redditors, but also for non-artists to ask for a request and/or commissions! |
| FurryComission | Inactive | welcome! this is just a place to upload comm sheets! |
| FurryCommisions | Inactive | Post Your Commision Advertising And Get Commisioned! |
Fursuits
| Subreddit | Status | Desription |
|---|---|---|
| fursuit | 40k+ Members | Everything fursuits and fursuiting! Have questions about fursuiting? Want to share a photo or video of you in your fursuit? This is the place for you! |
| fursuitmakers | Inactive | This community is for showing fursuits and the progress and materials it took to make it. |
| FursuitMaking | 10k+Members | Just tips from fursuit makers to fursuit makers. Feel free to post tips, links to goodies, and ask questions. Bragging about fursuits you made is encouraged! |
| FursuitMarket | Inactive | Welcome to fursuitmarket! Here you can buy and sell fursuits! |
| FursuitPhotography | <1k Members | Post your high-quality fursuit photos here. |
| FursuitReview | Inactive | Subreddit for http://fursuitreview.com |
| fursuits | 10k+Members | Want to talk about Fursuits? Just want to hang out? You're in the right place! Talk about anything even slightly related to animal costumes known as fursuits! |
Species Specific
| Subreddit | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| deerfluff | 1k+ Members | furry art of deers, reindeers, and other antlered beings. |
| DutchAngelDragons | Inactive | This subreddit is about all things Dutchie related =w= |
| protogen | 40k+ Members | Subreddit dedicated to our favorite sentient toasters. Feel free to share art, fursuiting stories and anything protogen related. |
Memes, Humour and Relatables
| Subreddit | Status | Desription |
|---|---|---|
| 2furryirl4furryirl | 3k+ Members | (Depressive content) For furry memes that are just too real |
| anotherfurrymemesub | Inactive | hi! welcome to afms. this subreddit was created for people who are tired of the same cropped yiff memes and sex jokes but still want furry memes |
| flessedimages | 4k+ Members | blessed images, but furrier |
| flursedimages | Inactive, Unmoderated | blursedimages but furrier |
| furrymemes | 40k+ Members | Want memes but you're a degenerate? You’ve come to the right place! Come laugh at cropped yiff memes and knot jokes with your fellow furries. |
| furry_irl | 250k+ Members | Furry memes for the fur in u ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) |
| fursedcomments | Inactive | cursed comments, but furrier |
| fursedimages | Banned: Unmoderated | cursed furry memes |
| SFWFurryMemes | Inactive | Post your SFW furry memes here! |
| WholesomeFurryMemes | Inactive | The best place for you to get your daily fill of wholesome furry memes! |
Discussions and Meta content
| Subreddit | Status | Desription |
|---|---|---|
| furgonomics | 1k+ Members | Furgonomics is the discussion of how real-world things would have to be adapted to work in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. (Like a chair with a hole in the back to accommodate for tails, or a hat with holes on the sides for large ears, etc.) |
| Furries | 2k+ Members | A place for open and respectful discussion about the furry fandom and related topics. |
| furrydiscuss | <1k Members | All talk. A place for news, essays, reviews, interviews, organizing and writing about furries. Informative promotion for events and projects is OK. Art, memes and ads should go elsewhere. Welcome! |
| RealFurryHours | 9k+ Members | A subreddit for discussing all things about the furry fandom; fluff or tough. Antis are welcomed and encouraged to participate too, so don’t be afraid to criticize furries here- it’s part of what this sub is for! |
| WagInHeaven | 1k+Members | An archival of the furry community at its best. Whether you're here for a different point of view, or here to post about a wholesome encounter or article, we welcome you! |
| yiffinhell | 150k+ Members | Having a giggle at the cringe generated by furries who have no sense of shame or self awareness. |
Special Interests
| Subreddit | Status | Desription |
|---|---|---|
| FurriesWithFirearms | <1k Members | Another subreddit for furry gun enthusiasts! Post your furry art or fursuit pictures if they feature firearms! |
| furrieswithguns | 5k+ Members | A subreddit for furry gun enthusiasts! Post your furry art or fursuit pictures if they feature firearms! |
Anti-Anti Furry
| Subreddit | Status | Desription |
|---|---|---|
| antiantifurry | Inactive, Unmoderated | for the people who don't like the anti furrs |
| antiantifurry_irl | <1k Members | A subreddit to post memes and shitposts poking fun at the stereotypical anti-furry. Not by any means to brigade, or cause drama. |
| AntiFurryCringe | <1k Members | Although they dont know it, Anti-Furries are often cringier than furries themselves, all being either 12-years-old talking smack about us on a schoolyard, or 30 and posting about it on reddit, its always a hilarious sight to behold. |
| antifurryhaters | Inactive | let's fight against furry haters |
| AntiFurryRepublica | Banned: T.O.S Violation | Bait Sub |
| AntiFursInAction | 2k+ Members | From the bizarre to the immature, this subreddit is dedicated to showcasing some of the strange things anti-furries say. |
| Anti_Anti_Furry | <1k Members | A sub for posting memes making fun of the haters. *This is a PRO-FURRY subreddit |
| furryhateclub | <1k Members | Bait sub |
Furry hate "Anti Furry"
Note: Many of these subreddits often violate Reddit's T.O.S. Use at your own caution.| Subreddit | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| FurryHateNEO | Banned: Violent content | |
| AntiFurriesFBI | Banned: Unmoderated | |
| AntiFurryArmy | Private | |
| AntiFurryBattalion | Banned: Unmoderated | |
| AntiFurryCorp | Banned: Ban evasion | |
| AntiFurryFrontier | Banned: T.O.S Violation | |
| AntiFurryParadise | Inactive | STOP THE BAD FURRIES |
| AntiFurrySubreddit | Banned: Moderator c.o.c violation | |
| AntiFurry_Armed_Force | Banned: Moderator c.o.c violation | |
| Anti_Furry_society | Banned: Hatespeech | |
| FurryExtermination | Banned: Hatespeech | |
| FurryHate | Private | |
| FurryHateAssociation | Inactive | This is for furry hate because the other ones got takeover by furrys for not banning them🤣 |
| FurryHateFederation | Banned: Violent content | |
| FurryHatersCommunity | Active? | This is the Anti-Furry Community. In case you fear, no, this is not a bait server. We post and talk Anti-Furry and random shit. |
| Ihatefurries | Banned: Unmoderated | |
| NoFurZone | Inactive | This is a sub for all of the people who dislike/hate furries. This will also test a formula I created that could make the perfect anti furry sub. |
| NoFurriesUnite | Banned: Unmoderated | |
| anti_fur_legion | Private | |
| antifurryassociation | Banned: Moderator c.o.c violation | |
| antifurrybase | Banned: Moderator c.o.c violation | |
| antifurrylegion | Inactive | |
| antifurrystuff | Banned: Moderator c.o.c violation | |
| furryhatezone | Banned: Hatespeech | |
| wereallyhatefurries | Banned: Hatespeech |
Uncategorised
| Subreddit | Status | Desription |
|---|---|---|
| 2furry_irl4furry_irl | Inactive | Duplicate of 2furryirl4furryirl |
| furrycatwalk | Inactive |
2024.06.09 22:12 SpecialistRelease70 Totally Spies OC, Blake, who is the son of Clover and Tad.
 | Bio: After his father served his time and became a reformed WOOHP Agent, Tad dated Clover for awhile. A New WOOHP Fertility technology was going haywire as a result, Sam Clover and Alex ended up pregnant. The dna was from Tad because he volunteered to use his sample for their experiment. Tad step up and took responsibility, tended to the pregnant spy girls. Nine months later, the girls gave birth to baby boys. Blake was born, then Marc was Born and then Tony was born on the same day. As a result they share the same birthday and half siblings. submitted by SpecialistRelease70 to TotallySpies [link] [comments] Blake has his mother's appearance and is a sweet talker to all girls thanks to his mother teaching him how girls think. Which is why he got the code name, Siren, because of his sweet talking and how he can negotiate with villains, including women. Blake is a ladies man and he has a passion for baking since, according to him, girls love guys who cook and he was a food critic since he was a baby and dreams of becoming a chef. Which is why when he and his best friends / half siblings, Tony and Marc, move in to their mother's old pent house when their folks went to Europe he is in charge of making breakfast, lunch and dinner if the boys don't order take out. Blake is also enemies with Randy, Mandy's son, and their rivalry matches their mother's due to their constant competition of who will get the hottest girl to date them and how Ben brags about wanting to be in the justice system when he graduates. His favorite weapons are the bionic ear phones, smooth lip balm (for obvious reasons) and the voice changing MP3. Realtionships: Clover: Blake and his mother have a close relationship since they have a lot in common when it comes to romance and their passion in the arts since she is a designer and he wants to be a chef. Clover knew Blake and the boys were spies ever since he entered high school due to his conspicuous behavior earlier and she revealed that she knew when her cousin Norman came to stay with them. Blake and Clover have a common hatred for their cousin Norman due to how he got Clover in trouble when she was young, she didn't let him hold Blake when he was a baby and throughout Blake's childhood he tried to get him in trouble with Clover. But Clover, being an ex-spy, knew better than to believe her cousin when she raised Blake better than that and how Norman got her in trouble before. She used her abilities to know that Norman was the culprit in ever attempt to get Blake in trouble. Clover usually gets on Blake's case when he has a cow lick and fixes it for him. Blaine: Blake and Blaine's relationship is complicated due to how he is mostly busy to know that his step son is a spy like he was when he and Clover were young and how Blake doesn't see him often because his step-father is on business trips. When Blaine and Clover head to Europe they do talk on the phone and are civil with each other. Clover is often frustrated with her husband when she tries to tell him his step-son is a spy but something comes up and Blaine doesn't hear his wife. Tad: Is a great father for his three boys, he has a good relationship with Blake and his other two sons. Him and the kids’s mother, Clover, Sam and Alex are on good terms. Marc: Sam’s & Tad’s son & Dean's step-son and Blake's half brother, Marc is the voice of reason out of the three boys and Marc gives Blake idea's on how to negotiate if the perp. Marc has a good relationship with his father, Tad. But he’s more close with Sam & Dean. Marc wants to be a scientist or a space engineer. Tony: Alex's & Tad’s son, Marc’s Half Brother and Blake’s Half Brother. His relationship with his dad is good, hangs out with his mom occasionally. Marc and Blake get annoyed at how sometimes Tony comes up with reckless hairbraind schemes, but he is a great friend / half-brother regardless. He is the comic relief and can be very wise. He’s great at soccer ⚽️ and wants to try out for the Major Soccer League someday. Randy: Mandy's son and is a thousand times worse than his own mother. He often spits on Blake's dream of becoming a chef and brags about wanting to become part of the surpreme court since he gets better grades in school unlike his mother in her youth. |
2024.06.09 21:17 Sable__ [Exchange] Plants/nature themed envelope [US to US]
Would anyone be interested in a 2 oz envelope of plants/nature themed washi samples, small sticker flakes, large washi stickers, memos, and other ephemera? I have a lot of duplicates so these have been sitting around for a while, and I've love to send them to someone that will actually use them.
