Dusty blue paint color

I know red bar mean punishable right?
What about other colors
Dark blue?
Light blue?
White?

I met the "perfect" girl 40 years ago my senior year of university. Not bragging, but she was quite a stunner. People would stop talking when she walked into a bar or room, guys would try to act cool and suck in their bellies, girls would give "the look" to each other. She was a lifeguard in Socal, played several sports, was the color of fine browned bread and Jewish to top it all off. I'm not Jewish, but for some reason dated many many Jewish girls. This was the most I have every felt for anther human being, nothing has come close in all the years since.
Had a wonderful last semester then I graduated. She was a few years behind me and transferred to a different uni back West. I went out to find my way in the world, but soon fell into mental health problems that were waiting in the wings most of my life. Drinking was out of control when I was 15 and now I was in the real world and my brain of darkness and the booze were doing a number.
Anyway we stayed in touch, and a few years later we got together in NY. I was crashing, and she was not happy that I wasn't happy and the night was a short one. She left and I never saw her again. We wrote to each other, but I stopped answering her letters in the late 80s, too painful.
Good news is I got sober, got medical help for depression and started a new career. I would think of her every morning, wonder what she was doing, how she was. that went on until I was 55 years old. Social media I don't use, but I did find her address and I wrote a letter about my life. No question for her, just what had gone on in the past 30 years. I didn't put my return address on it, just sent it - that was that.
Two years go by and one day mail comes and there is a letter in a script that I remember. I teared up immediately and threw the letter in a cupboard. After a couple weeks I opened it. It was nice, asked a lot of questions, told me about her children and their colleges.
Something changed in my that month, I stopped thinking about her every morning. I realized that our time was not so special to her as it was to me. Or maybe that feeling just died in her 30 years ago. The good thing was I stopped feeling like I did something wrong and missed some existential bus I was supposed to be on in 1984. Today I shrug, not in a sad way, but in a fashion of "whatever" - I won't spend any more time on the matter. Now i'm in my early 60s and the days of romance are probably behind me. I find joy from walking, kayaking, painting, travel, family (I never married so I have to live vicariously through my nieces and nephews).
Lost loves are usually lost for some good reason - don't torture yourself.

Part 2
If you travel far enough North on the map, well above where the Civilized Nations stop because no crops grow, you'll find a mountain range. Crossing this range leads to the Monster Kingdom, though for some reason they prefer the name 'TFSU.'
Yes, they prefer.
The literal forces of anarchy and chaos in the universe have a government.
However, ignoring that whole thing, the Monster Kingdom is fine. No armies march on them, mostly because of supply and logistical issues. The Monsters never say how they grow their own food, but given that they don't trade and millions of kobolds worth of food don't go missing every day, it's safe to say they make their own.
Now, that doesn't stop the Civilized Nations to send one hero a decade to 'keep them in check.' Four decades ago, the hero closed off a mountain pass, which was supposed to cause a massive flood. Four days later, it was cleared, and the only thing to show for it were the cities that glow like the sun at night.
However, yesterday, the Hero returned having burnt one of the bigger cities down. It was empty of all monsters, but the act was the first real damage they had taken in seven hundred years, since their founding.For seven hundred years, the TFSU have taken the beating of seventy heroes and simply moved on. But now.Now, millions of kobolds make up heavy 'machinery' units that march in armored, self-moving caridges that spit fire and metal. Thousands of beastpeople make up scouting and light infantry ranks. The TFSU use hellish 'guns' that hit harder than a catapult from kilometers away, all in a single 'bullet' not the size of a human's thumb. Metal birds and dragonflies join dragons as they assault cities.We poke the very literal sleeping dragon in the eye.Yet the armies don't do much. They march for our capitals and leaders, but on the way our civilians live. Surendees live. People go about their daily lives without too much change.Of course, that fact didn't stop the front line from finally crashing over my small village, located so close to the pass for a while we thought they the monsters had bypassed us entirely. The Civilized Nations had decided to send an entire legion to prevent the Monsters from getting across a nearby canyon pass.We were hit with an air-based assault with only dragons and metal dragonflies, our balista uselessly demolished by pillars of metal and flame thrown out of the metal dragonflies. I blacked out when the legion managed to shoot enough arrows to take down one of the dragonflies. I remember it crashing down onto my house... and then nothing.
-----
The elf stirred as they woke up. I'd been raised in the Terra Firma Sapience Union, so I was... less than familiar with the clothing and lifestyle the Southerners used.The elf groaned again, before their eyes shot open and they looked around, quickly settling on my frame."A-Are you going to kill me now?" They asked, their voice shaken with fear.I let out a laugh. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." I decided to transmorph into my secondary form - a cat - to help the conversation go better. In a land where humans lived to forty, elves only lived to a hundred, and that meant that even I was older than this elf, and they were no older than thirty.The elf, to their credit, quickly figured out I wasn't pulling any mindgames. I'd heard tales from my relatives before the Kobolds founded the TFSU. People, especially when panicked, usual acted with more than enough stupidity to make the situation worse."Where am I?" The elf asked. Their tone told me that they were still suspicious, but it wasn't outright denial of the situation."My home," I answered bluntly. "Your village tried to fight our ground forces when they moved in, so most of them are currently under house arrest." Still in my cat form, I created a portal into my storage cavern and reached my arm through, while summoning a lab coat around my shoulders and glasses. It was a trick I had only learned to do recently."Let's see..." I found the clipboard and brought it out, flipping to the elft's page and taping the pen against the paper. "You suffered a collapsed lung, severe burns on the right side of your body, three broken ribs and two fractured ones, shattered three wrist bones, three breaks in your right upper arm and another two in your lower arm, and on the left side you have another fractured rib and three broken fingers. Your left leg was shattered and your left foot was completely torn up. Healing magic stabilized you and surgery did the rest. You've been comatose for the past three days, and was brought to my home yesterday due to a surge in hospital patients from the seige of Trembolorne."In terms of organ damage, that was also severe. A busted kidney, I already mentioned a collapsed lung, and your entire digestive system was... well, pulverized would be putting it lightly. Also, unrelated to the incident with the helicopter, you had cancer in your liver and kidney."In terms of medical treatment, you've been given an IV line for the past couple days and several painkillers, and you underwent four separate surgeries. We reconstructed your organs, welded your bones to metal plates, and used a genetic printer to replace your skin. You're lucky to have gotten time with the genetic printer in the first place, you know; those things are expensive, and I mean expensive to run. Though it's all billed on the government anyway, but that just means that they'll only run it if they have to."The elf sat up in bed looking at me as I just stood on two paws on the cave floor."Right, sorry, you wouldn't understand most of that." I sheepishly scratched the back of my head with my right paw. "Um... put this way, you were crushed by debris and we basically reconstructed your body before you died. So not necromancy, though you did get close to needing more advanced magical treatment.""Oh," The elf replied. The cat thing seemed to have helped, because they were no longer stuttering with their single word response."Um... do you want anything to drink?" I tried to kickstart a conversation."Where am I?" The elf asked again.I was silent for a second. "My home? It's right on the edge of TFSU territory, one of the southernmost places you can be while still being with the recognized borders. I chose this place because I like to fly out in the summer over the flowers in the forest at the foot of the mountains. Your village is a couple hour dragon-flight time away.""Mmmhm." The elf commented halfheartedly. "OK, um... who are you?""My dragonic name isn't something most can pronounce, so my public name is just Vixie Remminie." I answered. "What's yours?"The