Hey everyone! I'm currently in the process of building a competitive Pokémon National Dex Uber team for a friendly tournament with my friends. We're using a snake chain draft style with 12 participants, and we get to drafted one eligible Uber and nine other Pokémon. I wanted to get your input on the team composition and any suggestions you might have for mons, movesets, stats, or natures.
I'm open to any and all suggestions regarding the team's movesets, stat distributions, natures, or even replacing Pokémon if necessary. Feel free to share your insights, strategies, and any potential improvements that could enhance the team's overall performance.
Thanks in advance for your help! I'm looking forward to your feedback and suggestions.
Toxapex @ Black Sludge Ability: Regenerator Tera Type: Fairy EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD Calm Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Scald - Recover - Haze - Toxic Spikes
Tornadus-Therian @ Assault Vest Ability: Regenerator Tera Type: Steel EVs: 244 HP / 48 SpD / 216 Spe Timid Nature - Hurricane - U-turn - Knock Off - Heat Wave
Serperior @ Leftovers Ability: Contrary Tera Type: Grass EVs: 56 HP / 200 SpA / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Substitute - Glare - Leech Seed - Leaf Storm
Chien-Pao @ Heavy-Duty Boots Ability: Sword of Ruin Tera Type: Dark EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Crunch - Swords Dance - Sacred Sword - Icicle Crash
Hydreigon @ Leftovers Ability: Levitate Tera Type: Steel EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Nasty Plot - Flamethrower - Dark Pulse - Flash Cannon
Corviknight @ Rocky Helmet Ability: Pressure Tera Type: Water EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD Impish Nature - Brave Bird - Body Press - U-turn - Roost

Time Stamp: https://imgur.com/a/6qVgbsa
Never Fired/Mint condition Microbest Chrome BCG

• .233/5.56 NATO
• Hard chrome finish
• M16 cut
• Aircraft quality 8620 steel carrier
• 4130 steel gas key
• Properly staked grade 8 gas key screws
• Carpenter 158 steel bolt
• 4140 steel extractor
• MIL-SPEC O-ring
• MIL-SPEC gas rings
• 4140 steel cam pin

•  8740 steel firing pin with hard chrome finish 

•  Magnetic particle inspected 

•  Lifetime warranty 

•  Shot Peened 

•  High Pressure Tested (HPT) 

•  Phosphate extractor 

•  Weight: 11.6oz 

•  Microbest, Inc. was founded in 1960 as a Swiss Automatic screw shop. It has persevered by employing innovation, a constant pursuit of excellence and continually raising the bar in terms of quality, value and productivity. Microbest holds many manufacturing certifications, including ISO 9001:2015, ANAB and ASR. 

•  Began making firearms components in 1997 

• ⁠ Microbest current CEO is Shaun Gaus
  
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in loving memory
$131.69 Shipped PayPal FF

About three months ago I was officially diagnosed with high blood pressure after monitoring myself at home and several doctors visits. I’m currently on 50mg of Losartan. I suspect I’ve had high blood pressure for a few years but am finally on medication. I also have high cholesterol. My most recent blood test indicated my HDL was 33 and my LDL was 151. Over the past several years I have gone into ER with chest pains and every time they blood tests, chest X Rays and EKGs come back normal. I am having an echocardiogram and a stress test in the next few weeks to rule out other possibilities.
I think it’s important to note I’ve had anxiety most of my life and am terrified of something happening to me considering I have two special needs children and am the sole breadwinner of the family. If my blood pressure and cholesterol were normal I would chalk it up to my anxiety.
Basically I am asking if there is anything else I should be doing? I have already started to make dietary and lifestyle changes. Something I should have a while ago.

I am a 34 year old female who has had two previous vaginal births. I was induced at 41 weeks and 3 days with my first daughter and her delivery was vacuum-asssisted. For my second daughter I was induced at 40 weeks (due to elevated blood pressure) and during her delivery she experienced 1 minute of shoulder dystocia which was released by the doctor reaching up/releasing her shoulder. My first daughter was 8 lbs 3 oz and my second daughter was 8 lbs 1 oz. Both pregnancies were relatively uneventful and both girls have had healthy outcomes since birth.
For my third/current pregnancy I switched OBGYN offices due to insurance changes and from the start (8 weeks gestation) I have felt that they have been pressuring me to consider a c-section for this delivery bc there is a chance of shoulder dystocia happening again. I told them that I wanted to wait to see how big baby grew before committing. They told me that they agreed with my plan.
As this pregnancy has progressed, the following findings have come to light: -At the 20 weeks scan they found that baby has a hypercoiled cord (0.9 coiling index). -At my 32 week scan they found that baby is 97th percentile for size and that I have polyhydraminos (27.2 amniotic fluid index).
They repeated my glucose tolerance test and I passed with a score of 88. They have me doing NSTs twice a week and fluid scans weekly (there have been slight fluctuations in the level of fluid, but it remains high). They said that they will repeat her growth scan at 36 weeks but they told me that I now need to move forward with a c-section bc delivering her vaginally is “too risky”. Baby is due on July 7th and my c-section has been scheduled for July 3rd.
They told me that if I go into labor spontaneously before the c-section then I can try for a vaginal birth if I want to bc she will be smaller. I would prefer to try for a vaginal delivery if possible so I asked them if I could do an early induction before the c-section date and they refused bc “there is no medical indication to induce at 39 weeks”. I am feeling uneasy about the c-section bc I’m not 100% sure that it is necessary. If they were going to take her out via c-section at 39 weeks and 3 days then why is trying an induction at the same time such a ridiculous request?
Anyways, that was a really long spiel but my main questions here are…
Can a big baby or polyhydraminos be an indication for induction at 39 weeks? Is c-section really my only option here?

I, a 110lb, 5'1, 22 year old caucasian woman, had a seizure a few days ago. I have anemia presumably caused by iron deficiency. I take and have been taking these meds & vitamins for upwards of 4 months: Vitamin D3 - 50mcg ; Iron - 65mg ; Adderall - 15mg (extended release) ; Adderall - 10mg (quick release) (as needed) ; Escitalopram - 20mg ; Oral birth control pill (generic and cheap) I also vape lol
To the point, I have been passing out around 5 times a week or more. I have also had unprompted irregular blood sugar spikes and drops. While I could obviously make better decisions when it comes to my diet and whatnot, my current lifestyle is fore the most part consistent and healthy. In mine, and everyone around me's' opinion, I am not doing anything that can be obviously linked to my issues. I have been recently checking my blood sugar and blood pressure fairly often (specifically when something feels off). I do have an appointment made but its not until the end of this month (June).
A few days ago, something definitely felt off. I took my blood sugar and it was 54 at 4:49pm. I'm not exactly clear on what happened after but I did pass out and my partner came out to see me having a seizure. Once I got my bearing I checked my blood sugar and it was 147 at 5:19pm. I did eat a meal a few hours before all this but I didn't over exert myself physically. I wasn't overly stressed that day, either. And before anyone, like my mom, asks; No I didn't have time for a snack while I was passed out and seizing lol. I just don't know what I could have done to cause this or anything. I do have an appointment set up but until then, I'm terrified of this happening again when I have no idea why it happened in the first place. If anyone has any suggestions on how to go about understanding whats happening to me, and most importantly, how to stop it from happening again, PLEASE let me know. Thanks

this is my second time taking the test (took back in oct 2022 with the whole retake promo. couldn't commit to dec due to family/test center being booked). Now, planned it at June but still dont feel ready (yes, most of isnt from learning within this subreddit), i have learnzapp and my ready score is at 45%. i barely use and ive been just reading more of the books and re-reading it, wanted to understand the concepts more. i dont feel like im ready but im kinda lost and asking the cissp communitiy for help/input. should i just push back the test? Theres no job pressure for this. Its a career move for me, my current position is in system admin. been working in the IT industry for 7 years
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PS - any other helpful tips will be great. much appreciated

Dragonglass is a semi-hardcore, 18+, progression-minded guild located on our home server of Illidan. We value teamwork and unity and strive to achieve and succeed together, not apart. We consider ourselves more than just a World of Warcraft guild, we support each other through life as well as in video games outside of World of Warcraft. Many of us are long-time gamers, with some dating back to the original days of vanilla World of Warcraft. We have a wide variety of ages, from the low-20s all the way up to the mid-70s. We are home to hardcore, semi-hardcore, and casual players as well and strive to have a place for everyone within Dragonglass---whether Mythic keys are your thing, progression raiding, gold-farming, PvP, or even just relaxing with friends.
Night's Watch (Fri/Sat 8-11 CST) is our progression, hardcore mythic raid team. Each member of Night's Watch is held to high standards within the guild. This team is highly competitive, and each member thrives under pressure. Every member of Night's Watch strives to achieve and perform at their best, both for the betterment of themselves and the betterment of the team. Currently looking for any exceptional dps or healer.
King's Guard (Sat/Sun 6:30-9:00 CST) is our progression, semi-hardcore raid team. Our biggest goal as a team each season is the Ahead of the Curve achievement with some mythic progression following the completion of heroic raid. Members of King's Guard are close-knit and aim to achieve and improve as players and as people. We aim to provide a semi-hardcore atmosphere, where members can push progression content while having a slightly more laidback atmosphere on non-progression content. Currently looking for healer, mage, rogue and/or warrior.
New Bloods (Sun 1pm CST) is our fully casual, laidback raid team. Our biggest goal is to complete normal raid each season, with some heroic progression. Most members of New Bloods are new to raiding, retired heroic/mythic raiders, trial raiders, and sometimes alts of heroic and mythic raiders. The aim of New Bloods is to teach raiding skills to new players, as well as to provide a casual and lighthearted atmosphere for raiding. New Bloods also aims to sharpen and refine skills, so that players may progress to heroic and even mythic raiding if they so choose. Currently looking for all roles.
We also have multiple Mythic+ key groups who run multiple nights a week with different levels of pushing mentality to fit every need. Our second, more casual raid group may also be of interest to those who are just looking for a chill raiding experience. We are also looking and actively recruiting people interested in PvP content as we are highly interested in forming a few PvP groups!
We are also home to our Profession Core! The Profession Core team does daily activities such as group farms, crafting fairs, and other gold-making activities. The core strives to provide items, consumables, and gold for the guild as well as aid members in making gold themselves. It is a goal of our Profession Core to be able to have every specialization covered for Dragonflight so that guild members may benefit from other guild members instead of having to look outside of the guild. We want to strive to craft the best of the best and will settle for nothing less. This team is just one way we try and create a community outside of Mythic+ and Raid.
Regardless of what has brought you to World of Warcraft, Dragonglass strives to find a home for all. We are more than just a guild, we are a community that strives to aid each other and achieve with each other. If this sounds like a good fit to you, please feel free to reach out to us and we will be more than happy to settle you in.
We are currently recruiting for all positions for M+ and normal raid, and general DPS for heroic and mythic teams.
Who to talk to:
Hagford, Recruitment Officer

