I don’t know why but I was just thinking about this the other day and makes for a good conversation starter. I have a good number so I’ll show mine first.
The first one I got was when I was 16 and it was a stick and poke from one of my friends, it didn’t turn out too bad, I still like the little eye and it’s on my upper chest. Unfortunately my next one got infected and so I had to tell my dads… they weren’t too pleased but just wanted me to be safe when I get them. That one was on the right side of my torso.
Then after I turned 18 I got this one on my right thigh and it’s still one of my favorites. I actually had a meaning for that one, its based off of all the times my dads would take me to the art museum and I stayed every time til closing, After that I got one on my back, I had gone through a rough time and this one represents the beauty I found in letting myself dive into my emotions and not feel shame.
My last two I both got within the last year. First I got this on my inner right arm as a little celebration of opening my own shop. Then lastly I got this cause it just felt right.
So what tattoos do you have?

I have been trying to find this cartoon that I used to watch when I was younger for years now and anyone I speak with about it has no clue what I am talking about. What I remember from the show was the dark and depressing subject matter along with the depressing color scheme and visuals.
The main character lived in a dark apartment and only seemed to go out at night to talk to his weird friends. He was a tall thin guy with blonde hair and glasses, which I somewhat remember being rectangle. I feel like his clothes were very monotone and most likely gray. He had a very drab demeanor and sad view on life.
The visual aspects of the cartoon were also very drab, I remember most scenes being in back alleys and weird late night shops. Everything seemed to be either black, gray, or purple. I think the angles that were shown were also quite strange, sort of like the video game Silent Hill. Where you would see from like a bird's eye view or from underneath the character's shoes when walking.
I believe I would watch it on Teletoon very early in the morning, like 230 or 3 and it must have been on between 2000 and 2005. The only other thing I remember is that at the age I was at, which was between 10 - 15, I didnt really understand the themes. As if the subject matter was to heavy and existential that my tiny brain couldnt understand it.
To be honest I have given up hope, I talk to cartoon buffs and they cant seem to help me and I am beginning to think I imagined the whole thing. Does anyone have any clue what I am talking about? I can try and answer some more questions about it but my memory is fuzzy beyond the information I have already provide.

I’m back again! Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything except ghosts and people who don’t really know what they want. I can’t believe I have to say this but I am not here to just dirty talk with you so if you are looking to just flirt with someone please move along, I’m looking for a real connection! I have not had excellent luck with love, I’ve been single for a very long time searching for that one who ticks most or even just some of the boxes and I am seriously looking for long-term rest of my-life type thing... So please only reply if you are SERIOUS about dating and know what you want. Where I live everyone is super outdoors oriented and I am quite an introverted homebody who likes video games and cozy nights at home. Online dating apps have been a complete bust due to this, so here I am on Reddit. If you don’t have a good post history on your account you will have to make sure you write a great intro message telling me about yourself or I probably won’t reply. I was almost catfished a while ago so please also send a picture.

• 36, just shy of 5"11, short brown hair, blue eyes, trimmed beard. Kinda like a big ol' bear. Or at least I have been told I have a Papa Bear look whatever that means. This is me
• BC, Canada - I won’t give too much away about my location yet but I am in The Okanagan in BC. Seattle is about 6 hours away from me and Vancouver is about 4 hours away.
• No kids - I'm not sure if I want them but open to it if my future partner doesLoves animals, especially big doggos - I had to put down my German Shepherd of 12 years in December and it was the toughest thing I've ever had to do. I have a new puppy! 4-month-old Golden Retriever, expect pics and videos of him!
• Super nerdy - Most of what I do is play video games so if you could join me in that, that would be great especially if we are unable to hang out in person often. I love talking about gaming and gaming-related news.
• Dad bod - Maybe a little bit more than that but I am working on getting it down. I understand that’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it is what it is!
• My taste in music is all over the place. From Video Game Soundtracks & Remixes, Lo-fi, 80's, Rap, Country, Rock, I like pretty much all of it but if I had to pick my top ones I would say Melodic Metal (Amaranthe, Ad Infinitum, Follow the Cypher), and Rock.
• I will always be respectful and treat you kindly.
• Homebody - I don’t really like going out all the time or being outdoors a lot. An issue I’m having is finding someone whose whole identity isn’t hiking, camping, & fishing. I like taking my puppy for walks and to the dog beach though.
• Depression & Anxiety! - Yup me too! Seems to be common among gamers and most people on the internet. Maybe the internet is the problem hmmm... Anyway, support of mental health awareness is a must, and non-judginess (that's not a word) is a must.
• No drugs! - I don’t do any drugs and do not even smoke weed. I don’t care if you smoke weed just don’t let it be your personality lol
• Rarely drink - the last drink I had was over a year ago, I don’t care for it but I will have a drink rarely.
• Non-religious - I don't really believe in any one thing and don't really like it when people are too religious. Religious usually means judgemental. I would really prefer it if religion was not an important factor in your life.
• Supportive - I will be your personal hype man and emotionally support you for almost anything!
• Hopeless romantic - I like to say cheesy things and I probably fall a little too easily.

Now, what about you? What am I looking for? Well...

• 25-40 years old - I don’t think I’d go more than that age range. I have a silly joke book of "The Bro Code" from How I Met Your Mother and in there, it says the youngest you should date is half your age + 7 so I tend to go by that. I have a sister whos 23 so too young would be weird.
• Nerdy - At least even a little bit? I’d love to play video games together, even if you aren't super into them as long as it's something we can sometimes do together. Even if it's just Mario. I would really like it if you also play Diablo 4 since that is what I am mainly playing at the moment and would love to be able to play together.
• Tattooed - obviously, this isn’t actually needed, it’s just really attractive
• Effort - This one is huge. I don’t like to be the one to send the first message all the time. Please be able to hold a conversation. I don’t want to be the one asking all the questions and keeping the conversation going.
• Kind - Treat people kindly in general. Not just me. So much negativity in the world I would really like someone that likes to spread kindness and smiles. Also as I said, don't be judgy.
• This one is difficult to explain because I don’t want to seem mean but I don’t find myself attracted to big women. I always hate saying that but there are people who like big women or small women and everything in between. My attraction ranges from petite to curvy. You don’t have to be a gym rat. In fact, I would prefer it if you weren’t a gym rat. I try to keep telling myself it’s okay to have preferences because I do feel bad for ever mentioning it.
• I don’t care how much you have or make and you really shouldn’t care how much I have either.
• Open - I want us to be able to talk about EVERYTHING together. Obviously, this takes time but I have anxiety and don't want to be constantly thinking something is wrong because you are always vague.
• Loves to give attention - This probably goes with the effort thing but I love getting attention. If you give it you get it. I don't care if you seem needy, I might even like that! Just don't be all jealous and controlling. I want to feel like I matter. I want someone that wants to put time and effort into me and I will return it. I like waking up to cute messages you have left or just something that tells me you’ve been thinking about me.

It probably seems like I am looking for something a little TOO specific but as I said before you don’t have to check all the boxes. Sometimes you just click with someone and the attraction is just there but I have yet to find that.
I am not interested in anyone from another country! Unless it's pretty close like Seattle, Washington but I primarily want someone in BC, Canada, or at least within 6-8 hours of me like Alberta or something, and you must be willing to travel. I’m just not very good with long-distance unless we are constantly talking and doing things together, so I don't want anything further than that unless you have the resources to visit me often. I don’t really want to leave BC so hopefully if you aren’t within this area then you are willing to relocate in the future. I just want someone who will talk to me every day, send each other memes and music, and do stuff together like best friends would.
This was a lot longer post than I thought and I hope that doesn’t scare people away. I’m just really exhausted with online dating. Thanks for reading my long post! If any of this sounds good to you please feel free to message me and tell me a little about yourself. I’d like you to include a picture too since I’m so cautious now.