elf's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know my name."I blinked. "Because... It's a name? I'm not a Fey, you know, it's not like I can tie ancient demons to your soul and call it a prank or something ridiculous like that. Besides, you asked for mine; now I get to ask for yours.""And who says you won't just burn my village to the ground and eat me right now!?!" The elf suddenly burst out. "You monsters ruin everything! You trespass on our land, take our resources, and kill our people! All we did was try to defend ourselv-"I cut him off, and poured just a bit of attention in giving myself an aura. Blue fire licked the bottom of my vision as I rebuttaled his point."Don't forget, you stole the land from us. We were the ones living in the wild when you razed our forests and grew crops. We couldn't even purchase land to live on! So yes, we stole what we could to survive and those who didn't starved and died! And when all was said and done, you tried to kill us and turned it into a war, one where we had no choice but to kill you back. And when we found someplace to run, a spot to hide and do our own thing with our own land? You blistering idiots sent you 'courageous heroes' to try and kill us! What for? Nothing! Just your stupid, moronic fear making, forcing you to decide to 'kill the big thing over there!' We can't even have freaking farmland, we have to grow it all in hydroponic farms and harvest thousand-year-old vines out of caves because this is all we have!"I realized that my aura was burning fully and scorching the ground around me. I let out a long sigh, and it died down. Several memories flashed through my head, but I pushed them away. "Apologies, my parents are still a... sensitive topic for me. It would be best if we just stayed away from talking about the war until the hospital has room for more patients again.""Yeah?" The elf was still enraged. Even sitting down, they were still trying to construct an argument. "You parents who killed how many? Your family killed how many more? You dragons, you monsters are nothing more than one large grouping of murders that deserve to die! As the gods will!" The elf was spitting in rage, but I recognized his determination to hold onto his worldview. It was the one thing I needed to pry away before it got out of hand."And you elves killed how many more?" I asked in a low voice. "Can you tell me the number of kobold dens exterminated in caves, the number of beastpeople sent to an early grave in slave camps? Because I can tell you ours. My father's was two, my mother's four, and my extended family including deceased relatives is one hundred and thirty seven."You declared war against monsters, you child of an elf," I growled. "And death the reality of war. We know. The Unification Wars weren't fought with swords and honor. They were fought with artillery barrages and death. They were fought with miniature suns and political backstabbing, with tanks and guns and submarines and warships and all the more death."You say the gods don't like us! That's put lightly. They forsook us! Abandoned us in our hour of need. So we learned to live without them. There are no gods we pray to anymore, elfling. Only each other, our creations, and the universe itself. They don't want us, we don't need them. It's more than they deserve."My aura was once again charring the floor and I had transformed back into my dragon form, but this time I refused to cool it down. "You call us creations of death, the primal forces of anarchy? We are you. You are us. We are sapient, we are all mortals, no matter our advantages. We are bound to this dimensional plane, forced to serve our betters, and live out our lives not with earnest but with trepredition for when it ends. We are all death incarnate, because we can all die. That is just the way it is. Besides, you've wondered about my kill count; tell me, can you tell me the gods'? Can you tell me how many souls they have cut from fate for their own entertainment? No? I can tell you." I growled, moving closer until the blue flames enveloping my body threatened to light the elf's cot on fire. "More people than are alive on this planet right now."I pulled back, bottling up my aura and reverting to my cat form. "We can talk all we want about death and destruction, and I won't lie and say you aren't victims of the war; pre-unification dragons we're exactly kind and merciful to those with treasure hoards. But perhaps, I implore you to consider that maybe we both are victims of the war, and maybe we can one day work together instead of fighting each other."Maybe, one day, we can fight for our rights against the gods."I moved into my dragon form and darted deeper into my cave, moving so fast I could hear the howl of the wind against my ears. Only when I had reached my memorial wall for my parents did I stop and take a breath and think over my conversation with the elf.We had a long way to go, but I hoped I had put a little bit of sense into him.I hoped that the world could change.
-----
When the dragon cat thing sped away, I took a moment to survey my surroundings. Only now did the effects of my first question hit my formerly-groggy head."My home." He said.Dragons live in caves.Oooooh.I'm screwed.However, there were no treasure hoards visible from my perspective; then again, while the Monsters were stupid, they still had brains to them, and carrying me into a treasure room would probably be something they'd be able to tell was a bad idea.Pops said never underestimate you foe, A voice in the back of my head said, and the dragon even launched in a full conversation with you. You're selling the dragon very, very shor-Shut up I growled internally to the treacherous voice in my head.The cave itself was... a cave. There was a metal slab on one end, it went deeper in the other, and that was that. In a 'corner' of the jagged room there were a number of red, glowing rods attached to some kind of giant mechanism three elfs wide and six deep, but the rods glowed against the cave's light-What light source?My eyes darted around looking for one. Only now was I aware of how unnatural each shadow was, how awkward each shining rock looked, how each stalagmite could hide an entire dragon, and that was before they started transfiguring into cats. How bright the ceiling-I looked up. The bright light burned my eyes, but I needed to know what fiendish magic was in play so I could counter it. But the light didn't flicker like fire - they were far too bright for that anyway - but they also didn't have the magical circles surrounding each spell. They were... lights. As if the universe simply willed brightness into existence.Each far-too-bright-hurts-to-look-ats was placed along a main hallway clear of stalagmites running from the metal slab deeper and around a corner where I couldn't see. The lights were only poised above this one hall, and they just... shone one the rest of the cave.Looking closer, I could see thin black lines, too thin to be mana feeds, running along the walls to both the glowing red rods and to the so-shiny-the-lit-up-the-cave. And... that was that.There was no massive pile of treasure in the hall, though I suspected the dragon kept their hoard deeper than... wherever I was. There was no pile of skull trophies or the banner of cities and armies slain, and I noted that while he had told me his parents', the dragon had never told me his own.Then again, the cat thing could be lying.Dragon transfigured into a cat. Probably has Circle Of Truth around his entire den.Nonsense, dragons can only do elemental magic.Evidently not.Would you just shut up already?No-I moved my attention back to the metal slab, cutting off whatever the voice in my head had to say about my current situation; it wasn't every day one just got kidnapped by a nation of monsters, after all.The slab was truly elegant. It was painted with the monster language, and then was painted with some kind of mural. I could barely make out a blue circle with green splotches on it surrounded by twelve rings in the bottom corner because most of the door was taken up by a ice-blue cat with lighter strips engulfed in blue fire.It was a mural of the dragon cat thing.That didn't stop it from being pretty, and someone had obviously put a lot of effort into it. The flames looked realistic from what I had seen minutes ago, and the cat's details were perfectly engraved. It was... acurrate.Yeah, because I think Vixie was just trying to tell you that they built their civilization for a reason, and it wasn't carnage.You don't know what you're talking about.We both know I do. How else to you think-Listen to me, you treasonous voice of a-No, you listen to me, you pathetic excuse for a brain. The dragon was able to hold and win an argument with you, fixed your wounds that would've been a dead write-off for any other hospital, and then you think SHE barely meets the threshold for sapient? THE ABSOLUTE MORON I'M ARGUING WITH IS THE ONE YOU BARELY MEETS IT!!! You moved to your frontier village because the world was changing, Lazerot the Sixth. Congrats, you were right. It did change. Now shut your OVERSIZED EGO up at being bested by a creature ten times older than you, and go appologies before they decide that saving your life wasn't worth it.I... I... OK-No. I'm in control now. Shut up.I....... yes, sir.Good.With new resolve, I stood up. My head throbbed, and the next thing I knew was my face hitting my cot again.
