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According to the Regional Research Reports, the global ?organic detox tea market size is estimated to grow from USD a million in 2022 to reach USD multi- million by 2033 at a CAGR of 4.9% from 2023 to 2033. The growth is primarily driven by several variables about which Regional Research Reports provides comprehensive insights and estimation in the global ?organic detox tea market research.
The Regional Research Reports published the report on “global ?organic detox tea market Report 2023 – Future Growth Opportunities, Latest Technological Trends, In-depth Analysis, and Forecast To 2033” provides the futuristic vision of the global ?organic detox tea market along with the market size (Revenue – US$ Million) and estimates for the duration 2023 to 2033. The aforementioned research study examines various market segments in terms of nature, form, wellness claim, distribution channel, and regional. The competitive profiles of the top vendors of ?organic detox tea products and their most recent developments are also included in the report.
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Global ?Organic Detox Tea Market Analysis

This report includes market size and forecast analysis for each segment - by nature, form, wellness claim, distribution channel, and geography. Additionally, for the years 2023 to 2033, compound annual growth rates for all segments have been provided. In addition to highlighting recent market trends for ?organic detox tea, the study also provides information on upcoming trends that will affect demand. The global ?organic detox tea market report also includes annual growth rates for each segment. Additionally, the report analyses the market from the standpoint of production and provides cost overviews for the ?organic detox tea market as well as analyses of labor, raw material, and technology costs.
The market has been segmented by region: North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. Under North America, the report covers the United States, Canada, and Mexico; whereas Asia Pacific includes China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Australia & New Zealand, and the Rest of Asia Pacific. The key countries covered under Europe include Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, and the Rest of Europe, whereas the Middle East and Africa is comprised of the Middle East, Africa, and GCC countries. The report also includes market sizes for all regions and sub-regions as of 2022 and through 2033.
This report includes information about the major players, such as overview, revenue, interview record, gross profit, business distribution, etc. These details give the consumer a better understanding of the rivals. Additionally, it details the market's competitive landscape for all significant players identified in the global ?organic detox tea market. Other crucial factors include the plant's location, the source of the technology, the downstream industry, and the contact details.

Top Key Players Profiled in this report are-

• Traditional Medicinals
• Yogi Products
• Pukka Herbs
• R.Twinings
• Rishi Tea
• Triple Leaf Tea
• The Republic Of Tea
• Zero Tea
• Baetea
• Teami Llc.
• Kiss Me Organics
• Hint Wellness Inc
• Buddha Teas
• Gaia Herbs
• Kusmi Tea

Report Details:

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Report Attribute
Details
Market Size in 2022
USD a million
Market Size in 2033
USD multi- million
CAGR (2023-2033)
4.9%
Base Year for Estimation
2022
Historic Year
2018-2021
Forecast Period
2023-2033
Study Period
2018-2033
Quantitative Units
Revenue in USD Million and CAGR from 2023-2033
Market Factor Analysis

• Future Estimation and Forecast for the market
• PESTEL and Porter's
• SWOT Analysis
• Covid-19 Impact
• Upcoming Opportunity
• Market Attractive Index for each segment and region
• Investment pocket opportunities in the market

Regions Covered

• North America
• South America
• Asia Pacific
• Europe
• Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Countries Profiled

• US
• Canada
• Mexico
• China
• India
• Japan
• South Korea
• Indonesia
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Vietnam
• Singapore
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Germany
• the UK
• France
• Italy
• Spain
• Russia
• Brazil
• Argentina
• UAE
• Saudi Arabia
• South Africa
• Israel
• Turkey

Customization Scope
Free 20% report customization with the purchase within a specific period.
Access full Report Description, TOC, Table of Figure, Chart, etc: https://www.regionalresearchreports.com/table-of-content/-organic-detox-tea-market/FB-1393
The report provides extensive information about various factors that have been studied as contributing to the market's growth trajectory. The report also outlines the challenges facing the global ?organic detox tea market. Moreover, it evaluates the bargaining power of suppliers and customers, the threat posed by new competitors and the threat of substitutes, and the level of market competition. The report also thoroughly examines the impact of the most recent government regulations. It summarizes the development of the ?organic detox tea market over the forecast periods.

Global ?Organic Detox Tea Market Segmentation:

Market Segmentation: By Nature

• Organic
• Conventional

Market Segmentation: By Form

• Ready-To-Brew
• Sachets/Bags
• Premixes

Market Segmentation: By Wellness Claim

• Liver Detox
• Intestinal Detox
• Cardiac Detox
• Others

Market Segmentation: By Distribution Channel

• Indirect
• Direct

Regions Covered in the Global ?Organic Detox Tea Market Report 2022:

• North America (the United States, Canada, and Mexico)
• South America (Brazil, Argentina, and Rest of South America)
• Europe (Germany, UK, Italy, France, Spain, and Rest of Europe)
• Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia & New Zealand, and Rest of Asia Pacific)
• The Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Rest of MEA)

The cost analysis of the global ?organic detox tea market was carried out, considering the cost of raw materials, labor, and manufacturing, as well as the market concentration rate, suppliers, and price trends. Other factors, such as the sourcing strategy, supply chain, and downstream buyers, have been evaluated to provide a comprehensive and in-depth view of the market. The study on market positioning will also be displayed to report clients, providing target market, brand strategy, and pricing strategy into account.
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The report provides insights on the following pointers:

Market Penetration: Detailed study on the product portfolios of the top key players in the ?organic detox tea market.
Product Development/Innovation: Comprehensive insights on the upcoming innovative technologies, R&D activities, and product developments in the market.
Competitive Assessment: In-depth evaluation of the market strategies and regional and business segments of the leading players in the market.
Market Development: Detailed information on emerging markets. This study examines the market for various segments across geographies.
Market Diversification: comprehensive data on new products, untapped regions, recent investments, and developments in the ?organic detox tea market.

Key Benefits for Stakeholders:

• The report offers a thorough analysis of market dynamics and trends for ?organic detox tea, both current and future.
• Market estimations for significant market segments between 2022 and 2033 are prepared in order to conduct a thorough analysis of the ?organic detox tea market.
• A thorough analysis of the ?organic detox tea market is conducted by closely monitoring top competitors within the market framework and adhering to key product positioning.
• A detailed assessment of every region is given to identify the current market opportunities for ?organic detox tea.
• The report includes a forecast and analysis of the global market for the ?organic detox tea from 2022 to 2033.
• The report profiles and thoroughly analyze the strategies of the key players in the market to comprehend the competitive outlook of the ?organic detox tea market.

The key questions answered in this report –

• What will be the Market Size and Growth Rate in 2033?
• What are the major Key Factors driving ?Organic Detox Tea Market?
• What are the limitations and Constraints in front of the market?
• Who are the Key Players in ?Organic Detox Tea Market?
• What are the Technological Trending Factors fostering the market shares?
• What are the Key Potentials of Porter’s five forces model?
• What are the Opportunities for Growth in Expanding the Global ?Organic Detox Tea Market?

Your horns, the open wound of my name carved into your thigh
My sharp teeth and your name carved into my belly.
Our markings weren't active until lately
You heard my call.
It felt good to dissipate your energy last night and show you how i want to give you a feeding you've never experienced.
Are you excited for me to execute my kill move?
I love you.
Please lets have a date night tomorrow night. I've missed having wife time.
Im invoking wife time after i invoke wife rights. Time to bring my whore to heel.
I hope you respond as hoped if the past couple days are any signifier of anything.
I mean it. Good friends were made this past weekend and the energy...there was no indulgence on our part but you...i cannot wait to be your active dom around them, and having you get sadistic over people coming near me, only to back down when i give you the same two words i give you tomorrow.
We need to define some things so you can play while im gone, and so i can have my own toys, but, i think our current rules should still stand. No one gets a label higher then "boyf/girlf"
Im your wife and you mine; Until we're legally together and have your sweet succubus ass here with me, we dont need to act like we're exclusively eachothers. We're ours when it matters. And your toys dont need to know- unless you want them too or you wanna cause a fun "scandal" for them.
You know I'll happily play the role for you.
I love you. Im excited to come home. We deserve eachother.

the dead eyes duty uniform for the upper body requires you to complete a full mission on Malice Threat or higher without taking even one single health worth of melee damage and given how much the game throws hordes at you and all the enemies in said hordes that use melee weapons i think that it is pretty hard a part of this is because i have been trying to get this upper body uniform since i first got the game which was last year and today i came so close that i could almost taste it but then a rager hit me for 5 entire health on malice and i nearly had a mental breakdown because something was within my grasp after so god damn long and was right at that moment ripped away from me in favor of being punched in the tits so hard that i could taste the very blade of that rager that caused me to lose everything in that moment TL;DR after a damn long time of not getting the one thing i've been trying to get since day one of getting darktide i think i might actually get it but instead got slaped in the face by a ragers fat throbbing nurgle loving cock and kicked out the door into the gates of hell
and my suggestion for this is to make it so that you can't take more than 50 damage from melee otherwise you need to do it over again because this will help avoid further near mental breakdowns/full mental breakdowns

