**TERRAN AID SHIPS DESTROYED**
After much speculation, Terran officials have announced that the lost shipping vessels, the Magnolia, Marigold, and Mallow belonging to Kernon Shipping, were destroyed while in transit. The large cargo vessels were lost with all hands, their large cargo of foodstuffs along with it.
This comes as a heavy blow to the Trenixous province of the former Jaaktarian Empire, as the ongoing famine is expected to worsen. Several riots broke out on Terran-occupied worlds upon hearing the news, with many accusing Terran Executive Command of attempting to reduce the Tersean population to “acceptable levels” for future colonization.
EXECOM has repeatedly denied these allegations, stating that the loss of these vessels constitute an act of terrorism. The routes of the convoy and their cargo was announced well beforehand, they say, as an act of goodwill and to discourage any pirates or Jaaktarian Navy remnants from attacking them.
Although the Galactic Conglomerate officially condemns their destruction, many of its member species continue to oppose the Terran occupation of the neighboring Trenixous, Grentali, and Hrengull provinces, refusing to remove the numerous economic sanctions placed upon the growing species.
Analysts say that by occupying these regions the Terrans are overextending their reach and are placing undue strain upon their economy. Despite the Terran claims that such occupations are merely a peacekeeping and sapient rights intervention, there are many who believe that the Terrans are attempting to exploit the ongoing Jaaktarian civil war, a conflict that is expected to worsen as peace talks continue to fall through.
However, there are many who believe that the attacks on the three ships was secretly orchestrated by the Kersean Empire. Relations between the Terrans and the Kerseans have been at an all time low following the incident at Tasagrate-IV, with increasingly aggressive rhetoric being stated by both sides. The recently announced Kersean annexation of the Tretorian, Erenthinji, Grinhalli, and Veruntaner former Jaaktarian provinces have only worsened this. Many have pointed out the hypocrisy of the Kersean position, decrying the Terran intervention while they themselves are directly claiming territory.
Furthermore, the Terran military has…
>Excerpt from a news article published in the Sylintian Press, author unknown.
One of the more famous skirmishes leading up to the start of the Third Orion War was the Terran defense of Tasagrate-IV. The system was largely uninhabited and lay in relatively uncharted space overlapped by Terran and Kersean claims. Tasagrate-IV had been settled by the Terrans five standard cycles prior to the conflict, and a small but robust export-based economy had developed utilizing the planet’s abundance of natural resources.
It is unknown what made the Kersean Empire decide to attack the small colony. Kersean-aligned speakers may claim that they were simply defending rightfully claimed territory from an encroaching aggressor. Pro-Terra sources would likewise claim that Kersea chose to seize the colony and its resources by force in a bid to curb Terra’s growing power. The official position by the Terran government was that it was a probing attack, meant to test Terran defenses and response as a precursor to a much larger invasion.
What can be certain is that the truth will likely never be known. The opening phase of the Third Orion War left the vast majority of the Kersean Empire’s critical infrastructure in ruin. Centers of Command and Communication were among the highest priority of targets during Operation Apocalypto, second only to Kersea’s Relativistic Weapons. Any information held by the personnel and ships that participated in the invasion would have likewise been lost when the second wave of Terran RKV’s, aimed at conventional military targets, obliterated the Kersean fleets. The ensuing chaos and breakdown of civil function means that learning more would be prohibitively difficult. As such, Terran sources and hearsay are all that can be used to document the battle.
Hrjin Argoni’s popular memoirs do shed light on the matter, however his position as a diplomatic envoy by nature means that he was not privy to such military matters. Many have construed Argoni’s orders to “gain the most advantageous settlement” in the territorial negotiations as evidence that the Kersean Empire was always planning on seizing the systems by force, however the Terran diplomats had the same instructions, essentially to the letter.
At the time of the conflict, the Terran population only numbered at about one hundred thousand, the overwhelming majority of which were clustered around the planet’s Capitol or the many mines that dotted the surface. The Terran military contingent was likewise small, consisting of a single Army division and one Wing of MSM-115C Surface-to-Orbit anti-ship missiles, better known as the Paladin.
The Army division was thinly spread across the planet, primarily equipped for anti-piracy, anti-smuggling, and peacekeeping operations. The Paladin Wing meanwhile consisted of four relatively independent Paladin Squadrons, with two located on each hemisphere. That way, the entirety of the planet’s orbital space could be covered and defended, allowing for two squadrons to be on deployment while the other two underwent maintenance or training.
At the Squadron level, the Paladins were commanded by one Mobile Operations Center (MOC), a large tracked vehicle converted from transportation use and equipped with numerous powerful orbital sensors and communication arrays. The MOC would be tasked with coordinating the movement and dispersal of the squadron’s various batteries while also monitoring the orbital space they were assigned to defend. Each squadron held four batteries of three Transport-Erector-Launchers (TELs) that carried and fired the Paladin missiles. The TELs themselves were even larger than the MOC, using Anti-gravity technology to transport the massive Paladin missile horizontally on their backs over the planet’s rough terrain, then having to erect the missile into launch position before being fired. Because of the size of the Paladin’s warheads and the distance they needed to travel to reach their targets, the Paladin was considerably larger than the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles of Terran antiquity.
When the order to launch is given, the MOC sends the command to one or more of the squadron’s elements. The element would then stop its movement and each TEL would lower themselves to the ground, at which point several hydraulic legs would extend to anchor the TEL to the ground in a level position. After that, the missile in its tube would be raised to the vertical position while a firing solution is reached.
The Paladin used a cold-launch system, meaning that the missile must first be ejected from the tube before the missile’s solid-fueled chemical booster would ignite. To do this, a generator used chemical reactions to create an immense amount of steam that would eject the missile above the TEL. Following ejection, the missile’s booster would ignite and the missile would begin its flight to the target. Throughout its flight, various stages are discarded and ignited to save weight and increase the missile’s velocity. Once the missile was out of the atmosphere, the missile’s nose cone would be jettisoned and the three warheads released.
Each Paladin Missile carried three W97 Enhanced Radiation Warheads, the most prolific variant of the famed Terran “Neutron Bomb.” Each warhead is equipped with a thruster pack to guide it to its target while evading enemy interceptors. Upon reaching the target, the warhead would detonate either upon impact or proximity, killing the biological crew of the enemy vessel with the immense burst of neutron radiation and damaging electronic systems.
This is what the Kersean Royal Navy faced when the invasion fleet descended upon Tasagrate-IV.
The Empire did not expect significant resistance, and as such sent a light invasion force of 300,000 Royal Marines on 50 transport ships escorted by a fleet led by one Heavy Cruiser, three Light Cruisers, five Destroyers, and eight Corvettes. Upon arrival. The fleet would disperse into three elements. The first would hang back and protect the transports, consisting of the Heavy Cruiser, one Light Cruiser, one Destroyer, and two Corvettes. This would serve as a reserve force should any ships be lost, and would command the overall operation. The two other elements would consist of one Light Cruiser, Two Destroyers, and Three Corvettes. These would comb the surface of the planet, one for each hemisphere, with the objective of seeking and destroying any target of opportunity.
When the invasion commenced, the Paladin had been untested in combat and was relatively unknown even within Terran space. Had the full capability of the system been known by the Kersean Empire, it is likely a much more sizable fleet would have been sent to Tasagrate-IV. The Paladin Wing on the planet only had two squadrons that were combat-capable. One was undergoing routine maintenance, and the other was conducting training missions with inert warheads. The latter would not have time to mount their live warheads before the battle would commence, and as such immediately chose to disperse rather than engaging the enemy.
Once the two Kersean Strike elements were in range of the Paladin batteries, each squadron fired a salvo of eight missiles. These were detected by the Kersean forces, however they were unable to intercept due to their distance from the planet. As such, the eight missiles were able to reach altitude and release their three warheads, totaling 24 warheads per element, four warheads per ship, and 48 warheads in total.
The Kersean point-defense systems experienced significant difficulty adapting to the highly-maneuverable warheads that swarmed their fleets. In total, 75% of the incoming warheads were intercepted. However, that still left six warheads inbound for each element. Both were ravaged by the attack. Between the two of them, only two corvettes survived undamaged, with one frigate surviving with heavy damage and a light cruiser rendered combat ineffective.
This came as a severe shock to the Kersean invasion commander, as the highly dispersed Paladin squadrons were not located by their long-range sensors. As such, she wisely decided to abort the invasion and retreated back into Kersean space. Had she chosen to press the attack, it is likely the invasion would have succeeded, despite significant losses. The two combat-capable Paladin squadrons were down to 1/3 of their firepower, while the other two could be hunted down and destroyed by the invading ground forces.
Upon seeing the success of the Paladin, Terran production and deployment of the system was significantly increased. Kersean intelligence services meanwhile, scrambled to figure out the new weapon.
This incident substantially increased tensions between the two powers, and is regarded as one of the main factors leading to the Third Orion War. Both powers used it for substantial propaganda value. On the Terran side, the technological prowess of the system and the imperialist aggression of the Kersean was strongly emphasized. The Kerseans meanwhile decried the settlement of the system as an invasion and encroachment by the Terrans onto their territory and a flagrant disregard for the legitimate claims, portraying the Terran defense as an unprovoked attack against an armed envoy that was intending to negotiate a settlement.
In either situation, the end result was an increase in military readiness and mobilization as the two powers geared themselves up for war…
>Excerpt from “Third Orion War: Buildup and Causes” by Junkillian Khimonsa, Chief Historian, Livani University.
“Look, those damn Kerseans are up to no good, clear as day. Those xenos think they can strut around the Conglomerate and bully everyone into submission. ‘No More!’ I say.
“Just look at the bill they passed a week ago! Sanctions on damn near everything we make. They don’t like it that we can do things cheaper and better than them, and they hate us. They go around calling us little atom monkeys because their tech ain’t as good as ours. That’s the thing you see, humanity has always been special. The damn xenos ain’t never gonna get that.
“I had a brother on the Marigold when the Kerseans destroyed her. That food was going to do good in the galaxy, helping out the innocents in Jaaktaria. ‘Cept the problem is that doing so makes us Terrans look good and the Kerseans look bad. I’m telling you, those hinge-head bastards in the Diamond Palace are a bunch of Tyrants.
“And then they go around preaching about ‘stability’ and ‘order’ and ‘uplifting’. All they do is go around like loan sharks trapping helpless little aliens in their schemes. And when someone doesn’t want to bow down they break them.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again, War is coming. It’s time someone put them in their place. They think they have the numbers and the precious little ‘RKV’s’. No, like they think us losing a few dozen planets will stop us with the hundreds we have. We will burn their mongrel hides even if we have to choke on our own blood to do so.
“If they think we don’t have the nukes to burn them off of every floating rock they own, I *know* we’ll have the chemicals and bioweapons to bring them a beatdown of biblical proportions. They’ll be a textbook footnote before they even know what hit them.“
>Excerpt from Political Commentator Joe Alexander’s podcast “Humanity First.” The podcast is highly controversial and is known for containing biased or incorrect data. It is currently banned by 78% of Galactic Conglomerate member species.
**BEYOND TOP SECRET**
OSIRIS has observed extremely abnormal Kersean activity that warrants immediate EXECOM attention.
SIGINT has detected a 450% increase in encrypted FTL communications between the Kersean Grand Council and all Kersean military forces. HUMINT and DARKSTAR missions observe that 85% of the Kersean Navy is out of port, with significant fleet gatherings at points ASTRA, BAKER, GEODE, and ZENITH. Significant Kersean ground forces are being mobilized for planetary assault. Ministry of the Voice propaganda has seen a 165% trend increase towards belligerent messaging. 78% of Kersean reserves are being mobilized. Significant activity around Kersean Relativistic Weaponry.
CARDINAL assets in Galactic Conglomerate report numerous conferences between Kersean and Kersean-aligned delegates. 61% of BENEDICT assets are unresponsive. All BENEDICT assets are presumed compromised. Primary, secondary, and underground channels are experiencing severe difficulty negotiating with Kersean contacts.
OSIRIS believes this to be a prelude to a full-scale invasion of Terran space. Kersean activity is consistent with that before the Kersean invasion of former Jaaktarian space. SAMSON sites have been notified of ongoing developments and have increased readiness, however cannot be activated without EXECOM authority.
OSIRIS strongly recommends EXECOM declare STRATCON BLACK and activate CONPLAN 88 in accordance with the Lemay Protocol. Casualty estimates are significant but acceptable. OSIRIS confirms this with the highest degree of confidence. War is unavoidable.
>Highly encrypted FTL communique from the Terran Office of Strategic Intelligence, Reconnaissance, Information, and Surveillance (OSIRIS) to Terran Executive Command, released one decacycle after the end of the Third Orion War. Less than one Terran hour after this message was received, the first Terran RKV’s would be fired as a part of Operation Apocalypto, marking the beginning of the Third Orion War.
He passed me a small sphere in his hand. It was an incredibly tiny object, small enough I had to make sure it didn’t slip between my appendages. I look back up and see him rolling perhaps a dozen of them in the palm of his hand.
“This is it? It must weigh only a gram!”
I tried not to grimace as he smiled.
“It does, but kinetic energy increases *exponentially* with velocity. At the speed of light, that little thing hits with over 10 kilotons of force.”
I blanched as the sphere suddenly felt far, far heavier in my grasp. 10 kilotons was by no means small, but compared to nuclear and antimatter weaponry, it was a drop in the bucket. I turned back to the weapon’s diagram and eyed the warhead section.
“How many did you say it could carry?”
He paused for a moment. Worry briefly flashed across my mind as I feared I had asked an unacceptable question. But my anxieties were placated somewhat as he responded.
“Several thousand, depending on size and method of dispersal. This one is just the anti-ship version.”
Images of the Emperor’s Fleet being torn apart in an instant flashed before my eyes. Garden worlds being left smoldering wastelands while small moons were simply *broken*.
The man took the sphere from me and placed them down on the table. Collecting them one by one into a small bag, he reminded me of a predator picking through the carcass of its prey.
“You know…” he began. “We already have plenty of them in service.”
I could have sworn my hearts stopped beating at that instant.
“I can’t tell you how many we have or how fast we make them, but do know we have enough.”
This was bad. The Intelligence Service told me that the Terrans were only in the prototype stage. I scanned his features for signs of a bluff, a slight tick here or a bead of sweat there, but couldn’t find any.
But then I realized, *The Terrans weren’t beholden to the arms treaties.* They were an upstart race who entered the galactic scene well after the Great Hydrogen Wars, well after hundreds of relativistic weapons had been used in the most horrific manner. Left unchecked, Terra’s resource-rich systems and industrious people meant that the race had the potential to rival and possibly surpass Kersea.
This changed everything. Now it was clear that Terra wasn’t a future threat, but a present one.
If the Terrans were developing RKVs built specifically for anti-ship purposes, then they must already have significant amounts of them. The other races of the galaxy reserved their few RKVs as planet-busting weapons of last resort. There was no need to differentiate them as being anti-ship, because there was only one use for them.
I flashed through my briefings of the Terran military. Budget black holes woven between endless bureaucracy, ship classes designated far different than why their tonnage suggested, uninhabited worlds or systems blocked off, significant agricultural reserves, mobile command posts. The Terrans weren’t just preparing to fight a relativistic war, they were preparing to *win* one.
He continued.
“Despite what you and your government may think, us Terrans aren’t new to this game. We’ve been playing against ourselves for centuries.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed.” He turned around and emptied the bag back into his right hand. “We know the rules.”
Rolling one into place between his thumb and index finger, he tossed it at a nearby model of a terrestrial planet. The plastic model tipped over and clattered onto the table.
“We do have one question though,” Another toss and another model planet knocked over.
*“What kind of player do you want to be?”*
>Excerpt from “I Saw the End From The Past and Could Only Watch.” By Hrjin Argoni, Former Kersean Imperial Ambassador to Terra

Hello, I’m renting with two roommates and we’re in a situation where we did not sign a lease, and I think the landlord wants to fine me. I have some questions about this, but first context.
I didn’t see any rules about posting in this subreddit - so please delete this post if it breaks any rules or comment with your guidance.
I’m living with two roommates in the United States - I’m calling them 1 and 2. We’re in our 20’s. 1 took out a loan with their parents for the home, and invited 2 and me to live in with them.
We never signed a of lease or any legally binding agreement with 1 and their parents. We pay rent via venmo, which is relatively low for the area and i’m quite happy with it.
1’s dad is not impressed with how we’ve been keeping the yard. We have a mower with gas (i bought the gas with my own money), and it hasn’t been mowed for about 5 weeks. The grass in the yard is sparse, it’s a dry yard with several dead/dry spots, and it was maybe ankle-height at the tallest. Nothing out of the ordinary compared to the neighbors on our street, and we don’t have an HoA.
1’s dad came over unannounced and mow our yard on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I was leaving for a wedding, and had come outside to pack my car and say hello on my way out. He was not happy, and 1 told me verbally that their father plans to fine us for his work.
I had been out of town for 2 consecutive weeks of the 5 weeks where the lawn was not mowed. 1 is unable to do the work due to a leg injury. I’m not sure why 2 didn’t get around to doing it. I’m not trying to point any fingers, we all could have done better. I’m planning to be maliciously compliant from now on.
I’m looking for a second opinion. If I don’t pay the fine, and 1’s parents decide to take legal action, what potential consequences am I facing if we don’t have a lease agreement? I am moving out of this house in about 45 days, and don’t mind putting up with 1’s angry parents but don’t want to be taken to small claims court or pay 1’s dad for his own decision to come over and mow our lawn on a holiday weekend. I’m not sure what the fine will be, but let’s say it will be $100 minimum.
What would you do in this situation? What advice can you offer? Thanks in advance!