-----
When I heard the thud of something falling in the entrance cave, I carefully moved back into the entrance cave. The elf was face-down in their cot, unconscious again. It looked like they had tried to stand and just.... fallen over.I sighed and used a claw to nudge the elf back onto his pillow, and then covered him with a blanket. I watched him for a minute, and then returned to the deeper parts of my home.The TFSU was completely overloaded with the number of patients needing treatment. Apparently, the Southener's hospitals just... didn't do anything, so in addition to soldiers, there was a massive influx of civilians to our hospitals too. Of course, this meant that they were absolutely overloaded, and the Civilized Nations strategy of fighting to near-death and then surrendering wasn't helping.So, stable recovering civilians like the elf were just... shipped out. When shelters filled up because the Civilized Nations overpopulation crisis was too bad to do anything, people just had to take them into their homes.Long story short, the government was in way over their head attempting upgrade the standard of care in the Civilized Nations while occupying their territory.My job so close to the border was remote infrastructure maintenance, and my ability to change size while not dissolving made me an expert at it - and that was before my two hundred years of experience. And then I didn't need a vehicle to get on-site, and was fast. The alarm pinging me that one of the space radars was down again gave me an excuse to avoid the elf and do some work.I grabbed a pack of supplies, put on my shapeshift-compatible uniform, and wrote down a note on a piece of paper. On my out past the sleeping elf, I dropped it for him.

Space radar system needs repair, as it's returning a false positive. It's my job to repair all the infrastructure around here, so I need to go fix it. I'll be back soon.If you're hungry, my pantry is the first cave on the right. You can just eat anything that's easily open-able in there. If it has a lock or airtight opening mechanism (anything more than a clip, really) then don't eat it.If your thirsty, there's a stream in the entrance cave near the heaters.When the door mechanism beeps, step back. Sometimes pressure in the cave can get a bit wonky, and I don't want you to get hurt.Other than that, feel free to explore. I've locked all the doors to the rooms I don't want you to enter.For toilet necessities, the second cave on the left has a properly-sized toilet. And running water, but stuff I can explain later means don't drink it.See you soon!- Vixie.

Satisfied, I left opened the door. There was a puff as the air from inside flowed out to the lower-pressure atmosphere. I could spot a snow squall to the north, and the pressure meant that it was probably coming my way.I moved out onto the ledge and closed the door behind me. At high altitudes this far north, the air was already near-zero and it was still five in the afternoon. I took just a second to confirm with the weather report that the snowstorm was in fact going to arrive on my doorledge using a smartwatch I had strapped around my wrist. When I found that the storm was coming, I opened my wings and flew.Being an Ice Dragon had its advantages, but being a Water-Ice Combined Dragon was much better. The frosty air curled around my wings as the freedom of ignoring gravity filled my brain. Ice and Water dragons both had large wings to deal with the cold air (and lower pressure leading to the requirement for more surface area to achieve the same amount of lift) and incompressable water physics (to let the wings act like a one-way fan blade as they move back and forth, increasing efficient). Dragons might be magestic creatures, but we were still bound to the physics of the mortal plane, after all.Being part of both, my wings were even bigger, making me one of the best high-altitude fliers on the planet. The ability to use both gills and lungs at said altitudes helped with oxygen also helped.Air Dragons were better at flying in normal air, but I liked to think of it like stats from a video game. Air Dragons min-maxed their stats for low-altitude, but I could go anywhere - even underwater - can keep my speed relatively high.I took full advantage of this on my way to the space radar, soaring well above the cloud ceiling and to the point where I could make out the curvature of the planet below me. The ocean spread out to my west, while more land was to my east. Snow covered the north as to the south was the telltale splotchy color of industrialism.My smartwatch beeped, as I crossed the normal dragonic altitude limit. I hadn't realized I'd gone so high; I had a radar to repair, after all. I dove down towards the surface, ignoring more beeps as I crossed half the way to the speed of sound. The wind howled angrily in my ears, but I flattened those (thank you, streamlined water genetics) and came out of my death dive right over the radar.The repair itself went relativity smoothly, though I couldn't find a broken component and chalked it up to more space anomalies. They weren't infrequent, and usually marked where the gods decided to look over the planet. For my radars, anyway. Further north, ignoring the north pole, almost no gods came out and wanted to deal with us. Our unspoken agreement was held that way.I flew straight back for my return journey. The storm was definitely closer, but fifteen minutes of flying later and I was entering the opening mechanism for my door.As it swung inwards, I heard the high-pitched scream of an elf.
-----
When I awoke, I found myself tucked into some covers. It took all of seven seconds for reality to catch up with me.Right. I got into a heated argument with a dragon.I instinctively touched the part of my face that had been closest to the dragon's flame. I'd read about Auras in books, but never thought I'd get to see one. They were only ever found in the most powerful and competent individuals of a race in an entire plan of existence. I wondered which skill gave the dragon hers - Vixie, I reminded myself.Either way, given that Auras are technically illusions, I wasn't hurt. The flames didn't get close enough to hurt anyway, but that didn't stop me from checking.This time, I was much more careful when I stood up. I sat up first, then started to kick my legs back and forth. That's when I spotted a paper on the other side of my cot.I stood up without thinking, but managed to keep my consciousness this time and moved towards the note. It was handwritten and contained a lot of jargon that I wasn't familiar with. Space. Radar. False positive. Airtight opening mechanism. Heater. Beep. Pressure. Toilet. Running water.I could deduce some of it. A message had come in requesting the services of the local dragon to repair a thing that has an issue, and that she would return shortly. I could wander around as I pleased, besides eating food that wasn't open or contained in a clip bag. From the tone of the message, I could deduce what a 'toilet' was. The heaters would logically be things that produced heat, so all I had to do was look for those.I wasn't able to tell time, but I supposed at this point it didn't matter. I moved over deeper into the cave, and quickly heard the sound of a stream. It led directly into a forest of stalagmites.After clambering over those, the temperature started to increase, which was all I needed to know that I was getting a drink of water. I was only now catching up to the fact that I had been out for three days, and that meant that I was extremely thirsty. I wasn't sure how I wasn't dead of dehydration at this point.I found the stream next to the glowing metal rods, and with it a clear path to my location. Sighing slightly at the wasted effort on climbing through Rock Forest, I snatched an undersized cup off a rack built into a nearby jut in the cave wall and filled it, before entering the bliss of fresh water.Back in the village, we had some of the best and cleanest water in all the land thanks to snow melt, but this took that to a new level. Cold, crisp water melted in the sun only minutes ago. It was... pure.I spent the next couple minutes simply drinking and processing everything over in my mind. The gods might have willed the monster dead, but if even the monster gods had abandoned them and survived... then how come the Pantheon never told us?Religious issues aside, there were more practical issues regarding my own survival. How did I get out.There was a thud at the metal slab, and I moved back towards it, leaving my cup to dry on the rack I pulled it from. The engraving of the cat on the metal slab was-BEEEP!What was that sound?There was a hiss, and the slab started to peel away. A gust of frigid cold air washed over me as a mage Ice-Water hybrid Aura-capable dragon that I had argued with stared me down.I did the instinctive thing and let out the scream of a human three year old, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the final blow.When the end of my life didn't arrive, I reopened my eyes to find the sky-blue cat standing in the hole where the metal slab was supposed to be. Then there was another... sound, and the metal slab started to move back into position.The cat was surprised for a single moment before simply charging the door and jumping through, skidding to a halt right in front of me. Which meant that I got a closer look at her.Ocean-blue strips crossed an ice-blue body fur in a fifty-fifty ratio. Small crystals of ice twinkled, floating here her wings would be. One tail was accompanied by two more made of pure blue-white energy, and the cat even had a halo. Six orbs of blue-white light hovered in lazy circles around her back, and even in a diminutive form the size of a cat the being radiated the power of an aura-capable creature."Oh, right, sorry," Vixie said, and all the ethirial energy disappeared. Now that I knew what I was looking for, however, I could just barely tell, using my power as a mage, that Vixie was using illusion magic to hide her true energy."You don't need to hide your reserves," I said. "Though if you're shapeshifting into forms so small that you need to expose yours, then you should just burn yours instead. It's not worth the trouble of people bottling yours."Vixie gave some kind of half-shrug. "They're not reserves, no." She said, emphasizing the word.I looked at Vixie with a sharp look, and for a second I forgot I was talking to a dragon. "Then what are they?""They're..." The cat blushed, something I wasn't even aware was possible. She let the illusion fall away, and the tails, crystals, orbs and halo returned. "They're my regenerative baseline minimum."I looked her up and down for a second, dumbstruck. She really is a creature of power, huh?"Um.... uh..." I stuttered. "Is... that where you get your aura from?" I asked.Vixie closed her eyes with an expression on her face, and this time green flame started to peel off her. "Part of it, yeah."To control an aura like that... two auras. Just how powerful is she? I was so deep in thought that I didn't realize that the expression on her face was pain. "I... uh... what happened?" I asked, shellshocked. "Why aren't you fighting in the war?"The worldwide-powerful dragon masquerading as a cat sighed. "I... haven't told anyone. It's... personal.""I..." Only now did it hit me that I was talking with a dragon, not another person. Not just a monster, but a... creature with emotions. "You don't have to tell me." I quickly backtracked."No, no, it's a fair question. It..." The cat let out a chuckle, and it filled the cave with a beautiful sound. "I suppose it's kind of ironic... but it starts with a kobold and a god, back when the Firma kobold tribe decided to travel north to escape the civilized nations, shortly before the amassing of all creatures in these same northern mountains and the Unification War."Back before the gods forsook us."