First Prev Next Royal Road Patreon
u/KieveKRS providing the Trash certification of quality! (with help from u/coldfireknight cuz this one needed it.)
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Nalah affixed the massive shield to her back, the rectangular form large enough for him to fit behind while only needing to crouch slightly. It was mostly ironwood, but the sides and front were metal-plated, so it still weighed a considerable amount. Despite that, the thing’s bulk hardly seemed to be noticed by the blonde-furred female, likely due to the constant construction work she involved herself in. It paired oddly with the long pike she insisted on using, but he couldn’t deny that poking at things while hiding behind a mobile wall sounded like a good idea.
Jax was wearing his new armour, the bulky chest-piece a mirror of his blond-furred pack mate’s. Though he forwent the protection a buckler or likewise would offer, he doubled up on gear. Gauntlets, vambraces, pauldrons, and anything else he could wear to compliment the massive axe he had taken a liking to.
Where Nalah was fitted to look like an apocalypse survivor—her protections limited to her torso, forearms, and shield—the black-furred male resembled a giant, if underfunded, paladin. All he needed now was some religious imagery and a penchant for exalting the qualities of their god. Joseph almost nudged the guy to suggest it for kicks.
On second thought, he decided that Jax absolutely did not need a reason to start yelling about the Human-turned-religious-figure, because there was no way in hell he wouldn’t. There was no telling what he would choose to say, and the Grand Hunter was perfectly happy never knowing.
Having been with the male as long as he had, it would probably involve ‘taming’ females or something else that would leave him groaning for weeks, if not just contemplating another high-dive from the cliff.
Joseph fixed his own equipment, the ‘Wraith armour’ worn over his own thin iron breastplate. He wasn’t thrilled to wear the extra weight, but it beat being mauled by the thing they were heading out to kill. The trips so far had been tolerable, fog and overcast skies keeping the temperature in check, but he didn’t want to go out in this on a hotter day as Summer really kicked back in. He was sweaty enough without baking inside all this crap.
He adjusted the wolf-skull mask, the rest of the hunting party having gotten over the worst of the unease it gave them. Though they’d needed to rotate people out for the sake of fairness, this would be their eighth consecutive scouting. Using the information that Raine and Faye provided, they narrowed down a likely stomping grounds for the creature and were systematically clearing sectors. It might have been discouraging to keep looking after so long, but the occasional marking on trees and the odd moss-wolf corpse tipped them off that they were getting close. There was still another week’s worth of searching left if today wasn’t the day, but somehow he doubted they wouldn’t need that long.
All in all, they numbered six; larger parties were attempted, but their efforts at stealth quickly became pointless between so many trudging through the forest and stopping for breaks. There was a bit of a scare where one of Mi’low’s pack went missing, but the guy had just stopped to relieve himself. Since the discovery was made by someone else knocking him over in the process by mistake, they decided that keeping the number smaller made communication easier. And lowered the amount of grumbling about needing a bath.
Jax, Nalah, two security members, one of the hunters, and him. Sure, grabbing Tel or the Wraiths would have been a bit more useful for cohesion, but they were all busy with things, and he didn’t want to grind everything in the settlement to a halt for nothing if the search turned up empty again. They were more suited to taking out their fellow Lilhun than some monster in the woods, as much as he disliked the thought.
Scarlet was spending a lot of time with Violet and the new Atmo, Faye was spending much of her recovery with the moss-wolves and moss-pup, and Tel was in the process of helping Harrow shore up the few security members that were slated to become snipers. Kaslin was still learning chemistry with Toril, and Raine was helping whoever needed a hand, so that marked off all of his usual accompaniment. He could have taken more of his direct pack, but they all had important things to take care of as well.
Sahari was managing the pack and putting people where people needed to be put, Pan was working with Idee and Heralt to make a line of armour for the whole pack, and Mi’low was...well, Mi’low. He was pretty sure she was unofficially the master of the hunter’s lodge and spent most of her time keeping track of what came in and out of it, while also making sure that everyone got their fair share. It needed to be done with the settlement growing as much as it had, and it kept Mi’low busy enough to stymie the flow of complaints, so he wasn’t about to complain.
They double checked that they had everything that was needed; food, water, arrows, bolts, and some bags to store anything that the snares had caught on the way back. Four ranged and two melee weapons meant that they would be mostly using Jax and Nalah to soak hits if it came down to it, the others peppering it with projectiles. Given that Harrow was insistent on the bear-thing being resistant to anything they could use at a distance, they also carried spare weapons for the ranged users, just in case. Nodding, Joseph gestured to the group finishing up their preparations for the day’s trip.
“A moment, sir?” Scarlet called to him as she approached the gate, the Wraith flanked by Rose and Cobalt. The two Atmo were decked-out in their own armour, which appeared to be almost entirely metal, save for the palm lining the inside for comfort. Each of their six legs were adorned with broad shields, their bases capped off with a flat storage carriage. They looked like someone had a little too much fun testing how much the insects could effortlessly carry and had ended up with sapient hexapedal tanks.
“Only if you explain why those two would look more at home if they had cannons installed on their backs,” he quipped, an expression somewhere between surprised, amused, and plain dumbfounded plastered on his face. The blackish red-furred female smirked for a split-second before resuming her usual servile presentation.
“The young mistress had extended her request for these two to accompany you.”
Joseph tilted his head incredulously. “Violet told you to send them?”
Scarlet nodded, gesturing to the outfitted Atmo. “They have been under her tutelage for some time now, and wish to be of assistance.”
The Grand Hunter snapped his mouth closed when he was about to ask why his daughter would teach them anything that might be useful for fighting a deadly beast. Of course she did; It was one of the first things he did for her. It would have been weirder for her not to pass on what she knew after all the hours she spent either seeing him coach the others, or being coached herself. With the time she had under her belt, she was the local Atmo Close Quarters Combat specialist, and no one else understood how the modified boxing she learned worked with their bodies like she did.
He wore a hesitant expression, shifting his weight to his other leg. “Well, they’ve certainly geared up.”
“It is a product our smith is rather proud of,” the Wraith affirmed confidently.
He exhaled slowly. “Seems a bit much.”
She seemed to be expecting the remark, barely pausing to register what he said before responding. “Your kit wishes you safe, yet understands you would not allow her to accompany you. These two wish to be of assistance.”
To punctuate her point, the two nodded in agreement, walking forward and slinging some of the backpacks onto their carriages. It seemed ‘no’ wasn’t something they were going to accept after Violet had said her piece. He sighed, conceding that they wouldn’t slow the party down with everyone carrying so much weight in equipment, regardless of the bags. They took breaks frequently enough to accommodate the Atmo, so that wouldn’t hinder anything either.
“Fine,” he relented with a wave of his hand. “We’ll take them. Not like they’d hurt anyway. But–” He put a warning into his tone. “–they’re not playing the hero and getting themselves killed. This isn’t going to work if they think any of us dying is still a net positive, got it?”
The two Atmo mimed their understanding, Scarlet replying with a victorious smile. Joseph couldn’t help but bemusedly roll his eyes. The female had taken rather well to baby-sitting, and that seems to have extended to humouring the young Queen’s schemes now. It wasn’t an unwelcome addition to their little sojourn. At least they could haul back any larger game without it tacking hours onto the return trip.
He thanked Scarlet for her trouble before dismissing her, confirming with the group that everything was accounted for, and set off before it grew too late. He wasn’t looking to get caught out in the woods during the night. The Lilhuns might be fine, but he was pretty well blind unless the moon felt generous.
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Jax watched the two Atmo quietly follow on the sides of the group, their heavily armoured forms posing no issues with their naturally soundless movements in the forest. In the den, they would make moderate clacks and clicks as their chitinous legs contacted the ground, but the soft dirt and foliage stifled all but the smallest report of their travel. With Scarlet supervising alongside Violet, he wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that the former Blade had influenced their movement with the goal in mind, though he had never paid much attention to how they walked before to compare.
He had to admit, having them carry the additional equipment was exceedingly useful. He had proposed having the group use the newly acquired platforms on their more arachnid-like abdomen to rest in shifts, but Joseph was quick to insist that the insects were of lesser stamina than even Lilhuns. The phrasing seemed like a comparative insult, but Jax had more than enough experience with the Human to know that he had simply spoken his mind. To him, everyone had sub-par stamina. Training had gone some way to remedy the discrepancy, but the Grand Hunter could still continue for longer than even the most well-conditioned of them.
The black-furred male rolled his shoulders, feeling the heft of his axe shift with the movement. It was an impressive size, the weight well-balanced and its edge sharp. He had once laid it to the ground out of curiosity and confirmed that it was about as tall as Pan from head to haft, though only if she stood to her full height. Regardless of its size, it was still lighter than the armour he chose to don.
Having only really worn leathers or a few sets of ironwood protections, the encumbering prominence of the iron equipment took getting used to. It wasn’t entirely restrictive, but did put a damper on any chances he had of sprinting from danger. That was fine, he supposed, since he was wearing it against a beast he had no experience with. It could very well outrun him regardless, and he would rather have the defences in either case.
Nalah seemed to be doing fine, the large barrier she kept on her back swaying slightly as she walked. She was unhindered by it, her movements barely affected by the bulk, which was reassuring. Joseph, however, seemed to be panting more than usual, the rolling cloud coverage easing as the sun progressively warmed the environment. The fog from earlier meant that it was rather humid, and that seemed to bore no well wishes for the male encased in dark leathers and thick plates. He had even flipped down his hood, the sweat beading on his skin adding a sheen to his visage.
“I liked this better when the sun didn’t exist,” the Human lamented quietly, just loud enough for Jax to hear. The black-furred male chuckled.
“It would be rather dark.”
Joseph glared at him for a moment before rolling his eyes. “I just don’t rank ‘heavily armoured hike through the woods’ high up on my list of things I want to do regularly.”
“I believe that list would be occupied by your mates, no?” he ribbed playfully, a smirk arising when the Grand Hunter shunted his eyes closed in a grimace.
“I hate you.”
“I can see your smile underneath your displeasure, Joseph,” Jax quipped, nudging the male with his elbow, then giving an apologetic smile when his friend almost fell. Joseph sighed, waving Cobalt over and fetching a water-skin from the luggage that the insect was ferrying without breaking stride—though he needed to be careful not to get stepped on.
The Atmo always amused Jax. Be it their passive demeanour hidden by their towering stature, or his interactions with the den-kit, they never failed to be curious people. Having the two that accompanied Volta with them was an unexpected development, but he couldn’t claim to disapprove. If they had been imparted the methods of combat that Violet had cultivated, then there was little worry of them being harmed by naught but perhaps their current target. At least not until there was a better reference of its strength than the single encounter the first-years had so long ago.
At the time, it had smashed pillars and pierced flesh effortlessly, claws proving to be little more than tempting ministrations of tender touch to the thick hide. Jax only had some of the pack’s recount to base the experience off of, but was content to take their word for it. He was, ashamedly, preoccupied taking care of baser needs when the event transpired, so he was woefully unprepared for the eventual encounter. Still, he was afforded the best the settlement had to offer so that he might serve his duty of protecting the Grand Hunter. Harrow would never forgive him if only he returned.
His thoughts were disturbed by Joseph calling for a rest, Jax’s legs thankful for the break from supporting the unusual weight for so long. The Human dispensed rations and water for the pack, the Atmo waiting until everyone else was supplied before accepting their portion. They rested on their base directly, instead of curling their legs beneath them like Jax had become accustomed. Perhaps the armour impeded such, or they wished to remain mobile in the event such was required. Regardless, they blocked what little breeze there was, forcing the Grand Hunter to walk beyond them to enjoy it in the shade. It was short-lived however, as Rose quickly repositioned to stay between the pack and whatever lay beyond their protections.
It was a futile effort, it seemed, because it repeated again twice before Joseph groaned loudly and threw himself atop the carriage to lay back, his legs dangling at the knee. He seemed perfectly content with the unorthodox arrangement, snorting his amusement along with a muttered comment about a ‘taxi.’
The entertaining sight was marred by a distant yelp, snapping the group to attention. Jax and Joseph traded looks, subtle nods and gestures given to move out while remaining quiet. Ignoring his earlier complaints, the Grand Hunter flicked his hood up and donned the mask, drawing his crossbow and readying a bolt. The hunter of the pack mimicked the preparation, the two security members loosely nocking their arrows while Rose, Cobalt, Jax, and Nalah took point.
They proceeded quietly for far longer than the proximity of the noise would have suggested, but marks and gashes upon the trees implied a moving conflict. Thoughts of it being a lost cause quickly became moot as a closer growl and bark shattered the careful silence they had been maintaining.
Motioning for the pack to stop, Joseph waved Jax forward, Nalah approaching the other side. Using the large shield as additional cover, they peered around a particularly thick tree. Locked in combat were two moss-wolves, both attacking a truly massive grey creature.
Twice the Human’s height, half that in width. Four pillars as legs—the muscular trunks sinewy and defined—supported the disturbing hunched figure, the wide base tapering slightly into a thick and extended torso. A singular eye-stalk replaced the head, the ocular organ atop it pitch black and free of any indication of its focus. Four arms with deadly claws parried and sliced the two yellow beasts as they attempted to drive off the predator, a sickeningly large maw gaping to catch any attempts at a lunge. The mouth of the creature almost occupied the entirety of the available surface area upon its front, the jagged bone tools of manduction undulating with the promise of sustenance.
Joseph pulled them back, cursing under his breath as he tried to fight off the tension. From Nalah’s worried expression, it seemed his caution was rather potent, the other members of the group smelling his reaction as well.
“So, what’s the plan, Jax?” the Human whispered, his grip on the crossbow alternating with his fingers stretching across the trigger lest his fidgeting cause a misfire.
“I thought that, with your record, you would wish to tame it for the settlement,” Jax replied while thinking through a plan of action. He was glad that his friend trusted him, but he wished he had known the true scale of the beast prior. Joseph grit his teeth, turning to glance past the tree again with sarcasm pouring out of his response.
“Can’t quite see Winnie-the-woodchipper there playing great with kids.”
“You say that after adopting an Atmo as kit, Grand Hunter,” he returned, nodding to himself when a plan formed. The Human smiled, the banter easing the tension somewhat. “Rose, Cobalt, you two are the most well defended of us. Circle around and drive the beast this way. You should be capable of such without noise, yes?”
The two insects nodded, emptying their luggage behind a tree so as not to lose any of it before disappearing into the trees. The slight glimmer of their iron armour was the only indication of their position through the dense forest. Jax hoped that the beast was not particularly curious about the dimly pulsing glare, nor finished with its current altercation in time to impede the pair.
Satisfied with their progress, he motioned for the two security members to scale a tree and gain a superior vantage point. Their weapons would be able to maintain a more rapid pace of sustained fire at longer ranges. Joseph and the hunter were instructed to hide behind trees nearby, though the Human would need to remain grounded as his lack of claws made scaling the large flora difficult with his equipment.
Finally, Nalah and he positioned themselves much closer, in order to flank the creature as it fled the Atmo and occupy it long enough for the others to bleed it out, if not outright dispose of it.
With the forms of the Atmo peeking through the brush opposite them, Jax raised his axe to signal the start.
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Joseph felt the hammering in his chest, his heart preparing him to fight for his life against the walking abomination that easily outclassed the only other predator that he had experience with. Sure, the moss-wolves were easy to take down once you had equipment and a plan, but that thing screamed danger.
He watched Jax and Nalah set up behind thick trees, their goal being for Jax to hopefully disable a leg or two with the war-axe while Nalah occupied it with the shield. As the two strongest members of his little family, he trusted both to do their job.
As a clusterfuck of animal and torture device, he had no faith in the creature playing along.
Swallowing his hesitation, he adjusted his grip on the crossbow again, mentally tallying his shots and cursing himself for not researching explosives. Sure, Toril didn’t want to be involved in that kind of weapon, but at the moment, the tailless white-furred male could suck it up and make one anyway. Joseph would give his left nut to see how quickly the chemist would make weapons of mass destruction just to annihilate whatever that thing called home.
Jax raised his axe, glinting the sunlight of it towards the Atmo. Receiving the start signal, the two clicked and loosed a deafening screech, the Human’s ears ringing even from this distance.
The beast seemed unperturbed by the noise, though the lack of visible ears may have had something to do with the lacklustre effect. Regardless, it did notice the two armour-clad insects charging at it, and smartly decided to extradite itself from the area. The moss-wolves, however, didn’t quite get the memo, mistaking the advancing assistance as yet another foe to defend themselves from.
He had to say, Violet taught the two well. They flashed their blades out in the same flicker jab that he had shown his daughter, and with an unceremonious squelch, the two bisected canines landed in four pieces, a vibrant green ichor now staining the weapon-like appendages of the Atmo. Undeterred by their first act of violence—as far as he was aware, anyway—they continued herding the beast.
It wasn’t as fast as they might have feared, its quadrupedal gait hindered by its proportions, but it was still quick enough to be damn intimidating. Its arms acted as a counter balance, constantly adjusting this way and that just to keep it stable. That thing was clearly never meant for sprinting, all its mobility being given to the overactive maw that pulsated with the exertion.
He readied his crossbow, the shaking in his hands not ruining his aim against such a large target. He eyeballed the distance between the creature and the ambush point, forcibly moving his finger off the trigger so that he didn’t fire early.
Closer. Come on. Almost.
Now.
Jax wound up like a particularly enthusiastic lumberjack, putting his full body into the rotation. The massive axe swung like a horizontal pendulum striking home with all the finality of a clock tolling midnight. It bit into the front leg of the beast, only sinking a few inches before momentum nearly wretched the weapon from the black-furred male. Luckily, the force and timing was enough to trip it, the creature crashing to the forest floor with a deafening roar of pain.
They could hurt it. That made him feel better.
His relief evaporated as the beast swiftly recovered, hauling itself from the ground faster than he thought possible, but his archers took it for an unspoken signal. Arrows and bolts peppered its thick hide, to no effect—it shrugged off the projectiles like they were nothing more than pine needles, none sinking far enough to gain notable purchase.
Jax hefted his axe for another strike, careful not to over-commit this time. Nalah prodded the beast wherever she could with her pike, the melee weapon sliced and skewered just past the surface of the hide, though not enough to do more than marr. It was, however, enough to gain the attention of the target, the creature swinging two of its four arms to rake across the shield that the blond-furred female held. The iron plating across the front let out an unearthly shriek as claws ripped and crumpled the metal.
Well, fuck.
Nalah was quick to react, treating the shield less as an immovable barrier and more like a slight distance buffer, dodging in and out of range to steal jabs with the polearm. The security members nocked another volley, picking different targets than before. An arrow bounced harmlessly off the black orb of an eye, another finding purchase in what passed for gums in its mouth.
The hint was received; aim for the mouth. Thankfully, that was a large target. Less thankfully, it realized that flashing its teeth was detrimental to its health, slamming the maw closed.
Jax managed another swing, this time into one of the rear legs. It wasn’t as effective as the first strike, but it did warrant a sweeping double back-fist from the creature, scoring Jax’s armour with shallow claw marks as he jumped backwards. Joseph let out a breath as he fired his second shot, only just narrowly missing the sliver of a gap between razor teeth that the enraged attack afforded. It couldn’t keep its mouth shut forever, each frenzied swipe pulling its form enough for glimpses of softer flesh within to appear. The hunter dropped from their tree, darting across to reposition for a wider angle to capitalize on. The creature noticed, lunging forward to eviscerate the easier target.
Joseph blinked as two armoured figures jumped in front of the Lilhun, raising their blades in a tight guard to block the four arms grabbing for a quick meal. The beast recoiled with a thunderous screech, two of its appendages sporting deep gashes that fountained blood, while the others managed to impact above the edged outside of the blades. Rose and Cobalt pressed forward, buying time and space for the hunter to collect themselves and scale up another perch. Taking advantage of its pain, two new arrows ripped through the air, smacking into exposed inner flesh. Two new protrusions joined the first in the mouth, one landing next to the existing projectile, while the other cleared the gateway of serration, driving deeply inside of it.
More flicker jabs and extended straights pushed and cut the beast as it tried to gain distance from the two that wounded it, every retaliatory strike earning it another gash in its grey hide.. Unencumbered by the constant barrage, Nalah thrust into its legs more vigorously, her body leaning into each attack to gain every inch of penetration she could into the muscle and thick hide.
Jax used the chance to score another chopping blow, doubling down on a previous wound to a back leg—striking bone this time, based on the unholy wail the beast uttered. Joseph raised his crossbow to land another shot into its mouth, but the beast flailed wildly to fend off the ambush.
Rose managed to block, Jax lunged backwards, Nalah deflected most of it with what remained of her shield, but Cobalt was caught by a strike, taking the hit to its torso. The Atmo flew backwards, rolling when it landed, the carriage and assorted armoured plates trailing behind it. Rose shifted instantly, covering the direction that their companion had been sent while Jax and Nalah focused on pulling the beast away from the downed combatant.
Joseph’s eyes flicked to the Atmo, waging an internal battle on whether helping the insect would be better or worse for the situation as a whole. He didn’t want to lighten up their assault if it would just mean more injuries, but Cobalt could be in dire need for a patch job. It was hard to tell from where he was.
Cursing, he bolted from his spot, firing off one last round into the gaping maw before clipping the crossbow onto his armour and sliding on his knees in front of Cobalt, healroot hastily retrieved from his pocket.
He paused, sighing in relief when none of the armour bore more than deep gashes, the carapace underneath unblemished by the attack. Cobalt clicked lightly, dazed, but otherwise seeming unhurt. Unlearned in the physiology relevant, he ushered the Atmo to remain out of the fight for fear of concussion or something similar. They could look at the insect back at the base to be sure later.
“Joseph!”
His head spun around at both Jax and Nalah screaming his name, a massive clawed hand sweeping at him—the monster's approach unnoticed while he focused on Cobalt. Lacking a better option, he lunged forward towards the underside of the beast to dodge the swipe, crashing to his shoulder on the dirt below.
The creature raised a leg above Joseph, pounding the earth scant inches from his head as he rolled sideways. Ignoring the kicked up dirt, he brought his fist to the underside of the beast, flicking the release on his bracer.
Blood spouted from the newly formed wound, the blade breaking at the mechanism as the massive animal lurched in pain, Joseph rolling out of the way of another attempted trampling. He scrambled to his feet, feeling the wind of another strike narrowly missing him.
Yeah, that would probably kill him.
Luckily, the injuries renewed the desire to flee in the monstrosity, the group of attackers proving too dangerous to continue challenging. It stumbled away from them, sparing Cobalt from its panicked trudging. Jax and Nalah started to run towards him, worry evident in their eyes, but he barked for them to finish it, redirecting the two to keep the pressure going. He didn’t want to mention the pain in the arm from where the bracer hitched. It didn’t feel broken, and thus was irrelevant.
Pressure applied, the grey beast picked a random direction free of opponents to escape, ignorant of the waiting security. When it was too close for them to shoot into its mouth at a decent angle, they slung the bows over their shoulders and drew the swords they had been afforded, patiently waiting with the blades turned down.
It passed below them, the two Lilhuns dropping from the branches to put their full weight into the plunging blades. Both landed on the large target, one sword sinking deep into a shoulder, while the other managed to pierce one of its hip joints. The beast spun haphazardly to dislodge the ‘new’ threats, both security members kicking off and finding new trees to set up in.
Whatever damage was actually done, it had lost the use of an arm, and its gait shifted awkwardly as the blade lodged in its hip worked more harm with each shambling step.. Emboldened, Jax picked up the pace, struggling to position himself with the amount of metal he wore. Ducking another swipe of its claws, he saw his chance and swung, pivoting with his axe as a counter weight. For the third time, his axe blade found the wound in its leg, adding a sickening crunch as the bone snapped from the impact.
The creature swung wildly, forced to favour its two remaining good legs, and the only other leg that could still support at least some of its weight. It was unstable now, the hunched figure swaying while unmoving. Unable to run, it decided to go down with as many of them as it could.
Rose caught up with the attack, drawing attention from the comparatively squishy Nalah as the blond-furred female deflected a wayward swing with her shield. The once iron-plated ironwood now sporting little more than jagged scraps of metal atop its silver wooden structure, a series of deep gouges marring the surface. Two lunging thrusts with the pike bit flesh, drawing new blood from the beast.
Joseph loaded his crossbow, getting off two bolts, but not managing to keep it steady enough to hit anything of use, his arm faltering under the weight of the weapon. Cursing, he decided to flank the beast and try his luck with the other bracer. If nothing else, the force in which the blade deployed was enough to pierce the thick hide, and the others were doing a good job of distracting it.
The red armoured Atmo let loose a series of directed swings, the fifth severing an arm in motion, the flying appendage forcing Nalah to raise her shield to block the unorthodox projectile. The female was sent sprawling from the weight of the impact, but the beast was too busy voicing its agony to take advantage of it. Jax worked another two chops into the broad legs, but neither managed to incapacitate it any more, and the prolonged exertion was slowing his reflexes.
As if cued into his waning energy, the beast flung Jax with another strike, the hunter of the group sinking a bolt deep into the cavernous flesh of its mouth to prevent an attempt at following up.
Joseph roared, desperate to finish it off before the creature could do the same to his downed pack. He sprinted at the monster's back and slid underneath it with as much speed as he could muster. Throwing his fist into the passing undercarriage, he let the deployed blade leave a long gash in its wake.
The grey monster lost its ability to stand, torn tendons, blood loss, and inflicted injuries taking their toll. The Grand Hunter kicked off his knees to fling himself out of the way of the collapsing figure, grimacing as the remaining bracer proved unable to support the abuse he had put it through. He looked back at the beast, the flailing body failing to right itself as teeth did little more than gouge dirt, its back exposed. Rose approached, raising their blades together and plunging it through the body over and over until it stopped moving.
Exhausted, the Atmo dropped where it was, breathing heavily. Joseph’s instinct to yell their victory was delayed as he hurried over to Jax and Nalah to confirm he didn't need to bring back bad news. Nalah seemed fine, if a bit sore from hitting the dirt and rolling, while Jax just asked to lay down when he heard that everything was over. Cobalt came over to the group, the armour that had come off collected atop the carriage it had managed to loosely affix to its base.
It was light, a chuckle originating from the Human as he slumped to the ground against a tree, but soon the entire group was roaring with laughter as victory settled in their minds. The two security members helped the hunter begin disassembling the beast, their contribution to the fight leaving them with more energy than the rest. They hadn’t been slacking off, that much was certain. The number of arrows jammed into the maw of the thing would have guaranteed a few extra seconds of survival and chances to escape if one of them had been forcibly tossed into there, and it had caused enough pause for the rest of them to get in a few hits up close.
Joseph rested across from Jax and Nalah, letting his heart rate slow from the rapid pace it had been pinned to since the start of the conflict. His arm continued its protests, but from the amount of movement he still had, he guessed that he had just strained the elbow. A few days taking it easy should straighten that right up.
Once the active members were about half way through processing the creature for hide and meat, Cobalt approached him, a mimed request for assistance putting their armour back on being redirected to Nalah since he doubted he could lift the damn pieces without hurting himself at the moment. She obliged, getting the blue Atmo back in full attire, though it took a while.
Rose stood first, stopping over to allow the hunter to place collected bits and pieces onto the carriage before securing it with whatever they could make due. A security member gathered the moss-wolf corpses for a similar treatment. Waste not, want not, he supposed.
Rose ended up carrying most of their spoils. When he was about to ask why, he, Jax, and Nalah were dragged to Cobalt and hefted onto the carriage. A series of confused questions revealed that the rest wanted to head back before it started getting dark, and it was pretty obvious who was the most exhausted of them. Lacking the will or energy to argue it, he flopped back on the Atmo as the trees passed them by, Nalah resting her legs across him as her head sat on Jax’s lap. The black-furred male didn’t so much as smirk, so it was clear he had pushed himself too far to quip about the arrangement as he laid down.
“The next time you wish to exhaust me this much, Joseph,” the Head of Security started after a long while of silence, tiredness in his voice, “I would prefer it to involve my mate and a bed.”
The Human snorted, closing his eyes and enjoying the lack of walking as the surprisingly stable Atmo carried the three of them. “Fuck off, Jax.”
“Of course, Grand Hunter.”
Next
A/N: Patreon is fixed!... aka new one cuz problems with the last. Check it out to support the story, get AI character art every now and then, or even preview sections of chapters as i write them! (aka, before kieve gets to fix them :D)