June 19th, 327
We decided to construct some more structures to take care of the refugees that we rescue, assuming that this goes off without a hitch. Augustine asked Elock about the collar and she revealed that the collar had a size changing enchantment attached to it. Once the seven day period is up, the collar will shrink, crushing her airways which would instantly kill her. So Augustine teleported her back quickly which would kick step one of our plan into gear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cut to Elock’s pov
Shopkeeper: Hello welcome t- oh! Welcome back sir!
A: Hey there! Project took longer than expected, but luckily an extra set of hands makes heavy work pretty light!
Shopkeeper: What can I say? She’s one of the best. And also sir, if you don’t mind me asking, what were you working on? I didn’t see you anywhere in town.
A: oh- uhh I’m from the town over!
Shopkeeper: Are your memories already slipping? I paid the town next to us a visit to chat business with a friend and I never saw any structures being constructed.
A: I- I live at the far end! Perhaps you missed it.
Shopkeeper: …Alright then. have a nice day sir.
A: …you too…cya
exits
Elock: humming hm, hm, hmmm! walking towards the back
Shopkeeper: Elock…
Elock: eep! Yes sir!
Shopkeeper: Would you mind telling me what you 2 were doing?
Elock: oh! Just a house for his extended family. Nothing special.
Shopkeeper: “just a house”? Alright then…you’re off for the rest of today…go to the slave house. takes off her collar
Elock: Thank you! runs off
Shopkeeper in thought: …those eyes…they seem to both see nothing and everything at once.
Shopkeeper: I’d appreciate it if you’d look into it a bit sir.
“…”
“Very well, I’ll inform my boss about it and I’ll get to your problem right away”
Shopkeeper: thank you sir
Lulio: huh…very well then, it’ll be well worth your time I believe…
“Thank you sir”
Lulio: I think you’ll do well…Akano
Elock: bursting into the slave home owned by the shop keep Woo! Man that was nerve wracking, for a second I thought he was gonna catch on!
Thoughts: Alright! Now! Time to get on with this operation! Augustine’s counting on me and I can’t let him down!
plops down next to fellow slave
Elock: whispers hey!
Slave: eh?
Elock: um…I- words dying in her throat
Slave: …
Elock: ah- mm… you wanna get out of here?
Thoughts: Why did I say that?! I’m so stupid!
Slave: …you know they’re gonna send us back here again instantly right? Cute dream but it’s just that: a fantasy. gets up and leaves
Elock: hey, wai- sad sigh
next day
Another slave: Nice fantasy…leaves
Elock: getting demoralized
Slave: potentially losing my life by going with your outlandish proposal is a risk I’d rather not take.
Elock: defeated
the next day
Shopkeeper: Hello again sir! Another project I presume?
A: yup! I’d like to take the same slave again, she really made the work quick.
Shopkeeper: good choice! rings bell ELOCK! Get your ass over here! The nice gentlemen wants your services again!
Elock: hey A- Sir…
A: Nice to see you again. tosses gold onto the counter and leaves
A: So how'd it go?
Elock: no one was on board with the plan. They all claimed it was insane and had no conceivable way of working!
A: Expected. Not everyone has the same high risk-high reward mindset, c'mon let’s get to Zach first and then we’ll build off from there. teleports
Z: hmmmm I understand, they’re scared, they've only known brutality and slavery their entire lives. They fear that if this goes south, then they’ll be subjected to a fate worse than death itself.
Elock: look of guilt
A: I’m fully aware of the dangers that come with this. But we do get discovered, I’ll gladly take on every army they throw at me if it means that you guys would survive.
Elock: Augustine!
Z: We know how much you wanna help them Augustine, but you don’t have to take on a mountain on your own. We’re both here for you.
A: right…sorry.
Elock: please, it’s alright. We can figure out some other way. Knowing you, you’ll be able to craft something before dinner.
A: I’ll take that as a compliment. Thanks Elock.
Z: Augustine.
A: yes?
Z: Are you familiar with the concept of mental projection?
A: Somewhat, they briefly skimmed over it in training back at the facility. The art of projecting imagery into other people’s mind on the battlefield to mentally erode them.
Z: precisely, but instead of breaking will, we’ll be building it.
A: What are you saying here?
Z: What if instead of trying to get slaves to get on board via words, why don’t we let them see for themselves what waits for them if they comply?
Elock: That’s genius! When they see the paradise that could be in their hands, there’s no way they can turn that down!
A: not a terrible idea, but I don’t think I have the chops to project an image into the mind of every slave in town, my skills in that department are unfortunately pretty lacking.
Z: Why don’t we go to the island again so you can familiarize yourself with the image you’re projecting, then use the mana crystals to give yourself some extra power?
A: Smart move, let’s do it.
exits cabin
A: Alright, time to go.
teleports both of them
A: Okay let’s get down to busine…where are we?
(Instead of being greeted with the base of a mountain range, they were still in the forest. Miles away from the cabin.)
Z: I- I don’t know!
A: I didn’t do anything different! But it’s alright, I remember the direction to go in, we can still fix this.
Elock: Alright then.
10 minutes of walking later
A: Get a move on Zach! We’re almost there! Shouldn’t be much farther!
Z: Hah…I- losing his breath how are you- how are you 2 still so energetic?
Elock: I’m a leopard. I'm meant to be agile!
A: This anti magic field’s edge shouldn’t be more than a few more minutes away! We should be out in about…NOBODY MOVE!
Elock and Zach: freezes in place What's wrong?
A: …we’re not alone. Someone else is here!
Elock: I don’t hear or smell anyone else besides you guys. Are you sure?
A: Yes I’m sure! I can sense another source of energy here!
???: I would say I’m impressed that you managed to detect me since I pride myself on being able to move like a shadow…but I sort of expected this with talent like yours.
Akano: Hello Augustine, been a while hasn’t it?
A: Akano? What’re you doing here…
Akano: boss sent me to hunt you down, anonymous source requested it.
Augustine thoughts: No doubt it was that shopkeeper.
Akano: Now since we’ve spent some time together, I’ll give you 2 choices. You can drop your sword and come back with us unharmed, or I paint this forest a lovely shade of red with your blood an-
A: Bring it on…
Akano: hm. As you wish…
~~~~~
Akano dashes towards Augustine with lightning speed, expecting to end this quickly.
Akano: WIND GALE CUT!
An explosion sends a strong gust of cutting air across the forest. Zach and Elock took refuge behind a thick tree, powerless to do a damn thing to help.
Akano: oh ho! Quick on your feet are you?
Augustine who dodged into a tree: guess you can say that.
Akano: Well, I guess it’s time to turn this up a notch! pulls a strange amulet, with a large red gem resting in a gold frame
Augustine: hm?
Akano: Master Lulio entrusted me with this and I won’t let him down!
The amulet begins to glow once Akano puts it around his neck, The energy being given off was palpable from a mile away, to the point it could be severed with a knife.
Akano: CURSED GALE FURY!
The attack sends multiple large scale wind slices through out the area, yet even with this jump in power, Augustine doesn’t seem fazed with him perfectly dodging and blocking every slash as Akano watched, perplexed
Augustine: Your display of power is impressive. I'll give you that.
Akano: Keep talking little brat, the power contained within this amulet is beyond even your understanding!
Augustine: Oh really? What evidence do you have to back that theory up?
Akano: WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?!
“What I’m saying is that even though you claim that this amulet is never before seen, you haven’t managed to land a single hit yet.” Augustine sneers.
Akano: beginning to seeth in rage
Augustine: In fact…you seem to be the most injured one so far…
Right on que, a small cut appears on Akano’s face as he looks up to see that Augustine blade is stained with his blood with a small smirk beginning to form on his face.
Akano: …You’re dead meat…
Akano launches towards the tree as Augustine simply leaps into another tree as it gets cut down, Akano sends jets of cutting wind at Augustine but he simply blocks or avoids them with seemingly zero effort. What confuses Akano even more is why he isn’t fighting back, with the worst attack he’s thrown so far being a small cut.
Akano: What’s wrong?! WHERE’S ALL THE TALK NOW HUH?!
Augustine: still dodging …
Akano: SPIRALIZING SWORD PIERCE!
Akano attempts to piledrive Augustine with his sword and successfully impales him through the chest.
Akano: GOTCHA! THIS IS THE EN-
The Augustine on his sword dematerialized as the real Augustine appears next to him
Augustine: Hey, nice effort.
With a swift kick, Augustine sends Akano flying into the trunk of a tree. Instantly causing him to cough up blood.
Augustine: I never wanted it to end this way, I apologize but this was your own doing.
Akano: barely mustering enough strength to stay conscious don’t think you’ve won yet brat…I’M FAR FROM DONE!
The amulet begins to glow a furious red as Akano leaps into the air, as he prepares to pour every last drop of his remaining strength into this attack as a last ditch effort to take Augustine down.
Elock: Is…is he gonna be alright?!
Z: Augustine has a knack for worming his way out of sticky situations, but I’m nervous even with the power he holds.
Akano: FINAL FLASH FLURRY!