I'd like to exchange for 2 oz of similar items — washi tape/stickers, sticker flakes, memos, sticker sheets are okay too! But please no vinyls since I don't use those. They don't have to be plant themed, I love kawaii/cutesy and pastel themed things too :)
Please leave a comment if you're interested in exchanging and I'll reach out!
submitted by Sable__ to RandomActsofHappyMail [link] [comments]
I'd like to exchange for 2 oz of similar items — washi tape/stickers, sticker flakes, memos, sticker sheets are okay too! But please no vinyls since I don't use those. They don't have to be plant themed, I love kawaii/cutesy and pastel themed things too :)
Please leave a comment if you're interested in exchanging and I'll reach out!
2024.06.09 19:51 Either_Order2332 Writers, don't settle for people like this. You can do better.
 | submitted by Either_Order2332 to Upwork [link] [comments] |
2024.06.09 19:37 Blit2kri3g Page break alignment changes when moving sheets from one work book to other
I am trying to copy a Sheet from one workbook to another.
In page break view in the source workbook the page alignment and page breaks are fine. As soon as I copy/Move the whole sheet from source workbook to the destination workbook, the page alignment changes (usually 1 or 2 lines). I don't want to force page break as that would affect the scale of page and output will not be uniform. https://imgur.com/a/frWi6GM
I have checked everything I can think off which might affect this.
In Source workbook it displays as 7.14 (55 Pixels)
Where as in destination workbook it shows as 6.25 (55 pixels) https://imgur.com/a/BjPYIsp
For those who might suggest why not just copy the whole workbook file, The file is just sample with the problem alone isolated. In my normal work flow, the source file comes from colleagues which could be 100 pages or more, and I have to copy sheets from source file into destination file which usually has 20-30 other sheets and Power queries / Pivot tables and do further analysis. I have removed all those here.
submitted by Blit2kri3g to excel [link] [comments]
In page break view in the source workbook the page alignment and page breaks are fine. As soon as I copy/Move the whole sheet from source workbook to the destination workbook, the page alignment changes (usually 1 or 2 lines). I don't want to force page break as that would affect the scale of page and output will not be uniform. https://imgur.com/a/frWi6GM
I have checked everything I can think off which might affect this.
- Printer settings in both files are same
- Page margins are same.
- Excel theme is also same
In Source workbook it displays as 7.14 (55 Pixels)
Where as in destination workbook it shows as 6.25 (55 pixels) https://imgur.com/a/BjPYIsp
For those who might suggest why not just copy the whole workbook file, The file is just sample with the problem alone isolated. In my normal work flow, the source file comes from colleagues which could be 100 pages or more, and I have to copy sheets from source file into destination file which usually has 20-30 other sheets and Power queries / Pivot tables and do further analysis. I have removed all those here.
2024.06.09 18:01 starviolet225 My mom has nothing to say about me for the parent brag sheet
My high school has a parent/guardian fill out a brag sheet and then that goes to the counselors to write juniors their rec letters. I was so hurt and disappointed to find out my mom literally has nothing to say and just told me to answer the questions myself. There’s also a student brag sheet I need to fill out so it’s not like I can put the same exact stuff too, they specifically want a parent/guardian perspective. I’m FGLI from an Asian immigrant family, and even though it’s tough communicating sometimes, I really thought my mom would pull through for me with observations across my ENTIRE LIFE, but no, after she says some generic traits like leadership that she wants me to put down because, in her words, “colleges like that,” I tried to ask for more details and examples and all she has to say is “that’s it.” Basically nothing. Even when I try to get her to answer the questions about what about me makes her proud and any outstanding personality traits/abilities, she just says I’m not special at all. It makes me sad and mad and I hate this whole thing. I know that I’m a pretty outstanding student, and it’s not like I’m lacking in stuff to write about it, but the fact that she isn’t even going to try and help me while still wanting me to get into some Ivy for prestige makes me beyond frustrated and upset. She said, “Your older brother wrote it himself. You’re going to write it yourself. When your little brother applies to college, he’ll write it for himself too.” I CAN’T STAND THIS. I’m going to see if my dad and older brother have anything more to contribute, but I just hate everything right now.
submitted by starviolet225 to ApplyingToCollege [link] [comments]
2024.06.09 17:56 auguryart What should I do?
Something's gotta give
I'm DONE with retail. I hate this job. I hate having a boss. I hate the constant gossipy shit talk. I need to get heading in some sort of direction instead of the stagnant life I have but I have a few circumstances that are making it difficult.
I have two kids that I homeschool and no family or friends who will provide childcare. I'm not putting them in daycare for a lot of reasons. So obviously that limits a lot.
I only graduated high school - no further schooling.
I've only done a few jobs, one was phone captioning, the rest all retail or driving/delivery.
There's a few things I have going for me though - I have zero criminal record. All my tattoos are easily coverable My hair is a natural color I don't smoke I can pass a drug test I'm smart, just not on paper. I didn't go to college because life got in the way but I'm smart. I hate to say it because it feels like bragging or being arrogant but I've had multiple people refer to me as the smartest person they know; often during a discussion about how I've failed to make anything of it. Lots of "you had so much potential." Former gifted kids know what I mean.
I'm at the point now where I realize to have any sort of job that fits my lifestyle (work from home, remote, setting my own schedule, etc) I'm probably going to need to go to college. I know there's some classes to take that are essentially a prerequisite for anything I might end up doing and that I can do those while figuring out where I want to go with it but I really would like to have some ideas to kick around before I spend thousands of dollars that I don't have.
My ideal job is a creative field but those don't pay so idk. Things like anthropology and psychology interest me. Wouldn't want to be a counselor or anything of that nature though. I'm big into things like history and folklore as well. I feel at home in museums. I have a large imagination if you can't tell by the unicorn of a job I'm seeking. I like to write and do a little fiction writing.
I've heard people talk about freelance writing but every job I've looked into requires a sample, and if I've never had a job doing that then I'm not sure where I would get a sample? Like do you just write something and put it there?
Anyways sorry this is long and I'm on mobile so the formatting is probably trash.
TL;DR introverted creative person with limited ability to leave the home seeks suggestions for a career that would fit. Also open to career aptitude tests that are free and don't need an email to take.
submitted by auguryart to careerguidance [link] [comments]
I'm DONE with retail. I hate this job. I hate having a boss. I hate the constant gossipy shit talk. I need to get heading in some sort of direction instead of the stagnant life I have but I have a few circumstances that are making it difficult.
I have two kids that I homeschool and no family or friends who will provide childcare. I'm not putting them in daycare for a lot of reasons. So obviously that limits a lot.
I only graduated high school - no further schooling.
I've only done a few jobs, one was phone captioning, the rest all retail or driving/delivery.
There's a few things I have going for me though - I have zero criminal record. All my tattoos are easily coverable My hair is a natural color I don't smoke I can pass a drug test I'm smart, just not on paper. I didn't go to college because life got in the way but I'm smart. I hate to say it because it feels like bragging or being arrogant but I've had multiple people refer to me as the smartest person they know; often during a discussion about how I've failed to make anything of it. Lots of "you had so much potential." Former gifted kids know what I mean.
I'm at the point now where I realize to have any sort of job that fits my lifestyle (work from home, remote, setting my own schedule, etc) I'm probably going to need to go to college. I know there's some classes to take that are essentially a prerequisite for anything I might end up doing and that I can do those while figuring out where I want to go with it but I really would like to have some ideas to kick around before I spend thousands of dollars that I don't have.
My ideal job is a creative field but those don't pay so idk. Things like anthropology and psychology interest me. Wouldn't want to be a counselor or anything of that nature though. I'm big into things like history and folklore as well. I feel at home in museums. I have a large imagination if you can't tell by the unicorn of a job I'm seeking. I like to write and do a little fiction writing.
I've heard people talk about freelance writing but every job I've looked into requires a sample, and if I've never had a job doing that then I'm not sure where I would get a sample? Like do you just write something and put it there?
Anyways sorry this is long and I'm on mobile so the formatting is probably trash.
TL;DR introverted creative person with limited ability to leave the home seeks suggestions for a career that would fit. Also open to career aptitude tests that are free and don't need an email to take.
2024.06.09 17:18 igodutchoven 💄💄💄[SELL - US ONLY] LUXURY SALE!!! CHANEL, TOM FORD, VALENTINO, PMG, DIOR & many more! 💄💄💄
Hi all! Welcome to my sale!
Selling lots of Luxury Items! 💄
PLEASE READ
Selling within the US. Items will be sanitized before shipping. Items come from a smoke-free, fully vaccinated, and boosted COVID-free home. PayPal G&S Only, I’ll cover fees. Please verify your address on PayPal. Pricing depends on the package's weight and size (i.e., how big an envelope or box is being used). Everything will be wrapped very securely. Items labeled SOLD have been sold.
Anything struck out is either sold or removed from the sale. Please comment before sending a DM, this is so I can use timestamps. Please don’t ghost me! Please let me know if you’re no longer interested. Holds are good for 2 hours before I move on to NIL unless otherwise stated. I will send it out by the next available business day (except holidays/Sundays) and will send the tracking number. I will use USPS and shipping starts at $5. $15 minimum. All items are either Brand New In Box (BNIB), Brand New (BN), or gently used (less than 25% usage), or usage shown.
Bundles are welcome/encouraged! I'll consider reasonable offers. Apologies for any formatting issues!
HAPPY SHOPPING!
PALETTES
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
LUNAR BEAUTYLIFE'S A DRAG$25.00SWATCHED
LIME CRIMEVENUS XS - FROSTED$10.00SWATCHED LIME CRIMEVENUS XL$20.00BN
LIME CRIMEWET CHERRY$10.00SWATCHED
HINDASHMONOCHROMANCE$55.00LIGHT USAGE SOLD!
HINDASHBEAUTOPSY$55.00LIGHT USAGE . SOLD!
