I was listening to the song for a long time and now I realized some lyrics making more sense after knowing about the DLC’s content. I’ll list the lyrics related to the Xenologue, then my interpretation/theory on what they mean.
​
‘You're the renewed love, the ancient scar, the highly praised youth. You're the shadow of the borrowed, shining again from a page seen in a dream. The omen we've been seeking. Do you remember the seven dozing flames, that swore to stay by your side even in times of defeat? Silver mementos, charging through. Flying high, answer our prayer right here. (Emblem, eternity) Courage, my friends, the moment when we'll wake up is like a reflection in the mirror, like twin wings. Reaching the edge of dawn, one last wish. A ruby that is not different. I’ll be with you for eternity. I'll be your strength up until the end. We'll see the day when we can stand side by side, just like that day, if you wish for that...’ and then the lyrics return to the chorus.
A few of the lines are a reference to an Emblem, but they also have dual meanings. The first four lines I think represents the Four Winds. The ‘renewed love’ represents Zephia/Zelestia and her love of her family, Griss/Gregory represents ‘the old scar’ and the pain it represents, and Marni/Madelyn is the ‘highly praised youth.’ Mauvier is the next described as ‘the shadow of the borrowed,’ possibly referring to him being similar to our Mauvier. The next could be a dual meaning of the Four Winds/Hounds being playable or that Mauvier is the sole constant with his personality unchanged, ’shining again’ in this Xenologue. The ‘omen we’ve been seeking’ is Alear’s ‘return’ to this Elyos and that Nel and Nil were seeking them.
The next few lines represents the Seven Bracelets that slept and how they’re still usable, when the Rings are stolen or have to be summoned again after Sombron uses the Rings’ power. Not exactly sure about the next few lines, but I see them as representing Nel and Nil summoning Alear to their world and that they are different from the Fell Dragons of our Elyos, since they are praying for help and not using invocations. This is probably why Emblem Tiki talked in the trailer, since Nel isn’t taking away her free will when summoning the Emblem. The next lines talk about the mirrored Elyos and the twin dragons being the first things you see in this Xenologue. ‘Reaching the edge of dawn, one last wish’ is probably the end goal of the Fell Dragons, a wish. ‘A ruby that is not different’ probably represents the Dragonstone in Nil’s chest and how it’s similar to Alear’s Dragonstone.
The remaining lines might represent the ending of the Xenologue/resolution to the conflict. With knowledge of Nil being a defect that are expected to not live long and the trailer showing Nel and Nil in a flashback CG, these lines come across as Nil desperately trying to be Nel’s equal and to be with her forever… but there’s another interpretation. Nel is betrayed by Nil and his wish to be her equal/with her forever, possibly he becomes the final boss (someone has to.) However, Nel forgives him after his defeat and will wait for the day they become equals, hence the ‘if you wish for that’ line. The song then returns to the chorus, representing that you return to the main story and will be able to use the Xenologue units in the main story. Considering the goal is seemingly for a wish, I expect the wish is either to give Nil another chance (because we beat him up too much) or the wish changes him to be equal to Nel/no longer a defect (Nil has low stats in the Xenologue, so the wish changing him to make him a good unit in the main story, makes sense.) Song lyrics can have multiple meanings, so what are your interpretation? Also, if some of the translations are off, please tell me, as I am only human.

I don’t know why people don’t like me. I mean… I’ve always been told I’m too much. Too dramatic, too preppy, too loud, too quiet, I’m a different breed. Ive been told I’m too many things. People trying to make sense of me being “different”. But when they did that it made me slowly loose who I am. Who and I? I don’t think I have ever had a sense of self, or a sense of who I am as a person of MY life. I mean I like to dress up, look nice, wear my jewelry, be with my cat and family. But those are senseless thing. Just because I enjoy doesn’t mean they make me who I am? I’m feel hidden. I’ve felt hidden for too long. Hidden behind my twins shadow. They have an amazing job that supports and respects them. That’s them be who they want to be. But I envy them. They go out and have so much fun with their friends. They have their friends over all the time, making stuff, having fun, going out and having fun, spending the night. Laughing, feeling free from the worry and stress or not being alone and always having someone to talk to or go too. Have someone to look forward too. But what about me? All my friends left me when I went to online school. Even my friends from elementary school. The friends that were Theron for me for so much and I was there for them and offered them a place to live if they ever got kicked out. Helped them financially, gave them rides, took them places. Then I went to online school and they all forgot about me. I was never anyone’s friend I guess. I was just someone who made the time move by faster so that they didn’t find school that agonizing. Now I don’t have anyone. No one to go out with. Now one to text or call, talk gossip too about the new boy or girl I like. Not like anyone would choose me to talk to about that stuff anyways. Because who am I? I’m no one to everyone. Even to my ex. When we were together, at first he took me out and I talked to him all day and loved talking to me. Then ig I because too much. I would cry in the bed next to him while we were trying to sleep and he didn’t care. He didn’t treat me like a human anymore. Using me for the sex, and better life that I had. I didn’t put up with it for long though. Good for me right, getting ride of all the bad people in my life to help better myself. But who do I have now. I don’t have anyone from school, I don’t have people from work because they are all adult and have kids. I don’t have my twins friends, they think I’m too much sometimes too, but they are nice to me because I’m the sister. But that’s been my whole life. People tolerating me. Thinking they can handle loving me, like it’s a challenge. But oh that is true. I am a challenge. According to my family, “friends”, ex relationships, everyone. What am I doing wrong? Is it because k rap too much? Maybe I wouldn’t talk that much I had people to talk too. Real people who actually want to talk to me, and actually find me as important as I find them. Someone who doesn’t make me feel like I’m waisting their time or an inconvenience. But I haven’t found those people yet. I don’t know if I ever will. Maybe it’s because I don’t know who I am. But will I ever know who I am if I’m constantly being told I’m too much of this and that and never being heard or never felt like I belong anywhere. One day I did talk to my twin about how they have friends and they do our and how I am jealous about what they have that I don’t then they said that it was my fault. It is because of who I am and how I act… so thanks for that. They told me not to worry tho. Someone will find a way to love me. Someone will find a way to become my best friend, or close friend. Then I went to my mom and asked her what is wrong with me to where I have no okie in my life who would care if i stopped responding. No one would reach out. How do I know this… I’ve tried. I’ve gone days without responding to people and loosing our streaks that they cares too much about while I could care less. They never sent me a text or a snap or a call. Nothing. But when I go to the hospital for trying to kill myself everyone suddenly cares and is sorry for not reaching out. Even the people that never talked to me. Why is it when I try and kill my self is when I feel heard and important. When I feel even more of a burden because it didn’t work, or got interrupted, but heard because at least they did something for me. I’ve been depressed since I was seven. No one believed me until I was in middle school. Then by that time I was so brainwashed with everyone telling me I’m too much of this and that, that I didn’t know who I was and they thought I was just putting on a show. But I thought I was doing what they wanted because I didn’t feel important to them. I thought this is what they wanted. If I couldn’t fit in anywhere why not try to fit in underground. I am so lonely you hear people say to not act desperate when you’re lonely but all I want to do is scream and yell because my head is always spinning. I am desperate. I don’t have anyone. Truthfully. People say how they don’t have people but I truly don’t. I guess when I started to smoke weed some people became more interested in me. I found a new groups of people I could hang out with. But I was told yet again that I’m too much to be around when people are high. So I guess I’ll just sit in my room smoking alone waisting away in my feelings I hide and can’t tell anyone. I know I’m not the only one who feels like this. But that doesn’t help because who can I go to talk about it if I don’t have anyone?

