Older cancer patients have an elevated risk of sarcopenia. The aim was to estimate the prevalence of four criteria for sarcopenia case finding, assessment, diagnosis, and severity determination: abnormal strength, assistance with walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs, and falls (SARC-F), low hand-grip strength (HGS), low arm circumference (AC, a muscle mass proxy), and low physical performance (PP). Sarcopenia (low HGS and AC) and severe sarcopenia (low HGS, AC, and PP) and their predictive values for 6-month mortality were estimated in the whole population and by metastatic status.
We analyzed data from the NutriAgeCancer French nationwide study of cancer patients aged ≥70 referred for geriatric assessment before anti-cancer treatment. We performed Cox proportional hazards analysis for each criterion separately and all criteria combined.
Overall, 781 patients from 41 geriatric oncology clinics were included (mean age: 83.1; females: 53%; main cancer types: digestive (29%) and breast (17%); metastases: 42%). The prevalence of abnormal SARC-F, low HGS, a low AC, low PP, sarcopenia, and severe sarcopenia were, respectively, 35.5%, 44.6%, 44.7%, 35.2%, 24.5%, and 11.7%.
Sarcopenia was strongly predictive of 6-month mortality in patients with metastatic cancer.
Full: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/6/1508?utm_campaign=releaseissue_nutrientsutm_medium=emailutm_source=releaseissueutm_term=titlelink65

Hey all. Been trolling a bit here but still at a loss of what to get. Travelling 3 months in europe
Mostly I'm spending my time in summer beachy vibes morrocco, spain and portugal
Traditionally I've wheeled bags around and copped the carry, but with these countries in mind i'm tempted to go the one-bag route
I have a wedding to go in france to which is gonna make things a little harder for the one bag journey (another pair of shoes, mainly..:\) .. But I'm still going to attempt to fit everything into overhead carry on AND a underseat daypack. If I can avoid checking bags in throughout europe this would be ideal. I also need tech gear with laptop, no photography stuff
I'm 5'7 female for reference
requirements
-fits 15" laptop
- carry on main pack with under-the-seat daypack for european budget airlines
- detachable daypack preferably, but i could handle the main pack on back with handle carry for day pack if needed
- prefer some sort of separator for wet/ dirty things but not essential
- maybe helpful to have a kangaroo pouch for extra shoes
Have seen: Salkan 45+20L packs, osprey fairview, gregory 40L, Thule Landmark, and a bunch of others
If its heavy at 40-45L main pack then yes, comfort is important - and I've heard thule is uncomfortable. Salkan looks great but expensive and heavy as a main pack ..osprey i've seen mixed reviews..
​
Thanks for the help in advance.

Hello. 👋
So as the title says, I'm looking for other female friends that like gaming and overall ones who are like-minded. I would obviously like to start off as friends and if it leads to something more, then that's great. 🙂 I am also fine with exchanging pictures soon after talking. If anything, it is more than a good idea.
This is also going to be a bit of a long read, so I apologize in advance. 😅
I am from the US and still living there (but I'd like to live in the UK some day 🤣🤣). While I'd prefer to talk to women who are also in the US, I am fine with other parts of the world too.
Some of my hobbies and interests besides gaming are drawing, streaming, writing, anime, manga, traveling, true crime, mythology, sitcoms (mainly animated ones like South Park and King of the Hill), watching YouTube videos, Harry Potter, Disney, and the occasional reality TV show. I'm also a major 2000s kid so I'm a huge fan of Nicktoons from that decade. I also watched a lot of Disney Channel and sometimes Cartoon Network, but Nickelodeon was my favorite. I've also been trying to read more books and I'm hoping to read a lot by the end of the year. I also love reading fanfiction and I read fanfics from all types of fandoms, but my top three fandoms are Life is Strange, The Legend of Korra, and Tomb Raider.
Like I said earlier, I really want to talk to like-minded people. It's kind of awkward for me to talk to someone where we don't have a lot in common and I get a bit stunted. I think I have a lot of interests, but I also have a lot of niche and specific interests, so that sometimes makes socialization more difficult for me. I also have Asperger's, so that's another factor. Another obstacle for me is that I struggle with mental health. I deal with anxiety and depression. Especially as of late due to unfortunate circumstances that happened earlier this year. I won't go into any details, but let's just say that 2023 has not been a good year for me so far. So I apologize if I ever come off as needy or something like that. But I hope to find someone that can be understanding. I will say that I'm not the type that messages someone 20 times a day or even every day, so you don't have to worry about that. Lol I'm actually someone who likes my alone time so I can definitely relate to someone who feels the same way, but I do like investing conversations too and some days, I really like to talk more than others. So it would be nice to find someone similar. I am overall a huge introvert, but I'd like to be more extroverted.
Something that I get anxious about when it comes to dating and making friends is politics. I'm a very political person but that is by no means a deal breaker or driving force for a relationship or friendship for me. The reason why I mention it, however, is that I tend to lean more on the libertarian side and while I have many liberal views, I think I have many conservative ones as well (or at least conservative by today's standards). And I know a lot of people on here and other social media in general have an issue with that. Social media is a huge echo chamber that does not allow different kinds of thoughts and ideas. What sucks is that I live in a small, conservative town, so wanting to date other women is a bit of a challenge, obviously, so I turn to the internet. I'm also not too fond of dating apps because of all the unicorn hunters and men that label their profiles as women when they are clearly men. And no, I am not referring to trans women. So if political affiliation is a major deal breaker to you, then I'm probably not a good fit for you. I've had negative experiences because of this so I'd rather just be more specific about this ahead of time and let people know. I'd rather avoid this issue if I can.
I am not religious by any means and see myself as agnostic. I am more than fine with being friends with or dating someone who is religious or spiritual, as long as they do not shove their ideals down my throat. I am more than happy to learn new things though, since I did take comparative religion as a college course recently, so I'm interested. But I don't want my lifestyle to be totally changed because of religion. I am also not fond of organized religion. It's fine if someone else is though, but it's not for me.
I am also child-free and I would like to keep it that way. Obviously, if it is just being friends with someone, it's no big deal, but I do not want kids in the future and I'd like a partner that feels the same way. Now for me, this one is a deal breaker. Frankly, I am more fond of pets, especially cats. 🤣🤣 I love being a cat mom.😸😍
As for age range, I am looking for friends or something more that are 20+ years old.
If you have gotten all the way to the end, then thank you so much! I appreciate it! Please DM me if you're interested in talking. I don't mind chatting on Reddit, but Discord is my go-to. If Discord isn't an option, though, I also have Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. So please let me know! :)
Reposting this because I forgot to put my location in the title. 🤦‍♀️

So, I do some art occasionally and I have aphantasia (inability to picture or basically anything in my mind, I go just off of words and voices, I don't see images) and I cannot see in 3D (I don't know how it's called, I got it after my mother - for ex. if I see stairs, I do not see how they are going up, I just learned to estimate that based on the shadows).
This causes me huge issues when I do art. I made my peace with he fact that perspective or anatomy or shading will always be hell, but what I mind is that I really struggle with drawing without a reference picture. I do use reference pictures, but as I said, I need them to be "flat" so the 3D is not bothering me and frankly, it's annoying that I can't see to create anything out of my own mind. I consider myself quite creative but I just can't imagine anything.
If you have aphantasia and do art, do you also struggle? I guess I just need to know I am not alone in this

Name: Mary Anteke (Allegedly)
Gender: Female
Age: Somewhere between 2 and 3 centuries
Species: Looks like a human, but that is debatable
Character Level: 1
Role: Utility
Appearance: Mary has long black hair, red eyes, a pointy face, and an immaculate sense of style. She's very tall, standing at a few inches over 6 feet, and though she isn't skinny she's certainly on the lanky side. She dresses a loose brown suit with a dark blue tie, sometimes accompanied by a thick wool coat should the weather call for it.
Personality: Mary is rather old fashioned, and places immense importance to routine and punctuality. She's also quite fanciful, and obsessive over her hobby, leading to long winded explanations full of words that may or may not still be in use. She almost always prefers to do things "the old way", though she does not despite that which is modern. She's very polite, and isn't known to lose her temper. She also has a sense of humor. Not necessarily a comprehensible one, but it's there. Mary doesn't take anything too seriously; especially not her enemies.
~
STATS (12/12 points used)
Strength: +0
Constitution: +0
Dexterity: +4
Wisdom: +0
Intelligence: +4
Spirit: +0
Charisma: +4
~
SKILL SLOTS (14/14 USED)
[Racial]
Collector: Mary has a liking for bits and baubles of a certain variety. She can detect magical items within a 100 foot radius around her, and can know their general direction, but not their exact location. Additionally, she can haggle with merchants more easily when trying to purchase a magic item.
Conservative: Don't let it go to waste! When Mary uses a magical consumable, she only consumes half of it, giving her only half of the effect. She wouldn't dare to ever take the rest, rendering the item, essentially, useless.
[Core Actives]
Mend: A useful spell for aspiring collectors like herself. Mary touches an object that isn't significantly larger than herself (6'4) and reverses any damage or wear and tear it may have ever received. Of course, should this object be incredibly powerful in its prime state, then this spell is too weak and will not repair it. (3 slots)
Plunder Weapon: Mary teleports up to 30 feet, and may then teleport back to her original position. If she teleports towards an enemy, she can choose to steal their held weapon before going back. If the enemy succeeds a DC10+DEX (Mary's) Dexterity saving throw, they're not disarmed. If the enemy has no weapon, Mary scolds them. This isn't guaranteed to accomplish anything, but may hurt an enemy's pride. 4 turn CD. (4 slots)
Witch Hand: Mary conjures a green, magical hand at a location she can see. This can be used to grab and manipulate objects in the world in various ways. Additionally, if the hand claws an enemy, they take 4+INT necrotic damage. Alice receives 100% lifesteal from this attack. Ends after 4 turns, or if Mary loses line of sight. 4 turn CD. CD starts when the effect ends. (4 slots)
[Passives]
Fragile Goods: Surely, it's safer with her than whatever she took it from. Mary gains (non-stacking) 50% lifesteal and a +2 to defensive rolls when wearing magic armor or wielding a magic weapon. (3 slots)
[Weaknesses]
~
EQUIPMENT
~
[Weapons]
Fancy Quarterstaff: A long silver pole, decorated with various fancy chains and chimes and trinkets, engraved magnificently, a beautiful weapon. Good for leaning against. Comes with an extendable umbrella. Deals 1d6+DEX bludgeoning damage.
[Armor]
Snazzy Clothes: Clothes that are snazzy, dapper, and in-style back in the 1800s. Offer no protection.
[Inventory]
1k Gold: money makes the world go around.
[Backstory]
One day, Mary was born. Another day, she became a collector. She took an intense interest in all items of magic, and collects them for some inscrutable purpose. Perhaps she holds nefarious plans for them; perhaps, benevolent ideals draw her towards treasure of this kind. Most likely, however, is that her collection is the result of a hobby.