This is a bit detailed question and really don’t know the true answer and don’t want to waste my time or money if unlimited plus would help me.
I currently have the plan called unlimited welcome or it’s called welcome unlimited. Basically the lowest price unlimited plan.
When I’m at work, my reception to the service is somewhere near two or one bar on my iPhone.
Sometimes, my data can be enough to do everything I want and sometimes it so slow that I cannot do anything.
Is this a plan issue? Is the network just congested and they are slowing me down? If I get low reception is it worth getting the unlimited plus? Because then I have 30GB of premium data for every month.
I have been trying out T-Mobile and it’s great with data. But there are times it doesn’t seem to be the case.

I'm just going to be quick asking this. I don't want to waste anyone's time.
When my head is tilted slightly, and I switch from Quiet to aware, one ear up goes into Aware (albeit with a slight pop), and the other one is stuck in Quiet for a couple seconds. Afterwards, then the other one goes into Aware. The process takes about 2-3 seconds. I have the voice prompt off. Is this normal?
Secondly, with the quiet. I'm assuming I'm being too critical but it just seems like they aren't blocking out as much as people are saying. Don't get me wrong, they block out noise, but the sound of a lawn mower is still verrrry prevalent in my ears. Maybe it's decreased by 25%-30%. That's normal, right?
I know a lot about noise cancelling technology, but I thought the QC 45s would at least be able to cancel out the lawn mower better. Maybe it's just me. I've had these for 2-3 weeks.
Sorry if anyone thinks I'm being too critical of these. Just trying to make sure these are working like they are supposed to 😅
Edit: Not to mention, the left earcup slightly ripped on the inside part. So... that might affect it.

Hey everyone! Sorry for format, I’m on mobile. I’m (24 f) going to Paris for 8 days with my cousin (15 f) and was hoping you guys can give me some advice for two young female travelers! Which areas should I be weary about late at night? Restaurant recommendations? Anything I should swap out or add in? We’ll be there in mid-late June! Most ticket have been bought. Thanks in advance!
Sunday (day 1) - arriving at 8 am, drop off luggage/get ready at hotel, louvre (1 pm), seine river cruise, dinner at la jacobine? (Need breakfast/brunch recommendation near the louvre please)
Monday (day 2) - Disneyland Paris
Tuesday (day 3) - breakfast, musée d’orsay (10 am), sainte chapelle/Norte dame (1 pm) , lunch at L'As du Fallafel, (possibly) stroll through Luxembourg gardens, dinner at pink mamma, & end at Eiffel Tower (need breakfast recs near musée d’orsay)
Wednesday (day 4) - Train to Giverny and Monet’s Gardens (10 am) , need lunch recommendation for giverny, walk around Vernon, take train back and explore Montmartre, dinner??, end at Sacre coeur (dinner recs please)
Thursday (day 5) -surprising my cousin with Eurostar tickets and going to London for the day (9 am arrival, 7pm departure). I’ve gone before and have a general idea of what she’ll want to do but feel free to leave recommendations!
Friday (day 6) - free morning/afternoon, going to a opera show at Palais Garnier (8 pm) - dinner recs appreciated
Saturday (day 7) - Versailles, free afternoon/night
Sunday (day 8) - Petit palais, la Galerie Dior, Champs Elysees, arc de Triomphe, nice final dinner with a great view (need recs that aren’t too expensive), end with dessert/picnic at Eiffel Tower
Monday morning (fly home)

For the second time in a row I have bought a grain-free food without knowing it was grain-free. There are so many options of dog food I get completely overwhelmed and I cannot afford to buy a THIRD bag of food in the span of a month at the moment.
I bought my dog a grain-free food by accident after her food (Purina Beyond) was discontinued and Chewy sent me my cats food instead of any kind of notification that they were out.
And my dog was also out of food.
So, I bought True Acres Chicken & Veg in a bit of a panic because it was a big bag for not too much money. "Grain-free" is written almost all over it but I didn't catch on until we were nearly done with bag #1.
My dog has since developed a rash on her belly that she scratches at a ton.
So I found Purina Pro Plan Adult Sensitive Skin & Stomach. The picture had nothing with grain-free listed, but I didn't scroll through all 8 photos listed, I just bought it. I had been working through the pages on Chewy for about an hour trying to find something that seemed within my budget for the price and weight and that was what I kept landing on.
Today I looked at the bag and right on the front it says "no corn, wheat or soy." I cannot explain how much I want to absolutely lose it right now. I had transitioned her and was feeling good, but since the rash persisted, I had made a vet appointment for fear that it was the mower chemicals and cut grass inflaming her belly.
NOW? IDK.
I'm so upset. I have like two bags of very full dog food, just paid rent and am trying to save for this vet appt. I do not have funds, or space, or spoons to get yet another bag of food and transition her AGAIN.
Why is grain-free food so readily available? It shouldn't be given to a dog unless expressly determined by a vet, yet it's everywhere!
And now I'm so exhausted from looking for food the first time, I don't want to look again. I already feel exhausted, overwhelmed and burnt out at the thought which in turn makes me feel like a terrible dog owner that I keep putting my baby through this.
Thanks for listening to me vent and if anyone has recommendations for a NOT grain-free dog food good for a 45lb Treeing Hound mix (budget of about $60/mo) I am so open to it.

Hi, I'm a college student living in an apartment, and I've been playing the piano for about 17 years now. I am really into classical but also want to explore other genres a little. I've always played on the family upright, never owned a digital keyboard.
My school's practice rooms have implemented a new system this year that makes it nearly impossible for non-majors to practice for more than 10-15 mins at a time. My mom kindly offered to buy me a keyboard for a birthday gift, but I am undecided on which to buy.
I've read up a lot and right now I'm focusing in on these three models.
The FP-60X is a lot cheaper, but I read that PHA-4 to PHA-50 action is a huge upgrade, and I don't know if it's worth it. For context, some of my recent repertoire includes Chopin's 1st and 3rd Ballad, Ravel's Une barque sur l'océan, Beethoven's Waldstein (in progress), and Scriabin's Nocturne for the Left Hand (in progress).
I found a used RD-2000 for $1700 (keyboard alone, no accessories) listed on the website of my local secondhand music shop, which is a really good deal. There's also a music store 30 min away that sells new FP-60X and 90X. I'm planning to go check them out later today. Of course, how they feel will contribute to the decision, but for right now, the other factors are:

• MOBILITY: I will probably be moving apartments at least once a year for the next 2-3 years, so a cabinet piano might be disadvantageous since it costs an arm and a leg to move each time. That's why I listed all keyboards here.
  • If I buy a cabinet stand for a FP-60X or 90X, will I be able to move it (the keyboard in a case/bag and the cabinet separately, in a cavan) without a piano mover, or is that still a bad idea?
  • What kinds of stands do you recommend for RD-2000? Are there any cabinet stands out there that will fit it? If not, how sturdy are the foldable kind of stands?
• RESALE PRICE: I might sell the keyboard after graduation because I'm planning to move across the country. So depreciation rate will play a role.
• SOUNDS: The RD-2000 is obviously superior to FP-90X in terms of the number of sounds and the amount of control you have over it. How useful will that be for someone who is just starting to explore non-classical genres?
• PEDALS: I don't know how sturdy standalone pedal units are, compared to a pedal extension on a cabinet stand. I played on my friend's keyboard which came with a free single pedal, and it keeps swimming away like a fish. I'm sure it's finished painting the Mona Lisa by the time I finish playing a piece. Will this problem be less severe for something like the RPU-3 (3-pedal unit)?
• PRICE: I am aware RD-2000 needs more accessories compared to FP-90X, such as a music stand and an amp. However, it looks likely the RD-2000 will still come out to less than the FP-90X in total, as long as I don't drop 400 on a giant amp.
• Considerations for buying secondhand: The shop doesn't know how long the previous owner had the RD-2000, and there's no manufacturer warranty, but the shop itself has a 60-day warranty.
• AMP: I'm looking at the Roland Mobile Cube amp right now. Thoughts?

I'd appreciate any recommendations for small amps, keyboard stands, and cases/bags. This was a really long post so thanks if you've read so far!

I've made a few posts here before, and after some refinement, I've narrowed down my car search to a Tiguan Allspace (yes the 3rd row of seats is near useless, but I just want a very spacious boot) and BMW X3. This is in Europe by the way, car to be used for commuting, trips to the countryside, everyday errands. I'm thinking of a 2020 model and not more than say a tad over 100,000 km on the clock, budget around €35K max. I'm now trying to decide between specific engines.
A few things I'd like to get views on:

• Given that diesels have far better fuel economy than petrol, I'm leaning towards getting that as these are somewhat larger cars that I fear will otherwise be rather thirsty, however not closed off to the possibility of getting a petrol.
  
• Brand and looks wise, the BMW I think is ahead. The Tiguan is a somewhat boring looking car, but not offensive to me either. Yes this one is a matter of taste, but just putting it out there.
  
• If going for a baseline engine, then I think I'd go for the BMW 20d engine, the price difference between this and a similarly powered Tiguan isn't that big: https://www.ultimatespecs.com/car-specs/BMW/110769/BMW-G01-X3-xDrive20d.html
  
• However I'm very tempted to go up in engine to the 217/236hp Tiguan (https://www.ultimatespecs.com/car-specs/Volkswagen/111624/Volkswagen-Tiguan-Allspace-20-TSI-220HP-DSG-4Motion.html or https://www.ultimatespecs.com/car-specs/Volkswagen/112481/Volkswagen-Tiguan-Allspace-20-TDI-240HP-DSG-4Motion.html). While the BMW X3 30d or 30i offers similar-ish engine performance and fuel economy, the price for a reasonable one of those starts getting a bit too much ahead of the Tiguan.
  

So what it boils down in my view is a more baseline BMW X3 (which I'd otherwise choose any day over the VW) or a higher spec VW (such as this for example, which also has a nice sunroof: https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=363397932&adLimitation=ONLY_DEALER_ADS&cn=DE&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&features=PANORAMIC_GLASS_ROOF&features=SUNROOF&grossPrice=true&isSearchRequest=true&makeModelVariant1.makeId=25200&makeModelVariant1.modelId=66&maxMileage=125000&maxPrice=35000&minFirstRegistrationDate=2020-01-01&minPowerAsArray=147&minPowerAsArray=KW&pageNumber=1&parkAssistents=REAR_VIEW_CAM&scopeId=C&sortOption.sortBy=searchNetGrossPrice&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&fnai=prev&searchId=f97ce2ce-9f10-d8c5-4b0a-ece9a02d804d&ref=srp).
What do people think?

[Sunbreak] Hitzone Comparison Damage Calculator with Dual Blade Analysis
I've revised this several times, so hopefully, I've ironed out all the mistakes. Please let me know if there is anything wrong with my findings, points you disagree with, or questions you may have.
Thanks to

• dtlnor for the MV datamining
• Pilgrim, author of the DB meta guides for initial data
• Gobul's Lantern for Lance data

tl;dr

• Hitzone Comparison Damage Calculator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QIjL2FXYzRw1-RJp0t-W0Qh0zb5mCH1Vs2U9SWSb6VQ/edit?usp=sharing
  • Only supports RAW, ELE, Affinity, Critical Boost, Critical Element, Elemental Exploit, Elembane, and Anti-Species
  • Copy and edit/add your own stats, MVs, EVs, combos, and timings
  • Does not support dynamic stats. Use final ATK and Element
  • I would use a different calculator if you need more precise damage details
• Prioritize Elemental Exploit and Elembane hitzones most of the time
• Grounded is theoretically better for DPS with the Demon Flurry Rush buffs
• The best Grounded Spiral Slash combo is Demon Flurry Rush + Spiral Slash
• The best Grounded combo without Spiral Slash is Demon Flurry Rush + Rising Slash + Demon Fang + Twofold
  • Demon Flurry Rush + Slide Slash + Demon Fang can be better depending on the stats, but difficult to loop
• In situations where grounded hitzones are bad, Aerial is still viable
• The best Aerial Spiral Slash combo is Demon Flight + (Aerial Flurry) + Midair Roundslash + Grounded Spiral Slash
  • Skipping Aerial Flurry does not appear to impact DPS much if at all for Spiral Slash
• The best elemental Aerial combo is Demon Flight + Aerial Flurry + Midair Roundslash + Rising Slash + Demon Fang loop
  • Skipping Aerial Flurry loses DPS but Aerial Flurry does not always hit
• The best raw combo is Aerial Midair Blade Dance (Archdemon Mode) or probably Piercing Bind + Demon Flurry Rush + Blade Dance (Not thoroughly tested)
• There are niche scenarios where the hitlag on a low raw hitzone can increase DPS over a high raw hitzone

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Changes in TU5
3. Methodology
4. Results
   1. Grounded
   2. Aerial
   3. Hitzones
   4. Grounded vs Aerial
   5. Slide Slash
5. Hitlag
6. Conclusion Appendix A.1 Non-Spiral Slash Grounded hitzones A.2 Aerial Matchups

1.0 Introduction

This is a theoretical DPS comparison of Dual Blade attacks. I will outline the output and differences between Demon Flurry Rush, Aerial, Slide Slash, Spiral Slash, and their applications to different hitzones.
The main reason for this investigation was to determine which hitzone to attack. Given the enormous skew towards elemental damage for Dual Blades, it did not appear obvious which hitzone to target.

2.0 Changes in TU5

These are the relevant changes in TU5.
Figure 1: TU5 Dual Blade Changes https://i.imgur.com/mwpZ0h8.png
Text:

• Demon Flurry Rush
  • MV: 5x2 + 4x2 + 8x2 -> 6x2 + 5x2 + 10x2
  • Total: 34 -> 42 (+24%)
  • EV: 0.7x4 + 1.0x2 -> 1.0x4 + 1.2x2
  • Total: 4.8 -> 6.4 (+33%)
• Slide Slash
  • EV: 1.0x4 -> 1.3x4
  • Total: 4.0 -> 5.2 (+30%)
• Demon Slide Slash
  • EV: 1.0x4 -> 1.3x4
  • Total: 4.0 -> 5.2 (+30%)

3.0 Methodology

Previously for Rise, I had tested the frame data for Dual Blade attacks to try and get an idea of what the DPS or mv/s was on moves, but there was no way to measure DPS on Switch. The mv/s was just theory, but with the power of Steam and magic (mods), it is possible to test the real life DPS of rotations as well as easily record frame data if needed.

• The [A Worth Toadversary] mod allows you to adjust the HZV of the Toadversary
• CheatEngine can be used to adjust weapon ATK
  • Green sharpness at 85 ATK with a +10 ATK Petalace gives 100 EFR
  • Attacks will do the same damage as MV without suffering from yellow sharpness penalty. (95x1.05=~100)
  • Similarly, you can set your weapon ATK stat to -10 and adjust the EHZV so your element will deal the same damage as 10x EV.
  • Green sharpness at 0 ATK will give pure elemental damage
  • EHZV can be adjusted to deal 10x EV
  • Effects of hitlag can be observed by adjusting HZV with 0 ATK
• The Zinogre Dual Blades with green sharpness and 20 Thunder were used
  • Adjusting the EHZV to 37 means with Demon Mode, the 27 Thunder will deal 10 damage on a 1.0x EV hit
• The [Hard or Soft] mod can also be used to view the raw and elemental damage split for each hit if needed
• The [MHR Overlay - Damage Meter] by GreenComfyTea was used to measure the DPS, which can directly equate to mv/s or ev/s in the training room

The frame data used was collected through the training room against various HZV on the training dummy @60FPS and compared to actual DPS. It may vary slightly depending on what FPS your game runs at, and other factors I'm unaware of may also impact it. There can always be variations, so the expected DPS may not always line up 100%, but my tests have always correlated towards the same result.

4.0 Results

A simple calculator was made to cross-compare approximate damage against different hitzones and adapted to compare different combos. I haven't seen any hitzone calculators like this so I made my own. The time can be set to 1 second to evaluate combo damage instead of DPS, and different moves or combos can be added. The combos listed use the Attack Data table to create a formula. For example, DFR Demon Fang MV is AM9 + AM4 + AM5, which is Demon Flurry Rush + Rising Slash + Demon Fangs. Copy that to the next two cells to get the EVs and time added up, then divide to get the mv/s and ev/s.
Several different Dual Blade combos were tested to determine their effectiveness.
Figure 2: Dual Blade Combo mv/s and ev/s https://i.imgur.com/jdMkakL.png
The top 5 mv/s and top 5 ev/s are highlighted in yellow (ignoring low hitlag versions).
While Demon Flurry Rush on its own deals ~5.05ev/s (see Figure 1), it cannot be looped into itself.
Aerial style doesn't have high ev/s in comparison. This is the main reason it will lose out on DPS.
Piercing Bind does extremely high mv/s but cannot crit and has bad ev/s

4.1 Hitzones

The primary reason for this investigation was to determine the optimal hitzone to prioritize in a hunt. Spiral Slash can only be used on 45+ HZV (typically), but those don't always have high element. Spiral Slash can also miss hits even if it connects. Also, Wirebugs and/or openings are not always available.
Using the following stats: 408 RAW, 233 ELE, Purple, 40% Affinity, WEX3, CB3, CritEle3, ELEX3, Elembane
Figure 3: Example DPS chart for DFR > Twofold https://i.imgur.com/n6Yn7Ry.png
The raw damage dealt is shown at the bottom, while the (WEX) elemental damage dealt is shown on the right.
This chart can be used to determine which hitzone is best for this combo, and the target damage/hitzone can be changed in the spreadsheet.
From Figure 3, we can see that for DFR Twofold, a 20/25 hitzone is superior to ALL hitzone that only have 15 element. The same comparison can be made with Spiral Slash combos, and similar results can be found (not shown).
As such, there are situations where not using Spiral Slash can lead to more damage.