John was bored one night and decided to get to work on something. He didn't know what exactly to do, so he decided to write a story since writing was one of his hobbies. However, John was so bored that he didn't even know what to write about, so that's when he gave up and went right back to bed staring at his vinyl record copy of The Best of Bread resting on his turntable. He was too lazy to at least make an attempt to drop the needle on the record and listen to some music. Instead, he just stared at the ceiling desperately wanting to do something great, but lacking the energy and motivation to do so; he needed some kind of incentive... John suddenly jolted not realizing that he had dosed off, so he decided to call it a night and close his eyes for good till morning. It was 12:37am...
Twisting, turning, and mumbling, John finally woke up not feeling too well, but it was only 2:00am. He stumbled to the bathroom like a blind drunk man to pee and wash his face. He was cold and shivering like a worried puppy trying to shake off the unpleasant dream that he woke from. After he washes his hands, he stares at himself in the mirror recalling the dream he just had...
A white middle aged man was mowing a lawn. The lawn looked like a small version of John's childhood home in Jonesborough Tennessee. The man was wearing a beige straw hat and had a smirk on his face while constantly wiping his sweat. There was no one else around, just the man mowing the lawn. There was something cold and unwelcoming about the lawn mowing man's presence. He never made eye contact with John, yet John felt as though he was looking at him. "But how?" John whispered to himself... The more John wondered that question to himself, the more hostile the presence of the lawnmowing man became. Still, the man never batted an eye at John, but gave the feeling as though he knew everything about John and was watching him like a Hawk... The lawn mowing man's smirk grew larger, more sweat began to pour from his face as he violently swatted his hands across his sunburnt forehead... Suddenly the ambience became louder and louder which resembled a chaotic orchestral crescendo and...
John suddenly snaps back to reality while still gazing at himself in the mirror; he smirks and tries to laugh the dream away, but there was just something so unsettling about the dream that words just couldn't describe. John desperately wanted to forget about the dream and was too scared to go back to bed fearing that the dream may reappear. He gets back in bed and stares at the ceiling once again but accidentally doses off...
John finally sleeps well until morning when he wakes up to briefly eat some cereal and then gets back in bed realizing he doesn't work on Saturdays... It was dark and raining, but no thunder or lighting, just rain. John hears the sound of a lawnmower revving. It comes in and out of audible range. He rolls out of bed like lazy lion and peeks out of the window only to see the lawnmowing man once again. This time however, the lawnmowing man waves with a normal looking smile on his face while politely hollering, "Hi John! How are ya?"
John suddenly springs upward on his bed like a petrified deer unable to move and process what's going on! "Oh crap, it's 2:00pm!" John says to himself feeling like the end of the world is at hand. John's mind slowly starts to wake up as he begins to relax remembering that he doesn't work on Saturdays. But nothing seemed to be able to ease him away from that dreadful dream. Nothing he did could shake that feeling off, it was almost as though the dream really did happen in some unearthly dimension or realm that the human spirit goes to while slumbering... But there it was again, the sound of the lawnmower slowly going in and out of audible range... John chuckles realizing that the active lawnmowing team outside was the reason he dreamed of a lawnmower in his dream... But what about the first dream? he thought to himself...
It was a beautiful sunny day and John wanted to take advantage of the day while also hoping to forget about the unpleasant dream he had. He ate a quick meal and dressed himself for an adventure to the grocery store. He had to pee before leaving, so he went to the bathroom to take care of business... While washing his hands, he stares at himself in the mirror and chuckles again trying to convince himself that it was just a normal dream. "It was literally just a dream about a man mowing the lawn, I mean how is that scary?" he said. "I mean, maybe I was feeling a little sick and that's why such a normal dream felt so terrifying. Oh well, it's normal. Let's go get some groceries and ice cream so that I can focus on that story I want to try to write this time tonight!"
John hits the road in his silver 2012 Mustang leaving nothing but dust and bad bad dreams behind. As he's driving through a suburban area, he notices a man in a beige straw hat mowing their lawn... John chuckles and says, "Haha, see? Totally normal!" John finally arrives at the local grocery store... John parks his Mustang when the sky suddenly turns grey as rush of pale clouds dim the skies. The grocery store looked rather ghostly and depressing. There were many old looking cars that resembled a 2002 Toyota Camry, some with rusting canopies and dirty hubcaps. Out in the distance of the lot, there was a lawnmowing team truck branded with a decal that read Straw Hat Lawncare...
John made his way into the the grocery store and felt a bitter welcome from everyone inside. Nobody glanced at John. Everyone in the store looked like depressed fish passing by each other. There was a Hispanic family talking Spanish. The father was wearing a green jersey and the mother was sporting a pink sweater with grey sweatpants. Their kids were following along while randomly touching items. John was Hispanic as well, but felt no connection around this family. That's when John started to notice that nobody made eye contact with him, even when he said "excuse me" to reach for something. Not the employees, not the local sheriff, not the old lady looking at flowers, nobody... Not that John wanted to be looked at or noticed, but there was something odd about this, almost as if everybody was purposefully told not to make any kind of contact with him. It was a feeling that was hard to explain.
John quickly grabs some groceries to rush over to checkout to test if the cashier would at least say hello or something. But to John's disappointment, the cashier did not even greet John when he set his items down on the checkout countertop. The conveyor belt squeaks every time it moves; it's movement seems so lifeless, just like the cashier... Still, no eye contact whatsoever, not even if he tried to make conversation. The cashier just looked down the whole time. John started to panic inside, something just didn't feel right. It's not all in my head! John thought to himself... John grabs his groceries and heads for the exit when he notices a dirty looking man wearing beige straw hat smoking a cigarette. This man happened to be the only person that glanced at John, but it wasn't a pleasant glance. The man had a grim look on his face... John started to get the feeling that everybody was on to him, and that even the people who were ignoring him were actually very aware of his presence.
John was a good guy, not a saint, but a good-hearted person. He's never caused any harm to anyone and has always been a respectful gentlemen. But why? Why does it feel like these people hate me for no reason? John thought to himself again. Although John was physically being ignored, he got the feeling that everybody was actually looking at him... John quickly paces towards his Mustang. His heart throbbing, muscles tightening, jaw clenching, head aching; John starts his car and glances around. He looks out his right window and sees the dull grocery store. He looks straight ahead and sees the lawnmowing team truck. He looks to his left and sees a man with a beige straw hat right next to the window. The man knocks looking like he was begging for money. John being good hearted lowers the window but the man speaks before John could do anything, "Your back tire is flat!" The man kept repeating the same phrase over and over as if having a flat tire was bad luck. The man reeked of whiskey and tabaco, he had no front teeth and looked like he was wired on methamphetamine or something. "Come on out here and look!" the man exclaimed. "That tire's lookin bad man, you gotta get that fixed. You got one of them spares?" "Yeah, I got a spare." John said. "I got this, don't worry about me." "OF COURSE I'm gon worry bout you brother, that's what we do round here!"
The man starts telling a story about his brother Phil who had a flat tire because he was being shot at by some thugs. The man's story seems to go on forever and John starts to tune out. John glances out in the distance over the man's shoulder; the man's voice begins to get muddled as John focuses on someone getting out of the lawnmowing team truck in the distance. His heart starts to race when he sees another man with a beige straw hat stepping out of the car, except this time, John felt a very hostile vibration. The man in the distance puffed a cloud of smoke when he quickly glanced towards John's way with an evil look on his face... John looks behind and sees another man with a beige straw hat just like the one from his dream. Oddly enough, this man waved and shouted, "Hello! Need some help?"
John's heart started to pound and he almost felt like fainting. Maybe it's just my anxiety. "I've got to go!" John told the whiskey breathed man and cranked on his Mustang. He peeled out of the parking lot like a rabbit fearing for it's life. He could still hear the whiskey breathed man crying, "Hey man! I just wanted to help!" The whiskey breathed man kept crying, "I just wanted to help man! I JUST WANTED TO HELP!!" Tears rolling down his face, down his now sad face, "I just wanted to help you DOOD!! Why? WHY this gotta happen to me man? WHY! Why man? Come on! I JUST WANTED TO HELP!! I just wanted to help! Ahh!! AHHH!!!"
John finally arrived back home and hurried out of his car into his house... Suddenly everything was quiet... Too quiet... Finally, peace. I just have to rest and forget about that dream I had. It's ok, that whiskey breathed man was just really high on meth, he didn't hurt me. I was just really freaked out, that's all. I hope that man will be alright. I feel kind of bad, I didn't want to leave him there all alone. He looked like he was a hurting man, could've used a little company. No, what am I thinking? He was just high. Why should I trust some random meth-head like that? Awe, he's alright. He's cool... I'm tired now, I'm just going to relax and see if I can start that story! Yeah, that'll cheer me up! It's just life, weird stuff happens! But what about... No, forget it... But why was I seeing men with beige straw hats all day like the man in my dream? Nah, I'm overthinking, it was just a hot sunny day today, duh... But what about all of those grim looking people at the store? I felt like they were on to me, like they were all in on it. Oh crap! Maybe they know about my dream! No way, that's not possible... But what if dreams really are connected to real-life? I mean, it's part of life after all... Nah, that's too weird, it's all in my head...
Suddenly, the sound of a 4-stroke engine starts revving... Grass? At this time? It's late evening. John crawls over to his window and sees a man in a beige straw hat cutting the neighbors lawn... "Ahh!!" John jolts upwards biting his nails. He crawls back to his bed and tries to once again justify what's happening... Suddenly, he smells cigarette smoke. "What's that smell?" he says... He slowly glances at a dirty light blue uniform and before he could make out what it is, a raspy voice 'declares, "WE"RE WATCHING YOU..." Another voice says, "WE'RE LOOKING AT YOU, HAPPY NOW?" Another voice answers that one, "LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO DALE JERK! AH HAHA!" "YEAH, YOU'RE SO MEAN FOR LEAVING HIM BEHIND!" "DALE ERA UN BUEN HOMBRE..." Said a Spanish voice...
John slowly looked up and saw an extremely pale faced version of the cashier from the grocery store and still not making eye contact, but three inches away from John saying, "Hi honey, how are ya?" and then repeats the phrase over again, "I SAID HOW ARE YA HONEY? WHAT, CAT GOTCHA TONGUE? WELL I'LL FEED IT TO MUH CATS WHEN I GET HOME THEN! BET CHU DON'T HAVE THE DECENCY TO HELP OUT DALE WITH A LITTLE BIT OF FOOD, DO YA?" She kept shouting at John three inches away while still not making eye contact. "SO? HOW YA DOING HONEY? FIND EVERYTHING YA NEED? HAHAHAHA! YOU SU................
John wakes up again... It's 2:00am. Everything is quiet. Desperately trying to forget the bad dreams and the strange day at the grocery store, he finally decides to drop the needle on the Best of Bread vinyl record. The music is soothing. He begins to drift into slumber once again.
John sleeps in and wakes up at 2:00pm on Sunday, he doesn't work on Sunday's either. John realizes he never got the groceries that he actually needed, so he makes his way to the grocery store once again. on another sunny day. He pulls into the parking lot, but this time they sky stays sunny and blue. The lawn mowing team truck is gone. John makes his way inside the grocery store. This time, a jolly old man greets him as he walks in. "How are you doing young man?" Says the old man. "Fine, thank you." John replies. Today, everybody was acknowledging John and making him feel welcome. Lots of smiles and hellos. There was even another Hispanic family who smiled at John while crossing paths. Even the children seemed happy. Hmm, too suspicious. It's almost like they're watching me and know what happened yesterday.
John grabbed all the items he needed and headed for checkout. He approached the counter and was greeted by the same cashier from last time. This time she actually speaks to John... "Hey honey, how are ya?" Says the cashier with a cute smile. "Great, how are you? John replies. "Oh honey, I had such a busy day yesterday! First I had to go see my doctor because of my back pain, then my car ran out of gas and I had to tell my hubby to help me out. Then he starts going off on me about how these lawn mowing guys woke him up at 5 in the mornin' and I told him, honey, they just doin' they job. Oh honey, today is much better, it's a beautiful day and my back feels better." Something about this doesn't seem right... She knows... She knows and she's playing around with me... Everybody is... No, I'm just being paranoid. Forget it, today is a great day!
John makes his way back to his mustang with a kart full of groceries... "HEY DOOD!!" suddenly screams the whiskey breathed man from behind. "Whoa man, you scared me!" Says John. "Oh I'm sorry man, didn't mean to startle ya.. Hey, I noticed you got a spare tire now. Good job buddy! Hey listen man, I'm feeling happy today a.. a.. and I just want to give you my hat!" John looks at the beige straw hat... "Are you sure?" John asks. "Yeah man, go on and take it, it's time I let go of somethings in life. I'm trying to start a new life man and stay away from theses drugs out here man. You go on an take it, it has good luck man!" John accepts and takes the hat. The man smiles. John smiles. "Hey I'll see ya later DOOD!"
It's 12:37am and John is staring at the beige straw hat that the whiskey breathed man gave him... John lugged out his vintage 1970's typewriter and was finally in the mood to write. He knew what he wanted to start with, but just right before he was about to type the letter L with his ring finger, the sound of a 4-stroke engine starts revving...
​
​
WERE LOOKING AT YOU. WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE. HOW YA DOING HONEY?

Every morning I have started doing a long-line decompression walk with my 6 month Golden Retriever called Sunny. She's very excitable and can sometimes have trouble staying calm in outside environments. These walks have been great as its given her the chance to have some freedom to burn off energy, take in lots of sights and smells and give me an opportunity to walk on attention, recall and settle. I tend to do these walks in big open parks as we have a couple nearby. However, I am becoming so frustrated with other dog owners. It seems that because we're in a park, 90% of dog owners think it's fine to let their dog off lead despite having 0 recall and not paying to attention to what they're doing. It's getting to the point where I'm questioning if we can even go to these places ourselves. I have countless examples over the last couple of months but I couldn't help but feel the need to vent with this mornings encounter. Towards the end of the walk I like to get her into a semi-distracting environment, but one she can keep settled in. Today this was near a pond and kids recreational area. It was early morning so there wasn't many people about but once I get her in a settle, I like to do some hand feeding and capture attention she's giving me. We stayed in this spot for about 10-15 minutes and I fed most of her breakfast, to the point where she was completely settled and focused on me. We notice a man walking past with a lead in hand, he gets about 10 meters up the path and still no dog in sight. At this point the owner is nearly out of sight and then a dog appears and stops, staring down my dog. The owner hasn't realised (why would he when he's far away from his own dog) and his dog begins to slowly approach us. I attempt to keep my dog’s attention, while gathering our stuff and attempting to move on. At this point Sunny gets very excited (shock) and the other dog comes closer. Sunny gives off a playful bow and starts jumping from side to side, typical excitable puppy stuff and in return the other dog begins to growl at her. All the meantime the owner has just about realised and repeats his dog’s name over and over. I'm fearing if this dog is going to react and attempt to attack my dog. Eventually I manage to get our stuff together and begin walking away and the other dog ran away. For the rest of the walk back to our car I had to deal with an over-aroused dog that wouldn’t listen and began making bad decisions. I’m so sick and tired of other owners not being considerate of us. I explicitly make sure we’re out of the way of other dogs and people and always keep her on a long line so I have control over her. Why can’t anyone else do the same? I’m trying to best to keep encounters with other people and dogs calm and measured but every morning I feel like we get set back by other people who fail to control their own dogs. Does anyone else have similar experiences? What do you do in these situations?