I've 33F been seeing this guy 31M from my gym for the last couple weeks now and things have been going really well to both our surprise. We've wanted to spend as much time as possible together, we laugh a lot during our time together, the sex is good, and we have started communicating in a healthy way. The issue is that he seems to consistently not have boundaries in his female friendships, and I may have caught him in a lie.
During one of our early dates together, his childhood best friend was blowing up his phone all night with messages and video calls. Before I knew who it was I thought he had a girlfriend somewhere from the urgency of the person trying to reach him so I insisted to see a message and confirmed he was not in a romantic situation. I never want to be the reason another person gets hurt. He told me his bff had a tendency to get jealous when he got too close to women he was dating and he needed to address it. He also confirmed that her previous romantic partners have also taken issue to their equation. I communicated to him immediately that he needed better boundaries there already and he said hed work on it. It has been a couple weeks now, they've met twice and been in touch on WhatsApp etc multiple times but last I asked this boundary conversation has still not been had. He says he hasn't had the right moment/ a chance, which I don't logically understand considering it's been a couple weeks already.
This guy is also popular at our gym, and has been flirtatious with multiple women before he got into an exclusive dating situation with me. The problem is his 'friends' at the gym have continued showering him with their physical proximity when they come to talk to him and their attentive affection which he seems to.enjoy, but again does not seem to draw any boundaries with now.that we're exclusive. A.couple days ago one such friend repeatedly stood way too close to him, once almost with her chest in his face as he was knelt for stretches while she showed him something on her phone. Him and I had been working out together that day and he left me alone during this to go talk to her and spot her for 20 mins. I was visibly pissed, and went into the lockers soon as my workout ended. He came.up to me and assured me there was nothing there, and we had a conversation while he walked me home about him.needing to have better boundaries with this person as well. He told me he had been talking to this woman about us, which I asked to see. He was reluctant but he showed me his text thread, but became really uncomfortable when I started scrolling up. He had in fact been texting this woman about his interest in me, telling her I'm smart and funny etc, but she had been responding fairly negatively to him thinking that I was attractive, in some instances straight up saying 'I don't think she's that cute'.
I asked him a few times that night if they had spoken about anything else and he said no. The conversation ended with the decision that he would.speak to her about staying at a respectable distance when they speak again. This was 3 days ago.
Fast forward to yesterday. Conversation about boundaries with friend2 has also not happened. He insists that he wants to speak to her in person at the gym and not on text. Something came up in our conversation and I wanted to confirm what the girl told him on text so I asked him if he could please show me the chat again, and he told me he's deleted it because he "didn't want to accidentally text her again". This is on IG, the text thread is gone but she's still on his close friend's list. We got into an argument and he pulled her IG and texted her in front of.me saying he wanted better boundaries to which she responded "I told.you I'll only say hi and bye" to you at the gym. So, that's when I found out these two had in fact seen me visibly angry the other day and had a conversation about me not.liking their physical closeness together. He told me then that she said she would keep her distance. He missed telling me all this when I repeatedly asked if there's anything else they spoke about and I think I only found out when she texted him what she did in front of me.
He is apologetic and wants to work on 'his fuckup' but has not said if theres anything else I should know about their situation. They have, acc to him never met outside or don't talk off Insta, never had a sexual/other relationship.
I feel deceived and lied to and have told him I need time off to think. Hes agreed to give me time and wants to make things right. I don't know if I can or even should trust this guy again. I have been cheated on before, and this is my first time dating seriously after many years of being voluntarily single. I don't know if I should continue seeing this man, or if I do continue investing in this, what should I expect from him as an adult in a grown relationship. I do.really like this guy and we seem to have something special between us, but this lack of boundaries he has is not okay with me.

I remember mostly the chorus
"Pick (Take?) a card another card (5 syllables something) Discard, Wheel of (something) and the stars, Pictures say that's who you are, your pieces are not a (Puzzle?)... ...Though I want no part of this, the cliff draws near and I'm the fool." < This part was chanted over and over again while the next part played overlapped with it Then the other part of it was like, slowly singing about tarot cards or smth like "5 of swords" and I remember specifically like, "6 of pentacles"
I was listening to it in 2019 on YouTube, it was recommended to me by a friend whom I am no longer in contact with. I cannot for the life of me remember who sang it, but it was like a more indie song writer, nobody famous I don't think. The voice(s?) singing the chorus part were high pitched and put through a lot of filters, or almost vocaloid-y, though I don't think it's a vocaloid artist. The voice(s?) singing the latter part of the song were much lower, smoothly and slowly singing, and I think the idea was that they were reading out your tarot reading to you. I believe that both voices were female and I think the background was blue, maybe a night sky? Thats all I've got, thanks!

For reference I was adopted into a family when I was younger Me (female 22) and sister (female 19 ) r best friend we have been for years we have always had a bond that was really strong. Ky sisters bf (male 19) have been dating a few years now and he has become part of my life. I love both him and my sister however for the past few months my sister had been acting weird. Got contact we all used to live together as (f19) didn’t get on with our mum and (m19) I originally moved out for myself in a one bedroom flat. They move out while we all look for a bigger place as 3 people can’t live together in a one bed flat. Recently though she had become very confrontational towards me. I thought nothing of it and carried on with my life. We where spending less and less time together I had a text of her today where she told me the reason why my mother is accusing me (f22) and her bf (m19) of being to close. I have never done anything with him respect myself and my sister far to much to hurt our relationship over a boy I also love him he is one of my best mates. I am feeling so angry towards my family for this I feel betrayed that my family was so jealous of mine and my sister relationship that they r making me out to be a person I’m not.(f19) said that when she moved my other sister (f21 ) first started putting this feeling in her head she says she didn’t believe it but she was constantly getting told this by our family to the point she was so made she was taking it out on me . I have always been the glue of my family every argument Conflictsor anything I have always be the one that’s helping everyone I try my hardest to be a good person and do thing to help people. I want to confront my family but I know they will just make my (f19 ) feel like shit so I’m asking Reddit what should I do please help any questions are welcome. I shall try answer all questions the best I can. I have always felt like I owed something to the family and they have never truly treated me like a member unless they needed something I feel like I owe them my life.

[no fanfiction flair because I didn’t strictly write here]
Hi there folks, aspiring writer here attempting to create AU fanfiction (on ao3 and ffn)
(Post-writing/rambling me- I just realized I forgot to link my AO3 account, my FFN one isn’t set up yet. I’ll link my ao3 one here- https://archiveofourown.org/users/Le_idiot/profile , if I am bothered to set up my FFN account you’ll see it down in the comments)
​
Okay, I’ll let you all in on what I’m writing.
I'm attempting to write a fanfic in which I'm changing certain Characters into females. Also I like to ramble and be very honest about everything, as well as share literally everything with anyone. Don't judge.
I'm not a simp.
Shut up!
ALSO BEFORE I BEGIN MY RAMBLING- if any of you have ideas for plot (points) comment on this post. Anything useful (and fits in my vision) I will attempt to fit into my Sus fanfic.
Disclaimer to people that need it- I do not own Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus or Trials of Apollo, Rick Riordan (my fav mythology based fiction writer) owns PJO/HOO/TOA.
Not really my style but eh, I'd still like the (potential) readers of my fic to at least know who I'm referring to. (in case I'm too stupid and confuse you all when writing.) So, here's a list of AU (alternate universe) characters for this fanfiction. Enjoy.
Perseas (Amphitrite) Jackson: Female Percy Jackson. Self explanatory. (not really) She'll be referenced as Percy/Perce/Persie/princess (ew). (Persie is used and only used by Zoë nightshade, since she's (technically) an old timer and I would wish to distinguish her)
Nicole di Angelo: Nico di Angelo but female. Slight change here in her background- she's not gay (duh) but instead a lesbian. Okay, not much of a change. Referred to as Nicole/Nico.
Wilma (or Wilhelma) Solace: William solace but female. (do I need to add that at this point) partners with nico(le), blah blah blah… I'll refer to her as Willma/Willa/Will (Nicole only). Or Friedrich Wilhelm Die erste! (joke obviously. Unless you really want that to happen. "Oh Friedrich Wilhelm Die Erste, I love you so much," purrs Nicole. Wait… Thats actually plausible. Okay, nevermind, this is a bad joke.)
(Post-writing, pre-publishing me- this is where I ramble, if you want keep reading it, if you don’t I don’t blame you)
Ich kennt Wilhelma ist ein deutscher Name. Shut up. (no not really, but I'll choose which one to use (or both if it comes to that) but do let me know if she should have a German accent if you choose/ I decide to go with the German version of her name.)
Remaining characters won’t have a change in gender. Well, maybe except Frank as he can (in theory) shapeshifter into a female form. Highly doubt hazel would like that though, as she does come from a more conservative era. But sexual preferences for all characters? …probably yes.
Also, reason I’m only changing a specific few characters- Thalia doesn’t need a female sibling. Beryl would probably have had a meltdown because she couldn’t bear a son to succeed her king. (When she was mentally unstable at least, because hey why would Zeus of all people need a successor)
Luke? I’m not gonna feminize him for plot reasons. Quite frankly, I’m…I shouldn’t spoil you, just know he is a male for plot reasons. I don’t think a female Kronos should exist- he’s a male in myths. I don’t think we need a skyfem like mod installed into this fic, and I certainly do not wish to offend Greeks by rewriting their literal culture/religion/heritage, (Also, a male villain fighting against twin female protagonists and a satyr sounds fun. No feminist comments please…)
As for Leo, he and Calypso make a good couple. His cheesy and snarky comments…don’t really fit into a feminized version of him. So if any of you wanna see female Leo (smut/lemon/porn) you came to the wrong place…or maybe not.
Now, background characters (like the stoll brothers)…some may get feminized, some may not. Again, this is entirely up to my mood- if I am in a good one, I’ll make originals- if no, I’ll just not be arsed or rip others off. Which in good writer ethics shouldn’t happen, so I’ll attempt to abstain from doing that. But I did see a very, very good job of feminizing Selina’s boyfriend, the beckendorf guy (look, I haven’t read an English book in 2 years because of my regions educational system, okay?) but again not ripping off!
Anyway, that’s all I got for names and explanations and rambling. Just kidding, below are a few more names I’ve seen from other fics that I have considered (as they are indeed good names and some are widely used.) However, for the sake of originality, I’m gonna try and use original names/ names that suit the character which I have gently plucked from other fics. (Perseas and Wilhelma are the two cough stolen names cough)
Aeee I’m going off on a tangent. Names! For percy, Persephone and Pearl were considered at one point. However- Persephone doesn’t seem to connect with “percy”, and also taking the name from an already existing goddess isn’t really that…you know, good. Imagine Sally Jackson yelling “Persephone come do your homework” and the goddess pops up. Yikes. Plus, it’s…a bit too cliche? Nah, not that. I’m trying to get this idea across…like, if eventually I write lemon/ smut chapters (as an addition) to this fic, having a chapter name called “Persephone has some quality time with Persephone” doesn’t seem normal to me. As for peal, it’s a fine name…but again, not much connection with “percy”, and from what I have read percy has a tanned/ slightly darker complex, and his (her) eyes are green. This, when a pearl is…you know, white, I don’t really think it suits the character.
Now, I also have read a (okay, some) fem nico x will fic (s). That’s where will’s name- Wilhelma- comes from. (Goofy goober Google returned the same result.) But in the fic, Nico is called “Nicolla”. Or “Nicola”. Either way, both names sound Italian but sadly ripping that name off that fic (which was a good read, shut up) seems…not so good. Especially when it’s only one fic which calls her nicola. Or nicolla. Shut up! So yeah…with perseas I can at least argue “oh but it’s used by a lot (or some)” and feel morally right (?). What am I on about.
Anyway, I’m an idiot, and if I am arsed I might have some sketches/ drawings of the above feminized characters. If you see them below their names (or below this paragraph because I can’t be arsed to format stuff) then congrats. If you don’t, don’t spam dm/comment. I’m still not gonna do it. (Or I might, if I am in a good mood.)
Plus, it’s late, and it’s time for me to start planning an alternate timeline plot similar to the original. Good night, and I hope I can remember this exists after a day. Or two days. Or a week. Or a month. Or whatever. Why am I rambling!!! It’s 1000+ words!