• Discord - Nash#7605
• B-net - PartyHyena #1762

Slayor, Co-GM

• Discord - Slayor#3713
• B-net - Slayor#11289

Kiwi, Mythic Raid Leader

• Discord - BAEKER#1062
• B-net - Sanctumx#1988

Fenix, Heroic Raid Leader

• Discord - Raixis#8518
• B-net - Vurian#1752

Robmygrave - Mythic Team Coordinator

• Discord - CptSeaFlap#8275
• B-net - CptSeaFlap#1862

Grave - Normal Raid Lead

• Discord - Chopn Stix / Gravve Mistake#1938
• B-net - Pitsnipe#11350

You can also check us out on Guilds of WoW: https://guildsofwow.com/dragonglass

Doing IF, TRF, wearing a CGM, bringing my A1C down to 5.9 and dropping and losing 17 lbs., and to BMI 24.7 and dropping, I am still feeling low energy, brain fog and lack of libido. Eating more Whole Foods, less carbs and way less sugar.
My MD PC and Cardiologist keep wanting to play with my current medications;
Clopidogrel - Dosage: 1 x 75 mg oral tablet, one time per day in the morning
Fenofibrate - Dosage: 1 x 145 mg oral tablet, one time per day
Fluoxetine - Dosage: 1 x 40 mg oral tablet, one time per day in the morning
Isosorbide Mononitrate - Treatment for: Angina Dosage: 1 x 30 mg oral tablet, one time per day
Losartan - Treatment for: High Blood Pressure - Dosage: 1 x 25 mg oral tablet, one time per day in the morning
Metformin - Treatment for: Diabetes, Type 2 - Dosage: 2 x 500 mg oral tablet, two times per day
Metoprolol Tartrate - Treatment for: Angina - Dosage: 1 x 25 mg oral tablet, two times per day
Rosuvastatin - Treatment for: High Cholesterol - Dosage: 1 x 40 mg oral tablet, one time per day in the morning
Spironolactone - Dosage: 1 x 25 mg oral tablet, two times per day
Tried a ND, wants to add supplements to counter effects of medications.
Tried DO, talking supplements, HRT and Stem Cells.
Seems like I am missing the doctor who can guide my current approach and fine tune it with a goal of eliminating as many medications and supplements as possible.
Does this type of doctor exist? How do you find them?

Henloo, it's 3 am and I'm not sure if there's someone up pa (this post is up indefinitely naman dw). It's my finals week pero I'm currently struggling on keeping my focus. I need someone masipag around me para ma-pressure ako 🥲 let's be constants na rin sana kasi I'm planning to study in advance for Intermediate Accounting during my summer break. Idk how this set up works kasi it's my first time posting here pero hey I'm shooting my shot! 😅
About me:

1. BSA student na malapit na kunin ni Pacioli emz
2. Conversationalist, we can talk about anythingg. 🙌 G ako for everything.
3. Iskolar ng bayan

About you:

1. Preferably BSA student din para makarelate tayo sa isa't isa but any program is fine!! (This post is intended for COLLEGE STUDENTS like me kasi mas comfortable ako around people my age HAHAHAH)
2. Masipag because I'm tamad and I have the attention span of a gold fish.
3. Can hold conversations (pls 😭)
4. Naghahanap din ng study buddy

[Note: We can communicate preferably thru discord or sa ibang soc meds natin if you're G pero if prefer mo sa DC lang that's fine]
If you're interested, HMU HMU!! I don't bite HAHAHAHA