So I've been translating the official Octopath Traveler Tabletop RPG rulebook for the past two weeks, and when I'm bored of doing Character Creation and Number Crunch copying, I start looking up the lore parts, and figured I should share the Osterran Calendar with everyone who might be interested.
There are 12 months. Each one is 30 days long with 5 weeks. There are only 6 days in a week, one for each element.
It goes, in order, Light Day, Wind Day, Thunder Day, Fire Day, Ice Day, Dark Day. Dark is the Sabbath.
The months kinda run alongside ours, and are named for each of the Orsterran gods/goddesses. Interestingly, they are also named in order of their birth, so Alephan is the eldest, and Aelfric is the youngest. The only difference is Dreisang and Dohter are twin brothers, with Dohter being a few seconds younger. (So if we fight Dreisang in Octopath 1, does that mean that's what Dohter looks like? Are they identical twins? Inquiring minds want to know!)
The First Month is Alephan's, (Mid January to Mid February IRL), and it is the beginning of the New Year.
The Second is Dreisang's, (Mid February to Mid March), and it contains the Festival of Temperance (It's similar to Lent, according to the book)
The Third is Dohter's, (Mid March to Mid April), and it does not contain any special festivals, (It's a time of Spring, so I think there are probably a lot of local festivals.)
The Fourth is Draefendi's, (Mid April to Mid May), also a generic time with no festivals.
The Fifth is Winnehild's, (Mid May to Mid June), and it's the time when kingdoms begin preparing for war.
The Sixth is Brand's, (Mid June to Mid July), the rye has been harvested, food is plentiful, and it's time to go back to killing each other (Literally "Time for War".)
The Seventh is Sealticge's, (Mid July to Mid August) and a night festival is held honoring her closeness to the darkness. (Probably fitting a Tanabata-esque festival in here for the Japanese readers?)
The Eighth is Steorra's, (Mid August to Mid September) nothing special here, (but given who the month is named after, I bet there are local festivals honoring the stars.)
The Ninth is Balogar's, (Mid September to Mid October), and this month has Saints' Day. According to the book, it's similar to IRL All Saint's Day (interestingly, no Halloween.)
The Tenth is Aeber's, (Mid October to Mid November), and there's nothing going on here, (but I bet this would be a good time for a Halloween local festival, given thieves and dressing up.)
The Eleventh is Bifelgan's, (Mid November to Mid December), and also not special, (but I'm expecting a harvest feast festival before the winter. Most likely celebrating the giving and sharing of food, reminiscent of the "Trading" Bifelgan does.)
The Twelfth is, of course, Aelfric's, (Mid December to Mid January), and contains the Sacred Flame Festival, celebrating the coming of the First Flame to Orsterra (The book doesn't mention it outright, but sounds very similar to Christmas, given the time frame it's held in.)
Given that Ophilia went out to do the Sacred Flame ceremony, It was probably either around Aelfric's Month, or perhaps needed to be finished before Aelfric's month, which might put the time of Octopath 1 around September to NovembeDecember, around fall-time. This is all speculation on my part, however, so I'd love to hear what you guys think!
There are other blurbs about the gods, but I'm already getting tired, so I might add it in a comment here later. Hope it's an interesting read!! :)

Demographics: Asian, International (IB + IGCSE) high school outside the country + US citizen (not intl, but I'm OOS everywhere welp), EFC ~45k
Stats: 1550 SAT (750 ERW, 800 Math)1510 SAT (first attempt, 9th grade) - 750 ERW, 760 Math, 7/5/7 essay (19/24 cumulative)No GPA, class rank calculated (I'd estimate around top 10-15% though) IGCSE - 3 B, 12 A, 12 A* (across internal exams in IGCSE/9th and 10th) + 9/9 A* for leaving IGCSE examsIB - averaging 38/42 across 3 sems (39, 38, 39); predicted 42/43 on 45.
Intended Major: Electrical Engineering
IB Diploma Subjects: Physics HL, Maths AA HL, Chemistry HL, Spanish ab initio SL, Economics SL, English A L&L SL
Extracurriculars
Spike-related

1. Research (10h/wk roughly) @ top-name uni in my country for 1.5 years; 1 paper (self-published), wrote course material for undergrads; Domain slightly outside EE, but close enough lol.
2. Research (10h/wk roughly) at another uni for a different uni 2 years; 2 papers (one self-published, one lead author in student journal); Added to open-source repos for a project run by my advisor; Wrote coding demos for undergrads
3. Ran a separate open-source project along similar lines as my research w/10 other students for, lead developefounder. 1500+ lifetime downloads, 20k lifetime site hits
4. Internship (12th grade summer) @ bioinformatics startup; 55h/wk for 10 weeks; Worked on NLP algos

Others

1. MUN - chaired 5(ish?) conferences, ~ 7 placements/10 as delegate; 3 college-level, lead organizer for largest conference (1000+) in my city
2. Varsity sport; 8+ year involvement; 3 years as captain
3. Rural digital entrepreneurship project - Head of Operations - helped ~ 15 to financial independence
4. Teaching underprivileged kids Grade X students English weekly

Minimal awards rip, some school recognition for research impact, MUN awards, etc.
Essays: I like to THINK they were pretty good, essentially worked on connecting storytelling to MUN to my love for the research process. I'm gonna give it a 8.5/10, since there is ONE acceptance that says it's not entirely horsecrap even though it's a little out there. Would have said 7 a month ago lol.
Letters of Recommendation:

1. Supplemental LoR -- 8/10 (former employer; said some great stuff about my technical acumen)
2. Physics Teacher -- 9/10 (talked about my research skills; primary LoR discussing academic excellence)
3. Economics Teacher -- 7/10 (talked about my extracurriculars a lot, not too much to write home about w/class participation, but I always topped the class)

​
DECISIONS:
Acceptances (first-choice major - EE - everywhere):

1. Georgia Tech (EA)
2. UIUC Grainger EE
3. UMD
4. Purdue
5. UMN-Twin Cities
6. UC Davis
7. UW Madison
8. North Carolina State University (NCSU)

Waitlists:

1. Virginia Tech
2. UCLA
3. UMich

Rejections:

1. UC Berkeley
2. MIT
3. Cornell
4. Princeton
5. UCSD
6. UT Austin

Brace yourselves this is gonna be a little long.
My birthday party was last Saturday (march 25).
I didn’t invite my sister (23) because she is and has always been a big pain in my side.
Story time: our parents (more like mom) wanted Irish twins as she wanted to get the pregnancy and young children out of the way as quick as possible. But they experienced secondary infertility and hence my sister was adopted when I was 5 and she was 3. From the time she turned 5-9 when our parents had the “birds and bee” (this was an ongoing discuss whenever she had a question about how babies are made/ adoption etc) talk with her she just became someone else. She was really disgusted by the fact that our parents had to do the “nasty” to get me but she was the “chosen” one. And they never had to share germs to get her therefore she was special.
Whenever she got a chance to put me down she would…never missed a chance. She would frequently tell me that our parents had to take whatever they got with me. but with her they “chose” her, wanted her. On my birthdays she too would get presents because it wouldn’t be fair. But I never got presents on her birthdays because those are her special days. During Christmas she always got twice as many presents as I did because she was younger and my parents to comfort me would tell me in private it’s because she was adopted and needed extra love. We never did what I wanted to do for FFN (family fun night), all my childhood was centered around her. I really wouldn’t have minded if only she didn’t rub it in and made me feel like shit.
She would frequently try and get between me and my friends by telling lies. I have a best friend whom I’ve known since preschool (2 years before her adoption).
We are really tight and when she was 15 and I was 17 she told my bff that I tried to kiss bff’sboyfriend. Which caused a rift in our friendship until it all got sorted with our parents help.
She would come in my room and pee on my bed and claim that I peed the bed.
Would deliberately sneeze on any treats I got so she could have both.
Steal my Christmas wish list and copy it. Even though she never wanted any of the stuff I had on there. I was a huge nerd and still am, into video games, action figures, Star Wars etc and she is more of a girly girl and into make up and sh*t, none of her online pictures look like her in real life.
I know this is all elementary but I had had enough. I have my own place and planned my birthday party. I told my parents that she isn’t invited and they said that if she isn’t than they won’t help me pay for it.
So my bff and a few other friends pooled our money together and made it happen.
During the party at around 8pm my sister shows up. I never invited her nor told her about the party. I ignored her until friends said to just let her in. Of the 20 friends only 7 know about my contentious relationship with my sister.
She had never been to my place before than. The moment she entered my place she started criticizing my decor, the food, drinks, just about everything. Everything was kitsch to her. My boyfriend is from South Africa and she started in on these carved animals he got me for our first anniversary… aaand that’s when I lost it. I tried to keep it together, I really did but I think I did irreparable damage to our relationship. I would really not want to repeat what I said as I’m truly ashamed and embarrassed that I stooped that low.
Just looking for some advice. What can I do to make my little sister whole again.