4.2 Grounded

• Demon Flurry Rush + Spiral Slash is typically the highest DPS when comparing the same hitzone
• Without Spiral Slash, Demon Flurry Rush + Rising Slash + Demon Fang + Twofold is probably best
• Demon Flurry Rush + Slide Slash + Demon Fang (+ Twofold) has very high mv/s, ev/s depends on hitlag
  • May be beneficial if you understand your positioning well
  • Can also be used to trigger Bloodlust slightly earlier
  • Note that Archdemon Mode has lower element stat than Demon Mode, but loops faster for better ev/s and is simpler
• Aerial can be stronger if there is no good grounded hitzone

4.3 Aerial

• Demon Flight + Aerial Flurry + Midair Roundslash + Grounded Spiral Slash
• or
• Demon Flight + Cancel Aerial Flurry + Midair Roundslash + Grounded Spiral Slash
• are the strongest Aerial combos
  • Within 1% of each other (for the stats I tested)
  • Note that Aerial Flurry can miss some of its hits because of its height
• Aerial Flurry directly into Aerial Spiral Slash resulted in less damage output
  • The last two hits of Aerial Flurry need to be cancelled for the fastest Spiral Slash
  • Aerial Spiral Slash also has increased end lag due to landing time which might increase on bigger monsters
• Without Spiral Slash, Aerial Flurry + Midair Roundslash + (Rising Slash + Demon Fang + Twofold) or (Blade Dance) loop may be strongest
• Midair Blade Dance (MBD) in Archdemon Mode is the highest aerial raw option available
  • Can also be used to trigger Bloodlust slightly earlier
  • Note that Archdemon Mode has lower element than Demon Mode
• Midair Blade Dance in Demon Mode deals less MV while being significantly slower

4.4 Grounded compared to Aerial

Archdemon Midair Blade Dance appears to be better for heavily raw skewed non-Elemental Exploit hitzones, which are very rare. Grounded combos appear to be better than Demon Mode Aerial combos in almost all realistic hitzones when directly compared. Grounded with Spiral Slash is superior to Aerial with Spiral Slash in all scenarios with element.
There are matchups where Grounded combos have a hard time hitting good hitzones and Aerial will be superior, or the iframe and mobility utility of Aerial allows for more attacking uptime or better wirebug management. Grounded may have to use Shrouded Vault or dodge more often to avoid damage while Aerial can use Demon Flight to iframe through attacks, which should be put into consideration. At the same time, it is difficult to have every hit in an Aerial combo land on the correct hitzone.
See appendix for more details

4.5 Slide Slash

Slide Slash can serve as a niche damage boost due to its very high MVs and newly buffed EVs, but missing any hits will cause a large decrease in damage. Its movement can be unintuitive to loop, and may overshoot or miss hitzones, which should be taken into consideration, but it can also be used to close gaps or reset positioning.
Demon Slide Slash has increased MVs over regular Slide Slash, but both are the same speed and EVs.
The Demon Mode combo is Demon Flurry Rush + Slide Slash + Demon Slash, which bypasses the need for Rising Slash, the weakest aspect of the regular combos. In Archdemon Mode, Demon Slash doesn't happen at all, making the combo faster at the expense of the Demon mode element buff and Demon Slide Slash MV buff.

5.0 Hitlag

The spreadsheet includes data for some low hitlag and high hitlag versions of grounded attacks. While there can be some small variance in regular hitlag, there is notable consistent differences caused by hitzones. Considering hitlag can provide some minor benefits to DPS for Dual Blades. The situations where a hitzone is chosen specifically for lower hitlag appear to be rare, but are outlined in the appendix. It is a benefit of high element hitzones that are already poor raw hitzones, and not a consideration when the elemental hitzones are the same or when they are low.
Low hitzones give less hitlag and high hitzones give more hitlag, with the following ranges and visual cues.

1. 0 to 24 (None, white, bounce)
2. 25 to 44 (Low, white, orange sparks)
3. 45 to 65 (Normal, orange)
4. 66 to 100 (High, orange with blue sparks)

Figure 4: Adding the effects of Sharpness: https://i.imgur.com/uiMeucA.png
Purple

1. 0 to 17 (None, white, bounce)
2. 18 to 32 (Low, white, orange sparks)
3. 33 to 47 (Normal, orange)
4. 48 to 100 (High, orange with blue sparks)

There is no appreciable difference of hitzone thresholds between using White over Purple.
Direct comparison for Demon Flurry Rush + Rising Slash + Demon Fangs + Twofold Slash

1. No Hitlag: 5.0ev/s (~2.08s)
2. Low Hitlag: 4.8ev/s (~2.16s)
3. Normal Hitlag: 4.3ev/s (~2.47s)
4. High Hitlag: 3.9ev/s (~2.67s)

DPS difference over High Hitlag:

1. +28%
2. +23%
3. +10%
4. +0%

I don't believe any practical No Hitlag hitzones actually exist except for Daimyo Hermitaur guarding, but I could be wrong. Because the hitlag is so low, inputs can be missed which delays the next hit from coming out quick enough, but it is marginally faster than low hitlag.
Low hitlag Elembane hitzones appear to be superior to High Hitlag Elemental Exploit hitzones at a cursory glance, even when comparing to Spiral Slash damage. This combination appears to be fairly rare.

6.0 Conclusions

The tl;dr from the top:

• Hitzone Comparison Damage Calculator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QIjL2FXYzRw1-RJp0t-W0Qh0zb5mCH1Vs2U9SWSb6VQ/edit?usp=sharing
  • Only supports RAW, ELE, Affinity, Critical Boost, Critical Element, Elemental Exploit, Elembane, and Anti-Species
  • Copy and edit/add your own stats, MVs, EVs, combos, and timings
  • Does not support dynamic stats. Use final ATK and Element
  • I would use a different calculator if you need more precise damage details
• Prioritize Elemental Exploit and Elembane hitzones most of the time
• Grounded is theoretically better for DPS with the Demon Flurry Rush buffs
• The best Grounded Spiral Slash combo is Demon Flurry Rush + Spiral Slash
• The best Grounded combo without Spiral Slash is Demon Flurry Rush + Rising Slash + Demon Fang + Twofold
  • Demon Flurry Rush + Slide Slash + Demon Fang can be better depending on the stats, but difficult to loop
• In situations where grounded hitzones are bad, Aerial is still viable
• The best Aerial Spiral Slash combo is Demon Flight + (Aerial Flurry) + Midair Roundslash + Grounded Spiral Slash
  • Skipping Aerial Flurry does not appear to impact DPS much if at all for Spiral Slash
• The best elemental Aerial combo is Demon Flight + Aerial Flurry + Midair Roundslash + Rising Slash + Demon Fang loop
  • Skipping Aerial Flurry loses DPS but Aerial Flurry does not always hit
• The best raw combo is Aerial Midair Blade Dance (Archdemon Mode) or probably Piercing Bind + Demon Flurry Rush + Blade Dance (Not thoroughly tested)
• There are niche scenarios where the hitlag on a low raw hitzone can increase DPS over a high raw hitzone

The calculator can also be used to compare scenarios like different levels of Critical Boost, Critical Element, and Elemental Exploit, as well as how different stats affect the same combo. Reminder that it uses your final buffed ATK and Element from your stat screen.
The calculator can also be used for other weapons. Manually input their moveset and timings if desired, or set the mv/s and ev/s to the MV and EV directly. If you are trying to test a Charged Master weapon, incorporate Charge Master's buff directly into the MV and EVs.
Lance stats are already included since I happened to have my own testing data on hand, but the timing data may be outdated. Check Gobul Lantern's testings for probably more accurate data. It can also serve as a reference to visualize exactly how skewed Dual Blade elemental damage is.
Having briefly tested other weapons in the training room, the only weapons that might need to choose a hitzone with higher element instead of higher raw frequently are Charge Blade, Bow, Light Bowgun, and Heavy Bowgun. Every other weapon is almost guaranteed to be better off prioritizing high raw hitzones with minor element hitzones due to how much more raw damage they deal than elemental damage.
Because of this, Dual Blades appear to be the only weapon where hitlag can cause any increase in DPS, however small it may be. I recommend trying the DFR Twofold combo in the training room against high hitlag and low/no hitlag to get a feel for how incredibly different it actually is.
DFR Slide Slash appears to be a strong option if you know what you're doing. At normal hitlag, it is very close in element to using DFR Twofold, but deals more raw damage. At high hitlag, it is stronger than using DFR Twofold due to Twofold's increased hitlag. At low hitlags, DFR Twofold's reduced hitlag is stronger, but you can also add Twofold to Slide Slash to catch up a tiny bit. Twofold specfically appears to suffer against higher hitlag for some reason.
Never ever ever use Roundslash.

A.1 Non-Spiral Slash Grounded hitzones

The following is a list of monsters where Grounded non-Spiral Slash should theoretically perform better than Spiral Slash, but you should consider partbreaking for staggers and drops as well. If a comparable Spiral Slash hitzone exists, it is probably listed. Some monsters you can rotate DFR on low raw hitzone and then aim Spiral Slash on the WEX hitzone to take advantage of the hitlag difference and hitzone spread. There are also scenarios where you can trigger Spiral Slash on non-WEX hitzones by targeting a moving WEX hitzone, but they are rare.

• Aknosom
  • Legs 36/35 (Water)
  • Best hitzone by far and it's not close
• Almudron
  • Forelegs 23/30 (Fire)
  • Tail 55/25 (Fire)
  • Tailtip 65/25 (Fire)
  • Forelegs slightly win in theory due to the speed advantage
  • The tail and tailtip are probably still the better hitzones, but not always hitable. Also, Spiral Slash misses on the tailtip a lot when it flails.
• Apex Mizutsune
  • Forelegs/Fore claws 28/25 (Thunder), 24/30 (Thunder)
  • Best hitzone by far
  • Dragon comes close but Thunder's base element probably carries it over having Elembane
  • Thunder also does better if you have to hit something that's not the claws/forelegs
• Apex Rathalos
  • Wings 30/25 (Dragon)
  • Enraged Head 80/20 (Dragon)
  • Wings are marginally better due to the speed advantage when it is not enraged
• Aurora Somnacanth
  • Head Fin 45/25 (Fire)
  • Forelegs 35/20 (Fire)
  • Head 55/15 (Fire)
  • The Head Fin is by far the best hitzone, but if you can't hit it for some reason, the forelegs are still way better than the head if you can hit them
• Barioth
  • Thorns 25/30 (Fire)
  • Head 65/20 (Fire)
  • Thorns are the best hitzone by far if you run Elembane, until they break, but difficult to consistently hit
  • Switch to head when they're broken
  • Probably not worth running Elembane for this though
• Barroth
  • Unmuddy Head 22/40 (Fire)
  • Unmuddy Tail 47/25 (Fire)
  • Unmuddy Torso 36/25 (Fire)
  • The head is the best hitzone by far and it is not close (nearly double the damage vs the Forelegs)
  • Only problem is being so high off the ground, wait until it's downed?
  • Tail and Torso are much better than the forelegs otherwise
  • 0 fire when muddy
• Chaotic Gore Magala
  • R. Wingarm 20/25 (Fire) 20/30 (Dragon)
  • If you can find a way to focus this part... Otherwise, aim for the head
• Daimyo Hermitaur
  • Claws 25/35 (Fire)
  • Head 50/30 (Fire), 50/35 (Thunder)
  • The Claws with Fire are marginally better because of the speed advantage
  • Head depends on stats? Mine are about equal
  • If it's guarded, you get 0 hitlag (but bounce)
• Lucent Nargacuga
  • Cutwings 21/30 (Ice)
  • Enraged Head 65/25 (Ice)
  • Cutwings are the best hitzone when not enraged, switch to head when enraged
• Magma Almudron
  • Tail 24/25 (Water)
  • Head 55/20 (Water)
  • Tailtip 50/25 (Water)
  • Tail is marginally better than the head when it is not heated, but worse than the Tailtip, if you ever have to choose (never?)
  • The Heated Head and Claws are too good though
• Magnamalo
  • Hind Legs 38/25 (Water)
  • Best hitzone by far if all you want is damage
• Mizutsune
  • Forelegs/Fore claws 28/25 (Thunder), 24/30 (Thunder)
  • Best hitzone by far
  • Dragon comes close but Thunder's base element probably carries it over having Elembane
  • Thunder also does better if you have to hit something that's not the claws/forelegs
• Nargacuga
  • Cutwing 21/35 (Thunder)
  • Enraged Head 67/30 (Thunder)
  • Cutwings are the best hitzone by far until it enrages, then about equal to the head'
• Risen Teostra
  • Forelegs 38/25 (Water), Flames 38/20 (water)
  • Head 50/20 (Water), Flames 50/15 (Water)
  • Probably not running Elembane for this fight to begin with?, but
  • Forelegs are marginally better, but the head knockdown is important too
• Scorned Magnamalo
  • Hind Legs 38/25 (Water), Hellfire 30/20 (Water)
  • Best hitzone by far, but doesnt break anything for staggers
  • If you don't run Elembane, the Forelegs are slightly better until it Hellfires, then the Hind Legs win again
  • Thunder might average better if this is the only thing you target because of the weakness switching?
• Seregios
  • Wingarm 30/25 (Thunder)
  • Head 55/20 (Thunder)
  • Wingarms are slightly better due to the speed advantage, but they are really really small
  • Probably better not to try
• Shogun Ceanataur
  • Claws 25/35 (Fire)
  • Head 50/35 (Thunder)
  • Claw is technically better if that's all you hit with a fire build (lol)
• Teostra
  • Forelegs 38/25 (Water), Flames 38/20 (water)
  • Head 50/20 (Water), Flames 50/15 (Water)
  • Probably not running Elembane for this fight to begin with?, but
  • Forelegs are marginally better, but the head knockdown is important too
• Violet Mizitsune
  • Claws 24/30 (Ice), Broken 28/20 (Ice)
  • Forelegs 28/30 (Ice), Broken 28/20 (ice)
  • Enraged Head 63/15 (Ice)
  • If you're running Elembane, Claws/Forelegs are the best hitzone by far until they break
  • Still the slightly better hitzone when it's not enraged, maybe even?
  • Switch to the head when each claw break gives a knockdown?

A.2 Aerial Matchups

The following is a list of monsters where I've found equal or better success with Aerial. Your experience may differ.