I still have an acute aversion to hearing or speaking my own name. I dread it when, say, I have to ring the doctor's surgery for an appointment and the receptionist asks who's calling. I can barely get out the words and sometimes feel my face flush. I have a similar response to my own reflection and will avoid looking in a mirror at all costs. I was intrigued, therefore, when I read some research casting light upon this, it seems, not altogether unheard of phenomenon.
The study I refer to was carried out by Winter et al. (2015) and involved setting up a situation in which people with BPD could freely choose to sit facing a mirror or not. The same choice was also presented to people without BPD (you can read about the experimental design here, but suffice to say here that no participants knew the study's purpose).
It was found that those with BPD were:
significantly less likely to sit facing the mirror than non-BPD individuals. significantly more likely to have consciously made the choice not to have sat facing the mirror than non-BPD individuals.
From these findings, it was inferred that those with BPD had a tendency to avoid self awareness (as seeing oneself in a mirror makes one more self aware) to a significantly greater degree than non-BPD individuals.
Why should this be?
The researchers, based on this and similar research, suggest this avoidance of becoming self aware is a mechanism to cope with anxious anticipation of social rejection. Indeed, other research has shown that shifting one's attention from self to others can be a helpful way to calm this anxiety.
To explain further, the authors of the study note that diverting focus of attention away from the self can help reduce self deprecating feelings, including feelings of shame which are all too common amongst those with BPD. They further draw attention to the fact that other research has concluded that 'people who feel socially excluded are averse to attention to the self' because 'self awareness initiates self evaluation' And, again, feelings of social alienation and negative self evaluation are very frequent amongst BPD sufferers.
In sum then, it seems reasonable to hypothesise that BPD sufferers are more likely to avoid being confronted by a reflection of themselves in a mirror as being so confronted would increase self awareness which in turn would aggravate feelings of shame and general negative self evaluation which would, in its turn, increase anxiety about being socially rejected.
I assume that my aversion to hearing my own name may be similarly accounted for.

Following a year of constant division in the MCU fandom. Can Secret Invasion deliver on a weekly positive discourse & Speculation that rivals Wandavision.
Wandavision’s performance blew up So much that Wanda instantly became the most Popular Female Avenger Ever. So much so that she became a household name during the pandemic.💀 Elizabeth Olsen’s portrayal earn the series 33 Emmy Nominations and a Fandom that rivals even the top tier Avenger characters. Many people agree that she was a significant part of why Multiverse of Madness doubled its previous Docter Strange films Box office. Can Secret invasion’s compelling story of Double agent Skrulls & Nick Fury’s Charisma elevate this section of the MCU?
Can the Quality that many believe dipped in Phase 4, return? Will the Skrull revelations be an enough draw for mainstream audiences? And can a character in this series earn the same level of recognition as Wanda?

Hi everyone if you ever wanted tips or tricks for either challenge, in both modes, here we go!
[ Btw this is just my strategy if you guys have better ideas feel free to comment or correct me :) ]

Tips For Both Challenges

Saving and loading: Ok this is the best feature, it'll save you so many times. If you don't wanna use it that's fine but if you do remember these tips. Save every time you kill a few people, or right before risky kills like the student council, teachers etc. Save in two slots every time just in case you overwrite your latest save by accident and when you run out of save slots, overwrite your oldest save.
You cannot save in certain circumstances: If someone is wet, alarmed, investigating or if you are holding something etc. You can't save during rival events like when Osana is blabbing on about something (only effective in Genocide challenge). You also cannot save if there is bloody uniforms present on schoolgrounds. This does not apply to the raincoat but it does apply to a bloody uniform you put into the washing machine. Until it is out of the machine, you cannot save so I would recommend the raincoat always.

Differences in the Modes or Endings

- ABC vs Genocide Ending -
Geno: You need to kill EVERYONE in the geno ending (teachers and nurse too). You can only do this ending on the first day of school. Time passes as normal which is great - the bulk of deaths during the geno ending is during class.
Giggling/playing the radio outside the classroom allows you to easily take everyone out. Also if you are not using garbage bags then you can lure them near the bathrooms and place them there. There are some people that cannot be lured out on the third floor, as you can't use the radio or giggle in the headmaster's office.
ABC: You will automatically have full physical ed skill level = kill teachers automatically and can run faster. Raibaru and Osana's routines have changed and Raibaru is equivalent to Budo's strength in this mode so you can kill her by struggling. I will discuss the cheat tools below!
- 1980s vs 202X Mode -
1980s: Ok so journalist will pepper spray you for approaching him with a weapon, having bloody clothing, or holding a corpse. There's no gaming club so I recommend joining the martial arts club in the Genocide challenge. The student council are killed off much later than in 202X mode.
202X: 2 of the student council members are really early so this makes the ABC challenge easier. People can take photos and call the police in this mode.
- Setup -
Clubs: The martial arts club is great for auto killing any struggles (useful for teachers). Gaming club is good to upgrade your physical ed, as these are the only two ways to kill teachers for the genocide challenge.
Now for the ABC challenge you have options: Science club is good you can dispose of people in acid if you don't wanna use garbage bags BUT there's a lot of people in that area so it's risky. But remember you already have access to the blood sucking robot in the student council room (ABC challenge). Sports club is okay if you want to not be suspicious with the bat and run faster.
P*nties: Ew I hate this. But if you wanna use the feature; the stealthy one or the fast running is the most useful ones.
Bugs: Place a few in any of these areas: faculty room, meeting room, infirmary, photography club, science club or shower room sinks. Use the info points to get new clean uniforms and if you need more buy a soft drink for Hazu's task.
Tasks: Always start the day by going to the library to finish the task in both modes before you begin. This will be useful if there's someone in a risky spot, you can ask them to follow them easily. You can't do this with people who have custom tasks like delinquents and this doesn't work for the student council.
Do not equip a weapon from home: Grab weapons from the school for this reason; if you drop scissors brought from home (to distract someone) they will look at it but not put it back because it doesn't need to be put away. This scissors are already in the sewing club! So if you want to disrupt someone's routine and make them go to the sewing club, grab the scissors from there!
Equip a blunt weapon (I like the baseball bat but the fire extinguisher etc works), anything that will not cause ANY blood to spill on you. Always put this weapon in your weapon bag.
Now if you kill someone from the font (not stealth kill) your blunt weapon will have blood on it - meaning it will be noticed quicker and have a higher reputation decrease. Use the sinks around the school hallways and bathrooms to clean all your weapons throughout the challenge.
Next, either equip 1 small normal weapon and 1 small dangerous weapon OR 2 small normal weapons:
A normal weapon (scissors, box cutters, screwdrivers) will not garner attention and all students will pick it up and return it to it's room. I recommend the scissors as only Hazu is in the room and it's on the 1st floor meaning most people won't walk far to put it back. If you want to lure them to an empty place the scissors are good too since once they place it back you can kill them there OR if Hazu is in there just giggle in the adjacent rooms (meeting room, home economics room) - both are empty except for the occasional student council member.
A dangerous weapon (syringe, ritual knife, knife) will garner attention but isn't the end of the world, unless you alert a teachestudent council member. This can be used to send someone away to their teacher. Only use these weapons that cause blood on teachers and student council members only. Also I personally use the knife since nobody is in the cooking club except for like ten mins in the morning, so if a council member takes it there I can kill them without witnesses. Syringe is dangerous as the nurse is there and the ritual knife sometimes has the occult club people in there.
Btw any blood on these weapons will count as a dangerous weapon and will be reported to a teacher.
- Items -
Cheat tools in ABC challenge: The ABC challenge has various tools you can use, but the only ones I ever consider are: The amnesia bomb, weapon bag, and the cloaking devic\*e*. I've done many runs with only using the bag and 1 amnesia bomb.
The mnesia bomb is so good cause it also stops certain bugs - many times students will investigate something and get bugged out which is bad cause you can't save if a student is investigating something. Using this bomb will (most of the time) force them to return to their normal routines. The weapon bag is an obvious YES unless you want to join the sports club. But the bag also helps if you want to carry something else in your hands. The cloaking device is okay for student council members as you don't have to stealth kill them. But it can get annoying cause I constantly use yandere vision which activates and deactivates the cloak.
I don't like the smoke bomb cause it blocks my vision too much, and the stink bomb sometimes causes my target to run away, hinders my vision, and causes people to bunch up at the hedge maze. The phone jammer is not my favourite since those phone people are gonna run away anyways and I will fail the challenge. The puzzle cube isn't useful to me, I just use the radio, giggles, weapons, or talking to the targets instead. The cleaning robot is barely ever used since I always use blunt weapons (since you don't kill teachers/nurse in ABC challenge). Sanity pills are okay but I just laugh in the little storerooms where no one will see but it helps with speed runs!!
Radio: This one is useful if you want to target someone specific in a group, so if you keep giggling it might attract the other people. The radio allows you to target specific person in: the delinquent groups, photography club, science club, teachers, sports club, drama club. My favourite method to fully separate someone from a group is to target them with the radio then put down a weapon that will cause them to take it back or report it to a teacher.
Raincoat: If you have a bloody rain coat it can fit into the book bag, so I usually replace the garbage bag with the raincoat to take it to the washing machine. By holding the bags instead of the coat, people will take longer to notice you.
Garbage bags / Not using them: Always leave them in your book bag. If you want to use no bags cause they're overpowered, hide bodies in the bathrooms as no one goes in there. Issues with this method: 1. In 1980s mode, the female delinquents go to the 3rd floor west girl's bathroom during the morning and after school, watch out for them. 2. You cannot distract people to go into the bathrooms or shower rooms with giggles / radio.
Additionally people on the third floor or roof can be easily hidden behind the fan area, no one goes over there! If you kill someone in the gym - you can hide them above the gym or if someone is killed near the cherry tree you can hide them behind the hill. Hide no one right next to the tree, because the Basu sisters go there.
Mops: I recommend setting up the water in the bucket with bleach thing and dip the mop in it before starting so in case you spill blood you can mop it up quickly. If certain people see blood they may immediately call the police or tell teachers which = game over in the ABC challenge. So put the pre dipped mop in a safe place where you will remember where it is in case you need it.
My final setup: Stealth/Running panties + Scissors from sewing club + Cooking club knife + Weapon bag w/Baseball bat inside + Bookbag w/garbage bags inside + Martial Arts club + Carry the radio/raincoat/pre dipped mop with me (based on who I'm gonna kill) + placed 2 bugs for new uniforms + Optional: amnesia bomb
This final setup leads to "Extremely Hard" difficulty in the ABC Challenge (if you don't use the bomb, if you do its "Very Hard"). Nightmare is using no cheat items.
- How to kill certain people -
Normal students: Stealth kills are always best - they are quicker and don't attract attention as they don't scream. Now always go into yandere vision before killing as this will show surrounding people and let you slow down time. Go into the yan vision, pull out the blunt weapon, and get behind them (if you alert them then you can't get behind them). After killing them always pull out the garbage bags with the vision and conceal the body. Now this will be important in stressful times: move the body when no one is around away from doors and stuff you interact with. Cause if you want to quickly close a door and the body is nearby then you'll struggle to interact with the door.
Big groups: How to separate big groups? Refer to the "Radio" tips under "Items". Blocking people does work but you will lose reputation for blocking a student's routine. Talking to a student can stall them - doing their task dialogue is the longest. For example - talking to the first student (Ajia) while the cooking club goes away, leaves her alone. You can then eliminate her before Akane shows up.
Delinquents: Always stealth kill otherwise you'll fight them which attracts attention and wastes time. You can use a blunt weapon and I also recommend you hide their weapon in a far away place. The easiest way is if you lure the delinquents to the incinerator area with the radio, then stealth kill with a blunt weapon, garbage bag them, then take their dropped weapon and put it near in the far corner of the incinerator area or the far corner of the shrine area. Otherwise people will see it and you can't save if someone is alarmed.
Student council: People find this part difficult but I never had trouble with these members. Ok so drop any weapon or play the radio, and while they are looking at it, picking it up, or turning it off, walk up to them (try not to run) and immediately kill them with a small weapon or a blunt weapon (this may alert them however). Then garbage bag, bing bang boom they're gone.
If you will use a small weapon remember to bring a mop to the area beforehand, and carry the raincoat with you (not suspicious) - then equip it right before you kill them. The good thing about the student council is that they go into every room so there's empty rooms where there's no one. You can kill Shiromi/Joze (outside monitoring) near the shrine area, hedge maze, incinerator (best option cause it's easy to hide them in the incinerator).
Teachers/Nurse: Three words - MARTIAL ARTS CLUB (or gaming club too). Ok cool let's get into it: Blunt weapon = apprehended, Less than physical education skill level 1 = apprehended, trying to get them from the font? = apprehended. Always use stealth kills for teachers. Killing a teacher always will have blood spilled. Bring the raincoat and mop too.
So if you join the gaming club and fight a teacher you will have to do the struggle mini game, if you join the martial arts club you won't have to fight. You will automatically kill them.
Note: Be careful with teachers, cause if you accidently report the blood / corpse to them you will get a game over.
- Issues I encountered -
ABC challenge names: I'm ashamed to admit this but I have lost this challenge in 80s mode cause I killed the wrong person lol. Use the yandere sim wiki to see the list of students in both modes:
https://yandere-simulator.fandom.com/wiki/Alphabet_Killer_Challenge#List_of_Students
Bugs: There's been a lot of bugs with the saving and loading which is to be expected. If a student is bugging out try using an amnesia bomb. If you can't move or anything like that, just load your most recent save.
SENPAI!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!: Senpai's routine is important, you cannot amnesia bomb him if he witnesses YOU doing something wrong. I got caught by him twice and man it's the worst.
Here is Taro's routine in the morning (Genocide Challenge):
From 7:00 - 7:20 AM: Talks to Osana and changes his shoes
7:20 - 8:00 AM: Walks to the plaza fountain and then walks to class
Then he walks to class and sits down
I think for Taro in the ABC challenge it's the same routine as Jokichi except he starts in his classroom.
Here is Jokichi's routine in the morning (Genocide Challenge):
From 7:00 - 7:03 AM: Talks to Kaguya
7:07 AM: Changes his shoes
7:12 - 7:17 AM: Walks to his class (3-2) then walks towards towards the front of the school
7:17 - 7:50 AM: Makes a lap around the outside of the school
Then he walks to class and sits down at 8:00 AM
For Jokichi in the ABC challenge it's the same routine except he starts in his classroom.

