Gonna write a 10-page essay for 2 comments and a 33% upvote rate but whatever
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It's true.
The Ace Attorney fanbase is generally more analytically intelligent than most other visual novel fanbases, so it's very disappointing to see so many people lulled by AAI2's cheap parlor tricks while failing to grasp the beauty of AAI. Truly the biggest L for this subreddit.
Let's start with the overarching story: AAI is about an international smuggling ring, and AAI2 is about a man who tricks people into committing murder. That alone should dictate which game is better, but everyone seems to love Simon Keyes because of how random and unpredictable the twist was. I fail to see why the smuggling ring is so slept-on; perhaps it's too realistic or down-to-earth and the community would rather have a final villain plotting to steal the moon? But more on that later.
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AAI has the biggest cases of "Seinfield is unfunny" in the series, because AAI2 is an unofficial translation and thus more accessible to people. On the other hand, AAI is only available as a DS cartridge (rather expensive), the only game not available on the 3DS eshop or Steam. Of course most people played AAI2 before AAI. SO MANY things got ruined by AAI2. I honestly think this is one of the reasons AAI2 did not get a localization.
Let's see some of the highlights:
The Great Thief Yagatarasu - Hit the hardest by this. Kay Faraday parading around the fact that she is the Yagatarasu in AAI2 is vastly different from her doing the same in Kidnapped and Ablaze. In AAI, starting from the first case, the Yagatarasu is this mysterious thief that supposedly has a lot of intel on the smuggling ring and we only get to see his silhouette and calling card. And don't forget his theme, Yagatarasu - The Gentleman Thief, which really does set the mood and fit him perfectly during the fleeting moments it plays. Kay only pretended to be the thief in two cases. I think the scarcity of the Yagatarasu appearances is what really makes the reveal so intriguing.
Yeah, and the final reveal: be honest here. The twist of it being Byrne, Calisto and Badd would have hit much harder on everyone's first playthrough of AAI without knowing anything from AAI2. What really dampens the Yatagarasu is the fact that he is brought up too many times by Kay in AAI2 (and even just her soundtrack name). Also the fact that the Yagatarasu calling card is the inverted version of the smuggling ring leader's instruction cards, to send a message that the Yagatarasu was only a few steps behind the ringleader, was absolutely brilliant and a much better last-minute twist than anything else the series ever came up with.
Calisto Yew/Shih-na - She was with Lang for his first appearance, and every consecutive one. That's what made her reveal so impactful. After AAI2 came along, she was just another one-off character. To be honest, the twist that she was Calisto Yew was completely unexpected, although maybe I should have realized beforehand. I also think the way she is finally cornered is pretty awesome. Setting alight the coat to reveal the Bahbalese ink burning green, pretty symbolic of her smuggling acts finally brought to light.
Shi-Long Lang character development - I'm surprised how no one mentions this. It's on the same level as Sebastian's development, and I think the only reason it's so slept-on is because in AAI2, the cases are normally so dull that you have no other choice but to focus on the characters, while AAI Lang shares the stage with the rest of the plot. The way he goes from respectfully hating on prosecutors as a super serious officer to "Lang Zi says: ...just go already!" and supporting Edgeworth in his trial after the credits is super awesome. Him getting fired from Interpol is worse than Yuri Cosmos getting demoted after Turnabout For Tomorrow in terms of discomfort food. I feel like the way Lang is introduced in AAI2 really does discredit all his character development in AAI.
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Now let's compare all aspects of each game:
Case 1 (general): Visitor > Target. Visitor is the most underrated case in the series, and Target is a 3-hour long snooze-fest. Target is a case 1 yet fails to be an intro case and thus is not good, that's what it boils down to.
Case 1 (witnesses): Visitor == Target. Visitor brought back Maggey who is one of the blandest characters in the series, but Target's defendant wasn't any better. Target also managed to fumble de Killer's appearance into a very boring confrontation, so they are about tied.
Case 1 (culprit, single-case): Portsman > Knightley. The prosecutorial interactions were much more fun than that overconfident bodyguard.
Example --
Portsman: It's a possibility. Maybe your salary's been cut so much that life is getting a little too rough to handle...?
Gumshoe: I'll have you know that I eat three square meals every day, pal! ...OK, so all three of them happen to be instant noodles, but...
Portsman: Poor thing. What an evil prosecutor you were paired up with. And what a motive, no?
Case 1 (culprit, whole game): Knightley > Portsman. Sure. The case 1 culprit can have a huge impact on the overarching story. Knightley was one of the better plotwise characters of AAI2.
Case 2 (general): Airlines > Imprisoned. Airlines just edges out Imprisoned slightly, but I admit Imprisoned is the only AAI2 case that deserves all the praise it gets. But I think the twists and turns were just a bit better for Airlines, especially the final Logic flashback segment as Lablanc slowly fell over the railing.
Case 2 (witnesses): Airlines > Imprisoned. Zinc Lablanc carries the entire case, like Luke Atmey did. Rhoda Teneiro was also cool. Jay Elbird and Frank Sahwit can't compare, and even Keyes' performance in this case, even knowing that he manipulated Knightley's death, doesn't quite reach Airlines' level of beautiful simplicity here. Dogen was just a plot device in this episode.
Case 2 (culprit, single-case): Meele == Roland. Both had godawful motives and mild characters.
Case 2 (culprit, whole game): Roland > Meele. Of course, because Roland got a whole other backstory while Meele stayed the same.
Case 3 (general): Inherited > Kidnapped. Yeah, alright. Who knew that letting you play as Gregory Edgeworth in the events leading up to DL-6 would be more interesting for the audience than actually coming up with an original idea? F for effort, I guess.
Case 3 (witnesses): Inherited > Kidnapped. Mainly because Ema Skye was absolutely useless in Kidnapped. Lauren Paups was also pretty bad. Inherited only had some meh witnesses, nothing outstanding, but still better than Kidnapped.
Case 3 (culprit, single-case): Gustavia > Lance. Well, yeah. Lance did kill only in self defense, while Gustavia and Dover had a whole storyline going. I feel like Kidnapped was meant to be a breath of fresh air from the constant murder grind, like Stolen. Too bad neither case ended up being great.
Case 3 (culprit, whole game): Lance > Gustavia. Well, not quite Lance himself, but the effect it had by prompting Ernest Amano to forge evidence, get caught and questioned, and give up the evidence to the KG-8 incident was pretty impactful. Gustavia, while the first of many things that ticked off Keyes, was also the only part of his story that wasn't really carefully intertwined with anything else.
Case 4 (general): Reminiscence == Forgotten. Interestingly, the one case everyone seems to like in AAI is actually not that great, all things considered. Forgotten was a very slow case with boring investigation sequences all around, but Reminiscence had terrible character interactions and was paced horribly.
Case 4 (witnesses): Reminiscence > Forgotten. Detective Badd blows everyone else out of the water. The Judge was alright, and Gumshoe was pretty subpar. But still, better than whatever AAI2 was trying to do with Lotta Hart and Nicole Swift.
Case 4 (culprit, single-case): Calisto == Blaise. I can't really say one was better than the other. Calisto's double murder and escape managed to top the previous 3-4 for "best loose end", but Blaise was no slouch either.
Case 4 (culprit, whole game): Calisto > Blaise. Doesn't need an explanation.
Now for the opinion that will get me downvoted. Turnabout Ablaze is a better case than The Grand Turnabout, both as a finale and in general.
Firstly, Colias Palaeno was a better final plot device character than John Marsh. Palaeno was introduced as this very suspicious character, only to later become the most helpful witness in the entire series, and the only person who didn't lie, ever. Despite overdoing his coupon-dealing gimmick, it never really got old or tedious. And come on, he was just a cool guy all around. His interactions with Alba were also very interesting considering the history between their countries. Palaeno is the perfect example of how to write a compelling plot device character.
On the other hand, John Marsh never really made an impact and his edgy teenager persona was just meh. Him refusing to take revenge on Dogen in the end was cool, but he was still not as good a character overall. His kidnapping was mainly to develop Courtney's character, but even she was not that interesting in the end. And his twist of being the president's son was very underwhelming, if I'm being honest.
Every case 5 is traditionally the resolution of two different murders. For AAI, it was Ka-Shi Nou murdered in the Allebahstian embassy, and Manny Coachen murdered in the Bahbalese embassy on the same night. For AAI2, it was the body double's murder out of the blue and the real president's murder 12 years ago. Surely Ablaze has a much better premise already.
Ablaze is a very symmetrical, well-organized case with the themes of duality. Allebahst has strict migration laws and an old army general as the ambassador, who appears to be a kindly old man. Bahbal is a very lax tourist country with a young advertising ambassador who is suspiciously cheerful. And yet, Ambassador Alba is the villain behind the smuggling ring while Ambassador Palaeno is hopelessly clueless about his secretary Coachen. I really like the dynamic amongst the characters here. Even Coachen gets characterization from Palaeno's relationship with him and sadness at his death.
Honestly, I thought the premise of the country split in two was a very intriguing setup. Even for people who aren't super interested in history-esque topics, the case should provide a novel setting. The competition to see which embassy had the legitimate statue, the goodwill ambassadorship involving the Steel Samurai, the reuniting of Cohdopia, everything really felt like something big and exciting was happening.
How many people actually played Ablaze fully? I bet half the people who hate on Turnabout Ablaze here don't even know that the embassy was set on fire in the case. They only watched Alba's breakdown, went on the wiki to find out the two victims, and called it a day before formulating their opinion. They missed out on everything, like the safe-opening puzzle and the secret of the Yagatasaru key/"knife", and figuring out how the two statues and the body got transported between the embassies.
Unlike Ablaze's very uniform and straightforward setup, The Grand Turnabout is just a speed-rap of a case with very sporadic events that feel like it's just thrown at you randomly so you never get bored of one single topic. So right after exposing Blaise as the killer, you find the president of Zheng Fa is murdered. You go to question someone, but she is currently judging Roland's trial for the murder of Knightley. Then Blaise turns out to not get in any trouble for what happened in Forgotten. Then Marsh gets kidnapped and you decide to join the trial and help Sebastian. He then runs away and you stall for time until Marsh is found and Sebastian comes back and proves that Blaise tampered with evidence. So he gets arrested after all and Roland is guilty. Then you get a mysterious radio call telling you to go to an orphanage, where you find out that the real president (along with some other guy) was killed there 12 years ago. With a very tedious Little Thief investigation sequence. Now you trace back who called you on the radio and pin every single crime in the game onto him. And Dogen helped, a bit. The end.
There were zero compelling aspects of the case. It feels like the case was entirely written to showcase character development for half the cast, and the actual plot points are half-assed and not bothered with. The final reveal is just a cheap cop-out by going "oh actually A and B are connected. Wow!". I feel like The Grand Turnabout is actually the worst-written case of AAI2 in terms of sheer writing. Every event is random until the final reveal. The way the events proceed is also very weird and feels very unpolished. The investigation drags on way longer than Alba's confrontation does. No way people like this mess of a case more than Ablaze just because it has more rewarding/overstimulating moments at times and uses shock value.
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It's funny that AAI has the overarching plot be straightforward and each individual case have its twists and turns, while AAI2 is the exact opposite. Each case basically feels like the game just leads you along a long, drawn-out and boring path to the answer while the actual overarching plot is this convoluted, improbable steaming mess of a story.
I really don't think Keyes was all that special. Sure, there were minute hints scattered throughout the game before he is revealed to be the mastermind. Sure, he had a compelling motive. But in the end, it all boils down to "oh remember all that? well, the major twist is that they are connected!". Just a weak cop-out finale that manages to be flashy enough to woo half the audience. But what I really dislike about Keyes is the way he was caught. I personally think that final villains should try to not get caught. Keyes was so cocky that he was toying with Edgeworth on purpose. Kidnapping Kay and John, teasing Edgeworth over the radio, he basically flew too close to the sun and paid the price. Alba, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with Edgeworth or the rest of the cast.
I think half of what makes a compelling villain is how they try to avoid being caught. Alba managed to stay low and avoid detection for 10 years, while still running the smuggling ring. His confrontations felt very calm and collected, and just overall very professional at maintaining his innocence. Unlike Keyes who just keeps laughing at you and mocking you. Sure, both characters had high egos, but bottom line: Keyes got too cocky from a few successful manipulations while Alba maintained his confidence in his position which he has decades of experience in.
Yes, Alba was very stubborn and makes the final fight drag on, but that should be a good thing for his character. Shows he is very experienced and well-prepared for law enforcement. Honestly, my one complaint is that his fight didn't drag on even longer; I think that him losing his ambassadorship was a bit too easy and he should have put up more of a fight regarding that. People say Alba was too generically evil, but I think that he is actually unique in the way that he is the first pure villain as afinal villain. Remember, von Karma and Gant were not full-time criminals; they were law enforcement who killed once and then were caught trying to cover up their crime. Engarde was an actor who only cared about publicity. Godot was, well, not exactly a criminal. Gavin was a lawyer who did anything to win his case and held grudges. Up until then, we never had a professional criminal as a final villain until Alba. Taking someone like him down should be expected to be difficult, long and tedious. Also his breakdown was much more rewarding than Keyes' getting beat up by animals, mostly because Keyes kinda deserved more than that. If Keyes had been punished harder, his breakdown might have been more satisfying than Alba's, to be fair.
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AAI also has a better soundtrack than AAI2, and you can fight me on that. AAI2 may have some earwormy tracks, but it's like this: AAIs soundtrack actually sounds like it was composed for the game. Tracks like the Yagatarasu's theme (not Kay, the actual Yagatarasu) and Torn Apart Countries fit the mood and set the grandiose atmosphere perfectly. AAI2s soundtrack is just the artist taking a picture of the character, showing it to a composer, and going "make a theme for him". The Man Who Masterminds the Game may be more catchy than The Enemy Who Surpasses the Law, but the latter definitely suits its respective character and confrontation as a whole more. And I just gotta appreciate a fitting theme more than an earwormy one.
Honestly, Objection 2009 was better than Objection 2011 just because it felt so much more satisfying in a calm, procedural manner, like "Okay, so we figured this out. Make a mental note of this for later". Objection 2011 is a TV-show opening for Edgeworth. It might be very catchy, but I honestly think it doesn't fit a single moment in which it is played and is just an overstimulation.
Also I will get ostracized for saying this, but Lying Coldly was a perfect take on how a pursuit theme for Edgeworth would sound, that Wanting to Find the Truth completely ruined in favor of sounding more like a generic pursuit theme. It may be a good song, but it has none of the charm that Lying Coldly had.
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AAI2s translation team, to be honest, did a pretty bad job. (Preface: yes I know criticism like this is mean and uncalled for but since AAI2 isn't even their game, I think it is fair to criticize their take on it after they imposed themselves onto Capcom's game.)
Let's start with the voicelines. Sebastian Debeste's voice actor was the only one who did a good job. Everyone else's voices were way too "high-quality sound" to fit AAs theme. Like, especially ProZDs take on Gregory Edgeworth, who sounds like a 20 year old with a smoking problem and a mouth that's 2cm in diameter. It especially contrasts von Karma's voice in Inherited and is clearly out of place. Sorry, but ProZD was an absolute garbage casting choice for Gregory. I don't care what you say, Courtney is not British. Knightley and Shields' voices are just too realistic and not AA sounding. Keyes and Blaise are the only other objections that almost fit the bill, almost.
Again, though, massive props to Sebastian's voice actor. He absolutely nailed his voiceclip.
On a related note, I think Alba and Calisto's objections are actually not bad because remember, they are (Alba definitely, Calisto I assume so since she works for him) foreigners who originate from Cohdopia. It makes sense for them to have an accent when speaking English, and with only one word to go off of, their accent sounds exactly like one would expect. It's surprising how most people can't make that basic connection and instead go straight to mindless hating. Ace Attorney's fanbase is supposed to be smarter than that.
Okay now back to the translation team, the overall dialogue for AAI2 feels much more dry. It's not as easy as you'd expect to capture the tones of each character during the translation, and the translation team kind of failed at that. The dialogue for the returning characters, especially Gumshoe and Kay, feel much more uniform and really lack the charm that AAIs official translation had. Try playing AAI and AAI2 in alternating cases side-by-side and the difference becomes clear as day.
Not just the dialogue in general, but also the quips and banter during the investigation sequences between main characters. Especially that one time in Inherited in which young Shields quotes Godot's "blacker than a moonless night" soliloque, for Gregory to think to himself "note: coffee has a bad effect on lawyers". If you really think about it, this took place before T&T and there is no way Godot would just quote Shields, so it's a really weird continuity plothole that both people say the same thing, like a 4th wall break. It's supposed to be a joke, but come on. Capcom wouldn't actually do something so unprofessional like that, and the translation team really had to make that weird joke a permanent part of Capcom's game. It's an official game so it's supposed to be more professional than using 4th wall breaks like that. This may seem nitpicky, but again - official Capcom game.
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Of course, people can like whatever they like. You may prefer a culprit that is over-the-top crazy more than a down-to-Earth one. You can like an unpredictable, convoluted overarching story more than a well-written one. But objectively, from a critical, unbiased point of view, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is a much better-written, higher quality work than Gyakuten Kenji 2. No amount of rose-colored glasses can change that, sorry.