I’m (23f) a preschool teacher (I mostly assist, but I also occasionally lead when needed and I run the after school program so I call myself a teacher). I work at the best school I’ve ever worked at and I work with some of the sweetest and most adorable kids (ages 3-5, sometimes 2-6). I’ve had baby fever and known I want to be a mother since I was 10, and since I became an adult the severe baby fever that makes me emotional comes in waves. It was pretty bad in 2020 and 2021 because a close friend had twins and I spent a lot of time with them, but it’s chilled out a little since then. Still think about being a mom almost every day.
But yesterday I had such a good day at work (I’ve had a pretty good week bc I’ve been getting loved by the kids and told by multiple people I’m doing a really good job, including a professional who came in to evaluate a child). I was at recess with the 3-4’s and some of them decided to sit with me on the teacher bench on the playground. One of my faves (D) who is 3 wanted to sit on my lap and I decided to take some selfies with her to send to her parents. Not only that, she randomly said I love you! I love when the kids do that. Anyway. When I got home last night I deleted the pics of the kids I took throughout the day to send to parents and I was looking at the selfies I took with D and just randomly started crying bc the baby fevemom fever was hitting.
The crying might also have been partially from the fact I’m waiting for my boyfriend (24m) of almost 6 years to propose so we can actually start getting our baby timeline going. (Yes I’m also in the waiting to wed sub.) It’s just frustrating and overwhelming knowing these milestones I’ve wanted since I was a kid I’m STILL waiting for, when I thought I’d be in a completely different place in life right now. It just gets me emotional sometimes, all these things. Bf wants kids so badly too, but I told him not until we’re at least engaged! But I would really prefer to be married. I know I’m young and have time, as many like to say, but at this point I won’t be having my first until 26/27 and I want more than 1.
I was sitting here thinking “Where do I rant about this?? A teacher sub??” And then I remembered WTT and the fact I used to come here a lot on my other account when I was 19-21. Now I don’t feel so weird and like I’ll be downvoted as much as a 23 yo.
I love my current position and school and really enjoy that I’m working a meaningful job while getting to see all my cuties everyday AND I’m getting childcare experience for when it’s finally time. Working with littles makes me want kids even more. I’m at a really good place with the job part of my life right now which is rare for me (even though I’m technically underpaid for everything I do), but everything else is feeling meh. I feel like in all other aspects I’m not doing what I should be to get myself on track and be happy with myself. I’m feeling like a blob again. Ugh I’m sorry for the pathetic rant, thanks for listening. I’m glad I can be understood here.

My NMom has said and done so many things that I can't help but laugh about because it's so absurd. I was just wondering if anyone else has stories like these?
Here are a few of my favorites from NMom:

• One year her state's FOOTBALL team won some big game (I don't know sports, sorry!) so Mom got me and my partner hats for the state's BASEBALL team for Christmas, saying "The football team won this year these baseball hats will be worth money some day!" ?????? It's not even the same sport??? And besides I'm pretty sure it wouldn't go up in value??? Neither of us like sports or hats.
  
• The next year for my birthday she got me those hair ties that are spiral like the old landline phone cords. She told me they're extremely rare and I'll never find another like it so I should be thankful she sent me something of such importance.... I see them all the time, even at Dollar Tree. I must be ultra lucky to run into such a rare item so often, I should play the lottery!
  
• After I had lived on the west coast for about 5 years, she suddenly started telling me multiple times that cars on the west coast don't have air conditioning??? I had been in many cars during that time and all had air conditioning, even if some didn't work. Then she repeatedly asked what everyone thought about my car's air conditioning since it was from the east coast and it was impossible that anyone had seen something so foreign. Telling her that cars here do have air conditioning wasn't enough. I eventually had to tell her that everyone who sees my car is amazed by it because no one had ever seen anything like it. She was incredibly satisfied that she was right about something, and never asked again.
  
• One time I told her the soup I made was super good and actually turned out better than hers, which tbh wasn't really hard to do since she doesn't know how to season anything. I must have stuttered though, because what she heard was "I've forgotten how amazing your soup is and mistakenly think it's possible to make some that's better." So she went out and found a styrofoam container, made a pot of her soup, froze it in a ziploc bag, and spent nearly $100 to next-day ship it to me even though I asked her not to. It really wasn't that good but she kept asking how much I liked it until I admitted it was better than mine (it wasn't). Then she tried to use that to convince me to move back in with her so I could eat her cooking every day. Yes Mother, shitty soup that I didn't want or like is TOTALLY going to convince me to go back to that awful environment that was nearly impossible to escape from in the first place!
  

I have an endless list of stories but these always make me laugh because I have no idea where she gets these crazy ideas from. But since the world revolves around her, there's no way she could be wrong!