MORPHE18A BLUE YA AWAY$12.00SWATCHED FEW SHADES
MACBOTANIC PANIC$30.00LIGHT USAGE
CHANELLES BEIGES - LIGHT$45.00USAGE SHOWN
CHANELLES 4 OMBRES - 364 - CANDEUR ET SEDUCTION$40.00LIGHT USAGE
CHANELLES 4 OMBRES - 228 - TISEE CAMBON$25.00MISSING SHADE - OTHERWISE LIGHT USAGE
DOMINIQUE COSMETICSCELESTIAL THUNDER$10.00LIGHT USAGE
MAKEUP BY MARIOGLAM QUAD - PARTY GLAM$15.00SWATCHED
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - COQUETTE (AKA SOUS LA SABLE)$45.00SWATCHED
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - SUPER NOUVEAU$45.00SWATCHED
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - HONEYMOON$45.00LIGHT USAGE
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - DAYDREAM$35.00USAGE SHOWN
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - ELECTRIC CHERRY$50.00USAGE SHOWN
PAT MCGRATH LABSMOTHERSHIP IX - HUETOPIAN DREAM$80.00LIGHT USAGE
PAT MCGRATH LABSPMB X BRIDGERTON.- BELLE OF THE BALL$45.00LIGHT USAGE
PAT MCGRATH LABSMOTHERSHIP VI - MIDNIGHT SUN$75.00LIGHT USAGE
PAT MCGRATH LABSVOYEURISTIC VIXEN QUAD$40.00SWATCHED
COLOUPOP x HAUNTED MANSIONMADAME LEOTA GLITTER GLOW IN THE DARK GEL$5.00SWATCHED
COLOUPOP x HAUNTED MANSIONHAUNTED MANSION PALETTE$30.00SWATCHED; DISCONTINUED
COLOURPOPSUPER SHOCK SHADOW - DECK$5.00LIGHT USAGE
COLOURPOPSUPER SHOCK SHADOW - COCONUT$5.00SWATCHED
NATASHA DENONAMINI RETRO$15.00LIGHT USAGE
ABH X NORVIANMINI PRO PIGMENT PALETTE, VOL. 3$15.00LIGHT USAGE
FUNKO POP X DISNEY VILLAINSEVIL QUEEN $10.00USAGE SHOWN
TOO FACEDITALIAN SPRITZ$40.00BNIB SOLD!
SYDNEY GRACESG X TEMPTALIA - RADIANT REFLECTION - DARK$30.00BNIB
MELTMUERTE$35.00LIGHT USAGE
KEVYN AUCOINJEWEL POP FACE PALETTE$20.00USAGE SHOWN
ODEN'S EYESAGA OF FREJA - CHAPTER 2: CAT WITH THE GOLDEN CARRIAGE$20.00LIGHT USAGE
GIVENCHYLE 9 GIVENCHY. 9.02$40.00USAGE SHOWN
GLAMLITEMIKAYLA$20.00SWATCHED
CHARLOTTE TILBURYPILLOW TALK DREAMS QUAD$40.00BNIB
CHARLOTTE TILBURYTHE GLAMOUR MUSE$25.00USAGE SHOWN
COMPLEXION
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
VALENTINOGO CLUTCH 00 UNIVERSAL BRONZER$50.00USAGE SHOWN
VALENTINOV-LIGHTER - AMBRA$30.00USED ABOUT 50%
VALENTINOV-LIGHTER - ROSA$35.0080% LEFT
HOURGLASSVANISH BLUSH STICK - SACRED$20.00LIGHT USAGE
HOURGLASSVANISH HIGHLIGHT STICK - FLASH$20.00LIGHT USAGE
SAIE BEAUTYDEW BLUSH - DREAMY$20.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
CHANTECAILLECHEEK GELEE - LIVELY$40.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
ONE/SIZECHEEK CLAPPER - PHAT ASS$20.00USAGE SHOWN
MACSKINFINISH SUNSTRUCK MATTE BRONZER - LIGHT ROSY$20.00SWATCHED
NUDESTIXNUDIES MATTER - BLUSH - SALTY SIREN$15.00LIGHT USAGE
NUDESTIXNUDIES - BRONZER - BONDI BAE$15.00LIGHT USAGE
DIORFOREVER COUTURE LUMINIZER - 03 - PEARLESCENT$40.00SWATCHED
FENTYMATCH STIX - LINEN$25.00BNIB FENTYMATCH STIX - LINEN$25.00BNIB
OGEEHYDRAGANICS - SCULPTED FACE STICK - CITRINE$30.00BNIB
PAT MCGRATH LABSSKIN FETISH SUBLIME BLURRING UNDER EYE POWDER - LIGHT$15.00BRAND NEW (NO BOX)
CHANELJOUES CONTRASTE - 80 JERSEY$25.00USAGE SHOWN
DANESSA MYRICKSBLURRING BALM BLUSH - BELLINI$15.00LIGHT USAGE SOLD!
RMS BEAUTYReDEMENSION HYDRA POWDER BLUSH - SANGRIA$20.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
GUCCI BEAUTE BLUSH DE BEAUTE - BRIGHT CORAL - 04$30.00USAGE SHOWN
GUERLAINTERRACOTTA THE HEALTHY GLOW POWDER - 01 LIGHT WARM$40.00LIGHT USAGE
POWDERS & PRIMERS & SETTING SPRAY
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
MAKE UP FOR EVERULTRA HD SETTING POWDER - 1.0 VANILLA$25.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
JANE IREDALESMOOTH AFFAIR - ILLUMINATING GLOW PRIMER$20.00BNIB
SAIE BEAUTYAIRSET RADIANT LOOSE SETTING POWDER - TRANSLUCENT$20.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
CHANTECAILLEHD PERFECTING LOOSE POWDER - CANDLELIGHT$40.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
CIATE LONDONEVERYDAY VACAY COCONUT SETTING POWDER$15.00BNIB
MILK MAKEUPHYDRO GRIP SETTING SPRAY $15.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
FOUNDATIONS
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
ABHLUMINOUS FOUNDATION - 250C$15.00BNIB
LAURA MERCIERFLAWLESS FUSION ULTRA LONGWEAR FOUNDATION - 2C1 - ECRU$12.00BNIB
TOO FACED PEACH PERFECT - SNOW$15.00BNIB - DISCONTINUED
TOO FACEDBORN THIS WAY MULTI-USE COMPLEXION POWDER - ALMOND$15.00BNIB - DISCONTINUED
SEPHORAPERFECTION MIST AIRBRUSH FOUNDATION - LIGHT$12.00BNIB
SEPHORAPERFECTION MIST AIRBRUSH FOUNDATION - LIGHT$12.00BNIB
EYE PRODUCTS
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
ABHDIP BROW - TAUPE$10.00BNIB
ABHBROW POWDER DUO - TAUPE$5.00USAGE SHOWN
GRANDE COSMETICSGRANDEDRAMA MASCARA$10.00BNIB
ABH LASH BRAG$15.00BNIB WANDER BEAUTYMILE HIGH CLUB MASCARA$10.00BNIB
LAURA MERCIERCAVIAR VOLUME MASCARA$10.00BNIB
SURRATT BEAUTYREVELEE MASCARA$20.00BNIB
LIP PRODUCTS
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
BLOOMEFFECTSTULIP TINT$15.00BNIB
MELT COSMETICSULTRA MATTE LIPSTICK - LAST KISS$7.00BNIB
MILANIICONIC MATTE - 68$5.00SWATCHED
URBAN DECAYCOMFORT MATTE - PERVERSION$7.00LIGHT USAGE SOLD!
LANCOMEL'ABSOLU NU - 148 CORAL RIBBON$10.00LIGHT USAGE
MACRETRO MATTE LIQUID LIPCOLOUR - LADY BE GOOD$10.00SWATCHED
RARE BEAUTYMATTE LIPSTICK - BOLD$15.00BNIB
HUDA BEAUTYLIPBLUSH - ROSY KISS$15.00BNIB
MACMATTE LIPSTICK - 612 RUSSIAN RED$10.00LIGHT USAGE
WAYNE GOSSTHE LUXURY LIPSTICK - AMARYLLIS$10.00SWATCHED
ARMANI BEAUTYROUGE D'ARMANI - 201 NIGHTBERRY$15.00USAGE SHOWN
ARMANI BEAUTYROUGE D'ARMANI - 102 ANDROGINO$15.00USAGE SHOWN
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP POWER - 202 GRAZIA$15.00USAGE SHOWN
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP POWER - 104 SELFLESS$15.00USAGE SHOWN SOLD!
SEPHORA #LIPSTORIES - GEMINI$7.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
VALENTINOSAMPLE SIZE - 213R $5.00BRAND NEW
VALENTINOSAMPLE SIZE - 22A$5.00BRAND NEW
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP MAESTR0 - 300$7.00SWATCHED
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP MAESTRO - 519$7.00SWATCHED
MARC JACOBSENAMORED LIP GLOSS - FRENCH TICKLER$5.00SWATCHED - SOLD!
LUNE + ASTERVITAMIN C+E LIP GLOSS - OPTIMIST$7.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX
FENTY GLOSS BOMB - DIAMOND MILK$10.00SWATCHED SOLD!
TOO FACEDHIGH SHINE LIP GLOSS - HIDDEN TALENTS$10.00SWATCHED
TOO FACEDHIGH SHINE LIP GLOSS - PRETTY PENNY$10.00SWATCHED
LUNE+ASTERVITAMIN C+E LIP GLOSS - ROCKSTAR$10.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX
FRAGRANCE
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
VIKTOR & ROLFBONBON$65.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX
CHARLOTTE TILBURYSCENT OF A DREAM$20.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX SOLD!
submitted by igodutchoven to makeupexchange [link] [comments]
Selling lots of Luxury Items! 💄
PLEASE READ
Selling within the US. Items will be sanitized before shipping. Items come from a smoke-free, fully vaccinated, and boosted COVID-free home. PayPal G&S Only, I’ll cover fees. Please verify your address on PayPal. Pricing depends on the package's weight and size (i.e., how big an envelope or box is being used). Everything will be wrapped very securely. Items labeled SOLD have been sold.
Anything struck out is either sold or removed from the sale. Please comment before sending a DM, this is so I can use timestamps. Please don’t ghost me! Please let me know if you’re no longer interested. Holds are good for 2 hours before I move on to NIL unless otherwise stated. I will send it out by the next available business day (except holidays/Sundays) and will send the tracking number. I will use USPS and shipping starts at $5. $15 minimum. All items are either Brand New In Box (BNIB), Brand New (BN), or gently used (less than 25% usage), or usage shown.
Bundles are welcome/encouraged! I'll consider reasonable offers. Apologies for any formatting issues!
HAPPY SHOPPING!