• Anjanath
  • Very tall
  • Its legs are awful hitzones and its head and back feature its best
• Arzuros
  • Forelegs are too high off the ground to use Grounded style
  • Switch when it falls
• Astalos
  • Very bad elemental hitzones all around
  • No Elemental Exploit except when the tail is charged
  • Aerial features better raw output to compensate
• Barroth
  • Head and tail are high off the ground
  • Aerial won't bounce
  • Switch when it falls?
• Basarios
  • Aerial won't bounce while waiting for it to heat up
• Diablos
  • Fine with either, Aerial is very good at iframing and hitting wings and chest
  • Grounded is fine at hitting chest too though
• (Flaming) Espinas
  • Aerial might have an easier time getting hits in
  • Legs are the best hitzone though
• Magalas
  • Their movement makes it very difficult to target the head or wings with DFR the whole fight
  • Using Aerial feels significantly easier and my DPS is always better with Aerial
• Narwa The Allmother
  • Very very raw skewed matchup
• Raths
  • All variations of Rathalos and Rathian may be better with Aerial if they're not locked down
  • Their good elemental hitzones are so high up (head, neck, wings, back depending on which one)
  • Aerial style feels much easier to attack with and also land Spiral Slash with than trying to play grounded
• Tetranadon
  • Head is the best hitzone and is very high up
• Zingore
  • Back is the best hitzone

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Memory transcript: Vekna, Venlil Citizen. Date: [Standardized human time] September 19th, 2136
Herd, I forgot how much I hate paperwork.
When we had pinpointed where Unzekep was a couple paws ago, I was eager to get on her trail. Unfortunately, reality just had to get in the way of those ambitions…which is where I find myself now. First was all the speh we had to submit to the Health and Safety Department regarding our “inquiries” into the construction site to find Tagelb. A noble action, no denying that, but it brought up questions about our presence on the site. “Why were we there? Were we associated with a third-party firm? What was the quality of evidence produced for the claim?” Stuff like that, constantly, for almost an entire Paw.
We came clean, sort of. We at least disclosed about us being journalists. My evidence showing money changing paws between that foreman and the previous safety inspector came in handy in our explanation of us looking into corruption. As an additional surprise, many of the workers of the facility came forward with older stories of regulation skirting and site mismanagement. Tagelb even chipped in, providing another perspective of what we witnessed whilst in there. Safe to say, that foreman isn’t going to be in charge of much any time soon.
But did we really need to fill out all of those affidavits??
The second problem was that, due to us revealing that we were journalists, we wouldn’t be able to simply walk up to Unzekep while she was on the job. We had to get a “press permit” that would allow us to walk in the tunnels, which meant more paperwork signing that we agreed to the risk and knew the safety standards and procedures we had to follow while underground. They even made us take a test for that!
Today, though, marked the end of our tedious paperwork and safety waivers. We were finally cleared to go into the system, and the district had promised silence on the matter. Part of me thinks that their willingness to accommodate us is due to not having to pay us like their other safety inspectors. Oh well, at least it’s a way in that doesn’t require cartoonish cover stories. I slide on my satchel and exit my room, waiting for the elevator to arrive at the correct floor so I can board.
After a short wait, I’m granted access, and yet another short wait later, I arrive at the foyer. First-meal would normally be first on the schedule, but today was special. In order to avoid detection by any unwanted eyes, we were due to leave first thing in the Paw, when almost no-one else would be out. After a brief scan of the lobby, I spot Sharnet sitting on a chair with a duffel bag on the ground next to it. I trot over to her, motioning to get her attention.
“Good Paw, Sharnet! You sleep well after all that paperwork?”
Sharnet shuts her holonote off and stows it away in her pack. “Yes, somewhat. I do wish that they would’ve just looked the other way completely, now we’re on their records. If someone’s watching, we’re a dead give-away.”
I sway my ears negatively. “I don’t think they’ll be looking deep in government registries. That would require access, and if they were in the government, chances are they’d have noticed long ago and already fled. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been much movement on the private nor the public transit systems, and none of the Harchen. Trust me, I had the same thought.” I pull out my pad, the tab for the transit logs still logged in with the temporary credentials the district has given us. “Check for yourself.”
Sharnet looks over the information rather inquisitively. “Now that’s interesting.”
I cock my head. “What is?”
“I looked up Unzekep’s home address,” she explains, “and it’s in an apartment building on the edge of town. She doesn’t have a vehicle, so by all rights she should be traveling on public transit. But this shows none of the Harchen have done so. The fact that she isn’t…”
Her sentence falls away as her ears twitch in thought. Now that she’s said it aloud, I realize how strange that is. “That…is odd, actually. You’d think that she would be using the public transit system to get to and from work each Paw.”
Sharnet’s tail swishes against the ground. “Do you remember what Tagleb said about her? He said that she spent a lot of time in the tunnels. Do you think… well, no, there’s a couple possibilities. But…”
As she’s making an appeal to rationality, I realize what she’s implying. “That she’s living in the tunnels. That’s what you were going to say, right?”
She sways her tail in the affirmative. “I don’t want to cast judgment yet. But…if she’s one of the overseers, those tunnels are well out of sight. People could probably survive a raid by hiding in there. Of course, if she isn’t a head, staying in those tunnels might not be her choice.”
I look at Sharnet skeptically. “Not her choice? What reason could someone possibly have to stay down there that isn’t their choice?”
“Well, that safety inspector that the foreman bribed likely didn’t inspect only one site.” Her claws clench against her wool. “In my previous job, there was a time when there was only one person on staff who knew how to maintain and repair the office electronics. The company has them stay on overtime. If she is in a similar situation in the tunnels…”
That’s not a good image to have in my mind. Being one of the only ones repairing equipment and materials that would have otherwise been flagged as a safety danger… My arms and legs are exhausted by just imagining what might be needed. “Oh, Herd, that’d be bad. I’m not certain that’s the case, though, as the District let us have our way with seeing her. They wouldn't do that if they had something to hide.”
Sharnet raises a finger. “If they’re smart.”
I can’t help but give a low whistle to myself at that. “If they’re smart, yeah. Ready to go see how dumb they are?”
Her tail wags in amusement as she rises from her seat. “We can grab a couple to-go salads from the meal bar and head right out, if that’s okay with you.”
“Sure, might as well if we’re going to be spending all day in the sewers.” I follow Sharnet over to the salad bar, and we order some bog-standard salads to go. Nothing fancy, we are on the clock after all. Once we receive our food, Sharnet heads back to grab that duffel bag and we head out, the light of our star bearing down on us as we exit the building.
It isn’t long before a bus comes to pick us up, the driver seemingly surprised to see someone waiting for him at this claw. We board and take our seats, eating our salads as we’re ferried to our next destination. Thankfully, only a single other person is on the bus right now, and they’re too busy with something on their pad to notice us. A public space with no noise, perfect.
As I eat, my mind wanders back to Tagelb. I had meant to go back and see him again last Paw, but paperwork had obviously gotten in the way of that. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m intrigued by the Yotuls’ archaic technology. Steam engines, massive train systems, even rudimentary hydrocarbon combustion engines! I wanted to learn more, but I knew Sharnet was only tolerating that in search of our guy. I knew I had to go back to hiding eventually.
The worst part was how I had to hide myself from Tagelb, even if it was less than normal. I heard his views on Predator Disease, and I knew that if I slipped it, that was it. I’d lose yet another friend because I couldn’t keep my Herd-damned mouth shut. I’m determined to keep doing what I’m doing, even if it means hiding myself forever. From Tagelb, from Sharnet, from everybody. Ignorance is bliss, and if nobody knows I’m a monster, it’s a little easier to pretend I’m not for myself.
I’m shaken from my internal lamentations by a paw lightly shaking my shoulder. I glance over at the culprit, finding Sharnet’s gaze. “Are you okay? You went a little wall-eyed while you were eating your salad.”
I look down at my bowl, only to find it empty. I quickly reseal it and feign my innocence yet again. “Hm? Oh, yeah, just thinking about how we’re going to do this. Not an easy task, after all.”
She pulls up the duffel bag she’s been carrying into her lap and zips it open. “Thankfully, these should make it a bit easier.”
Inside are a pair of construction pelts. Visibility vests, gloves, foot coverings, and two helmets. Those… brahking uncomfortable helmets. “Do we really have to wear those?”
I know it’s a dumb question. I read the same procedures as she did. This equipment is a basic requirement for us to go into the tunnels. No matter how much it rubbed up against my ears.
“Yes, I’m sure. We read the same waiver, we signed on the same lines. I’m not a fan either, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices.” She pulls out one of the pelts and hands it to me, retrieving the other for herself. I groan internally at the mere thought of having to wear another helmet. She gives her ears a comforting flick. “These are brand new, so the padding won’t be as worn down as the last helmets were. I don’t know if it will stop the bother, but at the very least it shouldn’t be as bad.”
Small comforts. “I hope so, yeah.” As I look over the helmet, the bus stops and opens its door to our destination. “Industrial center! Next stop, the Intraplanetary Transit Hub!” We stand from our seats and make it off the bus, which unceremoniously closes its doors and leaves us stranded in the dead center of the industrial heart of Sidestar.
The town is centered around maintaining the power plants that comprise the central economy of the District. As a city well within the twilight, power meant life. It allowed the growing houses to keep the local edible vegetation harvest alive, light up the iron ore mining operations in the mountains, and the steam tunnels flowing with heat to fight back against the cold winds from the night side flowing down from the mountains. Those steam and drain tunnels are where a large number of people work. Having to expand and repair sections as their city grows. And Unzekep is currently working on replacing outdated units. Somewhere in there…
I’m pulled from my analysis of the area by Sharnet, who has since applied her pelt. “Come on, put on your uniform so we can get down to where we need to be.” I heed her words and quickly apply my clothing before following Sharnet through the complicated system of tubes and ducts that comprises the ground-level of one of the for-profit geothermal reactors.
Thank the Herd for the 3d map the District had given us access to. According to the schedule, Unzekep should be in the coolwater pump room, replacing the turbines in one of the pumps. Unfortunately, that’s all the way in the basement of the building, accessible to the steam tunnels leading under the rest of the town.
Steam heating the town. And the Feds call the Yotul primitive for using the same principles. I shake the annoyance from my mind as we descend down ladder after ladder, walking across steel catwalks over huge drops for the snowmelt that would occur after the night finished. I can see what all those waivers were about now.
From my map, we should be coming up to the pump room soon. It’s next to this… cargo… elevator… Oh for the Herd’s sake!
Sharnet huffs, panting from the humidity and heat of the underground caverns. “What puddle of Speh left that out of the official map? We could’ve been here a quarter-claw earlier!”
“Beats me, but at least we’re here,” I manage to say, leaning against the wall as it feels like I’m trying to breathe through syrup. “S-Sorry, just need to take a breather for a second. The humidity down here is really messing with me.”
“I understand,” she holds out her tail for a comfort touch, “if you think you’re about to have an attack, don’t hesitate to let me know. Your health is important.”
“Thanks,” I huff. After a few moments of slow breathing, the air managed to become a little more breathable. “Alright, I think I’m good. Are you ready to meet our next in line for Spehlicker of the Hectorotation?”
“If we’re lucky,” she replies before sliding open the doors. Four massive pumps dominate the room. They stand as long and tall as the bus we rode in on. It’s truly impressive to see the power of the planet itself being harnessed through the mechanics of these machines. But… I’m unsure about the noise. It isn’t too loud, Sharnet and I would be able to raise our voices over them without going into full on shouting, but it was a constant high volume I haven’t been around before. It feels…grating.
Thankfully, it’s obvious that we're in the correct room. One of the pumps has a series of curved pieces of metal with a pile of bolts and… a stack of impellers, if I’m remembering the word correctly, laying on the ground. Tools and spares are scattered around the area, a mug of some sort of beverage is on a nearby ledge, wisps of steam still coming from its surface. Wait…wisps of steam…
I place a paw against Sharnet’s chest, to her confusion, as I scan the room for anything out…of…the… There. In the corner, a few splotches of green on an otherwise gray surface. Imperfect camouflage, just like Tagelb had said. As I focus, I can make out an outline of a trembling person, moving in tandem with the spots. She must have heard us approach. I gesture to Sharnet in the direction and she flicks her ears affirmatively.
“You must be very skilled,” she says, staring at the splotches with an eye, “your camouflage is practically seamless.”
As I watch, the splotches increase in their trembling. A voice floats out under the hum of the pumps, barely heard by my ears. “No, no, go away, leave, this is safe, no, please leave, don’t hurt me, no.”
“We are here about Dawn Creek,” I say, “We-
The Harchen shrieks.
The gray walls reveal the colors of a Harchen in distress as she falls to the ground in sobs. It’s difficult to see anything about her, as she curls herself up and pleads. “P-Please! No! I don’t w-want to go back! Don’t m-make me go back!”
Both Sharnet and I had lightly backed away at her shriek, but now we both approached her. Her scale shifts seem almost sluggish, but they do indeed shift. It’s only once I get a better look at her face do I realize what Tagelb was talking about.
Her facial features are slightly flatter, looking almost compressed compared to that of the other two Harchens we’ve run into here. Her forehead is a bit larger than normal, and her neck is slightly shorter. In fact, she herself is shorter than average, if only by a little. Near her temples, four splotches of unchanging green remain constant despite the rest of her shifting form, each an imperfect circle of dull green.
She just keeps sobbing and pleading incoherently as we approach, not even attempting to run. It was like… it’s like she’s given up. This can’t be it, can it? I expected pathetic, but this? This is just sad to watch. But as I do indeed watch, something comes to me. This isn’t fear of getting caught, this is fear of going back.
I remember what I learned about the treatments they used, the drugs they administered, and what Sharnet had said to Tagelb. People with no disease at all. It all clicks together in an instant. This isn’t one of the heads of the Dawn Creek facility.
No.
This is an escapee.
[First]-[Prev]-[Next]

