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.
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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.
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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.
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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

So, it's basically this, a criminal or bully or disadaptative and chaotic family, alcoholic, agressive and so on, have kids, they inherit the agressiveness and are non raised properly, (no love either, growing only on violence), he or she grows to become the same shit as their parents thinking is normal or just not realizing it (like explosive behaviour and rage), probably the family don't believe in therapy mostly because they know how disfunctional they are, butas long as they survive, who cares? (That is why you see them with no friends at all, just focused on working, drinking for depression and so on) a therapist would disband the family even, and take the offspring to a foster care, to at least make them deal with the mental health problems that has developed since the womb, remember a lot of cortisol+ alcohol and maybe even antidepressants. And when he or she becomes and adult (probably with already a criminal history) starts to realize that something is wrong (only when its too late already onfurtunately), and the process starts, just to end up in rehab, special needs jobs and so on, probably tdah, squizophrenia, sociopathy and stuff, while is hated by the rest of the people he/she had known, oh and with some untreatable disease that because and the low income (you will find out that narcicistic families tend to expand in poverty), end up dying really young. And we tend to end up alone, best cases low income neighborhood and a "stable" job, toher times criminality, and worst case scenarios, homelessness or suicide. So what is the story from here? They just had kids for social pressure or by accident ( even multiple times) because a normal family plans to be financially stable to start having kids, or at least in adulthood they are already. So bullies tend to empathize with bullies, criminals to criminals and so on. That is why we are sent to AAA or self support group, oh yes. So, we do not choose to be this way, some therapists usually study for helping educated people, that is why cluster b personality is often treated only in jail, that is the stupid sistem of how its made. No wonder why there is a high difference between neighborhoods right? Because even for the ritch they can spoil a kid, and end up messing him/her up. (Usually is when they became ritch by fraud or being a jerk). And here we are...hated people, with bad attitude, low self control no matter the IQ, because discipline is more important at the long run. And we end up aging faster, body and brain. Loneliness contributes too. So how to stop huh?
For those who are teenagers reading this... Please practice yoga since now and forget the beer, at least for now, it will improve a lot your life, go to any kind of specialty formation to boost up income (then collegue if you want). And boredom is not bad at all. At least as you grow up. Plant trees even. Being a jerk, or the drunkest, or a pothead is not really cool. It actually makes you more stupid on the long run. And opting to a less quality couple or even none at all. As somebody who falls in love with people who will never even think to consider me as a partner, thrust me, it hurts, and will continue for the rest of the life, and if you manage to meet someone, while not listening to this (go to therapy too or a counselor) it will be a trouble marriage that will end in divorce, always, ALWAYS, because as the same that you have dirty rags, your partner will too, and the dumbest part is that both will be together by the rush of not dying alone + dealing alone with consequences. And problems will begin like one was a buglar and the other an armed robber or even worse.
How do we help ourselves?? What can we do other than deal with consequences that will ruin our lives mostly because nobody corrected us in our family and our neighbors always saw us as rotten since the begining?? So they didn't wanted to "mess with us" either? Because yes, maybe their kids became friends with us, but eventually will leave us apart because of the stuff we did, and even their parents were shouting them to not blend with us because we are a bad influence (and end up screwing them too, they realize later and they hate us for that).
We are now alone, and the only thing we can appeal to is to not end in jail (the stupid "realistic goals").
Motherfucking life.
And im just 26 so be careful it gets worse, fast. I sill havent fully paid for my mistakes and I'm scared and angry as hell. So at least i can try to save your asses. Pd: for your group of friends you are the lost cause one. No wonder why they call you only for party, drugs, beer and stuff? Because they see you a value of 0, and wont even care for what will happen to you.
We are all formed scapegoats already.
Time bombs that they are waiting to see explode. The, eventually will pay one way or another, and what is worse, we are. And we will pay more. Another recomendattion, do and ets, hiv test now, any other question, at least we can help us to save us.

I took the 3 test available and got all relatively high scores on them. Even the masking one. My mom said I was over exaggerating the masking one but I told her the test was mostly talking about if you are knowingly masking yourself and I do. She said I can't have a high raads and cat-q score. Though what she doesn't get is I don't want to be seen as weird. When I feel comfortable with someone I start acting more like me. After I get more comfortable though I always get asked in I have autism/adhd. When I was in middle school all my teachers were asking my mom if I was autistic and my principal started treating me like a 5 five year old. I also got shoved into a lot of different group and individual school therapy because of him. All the way up until senior year because he owned the highschool and middle school. Teachers would also warn my next year teachers about me which sucked. Everyone related me to the only other autistic kid at school and called me the girl version. He was actually pretty cool but he was rightfully upset about what was happening with me and him. Since I had stayed with same kids since 6th grades all my masking attempts never worked. Anytime I tried acting normal to someone who didn't know me someone from my grade would mention how weird I am. Though as we got older I was still the weird kid but my cohort did stop mentioning it. Mostly because my teachers started bullying me and literal children had to step in and defend me. Our cohort had gotten listed at my school as the WORST cohort. They told us to our face. So basically people started being protective over eachother. So now in a few weeks I'm getting screened. My mother is not excited about it but most of the people in my family have autism/adhd (including her). I guess she feels ashamed???? My brother also has autism but his is more out there. She has dodged and sabotaged every attempt given to get me tested and passed off my behavior off as normal. Like a 13 year old hiding under a school desk because of feelings of being overwhelmed constantly is normal.