PALETTES
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
LUNAR BEAUTYLIFE'S A DRAG$25.00SWATCHED
LIME CRIMEVENUS XS - FROSTED$10.00SWATCHED LIME CRIMEVENUS XL$20.00BN
LIME CRIMEWET CHERRY$10.00SWATCHED
MORPHE18A BLUE YA AWAY$12.00SWATCHED FEW SHADES
MACBOTANIC PANIC$30.00LIGHT USAGE
CHANELLES BEIGES - LIGHT$45.00USAGE SHOWN
CHANELLES 4 OMBRES - 364 - CANDEUR ET SEDUCTION$40.00LIGHT USAGE
CHANELLES 4 OMBRES - 228 - TISEE CAMBON$25.00MISSING SHADE - OTHERWISE LIGHT USAGE
DOMINIQUE COSMETICSCELESTIAL THUNDER$10.00LIGHT USAGE
MAKEUP BY MARIOGLAM QUAD - PARTY GLAM$15.00SWATCHED
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - COQUETTE (AKA SOUS LA SABLE)$45.00SWATCHED
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - SUPER NOUVEAU$45.00SWATCHED
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - HONEYMOON$45.00LIGHT USAGE
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - DAYDREAM$35.00USAGE SHOWN
TOM FORDEYE COLOR QUAD - ELECTRIC CHERRY$50.00USAGE SHOWN
PAT MCGRATH LABSMOTHERSHIP IX - HUETOPIAN DREAM$80.00LIGHT USAGE
PAT MCGRATH LABSPMB X BRIDGERTON.- BELLE OF THE BALL$45.00LIGHT USAGE
PAT MCGRATH LABSMOTHERSHIP VI - MIDNIGHT SUN$75.00LIGHT USAGE
PAT MCGRATH LABSVOYEURISTIC VIXEN QUAD$40.00SWATCHED
COLOUPOP x HAUNTED MANSIONMADAME LEOTA GLITTER GLOW IN THE DARK GEL$5.00SWATCHED
COLOUPOP x HAUNTED MANSIONHAUNTED MANSION PALETTE$30.00SWATCHED; DISCONTINUED
COLOURPOPSUPER SHOCK SHADOW - DECK$5.00LIGHT USAGE
COLOURPOPSUPER SHOCK SHADOW - COCONUT$5.00SWATCHED
NATASHA DENONAMINI RETRO$15.00LIGHT USAGE
ABH X NORVIANMINI PRO PIGMENT PALETTE, VOL. 3$15.00LIGHT USAGE
FUNKO POP X DISNEY VILLAINSEVIL QUEEN $10.00USAGE SHOWN
TOO FACEDITALIAN SPRITZ$40.00BNIB SOLD!
SYDNEY GRACESG X TEMPTALIA - RADIANT REFLECTION - DARK$30.00BNIB
MELTMUERTE$35.00LIGHT USAGE
KEVYN AUCOINJEWEL POP FACE PALETTE$20.00USAGE SHOWN
ODEN'S EYESAGA OF FREJA - CHAPTER 2: CAT WITH THE GOLDEN CARRIAGE$20.00LIGHT USAGE
GIVENCHYLE 9 GIVENCHY. 9.02$40.00USAGE SHOWN
GLAMLITEMIKAYLA$20.00SWATCHED
CHARLOTTE TILBURYPILLOW TALK DREAMS QUAD$40.00BNIB
CHARLOTTE TILBURYTHE GLAMOUR MUSE$25.00USAGE SHOWN
COMPLEXION
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
VALENTINOGO CLUTCH 00 UNIVERSAL BRONZER$50.00USAGE SHOWN
VALENTINOV-LIGHTER - AMBRA$30.00USED ABOUT 50%
VALENTINOV-LIGHTER - ROSA$35.0080% LEFT
HOURGLASSVANISH BLUSH STICK - SACRED$20.00LIGHT USAGE
HOURGLASSVANISH HIGHLIGHT STICK - FLASH$20.00LIGHT USAGE
SAIE BEAUTYDEW BLUSH - DREAMY$20.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
CHANTECAILLECHEEK GELEE - LIVELY$40.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
ONE/SIZECHEEK CLAPPER - PHAT ASS$20.00USAGE SHOWN
MACSKINFINISH SUNSTRUCK MATTE BRONZER - LIGHT ROSY$20.00SWATCHED
NUDESTIXNUDIES MATTER - BLUSH - SALTY SIREN$15.00LIGHT USAGE
NUDESTIXNUDIES - BRONZER - BONDI BAE$15.00LIGHT USAGE
DIORFOREVER COUTURE LUMINIZER - 03 - PEARLESCENT$40.00SWATCHED
FENTYMATCH STIX - LINEN$25.00BNIB FENTYMATCH STIX - LINEN$25.00BNIB
OGEEHYDRAGANICS - SCULPTED FACE STICK - CITRINE$30.00BNIB
PAT MCGRATH LABSSKIN FETISH SUBLIME BLURRING UNDER EYE POWDER - LIGHT$15.00BRAND NEW (NO BOX)
CHANELJOUES CONTRASTE - 80 JERSEY$25.00USAGE SHOWN
DANESSA MYRICKSBLURRING BALM BLUSH - BELLINI$15.00LIGHT USAGE SOLD!
RMS BEAUTYReDEMENSION HYDRA POWDER BLUSH - SANGRIA$20.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
GUCCI BEAUTE BLUSH DE BEAUTE - BRIGHT CORAL - 04$30.00USAGE SHOWN
GUERLAINTERRACOTTA THE HEALTHY GLOW POWDER - 01 LIGHT WARM$40.00LIGHT USAGE
POWDERS & PRIMERS & SETTING SPRAY
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
MAKE UP FOR EVERULTRA HD SETTING POWDER - 1.0 VANILLA$25.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
JANE IREDALESMOOTH AFFAIR - ILLUMINATING GLOW PRIMER$20.00BNIB
SAIE BEAUTYAIRSET RADIANT LOOSE SETTING POWDER - TRANSLUCENT$20.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
CHANTECAILLEHD PERFECTING LOOSE POWDER - CANDLELIGHT$40.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
CIATE LONDONEVERYDAY VACAY COCONUT SETTING POWDER$15.00BNIB
MILK MAKEUPHYDRO GRIP SETTING SPRAY $15.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
FOUNDATIONS
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
ABHLUMINOUS FOUNDATION - 250C$15.00BNIB
LAURA MERCIERFLAWLESS FUSION ULTRA LONGWEAR FOUNDATION - 2C1 - ECRU$12.00BNIB
TOO FACED PEACH PERFECT - SNOW$15.00BNIB - DISCONTINUED
TOO FACEDBORN THIS WAY MULTI-USE COMPLEXION POWDER - ALMOND$15.00BNIB - DISCONTINUED
SEPHORAPERFECTION MIST AIRBRUSH FOUNDATION - LIGHT$12.00BNIB
SEPHORAPERFECTION MIST AIRBRUSH FOUNDATION - LIGHT$12.00BNIB
EYE PRODUCTS
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
ABHDIP BROW - TAUPE$10.00BNIB
ABHBROW POWDER DUO - TAUPE$5.00USAGE SHOWN
GRANDE COSMETICSGRANDEDRAMA MASCARA$10.00BNIB
ABH LASH BRAG$15.00BNIB WANDER BEAUTYMILE HIGH CLUB MASCARA$10.00BNIB
LAURA MERCIERCAVIAR VOLUME MASCARA$10.00BNIB
SURRATT BEAUTYREVELEE MASCARA$20.00BNIB
LIP PRODUCTS
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
BLOOMEFFECTSTULIP TINT$15.00BNIB
MELT COSMETICSULTRA MATTE LIPSTICK - LAST KISS$7.00BNIB
MILANIICONIC MATTE - 68$5.00SWATCHED
URBAN DECAYCOMFORT MATTE - PERVERSION$7.00LIGHT USAGE SOLD!
LANCOMEL'ABSOLU NU - 148 CORAL RIBBON$10.00LIGHT USAGE
MACRETRO MATTE LIQUID LIPCOLOUR - LADY BE GOOD$10.00SWATCHED
RARE BEAUTYMATTE LIPSTICK - BOLD$15.00BNIB
HUDA BEAUTYLIPBLUSH - ROSY KISS$15.00BNIB
MACMATTE LIPSTICK - 612 RUSSIAN RED$10.00LIGHT USAGE
WAYNE GOSSTHE LUXURY LIPSTICK - AMARYLLIS$10.00SWATCHED
ARMANI BEAUTYROUGE D'ARMANI - 201 NIGHTBERRY$15.00USAGE SHOWN
ARMANI BEAUTYROUGE D'ARMANI - 102 ANDROGINO$15.00USAGE SHOWN
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP POWER - 202 GRAZIA$15.00USAGE SHOWN
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP POWER - 104 SELFLESS$15.00USAGE SHOWN SOLD!
SEPHORA #LIPSTORIES - GEMINI$7.00VERY LIGHT USAGE
VALENTINOSAMPLE SIZE - 213R $5.00BRAND NEW
VALENTINOSAMPLE SIZE - 22A$5.00BRAND NEW
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP MAESTR0 - 300$7.00SWATCHED
ARMANI BEAUTYLIP MAESTRO - 519$7.00SWATCHED
MARC JACOBSENAMORED LIP GLOSS - FRENCH TICKLER$5.00SWATCHED - SOLD!
LUNE + ASTERVITAMIN C+E LIP GLOSS - OPTIMIST$7.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX
FENTY GLOSS BOMB - DIAMOND MILK$10.00SWATCHED SOLD!
TOO FACEDHIGH SHINE LIP GLOSS - HIDDEN TALENTS$10.00SWATCHED
TOO FACEDHIGH SHINE LIP GLOSS - PRETTY PENNY$10.00SWATCHED
LUNE+ASTERVITAMIN C+E LIP GLOSS - ROCKSTAR$10.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX
FRAGRANCE
BRANDPRODUCTSALE PRICECONDITION
VIKTOR & ROLFBONBON$65.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX
CHARLOTTE TILBURYSCENT OF A DREAM$20.00BRAND NEW - NO BOX SOLD!
2024.06.09 17:15 CardiologistNo8333 What have you had stolen from your rental?
What different things have guests stolen from your Airbnb? I’ll go first:
Probably half a box full of dryer sheets (I had just opened a new large bulk size box and when I returned about half of them were gone- very weird)
A brand new room spray from Pier 1
I leave a basket of sample size toiletries guests can take as needed (probably $60 worth)- it has been cleaned out by 2 or 3 different guests
A full size Rodan and fields face wash- brand new
A full size origins face wash
A bottle of perfume I left on the bathroom shelf as decoration (I received it as a gift and didn’t actually like it so I left it for guests- it was $70 but I don’t really care that someone stole it). I get quite a few bath and body products as gifts and I can’t use all of them so I just leave them at my Airbnb for my guests.
2-3 different books on the bookshelves (I try to leave books I’ve already read and don’t really care if someone takes them)
My cute measuring spoons (I’m still pissed about this to be honest)
A wine opener and possibly some other utensils as well
Edit: Towels, sheets and dishes (glasses, etc) are just a cost of doing business and I expect them to get stained/ damaged/ broken occasionally. I don’t consider it theft and I never mention it to a guest if it’s missing. I just keep extras on hand and replace them as needed.
I’ve had many glasses disappear and just assumed they broke and the guest tossed them in the trash. Same with sheets and towels- I assume they got stained and the guest just tossed them which is what I would have done myself doing turnover anyways.
submitted by CardiologistNo8333 to airbnb_hosts [link] [comments]
Probably half a box full of dryer sheets (I had just opened a new large bulk size box and when I returned about half of them were gone- very weird)
A brand new room spray from Pier 1
I leave a basket of sample size toiletries guests can take as needed (probably $60 worth)- it has been cleaned out by 2 or 3 different guests
A full size Rodan and fields face wash- brand new
A full size origins face wash
A bottle of perfume I left on the bathroom shelf as decoration (I received it as a gift and didn’t actually like it so I left it for guests- it was $70 but I don’t really care that someone stole it). I get quite a few bath and body products as gifts and I can’t use all of them so I just leave them at my Airbnb for my guests.