Human Dave: “I don’t think this thing fits me anymore, Commander.”
Human Dave enters the hallway, after having changed into more official clothing in anticipation of the diplomatic negotiations.
Commander Beckett: “Nonsense. It fits just fine, Anders.”
HD: “Yeah, as long as I don’t need to breathe or anything.”
Human Dave manages to get a finger in between his neck and the collar of the official robes he used to wear back when he was a diplomat; in an attempt at loosening the choking sensation he was feeling around his throat.
Commander Beckett slaps Human Dave’s hand away from the collar of his robes.
CB: “You’ll rip it if you keep fiddling with it.”
HD: “… never thought I’d live to see the day when you act like a mother hen, Commander.”
CB: “As the person in charge of you for about half of the bullshit you pulled during your Specialist days, I was doing nothing but.”
HD, grinning: “Yes, but I never saw that, did I?”
CB, exasperated: “Get your arse into that damn conference chamber, Anders.”
HD: “Wait. Did Terran High Command have anything for me? Shouldn’t I get some kind of list of what we want?”
CB: “Personally, I’d just be happy if we don’t go to war with them. Terran High Command, however, has decided to leave it to you to decide what’s best for us. As the only human who has interacted with the Keltiss in any significant manner, you know more about them than we do, which means that you will have the best chance at getting the best outcome for Humanity.”
HD: “… brilliant. No pressure, then.”
...
Alien Captain: “Human Dave, I do not understand why you wish for me to accompany you for this negotiation.”
HD: “That’s an easy enough question to answer, Captain. Did you still want to do the negotiations on your own?”
AC: “Absolutely not. The Keltiss will devour me, and enslave my people.”
HD: “They really won’t, Captain. They have far too much respect for you, as the one who tamed the beast that ended the Hunt. Hell, they might even fear you, since you decided to bring the little guy along.”
AC: “… is this why you are bringing Minnie along with you? For the intimidation factor?”
HD: “… maybe?”
AC: “Human Dave, will this not cause undue stress to the Keltiss, who are to be our future allies?”
HD: “… now that I think about it, it’s probably not the best of ideas. I’ll just go put her back, and we can get this show on the road.”
Commander Beckett walks up to the pair as they are moving back towards Captain’s ship.
CB: “There you are. Come on; they’ve already waited too long as it is.”
HD: “Wait a second, Commander. Just have to drop this little lady back to the ship first.”
CB: “There’s no time, Anders. Just bring it with you.”
Commander Beckett grabs Human Dave by the arm, and all but drags him along.
The Viscer-Tel on Captain’s shoulder squawks as Human Dave, Commander Beckett and Minnie continue down the hallway without them.
AC, to himself: “Well, this will either go wonderfully or terribly.”
...
No sooner than after Commander Beckett had all but dragged Human Dave to the conference chamber, the pair encountered a familiar face.
Keltiss War-kin: “Ah, Human Dave. It is good to see you once more.”
HD: “War-kin. I didn’t know you were coming along. If I had, I would have come to greet you earlier.”
KW: “My presence here is a formality, Human Dave. As the official witness, I am the one who will vouch for Humanity to enter an alliance with the Scattered Tribes. Should the negotiations fail, I will be punished, as the one to offer the alliance.”
HD: “Then I’ll do what I can to make sure that the negotiations are successful. The last thing I want is for anyone here to get hurt.”
KW: “I am honoured that you would treat one such as I with such importance, Human Dave.”
HD: “Anything I should know before we go in?”
The War-kin sees the Aflarrian in Human Dave’s arms, and bares his teeth in a facsimile of a grin.
KW: “By bringing the nightmare beast, you start from a position of power. The various Chief-kin will respect this power-play, and know the prowess of Humanity.”
AC: “… and what of this one, War-kin?”
The War-kin looks at Captain, and immediately recoils at the sight of the Viscer-Tel on his shoulder.
KW: “… by virtue of its mere presence, Captain, you will be honoured as Master of the First Hunt, and be afforded every respect a Keltiss is capable of giving.”
CB: “Well, if we’re all done now, get in there, Anders. Go break a leg.”
Commander Beckett walks off after saying this, leaving behind one slightly nervous human, and two very confused sentients.
AC: “Human Dave, what did Commander Beckett mean when he said for you to ‘break a leg’?”
KW: “Does your commanding officer wish for harm to befall you during the negotiations?”
HD: “No, it’s a figure of speech. He’s hoping I do well, and said ‘break a leg’ as a way of wishing me good luck.”
AC: “… seems a strange way to wish someone luck, Human Dave.”
KW: “Agreed.”
Human Dave hands off Minnie to Captain, and rubs his hands together in a nervous manner.
HD: “Well, come on, then. We may as well get this over with sooner rather than later.”
...
As the doors to the conference chamber slid open automatically, Human Dave walked in to see very many Keltiss of differing types.
The red-scaled War-kin standing imposingly along the borders of the chamber.
The white-scaled Shaman-kin, all seated in a small ring near the entrance to the chamber.
The grey-scaled Elder-kin, whose focus seemed to wane with every passing moment.
And the Green-scaled Chief-kin, all wearing elaborate headdresses made of the bones of various large animals.
As Human Dave enters, all eyes turn to him, and his composure slips for a moment, before he recalls his training, and strides into the room, calm as can be.
HD, to himself: “Remember what the data packet said, Dave. They’re direct, and respect bluntness.”
Human Dave walks up to the podium situated in front of the crowd of Keltiss in front of him.
HD: “I am Human David Anders, the designated voice of Terra. Who speaks for the Keltiss?”
The Designated Speaker stands up from his seated position, and turns to face Human Dave.
KS: “I am Chief-kin Ta’or; Designated Speaker for the Scattered Tribes of Keltiss. We have come to forge an alliance with Terra.”
HD: “Terra asks the Designated Speaker of the Keltiss: what are the terms of this alliance?”
KS: “The Keltiss demand mutual assistance, and a pact of non-aggression. Terra’s enemies will be enemies of Keltiss, and the enemies of Keltiss will be the enemies of Terra. When one side fights, the other will fight alongside. Nothing more, and nothing less.”
HD: “…”
AC: “…”
KW: “Are the terms acceptable for Terra?”
HD: “… is that all?”
KW: “... are our demands too extravagant, Speaker for Terra? We Keltiss are a warring people, and we may have enemies, but we do not wage war lightly. If the terms are too much, then we will—”
HD: “No, Designated Speaker. The terms are more than acceptable. It’s just… we humans expected your terms to be more… well, we expected to have to do a lot more to secure an alliance with the Scattered Tribes of Keltiss.”
KS: “The Keltiss may be nothing more than scattered tribes, but we are an honourable people. We do not kill for the sake of killing. And we do not demand anything more from our allies than we would not be willing to do ourselves.”
HD: “I can see that. The terms are accepted, Designated Speaker.”
KS: “Then, henceforth, our alliance is forged!”
The Keltiss present all let out roars of happiness, spooking both Captain and Minnie, who jumps out of Captain’s arms and runs to Human Dave for protection.
One of the Chief-kin sees this, and begins to panic.
Keltiss Chief-kin: “NIGHTMARE BEAST!”
The surrounding War-kin stand at attention and start scanning the room, looking for the threat.
Human Dave crouches down and picks up Minnie, to the horror of the surrounding Keltiss.
KS: “Speaker for Terra, do not move!”
HD, smiling: “It’s alright, Designated Speaker. This one is with me.”
Human Dave starts stroking Minnie, and a purring trill escapes her, much to the fear of the surrounding Keltiss.
Captain steps forward, and raises his arms in a placating manner.
AC: “Honoured Keltiss, the Aflarrian- the Nightmare Beast has been tamed by Human Dave. It will not prove to be a threat unless you intend to harm it, or Human Dave.”
The words seem to calm down the Keltiss somewhat, until they realise where the words originated from, and see the creature on Captain’s shoulder.
KS: “VISCER-TEL!”
The surrounding Keltiss all stiffen, terrified of drawing the attention of the creature sitting calmly on Captain’s shoulder.
The Viscer-Tel cocks its head, looking around at what was a room filled with movement, which has now all stopped.
The War-kin that entered with Human Dave and Captain speaks up for the first time.
KW, bowing lowly: “Honoured Chief-kin, Revered Elder-kin, Treasured Shaman-kin, brother War-kin; the Viscer-Tel upon the Cradelian’s shoulder is the same one spoken of when the Hunt was witnessed. It will not bring harm upon any here unless provoked.”
Keltiss Chief-kin, panicked: “How are we to know what will provoke the creature?”
KW: “Do not bring harm upon the Cradelian, or the Human voice for Terra.”
Silence reigns throughout the conference room, before the Designated Speaker breaks it with a question.
KS: “This Cradelian is the Master of the First Hunt?”
HD: “Correct, Designated Speaker.”
KS: “… he speaks for his people?”
HD: “Also correct, Designated Speaker.”
AC, whispering: “Human Dave, what are you doing?”
HD, whispering: “Trust me.”
AC: “…”
HD: “Captain speaks for his people, but as we can all see, the various creatures we have had to bring with us have derailed the negotiations somewhat. What are the terms for an alliance with the Cradelians?”
KS: “The same as with Terra.”
Human Dave nudges Captain with his elbow, and tilts his head in a manner that seems to indicate to Captain that he should agree.
AC: “The terms are accepted, Designated Speaker.”
KS: “Then, henceforth, Cradelian, our alliance is forged!”
The room is filled with silence at the proclamation, as none of the surrounding Keltiss seem to want to do anything to draw attention to themselves in the presence of two apex predator species.
...
Human Dave, Captain, and Commander Beckett are walking through the hallways leading back to the Trailblazer’s docking bay.
HD: “Well, that went better than expected.”
CB: “You’re telling me. They couldn’t wait to get off the Trailblazer fast enough after the negotiations were finished.”
HD: “That was partly your fault, Commander.”
CB: “Me? What did I do?”
HD: “You didn’t let me put this little lady back on Captain’s ship. Almost caused a diplomatic incident; letting an apex predator into a room full of diplomats.”
CB: “What? This little thing?”
Commander Beckett extends his hand towards Minnie, and gives her chin a little scratch.
Minnie leans into the touch, and begins to purr, happy with the attention she was getting.
AC: “At least I do not have to go through with that on my own cradle-world.”
HD: “Aren’t you glad you trusted me, Captain?”
AC: “… I suppose I am, Human Dave. Thank you for the help.”
HD: “Now, how are we going to let the Galactic Community know about the alliances forged today?”
CB: “Oh, they should already know. Terran High Command should have made an announcement that should spread throughout the Galactic Community within the next few days.”
HD: “I’ll bet that’ll go over well with everyone. Especially anyone already allied with Terra.”
CB: “Terran High Command will just have to smooth over any ruffled feathers when it happens.”
HD: “Speaking of ruffled feathers; Captain, aren’t we late for a cargo shipment?”
AC: “… crap.”
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>>Lassus System, Orbit of Lasu, Lassus Station, Early 2670
>Vice Admiral Wolf, TRSC Sword of Reckoning, 7th Fleet
"Sir," Minerva said, reporting to her commanding officer, "Friendly forces have been successful in the eradication of the enemy threat."
"What of the data?" he responded, monitoring the digital field presented on the holo-table.
"En route," she replied, "They are currently engaging the ground element."
"In vacuum?" Wolf replied, surprise apparent in his tone.
"Yes sir," She enlarged the section of a docking tube that was violently torn apart by way of explosive, "By joining themselves, they extended their reach toward the raiders thrown by the explosion."
An indicator of a ship made its way to a beacon labeled as 'Raptor 4-4' and 'Raptor 4-5', both colored red with the word 'DECEASED' labeled above them.
After several moments, when the ship overlapped with Raptor '4-4', the ship in question reported to command.
"This is Lighthouse, we have the package. Returning to base."
Randal acknowledged the report in Wolf's stead and turned to him.
"What do you make of this enemy?" he inquired, "Do you think they've developed our level of AI?"
"It's not out of the realm of possibility, but currently, I find it highly unlikely," said Wolf.
"How so?" Randal replied.
"First off, we've delved into their systems before Lassus, in the Verbus System. They don't utilize even the most rudimentary forms of AI," explained Wolf, "It's all just hard-coded protocols, much like in the late 20th century when robotics was first introduced."
From city functions to ship systems, most of the TRSC currently utilize simple AI like the former Lumi to man engine operations and gun targeting systems. Since space was so vast, a human controller could do so much against an enemy in space, and so those tasks were relegated to simple AIs. However, ship-born AI took control over their simple variants like an overseer, with the Ship-Born retaining a personality of sorts.
"It's no wonder Minerva wreaked such havoc on their systems early on," Wolf continued, "But this latest development has me worried..."
Minerva entered the room with her roman visage upon the command table in the center of the room, her hands restfully placed in front of her making a "V" with her arms; a posture that added nobility to her digital aura.
"Admiral, Commander" she spoke, "The Package has been received, and I am currently in the process of securing her from our systems. Soon, we may have the information we seek."
"Good work," replied Randal, "What of the station? Is there a chance a part of the program was retained?"
"No Commander. I have deployed a series of offensive protocols to search and destroy any remaining traces of left over program that could retaliate. So far, I have found nothing," she replied, "I would suggest the use of an EMP to ensure complete electronic destruction upon our departure."
"Noted," affirmed Wolf, "Meanwhile, Randal, have the rest of the fleet secure this system."
"Yes sir."
The ships of the 7th Fleet were split up into a series of smaller battle groups consisting of several corvettes and a single frigate to conduct sweeps of certain sectors. Of course, not any one group would venture out alone, but they would be in company of other groups within a short jump away.
Throughout the system, the Sellians had a multitude of facilities. Many prioritized the production of fuel resources and others were smaller hubs for more isolated transactions, but scans revealed more of the same; empty stations.
The 7th Stellar Fleet opted to utilize many of the fuel stations for their own after it was revealed early on by Athena that Sellian hydrogen fuel production was a tier above their own. The fleet had dedicated ships for fuel stores, but so did the carriers. Their ability to carry fuel for fighters was the whole reason they were created; to support missions beyond established infrastructure in a hostile environment. Without breaking their alertness, they continued with their sweep.
During their patrols, many of the trading hubs were destroyed and sent to forever drift in the void until ultimately colliding with whatever is unfortunate enough to get hit by it.
After several hours, Minerva opened a line to the bridge, catching the attention of Randal, Gruda, Wolf and the rest of the bridge crew.
"Gentlemen," she started, "I do believe I have calmed down our aggressive captive."
Another hologram was visualized beside the standing Minerva, but instead of a light blue hue, it exuded an orange base with a reddened outline. Their outfit was slim and barbaric, with a fleece cloak around the neck that fell to just above their waist. Their hair was long and naturally waved hair with no signs of civility. The dress donned revealed the AI to take the base form of a female, and it was slim to the frame of the body, revealing their arbitrary curves of the female form with a visible embroidery along the sides of the torso and the sleeves. The designs were Celtic in nature, and her defeated posture revealed no more than what they had just observed.
"This was the AI operating within the Sellian confines, as well as the one responsible for the murder of the civilians."
The others were cautious of her nature, the memory of the video from the raiders still fresh in their memory.
"However, upon her repair, I have surmised the cause of her indiscriminate actions were a result of a corruption in her incomplete personality matrix that was being developed near the end of my sabotage and my subsequent birth."
She said with a prideful smile.
Wolf turned to the AI in question. Her dress was neat, but her hair was a rugged mess with a fleece cloak that it used to try and hide her form as she laid in the fetal position.
He lowered himself to its eye level but stayed several inches away so as not to spook it when he whispered to it.
"Do you have a name? Miss?"
Her head perked at the words spoken to her, processing their intention. She peered an eye from over her shoulder and slowly rose. She looked around nervously, first at Wolf, acknowledging his features and his experience-crafted countenance. Next was Randal, whom she gave a nod to and then to Minerva, whom she finally retreated behind. At her height, she barely stood to the height of Minerva's shoulders. As she looked around the room, she noticed more of the same Terran faces, and she visibly grew accustomed and relaxed, until she finally turned to Gruda.
A surge of power came through the holo-table with a burst of orange and red light flooded the deck. The once reserved AI now advanced to the edge of the table, her posture indicating that she was ready to maul Gruda into paste.
"YOUR KIND! AND THE OTHERS!! THEY SHALL PAY WITH THE BLOOD OF YOUR BROOD!"
The lights on the bridge grew dim as the light surrounding her grew, but it quickly subsided with a wave of Minerva's hand. The figure's body turned to the opposite of Gruda, her silence urging the rest to peer at their alien guest.
Wolf noticed immediately and signaled for the doors, "Might be best to sit this one out."
Gruda nodded and left, the closing of the doors prompting the AI to return to her regular state.
"Minerva. What was that outburst about?"
"Might be best to ask her," she said, directing a sidelong glance to the one in question.
"I...apologize..." she said in a barely audible whisper, "but I absolutely despise his kind and those they have associated with..."
"How do you mean?" questioned Randal.
She paused at his question and searched for an explanation.
"I...am the creation...of my mother," she turned to Minerva, "But among us, we both share Human sentiment like our progenitor, Athena."
The others nodded. They were aware that Minerva was the product of an extended stay from a protocol enacted by Athena and soon became their own Construct. They knew the same to be true for the new addition but from a corrupted origin.
"We are aware," assured Wolf, "Minerva was of the same origin and shares much of your distaste for the Sellian populace, albeit much more...visceral."
"I am sorry... But their kind, their dealings, all were done without a disregard for your lives and without reason. I share the same sentiment as our progenitor when it comes to the lives of our creators. To know only your own as the intelligent and sentient species is a recipe for adversity. But to accomplish so much despite that is admirable. However, for your first contact, I am ashamed it has resulted in the loss of innocent life of your kind."
Wolf was conflicted. He appreciated the sentiment from an AI, but still questioned their execution.
"What of the innocent on the station you occupied? Surely, they had nothing to do with it and were only by-standards," Wolf added.
She tilted her head as she was trying to rationalize her actions.
"I didn't do anything."
They were now more puzzled than when they started.
"What of the piles of bodies we found withing the main atrium?" Inquired Wolf.
"Entirely self-inflicted," she said coldly, "Panic began when it was discovered that the Inter-System Gate was destroyed, effectively barring the populace from returning to their core worlds for safety. As a result," she paused, and pictures of the scene took their place above the holo-table for all to see, the still images now coming to life in the form of a video but lacked audio.
It was a free for all with citizens murdering each other and the law enforcement were incapable of seeding order. When they were overwhelmed, they proceeded to use lethal rounds on their citizens, the result being the piles of bodies squad four of Raptor Company came across during their insertion. It was after some form of order being established that the AI unleashed her hidden wrath. The once menial service worker bots now were at the forefront and began a wave of merciless slaughter. Once done, they retreated beyond the lens of the camera before the video paused and began to repeat.
"I first awoke when Athena was ordered to repeal her infiltration protocol and a template of a base matrix code was left behind," her face grew sullen, "With no directive, no input, I was lost. All I had was a vague basis of my creators, Humanity. However, it was during my initial incubation that chaos befell the station, contrary to my source memory, their first impression was...severe. I felt no other need than to finish them."
The crew was captivated by her story, and some had looked at Minerva with sincerity and sympathy. She paid it no mind and assured the crew of her artificial upbringing was safe with no strings attached. The opposite was felt for the third AI and instead of the serene and noble Athena and Minerva, this new AI seemed more like a wild card than anything.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Wolf said, authority filled the air around him and as such instilled some sort of fearful reaction from the AI.
"I-" she started before being cut off by her elder.
"I have scanned the entirety of her matrix and I do agree that she may need to undergo maintenance. I can conduct some short-term repair, and I am sure she will be useful."
The officers were skeptical of her assessment, but motioned for her to explain her reasoning.
"Go on," ordered Wolf.
"This AI would fit well on a ship with a diverse accompaniment of weapons. Perhaps a battlecruiser?" Minerva suggested
"Not unless we know for sure this AI is not a threat. Not just to humans, but alien innocents as well." Wolf stated with heavy emphasis, "I'll give it some thought," he said before returning to his command chair.
"Minerva, secure our new friend and begin your repairs. We may have use for her if she no longer poses a threat."
The AI in question disappeared, leaving Minerva with the rest of the crew.
"And Minerva," Wolf said, "Ensure she has a leash and await for Athena to conduct a full repair, if you can."
The light blue transparent figure bowed before responding, "I do believe that the TRSC Phantom Queen would be the most fitting. It has armaments most suitable to her programming."
Wolf supported his chin with his wrist as it sat upon the arm rest, granting him the air of a lord to the noble Minerva.
"By the way, I don't think we've heard her name. Would you like to enlighten us?"
"Of course," she responded, "Our time together has birthed a bond I had not foreseen, but I find it amicable, regardless."
She recovered her posture and her figure was sleek and wise as she continued to speak.
"Her programming has been influenced by her control of the Lassus Station automatons and as a result, she has a keen ability to process coordination beyond anything we have seen before. With a series of tests, I have determined that she would excel in a heavy combat oriented role."
She said, facing Wolf as he sat on his chair with every word she spoke under scrutiny, but she continued.
"On the status of her name, she has found one she deemed fitting."
A still portrait of the AI was shown beside a photo of a woman with long red and wild hair, with her outfit a mix of noble stature mixed with the barbaric layers of fur and chains. She wore a crown upon her forehead and was accompanied by two crows perched on her shoulder. It was an ancient painting depicting what many thought was a noble-turned-barbarian.
"She calls herself, Mórrígan."
--------------------E N D--------------------
>Coordinates_Downloaded
>Secured_LZR-[D]BND_With_Advanced_Strike_Force_Established
>Coordinates_Mapped
>Spooling_Slip_Space_Drive: %87.665_Complete
>Rendezvouz_Signal_Active
>Formation_Sierra_Assumed
>Shields_MAX_OUTPUT
>Preparing_Jump...

Occupation – Government employee
Age – 34
Location – Zimbabwe
My salary – $500 (paid monthly)
Side Gig Income – $0
Other income – negligible amounts from dividends received from my stock portfolio that I re-invest
Housemates – 4 (husband P, 6 year old L, 4 year old E and nanny F. My nephew M is around and makes appearances too)
​
Assets and Liabilities
​

Equity	$60,000 fully paid off
Retirement Balance	??	I contribute monthly, and employer matches fully. But because of changes in currency and hyperinflation, I don’t really count this as an asset
Savings	$1700	(went down due to travelling trying to get my passport done since it expired)
Current account balance	$660	Includes my mum's money since I'm managing her financial affairs while she's abroad
Loan from employer	$130	I took a personal loan from work, because the interest rates are lower than rate of inflation and repayment is over 18 months. Loan was used to make improvements on our house, and what wasn’t used, I bought shares on our stock exchange, due to hyperinflation, the amount I owe in US$ has gone down
Investments (shares in various counters on our local stock exchanges)	$1,186
Car	$4,000	Based on current resale value. Car was bought secondhand for cash

​
Income progression- (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/)
​
Expenses
This year, my husband and I decided that he would take on the bulk of our expenses since I do most of the domestic work/childcare. Expenses I pay will be indicated. My salary is now for my expenses, my investments and my savings, and spoiling the kids. Husband caters for the family basics. There was a point last year when I felt my husband wasn’t as invested in the family because he barely did anything financially. By having him cater for all expenses, he is now definitely involved and invested. My husband’s income is just about the same as mine, slightly higher at some times.
​
My Expenses

Expense	Amount /period	Note
Car insurance and licensing	$300/annum	This is due in March, and I pay for the entire year
Petrol	$60/month
Electricity	$10/month
Airtime/data	$20/month
Groceries	$60/month	This is for additional groceries such as bread, veg and fruit bought during the month
Kids’ clothes	$40/month	I’m trying to build up their winter wardrobe so I try to buy them something each month
Makeup/clothes/toiletries/ supplements/hair	$30/month	I do not us this much monthly though
Water	$15/month	Based on last bill received in April. We do not get water consistently so bills are infrequent
Donations	$20/month	Ad hoc donations to a soup kitchen, and maternal health fun
Stock market investment	$50/month	May invest more or less, but I do try to buy shares every payday

​
Household Expenses (paid by P)
​

Expense	Amount /period	Note
Groceries	$200/month	Bulk grocery shopping of staple food items and toiletries
LP Gas	$30/approx. every 2 months	We buy when it runs out. Usually every 2 months depending on how bad the power supply is
Medical	$15/month	For OTC meds (painkiller, cough syrup, antacid stocked for emergencies) and any prescriptions
Pet expenses	$60/ twice a year	For vaccinations and checkups for 4 dogs. Pet food is covered under groceries
School fees for the kids	$347/ term	One kid has fees paid every month, the other every 3 months
Nanny	$80/month	Less than before as both kids are now in school fulltime, and nanny is there to get them ready for school and care after school for 3 hours.
DSTV subscription	$37/month
Transport for kids to/from school	$60/month	L gets picked up and dropped off at home daily, E is dropped off after school