N was flying while carrying Uzi and Doll with him follow V in the distance.
​
N: V, wait for us.
​
She didn't seem to pay attention to them and kept moving forward.
​
Uzi: What the hell is wrong with you 2? When my dad said that Thad was heading to the dead body area, you guys just, what was that all about?
N: Me, we… it's complicated.
Uzi: Don't tell me it's complicated! You're going to tell me everything you know about that thing NOW.
​
N hesitated for a few seconds, but Uzi looked at him annoyed, clearly not willing to listen to an excuse, to which she had to give up.
​
N: It's okay, but, you should know that I don't have all the details, it was V and J who knew the most about this, I… she just followed her orders.
Uzi: Fine, fine, but start talking already.
N: Okay… tell me, how much do you know about us when we got here?
Uzi: Outside of the fact that they came here killing everyone?
N: Well... let's say it wasn't that way, oh at least not as they told you.
Uzi: What do you mean?
​
In retrospect
A ship arrives and lands on Copper-9, some drones came out of it, but they weren't teardown drones, as they were wearing JCJenson uniforms.
​
N: When the core incident happened, they first sent an investigation team to find out what happened.
​
The group of “investigative drones” walked around the site examining the bodies of other wrecked drones on the ground.
​
Drone Researcher 1: Commando, you guys get to see this, it's a fucking massacre.
​
Suddenly a metallic noise is heard coming from a mound of bodies piled to one side. The drones look at each other suspiciously and approach cautiously. While one of them speaks.
​
Drone Investigator 2: Who's there?
​
N: These drones had no means of defense.
​
The leader of the group approaches one of the bodies and touches it, nothing happens.
​
N: They didn't have a chance.
​
A cable shoots out of the mound and through the leader's head.
​
Drone Investigator 3: Wow, what the hell?!
​
What looks like a clawed hand emerges from the mound and grabs the body, then a partially formed mechanical creature rises up, legless and missing an arm, but his appearance is intimidating enough that the drones know he caused it all. this, especially when he starts laughing.
​
End of hindsight
Uzi: So, that thing was the one that slaughtered the drones and not you?
N: Uh… 50/50.
​
Uzi looked seriously at N.
​
Uzi: We're not for N games.
N: Sorry, just me-
Uzi: That doesn't matter now, if what you say is true and then they sent you guys to take over.
V: No
​
V realized that her partner had opened her mouth, so she decided that if they were to know the truth she should tell it herself.
​
Uzi: What did you mean by that?
V: That after that, "Incident", combat drones were sent to eliminate that thing.
Uzi: Drones what?
V: Basically soldier drones, with weapons and the whole thing.
Uzi: And what happened?
V: We could barely hold that thing back, what do you think happened to them?
​
Uzi swallowed at that.
​
Doll: Если компания хочет убить эту штуку, почему они не послали вас с самого начала?
V: Because we didn't exist at that time, or at least not as such.
N: what do you mean?
​
V hesitated a few seconds before answering.
​
V: According to J, we are an… update that the combat drones should have received, but they gave it to us because they had unwanted behavior changes.
Uzi: Define, “unwanted behaviors”.
V: Well, they became extremely irritable, hyper active and started killing everything that moved.
Uzi: How are you?
​
V looked annoyed at Uzi.
​
V: Believe me, they were much worse, but as she said, in short they went crazy, so the company ordered us to take care of them.
Uzi: They sacrificed them.
V: It's a way of saying it, but yes.
Uzi: N, why didn't you mention that?
N: Because, honestly I didn't remember them, I mean, from what V says I think he's referring to team 23 and J didn't let me help much.
Uzi: Anyway, I think- wait you said 23.
V: yes
Uzi: You mean-
V: 23 teams were sent to put an end to that thing and none of them succeeded, we are team 24.
​
There was an awkward silence, Uzi trying to process the information she had just received, knowing that 23 groups of company-armed drones had been destroyed by that thing… it was terrifying.
​
Uzi: And you say that only you could face it?
V: Well, not exactly, that bastard destroyed my head and it took me a while to regenerate, when I woke up N told me that J had killed him, something that by the way turned out NOT TO BE TRUE.
​
N laughed nervously at V's comments.
​
N: In my defense J said that he had done it.
V: Anyway, when I got there his body was lying in the snow without moving, it was very big and they had given us the order to eliminate all the drones in the area to make sure that it hadn't escaped infecting someone, we needed to stock up on oil and we couldn't leave it out in the open, just like that, so what and...
Uzi: So what?
​
V and N didn't respond, Uzi didn't understand the reason for this, until he realized with horror what they were referring to.
​
Uzi: You buried him-
Doll: На горе трупов.
​
He said coming to the same conclusion as Uzi
​
Uzi: But why didn't they destroy it?
V: J didn't want to and said we needed to keep it, company orders.
Uzi: You can't be serious.
V: Ok, looking back maybe it wasn't the best idea, but she was the boss at the time, okay?
Uzi: I know, but why the hell would the company want to keep the thing that killed so many of their drones, it doesn't make sense, they'd just be wasting resources.
Doll: Я тут о чем-то подумал, она говорит, что "Джей" убила эту штуку, но явно это было не так, но и она не мо гла притворяться, что это сделала, так как ее тело не имеет сознания, а vdrug-
Uzi: J was infected all this time.
​
Uzi noticed that Doll looked at her annoyed for interrupting her.
​
Uzi: Hey, you did the same.
V: I doubt J was infected, I mean, that thing tried to turn us into its "minions" several times, even with J, but never succeeded.
N: That is true.
Uzi: But, what if she wasn't infected as such, but she, she "contained" it.
N: What do you mean?
Uzi: Think about it, J was absurdly loyal to the company, and they wanted this thing alive, but clearly couldn't kill it, what if J managed to transfer that monster's consciousness into hers and she contained it.
​
There was silence again.
​
Uzi: But, when I killed her, the program took over, the Absolute Fixer was supposed to regenerate J, but instead she just grew and grew, what if she wasn't killing for the sake of killing.
N: I don't understand, what does the program have to do with that thing?
Doll: Во время занятия профессор сказал, что чем больше и сложнее машина, тем больше вычислительной мо щности требуется для ее правильной работы.
Uzi: Right, maybe the fixer was trying to keep him contained, but… when we killed him, we-
V: They released that thing.
​
V looked annoyed at N and Uzi, the latter lowered her head as she realized that the monster that had taken Thad and many others had been released by her, first attracting the murder drones to the colony and now releasing an immortal monster that He only seeks to kill. It was in situations like this that she wondered… what would have happened if she had never left the colony that day? I don't notice her concern and try to cheer her up.
​
N: Uzi, it's not your fault, well technically yes, but the point is that we've all made mistakes, right girls?
​
V was not interested in answering and Doll just looked away from her.
​
N: Uzi you don't-
V: Oh that's not true!
​
Quickly V decade, N did not understand until, under her sight, there were hundreds and hundreds of those "zombie minions" around the place, most walking aimlessly, while others pulled out the piled bodies and took them away.
N quickly descended with the girls and stood next to V.
​
N: V, now what?
V: Silence, I try to think.
Uzi: I thought you'd jump right in and kill them all.
V (annoyed): I don't know if you noticed, but those things aren't easy to kill.
Doll: Так что, мы просто спрячемся здесь?
V: No, but, hey, Violet.
Uzi: Don't call me that.
V: Ok, “Uvi” or whatever your name is, can't your weapon shoot a super laser like J?
​
Uzi looked annoyed at V
​
Uzi: First, my name is Uzi and second, no, the energy core wears out very quickly and I used it to kill that other thing.
V: Ugh, great, and your Russian girl?
​
Doll looked annoyed at vi and manifested a knife pointed at her.
​
V (growling): Seriously none of you think of anything! I guess that's how J must have felt with us.
Uzi: Oh I'm sorry if, you know, we tried to process everything that just happened.
N: Hey girls
V: Oh yes, of course, now you start to think about that, right?!
N: Girls
Uzi: Maybe we could deal with this more calmly if, you know, THEY DIDN'T KILL SO MANY OF US!
V: Do you really blame me? When were you the one who released that thing?!
Uzi: Hey, it was the Absolute Solver who broke my weapon and destroyed himself.
V: I remind you that you killed J and he became that thing because of you.
N: Girls
V (points to N): And if you hadn't sided with him, we would have finished all this, and we'd go home.
​
Tired of nobody listening to him, N screamed.
​
N: YOU COULD HEAR ME FOR JUST 5 SECONDS!
​
There was an awkward silence, mostly because N wasn't the type to, well, yell for attention.
​
Uzi: Hey, we're waiting for you, what's up?
​
N pointed to the side, when they turned around they saw a large number of those "zombies" staring at them.
​
V: oh
​
The creatures began to laugh and ran towards them.
​
V: Oh you have to be kidding.
​
V quickly launched herself at the "zombies" cutting a group of them in half, but as expected, this didn't stop you and they began to crawl towards her. N fired several energy shots from her arm.
​
N: Uzi, I think we could use a little help.
Uzi: I don't know if you noticed, but I need a power core for my weapon to work.
N: But you don't have those claws and-?
​
Uzi looked annoyed at N not wanting to bring it up at that moment.
​
N: O-okay
​
N pierced the torso of one of the zombies and ripped out its energy core which he delivered to Uzi. He quickly attached it to his gun and began shooting at the creatures that kept coming.
​
Uzi: This is much better.
​
He quickly smashed the heads of several of them, to ensure that the bastards could not rise again. While this was happening, Doll was eliminating multiple zombies that were trying to get to her, but either she sent them flying using her powers, or she crushed them with said strange symbol that she summoned. V for her part cut and shredded all the zombies she found, if she were around another time she would possibly drink her oil, but she was more focused on finding Thad and preventing him from finding the body of that thing that in that.
As she ripped the head off of a zombie drone, she heard what seemed to be the sound of... an engine?, when she turned her head a gray blur hit her. When he fell to the ground, he saw what appeared to be a wrecked takedown drone, barely standing, with wires sticking out of its body and its wings spread, but unlike them, its clothing was more… “formal”, it was covered. of oil, but even so the symbol of the company and the number 23 on his chest were distinguishable, he was one of the members of team 23 sent to deal with that thing, who had to be sacrificed as they became unstable.
​
V: Ugh, what I was missing.
​
The creature laughed and jumped towards her, its claws collided with V's who tried to defend himself from the zombie that did not stop laughing, N attacked him from behind, but surprisingly, his broken wings bent towards him causing a deep cut on his neck. chest. N stepped back somewhat in pain, then pointed her cannon arm at him, but noticed that V was in the middle.
​
N: V move.
V: Do you think I can? Just shoot him!
N: But-
V: Just do it!
​
N was forced to fire, creating a large cloud of smoke as the shot hit, she approached and found V badly damaged, having lost a leg and an arm.
​
N: are you okay?
V: This is nothing.
​
Suddenly the winged zombie pounced on N, a large part of her body was missing, only her torso and one arm remaining.
​
N: Ah, take it from me.
​
What could be described as a ninja star flew out and impaled the zombie's head, spinning inside and ripping him apart internally, the beast convulsing before falling dead to the ground. N looked in the direction of his savior seeing that it was Doll, Uzi was shooting at the other zombies that were advancing towards them trying to make them go back.
​
Uzi: Not to put pressure on them, but these things keep coming, how many of us did they kill?
V: In our defense, that thing did 70% of the job.
​
V, having partially regenerated, prepared to jump into the approaching zombie army, but stopped when she heard laughter and growls from another direction, she and N turned in that direction and saw multiple eyes in the blizzard staring at them, V between the hills. her eyes to see straight, only to be caught off guard when the rest of the now zombie team 23 flew in her direction. Team 23 unlike the team of N, V and J, this was made up of 12 prototype disassembly drones, if killing one cost them anything, this was going to take longer, they flew over them as if they were vultures, they then charged into the group in an attempt to finish them off.
​
V: Ugh, it had to be these guys.
N: Do you know them?
​
V cut two to one who flew at her and fired multiple rounds at her head to make sure he didn't get back up.
​
V: We killed them, you don't remember, no wait, J left you out of that.
N: That when she was her?
Uzi: Look, I'd love to know the context of all this, but we could focus on that later!
​
Uzi blocked the claws of one of those things with his weapon, he held her and tried to snatch it away to leave her defenseless, because she pressed the trigger, the weapon began to shoot in all directions, accidentally hitting both the zombie drones and V and N.
​
N: Ouch.
V: Be careful idiot!
Uzi: Do you think I can control it?!
​
One of the shots went to Doll, who covered herself waiting for the impact, but there was none, when she opened her eyes she saw that she had managed to stop the energy projectile in midair, she didn't have time to process this when one of those things struck her. stabbing him in the chest, she screamed in pain, but she wasn't going to sit idly by, so she redirected the projectile's course and launched it at the flying drone. Although she didn't hit the target, if she smashed her arms, she clearly didn't take it well and she lunged at Doll, who manifested several knives and threw them at her head to kill him once and for all.
On the other hand, V had to deal with 3 of those things, as if he didn't have enough problems. She turned her hand into a kind of harpoon and threw it at one of them, the harpoon stuck in the chest of the winged zombie and threw it at a group of common zombies that were approaching, the other two jumped towards her, she barely managed to stop. the first, but not the second, who bit his left arm. V grunted in pain before yelling at her partner.
​
V: M!
N: I'm-
V: Help!
N: oh
​
He quickly destroyed the drone that was attacking him and flew towards V, taking the drone that was directly attacking her by surprise and threw it at another one that was flying towards them, smashing them in the air, V turned his free hand into a sword and attacked the drone that was attacking him. It bit the arm, but it was faster and ripped it off, she screamed, but in anger and changed her sword for a machine gun with which she shot at the creature, destroying it.
​
V: Thanks, uh…
N:N
V: Yes, that.
​
Back with Uzi, she was trying to free her weapon from the grasp of the flying drone, who refused to let go.
​
Uzi: Oh come on, let it go.
​