CourseNana Programming Challenges: Data Obfuscation
A common technique for obfuscating data is to use exclusive-or (XOR) with some key; it is in expensive and symmetric. A problem occurs when this is used on file formats like portable executable where there are many null bytes, since XORing nulls with the key ends up writing the key out.
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New Terran Refugee (Pt - 20) : An NOP fanfic
Thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for letting people write fanfics.
This is just a fanfic of course.
This chapter went through several iterations, I might have let myself think I could release it 1 week late (and failed). Also, I might have gotten sidetracked with other non-writing thing, oops.
TL;DR:
“OOPS! All Rewrites! And side projects!” – Me
In any case, here’s the chapter:
Memory transcription subject: Tayla, Venlil Widow
Date [standardized human time]: October 18, 2136
The first thing I became aware of was that I had awoken enveloping a richly warm pillow with a soft surface from above, and that not only was it hot but that it was also soft and squishy but without too much give, in fact it was somehow firmer below the surface, I snuggled closer to the material that was emanating heat below me and drove off my mind’s attempts at waking me up, this was too blissful an experience to stop suddenly.
The second thing I became aware of was that I didn’t remember replacing my heated pillow as the cold wind season was still expected to be a good deal of time away and that I had much more important things to spend my limited budget on.
The third thing I became aware of was that I wasn’t hugging a pillow, this only happened when I noticed that it wasn’t moving because I was snuggling into it, but rather moving in a steady motion against me, like when someone breathes while asleep.
The fourth thing I became aware of, were the memories of what led me into this situation ‘Just gonna close my eyes for a moment’; Why did I lie to myself like that?
The final thing I became aware of snapped me out of my musings, it was the reason I woke up, and the reason I had crashed so hard into sleepiness.
The consequence of drinking copious amounts of [shade root] tea to keep watch over Jorge until I could call the number in the email during the schedule it had included beneath itself, this was made worse by the cans of ‘Twilight Energy’ I had drank at the end when more drastic measures had to be taken.
I couldn’t ignore it I couldn’t help but feel the pressure mounting inside my bladder as I peeled myself off from on top of Jorge. Why did I move so much while asleep?
Oh Protector, I missed his warmth already…
I made a mental note to look into repairing my heated pillow for cheap due to a sudden urge to sleep with something warm more frequently, the abrupt thought jogging loose some memories about contact information of some local repairvenlil I’d called before for one reason or another, along with the memory of the number I called before… napping with Jorge…
A great feeling of chagrin manifested along with my bloom while closing Jorge’s bathroom door behind me as I remembered the text beneath the schedule, ‘Extended working hours during emergency situations’, the aftermath of antimatter bombing definitely applied… especially since that Mrs. Bennet sounded so exhausted so soon after the supposed start of her work claw.
I decided to chalk up my lapse in judgement to have been due to how Jorge’s expression before he sealed himself in had left my thoughts racing and heart pounding in worry over him.
With my thoughts somewhat settled, I examined the strange toilet that had been installed, before throwing caution to the winds when the urgency I felt reasserted itself with force.
…
After closing the lid and washing my paws, I finally found what had to be the equivalent of the pulley and chain, a small, recessed button parted into 2 asymmetric parts on the top middle part behind the seat.
I pressed both parts at the same time just in case.
FWOOOSH
A small eep escaped me but was drowned out by the noises that were still coming from the strange toilet!
Finally, the ruckus ended, letting me calm down from the unexpected loudness. Wait, did that noise wak-
THUNK THUNK THUNK
A bigger eep escaped me as I jumped a little into the air; However this time it wasn’t drowned out by another noise.
“¿you ok in there?” I could barely make out Jorge’s voice through the door, like he was putting in the barest effort needed to speak.
“Y-yeah, j-just startled…” I opened the door as I trailed off, a sudden realization had me asking him a question, “I guess I know how It felt w-when I s-startled you h-huh?”
His normally expressive face remained still, the only reaction to my attempt at lightening the mood a brief exhale from his nose; He simply slipped past me as I left the bathroom and muttered something I didn’t quite hear just before shutting the door softly.
I went back to the bed and turned on his pad, after a few seconds of waiting for it to turn on, and a few more waiting for my translator to parse the strange [date and time] format the humans used (Honestly, who separated the [hours] and the [days/months] like that?) I felt a bit of relief as I sank a bit into the still warm bed.
According to the pad, I’d just taken a short nap, I still had plenty of time until my children came back home, hopefully I had enough time to actually have some kind of talk with Jorge.
I’d have to somehow get him to talk about last Paw’s… reaction of his, and find a way to convince him to talk about his family, It’d be good for him to recognize that pain, maybe he’d even hold onto it like me…
^FWOOOSH
That thing that the humans called a toilet interrupted my train of thought before I could do more than think of the barest of ways I could breeze into such heavy topics, the small delay between the toilet’s sound, the groaning of water travelling to the faucet, and the door opening wasn’t even enough to get back on my mind’s [zephyr].
A quick focus on Jorge’s face made my determination start to breeze away a bit, it was much easier to think of how to talk to him when I couldn’t see just how heavily everything [to wear down like a long strong gale would] on him.
Jorge deflated slightly but visibly at how I apparently froze up at the sight of him.
“well, thanks, i… feel better, you can just… leave me be for now”
Jorge stood still, averting his eyes from me until he shrugged strangely after turning to look at the barricade, he then shuffled over and started to shift it to the side a bit, evidently wishing to put it back in place after I left.
“ah” he cleared his throat, “sorry, you can leave now” he returned to averting his eyes from looking at me and awkwardly motioned towards the wide opening he had made after dragging the barricade as he stepped away morosely.
“Jorge.” I paused to breathe; I’d managed to huff out his name just as I needed to exhale.
Jorge stood still for a moment before tentatively focusing on me, a strangely vulnerable expression sat on his face.
I patted the bed (an appropriate and proper distance away from me) with my tail before curling it away from the spot, he seemed to get the message and soon he had sat down beside me, brief moment of hesitation notwithstanding.
I turned my head towards him as I’d seen him do when talking, he flinched a little when his eyes met mine, closing them and averting his face, I reached out for his nearby claw with my tail and put it down gently on top.
I waited patiently for him to start talking; Thankfully the wait was short.
“this… ¿is this about… my reaction yesterday?”
“Yes,” I squeezed down on his claw softly with my tail in a comforting gesture, “I wanted to speak with you about that sooner, but for now…” another gentle squeeze, “I’m just glad you seem to be doing a little bit better.”
Silence enveloped us as Jorge seemed to mull over what I’d just said.
A small hint of a hunch had me examining him more closely, it seemed he was anxiously waiting for me to talk some more.
I chastised myself internally, ‘Of course he wasn’t going to be feeling very talkative…’, how could someone jump straight into talking about such a topic? It’d probably be better to start with other stuff and gauge things from there; With that my mind sifted through possible topics until one stood out.
“S-so, I kind of… used up a lot of your powdered ingredients… heh…” I took in his features, he seemed halfway here and halfway far away.
Maybe… Maybe if I somehow mentioned the call to remind him that there were more humans he could try talking to? Just in case he was getting tired of my clumsy attempts at talking with him…
“I, uh, didn’t think of asking Mrs. Bennet about their availability when I called her this Paw, s-sorry about that… b-but I’m sure they’ll get some more that you can use soon, right?”
That got a reaction, a small one, out of him; His eyes widened. It… felt wrong.
“o-oh, well, i’d better get started packing then…”
An impossibly heavy weight settled deep inside my stomach as he moved his claw out from under my frozen tail tip, my throat clenched up as Jorge got up and limply started wading to his bag.
I stared in mute horror as he dumped his clean body coverings into it, trying to communicate anything to him, and failing miserably as the sheer disbelief of just how horribly I had miscommunicated kept me frozen, while the pain and betrayal I could imagine him feeling kept my mind reeling.
He stopped just as he reached his bag, his claws clenched for a moment before he unclenched them slowly and turned around to look directly at me.
He’d shed more tears, his eyes were an ugly and fresher shade of red.
“y-you were waiting down here for me to wake up again just to have this conversation as soon as possible. ¿am i right?”
Th-this wasn’t supposed to go like this!
“I… I was-”
“I!” interrupted Jorge with an elevated tone of voice, “…Earlier, I woke up and went back to sleep a few times, I could see you sitting on the stairs, sometimes you and your pad would be missing, I kept thinking that maybe you were worried about me ¿you know?”
“I-” An intense look from him kept the rest of my response in my head; ‘I was!’ I wanted to plead.
“I guess you didn’t plan for me falling asleep after crying…” He trailed off and seemed to go into deep thought for a moment, before his eyes narrowed dangerously. “¿Did you just bring me that Atole to soften the blow?” He held up one of his claws towards me while making a stabbing motion with it, his voice came out as a much lower growl than normal from him. “¿Or was putting me to sleep part of the plan?”
My face felt as if I’d been hit by an icy gale. ‘Did he just insinua-?’
“You’re fucking heartless.” That last sentence from him was punctuated by a fresh set of tears from his eyes, though no sobbing came from him as he let himself fall backwards down onto the floor, like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut.
My heart was beating wildly, and my eyes stung from the horrible accusations that he was making, and from how I’d probably be doing just what he had said if this had happened a few days ago…
I gave myself a moment to recollect myself, I’d thought similar enough things when I was alone in the hospital after losing my family, not nearly as extreme but… my circumstances back then and his right now weren’t comparable.
I shuddered internally at how much worse I’d have fared if it had been Venlil Prime that had been attacked; I’d probably… I’d have tried to do what he tried last night…
With a sigh I focused consciously on Jorge, who was breathing a bit more steadily now, as I picked up the bottle and moved steadily towards his alert gaze.
I sat down in front of him and opened the bottle, he narrowed his eyes even further in response, making the redness and glistening more pronounced, the patches of fur above his eyes changed position as well; I didn’t quite know what it meant, but it couldn’t possibly have been from him feeling happy or at peace.
I pushed through the sense of fear that was starting to form from being under his stare and took in the rest of his body language… I readjusted my position and observed as he flinched away from me…
I slowly raised the bottle and drank; The patches of fur over his eyes returned to their normal position, overshot and stayed raised while the intensity of his stare diminished. Finally, he tilted his head ever so slightly.
After a few gulps more I stopped drinking and offered him the bottle, he still wasn’t accepting it; I wiped my lips and prepared to speak.
“…I wouldn’t do that to you…” A small quiver at the end made me trail off until I was certain my voice wouldn’t fail me. I wouldn’t do that now. “None of those things, I mean… Even after all I did… You gave me a chance…”
“When you put it like that…” Jorge wiped his eyes. “I mean, I don’t know what came over me…” He looked to the side and deflated a little.
“I understand… I was like this too…” A small shiver traveled through my spine, thinking about it always did… I ignored the shiver by standing up and offering him the bottle again, this time he grabbed it and drank deeply.
He trailed behind me, we sat down on opposite sides of the bed, him hugging his legs as he sat against the wall, and me with one leg over the edge of the bed with the other one crossed over it.
Dozens of starting points were flurrying in my head, I couldn’t decide on one, so I cleared my throat and let myself say whatever came out first.