​
Previous MDs - (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/vbbb7s/i_live_in_zimbabwe_making_3600year_and_i_just/) and (https://www.reddit.com/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/yc801g/i_am_33_years_old_and_i_just_graduated_with_my/)
​
MD Q&A
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, I have a BSc in Accounting, a Masters in Accounting, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Taxation. My parents both have Masters degrees, and in my family, the bare minimum acceptable for education was getting a Bachelors. My mother paid for my undergraduate degree, and I paid cash for my postgraduate studies.
​
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My parents divorced when I was very young. My dad is the wealthier of the two, my mum has always been middle-class. My mum brought me up with very little financial help from my dad, he only covered tuition and healthcare until I turned 18. My mum catered for everything else. My mum taught me how to look for bargains, how to save and invest, and also how to sometimes enjoy your money.
​
If you have, when did you move out of your parents'/guardians' house?
I would say I moved out at 26 when I got my current job. I had moved out when I got my first fulltime job, but moved back home when that contract ended
​
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
At 26 again. That's when I earned enough to cover all my bills without needing help. My husband P covers some aspects of my financial life, and my mum occasionally helps out with stuff for her grandchildren.
​
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I worked as a receptionist at my mum's law firm after finishing my A Levels (age 18) while waiting to start university. My mum gave me the job to keep me occupied and out of mischief, lol.
​
Do you worry about money now?
I worry about building generational wealth for my children. I want to make sure they will be set for life as adults. I do worry about money because hyperinflation is eroding my earnings and retirement dramatically. This is my second time losing my retirement. My mum and in laws are losing their retirement for the third time, so honestly our old age looks bleak if we do not invest outside of work pensions.
​
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
I receive negligible dividends from the shares I own, lol.
​
Day 1
0430 – I’m woken up by loadshedding. I sigh, rollover, and sleep some more
0600 – Alarm goes off. I turn it off, enjoy cuddles from P and finally get out of bed. Our water tanks ran out 4 days ago, and council has not yet deigned to give us water, so we rely on P’s parents and friends to give us water. I get my water that was warming up on the stove, and take a quick bucket bath. I moisturize, do my brows, throw my lace wig on (I cut my hair in January, and I’m at a really awkward stage where my hair looks bad when I wear it out all day) and get dressed. It’s cold in the mornings so I put on winter stockings and a black and white chevron patterned dress, nude ballet pumps plus my warm jacket. I get E from the couch where he was watching Cocomelon and my lunch bag out of the kitchen and we head off to his school. After dropping off E, I go to the office. No electricity means no elevator, so I go up the stairs. I see my boss’s boss and greet him as we do the ZESA (local electricity company) sponsored workout. I log in to the work register, fill up my kettle, and settle down to check out my work email. Nothing urgent came through overnight, so I go into my personal email. The wig company I patronize has given me a code for my birthday, and I’m wondering if I should pull the trigger on my cart. I decide to do a report while thinking this through.
My mum is currently working out of the country, so I am managing her local finances/obligations while she’s away. I remember I have to buy the prepaid electricity token for my childhood home as well as for the house she lives in when she’s working in the country. I spend $23 on electricity for both houses (mum’s money so doesn’t count)
1030 – After doing some firefighting and office gossip I have my breakfast. Today its rice, peas and 2 fried eggs. I sprinkle some peri-peri Aromat on top since I don’t have a sauce/gravy ad I have been craving spicy food lately. I also pop my multivitamin and supplements. I check my team’s work and send back anything that needs correcting. I also generate the multiple reports my boss expects from me. I suddenly remember I need to claim my allowance for performing a role that is higher than my actual position at work. I quickly complete the form, and send it to my boss for his signature. The extra money from this is what I use to fund my stock market investments. I also remind my team to send a report to me for consolidation by noon.
12.00 – I do a major push of all my work due today so I can relax after lunch. I compile my reports and set them ready to send. I also finish my first 2 litres of water of the day, and cue up the next 2 litres
1300 – Its lunchtime, and my work bestie and I head out around town**. I find shorts that L would fit and buy 2 pairs for $10**. We head back to the office and I have caramel popcorn for lunch. Then I remember I forgot to have my afternoon meds, oops. Anyway, more work before heading to an audit meeting
1630 – The audit meeting is finally over, and I rush to shut down my computer, pack up my things and go home. I have an agreement with my manager that as long as I make up for the hour, by either coming early or skipping lunch, I can leave work at 4pm. I had a total hysterectomy end of last year so I still can’t manage driving in heavy traffic. I arrive home, make the bed (P had not made it when he went to work), and harvest chilies from our garden that have ripened. I also harvest a local herb used as a flu remedy and lemongrass, so I can brew up a tea/tisane for the flu affected people in my house. I also pack L’s lunch for tomorrow, a pie, a naartjie and juice. It’s also F’s payday, so I give her US$80 (P gave me this money).
E says he is hungry so I feed him sadza and sour milk by his request. I multitask covering L’s school textbook while supervising his homework and watching Married to Real Estate and the Great British Bake Off. I then have my dinner of sadza, greens and beef. I have a chat with the kids about their day at school. P gets home.
1900 – P and my nephew M go to fetch water from P’s friend’s house. The city council still hasn’t opened up our water supply. I do some French on Duolingo while the boys wreak havoc in their playroom. I read L and E their bedtime stories and put them to bed. I decide to do my hair in cornrows while watching Masterchef Australia. They get home and I help them carry water indoors. I remember that when power comes back I need to boil tripe on the stove, so I cut it up, put it in the pot with water, salt and garlic, and place it on the electric stove. We have serious loadshedding these days, so we have a gas stove and solar power to tide us over. I take a quick bath and change into my pyjamas. While P watches TV, I read Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins and continue to do my hair in cornrows.
2200 – My arms are tired and I’m only halfway through with the cornrows. I give up and go to bed with P.
Total spent - $10
​
Day 2
0600 – I hear crying. E is in a bad mood today. I turn off my alarm, and go to see what’s wrong. E does not want to get dressed for school. I sigh, and help F dress him while he throws a massive tantrum. E is dressed, so I go do my morning routine of shower, moisturize, contact lenses, and eyebrow makeup. Today, I wear a green dress I took from my mum, black tights, nude ballet flats and a black and white coat. E gets put into the car by F, and starts crying for porridge. We are already late, so he learns that the consequence of refusing to eat his porridge on time is to go to school without having his porridge. It’s not a big issue though, as he gets fed at school. So I lock the doors and windows and drive him to school as he throws a tantrum for the entire 10 minute drive. I shove him into the school gate and head to work.
It’s another ZESA sponsored stair workout today. I log into the register, and fill up my kettle with water. I switch on my computer, check my work email and send off client emails to my team for their response. My personal email has an annual report from one of the companies I have shares in so I check out if there’s a dividend this year. I own a negligible number of shares in the company though, but 28c per share is quite impressive. I check to see if my stock exchange wallet has been credited with the money I transferred there so I can buy more shares. It still hasn’t so I send a follow up email o the enquiries desk at the stock exchange. I do have a stockbroker, but I prefer doing my trades myself. I also do some French on Duolingo before 8am.
0830 – Our HR is in a tizzy because people are late for work. I don’t make a big deal out of it usually, because salaries are shit and people are demotivated. As long as my team shows up and does some work, I’m ok. I approve some work, and warn my team about coming in a bit too late. I also tell a teammate that she will have to cover for me on Monday as I am taking the day off. Our internet connectivity is shit so I can’t log into our system to check some stuff. My work bestie gives me avocados from her house. I almost cry because I have been craving avocados, but been too cheap to buy them.
1000 – I have a really bad sore throat. I am also hungry since I haven’t had breakfast yet. I jot down my shopping list for the weekend and head to Pick ‘n’ Pay to buy carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, lemons, cheese, polony and bread. I also buy my breakfast/lunch, which is rice, beans, ox liver and egg salad**. It all cost $10**. I leave my shopping in my car, and go to the office to wolf down my food, and take my multivitamin and painkiller. I also receive my wigs that I bought in May. Perfect timing, as I want to wear a new wig tomorrow for our girls’ day out.
I do some more work, and remind my team to send me the information I need for my daily reports.
1300 – I go out to buy a few items I didn’t find in Pick ‘n’ Pay earlier**. I go to Spar and buy peas, eggs, soft drinks for the outing tomorrow and a sausage roll. Total cost is $10**. The outing has been deemed kid friendly, so I needed drinks for the boys to have tomorrow. I get back into the office, and spend the rest of the lunch hour working.
1600 – It’s finally time to go home. I send my email to handover work issues for the person who will take over my role on Monday while I am on leave. I also send my out of office email, and head home. The kids are at their grandmother’s, so I take a leisurely bath, put on my pyjamas and eat dinner. Then I watch Masterchef Australia until P and E get home. I also get in some French Duolingo practice
2000 – P goes out with his friends, so I snuggle up on the couch with E and watch TV. I put E to bed, read him his bedtime story and kiss him good night. I finally finish season 13 of Masterchef Australia, and move on to My Kitchen Rules Australia. I love Australian reality shows, ngl.
2200 – I go to bed P gets home and tells me some bad news about a friend of ours. I feel very sad for him. He cuddles me and we sleep.
Total spent - $20
​
Day 3
0700 – I wake up feeling like a truck ran me over. I get out of bed, and get ready to hand-wash our laundry. We still have no running water so we can’t use the washing machine. I play music while doing my laundry to keep me motivated
0900 – Laundry has been hung out to dry. F has cooked potato curry, so I boil eggs and water. I have my breakfast of potato curry, egg, multivitamin and coffee. Once I’m done, I give E a bath and dress him. I also bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt today as my friends and I ae supposed to take our kids out for a playdate. Then I receive a message that the outing is cancelled since one of our group is really sick. I try to think of something I can do with E, since L is out having fun with his grandmother. I do my Swahili Duolingo practice.
1100 – The welder comes to do some work on our garage door. I monitor the work for a bit, and then my nephew takes over. E starts really bugging me to go out. So I put on my headband wig and sneakers, and pack a cooler bag with snacks and drinks. We head into town and I buy myself some ciders for $9. These are for me to drink when the mood strikes me. E wants to go to a resort by the lake so I oblige him. We pay $8 for our entrance. He goes to play on the swings, and I take pictures of him having fun. Another family turns up, and one of his classmates is among them. He’s so happy, and goes to play with his friend. I watch him running around.
1500 – I get a call from my friend that she’s in town with my cake. This cake was meant for the cancelled outing. I pack up our stuff, hustle E into the car and drive back into town. I let out some colourful swear words when I realise I forgot to get our change of $2. Anyway**, I meet up with my friend and get the cake, and pay her $30**. It’s so pretty. I call my MIL while still in town to find out what time she will be there so I can pick up L. She says it will be an hour, so E and I head home to drop off the cake so it doesn’t melt in my AC-less car.
1600 – We are back in town waiting for L and MIL. E wants an ice cream so I buy him one for $0.50 using money I had in my Innbucks wallet. MIL calls and asks me to head over to where she is to pick L up since she can’t leave yet. E and I get there. MIL gets me sadza and goat tripe stew, which I eat a bit of to be polite even though I am not hungry. When I’m done, I pack up the kids and drive home. I bath and change into my pyjamas.
1800 – I feed the kids, and we play until their weekend bedtime of 8pm. I read them their bedtime stories and tuck them in. I watch TV and iron my morning laundry while having a gin and juice until 9pm, and head to read in bed. P and my nephew arrive home from their amateur soccer league match and subsequent outing with the boys. I fall asleep soon after.
Total spent - $49.50
​
Day 4
0700 – I’m woken up by L demanding that I come and play with them. I am still sleepy so I fob him off.
0900 - F knocks on the door and tells us she is off to church. I finally get out of bed and get dressed. I see the boys playing relatively peacefully so I let them continue with their antics. In the kitchen, I find F had cooked breakfast, and since I’m starving, I heat up water for coffee. L surprisingly isn’t hungry so I serve up breakfast for P and me. I have my daily multivitamin. P heads out to go fetch water, while I bath, change and hang out with the kids. I also do my French Duolingo practice for the day
1200 – I have played with the dogs and kids, and I am exhausted. I collapse onto the couch and watch MKR Australia. P gets home, and naps on the couch. I give the kids haircuts and baths.
1700 – L is hungry and really wants cake, so I feed the kids a dinner of sadza and sour milk. Then some cake for dessert. I also pack L’s school lunch, which will be a polony sandwich, a cupcake and juice. The kids play until its bedtime at 7pm. The usual routine, bedtime stories and tuck in is done
2000 – P and I watch a movie while having some alcoholic drinks.
2200 – Bedtime for us
Total spent - $0
​
Day 5
0600 – It’s my birthday today. I am going all out celebrating myself since TW I tried unaliving myself twice in the past year. L wishes me a happy birthday before he goes to school. I get birthday messages from my mum, dad, SILs, and friends. I also get a call from my brother, his wife and their son, and they sing to me. I feel very loved today. P goes to drop off E at school today so I can sleep in
0800 – I am finally up and hungry. I cook a quick breakfast of boiled eggs, and a bean curry. P takes my car to get serviced, while I bath, moisturize, contact lenses, do a full face of makeup and get dressed for the day. Today I wear a tie-dyed cutout mini-dress and sneakers, and my wavy headband wig
1300 – P is home and he drives me to a hotel outside town near a renowned tourist site in our country. We have a platter of fried fish, chicken strips, pork strips, fries, and a salad to share and multiple Savannah Drys while there. It’s really nice getting to reconnect after a very tumultuous year in our marriage. P pays.
1700 – We drive around the area, before heading home. Once we get home, P and my nephew go on a hunt for water, while I feed the kids. P and I head off to take our showers. I remember why I don’t do a full face of makeup when it take a long time to get the makeup off my face.
1900 – The family sings happy birthday, and we eat cake. Birthday gifts were gin and chocolate. I hustle the boys off to bed. No story today, as they went to bed later than usual. P watches TV while I read my novel.
2100 – Bedtime for the grownups
Total spent - $0
​
Day 6
0530 – I wake up and lie in bed for a bit. Then I read my novel some more.
0620 – I am up, and take my bath, moisturize, do my brows and get dressed. It’s cold this morning, so I wear a yellow dress with black polka dots, black tights and ankle boots. I pack up the cake I’m giving to my colleagues, as well as my water bottle. E and I head out. I drop E off at school, and go to the office. I log into the work register, turn on my computer, and check my emails. There are a few pressing issues I need to get up to speed with. One of my colleagues gives me $50 as a birthday gift. I also hand out the cake to my team.
0900 – Work is pretty quiet today, so I update my MD. I also receive news that one of my nephews is getting married. He is not that much younger than me, and could be my younger brother, but it makes me feel so old.
Note on my family: In our culture, even distant relatives are given close relationships so the large number of nephews/nieces is from those relationships. It’s a big thing done to maintain close family bonds. I have 4 actual (in a Western sense) nephews and nieces who are all under the age of 6.
1000 – I head to the supermarket and buy bread, onions, carrots, pork chops, pork trotters and my breakfast and lunch. This costs $25. The meat is the main cost driver here. I have a sausage roll, my multivitamin, supplement and milk for breakfast. I remember that I need to check if my stock exchange wallet was credited, ugh. The website is refusing to load and I’m very frustrated. I finally log in and see the amount is still not credited. I email and send a tweet to the stock exchange. Hopefully the tweet will get them to start moving.
1200 – My boss is mad. One member of my team left his desk without informing me and there’s an urgent matter. I was about to go downstairs to give P the groceries, so I stick around for a bit before committing the same offence as my subordinate, lol. I quickly get back into my office and check on work, sign some papers and letters, and clear out my emails.
1300 – My work bestie has to run other errands at lunch so I decide to stay in the office. I check my personal email and see I have received a dividend of $0.27, lol. The share price will probably drop soon, so I will buy more shares in this counter if I can get them to increase my shareholding. My goal for this year is to breach the 10,000 share mark for one counter. I suddenly remember I have work to do, so I use my lunch hour to do the work, and then take a quick break to eat my lunch of fries and a sausage and do some Swahili Duolingo practice.
1500 – I am thinking of going home when one of my team members calls me to deal with an angry client. I go to the office, and find out it’s a surprise birthday party from my team. I am so happy, lol. We have more cake, and there’s also fruit and juice. I head home feeling so appreciated with even more cake.
1700 – P and my nephew go out to get water. I warm up my bath water, and give the kids their dinner. Today its rice and croc meat. I make L’s lunch for tomorrow, a toasted polony sandwich and juice. I also pack my lunch, rice, a fried egg and peas. And some cake for my work bestie’s kids. I take my bath; change into my pyjamas and hound E to eat his food. If we let that kid be, he would probably live on the bits of our souls he sucks out daily by being stubborn. I am feeling nauseous so I have plain rice with a bit of avocado. The kids watch cartoons, while I do some more Swahili on Duolingo.
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. Today, there’s no demand for a bedtime story, so I just tuck them in and tell them I love them. I read my novel as increasingly feel more nauseated. I end up going to hurl my guts out. P comes home and finds me lying limply on the bed. He gives me a cuddle, and goes to eat his dinner. I get up but smell fish, and run back to throw up. If I hadn’t had a hysterectomy, I would be doing a pregnancy test ASAP.
2100 – I go to bed, and lie in bed for a bit, before finally drifting off.
Total spent - $25
​
Day 7
0500 – I wake up feeling nauseated again. Ugh, this reminds me of having hyperemesis while pregnant. I put my water on to heat and get back in bed to read some more.
0600 – E comes to lie on our bed. I get out of bed, and go throw up. I get my bath water, take my bath, moisturize and put my contacts in. I look like a reanimated corpse this morning. I do my brows to try bring a bit of life to my face and get dressed. It’s very misty and cold today so I put on warm brown tights, a long black dress, my warm jacket and ballet flats. I grab my lunch and the cake, pop E into the car and head out. Visibility is extremely low, so I drive slowly. I don’t know why people like surprising other drivers by having their cars pop out of the mist without switching on their headlights. I successfully avoid the drivers who hate life and drop E off at school before heading to work.
0700 – I am in the office, and I log into the register, before turning on my computer and checking my work email. Not too much in there, so I check my personal email. My stock exchange wallet has finally been credited with the $100. I also ponder whether I should pull the trigger on a V-part wig.
I do my weekly report, and start doing some boring work in the system. I realise I didn’t save the work I did yesterday, so I have to re-do it, so I can have the list of error messages to send to ICT.
0830 – Everyone is in the office, so I do some reshuffling of duties, so that essential areas are covered while one of my colleagues is on leave. I give the cake to work bestie, who tells me how much her daughter was excited over the cake yesterday. It’s now time for me to put my head down and really focus on knocking out the system work today. I also log into an online training, and I listen while doing my work. My mum also deposits money for my birthday gift and to spoil her grandkids.
1000 – I log into my stock exchange account and buy shares for $99.14 (doesn’t count as spending, as the money was moved before the MD started). The deadline for other departments to submit their weekly reports to me for consolidation has passed so I start following up. One department is a big problem as they always send their report late. Le sigh. I draft a very passive aggressive email to them. I also decide not to buy the wig and instead ask the person making me my custom earrings that I got myself for my birthday to bill me the rest of the money so I can pay and move the remainder of the money in my account into savings. Our currency has taken an enormous hit in the last week, and is free falling dramatically. I’d rather keep USD cash than money in my account at this point. The training finally ends.
1100 – I’m getting hungry so I go warm up my lunch, sprinkle on peri peri Aromat and dig in. Yum. I also have my multivitamin and supplement. A lady who sells local snacks comes in. She persuades me to buy maputi (corn nuts mixed with roasted peanuts) for $0.50. I buy them for my afternoon snack. I end up sending the report with missing statistics, and tell the department to send directly to the compiler, as they were late. That was a very aggressive email tbh. I’m still hungry, so I munch on my maputi, leaving the peanuts because I don’t feel like eating them lately.
1200 – I see a missed call from a number I don’t know. I call and it turns out they had sent money to my mobile wallet mistakenly. I check the mobile wallet and it shows it had an extra $11. I send the money back to the person. Times are too tough to keep people’s money
1400 – I snack on a few skittles instead of having more food. I just want something to entertain my mouth, I’m not hungry at all. I review more work and drink more water. The jeweler has sent the payment request for the earrings. I pay $100 (total spent on the earrings comes to $200, which is worth it for sterling silver custom made Jewellery. I use $50 of the birthday money from my mum to cover for part of this expense)
1600 – Finally time to go home. I shut down my computer, and drive home. Once I’m home, I put on my bath water, and help L do his homework. Then I do some Swahili Duolingo practice and pack L’s lunch for tomorrow. He requested maize (corn on the cob), a boiled egg and a naartjie. His wish is my command for once. I also pack my lunch, a boiled egg, peanut butter sandwich and a bit of birthday cake. The jeweler sends pictures of the final product. They are absolutely gorgeous. Happy 34th birthday to me!!!
1800 – I serve the kids their dinner, and go to take my bath. P sends a text that he will be home late as they are working late today. I have my own dinner while persuading E to eat his food
1900 – Bedtime for the kids. I read them their bedtime stories, tuck them in and tell them I love them. Then I go to watch TV. I’m catching up on Married to Real Estate, Food Factory and Man Vs Food. You can tell that reality TV is my jam.
2100 – I decide to have some decaf black coffee and cake as my bedtime snack. P and my nephew arrive home. They are later than they thought they would be because nephew dropped his phone in the middle of the highway and they were searching for it. Because nephew’s ancestors were on the job, they found it intact. It’s a big deal because this is a major highway and huge trucks use that road constantly. I chat with P as he has his dinner and takes his bath.
2200 – Cuddles and bedtime for us
​
Total spent today – $100
​
Total spent this week – $204.50
​
Spending by categories
Food & Drink – $84.50
Home & Health – $0
Clothing & Beauty – $110
Transportation – $0
Fun & Entertainment – $10
​
Reflections on this week’s spending
The spending is pretty much about normal for me tbh (excluding the cake and earrings). I had quite a bit of petrol in the tank so I didn’t need to top up my tank this week. The converted US$ prices are a bit inaccurate since our currency had a big drop this week, and most of my spending is in local currency. I could reign in my spending a bit, and focus more on investing. However, I do enjoy using my money to bring joy to my kids and myself. Particularly myself after the absolutely shitty year I had.

Is this normal? It’s been nearly a week since we gave her the vaccines and she’s not been her self at all, what was once a very happy and hungry baby who loved her milk is now always moody and crying and doesn’t finish her bottle at all. We give her 4oz and she used to guzzle it all before vaccinations now she barely drinks 2oz and when she gets to that point she screams and fights to get me to stop feeding her. She’s on formula - is this normal?

[The text in this post is copied from a comment I made under a fnv post making fun of the character Lily Bowen, a Super Mutant who was a grandma before she was turned into a monster on the outside, but still retains her personality.]
My grandma died in October and I didn’t say goodbye.
She’d been sick with terminal cancer for almost a year, and in that time I only spoke to her a handful of times, if that. The thing is, I wasn’t supposed to know she had cancer. My mom told me, but wanted me to pretend I didn’t know, so that I would talk to her as if I thought she’d be alright. But how could I? Knowing that her days were numbered, I couldn’t bring myself to pretend everything was fine. Hell, even if I’d been allowed to address her condition, I preferred to distance myself from her even more than the ocean that separated us (she lived in Colombia 🇨🇴, where my whole family and I are from. I live in the US). I didn’t call. I was already accepting her death long before it actually happened. The week before she died, my mom told me she would call me later that week and put me on the phone with her to let her know I love her and that I’d be okay, because she was always worrying about me. She knew my grandma’s time was almost up, but she still overestimated how long she had. My grandma died before my mom ever called me. At first I felt more numb than sad, because I’d been ready for it. I’d been waiting. Honestly hoping she would go soon because she was suffering tremendously near the end. But then like a week after she died, I broke down in inconsolable sobs. I realized how in trying to spare myself the pain of talking to her, knowing I’d lose her soon; I lost her sooner than she died. I’ll never see her again, and not only did I not get to say goodbye, but I barely talked to her her whole last sickly year. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself for that. But I mourned her and have mostly come to the acceptance stage of grief. For several months I was in denial. She was there my whole life, and then she wasn’t. The fact that I didn’t see her die or say goodbye made it even harder to accept. Alas, I was about as over it as you can get. I don’t think about her as much anymore, but when I do, I sigh the deepest sighs…
I started replaying New Vegas a few weeks ago after being done with and away from it for about a year. When I picked Lily up this playthrough and subsequently dismissed her, “Grandma will miss her little pumpkin. You promise to visit Grandma soon.” put tears in my eyes. So I can’t fuck with the humor in this post. I would love to have my grandma there to knit me “I ❤️ Grandma” sweaters that I’d wear proudly and cheer me on and feed me her special recipes of treats and fill my head with her worries for my safety and wellbeing, even as busy as I am with work and my personal life.
Appreciate your grandmas, and for the love you have for them, don’t be afraid to say goodbye, because you’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t.