1 day pre-op
Early morning It is raining cats and dogs. I wake my husband up to take me to the airport. I arrive in Madrid and now I have a few hours to kill before I can check into my airbnb. I eat half a chicken pita and coffee before 13:00, since I need to fast for 6 hours before my consultation and tests.
Afternoon I check into the airbnb - it’s COLD. I message the host about the heating and apparently it comes on later.
Evening I am at the hospital and they send me from one place to the other and finally I get to the right place. Consultation, blood tests etc. A lot of waiting. I am STARVING.
Late Evening After everything I scuff down the apple and half pita that I had left in my handbag. Tired, I return to the airbnb and it’s freezing. Try to take a shower and the water is cold. Can’t recover from a surgery here.
Operation day
06:30 I wake up and can’t feel my feet. Too late for breakfast. I just eat an apple and gulp down copious amounts of water.
07:00 Fast starts. I get ready, book a hotel and call airbnb. The customer service is amazing and they give me a full refund.
11:00 Hotel let’s me check in early after I explain that I will not be able to check in after surgery. I buy some liquids and lay out towels, pajamas etc. The bed is really comfy and the room is nice (and warm).
13:00 I am at the hospital, someone misplaced me for an hour. We go through the final steps. It goes fast. At around 15:00 I am in the surgery room.
?? I remember waking up in the ICU/recovery room and later in the private room. The doctor and anesthesiologist sit with me in my room and slowly help me get dressed after she takes out the catheter. She combs my hair because there is a lot of blood in it. I get sick twice. It’s around 01:30 and I had no idea it was this late. I message a quick “am ok” to my husband and mom, eventhough I don’t feel okay at all. I feel in disbelief that I am being discharged now. My hip is THROBBING and it is impossible to put weight on my right leg. A taxi picks me up for the 600m to the hotel and he stops at the pharmacy to pick up medicine for me. I tip him well because he had to help me get out of the car and into the hotel room. He also stopped because I got sick again.
The rest of the night is not friendly to me. I needed to wee so I got up from the bed, but all I remember is when I woke up I was moaning on the floor, totally blacked out, meaning I had fell hard. I think I just napped on the floor after that and in some miraculous way got back to the bed eventually.
1 day post op
09:00 Next morning and I am doing a bit better, I hear my heartbeat in my ears the whole time. I am in and out of sleep and listening to my book. Getting out of bed is a massive struggle and pain due to the hip bone graft. I sip on protein shakes and juice. Eventually I ask the doctor about the noise in my ears. She comes by to the hotel and takes my vitals, she says everything is fine under the circumstances, my blood pressure will pick up again then I will feel better again, because I lost a lot of blood when they did the bone grafting.
Rest of the day is a blur. Called the airline to ask for assistance because I can’t even walk 10 feet without feeling like passing out. The lady was so patient because I can barely talk. I muster the energy to wash my hair over the tub, because I don’t think they let people fly that can’t walk, talk well and with blood in their hair. Pink water everywhere, I slump into the bed exhausted wet hair and all.
2 days post op
7:00 I get up and take 45 min to get ready and pack, I only came with a backpack. I almost didn’t need anything as I was just sleeping most of the time. I am glad I packed my own towel to sleep on because there was blood and the hotel linens are white. The trip back feels like a mountain in front of me.
I am astounded that the operation coordinator said I should be able to fly home today, because I feel like death warmed up. It was probably when she thought I was still coming with someone.
Once at the airport I take about 20 mins to find the assistance booth and almost cry from relief when I get there. From there on they make sure I get where I need to be. On the flight I get a few looks because I guess I don’t really look sick, especially with a mask on that covers most of the swelling and bruising. I puke twice into a barf bag. The flight was very empty. My head is ON FIRE.
I didn’t think there would be assistance at the arrival airport because I’m not even sure what I booked, but thank goodness as I’m limping out of the plane a wheelchair appears and the man behind it asks me “Ms X?”. I almost cry again which is weird because I haven’t been this emotional in a long time. Husband is waiting for me at arrivals.
Finally at home and I am relieved and very very exhausted. I just sleep from here on out. Some time during the night I wake up and take a shower. I sleep with a cold cloth on my forehead, because this headache is out of this world.
As a side note: My husband is freaked out. He says I look like another person. I know he isn’t trying to upset me but he looks horrified. I’m not sure how to deal with this so I try to let it go. I look like 100 bees stung my face. At least my phone recognizes me.
3 days post op
I wake up at 6 with master headache. Somewhere during the night I moved to the couch to sleep upright and to ice my head with icewater and cloths. Maxxed out on prescription meds. I don’t want to over medicate but I can’t deal with this so my husband takes me to the hospital. I ask them to please just get rid of the headache but they insist on a CT because I passed out on the floor 2 nights ago. They put me on a pain drip which doesn’t work, make me wait 1.5 hours for a CT in a very bright waiting room (could have been worse). Afterwards the doc says he doesn’t want to put me on another drip, he just gives me medication to drink. Not happy with this as the pain is at the same level as when I arrived, and at this stage even keeping liquids down is difficult. At least my brain is okay according to the CT. When we return home I continue to ice my head and I just try to sleep. I have the weirdest scariest dreams.
4 days post op
The headache continues throughout today, with ups and downs. It is more bearable than the previous day. We have the most uneventful Christmas and finally in the evening we watch a Christmas movie together. We eat a very soft spaghetti bolognaise. Chewing is a mission and I need to clean my mouth every hour, doctor’s orders. Yesterday was the first day I ate solid food and I think that helped a lot with the dizziness. (Different doctors have different guidelines, mine’s were soft foods like pasta, risotto, liquids, white fish, eggs etc.)
5 days post op
Horrible night and the headache is back with a vengeance at 06:00. I take more medicine and fall asleep again. When I wake up again at 10:30 I am desperate. I read up all the ways to get rid of headaches. I put on my warm robe and boots, and I put a cold, wet cloth around my neck and sit on the balcony. It’s -2c so the fresh air hits hard and keeps the cloth cold. I drink a cup of coffee with a straw and the maximum combined allowed dose of pain meds. 30 mins later and pure bliss as the headache has gone. Then all of a sudden I feel good. I am actually a little worried to be feeling this normal all of a sudden.
19:00 Note since this morning: everything is in check and haven’t had pain meds since this morning. I feel like a whole different person. My prayers have been answered. I was able to shower, wash my hair again, cook dinner (in slow motion), make the bed etc. But still very careful not to exert myself.
I mustered up the courage to take off the plaster from my hip. It is VERY bruised. The cut is long and thin, I think I will be able to make it disappear with some tlc once it is completely healed. I wasn’t expecting it to be this long.
Day 5 Notes:
Cleaning teeth is a mission and the first 3 days I was just rinsing my mouth with water every 3-4 hours, and always directly after eating. I have been flossing 2-3 times a day since day 2.
Still drinking with straws
I put on a lot of vaseline on my lips to prevent it from drying out, as I can’t close my mouth “relaxed” yet. I think it helped to an extent.
Huge mistake practically skipping breakfast the morning of the surgery, also because the night before I didn’t pay a lot of attention to dinner. I think if I had more fuel it would have been a little easier.
7 days post op
Pretty uneventful, the bruise on my hip is a little wild, the swelling on my face has gone down tremendously.
Walking is still a little difficult, but a lot better.
——————
The doctor calls quite regularly to check up and I am very happy that I chose to go with him at the end. He and the anesthesiologist are amazing.
—————— For some reason I thought this was going to be a lot easier. Maybe it was because the surgery coordinator said I can go home 2 days post op which made me believe it would have been okay by then, or maybe it was because most posts I’ve seen about it seemed to have been somewhat easy. I think I definitely did not pay attention to how painful the bone graft was going to be. I would NOT recommend doing this alone. The doctor also told me once I was there he is surprised that I came alone after all. Before I went, I asked the operation coordinator if I must sleep in the hospital one night, because I am coming alone, and she told me I will be fine alone because I am very close to the hospital, and a lot of patients stay in that specific hotel to recover. In hindsight I wish I would have insisted on sleeping in the hospital that one night.
——————
Biggest 3M: post-op concern is lip incompetence and some soft tissue asymmetry. Hopefully this clears up between months 3-6. Otherwise I will enquire about a revision or a mentalis resuspension.
Biggest 4M concern: still slightly worries about the lower lip, but it has improved drastically. This is the first month I am also not on the fence about having had this operation and starting to like the results
Tl;dr operation was harder than expected, mental rollercoaster until month 4, only liked results by month 4, still slightly worried about lip competence (it’s getting better), still drooling a lot at night