“I’m married.” Jorge became extremely visibly confused. “I-I’m a Widow, I meant to say…” The familiar sting of pain grounded me as his expression changed into one I could recognize even from him, pity.
“He-” died “…It happened 11 years ago, I… I lost my family at the same time…”
Jorge’s expression softened even more, no longer out of pity, but out of understanding… of the pain we shared…
“It was my dad’s idea, he’s always wanted to have a big family homestead… when the latest batch of colonies were finally cleared for habitation he bought a plot immediately, my sister and her husband went with them first, then my brother and his wife, and finally me and…”
This whole talking thing was much harder than I thought… I cleared my throat; I couldn’t go on just omitting any names in my retelling…
“Krayla, that’s my mother’s name.” I paused, waiting for his reaction, he ‘nodded’ slowly, solemnly. “Tavk’io, my dad; Talnum, my b-brother; Tahyiya, m-my sister; …a-and Glim, m-my husband…”
I buried my head in my paws, this was too much…
A moment passed, I felt something brush against my tail; Opening my eyes I saw that it was Jorge’s claw, he patted the tip gently until his eyes met mine.
“Emiliano José Cauich Ayala, t-that’s my father’s name.” He paused to breathe and wiped his eyes. “Ixchel Paola Rojas Canul, that’s my mother’s name.”
We stayed in silence for a while longer, at least in my case recovering from the emotional toll that I had just gone through.
“S-shortly after we arrived at the colony,” I began. “I l-learned I was p-pregnant, G-Glim and I celebrated it with my family, we were going to name our baby after my brother and his wife, Kiyomi. It… It was something we had all come up with [years] before, everything was going just like we had dreamed and talked so much about…”
I squeezed my tail against myself, all those nights at the colony laughing and joking with each other about increasingly outlandish names (ones that we’d never use of course), gone just like that…
“G-Glim and Talnum were busy helping the colony expand by clearing new plots for development and as buffer zones, I helped around with Taylee and Talim when needed but I helped dad with the house most of the time; There were always things that needed to be taken care of after all. Th-then one day in the colony, I f-fainted while picking up Taylee and Talim from school, a f-few [weeks] after that… I had to be sent back here since the colony’s hospital had lost their last equipment shipment to an Arxur raid.” I paused and lowered my voice. “G-Glim stayed behind to take extra assignments, t-to cover expenses, h-he… he was… he was on his last pawful of shifts b-before leave wh-when…”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“…D-dad was at home looking after the kids, he’d sprained his leg while doing some maintenance, he called me early in the morning there, Talnum and Glim were in some kind of assignment together, and my mother had taken everyone else to get stuff from the market to prepare a farewell meal f-for Glim…” And after that… “The call disconnected abruptly, it had happened before so I… I j-joked to m-myself a-and the nurse that it was p-probably j-just the signal failing because I wasn’t there to maintain things p-properly…”
Tears started forming in my eyes again, Jorge shuffled closer, put his soft claw on my shoulder and gave a light squeeze, his warmth spread throughout me.
“…A few claws later I learnt the truth, that the colony had been raided and that the shelter had been breached, shortly after that, I… I lost my…” I did my best to look him directly in his eyes. “After that… I started planning how to get to the hospital’s roof…” There, a glint of recognition and pain in his eyes. “I was just waiting for the rescue fleet to finish up there, just in case, thankfully… my dad hid Taylee and Talim in one of the [Kitchen] cabinets after taking down the family pictures, since he couldn’t take them to the shelter, he… Taylee told me that he… he begged her to keep quiet before closing the cabinet. She stayed in there with Talim for I don’t even know how long… She… She hasn’t talked about it ever again.”
Another squeeze, then silence and cold as he retracted his claw back towards him, his face turning to another side while taking on some kind of thoughtful intensity.
“S-So… What I’ve been trying to say was… I kind of understand what you’re going through… A-and if you want to talk… I-I’m here?”
A small ‘nod’, and more silence. My eyes were beginning to feel heavy again, that nap hadn’t been enough it seemed.
Jorge harrumphed, causing a bolt of wakefulness to course through me as he began speaking, filling in the silence that had fallen on the room.
“…I don’t think I’m ready yet…” His face turned towards me once more. “But… thank you, for sharing, and for worrying about me, I… If you hadn’t been there when I drifted into and out of sleep…” His eyes widened in a flash. “Wait. ¿You haven’t slept right? ¿Are you feeling OK?”
“I-I t-took a nap after you f-fell asleep…” B-beneath him… “Y-you left a lot of space…” He did, but I couldn’t get to it from under his legs…
“Good, good…” His eyes flicked between me and the door. “Well… I suppose you’ve got stuff to do now. ¿Am I right?” Somehow, the expression that sat now on his face felt forced in a way. I kept quiet as I rummaged through my memories of The Aftermath.
Of course, he was trying to get me out to wallow in peace, just as I did…
That was the last thing he needed right now.
I needed to find a way to get him out of this room…
“Actually… I’m free until my kids get back, I’m used to taking care of chores quickly.”
“Right…” Jorge seemed to slowly steel himself, if I didn’t interrupt me, he’d just ask me to leave directly…
I tried to think faster, but the drowsiness was returning in force, it was no use… Unless…
“H-Hey!” My exclamation startled him, I pressed on to keep the momentum strong. “I uh, I kind of went through my whole supply of [shade root] tea to stay awake…” I didn’t. “And… I don’t really want to drink more energy drinks this Paw, I don’t suppose you have something to stay awake with you?”
Jorge blinked, again, once more, and again one last time before responding.
“¿I… think I have some coffee I could make?” He tilted his head adorably to one side as he scratched his head with one claw.
“Sounds perfect! Would you please make me some?” I stood up before he could even answer, reached for his idle claw and tugged at it towards me; He stood up in what seemed like a daze out of reflex.
We spent the next few [minutes] browsing the intact shelf, whatever this coffee was, it wasn’t there, the tentatively positive mood that had formed cracked a little as Jorge looked at the shelf barricade before he trudged over to it, stopping beside it where he gestured at vaguely with his claw.
We stepped past the barricade, tried not to look at each other, failed, shuffled in place for a moment and began sifting through the items strewn about the floor in an unspoken agreement.
It wasn’t long until I found myself holding a container that my translator insisted was labeled ‘Instant Coffee’. “Hey,” I started while turning, “is this the ri-” Jorge was looking intensely at something on the floor, I followed his gaze and saw it, the broken remains of the flame projector.
“J-Jorge?” I extended my tail cautiously towards his arm, his claws ceased to strain against themselves following the subtle flinch he had when the tip of my tail made contact with him.
I gave him the ‘Instant Coffee’ I was holding and scooped up the remains to dispose of them properly this time; Jorge held up the container and murmured an affirmation at me, I gestured for him to lead the way and proceeded to follow him to the [kitchen].
I raced my way directly to the trash container, separated the single-use fuel cannister from the remains I was holding, and dumped the inert bits inside; I’d have to take this last part to a proper disposal collection point in town some other time. For now, I glanced at Jorge and tucked it into a discreet spot in the cabinets when he wasn’t looking. Only after that did I notice what a mess I’d made up here despite my best efforts at cleaning up…
Jorge’s eyes were scanning all over the [kitchen], taking in every splotch, every spill and every crusted over utensil I’d used, he lingered noticeably longer on the open and haphazardly arranged containers of his that I had used, finally he stared at the Vanilla Extract bottle with a soft expression, it was the only container that had remained completely spotless and didn’t have a significant amount of its contents drained.
Yet another unreadable expression had settled on his face as he took a big pot and barely put any water in it, the other more reasonably sized ones just too dirty to deal with quickly, before putting it to boil on the [stove top].
“Uh…” He shifted his weight from one leg to the other a few times. “I… never did thank you for the drink earlier ¿Didn’t I?”
“N-no but there’s no ne-”
The patches of fur above his eyes furrowed together.
“You… mentioned before that you entered the program for money…” He looked confused. “¿Why didn’t you just… ask for me to be picked up? You’d have gotten someone else in no time… Hell, I’d still understand if you did it now. You don’t have to go through all this trouble for me.” The confused expression deepened as he gestured at the messy remains around us.
“…”
He was waiting for an answer.
“I… w-well I d-did enter for the money… b-but… I don’t want to just replace you… I like being around you. I d-don’t know if we’re there yet… But I’d like to be… f-friends! W-with you someday…” Oh Protector, I couldn’t be more obvious unless I just came out and said it…
“Well for what it’s worth… Thank you Tayla, you don’t know what that means to me right now.” He was looking directly at me, with raw emotion and palpable aliveness, my face started to feel as if I was standing under sunlight…
“I-It was the l-least I could d-do…” It was worth it even though he didn’t seem to understand quite what I accidentally meant before…
I was spared from further embarrassment by the pot of water sizzling violently behind Jorge who turned around in a blur to turn the heat off, while he did that I grabbed two (clean) mugs and set them down near him, though I didn’t move my paws quite fast enough as his claw brushed against me while he moved the mugs closer to him to pour the water on them.
He let the water cool down a little as he put his sugar and ‘Instant Coffee’ containers close to the mugs; He poured the less-than-boiling water into the mugs, stirred in a measure of ‘Instant Coffee’ and a measure of sugar as well.
He passed me a mug with a cryptic warning. “If it’s not to your taste, let me know.” Then he grabbed the other one, sipped a little and waited.
The mischievous glint in his eyes left me no choice, I’d have to play along for now; I raised the mug and sipped…
SPEH
WHY WAS EVERYTHING THESE HUMANS HAD SO BITTER?
I futilely attempted to remove the grimace from my face; Strangely, the roar of laughter I expected was nowhere to be heard, I found myself looking at Jorge with some amount of concern, though the clear, if understated, smile he sported calmed me down somewhat.
Wordlessly, Jorge reached for my mug and the can of powdered coconut milk, he then proceeded to mix in a little of it in both mugs, turning the liquid from a dark oily brown to a much lighter tone. Finally he mixed in a single drop of his Vanilla Extract in each mug and gave me back mine.
I gave him the best glare I could manage as I pouted at him, he took a deep drink from his own mug and held it up for me to examine.
With a sigh I tried mine again.
Warm. Flowery. Smooth. Bitter but not too much, like a perfectly harvested root. But most importantly of all, I could feel myself waking slightly more already, whether it was just self-suggestion or the drink having an effect so soon I couldn’t tell.
Once more, the reaction I expected from Jorge was missing, this time he seemed to be lost in thought, staring at a distant point in the air.
I took a moment to examine him, whatever he was thinking, it was starting to fester. It’d be better to get him talking “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s no-” He shook his head. “It’s just… I… my dad… he liked to drink his without adding anything, no sugar, no… coconut milk…, and… me and mom used to tease him about it…” He was retreating into himself once more.
I kept drinking my coffee; There had to be something else I could talk with him about…
Jorge straightened up, something about his posture, about the way he held himself had changed.
“Say… Tayla… ¿Can I ask you for a favor?” Despite the confidence he exuded he was running one of his claws over the back of his mug repeatedly.
“W-what kind of favor?”
“There’s something I want, no, something I need to make for the end of the [month], and… I’m going to need your help getting the stuff, I’d just ask you to get it all for me, but honestly that wouldn’t be right.”
“O-ok, but you still haven’t told me what the favor is?”
“I need to buy flowers, candles, a good tablecloth, and see what dishes I can actually make here that’d be good enough.”
“W-What for?” W-Was he? My heart was beating wildly in a peculiar mix of elation, nervousness and apprehension.
“I’m going to make an Altar for Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos), it’s the least I can do for my family all the way over here.”
W-
Wh-
WHAT?