Summary: A demolition firm struggles to take down a damaged building for their mysterious clients
I Was a Foreman at the Grazer Tower Demolition
By now Grazer Tower has faded as a household name but to some the rumors and madness surrounding it refuse to die. The demolition of the massive three hundred twenty foot octagonal hotel left a gap in the Atlanta skyline but little fondness in anyone's hearts. I have no particular first hand insight into the freak lightning strikes on the 30th floor atrium which killed 13 people but I am willing to tell my side of the story about the demolition effort leading to the botched implosion. I tell this as a full, open, and honest disclosure. The legal maneuvering and ink has dried, all of the dead are buried, and all the bleeding stopped. The scars remain, the pain persists, the things I saw there are burned in my head even after they've been discredited into the conspiracy theory woodwork of the internet. The lightning storm struck on a Sunday afternoon and the next day for all we knew the bodies were still warm when a lawyer representing the owners of Grazer Tower entered our corporate office. I look back on it now with open and clear eyes and realize it was all very strange from the start when my Lead Foreman, Tom, and I were called into the meeting in progress.
The lawyer and now our client, looked like a fairly normal man in his mid thirties aside from his impeccably white suit which was ironed to the point of looking like stone rather than cloth. Beside the white suit his lips were an uncomfortable maroon and glossy. Besides this he spoke in a plain, clear, and disarming manner refraining from legalese and maintaining a firm but not imposing eye contract with whomever he was speaking directly to.
He told us in no uncertain terms he was instructed to contract with our firm to take down his client's building. Tom and I were shocked when we heard this after all, the lightning disaster, while tragic and perhaps undeservedly tarnishing in the short term to the Grazer Hotel's reputation, did not render the structure unusable nor unsafe to its surroundings. The worst damage was that the steel dome of the 30th floor atrium had collapsed into the vaulted restaurant and ballroom of the 29th floor but that's where the structure damage started and ended, in fact aside from the 28th, 29th, and 30th floor, city engineers working overnight already declared the building sound. So while perhaps still time consuming and costly, repairing the building was definitely possible and cost effective but owners, to make an analogy, were basically insisting on totaling a car after a minor parking lot fender bender. They gave us a specific date by which the building needed to be taken down. When our Boss, Jim, rebuffed the lawyer, not only because the date was challenging and soon but also because it was possible we could have it dropped BEFORE the date specified. The lawyer insisted the building go down on the date given – not later and not earlier. Jim swallowed hard and then glanced at Tom and I. Then the lawyer involved the name of the head of the owner's group, a Mr. Rohmer.
Mr. Rohmer, according to the lawyer, was offering our firm one hundred percent of the cost upfront and another twenty perfect of the total cost plus any overruns – stating if the implosion came early or late, it would mean all very little – no, that's no a typo, that's how the lawyer phrased it from his client, Mr. Rohmer. With that detail out of the way, you can see how the car totaling analogy breaks down considering the owners did not stand to profit from it's demolition – in fact quite the opposite.
The lawyer chuckled a bit to break the tension. He explained his clients and Mr. Rohmer in particular were an unorthodox bunch and then even insisted he wear the white suit in any of their dealings. The lawyer produced a tablet PC from his messenger bag and leveled it to Jim. On the tablet was all the banking confirmation codes ready to go for a direct deposit into our firms account alongside a contract. Jim seemed to hiccup or belch in excitement as he hurried around the short side of his desk to sign it since his stubby t-rex arms could not reach across his desk.
The firm was committed, we were committed – I was committed and I started to mentally cramp up over the challenges we all faced. The Grazer Hotel was in the middle of a dense urban grid. It had to be precise drop with virtually no margin for error. Jim poured us a dram of scotch from the bottle hidden under his desk. None of us a second thought about Rohmer's cryptic remark – after all, how often did you get a one hundred twenty perfect no-bid contract walk in off the street, out of the blue?
A combination of exhilaration over the money and anxiety over the work load kept us all from sleeping that night. Jim and Tom ended up going out and having a wild night to celebrate while I went home to mentally prepare not only myself but also my wife and kids. As a family they were staring down a month and a half of late nights and weekends with no dad. My wife was frustrated until I told her about the bonus and then she said she'd fill the lonely time making plans to send the kids to Disney World and then find a place for us to spend alone together. The promise of a much needed vacation after this only super charged the butterflies in my stomach further in anticipation of this challenging season ending.
As the assistant foreman I had office and on-site duties. Most of it was coordinating between the two. This included personnel, setting up site security – including guards and cameras to keep urban explorers and vagrants of out the dangerous site and satisfy OSHA hazardous work place safety requirements. The most challenging duty was site prep which included disposal of furnishings, removal of windows and other flourishes of the structure's facade which could become deadly shrapnel during an implosion. Fortunately, despite all of this, the nagging questions about permits and clean-up contracts were already handled by the lawyer. Rohmer's group also waived any rights to furnishings which means they could be unceremoniously hauled out in any way we chose to and disposed of.
Now I suppose some of these things should have came as red flags to me – or at least some one in the company but we all justified it as the group must have connects and short cuts to permits and it was a relatively new building, only about twenty years old in fact and furnishings – whether old or new probably weren't of any antique or sentimental value. All in all these were blessings since they freed our hands a bit and made a near impossible deadline more possible.
Of course the good news came with some bad news. The city engineers forbade us from working at the 28th, 29th, and 30th floors – unless we brought in a separate crew to stabilize those levels first. This was quite the fly in the ointment for the controlled implosion plan we sketched out. The 30th floor wasn't as much of a problem but the 29th floor ballroom and the weakening of the 28th floor meant we can't inspect for how compromised they were by the steel atrium dome. For all we knew if we blew the 27th floor on down the dome could shift and topple over the top three floors outside of the implosion safe zone, imperiling people and nearby structures.
I raised holy hell about it while Tom stood calm. It could take months to stabilize and clear those floors and far more money than I thought our eccentric client would pay in overruns. Jim waved me off mid sentence and simply told me he'd take care of it. That was good enough for Tom so it had to be good enough for me. I went back to my job – securing site and planning drop.
Although we had a problem with the top floor our saving grace lie in the basements. It had a three story subterranean parking garage, a basement level pool, and a utility sub-basement. We could easily smash the first ten or twelve floors into that deep footprint. Also the utility sub-basement gave us a clean cut off from the grid and a fairly convenient way to protect the surrounding grid without interruption. Still, at least part of our team would take have to take three weeks out of our six and change to handle the utilities.
The first week was hectic, they always were but we hit no major snags. By the end of it were on schedule and all of the parts were coming together. We thought maybe, just maybe, we were well on our way to an early Christmas bonus but nothing could prepare us for what was coming.
If you work on a site long enough and work anywhere on the site security reporting chain you're bound to get a few questionable reports from your night guys. Let's face it, for folks who are wake all night five or six nights a week poking around with flashlights chasing shadows, every building every where is haunted. I've been on the site security chain for thirteen years so it was easy for me to dismiss reports from the night guys about unusual glows on gutted floors and stairwells, elevators which moved on their own with no one calling for them or inside when they opened on a random floor, or the security cameras and cellphones constantly going offline on the 27th floor and the utility sub-basement.
I wasn't convinced anything of concern was going on until I got called on site by the test drilling team. This team was responsible for sampling the support materials to determine where it was best to place the explosives and what explosives would be best to use. They reported the interior supports were designed in an unusual way with a honey comb of unorthodox metals and concrete not reported on the building's records or blueprints. Specifically, they reported the concrete was impregnated by some kind of metal veins which gave off a bright shimmer. I was asked to come identify it but they claimed it disappeared by the time I arrived.
I was irate at the team and their supervisor for having me to come on down on site for something that sounded so wrong to begin with. They showed me a grainy cellphone video and told me they would swear on a stack of Bibles the sparkling compound welled up in the test coring like mercury, turned blood red and bled on the floor before disappearing into the torn up carpet. I chastised them for making this up and threatened to get new sub contractors if they kept wasting my time. I spoke with a separate sample team on the lower levels and they too discovered some unusual metal compositions – ones which were different then the ones found the top floors. One of the engineers speculated that the contrast in metals between the top and bottom floors could be cause the building to hold an electrical charge, like a battery or like a capacitor. Either way, the engineer said it would require more explosives than initially thought to take down the structure.
A couple of weeks later we were painfully behind – glass removal in particular was going slow because those contractors claimed they were constantly losing their toys. They also claimed one night to have cleared the top five floors on the east side of all their glass – only for all the windows to appear fully intact the next morning. I was forced to end their sub contract due to misrepresentation of work accomplished.
The glass wasn't the only thing slowing us down. The wire and plumbing removal was hindered by the wires somehow were fused to the pipes and in some places, the pipes were fused to the load-bearing members – we thought maybe it was due to the lightning strikes but that really didn't make sense since all of the wiring and plumbing otherwise seemed to work fine before we turned off the utilities. The only thing going for us was the helicopter loophole. Instead of accessing the 30th floor through the condemned floors we were able to get work teams on the atrium floor by helicopter. The bodies of the 13 were removed before we started working and before the atrium fully collapsed into the ballroom but the teams working on the roof reported many unusual artifacts including stained glass and Greek letters comprised of unusual amalgams of metal.
All of the strangeness culminated in the disappearance of one of the night time security guards named Phillipe. I say disappear because his girlfriend filed a missing persons report with the police and when they came to investigate Tom was busy with the atrium operations so the job fell to me. I walked the investigator through guard's smart phone filed reports from the previous evenings. Admittedly I was behind on my end approving the reports so I was embarrassed when things in the report took a turn. His reports including the same odd glows the others were reporting in the stairwells and seeing metallic veins throb on the walls.
His last reports stuck in my head: Report: Sub-basement 4 clear, 0312. Report: Sub-basement 5 clear, 0305. Report: Sub-basement 6 clear 0237.
His “all clear” reports documented levels of the building which did not exist and the further he went into the areas which did not exist, the automatic timestamps went backwards in time. It made no sense – unless he was confused as to where he was due to intoxication and there was software glitch with the timestamps. I was forced to give the investigator no firm explanation.
It's easy to write off a high security guard – they're flaky by their nature and have plenty of reasons to ghost a part time gig and even to pull prank on their final reports. I almost wrote it all off until I saw his girlfriend – apparently his fiance, handing out missing persons fliers outside of the site gate one morning. She seemed absolutely heartbroken and I got stabbed in the gut thinking maybe this wasn't a ghosting and prank after all. Seeing is believing and the next week I started to believe. Tom was finishing up on the atrium level. We used some heavy lift choppers to remove the rest of the frame and glass. Now we could get a better look into the section which collapsed into the 29th floor. We started by using a series of video drones to investigate the melted twisted dome through the collapsed roof. We quickly learned that the drones were being interfered with as their feed would cut out or their batteries would die almost immediately upon entering the ballroom.
So, we had to cut some corners, against city regulations, we let Tom and two others rappel in from the roof on secured anchored lines with helicopter over watch support. We needed to do this because we needed make sure that collapsed wreckage would not move and potentially change the implosion direction. Tom got twisted in his gear as he tried to lean into one of the holes in the roof. He slipped and fell in, disappearing from sight. We frantically radioed for Tom as the other two workers abandoned their own attempts to peer in and scrambled to Tom's aid. Tom was pulled out of the section uninjured but he appeared to be in shock, he looked wild eyed and shook as he was put on the helicopter and lowered back to ground level. Within minutes, Jim called us back to the office to discuss the near miss.
Two weeks to go and week behind, a missing guard, and now a near fatal accident. That for Jim, was the last straw. Tom and I had run out the rope Jim gave us to hang ourselves with. Jim slammed his hand on his desk as he catastrophized, red in the face, nearly breathless, he yelled we could very well kiss that twenty percent goodbye with the way things are going. He pressured Tom to go on the record after his dip into the structure that the atrium debris ball in the ballroom posed no threat to the implosion. Tom was elsewhere. He stared off in a thousand yard stare before replying to Jim that it posed no threat. Then Tom headed for the door. Jim screamed at him that he wasn't done chew us out but Tom only said he had to get back to it. I supported Tom and followed him. He and I headed back to the site to secure the night shift changes – another night not at home and having a late dinner.
I asked Tom in the car ride back what he saw in there. Tom was fixed in a trance and barely responded. He said it was wild. When we got back to the site, Tom separated from me through the gate while I strolled across the street to grab us some dinner from a street vendor. As I stood around waiting for two gyros and two cokes I could help but be mesmerized by the gutted tower. It seemed to breath in the spotlights inhaling puffs of the dust and dirt on the site and then exhaling it. A faint glow, barely perceivable against the light pollution, seemed to brighten, dim, and fade from the upper floors with each of the building's breaths. I was transfixed on it and it was the first time the building gave me an eerie feeling.
I got back on the site, food in hand, there was a buzz in their air as the night shift streamed in and the day shift streamed out. I barely had my hardhat seated corrected on my head when the site's emergency alarm blew. The interim foreman tossed me a radio as I was swept with him and our site occupational safety and emergency personnel to the basement.
Our increasingly panicked footfalls blotted out the squawk of the radios but I could hear one name again and again in the equally panicked messages – Tom Tom Tom. Whatever was happening was happening to Tom.
We reached the pool level and a trail of gasps proceeded me into the pool. There was Tom in his vest and hardhat face down in the middle of the pool with crimson oozing out him into the cerulean tiles lining the drained pool. We piled in from the ladders and shallow end to get to him. It was apparent when the first folks reached him that he was dead. They hauled him out on a stretcher and to our shock he looked like he had been dead for much longer than possible and his skin was water logged despite there being no water. He had died of fall trauma possibly despite the pool only being six feet deep. The paramedics also claimed he had water in his lungs. Then I noticed he was wearing his rappelling harness weaved in his vest – but that made no sense – he took it and his vest off when we were getting chewed out by Jim. Why would he put his rappelling gear on again.
I was the assistant foreman no more. Now the buck stopped with me. As they took Tom to the morgue we all knew the show must go on – our client demanded it, Jim demanded it and Tom would have wanted it that way. The same police investigator from the guard's disappearance met with me over Tom's death. They said it was standard procedure with work place deaths. I gave him a copy of the footage on an SD card and left the moment after it left my hand.
I had the recording queued up to the time of the commotion. The video we provided had a poor angle and was focused on the door to monitor access – the comings and goings of people. It was shift change so people were filing in and out Tom was somewhere in the crowd. The pool was one of the areas which required both foot patrols and constant video monitoring. I hit the rewind button on accident and watched his body lie there and lie there and then the timestamp sped past the 1900 hour mark. We were in traffic from meeting with Jim at that time. This was impossible but I kept my finger on the rewind button. Around 1400 the camera shakes a bit and there is slight glow reflecting on the doors so I let it play back to the shake. There is a soft green glow and then could hear a heft thud in the room. I gulped knowing that was Tom falling into the pool around the same time he fell into the hole in the roof. The soft glow turned brighter and brighter like a laser shining into the lens – something that wasn't present on the rewind. There was a flash of an incomprehensible shape or form on the screen. I was physically hurt in my eyes like I had just stared into the sun. I was left dazed with the shaped burned into my eyes with each blink. Then the camera system shorted out and a tiny puff of smoke left the memory module. The cameras blinked off wall to wall, the whole system was dead.
With the cameras fried, regulations required someone high in the company to be on site or we'd have to leave for the night. So I stayed knowing we couldn't afford to lose an hour much less an entire night. I circled the pool between approving payrolls and directing the increased security guard traffic required to monitor more areas. I was thinking about what I would say at Tom's funeral. I was thinking about Tom's family and what they would think about his apparent suicide.
I was forced to patrol the rest of the sub-basements as well since most of the guards were at the site perimeters or higher levels. I would have to follow paths of Phillipe, the disappeared guard, and all of the other guards who had mismatched timestamps on their increasingly strange reports. If not for today's incident and the recording of Tom's death, I would have stood fast to the idea that these reports were the product of night jitters and drugs but now, no.
I gritted my teeth as I exited the pool area to patrol the lower levels. I hated this building I muttered to myself. I couldn't wait to see it all rumble. I thought about which part I'd like to keep from the site to place in Tom's casket – then I realized it probably wasn't going to be an open casket funeral. I was lost in my thoughts and hatred for the building as I roamed through the parking garage into the utilities basement. I lost track of where I was as I weaved down stairwells.
I shown my flashlight on the wall and the floor level sign said “Sub-basement 999”. I stopped cold in my tracks. I was hoping it was a prank but I knew it was no prank. Then I thought maybe I'd have some answers. Maybe I would finally see what all the strangeness was about. But then I freaked out about Phillipe's disappearance and turned to run back up the stairwell. I ran up four levels to what I thought was the lobby and I pushed the door open.
My jaw hit the floor when I saw a black and white galaxy – the stars were black and the space was white with gradations of gray. The whole room was just white outer space and the whole universe swirled fast counter clockwise. I tried to breath and when I did the galaxy shrunk before my eyes until it was the size of a tiny of marble and then even smaller to a speck of dust. I reached out as it floated towards me. I stared at the speck in a cold sweat. As I stared, I was looking deeper and deeper into impossible detail. In the dust I found the milky way galaxy, I found our solar system, I found Earth and then I found North America, and then I found myself back in the pool room dripping in sweat.
Time seemed to skip and space was malleable in that hotel. As we approached the deadline to drop it, some jobs which would take hours took days and some jobs which would take days took minutes. The anomalies seemed to swarm tonight and day and yet we pressed on. Tom was buried and I couldn't go.
We met the deadline and the city came out in numbers to watch us drop the thirty floor structure. They gathered nearly two blocks away clad in ponchos and dust masks bracing for the implosion triggered by half a ton of high explosives.
I was so burned out and demoralized. My mantra became “this is for Tom, this is for Tom” and it was the only thing carrying me to this day. I chalked up all the anomalies and even my own experience on 999th sub-basement level as a reaction to shock, loss, grief, and exhaustion.
We were on the thirty minute countdown and Mr. Rohmer's attorney was designated as the trigger man. He stood there with Jim and I in the command trailer with the detonator remote. The remote triggered a two minute countdown on the charges from a master control station in my command trailer. All the charges had to be hardwired old school style because we were getting too much walkie talkie and radio interference from inside the structure for any other method of trigger to be reliable. I was too tried to make a stink about insisting I do it. I just wanted it to be over but suddenly a freak thunderstorm brewed up over the city. The skies were overcast and we were on the verge of having to abort the implosion until the next day – despite the next day being a day past the deadline. If we didn't abort and went through with the implosion, there was a strong chance the shock waves from the blast would bounce back off the lower cloud base and shatter windows and ears across the city.
I sat in my command chair at the perimeter in dismay, almost in tears as it started to rain. I felt my heart drop into the acid of my stomach as I ordered the suspension of the implosion for the day. The lawyer, surprisingly, did not resist. I watched as the crowds dispersed from the viewing lines and police started to permit traffic back through the streets surrounding the site.
Then a group of unauthorized personnel threw open the door of the trailer. They were a mass of men and women clad in pressed white suits, stoney faces with thin maroon lips, one of them carried a white covered book.
The attorney dropped his eyes and head in deference to elderly man at the head of the congregation. The attorney addressed him as Monsignor. The man introduced himself as Monsignor Rohmer and he placed his hand on his attorney, calling him a cousin of the congregation, stating there will be no postponement and no delay.
Rohmer, a man I judged to be in his late 50's or early 60's was bald and covered it with a white derby hat. He was tall, about six five, and thin, so thin his suit fit him like snake half shedding its skin. His was face long and his cheeks thin and worn like a mountain side. His voice was steady and low like waterfall. Everything he said bloomed with authority and confidence. He ordered the building would be dropped in twenty minutes.
I told him I didn't care if he was the owner, the building could not be blown in this weather and I snatched the detonator out of his attorney's hands. Rohmer, moving faster than I believed humanly possible with some kind of martial arts move swiped the detonator from my hands. Simultaneously, he had two of his followers press Jim against the wall. They put him in a sleeper hold and he slumped down to the floor barely getting a word out. Then Rohmer gestured to his flock to follow towards the building.
They left in a fast deliberate almost choreographed walk like a flock of geese flying in formation. I grabbed the radio to get police help but I realized that was hopeless. I watched as our trailer was shrouded in the same interference we experienced in the building's interior. The CCTV monitors flickered out and the radio squawked static. Then I realized Rohmer had no control over the detonation and no way to contact his followers still with us in the command trailer. So I did what I had to and pulled the master key out of the master detonator in the command trailer and chased after the flock. I needed to know what was happening I needed to see with my own eyes what all of this was all about.
The Congregation had reached the lobby and I saw the trailing end of the clad white congregate into the stairwell. I darted at my best speed to follow them.
I reached the stair well door. I found Rohmer standing on the top step, apparently waiting for me. I was out of breath while he began to speak to me in his booming voice. He explained to me that if the building did not fall in the next twenty minutes, all of Earth would be pulled, sucked, inside out and down through the building into the black and white universe. The entire building, but especially the atrium dome, he continued, was designed and built to create and then temporarily contain an impossible shape, a living form, a 4 dimensional object, a tesseract, when struck by lightning in the presence of thirteen self-sacrificial Congregate members. This shape would slowly expand and cause space and time anomalies before growing so large inside compared to its size would pull us all into place with no life.
The shape was still in the process of forming even as we spoke, he said. It would reach critical mass and dimensional contortion and the only way to stop it was to disfigure and crush it in the hotel's collapse. He led me into the pool level where his entire congregation was sitting cross-legged where Tom fell. A green pulse, like a laser, came down from the ceiling into the group's center, where their white book lay open on blank pages. I had a feeling this glow was being projected down from the ballroom where the dome of the atrium was taking its final fourth dimensional form.
After a loud chant from the white clad followers, the book slammed shut and turned from a brilliant white shimming cover to one black as night. As they passed around book, their white suits turned black and the formed a single file line. Rohmer left my side and pulled the detonator from his suit. He showed it me and tossed it at me. In my panic I reached out with both hands to catch it but I forgot I still had the master key in my sweat slick hand and it fly out and fell at the foot of Rohmer.
I asked what he planned to do with the key without a lock and a jammed detonator. Rohmer bent down and grabbed the key and looked me without a hint of concern. He took the new black book into his hands and opened it facing the wall of the pool. A new green pulse launched from the book and flickered on the tiles. An octagonal outline appeared to frame a hazy image of a tropical beach. One by one Rohmer's congregation walked into the side of the pool, into glow and seemed to arrive safely on the otherside of the beach.
Once all his compatriots were on the beach, he turned a page in the book and reopened it, projecting another octagon portal on the side of the pool. I could see his destination – it was the command trailer. He stepped through portal and yelled to me from the other side that I had two minutes. The portal sealed.
I could hear the warning sirens we installed going off above me. Needless to say, I made it out, just barely. I reached the perimeter fence screaming to anyone who was in ear shot to run away. The building imploded as planned but I was caught in the dust cloud and developed tinnitus severe enough to be comparable with combat veterans.
The shock waves from the explosions were reflected off the cloud base and channeled down the street by other skyscrapers. Virtually every window in a two block radius around the site was shattered and hundreds of people were hurt in the resulting stampede and vehicle collisions caused by fleeing from the flying glass cascade. Parts of downtown looked like a war zone for weeks afterward.
Rohmer and the rest of his group, including the lawyer, had disappeared out of the trailer in another portal leaving a suitcase of gold equaling the twenty percent promised. Our company was fined, sued, and threatened with criminal charges and eventually put of business. There wasn't much left after paying the cities fines and lawyer fees.
Though I was spared any direct sanctions, I forced into an early retirement. I've had time to research Rohmer's group. There are at least six mentions of figures like Rohmer on the deepest parts of the conspiracy web. They seem to show up at a locale experiencing paranormal activity with a white book and then leave with a black book. Their departure usually marks the end of any strangeness. I can't be sure but this congregation seems to be summon demons, which they exorcise, by trapping them in their books. Trapping maybe a poor term to use since, as in the case of the Grazer hotel encounter, they can apparently cleanse the anomalies and then use the book containing them to weaponize a portion of the traits of whatever their unholy creations posses.
I suspect Rohmer and his congregation, now with the ability to teleport, are accelerating their plans, to whatever ends these paranormal means enable them.
Theo Plesha - Sequel to "Flush" by Theo Plesha on The Chilling App

My eczema, despite a near year-long flare, is probably in the mild side. Yet, it's really sucked, so I really empathize with all of you struggling with worse.
What I've found: steroid creams rebound and make me more prone to flares elsewhere, while oral prednisone - while amazing - is obviously a short-term solution.
Some inexpensive, non-prescription things that have helped whenever I feel the itch coming on:

1. Coal tar soap. Especially letting the soap absorb for a minute before washing off with cold water.
2. Coal tar cream, ala MG217 brand. Really fights the inflammation and also some mild anti-fungal properties. Just don't rub in too vigorously as I'm always tempted to do.
3. Anti-fungal soap. Mine has 1% tolnaftate. I think fungus is an underrated cause of eczema, at least it was for me. Really helped me a lot.
4. Avoiding lots of topical anti-bacterial things, like anti-bac bandages, neosporin, etc. This seems to cause redness and itchiness.
5. Ice packs! Recommended by my wife's allergist for her post-shot inflammation. This also helps a ton if you are patient. Like wet wraps, but less messy.
6. Eucerin original cream, after using the above soaps or creams. I thought all of those premium repair moisturizers were the same, but this one seems better.
7. The no-rub sprays, especially the Calamine pink one enhanced with numbing Pramoxine HCl 1%. Spraying it on helps me avoid the temptation to rub in too vigorously, which reignites the itch and inflammation. Only caution about Calamine is that it can lock in heat and sweat, which can reignite the itch.