Greetings fellow beard scientists!
It's, uh… It's been a hot minute since I last posted a story here. Like, nearly a year. I've been trying to write up a story of some bronies that got banned from a comic store I used to volunteer at as well as some of the stories of my childhood of being raised by a legbeard, but… 2022 was not a kind year. In fact, if you like, starting with my next part, I can go into what happened to me last year since it does weirdly tie into how I was forced to work with the specimen of this series. After all, what is life if not a strange series of domino effects leading to greater outcomes that no one would have ever expected? My tale may be tragic, but Kevin's is tooth-grindingly dripping with schadenfreude.
So, let's fucking go!
Story 1: A Proto-Kevin Story 1, ironically, will not feature Kevin. Instead, it features a Proto-Kevin I will call Devin. I though of calling him Kemo, like Kevin Demo, but I was scared that ReddX would pronounce it like Chemo and though interacting with Devin sometimes felt as excruciating as slow dripping poisons directly into your veins– at least chemotherapy serves a purpose. Devin would prove to be a disaster of a person to such a caliber no one could predict, and has caused issues that I am still fixing nearly 3 months later.
Back in mid-January, I was working hard to train some of my coworkers to know how to do my job. At this point in time, I was the only buyer in my company and I had been since October. Even before my senior buyer moved onto greener pastures, I had been the one largely in charge of placing orders, chasing down items, and doing expedites, and anytime I had been out for more than 2 days the whole office would creep to a stop with people freaking out as to what to do without me. Now, I know that sounds like not-so-humble bragging, but when the top of the food chain comes halfway across the country to thank you personally for handling an issue with a military project that could have gone really badly had we not saved a paper trail showing that we were not to blame for the 4 month delay of a project that could have cost us a quarter million, you start to realize what sort of pressure you've willingly put yourself into. As such, I was making a step-by-step slideshow on how to place orders or customer supply orders since I was about to go out of town the following week to go on a week-long trip with my family. It was as I was explaining how to submit info into Purchase Advisor that the production manager, let's call her Fae, walks into my cubicle with a troubled expression.
"Hey Kitty. Do you have a moment?"
"Yeah. Just working on the slides like you asked. What's up?"
"Well…" Fae pursed her lips for a moment, looking a little frustrated, before finding her words. "You know how we've been looking for a new buyer ever since Sergeant left?"
"Yeah. I know you've had a lot of people coming in…"
"Well, the good news is that we found someone." I must have made a face, because Fae reluctantly followed up with, "Well, Caligula hired this new guy. I actually never got to meet him."
Ah, and there was the rub. Caligula is our location manager. Caligula had already been a little bit of a narcissist, but without Sergeant to openly defy him he had straight up gone into a power trip where he felt like he had to prove what a capable leader he was! Hell, on the day of the company Christmas Cookie exchange/ ugly sweater party, he made a female employee cry and then proceeded to passive-aggressively shame her in front of the whole team via a "mandatory group meeting" with a 30 minute speech that could be summarized into the phrase, "If you hate working here so much, then leave!" Three employees quit within 2 weeks of this incident. Stupid prizes, I suppose.
The reason for my concern had to do with the fact that Caligula was clearly trying to take some short-cuts in solving the issue of putting a 29 year old woman with a year of experience and a crumbling personal life in charge of keeping an entire company's finances. This shortcut included putting Fae in charge as a supervisor to my department, that way I was answering to someone, but that just meant yet another thing on Fae's plate. To top it off, he was going behind our backs when finding a new employee just as Fae and I were getting on the same page and learning to truly communicate, which showed he wasn't interested in knowing what purchasing needed since clearly Caligula, King of Cables, knew what was best.
I sighed a little, but gave Fae a small smile, "Well, hey! Maybe this is a good thing! I mean, it would have been nice if he asked for our input, but what can you do? Did he say anything about our new buyer?"
"All I really know is that he was a buyer for for about 15 years as a freelancer of sorts. And Devin is supposed to start the Monday after you come back from your vacation." She then gave a little bit of a playful smirk before saying, "Are you sure you need to go for a whole week?"
I gave a small snort before rolling my eyes and turning back towards my computer. "After all the bullshit this divorce has put me through, I need to get the hell out of town for a week. Besides, I don't think even Walt Disney himself could keep my mom from dragging me down to Florida at this point. I've just about finished this slide on how to use the Suggestion List to place your orders while I'm gone. I'll start the slide on how to manually input POs, and if I have time I'll also make one for Customer Supply parts. If I hear anything about that list you gave me, I'll let you know."
"Thanks, Kitty! Keep me posted." With that, Fae walked off, and the rest of the week proceeded more or less as usual.
Fast forward two weeks. I walked into the office, expecting to meet my new colleague. I was told he'd be in the cubicle next to mine, but it was distinctively empty. Weird, but whatever. It wasn't my place to worry about if someone was on time or not, so I shrugged it off and proceeded to mind my own business. Some odd twenty-something minutes later, the doorbell rang. I went to the door, and there stood who I would soon learn was Devin.
Devin was a scraggly and worn down individual. I'll short cut my description of him by saying this– you know how in Japanese dramas you tend to have that one office worker character who looks like he's working on a combined total of 5 hours of sleep this week and is only being kept alive via canned coffees and 3 packs of cigarettes a day, all while looking longingly to the stairs that lead to the roof? So picture this poor, barely kempt, husk of a man whose dreams died long before the blade of his razor blade dulled too much to tackle the whisper of whiskers on his upper lip, and put him into khakis and a sloppy dress shirt. He stood a little hunched over, almost like he was uncertain if he was in the right place. He gave a wry and nervous little smile before speaking up.
"Uh… I'm looking for… Ah, they're a manager? I think their name starts with an A?"
I felt my face scrunch up as I thought this over. Now, even if I am using altered names to protect the bearded, the innocent, and my job, we don't have any managers whose name starts with an A. Fae's real name could sound like it starts with an A if you missed the first letter, but I proceeded to press.
"Did you happen to speak to someone before you came over?"
"Yeah."
"Do you happen to know if it was a man or a woman you spoke to?"
He gave the human equivalent to the dial-up tone, and I smiled politely to him.
"Tell you what, why don't you come in, and I'll see if I can find either Fae or Caligu–"
"That's them!"
"Uh, Fae?"
"Maybe her, but Caligraphy hired me." I blinked for a moment. Caligula's irl name might be slightly unconventional spelled, but it's phonetic enough not to mess it up. This guy completely whiffed our boss's name. Still, he was new, and I suck at remembering names, so who am I to judge?
I returned the polite smile to my face. "Ah. So you're the new purchasing team member? Nice to meet you! I'm Kitty. Fae said you'd be next to me, so I'll show you to your cubicle so you can settle in, and then I'll go find her."
He did not return the greeting, nor did he give me his name.
I showed him to his desk before I scurried off, and I let Fae know that our newest team member was here. You'd think she'd be thrilled, but she furrowed her brow before checking her watch. "He only just came in? He said he'd be here at 7:30, and it's past 8:20." She stood from her desk in the warehouse and asked that I join her and the new guy in the meeting room so that we could all be introduced properly.
The first meeting itself was pretty uneventful. Besides Devin reiterating what we already knew--15 years of purchasing experience, his last job being with Major Airline Company, and being hire by Caligula– I also got his name about halfway through the meeting (his name was asked at the beginning, and it took Fae asking him at 3 separate points to, ya know, answer that basic question), learned he was married with a kid, that his wife had threatened to divorce him if they continued to both work at Major Airline Company, that Devin has a hard time separating from work and personal life, and how he's thankful to be back to working in an office. He asked about my commute time, and when I relayed that I have to drive 40 minutes just to get to the office, Devin scoffed and said, "I would never work that far off again. I'm so glad I work just 5 minutes down the road!"
Now, this got a look from Fae and I. The obvious is because this dude was nearly an hour late to work on his first day, despite being 5 minutes down the road. The other reason was because Fae knew this was a bit of a sore spot for me. I had been only 15 minutes away, but with me being mid-divorce and paying off some hefty medical bills… Well, there was a reason I was now stuck with an hour+ commute back and forth 5 days a week. This new dude obviously didn't know that though, and I winced up a smile to politely say, "Oh! That's pretty lucky for you. Hopefully I'll be in the same boat soon."
The rest of the meeting went uneventful, and as we all left the room, Fae did pull Devin aside to chide him for being so late before asking him to follow me to my desk to learn how we do things in our company as well as some of my tips and tricks to get our system to work since Devin had never worked with our OS before.
This pseudo training ended up being a different kind of uneventful. You see, Devin had brought a notepad and pen to learn how the system worked…. Both went completely unused. I'd check in with him to ask if he had any notes or questions and he just replied with, "No. This seems pretty basic," and, "This seems easy enough." Alrighty. I'll admit my job usually isn't too complicated, but he was definitely far more interested in babbling on about his life to the point he'd interrupt me in order to talk about his family. He reiterated that he and his wife had worked at Major Airline Company together for several years and how she threatened to divorce him if he didn't quit his job and seek employment elsewhere. He spoke a lot about his son while revealing nothing about his kid outside of general good feelings towards his child. I heard a lot about his life story, and he never once asked me any questions. Not about life. Not about work. He just wanted to talk about himself endlessly while saying nothing at all.
By the end of the day, Fae asked what I thought about Devin.
"He's friendly…. He likes to socialize."
"Did the training go well?"
"Um… hard to tell. He didn't take any notes or really ask any work related questions. After a while, I just ended up doing my usual work while he chatted in the background. He said he understood what was going on, but when I asked if he wanted to try any of the things I was showing him he said nah, I'm good and kept chatting."
Fae pressed her lips in concern and took note.
For the next few weeks, Devin would show up whenever he could. You might think I mean that in the sense that things would come up and he'd call out. No no. He'd roll into the office at whatever time he felt like. He was confirmed for a 7:30 start time, but there were many mornings I'd get to the office long before him and he'd have some half-assed excuse for being late. At one point, Caligula did a company meeting praising Devin, despite Devin having done literally nothing. In fact, as I was looking over some of our recent orders, I was noting a pattern. Any order placed with Devin were unconfirmed, prices were all over the place, he was sending requests to the wrong vendors (think ordering fans from a place that specializes in wires despite our suggestion list listing someone else).
Eventually, corporate decided to bring Devin into headquarters for a week's worth of training since they realized he was causing a lot of issues. Two days after coming back from his corporate training, he tried having me order a military-grade item for a government contract off of Amazon saying, "This part isn't available anywhere else, and Kitty is the only one with the authority to buy off of Amazon in the office!" He had been given the task of buying this 1 item and spent 4 hours trying to find this part. As he whined to Fae about the impossibility of finding this part, I managed to find, purchase, and confirm shipping from the vendor we had in the vendor's list. The look on Fae's face was almost on par with Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star.
Two days later, Fae pulled me into the meeting room to inform me that Devin was no longer a part of the team. This man, who had been brought in to be the head of my department, lasted 2 and a half weeks. In that time, he attempted to do some work… but mostly he just caused more issues than he solved. I was still cleaning up his mistakes 3 months after his departure. Fae also took this time to let me know that she was pushing for me to become the head of my department. I'd be lying if I didn't say this had me super excited. After nearly 4 months of managing the purchasing department alone, it'd be amazing to be paid a living wage that could turn my life around. Plus, I like validation. I'm not ashamed to admit sometimes a little "Good job kiddo!" is all it takes to string me along on whatever bullshit I've been dragged into. I beamed for the entire rest of the day, excited for the possibilities that lay ahead of me…
And that is when Kevin entered the arena with a company-wide email declaring that corporate decided he was "now in charge of handling purchasing."
Welp, I'll leave it there for now. I have a few other stories I want to write up, but I promise to get in some Office Kevin stories as soon as possible. I've only been dealing with him since February, but dear God the amount of insanity I've had to deal with has been wild. I also apologize if this lost steam towards the end. Current Kevin has been a drain on my mental energy, so it has taken me a lot longer than I'm proud to admit to get even this much out. In the meantime, be good to each other.
Remember that you are loved, and you deserve to be loved.

League Initiative:

Man of Iron-Anthony Kent/Kal-Ark (Tales of Action)

• Anthony Kent was the arrogant son of wealthy, manufacturer Howard Kent. Tony cared only about himself, but he would have a change of heart after he was kidnapped by terrorists and gravely injured with a piece of shrapnel in his chest. Pressured to create a weapon of mass destruction, Stark instead designed an electromagnetic harness to keep himself alive, and eventually, a suit of armor that could be powered by it. As he worked with the power source he found himself developing strange powers. After escaping he uses his vast resources and intellect to make the world a better place as The Invincible Man of Iron. Kent is a major name in the Marvel Universe and a founding member of the League. He ended up having his AI Jarv-El pull up redacted files that revealed that he was born on the planet Krypton, Kal-Ark was sent to Earth as a baby shortly before his planet exploded. Discovered and adopted by a couple living in their summer home, Kal-Ark, now named Anthony Kent, discovers that his old ship is a great conductor for his powers. Learning of his Kryptonian heritage, Anthony decides to dedicate his life to truth, justice, and the American way. Anthony currently lives a double life in the city of New Metropolis, as a mild-mannered absentee CEO for the Planet Industries, and as Man of Iron.

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• ThunderWoman-Diana Blake (All-Star Mystery)
• Long ago there was a war between the Greek and Norse pantheon. When concluded both sides were ravished and the world was thrown into chaos as they struggled to regain control. Acting fast they activated a unique Ragnarok that fused various gods and goddesses together, however, they were never able to find a suitable replacement for many gods including Thor. So instead they created Valkerzons who would take up Thor’s role while assisting in keeping in check the human populous. However, they soon become vain and spiteful, particularly to mortal men. As punishment, they were stripped of their powers and tech as their island was stricken from the sky. Century’s later, sensing a coming doom facing the mortals they tested the Valkerzon’s by sending a pilot crashing into their island. When young Diana found out he was being sentenced to death by her Mother she snuck into his chamber intending to save him despite knowing the consequences of doing so. This sacrifice for the sake of a stranger earned her Mjolnir restoring power to the island as she jumps into the Bifrost along with Steve Foster. Ever since then, she has dedicated herself to using her power properly showing her sisters that there is a better way than their isolation.