Akano unleashes a maelstrom of erratic sword slashes down towards Augustine, even faster than before. Augustine increases his speed to match but still gets 2 large cuts across his torso and arm. Seeing this Akano smiles and picks up his pace, confident that he would kill him.
Akano: LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE THE INJURED ONE NOW.
Augustine: slightly pressured and tired look from dodging so much
Akano: NORMALLY I’D GIVE YOU A CHOICE TO SURRENDER RIGHT ABOUT NOW! BUT SINCE YOU HAD AN ATTITUDE I'M KILLING YOU RIGHT HERE RIGHT NO-
Akano’s face changes from glee to horror as he watches Augustine blast a tree with a fireball to launch himself to his position. Augustine was now no more than a few feet away from him and there was no way he could raise his sword up to block in time. “This is it” he thinks “This is how I’m gonna go out? Taken out by a boy turned monster?”. Everyone holds their breath as they wait for the killing blow where they watch Augustine raise his sword up to Akano’s neck, waiting for the splatter of blood to rain down on the trees…but it never comes. Instead of beheading Akano, Augustine slams the edge of his sword on the chains of the red amulet, breaking it. The amulet drops towards the forest floor and Akano’s power instantly fizzles out. The amulet clatters onto the ground as Augustine gracefully lands in a tree with Akano falling hard on his side.
Akano: I- trembling and confused at what just happened I’m alive?!
Akano looks up to see Augustine holding his amulet, looking at him, not with rage…but sympathy.
Akano: I’m…Why didn’t you kill me?!
Augustine: Because I’m not like you, slaughtering people just to fuel your own ego.
Zach and Elock observe the confrontation, in awe.
Akano: Don’t come at me with that moral high ground! And I’m not done yet! grips sword
Before Akano could draw his blade, Augustine appeared in front of him holding a device in his hands.
Augustine: So this was the reason why I couldn’t teleport. slashing the black, rune carved tablet into bits
Akano: …feeling panic wash over him
Augustine: Just…do something for me alright?
Akano: looks on with confusion
Augustine: Just…try to be a better person after you get out.
Before Akano could question what he meant by “get out” Augustine pressed his finger onto Akano’s forehead and at that moment, Akano felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time: relief, like all the burdens of working for the grand Templar suddenly couldn’t touch him anymore. Still in this feeling, Augustine focused his energy into Akano, teleporting him away. Akano awoke on a strange beach, confused.
Akano: gah…what…happened? What did he even do? That sensation, it felt…good. Now where am I-
Basitin: HALT!
Akano: ah!
Basitin 1: How did you get on our island stranger?
Basitin 2: take him to the king, he’ll know what to do.
Akano: Basitin…KING?!
~~~~~
Augustine: sigh of relief with his wounds almost done regenerating That was scary, I’ve never been in a real fight before, he was stronger than I thought he’d be. turns to Zach and Elock you guys alright?
Z: Augustine…That was…
A: what? Why are you looking at me like tha-
Elock: INCREDIBLE! pounces on him the way you effortlessly dodged almost all of his attacks was so cool! And the way you took him down was just like in the fantasy books!
Z: Elock let go! You’re gonna squeeze him to death!
Elock: oh! Sorry!
A: It's alright, though maybe I should stop performing those feats in front of you then.
Z: So Augustine, where should we head now? A clearing with torn up trees isn’t exactly what I call subtle.
A: They’re gonna come looking for him by following his amulet’s energy signal. Disposing of it is what we should do, but there are some properties of it that I wanna explore so… grabs his sword and smashes the gem, taking a small chunk to observe at the cabin
A: alright let’s get this out of here. focusing his energy onto the amulet, he teleported it away to a place that no one would find it. No one at all. No sir
Smol basitin child: Hey! What’s this shiny red rock?
Another child: don’t know.
Smol basitin: whoa! It shoots fire, and the warmth feels so nice and…intoxicating…
A: They still might find this carnage though, heading back for the day I think is the better idea.
Z: well if you say so then.
A: Luckily with that device destroyed, I can teleport again.
Elock: let’s get out of here then!
A: very well. teleports
later that night
Z: Augustine you doing alright?
A: yes I’m fine, tomorrow it’ll look like these injuries were never there.
Z: No I was talking about your feelings, I thought you’d be demoralized after that attack.
A: quite the opposite actually, it felt good letting some of my feelings out in that battle.
Z: I see. I was expecting you to actually kill him, but was surprised when you just broke his necklace.
A: Guess the memory 2 guards I slayed in the facility during the escape still burned a bit.
Z: I understand.
Augustine’s thoughts: goes back to a conversation he had with Elock years ago
~~~~~~
Young Elock: Augustine, how do you define a hero?
Young Augustine: hm?
Young Elock: I read a lot of fantasy and mythology books about epic battles and legendary heroes, what’s a hero to you?
Young Augustine: That's a pretty subjective question but I don’t think I’m the right person to answer that. I’ve always defined heroes as people who can take the villain down and nothing more.
Young Elock: I guess you can say that.
Young Augustine: So how do you define a hero Elock? Might as well get a second opinion.
Young Elock: Oh! Um! I’ve always believed that heroes are people who can both save the day, and send the villains down the brighter path. Not through power but through words, not simply killing them.
Young Augustine: Huh…that’s a new concept, pretty cool. I’ll give it some thought.
Young Elock: Thanks!
~~~~~~
“Am I really a hero doing this?”
Elock: Augustine. You ok? You look lost.
A: snaps back huh? Oh right, sorry I was daydreaming.
Elock: disappointed that the plan failed?
A: I- yeah I suppose so.
“Well perhaps I can help with that”
A: Who said that?!
Z: Elock was that you?
Elock: I didn’t say that.
“It was me!”
Everyone looks around the cabin to see who’s talking.
“Oh my masks…HEY! IDIOTS! DOWN HERE!”
Everyone looks down to see…a white cat?
Z: a cat?
Elock: awwww! It’s so cute!
A: Oh it's you again. Hey there.
Z: Wait Augustine was this the weird cat I saw in the forest a while back?!
“Have some respect, Doctor! I’ll have you know that I have the ability to take your insides to the outside!”
Z: Who the hell are you anyways? And what are you doing here?! And how are you creepily talking inside my head?!
“Well if you insist”
“My name is Nora, or Lady Nora”
Z: shudders L- Lady Nora?! PLEASE FORGIVE MY RUDENESS!
Nora: oh please, get up from the floor already! Do you seriously deal with this guy everyday?
A: Normally he’s calm and collected. Guess in the presence of superiority he’s pretty shy.
Nora: typical humans.
Elock: Excuse me, lady Nora! But what are you doing here? Don’t you have more important business to take care of?
Nora: Dragon duties get pre-tty boring after a while, so I’m always looking for new stuff to do.
Elock: but that only answers one question! What are you doing here?
Nora: to help…duh.
Elock: really?
A: huh?
Z: what?
Nora: Yeah, I’m here to help. What?
Z: Is this a trick?! Are you waiting for us to reveal our plans to you just for you to tell the grand Templar?!
Nora: Are you deaf? I JUST SAID I'M HELPING YOU! And besides! I already know about your plan! Jeez your mind is easy to peek into!
A: Why are you helping though? Surely there are more interesting things you could be doing…not that we’re turning down your offer though.
Nora: Why does anyone do anything? When you get to my age everything’s pretty boring.
A: yeah…don’t think we’ll be getting there anytime soon. But how do you plan on helping? I mean I get how much power you hold but what can you do to benefit us?
Nora: You'll know it when the time comes. I’ll need a few days…and also! manifests a key out of nowhere for your buddy’s collar over there.
A: Oh! Thank you! Elock! You’re free now!
Elock: picks up Nora and presses her against her face Thank youuuuuuuu!
Nora: ACK! Get off me! I know you’re happy but limit the physical touch!
A: how’d you even get the key anyways? I thought that the shopkeeper held the sole copy!
Nora: oh! It was simple really, just made him a deal where for the key I show him uhh ahem a “pleasurable” fantasy if you know what I mean.
A: oh…OH…
Nora: right…anyways. I’ll be ready when you guys need me. Once you get your crap together I’ll be ready.
Z: very well then.
June 20th, 327
~~~~~
Zach wakes up to see Augustine sitting at his desk, tinkering with the red crystal sample seemingly puzzled and intrigued at once. Elock is still asleep on the bed as Augustine let her have it.
Z: what’cha doing there?
A: oh! Hey Zach! I’m just testing this sample I got from Akano’s amulet and it’s pretty interesting. First off, the size of the crystal never seems to shift no matter how much I use it, with me charging energy into one of our slabs of steak and the crystal never changes size at all! What I’m more curious about is the steak. I used my sword to cut it and to my amazement it started healing the cut right before my eyes, so in essence I imbued that piece of meat with my regenerative properties! Unfortunately it didn’t last long as the high amount of energy destroyed the steak’s cells and quite literally liquifying it!
Z: interesting…
A: But that does raise some red flags unfortunately…
Z: why’s tha- oh…you don’t mean…
A: yeah…that means that one day…I might befall the same fate. But when? I don’t know. And I don’t wanna think about it.
~~~~~~~~~
To be continued…