What's helped you guys?

TL:DR: Because I have ADHD, I missed crucial details and basic shit everyone else can do, I lost my 3rd job in 5 years, basically spent almost all my money in 2 months and held up my own unemployment, and I'm feeling like utter crap about it.
I lost my job in March, 3rd job in 5 years. Since this wasn't my first rodeo, I applied for unemployment insurance as soon as I was able. Got a letter a week later saying I would get $358 if I was approved, and applied diligently every week, managed to sorta fill out the worksearch records, and also qualified for other forms of assistance, including help finding a new career path (since Office type work is clearly not working for me!)
(Storytelling, meanders, too many details, but all important for context)
I've been living off a mass of savings in my checking, like, it was 6k after my last paycheck. The day before I lost my job, I bought a $850 plane ticket to visit a friend in April. Since I had money, already had the plane ticket, I figured it would be fine.
Well, I got stupid and complacent. I was getting worried that it has been nearly 3 months and I haven't gotten a single payment from unemployment. When I qualified for SNAP, the lady who worked on my case said it was taking longer because of all the fraud that happened over the pandemic, but it seemed too long to me. All these thoughts plagued me over the holiday weekend, so I made a note to do it Tuesday after I came home from all my appts and bringing my bf home from work, etc.
I check the mail when we get home, and I see something from my bank. This is never good. It was exactly what I thought it was: an overdraft notice. Luckily, when I was in dire straights back in 2017, the bank recomended I use their credit as a protection backup, but still, the notice was from the 22nd, which meant I had been paying for shit and it was hitting their credit thing and I had a negative balance of $203. HOW THE FUCK DID I SPEND 6K IN THREE MONTHS?!
I scrambled to check my bank account. It said my account didn't exist. I freaked and called their hotline. In the fall, my online banking had been deleted for no reason and when I set it back up I FORGOT TO WRITE THE NEW INFO DOWN BECAUSE OF COURSE I DID. And then like a dummy I didn't check my account for 6 weeks (I'm pretty sure I checked it when I returned).
So--I thought maybe I got hacked. Nope. There was an $800 vet visit (which I had accounted) and $730 for the AirBNB in April. I paid for my friends gas and we ate out a fair amount. I put some stuff on the credit card (which autobilled at $660 for April, but most of that was a car repair). I was wasteful and bought $130 in fabric, repaired my car's audio system for $330, and then stupidly went to the fancy farmers market with my friend and bought $20 in honey and $20 in art prints.
The rest was rent & utilities and odds and ends at the hardware store, groceries when my SNAP didn't come through because I assumed it came through on the first (for me, the 9th, but I did a big shop, it was $150). The utilities hit hard. I just am agog that the money went like that! And hella embarassed. My bf was so good about it. He's been living hand to mouth for several years now and he was patient and supportive while I had a boxing match with myself. I got complacent and stupid and made assumptions because it has been about 3 or so years since I was having to be so careful. Inflation is way worse than I accounted for, and I didn't even think about how I hadn't gotten a damn UI payment yet, which would at least float for a bit. I do not live extravagantly, though I do indulge in a fancy beverage once a week and tea at my favorite late night spot once a week. Even my bf was like "how? you don't buy anything."
Luckily, back in 2017 when I was hella broke, a teller advised since I got paid every two weeks to split my money between two accounts. That only happened for about 3 minutes, but over the plague (when I was also unemployed for the 2nd time), I put a lot of the stimulus money and extras into that account. I also forgot I had moneys in paypal & venmo that I never moved over, so I quickly moved a bit around so that I'd have SOMETHING to send the rent check out on.
So, I tried calling Unemployement, and I forgot my damn PIN, tried calling to get it reset, but it was the same fucking number and they asked for it anyway, and then I had to try 3 times before I could get a representative, then they had no one available, call back. I did that 3 or 4 times, then it was 445 pm.
I tried again this morning, starting at 8 am. 13 separate calls, 2 hours later and having to listen to all the prompts and info every time and go through the verification (I remembered my pin this morning), only to be told to call later, I finally made through on 13th call, waited on hold for 25 minutes (better than the 45 predicted). A very nice if possibly exhasperated lady told me my application was on hold because I hadn't verified my identity and that they sent me a notice on March 16th that I needed to do it.
My unemployment was basically sitting in a fucking hold box for 9 weeks or so, because I needed to verify my identity.
&$((@*@*@**@*#$$
She told me where to go online and I have done the thing, between computer and phone. I said I didn't recall getting in in the mail, but once on the site, I recognized the logo and did recall a little fucking shiny slip of paper in with my notice letter, but there was nothing saying YOU MUST DO THIS.
(Boring Ass Storytelling over, Rant and Pity Party Incoming)
I just feel really sad that All these things are all happening because of ADHD, and because my symptoms have gotten worse since reaching my early 40s. I started medication a year ago, and it helps so much, but I feel so frustrated that I've missed seamingly little things that are really fucking me up.
Just before I lost my job, I wanted to figure out my budget using an old spreadsheet I made, but I couldn't find the spreadsheet and didn't have the wearwithall to make a new one, especially after losing my job. It's just a simple thing, WHY CAN'T I JUST DO IT? I did one before!
And I've also been thinking of all the things that I wanted or thought I would be doing and haven't. I have half a closet of vintage clothes and accessories that I thought I would sell online. I'm an accomplished Tarot Reader, but I haven't done any of my lives, or explored starting that as a legit side gig, like I've been wanting to do for like, 5 years. Yeah, I mean, I've just moved my bf in, and that has required a lot of my time and energy, because I had to make room for him, and since some of his EF is worse than mine and I had the time, I helped him a lot with the move, especially with the things he wasn't good at, like the bathroom & kitchen sort and move, and cleaning.
And the Vocation Rehab is just starting, and I'm feeling discouraged by what kind of jobs and pay is out there. I'm just so sick of working really hard to keep at baseline. I've given up on ever owning real property, and probably ever retiring.
Whine Whine Whine.
Thank you for listening to my ADHD bullshit. Maybe some of you can relate? It's like the Death of A Thousand Cuts sometimes.

Advice for an automotive service manager
Hello all that read this and I appreciate you taking the time.
I’ve been in the automotive industry since I was 18 and for nearly ten years I’ve been a service manager for majority of that at two separate repair shops. I’m realizing that I not only want but need to get out of this industry before it kills my mental state completely. My degree is around automotive and my only true skills at this point are customer service and sales. From the sales stand point I want to think I’m pretty darn talented as I’ve been able to produce record breaking numbers month over month but I still want out.
All of my friends have remote jobs and tell me that a remote sales job could be fantastic for me but I have no idea what it would be or how to even go about finding it. I’ve never had to make a resume or anything in this industry as I’ve been hired from word of mouth. Only ever made a resume for my first job at 15. Where would be the best place to start looking for these types of options?
Thanks again for any and all that read and give any wise words.

I have a 2018 JL with the auto start stop. About 6 weeks ago I took my Jeep to a quicklube place attached to a Ford Dealership. While I was there I knew my auto start stop wasn’t working for a long time and I assumed I needed a new auxiliary battery. They were able to change both the main and auxiliary batteries while I was there. The auto start stop started working again and all was good.
Fast forward; about 3 weeks ago I dropped by keep off at a dealer for some insurance coverages hail damage on my hood and to get the doors repaired since their was bubbling of paint from the known issue around the hinges. And they kept the car for about 2 weeks or so.
I got a call near the end of the repair tile saying my radio was acting up and they think I need a new one. Never had an issue with it other than early one when I think it wasn’t playing nice with the backup camera. But other than that it was fine. When I pick up the car the radio will only show the refresh keep logo animation and doesn’t work or show anything. The backup camera works for a bit then turns off after 5 seconds or so. The dealer is ordering a new radio and trying to do a courtesy fix (which I would hope they would since it worked just fine when I dropped it off). But now I’m a month or so without a radio or any information on that screen like Climate control etc (guess parts are slow to come in).
However, the one thing I have noticed is the auto start stop is acting up. It takes maybe 25-30 mins of driving for the battery to charge enough for it to kick on. Which makes me think the auxiliary battery even if it’s new is faulty. I tried to explain this to the dealer but they just dismissed the concern that the auto start stop needs a very specific conditions to work. But I never remember it needing to charge so long in the past. It usually worked after a few minutes. Which makes me think the battery is causing the radio issues too.
Any thoughts?

be me; ex LizarDM
be also me; Adonis Valintellis (Tiefling Paladin), Thalia Milakos (Human Ranger) and Zaahir Kehmet (Earth Genasi Wizard)
turning the corner at speed, Zaahir ploughed into a market stall, throwing an array of fruits and nuts into the air as he struck
pain shot through his hip and back, but before the merchant could even raise their voice, Zaahir was up and running again, tossing a few loose coins over his shoulder in the process
left, right, then left again
he tore through the streets like a man possessed, pumping his arms and legs as he sprinted
his lungs burned and his heart pounded, but he knew he couldn't stop
if he stopped, they'd catch him. And he'd have to start all over again
the amulet he’d stolen slapped against his chest, burrowing a hole into his ribs with each strike
he’d tried to toss it before, get rid of it and all that followed
but no sooner would he try, the amulet would appear back on his person, as if he’d never attempted in the first place
and then there was the old man
that decrepit figure that clung to his mind like a tick. A relentless presence that refused to leave
Zaahir didn’t recognise him. There was very little he recognised
he was in Syracae, that much was certain
but the identity of the old man. The amulet around his neck. The reason he was here in the first place
he knew none of it
it was like a dream. The more he tried to remember, the more he forgot
Zaahir stopped at a corner, gasping for breath as his heart thundered against his rib cage
he had tried to take a different path. Tried to change the outcome
but he recognised these streets. These buildings
in spite of all he had done, he was in the lower agora again
it was as if the world itself were reshaping to fit a certain narrative
a narrative that he was forced to act in, even if he didn’t know the script
he observed the slope of the street, noting the downward decline to his right
muttering a foreign curse under his breath, he turned to the left, and began running
the upward slope burned his quads, but even as he ran, he could feel the world changing
the burn in his quads shifted to his calves, and now he was moving downhill
he stopped in place and turned, glancing in either direction
no matter which way he looked, the road always seemed to move downward
down to the lower agora
he was reflecting on this reality bending phenomenon when he became aware of the subtle changes in the wind
the air around him became hotter, and with it came the distinct odours of a foreign land
sand, salt, myrrh and oil of balanos and cedar
the shadows began to bend, and Zaahir felt the prickle of hairs on his neck begin to rise
a figure appeared at the end of the street, towering and gaunt
he had just the time to make out a bestial head, like that of a jackal, before he took off running
the world shifted around him once more, bending to fit the narrative in which he had no say
and Zaahir continued to play his part, ever the unwilling actor in a story he did not recognise