Uzi kicked at the creature, but it had no effect, instead it hit him back, Uzi fell and the monster threw the weapon aside, she tried to move away, but he lunged at her, digging his claws into the snow and it opened its mouth, showing its sharp teeth and wires that dangled from its mouth. When the zombie was going to "bite" it, almost as if he did it out of instinct, Uzi attacked the creature, thrusting his fist into its mouth, then his hand turned into a claw and opened it, smashing its head, the monster fell dead. On top of her, Uzi pushed the body to the side and looked at her claw, covered in oil... and felt the need to taste it, lost in her thoughts it felt like time froze, until she heard Doll scream, she quickly regained her composure and returned his claw to normal. Doll was desperately trying to get rid of the tide of reanimated bodies that were trying to reach her, although she could easily just destroy them using her powers, it turned out that the damage caused by that "spider" in the colony somewhat interfered with her, so she was it was making it difficult to use them correctly. Quickly a flurry of energy shots tore most of them apart and they gave him time to get away from them. V flew into the air attracting the remaining flying zombies who started flying after her. N tried to follow them, but she saw that Uzi and Doll were being surrounded, she looked at V being surrounded in the air by those things, but Uzi was also in trouble. N had to decide whether to help Uzi or help V.
Uzi and Doll were trying to push back the zombies that were crawling towards them, Uzi's gun would run out of power at this point and Doll's powers would keep failing.
​
Uzi: Ugh, because they just don't die.
​
She kicked one that was nearby while the others kept getting closer. One who was supposedly dead behind Uzi, got up and grabbed her from behind, she tried to fight, but accidentally dropped her weapon, fed up with this, her hands turned into claws and she impaled the drone's head, then threw it to the ground and began to crush it over and over and over again until it was simply nothing but scrap.
She gasped at the incessant urge to kill, for doing so... felt good, felt VERY good, she looked at her claws again, with oil dripping from them, she again felt the need to taste it, but quickly came back to her senses when more of those zombies approached her, a wide smile broke out on her face while that strange symbol flashed on her visor, she didn't bother to retrieve her weapon, because she already had others.
As this was happening, a white eye under a mound of corpses watched the group fight their minions.
​
01001000 01001111 01010011 01010100 01001001 01001100 01000101 00100000 01000001 01010010 01010100 01001001 01000110 01001001 01000011 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01001100 01001001 01000110 01000101 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01001101 01010011 00100000 01001111 01010110 01000101 01010010 01000011 01001111 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000100 01000101 01000110 01000101 01001110 01010011 01000101 01010011
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​
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01010011 01000101 01010010 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010011 01001001 01000111 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01010110 00100000 11100010 10000000 10010011 00100000 01001000 01001001 01000111 01001000 00100000 01000100 01000001 01001110 01000111 01000101 01010010
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​
01000001 01001110 01000001 01001100 01011001 01010011 01001001 01010011 00100000 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001111 01010010
01010010 01000101 01010100 01010010 01011001 01001001 01001110 01000111 00101110 00101110 00101110
​
01000001 01001110 01000001 01001100 01011001 01010011 01001001 01010011 00100000 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001111 01010010
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00101110 00101110 00101110
​
01000011 01000001 01001100 01000011 01010101 01001100 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01000010 01000001 01000010 01001001 01001100 01001001 01010100 01011001 00100000 01001111 01000110 00100000 01001101 01001001 01010011 01010011 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01010011 01010101 01000011 01000011 01000101 01010011 01010011 11100010 10000000 10100110
​
01000011 01000001 01001100 01000011 01010101 01001100 01000001 01010100 01000101 01000100 11100010 10000000 10100110
​
00110100 00110001 00101110 00111000 00110111 00100101 00100000 01000011 01001000 01000001 01001110 01000011 01000101 00100000 01001111 01000110 00100000 01010011 01010101 01000011 01000011 01000101 01010011 01010011
​
11100010 10000000 10100110
​
00101110 00101110 00101110 01010000 01010010 01001111 01001010 01000101 01000011 01010100 00100000 01001000 01010101 01001110 01010100 01000101 01010010 00100000 01010000 01010010 01000101 01010110 01001001 01000101 01010111
00111000 00110110 00101110 00110111 00111000 00100101 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001101 01010000 01001100 01000101 01010100 01000101
​
00101110 00101110 00101110
​
01000001 01000100 01000100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010110 01000001 01010010 01001001 01000001 01000010 01001100 01000101 01010011 11100010 10000000 10100110
​
01010010 01000101 01001100 01000101 01000001 01010011 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010011 01010101 01000010 01001010 01000101 01000011 01010100
01010010 01000101 01010011 01010111 01010010 01001001 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01001001 01001110 01001001 01010100 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01000111 01010010 01000001 01001101 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000111 11100010 10000000 10100110
​
01001111 01000010 01001100 01001001 01010100 01000101 01010010 01000001 01010100 01000101 00100000 01001000 01001111 01010011 01010100 01001001 01001100 01000101 00100000 01000001 01010010 01010100 01001001 01000110 01001001 01000011 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01001100 01001001 01000110 01000101 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01001101 01010011
​
Returning to our group, Uzi ripped and shredded the zombie drones that pounced on him, this while N and V took care of the last 2 remaining flying zombies.
​
V: huh, L?
N: It's N
V: Whatever, don't you think you should tell your girlfriend to calm down a bit?
N: what?! No, she's not-
​
No sooner had she noticed the small mountain of bodies that Uzi had created, she found herself hitting while she was laughing uncontrollably at a zombie that had stopped moving a long time ago.
​
N: Oh… that.
​
N managed to decapitate the flying zombie that was attacking him, then he approached Uzi, Doll was on one side watching, she didn't dare to approach her crazed companion.
​
N: Uh, Uzi?
​
Uzi ripped the head off one of the zombies and used it to hit the limp body of another that was next to it.
​
Doll: Я не думаю, что это хорошая идея, чтобы привлечь его внимание her?
N Uzi?
​
Uzi turned around, about to drink the oil from the head she was holding, until N caught her attention and she came to her senses.
​
Uzi: No?
N: what are you doing?
Uzi: I…
​
She quickly tossed her head to the side and climbed down the small hill of corpses that she had made.
​
Uzi: she was just in charge of cleaning the place.
N: Umm… And that was necessary?
​
N pointed to the mound of corpses that Uzi made.
​
Uzi: Oh, that, it's just… let's change the subject.
V: yes
​
V approached holding the head of the zombie that was attacking her, then smashed it to make sure the bastard stayed dead.
​
V: How to find your "little friend" and put an end to all this at once.
Uzi: Look, I want to end all of this too, but you don't think there's any alternative other than, you know, killing him.
V: NO
Doll: Ненавижу это признавать, но он прав.
​
Uzi looked at Doll confused considering that she tried to kill V just a few hours ago.
​
Doll: But that doesn't mean I like him.
​
V looked at Doll who looked at her annoyed, she rolled her eyes and turned her attention to N.
​
V: Well, I think he is already
​
V was interrupted when a kind of mechanical roar was heard in the distance.
​
V: DAMN IT, NOW WHAT!
​
And she was already fed up with these zombies, they simply did not stop coming, or so she thought, since there were practically none alive, but in the distance she could see a light moving erratically and quickly.
​
Uzi: What is that?
V: Ugh, I'll take care of it.
​
V opened his wings and flew into the blizzard which had increased, a few seconds passed without anything happening, until shots and sounds of clashing blades were heard, then V flew out and crashed into Doll.
​
N: V!
​
N rushed to help her partner while Uzi aimed his gun and fired at the approaching dim light, but missed as she was zic-zac.
​
Uzi: What the hell?
​
Suddenly, the creature jumped towards her, managing to ram her, the beast raised her claw to pierce it, but Uzi stopped it in time with his own, it was at that moment that she was able to see it more closely. He was moderately taller and bulkier than a common drone, he had a red jacket that was torn and covered in oil, his arms and legs were more robotic and coarse, in addition to having claws on both his hands and feet, his helmet was cracked and at the same time Like other zombies, it seemed that its jaw was attached to its head by cables, in addition to having a single glowing white eye in the middle of its visor.
​
Uzi: T-Thad?
​
A shot of energy hit the creature freeing Uzi, but this had not finished with it, as it was clearly more resistant than the others, the beast quickly recomposed itself and ran on all fours towards en, who fired again.
​
Uzi: No, wait.
​
N fired, but the zombie hunter dodged and jumped on him, digging his claws into his torso, N screamed in pain as the hunter violently withdrew his claws ripping into his chest and digging them into his face . Doll decided not to be left behind and materialized several knives around her and threw them at the creature. She, however, did not even bother to protect herself, since most of the knives could not go through his body and only one hit his head, but he simply took it from his face and threw it abruptly to the ground. He then began to approach her while chuckling slightly as Doll backed away, she tried to summon one of those weird symbols like when they were in the colony, but it just kept failing without interacting with the physical world. Luckily for her, V managed to wake up and lunged at the thing, using her swords to block the attack from her claws and trying to cut it.
​
V: I should have killed you when I had the chance!
​
He simply laughed, irritated by this, she managed to stab him into her chest with her sword, then spread her wings and began to soar with him.
​
N: W, wait!
​
V continues to rise as she punched the monster in the face.
​
V (hitting him): Let's see, if you keep laughing at this.
​
The creature continued laughing at her, V angrily tried to hit him to smash his head, but he caught her arm with her mouth and ripped it off causing her to scream in pain.
​
V: Ah, damn son of-!
​
But she couldn't finish when the enhanced zombie opened her mouth and several wires came out of it, digging into her head.
​
V: No
​
His visor glitched and a message appeared on it.
​
“THE SYSTEM HAS DETECTED HOSTILE COMPUTER AGENTS, PROCEEDING TO AN EMERGENCY RESET”
​
Then her body was inert beginning to fall at high speed. Below, Doll, N and Uzi looked expectantly when they noticed how they began to descend at high speed.
​
Uzi: Uh… that doesn't look good.
N: V!
​
N opened his wings and tried to reach them, but they crashed into the ground, generating a large cloud of dust and snow that covered the place. After a few seconds of waiting, the light from the creature's eye and its laughter became present and showed itself above. from V's body which cushioned the fall, N launched against the beast which responded in the same way, digging its claws into the torso, then opened them throwing large amounts of oil and took N's head and smashed it against the ground , only to then crush it with the claw of his foot, then he slowly turned his head and laughed when he saw the two remaining girls, to later launch himself on Doll.
​
Uzi: Ugh, dammit.
​
She tried to shoot, only to realize that she couldn't pull the trigger, it was as if her body refused to do it, while the zombie attacked Doll who threw knives at it to stop it but just like before, it was useless, because which using all his concentration, he managed to stop him by placing that strange holographic symbol on his limbs, although he could easily tear him to pieces at that moment, due to the failure of his powers, the most he could do was stop him, but that was enough, because Uzi could take care of the rest.
​
Doll: Давай, поторопись и сNESи ему голову.
​
Uzi raised her gun and aimed at the head of the zombie that was struggling to get free... but for some reason she couldn't pull the trigger, she tried to, but she couldn't, because in that monster she still saw her old friend her.
​
Doll: Узи, чего ты ждешь, я не могу-
​
The creature broke free of those holographic restraints causing a small burst of energy that sent Doll flying and knocked her unconscious. Then she directed her gaze to Uzi who still couldn't shoot him, he began to walk towards her while Uzi backed away out of fear.
​
Uzi: Thad
​
The creature began to laugh slowly as it extended its claws.
​
Uzi: I-I know you're there… please don't make me do this.
​
He did not stop his advance, in turn N recovered consciousness after regenerating seeing how that thing approached his friend.
​
N: Ozi!
​
Uzi finally using all his willpower managed to pull the trigger... but nothing happened. It turns out that he spent all of the weapon's energy on the zombie army from before. When he looked up he saw the zombie standing in front of her, staring at her with his only eye.
​
Uzi: Thad, I-
​
Uzi stopped as he felt the blades of the being's claws pierce his body, then the creature picked him up while roaring and split him horizontally in two, throwing his remains roughly in different directions, with the top falling to the side of the mound of bodies. that she had formed earlier and a few surviving zombies that were creeping towards her.
​
N: UZI!
​
N got up when he saw his friend being violently murdered and pounced on the monster that he had begun to laugh uncontrollably. He blocked the attack of his claws with his own and tried to subdue him, but N was too angry, and when that happens, he stops being the cute boy of the group, his visor showed an X instead of his eyes and he started to smile, then he held the creature's hands tightly and placed his foot on his chest, then he began to pull while it tried to free himself from his grip, but it was too late, N ripped off the zombie's arms and then dug his claws into his torso, beginning to destroying it while ripping out its insides even using his mouth, then he began to repeatedly hit its head with his hands and didn't stop until only shattered scrap was left. Despite this he didn't stop until he heard V's voice.
​
V: No?
​
N stopped his attack upon hearing that V finally remembered his name. Then they both looked at each other in awkward silence. To say that she was surprised was an understatement, J always said how N was a burden and a dead weight, so V's vision of him was not a big deal, but he never thought that his clumsy partner could "explode" like that. shape.
​
V (thinking): I wonder what J would have said if she saw you now?
N: I-
V: Look that doesn't matter now, that thing isn't really dead, now we just have to get rid of its body and all this hell will be over.
Doll: What kind of thing?
​
Doll said with her arms crossed, although she had been willing to help them finish this thing off, what would they do next? N and V were still Killer Drones, their purpose was to kill the worker drones, they would return to the colony and kill to all.
​
V (annoyed): What are you insinuating?
Doll: Что они собираются делать, когда закончат с этой штукой?
V: Look whatever your name is, I still haven't forgotten that you tried to kill me, so I would suggest you watch your words.
​