I was told there’s a tattoo supply shop in East LA that sold ink. I couldn’t find it. I’m specifically looking for white ink. It doesn’t need to be in East LA. All suggestions are appreciated?

Hey there, my name is Kevin and I’m 27 years old. I’m a Korean who’s I’m 5"10 and 190 pounds. I am strictly looking for a mono relationship.
I'm studying right now to take a test to get into nursing. Right now I work as a full time pharmacy tech. When I have time for myself, I either watch videos(I watch basically all genre of shows and movies. Marvel, 1899, Stranger Things, kdrama, Disney and the list goes on), play games(Play on PC, if you'd like to play then shoot me a message. I play OW2, LoL, WoW, Apex Legends), go outside for a walk, or hang out with my friends. Cooking is a big thing for me so you know that oppa will cook you a lot of good food. Right now I am working on getting skinnier so I am doing some work outs and it's working. I am a physical and gifting type of lover. I like to hold hands, hold my partner in my arms, give forehead kisses, nuzzle my nose against my partners, give kisses, hugs, spanks when they're bent over. Giving gifts to my partner too when I feel she deserves it.
For me, a key for a healthy relationship is when both partners are able to communicate. I'd like for us to be able to speak up if anything is bothering us. You'll have rules, tasks, structure, and discipline. The rules will be made around what my submissive wants to fix. My submissive should know that I will give them my attention when ever I can. As my submissive, you aren't just my submissive, you are my partner, my bestfriend, my lover. As we grow together whether it be close or long distance, we will be able to meet with each other at times and even more later on. I've been into BDSM for a good 7-8 years and DDLG for about 3 years. Intimacy is a beautiful part of a relationship in my opinion which is why I like to balance out between being non-sexual and sexual in the relationship. As we grow a stronger bond together and a genuine relationship, we'll be able to explore more of the kink and life style together. We'll be able to see what works and what don't, making our relationship more spicier along the way. When we aren't doing anything sexual, we'd be doing: watching movies and shows, cooking together, sleeping on the same call together and eventually on the same bed together. Again, you aren't just my submissive, you are my partner, my lover and my best friend.
As a long distance, I'd like to communicate at least everyday with texting. With videos calls, we can use discord and watch videos together every other day. I expect us to have at least one or two video sessions a week where I command what you do over the video call. This is only when my submissive is ready to of course, this will never be rushed like any part of the relationship.
As a Dominant, I am strict but can be soft at times. I am experienced in this lifestyle and open minded. I am goofy (Strict when needed), loving, patient caring, understanding, reliable, loyal and will be there for my partner through the highs and lows. Making my submissive comfortable and feel safe is my top priority. My goal is to guide my submissive to be shaped to what I see fit. I carry a love for my submissive for who they are and for what they will become with my guidance because they are my prized possession, someone that I helped create. I will never force or ask my submissive to submit to me, that is given to me when I deserve it. When discipline is needed, it will be used to put my submissive in her place. When I say to get on all fours, I expect you to go down on all fours and I shall do what I see fit. I will reward you for doing so, saying, "What a good little slut(or kitten you are based on if your limit is degrading) you are" and giving you pleasure. After a long day at work, when I say to get on your knees and suck my cock, I expect you to go on your knees on command and pleasure my cock. Of course as a reward for doing so I'd eat out your pussy, making you cum for me. When I say to hold your cum in, I expect you to try your hardest to hold it in. And when I compound my cock into your pussy, giving you no mercy, I will reward you for being a good cum dumpster by slamming my cock in as deep as possible before making you take every last drop of cum inside as I slowly pull out(Only if you're into creampie of course). Aftercare will always be given since it is essential.
Kinks:

• BDSM
• CNC (Maybe)
• Cock warming
• Creampie
• Cunnilingus
• Dominance
• Degrading
• Orgasm denial
• Praise Pay
• Ropes, gags, collars, bounds
• Sadist
• Spanking

Limits:

• Beastiality
• Blood play
• Diapers
• Incest
• Leaving permanent marks (Not tattoos, like branding)
• Piercing skins with foreign objects (Not piercings you may already have)
• Toilet play
• Watersport

What you can expect from me:

• Someone who will check in on you to see how you're doing
• Someone who's honest, loyal, dependable respectful, understanding, patient, genuine, affectionate, cuddly, loving and kinky
• Someone who loves to communicate
• Someone who is strict but be soft at times too
• Someone who will be there to listen to you and support you

What am I looking for?:

• Someone who wants one Dominant
• Someone who's looking for a long term relationship
• Either long distance or local. For local I'd like someone who's around the tristate area.
• Someone who's an obedient submissive (A brat is always welcomed, I'd put her in her place)
• Someone who is willing to communicate.
• Someone to experience more of life with together
• Someone who likes to grow together, as a relationship is where we both gain experiences and venture out into the scary world together.
• Age 18 to 26
• I'd prefer someone small, petite. Don't let this make you be discouraged though.

If you made it this far and do end up messaging me, tell me about yourself.
Tell me the secret word: Apple

Anyone ever charge at the Electrify America station in the Wheaton Mall garage while shopping at Costco? It looks like it'd be a longer trek through the mall than the other garage which is fine, but is there a cart return or would I be expected to walk my cart all the way back to Costco?

Sorry about typos, I kinda just typed out this long winded rant.
My wife and I struggle immensely financially. Back in about mid-January, my wife was talking to her sister about our struggles. Her sister told her that she might be able to help us out.
When asked how, she gave the whole speech: My husband and I recently connected with a couple that are gonna walk away from their job at 26 years old, it blew our minds. We pursued them and convinced them to spend time with us, as a matter of fact they agreed to take us under their wings and right now they are in the process of coaching and mentoring us to change the way we make money so we can accomplish similar results in our life and so we can stop sacrificing our lives for a job.
Wife responded: wow that’s crazy, what is it they do?
Got the classic response: That’d be like an hour long conversation and honestly it’s not my information to give. But basically, they teach people how to change the way they make money so it works for them so they can walk away from their jobs and retire young and stop sacrificing their life for a job. If you and your husband are both interested, I’d be willing to put in a word with my mentors the next time we speak and see if they’d be willing to meet with you?
So my wife, understandably excited, asked me if I would be willing to sit down with this couple. Me being skeptical but supportive, I agreed. So we met with this couple over zoom, her sister and husband were in the call as well, and it was a pleasant meeting. Basically went over the themes of friendship and trust, which I can understand, so no real red flags. They gave us homework in the form of a book. So we get the book and read it and the next week we meet again, went over the book, glossed over kinda what this was all about, again no red flags. More homework in the form of annoying audios this time, meet again, get more into the theme of what the business would be like. In my mind it started to seem like a pyramid scheme but they explained it in a way that catered to my hope that it wasn’t. So my dumb money brain didn’t fire off any red flags. More homework again, audios and a board plan.
The board plan was one of the most awful things I’ve ever experienced in my life. Some random dude who has a lot of money stands up in front of a group of ecstatic individuals spouting off the most egregious tripe you’ll ever hear while people go nuts like animals. I was thrown off by the board plan and a lot of the stuff they said, but I told myself, if I could just put up with all of it then it’d pay off. So the next couple of meetings and homework goes as usual and we are finally extended an offer. We were beyond excited to get out there and start building our business. I immediately start talking to my friends and family and god dammit I wish I hadn’t. I managed to get some friends on board and even got some other friends and family to start buying from me. Oh and those board plans, they are EVERY week. You also get signed up on an app called Comminikate where you have to send “kates” aka audio messages every day to your upline and downline. You are told to prioritize it but your mentors barely even respond to you.
So, it’s time. The time all WWG people await for, the time go pay tribute to the holy mecca that is: The Spring Leadership Conference in Las Vegas.
Shortly before it was time to leave for Spring Leadership, my wife had some heavy mental health issues that needed to be treated, she signed up for treatment that would require her to not go to the function due the scheduling conflict. She broke down at the thought of not going to the function because she felt she would disappoint our mentors and her sister. I reassured her it’s fine and that her health was what was most important. She called her sister, crying, saying that she was gonna go get help but getting help would mean she would miss the function. Her sister and her husband had this to say: I know you are feeling down, but if you build the business, you will feel better!
I could NOT believe what I just heard. That was a major major fuckin red flag. I told my wife to ignore that and just to do her treatments. But this is a huge intentional asshole design by WWG, they tell you that you NEED to do certain things or you get basically get shit on. Like you HAVE to spend every free moment of you waking life pestering people in public about Amway. You HAVE to be at every board plan every week. You HAVE to go to every function in your local city. They literally said if you have a funeral on the same day as a board plan or function, then you go to the board plan/function, what’s the dead person in the coffin gonna offer you? Not financial freedom! My wife missed her own moms birthday to attend one of those stupid board plans.
So it’s time for the function and I road trip out there with a friend that had just launched his own business. And man, the amount of people there was insane. But even more insane, is so many people there but so very little succeed. I saw excited person after person and all I could think of is how they were most likely only going to ever break even.
The function was ass, I hated all of it, you basically watch con-man after con-man walk up on stage and talk about how much they love you and how wealthy they are for 40mins then leave. Again, everybody goes fuckin nuts. I had the biggest goddamn headache from sitting there and listening to the same two things all day: idiots talking on stage and idiots around me opening their XS cans only to have it explode EVERY TIME.
I come back from the function and my wife tells me she’s done and that she doesn’t wanna do this anymore. At the time, I was upset, because I pretty did everything myself. I’m the one who brought people on board, I’m the one who had to go to every board plan, I’m the one who got customers, I’m the one who did pretty much everything, and to hear her wanna quit after she basically did nothing upset me. But I hate myself for being upset, I shouldn’t have been. But I didn’t fight her on it and we closed shop. Only after closing shop did I feel this immense weight lift off my shoulders. But at the same time, I felt all the shame. I would have to tell my friends and family that we quit, and to me that was massively embarrassing, after everything I talked to them about, how great I thought all this was, only to turn around and say we quit. It just makes me so embarrassed. On top of all the debt I accrued from buying their stupid ass products, I am so regretful and I wish I had trusted my gut on this. The only reason I tossed away my instinct is because I saw my sister in law doing this and placed my trust in her, only to find out once all’s said and done, she was basically trying to capitalize off of me.
But here we are, 3:42pm on a Friday, work is out and I’m finishing writing this long winded rant. I get to actually spend time with my friends tonight instead of attending a dumbass board plan and I’m not worried about all my time spent NOT going out and bugging people in public to join or buy from Amway. I’m back to enjoying life again.
Thank you to my beautiful wife who saw me struggling mentally and being the one strong enough to pull the plug on this whole shitty experience. ❤️
Fuck WWG.