How Sarah J. Maas and Her Novel 'A Court of Silver Flames' Changed My Outlook On Damn Near Everything:
Let me start off with some information about me. I am 32. I am a married man. My wife convinced me to read the ACOTAR series.
The end.
The rest about myself will be sprinkled in this… book report? review? essay? Whatever it is, I already know I am going to bear parts of me that I can only type. Forgive the tangents and thoughts that will probably end up nowhere because I just need to get my thoughts out.
“My life’s okay. Just when you’re not around me. I feel like I’m drowning.”
Music has been my life since I had my first CD player. I would shove that massive contraption in the front pocket of my Levi’s just about every day while I would walk, or skate around my neighborhood. Escaping in the depths of my mind while strings, percussion and lyrics fill my ears, imagining me in a different place, a different time, doing something other than whatever my life was. Even at a young age I would disassociate like it was my job.
cut to.
When my wife said she wanted me to read the ACOTAR series, I of course has my hesitations. I read. Mostly horror or fantasy. Not really romance.
“This is fantasy.”
I saw how engrossed she was while reading book after book. “5 stars.” Would leave her lips after finishing a couple. I saw the emotion in her face when talking about these books. Like hearing her talk about herself, or me and our life. I had just finished a thriller, half satisfied, half annoyed with the predictable plot points and overused tropes. I decided to start the series. “This is fantasy.”
This is not fantasy. It is in the sense that there is magic, there are fae, males with bat wings, monsters and the like. This is as real as anything I’ve read in the last 15 years.
I’m going to skip the main parts of the series, with our heroine and the males who love her. I liked all that.
But I want to talk about Nesta.
When reading the first book, my wife asked me, very purposely, what I thought about the sisters, instinctively knowing I would see something in the older sibling.
“I mean there aren’t in it too much but I do like…Nesta. That’s her name right?” I gravitated towards this character that on the surface was… for lack of a better term, a mean girl. Mean to her sister. Entitled. Lazy. I immediately saw it as some sort of shield. Not outwardly like I thought “oh she’s actually very misunderstood.” like I am some sort of wizard, predicting the outcome of the series. I saw it as a shield, like the one I have for myself and have disguised my entire life.
So it would come to a surprise to me what happens to Nesta at the end of the second book. Thrown into a literal cauldron, being forced to change, against her will. Fighting the entire way down, stealing a part of the thing that was tearing her soul apart, coming out of it, changed forever.
Being thrown into a world so foreign to her, forced to live with it. It’s better than the alternative of how you were living your life before! Right?
Right. But fuck you.
This character, so clearly broken, so clearly in desperate need of love, threw it all back in the faces of those that tried. Not in a place of malice. Not in a place of hate, even if the words spewing out of her mouth said as much. A place of such despair that the shield was now armor. Surrounding her entire self. And when her father was killed in front of her, without a trace of trying to stop it, as if the entire situation before her and the consequences and the past racing through her head lasted hours, not seconds as in reality. And his neck snapped right in front of her. But she helped save the day. She helped the heroine on her “Hero’s Journey”. It’s great right?
Right. But fuck you.
That third book wrecked me. The Suriel. The sacrifice from the High Lord of the Night Court. All that of course ripped though me like it was happening to me and those that I loved.
Nesta’s scream to the person she loved. That she loved but couldn’t explain why. The thought of living in a world without that little speck of something she has never felt before wasn’t an option. That wrecked me too.
So I finished that book. Exhausted. Mentally drained because while our heroine went through her own trials and tribulations, her older sister, who hates everything and everyone (on the outside of course) went through it. To devastating effects.
Then I read the novella. The “christmas special” if you will. Excited that we get to see the story from Nesta’s perspective for the first time.
Broken. This character, who you are made to dislike right off the jump in the first book. This character who was forced to change. Forced into a literal cauldron. Forced to watch her family struggle to maintain their own sanity while forcing herself to stay encased in the armor surrounding her so no one can get in. No one can see the pain of her actions, her lack of actions and the pain of wanting love but knowing she doesn’t deserve it.
She survived. She clearly has loving sisters and a male who loves her. She should be happy, right?
Right. But fuck you.
A Court of Silver Flames broke me. Broke me in a good way. Opened me up to deal with my own “I don’t deserve love.” I can be mean. I can be bratty. I can be lazy. I have said and thought some truly terrible things to those I love. To those who love me. Why would anyone love me? I’d rather shut down, disassociate and fuck around on my phone.
“This is how we grow now, woman. A child ignored. These will just be places to me now.”
The book starts off with a memory. Nesta’s last moments as a human. Fighting with every ounce of her to keep any remaining humanity. Why? Did she leave a mark worthy of the history books as a human? No. Did she deserve immortality? Forever beauty? Love? No. Not to her.
“Climb. Is all we know. When thaw. Is not below us. No, can’t grown up. In that iron ground.”
Climbing was a major theme throughout the book. In the literal sense and in the metaphorical. Nesta was forced into a life she did not want. Did not think she deserved. And shut those around her, off completely. She saw her sisters, living, learning to thrive. Learning to love and be loved by this new family. She spiraled. Her sisters may deserve the immortality. Deserve the love. Deserve the praise. Why would she? Why would the girl who watched her youngest sister go out on her own, hunting and gathering food and survival while she sat in anger at her father. Her father that showed no love or determination towards his daughters. Not in a way a father should. A father who came through in the end. Crossing waters, with boats named of his children, coming to save them. A father who showed no sign of this while surrounded by his daughters. A father who “was more a father to me than my own” to a stranger. A father who died right in front of her. In front of the male she loved with her whole being, all while he was near dying himself.
Gone was the girl who laid atop that dying male she loved, insisting that there would be no chance in hell she could live on this earth without him. Gone was the girl who struck down the villain. Gone was the girl.
Despair. Death. That’s what remained. That’s what she deserved.
Trauma. Sex. Love. Climbing.
Throughout the book Nesta was training. Physical, brutal training. Not to be some great warrior. But to train to her inner self in letting those who love her, back in. Training to become whole. Training to restore self worth, if it was ever there to begin with. Because she replaced those awful thoughts in her mind with sex. Sex with strangers. Then “just sex” with the male she loved, but would never say. Fill her mind with nothing but earth-shattering sex so she could push those awful thoughts to the side… for a time, rather than embrace said earth-shattering sex.
Meeting new people. Gaining friendship. Training. Climbing. Fighting. Saying unforgivable things to the sisters she loves. Pushing them away. Pushing away the male she loves. Fucking that male over and over again to forget herself. Running from her power. Using that power to destroy her enemies. Losing herself. Training. Climbing. Gaining friendship. Self loathing. Getting better. Getting worse. Fucking. Disassociating. Fucking. Rinse. Repeat.
When faced with the truth of her love. The truth if her power. The Great Rite. When faced with these obstacles, again both literal and metaphorical, she had to make a choice.
Wallow. Fall down those steps into a bottle or into a strangers bed.
Give up. Let the Kelpie take her as his bride. Give up and let the queen take what power she has. Give up and let her sister die. Give up and become what she thinks everyone sees her as.
Or climb. Climb the literal mountain to save herself, save her friends, Climb the mental mountain to her the male she loves so he can hear the truth of said love.
Death.
Ten thousand steps.
A mountain.
A dance floor.
A declaration of love.
A beast of a man who loves her and gives her earth-shattering sex.
Climb those. Climb out of the literal cauldron AND the metaphorical one.
It’ll be hard, right?
Right. But fuck you.
Cut that ribbon it and it doesn’t disappear.
Cut that ribbon and wear it.
Can’t make your trauma disappear. Learn to not let that trauma control your life.
When I finished A Court of Silver Flames I knew I was Nesta. I knew that I couldn’t just magically get rid of my trauma. My sadness. My self loathing. I knew that I had to let it in and not push it aside. Let it in to heal from it. Cut that ribbon and wear it. Fucking. Climb.
And have that earth-shattering sex.
Sarah J. Maas wrote these books with a clear understanding of how hard LIFE is. She wrote characters with depth and humanity. Seemingly side characters who you didn’t think twice on while reading this amazing adventure with our heroine. Side characters that become mirrors to yourself.
Be a Mor. Be an Amren. Be an Elain. Be a Cassian. BE A FEYRE. Be the hero. Be a Rhys who loves her.
You can be any of these characters.
I am Nesta.
For the good and especially the bad.
SJM made a series where fairies and bat boys, living eyeballs and a Cauldron “god” seem so normal because of the dance she does with these characters. And I thank her for that.
“Yeah, these things take forever, I especially am slow. But I realized I need you. And I wondered if I could come home.”

Twins (1-0) @ Royals (0-1)

First Pitch: 3:10 PM at Kauffman Stadium

Team	Starter	TV	Radio
Twins	Sonny Gray (0-0, -.-- ERA)	BSNO	TIBN
Royals	Jordan Lyles (0-0, -.-- ERA)	BSKC	KCSP

MLB	Fangraphs	Baseball Savant	Reddit Stream	IRC Chat
Gameday	Game Graph	Strikezone Map	Live Comments	Libera: ##baseball

Line Score - Bases empty, 2 Outs, Bottom of the 1st

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
MIN	1									1	2	0	2
KC										0	0	0	-

Box Score

KC		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
SS	Witt Jr.	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
RF	Melendez	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
C	Perez, S	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250
1B	Pasquantino	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
DH	Reyes, F	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
3B	Dozier	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
CF	Isbel	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
LF	Eaton	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
2B	Lopez, N	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000

KC	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Lyles	1.0	2	1	1	1	0	25-13	9.00

MIN		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
RF	Kepler	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
SS	Correa	1	0	0	0	0	0	.167
DH	Buxton	1	1	1	0	0	0	.500
LF	Larnach	0	0	0	0	1	0	.500
3B	Miranda	1	0	1	1	0	0	.250
2B	Gordon	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1B	Gallo	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
C	Vázquez	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
CF	Taylor, M	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250

MIN	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Gray, So	0.2	0	0	0	0	0	5-4	0.00

Scoring Plays

Inning	Event	Score
T1	Jose Miranda singles on a line drive to center fielder Kyle Isbel. Byron Buxton scores. Trevor Larnach to 2nd.	0-1

Highlights

Description	Length	Video
Miranda's RBI single	0:17	Video

Updated at 3:24 PM.
Remember to sort by new to keep up!

For any mistakes english isn't my first language . I'm gone need to give some context. I 14f am the 2 oldest child of my parents and I'm the only girl out of 4 kids my oldest brother Alen 15m(fake names) and two younger twin brothers max 12m and Julian 12m . I come from a culture were boy are much more wanted than girls I was an ups baby from my parents fu***ng to much . They didn't want children after alen and wanted to abort me but abortion is elligal were I'm from and my family is very religious so they didn't. My parents relly hated the fact that there beautiful baby boy was Bron sick and the the unwanted one is completely healthy. Then my brothers were Bron and they were more than happy and made party's for my brothers during taht time. I was living with my aunts till I was 7 then my parents moved to Germany and they needed to take me because my aunt got very sick at that time and was angry taht they would just leave there child with here so they don't have much contact with here . There have been many events were my parents just straight up wanted me dead. One time a doctor sed taht my brothers heart was a bit unhealthy but that with medicin it wouldn't be a problem and my mom emideatly wanted me to donate I was 10. So I really don't get along with my parents much Now to the story My brother needed to have and operation and mom went with him leaving me alone to take care if 3 men who barely get out of bed ore do anything useful (my dad is job less and mom to ) . Mom called me and screamed at me why I haven't called yet to check on my brother it was 2 day after the operation at 6.00 am in the morning. I git angry and told here that I have a fing life to and hung up today I didn't know why but I started to cry because I wanted to be loved like my brother he git everything I understand being disabled isn't fun but deam. On my birthday they selabrate him the cake ha shis name we only sing for him and his birthday is 2 monthes before mine and they still did taht to me . My dad saw me and asked me what was wrong and I exploded I told him everything I felt and he jsur looked down and didn't say anything later my mom called me and told me she was disappointed in me for being jaulous of a disabled person like him and that if I would be in this place I would know how hard it was . I started crying and my mom killed me a bch and a overreacting unwanted child and I don't know what to do
so reddit IATA