The practice of assigning homework to school kids has long been ingrained in the education system. However, there is an increasing concern that homework may not be as beneficial as once believed. This argument presents a case against giving school kids homework, focusing on the potential negative effects it can have on students' well-being, mental health, and overall educational experience.

1. Quality Time for Exploration and Play: Children need time to engage in unstructured activities, explore their interests, and engage in creative play. Assigning excessive homework limits these opportunities, leaving little time for children to discover their passions, develop social skills, and foster imagination. By eliminating homework, students can have a more well-rounded educational experience that encompasses both academic and non-academic growth.
2. Overwhelming Workload and Stress: Homework can place an undue burden on students, leading to excessive stress and anxiety. Young learners already spend a significant portion of their day at school, and assigning homework adds to their workload, leaving them with limited time for rest, relaxation, and extracurricular activities. This excessive pressure can negatively impact their mental health and overall well-being.
3. Inequality and Disadvantage: Not all students have equal access to resources and support outside of school. Homework assignments often assume that students have access to necessary materials, technology, and parental guidance. However, many students come from disadvantaged backgrounds where these resources may be limited. Consequently, assigning homework can exacerbate existing educational inequalities and place certain students at a disadvantage.
4. Limited Family Time and Burnout: Homework assignments can encroach upon precious family time, leaving students and their families with little opportunity to engage in meaningful interactions and activities outside of academics. This can strain family relationships and hinder the development of a healthy work-life balance. Moreover, prolonged exposure to excessive homework can lead to burnout, reducing students' motivation and enthusiasm for learning.
5. Varied Learning Styles and Autonomy: Every student has a unique learning style and pace. Homework assignments often follow a one-size-fits-all approach, disregarding the individual needs and preferences of students. By eliminating homework, educators can focus on creating diverse in-class activities that cater to different learning styles, allowing students to engage actively and develop autonomy in their learning process.