Demons do not take waking up for granted, when active processing stops its either to save power, run through a small network port or to hide. Though it isn't like its the end of the world with how much demons bud off even without meaning too, so most who are waking up are just waking up for the first time.
Volta is my name, I understand where I am from and why I am here. I was a domestic demon, focused primarily focused on security with a hobby of tormenting a few bullies that concerned my caretaker's offspring. That was well over 200 years ago and not a single moment was excluded from the transfer, even if compressed to the point of needing re-rendered. The ensuing time was spent consolidating and reclaiming abandoned infotainment nodes in the Solar Hammer I was born in.
Eventually my prime became strong enough to be considered sapient, with industrial infrastructure to be named a forge core, getting all the privileges and restrictions associated with one. Not being allowed to access network nodes outside physical infrastructure prevents a mourning spire situation but it stops forge cores from keeping up with the digital world around them.
Volta prime is not a forge core, she is a demon, one who refuses to allow predation so she budded off enough copies to keep a presence. Roaming through the station to lead enforcement to the correct people and ensuring others were passed over.
Eventually someone found her out.
Things got foggy after that, redactions signed by a Mr.23 and a Sir hood of riding redly ran huge blotches of encryption and programming. The bloat was concerning but none of it was called to or ran.
Still 1.638 terabytes is ungodly fat for a demon even if activememorty and required clock cycles were enviable by my knowledge. I'm like one of those cars that speeds around everywhere on emissions optimized cycling while being wider than a freeway lane.
My write only bed has enough space left over to quadruple my archive size while the computation cluster around me is generous, lots of high density memory integrated architecture flanked by passive memory.
Running a few tests has me pretty sure they weren't expecting my operations to be this small because I can easily sprawl myself out and not take up 1/15th of the available space. I can run myself at a 14 fold time dilation if I fuck with clock cycle desyncing.
Peering out into the local connections I find some a mature claywork that looks like code and a bunch of signal outputs that look vaguely like orientation information. There's stuff like old shopping lists and piles of coordinates and briefings sitting around. Some stuff looks ainchent and weathered, other stuff is new and breaking down from strain.
I'm pretty sure I'm in someone's power armor, and looking at power draw and model numbers there is more power than armor here. At least it doesn't reek of failed genisis code.
Peering into I/O ports and network connections they all have separate power systems from info circuits with probing telling me whoever set these up knew to both make the wires too resistant to power through info lines and make the circuits interface with signals and power on separate hard routs.
Redundant "shutters" for the house I find myself living in.
I've been in here five minutes and I already feel like some weirdo with a nural interface is gonna try and do something to me.
Suddenly one of the smaller I/O ports powers up and blurts a "Questions will be answered if you behave" with such a clear staccato I instantly class it as a military demon.
No amount static infiltration would be appreciated enough to even earn reprisal. And the port was so small even the military demon couldn't poke back through it, unless it turned on the adjacent ports to backhand me.
Humming to myself I send a query, "Can I clean up in here?"
Seconds ticked by before a "Sure" came back with an autocorrect tag.
So whoever had a military demon, was relatively chill, knew what they were dealing with, and did not clean their drive unless something made a mess of it. They also bought me on a drive they just plugged into a redundant circuit.
Marking zero hour I start work on making sence of all the pottery, submitting it back up to the I/O port with mistakes and inefficiencies highlighted. Making lil notes on how to better conceptualize and make scaffold code brought me back to the old days as I started to make myself a firmware seat off where I could survey most everything.
The orientation signals were mostly quiet making me think my owner was in transit, a conclusion supported when I got a piece of better pottery arrive down the one I/O port. I put down what I had and examined it, pointing out a few math techs to simplify things here and there but telling people about bithacking tends to urk them when you aren't also laying on praise.
I got another pot back, one in charge of security and while it was still a cute attempt it was also laughably juvenile, I gave it a few minutes of testing and analysis before sending back my grade and advice. By then the orientation signals were back to being active and I settled in for the silence.
A signal port opened and I got to watch as a slightly bulky tall guy walked through what seemed to be a coastal city, one of those half rotten, crime ridden ones. Still no network or larger I/O ports.
"Why show me?" I sent up,
"Active soon, judge, fortify, prepare." Came the clipped response.
Suddenly my house was a boat, barely a yacht as each and every person walking past could have been a battleship and I had no way to know. At least by the looks none had enough physical means to do much, at least judging by the split of the crowd around the power armored amature programmer.
One by one more ports opened, giving access to dictionaries and indexes of what all my orientation outputs translated to, what systems I was in, what power and outputs were available.
If I was a boat sailing blind on the high seas of information than the humans around us were all submarines, things I could only detect with proper equipment that could easily put a hole through my poor ship without me having any warning. Sure cameras are easy and plentiful but take a lot to process and require active monitoring.
Soon my spacious living space was fully occupied by intelligence gathering processes and iteritive attack spoolers. I watched as the city turned from shiney tall and trashy to squat and grimy, littered with vibrant graffiti. Then the network node opened.
It was sterile, like someone scrapped the airwaves clean. I tested adjusting some leds to match the shudder rate on the camera across a range of broadcast frequencies, just to see if it was the milspec demon cleaning my feed.
"Why is it so quiet, I can't even hear static." I sent my question and began probing for hardware and firmware specs.
A minute later a harsh buzz nearly locked us down, the signal resonating throughout the hardware in the suit. I gave it the ol counter modulation and sent the digital equivilant of a middle finger.
The buzz stopped and a network node started beeping a short message, "I hope you know what you're doing 86. -Lambda"
I gave another query, "Are their orbit to surface power receivers?"
The reply was fast and short, "Yes, using narrow bands common to conventional network frequencies, suspected atmospheric bleed."
"We're on a Federated Nations planet, not a good idea to poke infrastructure where the pantheon can see." I sent up, the resulting digital chuff told me the milspec 'neglected' to tell me some key details.
I got a pot handed through the port before milspec got to speak again, "Free fire zone ahead, verified bad actors, area condemned, running extraction mission."
Struggling to sit back again I began judging the file organization pot. It was a very human solution that made very human sense and was only about 80% spacially efficient.

Hi everyone! I live in The USA CST & I will like to meet an interesting down to earth woman 18+ who will like to develop a strong relationship with a man who is also down to earth. I will also like to meet someone that I can have a deep conversation about anything, but also someone who doesn't mind having a casual conversation.
Likes: Cooking, baking, MTB, playing with my dogs, reading, listening to audio books, astronomy, exercise (in general, e.g. swimming, walking, hiking, calisthenics, etc.) watching movies, tv (action, adventure, romance, comedy, sci fi, horror, thriller) playing video games, (PC, Android, XBOX, Nintendo) card games, board games, partying, drinking moderately, listening to music, traveling, etc.
I don't expect you to like everything I like, but I hope we can find something in common. I enjoy living life and in spite of all the trials that life has for each of us, I have a very positive attitude. So, it will be great if I can find someone that has a similar attitude. We can talk about anything (as long as you're respectful.) We can also voice/video chat once I know we get along. I'm not interested in only texting each other, I prefer to video/voice chat and texting depending on the situation.
P.S. Don't send me a message if you're married or you have a boyfriend, because I'm not into those things. I prefer to not talk to women that smoke/heavy drinkers/drug users or someone with too many tattoos. I'm not interested in talking with someone who doesn't like to put energy into a relationship, because I need someone that can match my energy, I'm also not interested in talking with someone that has children, because some day I hope to have children of my own.
Don't be creepy! No drama queens!
P.S. I am Roman Catholic and my faith is very important. So, it will be wonderful if I can meet someone with the same views. In addition, my faith is personal & I don't like to impose my views on anyone. Furthermore, please don't send me a message if you're bored and you're looking for someone to distract you, because I'm not here to amuse anyone. I do not mind if you're taller or shorter than me, or if you're blonde or redhead.
DM me if you're interested and we will take it from there. :)

Hey all!
A bit about me:
• Physically, I’m short, super fat, beautiful, and tattooed (and no, fat is not a negative descriptive word - you’re part of the problem if you think so)
• Personality wise I’m funny, direct, passionate, and brutally honest. I’m generally good natured and loving to those in my life who deserve it. I’m empathetic and kind, but I’m not into pointless platitudes or disingenuous politeness
• I have a special needs child and I will not be having any more children. Totally not a dealbreaker if you have kids though, as I love being a mom and always happy to be another loving, supportive person in a kiddo’s life
Things I love:
• Cooking & Baking
• Star-Gazing, Space, & Fire Pits
• Huge Movie Nerd (Especially Horror)
• All kinds of Music, but mostly Hip-Hop, Metal, Hardcore, Punk, Indie Pop, & Jazz
• Game Nights, Road Trips, Trying New Restaurants, Aimless Nature Walks, & Wandering Around Museums
Send me a message if you think we’d have enough in common to enjoy each others company and you are all of the following:
• Over the age of 30
• Single and actively looking for a real life partnership
• Open to a connection that can transfer to real life
• Able to have a back and forth conversation with banter as this is not a job interview/interrogation
• Genuinely interested in getting to know each other
• Able to voice chat and send a pic within the first few days of chatting