Final Thoughts

Ok so let me know if you would like more tips and tricks. I have completed both challenges many times in both 1980s and 202X mode. It's pretty fun but the genocide ending is mostly repetitive gameplay.

TLDR: Excellent purchase, mildly confusing to setup at first but running perfectly despite a number of yard obstacles, dense tree canopies, and a complex yard. Zero issues with signals.
Purchased my first automower last week, and after much research decided to go with the Husqvarna 450XH EPOS for ease of use and the newer features including systemic mowing patterns. I did not enjoy the feedback from the community regarding the pains of wired models so that scared me off of those. I was very nervous about potential signal issues I could have though.
My house/yard: I have a ~3000sqft house with tall, shingled roof, 3.5 acre rectangular flat yard plot with house in the middle-ish. There are many trees, and some with fairly dense and broad canopies. The back third of the yard is heavily wooded, and not an area I maintain. The other 2.5 acres are actively maintained, previously by riding mower. I am located in Texas.
My setup: The reference station is placed at top of the chimney however this does not have line of sight at all to the front yard, and only some of the back. I would estimate that maybe only 30% of the time does the mower have direct line of sight to the reference station, and at times the signal is 'passing through' the entire house which is lined with external stone walls.
Signal: Absolutely no issues. Even directly adjacent to the house, under dense canopies, and under roofed areas I seem to have perfect EPOS signal. Not once have I received any notifications indicating otherwise and the mower never appears to stop/stall/pause for signal despite being undearound dense trees at many points. No issues communicating with the reference station though the barrier of the house/trees or a small greenhouse which it also mows behind.
Installation: Somewhat confusing despite having read the manuals before ever receiving the product. There wasn't alot of guidance on running the automower connect app itself, but I think any decently tech-savy person can figure this out easily enough. Hopefully as the community builds experience, there will be some FAQs that can answer some basic items here. For example, I originally had placed the charging station ~30 yards away from the "work area" and placed a virtual "transport path" from there to the work area but continued to get an "unreachable destination" error each time. After some research/re-reading I realized these have to be placed from the work area to the charger, not the other way around; and the charging station basically needs to be in or within ~3ft of a work area for best operation (I could only get it to work this way). I think you could make a fake 'work area' for the charging area if it is remotely located. Otherwise all the materials arrived ready-to-go with no building required beyond placing the reference station and plugging them in. Pairing very easy and intuitive.
Setup: App usage to place virtual boundaries is great, you just drive it around the edges of your target area and set waypoints as you go the mark edges, and then go back and place keep-out areas if needed. You can manually adjust the waypoints/boundaries in the app though because these appear to be very specific satellite coordinates you can only just an individual waypoint by picking an angle and desired offset up to 1-100cm at a time. This is very tedious work to edit these. So this is really for making minor adjustments to boundaries, anything more dramatic would require a complete re-draw with walking the mower around again. ***Would love a more comprehensive area editing feature to drag & drop waypoints and more easily edit areas. Also for my home the satellite image on the map is offset by ~15-20ft and it would be nice if they allowed some sort of manual offset in the settings to fix this. This does not affect performance of the mower in any way but can make understanding/visualizing your zone placement a little awkward.
Cutting: Grass was ~4inches before cutting, I was too lazy to cut myself before unleashing it for the first time. It left some slight lines of uncut grass in the parallel rows format, sent it back for a 2nd cut which cleaned it up nicely and now looks perfect. The mower has some difficulty driving over even fairly small twigs/downed sticks so I've had to go around and ensure there is nothing it can easily get hung up on. Despite that it mows by ditch well which is fairly steep on both sides and narrow so kind of awkard. It now maintains the whole 2.5 acres perfectly. My front/road-facing yard I have it cut nicely with checkered patterns, the back portion I do simple parallel lines without issues. My yard is complex with many obstacles/trees/keep-out areas but it seems to find every area it needs to cut without my intervention. Returns itself to charger as needed, seems to get a good 2 hours or so out of each charge of constant cutting. Charging is surprisingly fast. ***The scheduling element of the app is pretty bare-bones, I think this could be fleshed out alot more. As is, you can only set time-ranges the mower is allowed to operate in a given area, but cannot be more specific as to the order of operation and I don't understand how to control how frequently it cuts a specific area.
Overall: Excellent purchase, highly recommend for those who think this could work their yard. I was very skeptical honestly about the purchase, but now I get literally every neighbor walking by asking what this is, then "...how much? what brand? where did you get it?" I think the price point is very high, but the cost of landscaping/yard maintenance is very high in my area right now and this would theoretically pay for itself in around 2 years if all goes well compared to labor costs. My greatest concern about signal/GPS has been a complete non-issue for me, of course can't predict others situations.
For anyone interested, feel free to DM with specific questions. Husqvarna also has a referral program for $100 for both parties after purchase. Autmow also has a $50 referral apparently. DM me to get my code(s) if interested. ***Husqvarna or dealers if you are listening, you should really consider a much stronger referral amount at this price point, seems like a device that will spread by word-of-mouth in neighborhoods that are well suited to it. Especially since neighbors can apparently share a reference station if desired.

Object Relations Theory' (Fairbairn, 1952). places crucial importance upon interpersonal relationships, most of all interfamilial relationships, especially between the mother and the child.
The theory, in particular, concerns itself with how we develop. in our early lives, inner, mental images of ourselves and others and how these images affect our interpersonal relationships throughout later life. The theory also incorporates the idea that humans are primarily motivated by a powerful desire to form positive relationships with others (breaking away from Freud's belief that humans are primarily motivated by the instinctual drives of sex and aggression).
Research suggests (e.g.Nigg et al., 1992) that those suffering from BPD are prone to develop 'malevolent representations' of others. This section summarizes why this might be in terms of psychoanalytic theory.
First, it is necessary to introduce two terms: 'Object Cathexis' and 'Object Hunger.'
According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, 'object cathexis' is a classical psychoanalytic term that refers to the process of the investment of libido or psychic energy in objects outside the self, such as a person, goal, idea, or activity.'
Object hunger, on the other hand, refers to an intense need of, and dependency upon, others (e.g. family, friends, intimate partners) or, especially in the case of BPD sufferers who experience profound feelings of emptiness, substitutes such as narcotics, tobacco, alcohol, promiscuous sex, overeating, overspending on material goods etc.
In simple terms, if we were brought up in early life by primary cares who made us feel safe and secure we are likely to have developed healthy object cathexis and a general trust in the world and others. However, if our primary carers failed to make us feel sufficiently safe and secure, we are much more likely to have developed a diametrically opposed general view (i.e. that the world and others are unsafe, threatening and not to be trusted). This, in turn, creates in us 'object hunger.'
Introjection is a psychoanalytic term that means:
'the unconscious incorporation of attitudes or ideas of others into one's personality'. [particularly in relation to the child and his/her parents/primary carers].
Loving and nurturing parents lead us to introject their positive attitudes about others, ourselves and the world in general whereas parents who are abusive or neglectful lead us to introject their negative attitudes about others, ourselves and the world in general which, in turn, creates a proneness in us to see ourselves as unlovable, the world as unsafe and threatening and others as essentially malevolent.
Furthermore, if we are unable to introject positive attitudes from our parents due to their abuse and/or neglect we will be unable to construct a positive, internal, mental representation of them to comfort us in times of stress when they are not physically present. And, because of this, we are likely to have an impaired ability to calm ourselves down and self-soothe when emotionally upset.
Our inability to effectively self-soothe, due to our failure (because of our parents'/primary carers' abuse and/or neglect) to create for ourselves in early life a 'soothing introject' can mean that when feeling fearful and under threat we create instead in our minds a 'malevolent other' in order to help us to make sense of the situation and to rationalize it. For example, if a friend unconsciously triggers in us the feelings of rejection we felt in childhood we may demonize and devalue them because we are unable to draw on the emotional resources a 'soothing introject' would otherwise have provided. In this sense, the mental creation of the 'malevolent other' operates as a defence mechanism based upon the process of transference ('transference refers to an individual's displacement or projection of feelings originally directed at parents/primary carers in the individual's childhood onto others).
Of course, if, due to our childhoods, we have developed this in-built tendency to view others as malevolent, we are likely to encounter serious problems in relation to our interpersonal relationships. Cognitive behavioural therapy can help alter our view of others by uncovering our unconscious biases and thus improve our relationships with others.
What, in more objective terms, is a malevolent personality?
Moshagen and colleagues carried out a study to try to identify the key features of a malevolent personality. They identified nine traits in all which were as follows:
Sadism: humiliates others, is cruel and demeaning to others, intentional inflicts physical, psychological or sexual pain for power or pleasure. Self-interest: relentlessly strives for social advancement and self-gratification via wealth, status, academic achievement, career success or pleasure for example. Spitefulness: driven to hurt others, even at some expense to self. Egoism. Machiavellianism. Moral disengagement: holds strong individual beliefs about morality which lead to unethical behaviour. Narcissism. Psychological entitlement: deep seated beliefs one is entitled to more than others. Psychopathy.