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• AquaPanther-T’Orin/Luke Curry
• T’Orin is the son of T’Lananta and a lighthouse keeper and the rightful king of Atkanla, though he was not born there. His mother left for home right after he had been born so he remained raised as Luke Curry outside of Atkanla. After finding his mother’s advisor Vuluri who told him of Atkanla being attacked by KillManta with the assistance OrcaApe. Wanting to help out he’d leave for his mother’s home to take the throne and save his people as the AquaPanther.

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• MarvelHawk-Sheiera Danvers
• An advance scout for the Kranagarian army, Sheirera and Mar-Hol were sent to Earth as sleeper agents to evaluate its worth as a potential stronghold for her species to occupy in advancing their war against a rival space empire. However, they were killed by a young Karla Savage who became jealous of the duo. This would indirectly cause the repeated reincarnation of Sheiera over the following centuries. In her most recent life, she would find herself having taken a job as an Air Force pilot before her amnesia began to wear off allowing her to use her powers and find her Nyth metal weapons. When she eventually regained full memory of her past life she turned against the Kreagaurd to defend Earth and other such planets.

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• Martian Vision-John Shade/Vitr’ J’onzz
• As the Martian people were threatened with extinction Vitr’ J’onzz was randomly selected to be one of the few to be jettisoned to the neighboring planet Earth, however, his ship ended up crashing leaving his ship to put him in cryosleep. He was later found by the villainous Flashtron who fused J’onzz’s body with vibchalcum metal and his own hardware planning to take control of the now cyborg alien. However, unbeknown to Ultraniac, Vitr’ was still conscious and fought back successfully turning against the villain and later joining forces with the League.

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• Green Sorcerer-Hal Strange (Strange American Tales)
• A brilliant but arrogant New York mechanic, Dr. Hal Strange's life was turned upside down when he was summoned to the site where Green Lantern Abin Yao had crashed while working on the cockpit of a plane causing him to injure his hands. Abin bequeathed his band and power battery to Stange before dying. Training under both Kilowan and Baron Sinestro, Strange went on to become a famed hero on Earth and beyond, helped found the League, and rose to the top of the Green Sorcer’s Corps. Sinestro, his traitorous former mentor, became his archnemesis.

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• BulletAnt - Barry Pym (Tales to Showcase)
• After his father was jailed for the murder of his mother, despite Barry knowing for a fact that he was innocent having seen something impossible attack his mother, Barry dedicated himself to proving the impossible to be possible. This would eventually lead to him staying in his lab late one day during the start-up of a particle accelerator. This would end up causing him and some strange particles he was working on to be supercharged by a lightning strike. As a result, he would end up being infused with the supercharged particles, allowing him to move at super speeds and allowing him to shrink and grow at will. Inspired by his late mother's death and the legacy of The Whizz Barry became a hero eventually being joined by Janet van West and later her nephew turned their surgery daughter Hope van West. Later after he began suffering mental issues caused by Pym particle exposure Barry passed the torch on to former thief Jessie Lang.

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• Hultrigan- Jason BanneBruce Blood
• Etrigan is a yellow-green-skinned and dark-eyed demon who was summoned by Merlin to aid Camelot against the forces of Morgaine le Fay. Years later he would be bonded with Jason Banner after being bombarded with a massive dose of gamma radiation while saving a young man's life during an experimental bomb test. Dr. Jason Blood Banner would end up going into hiding, taking up the name Bruce Blood, unable to control Hultrigan’s rage. In the present, Bruce Blood is a well-respected authority on demonology, is well-versed in the skill of magic and science, and has helped other superheroes on several occasions. Etrigan's habit of speaking in what can best be described as slam poetry.

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Part-Time Reserve:

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Arachni-Bat - Peter Wayne (Fantasy Detective Comics)

• Peter Wayne was the son of the fairly wealthy Mary and Richard Wayne who tragically died after being mugged by Joe Carradine. Peter would go on to be adopted by his aunt Lesslie Parker and their butler May Pennyworth. However, following that night the memory would stick with Peter driving him into an isolating depression becoming bitter and self-centered with only the Osborn siblings being able to break him out of his stupor. One seemingly arbitrary day Lesslie asked Peter to show news reporter Marry Jane Vale around one of Wayne Industries and show off what they’ve been working on. While there however Pete ends up bit by one of the projects, a genetically modified spider that had been mutated with bat DNA and a bit of radiation. This bite slowly begins changing Peter and over the next couple of days causes him to develop superhuman abilities. However instead of using his gift for good he just fell deeper in his stupor now seeing himself as a freak, even beginning to push away his aunt and becoming more callous to the people of his city, that is until tragedy struck. A few days later Peter would end up blowing up at MJ Vale leading Lesslie to take it upon herself to meet the reporter to talk things out. However, this would prove fatal as they’d be faced with a mugger that would accidentally kill Lesslie when she tried to defend Mary Jane. Filled with rage Peter took up a shotty disguise and hunted the crook, only when he did he’d find it was a former employee that he had fired early that month. Blaming himself for everything Peter vowed to make a difference for the better and to honor the responsibility his power warrants. He’d spin a year training under various teachers before returning to his home now with the secret identity of the Arachi-Bat, a snarky hero that protected GothamQueens, with a variety of neat tools at his disposal.

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• AmericanMarvel-Billy Rogers/Steve Batson
• Rejected by the army during World War II due to his age and poor health but still intent on serving his country, Billy Rogers volunteered for a Super Soldier project that would give him increased physical capabilities greater than those of the mightiest human athletes. Unknown to him the doctor conducting the experiment was in reality a powerful wizard that granted him god-like powers. The World's Mightiest Mortal, AmericanMarvel is one of Earth's most powerful heroes. Clad in his red and blue uniform and white-and-gold shield, Billy stands as a symbol of courage, strength, and kindness. Whenever he speaks the wizard's name—"SHAZAM!"—he is transformed into the mighty American Marvel! He became a patriotic symbol in his fight against the Axis powers before disappearing mysteriously. Flash forward many decades later and he was eventually thawed out by ARGUILDE. Taking on the new allies Steve Batson he continues fighting for the American way along with his slowly growing team of friends.

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• HuntingSpider-Helena Romanoff
• Helena Romanof was originally the daughter of Russian mobsters she was kidnapped and brainwashed into being a super spy for a Russian spy agency after they killed the rest of her family. She was however later snapped out of her brainwashing after being captured by young hero WarriorrSpirit. Since then she has turned to being a vigilante though one that often works with ARGUILDE, though she’ll turn against it in a heartbeat if she senses anything fishy.

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• FateRider-Nelson Blaze
• Nelson Blaze was a wannabe motorcycle stuntman who went with his father to an archaeological dig where his father would’ve met an early end. Would’ve because but was saved by his son making a deal with an ancient god Zababu, becoming his avatar, The FateRider.

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• Specter Knight/Detective Moon-March Sage/Jim Lockley/Charles Grant
• March Sage was once a U.S. Intelligence Officer, but quit and became a high-profile reporter, after a call from his old friend, a former pilot, and Professor Aristotle DuChamp, often referred to simply as "FrenchTot", to visit an Egyptian site along with his partner Alexander Bushman The trio soon found an archaeological dig that unearthed a temple of an old god named Specshu, with a statue of Specshu within. Bushman decided to loot the site, and in response, Sage picked a fight with Bushman that did not go as well as planned. As Sage lay dying, Specs appeared to him in a vision and offered to bring him back to life if he became the god's avatar on Earth. He did. As a consequence of his deal, his until then dormant, DID began to reemerge due to the stress.

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• BlindBowman-Oliver Murdook
• Son of the owner of a prized law firm head and well-respected boxing club owner. Oliver Murdock's life would take a different turn after his family yacht was attacked, killing his father and burning his eyes, forcing him to live on a deserted island. Using only his bow and his enhanced senses to survive, Oliver would eventually returns to civilization and use his newly honed skills to fight crime as the BlindBowman.

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• LightningClaw-Logan Pierce/Jefferson Howlett
• Though currently known as Logan Pierce LightningClaw was initially named Jefferson Howlett. Born a couple of hundred years ago with the ability to grow electricity-charged claws and a strong healing factor. He was later taken in by the Weapon X program where he’d get an atmentium coating on his claws. However, during his time in the program, he ended up losing his memory. Since then he has gone by Logan Pierce and ended up working as a school teacher in a run-down neighborhood. After rediscovering his powers he decided to become a vigilante by the name of LighntingClaw. He has also had an on again off again membership with the X-Patrol.

Hello, all! I am here because I feel quite alone. The truth is, even though life has its ups and downs, I have a relatively stable and boring life. What I need is a friend. I just feel the longing to connect with someone.
I'd like to meet someone here who is mature and respectful and who would invest in creating a friendship with me gradually over time, as we get more comfortable with each other. I would like to find an interesting personality to learn more about their world, conflicts, and aspirations, to learn new stuff from them, and ultimately become a better person by being their friend.
I'd like to meet someone who is a thoughtful and easy-going person and who would be willing to commit to this friendship. I'd like to meet someone with whom I would feel trusted enough to hear their life story and be trusted by them as I listen to theirs—with no judgments—and accept our struggles as they are. Someone who has a lot to say but hasn't had the opportunity to do so. I would be there for you.
I'd like to meet someone willing to commit to this friendship with the intention of it lasting more than two days, ideally communicating daily and letting the friendship grow without pressure, at its own pace. A friend is all I need, nothing else.
A few words about myself: I'm a person in my twenties from a small corner of Europe. I am a reserved, introverted, and perhaps unnecessarily serious person. I live in my own world. I'm a hopeless romantic who sees the world through stained glass. I enjoy art, poetry, and movies. I love walking in nature, I love summer storms, sunsets, and the mountains.
I am a nineties person who likes everything created during that decade. I wish I were then right now. Currently, my favorite bands and artists are Electronic, The Cardigans, Talk Talk, etc. I would like to add new artists to the playlist of my favorite songs, so your suggestions would be more than welcome. I haven't seen a movie or a TV show in ages, but my favorite ones are The Young Pope, Scrubs, the Office etc. I also enjoy listening to podcasts, like Radiolab, 99% Invisible, Wiretap, Heavyweight, and others.
If the type of friendship I described resonates with you, feel free to send me a direct message with a brief introduction about yourself. I would be glad to engage in a conversation with you.