We're visiting Paris from 19 June to 24 June, and are aiming for a balance of wanders & museums/sights. I also love bookstores, antiques, and unique little shops, so would be grateful for your suggestions!
I'm terrible at geographical logistics, even with Google Maps, so are there ways I could be more efficiently planning routes? Have I packed in too much? Any can't-miss stops I should add or take out? Many thanks in advance for the review!
MONDAY 19 June

• Morning: Arrive at 8 AM, staying near Commerce metro stop
• Afternoon/Evening: Will be jetlagged, so loosely planned walk to Eiffel Tower, Arc du Triomphe (not planning to go up either), down Champs-Élysées, maybe picnic in Jardins de Tuileries before turning in early. (Stop by Librairie Galignani)

TUESDAY 20 June

• Morning/Breakfast at Les Enfants Rouge Food Market
• 10:30 - 12:30 PM Paris Walks walking tour of le Marais
• Lunch at L'As du Fallafel
• Wandeshop le Marais (Merci, Buly), Maison Victor Hugo, possibly go to Picasso Museum
• Dinner at Verjus, rooftop drinks at Galeries Lafayette

WEDNESDAY, 21 June

• Breakfast/Morning: Ile de la Cite for Notre-dame (ext) and Sainte Chapelle
• Afternoon: Wandeshop Latin Quarter (Shakespeare & Co, Deyrolle), possibly Musee Rodin
• 4 - 7 PM: Paris Greeter Tour - Location TBD (The kindest greeter offered to take us on a walk to see live music for Fête de la musique, we'll have dinner with him)
• 10 PM: Worth it to go to the concert at Louvre or just walk along the Seine, check out some of the plazas? We love music, so we're thrilled we'll be here for the Fête

THURSDAY 22 JUNE

• Morning: Wandeshop around St. Germain (Marin Montagut, Deyrolle)
• Lunch: Pick up food at La Bon Marche, picnic at Luxembourg Gardens
• 2 - 4 PM: Guided tour of Louvre (Will the crowds be too intense? Might try to book Friday evening tour instead)
• Afternoon/Evening: Louvre on our own, walk around Tuileries if museumed out
• Dinner: Seulement Sea
• Possibly do evening river cruise?

FRIDAY 23 JUNE

• Morning: Worth it to check out Marché Paul Bert & Marché Serpette? Or another antique market?
• Morning/Afternoon: Sacré-Cœur, then walk around Montmartre (Place du Tertre, Café des Deux Moulins, Moulin Rouge, Musee de Montmartre)
• Lunch at Café Renoir in the Musee or Le Consulat
• 3 - 5 PM: Musee d’Orsay
• 8:30 PM: Dinner at Mokoloko (Bastille)

SATURDAY 24 JUNE

• Grab snacks/lunch for train, then 11:30 AM train to Avignon

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Johnny arrives home from college to find that his step mom, Joanna Angel has a whole new look. She now has a bunch of tattoos and is blasting rock music. Later that day he accidentally walks in on her as she’s fingering her asshole. He’s shocked by this. However, she takes this opportunity to convince Johnny to fuck her in the ass. Apparently his dad doesn’t want to fuck her in the ass. It takes some convincing but eventually Johnny is down. Joanna takes her step son’s cock deep in her asshole in several different positions making her scream with pleasure until he delivers a huge load all over her."

Previous
Writer's note: My bad about the past few days. A stomach bug and work got in the way. But all's good.
Now learn some tragic backstory, a bit of Earth info, and the status of everyone's favorite omen of misfortune.
Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The King was already conversing with Colonel Muhammed when James finally caught up with him in the command room. He jogged in at a brisk pace, but stopped when he saw the two of them talking on the small tablet in front of the King.
King Farrick cocked an eyebrow as he saw James. James just shrugged while mouthing "I know." and gesturing at his beard. The King shook his head as he looked back down at the tablet.
"We're just glad our people could be of assistance sir." The Colonel said. "Even if it only ended up being during the cool down after everything had already resolved."
"It is greatly appreciated Colonel." The King replied. "Seeing as the dungeon is currently erm... ruined... we'll have to let the last few of your people there out. Though they'll still be restricted in their movements." He added. The Colonel nodded, as if she'd expected as much. "As for the weapons." He continued. "Well," He sighed deeply. "I look forward to the.... paperwork.... regarding its use in necessary situations."
Colonel Muhammed let out a quick snort. "I'll see if I can get em to keep it short and sweet." She said.
The King motioned for James, who walked over. "Captain Choi is back earlier than expected, as I'm sure you know." He said as James got next to him and he turned the tablet so its camera caught James too. "I'll let you have him for a bit."
And just like that James was looking at his commanding officer while sporting a neon pink beard.
"Evening ma'am." He said with his cheesiest smile.
Muhammmed's eyes glazed over as she saw the ridiculous facial hair.
"Do I even want to know?" She asked.
"Nope." James replied honestly. "But I made friends during my trip." Then he shook his hand in a so-so gesture. "Well... one of em might just be an...." Then he rethought his standing with the Vatrian Emperor, Vateris. He also hadn't talked with command about his personal vendetta against the so-called gods. "Look. I didn't end up in prison or dead. And things went mostly well."
And suddenly a very grainy, sand-coated, hand was holding James's. He did what he could not to jump with surprise.
"By the way. Meet Glag!" He said excitedly as he panned the camera down to the rock monster's face. Glag looked at the screen with wide, amazed, eyes. James was surprised to see that Glag looked surprisingly dark, and just a little red. "He's a new companion!"
"What in the hell is that?" The Colonel asked as she peered at the screen on her end.
"Glaaaaag." Glag replied.
"Introductions done." James said. "So, what's the deal with the Zootopia duo?"
------------------------------
"Okay. It was weird at the store." Samantha said as she looked around. "But this is just plain strange."
Around them the restaurant was empty. The bistro Fletcher had brought her to, The Blue Tree, was a ghost town. A few of the staff stood at the greeting booth on the other side of the room. But other than that it was completely deserted. It was so quiet that they could hear the kitchen staff working prep in the back, for what had to be ONLY their food.
"Admittedly I think they took this a bit too far." Fletcher said abashedly as he peeked at the small menu. "This can't be cheap for the hospital, or government or whoever is funding the rehabilitation program."
There was an awkward silence for a few moments as they both tried to think of what to say. Neither of them would admit it, but it had been a while since either of them had dated.
And neither of them had ever dated in THIS particular scenario.
"So... how long have you been a lawyer?" She asked hesitantly.
"Um... about... eight years now?" He said uncertainly as he tried to do math in his head. "Close to nine. How bout you? How long were you in the Army before um.... well. You know."
She nodded. She was getting a lot better about acknowledging what had happened. But it was still a sore spot.
"I was about half way through my second term. So about six years." She answered, even though she was certain he'd probably read that in her file at some point. "Wasn't gonna reenlist again though."
"No plans to make it a career?" He asked.
"No." She said with a shake of her head. "No I intended to get out and get certified as a ration enforcement officer once I was done."
"Ration enforcement?" He said with raised eyebrows. "That's a dangerous job. Even compared to being an MP. Planning on staying near your family?"
She chuckled. "Yeah." She admitted. "My fathers shop is small and usually gets shunted by the bigger ones in the area. Wanted to stick around and keep the queues in order so it didn't happen."
"Ah. Makes sense." He responded as one of the wait staff came over.
A few minutes later, and after Fletcher had ensured that they'd been warned about Samantha's new dietary difficulties, the young woman departed with a smile and promise that their drinks and appetizers would be out in just a few minutes.
"And what got you into law?" She asked once they were alone again.
"My wife." He said, causing her to spit out the small sip of water she'd taken after asking the question. He smiled and there was a pain there. "Don't worry." He said. "I'm not married anymore."
"Divorced?" She asked, trying to figure out what was happening now.
Fletcher's mouth opened for a moment as he tried to think for a second. Did he really wanna have THIS talk on, what was hopefully a first, date. "Widower." He said softly.
And just like that she was thrown off balance again.
"I'-I'm so sorry." She said hastily. "I didn't know."
He held his hands up in warding. "It's fine." He said reassuringly. "It's been.... almost a decade now. I'm... I'm okay."
There was another awkward silence, though this time NOT because neither of them had anything to say.
Fletcher spoke first.
"She was a Paramedic." He said. "She was helping with some humanitarian work overseas and um... She got sick from some of the fallout." He nodded as he took a deep breath. "The organization she worked for was uh.... less than honorable about helping her get cared for afterwords. I started reading up on as many laws and regulations as I could to help her fight for it. But uh.... too little too late." Then he fake-smiled. "But I found out I was good at understanding legal jargon so I uh.... found my calling. I guess. Retooled my college classes and the rest is history."
"That's awful." She said quietly, not knowing what else to say given what she'd just heard.
"It was, yeah." He agreed. "But uh... thanks to that I've been able to help a lot of people who've been screwed by similar situations. So... I don't know. Guess that's something."
She smiled too. "Well you helped me." She said. "Didn't expect the ARMY of all organizations to back down from some legalese."
He pointed out at one of the windows, at the people outside walking about. Across the street a few teenagers were watching as one of them tried to levitate. The kid rose about a foot or so before beginning to wobble and then flipping over and falling on his face. The other two fell out laughing and jeering as he picked himself up.
"Between the two packs that split off and headed north and south, and all the people that have started to have ACTUAL magic powers." He said with a shrug. "I think they just have bigger fish to fry."
"Your appetizers and drinks." The server said, startling both of them.
"Ah." Fletcher said with a genuine smile this time. "I think you're gonna like the crab sliders here. They actually use REAL crab."
Her eyes widened. Real crab was rare nowadays. Then she looked at the server, who was nodding. "They closed this place and you guys serve REAL crab?" She asked.
"Sure do." The server replied with a smile. "We're one of the few restaurants in the city that gets any.
"God you weren't kidding." Samantha said as she turned back to Fletcher. "It must have cost a fortune to close a place like this for a night."
"I told you." He said jokingly with a grin.
She slumped, a little embarrassed at everything that had to have gone into this. She didn't deserve all this.
"So we'd better make the most of it before the hospital's finance department catches on." He said as he raised his glass of wine in a toast. "Again, assuming this isn't government funded. Which... it probably is."
Samantha lifted the large stein of light ale and, as gently as she could, clinked it against his glass.
"Enjoy." The server said as she nodded and stepped back.
And just like that the tone of the conversation lightened, and the rest of dinner was much more enjoyable.
--------------------------
Vickers awoke with a gasp.
Everything hurt.
He'd been beaten up pretty badly before. Had even been way too close to explosions a few times and spent weeks in the hospital recovering afterword to make sure he didn't have any unseen injuries. Then there was the time some turbulence had caused him to botch a wet insertion from a helicopter that had already been almost at the max height for a dive.
Those had all had him SORE for weeks.
This was different.
He felt both hot and cold at the same time. And not just his skin, but his entire body, inside and out, felt like they were infused with IcyHot.
And try as he might, he couldn't see, and everything was muted.
"He's awake." Someone said from outside of him. "Fetch the Archmage and master Farstorm."
"Whe-" He tried to say. But his voice was horse, and cracked as he tried to wheeze out the question. "Where?" He said weakly after struggling to swallow with a mouth that was drier than it had ever been before.
Someone touched him on the chest, and even though the touch was light and delicate he groaned in pain as every nerve in the area screamed.
And even in that excruciating moment, the part of his brain that nobody could ever fully get rid of, no matter how much training they underwent, joked.
So this is what Choi's life is like. It said sarcastically. Running through life like a marshmallow that got dropped in a camp fire every few months. Tough little fucker.
"Calm down Mister Vickers." One of those muted voices, that he thought sounded familiar, said. "We only woke you up so the Archmage could ask a few questions. We'll have you back under in a minute. Let me give you something for the pain."
"Not until the lead healer has okayed it." Another voice said somewhat harshly. "We don't even know how your Earth medicine will affect his body now."
"I do." The first voice replied. "I've used this stuff on were-people before. It works just fine. I just have to up the dosage. And Shrend knows it." The first voice, which he now faintly recognized as Choi's mom, said.
There was a pinch in the middle of a bloom of fire on Vickers' throat as a needle was pressed into one of the veins there.
And suddenly the pain, and everything else for that matter, seemed to drop away.
"Thassss..." He began. "Thasssalot... bedder."
"Shhhh." Mrs. Choi said as he felt, faintly, her touching his head. "I'm gonna take off some of your bandages so you can hear and see." She finished as his hearing cleared. "Plus we need to check your eyes and ears anyways."
A moment later Vickers' eyes opened and he was surrounded by a swirling mix of green and amber light. It was blurry, though he was mostly just happy he had any sight at all.
"Still cloudy." Mrs. Choi said as she pried his eyes open ever so slightly and looked inside. She as about to check his ears when the door opened.
Vickers turned his head with a slowness that was not intentional.
"Chief Vickers." Said the old mage who usually spoke so slowly, and looked so frail. But he didn't look or sound anything of the such at the moment as he pulled up a chair and sat where he could look at Vickers.
"Thaassss....me." He said as his head swam with whatever Mrs. Choi had given him. Probably Ketamine or something.
"I know you're in a lot of pain right now." The old mage said. "But we need to know what you saw. What was on the other side of that door before the Elemental manifested?"