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 2

My ex best friends have done many things like putting a dead fish in my new (to me) car and opening the doors of my said car while I was driving on the highway going like 70+ mph anyways thats not all... while I first started dying my hair... they put nair in my hair coloring... I thought I was having an allergic reaction to it or something because it smelled like actual 💩 for weeks and clumps were falling out... I didn't find out they did it until they put ketchup on said car and the acid took the paint off where the ketchup was (so in strips) and a mutual friend said that they were bragging about it... their reasoning... "we just wanted to see how you would react" I cried everyday for two years because I had 2, TWO, bald spots and had to think about them everyday... my best friend... for a long time... I would even hang out in her house as a best friend and listen to her and was there for her,.. and she had the audacity...
Well she liked a guy and he was already married but they liked each other and she wanted to see him and babysit his kids... I was like sure whatever idc what you do (this was a few months before shit went down) and she was going to leave for a few months to fuck a married guy... she got pregnant by his BROTHER, I was growing my hair out for over 5 years... she even threatened that she could get my husband kicked out of my country... (I have proof of some of this and especially text messages froooom 2018 about her threat to my husband... he was and is here legally).
They have done even more... and now after over five years... her and the other girl (the master mind behind all of this bs... literally...) sent my husband and I ($1 to my husband today by my ex bf and then 25 cents and then 50 cents after I sent it back with a thumbs down 👎🏻 emoji...) is maybe harassing us idk 🤷🏼‍♀️ using a money app.... Should I empty the skeletons out of the closet? I would do it probably on tik tok as videos would be easier I think... I would have kept it all in the past, but since they brought up this psychological warfare... after over five years of no contact... they shouldn't get away with it anymore. Should I out them or no?

-...
*tap tap tap*
Steps were heard. It was the only thing that made sound.
-...
*tap tap tap*
This place probably had sounds, and music, and chatter, and shouts
-...
*tap tap tap*
And yet this.... city, it would seem, didnt have any.
An unusual thing for a city. Sound is a very common thing in any place inhabited by people.
-...
*tap tap tap*
But, that is assuming the city had humans that would make sound.
There were humans though
-...
*tap tap tap*
They were dead humans
Corpses
A city populated by the dead. Whenever they died recently or years ago, it wouldt matter
Because even then, his steps were the only thing that could be heard
-...
*tap tap tap*
There was one living thing though. One thing that can definitly be called alive.
it looked like a young human, with blonde hair, a black coat, a white shirt, black pants and gloves. He seemed to be probably 22, maybe 23. It looked like a regular human
But can it be called human?
Biologically, probably not. It had organs similar to humans. It had bones. It had blood. But humans normally need to drink, eat, sleep and defecate. And the thing didnt do any of those thing for at least a week.
Mentally, probably not. Its thought process was definitly similar, but it had an instinct. An instinct that he couldnt ignore no matter what.
-...
*tap tap tap*
A desire to kill
Not to just kill, but to kill a certain someone. Certain someones
-...
*tap tap tap*
It was here to kill the only other living thing this city inhabited
It could sense it. It was drawing him to go. To find. To Kill.
It was closer
*tap tap tap*
and closer
*tap tap tap*
and closer
*tap tap tap
and clo...
The thing's thoughts were interrupted. The wall of the building on his right suddendly exploded. Surprised, it tried to defend itself, but whatever has destroyed the wall was faster and, seemingly, grabbed his whole body. It could not see it well because of the dust, but once it grabbed him, it saw it more clearly
it was... an arm. A giant, skeletal, blue, shining arm. Big enough that the hand was capable of completely enveloping its body. Its blue light wasnt shining enough to blind him, but it was still annoying. It looked like made of bones, but it was stronger.
The arm began to close harder, nearly squishing it. It was enough force that a normal human would be turned into a salsa of blood and bones. It hurts, but it was still calm. In order to escape the hand, the blonde thing also made an anormal thing.
Cold suddendly began to surround the thing and hand, freezing. Ice began to form, inmobilizing the hand. And then, suddendly, it exploded into a cold blast. The hand was desintegrated, but the thing was completely fine.
The moment it was liberated, he inmediatly run torwards the hole of the wall. It needed to find the person. it needed to kill. However, it didnt need to run, because the enemy went out. A gigantic skull, just as blue and shining as the arm, came out, destroying the rest of the wall and the building the wall was connected to. The blond one inmediatly did a long jump backwards, trying to avoid the impact. from the head, the rest of the body fully come out, and now the enemy was fully visible
It was like a skeleton, but with a few key differences. The size was great, probably close to 30, 40 meters tall. It was glowing, blue. It had a total of 6 arms, with four of them connecting with the spine. the spine also had spikes coming out. Its ribcage seems to open and move.
And from the ribcage, someone was there. A person was there. It had blonde hair, a light blue coat and black pants. But that wasnt the most important part. the most important part was the fact that it looked exactly like him. the same hair. the same face. the same body shape. the same clothing style (but with different colors). the same size. They looked like twins or clones.
-...heh. didnt expect another one here- his manner of speech seemed like dull surprise. He didnt expect it but it wasnt completely out of expectations- may you tell me your number?
-...16...-it responded
-ok then, Caski16- the skeleton raised its arm. it was ready to slam. the thing, now named Caski16, readied his muscles and made frost appeared in his hand-... die
and so, a battle began

Hey guys,
I'm trying to find a toy from my childhood and I thought I'd come here for help. It was a blue laptop computer toy but it wasn't a Vtech computer of any sort. It folded up, and had eyes on top that moved back and forth. Instead of a mouse it had two grey arms that came out of the side with up down left and right buttons, then one button in the center as well. I remember the arms being gray and they had ridges, and the buttons on the hand parts were various colors: yellow, green, purple, red, and one other color i don't remember. The screen was extremely small as well. It would play random little games and speak to you. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Thank you!!

We recently moved out of a small one-bedroom apartment. Before moving out, we deep-cleaned the place and touched up some of the paint. We usually use command strips, but sometimes the paint pulls off when we remove the strips. We take a sample of the paint and get it color-matched at home depot, then use this to touch up whatever was damaged. It's always just small parts of the wall, and it might be a little noticeable (fresh paint vs old paint) but usually it's pretty hard to tell unless you look closely. We've done this in every apartment we've lived in and never had any issues.