25F, my oldest sister is 28. This happened November of 2022.
Backstory for context: oldest sister (May) moved out at 14 because we moved to a house that wouldn’t have allowed her to go to the school she was enrolled in at the time. Later, me and 2 siblings moved in with my grandparents and changed schools again, where I met my husband. Dated until we graduated, then got married in 2017. We had our daughter just as lockdown went into place (April 2020).
May was never involved in our lives. We lost contact when she moved out, but communication got better in our twenties and I thought it was okay between us.
October of 2022, inflation ruined all of my budgeting. We lived on one income because we had a 2 yr old and little family assistance. May tells me she’d give me money for my birthday (also in October) since I didn’t need anything else. I asked for $150, just to get us by until next paycheck. My birthday rolls around and I hear nothing from her. I asked, she said she had helped my little brother with some bills. I said I understood, and that was that.
In November, we had to travel for my husband’s Marine Corps ball. This was our first ball with his new unit. Our funds were already spread thin because of how terrible things were economically, so I reached out to my sister one more time for at least $100 for gas and groceries.
May refused to call me, but texted question after question.
”So you need money for his ball?”
”I’m trying to understand, what are you buying that costs $100?”
I got so frustrated and told her to just say NO if she didn’t want to give me anything. She kept telling me that she wanted to understand why I couldn’t get a job when I always have my high school senior sister babysitting on the weekends, or why we couldn’t “budget better”. I kept telling her that my sister babysits on the weekends because we live 2 HOURS AWAY FROM HER. I wouldn’t be able to work unless I became a weekend mom and worked all week.
In the end, she told me I was using my 2 yr old as “an excuse” to stay home, that I’m choosing to do nothing while leeching off my husband, and claimed I was using my daughter as a pity tool to get money out of people. At this point, I snapped and basically said

1. how fucking dare you say something like that to a child YOU’VE ONLY SEEN A HANDFUL OF TIMES
   
2. You’re blocked on everything
   

After that, nothing. Christmas came around, my sister told me May asked about me going to my mom’s house and I said I wasn’t going over if she was there. She proceeded to tell everyone that she didn’t understand why I was so mad at her.
“I didn’t call her a pity tool! I said she’s USING HER like a pity tool”.
Now, it’s April. I’m a WFH office assistant and will be getting my personal trainer cert. May wants to see my daughter for her birthday this month. Me, hubs, and high school sister say she doesn’t deserve to see her when she never once tried to apologize for calling a toddler a pity tool. My mom thinks I’m overreacting, I need to stop being childish and talk to her. AITA?

Is this a good build this is my first time building my own pc
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core ProcessorCore Processor Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING WIFI II ATX AM4 Motherboard Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive Zotac GAMING Twin Edge OC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR 8 GB Video Card NZXT H5 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case Corsair RM750e 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler Seagate EXOS Enterprise 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive

So exactly as the title says. My HOA has a rule about trash bins not being left on the curb, which is probably pretty standard. I never leave mine out though. Either my roommate or I always put it in our garage after the trash people come or that night. Where the problem comes in though. My neighbors to my left are super bad about grabbing their bin. It sits for days at a time some weeks. Well at Christmas time last year I received a letter threatening me with a lien against my property due to not being compliant with the rules regarding the trash bin. I sent them an email in response to the letter stating that it was not my bin and that basically I would appreciate them taking the time to actually verify it's me in violation before sending a threatening letter to me. Well fast forward to now. I checked my mail today and had another letter that was yet again about the trash bin, but this time they said that if I didn't respond by yesterday that they were going to file the lien against my property. I had taken some vacation, which is why I didn't see the letter until today but it was sent on the 24th. In the letter though they also say that they have the ability to get the serial number off of the bin to see whose it is, which made me pretty mad because this isn't the first time they've sent me letters about a trash bin that isn't mine. So again, my question is if I have any legal grounds to sue for harassment? Adding in that they also have sent blanket letters to the entire HOA in regards to trash bins being out in front, so if you add those then I have received 4 in total.