the rain cascaded down like a flood, running off the makeshift tarp and pooling at the adventurer’s feet
Thalia led the way, scanning what little area she could make out amidst the rain and gloom
behind her, Adonis held up his shield, bearing the weight of their meagre shelter without complaint
5 kilometres was not far to travel. In ideal conditions, the pair could cover that distance within under 45 minutes
but these were not ideal conditions, and their shambling gait slowed their progress to a crawl
peering through the storm, Thalia made out a silhouette in the near distance; pale against the darkened surroundings
beckoning Adonis to follow, Thalia led the way over, guiding the pair in an uncoordinated shuffle towards the figure
the rain parted and the silhouette manifested into the body of a woman, her head lowered as if in grief
dark hair clung to her face like a curtain, the clothes on her back soaked to the bone
Thalia gave a defeated sigh, already steering them away
this woman was the most recent in a long line of unfamiliar faces; giving the ranger just enough hope to cling onto, but not enough to keep the growing dread at bay
try as she might to ignore it, the ever shrinking thread on her wrist served as a terrible reminder of their fading chances of escape
by now, the thread had shrunk to 3 inches. A quarter of what they’d started with
even if they found Zaahir at this very moment, they wouldn’t have the time to escape the Underworld before their entrance closed
observing his partner’s fading willpower, Adonis rested a spare hand on her shoulder, and raised his voice to be heard over the downpour
“shall we try out the spell again? See what we can muster?”
Thalia slowed in her advance and gave a half hearted nod; unconvinced of their chances
the pair came to a stop, and Adonis stepped closer so as to bring them both beneath the full protection of his shield
safe from any wayward droplets of rain, Thalia closed her eyes and began to focus, calling on the ever shrinking well of magical power within her
imitating Zaahir’s spell had proven more difficult than expected
on top of the immense pressure and unforgiving environment; Zaahir’s style of magic couldn’t be further removed from her own
a strict academic approach to the arcane, his magic was brought about through years of careful study and hundreds of hours locked within a dusty library
her own approach was far less refined
to her, magic was less a thing to be studied and manipulated, and more a force to be reasoned with
a wild creature, that if you weren’t careful in your handling of, could just as easily harm you as the target you intended
wielding magic required both patience and care
two attributes that she found herself lacking as of late
drawing on the magic within her, she began to cast the spell, honing in on Zaahir’s unique life force
her perception expanded out like an aura, alerting her to the presence of several souls within the vicinity, each shining with its own distinct light
if she focused, she could begin to make out details. What they were wearing. What they looked like
but before she could begin to search for Zaahir, Thalia was met with an all too familiar resistance
an interference that hovered in the air, blurring her magical sight until each soul was indistinguishable from the next
letting loose a cry of frustration, Thalia released the spell, and her senses returned to her body
“I still can’t do it,” she meekly explained. “I always feel like I’m so close to getting it, but no matter what I do or how hard I try, I can’t make him out in all of... this-”
she waved her hands about frantically, gesturing to everything and nothing at all
giving a weary sigh in response, Adonis squeezed the young woman’s shoulder reassuringly
“it’s not your fault. With the rains and their effects, there may be too much magical energy floating around. It’s no wonder you can’t lock on”
“so what are we supposed to do? Keep walking and hope we stumble across him?”
Thalia pulled away from the paladin’s grasp and turned to meet his gaze, her once brown eyes now a steely grey
“I’m out of my depth here, Adonis. I know I’m meant to stay strong and be brave, but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep pretending that I’m not scared out of my mind”
“a demon almost killed me earlier and we've barely had a moment to stop and think. A few hours before that, you pulled me out of a flaming river of hell, and now, we’re standing on Chaon’s front lawn trying to steal one of his garden ornaments. Everything is moving so fast, and yet, I know we’re not moving fast enough”
she glared up at him, her body taut with anger and frustration
but after only a few moments, all of the strength in her body seemed to fade away, taking the anger along with it
her shoulders slumped, and now she looked up at him with tired eyes, searching his face for any hint of the guidance or wisdom she’d learned to rely on so heavily
“I just need to hear you say that you have a plan. That when all of this is over and done, that things are going to be okay. Because I can’t see the big picture anymore”
Adonis met the young woman’s gaze; her once bright, hopeful eyes now dull and so full of defeat
her will was hanging on by a thread
one wrong word, and that thread would snap
Adonis’ lips curled into a sad, tired smile, and his hand lifted to cradle her cheek
it was cold against his fingers, the last remnants of heat in her body having been stripped away by the rains
he held her for a moment, his mind working overtime to think of the right words. The inspiring phrases. The rousing speeches
but as he looked into her eyes, he knew that they weren’t what she needed right now
“when I first met you on that boat, I saw a scared, frightened young woman, taking her first steps into the wider world. A farmer’s daughter, trying her lot as an adventurer. You were clinging to Namira so tight, I was afraid you’d blow over if you let go for even a moment”
Thalia stared up at him, not saying a word in response
Adonis took that as his sign to continue
“you looked at the world like every little thing in it was a terrible threat. Every wave on the sea, every cloud in the sky. Even an old fool like me. You seemed so sure that the world was out to get you. And that first night, when the harpies came swooping in, I was sure you’d run. Take shelter or hide below deck”
his eyes glazed over as he spoke, as if he weren’t looking at the woman in front of him, but somewhere else. Somewhere far away from here
“imagine my surprise when instead, this frightened, shaking twig of a girl steps out onto the bow of the ship, and begins shooting these harpies down one after the other”
he began miming the arrows, an unconscious smile creeping across his face
“and I looked at you, thinking; where did that frightened girl go?. Who is this…doppleganger that’s taken her place?. Throughout the fight, I continued to watch; and eventually I figured it out. She wasn’t gone. Even then, as she took down harpy after harpy, I could see that she was still afraid”
his eyes focused on Thalia’s face, and the smile faded to a warm, proud expression
“and I knew from that very moment; That’s someone I want at my side. That girl is going to become a hero. Not because you weren’t frightened. But because you were. And you fought anyway”
he gave her shoulder a squeeze and gestured to the terrible rains around them
“now I’ll agree, things look dire. When I look forward, the big picture can be hard to see. But I look at the little picture, and I see what we’ve overcome to get here. No, we haven’t found Zaahir yet. But we know he’s in here, and every step we take, is a step closer to finding him”
Adonis rose to his full height, holding the shield high above his shoulders
“now, I’m ready to keep looking. No matter how long it takes. Are you ready?”
in spite of herself, a smile touched Thalia’s lips, and she felt a warm tear run down her cheek
“yeah”
stepping forward, she wrapped her arms around Adonis’ midsection, holding him tight as the rain pelted down around them
“thank you”
Adonis smiled down at her, feeling the corners of his eyes begin to well up in tears
he wiped them away with a finger, and Thalia pulled away, steadying herself with a long, shaky exhale
the paladin raised an eyebrow, giving her a wry grin
“so how about it. Want to give that spell one more shot?”
a nervous laugh escaped Thalia’s lips before she steeled her nerves and nodded
“yeah. I think so”
Adonis gestured for her to go ahead and Thalia took a deep breath in, closing her eyes as she let the world go quiet around her
when the rain had all but faded away, she dipped into the well of magic and felt the familiar buzz of energy that awaited
she tapped into it, feeling the energy race up her spine and cause her fingertips to tingle and her tongue to go numb
when the buzzing had settled, she began to reach out into the void, expanding her senses to the souls around her
the air hummed with arcane interference, the magic of the Fields hovering all around her
they blurred the essences around her, causing the individual souls to meld together into an incomprehensible soup
Thalia prepared to let the magic go, and then a thought entered her mind
don’t look at the big picture
just before the spell faded from her control, Thalia recalled it, coercing the magic back under her command
this time, when she cast her senses into the void, she didn’t focus on the souls, letting them drift to the peripherals of her vision
she needed something smaller. Something only Zaahir would have
a unique item?
no
any items he possessed would have remained with his physical body
her brow furrowed in concentration, her mind conjuring up an image of her friend
it was blurry and imperfect, but she held it all the same, inspecting him in her mind’s eye
after a moment of careful observation, she was struck by a glaringly obvious feature
the gold in his skin
having been around the mage for so long, she’d almost forgotten how unique his appearance truly was
she nodded to herself, preparing to redirect the spell to seek out the nearest source of gold
but just before the spell could leave her fingertips, a sudden thought entered her mind
Adonis still had his coin purse
what were the chances that he didn’t have a single gold coin on him?
she supposed that she could throw his purse into the bottomless bag, but the thought had scarcely passed her mind before she dismissed it
she didn’t understand how the bag worked, and it wasn’t worth risking the few scraps of magic she had left on a hunch
giving a disappointed sigh, Thalia went back to brainstorming
what was unique to Zaahir?
what did he have, that no one else would?
she thought for several seconds, working over her mental image again and again, searching for something to focus on
her eyes passed over his body, his unique appearance and foreign clothes
his clothes
Zaahir had several sets of clothes. They all did
but the ones he wore that day were distinctly Khoprisi in design
“do Melanteans go to the Isle?” she blurted, her mind racing
“what?”
Adonis’ voice reached her ears, but it sounded far away, as if she were hearing it through a thick wall
“Melanteans. What happens to their souls if they’re evil?”
she fought to maintain the spell, balancing her attention between it and Adonis’ response
“I don’t entirely recall. Melantean faith wasn’t my area of study”
uttering a curse under her breath, Thalia reigned in her intrusive thoughts, and recontained the spell that had begun to slip under her absence of concentration
without Adonis’ confirmation, she’d be taking an immense risk
but what else was she supposed to do?
resigning herself to the possibility of failure, Thalia cast the spell, refining her search to Khoprisi made clothes
her field of awareness expanded, passing over soul after soul
it grew wider and wider, with no hint of pause or recognition
and just as she was beginning to give up hope, the spell locked onto an object, and Thalia’s heart rose into her throat
not 300 metres away, right on the edge of her vision, was a layered cloth robe, cut from dyed Khoprisi linen
Thalia’s eyes shot open, and she turned to Adonis with a wide smile
“you found him?” Adonis asked, his eyes brightening with hope
“I found someone. I can’t make promises, but…”
in spite of her efforts to curb her enthusiasm, Thalia practically radiated a sense of renewed hope
his own reserved smile widening to a grin, Adonis gestured with his arm
“lead the way then”
giving an energetic nod, Thalia raised their cloth shelter and began to shuffle in the direction of the skirt, fighting every urge to not go running off into the rain spattered fields
it would be a rather pitiful end to wind up trapping themselves right before they found their friend
and so, forced to move at a crawling pace, Thalia led the way, projecting her thoughts out as if they might reach Zaahir somewhere within these Fields
hold on just a little bit longer. We’re on our way

Zaahir collapsed against the brick wall, gasping for air in between bouts of dry retching
his vision swam before his eyes, his heart pounding so hard in his chest he feared it would give out
not that it would matter
were he to die, he’d merely wind up right where he started, and be forced to relive this all over again
fighting to regain his breath and recompose himself, Zaahir closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the cool brick wall
but where his brow should have touched hard brick, he instead felt the smooth texture of polished cedar wood
opening his eyes, he let out a long, exasperated groan; recognising an all too familiar door
even without this bizarre realm of scripted encounters and indefinite loops, he would have recognised Alekos’ storefront in a heartbeat
yet again, in spite of his best efforts, the world had reshaped itself to fit a certain narrative
a narrative where, after evading the local guards, he wound up at Alekos’ door, seeking to trade away his stolen goods
Zaahir contemplated walking away, as little as that would achieve, but the changing winds and the rising scent of sand and oils quickly dissuaded him
before he could change his mind, the Khoprisi mage flung the door open and darted inside, slamming it shut behind him
the winds died in an instant, and Zaahir was left to stew in the brief serenity of silence for a few grateful seconds
but only a few
for that silence was quickly broken by a voice that had begun to grate on him like no other
“Syphaeus? Archons above, is that you?”
rolling his eyes to the heavens, Zaahir turned to face the diminutive figure of Alekos, glaring down at him with an expression of pure contempt
“oh but it is!” the halfling cried, outstretching his arms to embrace the gold encrusted genasi
Zaahir brushed him off, keeping the deceitful shopkeeper at an arm’s length
Alekos retreated a step or two, raising his hands in apology. “Not a hugger, got it”
slipping into a smile as easily as one might slip into a pair of new sandals, Alekos recovered swiftly. “So, what brings you out this way? What can I do for you?”
knowing that the conversation would go by quicker if he complied, Zaahir slung the amulet off his neck and tossed it into the halfling’s hands
Alekos caught the amulet, and after a moment of inspection, his eyes widened in surprise
“where in Chaon did you get this?”
Zaahir didn’t answer, instead taking the opportunity to browse the wares around him
an enchanted spear, a pair of gnarled wands, a set of bracers
he wondered what poor souls had to die in order for these items to appear on display
behind him, Alekos continued the conversation, responding as if Zaahir had answered him
“I see. No need to worry. I’m no stranger to the odd spot of mischief. Don’t ask questions you don’t want answered, I always say. I take it you won’t be wanting receipts for this then”
he placed the amulet on the counter, then turned back to face Zaahir, watching the genasi with a gaze that felt almost predatory
a flash of light on the mage’s hand caught the halfling’s eye, and his expression lit up as he noticed it
“my, my. Well isn’t that a pretty thing on your finger”
Zaahir unconsciously glanced down at his hand, spying the cold metal ring adorning his middle fingertip
a band of polished silver, the ring was capped with an unknown symbol. Perhaps the signet of some noble family or another
pretty, but in the way that a viper was pretty
and Zaahir knew all too well the danger that lurked beneath its unassuming exterior
“enchanted no doubt. What sort of magic does it hold?”
once again, Zaahir said nothing, but Alekos flinched as if he’d been struck
“of course not, no,” the halfling said with a chuckle, that easy smile slipping back onto his lips. “Besides, I wouldn’t have the money if I did. As it stands, I doubt I even have the gold for this amulet. How much are you looking for?”
Alekos paused, nodding in response to some unspoken phrase
“well that’s awfully vague. Ships to Thessylae are cheap this time of year. You could buy yourself passage and a couple month’s lodging. Start a new life”
Zaahir had stopped listening by now, returning to browsing the store’s various wares
Alekos’ voice faded into the background, and Zaahir entertained himself by inspecting the goods on display
he was inspecting a spool of golden thread when a soft whisper brushed past his ear
quiet and practically incomprehensible, he might’ve mistaken it for wind
but then it came again; louder, and clearer
Zaahir
the genasi turned on the spot, scanning the room with wide eyes
but it was just as he had left it
Alekos continued to speak, acting as if nothing had happened
“I tracked them to a cave a couple days from here, just off the eastern road. I was about to commission the Guild, but now…”
Zaahir. Can you hear us?
the whisper came again. Undeniable this time
ignoring Alekos’ words, Zaahir honed in on the whisper, spinning in place as he searched for its source
we’re here. We’re finally here. Please, Zaahir
the voice was soft and feminine, and more than anything, incredibly familiar
he tried to remember. Tried to put a face to the voice. A name even
but just like everything else, it was like recalling a dream
wake up. We came all this way...please, Zaahir...just wake up
they sounded pleading. Desperate
in spite of the fog surrounding his mind, his heart began to ache for this woman
he was hurting her. He didn’t know how or why, but he was hurting her
Alekos had fallen silent now, and as Zaahir continued searching for that voice, he began to hear something else
something completely foreign to this world he’d found himself within
rain
the warmth of the shop drained away, and a cold chill swept in to take its place
his clothes, once dry, now clung to his body like rags, soaked through with water
the store seemed to fall apart around him; breaking away into tiny fragmented pieces
a different voice came now. Older and deeper
booming from above like a terrible god
ZAAHIR. WAKE UP!
and with a heaving gasp for air, Zaahir was dragged screaming out of his crumbling world
rain pelted down around him like a storm, falling to the earth with droplets as thick as oil
the ground beneath him was made of a dead, black soil that resembled charcoal more than dirt, stretching out as far as he could see
he became aware of a presence above him, right before he felt a pair of crushing arms tighten around his ribs and squeeze the life from him
the air fled his lungs so violently that his vision began to cloud and darken
right before he thought he’d pass out, the arms abruptly let go, allowing him to breathe once more
when his sight finally recovered, he began to make out a face in front of him
pale and grey eyed, the figure appeared almost corpse-like in complexion. But beneath the ghastly visage, Zaahir recognised the familiar face of Thalia staring back at him, tears streaming down her cheeks in spite of the beaming smile across her face
he hardly had a moment to comprehend what he was looking at when Thalia pulled him into a second, even tighter hug
this time, he felt for sure that his ribs would crack beneath the pressure, and when he was finally released, he was light headed and woozy
“not too hard,” a voice warned, “you don’t want to kill him, do you?”
Zaahir groggily turned to follow the voice, and found himself staring up at the towering, horned figure of Adonis, beaming down at him with a wide grin
“wouldn’t want to have to go through this all the trouble finding him again, now would we?”
Adonis extended a hand, and lost in a state of foggy confusion, Zaahir blankly stared at it for a few seconds before thinking to take it
with a great, heaving motion, Adonis hoisted the genasi to his feet, and pulled him into a crushing, one armed embrace
“it’s good to have you back”
a smile spread across Zaahir’s lips, but it was a tired, thin lipped attempt
his legs felt unsteady beneath him, as if they might collapse at any moment
in fact, had it not been for Adonis holding him up, he feared he might do just that
feeling the limpness in his friend’s body, Adonis slung an arm beneath Zaahir’s own, bearing the young man’s weight onto his shoulders
“easy now, I’ve got you”
the paladin turned his head to look at Thalia, meeting her concerned gaze with a stern expression
“start leading the way out of here. We need to get him out of the rain”
with a task to distract her from Zaahir’s poor condition, Thalia set to leading them out, choosing a direction and marching away in a slow, shuffling gait
Adonis followed closely behind, holding Zaahir close so as to keep him beneath the protection of his shield
the genasi slumped against his arm, unable to bear his own weight, mind still reeling from the effects of the spell
Adonis stared down at his younger companion, curbing his relief with a heavy dose of concern
he hid it behind a smile, taking one tentative step, and then another
“come on, then. It’s high time we got you out of this place”

First Post: https://www.reddit.com/CradledDnDStories/comments/x8zwpv/athos_1_a_new_world_of_opportunity/
Last Post: https://www.reddit.com/CradledDnDStories/comments/13duv0v/athos_21_broken_bones_and_fractured_hearts/
Next Post:

We are close to renting a house whose modest back lawn was destroyed by large installations during the pandemic (e.g. a large trampoline). One might describe it as patchy, if one was feeling generous.
The owners said they would fix it, and specifically worded it in the lease as "Recede the loan" (yes, that is how they wrote it) but that is not the most confidence inspiring commitment. Is there some kind of an objective standard for lawn quality? I have a personal definition – see below – but I doubt they will agree to put it in the lease and asking them to will make me come across as difficult.
My concern is that there is a significant gap b/w reseeding and the outcome of having a full lawn, and different people can in good faith have very different standards of what makes an acceptable lawn. It is important to me to have a real lawn in the back yard. To me that means, aesthetically, appearing at first glance to be nearly all grass (ok if you see the weeds on a closer look); and functionally, comfortable to walk on, and sufficient for playing ball games and laying on without getting muddy.
How would you try to work this out? What would you put in the lease? Am I overdoing this?