Today, my old landlord texted me and said he discourages people to touch up the paint and says he will be taking from our deposit for a new paint job of the place. He claims the new tenant noticed and complained. My question is: can he legally charge us for this in California? I know that he can't charge for normal wear-and-tear, but idk if this counts since we did technically paint the walls. The area we lived in has a history of screwing people out of their deposit, and then some, so we're not sure if this is something we can even fight or if we're just SOL. The thing I'm worried about the most is him charging us on top of what our security deposit was. I don't care if we lose $2200, but I do care if we have to pay more on top of that.
Any advice/resources are appreciated, as for all I know we could be completely in the wrong and are just naive and have to deal with the consequences.

On my way to burger king I lost my painting in marquette park, Chicago. I'm very upset by this, i don't know what to do or where to start looking. The moment I realized it was gone I decided to look back and nothing. Does anyone know a site or any place for missing art waiting to be claimed. If anyone from the area sees it please tell me. It's a painting that's blue with two girls, I used red paint and used my fingerprint as my signature. I don't have a picture since it was a work in progress...

Hey there, readers! Here's chapter five for your reading pleasure! Please consider leaving a comment or review as those really do just pick me right up!
I've Been Reincarnated as a Bunny Girl?! (Chapter 5)
by
ShadowDragon88
A fine drizzle was coming down on the town of Starlight Rose. A familiar wolf-kin beasta in red robes that appeared to be shimmering despite the cloudy gloom of the day was walking along the main road. In his right hand, he held a long polished oak staff, topped with a red glowing gemstone the size of his fist. In his left hand, held away from his body, was a tan leather satchel, the drawstring tied in a knot. It appeared full, and seemed to shudder and wriggle. Felixin smiled and nodded to passing villagers.
​
"Hey there, Felixin," came the rumbling voice of Earl Shatterknuckle. The blonde dwarf, presently wearing just simple brown leather trousers, fell in step beside his taller friend. Felixin looked down at the dwarf, whose smaller frame was bulging with muscles, with blue and gold glowing tattoos tracing intricate spider-web-like symbols across his chest and arms, smiling back.
​
"Good day to you, Earl," the wolf said. There was a spitting-chittering sound coming from the bag, making Felixin pause and frown before giving the satchel a good whack with his magical staff. "Quiet, you!" he hissed at it.
​
"Caught yourself another evil spirit, eh?" Earl said with a smirk.
​
"Oh yes, and this one was quite the nasty piece of work. I'm on my way back to my lab to properly dispose of it. I think it's from some destroyed remnant of Eld technology, one of the ones that gained sentience, or at least some spiritual semblance to it," Felixin said as he gave the bag another whack when it started to make some electronic beeping sounds.
​
"Oh?" Earl asked, curious. "I remember more than once we had some nasty run-ins with Eld-tech back when we were adventurers."
​
"I remember you and Melthi being the ones to turn the blasted machines on, both times when cautioned not to," Felixin said pointedly, making the dwarf chuckle.
​
"What can I say? We're both curious by nature!"
​
"Yes, that's one word for it," Felixin said with a smile, remembering his adventuring days and the party of friends he would regularly travel with. "Anyways. For some reason, about six years ago, they suddenly became much more prevalent. Thankfully, their numbers have been dropping back down over the years."
​
"What makes you think this one is from Eld tech?"
​
"It kept saying 'Does not compute!' over and over again, while also identifying some kind of rabbit threat." Felixin's mood seemed to shift and his ears laid back on his head, while his tail dipped, almost long enough to drag on the ground behind him. "And when it mentioned rabbits, it made me think of my little princess."
​
Earl rolled his eyes as he reached up and clapped the town wizard on the back. "Ah, Kiana'll be back to visit before you know it."
​
"I know... it's just, one minute she was this little delicate baby girl, and the next minute, she was this amazing young woman, all ready to up and go out."
​
"Didn't Kiana kick down a couple of brick walls when she was a baby?" Earl asked, scratching his head. Felixin waved a dismissive paw at that.
​
"Pure coincidences. Those walls were clearly unsound and improperly constructed, so much so that when she was having one of her tantrums just a little punch or kick was enough to send them tumbling down. We're lucky she wasn't hurt or scared, just confused and curious more than anything. Anyways, I just get so worried when I think of her, out there on the open road. Just so... vulnerable. Thankfully I made sure to instill in her a proper sense of caution." Earl snorted at that.
​
Meanwhile...
​
Kiana let out a roar of fury as her trusted tetsubo connected with the raised steel shield of the bandit before her. The metal dented and warped just as the bandit, shield and all, became airborne. They traveled in an arc straight towards a stone tower connected to an old run-down fort the bandits had holed up in. The screaming man smashed into the top of the tower, crumbling it, his screams instantly going silent.
​
"Fire!" Kiana heard a deep voice shout. There were several blasts and, thanks to Kiana's speed, she watched as five cannonballs headed in her direction. To the ordinary person, the black metallic spheres were probably nearly impossible to follow. To Kiana, it looked as though they were moving incredibly slow. She simply stepped aside from four of them, letting them explode into the nearby hillside. As the fifth one hurtled her way, she crouched slightly, raising her tetsubo like a baseball bat. She swung and smacked the cannonball, her tetsubo making a loud DING, and sent it flying right back where it had come from. The two bandits manning the cannon were obliterated along with the weapon itself, as well as a good chunk of the fort wall.
​
"She's some kind of demon!" one of the bandits cried. The man, really more of a boy, no older than Kiana, leapt down from the fort wall onto a carriage they had recently stolen from some traveling aristocrats. He then leapt onto the ground and sprinted out into the forest, stripping off the black cloak with the red eye in the center.
​
"DAMMIT!" the bandit leader cursed, pulling off his tricorn hat and dabbing his bald sweaty head with a handkerchief. While the remaining men were busy barring the windows or reloading and firing the cannons, he was gnashing his teeth. After a moment's hesitation, he pointed to a nearby subordinate. "You! Follow me. We'll unleash the troll on her."
​
The other bandit paled, audibly gulping. "Th-the troll? Are you sure th-that's wise?" Just as he finished asking that, another cannonball destroyed another cannon, making the entire structure shudder.
​
"We don't have any other options. Hopefully, after it kills her, it'll be injured enough for us to finish it off... or the other way around if she kills it." The other bandit grimaced at the options laid before them, but nodded solemnly. Outside, Kiana smacked another cannonball back at the cannon that fired it, being careful not to send it flying towards the base of the tower. According to one of the kidnapped merchants that had managed to escape and make it all the way to town, the cells where the bandits were holding their ransom victims were all on the ground floor. Kiana stopped when she heard a loud guttural roar, followed by a rapid series of loud BOOMs. Bandits ran by the windows and open holes of the fort, while the front gate slowly opened.
​
Out stumbled a massive creature. Its flesh was a dark brown, and had a texture not unlike tree bark. Its long arms and legs were thicker than the old oak trees in the forest near Starlight Rose. Its gnarled hands, with thick thorn-like protrusions sticking from the knuckles, balled into fists, fists that were as big as Kiana was tall. Its barrel-chest heaved, with white criss-crossing scars in its bark-flesh. It didn't have much in the way of a neck, and its head looked just like a tree stump, complete with root-like tendrils wriggling back and forth. It's mouth was partially concealed by the tendrils, until it reared back and opened its gaping maw, revealing rows of broken yellow teeth, to let out a bellow that shook the ground. From the top of its head grew two slightly spiraling branch-like horns.
​
"These idiots somehow managed to get a forest troll?" Kiana asked out loud, a smirk appearing on her face. "And this was only a gold-ranked quest? Something tells me I'm in for a sweet bonus."
​
The beast stopped as its knot-like eyes, of which there were at least seven, caught sight of the bunny girl. Up above from the second story windows and holes and from on the roof, the remaining bandits, many of them injured, looked down. Most were smirking, some of the more foolish ones shouted out taunts. The bandit leader stood there, looking grim-faced, but taking some satisfaction in knowing that despite their losses today, the annoying source of their problems was about to end, one way or another.