Where we met Jan Egeland last.
Where we met Tchizak last
Where we met Johnathan last
[Wiki] - [Chapter Start] [First] - [Prev] - [Next]
Jan Egeland stared down at the document in front of him. This was bad, this was terrible, this was… It was like a bout of exceptionally bad food poisoning, the more he read it the worse it got and just didn’t stop. As you went through the events, every time you thought the Raha had hit rock bottom, they’d once again find another level of depravity.
The buzzer sounded once again, the signal that someone was at the door to his office. A buzzer that had been going on for the last twenty minutes. He knew exactly who was on the other side of that door: Unk’gar, the Estorian diplomat. No more fancy velvet letters and snide comments: the Raha he had met before had been desperately trying to talk with Jan.
The Terran however had been spending the last twenty minutes trying to calm down, trying to bring the anger to a manageable simmer. The diplomat was a master at never snapping, never letting even the worst of the worst get to him. But these actions… If anything as time went on he got more and more angry.
Jan pressed a button to unlock the door, seeing the entrance slide open and revealing a very nervous looking Raha on the other side, antenna twitching and wringing its little talon like hands. The Terran made a motion towards the chair opposite his desk which the insect quickly took.
“Greetings bright one, I am so glad we could talk before this gets out of hand, we need to-”
“Shut the fuck up, you don’t get to talk, I talk.”
The Raha was silenced by the pure furry emanating from Jan as Unk’gar just sat there across from the Terran, squirming in his seat. Somehow those words coming from the normally soft spoken Jan made them more terrifying. Honestly even the Terran was slightly concerned with how he felt: the anger was like a burning in his chest, he hadn’t felt this way since… well since before going into stasis.
“Let's go over what happened shall we. First a member of your royal family attacks a Terran vessel, injuring one and enslaving another, which breaks all of our previous agreements.”
“It is highly regrettable that prince Hakthas made the mistake of not verifying such an action, we didn’t know about-”
“Don’t. Bullshit. Me.” The Terran interrupted the snivelling excuses of the insect in front of him, a tone that stated there was no way to attempt to argue this. “We’re not really annoyed with that part, because your arsehole prince got himself killed doing that. Good riddance frankly.”
Jan took a moment to glance back down at the document in his hands, as if the events that had happened over the past week hadn’t been burned into his brain at this point.
“Your reaction to this was to board a Ritlian research vessel, killing everyone. You did this might I add, by breaking the safe harbour law, the only treaty the both of us have agreed to. We’ve informed the rest of the Federation species about this so I’m sure every Estorian space captain is going to be thrilled to realise that nobody is going to save their ass anymore.”
Unk’gar looked as if he was going to interject, which the Terran immediately held a finger out to cut them off so they could continue.
“You used this ship to attack a research station, killing all three scientists inside. Research that was going to revolutionise medical technology in the galaxy, research that has been set back by at least ten years. You do all this, while also failing to accomplish any of your actual goals!”
“The Raha royal house regrets that Lut’har chose such unsanctioned actions against the Terran Alliance, we-”
Jan slammed his fist onto the table, causing the opposing diplomat to jump in his chair.
“An AI captured his ship! We have all your communications, we know you gave express permission and had knowledge of his actions before he took them. Your lies are insulting.”
The Terran was practically baring his teeth at this point, the ever calm and ever friendly Jan Eagland was losing his temper.
“Maybe if it was just that we could work something out. But in those three scientists, you killed an uplift, a dog. No I’m incorrect, you tortured a dog to death. We, the Terran alliance, are done with you.”
Jan reached into his desk, pulling out a document he had already prepared, and handed it over to Unk’gar.
“You have three hours to decide whether to accept these terms. We expect the Raha Royal house to leave the Estorian Empire and submit to vassalization by the Terran conclave.”
Unk’gar’s antenna twitched wildly as he read the proposal, worry and shock emanating from his entire body.
“They won’t accept this, we can look at reparations but-”
“Accept it, or we know where this is heading.”
—--------------------------------
“So the package provides standard maintenance, teardown and rebuild. We’ll have your friend running like new”
Tchizak couldn’t really smile, the brown exoskeleton plates that made up the Kirken face didn’t allow for such a movement, but the 3ft tall insect had long ago worked out that tilting your head slightly to the side gave off the same impression to Terrans. Yes, Tchizak had become very very adept at conversing with the deathworlder apes who called themselves Terrans.
It had all started seven years ago, when a chance meeting with a Terran looking to get their cleaning droid fixed had spiralled into a business opportunity that had made him and his boss very rich. That original store still existed, “Ptatch’s tower of repair”, still a messy amalgamation of oil, scrap parts and pure ingenuity that promised to fix anything anywhere. This was a far cry from the expensive modernised saleroom Tchizak was currently stood in, decor of white and silver showing off the various services and accessories that “Ptatch’s Droid Hospital” provided.
It had started slowly. He’d done the crazy thing the original Terran had asked of him: Fixed up a now obsolete cleaning droid that the deathworlder had pack bonded with and called “Cleany McCleanface”. Then that Terran had told others. Slowly but surely more had come, hundred of them, each clutching broken down machines that nobody sane wanted to fix.
After that they had started going into accessories. New startup tunes, CPU upgrades, case upgrades, accessories of the mundane and dangerous. Tchizak had soon learned that if you stated you could “heal” a Terran’s mechanical friend, as well as give them fun new accessories, then they practically fell over themselves to throw credits at you.
Their biggest store was the one he was working at now on the Kirken colony named “Diamond’s Eye”, but “Ptatch’s Droid Hospital” had locations on over five planets, each one a major Terran destination. Because where Terrans went, they brought their friends with them.
“Also this comes with free installation of any additional accessories. Case replacements, addons, the works.”
This was all how Tchizak now found himself beating his small wings furiously to keep at the same eye level as the Terran opposite him, using a hand to control the soft light projector displaying the various accessories they sold. Gone were the days of dingy dangerous looking stores. Screens showing products to be purchased lined the walls, with one playing a music video from some hip new Kirken band. Everything was polished and provided a level of professional service.
For a fee of course.
“This won’t change Buddy’s internals, right? You’re not going to just try and replace him like all the other places?”
Tchizak gave another friendly head tilt. Terrans were on average 6ft of angry muscle bound ape, able to thrive on planets that would kill most Kirken. However he’d started to find them adorable. It was the same question every time, that same illogical idea that you can’t replace the machine friend they had bonded with.
What exactly defined the machine’s “life” differed between each person: some refused to replace any non critical part, preferring to keep even the most brittle and faded plastic casings. Others seemed fine as long as the motherboard or CPU wasn’t replaced. As if there was a special part of each droid that hosted the “soul”, but nobody could agree exactly what that was.
“Of course not! Mr “Buddy” will be the exact same machine. If you’re uncomfortable removing or replacing parts we can stick with external accessories.”
The Terran seemed happy with that reply, before responding, almost embarrassed.
“What about weapons…”
Of course he wanted weapons. Terrans loved taking harmless machines and making them dangerous for no apparent reason. He couldn’t tell why, but weapon attachments were their most popular selling item.
“Of course, we’ve got knife holsters in up to 6 blade configurations, chainsaw holsters and gun holders for most small arms weapon brands. All of which come with additional control modules for either autonomous or manual firing.”
“What about something… bigger.”
Tchizak took a moment to change the soft light display to show his most dangerous item.
“Claymore roomba is what you’re looking for. This attachment comes with one ornamental completely accurate Claymore.”
“Ornamental? Can I re-”
A single insectoid finger was shoved into the mouth of the Terran, shushing him instantly. While the deathworlder could have tore Tchizak limb from limb, the potential customer just looked confused.
“If you finish that sentence, I can no longer legally sell you this item.”
The Kirken took a moment to rummage around the brown satchel he was wearing, before fishing out a prewritten message from some very intelligent lawyers.
“Ptatch’s Droid Hospital would like to remind all customers that the Claymore roomba attachment is for ornamental use only, and the completely accurate and realistic design is only for Terran cultural reasons. The ornamental claymore can only be removed for cleaning purposes, and should not be replaced with a real item, as this breaks weapon trafficking laws. Ptatch’s Droid Hospital does not support the customer buying their own claymore and replacing it.”
Tchizak finished his legal spiel, the Terran seemingly understanding what he was getting at and giving a nod.
“Ok, I’ll take it!”
“Fantastic, just let me get the bill and we can start the work-”
The various screens in the sales office gave a loud high pitched tone as they all turned to a red colour, each screen showing the two words: “Emergency Broadcast”.
—------------------------------

“Confused statement: But this is impossible!”
The room was a stereotypical lab. If you asked someone to picture in their mind a generic science lab, they would describe the room they were in: With test tubes, blinking machines, hazard signs and various pieces of equipment bubbling away with unknown liquids.
Inside stood four figures, all Scythens, three of the bioluminescent bundle of tentacles were sat on their hovering disks, two of the machines denoted with the standard scientist colours, one denoting the form of a police officer. All of them were hovering around a fourth Scythen, who was most definitely not hovering: Because they were dead, splattered along the floor as if torn in two.
“Explaining statement: This can’t happen. The room was locked from the inside, and to cause this damage…” The first scientist spoke in the mechanical voice that all Scythen’s did.
“Continuing statement: Would require an object to have negative mass, but be travelling faster than light!” The second scientist responded.
The police officer floated around, occasionally prodding something as they investigated the death, leaving the two scientists to talk amongst themselves.
“Concerned statement: We’re all alone out here on the ship. What could have killed them?”
“Scared statement: I don’t know, are we going to be fine?”
“Sexual tension: Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
During this time the police officer had finished looking around, instead deciding to focus on a random cleaning droid making its way through the room.
“Revealing statement: Who drew the smiley face on this droid? I need to see the video feed for the ship.”
In an instant the feed was brought up on one of the various screens, showing the corridors of the ship over the last few hours, fast forwarded through in a few moments.
“Exclamation: Stop! Right there! Enhance!”
The video footage was paused and the single frame enlarged. It showed a 6ft tall bipedal figure, two forward facing eyes, like some form of ape. The figure was running along the floor on all fours, only wearing a basic nondescript uniform of some kind
“Shocking statement: You have a Terran on the ship!”