I've tried this a number of times but haven't had any luck in meeting the right person, but I'm nothing if not persistent.
This is me!
I'm hoping to meet someone I can connect and develop a friendship with, with the intent of seeing if there's chemistry and attraction. No pressure, of course!
I spend most of my time at home but I love being able to get out and visit new places. I also work remotely, which contributes to me being a homebody. To compensate, I sit out back with my deaf dog most days, enjoying the view and weather while I tinker on the computer or play Animal Crossing. I'm currently doing the former while listening to an audiobook (The Complete Guide to Deaf Dogs). It's been a nice day so far.
I'm monogamous and childfree, and would prefer to talk to someone similar.
Things that are important to me: spirituality, open communication, vulnerability, good emotional intelligence, mental health, sharing laughter, sharing silence, and compassion.
Things that I enjoy doing: reading, writing, watching TV shows or movies, roller skating, listening to music or podcasts, DIY, being crafty and artsy, training my dog, and being outside.
Dealbreakers for me: cigarettes, heavy drinking, lack of emotional vulnerability, passive aggression, doesn't love dogs/pets/animals, and lack of self-awareness.

I am currently living in a ghetto and in a single room. I started out very ambitious at age 18. Moved away a few times and final time to the big city at 26 for private college and pressured to move back. It destroyed my life, put me on the streets, and lost everything including friends. I have no hope or emotions left in me anymore and almost no courage. I feel I lost more than years. I just want some kind of words to help me have hope again and move forward, something practical. I was the only one of my siblings who wanted to go to college and move away.

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Before I dump on the game, let me mention a few of the places that were actually clever:

• The bit with Camelus where you had to raise the bridge and shoot into it from below.
• Figuring out there was a path under the bridge that the ice block blocked.
• Figuring out that you could get up on the ice block from the other end of the crane.

I found the game to be disappointing and frustrating, all down to three reasons:

• The lack of interaction modes. Everything is a doorknob.
• The lack of characters, plot, conflict, and motivation.
• An inability to suspend disbelief, made even more absurd by the ending.

Let's look at these, along with contrasting to early Cyan games, and notice how combining all three together makes for a poor experience.
Essentially, the only mode of interaction available is turning a knob. While this is not necessarily a game killer (Myst, for example, only has clicking something) in Firmament it is completely treated as turning a knob. That is, every time you use the adjunct, you're interacting with a manufactured bit of machinery to control power to one or the other function of what you're connecting to. This leads to a sparse range of puzzles that can be included, essentially none of which progress the narrative. And it leads to the requirement for a technical instruction manual at the start of the game.
There's no "let the water out of the chest then close the knob again so it'll float when you fill the pool." There's no compass rose or turning mirrors. There's no locks to find the combination to (fortunately, given the plot). There's no sorting of singing monkeys. There's no tempting of birds with seed pods. There's no catching of Squees. There's no summoning of Wharks. The steam generator and pipes to fill the Voltaic airship actually work logically, and there's a reason they're puzzling, unlike the steam pipes in Curievale. (I had to actually look up which world the steam pipes were in just now, which shows you how well-integrated that puzzle is.) Also, each puzzle is independent of all the others; there's no foreshadowing of what you need to know, nor cleverness of relating one puzzle to another, as was common all through Exile for example.
Almost all the puzzles (including the most frustrating) involve trying to find the next doorknob to turn; or, having found it, trying to figure out how to reach it with the one and only tool available. Occasionally there's the "let's see if I can find the hidden pathway." Almost none of them involve figuring something out based on the environment or the world building. When stuck, I found myself walking around with the adjunct out looking for some hidden doorknob to light up, or wandering into unobvious corners and walking around the edge of the playable area seeing if I missed a hidden pathway. This is compounded by the huge amount of nonsensical consistency-busting designs. (Watch any first-time playthrough and you'll see the player running all over the place looking for the next clue.)
Granted, once you figured out the solution, it was often clear in hindsight what you were supposed to have been doing.

• You could realize the conservatory is symmetrical and has rubble blocking the way so you need to climb across the planters.
• You could figure out that there were controls under the sulfur you couldn't see the first time by looking at the diagram, if you could figure out what the diagram was saying without extensive exploring to start with.
• You could figure out that the goal in the battery field was to connect the one wire to the other (and not stringing batteries from the outside inwards) once you realize there's exactly two wires leading out from the lake and the error is "no connection".
• You could figure out what order the sockets get concatenated in by looking at their orientations. (Granted, they tried to teach you that during "verification.")
• Once you've drained the first reservoir, it becomes clear the odd structures sticking up were walkways.
• Often you progress a ways through a puzzle and then you can see the exit.

The lack of characters, living people, conflict, narrative, etc also left the game feeling lacking. There's nobody you can interact with, almost no direction is provided as to what you should do (and no, just saying "start the Embrace" doesn't help given you have no memory of what that means), and no motivation for doing it other than some ghost tells you. The real reason you work at it is you know you're playing a game. The fact that the world is terribly inconsistent with the story, and the mentor wants you to do things she won't reveal, just compounds the problem.

• One of the first things she tells you is she'll lie to you, which kind of gave away the "you are Turner" ending.
• You're the only person alive/awake, you're vital to the completion of the project, and your mentor can tell you what to do, but she doesn't.
• In Myst, Riven, Exile, you're given ongoing plot, and you know your motivation from the start, and why there's nobody helping you.
• The ending is an unsatisfying info dump. The beginning is the same. There really wasn't a sense of accomplishment, especially since "Hey, you got to the end, no go away, everything else is automated."

The entire time I was playing, I was saying to myself "Why would this be like this?" It made the entire experience tremendously gamey. Myst and Riven didn't make you think "why would anyone do this?" Exile and Portal both had reasons for being full of puzzles, as well as a motivation for your opponent to be setting up the puzzles and for making them solvable. But Firmament should have been 10x as easy to navigate, except that wouldn't make a good game, so artificial barriers that make no sense are set in your way. This, for me, destroyed the suspension of disbelief. Especially when the ending reveals that even the things you might have thought were accidental were designed that way. Even the constructed places were designed like puzzles rather than somewhere you want your workers to be effective at working.

• Why would your mentor set things up that you needed to work so hard to make happen what she wanted?
• Why are there even locks on the doors, given only keepers and crew are there?
• Why would any giant door only have a doorknob on one side, especially when there are other doors you can enter?
• Why wouldn't there be a path around the skiff engine so you could couple either side?
• Why is there even a cargo skiff stuck to the side of a building that has stairs at the top and bottom of its range? That's like making a handicap elevator that opens onto a staircase landing. What are you moving on the skiff?
• Why would you install steam pipes zig-zagging all over under the water?
• Why would you install the gangways zig-zagging all over under the water?
• Why would you install steam valves that block the path when turned on? Why not turn that bit so they stick out over space?
• What does turning on the steam even do, other than clearing the way to the spire? It's not powering anything at the exit. Why are the pipes and heaters even there except to make a puzzle?
• Why do the electric heaters need steam power?
• Why do pressurized steam pipes glow green, except to make the puzzle possible? Why are electric lights shining out from inside the steam pipes?
• Why wouldn't you provide all the modes of running the crane on top of the crane? Why can't you raise the hook from on top of the crane?
• How is Juleston the only place that needs special electricity? Where do the other realms get their electricity that this realm couldn't?
• Why does the conservatory have collapsed columns blocking the way that aren't anywhere else in the building? There's no place for them to have fallen from. They're not symmetrical with the other half of the building.
• Why wouldn't the walkways around planters go all the way around? How are you supposed to care for or harvest the contents on the sides without walkways?
• Why wouldn't the controls for rotating the planters be more easily accessible? There's 6 or so controls to raise and lower each planter, and one control to rotate them that you wouldn't even be able to access on foot.
• Why do you need to ride the ice block to get to the factory? Did OSHA approve that? How come the protective gear described on the sign isn't available?
• Why did the walkway in the ice processing center that the moving bridge fills collapse, and where did the collapsed floor go? There are no broken plates on the floor.
• Why is there even a movable room in the ice processing center? Why not just finish building the bridges and walkways?
• How did whoever put the moving bridge there leave? You can only reach it standing on top of an ice block.
• Why is the green pipe valve hidden behind a bunker? Wouldn't it be easier to build stairs?
• Why wouldn't you build stairs all the way to the ground instead of having to walk along the crane to an ice block to reach the stairs?
• Why are there blocks of ice all over outside the processing center?
• How did all the ice blocks get around the base of the crane? Why not grind those up instead?
• How did the block of ice block the pathway, then the bridge get closed, except intentionally?
• Why not put all the controls for the sulfur mixer in one socket?
• Why is there a giant door requiring three sockets to get connected? The tracks don't go through, and there's nothing to be moved from one side to the other, and no vehicle nearby. Why is it there, and who closed it for that matter?
• Who would build a vehicle where the part you need to line up can't be seen from the steering wheel? Camelus' back door is not visible from the steering wheel. The first ice crane has to be automated at each end because you can't see what's happening. The alignment of the second ice crane is invisible from inside the crane, requiring the platform out the side.