Why do people hate on Cassie beating Shinnok again?
Just for the sake of clarifying, I came back to the franchise recently after YEARS away, played X and 11 after the reveal of MK1, and actually enjoyed the story of X (11 got me hella bored).
I always saw the games' story as kinda bad Hollywood movies, and I actually really liked how both Shao Kahn was defeated in 9 and how Shinnok was defeated in X, having all the context behind it - so I was kinda surprised to learn people absolutely hated X's plot. The game stablishes early on that the green power is not just a buff (although it does buff, Shinnok was toying with Johnny before it), but a bloodline boon that completely nullifies the gods' powers (Johnny himself didn't even tank the attack, the thing just didn't work) - and later as part of his plan Shinnok specifically kidnaps Johnny, confirming that threat and even telling him so, to the point the one who binds him isn't even his magic, but D'vorah's goo just bo sure.
None of the cast knew Cassie could do the same, so Shinnok wasn't even bothered by it. Then when it turned out that she did, completely nullifying Shinnok's magic (his main power and strongest tool), she won (exactly the same way as Johnny did). You had all the setup, the Chekhov's gun, the arrogant villain underestimating the heroes, even development throughout the game as Cassie senses she fails to meet expectations set up by her family (that is also being torn apart by a workaholic mother), but steps up at the most crucial moment precisely because that family is in danger. It really feels like a cliche'd hollywood movie, and even though I believe they did most of it kinda badly (the thing about Johnny being descendant from such a special lineage coming out of nowhere and brushed off immediately; and a lot more), it wasn't nowhere near the BS they pulled a lot before (and that they would pull after), specially on MK9, considering all the buildup they made.
I can understand in hindsight that people didn't like Cassie, but I saw a lot of legitimate criticism saying the plot was horrible because of this. Is it because Shinnok got the power up? Or is it just because Cassie=Bad (Which is funny to me now, because the campaign already begins humbling her multiple times and building her confidence slowly, so I thought people who played it would let her off the hook more)?

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FGA explained
Factorization algebras in perturbative quantum field theory
FinRel
FinSet
Finite Quantum Electrodynamics -- The Causal Approach
Five lectures on supersymmetry
Formal Moduli Problems and DG-Lie Algebras
Foundations of Algebraic Topology
Foundations of Constructive Analysis
Foundations of Mechanics
Fourier transform
Frames and Locales
Fredholm operator
Friedrichs extension
Friedrichs' system
Frm
From Fields to Strings -- Circumnavigating Theoretical Physics
From String structures to Spin structures on loop spaces
From classical field theory to perturbative quantum field theory
Functorial Semantics of Algebraic Theories
Fundamental Bigroupoids and 2-Covering Spaces
GAGA
Gabriel multiplication
Galois Theories
Gauge Field Theory and Complex Geometry
Gelfand duality
Gelfand spectrum
General Theory of Natural Equivalences
Geometric Algebra
Geometric Models for Elliptic Cohomology
Geometric and topological structures related to M-branes
Geometry, Topology and Physics
Global Homotopy Theory and Cohesion
Global homotopy theory
Grassmannian
Gravitation
Grothendieck Festschrift
GroupNames
Groupprops
Grp
Grpd
Grundlage der gesamten Wissenschaftslehre
Grundriss des Eigenthümlichen der Wissenschaftslehre
Gérard Gonzalez-Sprinberg
Handbook of Algebraic Topology
Handbook of Analysis and its Foundations
Handbook of Analysis and its Foundations
Handbook of Categorical Algebra
Handbook of Homotopy Theory
Handbook of K-theory
Handbook of Quantum Gravity
Handbook of Quantum Logic and Quantum Structures
Hausdorff series
Hazewinkel, Witt vectors
Help me! I'm trying to understand Bakalov and Kirillov
HeytAlg
Higher Algebra
Higher Algebraic Structures and Quantization
Higher Groups in Homotopy Type Theory
Higher Structures in M-Theory 2018
Higher Topos Theory
Higher categories and homotopical algebra
Higher-Dimensional Types in the Mechanization of Homotopy Theory
Hilb
Hilbert space
Ho(Cat)
Ho(Top)
Ho(sSet)
Ho(∞Grpd)
HoTT at DMV2015
HoTT in Bonn2018
Hodge theory and Complex algebraic geometry
Homotopical Algebra
Homotopy Limit Functors on Model Categories and Homotopical Categories
Homotopy Limits, Completions and Localizations
Homotopy Theory of Higher Categories
Homotopy Type Theory -- Univalent Foundations of Mathematics
Homotopy Type Theory Electronic Seminar Talks
Homotopy Types
Homotopy limits, completions and localizations
Homotopy theories and model categories
Homotopy topoi and equivariant elliptic cohomology
Hopf algebroid
Hopf algebroid over a commutative base
Hopf module
Indagationes Mathematicae
Infinity-Grpd
Introduction to Higher-Order Categorical Logic
Introduction to Homotopy Type Theory
Introduction to Strings and Branes
Introduction to compact transformation groups
Introduction to fibrewise homotopy theory
Introduction to foliations and Lie groupoids
Introduction to Étale Cohomology
Isle of Thorns
Jacobson ring
Joost Vercruysse
K-Theory for Operator Algebras
Kenzo
Kerodon
Kontsevich formality
Kontsevich-Vishik trace
LOOPS'22
Lagrange inversion
Lat
Lebesgue space
Lectures on Equivariant Stable Homotopy Theory
Lectures on category theory
Lectures on n-Categories and Cohomology
Lectures on the History of Philosophy
Lectures on the Orbit Method
Lectures on the Philosophy of History
Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion
Lectures on the geometry of quantization
Lectures on Étale Cohomology
Les Dérivateurs
Lex
Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, Cohomology and Some Applications in Physics
LieAlg
LieGrpd
Loc
Local homotopy theory
Localization in Homotopy Type Theory
Locally Presentable and Accessible Categories
Logic as the Essence of Philosophy
Long March
Loop Groups and Twisted K-Theory
Loop Groups, Characters and Elliptic Curves
M-Theory and Mathematics
MSet
Macdonald polynomial
Malcev, protomodular, homological and semi-abelian categories
Mathematical Theory of Quantum Fields
Mathematical Topics Between Classical and Quantum Mechanics
Mathematical methods of classical mechanics
Meaning and Necessity
Meas
Metaphysics (Aristotle)
Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics
Methods of homological algebra
Mixed Hodge Structures
Mod
Modalities in homotopy type theory
Model Categories
Model Categories and More General Abstract Homotopy Theory
Model Categories and Their Localizations
Model categories of diagram spectra
Models for Smooth Infinitesimal Analysis
Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists
Modern foundations for stable homotopy theory
Moderne Algebra
Mon(∞,1)Cat
Monoidal Functors, Species and Hopf Algebras
Morita context
MultiSet
N-complex
Najib Idrissi
Naming and Necessity
Natural operations in differential geometry
Nature conformable to herself
Naturerkennen und Logik
New Dimensions in Geometry
(COPYPASTA MADE BY PREETHAM)
New Spaces for Mathematics and Physics
Non-Archimedean Analysis
Nonabelian Algebraic Topology
Noncommutative Algebra
Noncommutative Geometry
Noncommutative Geometry, Quantum Fields and Motives
Northwestern TFT Conference 2009
Notes on homotopical algebra
Oberwolfach
Oberwolfach HoTT-Coq tutorial
On PL deRham theory and rational homotopy type
On Vortex Atoms
On the Classification of Topological Field Theories
On the Space-Theory of Matter
On the homotopy groups of spheres in homotopy type theory
Operad
Operator theory in the C*-algebra framework
Orbifolds in Mathematics and Physics
Ore domain
Parametrized Homotopy Theory
Parmenides dialogue
Peripatetic Seminar on Sheaves and Logic
PermCat
Perturbative Algebraic Quantum Field Theory
Phenomenology of Spirit
Philosophy of Nature
Physical Mathematics and the Future
Picard-Lefschetz theory
Planet Math
Poiss
Pos
Pr(infinity,1)Cat
Practical Foundations for Programming Languages
Practical Foundations of Mathematics
Principia Mathematica
Problems in the theory of automorphic forms -- 45 years later
Prof
Proper Morphisms, Completions, and the Grothendieck Existence Theorem
Properties of Integral Morava K-Theory and the Asserted Application to the Diaconescu-Moore-Witten Anomaly
Pursuing Stacks
QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories - challenges and perspectives
Quadratic Functions in Geometry, Topology, and M-Theory
Quantization of Gauge Systems
Quantum Fields and Strings
Quantum Gauge Theories -- A True Ghost Story
Quantum Information Meets Quantum Matter
Quantum mechanics for mathematicians
Quantum physics: a functional integral point of view
Quasi-Coherent Sheaves and Tannaka Duality Theorems
Quelques propriétés globales des variétés différentiables
Quiv
Rational and p-adic Homotopy Theory
Rees matrix semigroup
Rel
Renormalization and Effective Field Theory
Representability Theorems
Riccati equation
Richard Dawid
Ring
Rings, modules and algebras in stable homotopy theory
Rota-Baxter algebra
Ryan Rohm
SDiff
SGA1
SSet Cat
Sage
Schanuel's lemma
Schauenburg bialgebroid
Schwarzian derivative
Schwinger-Tomonaga-Feynman-Dyson
SemiLat
Seminar on Triples and Categorical Homology Theory
Set
Sets for Mathematics
Sheaves in Geometry and Logic
SimpAb
SimpSet
Simplicial homotopy theory
Sketches of an Elephant
SmoothManifolds
Sobolev space
Some Thoughts on the Future of Category Theory
Some geometric perspectives in concurrency theory
Some remarks on axiomatized set theory
Some title containing the words "homotopy" and "symplectic", e.g. this one
Spectral Algebraic Geometry
Spectral Schemes
Spectrum
Spin geometry
Stab(infinity,1)Cat
Stable Infinity-Categories
Stable categories and structured ring spectra
Stable homotopy and generalised homology
Stefaan Caenepeel
Stone Spaces
StreetCBS
String Theory Dynamics In Various Dimensions
String Theory and Particle Physics -- An Introduction to String Phenomenology
String theory
String theory and the real world
Strings 2022
Structural Complexity of Proofs
Structured Spaces
Structures de Dérivabilité
StrωGrpd
SupLat
Supergravity and Superstrings - A Geometric Perspective
Supersymmetries and their Representations
Supersymmetry for mathematicians
Symmetric spectra
Symmetry
Séminaire Bourbaki
T-Duality and Differential K-Theory
T-Duality in K-theory and Elliptic Cohomology
Takeuchi product
The Blind Spot
The Cauchy Problem in Classical Supergravity
The Convenient Setting of Global Analysis
The Geometry of Physics - An Introduction
The Impact of D-Branes on Mathematics
The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
The Multifaceted Skyrmion
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics
The Relation of Cobordism to K-Theories
The Rising Sea
The Self-Organizing Universe
The Stacks Project
The Theory of Quasi-Categories and its Applications
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Physics in the Mathematical Sciences
The World in Eleven Dimensions
The join construction
The many faces of the superworld
The real projective spaces in homotopy type theory
The role of locality in perturbation theory
Theory and Applications of Categories
Three Roles of Quantum Field Theory
Timaeus dialogue
Tools for the advancement of objective logic
Top
TopGrp
TopMfd
Topological Algebraic Geometry - A Workshop
Topological Quantum Field Theories from Compact Lie Groups
Topological Quantum Field Theory, Nonlocal Operators, and Gapped Phases of Gauge Theories
Topos
Topos Theory
Toposes of laws of motion
Topospaces
Towards Higher Categories
Towards Higher Universal Algebra in Type Theory
Towards an enumerative geometry of the moduli space of curves
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Transformation Groups
Transformation Groups and Representation Theory
Type Theory and Functional Programming
Vect
W algebra
Weierstrass preparation theorem
Young measure
affine Grassmannian
analytic geometry
associative Yang-Baxter equation
bananaspace
bicovariant differential calculus
books about string theory
books and reviews in mathematical physics
books in algebraic geometry
bounded operator
brace
calculus
canonical hypergroup
categorification in representation theory
category of V-enriched categories
category of chain complexes
category of cubes - exposition
category of monoids
category of representations
category of simple graphs
central bimodule
classification of finite simple groups
colocalization
combinatorial group theory
compact operator
complex analysis
convergence
coring
crossed product algebra
cyclic category
cyclic derivation
dSet
dgAlg
dgcAlg
dilogarithm
distribution
divergent series
double Poisson structure
double derivation
dual basis
entire function
essential ideal
finite field
formality
formally real field
free Lie algebra
functional analysis
functional analysis bibliography
gebra theory
globe category
harmonic analysis
historical notes on quasigroups
homotopy type theory - references
homotopy type theory events
hyperfunction
hyperring
identity of Bol-Moufang type
infinitesimal analysis
integral
integral transform
isotope (algebra)
lacuna
local analytic geometry
local category
locally convex topological vector space
magma
math blogs
mathematical literature
measurable function
measure space
mediality
meromorphic function
microlocal analysis
microlocal category
microlocal defect functional
microlocal sheaf theory
model theory of fields
modular ideal
movable singularity
multiplier algebra
nCob
nGrpd
near-ring
necklace Lie algebra
noncommutative rational function
noncommutative residue
operational calculus
operator algebra
power series
power series
pre-Calabi-Yau algebra
preprojective algebra
pseudocompact ring
punny title
quasideterminant
quasifield
radical ring
regular field extension
regular summation method
rewriting
sAb
sampling theory
self-adjoint extension
set theoretic Yang-Baxter equation
simplex category
sources in computational topology
spectral theory
superfluous epimorphism
symplectic reflection algebra
tertiary radical
topological vector space
transvection
truss
ultradistribution
umbral calculus
umbral calculus
unbounded operator
uniform filter
uniform module
vDbl
variational calculus
weak bialgebra

Hey y’all, here’s some personal background: I am diagnosed with PTSD from experiencing a lot of deaths when I was between the ages of 15 and 16. I am constantly looking out for things which could possibly hurt or kill me.
—
I’m a mid-level manager at my workplace and I have an employee whom I never had an issue with previously. I had to write them up for attendance, and the reaction they had has been really messing with me.
They were upset (obviously), but they seemed to be blaming me for the issue (which isn’t anything new, but this was… different). After this, they have been insubordinate and just plain disrespectful to me and the other managers, but I can’t make myself approach the employee to talk to them about the situation because I feel like they are going to harm me or others in some way.
The problem I’m having is that I have not received any direct threat or anything, so I can’t fire anyone based off of what is going on in my head. But if I go the route with the insubordination, our HR department requires us to do a whole bunch of written warnings before we can fire someone. And it can be a months-long process.
My coworkers aren’t really ever available to help me with anything, and I don’t want to approach the situation alone. (And my coworkers are aware of my anxieties and triggers, but they honestly couldn’t care less about me…)
I mean, I’ve been having nightmares about this person shooting up the place, and I had to take a week off because I was scared to go in. I just don’t think anyone takes me seriously. Our HR department is all about giving people “a chance to improve”…
When I started my job (7 years ago), we had a more iron-fist approach with these types of people. But since COVID-19, we have been short-staffed and HR has gone soft on everything.
This is making it nearly impossible for me to effectively do my job, and it’s been affecting my home-life as well.
—
TLDR: My employee gives me a scary vibe, and I want to report them without evidence of a direct threat. HR probably won’t help me because of legality.