2-3 different books on the bookshelves (I try to leave books I’ve already read and don’t really care if someone takes them)
My cute measuring spoons (I’m still pissed about this to be honest)
A wine opener and possibly some other utensils as well
Edit: Towels, sheets and dishes (glasses, etc) are just a cost of doing business and I expect them to get stained/ damaged/ broken occasionally. I don’t consider it theft and I never mention it to a guest if it’s missing. I just keep extras on hand and replace them as needed.
I’ve had many glasses disappear and just assumed they broke and the guest tossed them in the trash. Same with sheets and towels- I assume they got stained and the guest just tossed them which is what I would have done myself doing turnover anyways.
2024.06.09 15:51 Routine_Persimmon69 First post, and if you read it, or even skim through, you are amazing.
(I’m not editing otherwise I’ll just never end up posting this…so, it’s long and jumbled)
I’m sorry. Another one of these posts. My first time posting though. Going to talk to my psychiatrist at my Wednesday appointment and bring up about possibly having adhd. Please give me advice. One thing I’ll say though is I’ve been dealing with these things forever, so it’s hard for me sometimes to think of examples or comprehend the big pig of these questions like “How often do you have trouble listening to someone, even when they are speaking directly to you — like your mind is somewhere else?” So then, I have to really think about my day to day life. So, here’s just some things about me that drive me crazy, make me cry, and have SOMEWHAT accepted. I’m 37 now. Of course, I lose things, a lot. Just a recent thought is I lost my phone like 7 times in 4 hours. The other night I was looking at a recipe going to make something, and I can’t stand (which I assume, most don’t) but reading all the story about the receipe so I’m scrolling up and down and up and down because I apparently can’t just slow down, and go through it from the top down and find it. Ah, yes found it. I think I’ll call my grandma because it’s hot in my house our air isn’t working, I’m going to see if it’s hot in her house, because hers isn’t working. “Okay where’s my phone” leave the counter go look a minute and realized I was just looking at it, to find a recipe. Oooook, so this is just how things are all the time, so there’s just a small thing.
As exampled above, I always have things going through my head, and not that I dont realize it, but sometimes I’m so accustomed to it, I don’t think about it because I just always feel like everything is moving fast in my head and around me….when we could simply be sitting at a restaurant outside. The wind is blowing getting hair in my face….my kids are running around the table…I’m participating in a game of charades with them (always feel we’re that weird family out to eat…there’s me, husband (with adhd, doesn’t treat it..)10 year old, 8 year old, 5 year old. Thinking about needing to get home, because I need to get everyone to brush their teeth, get pajamas on, get to bed…like it’s a race because, I don’t know why because it’s Saturday….we get home, now I’m over stimulated, and have been….now I’m rushing around to help them…and I just need to get out of the room/house to be alone for a little bit because there’s too much going on. And the thing is…10 year old is on the couch…and the other 2 might just be sitting on their tablets…and no one is really doing anything. This again is a small example, of my day to day. Why we go out to eat when we have all the kids I don’t know. In many cases I can feel like I’m in my own world with a bunch of noise happening in my head…and my son is doing absolutely nothing I would probably say is that loud//“annoying”….but this is just how I feel. There’s sounds of a festival going on at my work…when it’s quiet. Sometimes not a festival, may sometimes just be a conversation with myself. Which, sometimes, now and again, comes out of my mouth. And one of my co workers will walk by and I just say I’m just having a conversation with myself pay no mind.
So going off of that, now if I get over stimulated and don’t take a break…because I can feel the irritation building up….i can just scream, like I’m over this right now, I have GOT to leave this situation…. Which could frankly be at work, I feel too much is going on…sitting at my desk. At my desk I am switching position how I sit I don’t know how many times, sitting on my legs…all the way forward…all the way back, legs crossed…oookay let’s switch. I doodle on my paperwork…I work as customer service, I feel because I’ve done customer service so long, I do pretty well paying attention to the customer….but at my current job it’s become challenging. I worked from home before…so I could do other things like…make a list of all the things I need to do, that I won’t that day…week…whatever. I could be “productive” I’ll call it. Here, I have other people taking calls which I can hear them, people walking by, this fan blowing about 10 ft in front of me….the lady behind me putting her cell phone down on her desk…and I have got to go to the bathroom because I’m about to pee my pants because I’ve waited too long.
Okay. Moving on. I put things off, pretty bad. It could be a text back to my dad just asking if want to do lunch next Saturday. I feel like I can’t respond, though, I am just reading it…and then I just think I have to remember to respond, go about my life and remember that I haven’t texted him back…which maybe 4 days have gone by at this time….because I feel like I just can’t so I will put a reminder that I need to text him back. I need to make a dentist appt I need to pay for my girls summer camp I need to do the laundry otherwise my kids will have no clean clothes to wear I need to blah blah blah…because I just can’t do it right now, though, I feel a “normal” person would go, why wouldn’t you just do it right then because you have time. My answer is I don’t know, I just can’t. Again, just a sample.
Spend too much money because at that moment I know this will help me feel better, if someone is reading something out of a book, but I have what they’re reading in front of me…I’ll listen to what they’re saying but then read the sheet probably in about 5 seconds. Okay fine. Okay now, what is this about? Let me re-read.
A planner for budgeting, I do get the bills paid on time, though lately again since I’ve been at this job, it’s gotten my challenging because I can’t just do whatever I want at my desk while working….but once bills are paid, we know what we have left….but…let’s spend 100 dollars on dinner…oh and I still need to get groceries…..so hopefully I get to that before there’s no coffee in the morning. OPE, no coffee this morning…I’ll just drive to the gas station, get some come back home. GET COFFEE, text husband, put reminder. It’s 9pm, walked by the empty k cup holder who knows how many times by now, “did you get coffee”.
I can blow up at small things then feel horrible. I have no friends, when I talk to people I talk too much, too fast…so a lot of times I just won’t say much, oh! But then you say a topic I l am excited about! Flood gates open and I have to bite my tongue not to jump in…and then I’m focusing on that and half listening to what you’re saying…at this point I’ve thought about it and decide I better just say a sentence response or “exactly”…or just word flood.
And all of this posts, this is how I talk, and what I hear in my mind….along with who knows what else.
It’s too much, day to day. It’s gotten really bad lately and I think it’s because my only friend died…and I absolutely hate my job, I have to even drive 40 minutes too, generally almost late every day…been there over a year. Late most of the time to places…unless I’m way too early, because I’m afraid I’ll miss an appt so I can’t do anything that day. I’ve also felt more depressed lately, feeling like a failure, feeling like there’s something wrong with me, I’m weird I think I am ugly . Sometimes I feel sad and I don’t know why…sometimes I feel anxiety and I don’t know why. And if I’m not moving a mile a minute, I’m sitting and can’t do anything, and I feel like I HAVE to go do something…now. Let’s go. Oh, let’s go spend money we don’t have.
I feel I do have depression, and I do have GAD, but I feel this is all a big cause of it, or at least a portion. I don’t think it’s all major depression disorder and gad.
Omg. If you read this you’re amazing…even if you just skipped through it. Thank you.
submitted by Routine_Persimmon69 to adhdwomen [link] [comments]
I’m sorry. Another one of these posts. My first time posting though. Going to talk to my psychiatrist at my Wednesday appointment and bring up about possibly having adhd. Please give me advice. One thing I’ll say though is I’ve been dealing with these things forever, so it’s hard for me sometimes to think of examples or comprehend the big pig of these questions like “How often do you have trouble listening to someone, even when they are speaking directly to you — like your mind is somewhere else?” So then, I have to really think about my day to day life. So, here’s just some things about me that drive me crazy, make me cry, and have SOMEWHAT accepted. I’m 37 now. Of course, I lose things, a lot. Just a recent thought is I lost my phone like 7 times in 4 hours. The other night I was looking at a recipe going to make something, and I can’t stand (which I assume, most don’t) but reading all the story about the receipe so I’m scrolling up and down and up and down because I apparently can’t just slow down, and go through it from the top down and find it. Ah, yes found it. I think I’ll call my grandma because it’s hot in my house our air isn’t working, I’m going to see if it’s hot in her house, because hers isn’t working. “Okay where’s my phone” leave the counter go look a minute and realized I was just looking at it, to find a recipe. Oooook, so this is just how things are all the time, so there’s just a small thing.
As exampled above, I always have things going through my head, and not that I dont realize it, but sometimes I’m so accustomed to it, I don’t think about it because I just always feel like everything is moving fast in my head and around me….when we could simply be sitting at a restaurant outside. The wind is blowing getting hair in my face….my kids are running around the table…I’m participating in a game of charades with them (always feel we’re that weird family out to eat…there’s me, husband (with adhd, doesn’t treat it..)10 year old, 8 year old, 5 year old. Thinking about needing to get home, because I need to get everyone to brush their teeth, get pajamas on, get to bed…like it’s a race because, I don’t know why because it’s Saturday….we get home, now I’m over stimulated, and have been….now I’m rushing around to help them…and I just need to get out of the room/house to be alone for a little bit because there’s too much going on. And the thing is…10 year old is on the couch…and the other 2 might just be sitting on their tablets…and no one is really doing anything. This again is a small example, of my day to day. Why we go out to eat when we have all the kids I don’t know. In many cases I can feel like I’m in my own world with a bunch of noise happening in my head…and my son is doing absolutely nothing I would probably say is that loud//“annoying”….but this is just how I feel. There’s sounds of a festival going on at my work…when it’s quiet. Sometimes not a festival, may sometimes just be a conversation with myself. Which, sometimes, now and again, comes out of my mouth. And one of my co workers will walk by and I just say I’m just having a conversation with myself pay no mind.
So going off of that, now if I get over stimulated and don’t take a break…because I can feel the irritation building up….i can just scream, like I’m over this right now, I have GOT to leave this situation…. Which could frankly be at work, I feel too much is going on…sitting at my desk. At my desk I am switching position how I sit I don’t know how many times, sitting on my legs…all the way forward…all the way back, legs crossed…oookay let’s switch. I doodle on my paperwork…I work as customer service, I feel because I’ve done customer service so long, I do pretty well paying attention to the customer….but at my current job it’s become challenging. I worked from home before…so I could do other things like…make a list of all the things I need to do, that I won’t that day…week…whatever. I could be “productive” I’ll call it. Here, I have other people taking calls which I can hear them, people walking by, this fan blowing about 10 ft in front of me….the lady behind me putting her cell phone down on her desk…and I have got to go to the bathroom because I’m about to pee my pants because I’ve waited too long.