And then you get to the end, and it becomes even more absurd, given that everything you've seen was intentionally designed and built.

• Why would the crane be constructed to run into the cliff? Put it farther out like the bubble car, or don't put rocks jutting out to block its path.
• Why would the sulfur need to be mined? It's not really a planet. Why not stacks of sulfur bricks? Why are there geysers in space?
• Why would you build the bubble car rails where they'd get frozen by ice? There's no seasonal run-off making waterfalls so you had to know that would happen.
• Why pretend you're mining coal? Why launch your coal supply from the ground in rocks instead of extracting it on Earth?
• Why are you wasting coal melting ice anyway? Just use the water before you freeze it. Why build the heat-powered power plant in the coldest realm?
• Why not build the steam furnace downhill from piles of coal and a big pool of water?
• What were you planning to do with a bunch of mountains in orbit when you got to your destination?
• Lots of puzzles block you from turning them off once solved. Why? And how'd they even get in that state in the first place? Nobody is working against you, and nobody has more authority to make changes than you do.

And many more I don't remember the details of.
Given Cyan's track record, one might ponder some of the inconsistencies in implementation and wonder whether they have a deeper meaning. I couldn't find any.

• The first double-bridge you come to, you have to navigate around to cross; the second double-bridge you can just reach the adjunct across; the bubble car there (I think) is positioned in a way that the last person to leave couldn't set up.of mentor dialog or books or something.
• Only one bunker has an alternate exit.
• Only one bunker has a hibernation bed. Did she drag that there? Her monologue doesn't sound like it.
• It seems like a bad idea to have the Juleston bunker close you in when the power goes off.
• Places blocked by rubble have nowhere above for the rubble to have come from.
• Collapsed floors that need to be bridged have no broken flooring or rubble under them, nor is there any reason for them to have collapsed.
• The first double-bridge you come to, you have to naviate around to cross; the second double-bridge you can just reach the adjunct across; the bubble car there (I think) is positioned in a way that the last person to leave couldn't set up.
• The moving bridge near the ice grinder for sure could not have been left that way (unless someone got ground up). Otherwise riding the ice wouldn't be a puzzle.
• The first place you need to connect three sockets, and there's only one order they connect in.
• The second place needs four sockets connected, but still shows "1/3" when you do the first one.
• When there's some option not currently available for a socket, you're not given that option. Or maybe it goes "Doink". Or maybe just nothing happens. Or maybe it's dimmed out. Or maybe it starts and then immediately reverts.

Compare to Myst: Myst was surreal, magical. It's expected in such situations that there will be weirdness. Nevertheless, essentially every puzzle was reasonable in its environment and grounded and somewhat predictable. Things like getting the key to the lighthouse was grounded in basic physics; things like resetting the spaceship after a mistake, or figuring out how to deduce the stoneship symbols, or raising the channelwood tree, were based on wide-spread cultural references. Where there were other puzzles, the end-goal was shown in advance, with you almost always running across the lock before being presented with the keys. The rare maze allowed you to (mostly) see where you were going several steps ahead and also told you the destination before you found it. The pointers to the story were left in conspicuous places (the note on the grass, the blue and red books). Also, the weird crap was explained in extensive world-building (heh) books in the library. Nothing (almost) was hidden just to make a puzzle harder. The solution to each puzzle was presented while you're in the puzzle trying to figure out the solution, if only you were clever or observant enough to understand it. If you wanted to get into the spaceship, you followed the wires. The elevator trick in Mechanical Age wasn't hidden; you just had to think about why the elevator didn't start right away. The most hidden thing there was the secret panels, which were secret, but still had a target drawn on them. Every place you were stymied by a lock, the lock was intentionally put there to keep natives of the land away from the books, or to keep others from using the books on Myst Island (i.e., the places of protection).
Contrast with (say) the greenhouse puzzle: first you have to figure how to get to the entrance riding the skiff, because that made so much more sense than another flight of stairs or a ladder; thank goodness the vines didn't quite close off every path. Then you have to figure out that the place you're trying to go is the other side of the planters on the same level (and not to the thing that looks like a lift or ladder), even though you can't see the other side. Then you ride the things around a while, trying to see the walkways above and below you, before realizing there's another doorknob down at the bottom; good thing they all have distinctive lights on them, eh? That doorknob can only be reached from where you're far from your goal, and from a limited number of puzzle states, then you have to work your way all the way back up, and then if you're lucky you'll have figured out how to turn the planters so you can dodge across. Sometimes you can cross on the diagonal, sometimes it's a fraction too far. And your knees don't bend, so you can't get over the foot-high plank lying on the floor. Or look at the steam pipes and heaters. You need to turn them on, and oh goody, they light up when you do. But some of the doorknobs don't glow; other sockets on the pipes aren't doorknobs they just look that way. Some of the pipes go above the surface, and you can't tell where they come back down. You then can turn on electric heaters using steam, somehow. You have to go down to turn one on, then melt some ice, then coming back up requires turning that off again. Several times you have to turn it on, then turn it off again because the valve was installed in a way that blocks the walkway. There's a valve hidden behind a grate for some reason, but fortunately your other tool can go through grates and the walkway passes by quite close. Then you have to turn on a valve, loop around to go two levels down, turn on the second valve that you can't get to because the steampunk builders thought it was a good idea to install valves that block the pathway, come back up far enough to turn on the third valve, go back down to turn on the heater, come back up and turn off the first valve, then you can progress. And when you've worked the steam power all the way to the end, what do you get? A steam-powered machine? No, just the same electric lift as in every other realm. Good thing, because you had to turn the steam off again to get to the other side of the path. The only reason for the steam pipes is to make a puzzle that somehow runs electric heaters off steam pressure, with electricity at both ends of the path already. Oh, and there's a hundred meters of gangway in loops and ramps in the water, instead of, you know, a path from one side to the other.
Compare to Riven: Riven is grounded like Firmament. It's not particularly supernatural. The stuff is mechanical, not magical. If someone disappears from a one-door room, there's probably a hidden switch. Granted, "fire marbles" aren't explained, and why there would even need to be clues to get into Tay is unclear story-wise, but OK, combinations to locks need to be written where you can find them. And the mine cart going under water was just Rule Of Cool. Everything else makes sense. Secret passages are only secret from one side. Doors are locked between where Ghen moves and where natives move, and locked on the side where Ghen is. When there's a "hidden" passage that's hard to see, the people who created it leave a pointer (usually a dagger). When there's a hidden door, you can see into the adjacent room so you know to look for the door. There's no case of "wander all over the level holding the 'show me interaction points' control, trying to figure out if there's a button that enables some other part of the level to work." There's no wondering whether you need an upgrade to even start working on this puzzle. If there's a hidden button to make something work, you can follow the wire to it (the fan), or see the pathway over there, or see the room through the window (book assembly island dome), or notice from where you start there's only one other path of many open (the lake sub), or etc. Look at the design of the wood pulp boiler vs the sulphur mixer. And again, the reason for all the locks are explained in-game. Riven is a masterclass in adventure game design because the puzzles all make sense in the context and story of the game, all of which we see before we need to know it, and there's almost nothing arbitrary about the puzzles.
Contrast with Firmament: Firmament looks realistic, but is surreal in detail. The entire place acts like one giant puzzle, with a dozen unintuitive steps to get from each place to the next. It has knobs that can control things remotely, but uses that capability to put things out of reach instead of making things easier, even tho the only people with adjuncts would be people who are supposed to be working the machines. It has machinery on rails constructed too close to other features to let the cars pass (like the first crane blocked by rocks, the second crane blocked by ice, the bubble car blocked by the ice, etc), which is even more silly when you find out the cliffs aren't natural either. It uses complex machinery of all different kinds to accomplish the same ends; the skiff vs the first crane vs the second crane vs the sulfur trains; the conveyance pods vs the bubble cars vs (cripes) riding blocks of ice and hopping off hopefully before you reach the shredder blades. There are places where simple stairs or bridges could be built, but instead there's a half dozen baroque processes to get from one place to another place a literal stone's throw away (see "riding blocks of ice" as well as the pointless skiff and the pointless steam pipes and ....). There's several kinds of power supplies which have to be turned on, each of which powers only the bits of puzzle blocking your way. There are innumerable doorknobs placed in cages where you have to be at the right angle to fire them with no obvious reason for the cage walls to be blocking you from there (see "riding blocks of ice"). Even at the end you have to walk entirely around the axis twice to unlock a door you're 20 feet from when you come out into space.
Compare to Exile: Exile is surreal, but this time it's intentionally designed by its creator to be surreal. Each age has a purpose and a theme, and it looks designed (unlike Myst's ages). The design of each Age gives you clues to the solutions of the puzzles, and then plays into the endgame. You have an ongoing story that tells you the motivations of the people involved. You have a reason you're suddenly thrown into the situation alone. (As in Myst and Riven, for that matter.) No need for the cliche loss of memory or untrustworthy narrator (both features of Firmament, both described in the opening monologue). There's a reason the puzzles are more difficult than you'd think necessary. The same reason is why there are clues how to solve them scattered about. And you're shown the ways in which the puzzles were made more difficult, which helps tell the story; nothing is randomly broken by accident. When you solve an age, you get a beautiful reward of getting to see the age laid out before you to admire. The ending is fulfilling, and in your hands, left to you to figure out how to bring about some solution or the best solution.
Contrast with Firmament: No setup other than a monologue telling you "you remember nothing, I might lie, go do puzzles I mean maintenance work." The puzzles are arbitrary-progress-blockage puzzles. There's very little where you have to think about what the world is like to make things work. The ages don't feel any different from each other, because every one is "figure out where the path is, where the goal is, and then try to find where you can reach the doorknob from." There's no puzzle having to do with ice on Curievale (other than the heaters, which are just different forms of doors). There's no puzzle having to do with plants on St. Andrew. Even places where you might have figured it out, it was tedious rather than clever; for example, the batteries were painted colors. Imagine how it would have been if you could see into the water and each post had a different number of batteries wired to it? I don't really want to spend time doing linear algebra to figure out puzzles during my gaming hour. And when you do solve a puzzle, half the time you're inside a building or vehicle where you can't see what's happening; the shutters only open once, the bubble cars obscure most of the view, engaging the Embrace doesn't make it obvious the doors are opening in the spire, etc.
How could I have done better? Well, I don't design games for a living, but I've been playing adventure games since they were coded in FORTRAN and printed their text on paper. There are a few obvious places the puzzles could have been made more enjoyable.