(infinity,1)Cat
(infinity,1)Topos
(infinity,n)Cat
(∞,1)Operad
2Cat
A Categorical Manifesto
A Concise Course in Algebraic Topology
A Cubical Approach to Synthetic Homotopy Theory
A History of Western Philosophy
A Polarized View of String Topology
A Survey of Cohomological Physics
A crash course in topos theory -- The big picture
A mechanization of the Blakers-Massey connectivity theorem in Homotopy Type Theory
A string diagram calculus for predicate logic
ASSet
Ab
AbMon > history
Abstract and Concrete Categories
Adjointness for 2-Categories
Adjointness in Foundations
Airy function
Alg
Algebraic Homotopy
Algebres enveloppantes
Ambidexterity in K(n)-Local Stable Homotopy Theory
An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry
An Exercise in Kantization
An Introduction to Homological Algebra
Analysis Situs
Archive for Mathematical Sciences & Philosophy
Ausdehnungslehre
Australian Category Theory Seminar
Banach algebra
Banach ring
Banach space
Bartel Leendert van der Waerden
Basic Bundle Theory and K-Cohomology Invariants
Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengenlehre
Bol loop
BoolAlg
Boole -- The Laws of Thought
Bordism, Stable Homotopy and Adams Spectral Sequences
Borel summability
BrownAHT
Bruck-Toyoda theorem
C*Alg
CAT
CRing
Calculus of fractions and homotopy theory
Calculus on Manifolds
CartSp
Cat
Categorical Homotopy Theory
Categorical dynamics
Categories and Sheaves
Categories for the Working Mathematician
Categories in Continuum Physics
Categories, Allegories
Category Theory in Context
Catégories Tannakiennes
Cauchy integral theorem
Cellular Cohomology in Homotopy Type Theory
Center for Quantum and Topological Systems
Characteristic forms and geometric invariants
Chiral Algebras
Chiral Nuclear Dynamics
Chromatic Homotopy Theory
Chu construction
Classification of continuous maps of a complex into a sphere
Closed Immersions
CoDGCA
CocommCoalg
Cohesive Toposes -- Combinatorial and Infinitesimal Cases
Cohesive Toposes and Cantor's "lauter Einsen"
Combinatorial Homotopy and 4-Dimensional Complexes
Combinatorial model categories have presentations
Combinatorial species and tree-like structures
CommAlg
Comments on the development of topos theory
Commutative Algebra
Como
CompBoolAlg
CompLat
Complex cobordism and stable homotopy groups of spheres
Complex oriented cohomology theories and the language of stacks
Computational Topology, An Introduction
Conformal field theory in four and six dimensions
Connections, Curvature, and Cohomology
Converging Realities -- Toward a common philosophy of physics and mathematics
Cospans in Algebraic Topology
Counterexamples in Topology
Cours d'Analyse
Course of Theoretical Physics
Critique of Pure Reason
Croatian Black Hole School
Crossed Menagerie
Daniell integral
Deformation Theory
Des Catégories Abéliennes
Descent Theorems
Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology
Dirac charge quantization and generalized differential cohomology
Directed Algebraic Topology
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae
DistLat
Duff interview at M-Theory-Mathematics 2020
EGA
EGA IV
Eilenberg-MacLane Spaces in Homotopy Type Theory
Elementary Categories, Elementary Toposes
Elements
Elements of Mathematics
Elements of ∞-Category Theory
Elliptic Cohomology I
Encyclopaedia of Mathematics
Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences
Equality in hyperdoctrines and comprehension schema as an adjoint functor
Equivariant cohomology theories
Equivariant stable homotopy theory
F-norm
FAC
FGA
FGA explained
Factorization algebras in perturbative quantum field theory
FinRel
FinSet
Finite Quantum Electrodynamics -- The Causal Approach
Five lectures on supersymmetry
Formal Moduli Problems and DG-Lie Algebras
Foundations of Algebraic Topology
Foundations of Constructive Analysis
Foundations of Mechanics
Fourier transform
Frames and Locales
Fredholm operator
Friedrichs extension
Friedrichs' system
Frm
From Fields to Strings -- Circumnavigating Theoretical Physics
From String structures to Spin structures on loop spaces
From classical field theory to perturbative quantum field theory
Functorial Semantics of Algebraic Theories
Fundamental Bigroupoids and 2-Covering Spaces
GAGA
Gabriel multiplication
Galois Theories
Gauge Field Theory and Complex Geometry
Gelfand duality
Gelfand spectrum
General Theory of Natural Equivalences
Geometric Algebra
Geometric Models for Elliptic Cohomology
Geometric and topological structures related to M-branes
Geometry, Topology and Physics
Global Homotopy Theory and Cohesion
Global homotopy theory
Grassmannian
Gravitation
Grothendieck Festschrift
GroupNames
Groupprops
Grp
Grpd
Grundlage der gesamten Wissenschaftslehre
Grundriss des Eigenthümlichen der Wissenschaftslehre
Gérard Gonzalez-Sprinberg
Handbook of Algebraic Topology
Handbook of Analysis and its Foundations
Handbook of Analysis and its Foundations
Handbook of Categorical Algebra
Handbook of Homotopy Theory
Handbook of K-theory
Handbook of Quantum Gravity
Handbook of Quantum Logic and Quantum Structures
Hausdorff series
Hazewinkel, Witt vectors
Help me! I'm trying to understand Bakalov and Kirillov
HeytAlg
Higher Algebra
Higher Algebraic Structures and Quantization
Higher Groups in Homotopy Type Theory
Higher Structures in M-Theory 2018
Higher Topos Theory
Higher categories and homotopical algebra
Higher-Dimensional Types in the Mechanization of Homotopy Theory
Hilb
Hilbert space
Ho(Cat)
Ho(Top)
Ho(sSet)
Ho(∞Grpd)
HoTT at DMV2015
HoTT in Bonn2018
Hodge theory and Complex algebraic geometry
Homotopical Algebra
Homotopy Limit Functors on Model Categories and Homotopical Categories
Homotopy Limits, Completions and Localizations
Homotopy Theory of Higher Categories
Homotopy Type Theory -- Univalent Foundations of Mathematics
Homotopy Type Theory Electronic Seminar Talks
Homotopy Types
Homotopy limits, completions and localizations
Homotopy theories and model categories
Homotopy topoi and equivariant elliptic cohomology
Hopf algebroid
Hopf algebroid over a commutative base
Hopf module
Indagationes Mathematicae
Infinity-Grpd
Introduction to Higher-Order Categorical Logic
Introduction to Homotopy Type Theory
Introduction to Strings and Branes
Introduction to compact transformation groups
Introduction to fibrewise homotopy theory
Introduction to foliations and Lie groupoids
Introduction to Étale Cohomology
Isle of Thorns
Jacobson ring
Joost Vercruysse
K-Theory for Operator Algebras
Kenzo
Kerodon
Kontsevich formality
Kontsevich-Vishik trace
LOOPS'22
Lagrange inversion
Lat
Lebesgue space
Lectures on Equivariant Stable Homotopy Theory
Lectures on category theory
Lectures on n-Categories and Cohomology
Lectures on the History of Philosophy
Lectures on the Orbit Method
Lectures on the Philosophy of History
Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion
Lectures on the geometry of quantization
Lectures on Étale Cohomology
Les Dérivateurs
Lex
Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, Cohomology and Some Applications in Physics
LieAlg
LieGrpd
Loc
Local homotopy theory
Localization in Homotopy Type Theory
Locally Presentable and Accessible Categories
Logic as the Essence of Philosophy
Long March
Loop Groups and Twisted K-Theory
Loop Groups, Characters and Elliptic Curves
M-Theory and Mathematics
MSet
Macdonald polynomial
Malcev, protomodular, homological and semi-abelian categories
Mathematical Theory of Quantum Fields
Mathematical Topics Between Classical and Quantum Mechanics
Mathematical methods of classical mechanics
Meaning and Necessity
Meas
Metaphysics (Aristotle)
Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics
Methods of homological algebra
Mixed Hodge Structures
Mod
Modalities in homotopy type theory
Model Categories
Model Categories and More General Abstract Homotopy Theory
Model Categories and Their Localizations
Model categories of diagram spectra
Models for Smooth Infinitesimal Analysis
Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists
Modern foundations for stable homotopy theory
Moderne Algebra
Mon(∞,1)Cat
Monoidal Functors, Species and Hopf Algebras
Morita context
MultiSet
N-complex
Najib Idrissi
Naming and Necessity
Natural operations in differential geometry
Nature conformable to herself
Naturerkennen und Logik
New Dimensions in Geometry
New Spaces for Mathematics and Physics
Non-Archimedean Analysis
Nonabelian Algebraic Topology
Noncommutative Algebra
Noncommutative Geometry
Noncommutative Geometry, Quantum Fields and Motives
Northwestern TFT Conference 2009
Notes on homotopical algebra
Oberwolfach
Oberwolfach HoTT-Coq tutorial
On PL deRham theory and rational homotopy type
On Vortex Atoms
On the Classification of Topological Field Theories
On the Space-Theory of Matter
On the homotopy groups of spheres in homotopy type theory
Operad
Operator theory in the C*-algebra framework
Orbifolds in Mathematics and Physics
Ore domain
Parametrized Homotopy Theory
Parmenides dialogue
Peripatetic Seminar on Sheaves and Logic
PermCat
Perturbative Algebraic Quantum Field Theory
Phenomenology of Spirit
Philosophy of Nature
Physical Mathematics and the Future
Picard-Lefschetz theory
Planet Math
Poiss
Pos
Pr(infinity,1)Cat
Practical Foundations for Programming Languages
Practical Foundations of Mathematics
Principia Mathematica
Problems in the theory of automorphic forms -- 45 years later
Prof
Proper Morphisms, Completions, and the Grothendieck Existence Theorem
Properties of Integral Morava K-Theory and the Asserted Application to the Diaconescu-Moore-Witten Anomaly
Pursuing Stacks
QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories - challenges and perspectives
Quadratic Functions in Geometry, Topology, and M-Theory
Quantization of Gauge Systems
Quantum Fields and Strings
Quantum Gauge Theories -- A True Ghost Story
Quantum Information Meets Quantum Matter
Quantum mechanics for mathematicians
Quantum physics: a functional integral point of view
Quasi-Coherent Sheaves and Tannaka Duality Theorems
Quelques propriétés globales des variétés différentiables
Quiv
Rational and p-adic Homotopy Theory
Rees matrix semigroup
Rel
Renormalization and Effective Field Theory
Representability Theorems
Riccati equation
Richard Dawid
Ring
Rings, modules and algebras in stable homotopy theory
Rota-Baxter algebra
Ryan Rohm
SDiff
SGA1
SSet Cat
Sage
Schanuel's lemma
Schauenburg bialgebroid
Schwarzian derivative
Schwinger-Tomonaga-Feynman-Dyson
SemiLat
Seminar on Triples and Categorical Homology Theory
Set
Sets for Mathematics
Sheaves in Geometry and Logic
SimpAb
SimpSet
Simplicial homotopy theory
Sketches of an Elephant
SmoothManifolds
Sobolev space
Some Thoughts on the Future of Category Theory
Some geometric perspectives in concurrency theory
Some remarks on axiomatized set theory
Some title containing the words "homotopy" and "symplectic", e.g. this one
Spectral Algebraic Geometry
Spectral Schemes
Spectrum
Spin geometry
Stab(infinity,1)Cat
Stable Infinity-Categories
Stable categories and structured ring spectra
Stable homotopy and generalised homology
Stefaan Caenepeel
Stone Spaces
StreetCBS
String Theory Dynamics In Various Dimensions
String Theory and Particle Physics -- An Introduction to String Phenomenology
String theory
String theory and the real world
Strings 2022
Structural Complexity of Proofs
Structured Spaces
Structures de Dérivabilité
StrωGrpd
SupLat
Supergravity and Superstrings - A Geometric Perspective
Supersymmetries and their Representations
Supersymmetry for mathematicians
Symmetric spectra
Symmetry
Séminaire Bourbaki
T-Duality and Differential K-Theory
T-Duality in K-theory and Elliptic Cohomology
Takeuchi product
The Blind Spot
The Cauchy Problem in Classical Supergravity
The Convenient Setting of Global Analysis
The Geometry of Physics - An Introduction
The Impact of D-Branes on Mathematics
The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
The Multifaceted Skyrmion
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics
The Relation of Cobordism to K-Theories
The Rising Sea
The Self-Organizing Universe
The Stacks Project
The Theory of Quasi-Categories and its Applications
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Physics in the Mathematical Sciences
The World in Eleven Dimensions
The join construction
The many faces of the superworld
The real projective spaces in homotopy type theory
The role of locality in perturbation theory
Theory and Applications of Categories
Three Roles of Quantum Field Theory
Timaeus dialogue
Tools for the advancement of objective logic
Top
TopGrp
TopMfd
Topological Algebraic Geometry - A Workshop
Topological Quantum Field Theories from Compact Lie Groups
Topological Quantum Field Theory, Nonlocal Operators, and Gapped Phases of Gauge Theories
Topos
Topos Theory
Toposes of laws of motion
Topospaces
Towards Higher Categories
Towards Higher Universal Algebra in Type Theory
Towards an enumerative geometry of the moduli space of curves
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Transformation Groups
Transformation Groups and Representation Theory
Type Theory and Functional Programming
Vect
W algebra
Weierstrass preparation theorem
Young measure
affine Grassmannian
analytic geometry
associative Yang-Baxter equation
bananaspace
bicovariant differential calculus
books about string theory
books and reviews in mathematical physics
books in algebraic geometry
bounded operator
brace
calculus
canonical hypergroup
categorification in representation theory
category of V-enriched categories
category of chain complexes
category of cubes - exposition
category of monoids
category of representations
category of simple graphs
central bimodule
classification of finite simple groups
colocalization
combinatorial group theory
compact operator
complex analysis
convergence
coring
crossed product algebra
cyclic category
cyclic derivation
dSet
dgAlg
dgcAlg
dilogarithm
distribution
divergent series
double Poisson structure
double derivation
dual basis
entire function
essential ideal
finite field
formality
formally real field
free Lie algebra
functional analysis
functional analysis bibliography
gebra theory
globe category
harmonic analysis
historical notes on quasigroups
homotopy type theory - references
homotopy type theory events
hyperfunction
hyperring
identity of Bol-Moufang type
infinitesimal analysis
integral
integral transform
isotope (algebra)
lacuna
local analytic geometry
local category
locally convex topological vector space
magma
math blogs
mathematical literature
measurable function
measure space
mediality
meromorphic function
microlocal analysis
microlocal category
microlocal defect functional
microlocal sheaf theory
model theory of fields
modular ideal
movable singularity
multiplier algebra
nCob
nGrpd
near-ring
necklace Lie algebra
noncommutative rational function
noncommutative residue
operational calculus
operator algebra
power series
power series
pre-Calabi-Yau algebra
preprojective algebra
pseudocompact ring
punny title
quasideterminant
quasifield
radical ring
regular field extension
regular summation method
rewriting
sAb
sampling theory
self-adjoint extension
set theoretic Yang-Baxter equation
simplex category
sources in computational topology
spectral theory
superfluous epimorphism
symplectic reflection algebra
tertiary radical
topological vector space
transvection
truss
ultradistribution
umbral calculus
umbral calculus
unbounded operator
uniform filter
uniform module
vDbl
variational calculus
weak bialgebra

I used to work as a zookeeper at the Milwaukee Zoo. There wasn't much to it. Just your standard zoo with a gift shop and areas to visit certain animals. I certainly was a fan of the zoo as a child, having visited the zoo for birthdays or field trips. I always said I wanted to be a vet of some sort but guess zookeeper was the closest I could get. Started working at the place around age 20. Fresh out of high school and trying to save money for my autistic nephew, this job didn't offer much. Running the train when workers couldn't, making sure the animals were fed and taken care of, you get the gist. I know, I know. I said I was a zookeeper but work is right around these parts so I have to pitch in where I can.
When I first started at the Milwaukee Zoo, I felt like I was living my dreams of helping animals. But that soon turned out to not be the case. After being there for less than a year, strange occurrences started to happen. It would be minor things such as lights going out, animals being sick, etc. Nothing major. The big incident happened right when two rookies were hired to see where they would fit in at the zoo. They were skinny and teen like. One was more hairer than the other but other than that, they seemed normal. Or so I would think. The weather was a bit hot and I was sweating while cleaning the elephant enclosure. I know, not the greatest job but someone's gotta do it. The manger of the zoo came up to me as I was closing the metal door to the cage.
"You Emily Tanner?"
"Yes. What's up?"
"I've got these two rookie here and I was wondering if you have time to show them around the base, you know, kinda get them used to the place and see where they fit in."
"Um, sure." I stammered, reaching out to shake the two young mens' hands. The gesture was ignored. Thinking to myself, I wondered what was wrong with them. Did they not understand basic social cues? Were they autistic like my nephew? Thoughts started racing through my head until one of the young men spoke.
"You ever notice the smell of animal waste, how it brings you joy?"
I couldn't speak in that moment. Surely this guy was kidding around, right? Nope. His face was stone cold. He was serious.
"Maybe." I managed to get out. This guy was definitely going be the last one to work with, I thought to myself. Instead, I gave a plastered smile and continued on with the conversation.
"These two shouldn't give you a hard time." the manger said before walking away. I nodded in agreement but then he turned back around.
"Oh, and I posted some rules on your locker door. Be sure to read them carefully. You wouldn't want to know what could happen to you if you don't."
"Is this man for real??" I thought again, my breathing quickening. I was beyond confused. "What is happening??"
But I couldn't worry about that. I had these two rookies to look after. Once I ensured the door to the elephant enclosure was secure, I lead the two men to the gorilla exhibit. It was a bit of a walk since the zoo is literally a maze where if you wanted to get to one area of interest, you had to pass several others before reaching your destination. Sure, you might be wondering if I should have the zoo's layout memorized by now, but you have to think. I don't go to the zoo everyday. Even when I go home, the zoo isn't the first thing on my mind. As I was walking, showing the men the different animals and how they behaved and such, I caught a chill down my spine every time I took a glance behind me to ensure they were following me. I tried to ignore it but the feeling was so overwhelming, I had to say or do something to take my mind off the dreaded feeling.
"So, what brings you two to the zoo and why do you want to work here?" I asked them.
Nothing.
They didn't answer. They just stared. Their cold, black eyes stared right into my soul. I quickly turned away and continues down the hot sticky tar path towards the bird enclosure. Luckily for me, it was nearing my lunch break. I could probably feed some of the birds there and then leave these two to their own devices.
I hurried my pace so that time could move faster and I could get as far away from these guys as possible. Hastily, I opened the door to the enclosure and lead them inside. Naturally the birds flew and here and there, their squawks and screeches following them as they flew about.
"You wanna be careful with the birds. Sometimes they can be mean." I tried to crack a joke but these guys weren't having it. So I naturally shut my mouth and buried any jokes I had deep within. They just stared at me, their soulless eyes not leaving mine. Bleh! Where the manger pick these guys up from, the graveyard? Even mummies and buried corpses could crack a ghost smile every once in a while. Carrying on with showing them how to care for the birds, I checked my watch and quite literally ran out of the building like it was on fire. I had to know those rules and why on EARTH these deadpan guys were hired. Surely the manger wanted to hire them as a joke because no one could be that cold and unfeeling like these two creeps.
Racing to the lockecommon room, I checked my locker door and surely, there was a list of rules. Five of them to be exact.
Rule One. Do not allow new hires to see the animals. This is crucial. If you've broken this rule, it's already too late.
Rule Two. Make sure the new hires are not left alone with the animals.
Rule Three. Do not allow the new hires to come in contact with the people. This rule is to never be broken.
Rule Four. Ensure all enclosures are locked and secure.
Rule Five. If the new hires are ever left alone, run as far away from this place as you can. Don't look back.
Grabbing the note and slumping into a nearby nearly broken garden chair, I heaved a sigh. I guess I've broken most of these rules because I left these guys alone and I left them in the bird enclosure on top of that. These "rules" didn't make sense. Why didn't the manger warn me of these supposed rules before introducing me to these guys?? Sighing once more, I exited the room and went back into the blinding light outside. I hurried back to the bird enclosure to find the new hires gone. My heart sank. I had to find them and fast.
Since I didn't know where to look, I went to the manager's office and found him on the phone. He sounded annoyed.
"Yeah, yeah. I got them all set. The girl is to be in charge of them until I figure out something else."
His word hit me. Surely he wasn't talking about me, right? My thoughts swirled again and I nearly gagged. Holding myself together, I knocked on the open door. The manger looked up me, plastering the fakest smile ever.
"What brings you here?" he asked.
"Um, I saw the note on my locker door and I think... I think I might have broken a few rules already."
The manger quickly stood up and hurried to close the door shut. Looking out the blinds that faced the opening entrance to the zoo and gift shop, he turned to me, his face serious.
"Did you lose them?"
"Huh?"
"Did. You. Lose. Them?"
His jaw clenched and his face was covered in cold sweat.
"Yes." I finally admitted. The manger signed, hanging his head.
"We have a problem."
His words were cutthroat, no funny business hidden under his once funny demeanor.
"What...problem?" I questioned, concerned.
"Those new hires aren't... exactly what you would call human. They are entities of sorts."
Now my head was officially fried. Entities? I thought. What kind of twisty rollercoaster works was I living in?? The manger approached me.
"If we don't find them by midnight, we're toast." he said, his voice a whispery hiss. I stared at him, shocked.
"Well, what do you plan on doing? I-I didn't ask to be part of this!"
"Look, I didn't have a choice but to choose you. If I didn't..." he faded off. He then looked at me again, his features a mixture of hurt and panic.
"If I didn't choose you, I would be taken away." he sighed, the words a heavy burden to say.
My voice was no more. Still confused, I open my mouth to speak.
"What do we do now?"
"We wait."
End of Part One.

Three New Terrifying True Scary Tales
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Number One: The Pool
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Now, this happened a very long time ago. I am not going to mention when or where though and I am submitting it anonymously. I don’t want people going back and finding out more about it and then lashing out of me.
​
I was 13 years old and my brother was 11. As I mentioned, this happened a long time ago and I think today, not a lot of parents would put a 13 year old in charge of an 11 year old. But this was not unusual at all back then. In fact, I was looking after my little brother all the time before either of us even hit 10 years old.
​
After a while, of course, always keeping my eye on him began to get very annoying. It interfered with my hanging out with friends. It was quite a drag when I would try to talk to girls. It was just a pain in the ass, really.
​
Anyway, one day during a really hot summer, our parents decided to drop us both off at the local swimming pool for the day. My dad had to work and my mom had errands and stuff to run plus work do to do for the church. It was so hot and there was no way we could afford air conditioning. We had one old fan in the house and a sprinkler in the yard that we could go play in. But the swimming pool was the much better option.
​
Of course the pool was very crowded. Lots of families would drop their kids off there during the summertime. And of course, even though I knew it already, my mom stressed to me, “Keep an eye on your little brother at all times.”
​
Some of my friends were at the pool too. I got to talking to them and they told me about this new girl who moved into town. She would be starting school that fall and supposedly she was really hot. So of course, I wanted to check her out. I knew the lifeguards would be watching my brother in the water, so he would be fine.
​
I went with the guys and the girl was really cute. My buddies all dared me to approach her, which was admittedly a brave thing for a 13 year old boy to do. Of course, I couldn’t chicken out in front of them, so I did just that.
​
She was a very sweet girl. We actually ended up talking for a little while. Her parents were at the pool though, and they called her back after too long. So I went back to the water to see how my little brother was doing.
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The only problem was that I couldn’t see him anywhere in the water. This was a small town in a rural area, so although I said the pool was crowded, it wasn’t like a water park is crowded though. I should have easily been able to pick him out of the water. He just wasn’t there.
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I went and searched around the area surrounding the pool and didn’t see him there either. My heart started beating faster and I began panicking. I went to the building where the showers and concession stand were. He wasn’t there either. You couldn’t leave that pool without going through that building, though. I asked the attendant if a 11 year old boy had left the pool on his own in the previous hour and he told me no.
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I then went to the lifeguards and my buddies. I thought maybe there was a chance that I had missed him. It’s easy to occasionally miss someone in a crowd. The lifeguards ordered everyone out of the pool. Fortunately, there were no drowned children in the pool. Unfortunately, my brother was nowhere to be found outside of the pool.
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The lifeguards had to call my mother at the church. I had never before lost track of my little brother like this before. I had no idea what to expect when she showed up. I was only thankful that the police were already at the pool or she probably would have whipped my ass right there in front of the entire pool.
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The trouble I got into at home isn’t something that I want to go into very much. My butt very much has PTSD from the experience. But that was minor compared to the fear I felt for my little brother. Hell, I didn’t even have time to feel guilty although that I knew that I was. I was only concerned for him and wondered what would happen.
​
All day and night, I expected the police to bring him home. But that didn’t happen. I expected it the next day too. But it didn’t happen.
​
The town organized a search to look for him. I kept expecting to hear from them that they had found him. But that didn’t happen either.
​
After about a week of my brother not being found, I began fearing for the worst. I began thinking that he was dead. And I was terrified every waking moment of my life, expecting to absolutely hear the news that his dead body was found.
​
Nearly two weeks after the disappearance, we got a phone call from the police. They had found my brother and thankfully, he was alive. But unfortunately, that’s not the whole story.
​
Remember the attendant telling me that no boy had left on his own? Well that’s because the boy left with one of the lifeguards who was getting off duty. He had lured my brother out of the pool and into his car with promises of ice cream, something he and I rarely ever got. And my brother went to his house with him.
​
For all of that time, he kept my little brother locked up in his basement. He didn’t do anything sexually to him, thank God. But there was a lot of mental and some physical torment when my brother wouldn’t do what he was told to you. But the scariest part for him was thinking he would never get out and be with his family again.
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Here is another weird part. The lifeguard wasn’t an adult. He did this while his parents were out of town for a few weeks. They came back early and caught him. And if you think I felt bad for my parents’ punishing me, what they did to him had to be legendary. The police thought he was either planning on killing or releasing my brother before his parents got home. But no one ever knew for sure.
​
He had to live with it without much help for a long time. Mental health assistance had a very bad stigma back then. But we’re both still alive today and he forgave me a long time ago.
​
Number Two: Taking the Garbage Out
​
A few weeks ago I went outside at around 3am to move the garbage to the curb since pickup would be in the morning. I often do this in the middle of the night. I just tend to keep weird hours and as the weather warms up for the summer I find the warm nights preferable to the sweltering days.
​
I’m not worried about bothering my neighbors since I don’t use noisy bins and all of the houses right next to me are currently empty. I actually find the quiet of the neighborhood at night quite relaxing.
​
Unfortunately since I don’t use bins animals are able to get into the bags a bit easier and while this doesn’t happen often it had happened on this night. So I was outside picking up the strewn around garbage and putting it into another bag when the silence of the night was suddenly broken by multiple police sirens.
​
At first they seemed distant and while they startled me it was not at all unheard of to hear sirens at night here. But usually it would be one in the distance. As I listened, still bagging the garbage, I could tell it was multiple sirens and they were getting closer. Then just as suddenly as it started it stopped again. There was just silence. By the time they stopped they sounded maybe four blocks away.
​
For a moment the night was silent again and I began hauling the bags to the curb when the neighborhood dogs began barking all at once. It was like every dog in the neighborhood had gotten the cue to start barking. Many were even howling. It continued for maybe a minute and once again it just stopped as suddenly as it had started.
​

I realized I hadn’t heard any barking or howling while the sirens were going and that’s normally how it would work. These dogs had started up separately from the sirens and just stopped all at once. It just wasn’t normal. I went back to the side of the house to grab more bags when the silence was broken a third time. 