DRAGI ZMIJANAC: “It is a challenge to be the leader of this great global movement!” Founder and President of the First Children's Embassy in the World MEGJASHI - MACEDONIA
https://preview.redd.it/1hz5adgry73b1.jpg?width=688&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57bd5ad684d37f617bd81b483439333b081bbb98
INTERVIEW
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DRAGI ZMIJANAC: “It is a challenge to be the leader of this great global movement!”
*Being a pillar and the head of the First Children’s Embassy in the world MEGJASHI is a feeling and experience that only you a familiar with. There were no working conditions, you were the one who created them over all these past years completely oriented towards children, you were alone against the established rules and patterns of behavior, prejudices, discriminations, institutions, loopholes in the law, and above all the mentality of the environment that we live in, as a transitioning society. MEGJASHI is grounded by the milestones of your struggle for children's rights, you leave values ​​behind you, and traces. What motivated you to embark on this great struggle, maybe the fact that you are a parent yourself?
- In the beginning, we were the three pillars - Gorde, Kole and I, and as time passed, more pillars were built into this global children's movement called the First Children’s Embassy in the world MEGJASHI, which represents children and has been fighting for a fairer world for children for 30 years. Since you already asked me about the feeling and experience that I have experienced throughout all these 30 years, the one thing that I can emphasize is that you cannot build something significant and motivating only if you want it, if you are dedicated and believe in what you are doing. It takes persistence and courage in order to see the outlines of the structure, from the very beginning and in the first few years. Now when I look back, I have to admit to myself that everything has to be earned, through work, belief, perseverance and honesty. When you strongly want something and believe in what you are doing, the Universe has your back. Change does not happen overnight. You need to stand strong, be mobile, resilient to attacks and blows and come out stronger after every battle. Defending and fighting for a fairer world for children is not only difficult, but also inspiring. I saw this challenge as an opportunity to be a driver and leader in this great worldwide movement called the First Children’s Embassy in the world. Recognizable and recognized all over the world. It is the pillar of success. Everything else builds upon it, complements it, changes it and pushes it forward. We are here and exist because we are needed. I often joke when I say that if this embassy, ​​the first one in the world, whose heart is in Macedonia, did not exist, it would have to be invented. And, since it exists and continuously proves itself, creates, creates, it should be selflessly supported and helped. In one of UNICEF's manuals, the author, Ms. Sue Gilbert wrote: “Macedonia is famous for children’s rights, because that’s where the First Children’s Embassy in the world, MEGHASHI, was formed”.
The conditions when we started working to help and support children affected by the war in former Yugoslavia were tense, the war had started. Gordana Pirkovska Zmijanac, who is the initiator and founder of the First Children’s Embassy in the world MEGJASHI, appealed for the care of children affected by the war. At her strong insistence, the editor Ljubisha Nikolovski allowed her to make an appeal for solidarity, for help and care for the children affected by the war, on the prime news block of the Macedonian national television. The appeal reached Macedonian citizens. And that's how it all started. It was on April 12, 1992. While Gordana was on MTV, I was at home, I recorded her appeal, the phone rang continuously, I registered all the calls and requests from citizens to take a child under their in their homes. It was real solidarity and humanity in action. That's how we started, as an informal citizen initiative. Due to the fact that we agitated and mobilized all state institutions and demanded the opening of children's resorts, hotels, etc., we realized that we had to get formalized as an organization. On April 29, we had the Founding Assembly in the “Karposh” Youth Home (Pionerski dom), and we got officially registered as a civil soviety organization at in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, back then, on May 25, 1992. Otherwise, I draw the main motive, inspiration and incentive in this struggle from my childhood. I grew up in conditions of social and educational injustice and neglect. I grew up in a family with a single mother. I grew up in a dysfunctional family. The conditions were hrash. Not to mention bordering on poverty and social injustice. But for me as a person it posed a major challenge - to either become strong or to break down. I chose the fight for justice and it has been my guide all these years in my life. It is my life energy, mission and vision. I know that I was not born by accident and I have a task to do something. At least to change and improve things a little. Injustice affects me. And that's why I'm often rebellious, I speak loudly about it and I'm not afraid to raise my voice. My voice is the echo of millions of children. That's how I bring myself up and enter from one battle to another. I know it's difficult, painful, uncertain, but I'm waiting, I'm patient and I'm watching even the smallest changes as a big step forward towards a fairer world for children.
*It is subtle job to deal with children's rights, first of all you need be familiar with all the laws, as well as the mechanisms of their functioning in reality. At the same time, it is not easy at all, because we live in conditions in which society, instead of facilitating, gives resistance against the citizens and their needs, many rights are violated, and many crimes against children are concealed in a well-organized manner. Did all that resistance scare you, this entire situation around you that created pressure, did it discourage you at times?
- Sometimes I feel that our work stagnates. That's the initial impression. There is an improvement in the defense of children's rights, but the state institutions sometimes seem to shift the responsibility between each other. They are not sufficiently efficient and mobile, they do not implement violence prevention in time, they only impose sanctions when there is a case of incest or death, which is a belated measure. The level of abuse of children in Macedonia is constantly increasing, and this is due to the aggressiveness, loneliness and alienation of children, they are increasingly left to fend for themselves. First of all, the most important thing is that we broke the silence surrounding children's suffering, we spoke publicly about all the problems that children in Macedonia face, which were previously shameful and scary to talk about, we encouraged children to talk about violence, to recognize us as protectors of children's rights, as their advocates. Of course, we have instruments, indicators, how to reach information about the problems that children encounter. In 1993, we opened the SOS telephone line for children and youth, now known as “Hello, Bushavko” 070 390 632. This hotline for children has been operating for 29 years, so far over 21,000 children, parents, guardians, relatives have contacted it to report child abuse, violence, violation of children's rights. We use our mechanisms to resist and often with the help of the media we exert pressure, sometimes we can be even louder than what is expected of us, to push the state institutions into working with maximum functionality and efficiency, in defense of children's rights. To respect the best interest of the child. The motto of the Children’s Embassy MEGJASHI is that “All the ideals in the world are less important than the tears of a child”.
*It has been proven that in order to improve a child's right or at least to initiatite a change, unfortunately, one has to see or experience the worst example or incident. After all, we can't do anything about those sad and devastating facts or terrible statistics, but we can build a fairer children's world on their foundations and on the basis of lessons learned.
- In the fight for a fairer world for children, we upturned many taboos, stereotypes, opened up and initiated the solution to many problems affecting children, prioritized the importance of respecting children's personality and their best interests. We broke the silence about the children suffering from sexual abuse, from physical violence, from the problems they have when their parents’ divorce, from the sadness due to the secrecy of adopted children not having access to their biological parents, from the everyday problems that children encounter, from bullying, from the fact that there are still children without a birth certificate, children whose labor is abused, children who are not included in primary education or are prevented from completing their education. But what worries me the most in recent years is air pollution and the carcinogenic particles that children breathe. Air pollution is one of the leading causes of death in children because that air permanently crosses the blood-brain barrier and permanently damages a child's developing brain. Due to the negligence and absence of measures against the extremely polluted air in Macedonia, the most basic right of the children is violated and threatened - the right to life according to Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by the Republic of Macedonia in 1993.
*You were a scanner and with your work you brought to light the fact that, in fact, children are not deviant towards society, but that society is completely upside down towards them. That what they do is, in fact, only a response to the irresponsible behavior of adults and that all of us together bear responsibility.
-Society and state institutions are often deviant towards children. Instead of being their support and help, they often act against their needs and interests. Very often when they do not act properly or act wrongly, the state does not have a mechanism to sanction those who are responsible, but rather protects them. And so the problems only deepen, and the state and institutions become complicit in the dysfunctionality of the system. There are many examples in practice. The alienation between the child and the parent is a deviation that adults and society are responsible for, and such direct and irresponsible behavior affects the proper growth and development of the child. It is difficult for parents from dysfunctional and broken former marital relations after leaving the marital union to be participants in functional and responsible parenting. Joint and responsible parenting even after divorce should be focused on what is most important, which is the best interest of the child. The child should not feel guilty about the divorce and should live a normal life, receiving attention from both parents equally, because the termination of the marital union puts an end to the marriage, but not to the process of parenting. The mother and the father are equally important and significant for the correct growth and development of the child and under no cirscumstances should a child be put in a situation to choose between them. Divorce is the end of marriage, not the end of parening, the child needs love from both parents during the process of growing into a healthy individual to avoid deviant phenomena in adolescence. The child is not to blame for the divorce and must not feel any remorse. The child should not feel guilty about the divorce and should live a normal life, receiving attention from both parents equally, because the divorce of the marital union is the termination of the marriage, but not the termination of parentage. The mother and the father are equally important and significant for the correct growth and development of the child and it should not be put in a situation to choose under any circumstances. Divorce is the end of marriage, not the end of parenthood, the child needs love from both parents during the process of growing into a healthy individual to avoid deviant phenomena in adolescence. The child is not to blame for the divorce and must not feel any remorse.
*Society really swallows up children's rights. The youngest seem to be the most discriminated against and have no way to defend themselves from the adults, unless another adult helps them. Young people need to know that there is a solution to their problem, even though it seems like the whole world has collapsed on them. You indicated this through numerous engagements and campaigns. What would you single out in particular?
- We live in a completely divided society along ethnic, social, educational and any other lines. We live with rude and aggressive, violent behaviors towards those different from ourselves. We live in a segregated society in which students from different ethnic communities study in different schools. Although we each speak our own language, we rarely understand each other when it comes to building trust, shared values ​​and life. That's why we decided to launch the campaign “Foster Peace”, to stir things up and be part of the change, acting both individually and as a civil organization, and on a collective level. At the same time, let's ask the state to be more mobile in terms of what we ask of it, to nurture, build and promote values ​​such as empathy, solidarity, responsibility, dialogue and non-violence.
*Generally, it is a great injustice - with their existence, children paint the world with the warmest and most cheerful colors, and the world often shamelessly paints their childhood in the darkest, gray, sad colors, in the color of tears. We all need to change our attitude towards
children and we must educate them about their rights. You have done a lot in this direction. What is most valuable in all of this?
- One of the most difficult traumas that can happen to a child is sexual abuse. And this trauma is shrouded in silence for many years. But we raised our voices and spoke clearly and loudly about these traumas suffered by the children and sought solutions. Both preventive and punitive. The strong advocacy, support and lobbying of the First Children’s Embassy MEGJASHI for stricter sanctions against sex offenders, incest perpetrators, pedophiles, especially towards children under the age of 14, bore fruit, three out of our four recommendations were accepted and I think that in this way there is an opportunity to put this pathological phenomenon under control, especially when it comes to recidivism. What we advocated for was accepted, drug therapy or chemical castration, a minimum of 15 years in prison, but they did not accept the wearing of electronic bracelets after the pedophile leaves the prison institution. We believe that chemical castration should be mandatory as a measure, especially for recidivists and that it should be established immediately after leaving the prison institution and the pedophile will thus be helped not to repeat the crime, because the Children's Embassy advocates for lifetime in prison for every repeated offender. This is not corporal punishment, because it affects the psyche, i.e. the mental disorder that the pedophile has because he is not able to control his drive and libido, and in this way we believe that we are helping the pedophile, as well as the children, not to commit these crimes again.
*All of the people in the Embassy have experience in all directions, profound, extensive, long-lasting, and each of you can write a thick book of experiences. Can you recall which was the most difficult moment for you in all these 30 years, and which was the brightest and the greatest source of pride?
-”The girl fell on the rolling pin and lost her virginity”, this is how the case of the then nine-year-old girl, who was raped by her mother's friend, ended somehow. Case closed! In cases of sexual offenses, the procedure for determining the origin of the injuries cannot be performed by a gynecologist, but exclusively by a forensic medicine expert. But back then no one reported the case to forensic medicine, where if there had been a case of rape, it would have been discovered due to the specificities of the injuries. It is interesting to note that the two injuries that the gynecologist found could not have been caused by one fall, or even by any rolling pin, but were done on at least two occasions. So, the case was closed, there were neither suspects nor was anyone accused. Macedonia will remain the only country in the world where “virginity is lost by falling on a rolling pin!”
Then, we helped thousands of children affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia, responded to the challenges of rescuing and evacuating children from Bosnia and Herzegovina and taking them into care in Macedonia. We responded to the Kosovo crisis and worked with the children in the camps in Radusha, Bojane, Chegrane, Stenkovec 1 and 2 in the period between 1999 and 2000. During the conflict in Macedonia in 2001 we opened a Shelter for Internally Displaced Persons and took care of 16 people, they were taken care of at the Children's Embassy MEGJASHI during a period of five years. Three babies were born here - Alexander, Marija and Nikola. We responded to the migrant crisis. We had a rapid response humanitarian action to help the children from the flood in Skopje, the children who fled from Syria and were taken care of in Turkey. We also adequately responded with humanitarian aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, by distributing aid to the competent institutions and providing them with overall protective equipment, gloves and masks…
*You moved a world from inside to outside, from invisible to visible, you instigated changes. Going back through the timeline, you can see how quixotic your work was, but then you add things up at the end, when it all comes together, you manage to see the scope of work and the conclusion that nothing was in vain. That MEGJASHI became a “moral” home for any child, barefoot, hungry and starving, but also for those who have a roof over their heads and dream of higher goals... That MEGJASHI became a school for transformation towards democracy and children's rights and managed to impose many positive changes. *Was it worth it?
- The state is more focused on the legal amendments and what the legal norms stipulate, and less or in some parts it is not mentioned at all how those legal provisions are applied in practice. There is no established system of monitoring how the laws are implemented, nor is there any information that an adequate analysis has been made as to what funds are needed for the implementation of the laws. The omission in the protection of children's rights usually occurs during the implementation of laws, and in certain cases it happens due to legislative gaps and inadequate regulation of certain issues. For example, there are laws where it is stipulated that the child has a certain right, but it does not specify how the child can exercise that right, through which procedure, before which authority and in accordance with which law. Such legal solutions are unenforceable in practice and instead of promoting children's rights, they represent an additional obstacle. But yes! It was worth it. The Children's Embassy has not only become a school for transformation towards democracy and children's rights, but also strengthens and encourages children's activism and participation. Namely, Macedonia is one of the few countries in the world that has managed, for the second time, to prepare an Alternative Report on the situation with children's rights in Macedonia - from the children's perspective. To submit, present and defend it in front of the members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child at the UN. Children state that they are victims of various forms of violence, among which bullying is the most common, and emphasize that schools should do much more to educate children to prevent this type of violence. They point to the problems in education, which are numerous, including the poor quality of teaching, insufficient care for hygiene, inadequate conditions for children with disabilities and insufficient care for children's mental health. However, they believe that polluted air, especially in winter days, as well as illegal landfills, factories near populated areas are part of the environmental problems that children face, and they believe that there is neither sufficient awareness nor sufficient care on the part of the government. Not to mention any liability and criminal prosecution. They listed many other problems that children face. We expect the specific recommendations from the Committee on Children's Rights to arrive soon. But, also specifically their implementation and realization by the Macedonian state. Our engagement will still be necessary here, because in every report so far there were numerous problems that children were facing, that have been noted down in the reports sent to the Committee, and are repeated.
*The hard-working team of the Embassy, very gently and carefully, with filigree-like precisions, weaved a network of children's rights. And, with your relentless persistence, you made people to increasingly realize that children's rights are not one or two and that there is no right dosage for fulfillment of children's rights, they need to be exercised down to the last percent. And no matter what is settled, new rights always arise that the heirs of the world deserve. *According to you personally, what is the first most inviolable and supreme right of every single child, wherever he/she may be on this Planet?
- The right to a healthy environment. The right to life. The population most affected by air pollution is children. Air pollution has a harmful effect on children's health. The negative effects of air pollution on children begin even before they are born. The polluted air that pregnant women breathe can lead to damage to the fetus and its development. Polluted air also leads to reduced body weight at birth, premature births, various anomalies in newborn children whose mothers were exposed to polluted air during pregnancy. Children who breathe polluted air have an increased number of upper and lower respiratory tract infections. As a result of frequent infections of the respiratory organs, permanent damage to the lungs and chronic diseases that last a lifetime can occur, such as asthma, allergies, chronic bronchitis. As a result of polluted air, there is also a disturbance in the development of the central nervous system in children, a change in the immune system, and the occurence of malignant diseases. Air pollution directly affects children and their right to life. Namely, according to data from the World Health Organization, more than one in every four deaths of children under the age of five is directly or indirectly related to exposure of children to air pollution. Children are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of air pollution. Children inhale a larger amount of air, and thus a larger amount of harmful substances.
*What other message would you like to send?
- In the upcoming period, we plan to focus on achieving the following long-term goals of the organization, such as respecting and understanding the rights of children and children's personality; promoting and advancing the culture of peace and non-violence among children from an early age, mobilizing, updating and undertaking initiatives and actions for the benefit of children; joint and responsible parenting even after divorce, children having the right to find out who their biological parents are, the right to a healthy environment and clean air, and the struggle to mobilize and build functional institutions that act in the best interest of children.

http://www.megjashi.org.mk/content/pdf/MONOGRAPH%20%20First%20Childrens%20Embassy%20in%20the%20World%20MEGJASHI%201992-2022%20,%2030%20years.pdf

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Such a blast playing again, though I expected the game getting boring near the end, It wasn’t my goal to make either of those two conditions, but here we are so…, there were no accidents with the exception of one I will talk about later, and by almost deathless I mean almost, 10 died, 5 were expected, here is a log of the major happenings on my game:
.Prologue: Mined and researched every science point, left the system with iron smelter half researched
.Chapter 1: Making ends meet on legendary is extremely cruel on the first chapters, food and alloy production is very limited, once I got the barest alloy production, I gunned for DLS center, extra shifts and restricted food is what got me through the chapters, this also the chapter with the first death and “accident”, by refusing to turn off the factories and open a new sector, some imbecile though it was a good idea to blow up a hospital, one died and three injured, but this was the only accident on the run, with the system utterly gutted I went forward.
.Chapter 2: Once again, low food and alloy, To fix the food problem I built a advanced colony and when time came I severed connections, the hardest part was Protagoras Ice Field, there, three more workers died while repairing the ship, I guess there is a way to spend minimum time on the field and not having anyone dead, but in exchange I managed to not let anyone leave the Tiqqun when the Elders in Protagoras asked, onwards to chapter 3.
.Chapter 3: This is when I stopped fearing everything and put the Tiqunn in shape, with the shear amount of resources and science all around, I maxed out my design and I was pretty much ready for everything, the only problem was when I crossed the storm and a fire started, for safety I had firefighters on the sector and it didn’t really became a problem, there was another civil attack after I refused to give people better food and hours, they retaliated by going on strike on a insect farm and a closed depot, the bloody idiots.
.Chapter 4: Here is where the last six died and the game pulled one on me, I forgot about the event on one of the planets where one scientist runs off on the wild, so he is dead, nothing more, and of course, the five that die no matter the option on the Piratenese, I don’t think there is a way to avoid this, the lowest point was just after this, for some reason, people started going hungry everywhere, turns out, my sector with the largest amount of people was the furthest away from food production, things domino and I suffer a mutiny (Thanks bastards), so I just reloaded, prepared better and got through.
.Chapter 5: I choose to not side with the green freaks and did it the hard way, nothing special, I was tired and really wanted to get my achievement, so I just gunned the objectives, and that’s it, amazing game, hope everyone tries the hard mode once
P.S. I used u/fabiaville designs for the sectors plus my own ideas to make them better, thanks for the help!, I also used the wiki to see the outcomes, I first played the game blind and I wanted to be sure of what I was doing, finally, I’m not very good with Reddit posts, so if anyone knows how to make the chapters on larger letters please let me know, thanks for everything, sorry if I tipped something wrong and until later!
!Faith in DOLOS everyone!