They both looked at each other with mutual contempt, while N was silent thinking about Uzi. But they all stopped when they heard a strange sound, like metal and plastic breaking. The three of them turned slowly in the direction of the creature and saw how it was getting up, despite its damaged state multiple cables were coming out of its body, and connected to the arms and various remains of other zombies scattered around the place and the remains of the shattered head, the wires from the head reached out and grabbed the head of the flying drone that N had decapitated earlier, then attached it to his body, for a few seconds there was silence, but it was broken by the laughter of that monster whose eye lit up in your viewer.
​
V: Why can't you just fucking die?!
Doll(scared): Ч-что это за монстр на самом деле?
​
N did not hesitate and launched himself again at Uzi's killer, but he had to avoid it as the zombie doubled his body and multiple cables with pieces of sharp metal extended from the large hole in his torso thanks to N. Then he rejoined and ran on all fours towards V and Doll, V changed his claws for weapons and started shooting, while Doll threw whatever she had, knives, throwing stars or pieces of zombie drones at him. But nothing seemed to stop him, V tried to sting him with the stinger of his tail, managing to infect his arm with the acid nanobots, but this did not seem to matter to him, even when it began to corrode and separate from his body. He countered by stabbing V into his arm and again ripping him from his body.
​
V: Not again!
​
The zombie was going to impale his head with his claws, but a holographic symbol of Doll around his wrist stopped him. N then charged and pinned him before throwing himself against a wall to pin him down.
​
N: V shoot!
​
V, unlike Uzi, did not hesitate and began to shoot at point blank range at both of them, the shots slightly damaged N but the same could not be said of the creature, that although its body could resist the shots, its head could not and it was being damaged. So to get rid of it, I grabbed the stinger from N's tail and cut it before digging into the head, causing it to remain inert on the ground, although the disassembly drones could resist the effect of their own nanobots, or at least of In a way that wasn't lethal, that didn't mean they couldn't hurt them. After breaking free, he ran again like a wild animal towards the two girls while they shot at him. V exchanged his amra for a sword while he attacked the monster.
​
V: JUST DIE!
​
He held the swords and using absurd force split them in two, V changed his weapon again, this time into normal claws. Then he tried to attack it with his claw, but the zombie opened its mouth and several cables came out like tentacles trying to catch it, V quickly moved away and avoided being touched, although he had tried to maintain his serious attitude throughout this time, the truth it's that there was something that worried her, and a lot, her arm, it didn't regenerate, well, it did, but VERY slowly. Because? Why wasn't her regeneration system repairing her at the same speed as before? What was that feeling in his chest? Was it fear?
V moved further away from the creature fearing for her life, whatever she did to him had triggered that survival instinct she apparently lacked, apparently a side effect of slowing her regeneration.
Doll looked annoyed at V when she saw that she was alone against this monster, who began to approach her in a threatening way while she laughed. She manifested various knives, saws, ninja stars and anything she could use as a weapon, then began to throw it at him as he began to run against her, unlike before if it had a greater effect, as the objects managed to go through his body and leave him still. more, but he kept advancing, even his cables quickly assimilated several of the objects that were thrown at him in his own body. Doll, on the other hand, was exhausted, using her powers so often and relentlessly was draining almost all of her energy, not to mention that they were not working properly, since several of the objects that she was throwing at her were vanishing in the air. So using what little energy she had left, she manifested various symbols on different parts of the zombie's body and turned them around several times, a horrible sound of metal and artificial organs breaking was heard as the creature's body fell to the inert ground. . Doll breathed heavily feeling her microprocessors boiling from overexertion, sure that now the damned should be dead...
I think by now you should get the idea that this is almost impossible, as her broken body began to rise again, twisting the broken joints and bending to stay upright. Then she began to walk on all fours towards her, she was helpless, too tired to do anything, she was about to close her eyes waiting for death when several shots attracted the creature. N and V started shooting at the monster in order to kill it once and for all, but without success. N had already regenerated and V had decided to attack again because she didn't know that this thing would inevitably kill them, but at least she wouldn't die hiding like a rat. Another confrontation with an obvious result was about to take place, but the zombie stopped and looked in another direction. The group of three looked confused in the same direction and noticed something, in the small mound of bodies from before, several of the zombies' bodies were torn apart and open, as if a wild animal had devoured them, since said animal was on its back. , over a corpse and what could be described as two wings made of... meat?, the creature slowly turned around and showed itself as Uzi, but in the middle of her visor was that strange symbol and her mouth had several sharp teeth, she started laughing when she flew at high speed against her old friend managing to ram him and causing them to crash against the wall causing a cloud of smoke, when this dissipated his new appearance could be better appreciated, his body looked slightly different, but his legs were now more similar to V's, in addition to possessing a tail with yellow acid on it, but the most prominent thing was clearly its wings that seemed to be made of meat. Uzi laughed and attacked the zombie Thad who could barely defend himself due to only having one arm, several cables came out of the zombie's mouth and tried to hold Uzi, but she countered with her tail which he bit and smashed, causing the acid to melt his wires and part of his jaw. As these two killed each other, V, N, and Doll looked away from the conflict.
​
V: Since when-?
N: We shouldn't help.
Doll: Я не думаю, что это хорошая идея?
​
Uzi pinned Thad slammed him repeatedly into the ground as he laughed uncontrollably, then without giving him a chance to defend himself plunged his claw into the hole in his chest and violently ripped out what could only be described as his heart. Whereupon the creature wailed in apparent pain, and its single eye went black. Uzi laughed as she dripped the oil onto her face.
​
V (pointing her arm at her weapon): Great now we have to deal with her.
Doll: Я думаю, мы не должны привлекать его внимание her-
N: Uzi you did amazing!
​
Uzi turned to look at them abruptly and smiled when he saw new prey, he put aside the artificial heart and began to approach them while she slightly tilted her head, as if they were analyzing them.
​
V: Goodbye to the surprise factor, idiot.
N: But, she-
​
Uzi's laughter began to increase as she approached them menacingly, so they "instinctively" began to back away. Uzi extended her claws ready to pounce on the poor defenseless group, as Doll could barely stand upright, V was missing an arm and his wounds were still not fully healed, N was the only one fit to fight, but it's not that the be willing to harm Uzi.
Just when she was about to pounce on them, suddenly the creature's arm grabbed her neck and pulled her close to him, showing that his "heart" had been reconnected by the cables that were reattached to his body. .
​
V: Oh you can't be serious!
N: Uzi!
​
N tried to go help her, but it was too late, the zombie opened her mouth and several new cables came out and stuck in Uzi's head. She struggled for a few seconds before going limp, N looked worried, but then the creature began to convulse violently, releasing Uzi.
​
01010011 01000101 01000011 01010101 01010010 01001001 01010100 01011001 00100000 01000010 01010010 01000101 01000001 01000011 01001000 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010100 01000101 01000011 01010100 01000101 01000100
01010101 01001110 01001011 01001110 01001111 01010111 01001110 00100000 01001000 01001111 01010011 01010100 01001001 01001100 01000101 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01000111 01010010 01000001 01001101 00100000 01000010 01010010 01000101 01000001 01001011 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010100 01001000 01010010 01001111 01010101 01000111 01001000 00100000 01000100 01000101 01000110 01000101 01001110 01010011 01000101 01010011
01010000 01010010 01001111 01000111 01010010 01000001 01001101 00100000 01001001 01001110 01000110 01000101 01000011 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000100 01000001 01010100 01000001 00100000 01001110 01010101 01010010 01001111 01001110 01000001 01001100 00100000 01001110 01000101 01010100 01010111 01001111 01010010 01001011
01000011 01001111 01010010 01010010 01010101 01010000 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010011 01011001 01010011 01010100 01000101 01001101 01010011
01010000 01000101 01010010 01000110 01001111 01010010 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000101 01001101 01000101 01010010 01000111 01000101 01001110 01000011 01011001 00100000 01010011 01001000 01010101 01010100 01000100 01001111 01010111 01001110
​
The creature's body went rigid and then fell limp to the ground, this time truly dead.
​
V:…what the hell just happened?!
N: Ozi!
N quickly approached Uzi who was unconscious on the ground, he lifted her up and tried to make her react. On her visor could be seen a constantly rotating charge symbol.
​
N: Come on Uzi, she reacts.
​
N tried to see if she could do anything, but it's not like he really knew how to fix her, especially given the change in her body. But luckily for him, her visor came on and Uzi started to react, this time without that strange symbol on her face.
​
Uzi: Ugh, my head, what happened.
N: uzi
​
N hug Uzi happily.
​
Uzi: N… I… can't… breathe.
N: Oh, sorry.
Uzi: *gasp* Thanks, I felt like, wait-
​
It was at that moment that Uzi felt something strange in his back and her legs, when he turned to look, to say that she was surprised was an understatement.
​
Uzi: WHAT?! WHEN?! AS?!
​
Uzi looked in shock at her wings and legs, as well as her tail whose stinger was broken. But I also notice something, Thad's body lying on the ground, rapidly closing in on him.
​
Uzi: Oh Thad.
N: are you okay?
Uzi: Yes, only…
​
I look sadly at the body of her former friend.
​
N: Don't worry, it was for the best.
​
At that moment V coughed to get her attention.
​
V: I don't want to ruin her “moment”. But I think we should find a way to kill this thing.
Doll: Разве она не мерт-
V: Don't say it!
N: Say what?
V: That damn thing is dead because it surely isn't!
​
As if it was a response from fate, a strong earthquake started at that moment.
​
Uzi: Wow, what's going on?
​
She suddenly came to a stop... only for moments later what could be described as several giant tentacles made of wires to emerge from the ground towering over the group who were in a visible state of shock.
​
V:… How I hate myself.
Doll: Я тоже ненавижу тебя.
Uzi: FOR ROBOT-CHRIST WHAT THE HELL!
N(in a panic): This can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening.
​
Then one of the tentacles began to descend dangerously in the direction of the group that quickly began to flee.
​
Uzi: Watch out!
​
The tentacle crashed into the ground digging into it, although it missed by a considerable distance, the ground began to crack, creating a crack that began to widen more and more.
​
Uzi: wow
​
Uzi lost her balance due to his new legs and fell into the void, not that she's used to how to use them.
​
N: Uzi!
​
N quickly launched after her spreading her wings. V and Doll tried to escape, but it was useless, because the ground began to collapse and Doll was about to fall, but she managed to hold on to V, who tried to get her off of her.
​
V: Get off me!
​
V struggled with Doll, completely forgetting that the damn floor was opening up, which is why she didn't notice when a large piece of rock collided with them and made them fall into the void. The crack began to widen as it swallowed various debris, zombie remains… and Thad's body. While a certain artificial life construct was beginning to see its priorities.
​
01010000 01000001 01010010 01010100 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01000100 01000001 01010100 01000001 01000010 01000001 01010011 01000101 00100000 01000011 01001111 01010010 01010010 01010101 01010000 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110
01001111 01010101 01010100 01010011 01010100 01000001 01001110 01000100 01000101 01000100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01000110 01000101 01001110 01010011 01000101 00100000 01010011 01011001 01010011 01010100 01000101 01001101 01010011
​
01000100 01001111 01001110 00100111 01010100 00100000 01010101 01001110 01000100 01000101 01010010 01010011 01010100 01000001 01001110 01000100
​
01010010 01000101 00101101 01000101 01010110 01000001 01001100 01010101 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001001 01001111 01010010 01001001 01010100 01001001 01000101 01010011
​
00101101 01000101 01010011 01000011 01000001 01010000 01000101 00100000 01000110 01010010 01001111 01001101 00100000 01001100 01001111 01000011 01001011 01000100 01001111 01010111 01001110 00100000 01011011 01000001 01000011 01001000 01001001 01000101 01010110 01000101 01000100 01011101
00101101 01010010 01000101 01001101 01001111 01010110 01000001 01001100 00100000 01001111 01000110 00100000 01001111 01010010 01000111 01000001 01001110 01001001 01000011 00100000 01001100 01001001 01000110 01000101 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01001101 01010011 00100000 01011011 01000001 01000011 01001000 01001001 01000101 01010110 01000101 01000100 01011101
00101101 01010011 01010101 01010010 01010110 01001001 01010110 01000001 01001100 00100000 01011011 01001001 01001110 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01000011 01000101 01010011 01010011 01011101
00101101 01001000 01001111 01010011 01010100 01001001 01001100 01000101 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01000011 01000101 00100000 01010010 01000101 01001101 01001111 01010110 01000001 01001100 00100000 11100010 10000000 10011100 01001010 01000011 01001010 01100101 01101110 01110011 01101111 01101110 11100010 10000000 10011101 00100000 01011011 01001111 01001110 00100000 01010011 01010100 01000001 01001110 01000100 01000010 01011001 01011101
00101101 01010000 01010010 01001111 01010100 01000101 01000011 01010100 00100000 01010100 01001000 01000101 00100000 01000101 01010110 01000101 01010010 01011001 01010100 01001000 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01011011 01001101 01000001 01011000 01001001 01001101 01010101 01001101 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001001 01001111 01010010 01001001 01010100 01011001 01011101
​
01000001 01010011 01010011 01000101 01010011 01010011 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010011 01001001 01010100 01010101 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110
​
11100010 10000000 10100110
​
01010011 01010100 01000001 01010010 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000001 01010000 01001111 01001100 01001100 01011001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01010100 01001111 01000011 01001111 01001100
----------------
YES, it was expected that episode 4 would be split into two parts due to how long it is, but I'm still glad to be able to release this before episode 5 of the series comes out as I don't want to see it and then have to change several things at the last minute, so the next part will be the last... of course if I don't overexplain it by mistake, XD.
​
Pdta: If you notice grammar errors or some misspelled words, it's because I don't speak English, use google translator to translate this, so some things may not be understood correctly.