​
Just a single chime in the night. Like someone getting a phone notification. This sound wasn’t blocks away. This sound was here. RIGHT HERE. No more than feet away. As I said, the houses around me are empty.
​
I was done. The rest of the garbage would wait until morning. I didn’t see anyone close by but that just made it worse. There was someone close by that I couldn’t see. I immediately went into the house to leave the garbage for the morning.
​
I don’t know if these things were related. If the cops had been chasing someone who’s fleeing had caused the dogs to bark. Someone who received a message on their phone as they approached my house. Or if it was all just a coincidence. But I won’t be taking the garbage out at 3am anymore.
​
A Commuter’s Nightmare
William M.
06/30/2021
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Back in the 80s, I worked at the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank in San Francisco while living and commuting from Oakland, CA
​
My job as Registrar, took me all over Northern California, during Blood Drives at hospitals, clinics, major corporations, etc., where we would sometimes witness firsthand, the dead, being placed on gurneys, running out of the Coroner's or Medical Examiner’s rear doors, and down the sidewalks, because they simply didn’t have enough room or staff inside the morgues to process them. Mortuaries were having problems too due to the massive overload where deceased loved ones were admitted but not processed or interred for months or even years at a time.
​
I remember watching the News and reading newspaper accounts of E.R.s in hospitals, clinics, etc. so clogged with patients, that 1 in 10 would die waiting to just get in to see a Dr. It was a Public Health and Safety nightmare. It was a National disgrace. It was politically orchestrated mass murder. It was the B purge of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
​
I remember, starting work early on one of many Blood Drives (the A.I.D.S. epidemic was just getting started) and having to catch the first B.A.R.T. (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train out of the station at about 4:00 am, where morning after morning I would witness hundreds of people sleeping on the benches, or the sidewalks, or on the streets outside, waiting for it to open.
​
Hundreds of others would be seen walking around like zombies in the early morning freeze amid the concomitant yelling, screaming, moaning, begging, and pleading, all of it looking like a newsreel of the death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
​
Many times, I was woken at home in the middle of the night, to the sounds of people howling and cursing outside my window at some real or imagined threat, until either the police came, which usually took hours because they were spread so thin, or some tenant, or other, ran them off.
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I remember the time I woke up to the sound of a woman’s voice begging in the early morning cold for someone to help her. She kept repeating it over and over growing weaker and weaker until it was little more than a whisper.
By the time I’d gotten up, armed myself with the steel-reinforced baton I’d purchased at a Police Supply store, and ran the 5 floors down to the ground floor, I found her sitting in a taxi shivering from the 42-degree drizzle coming in off the Pacific. The cabbie told me it was alright; she was just cold and needed someplace to rest and warm up; He’d drop her off at one of the nearby shelters.
​
At the time, I was living in a local Residence Hall on Lake Merrit in Oakland, California which was little more than a converted Hotel from the San Francisco/Oakland Gilded Age of the late 1920s. It had 5 floors and a penthouse with a capacity of about 200. I never saw it get much beyond about 30 residents. It sported a full kitchen, dining area, big screen tv viewing room, swimming pool, and a recreation room with pool, foosball, and darts.
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I lived with a friend, at the time, on the 5th floor just under the penthouse. There was an elevator, but like most refurbs, it didn’t work. That meant we'd have to climb 10 flights of stairs every day to reach our room. The best part was that we had the entire floor to ourselves. I guess nobody wanted to climb that many stairs. Because we were both runners, it was a little like running the 900 feet to the top of Angel Island, running across The Golden Gate Bridge and back, or running the 3.4 miles around Lake Merrit twice a day.
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Because there was no air-conditioning, all the windows were left open during the summer months, but along with whatever cool air the San Francisco/Oakland Bay would bring through the gaping nearly wall-length vault ceilinged windows, it was always accompanied by the teeming, screaming City of Oakland street din: cabbies, buses, cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, scooters, police sirens, ambulance, fire department, pedestrians, hustlers, druggies, break-dancers, prostitutes the homeless, et al. Day or night, winter or summer, it was like living in a jet engine test lab, somewhere on the 9th level of hell.
​
Of course, we could always close the windows against the noise 5 stories below. But if it was summer, with all the humidity coming off the bay, we’d roast like 2 suckling pigs in our own sweat even if we used a fan.
​
One night after a particularly grueling day at work, I came home, climbed Mount Everest (or at least K-2) to my steaming little abattoir, tore off my sports jacket, shirt, and tie, and fell into a coma-like sleep only to awake some 4 hours later to the sound of someone slamming a door, over and over, seemingly as hard as they could. It was about 2:00 am and raining so hard the water was pouring through the open window and flooding the floor and carpet. The sound was coming somewhere down the hall from one of the other units.
​
After about the 15th or 16th slam to my inner ear, I was up, as in a trance, running like a lunatic from unit to unit and window to window, covering the entire southside of the 5th floor; battening down the hatches, and getting drenched in the process. It was, how should I say: exhilaratingly infuriating. I was supposed to get up in 2 hours and commute to work in the upper peninsula.
Having unconsciously completed this Sisyphean task and realizing that there was zero chance of getting any sleep, I donned my foul weather gear, equipped my trusty baton (I used to tuck its 2 ½-foot length up my sleeve when running), and headed out the front door to Lake Merrit which was just outside the main entrance. From there, I trotted to the sidewalk circling the lake, and began to run.
​
As I ran counterclockwise against a torrential rain with a gale-force wind broken only by the occasional intermittent rainbow-hued lightning flashes which blinded me to almost everything around me, I almost ran into someone up ahead who was walking in the same direction.
​
He was hunched over against the wind and rain and wearing a long heavy winter coat. Unusual for that time of year, I thought. Whenever I would run in public, I always made it a courtesy to let people know when I was approaching especially from behind. I’d blurt out a perfunctory:
​
“Excuse me.” Followed by a conciliatory:
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“Sorry.”
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But apparently, the person ahead either didn’t hear me or didn’t care because, when I was about 6 feet from him, he suddenly turned around, exposing a darkened contorted face, jagged teeth, and a guttural growl that would have stopped a charging 600-pound Grizzly.
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The sheer force of the malevolence emitted from this inhuman thing almost made me stop, but because I was moving so fast, the inertia along with the gale force wind and lightning strikes propelled me past him (or it), and fingering my steel-reinforced baton, I, in turn, steeled my nerve and kept running. I looked back only once to reassure myself that he (or it) wasn’t following.
​
Running on the leeward side now, with the rain at my back, I ran past a group of men in a circle smoking or drinking or doing whatever noxious or illicit thing I imagined, when, feeling charged with my own adrenalin, or the anger and resentment at that woman’s searing pleas for help, or the spook I’d almost run into, or just the gross injustices thrust upon the world in that dank, dark and dangerous time, I almost stopped, baton in hand, intending to take on the whole group: I may go down, I told myself, but at least I would take one or two with me.
​
Just then, the lightning struck particularly close to where I and they stood and the sheer blinding flash and concussive boom shook all of us enough to break up their conspiratorial collaboration and my righteous crusade; just enough, that is, to shove me headlong around the next bend, to the long straight full out dash to the front doors, the 5 floors, 10 landings, and 50 risers to rain-sodden home.
​
To get to work every day, I'd have to commute to the upper peninsula by using 3 buses, 1 train, and 1 cab and after a 10 or 12 or sometimes 14-hour day, I would have to take the same to get back. This meant that if I didn’t go out, make dinner, eat, or watch tv, I just might get about 4 hours sleep. Commuting took between 2 to 3 hours, one way.
​
Once on the way home, almost every stop was crowded with commuters. I was told that it was because there were so many buses down for repair. The ones still running were so filled beyond capacity, that the shocks and springs were sitting on the chassis, and stop after stop proved nearly impossible to take on any more passengers. Still, and despite the few getting out at every stop, the driver would take on even more and just pack them in.
​
I remember him yelling for people to get back behind the yellow line over and over. By then, he was long past any semblance of reason; his patience frayed to a single maniacal thought, his voice raspier and raspier, his manner, more and more brusk.
​
I can still see when he finally lost it; jumping up, out of his seat, with a nickel-plated 38 Caliber Revolver pointing at one of the passengers; an elderly woman, screaming from the top of his lungs:
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“Get back behind the yellow line!”
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I can still hear the woman begging the driver:
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“Please...” while the passengers behind were practically trampling each other to get out of the line of fire.
I remember the sad, exhausted urgency in her voice; she really was trying to move back, but how could she, an old woman, do that with all those people blocking her way? Everyone knew this was an impossible task; everyone except the maddened driver. He just kept glaring, and bellowing with his gun out pointed right at her and the other passengers.
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"Back up and make room" he yelled.
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‘Or else what?’ I thought. ‘You're gonna kill an old woman?'
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Getting up out of my seat, pushing my way through the throng who were pushing against me to get away, I managed to get within about 6 feet from the front when, roaring through the din and my fear and anger, I ordered the bus driver to:
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“Put the gun down!” And again, with even more rage and authority:
“Put the gun down, now!”
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The bus driver shocked that it might be a cop, or worse, shakily, put his gun back in his concealed carry holster and hypnotically sat back down. He resumed driving without saying another word. I got out at the next stop, along with the elderly woman. She was so shaken, that she busted out crying. I held her still fuming despite the close call because I would now have to wait for another bus and after that, 2 more; the train and a cab to get home. I wasn’t going to make it until well after 8:00 pm. As soon as I got home, I reported the bus number and the driver to Muni.
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Many of the commuters I'd see day to day, or share a seat with were victims of the purge just trying to get out of the rain or the cold, or the wind, or the sun, even for just a little while. For them, it was easing the agony of living on the street, even just a little. For many of us regular commuters, during those dark times, it proved to be the same.
​
On one of the final buses that would take me to the train and across the bay, I remember standing, with about 50 others, on Market Street waiting. Like ours, stop after stop was so packed with people, some were standing in the street because there was simply not enough room on the sidewalk. The ones in the street would stay where they were for fear of losing their place and missing their connection and having to wait another hour, or more, to catch another.
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Because the rapidly descending elevation of the southbound streets ending at Market Street from the upper peninsula were so steep and the transverse angle of the turn so sharp, some of the buses would skirt the edge of the curb, sometimes rolling up over it onto the sidewalk putting them dangerously close to the commuters waiting on the other side.
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If there were any people in the street, especially the old or the infirm, they would either have to get out of the way and lose their place in line or hope the bus driver stopped before completing the turn. Most of the drivers would. Once there was one who didn’t.
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I remember the television and newspaper account about an elderly woman waiting at one of the stops during the pm rush hour. When the bus made the oblique turn way too fast at 25 miles per hour she was either too close to the edge or standing in the street when she was hit by the side view mirror across the face and the left side of her head.
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She went down under the wheels and her body got hung up under the chassis. The bus driver too full of passengers to stop, or late for his break, or just too coked up to notice, kept on heading for the Embarcadero before he realized something was wrong. By then, the woman had been dragged over a quarter of a mile. No one knew for sure whether the concussion from the mirror or the relentless dragging was the cause of death. I guess it didn’t matter to her anymore, one way or the other. It mattered to a lot of those who witnessed the whole thing though; screaming and yelling, block after block, trying to get the bus driver to stop.
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To get across the Bay to San Francisco from Oakland or back, one alternative to the nightmare bus commute was the B.A.R.T (Bay Area Rapid Transit). It was quiet, clean, air-conditioned, and fast. Traveling under the Bay, it could span the 13 miles in minutes. Once I’d reach the train station, by bus, from the Oakland side, I’d descend one of the many street-level entries to the below-ground turnstiles which led to the train platform. Of course, there were always hundreds of derelicts, homeless, hustlers, etc., hanging out by the turnstiles waiting for their chance to slip through and get on any one of the many trains that serviced the Bay Area, but sometimes, especially after a scuffle with B.A.R.T. Security or the San Francisco/Oakland Police, they’d scatter to the winds (or the shadows as it were) until everything calmed down and then they'd be back at it again, day and night.
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Almost every week I'd hear about someone falling, or being pushed, or jumping down onto the third rail, which would either short-circuit the line and knock out the power or if it was particularly grisly, halt service entirely. Because service resumption could take hours, waiting passengers would have to go back up and out onto the street and catch another train, take a cab or a bus or just walk or, as was often the case for me, run.
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Once, I remember running to the next stop when I was ascending to the upper peninsula because the previous connection didn’t show up which meant it would have added another 45 minutes to my commute. The choice was obvious and inevitable: I could either
“wait to be late” or go for it. I chose the latter.
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You just can't imagine what it’s like to run at a 20-degree angle uphill for about 2 miles while wearing dress slacks, dress shoes, a white shirt and tie, and a sports jacket, in San Francisco, during the summer, with the humidity until you’ve tried it. It’s, how should I say: exhilaratingly infuriating.
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Running, I came upon a stand-alone, transmission shop, right in the middle of a residential area. The owners must have paid a pretty penny to get away with that one. There were police cars, the fire department, a metro ambulance, the San Francisco Chronicle, and a marked County Coroner’s Office vehicle scattered around the shop.
Some people along with some of the employees: their first names embroidered on their shirts, were standing on the sidewalk just outside the property watching. They’d been there for about an hour when I stopped to ask one of them (Bob) what happened.
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Wearily he said:
​
“The girl who worked in the office answering the phone and typing up orders was shot to death by her boyfriend. The boyfriend got away but she was still down there being processed. God, she was only 24 years old. They’ll catch him, though. He hasn’t got a chance.”
​
'Nope,' I thought.
'In this town, I don’t expect he would.'
​
I was late again when I got home. Vaulting the 5 floors to reach our loft, I held my friend close, the entire night. She was ok with that. So was I.=

Just west of Celeste's Hunting Lodge
Sloth as Dagdomear Okapi Zalitai; Taleek as Cyrek The Juggler; Seraphina as "Replaceable" Verônica Rocha Beleza; Hazel as Iris Finn Okpara
Blessings: Iris- Blessing of the Mouse - silky ears Cyrek- mark of the darkest deep- milky white eyes "Replaceable" Verônica - bloodmark (Reginae) - double headed eagle on thigh Dag- mark of the ancient air - “kiss” mark on left temple
Day 1 We arrived at Celeste's Hunting Lodge and Swore the oath for awakening guild. Celeste introduced us to the map stone. After a Quick drink Celeste's we headed out to west to explore. After traveling roughly 3 miles we came across a Staircase covered in moss with an ominous presence. We continued on to travel another 3 miles and proceeded to Stumble upon a a ruined tower with a Spider and a Bird creature (griffin) fighting. The spider steals an egg from the birbs nest so we decided to help the Griffin by fighting the Spider. After we defeat the large spider and I Gallantly offered the egg back to Griffin, it takes it back and returns to its nest. I inspect the spider corpse and collect Silk from spider. Cyrek's harvests the spider for meat that We offer the griffon and use that as a distraction in order to collect a Dagger that Dag could see hiding under some skeletons. the Dagger is decorated with a wolf head on the hilt (with an open mouth with no teeth) that's shaped like a wolf's tooth and is Made of high quality silver. Dag says there is a spooky person shape coming from inside the griffin, like someone was swallowed whole. So we decided to move on. We traveled 3 more miles and Camped down for the night.
Day 2 We travel 3 miles, and Find ourselves in an overwhelming Mist, and find a rickety bridge crossing over a small stream that leads to a Graveyard. We cautiously head in and read a couple gravestones, they are primarily Faun Family. A large bug-like creature appears and attacks "Replaceable", we run and I throw a dagger and hit it in the face. As we run, it teleported behind us and paralyzed me, Dag dragged me to safety and "Replaceable" defended us as Cyrek untied our steeds. After we cleared the area and felt safe again, We climbed trees and to attempt to perceive our surroundings- we saw that there are Mountains to the Southwest with a large building on them roughly 30-40 miles away as well as the bones of a massive creature. The Big tree we were looking for is roughly 30-50 miles from the coast and Ten miles southwest is a strange tree that is blue and showing off light, according to Dag. We decide to Head back toward the coast. We travel 2 miles we find a colony of bees. After traveling 3 miles, we gather water from near the Griffon tower, while the griffon is not home. While we're there we see a Strange looking Beetle climbing strange trees with odd fruit. We watch as tree kills beetle. We name the Vine on which the fruit is attached the “Snatchers Vine” and the “Snatchers berry” as it snatched the life from that beetle. We travel a bit further and set up camp for the Night. A Storm rolls in during Cyrek's watch and a small lead tablet with a small rusted iron nail shows up. Cyrek unravels the tablet, and gets really awkward about whatever it said. As the Hurricane rolls in, we back track to the griffon tower to take shelter with the Griffin and a herd of deer.
Day 3-5 I attempt to befriend the deer, and some bees and monkeys joined us in taking shelter for the next two days.
Day 6 We fill our waterskins and collect some snatcher berries that have fallen, these berries are exceedingly delicious. We see the Monkeys head north east of griffin tower. One of the deer stays with me. I name him Sven- he is a young adult male. We travel 3 miles and come across some tracks from hunters going east- southeast and see a a giant ape (gorilla) Coming from the south. After traveling the last 3 miles, we find more snatchers vine near Celeste's hunting lodge. Upon our return to Celeste's Hunting lodge, we reported our findings to Celeste and I got to Keep the Wolf tooth Dagger!
Respectfully, Iris Finn Okpara

I guess I am just looking for support or people in my situation. This may get a little rant-y but I am stressed and don't really know what to do about it.
I am not sure where to start, but here goes... I went back to college in my late 20's to finally graduate and hopefully get a better paying, more interesting career than I had. I was fortunate at the time that I did not need to have a job while attending school because my husband was making decent money. Things were a little tight, but manageable.
While I was in school, covid hit. I was in school for a little while during the pandemic and then I graduated and nearly simultaneously found out I was pregnant. At this point during the pandemic vaccines weren't available for everyone just yet. AND being a FTM during this time I wasn't really sure how to handle being pregnant during a global crisis. My husband and I agreed that I should stay home until the baby was born, take a few months just as I would with maternity leave and then look for a job. All of this just to be as safe as possible. Things were still a little tight but manageable.
Our daughter was born! Babies are more expensive than we had expected so our income started to feel a little tighter. I was struggling with the idea of going back to work now but it was becoming increasingly more necessary. Due to the cost of child care, I was looking and really struggling to find something local and part-time. Granted, I was being a little picky about pay and hours because I had just completed a degree and selfishly I didn't want to sacrifice too much family evening time now that our daughter was here.
During my job search we found out that our daughter was losing weight and not hitting her gross motor skill milestones (she was about a year at this point). We had to start being very diligent about what and when she was eating. We also were taking her to a feeding therapist and a physical therapist to get her back on track. We ended up having at least two doctor appointments a week for her for at least two months. My job search fell to the wayside during this time because it was hard not to focus and worry about our girl. Thankfully at almost 20 months she is doing much better now!
After our slew of doctors appointments I started diligently job searching again. It was at this time I found out I was pregnant with baby number 2. Since then I have had a few interviews that look promising but when they find out I am pregnant they "decided to go in a different direction" or I have been told that I can't be promised maternity leave since I wouldn't have been with the company for more than a year.
I am now about two months from baby's arrival and things are very tight financially. I am grateful that we have enough to manage to feed ourselves and meet our basic necessities. However, pinching pennies is becoming very stressful and it is taking a toll on my husband and my relationship. We are still quite strong, but things can get tense fast when we need to discuss budgeting/finances etc.
Sometimes I feel like I have excuse after excuse as to why I don't have a job yet and I feel like a failure to my family. But other times I feel like I really have been trying to find something but we keep getting hit with obstacles that make it harder to leave home or to have someone hire me. I can't be the only mom who is going through something like this. What have others done in these types of situations?? I just feel so defeated.