​
Kiana stuck the end of her tetsubo into the dirt, large and surprisingly quick thudding steps shaking the ground. The beast was lumbering towards Kiana, who didn't look the least bit afraid. While not intelligent enough to be truly sentient, the troll did have enough sense to know that its prey should be running. And the fact that it was just calmly standing there, staring at it, only angered it further. With a final roar, the forest troll charged forward. It balled up a massive fist, and swung straight for Kiana. Kiana swung her own fist, the two colliding.
​
There was a very loud, sickening crunch and pop. The bandits looked down in shock and horror as where the now screaming troll's fist and forearm had been, there was a bloody and jagged stump that ended just above the right elbow. The troll screeched and lunged at Kiana, hoping to impale her on its horns. But the bunny girl simply kicked, knocking the head clean off the rest of its body. The head bounced off a tree and rolled for a bit, settling in the dirt, a look of surprise on the stump-like face. The rest of the body tumbled over three times before coming to a rest near the make-shift stables, where the carriages and horses of the abducted nobles were kept. Kiana looked back up at the fort, making the majority of the bandits shrink back and shudder. A few of them began to wave white tablecloths hastily tied to sticks and tree branches.
​
A short time later the bandits, now in shackles, were being marched to the mechanical cart as the local sheriff and his deputies led them. Except for the severely injured ones, who were shackled to stretchers and loaded up into a seperate mechanical carriage. Kiana looked on as bodies were checked for possible survivors, there being very few to find, as the merchants and a few nobles were led by deputies out from the fort. Kiana smiled at them and nodded to their looks of awe, some of them having gotten a good look at the show of force the petite bunny girl had demonstrated. Ignoring the ones who shrank back away from her in fright, Kiana spotted the sheriff, a large older man in his mid-fifties with salt and pepper close-cropped hair and a matching mustache. He was wearing the classic green cloak, directing his deputies. He turned to face her as she approached.
​
"I think that's all cleared up," Kiana said, her voice chipper, belaying the fact she had a smattering of blood and gore staining her fur.
​
"I'd have to agree with you, young lady," Sheriff Tonsol said, his voice even. In truth, he had tried to avoid enlisting the aid of any adventurers until pressure from various merchants and nobility forced his hand. And even then he had expected it to involve a large party and, more than likely, some lives lost from the hostages. He was a little surprised when the girl reached into her satchel to produce a clipboard with a form on it, as well as an ink pen.
​
"In that case, would you mind signing this form indicating that I completed the job satisfactorily?" Tonsol looked at the form for a minute, and then his mouth curved upwards. He let out a chuckle and signed his name on the indicated line, writing in the date as well.
​
"Satisfactorily is putting it lightly, miss," he said, handing the clipboard and pen back to the bunny girl. "I had no idea that they had a forest troll in their possession. I went ahead and bumped up the reward."
​
"Oh wow, thank you, sir!" Kiana said, looking excited.
​
Tonsol smiled, something his deputies claimed to be a rare sight to behold. "Well, you earned it. I'm just glad you were able to get them to surrender without harming any hostages. Well, without them harming any more than the ones they did last time someone came out here to free them."
​
"I'm glad I could help!" Kiana said, bowing a little. "Now, I'm going to head back into town." She spread her arms wide and indicated to herself. "I'm really in need of a bath at this point."
​
"If you don't mind waiting a minute, you can ride back to town with us. It's faster than walking."
​
"Oh, thanks for the offer, but I'm good." Kiana waved, before jogging back to where she'd left her tetsubo and pack, Mirabelle coiled around it protectively. She grabbed the items up, quickly looking through the travel pack to make sure she still had everything, and nodded to herself, satisfied. She slipped the pack onto her back, then scooped her pet snake into her arms, and started to jog down the road in the direction of the town of Hengecliffe. Picking up speed, she rapidly became a blur, and in just a few seconds she was coming to a sliding stop in front of the town gates, startling a couple of bored-looking guards.
​
She greeted them and let Mirabelle down before they let her inside. They stared at the snake with the big pink ribbon around its neck slithering obediently behind the bunny girl. She stopped off at the local guild hall to drop off the signed paperwork and collect her now even heftier reward. She noticed a few stares in her general direction, and some unhappy grumbling from some fellow adventurers, but otherwise no one said anything.
​
Kiana then headed to the town inn where she still had a room for another night. Thankful again that this world had indoor plumbing, with hot water to boot, Kiana wasted no time in stripping off her gore-coated clothes, which she would wash in the laundry room down the hall, and enjoyed a nice steamy shower. She didn't have to worry about possible intruders, as Mirabelle sat coiled on the bed, ever vigilant.
​
"Today was a good day," Kiana said, stepping out of the shower and drying herself off, a feat that took several minutes with a towel. This left her gray and white fur all fluffed-out, which led to her brushing it out. Kiana had grown accustomed to the care and maintenance of her fur, taking pride in keeping it clean. She then donned her underwear and a cream-colored sundress from her pack, carefully putting her dirty clothes in the laundry sack in her pack. She smiled and stroked Mirabelle's head, the snake letting out a contented purr-like hiss.
​
"I'm going to go out and enjoy the rest of the afternoon in town. You stay here and guard the pack, okay?" she asked, slipping her mithril knuckles into her dress pockets, along with a small money pouch. Mirabelle hissed, thumping her tail on the bed in response, curling up tighter around Kiana's belongings.
​
"Good girl," she praised, before heading out, locking the door behind herself for good measure. Kiana smiled as she stepped out onto the paved sidewalk, carriages passing by on the street. Hengecliffe was much larger than Starlight Rose, with paved streets and even streetlights. Centrally located in a region of plains, it served as a trading hub. Kiana walked along, noticing a few men and women looking her over. Some seemed to do so with distaste, more than likely not enjoying the sight of a beasta. But most seemed to be pleasant people observing a new face.
​
"Well now, if my eyes are not deceiving me, it seems that an angel from the heavens has decided to grace us mere mortals with her presence." Kiana's ears twitched at the sound of the male voice. She paused and turned, looking down an alley, where a man leaning up against the side of a building stood, looking her over. He was wearing brown leather trousers, a white linen shirt, and a belt with a large buckle which, matching the large buckles on his boots, made him look a bit like a pirate. The goatee and the cutlass sheathed at his side were also not helping.
​
"Hello, beautiful," he said, giving Kiana a wink. Kiana rolled her eyes, and moved to keep walking, only to find a squat bald man standing in her way, grinning sinisterly. Kiana checked behind herself and saw another man, a larger one with a completely shaved head, arms crossed with a club under one arm. "Now, how about we all go somewhere more... private," the pirate-looking moron asked, giving Kiana a smug wink.
​
"Wow, you idiots have no idea just how badly you messed up," Kiana said, walking into the alley, the two guys following right behind her. The men chuckled. Passersby stopped when they heard three loud thuds coming from the alley, all of which made the nearby buildings shudder. They saw a bunny beasta girl walking out, brushing some dust off her sundress. She smiled and waved and continued on her way, leaving behind three broken figures. Two were lying in craters in the pavement of the alley, while the third, this one with a cutlass laying at his booted feet, was standing... his head laying all the way back in a hole in the brick wall right behind him.
​
Later that evening...
​
Kiana was sitting just outside the town walls on a hill, watching the stars come out. After sixteen years, it still mystified her to look up at the night sky, and not see any of the old constellations. She smiled as a shooting star streaked its way across the sky. Suddenly, Kiana felt a surge of energy just course through her. Her eyes faintly started to glow with the blue light, and she felt a strange pulsing in her chest. Looking around, she felt a strange magnetic pull coming from the south.