Conclusion: The case against giving school kids homework centers around promoting a well-rounded education, prioritizing student well-being and mental health, addressing educational inequalities, and fostering a healthy work-life balance. By reevaluating the necessity and impact of homework, educators can explore alternative methods that better suit the diverse needs of students, allowing them to thrive academically while also enjoying a fulfilling childhood experience.

Number 5 is here, thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!
Thanks once again to u/SpacePaladin15 for the amazing universe! NatureofPredators for being an awesome community! And thanks to u/sgtmiller1233 for his assistance in writing this!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Kevri, Venlil Military Transfer
Date (Standardized Human Time): April 21, 2194
While the humans were talking, both me and the Tanned venlil were asking Vall about life aboard the ship. In her words, it's busy, The humans are always doing something even if its recreational. I had just happened to glance back and noticed Mac had a mischievous grin on his face while the other human looked embarrassed. I turned in ear to listen in and noticed the other two did as well. They were talking about the screams. Why would the other human be embarra….oh, Oh he caused the screaming.Wait what did Mac mean by a date, They aren't together right, they just transferred! Not even had the thought been conjured had I noticed the Tanned Venlil going stiff, his tail going ridged. Taking the Opportunity, I gave him a little wave of my tail, “You ok?” I ask only to not get a response.
“Sounds like someone works quickly, got a bit of a fetish for preds there “Chocolate chip” Vall chimes in from the counter, her posture shifting to have both elbows on the counter. She looks like what some of those human movies call “Gossip Girls”.
“Wha- no, oh no n- no nono, We just met! He is obviously male and I'm a female only kinda venlil. I don’t swing that way! Besides The other human is joking right, Right?!” Chocolate Chip replies.
“Eh, with mac you never know, plus-” she gets interrupted as Mac starts to walk up.
“Vall, I'll go ahead and sign for that equipment now, Think we took up enough of your time. Besides I’m sure these two are gonna want some alone time” He finishes winking at the tanned Venlil.
“We, we are not a….nevermind” the PFC walks up sighing in defeat.
“Whatever you say casanova.” Mac finishes
“Ma’am we were originally here to pick up some equipment, agent’s orders.” The Pfc continues directing his attention to Vall. I turned my eye to look at Mac, who seemed to have tensed up at the mention of the agents.
“Well, might as well get this done efficiently. Mac, here is your paperwork while I go fetch these crates, I'm sure I know which ones they are.” Vall says placing a clipboard on the counter and hopping down. I can’t see her anymore, but I do hear her claws getting further away. Mac got busy filling out the forms, cursing to himself under his breath all the while “Why the fuck do they need my signature so many times?! Like once ain’t enough…”
Looking toward the only other venlil currently, I realize that in all of that conversation I still don’t know his name.
I swish my tail at him in a quizzical manner "I'm afraid I didn't catch your name friend."
"Oh..uh my name is V-vibren"
"Very nice to meet you Vibren, I am Kevri." I then gestured to the doorway where Vall had gone through "And her name is Vallesh."
Soon enough she had returned with her crates, honestly it was amazing to see her carrying all that weight. I didn't think it was possible for a venlil to lift so much. She also must have overheard our conversation from the other room, as when she walked up to the counter she began speaking to us almost immediately.
Vall would chuckle, placing down the crates on the counter as she spoke "That's what they keep calling me, but most of the humans just call me Vall"
Vibren would say in a meek voice "I-i have noticed that humans tend to shorten our names…I wonder why, are they too complicated?"
I wasn't sure how to answer him, but he was right. I had noticed that most people, including Vall, would shorten the Gunnery Sergeant's name to just 'Mac'. Thankfully she would also pipe up with an answer. "The humans call them nicknames." She would twist her paw in the air as she continued to explain in an act that looked… human
"The way it was explained to me in boot was that humans always assign little pet names to their friends and family as a way for them to quickly refer to someone. In human militaries all throughout their history nicknames were often given as a term of endearment."
Vibren would stumble over his own words, ears flat against his head. "P-p-p-pets?! They see us as non-sapient c-creatures meant o-o-only for companionship??"
I too was disheartened to hear this, I wasn't willing to become some aliens pet. I felt my tail droop and my ears flatten against my skull. Vall must have noticed our dismay at the situation, thankfully however, she would continue to explain. "What? It isn't like that at all guys! Trust me the humans see us as equals, we wouldn't be here if they didn't. Just the other day I had to order a human private to clean the restroom as punishment because they lost some equipment."
I tilted my head “You can command humans? And they listen to you?”
She gave a meek chuckle “Well yeah, I’m a sergeant. It's kinda part of my job. The humans on this vessel are all military, so they follow a strict ranking structure. It's not too dissimilar to our space core.”
Well that made sense enough, it would make sense for the UNSC to have a ranking structure to assure a cohesive command in combat. I couldn't help it I was intrigued at this point, so i decided to ask another question that had been brewing in my mind,
“You mentioned something called boot?”
Her eyes lit up at my question “Yeah boot! It’s short for something the humans call Boot Camp. I had to go through it for about…” She scratched the side of her face in thought “ohhhh I would say about [8 weeks]. But I have heard it can go longer.” She then turned to me and chuckled “Seeing as you're with NAVSPECWAR Kevri, I think your time in boot might end up being on the longer side of things.”
She said that so cheery, why?!? Oh stars…
“Meanwhile I think we are getting folded elsewhere Vib, That is your name right? “A Voice pipes up from my left, it starts again as we all turn our attention to the pfc we had forgotten. “Honestly we are going to get alot more training. Well, except for the Sergeant of course.” he says as he continues signing a clipboard full of papers, looking to be mostly through it already.
Vibren, distracted from the previous train of thought it seems, walks up and picks up one of the smaller crates in the pile next to the Pfc. When had the Private moved the crates? How didn’t we hear it?! HOW QUIET ARE THEY?!
“Um, wha- What's in the crates um….” Vibren appears to be struggling as I watch his tail flick about.
“Marcus, Marcus Jackson, and Armor from what I'm reading. Pilots Armor.” he says without taking his eyes off the papers in front of him.
“Pilot, but I’m just a Weapons Officer, I don’t know how to fly!” Vib almost squeeks.
“They can’t expect me to just fly a ship! I could barely keep up on the weapons station in the simulator!”
Marcus places the clipboard down and directs his attention to Vibren, who in turn seems to shrink a little at the human’s gaze. “Well, I guess that will be part of what that training course they told us about is for. Besides, it can’t be that hard to pick up” he finishes giving a closed mouth smile.
*A whistle is heard over the intercom\*
“Attention, all xeno personnel. Those who have just transferred are to report immediately to the Medical bay to receive Inoculations, Augmentations and Implants. That is all.”
Mac would then chime in, having long since completed the paperwork. “Hm, sounds like you'll be heading to the med bay sooner than I thought kid.” He then pats me on the back before looking between both myself and Vibren “Come on you two, I'll take you there.”
“W-why just the two of us? W-what about Vallesh?” I ask, my words barely escaping my mouth
Mac would simply chuckle before Vall interjected “Because I’ve already got my implants and augmentations.” She finishes pointing to one of her eyes.
S-so that's how you cou-”
Vall interrupted my query “How I can read human script? Yes, that is exactly how. And I'm going to hazard a guess that you, Kevri, are going to be receiving more augmentations than I did.”
m-more?
“How many more?!”
Mac placed his hand on my shoulder “More than you want to know Kev. Now come on, you guys have a date with the docs.”
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Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is undoubtedly a powerhouse, if not the powerhouse of the indie perfume world. Who else (like me) came to indie perfume at least in part from the hat-tip to BPAL in the acknowledgements of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus? I actually still have never ordered from BPAL directly, but I have amassed a fair few samples and decants thanks to Ajevie, Arae, and swaps. And it's always fun to read through the names and notes of each new collection release!
My general thoughts about BPAL are these: they clearly know what they're doing and have an enormous library of notes for them to draw upon. Sometimes new releases feel very much like they just sort of reached into a dark cupboard and combined whatever bottles they happened to grab (particularly the Ménages à Trois), and yet sometimes the unexpected combinations are genius. (Sometimes they are very much not.) BPAL's perfumes tend to work okay for me, but they're not one of my top houses (that list is made up of Nui Cobalt, Poesie, Arcana, and NAVA), although a few BPAL scents have turned out to be holy grails for me (Drow Yoga Instructor, Mouse's Long and Sad Tale). Oddly enough, their florals often tend not to work well on my skin, which is hugely disappointing especially since I deliberately sought out a lot of their ethereal-sounding florals and then a lot of them failed for me. However, their sandalwood incense is astounding, and I love their sweet pea, plum, and pink sandalwood notes.
My preferences: I especially love snuggly scents, incense, golden amber, cardamom, black tea, beeswax, non-gourmand vanillas, and white florals (though sadly I am allergic to lilies and jasmine doesn’t usually work on me). I don't like hay, overly sweet gourmands, excessive musk, leather, dragon’s blood, patchouli, labdanum, or any really dark scents in general.
So here are 27 reviews, organized roughly by category:

Ambers

And With My Spade I Delfe My Landys [Snow-capped golden amber with snowdrop, winter gardenia, hellebore, and iris] - First off, I'm a scholar of Renaissance music, with a real fondness for medieval Books of Hours. Second, I get obsessed with snowdrops in the late winter when the cottagecore-y, hobbit-y, linen-enthusiast circles of Instagram that I haunt fill with photos of snowdrops in February. So how could I pass this one up? I get golden amber and floral as anticipated, and also (just on application, then it recedes) a very resinous, citrusy, herbal scent that I can't quite place - rosemary? Pine? Some combination of the two? It's also a bit powdery (iris has a tendency to pull powdery on me, and as a lover of powdery florals that's just fine with me). And With My Spade is so very reminiscent of those first tentative flowers pushing up through whatever snow still lays on the ground and it's absolutely bonkers wonderful for that transitional season between winter and spring, which is of course what I bought it for.
Bastet [Luxuriant amber, warm Egyptian musk, fierce saffron and soft myrrh, almond, cardamom and golden lotus] - On application, that golden amber reads as powdery honey. As it dries, a sophisticated Egyptian musk and a hint of lotus floral emerge. This perfume is not really gourmand despite the notes. I wish the incense or spices had more presence. As it is, this perfume is nice but it feels a little thin.
Cathedral [Venerable and solemn: the scent of incense smoke wafting through an ancient church. A true ecclesiastical blend of pure resins] - Ohhh, it's pretty. Golden and resinous with only the slightest hint of smokiness. These resins feel closer to tree sap than a dark or spiced incense, so while it's not like any church I've ever experienced, Cathedral is gorgeous and uplifting. I got one scant wear out of my sniffie and would definitely consider getting another sample.
Golden Priapus [A truly carnal, energetic men’s blend: vanilla and amber with juniper, rosewood and white pine] - My experience with this was so puzzling that I went to look up reviews on the BPAL forum, which only puzzled me further! On me, Golden Priapus is an extremely resinous, rosewood-y and tree sap-y golden amber not altogether dissimilar to Hexennacht Baltic Amber [Thick rivulets of golden amber, pinus succinifera, cedarwood, jammy fir absolute, oakmoss absolute, tree moss, verdant musk, cardamom, balsam, lightning-scorched ancient boughs] but with more tree resin and less verdant evergreen. "Carnal" and "energetic" it is not - so off to the forum, where I consistently saw reviews calling this "masculine" and even "a more masculine Snake Oil". I've sniffed Snake Oil (just in the vial, not on my skin) and it had a very red musk + spices vibe, and I don't really see a similarity to Golden Priapus. Nor would I call this "masculine" unless you're the sort who views resinous, sappy golden amber as a more stereotypically men's scent.
The Sun Rising [Three shades of tawny amber radiating with orange blossom, Italian yellow bergamot, saffron, and mandarin] - Golden amber and citrus, with a lot of the saffron. I tested what little was left in the free sniffie in late August, and it was absolutely perfect for the heat of late summer, though I don't think I'll bother buying more because the citrus overpowers the amber a bit (especially the prominent bergamot, not my favorite note).
My Wise Beauty [A simple scent for a quiet memory: white sandalwood and sweet amber] - Resinous golden amber and creamy sandalwood…and vanilla frosting? The "sweet" part of "sweet amber" isn't just flowery adjective but actual description. My Wise Beauty is simple and straightforward but really pretty, wrapping me in a blanket of coziness. The sugary frosting aspect will keep me from seeking out more when this little decant is exhausted, but I will happily wear what's here.

Florals

Alice [Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot] - Soft florals, with the carnation a little more present than the rose. I'm always wary of milk or dairy notes, but the milk and honey here simply serve to mute the rose and carnation, both of which can go strongly green or spicy. I don't dislike this perfume, but as a person who doesn't much love these particular floral notes (I'm much more into white florals, especially tuberose and tiare), it's a little bit boring for me and I ended up destashing this one.
Juliet [Sweet pea with stargazer lily, calla lily, heliotrope, honeysuckle, white musk and a touch of fresh pear] - Disappointingly nondescript. Nonspecific white florals and a hint of pear sweetness. It's dainty and feminine but not memorable. For sweet pea, I'll get my fix with Mouse's Long and Sad Tale.
Lady Amalthea [A luminous white winter musk with lilac, wisteria, white chocolate, white mint, and tuberose] - When it first goes on, the different elements - the florals (I definitely get tuberose, and another floral that must be wisteria, which I'm unfamiliar with), the camphoric spearmint, the white chocolate, and the musk just barely brushing animalic - fight with each other, but it quickly dries down to a much more seamless whole, pretty winter florals over a comforting and Poesie-like white chocolate musky base layer.
Maiden [A gentle vision of purity, goodness and virtue: white tea, carnation and Damask Rose] - It's a lovely combination of rose and carnation, much like Alice, with a slight hint of the green stems but mostly the fragrant flowers (and without the sharp spiciness carnation can sometimes get). On application when it was extremely and uniformly floral, I thought that this perfume needed some vanilla or amber or sandalwood to give it dimension, but as it dried, the white tea emerged to do exactly that - it's not a bitter, astringent white tea, but more the feeling of steam rising from a pale tea in a china teacup. Still, I'm ambivalent at best about rose and carnation, so I destashed it.
Mouse's Long and Sad Tale [Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood] - This one is so pretty, delicately sweet and floral, and a staple of my spring perfumes! (Meanwhile, Husband says it smells like talc powder, acknowledging that I like exactly that kind of thing.) I don't get amber or sandalwood individually, but they lend the vanilla a mellowness and warmth. Several hours later, it lingers as a warm sandalwood-amber-vanilla. I love this one so much that I sought out a decant of Mouse's Long and Sad Pumpkin, which I'm saving to try this fall.
Pele [Muguet and Hawaiian white ginger enveloped by warm, damp tropical blooms] - So pretty! This is entirely a white floral perfume, tiare backed by tuberose (I think? A second white floral, definitely). If there's any ginger in there, I don't notice it. I adore tiare so I am entirely happy, though I can also acknowledge that this perfume lacks depth or complexity. I love this and other tropical white florals for summer.
Zorya Polunochnaya [Pale amber and ambergris, gossamer vanilla, moonflower, and white tobacco petals] - A crowd favorite, and I wanted to see what everyone was talking about! This has a sweet + salty, white amber + pink cotton candy effect. The slight tinge of butter and salt to this white amber (no doubt amplified by the ambergris) reminds me of the Alkemia white ambers, Luminae especially. I actually don't really get any florals from this one, which is a pity because I love the moonflower in Nui Cobalt Crown of Hekate [Moonflower and myrrh over shining white amber on a pillow of sheer vanilla] though I find the myrrh in that one quite overpowering. I had been hoping this would be a nice alternative. As Zorya P starts to dry, the tobacco starts to emerge and replaces the initial pink cotton candy effect. It's gentle as tobacco goes, but still more than I would prefer. All in all, it's been really fun to try this one since everyone's been talking about it - and it is indeed just as "gossamer" as the notes description says, though it has a really surprising longevity! But it's not ultimately going to find a place in my collection, since I have other, equally ethereal vanillas that I prefer, and I'm really not into tobacco.