Okay. Moving on. I put things off, pretty bad. It could be a text back to my dad just asking if want to do lunch next Saturday. I feel like I can’t respond, though, I am just reading it…and then I just think I have to remember to respond, go about my life and remember that I haven’t texted him back…which maybe 4 days have gone by at this time….because I feel like I just can’t so I will put a reminder that I need to text him back. I need to make a dentist appt I need to pay for my girls summer camp I need to do the laundry otherwise my kids will have no clean clothes to wear I need to blah blah blah…because I just can’t do it right now, though, I feel a “normal” person would go, why wouldn’t you just do it right then because you have time. My answer is I don’t know, I just can’t. Again, just a sample.
Spend too much money because at that moment I know this will help me feel better, if someone is reading something out of a book, but I have what they’re reading in front of me…I’ll listen to what they’re saying but then read the sheet probably in about 5 seconds. Okay fine. Okay now, what is this about? Let me re-read.
A planner for budgeting, I do get the bills paid on time, though lately again since I’ve been at this job, it’s gotten my challenging because I can’t just do whatever I want at my desk while working….but once bills are paid, we know what we have left….but…let’s spend 100 dollars on dinner…oh and I still need to get groceries…..so hopefully I get to that before there’s no coffee in the morning. OPE, no coffee this morning…I’ll just drive to the gas station, get some come back home. GET COFFEE, text husband, put reminder. It’s 9pm, walked by the empty k cup holder who knows how many times by now, “did you get coffee”.
I can blow up at small things then feel horrible. I have no friends, when I talk to people I talk too much, too fast…so a lot of times I just won’t say much, oh! But then you say a topic I l am excited about! Flood gates open and I have to bite my tongue not to jump in…and then I’m focusing on that and half listening to what you’re saying…at this point I’ve thought about it and decide I better just say a sentence response or “exactly”…or just word flood.
And all of this posts, this is how I talk, and what I hear in my mind….along with who knows what else.
It’s too much, day to day. It’s gotten really bad lately and I think it’s because my only friend died…and I absolutely hate my job, I have to even drive 40 minutes too, generally almost late every day…been there over a year. Late most of the time to places…unless I’m way too early, because I’m afraid I’ll miss an appt so I can’t do anything that day. I’ve also felt more depressed lately, feeling like a failure, feeling like there’s something wrong with me, I’m weird I think I am ugly . Sometimes I feel sad and I don’t know why…sometimes I feel anxiety and I don’t know why. And if I’m not moving a mile a minute, I’m sitting and can’t do anything, and I feel like I HAVE to go do something…now. Let’s go. Oh, let’s go spend money we don’t have.
I feel I do have depression, and I do have GAD, but I feel this is all a big cause of it, or at least a portion. I don’t think it’s all major depression disorder and gad.
Omg. If you read this you’re amazing…even if you just skipped through it. Thank you.
2024.06.09 15:01 ibid-11962 Worldbuilding and Touring [Post Murtagh Christopher Paolini Q&A Wrap Up #10]
As discussed in the first post, this is my ongoing compilation of the remaining questions Christopher has answered online between August 1st 2023 and April 30th 2024 which I've not already covered in other compilations.
As always, questions are sorted by topic, and each Q&A is annotated with a bracketed source number. Links to every source used and to the other parts of this compilation will be provided in a comment below.
The previous post focused specifically on inspirations and other media. This installment will focus on Worldbuilding and Touring, how Christopher constructs his worlds, and how he goes about promoting them on tours. The topics aren't actually linked, but they both fill up around half a post and so are being joined here. The next and final post will focus on miscellaneous questions about the real world.
submitted by ibid-11962 to Eragon [link] [comments]
As always, questions are sorted by topic, and each Q&A is annotated with a bracketed source number. Links to every source used and to the other parts of this compilation will be provided in a comment below.
The previous post focused specifically on inspirations and other media. This installment will focus on Worldbuilding and Touring, how Christopher constructs his worlds, and how he goes about promoting them on tours. The topics aren't actually linked, but they both fill up around half a post and so are being joined here. The next and final post will focus on miscellaneous questions about the real world.
Worldbuilding
Creating Magic SystemsDid you have a research process when you were writing the Inheritance Cycle? I put a fair bit of thought into the story itself of the Inheritance Cycle, and then some general stuff as to the society and just kind of where things were in the world before writing it. I put a medium amount of thought into the magic system before I started writing, and then as I wrote the implications of it became much more apparent to me, and I really sort of dove deep into it. In retrospect, were I to create a fantasy world from scratch now, I would really put a lot of attention into that magic system and the society beforehand, just to have a good feel for that before I even start chapter one. I would put more restrictions on the magic too. I think the more restrictions, the more interesting, even the more realistic in some ways. [3]Creating Religions
If I were designing a magic system from scratch nowadays I would put way more restrictions on it because I find that the limitations are useful, I don't want the characters getting overpowered, but also just from a storytelling standpoint, incantations, rituals, spells, prayers, potions, all of those mechanical things are just kind of interesting and of course they give lots of opportunities for things to go wrong if you don't follow the correct steps. So I think if I were designing magic from scratch right now I'd put a lot of restrictions and rituals associated with it. So costs, more costs. [25]
What kind of hacks do you have to developing a magic system? Once I have a general idea of the setting, whether science fiction or fantasy, the first question I ask myself is how does it diverge from physics as we know it? Because that is a fundamental question that's going to determine what is possible in this world. It might determine what's possible with warfare, with politics, with industry, manufacturing, travel times, it could affect everything depending on what type of divergence you have. In the World of Eragon, the divergence is that living creatures have the ability to directly manipulate energy using their minds. The reason for that is kind of handwavy, although I have an explanation for it, but that is the divergence and then I tried to be as consistent and physically possible with it at every step of the way past that. When people play games you always get people who are looking how to exploit it. "What's the most I can get out of this game? What's the most I can do?" That's basic human nature. Science is a speedrunning nature I think. So the same sort of thing. You assume that if magic existed there's going to be someone sitting in their basement who's absolutely obsessive about it and is going to figure out every single advantage that that divergence gives them. And you have to be realistic and work that into your world and say "Well people aren't stupid. They are going to figure this out and use it in this way, and what are the implications, socially, physically, and everything else?" Once I have that then you can think about society and culture and everything else, but that basic physical difference from our reality is just to me fundamentally important to understand before I even begin to write. [25]
With standalones you're not dealing with continuity or what rule did you break or things like that. That's interesting, because I would say that writing a sequel for me is faster than writing a standalone. At least for me, the more I know the characters and the world, the faster, like I don't have to do the groundwork of creating a magic system, creating a society, creating the gods and the history. All that's done for me, so I can just slip into it like slipping on an old glove. [33]
A socio-political religion in your world helps drive characters or stories or die-hard fanatic characters forward. How do you go about developing those? Have the courage to let your characters actually believe the things that they are supposed to believe. If you look back historically people really did truly believe these different religions and different systems. Too often I think with modern stories we have people only giving lip service to the supposed belief and instead having very modern attitudes toward it which perhaps doesn't always work. That's understandable if you want a character to be relatable to a modern reader, but there are so many examples of interesting belief systems throughout the world. To me that's something fascinating to write about. But the main thing is just accept that when people truly believe something they're genuine about it and then you can follow that from a logical and storytelling standpoint. What I'd also say is, if you're writing about something that is very different from your own belief system, assuming it's not like completely evil, to try to approach it with a sense of charity. With the understanding that everyone is searching for meaning and understanding. I've always had a soft spot for the old television show Babylon 5, because although I don't believe that the creator J. Michael Straczynski is religious, he writes all of his characters with great sympathy and understanding, he's never cynical about it, and he's not putting up straw man arguments or criticizing any of the characters. He's like "They're searching for meaning. They're struggling with the great questions as we all do, and each one is trying to solve those questions in their own way." And I always really appreciated that he wasn't being cynical about it or really shallow. [25]Creating Languages
Did you think of the ancient language, not just as a mechanic, but also as a parable of our own language? I was thinking about how language itself feels like magic to me. You can write a story, you can convey information. Language in many ways is our greatest tool and makes us human along with, I would argue, our hands, our ability to manipulate objects and use actual tools. But one without the other wouldn't really work and wouldn't allow us to be a technological species. We could have language with no ability to handle tools, and then we wouldn't be what we are now. But I find language fascinating and I find the function of language incredibly interesting. And there is this idea in the real world going back to the beginning of time, that to name something is to understand it, and gives you a certain amount of power over it, whether that's a person or a physical object. And the ancient language is just taking that idea seriously. And I'm not the first author or tradition to do that, but is it a parallel? Is it a metaphor? I don't know if I'd go that far, but it definitely ties into the use of language and my ideas about it. What's crazy to me is there is a theoretical arrangement of words right now that would give us a massive breakthrough in science and physics. There's a theoretical arrangement of words that were I to write it or anyone else would influence how people think about the next presidential election to such a degree that it might actually changed the election. These are all theoretically possible and you can think of many many other things that you could do with language. We just lack the knowledge of what those arrangement of words are, and so we're constantly clawing our way toward new knowledge and new uses of language. [19]Creating Maps
The languages that you were playing around with in The Inheritance cycle, they were Germanic, Anglo Saxon based? The ancient language, the magical language, is based very strongly on Old Norse, which of course is Germanic or related to Old High German. The Dwarven language was invented pretty much from scratch although it is an agglutinative language like German is. And then the other languages have not appeared very much in the series. They're just little scraps here and there. To be clear, I am not a linguist, and I have not devoted the time and energy to developing these in a formal or rigorous way, the way that Tolkien did. Tolken was a linguist and that was his forte. I got far enough down that path while working on the Inheritance Cycle that I really began to appreciate how every word has a history and that history is inexorably tied to the history of the land. It's often said that Tolkien created Middle-earth just to explain his languages, as a setting for the languages. Which isn't entirely true, but there is truth to that. That's what I was encountering and I was realizing that I could spend 20 years, 10 years, just working on the languages and building this out. It might have been a worthwhile venture, but the tradeoff would have been no more books published during that time. I want to tell a story. [28]
What I would do these days, or what I did with other languages, is come up with a couple of words that sort of had a general feel that I liked and then extrapolating from those invented words, figuring out what consonants and vowels and clusters thereof that I wanted. Come up with some more sample words based off that and then start working out some grammar. Grammar is probably my weakest spot since at the time I wasn't really aware of non-English grammar systems and I've put some more attention in that since then. [34]