​
Starting as a jog, Kiana soon found herself sprinting outright across the countryside. She ran, as a blur, following the pull, her eyes gradually glowing brighter and brighter, shining with the crackling blue energy. Then, she came to a stop. She stood at the foot of a mountain, itself part of a larger range. Looking up at the mass of rock and ice, she could see broiling clouds up over it, flashes of lightning briefly illuminating the rocky and snowy peaks. With one such flash, Kiana saw something move. Something big. Kiana's glowing eyes went wide.
​
"Oh wooooooooow," she said, her jaw hanging open. There were rumbles as the giant coiled mass shifted. Several avalanches were caused by the serpentine body, buried under tons and tons of snow. At the very peak of the mountain, a gargantuan head rose.
​
"Is that a giant... cobra?" Kiana asked under her breath. Indeed, that was what the creature that seemed to dwarf the Spire appeared to be. In the light of the lightning, she saw that its scales were a deep blue, almost purple. There were stripes running down its back, but they were glowing a bright bioluminescent blue. That same glow radiated from the creature's reptilian eyes, and the inside of its hood. The same glowing blue as Kiana's eyes.
​
"What... are you?" Kiana asked, quietly.
​
I can ask the same of you, little one, a deep female voice hissed in Kiana's head. She winced and looked around. She then looked back up at the creature, her veins flooded with adrenaline. There was another flash of lightning, and in that very instant, the creature's head was bent down low, right in front of her. Kiana almost jumped back, but stopped herself. As the snake-entity looked her over with an eye that was twice as tall as she was, Kiana felt a sense of calm overtake her.
​
"Are you... a storm dragon? A real storm dragon?" Kiana asked, reaching out and touching the creature's cheek with her hand. It flicked out a blood red tongue, its mouth curling up a little at the corners.
​
That is something that little ones like to call my kind, she said. Kiana figured right then and there that this was a female.
​
"A monk said that... my spirit is like one of yours," Kiana said, breathlessly.
​
Your soulsong feels similar to one of our kind, little one, she said, turning her head and gently nuzzling the top of Kiana's head, making her ears lay flat. The storm dragon's head was almost as large as the entirety of her hometown.
​
"My... soulsong?" Kiana asked. The monk she had met hadn't said anything about them.
​
The song of your innermost being. It stands out from the loud and noisy cacophony that happens when most little ones gather together in large groups. Yours is beautiful, and a little... fluttery. The dragon gave her a wink. She reared up and opened her mouth. Electricity danced between the dragon's fangs, before she shot out a sonic boom. The raging storm above abated, the clouds dispersing, leaving only a crystal clear night sky for miles and miles around. She then turned and looked down at Kiana. The bunny girl felt the storm dragon's gaze. She felt a radiating warmth coming from her. It reminded Kiana of her mother.
​
It was so nice to meet you, little one. It was quite the pleasant surprise to awaken to. She let out a proud roar, and her body began to undulate. Sections of the mountain range began to crumble as large sections of mountain were crushed and smashed by the body slamming into them. The body of the dragon rose into the air, beginning to gracefully slither about. Levitating there, partially coiled, the sheer size of the storm dragon just boggled the bunny girl's mind.
​
"Will I see you again?" Kiana asked, feeling a little sad. She had just met this beautiful and amazing being, and already they were leaving.
​
Of course, little one, the mental voice in her mind chuckled warmly. I have listened to your beautiful soulsong, and I have shared my soulsong with you.
​
"I... I don't understand what that means," Kiana said, confused.
​
You will, little one, she said, you are still young, but my soulsong has resonated within you. When you stop and listen, it will become easier and easier to hear it. And thus, the bond has begun to form. In time, you shall understand. With a flick of the creature's tail, there was a flash of lightning that radiated from within the hood, and she was gone. Kiana stood there, her eyes readjusting to the dark.
​
"This world is so awesome," she said, a smile on her face, as she began to job back towards town. She figured that if the town gates were closed and locked, she could just jump over the wall.
​
Meanwhile...
​
The lone figure stood in the dark, staring at where the great serpent had been levitating. They were sitting on a log in a small clearing, where they had set up camp. The individual in question was polishing their armor when a gray blur had shot right past them. And then, where it had been heading, the giant serpent, an actual storm dragon, arose. They sat there in stunned silence. They knew right then and there, that it had been a sign from the gods. As they unsheathed their katana, it began to thrum with magical energy, the blade becoming engulfed in bright purple flames.
​
The light of the purple flames illuminated his green face, glinting off his polished tusks. "Soon, the war shall begin," said the orc, sheathing the blade and cutting off its purple light. The same purple light shone from his eyes.
​
Name: Kiana
​
Species: Beasta (Rabbit-Kin)
​
Age: 16
​
Skills: Sibling Wrangler, Babysitter, Puppy-Dog Eyes, Master Martial Arts, Brawling, Heavy Weapon Proficiency, Sarcasm Mastery, Eyerolling Mastery, Beast Taming Level 3
​
Class: (Official) Master-Level Dragon Monk: Storm Dragon School, Storm Dragon Hatchling.
​
​
Str: 141
Int: 12
Dex: 140
Cha: 12
Wis: 10
Con: 172
Languages: Common, Draconic
​
Equipment: Adventurer's Pack, Steelwood Tetsubo, Mastercraft Mithril Knuckles (x2), Rope (25 Ft.), Canteen (Full), Road Rations, Spare Clothes, Bedroll, Health Potion (x2), Books (x3)
I really hope that you enjoyed the new chapter! Thank you for reading so far!
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UPDATE - An autopsy was conducted by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie V. Duval this afternoon. Dr. Duval determined the deceased female’s cause of death was blunt impact head injuries, and the manner of death is pending investigation.
To help identify the individual, a photograph of the tattoo located on the small of her back, on the left side, is included with this release. Please note the image has been enhanced for clarity.
The exact circumstances surrounding this incident remain under investigation. Additional information will be released as it becomes available.
SEEKING ASSISTANCE WITH IDENTIFICATION OF DECEASED FEMALE -
HOPKINTON, New Hampshire – On June 5, 2023, at approximately 12:13 a.m., New Hampshire State Police received a report of a person lying in the breakdown lane of Interstate 89 North near mile marker 7.2.
Upon arrival, Troopers located a deceased female.
The circumstances that led to this individual’s death are actively under investigation. Investigators are seeking additional information to include assistance identifying the deceased female:
• The female is described as white, fair skin complexion, strawberry blonde-red hair, blue eyes, approximately 18-30 years of age, 5’01”, 111 pounds, neon green colored finger and toenails. Additionally, the female has a tattoo on the small of her back of a bird feather with birds flying out of it.
• Suspicious behavior of an individual or any motor vehicle stopped on the northbound side of Interstate 89 in Hopkinton, anytime between June 4, 2023, at 11:25 p.m. and June 5, 2023, at 12:15 a.m.
Anyone with this information or any other details about this incident is asked to contact New Hampshire State Police at (603) MCU-TIPS (628-8477) or [email protected] or State Police Headquarters Communications at (603) 223-4381.
The exact circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation. More information will be released as it becomes available.

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Starting from the left: 1st, Nicolas Conver preserved in la Bibliothèque nationale de France; 2nd, Nicolas Conver from Phillipe Camoin’s private collection, printed from the 1760 plates in the late 1800s, so after a century of wear; 3rd, the Conver-Ben-Dov restoration (2010); 4th, the 2019 Anna Maria Morsucci Marseille Tarot
La Papesse is probably the most difficult of all the TdM trumps to talk about, so over the years, people writing commentaries and revamping historic decks have discovered all kinds of creative ways to not talk about the image or subtly (or not so subtly) rework it to bring her into alignment with what they want her to be. Alejandro Jodorowsky, as an example of the not-so-subtle, gives her an egg to hatch and claims this to be the restoration of a detail lost to the inevitable corruptions of time. His student, Yoav Ben-Dov, lands on the more subtle side: although his card appears to be an exact reproduction of the Nicholas Conver, Ben-Dov makes the slightest alteration at the corners of her mouth, so she appears to be smiling. He also gives her a more human appearance by adding a bit of color to her face – warming her up, so to speak.