Bruh. Buddy. My guy. It's okay, you're okay, I promise. The flowers can't hurt you. Pink isn't contagious.
I get that the poster was mostly joking about blood and skulls, and we can have a whole, tired conversation about sewing is for everyone - but let's be honest: most of domestic sewing machine manufacturers' customers are women. They sometimes make (traditional) design choices considering their target demographic because it's their reliable market.
(And, hopefully, they trust their customers are looking for a sewing machine that sews and aren't getting too fussed about how it looks, beyond a generally pleasing level of aesthetic.)
Like, I'm against gender norms - but they're "norms" for a reason. A good amount of the population subscribes to them, especially in "traditional" crafts like sewing. They design things for woman, perhaps in an outdated and/or sexist way, because they expect women to buy them. Personally, I like the pretty designs because they mostly match up with my personal tastes, but that doesn't mean they're for everyone. They're just for the manufacturer's "target demographic".
To be clear: whatever. Buy the machine with the flowers, don't buy the machine with the flowers - or buy it and put tape over them, or paint over them, or draw your goddamn skulls, yourself, I really could not care less.
But I'm bitching because a few things rubbed me the Wrong Way:
.1. not all girls like pink / well I want skulls, too comments. Tbh I have no idea how many were sincere v. sarcastic, but bruh. Babes. My loves. I support you in your aesthetic endeavors, but there are fully too many of you objecting. It's giving Not Like Other Girls - except clearly, yes, Like Other Girls.
That's fine, no hate, but maybe give the feedback to the manufacturers or something? For all the good it would do, it would do more good than whatever nonsense you're commenting in.
.2. the assertion that pretty, feminine machines are actively discouraging men from taking up sewing. Idk, my guy, if a painted flower is stopping men from picking up a new skill, I don't think it's a problem with the machine, I think it's a problem with the men.
(Not all men, obviously, but whatever Peak Masculinity OP meant.)
Also: fuck you for suggesting that a traditionally female craft has to remove any trace of femininity in order to include/welcome/accommodate men. Fuck right off with that bullshit.
.3. it's literally, factually untrue. It's absolute bullshit to say most/all basic sewing machines have abhorrent, exclusionary designs on them. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've looked at beginner machines (mine was plain blue-and-white) so I looked it up. Of the first 10 true beginner machines Google showed me, 3 had "feminine" designs. Three. My guy, I don't know how to tell you this, but 3/10 is not a majority. I found a "best basic sewing machines" listicle that showed 1 "girly" machine out of 7 - which means six of the seven machines were gender-nuetral, whatever that means, I guess. That's what we call a majority. But thank god you miraculously found a black-and-white machine.
But go off, I guess. Send Singer a letter saying mEN SeW tOo, and I'm sure they'll have a Skull and Crossbones Simple in production by month's end. I'm going to go paint swirls and flowers on my (plain) Brother to prove a point. Maybe I'll break out some crystals, too.