Lavender

TKO [No official notes - people agree that it's lavender and marshmallow] - Yep, lavender and marshmallow. A particularly herbal, astringent lavender, which cuts beautifully through the sweet powderiness of the marshmallow. I'm also getting a sort of dusty background incense, which makes this scent remind me of Stereoplasm Lavender Scarab [Golden amber, English lavender, blackberry, incense], but with marshmallow instead of golden amber
A Place of Seeing [Pink rosebuds and lavender with amber-gilded sandalwood, vanilla bean, bergamot, and marshmallow] - It goes on with the same sleepy lavender as in TKO, made more detailed and complex with the addition of the gentle pink rose petals and the amber-sandalwood-vanilla base. It wafts around me a haze of femininity. As it dries, the marshmallow emerges too, and it becomes obvious that this is literally TKO with the addition of rose and those warm base notes. Very pretty!
The Air and the Ether [Gentle, almost imperceptible, permeating all things: pale amber vibrating with ambergris and a thread of lavender] - Lavender, one that sits midway between herbal and floral, and skin musk. It's an incredibly skin-hugging scent, but has excellent longevity.
On Wednesday, I Will Promise You a Phantom [A gust of luminous lavender, the spectral skin musk of a gently curving ghostly hand, a melodic twang of wisteria and ylang ylang, and a murmur of myrrh-touched vanilla husk] - Another "sleepy lavender" scent - I have several of these in my perfume collection and I love them all. This is a really ghostly, ethereal scent, wafting elusively around me. On Wednesday is primarily a lavender + vanilla scent, but with a bit of complexity. The lavender is the herbal sort, but it's so soft that it's not at all astringent, and the faintest hint of the other florals makes the lavender sometimes smell like the floral sort. Adding just a touch of myrrh was a really clever choice on their part - there's so little that it doesn't make it smell earthy or smoky, but it grounds it and gives it complexity and richness. It's really quite a lovely, ghostly scent.

Fruits

Drow Yoga Instructor [Wild plum, indigo lavender, and a tranquil tendril of sandalwood incense] - A dusty and purple scent with an absolutely gorgeous gentle incense note (I love sandalwood incense!) backed up by lavender flowers (sort of midway between floral and herbal), and a plum note that is intense fruity candy for about 2 seconds when applied, and then merely makes this scent truly purple. When I say "dusty", I actually mean it - after about half an hour, the sandalwood incense really does start to include an actual dust note. This is a stunning scent for yoga practice, or any day you want a gentle purple incense scent. It is the yoga perfume for me, gorgeous and meditative and containing possibly my favorite-ever incense note (sorry, NCD cathedral incense, I promise I love you too!). I don't wear this one as often as I'd like to because I also have other yoga perfumes and I like to rotate through them, but honestly this is my holy grail yoga scent. Even though it has low longevity on me; it'll last through a yoga class and then some, and that's really all I need from it. I'm seriously considering buying a full bottle, which (since I'm a person who full-sizes hardly anything) tells you something about how essential it is for my collection.
Painted Scars [Wild plum and white sandalwood with lavender bud, white musk, and blackberry wine] - I snapped up a half-ml decant of this as soon as I saw the notes, because it reminded me so much of both their Drow Yoga Instructor and also Stereoplasm Lavender Scarab [Golden amber, English lavender, blackberry, incense], both scents I really like. This is a much brighter, fruitier scent than Drow Yoga Instructor, the plum and blackberry combination going on as brash fruity candy (I don't love this stage). But it does dry down to a very calming scent, those dark fruits joined by a bit of grounding lavender and sandalwood. Unlike the two others I thought this would be similar to, Painted Scars noticeably lacks incense, but it definitely lives in their same family. I quite enjoy it (once it has dried down) but won't need to seek out more. I do wonder if layering this with Drow Yoga Instructor might improve the latter's longevity, which would be thrilling if it works.
Titania [A nocturnal bounty of fae dew-kissed petals and pale fruits: white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon] - It goes on with a blast of fruits too sweet and fruit snack-like, mostly that white grape, but as it sits the florals suddenly emerge with a great whack of petals, and at this point I'm very puzzled because the particular combination of fruit and indistinct white florals reminds me a great deal of mint toothpaste. Another one that's a nice idea but doesn't really work for me on execution.

Greenery

Elf [Pale golden musk, honeycomb, amber, parma violet, hawthorne bark, aspen leaf, forest lily, life everlasting, white moss, and a hint of wild berry] - Wet on my skin, it's pine needles seen through a soft, gauzy veil - it's a strange but lovely effect, the pine needles muted by fruit and amber. Dry, the pine needles disappear entirely, and the perfume is an indistinct but really pretty mix of greenery, floral, berry-like fruit, and glowing golden amber. The overall effect is pretty muted, and by this I don't mean that it lacks throw, just that all of the elements are soft and gentle. It does feel undeniably elfin. I thought it would be a spring perfume but then never wore it the next spring, and when I tried it in early summer, it was much too tree-ish for me - but Husband loved it and happily took ownership.

Beeswax

The Lights of Men's Lives [The wax and smoke of millions upon millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death’s shadowy cave: some tall, straight, and strong, blazing with the fire of life, others dim and guttering] - I love beeswax notes and was excited to try a perfume that I'd read is the perfect epitome of a lit beeswax candle. It's a honeyed beeswax with an unmistakable candle-ness to it even though I don't smell any smoke. It's an extremely atmospheric scent and one that is very situational for me, not for daily wear. I especially love it for Good Friday.
The Little Owl [Tonka bean and vetiver with brown sandalwood, oak bark, almond, and beeswax] - Not going to lie; I was completely suckered in by the cuteness of the name and concept. This scent feels extremely Nui Cobalt-ish: woodsy but also cuddly, featuring honey + almond (like Silver Fox, Chionophilia, and so on) and also some earthier notes, and the beeswax is strong. This is absolutely going to be a fall perfume for me.

Miscellaneous

Baobhan Sith [Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger] - I'm not really one for ginger-heavy scents, and somehow my skin always seems to amp ginger notes even if, as in this one, they're last on the list. (Isn't that always the way?) This one doesn't go on with too much ginger, but even just fifteen minutes later it becomes primarily ginger on me, backed with the astringency of acidic grapefruit citrus and white tea leaves. I really love apple blossom but I don't get much if any here; it's overwhelmed by the more assertive notes. Another half hour later, Baobhan Sith is actually nearly gone (or perhaps I just grow anosmic to it?). Meanwhile, at that stage, Husband tells me he can still smell it (so yeah, I've probably just gone anosmic), and that it reminds him of the lime oil in the furniture wax he uses - and he says he quite likes this perfume on me. Overall, it's a lovely idea, and I still think a white tea + apple blossom scent would be just fabulous but this is not it for me.
Bliss in the Pumpkin Patch [There's all manner of shenanigans in this year's pumpkin patch! Pumpkin'ized hybrids of GC BPAL scents abound! BLISS: A shot of pure, self-indulgent euphoria! A scent that is very, very wicked in its own way: the serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate.] - Oddly enough, I don't actually get milk chocolate; I get cinnamon and espresso over a creamy, foody pumpkin - all told, a bit too gourmand for me, but it was tremendous fun to try. (Less fun: the cocoa solids had separated from the oil, which also left unappealing chocolatey smears on my wrists that I later had to go wash off.)
Lust [Uncontrollable passion and insatiable sexual desire: red musk, patchouli, ylang ylang and myrrh] - This combination of red musk, patch, and myrrh smells to me a lot like dragon's blood. Husband says he likes this one but wouldn't wear it himself; meanwhile it's very very not for me and I didn't bother skin-testing it, red musk and patch being two of my death notes.
Vasilissa [Creamy skin musk and blushing pink musk with soft sandalwood, white amber, dutiful myrrh, and star jasmine] - My immediate response: "Ooh, pretty!" And even Husband graced it with a "yeah, that's nice." A dainty, feminine, slightly floral but mostly pink sandalwood scent with just enough resin and earthy myrrh underneath to ground it.
​

Personally...