Ben-Dov does not explain these modifications in his book The Open Reading; he does say in his introduction, “The CBD Tarot de Marseille [is] an edition of the cards that I restored from the most influential historical deck originally published by Nicolas Conver in 1760.”
It may seem like a small thing; however, it changes the way we respond to the figure on a subconscious level. Though Conver did not have the technology available in 2010, when the CBD deck was published, he did have the ability to add flesh tones to his decks. While the Popess’s face is white, her hands are flesh-toned; further, the woman in the 17th arcanum, Le Toille, is flesh-colored, as is le Diable and the world dancer in XXI Le Monde. In XX Le Jugement, the figure rising from the dead is bluish, but the man and woman kneeling in prayer by the coffin are flesh-colored, as is one of the dogs in La Lune and the two children in Le Soleil. We can only conclude that the choice of a white face was by design and not due to practical considerations, and Conver’s choice was in keeping with the tradition begun by Noblet, Dodal, and Madenié. The only historical TdM type-I or type-II deck I am aware of that shows la Papesse with a flesh-colored face is the 1736 Francois Chosson (though he does not have her smiling).
The CBD Popess is more relatable and approachable than her counterpart in the 2019 Morsucci TdM, also based upon Conver, allowing Ben-Dov to present her as a kind of guardian of secrets, a modernized Sophia. When her face is white, however, she appears drained of warmth, passion, life.
Other figures in the parade of trumps also have white faces, but they do not appear as lifeless as la Papesse; le Bateleur, for instance, is engaged in his performance; le Pape is teaching or giving a sermon; l’Hermite is seeking truth; the charioteer is preparing for a journey. La Papesse has an open book on her lap, but she is not absorbed in reading it: the card captures her in a moment of inattention. Some construe this as meditation, and it is possible, though her white face and her lack of expression seem to belie this interpretation.
Everything about her is suggestive of oppression: she is cloistered, presumably alone; her heavy robes hide every trace of her feminine nature (only her face and hands are visible); not a strand of hair escapes her wimple; and a quick Google search for how much her papal tiara weighs yields a result of 18 lbs. Le Pape, arcanum V, wears the same crown, but in that card, he is acting in his role as Pope; the three-tiered crown is a symbol of his office, so we understand why he has it on. (We can also imagine he removes it the moment he is alone.) Since there does not seem to be a reason for la Papesse to subject herself to its weight when she is by herself, reading a book; we might reasonable conclude that its presence is symbolic of a ponderous burden.
Ben-Dov writes, “The title band at the top of the card is exceptionally narrow, which makes the tip of the Popess’ tiara extend high when compared to other cards. This may indicate a higher kind of wisdom or intuition from a sublime source.” It is an attractive inference, though I wonder whether he would have thought it had he been forced to wear an 18 lb. weight on his head for a lengthy period of time beforehand.
Ben-Dov makes a connection to Sophia; other commentaries associate La Papesse to other deities that make even less sense. Alice Ekrek writes in the guide packaged with her 2020 TdM, “The High Priestess is also described as the veiled Isis. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, she is seated between two pillars which represent the great universal principles and mark the entrance to the great temple…” She evokes Isis not because anything in her card stimulated the association but because she has no interest in La Papesse whatsoever and does not even try to hide the fact and defaults to the Waite-Smith card; she even calls her TdM figure The High Priestess, and she is not alone in making this connection. Sallie Nichols writes in Jung and Tarot:
“Although she is called the Popess, she is not literally the pope’s wife. Since, in sequence, she follows the Magician, who is a priestly wise man, or magus, we may think of her as a High Priestess, which is what she is actually called in some of the modern decks. The Magician represents the primary yang, or masculine creative principle. The Popess can be seen to symbolize the primary yin, or feminine aspect of the godhead. She embodies the qualities of Isis, Ishtar, and Astarte, all goddesses who reigned over the rituals of women’s mysteries. In her spiritualized aspects she appears as the Virgin Mary and as Sophia, Divine Wisdom. Her number two is a number sacred to all female deities.”
It is baffling. Isis is most frequently depicted as a young mother suckling her infant son Horus, but she is in many other images portrayed as a winged goddess. If la Papesse was ever a mother, that identity has long since been left behind; she does not have wings, nor can we imagine her escaping the bonds of gravity and soaring through the heavens. Ishtar is a spirited goddess, associated with love and war; we see her standing upon a lion in one ancient representation; with her white face and lack of expression, la Papesse appears void of passion. Astarte displays her naked breasts, for she is a goddess of fertility; la Papesse denies her carnal nature by submerging herself in her papal robes.
Isis wall painting in the tomb of Seti
Isis left and Nephthys right as kites attending mummy 13th century BCE
There was a time when feminine deities were powerful and vital; they would not recognize the Popess as one of their own. The patriarchal religions have all but eliminated feminine spirit from their orders; what little remains is sexless, joyless, anemic.
Ishtar and La Papesse from Marteau deck preserved at Yale (deck Nichols was using)
La Papesse is one of the two saddest cards in the Tarot de Marseille parade of trumps. The other is Le Mat, the mad man who wanders not because he has a deep desire to see the world, but because the world has moved on without him, and he has no place in it. He is dressed as a court jester, a position that had been all but eliminated during the period when the Tarot de Marseille imagery was being developed. The skills that had served him so well for centuries were no longer desired as Europe moved through the final years of the Renaissance, except in a few courts, primarily in Russia, Spain, and Germany. We see some of the Fool’s sadness in Shakespeare’s King Lear, and though the play itself supposedly took place sometimes around the 8th century B. C., the end of the tradition was at hand in Shakespeare’s England; it pervaded the collective psyche and Shakespeare’s writing.
La Papesse never had a place. There was a never a time when she would have been accepted in the Catholic Church. There was a popular legend about a Pope Joan – a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to become a priest and then move up through the Church’s hierarchy to occupy the pope’s throne: predictably, it did not end up well for her. I imagine the tale appealed to people’s sense of the absurd, particularly in juxtaposition to such a serious and powerful institution as the Catholic Church The tale is well-known and mentioned in many commentaries, as is the story of the very real Manfreda Visconti, pictured in the second trump of the Visconti-Sforza deck (c. 1492). For a more comprehensive treatment, I recommend Michael S. Howard’s blog:https://tarotchristianbasis.blogspot.com/2016/11/popesshigh-priestess.html
But all this deflects from the card before us represents a poignant melancholy. It is an unpleasant reminder that the realities of life, often, fail to meet our aspirations. This realization leaves us feeling deflated, wondering what meaning is left for us to discover; it is little wonder that we have tried to leave la Papesse behind. Waite and Smith de-aged her, gave her robes of flowing water, replaced her papal tiara with the cow’s horns and sun disk of Hathor, put the crescent moon at her feet, and named her The High Priestess, making her divorce from the Church final. Crowley once again bares her breasts that she might reclaim her original power; Robin Wood puts her, a young woman with long, flowing black hair, outdoors in a clearing on the night of the full moon with a crystal ball in her hand.
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High Priestess from Waite-Smith (left); Allister Crowley's Thoth deck (center); Robin Wood tarot (right)
Perhaps this evolution was inevitable and necessary, yet it is not part of Tarot de Marseille tradition and wanting it to be will not make it so. The Popess illustrates the feeling of being trapped in an inauthentic life which most, if not all, people experience at some point in their lives. It is not pleasant, but it is entirely human.