The language and culture that you describe in the books seem very real. How do you start inventing a language? You shamelessly steal from Germanic mythology and Scandinavian mythology, just like Tolkien did. But I'm no linguist, I did my best, I have a copy of the Nibelungen up on my shelf along with the Eddas, and I based one of my languages on Old Norse, which gave it a nice sound and feel. So the main thing is picking things that make sense for your world and then trying to be internally consistent. [2]
At what point in your writing process do you start creating the map? I've created the maps at different times in different books. At first I thought I didn't need a map because I thought that a good book should be perfectly understandable without a map. You shouldn't need to rely on anything outside of the text in order to enjoy it. And I still think that's generally true, but a map can add a lot. So for Eragon, I did it partway through the book. If I were to do a stand-alone fantasy novel, I would definitely want to work out the maps and stuff before writing it. [12]Creating Dragons
The map for Eragon, the original black and white map, I did about halfway or a third of the way into Eragon. My idea was, and I still kind of believe this, that a well-written book shouldn't need a map in order to understand the story. You should be able to keep your bearings just based off the text. What I ran into though was that I was getting lost in the world myself with the amount of places and things after a certain point. And so I drew a map. [34]
For me I think if you're creating something in the real world obviously that gives you certain constraints and certain advantages but if you're starting with something from scratch, I find creating a map right up front is really helpful because your story is not going to visit every square inch on your map so by filling in those other details on the map you're going to get more story ideas and also ideas for potential conflicts, travel distances. It all feeds into the realism of the story as well as potentially future stories. It's fun stuff. The downside is you could spend your whole life worldbuilding. There's a there's a book from World War Two called Islandia, and the guy just spent his whole life creating this island and its culture to the point of working out the actual layers of geography of stone in the island. I've never actually read the book, I don't know if it's any good, but I know it was fairly popular when it came out. [25]
What hacks do you have for for creating geography and points of interest within your world? When I was creating the map for Alagaësia I actually used a old National Geographic Atlas and traced over various coastlines and then distorted them and pasted on top of each other in order to get sort of a natural feeling coastline. Please don't compare the island of Vroengard to the outline of Greece. Please don't do that. And then you have Robin Hobb who just turned Alaska upside down for her map which I always love because I've lived in Alaska twice. I think she told me that she never actually expected the book to get published, but then she got stuck with that because everything was tied to the geography that she started with. [25]
I think that a good map ought to have lots of points of interest, and the tricky bit is, without getting so detailed that it becomes cluttered. You see that sometimes with real world maps, like atlases and stuff, where there's a ton of place names, city names, river names, road names. All of which are useful and necessary, but it can actually visually get in the way of the art, perhaps the artistic effect that you would want a fantasy map to have in a book or a movie or even a game. [12]
There are world generators that you can just click through. It's really easy nowadays with technology to build worlds just by snapping your fingers. Even with those tools, if you have the time and inclination, I think there is some benefit to redrawing or painting the maps in your own style. I don't know about you, I love seeing when the maps are from the author themselves. I remember Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams. Tad did all the maps himself, and I love that. Even if it's imperfect or a little amateurish it just gives it a really nice feel. I love Tolkien's original art for the same reason. [25]
You are the creator of your own world. Do you feel that you have follow certain canons of fantasy worlds, for example, dragons have four legs and wyverns have two? Or do you feel that you can practically do whatever you want because it's fantasy and you create everything? Yes and no. No because I have already established rules and traditions and precedence in The World of Eragon, so I have to be consistent with that. But if I were writing a new fantasy, I would not feel beholden to any tradition. If I wanted to write a world where the dragons have three legs or feathers or something like that then I would feel free to do that. That's the great thing about speculative fiction is it gives you the freedom to write and create whatever you want to. The thing is when you have a genre where anything is possible it actually reveals the limitations of your imagination. And there are very few authors, myself included, who really make full use of that. But at the same time, limitations can make your fiction more interesting. I think it's important to pick some limitations and that will help actually improve the quality of your work. [7]
Why did you decide to have your dragons have a saddle? I was around horses growing up. And the thought of actually physically being on a creature with very hard scales was rather terrifying if thought about in a practical sense. And so it just seemed to me that there had to be some protection. [33]
When you're writing fantasy and you include dragons, especially a dragon rider fantasy, depending on how many there are there, it's actually quite a difficult thing to not solve all your problems with dragons. I think the solution to that is you focus on the problems that dragons present, which balances out the advantages. And of course people are smart, whether we're talking about humans or elves or dwarves or any other invented species. If dragons were real, you'd come up with counters to them, whether it's a bunch of giant ballistae on your walls, or building domed fortresses, or building underground. You would come up with solutions and it would negate those advantages. And that's always my issue with writing fiction with dragons in the real world. If it's a slightly more modern, then you have to ask, well, why isn't everything different in history? Like if dragons were a constant part of our world, architecture would be different, warfare would be different, politics would be different. Well, no, politics would be the same. What am I saying? [30]
I'm sure all of us have seen the fantasy paintings of like a knight in armor with a lance on a horse facing off against a dragon. Now, to be fair, a lance moving at a decent speed at a horse galloping will have enough kinetic energy behind it to punch through just about anything. It could do a lot of damage. But any decent sized dragon would move so fast and be so strong, you wouldn't have a chance with a lance. You'd need a giant crossbow. That'd be your only choice. The size of a dragon, intelligence of a dragon. Until you get to projectile weapons, you have no chance. [30]
We all know what any creature gets when they bond with a dragon. They get a dragon. But why would a dragon create that bond? Why would they do it? Is it the bond, is it their nature? I think for me, having other species bond with the dragons was essentially a way to keep the dragons from getting wiped out. Because dragons are such a huge threat. If you imagine in the real world, we don't suffer giant predators to be constantly predating and disrupting our world. We remove that threat. Especially if there's magic involved, the ability to remove that threat gets even bigger. So in a way I viewed the bond between rider and dragon as essentially self preservation for the dragons, if not the other species as well. Without some sort of symbiotic relationship, coexistence becomes very, very difficult. That, or the dragons have to be smart enough to just essentially remove themselves from the world and live off in the far off places. But that gets really difficult when you start considering how much they need to eat. I remember reading the Live Ship Trader series and I remember the end of that spoiler alert where it's become clear that true dragons have returned now. And it really was kind of an oh crap moment because you start thinking about what that actually means for there to be dragons in the world again. It's kind of like Reign of Fire. [30]
Promoting The Books
Touring HazardsHow did you do on your book tour? It was a lot. It was a lot. I did 50 days of touring last year between Fractal Noise and Murtagh. Obviously the majority of that was for Murtagh. And of course I had a couple other trips in there as well. I went to New York Comic Con. I had one or two personal trips. So there was a lot of travel last year. My goal is to not have as much travel this year. In general, the book tours were awesome, great crowds for the Fractalverse, enormous crowds for World of Eragon/Murtagh. I don't normally talk about this stuff, but since we're past it, it doesn't matter. I started touring for Murtagh November 6th and then got home for good on December 16th. But there's always a risk of getting sick while you're traveling. And I did pretty well in the US leg of things. And then over in Europe between the jet lag and not sleeping- I had a really amazing dinner, one of my publishers took me out to a three star Michelin restaurant. The problem was the dinner started at 8pm and didn't finish till midnight. And there were two or three desserts, and the last dessert was full of coffee, and I didn't realize it. Absolutely full of coffee. And I did not get to sleep until like four in the morning. And I only had three hours of sleep that night. So I think I got sick the day after as a result. I got so sick on the European tour that at one of my stops I had to call paramedics to my hotel room at 2 a.m. because I couldn't breathe. Ended up with bronchitis for the first time in my life. But I'll have you know, I did every event. I didn't miss a single event. I managed to do all my presentations and made it through in one piece. I've never, never backed down from doing an event, even while bleeding. Can you tell us a little bit about the time that you were bleeding in an event? Well, I was in Europe. I was touring for Inheritance, I'd already toured North America, and then I started in Europe, went to UK, and then I went to Australia and New Zealand. But first country was Germany, and I think I did Munich and Cologne, and then I ended in Berlin. And in Berlin, they had me in this wonderful theater that's like over 100 years old, which is very rare in the city, considering all the bombing during the war. And I'm backstage, which meant down in the basement of this theater. And there's like 500 people out waiting for me to make an appearance and there's someone introducing me and they say my name and everyone starts clapping. And of course you want to get on stage before the applause dies down. And the way you got onto stage in this theater was through a set of stairs. And it really wasn't even steps. It was almost like a ladder and it was wood. And the steps were so old that they were basically hollowed out from all the people that have gone up and down it over the years. So I'm scrambling up this and about halfway up, my right foot slipped off the edge of one of the steps because it was hollowed out and full speed, full strength, full weight, I slammed my shin into the edge of one of the steps, stumbled forward two more steps and did it a second time. But momentum, adrenaline, I keep going, I get up on stage, I waved to everyone. And fortunately for me, because I was speaking to a foreign audience, they had me sitting at a table with a translator and a presenter. So I got to sit down and the table kind of hit everything from view. And I start the presentation, start the event. And after about, I don't know, five minutes, I'm thinking to myself, okay, I've banged my shin before. We've all banged our shins before, but this really bleepin' hurt. So I looked under the table and the whole front of my jean leg on my shin is soaked with blood. There is blood dripping onto the floor and my sock is soaked with blood. So I poked my translator, the presenter next to me that I was doing a couple of events with, and I said, "Hey, look at this". And he glances under and his face just goes white. And I'm colorblind and I saw his face go white. And he said, "Do we need to call an ambulance?" And I'm like, "No, no, we're going to do this." So I did an hour-long presentation. And then I got up and managed to quickly limp over to a signing table. And no one really noticed that I wasn't feeling so hot. And I got behind the signing table, and I signed books for 400 or 500 people. And the funny thing is, I was traveling with this foreign rights agent publicist for Random House named Jocelyn, who was just an absolute beast of a woman. I love her to death. You have to understand, she did a European book tour with me while eight months pregnant. The woman was and is just very impressive. But she grew up on a farm. German family in the US, grew up on a farm. So I showed her my leg when I was sitting down to sign and she just looked at me and she said, "You need to go to the hospital?" I said, "Nope". She said, "I knew you were country. Good man." Slapped me on the back. So I finished signing and then I went back to the hotel and I had to get into a tub of water to soak my jeans off because the blood had dried and glued them to my shin. And the problem was I had a dent all the way down to the bone. And I really should have gone to a hospital because, sorry for the gory details, but what happens is when you get a dent like that, you lose the fat under the skin between the skin and the bone and it doesn't come back unless you get an injection to help it puff out and heal. And I didn't do that because I was on tour, there was no time. So the next day I had to fly to pretty sure it was Barcelona for the St. George Book Festival, which is a walking festival. So you have to walk from bookstore to bookstore in the city and do signings. But that was a bit rough. That actually took over a year to heal properly. I still have that dent. Stuff happens. I've heard some crazy stories with other authors. I'd rather it's my blood, not the fan's blood. [32]Touring Difficulties