“OH FUCK OFF!”
Dr Johnathan Fletcher had jumped off the seat, the Terran making an angry gesture with his hand as he shouted at the TV screen. The room was small, standard crew quarters: a bed, a basic couch and some other creature comforts such as the TV attached to the wall. A TV that had been paused by the other figure in the room after the Terran’s outburst: the Sythen calling themselves Lena who was currently flashing the colours for confusion.
“Concerned question: What is wrong friend Johnathan?”
Johnathan shook his head, annoyed. It was supposed to be a fun movie night in the darkened room, to go watch some Scythen media. Lana had told him of a fun Scythen made horror movie. What he didn’t expect was to be insulted this deeply.
“Is this really how the Scythen see us… as some kind of… of… feral science goblin!”
“Clarifying statement: I don’t think anyone said ‘feral’. If it makes you feel better, it’s never the Terran’s fault”
Johnathan glared at Lana for a moment.
“Reminding statement: May I remind you that you created an unstable antimatter bomb on the ship?”
“That ended up leading to a breakthrough in energy generation!”
“Continuing point: You submerged sector A3 in dangerous acid.”
“That ended up creating a lubricant 17% more efficient than the current accepted formula!”
“Final point: You set fire to the kitchen.”
“Grilled cheese toasties don’t taste right when made using the synthesiser!”
Lana turned the colour of annoyance, deeply wishing they had a face so they could indulge in the Terran movement of ‘facepalming’
“Explaining statement: Friend Johnathan, I enjoy your company and your personality, but Terrans have a reputation they have earned. I have worked on this vessel for 49 years, during which before your employment there had been a total of 19 emergencies. Do you know how many there have been during your two years on this ship?”
Johnathan slowly began to rub the back of his neck as he realised where this was going.
“A few...”
“Answering statement: 471. I like you friend Johnathan, just sit down and enjoy the movie you feral science goblin.”
—-----------------
The movie had continued predictably. Other impossible murders took place, until the Scythen crew were able to capture the Terran using a pile of candy and a rock with eyes painted on it as bait. Just as Lana had said, in the end it turned out the captain of the ship had been the one to bring the Terran on board, due to some disagreement with a reduction in grant funding.
The end climax had involved the Terran creating a miniature blackhole to destroy the captain with: Created using nothing but a piece of string and a toaster. In the end the two main characters had started a relationship together, and the Terran had been humanely released onto a local farm which had plenty of room to run around in and lots of rocks to pack bond with.
Johnathan had to admit, Terran slander aside it had been an enjoyable B-movie horror flick. He stepped off the seat once more, giving a stretch as he stood up.
“Well this ‘feral science goblin’ is going to head off for the night. Thanks for inviting me over Lana, it was a lot of fun to-”
The TV gave a loud high pitched tone as the screen turned to a red colour, showing the two words: “Emergency Broadcast”.
—-------------------
Dr K Xavius sat at her desk, typing away on her Galnet connector late into the night. The room was unassuming: Digital whiteboards filled every wall, equations and design schematics filling each one. Tools neatly lay in their respective docking areas, hand written notes were delicately placed into orderly piles, overall the room looked like most others at the research facility.
The fact that a Hagorthian was the one sitting at the desk was an oddity and caused most new employees of the top secret Terran research facility a bit of whiplash. The Hagorthian’s were a vicious race, apex predators with a culture of warfare and combat. Reptilian, heavily armoured, deep black scales. Each three fingered hand and foot ended in vicious razor sharp claws. Four pitch black eyes lay above a large face-spanning jaw of giant needle like teeth.
In addition to this, the Hagorthian’s were one of the five main races of the Estorian empire, so seeing one here was a huge oddity. At a glance there was nothing special about Dr Xavius, apart from her rather short stature at only 7ft tall. However just mentioning her name was enough to make most people understand why she was here.
Her name was Dr Kov Xavius, and she had cured the god plague.
By Hagorthian standards she was a failure. Her species have an interesting quirk: They never stop growing. An infinite continued growth and regeneration lead into a culture of nearly infinite desire to feed and fight. It wasn’t uncommon for mature Hagorthian’s to reach the height of 10-15 ft of pure muscle, and the recorded height of the Emperor Uzb - the current ruler of the species - was over 30. While Dr Xavius when compared with most people would be considered a dangerous accumulation of claw and strength, compared with her species she was a runt. She had hit 7ft tall at a young age, then… just stopped.
Long ago she could have fixed this genetic defect, but to do so would have removed the second side effect, one she considered far more important than just being physically strong and vicious: her mind. Nothing was out of her understanding, her memory impeccable, complex ideas and concepts were child’s play.
She had left her homeplanet long ago in search of anything interesting to solve, leaving behind an almost guaranteed death as a runt. It was during this search that she had found out about the Terrans. A small article written in a science journal nobody read. ”The Exception”. It talked about the strange race of AI’s that broke Zarith’s law, and about a plague that ravaged their creators, a plague they had long been trying to fix.
Dr Xavius had assumed the entire thing would take a year to complete at most, like everything else she had put her mind to. It had taken 31 years. 31 years of study, of experimentation. It had been the best 31 years of her life. During this time Xavius had grown to love the Terrans. Not for any of the sentimental reasons anyone else did, but for the simple fact that in their insanity and chaos they had provided her with the greatest puzzle.
Then, it was over. Sure others would have been teary eyed over seeing reunions between human and Uplift, human and AI. For Dr Xavius it had been a disappointment. For those thirty years she had the greatest puzzle in her claws, and now it was gone. Sure the monetary compensation had been huge, not that she needed money in Terran conclave territory: her name alone was enough to get anything she required. Xavius secretly guessed that she could probably steal a military ship and drop an antimatter bomb on the most populated city on Earth, and get nothing more than a slap on the wrist for it.
No, what she wanted, what she needed was more puzzles. More impossible theories to be made possible. The Terrans were not the smartest species in the galaxy. But one thing that Terrans did have, was an almost psychotic aversion to the word “no”. Most species took the laws of the universe as fact and worked around them, while Terrans seemingly were offended by them.
This meant that this location was one of the few in the galaxy where exceptional amounts of money and resources were spent trying to break laws and ideals that everyone else had long ago determined to be immutable facts. Impossible challenges, impossible puzzles, with the resources to truly try and solve them.
It was everything that Dr K Xavius wanted and loved. Sure the Terrans were way too chatty and social for her tastes, but that was a small price to pay for the gift they gave her: something, anything able to challenge her mind.
Which is what she was doing in her office, late at night furiously typing away as the Galnet Viewer gave a loud high pitched tone, the screen turning a bright red and showing the two words: “Emergency Broadcast”.
—------------------
Emergency Broadcast: Due to unforgivable actions taken by the Raha royal house, and the Estorian Empire’s unwillingness to bring those responsible for their crimes to justice, as of 71 NST, 6th of June at 17:00 the Terran Conclave is enacting section three of the Terran Alliance Agreement, the mutual defence declaration.
The Terran Alliance is now at war with the Estorian Empire.
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Lately life has been a rollercoaster of emotions and I feel like a punching bag that’s been hit a few too many times, but thanks again to this community I’m still holding on. ☺️
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u/est_1983xx (x5) - Oh my! Opening your envelope was like coming downstairs on Christmas morning - there were so many cool surprises! The Easter card was just precious. 🥹 I love the flying squirrel postcard especially, as it’s so unique and the design is really cool. Thank you for the stickers as well! One can never have too many stickers.
u/tigerlady13 - I’m a sucker for Easter!! Your card was simply adorable, I love the art style of the little chicks. Thank you for sending such a sweet card and the stickers you included!! Happy Easter to you, my friend!
u/okayflan - You certainly decked out your RAOC anniversary postcard!!! It’s so cute! I appreciate all the cute stickers and the collection of stamps. You are so kind for sending this my way! Thank you so much!
u/stephkempf - AH I love this Easter card! It’s so petite and the design is so simple yet perfect. I’m a huge fan of all things bunnies, so this was a fabulous card for me. Thank you so much! 🐰💛
u/boyegcs (x2) - I love receiving late birthday cards! The buildup towards something exciting is great, but then it’s over and you feel kind of empty. BUT you can’t feel like that if you’re still receiving birthday cards!! ☺️ You are the best for including the Year of the Rabbit card too! Is there anything more precious in this world than little bunnies?? And the way you decorated the back of the envelope with washi tape was absolutely delightful! You are so kind, thank you!!!
u/shipping_addict - The recipe you sent me for “Granny’s Southern Pecan Pie” was lovely!! My grandma uses a similar recipe (but with her secret ingredients, of course 😉) and she’s always baking us plenty of pies!! I prefer mine topped with whipped cream! I always think of you when I come across cool recipes, so get ready for more to come your way, haha! (Thank you for the extra stickers as well! They are my lifeblood. Lol.)
u/calculatingmove - I’m not a religious person, but sometimes I do believe certain people have to be angels. When I received your letter, I was going through a rough day and didn’t even want to spare the energy to open a card. But I did, and I’m so glad I did. Your words of comfort were incredibly helpful and uplifted me so much. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for taking the time to write that card and send it out to me. It will have a permanent place on my desk in case I ever need some encouragement. 💛
u/welshfancy - Stars above, that is such a cute card you sent!! I’m so happy you enjoyed the card I sent. Congrats on the new job!! I’m sorry it’s been up and down for you, I hope it gets easier soon! Let me know if you’re okay with me sending you more happy mail occasionally, I’d love to fill your mail box regularly! 😅🥰 Thank you so much!!
u/sable__ (x4) - I can’t get over how cute the Disney postcards you sent are!!! The little Toy Story drawings melted my heart!! It brings me back to being a little kid and watching those movies on repeat. My family was obsessed with Toy Story, especially the first movie. (I have to say, my favorite today would have to be Toy Story 3 because of how emotional it is… and also I didn’t care too much for the recent fourth movie. 😔) The Tangled postcards are amazing - Rapunzel will always be my favorite Disney princess! Thank you so much!!
https://imgur.com/a/iCQYSWJ