• Make the batteries in Juleston visible through the water, with different pylons having different numbers of batteries visibly connected. Then you don't have to do linear algebra and experiments to figure out what's going on, and the fact that the final step is also providing power would be obvious. This would leave open the possibility for the people who want to do linear algebra. (Sort of like how the sound direction clues in Mechanical Age let you navigate in Selentic Age even though there were adequate clues if you went to Selentic first.)
• Keep the steam pipes underwater, so you can follow where the next valve is.
• Actually require the player to mix the sulfur with the sulfur mixer, just for realism. And don't just have the computer tell the user what the next step is. "Door crusted." "Too much acid." "Pool full." Show, don't tell, like with the crusted lock at the start. Maybe make it so you can look into the pool before you add sulfur and see that there are controls down there, and locking lugs, and crusty stuff.
• When a machine finally turns on, make it obvious why you needed that machine in the first place. The whole "turn on steam" in Curievale was there to clear the way of ice in your way (with electric heaters, no less), while the builders could have just put a walkway over or straight through the water there. They could have made the lift at the end obviously running on steam pressure, which might have even made sense in the context of the steampunk origin story. The whole "turn on the batteries" in Juleston was there to power a half dozen machines while other machines all over already had power. Why does the Juleston bunker (you know, the place holding all the maintenance supplies) need battery power to be accessible and the others don't? (Oh, that's right, achievements.) Why did you have to send power to the bunker in order to open the giant doors? And again, the sulfur didn't need mixing (can you tell I'm traumatized?).
• Put some puzzles in that have to do with the age. Require a puzzle where you have to know ice floats, like drop a giant floating ice cube in the resevoir to get across. Require a puzzle where you have to fertilize or poison (with sulfur?) or electrocute (after powering up Juleston?) plants to progress through St Andrew. Let the player pick up a battery to locally power puzzles in Juleston (due to broken wires?) instead of just declaring that this lift lacks power but that lift works fine.

Anyway, that's my rambling. Hope you enjoyed. :)

During exercises where I was squatting and touching the wall with my butt, Jason made a comment that I need to learn to use my hips. I responded that I know how to use my hips. He retorted, for other things like walking, implying that I use them only for sex.
I joked that if I was a man I’d be a “me too” case waiting to happen and would have been canceled a long time ago. I told Jason that being socially awkward and a bit stunted led to me making a lot of inappropriate comments and jokes. We talked a bit about the difference in climate between “our day” and the current climate in what was acceptable and what wasn’t anymore in regards to sexual talk. He indicated that my size and gender probably helped that people didn’t find me threatening.
Manual therapy started on the side of my hip tool-assisted. I asked Jason if I could see his face, and he pulled his mask down for a second. I said he had a very nice face and he smiled at the compliment. We talked more about my life and he asked a lot of questions about what I did when I was at clubs, how much I partied, and how much sex I had. I told him I didn’t because rock stars and musicians were dirty, and I didn’t want to sully my VIP status or ruin my body.
Jason stopped manual therapy, checked the ROM on my hip, pulled the curtain to the main room a bit, and then started manual therapy on my anterior with just his hands. He was looking at me very intensely with his deep blue eyes. His back was to the curtain separating the two treatment spaces, so I put my hand on his lower back and applied pressure.
I was audibly moaning, breathing heavily, had my right hand on my stomach with my fingers pressing into my flesh, was looking directly into Jason’s eyes, and was digging my right heel into the table with my knee slightly bent. My left hand was still pressing into his lower back, I brought it down over his buttocks to the back of his thigh, let my fingers curve to his inner thigh, and squeezed gently. We continued like this for a few minutes until I achieved orgasm.
Afterward he had me get up, walk, and do a few squats. I noticed that he was semi-erect and that his hand looked cramped. I asked if his hand was okay then reached out and touched his hand. He pulled away. I thought that this was odd after what just happened, but then realized how cognizant he was of everyone else’s perception.
I mentioned to him that my son had gotten a haircut and had asked me to take pictures to show to him. Jason had been really nice to my kids when they were there, so they were always talking about him and drawing/painting for him. As I was scrolling through photos on my phone to show him, there were naked selfies. I said I was so sorry, pulled the phone away, he turned and grabbed my hand saying it’s okay and scrolled back to the photos saying “nice.” Then when he got to the photos of my son he commented that he looked so much more grown up with his hair cut like that.

I have been attempting to make some liquid cultures with zero success. I have tried several different recipes inoculated with agar culture, but nothing is working. My current jars are made with 300ml water and 12g of unpasteurized honey, and I have one that was only 10g honey with 5g of liquid barely malt extract. I sterilized and pressure cook the mixtures, let it cool overnight, and inoculated with various amounts of mycelium from the agar. Everything very sterile along the way, clean and flame sterilize my blade between jars, etc. Jars are incubated at 78F, 1/4inch air hole with micropore tape on top. I have some marbles in the jar; left it alone for 2 days then give it a gentle swirl once per day. Those are at 10 days sitting now and I'm not seeing any signs of growth.
My first attempts I think I inoculated too soon after sterilizing so they were probably still too warm. These ones I waited overnight to ensure they cooled down in a sterile still air box. Mycelium has been sized from a little flake, up to a small wedge cut out, or a couple small pieces. Possible too much, or not enough? All they guides I've seen used a small amount. And when I cut it out, there was still some Agar attached, could that be a problem? No idea what I might be doing wrong otherwise, unless they honey I'm using isn't good for growing (Peace River pure unpasteurized liquid honey). Any thoughts or suggestions?
Edit: Not 5g liquid malt extract with 10g honey, that's definitely way too much. I was just experimenting with using 10g honey and 5g barely malt syrup.