In 2020, I moved over 6 hours away from my hometown in Southern Ontario to attend University up north. I moved into my down with my best friend from high school whom I had known for years. In this building, it is important to note that it has been around since the school was first built however it is frequently renovated and worked on because it more often than normal, catches fire (more details later).
So, to set the scene: it's 2020, mid-pandemic and I had just been discharged from the army. My best friend and I had applied for the same university major and had decided that if we got in that we would live together. Well, sure enough, we got in and the only dorm that could accommodate our room request (i.e. moving into the same apartment with separate bedrooms) was situated directly across from a hospice. and for those that don't know a hospice is a medical facility where people go when they are close to death to live out the end of their lives in as much comfort as possible. This hospice was the only view out of our small windows and was the only one in our area.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the building frequently caught fire, but what was odd and worth mentioning about it, was that it only caught fire in apartment #5 on any given floor. My best friend and I lived on the 5th floor in the 5th apartment for 2 years even throughout the summer and fortunately, we never had a fire, but frequently found ourselves having to accommodate firefighters and other workers entering our rooms due to the smoke and water damage from various different fires from random floors directly above us. Along with my BFF, I had two other roommates who were very vocal about when they were home or not (we had a group chat), and for all these experiences they were never home. or even in the city for that matter. My BFF and I both got jobs working at a Lvl 1 Trauma Center as nightshift security and thus paranormal stuff didn't scare us as we frequently were forced to work in the morgue and even witness people die on a daily basis, with whole bunch of other things happening (maybe stories for another time).
The main experience that happened early on was when my BFF and I both awoke to hear someone going through our cupboards and garbage in the kitchen, which was right against my bedroom wall, thus making it super loud. it was about 1pm and because we were on night shift, it was our version of 1am. So, thinking my best friend had gotten up oddly early I went to talk to her, but when I opened my door there was no one. I woke her up quietly and we searched the entire apartment and hallways with whatever we could use as weapons. There was no one but everything was open, our fridge, the oven, drawers, and cabinets. As well, our garbage had been thrown across the room. All the breakers in our apartment had been switched off as well, which we didn't discover at first. It is important to mention that the only entry into our apartment, that being the front door, automatically locked when closed so it was most definitely locked 24/7. I called building security and no one had been seen on camera entering our dorm except for my BFF and me around 8am after we had gotten off work at the hospital. there was no explanation for who had done this but still, they took our statements and said they'd do patrols, they never found more information.
Over 3 months later, it was summer and my BFF and I had been 2 of 11 people left in the building over the summer, with the rest being mostly just international students who could afford to do quarantine protocols again in September as it took 2 weeks. We were the only ones on our floor but regularly heard stomping outside in the hall but neither of us never saw anyone through our peephole or even when we often heard knocks on the front door, however when we checked, no one every time. So aside from the knocking and stomping, super quiet summer except for one morning. I'll never forget it it shook us to the bone.
It was 10am and my roommate and I were asleep after work. I never locked my bedroom door as my bff loved to come in and hang all the time but for some reason, I locked it that entire week. and good thing too because I awoke to frantic and I mean FRANTIC knocking- no pounding on my bedroom door. I was obviously super disoriented as I had just finished a 12 hour shift a few hours earlier, but I saw two dark shadows under the door resembling feet. I figured my bff needed something and woke up but I called out before getting up because I was annoyed to be awake this early. The feet stayed unmoving but the knocking stopped. with a heavy sigh, I got up threw on a sweater and checked the time (it was around 10am), and went to open the door, with the shadows still there I assumed it was my bff. When I put my hand on the handle to unlock it, I heard a thud, and then, worried if my bff had fallen, I threw the door open to see my front door closing as if someone was just leaving. I ran over and saw a completely black figure turn the corner. I followed (my security guard instincts kicking in) but when I turned the corner, nothing. I went back and my roommate asked why I was knocking on the walls like that, she heard it from inside my room on an adjoining shared wall to both our bedrooms. we again called security but only I was seen chasing after nothing on the cameras. After my boyfriend, a firefighter started sleeping over frequently because were both spooked, the fires stopped, and most other things did too. We never had another incident on this level. We moved out after 2 years there and beyond hearing the usual bang, no other issues.
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edit: also important detail I forgot to add is that we had an anti-break-in security stick against our front door while we slept, and they were conveniently moved into the living room or against the wall after these events. we also tested the stick to see if it actually worked and trust me even my firefighter boyfriend and his bff couldn't force their way in