It's the First of April. Thats all I will say.
________________________________________
The New Hope
Vance was tired, he had been on the run all day long. What had looked to be another boring routine survey mission into a simple uncharted binary star system had turned out to be quite a bit more.
Stopping for a quick breather, Vance pulled out his hydroflask and took a long pull of the lukewarm water. It might have been a bit stale, but to him it tasted sweet as cherry soda. The hydroflask sealed with a pop as he replaced it on his belt. It would slowly draw moisture from the air and condense it inside, refilling over time.
Good thing too, this planet seemed to be a never-ending desert. Everywhere he turned to look the relentless twin suns beat down on his thick grey fur, causing him to pant heavily as he tried to cool himself down futilely.
Vance was Yeown, a member race of the Sapient Congressional Union. He stood just under two meters tall though his shoulders were hunched and his long arms were held at a low ready by his sides. His slightly werewolf-like features were currently scrunched into a scowl as he surveyed the surrounding landscape, trying to determine what his next move should be.
That's when he saw it, on the horizon, smoke. Smoke meant fire, and as so often was the case, fire often meant people and civilization.
A destination in sight and a goal in mind, he was now feeling much better about his situation. Vance took a few minutes of walking along the endless dunes to once more marvel on his situation. The fact that he was able to breath without his constricting environmental suit was a miracle. Naturally habitable planets were rare, not so rare as to be nonexistent, but rare enough that his chance stumbling blindly across one was likely a once in a lifetime experience. Well, once in a lifetime if he didn't find shelter was a near guarantee.
His people had evolved on a cooler, more temperate world. The Yeown homeworld of Bright Moon was a temperate world with large polar regions and thick evergreen forests that covered much of the planet’s surface. This relentless heat was slowly but surely killing him. If he didn't find a place to cool off in the next few hours he was likely to suffer heat exhaustion and die.
Vance shivered at the thought. His mummified remains would be lost to the endless sands of this cruel desert. He looked forwards again, the smoke did in fact seem closer now that he really scrutinized it. He grinned, pointed carnivore teeth bared in a terrible grimace. Any non-herbivore species able to see him at that moment would likely have had a fit, his bestial features less sapient in appearance than most other known races.
While this did not frequently bother him, it had on occasion caused some small disturbance to other member races. In particular dimwitted humans.
He snarled quietly, the SCU had only made contact with his people forty years in the past. Plenty of time for the other member races of the Union to become acquainted, but they hadn't. It seemed that many of them harbored an instinctive mistrust towards the Yeown. Whether it was born of ancestral fear or prejudice meant little to Vance, it was wrong. There were even whisperings of succession in some of the more extreme circles.
It would never happen though. The Union was truly vast, thousands of inhabited worlds spanning thousands of light years and with a population numbering in the hundreds of quadrillions of sapient beings. There was no realistic way that their tiny population of a few billion could hope to stand up to the might of quadrillions.
He put thoughts of rebellion out of his head, the Union wasn't some tyrannical galactic empire after all, they did seem to have the best interests of their citizens in mind. ‘Most of the time.’ He thought silently, bitterness reentering his thoughts in spite of himself.
The smoke drew steadily closer, thoughts of what kind of strange people might inhabit such a desolate world caused his mind to enter a tizzy. From what he knew of desert creatures they tended towards the more insectoid or reptilian. Mammals were a rare sight on such worlds, would they accept him as a sapient being? What if they tried to kill him?
Dark thoughts of murder and cannibalism entered his mind unbidden. Such creatures existed across the Union, Flesh tearers and the other psychotic bloodthirsty pirates that frequented the less populated regions of the galaxy. Was it possible that the indigenous people of this world would be the same?
His ship had not detected radio signals before he had mysteriously lost power. Only by switching to his secondary generator had he been able to prevent himself from becoming a glassed crater in the planet’s surface, barely. His ship had suffered catastrophic damage in the landing and he had decided to try and scout out the area.
Thats where he had made his first mistake, he had oriented himself towards the morning sun and started off, but soon after the first had risen then another sun had made its presence known in the ever-brightening sky. His compass had been useless and his trail had been obscured by fresh blown sand. Soon he had found himself hopelessly lost.
With no landmarks to follow and two suns causing him to confuse the direction he had come from, he had started to lose all hope of making it off the planet alive. But then he had seen the smoke, like a beacon it inspired hope in his chest.
He took another large panting breath before taking a moment to rest in a shallow hollow. He cocked his head as he spotted the first life he had yet seen on the planet, a small scraggly bush, barely alive by the looks of it. Its wood was covered in gnarls and grey twigs, knobby and blistered by uncountable days of exposure to the harsh elements.
Still, where there was life there was water, that was a good sign as he was drinking from his hydroflask faster than it seemed to be able to replenish
He took another deep shuddering breath, his break had done nothing but drawn attention to his aching muscles and sore joints. Walking for hours through the soft sand had turned his legs to jelly and his feet to raw meat. His large clawed paw-like feet generally had no problems with the terrain, but the hot sand had slowly begun to scour the softer flesh between his toes. While he wasn't bleeding yet, the flesh was raw and tender, he knew that he would have to clean them soon so as to prevent potential infections.
Vance had received a universal inoculation when he had turned the age of twelve, but while it was essentially an immune booster it was not a cureall. One could still get sick, the inoculation simply boosted the natural strength of his immune system. The result was near human levels of disease resistance but at the cost of becoming quite tired while fighting off an infection.
As Vance crested the next rise he froze, the cause of the smoke was now directly in front of him. The low rolling sand dunes gave way to an expanse of flattened earth, less sandy, more dusty.
In the middle of this flattened land was a large sunken pit of some sort and a low hut-like structure. The hut was the cause of the smoke, the structure charred and covered in strange marks.
Vance hunkered down, all thoughts of his sore muscles and raw feet forgotten as he observed the scene. It looked like the aftermath of a war zone, a high-tech warzone at that. The strange marks resolving themselves into some sort of burns like those made by energy weapons.
He swore loudly, then immediately snapped his mouth closed. Whatever or whoever had caused the damage might still be nearby, and from the looks of the place they would likely not have his best interests in mind either.
He waited a full ten minutes but no enemies appeared, he looked around and then swore quietly “Frine’s furred ass…” He needed a place to shelter and he couldn't wait any longer. Dangerous or not, the chance of death was better than certain death, and so he found himself moving towards the low round building. His body held low as he used his arms and legs to creep forwards.
He reached the side of the building and stopped, a new smell reached his strong senses. After nothing but the hot slightly metallic smell of the dunes and his gear, it was a bit of a surprise to smell something different. He smelled burnt flesh, the smell making his mouth water slightly. He had not had fresh meat for months, subsisting off the dried and freeze dried rations he was provided with by the company.
His stomach growled involuntarily and he swiped his tongue over his lips. He had a bad feeling that what he was about to find might not be a delicious home cooked meal though.
Sure enough as soon as he crept around to the front of the building he recoiled. In front of the door were the charred remains of two creatures, strangely familiar but unrecognizable due to the damage.
He looked closer despite his disgust, the creatures looked far too familiar, two legs and arms. A body shape similar to that of a human, but that was not too surprising he surmised. More than one of the Union member races seemed to take after that appearance, humanoid as the humans called it. And of course they would, they named everything after themselves the selfish hairless packbreakers.
Vance snorted, trying to get the smell out of his nostrils as he slunk by into the building itself. The building was larger than he had at first supposed. The doorway turned out to be a set of stairs that led underground in the direction of the large pit he had observed earlier. ‘They must be a burrowing race.’ He thought idly as he descended into the structure.
Indeed as he reached the bottom of the stairs it opened up into a small house built almost entirely underground. Though one of the rooms seemed lit, it must connect to the large open pit. The room was scorched, the look of a fire that must have raged out of control.
Even with the oppressive smell of charr and soot it was cooler than the surface. He located what looked like the remains of a stool and wiped it off before sitting. He gave a long sigh before taking another long swig from his hydroflask. It felt good to be sitting, his aching muscles and feet groaned in protest as he tried to regain his strength.
After a few minutes his breathing had slowed and he was feeling much more comfortable. He flexed his feet, he needed to find something to wash them with, he looked around. He couldn't see any obvious means of water storage. The planet was hot, hot and dry. But surely the local life drank water, or at least knew of its existence.
He stood, wincing slightly as his sore feet protested, the sand between his toes a constant sting. He limped over to the far wall and moved a few charred items off a nearby shelf. Nothing of use it seemed, then he stopped. He looked at the end of the counter before moving quickly towards a large box at the end of the counter, it looked like.
“Yes!” He said triumphantly. It had been some sort of refrigerator.
It seemed that whatever damage had been done to its exterior was entirely superficial as the inside lit up dimly with a soft bluish glow as he opened it. He grabbed for the large container of clear liquid on the uppermost shelf.
He was about to take a deep drink when his common sense stopped him. He had no idea what the liquid was, it could have been almost anything, so he pulled out a small analysis tool from his belt. Generally the small device was used to assay rocks and other samples brought onboard by his probes, but it should do just as well identifying the basic elements of the liquid.
Placing a small drop from the jug inside, he turned the device on and waited as it whirred softly. After about a minute it made a series of low beeps. Checking the display he smiled, hydrogen and oxygen bonded into di-hydrogen monoxide molecules, more commonly known as water.
He took a tentative taste, the cool clean water taking away the dull scratchiness in his mouth. He took another swallow, this one deeper and more satisfying. Sighing contentedly he looked into the small cooling unit again, there were some other items of interest, not the least of which was a small wrapped package of what appeared to be some meat-like substance.
While he wasn't hungry per-se, his instinctual craving for thick juicy chunks of meat was trying to get the better of him. He paused and then growled deep from his chest. There was no way he would pass up the opportunity if it was remotely safe to eat, and so he pulled out the protein analyzer from one of his vest pouches. While similar to the analysis tool, it would instead check the compounds of the product and check for incompatibilities. If none were expressly detected then it was in all likelihood compatible with his system. While he wasn't capable of the incredible culinary feats of humans who seemed to be capable of eating almost anything they could fit in their mouths, he could digest a wide variety of proteins and fats from many worlds he was not native to.
This ability made him confident that he would be able to eat the morsel without incident, though it was always better safe than sorry. He waited an irritating three minutes before the small device gave a chime and flashed green. That was a good sign, checking the screen on the analyzer it told him what he had hoped to see. What he had was a foreign foodstuff that seemed perfectly compatible with his biology, that was a little odd. Generally a food safe to eat from an alternate world would be at least partially incompatible with his digestion, but this seemed like it had been made specifically for him.
Shrugging at this turn of good fortune he grabbed the fist sized package and sat once more at the sooty stool. Unwrapping the meat fully he was hit with a delicious smell, like sweet and briny at the same time. He pulled out his survival knife and used it to carve off a chunk of the meat before taking a bite.
Immediately his mouth exploded with the flavors of the exotic flesh, it was tender and soft, hints of sweetness and a deep salty undertone that satisfied his cravings like nothing he had ever yet tasted before. It was like some cross of sea creature and cultured livestock, it was in all parts delicious. Vance found himself chowing down on the strange feast, before he knew it the meat was gone, his mouth still watering from the abundance of flavors.
He sat back on the stool, back pressed against one of the earthen walls and gave a sigh. He felt content. He felt a comfortable sleep threaten to overtake him and so sat up and then stood. There was still far too much to do before he could allow himself that luxury. He took the water jug and slowly poured a small measure of the precious liquid over his feet, taking care to maximize its usefulness in case he was unable to find more. After a minute of this he felt comfortable enough to take another look around.
He moved around the room, checking the walls and furniture for other potentially useful items, nothing jumped out at him explicitly but he kept at it. As he finished the common area he moved into some of the adjoining rooms but they all looked the same. Charred and with pieces of broken furniture lying in smoldering piles all around. Before he knew it he stepped out into the open air once more, but it was shaded. He looked around curiously, it seemed to be some sort of sunken courtyard.
Along the walls were what looked like some sort of long boxes connected to the metal walls with pipes and wires, he moved closer and saw that many had small green shoots and fronds inside. So this must be some sort of farm then he mused to himself. In the center of the area was a tall machine of some sort, tubes and small vanes covered its entire surface and he stepped close to it. His sensitive pointed ears swiveled slightly to better pick up faint sounds and he smiled again as he heard the distinct sound of liquid moving through the smaller pipes.
This must be some sort of atmospheric condenser, they were relatively common on dry desert planets but to see one on an uncharted and alien world was a shock. These people must be somewhat advanced to have electricity and condensers. Maybe if they had such technology they had a faster way of moving across the dunes. Some sort of buggy or skiff.
Vance looked around, well, it likely wasn't down in the pit, making up his mind he walked back into the underground house and made his way back to the kitchen area. Looking around for a moment he walked to the water jug he had left on the blackened countertop. Taking another drink from his hydroflask he poured out the small amount of water that remained and then refilled it with the much cleaner purified water from the jug. Now at least he would be able to drink it without tasting the inside of the micro condensers from his hydroflask.
He gathered all his gear and gave the darkened room one last look, nothing caught his immediate attention so he left, walking up the long staircase to the surface. He stepped around the two charred corpses at the front of the structure again and looked round. The area around the dwelling was clat and mostly clear, though about fifty meters away he spotted what looked like another tall condenser. Next to it was a small pile of boxes and crates, it was the only thing in sight that might hold something of interest so he started towards it.
As Vance reached the small pile he cocked his head, something went scampering from the cracks between the crates, a small creature that seemed to hop on two legs. It stopped a few meters from him and he looked at it intently. It was no bigger than a Znot, in fact, other than missing the extra limbs, it seemed remarkably similar. It had tan wrinkly skin that blended into the surrounding dirt and a long nose that it brushed a few times as he watched. It must have been some sort of small rodent equivalent native to this world. As he looked at the small critter It gave a small series of squeaks and scurried away, its tail disappearing back into the large pile of boxes.
He gave a small chuckle, it seemed like a harmless enough animal. As he walked around the boxes he stopped, on the far side previously out of sight sat some sort of contraption. The strange machine seemed to hover on some sort of antigravity cushion, as he approached and pushed on it it moved slightly but stayed remarkably stable. He gave it a look over, its purpose started to become clear to him the more he looked. It was long and thin, with a series of tubes and machinery along the bottom. The middle of the device had a saddle-like seat behind a pair of handlebars attached to a pair of long vaned tubes that jutted from the front. It almost looked like some sort of wheelless motorcycle, a popular type of vehicle frequently used in the more rural parts of the Union that he frequented.
He shrugged and climbed on, the seat was a little uncomfortable as it seemed designed for a smaller species, but it would be fine. He found the control stirrups and placed his feet in them. He gripped the handlebars tightly and kicked back on the pedals. The machine made a series of coughing noises and then returned to its seemingly inert status. It was still hovering however so it must still have been working.
Vance looked around and found a small switch on the body under the handles. He shrugged and flicked it, the machine seemed to whirr slightly but nothing else changed. Once more he pushed back on the pedals and gasped as the vehicle leapt forwards with an acceleration that threatened to tear the breath from his lungs. He eased off the pedals and the device slowed to a more manageable speed. He experimented with the handles and turned to the left, the vanes seemed to catch the air and the hovering vehicle made a neat left hand turn.
He smiled wide as the air rushed by his ears, the wind cooling him and weakening the oppressive heat of the planet. “What a way to travel," he chuckled to himself.
Getting the hang of the device took only minutes, after he had determined he understood the mechanics of the device he returned to the crate and dismounted, making sure to flick off the powerswitch lest the thing take off without him. That would put him firmly back to square one again.
He quickly checked the boxes, many of them were empty, a few held bits of machinery that he didn't know the purpose of. The last one he checked seemed to have some sort of mechanical device inside, it looked like a robot of some sort. Short and squat with a pair of wheeled legs on its sides. Its dome-like top was painted red and white and seemed to house a series of sensors and hatches. It appeared inactive and so he closed the top, not wanting to mess with something that he didn't know the purpose of. While he suspected it wasn't a device designed for destruction, there was no way of knowing and so it was better left untouched.
Vance climbed back onto the hovering bike, the hoverbike as he was starting to call it in his head, he flicked it back on and sat still. He had a means of transportation, but he had no destination. Which way would he go? He thought about heading back towards his ship but then thought better of it, there wasn't much of a point in going back to it anyways. It was done for, damaged beyond repair. Besides, from what he had seen of the area on the way over there was no life out in the dunes. He moved towards one of the high dunes on the opposite side of the place, stopping at the top he squinted and looked around. In the far distance he could make out what looked like a series of rocks. It was as good a place as any he figured, making a mental note of which direction he had come from he zoomed off towards the distant landmark.
If he considered the rotation of the planet and the rising of the suns being to the East as was common, then the direction he was heading was roughly north. He liked his odds of finding something north, it must cool down at least a little the further he traveled from the equatorial zones of the planet at the very least.
Vance reached the rocks in less than ten minutes, the same distance would have likely taken him hours to walk but he put it out of his mind. Signs of life were all around, small lizard-like creatures scattered into the rocks as he approached and he could see small shrub-like plants all around.
The planet wasn't as dead as it had initially looked he surmised, just the vast deserts lacked life. Here among the rocks more conventional life seemed to exist.
Vance slowed for a bit, taking his time as he wound his way through a series of canyons and deep clefts in the rock. At one point he thought he heard the sound of someone yelling, but it faded too fast for him to get a bead on its location.
The eeriness of the planet combined with his total lack of knowledge on what dangers may lay around the corner made his progress slower than it needed to be. He wished he had a weapon, a pistol, a stick, anything. Sure his retractable claws would put the hurt on anything that might come at him but he had no idea what he might be up against. The feeling of not being the top of the food chain sat ill with him, his hackles rose, the collar of fur longer and shaggier near the back of his neck. It had evolved that way to protect the neck from being an easily exploitable weak spot.
He heard a strange wailing noise, at first he thought it was some terrible beast and he froze. But as he listened closer it had the unmistakable undertone of a turbojet fan spinning rapidly. As the thought passed through his mind he exited the narrow canyon he had been traversing and he gasped. The land stretched out in front of him, kilometers and kilometers of open flat rock, and in the distance a settlement or some type. He could make out dozens of structures and a few larger circular buildings whose use he wasn't sure of. It looked to be several kilometers away, not a problem with his new mode of transportation.
High overhead he saw the unmistakable silhouette of a ship leaving the planet, if they had the ability to leave the planet then why had they never been contacted by the Union before? He shook his head and then zoomed towards the small town.
He reached it in minutes, slowing to a walking speed as he saw the main entrance point to the small town appeared guarded. He approached the entry slowly, unsure as to what he should do. He was obviously not the same species as the two white armoured soldiers manning the checkpoint, they looked humanoid in shape whereas he was much taller and lankier. His arms longer and his back hunched.
Another thought entered his mind just as he floated up to the two soldiers, how would he communicate? He racked his brains furiously as he tried to think of a solution, he waved at the two soldiers as they walked over and then nodded in a polite manner. He would just have to pretend to understand and hope nothing made them attack.
He nearly jerked himself off the hoverbike in shock as the first soldier walked over and asked in perfect unaccented common “Identification?”
He had to stop himself from stuttering, the words frozen in his mind at this strange new discovery.
The other soldier, this one with an orange shoulder pad, walked over and asked “Is there a problem here?”
Vance shook his furred head and dug out his ident card, there was no reason it should work but hey, stranger things had happened. He handed the ident card to the first soldier with a muttered “My apologies.”
The soldier seemed to scrutinize the card before looking at him, the featureless black eye lenses of the white helmet only deepening the feelings of paranoia he was feeling at the moment. The soldier turned to his superior and spoke “It's not a form I am familiar with, sir.”
The other soldier took the card and looked at it before handing it back to the trooper “It looks like a match to me. You know how these backworlds are. Let them through.”
Handing the card back the first soldier waved him through saying “Move along.”
Vance did so without another word, tucking his ident card away. He was in disbelief, that had worked? What were the odds? He stopped and took a second to compose himself before his jaw dropped again.
All around him were strange wonders and marvels. Aliens of almost every description wandered to and fro in the streets, strange hovering contraptions moved down the thoroughfares and large almost lizard-like creatures lowed at street corners where small vendors seemed to be hawking wares. He saw strange furred beasts with great horns pulling hovering carts, and a multitude of what seemed to be robots all around. He shivered at the thought of them, artificial intelligence was abhorrent.
It was a most incredible sight and for several minutes he marveled. His examination was cut short as a small hooded figure approached and started speaking at him. This time he was unable to understand the words and shook his head.
“I'm sorry I don't understand. What do you want?” he asked the diminutive creature. He couldn't make out its appearance under the heavy hooded robe it wore, but he could just make out a pair of shiny orange eyes. It seemed to become agitated at his remark and shouted again, his time drawing the attention of several passers by.
The creature made one final scathing alien remark before marching off. Several of the onlookers snickered, likely understanding the insults he had blindly weathered. He growled in a predatory manner and most of them hurried away. While he was not large for a male of his kind, he was much larger than most of these puny creatures.
He started along the street once more, he needed to find a place to get information. A message board, an information kiosk, anything. He shook his head once more, this entire experience had been surreal. The journey feeling more like some crazed dream sequence more so than an actual real series of events.
Many of the aliens he saw looked disturbingly human, several even looked slightly like the slaaveth, though with some minor differences. What was this place, where had he stumbled into? He racked his brains for everything he knew about this region of space. All he could come up with though was that it was near Drivil and uncharted, about three hundred light years past the coreworlds border. An area of space generally referred to as the great frontier.
Suddenly he stopped. He looked again to his right, there across the street next to a pile of wreckage sat another of those strange hovering contraptions. This one a dusty red in color, but that was not what had captured his keen eye. No, next to the hovering vehicle was a low building with the unmistakable look of a bar to it.
He smiled, an alien bar, well, if it was like anything else he had come across it might in fact be more familiar than anything else he had encountered so far. Hopefully they spoke common in there as well. He made his way across the street and then flicked off the hoverbike before dismounting. He looked left and right but saw no way of securing it.
“Oh well.” he said quietly to himself as he walked towards the door of the building. It wasn't like the thing had belonged to him anyways. Maybe it would be there when he came out, probably not. He would just have to cross that stream when he got to it.
Vance walked to the door which opened automatically at his presence, he was immediately hit with a wall of smoky smells and funky noises. A catchy tune that made his long narrow tail twitch in tune and made him want to bob his head. He smiled, his wide grin glinting as the light met his long canines. This seemed just like his kind of place.
He sidled up to the bar top, one of the other patrons giving him a long look. He nodded to the strange green alien and then asked the bartender, a disturbingly human looking alien wearing a tan shirt.
They looked him up and down and asked “Yeah? What will it be?”
Vance frowned slightly and then replied “Information.”
The man seemed to tense and said “That isn't something I generally serve here, a dangerous commodity that is.”
Vance sighed and then replied “Ok then, answer me one question then if you would?” The man nodded slowly. “How does one book passage off this planet? Is there a spaceport I could go through or…” but was cut off as the man waved around the room.
“Off world? Anyone can get you offworld, for the right price. I'm sure if you ask around you might find something suitable, now please, order a drink or leave me alone.” and the man scurried to the far side of the bar.
The strange interaction sat ill with him. He looked around the room, the many patrons of the bar laughing and drinking. Several tables appeared to have various types of gambling or betting going on at them. He smirked, the more things changed the more they seemed to stay the same he supposed.
He jerked as movement met the corner of his eye, turning his head he saw a man waving to him from across the building. He cocked his head and the man seemed to pause. They nodded and then waved him over again. Shrugging he wandered over, he had nothing better to do at the moment after all.
The man was leaning against the wall nearest to the door, his white undershirt and black vest doing nothing to cover the dangerous looking pistol strapped to his side.
Vance cautiously stopped in front of the man. “Hello there, I’m sorry but I couldn't help but overhear you are looking for passage offworld?”
Vance nodded and asked “Yes, you have excellent hearing. Er, I must apologize that I am a bit lost here. Where am I?”
The man smiled charmingly and patted his shoulder while gesturing towards the door. “You are in precisely the right place my friend. I happen to have the fastest ship in the galaxy, where are you headed?”
Vance shook his head and said “Somewhere else, I would like to get back to the Union. But I'll settle for somewhere cooler if that's a start.” he said with a chuckle.
The man nodded and said “Well, that's a good start I suppose. You are able to pay of course?” he asked seriously as they exited the building.
Ah yes of course, money. Vance kicked himself mentally, he had his entire last paycheck in Osmir in one of his pouches. He hated using credit chips, he always felt that his money didn't even exist while using them, he liked to be able to hold it in his hand. Cash was always much more graciously accepted in the frontier where he worked too.
He reached into his money purse and pulled out a handful of Osmir. He handed a few to the man and said “All I have is Union Osmir, would that be acceptable?”
The man looked at the small handful of coins and asked “I suppose, it's not Imperial credits after all. But what is it worth?”
Vance pointed to a few of the coins and rattled of their values “Well, that is a ten credit Osmir, that one is fifty credits and the last one with the largest fleck is a one hundred credit Osmir. I have a few Osmiridium ingots on me. Should be worth a few thousand credits. Would that be adequate?” he said with a bit of a head bob.
The man smiled and held one of the coins up to the light “Osmiridium huh? Yeah I think we can help each other. The name is Han by the way.”
“Hello Han, I'm Vance.” he replied.
“My ship is in bay ninety four, want to meet me there?” Han said to him.
Vance shook his head and said “I don't know where bay ninety four is, are you going that way now? I could follow you there perhaps?”
Han smiled again and looked him up and down saying “Yeah. I think you should be fine to tag along Vance. Follow me then.”
Vance nodded and fell in alongside Han, they walked along the side roads for a few minutes, neither of them seeing a reason to speak until Han steered him towards one of the large circular structures he had seen from the city outskirts. There was a series of alien symbols on the door that he couldn't read but Han smiled and made a gesture. “Here we are, bay ninety four.”
Vance walked inside and frowned as he saw what looked to be a pile of scrap in the rough shape of a starship. A design he was wholly unfamiliar with. “What is that?” he asked, unable to keep a bit of the shock from his voice.
“That?” Han asked. “That's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs, friend. And time is money as they say. Please welcome yourself aboard the Millennium Falcon.”
Vance looked at the ship, its rough features giving him pause. His trained eye soon looked deeper though, under the scrap and grime he began to see it, the lines of a ship designed for power.
He stood for a moment longer and then turned to Han. the man asked “Well? What do you think?”
Vance gave Han a wide toothy grin as a new hope began to form in his mind and said “I think it's perfect.”
​
==End of Transmission==

Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure. Remember when you tried to kill me twice?
​
Oh, wait, that's not the right intro. We're not at the end of the sixth book and it's been quite the journey everyone, I must say. People didn't like my writing. People did like my writing. People said I was writing too much and I need a tl;dr. People downvoted my stuff without telling me why. People hilariously took issue with my saying maybe our heroes should address poverty. You know, fun stuff like that. But the main thing is that I got to read a really cool book out of it, and it was pretty fantastic, really. So, if you think about it, I was the true winner here.
​
There were quite a few pretty major developments in this book and a few dangling plot threads as well. It's interesting how this book is bookended so completely by Demandred and a mysterious Myrddral, Shaidar Haran, that speaks directly for the Dark Lord apparently. There's not a lot of indication of exactly what the plan here is, but it has something to do with keeping Rand alive and the mysterious "Lord of Chaos." I'm really not sure if that is a reference to a specific person or thing or if that is a metaphor. The "Lord of Chaos" could just be Rand himself, but the Dark Lord doesn't want Rand succeeding, obviously, because he's destined to lose to Rand at the Last Battle. Whatever it is, Demandred is doing something in this book that he considers a success and perhaps the Dark Lord does as well and it's really quite hard to tell exactly what that is, probably we won't know until later books.
​
One of the major developments, in itself, is learning that the Dark Lord can resurrect Forsaken, at least those who haven't died to Balefire because they get ripped out of time altogether, itself a pretty wild and fucked up ability. The fact that the Dark Lord can't reach out of time is interesting, there's a limitation there that can perhaps be exploited. The only way to keep the Forsaken out for certain is to kill them with Balefire or to make the Dark Lord dislike them in some way, like with Asmodean, so it doesn't resurrect them. One thing I do like about these books is how the bad guys are always operating in the shadows and it's rather rare that we get a look in to what they're doing, but I like that. The influence is there under the surface and behind the scenes. It makes sense for what team Dark Lord have to do right now. They don't have the strength to come out and openly fight Rand yet. That has to wait until the last battle, presumably. I like the use of Aran'gar, here. She's the Forsaken who used to be a man resurrected. I knew for sure that she had to be a man despite now inhabiting a female body because no female Forsaken died before this point. Hell, none of them have died AT THIS POINT either. None of the Forsaken died in this one, interestingly enough. Huh. Aran'gar working behind the scenes in Salidar is absolutely interesting and I'm wondering what exactly she was up to the whole time. Obviously she freed Moghedien. We also know that she wanted to influence the Hall to gentle Logain since the Forsaken and probably the Dark One see Logain and probably the whole Black Tower that he is probably about to go to as a threat. There's also the annual (once per book) look in on Padan Fain as we count down the days until he actually does something to influence the plot, lol.
​
Another major development that I don't particularly like is Morgase going to the Whitecloaks for help and eventually signing over her country to them. This definitely felt like bad writing to me, to be honest. Probably the only instance of it, in the book, although the Egwene being made Amyrlin section is iffy. The fundamental problem with this section is that it's just the worst possible decision she could have made amongst a sea of bad decisions. I definitely get the idea that she was brain damaged, that compulsion made her illogical, that Rhavin made her distrust Aes Sedai. That's the bad writing part. In order for this decision to work, Morgase has to be brain damaged and not in her right mind because it's not a decision that she would make if she completely had her mental capacities, one would think. Which just isn't as interesting as a character making a decision for herself and not because of something someone else did to her. That can, certainly, be interesting, the Forsaken influencing the rulers of nations with compulsion, but it's much more disappointing AFTER she's supposedly broken free of the Forsaken's influence. I get that this is going to be the basis for Pedron Niall declaring war on Rand. But the thing that kills me about this is that it wasn't necessary at all. The Whitecloaks really didn't need an excuse to declare war on Rand, they would have done it anyway, eventually. They are an inherently anti-magic organization that believes all channelers are darkfriends. Period. They're certainly not going to support anyone who calls himself the Dragon Reborn. You could have gotten your war with the Whitecloaks and Rand in any way AT ALL, you didn't need a mentally damaged Morgase. Fortunately, this is the only major development I dislike. The others are quite interesting.
​
I really appreciate in this book how Rand is holding firm to his political power and not abandoning it and running away. I said this in the previous book as well, but this was a habit of his. He had a habit of gaining political power, setting up a base, and then immediately abandoning it. But here he is forced to stay in one place, or, two places. I liked seeing him jump back and forth between two different courts and having to deal with the different problems of each one. That was really cool. I'm not sure how this is going to change, now, after the ending. Whether he's able to hold on to one or both is going to be interesting. The point is that he's doing things, he influencing nations, giving commands, sending out agents into the world to do his bidding. He's a real political player on the board and not just a random guy running around on a quest. I love that. That's the type of thing I'm here for.
​
Continuing the major developments, we have the development of the Black Tower. This is the first time we've see the character of Mazrim Taim and boy is he a cool character. Somehow he's held off the madness for long enough to come to Rand and Rand has now appointed him as the headmaster of his new school for male channelers. Taim is such a sketchy character, too, and I see why Rand doesn't want Taim to use the power on him. Rand's amnesty is huge and completely unprecedented. Male magic users are inevitably going to go insane because of the taint on saidin, that's why the Red Ajah exists at all in the first place to hunt them down. To not only allow them to roam free, but to teach them and to use them as soldiers is wild. And what happens at the end when they prove how gut-wrenchingly powerful they are when they destroy an army and capture Aes Sedai is truly earth shattering: politics defining. The Black Tower is a serious force to be reckoned with and maybe now be completely out of Rand's control. I really think that the two times Rand was almost attacked by Asha'mon in this book was deliberate foreshadowing to when the Black Tower, not really knowing who they're supposed to serve, turn on him as the madness takes them. Or just because they don't want to support Rand anymore. I'm calling it now: The Black Tower will turn on Rand at some point.
​
The Salidar stuff is absolutely fantastic and a real highlight of the book for me. I've consistently loved the Aes Sedai politics and this stuff was no exception. Sheriam's inner circle, probably the strongest political faction in Salidar, made a play to made Egwene the Amyrlin Seat. After thinking about this for awhile, I've come to the conclusion this is actually, secretly, a genius, if absolutely batshit insane, move. It is also kind of tropey in a young adult novel kind of way. A young kid is given a massive amount of power without having done anything to earn it. Naming Egwene Amyrlin is genius for a few reasons. She wasn't in the Tower when Siuan was deposed. Indeed, I'm pretty sure she was in the Waste at that point. She's insanely powerful in the power, which is what they need now: someone with a lot of power. She's (nominally) close to Rand, though she doesn't have as much influence over him as Sheriam would hope. She's extremely young, I believe they said she's only 18. That makes naming her look absolutely fucking ridiculous. Which it is. Which makes the other Aes Sedai factions under Romanda and Lelaine think they can control her. Sheriam thinks this too and she is controlling Egwene to an extent. Egwene has proven to be fairly capable of resisting that control, though, as much as she is able and is even trying her hand at political manipulation for herself. She's even had some pretty good successes with it.
​
Huge development with Nynaeve, as well. Nynaeve managed to cure stilling and gentling. BY ACCIDENT! Nynaeve came out of the fifth book as my favorite character, because of her arc of standing up for herself in that book after being beaten down so much, and she's continued to live up to that now as she turns out to be an insanely powerful healer. Nobody has ever done this, probably in thousands of years, and Nynaeve does it absent-mindedly while thinking of something else. I genuinely couldn't be more happy for her on her huge accomplishment. I dunno if she'll continue to live up to that reputation as the series goes on, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, this has huge implications for magic users in general and I couldn't help but feel genuinely happy for Siuan and Leanne and Logain.
​
There's another huge development in the Aes Sedai, Alanna, someone who I didn't even know existed until now (and who apparently was with Verin in the Two Rivers in the fourth book) bonds Rand as a Warder against his will. That is absolutely fucking wild. Doing that against someone's will is seen as rape by the rest of the Aes Sedai and rightfully so, it's a really intimate act. That bond leads the Aes Sedai to tracking down Rand in the finale battle, but it also leads to the Aes Sedai being forced to kneel.
​
This spooks Rand pretty significantly and it is the beginning of the end of any amount of trust he has left for Aes Sedai. He's already suspicious of anyone using the Power at all and doing this was monumentally stupid. Alanna's justification is pretty flimsy, so I'm not sure what her deal was here, but it was the beginning of the dominos falling. The Salidar embassy that arrives does another monumentally stupid thing: they try to intimidate Rand in retaliation for an attack on one of them. They don't realize that it wasn't him who did it, but they jump to the conclusion that it was him anyway. And finally, the last straw for them is when the two Aes Sedai who had been sent out near the beginning of the book to look for him arrive and that makes thirteen, the magic number. The kidnapping made him distrust Aes Sedai so fully that he needs them to swear loyalty to him. This is also a huge development. Aes Sedai do not kneel to anyone. They are as independent as possible and have monumental influence on nations in and of themselves. But being forced to bend the knee changes the game dramatically. It means they are no longer the most powerful kids on the block anymore. The Dragon Reborn and his Asha'man are now more powerful. That has huge political ramifications. Rulers aren't going to be so eager to trust Aes Sedai or take their advice when they know that Elaida is untrustworthy, for the plan being to trick Rand and kidnap him, and that the Asha'man are more powerful. The Salidar Aes Sedai don't look amazing either, as it was the Salidar Aes Sedai forced to kneel to Rand. Between the two, though, the Salidar Aes Sedai look better than Elaida's Aes Sedai and it's going to probably help the Salidar case that they are tethered to the most powerful person in the world.
​
That's pretty much it for the major developments, I think. There are some smaller things I found interesting though. I really like Verin for some reason and I think it's because she made for a really interesting foil to Moiraine when she became the Gandalf of the party in the second book instead of Moiraine. Her thirst for knowledge rather than just being motivated to fight the shadow was really cool to me. It was a break from fantasy tradition. And then her fighting the Trollocs in the fourth book was really cool as well. It's just a shame we didn't get to see a whole lot of her in this book, though I find it interesting how she's apparently sneakier than she lets on. She apparently influenced the Aes Sedai who got attacked into deciding on punishing Rand in a certain way that helped lead to the downfall of the embassy. I'm wondering what that's about. Hmmm....
​
There's a huge cloud hovering over the entirety of this book, and by cloud I mean sun. It's the middle of winter and yet it's insanely hot. Like Florida or Texas or California. Miserably hot. It hangs over the whole story as everyone is feeling the misery of the insane heat. Now that I'm thinking about it, actually, I'm wondering if THIS was Demandred's order from the Dark Lord. The "Lord of Chaos" could be the unleashing of the miserable heat that potentially affects everyone's decision making. I'm not ruling it out. One of the major plot points is Nynaeve and Elayne finding a bowl ter'angreal in Ebou Dar in Tel'aran'rhiod that supposedly controls the weather. That would be a big deal. If they could find something to turn off this insane heat, they might be heroes and it would help the Salidar cause.
​
Moving on to the dangling plot-threads. We saw Graendal and Sammael plotting together and nothing has really come of that yet. We also saw Rand's army getting ready to cross the border into Illian. That was supposed to be a decoy for Rand to show up by portal and kill Sammael, what he did with Rhavin. But nothing ever came of that either. I was surprised that we set this up only for it to not happen in this book. I'm wondering if that will be part of the plan for the next book? Rand just kind of forgot that he was planning on doing it? I guess? Or the timeframe didn't work out? Obviously, Rand ordered Mat's people to go to the Salidar Aes Sedai, but he had plenty of time to enact this plan before that and he just... didn't. There was even a threat from Sammael in the form of a messenger who self-destructed and nothing. There's Loial's mother and betrothed and stedding leader or whatever the position is called who show up and go looking for him. Now they're in Two Rivers and Loial is in Cairhien. That seems to have just been dropped. Especially since Loial got his battery recharge by going to a Stedding and he's all good to go. There was a brief talk about how Rand wanted to guard all the Waygates and we got an interesting scene in Shadar Logoth, but that didn't really go much of anywhere. It even led to Sulin being a hilarious servant for awhile and still nothing. There's also the matter of the Seanchan returning. The notes that Pedron Nial got from his isolated spy in Tanchico absolutely led me to believe that the Seanchan have taken it over as a beachhead. Rand is going to have to fight them here soon, probably in the next couple of books. I don't even know if the Children of the Light are up to keeping them at bay. They're both two evil groups, though, so let them fight.
​
Even with a book this insanely long, there's only so much time. And this book is long, this is the longest book in the series according to word count and page count, apparently. These three: four, five, and six, are the longest stretch of the series and I got through them. I'm absolutely shocked that I've done it. But I'm going to be moving on to the next one here as well. I find it hilarious that people took issue with my saying we should address poverty and with my political beliefs because I'm sure the politics is only going to continue as we go on. So if you don't want to hear about how I think people shouldn't have to live in poverty or be homeless, you might want to step out after this, I imagine the series is going to keep showing us people living in poverty. It's not the first time it's done it, too, we've seen refugees in Cairhien and the pretty blatant class system in the city of Cairhien with the wooden city outskirts, Foregate, in, I believe, the second book? And the slum in New Spring. Why do the books keep showing us people living in poverty if they don't mean to address it? So I'm looking forward to that and I'm excited to see these books getting more and more political. That's the type of fantasy I like, it's why I quite enjoyed Game of Thrones, you know, before it collapsed in on itself and the author lost interest.
​
This book also had one of the coolest endings to a fantasy book I've read in awhile. That battle was absolutely fantastic. Fantastically written and fantastically staged. Not to mention the earth-shattering ending that absolutely changed the world forever. So I'm excited for whenever I start the next one. This series has been fantastic now that I'm past the fourth book and into the political stuff. I feel like I ran a marathon after that almost 1000 page book, and I'm kind of relieved the rest of the books aren't that long. 600-800 pages feels like a quick breezy short story in comparison. I will be taking a break, though, to read other things, as I always do with these books, but I will definitely be back soon with book seven: A Crown of Swords, where we will pick up the dangling plot threads that we left off. See you then!