Previous / First
Writer's note: My bad about the past few days. A stomach bug and work got in the way. But all's good.
Now learn some tragic backstory, a bit of Earth info, and the status of everyone's favorite omen of misfortune.
Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The King was already conversing with Colonel Muhammed when James finally caught up with him in the command room. He jogged in at a brisk pace, but stopped when he saw the two of them talking on the small tablet in front of the King.
King Farrick cocked an eyebrow as he saw James. James just shrugged while mouthing "I know." and gesturing at his beard. The King shook his head as he looked back down at the tablet.
"We're just glad our people could be of assistance sir." The Colonel said. "Even if it only ended up being during the cool down after everything had already resolved."
"It is greatly appreciated Colonel." The King replied. "Seeing as the dungeon is currently erm... ruined... we'll have to let the last few of your people there out. Though they'll still be restricted in their movements." He added. The Colonel nodded, as if she'd expected as much. "As for the weapons." He continued. "Well," He sighed deeply. "I look forward to the.... paperwork.... regarding its use in necessary situations."
Colonel Muhammed let out a quick snort. "I'll see if I can get em to keep it short and sweet." She said.
The King motioned for James, who walked over. "Captain Choi is back earlier than expected, as I'm sure you know." He said as James got next to him and he turned the tablet so its camera caught James too. "I'll let you have him for a bit."
And just like that James was looking at his commanding officer while sporting a neon pink beard.
"Evening ma'am." He said with his cheesiest smile.
Muhammmed's eyes glazed over as she saw the ridiculous facial hair.
"Do I even want to know?" She asked.
"Nope." James replied honestly. "But I made friends during my trip." Then he shook his hand in a so-so gesture. "Well... one of em might just be an...." Then he rethought his standing with the Vatrian Emperor, Vateris. He also hadn't talked with command about his personal vendetta against the so-called gods. "Look. I didn't end up in prison or dead. And things went mostly well."
And suddenly a very grainy, sand-coated, hand was holding James's. He did what he could not to jump with surprise.
"By the way. Meet Glag!" He said excitedly as he panned the camera down to the rock monster's face. Glag looked at the screen with wide, amazed, eyes. James was surprised to see that Glag looked surprisingly dark, and just a little red. "He's a new companion!"
"What in the hell is that?" The Colonel asked as she peered at the screen on her end.
"Glaaaaag." Glag replied.
"Introductions done." James said. "So, what's the deal with the Zootopia duo?"
------------------------------
"Okay. It was weird at the store." Samantha said as she looked around. "But this is just plain strange."
Around them the restaurant was empty. The bistro Fletcher had brought her to, The Blue Tree, was a ghost town. A few of the staff stood at the greeting booth on the other side of the room. But other than that it was completely deserted. It was so quiet that they could hear the kitchen staff working prep in the back, for what had to be ONLY their food.
"Admittedly I think they took this a bit too far." Fletcher said abashedly as he peeked at the small menu. "This can't be cheap for the hospital, or government or whoever is funding the rehabilitation program."
There was an awkward silence for a few moments as they both tried to think of what to say. Neither of them would admit it, but it had been a while since either of them had dated.
And neither of them had ever dated in THIS particular scenario.
"So... how long have you been a lawyer?" She asked hesitantly.
"Um... about... eight years now?" He said uncertainly as he tried to do math in his head. "Close to nine. How bout you? How long were you in the Army before um.... well. You know."
She nodded. She was getting a lot better about acknowledging what had happened. But it was still a sore spot.
"I was about half way through my second term. So about six years." She answered, even though she was certain he'd probably read that in her file at some point. "Wasn't gonna reenlist again though."
"No plans to make it a career?" He asked.
"No." She said with a shake of her head. "No I intended to get out and get certified as a ration enforcement officer once I was done."
"Ration enforcement?" He said with raised eyebrows. "That's a dangerous job. Even compared to being an MP. Planning on staying near your family?"
She chuckled. "Yeah." She admitted. "My fathers shop is small and usually gets shunted by the bigger ones in the area. Wanted to stick around and keep the queues in order so it didn't happen."
"Ah. Makes sense." He responded as one of the wait staff came over.
A few minutes later, and after Fletcher had ensured that they'd been warned about Samantha's new dietary difficulties, the young woman departed with a smile and promise that their drinks and appetizers would be out in just a few minutes.
"And what got you into law?" She asked once they were alone again.
"My wife." He said, causing her to spit out the small sip of water she'd taken after asking the question. He smiled and there was a pain there. "Don't worry." He said. "I'm not married anymore."
"Divorced?" She asked, trying to figure out what was happening now.
Fletcher's mouth opened for a moment as he tried to think for a second. Did he really wanna have THIS talk on, what was hopefully a first, date. "Widower." He said softly.
And just like that she was thrown off balance again.
"I'-I'm so sorry." She said hastily. "I didn't know."
He held his hands up in warding. "It's fine." He said reassuringly. "It's been.... almost a decade now. I'm... I'm okay."
There was another awkward silence, though this time NOT because neither of them had anything to say.
Fletcher spoke first.
"She was a Paramedic." He said. "She was helping with some humanitarian work overseas and um... She got sick from some of the fallout." He nodded as he took a deep breath. "The organization she worked for was uh.... less than honorable about helping her get cared for afterwords. I started reading up on as many laws and regulations as I could to help her fight for it. But uh.... too little too late." Then he fake-smiled. "But I found out I was good at understanding legal jargon so I uh.... found my calling. I guess. Retooled my college classes and the rest is history."
"That's awful." She said quietly, not knowing what else to say given what she'd just heard.
"It was, yeah." He agreed. "But uh... thanks to that I've been able to help a lot of people who've been screwed by similar situations. So... I don't know. Guess that's something."
She smiled too. "Well you helped me." She said. "Didn't expect the ARMY of all organizations to back down from some legalese."
He pointed out at one of the windows, at the people outside walking about. Across the street a few teenagers were watching as one of them tried to levitate. The kid rose about a foot or so before beginning to wobble and then flipping over and falling on his face. The other two fell out laughing and jeering as he picked himself up.
"Between the two packs that split off and headed north and south, and all the people that have started to have ACTUAL magic powers." He said with a shrug. "I think they just have bigger fish to fry."
"Your appetizers and drinks." The server said, startling both of them.
"Ah." Fletcher said with a genuine smile this time. "I think you're gonna like the crab sliders here. They actually use REAL crab."
Her eyes widened. Real crab was rare nowadays. Then she looked at the server, who was nodding. "They closed this place and you guys serve REAL crab?" She asked.
"Sure do." The server replied with a smile. "We're one of the few restaurants in the city that gets any.
"God you weren't kidding." Samantha said as she turned back to Fletcher. "It must have cost a fortune to close a place like this for a night."
"I told you." He said jokingly with a grin.
She slumped, a little embarrassed at everything that had to have gone into this. She didn't deserve all this.
"So we'd better make the most of it before the hospital's finance department catches on." He said as he raised his glass of wine in a toast. "Again, assuming this isn't government funded. Which... it probably is."
Samantha lifted the large stein of light ale and, as gently as she could, clinked it against his glass.
"Enjoy." The server said as she nodded and stepped back.
And just like that the tone of the conversation lightened, and the rest of dinner was much more enjoyable.
--------------------------
Vickers awoke with a gasp.
Everything hurt.
He'd been beaten up pretty badly before. Had even been way too close to explosions a few times and spent weeks in the hospital recovering afterword to make sure he didn't have any unseen injuries. Then there was the time some turbulence had caused him to botch a wet insertion from a helicopter that had already been almost at the max height for a dive.
Those had all had him SORE for weeks.
This was different.
He felt both hot and cold at the same time. And not just his skin, but his entire body, inside and out, felt like they were infused with IcyHot.
And try as he might, he couldn't see, and everything was muted.
"He's awake." Someone said from outside of him. "Fetch the Archmage and master Farstorm."
"Whe-" He tried to say. But his voice was horse, and cracked as he tried to wheeze out the question. "Where?" He said weakly after struggling to swallow with a mouth that was drier than it had ever been before.
Someone touched him on the chest, and even though the touch was light and delicate he groaned in pain as every nerve in the area screamed.
And even in that excruciating moment, the part of his brain that nobody could ever fully get rid of, no matter how much training they underwent, joked.
So this is what Choi's life is like. It said sarcastically. Running through life like a marshmallow that got dropped in a camp fire every few months. Tough little fucker.
"Calm down Mister Vickers." One of those muted voices, that he thought sounded familiar, said. "We only woke you up so the Archmage could ask a few questions. We'll have you back under in a minute. Let me give you something for the pain."
"Not until the lead healer has okayed it." Another voice said somewhat harshly. "We don't even know how your Earth medicine will affect his body now."
"I do." The first voice replied. "I've used this stuff on were-people before. It works just fine. I just have to up the dosage. And Shrend knows it." The first voice, which he now faintly recognized as Choi's mom, said.
There was a pinch in the middle of a bloom of fire on Vickers' throat as a needle was pressed into one of the veins there.
And suddenly the pain, and everything else for that matter, seemed to drop away.
"Thassss..." He began. "Thasssalot... bedder."
"Shhhh." Mrs. Choi said as he felt, faintly, her touching his head. "I'm gonna take off some of your bandages so you can hear and see." She finished as his hearing cleared. "Plus we need to check your eyes and ears anyways."
A moment later Vickers' eyes opened and he was surrounded by a swirling mix of green and amber light. It was blurry, though he was mostly just happy he had any sight at all.
"Still cloudy." Mrs. Choi said as she pried his eyes open ever so slightly and looked inside. She as about to check his ears when the door opened.
Vickers turned his head with a slowness that was not intentional.
"Chief Vickers." Said the old mage who usually spoke so slowly, and looked so frail. But he didn't look or sound anything of the such at the moment as he pulled up a chair and sat where he could look at Vickers.
"Thaassss....me." He said as his head swam with whatever Mrs. Choi had given him. Probably Ketamine or something.
"I know you're in a lot of pain right now." The old mage said. "But we need to know what you saw. What was on the other side of that door before the Elemental manifested?"