My 5600x has been running well for over a year before suddenly running at extremely high temps. When running games like Tarkov it reaches over 90 Celsius and idles at around 60 Celsius. I've reapplied thermal paste, dusted, and reduced cpu voltage to no avail. It's being cooled by a ThermalTake TH240, which seems to be working fine. are these temps normal for a 5600x? if not, what should I try next?

The people across the hall still randomly screech and bellow at night and throughout the day. Most people have moved out but I still have lots of deadlines and am postgrad. It's me vs them, every day I wait for them to move out. I let it go on for months just occasionally shouting at them to shut up (they were loudly screaming from 4 am to 7 am all day with a three hour break , making whale like noises or screeching.) I don't really want to deal with them, I reported them to reception a bunch of times who knocked on their doors. They shut up for 10 days. Now they are making high pitched noises to spite me at random times. They are making piercing high noises they know I don't like just to shit me up. Intermittently so security can't shut them up. I feel bad and don't want to get them in trouble, but they are being dicks and purposely ruining my studying time. I might be a controlling kill joy but they are screaming like a crazy old man and it is bullying. They're hard to catch and do love to slam a door.
Why would they ( a probable couple) spend their time randomly yelling at night to piss me off instead of fucking like normal people?

Female Age:33 Diagnosis: Hypothyroidism, Endometriosis, Anemia Medication: Trintellix 5mg, Levothyroxine 75 mg ( was taking this ) Weight:215
Doctor wont continue my medication…
I was diagnosed around age of 18 with hypothyroidism. I was feeling so exhausted all the time, gained weight and could not loose it. When I got my test results I was put on levothyroxine 75mg for hypothyroidism. Well I switched doctors a few years later and all the sudden she said since my levels are now fine she wont refill my medication. However she was refilling my medicine for a year or so even though my levels were still in normal range. They were Probably in normal range because of taking my medication for almost 10 years. However she still insisted I don’t need it if my levels are normal.
I now switched to seeing a new doctor and explained to him I was on my medication for years but was all the sudden told I cant still take it without an abnormal lab. He also said since labs are within “range” he would just send me to endocrinologist. The last one also didnt even bother with me.
Im just frustrated because I am having symptoms of being tired, weight that wont come off, thin hair etc same thing I was having even before I got put on medicine. Although my levels are within “range”I did notice it’s creeping up slowly every year now almost out of normal range.
It just does not make sense the whole reason I got to a normal range in the first place was because of the medication… which is why they kept me at 75mg of Levothyroxine again for almost 10 years. Now the other doctor stopped me so no other doctor wants to put me back on…
Im thinking of just ordering something from Amazon for thyroid and see if that helps me and just continue getting blood work to make sure it does not go opposite which I highly doubt since being on my medication for years never made me go opposite. Just trying to understand what to do and if it would hurt for me to try something natural ( thyroid medicine they have for example on amazon)

basically as the title says. my friend group (5 people, we're all around 17-18) have stuck with each other for all of high school so we were very close. but we got into a conflict around 4 months ago between us and one friend that caused her to start distancing herself from the group. so i figured that we should all just give her some time to herself and stuff and believed things would be back to normal. it took a bit but things did sort of go back to normal, and we're still on friendly terms with her, but there is a noticeable shift in our dynamic. like she isn't as close with us which i figured was understandable because of the whole situation. however it started getting to a point where some of my other friends became worried if she had really moved on as she started hanging out with us a lot less than before. we all wanted to reach out to her again and talk about this shift in our dynamic with her, including me because i've known her the longest and i just really wanted to understand how she felt and admittedly wanted some answers. i have tried initiating some conversation about this matter before but she didn't feel comfortable talking about it, or just brushed it off. however when one of my friends reached out, she refused and didn't want to talk. which i totally get, but some of us felt that she's just been avoiding this whole issue and felt that it was about time we addressed that, along with some other problems we had in our group in order to really understand each other and define/deepen our friendships. but a part of me just feels conflicted because i don't want to force her into talking about it if she's not ready, and i can't help but feel as though i'm being selfish. at the same time however, i truly just want to understand her point of view and get answers. most of all, i'm afraid of potentially screwing things up between us by leaving things be, but also by pursuing this further. so, do any of y'all got advice on how i should approach this situation? thanks all

Hello! Crusader Exodus here putting out a plug for for the serial I'm writing currently set in the Parahumans universe:
The Chimera
Here's the synopsis, and I'll go into additional detail afterwards:

Morgan Rivera is a member of the Wards ENE, an organization for minors who wish to use their superpowers for good. She's a native to Brockton Bay, a somewhat infamous city in the New England states area, which is known for its fairly high density of capes on all sides: good, neutral,evil, governmental, corporate and independent. Growing up in Brockton Bay is a challenge for anyone, with the presence of Neo-Nazi superheros, cape-powered gangs, and murderous psychopaths both with and without powers. Joining the good guys seems like the logical thing to do: She goes to a good school, her family doesn't struggle with the poverty clutching the city, she's popular and the benefits are great. Life would be good, great even, if it weren't for one thorn in her side: her shapeshifting power. She's versatile, adaptive, intelligent, good-looking and pretty damn good with PR. If only she could beat anyone remotely dangerous and get herself off her number one position on the "Worst Hero N.A." list.

The story is set roughly about a year before the events of Worm. There's some familiar faces present in the start of the story, but there's also a good roster of all original heroes, villains and settings that will be introduced over time and will wind up being the more everyday faces than some of the usual go-to characters in the wormfic sphere. I've been writing it with the intention of the story running as a parallel to Worm & Ward, and for the most part, it will be following along canon. I fully admit that I'm not the best at writing WildBow's characters, but I try and do my homework. I make some pretty bold decisions in the first arc, and recognize that the story won't be for everyone. Morgan's relationship with her power is somewhat divergent from the relation that most capes have with their respective powers, but I'd like to think that it is not without precedent: there simply isn't many sentient powers that we get to see in the story.
Please read the AO3 tags. I keep them updated as the story progresses.