Foreword:
Hi everyone! This is a continuation piece of my previous work (might probably will turn this into a series/proper universe down the line), however reading it isn't necessary for understanding this story.
Any and all criticism is welcome. Hope you'll like it!
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For captain Gryio, it was a pretty uneventful afternoon shift aboard his mining ship, prospecting beyond the Imperial border. He was looking outside into the void from his cabin, watching automated drones bring asteroids full of rare metals into his ship's belly, when his comms officer, Lila, walked in on him with a datapad. She explained to him that they captured a transmission on the short range public interstellar channel. Curiously, the transmission came not from within the Imperial border, but from without. It seemed navy in origin and simply read: "To anyone who hears this message, forward it whole to the nearest Imperial ship or station as fast as possible. The reward for the first person to do so will be 100 thousand Imperial crowns." What followed was about a minute of what seemed to be static. Gryio, a former navy officer, recognized in it a classified message that was encrypted, so no one without the proper software would be able to read what it says. Navy messages coming from beyond the border usually meant pirates, however pirate warnings were always without any encryption. Thinking he would rather get the money than rummage through classified navy business, he ordered his comms officer to retransmit it to the nearest Imperial border outpost. What he didn't know was that the transmission would end up being sent to two locations. As it turns out, the comms officer made a deal some time ago. A mysterious individual aproached Lila with an offer. He would pay for her father's surgery if she gave him a valuable piece of information about the Imperium's actions on the frontier. A desperate sounding encrypted Imperial navy broadcast was sure to be worth more than fixing up an old man's heart, she thought.
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Some time later, at the Imperial navy HQ, located at the Imperial capital, the message caused quite a lot of upheaval. It said that the 16th Imperial exploration fleet made violent first contact with a newly discovered intelligent race.
The fleet's commander, a young prince of the Heyduk kingdom, decided that the smartest thing to do was to conduct a raid on the species' planet, the Earth, hoping to prove himself as a warrior, this attempt ending when an explosion took of his leg and forearm. The species', the Humans they call themselves, military then managed to push back the Imperial marines to their original landing site and forced them to evacuate to their voidships. They left with heavy casualties, with several of their landing craft being shot down as they attempted to fly to orbit. The prince, before being put into an artificialy induced coma to help him heal, then called for reinforcements directly to his father, the king, using a genetically matched long range transmitter that only he could use. His second-in-command then ordered a retreat behind the moon of the Earth. A lone SIGINT vessel, the Poltergeist, was then ordered to return back to Earth's orbit to monitor any attempt by the Humans to shoot back at the Imperial ships. After not hearing from the vessel for half a day, they decided to peak from the dark side of the moon to establish visual contact. When they saw the Poltergeist's wreck entering the Earths' atmosphere, the crew presumed dead and entombed within the ship, they decided to call for help properly. With his most powerful antenna destroyed and the second one being unusable by anyone except a half dead aristocrat, the second-in-command used the public channel, desperately hoping that anyone would listen and retransmit.
One of the officers present then cared to check the Imperial navy Central Information System, and sure enough, a small military transport fleet of the Heyduk navy just left port, with their stated destination being a system on the edge of Imperial space close to the newly discovered Earth. The fleet was ordered back home. The young prince broke both Imperial and Common Galactic law by initiating first contact violently without provocation and considering the already shaky relationship between the Imperium and the the Galactic Alliance and the prince being, ultimately, an Imperial officer, the prospects for a quiet resolution weren't good. Someone finally ushered the words: "The Emperor should know about this."
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On a port orbiting a world far away from the Imperial capital, Hako Undu was at a bar, drinking, when his datapad got a notification. It was a message from the local company handling interstellar comms that he got a message. He payed for his drink and left for the nearest message kiosk. He downloaded the message without looking at it and went to his apartment. Once there he opened it. "Hope it's enough. Lila," read the message. He recognised the name as a girl he managed to strike a deal with. It also had an attachment. The attachment was an audio file, with a voice ordering the listener to retransmit it to the nearest Imperial forces and a minute of static. Hako walked to one of the cabinets in his apartment and moved it away, revealing a safe. He entered the passcode and opened the safe. Hako pulled a small box out from it. He connected his datapad to the box and ran the program that was installed on it. This decryption computer wasn't as powerful as the one they had back at the Bureau, but it should give him an idea if the message was worth passing on.
Once the box finished it's work to the best of it's ability, Hako played the now deciphered message. Not everything was intelligible, he didn't expect it to be, however with every passing second he wanted to hear more. An Imperial aristocrat and officer, initating first contact violently without provocation, wounded and forced to retreat with heavy casualties? He even heard something about a Poltergeist burning up in atmo. Hako had to stop himself from audibly laughing. Considering the events of the last few years, he found himself with the key that the Bureau, and by extension the Alliance, can use to push back against the ever more audacious Imperials. He put the box back into the safe, locked the safe and put the cabinet back in it's place. Then he walked to the ugly part of the station, the part where you can find a guy that does illegal interstellar transmissions that can't be tracked back to their origin. Once he had done his business there, he went to his bank, where he made a transfer of several thousand Imperial crowns to a bank account whose details he had memorized a long ago. "The lass struck gold while literally prospecting for gold," he thought as he signed the transfer papers, smirking to himself.
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The Imperial palace was usually quiet this time of day. Today, howerer, a visitor is causing ruckus. His uniform would tell you that he is from the Imperial Intelligence Agency, First Contact Detachment. They are the guys making sure that any first contact goes down in accordance with the Imperial and Common Galactic law while gathering intelligence on the contacted species and, most importantly, that nobody messes anything up. And boy did they mess up this time. When his superiors knocked on his door with the top secret preliminary report about the whole Earth situation, he was suprised that anyone would entrust him with intel that highly classified. Then they told him that he would be presenting the whole ordeal to the Emperor in 2 and a half hours. Before he had time to ask any questions, they shut the door behind them after wishing good luck. They probably wanted to safeguard themselves, shifting blame to a lower ranking agent if anything more went wrong. He then studied the report, memorizing the most important event, numbers, names and the general timeline. When he was done with his studies, the transport to the Imperial palace was already waiting. He double timed it through the palace, stopping before the Emperors study. A servant opened the door and our agent walked exactly three steps into the room before kneeling, as the protocol required. The Emperor then spoke to him: "Rise. I am expecting you agent. But before we begin, please tell me your name." "I am lieutenant Coje Wetr of the Imperial Intelligence Agency, First Contact Detachment, my lord" said our agent. "Good, lieutenant, good. Please, take a seat, and begin"
The whole presentation took about three quarters of an hour, with the Emperor asking supplementary questions for about half an hour more. Coje noticed that the Emperor was slowly turning more agitated, however he managed to hide it well, but not so well that a trained intelligence officer wouldn't notice.
"The Hayduk king, a fool that has even more foolish children. I should have never given his son the commision, but it's too late for regret. The question is, agent, what do we do about it? We pushed against the Alliance, and it looks like the universe pushed back for them. If they find out what happened, they might be emboldened to consider economic or even military action, and we have no chance of quick and decisive victory against the whole Alliance at once, the best we could hope for is a slow battle of attrition, either of the military or economic kind. Do they even know about these so called Humans?" spoke the Emperor with a severity that he reserved for only the most difficult circumstances
Coje replied: "The exploration vessel that originally found them was civilian, meaning they presumably spread the word at the first opportunity they had. Being the first to identify a new intelligent species is a rare thing these days and such a discovery would bring them a lot of fame. But, considering the location of this Earth, everyone probably thinks that initiating first contact themselves isn't worth travelling through the whole Imperium, so they presume that we will be the ones to do the honors. However, this is just conjecture based on the limited information we have available. As far as i know, an exploration fleet from one of the Alliance nations could be asking for permission to travel through our Imperium to this new world right now."
The Emperor thought for a while, then motioned for the agent to come to him. He whispered: "Then we have to be fast. I want you to make sure that the expedition to Earth never happened. Make sure that nobody ever mentions that an Imperial exploration fleet made it to that system. Bribe, imprison or kill anyone that doesn't cooperate willingly. Purge records and falsify new ones when needed. We must convince the galaxy that the fleet that attacked that planet were pirates, or renegades, or mercenaries, or deserters, just that it wasn't us. Now, go home, relax and sleep well. Tomorrow morning, a courier will deliver an Emperor's charter to you permitting you to use any and all resources that you might need in fulfilling your mission. You are also immediately promoted to major, so that your colleagues take you more seriously. I expect regular updates on your progress. You may now go, Major Wetr. Good night, and good luck. The future of the Imperium sits on your shoulders."
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The headquarters of the Galactic Alliance Intelligence Bureau is naturally one of the most secretive places in the galaxy. That is even before you enter the eastern building's cellar. Within it is a security guard that usually hangs out near one specific briefing room present there. The odd thing about this room is that it seems to never gets used. If you say the right thing to him, he places his ID card on top of the speaker's table, revealing a secret elevator. Ride the elevator down, and welcome to the top secret Directorate "J" of the Bureau, a whole department dedicated to gathering intelligence on the Imperium, buried under enough concrete to withstand nuclear bombardment. Now it's time to pass through a dozen biometrics checks to make sure it's truly you.
The Directorate is filled with the best and brightest intelligence officers the Alliance produces. But it wasn't always like this. Two decades ago, Directorate "J" was seen as the most useless of the bunch. The only meaningful intel they produced back then was finding about lower then expected productivity on an agri-world a few weeks before it became public knowledge and other similar matters. The "Jokers", they started to be called. But then, a new Emperor came to the throne, more ambitious then the previous one. Suddenly, ships and stations on the border between the Imperium and Galactic Alliance started going missing, their crews and passengers missing or dead. At first, these were attributed to pirates and renegades, however as time went on, more and more evidence came out pointing at fact that these attacks were to well coordinated to be random bands of pirates. Things started pointing at a more organised force. Once the probability of the Imperium being directly involved reached "maybe", all of Directorate "J"s activities were marked Top Secret/Need to know only and every current and former member was persuaded to never talk about anything they did as agents of the Bureau. With the Imperium's recent hawkish policies againts a species not yet in the Alliance, the pressure to find something that the politicians could act upon. Considering that the Imperium exports a lot of it's raw resources to the Alliance, and also does a lot of it's manufacturing, no action could be taken unless concrete evidence of the Imperium's transgressions could be presented.
A message was received by the Bureau. The encrypted code at the beginning identified the agent from whom the message came, and the letter "J" signaled which Directorate it should go to. The agent receiving the message 250 meters underground listened to it. She then notified her supervisor, he then notified his superior. In about 20 minutes, every Directorate higher up present was listening to it in the Director's office. Someone shed a happy tear and declared: "We got them boys and girls, we got them!"

Hi there, I’m hoping someone can help me out with how I can navigate this difficult situation. Currently I have sole custody and a parenting plan which outlines every other weekend and holiday for the children to be with their father. In February he told the children he was on his way, then said he was stuck in the driveway due to snow, and would be late to me over text, then didn’t show for parenting time at all with no communication.
He hasn’t seen them since December. No calls or video visits either. I let the kid try to call him and send him voice memos whenever they ask, and he ghosts them. He has responded to me instead of them the last time they sent voice memos, telling me he’s moving back to our town in August, and wants to resume the same parenting schedule. He apologized and said he has felt guilty and that moving was a bad choice when I asked why he has been ghosting the children and not even showing up for phone or video visits.
This is at least the 4th time he has abandoned them in the 4 years since we divorced, however this is the longest. I do have plenty of documentation to prove all this.
When father does have time with the children, he has been unsafe physically (allowed/pressured our oldest to drink to the point of throwing up when he was 11–this was uncovered in therapy a few years ago and DHS was contacted), and emotionally/mentally (cries to the children about his own emotional issues and blames the fact that he’s not doing well/doesn’t get to see them enough is because “mom left him”). They then come home angry and blaming me and put him on a pedestal. They will act out in many ways after spending a weekend or school break with him. Since he’s been out of the picture, even though they are heartbroken beyond belief about his disappearance, they are doing better emotionally, mentally and academically than they have so far in their lives.
I updated the parenting plan and child support over a year ago right before he moved away, there is a stipulation that if he does anything which puts their well-being at risk, supervised visits only are to be implemented.
I want to implement that, I think… but at the same time, I know he will likely not participate and continue the abandonment, but will talk to one or all of the kids spin a narrative that it is my fault, that I am keeping him from seeing them, and he is “trying everything” (this is what happened once they went back after the dhs issue).
Has anyone had a similar situation? Does anyone have any advice which direction I should take this that would be best for the children? Thanks so much.