We've got blood and sweat, any tears from tour? On occasion. The biggest one is just being away from home. And if anything is a bit off for whatever reason, you can't just pop home and hold someone or do this or do that. It's just difficult to be that far away from home for so long. [32]Meeting Fans around the World
If you're not familiar with book tours, the way it often works is that you fly to a city, you get to your hotel room, you have a little bit of time to freshen up, maybe get some food and then you go to the bookstore and you do your event. And it has to be after people get off from work, so it tends to be a later evening event. If you have a large number of people show up, that means that that time spent talking and signing pushes fairly late in the evening. You go back, you get dinner, and if you're a semi-introvert like so many authors tend to be, you need some time to decompress, which means you probably stay up a little too late reading or writing. And then in the morning, you got to go get another airplane flight and go to the new city. All of which is fine, but going to the airport, doing those flights, with the time it takes to go through an airport these days, it means that the schedule has very little time in it. When I toured for Fractal Noise, the publisher one of the days had me fly from Tampa to Portland and I still had to do an event that day. Which I agreed to. It was my own fault because they had everything on the East Coast and I said, "Well, what about the West Coast? You know, I have readers on the West Coast. They need to get a chance to get a signed book." It was my own fault. But that can get rough when you're doing it for weeks on end at a certain point. You just can't recover. A day off? What's that? But it's a good problem to have. That people want to see you and want to read your books. It's an awesome career to have. [1]
I'm also a big fan of coffee naps. So I will drink a cup of coffee, usually my second cup of coffee, and then I'll go take a nap, and I will nap for about 30 minutes, because after 30 minutes the coffee wakes me up. And I find that 15 to 30 minutes is the perfect length of a nap for me, and if I go past that, I need to sleep for about three hours, because otherwise I get into the middle of a REM cycle, and if I wake up in the middle of a REM cycle, I'm just like groggy and drugged, and I feel worse than if I hadn't napped at all. And then of course, if you're on book tour, the way I have been for a while, you gain the ability to just close your eyes at any point and take a 10 minute nap 15 minute nap anywhere, and it at least helps you stay upright. [19]
You just got back from the U.S. leg of your book tour — who’s making up the crowd? The readership is broad and probably older than it was back in the day. There are still a lot of 8-year-olds, but now there are grandparents, too. I’ve even met some kids who’ve been named after the characters, which is pretty amazing. Because people have been reading the series for so long, I tend to get a mix of incredibly detailed, hyper-focused, deep-dive questions about some of the lore, but also some more general ones about Eragon’s name. [16]Appearance
I'm sure you hear personal stories all the time especially at your readings and your your appearances. It must be lovely, and I guess overwhelming to connect with your fans. That's a good way of putting it: lovely and overwhelming. Everyone has their own personal history with these books. I have people showing up who named their children after the characters, or who've gotten tattoos. Oh my goodness, what's the one you get? Multiple Saphiras, Aryas, Rorans, a couple of Eragons. As a writer, you want people to read your stories, enjoy them, be affected by them. If they're affected so strongly they name their children after your characters, you feel pretty good about it. [28]
Are your European fans different from your American fans? I actually haven't met any children here who are named after characters from my books. That seems to be an American phenomenon. The language barrier sometimes makes it a little more difficult to talk to European fans. But the love for Eragon is just as strong in Europe as it is in the US. This is not your first time on tour in Europe. Is there something you're missing here? I actually noticed that hotels in Europe usually don't have ironing boards or irons. This is standard equipment in America. [24]
My great-grandmother was from Sicily and then my grandfather was from Bologna. I just found out recently that my grandfather as a child was tutored by Fellini's wife. [7]
My grandfather was the stereotype of an elderly Italian gentleman. He had a mustache, he cooked spaghetti and he made the most amazing red sauce for the spaghetti. He used too much profanity. He was quite the character. [35]
Amsterdam is a beautiful city, but if I had grown up here I would probably still have written fantasy, but it would probably have influenced the type of fantasy I write. [23]
I was just in Stockholm on book tour for my latest book. And I've sold a really large number of books, proportionally in Sweden, and I'd never been there before. And I was kind of curious what their thoughts and feelings were on it, given the fact that I have shamelessly pillaged, Anglo-Saxon Scandinavian mythology for my own work. And they said native Swedish authors don't write using their own mythology, they go into the more literary veins and they import and translate other authors who are writing about Scandinavian mythology and they enjoy it immensely, but it doesn't seem to be a homegrown thing for them, which is rather odd, I think. [30]
Old Norse is not so far from German, do you speak a little bit of German? I understand a fair bit. When I've done presentations in Germany, I've had children ask me questions in German, and I can sometimes understand the entire question without translation, but I only speak a few words. [Host 2]: Let's try it. Can you ask the next question in German? Of course. Oh dear. [speaking quickly] Herr Paolini, wie viel von ihrer Vision für die ganze Serie hat sich mit der Zeit verändert? Hat es sich überhaupt verändert? Denn wenn man sich die frühen Werke anguckt, erkennt man, dass sehr viele Sachen aus den frühen Werken in den späteren wieder auftauchen. So dass es eigentlich unmöglich sein kann, dass sie das nicht von Anfang an komplett geplant haben? Translation please. That was not fair. But funny. Yeah, I was just asking, when you started writing the book, and it became not just one book, it became a whole world, it became a series, and I don't want to spoil anything, but if you read the first books and you read the later books, stuff comes up again, and it seems like you actually knew where it was going when you started writing, which is again insane because you were 15. Is that something you just got lucky, or did you really plan for a whole series when you started writing the first one? I planned because I tried writing some stories before Eragon, and I never got past the first five or ten pages because I didn't have a story. I would only have an inciting incident, like a young man finds a dragon egg in the forest. Well, fun, awesome, but that's not a story. So Eragon and the series as it was, was a writing exercise for myself to see if I could outline, plot, and then write at least the first book of a series. So yes, if you read the first book, Eragon, there's actually a scene, a dream sequence in the first book. And it is the very last scene of the last book. And I did that specifically so that I could point to it and say to my readers, "See, I knew what I was doing." But of course, it isn't the last book now. [2]
Before he finished signing them all he asked if I read Fractal Noise, I said yes. He then asked how I liked it. I said I liked To Sleep far more. And to be fair I did. But I could've been a little more less brunt about it. All in all I'm sorry Paolini. I hope you see this. Dude -- No need to apologize! I was the one who put you on the spot. I was just curious about Fractal Noise as it's pretty different from what I normally write. That said, I'm a big boy, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest if someone prefers one book over another. [R]
Have you been on TikTok? How do you find it? I have an account that my assistants post content on for me because I don't have the time and I don't want it on my phone, but it has been a really useful way to connect with readers, and I had a lot of people who came up during my book tour end of last year, who said that they found out about the events I was doing from the posts on TikTok. [33]
Outside of the tour, did you do anything to personally celebrate the release of Murtagh? No. Not to sound blase, but this isn't my first book I've released. Going on the tour is the celebration. Getting to meet the fans. It's an enormous expenditure of energy, time, effort, and it's very joyous and touching and meaningful for me. And I think for a lot of the readers. So that's the celebration. My team and I, we all kind of take a moment to pat ourselves on the back every time a book comes out and then it's back to the grind a bit. Also, I got to celebrate my 40th birthday while on book tour, and I got to celebrate it with my editor, my publicist, my former publicist who's been with me since the beginning. So that was really nice. [32]
Being an author is like the best kind of semi-celebrity, because nine times out of ten, no one knows who you are, you can live a nice quiet life, and then you get to go out and meet people who like your work. And that's a real treat. I grew the beard partly to keep people from recognizing me. But then I've had it for so long that it doesn't work anymore. And I got tired of shaving. But the problem is the beard takes so much time and effort to take care of it, it doesn't save me any time. [1]Signing Books
Did your hat end up getting fixed post-tour? Yup. Fixed it myself with a rivet. [T]
Any advice on how to wear a pirate's hat without it being weird? It's very simple. There's one ingredient. You wear it with confidence. That's all. [36]
People people don't maybe don't realize what an endurance race it is, especially when when books are this big and successful. Like the amount. I once did 9,280 books in an afternoon and a half at a warehouse. I had nine people helping. I stood. I find that if I stand, I don't use my wrist. I can isolate the arm. And I just had someone shove it under me, someone pull it out for me, and everyone else was boxing, unboxing and flapping. But it hurt. It really hurt. I dropped my first name this past year. For the first time in a 20 year career, I finally dropped my first name. Did you feel defeated? Yes. But I have kids now and I just could not afford the time and the strain on my body. I actually got two typewriters. I got really bad inflammation in my right thumb from all the signing and I find that typewriters alleviated that. Also heavier like mechanical keyboards seem to help. So I know like Robin Hobb has suffered some severe problems with her hands with the amount of typing she's done over the years. So yeah, it is an occupational hazard. [33]
I have to say, signing 30,000 sheets is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than mining or placing 30k blocks in #Minecraft. Lol. [T]
Do you have a PO Box or something? I’d pay shipping both ways to have you sign my books. P.O. box is listed on paolini.net. Just include return shipping, please. :D Alternatively, you can arrange signed copies through Conley's Books & Music in Livingston, MT. [R]
If I send a book to a P.O. Box and pay for shipping there and back, would you sign it? Yup. Address is on paolini.net [T]
2024.06.09 11:10 Glittering-Pool109 Frog llama and Beartaur
 | So, I saw u/Lupevs last post (I think it was their last one anyway. also, I have no idea how to tag people) and was inspired. However the closest I had to a treefrog torso, a giraffe body, and dragon wings, were a webkinz frog (that got impromtu surgery), the last webkinz llama body I had on hand, and some handsewn wings. Each wing is 3 layers, made using scrap fabric for the tops (my little brother had gotten some fabric sample booklets a few years back, and he let me have them, which is why all the wing 'tops' are the same type of fabric), and an old sheet for the bottoms. I also made my own wing template, originally by tracing the wing off a different plushie, and then altering the shape slightly, and then scaling down (sorta. It was a lot of sketching, erasing, and re-sketching). I also hand-embroidered the lines on each wing, with a color that matched, as closely as possible, one of the other wing colors. submitted by Glittering-Pool109 to WeirdFriends [link] [comments] Beartaur is made using a random bear that I really liked the texture of, but other than that the bear was meh, and the entirety (minus the head) of a webkinz chow chow dog. Then he's got some zodiac charms draped across his chest, that I think i got from Michaels ages ago. And the crocheted thing on his back, that I meant to kinda resemble the blanket under a horse's saddle, is actually a "mask-saver" that my mom made. It was meant for her facemask, so the elastic that would go around her ears, actually looped over the buttons, so that her ears weren't so sore by the end of the day. However, since she got laid off for being to caring to patients (she worked in a pharmacy, and would take a extra minute or two to ask how each person was doing, or see if they needed help), I got the mask holder to use how I wanted. (also, there's so much more the the story about her job, but i'm not gonna go into it here.) Back to Beartaur. I had the idea to make him into a celelstial wizard/magician. I tend to jump between projects though, so he's been put on hold for now. |