Things this story is:

• It's verbose. There's a lot of thinking, inner monologue and dialogue in the story. The action density picks up in later chapters, but it's nowhere near as action-packed as Worm is.
• The story deals with some tough topics and concepts, many of which are present and/or heavy in Worm: body autonomy, identity issues, gender issues, minors in uncomfortable situations & etc.
• Shapeshifting, transformation, body horror and the unique challenges that being a Changer cape present are all central themes.
• Potentially spoiler city. I do not intentionally spoil content in the story, but Morgan's exposure to characters, events, organizations and such is quite divergent from Worm & Taylor's experiences. I strongly suggest that if you care about Worm spoilers and have not finished reading it that you pause on reading this for now.
• Divergent from canon in areas: Morgan isn't going to go rescue a character and wind up altering their destiny for the fun of it. There will be Worm characters that probably aren't portrayed accurately, I'm bound to get dates and times wrong, and I can't be bothered to try and recreate some character's mannerisms that I find annoying. A good example of this would be that I'm not using a ton of SMS shorthand or trying to perfectly replicate PHO or other web mannerisms of characters as they are presented in Worm.

Things this story is not:

• Yet another Undersiders or simple OC insert. We begin in 2010, and, fingers crossed, will be moving through the twists and turns of Worm.
• A power fantasy fulfillment fic. Morgan has a power that is both powerful and versatile, and she will certainly get better and grow as a character, but I am a big proponent of there is always a bigger fish style storytelling.
• Laden with eroticism. Like Worm, it largely follows the format of fade to black for intimate scenes. It is rated and flagged as mature; I don't think it's possible to write setting accurate Worm and not encounter difficult, challenging or uncomfortable scenes and situations.
• For people who squick easily. Similar to Worm, there's scenes of intense graphic violence, blood & gore, death, body horror, mutilation & etc. This story is not torture or violence pornography, but these themes are a bit more prevalent here than they are in Worm.

I'm posting updates at least weekly, I have a pretty large chapter backlog to work through so posting will be faster than normal initially. I'd like to settle down and post at least a chapter or two a week in the future.
I love questions, comments, concerns, criticisms or just generally talking about the story and characters, so fire away!

I've had my ecobee4 for quite a few years, now, and love the control it gives me, with wifi access and room sensors.
I'm usually quite frugal with my energy use (78 in the summer, 68 in the winter) - but now, I have a dog with a breathing condition that worsens with heat. I would not normally turn on the A/C until we'd seen high temps in the mid-80's for a week - but we're running the system any day that gets above 78 degrees, now, and preparing for it to be on all the time, soon.
I'm thinking, therefore, about my "comfort" settings and schedule. If I have a swing from "home mode" (starts at 5pm) at 73 degrees to "sleep" mode (at 10pm) at 68 degrees - will the ecobee make that transition *gradually?* It seems like it'd be more efficient for the system to start lowering the temp around 9-9:30pm with gradual drops. Does it handle it that way?
Most of my other schedule transitions are only a couple of degrees, but that jump to sleep is a big one because the dog needs the most cooling at night.
Thanks for any advice

​
Getting out of Airsoft and I am selling everything I own.
Everything goes to a pawn shop next week.
Make me an offer!
You can get everything pictured and listed here for $500 (obo). $1200+ retail, $800+ individually.
I am definitely undervaluing everything because I just need it gone. It’s been sitting collecting dust for 5+ years and I no longer have any interest in airsoft. I’m moving out of my parent’s house because of college and they want it gone too.
Pic w/ Date Verification: https://imgur.com/ErJYGeo
Note: No notes in paypal transaction
Note: Have video of all guns shooting on request
$500 for Everything, open to offers
All prices are negotiable. Bundles are preferred and will be given discounts
--
Umarex/Elite Force ARX-160 Elite: $180
Good condition, scuffing on barrel and flash hider. Missing rear iron sight, will update if I find it. Has a tight bore barrel, I believe 6.03mm.
Great gun, electric blowback, locking bolt. Chrono’d at 380fps w/ .20g. Single and Full auto. Folding stock w/ quick swap spring system and quick release barrel. Comes with Bravo 1x30 RDS. Retailed $293. Will come with 2 high cap mags unless purchased as a bundle with M4.
Mini Tamiya connector.
​
Marushin 2 Shot Green Gas Derringer: $40
Like new condition, used in one game
Fun little gun for messing around with. Never was chrono’d, but the manufacturer lists 200fps w/ .20g. Great for game modes where hiding weapons is advantageous, such as hostage.
​
KWC Full Metal CO2 Desert Eagle: $120
Very Good condition, minor scuffing on fire select switch and edges
Kicks hard. Has full auto and single fire mode. Comes with 1 mag. Evike lists FPS around 370-420 w/ .20g.
​
WE G17 Green Gas: $80
Good cosmetic condition, iffy mechanical.
Comes with 1 regular mag and 1 Timberwolf extended mag. Currently having an issue where the mag dumps all the gas after 3-4 shots. I’m guessing it’s a lubrication issue but I don’t have the time to diagnose it.
​
Umarex IWI Uzi CO2 Blowback: $120
Good condition. Cosmetic scratches around mag release, palm safety, and charging handle. Mags have scratches on them. Does not have orange tip
Licensed IWI Uzi. Strong kick. Full auto and single fire. One mag leaks very very mildly. One mag occasionally won’t catch the bolt when empty. No chrono but Evike listed around 380-400fps w/ .20g 2 mags have trouble releasing the CO2 cartridge from the bottom with an allen wrench. Unsure of cause, believed the plastic holding the metal cracked. See pictures
​
Tokyo Marui P90TR: $75
Poor cosmetic condition, decent mechanical condition. Been spray painted jungle camo. Charging handle spring is missing and the charging handle slides freely.
Great CQB hybrid bullpup design. Comes with 1 low/mid cap imitation bullet mag (hold 50-75rds), and 1 high cap mag (300 rds). Also comes with metal amplifier tip and plastic spray painted flash hider tip. Includes Strike 1x20x30 RDS.
Chrono’d at 315 w/ .20g
​
Unknown Brand M4: $50
Decent cosmetic condition, unknown mechanical.Don’t know much about this one. Traded for it in a losing trade. Has an elite force lower, but unknown internals. One of the screws holding the motor in is missing. Comes with 2 high cap mags
Chrono’d at 335 w/ .20g.
​
UK Arms Spring Sniper: $25
Good mechanical condition, acceptable cosmetic condition.
Never got this one chrono’d and I can't find any info on it. Realistically it probably shoots around 350fps, but I’ve honestly got no clue. Comes with a Frontier 2.5x32 scope that I think might actually be a pistol scope.
​
All guns work to the best of my knowledge, unless otherwise stated but have been sitting for 5+ years. The gas/CO2 guns may have minor issues due to dried seals.
No original boxes for any guns.
Buyer pays shipping unless negotiated, if you buy a gun or bundle I’ll pay for shipping insurance.
First person to buy an AEG gets a free mini deans/T Plug to mini Tamiya adaptor if they want it.
AEGs will not come with batteries because of the hassle/risk of shipping LiPO
Tape on M4 mags is because I wanted to make a double stack/flip mag. It worked pretty well for a few months before it fell apart. Will remove and clean at buyer’s request
--
Mens Small-Long Desert Camo Surplus Pants: $15
Will sell as bundle with shirt for $25
Military surplus desert camo BDU. 32.5-35.5” inseam, 27 to 31” waist
Marks on knees, May just need a stain treatment and deep wash
​
Mens Medium-Long Desert Camo Surplus Shirt: $15
Will sell as bundle with pants for $2571 to 75” height, 37 to 41 chest
​
Tag Airsoft Tac Vest, Brown: $20
Will bundle with helmet for $30
Has attached belt, zip up front. 2 pistol mag pouches on belt. 1 large pouch on right chest. 1 pistol mag pouch on left chest. 3 shotgun shell pouches on left chest. Velcro spot where pistol holster normally goes. 4 magazine pouches, 3 on right, 1 on left.
Comes with patches seen, matching pistol holster, matching dump pouch.
​
Tan Military style helmet: $15
Has some damage. One strap is held on with a zip tie because the screw is missing (previous owner did this). Adjustable size
Will bundle with tac vest for $30
Comes with gopro mount and battery pouch, as well as the 4 patches pictured.
​
Voodoo Airsoft Brown hard knuckle gloves, XL: $10
Padded. Scuffing on knuckles, minor tear on left hand
​
Facemask and Goggles, unknown brand: $10
Impact rated, just don’t remember what brand. I took shots to them fine. Tan goggles, green mask. Goggles have replaceable/interchangeable lenses. Comes with smoke and yellow. Also will include PZ87+ rated glasses too. Valken tac. Not worth selling on their own
​
Tan Bandana/shemagh: $5
​
Green Cyber camo pistol holster: $5
Has mag pouch on top
​
Highland Tactical brown backpack: $15
6 pouches. Molle webbing all over. Amazing bag and I might even keep it if it doesn’t sell
​
Will sell all clothes/accessories bundled together for $70 OBO
--
Airsoft Revolver Shells Dan Wesson (12x) + Speedloader: $10
Had the revolver (Dan Wesson) stolen after like 3 days at the field. Only used these a handful of times.
​
Valken 1s-4s LiPo/LiFe Balance Charger: $5
​
Tenergy NiMH/NiCD Charger Large Tamiya and Mini Tamiya plug: $5
​
Buyer pays shipping unless negotiated.
Please reach out with any questions!
Edited a few times to fix dumb reddit formatting issues