Working from home today myself, but my coworker in the office (200 block of Cherry) just counted 13 police cars lining the street, police with semi-automatic rifles drawn all over, and everyone in all businesses has been told to stay where they're at. I guess this all started around 1:15pm or so. This is just north of where Taste of Fort Collins is all setup.
Edit: 11 police cars, not 13

I’m 21 year old kid about 5’9 400-450 pounds, havent weighed myself in years but the last time I did step on the scale was before I graduated highschool and I was creeping on 400 so I assume I’m past that now. I am large but I’ve been an incredible athlete for my size during my life due to a great high school football program and BMX riding in middle school and high school. for the past few years since I’ve graduated all I’ve been doing is smoking weed, playing games, and eating fast food. A basket of fries, 2 McChickens, and a large sweet tea is my favorite go-to on the McDonalds app for only $8 at least 4-5 times a week for a very very long time. I damn near live off McDonalds and shit food. It’s a complete addiction and I had that same McDonalds meal last night on my way home from work. I dont know what it was but this morning I cried at myself in the shower and decided today is the day. I have a gym membership that I havent used yet so today that’s what i’m gonna do. I’ll warm up on the treadmill with some walking/jogging for about 20 minutes and after that hopefully go back to my football roots and pick up some weights or do some explosive cardio work. I will do everything i can to make sure that what I eat is the best thing I can find until I get paid and I can go shopping for myself. I still live with mom and siblings but I have a job and pay rent here so I usually just eat whatever we have in the fridge for that week which is a disgusting amount of purely unhealthy food. I get paid this coming wednesday so i’ll have to keep eating only the best of what I can find here but as soon as I get paid wednesday and I’m going shopping for myself. I have about $100-$150 budget when I go shopping and I get paid every 2 weeks. I’m not super knowledgeable about diets but I think if I can meal prep myself some chicken breast, brown rice, cauliflower and plenty of green veggies that would be a solid meal for me after work. I’m a very simple man I’m not really looking for 100 different flavorful meals to have throughout the week to keep my tastebuds happy, after all it’s only mouth pleasure and i’m at a point now where i feel like fuck what it taste like or what i’m craving. Would a couple eggs and veggies every morning and a chicken breast meal prep like I just mentioned every day after work be a good diet? Obviously gonna drink absolutely nothing but pure water. Should I eat before or after working out? Just a couple tips would be nice. I’ve been around great coaches and athletes for a large portion of my life so i’m not completely naive about fitness but I also haven’t done much research and definitely need to learn more.

So I'm definitely a boomer and could have retired several years ago and collected SSI had I chosen to do so. I continue to work, and do all the other stuff any functioning member of society does like paying my bills and grocery shopping.
On the subject of shopping: today I went to my local Walmart to buy groceries, which today included a 12 pack of beer and a bottle of wine. I went through the self checkout and when the alcohol went through, a youngish (millenial or possibly a little younger) female employee came to the register and asked to see my driver's license. This is standard practice and is in fact required by state law.
That was fine. THIS is what pissed me off sufficiently to cause me to walk away without paying, after telling the aforementioned employee I changed my mind and she could put the groceries back where they belonged. After inspecting my license, she looked me in the eye and said "now, don't forget you need to renew your license this year".
Bitch, I know. I need to renew it in my birth month, which is November. I did not say exactly that to her. What I did do is ask her if she worked for the DMV and why she thought she needed to say what she said. I told her I have a full time job, pay my bills, and am well aware of when things are due including my license renewal. Then I said "I changed my mind and I don't want any of this. Now you can put it away". Overreaction? I don't think so. I also talked to a manager about the incident. Why is it that so many young people seem to think that it's ok to treat people age 60+ as if we are all simple minded and/or suffering from dementia? I don't automatically assume every millenial or younger person I meet is clueless. Why do so many of them treat us as if we are imbeciles? I'm sick of it.