i’m looking for someone who would be willing to draw up some tattoos or send me a website for meaningful tattoos, minimalistic, not super big. it’s my first tattoos so i don’t really know what i’m taking about any advice or references are appreciated at well 🫶

Firstly, heres the decklist:

Creatures: 22

4 [[Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer]]
4 [[Esper Sentinel]]
4 [[Fury]]
4 [[Stoneforge Mystic]]
3 [[Seasoned Pyromancer]]
3 [[Phyrexian Vindicator]]

Instants: 7

4 [[Unholy Heat]]
3 [[Lightning Bolt]]

Enchantments: 4

4 [[Fable of the Mirror Breaker]]

Planeswalkers: 2

2 [[Nahiri the Unforgiven]]

Artifacts:

1 [[Kaldra Compleat]]
1 [[Sword of Fire and Ice]]
1 [[Sword of Light and Shadow]] (Probably going to cut this for a Batterskull)

Lands:

4 [[Arid Mesa]]
4 [[Sacred Foundry]]
4 Plains
4 [[Inspiring Vantage]]
4 The red white flip land
2 [[Sunbaked Canyon]]

Sideboard:

4 [[Hallowed Moonlight]]
3 [[Engineered Explosives]]
3 [[Drannith Magistrate]]
3 [[Wear // Tear]]
2 [[Unlicensed Hearse]]

Notes:

My locals is known for having a lot of meta players and a die-hard Jund player. (Burn is still meta, right?)
In all my matches (Burn, Creativity, Jund, Rhinos, and Murktide) pretty much every card felt really good to drop. In fact, throughout the whole tournament, the weakest card to use was, shockingly, lightning bolt.
For Burn, I just had to stick a body down, preferably Esper Sentinel. Then I just keep dropping bodies and bullying their field. The lack of any sideboard for them was rough though. Definitely going to put some kind of life gain in.
Creativity is straight up a bad matchup. Game 1 is almost a guaranteed loss because the deck has no way to stop them from comboing off outside of just killing their creatures with unholy heat or bolt. Games 2 and 3 are more manageable, though.
Rhinos is a very fun matchup. They have rhinos, fury, and endurance to bully you, but you have unholy heat, phyrexian vindicator, and a lot more draw power.
Jund was easy to deal with. Game 1 I burst them with Unholy Heat on my Vindicator and swing after they had been fetching all game. Game 2 I wipe their board with EE, and then just do the same as game 1. Its very hard to go 1 for 1 with this deck thanks to Pyromancer, Fable, and Esper Sentinel.
Murktide was almost a bye. Fun fact: If you cast a Vindicator and they don't counter it, they lose. Literally, the only out they have in their deck is Ottawara, or Brazen Borrower if they even run it. They can't block Vindicator because it will board wipe them. They can't attack with Murktide because Vindicator has flying and will straight up kill it. They can't unholy heat it because it will just send it somewhere else, possibly even to their face.

Final Thoughts:

This deck needs more polish. (Probably mainboard 2 EE and sideboard stuff to deal with Burn or whatever. Maybe blood moon) But it feels like a strong threat outside of creativity. Also, on the play, turn 1 Esper Sentinel into turn 2 Dash Monke is a crazy strong play no matter the deck. Always puts the opponent in a losing position. I would love to see what changes you guys would make.

Also if this deck becomes meta, you MUST refer to it as Boros Slamhouse. I forbid ANY OTHER name.