I (22M) have something you would call, "commitment issues", I'd never cheat on someone, but I've never wanted to get into a serious relationship. I believe I'm quite high on the attractiveness scale, as I've been told so by others, I have a fit body since I've been working for a very long time, and I think my personality is on the masculine side, but I can also be very loving, caring and generally a friendly person (this will all become relevant in a moment I'm not bragging). So as you can imagine I've had a lot of "interaction" with women, I know some may think that I'm still young to know who or what I want, but all that time from 8 years ago (when I started getting intimate with women) I've never felt anything close to what I felt with her. I never imagined it would have ended up like this, at first I took an interest in her as a friend, as time passed, she became my best friend, she was always there for me, she showed that she cared about me, and she was the only person I could open up to and tell her my problems, and she never got tired of listening, she made me feel, special. Of course, I was there for her too, everything she did for me, I did for her. Also, the feeling was mutual "She was always there for me, she showed that she cared about me, she was the only person I could open up to and tell her my problems, and she never got tired of listening, she made me feel, special" I know because she told me, so. I knew she wasn't like other girls, she wasn't toxic, she didn't care about being popular, or snobbing or ghosting people, she didn't care if she "missed out" on something, and most of all, she wanted a genual healthy relationship. Once I realized I was in love with her, I couldn't get her out of my mind, my day lit up just from seeing her, and all my problems went away. I couldn't hold it in any longer, it was eating me up. So, I confessed my feeling for her in a way that other girls might think of it as lame, but I knew she wouldn't mind, I normally would never do this, since I wouldn't really care If I got rejected, so I would do countless "risky" things. I couldn't do that with her, so I expressed myself with words, as both of us are great at when we're with each other. She was very understanding, she never even tried to bring me down or insult me once, she said she thinks she feels the same way, but there was a very important reason she couldn't be with me, she wouldn't tell me though, she said it didn't depend on me, or her. I didn't know what to say, sure I was sad, but I wasn't angry or hated her, I still loved her, I told her that I respect it and that I hoped we could still be friends. Well, we still are friends, but something changed, not between me and her, but with me and all the other women, I couldn't even imagine me being together with them, I only had eyes for her. I don't think I'll ever get over her. None of the 2 of us was perfect, but we completed each other.
​
I am sorry I know this is very long. If you read this far ahead, thank you, I'm not really looking for advice, but it would be much appreciated, I just wanted to tell someone how I felt.

basically as the title says. my friend group (5 people, we're all around 17-18) have stuck with each other for all of high school so we were very close. but we got into a conflict around 4 months ago between us and one friend that caused her to start distancing herself from the group. so i figured that we should all just give her some time to herself and stuff and believed things would be back to normal.
it took a bit but things did sort of go back to normal, and we're still on friendly terms with her, albeit there was a noticeable shift in our dynamic. she isn't as close with us which i figured was understandable because of the whole situation. however it started getting to a point where some of my other friends became worried if she had really moved on as she started hanging out with us a lot less than before.
we all wanted to reach out to her again and talk about this shift in our dynamic with her, including me because i've known her the longest and i just really wanted to understand how she felt and admittedly wanted some answers. i have tried initiating some conversation about this matter before but she didn't feel comfortable talking about it, or just brushed it off.
however when one of my friends reached out, she refused and didn't want to talk. which i totally get, but some of us felt that she's just been avoiding this whole issue and felt that it was about time we addressed that, along with some other problems we had in our group in order to really understand each other and define/deepen our friendships.
but a part of me just feels conflicted because i don't want to force her into talking about it if she's not ready, and i can't help but feel as though i'm being selfish. at the same time however, i truly just want to understand her point of view and get answers. most of all, i'm afraid of potentially screwing things up between us by leaving things be, but also by pursuing this further.
so, advice on that, and how should i approach this situation? thanks
edit: formatting

I do not know if I’m just venting, looking for someone who relates, or looking for advice, but I just need to get this off my chest somewhere that people understand. I feel awful calling my toddler “difficult”, but I really just need to admit to myself that she is a difficult child. My toddler is 3, and everything has been hard since the day she was born.
She was born in March of 2020, mere days before the pandemic was announced. Shes had breathing issues since the day she was born, and was diagnosed with asthma last year and has daily inhalers now. She has ALWAYS been a very grumpy child, and is constantly sick. This is apparently “normal” for asthmatics, but her illnesses are not small colds. She gets pneumonia 4-5 times a year, has had one hospitalization for each year of her life so far, and when she gets any illness it lowers her oxygen and takes 2-3 weeks to recover. We can’t do anything fun because she will most certainly contract an illness. I had PPD and PPA and I feel like the PPA is still very much a thing for me. I am a germ freak (always have been, but got worse after having my toddler), and obsess over washing her and my hands, not letting her touch her face/mouth when in public, and do not let people close to her face with their face. It really impacts my mental health.
My husband and I are currently “seeing what happens” regarding another child, but I can’t stop feeling like I just want to be one and done. I feel like my husband secretly feels that way too, but we both said we are afraid we’ll regret it if we don’t try for another baby and we’re worried about our toddler being an only child. Has anyone had a sickly child that made them want to be one and done? I always pictured myself having two, but now that I have a very needy child I just do not know if I can mentally handle having more than one. My toddler takes up so much of my time and attention with her medical needs and illnesses. She is sick about every other week and it is often scary due to her oxygen levels lowering and high temperatures. I have to manage her asthma all day every day. I am a teacher and have had to take sick leave at least 15 days the past two years. Sorry for the rant, but I just do not know who else to talk to, so if you got this far thank you for listening to my problems! I just do not know what to do…

Hey all, I am new to home ownership so I’m a newbie when it comes to getting quotes for house projects lol I had three different companies come out to give us a quote to install a stamped concrete patio that is roughly 500 sq ft (give or take since it isn’t a perfect square). Our three estimates were 14k, 12k, and a little over 9k which includes a wiring sheet within the concrete to prevent cracks….is this normal? It just seems so high knowing that concrete really isn’t much money (I know you are obviously also paying for labor too but still lol)

Hi everyone, I recently put some 97 octane in my 2022 svart (usually i just use 95 octane) and noticed that the first start of the day is followed by a brief high rev that the engine does maybe to 3-4K rpm and then falls back to normal. This happens on its own without me touching the throttle. I have fuelX lite installed as well so maybe could be something to do with the fuel map configuring itself on first start? This only happened the last 2 days after the 97 octane and never before (fuelx installed for like 4 months now and never had this issue)
Appreciate some help figuring this out Thanks

Went to my local BBW this afternoon to pick up 2 BOPIS orders. The first order from 5/31 was due to be picked up today by closing. As I'm sure you all know, the BOPIS order-received email says, "we'll hold your order for five days." I also got the reminder email yesterday that clearly states, "We'll hold your order 'til store closing tomorrow." That would be today. The 2nd order was placed on 6/2, so I actually woulda had till closing on the 7th to get that one. So anyway, after I told them I was there to pick up two BOPIS orders, they looked and looked, hmmmm, where could they be? Scurrying around and talking back n forth on their walkies. A few of the gals were super apologetic at first as they continued to search. We're so sorry, and thank you for your patience etc. I was pretty chill at that time, responding with NBD.
But that didn't last long. Soon things took a turn for the nonsensical. While waiting, I was curious and asked the gal at the check out if the orders were possibly, accidentally handed to the wrong "Smith" and she nonchalantly replied with, "no, all the items were returned to stock. They needed to be picked up by the end of the day." WTF?!?! Is this a prank?! I never got a notice that my items were no longer available! Also swirling in my head was, you don't want to go viral, Karen (not my real name) so I calmly replied with something like, "that makes no sense because I'm here now at 2:15pm in plenty of time to pick up the first order, and the 2nd order was just placed 3 days ago." She got very defensive responding with, "I don't know, I didn't do it, that's the way it is, I just work here," and seemed rather flippant about the whole situation, like it was normal customer service to put the purchased BOPIS items back early and then have to re-shop them when the customer shows up within that five day period. So I tried to calmly offer a simple suggestion that, "it would be a lot less work for everyone involved if you all would wait five full days for the customers to pick up the orders before returning the items to the floor." Again the reply back was, "I just work here, it's the way it is." Ok then. At this point I'm starting to feel like a total burden even though I didn't cause the problem, and seriously, my brain could no longer handle the stupidity of the whole situation so I just quit talking and tried to go to my happy place while they re-shopped my BOPIS items.
First order was quickly refilled with one OOS item substituted. After they refilled my 2nd order, there were only 4 candles in the bag (I had ordered 7) and I knew those other 3 candles were still available on the floor. Siiiigh, can I pleeeeaaaase get all 4 of the Champagne Toast candles I ordered? More walkie chat, side eye, papers shuffled and confusion between them, no more apologies and no plausible explanation of how and WHY this all happened. Good grief!
I used to have high praise for this store and all of their friendly staff, but now think the complete opposite of them and their questionable customer service practices. I'll be dreaaaading doing a BOPIS if it's going to be hit or miss on whether the orders will be available when I get there within the allotted five days. If this nonsense with BOPIS orders is seriously my store's new norm or policy, then I'm done with my local BBW. What a joke!
Yiiiikes! Sorry so long...thanks for reading my rant! ;)