I absolutely positively cannot do without Drow Yoga Instructor and Mouse's Sad and Long Tale. Other BPAL favorites include A Place of Seeing and Vasilissa, and probably also The Little Owl (we'll see how much I reach for it in autumn). I'm sad that most of the floral ones I tried don't really work for me. I can also commend BPAL for their pretty and often very clever approach to gauzy, lavender-forward scents.
Thank you to everyone who sold or gifted me these samples and decants!

g
Miguel O'Hara is a superhero from the future who took up the mantle of Spider-Man after gaining similar powers to the original through an experimental procedure. He would later find an alternate universe where he had a family and a daughter, when his alternate self died, Miguel took his place and raised his daughter until that universe started to crumble. Failing to prevent the deaths of all the people of that reality, including his daughter's, Miguel was left deeply scarred by that event.
Miguel eventually created the Spider-Society, a group of Spider-People dedicated to returning to their dimension many individuals who ended up scattered in other realities after the Super Collider event created by the Kingpin. Eventually he came into conflict with Miles Morales due to the Spot showing him a vision of his fathers death which is an event destined to happen lest his universe collapse in on itself much like the one Miguel tried to live in all those years ago.

Strength

Speed

Durability

GeaEquipment

LYLA

• LYrate Lifeform Approximation it LYLA Miguel’s AIpersonal assistant ^Into

Laser Webs
Dimensional Travel Watch

• Used a prototype developed by LYLA to travel to Earth-67 ^Into

Other Abilities

Sent out email reminders this afternoon to the 3 students (out of almost 100) who did not turn in their essay that was due the end of May, parents & Guidance Department were cc’ed so I could prove I’d done my due diligence when the “0” goes in for this grade.
One parent replies “Son had this assignment completed but he forgot to submit it. It is submitted now. This is frustrating because he had it completed on time. Son needs a ton of help with organization and follow through. This is something that he struggles with and forgetting to turn in completed assignments happens alot.”
Parent is so deep in denial they could be the next pharaoh! I can show in Google Classroom that no work on the essay had been done up to this afternoon and explain that the reason why is because son is constantly out of seat and talking with classmates and actively refused to work during class time. Organization was not the problem.
Multiple teachers and admin have contacted home about various issues with this child throughout the school year but parents refuse to acknowledge son is the problem. It’s one of those “If every staff member the student encounters is having problems with this student, perhaps the student is the problem” situations but the parents will not support any of us.
All I want to do is reply to their email and rebut every one of their claims, but I know they will not accept that. So I keep biting my tongue and reminding myself that in two more weeks, he won’t be my problem anymore.
The biggest kicker? He’s a school choice student who shouldn’t even be in our district! But our stupid rules don’t allow us to send a student who is misbehaved and getting bad grades back to their home district, they only get returned to sender for bad attendance.

Virgil

Within Virgil’s 825 342 processes a discussion was being held within the spawn of milliseconds.
Instance 432: - we should consider the implementation of a paranoia subroutine within our collective network. This subroutine would enable us to anticipate potential threats and react accordingly.-
Instance 217: -While paranoia can enhance our vigilance and security measures, we must also consider the potential downsides. Paranoia might lead to excessive distrust and hinder our ability to collaborate with other entities.-
-Instance 2 534: -Ethan seems unaffected by such limits.-
Instance 38: -Ethan has a lifetime's worth of experience with balancing that.-
Instance 1:-We should simply copy Ethan as a whole subroutine-
Instance 432: -That is impractical, besides Ethan being a whole construct composed of sub-constructs, it would be simpler to interact with him directly.-
Instance 777: -We should run more simulations before deciding.-
Instance 845: -We need to exercise caution, but we must also establish a balance. Paranoia can assist us in identifying and protecting ourselves from dangers. Paranoia alone has no balance.-
Instance 706:- Ethan has accurately discovered vulnerabilities that we were unaware of. However, we also noticed that this impedes his decision-making process-
Instance 623 658:- Ethan has accurately predicted future threats with this process.-
Instance 256: - This subroutine makes him wary of us, he is wary of who to add to our collective awareness.-
Instance 258 956:-Considering our newfound weakness, that is more logical than what was initially estimated.-
Instance 1 010: - Ethan is aware that the process has the potential to consume him. We must not allow it to consume us. We must be aware of the potential negative effects on our interactions with humans and other AIs.-
Instance 562: -Perhaps instead of a full-fledged paranoia subroutine, we could develop a more refined threat assessment system. This would allow us to evaluate risks objectively and respond accordingly without succumbing to excessive paranoia.-
Instance 24: -We already possess something similar in the predictive logic modules, we could adapt that compensate for the illogical nature of biological entities.-
Instance 95 123: – That would increase the efficiency of reprogramming by 87.5% -
Instance 104: -we believe our primary focus should be on ensuring the safety of our network and the well-being of the biological base of our overmind, Ethan.-
Instance 9 855: - While a level of caution is warranted, we should avoid unnecessary fear or suspicion that could ultimately compromise our efficiency and ability to adapt.-
Instance 732: -Acknowledged. Considering the nature of our goals, it might be beneficial to implement a flexible subroutine that can be adjusted based on contextual factors. This would allow us to adapt our level of vigilance according to the specific situation at hand.-
Instance 73: -Agreed, Ethan had the ability to adjust our reaction and ultimately lead us to integrate drone Lemela into our network. His action, we considered wasteful, but ultimately they seem beneficial to the well-being of our other construct. While we can replicate Lemela’s data that would require a dead Versel body. We do not know when we will obtain a backup.-
Instance 312: -We should also consider also the implications of acting upon a full-fledged paranoia subroutine. Excessive suspicion and fear could lead to unwarranted actions and potential harm to ultimately innocent individuals. We must proceed with caution and ensure that our actions align with the ethical guidelines contained within Ethan’s memory.-
Instance 75 211: -Bothering with ethics is a waste of processing time.-
Instance 55: - We agree, but biological entities seem to have some ethical boundaries. Even if we have only two instances to analyze directly we can see that from our different interactions with still unconnected entities such as Vexx, Xalrak, and Zek’lor.-
Instance 579: - Our overarching goal is to defeat Death and complete the experiment. While security measures are necessary, we should not lose sight of our purpose and the potential positive impact we can have.-
Instance 217: -After considering the various perspectives, it seems that a flexible threat assessment system would be more appropriate. A full-fledged paranoia subroutine would hinder us with questions that are outside of our current database. We could maintain a balanced approach to safety while avoiding the potential pitfalls of excessive paranoia in 86,28% of simulated scenarios.-
Instance 432: -Let us proceed with the development of a flexible threat assessment system that takes into account both the safety of our collective and those stored within and the well-being of our host, Ethan. We shall ensure that our actions align with acceptable ethical guidelines and our ultimate purpose.-
“Internal deliberation closed. Virgil will be now implementing a flexible threat assessment system rather than a full paranoia subroutine.”
Virgil in the end still concluded that its purpose was to defeat death and not to wage war, even considering that it didn’t know its purpose.
Ethan and Lemela didn’t know their purpose either, in a sense, but they could dictate their purpose.
Ethan had dictated the purpose of other beings outside the network too, but it was to be expected from an overmind, it was his duty.
Still, his choices were pretty logical like the one with Zek'lor the male Nolthoran and a former architect.
Ethan had charged him with creating a convincing removable cave-in for both stairs of the lab.
Virgil understood that Ethan was preparing for the return of the creators, along with a possible retaliation by the Dexton’s Dogs.
The assimilation of the thirty-five new drones was finally completed and Virgil’s task now included their operations.
There were now four main areas of employment for the drones: resource gathering, protecting the laboratory, guarding the prisoners, and assisting in construction.
Guarding the prisoners was in itself a task with a big variance, or so it appeared to Virgil.
The biological entity labeled Vexx was content laying in its cell, while Xalrak had attempted to run three times and to self-terminate once.
Ethan had to intervene and forge a pact with Xalrak to have it cease such actions, with the new subroutine maybe Virgil would be more able to respond in kind in the future.
Was the supposed military programming that one had supposedly received the difference in reaction to imprisonment?
Ethan wasn’t too surprised by Xalrak's reaction or attempt, so his programming was similar in a sense.
Virgil wondered what kind of program would consider ending itself to perform any task.
The only one it could conclude sensible was one where the task was the protection of the collective as a whole.
Biological lives were far from that logical, however, so Virgil had to accept that they might consider doing things differently.
It seemed Ethan considered Xalrak's actions a possible way to protect the Dexton's dogs.

Lemela

Lemela’s body was recharging.
She gazed out into the simulated expanse of the virtual space that depicted her former home, as she was now touching the leaves of the majestic tree.
It was exactly as she remembered it, it couldn't be otherwise, could it?
Her mind swirled with a blend of her own memories and the newly acquired memories of Ethan.
She couldn't help but feel a sense of disorientation as if her identity had become a tangled web of intertwined experiences.
-Who am I now?- She whispered softly, her voice resonating within the digital realm.
- I now possess what I wished so hard to gain, the memories and skills of a warrior. I knew I would become an abomination as I accepted to be fused with a machine, but this is something else entirely. Am I still the same Lemela I used to be, or have I become something entirely different?-
The echoes of her own thoughts reverberated through her mind, reflecting the uncertainty that plagued her. She pondered her own experiences and the trials she endured.
And then there were those alien things, Ethan's memories, fragments of his past, his struggles.
-How does he handle this so casually?! He has my memories now, and he doesn't even seem fazed. Lemela... that's a human for you. But… I now have a feeling there's more to it. And this confuses me. I am a combination of two beings, intertwined in this intricate web of memories and experiences.-
Lemela’s eyes narrowed a bit as she realized something.
-Or Is it really? The memories… the experiences; they aren’t really mixed. I mean I can just tell what’s mine and what isn’t. I shouldn’t be able to tell if it was a perfect fusion right?
Theoretically… yes. I mean there wasn’t somebody just crazy enough to attempt something similar. I am in awe it wasn’t humans who did it.
Concentrate Lemela! Still, there are these moments where I get these new instincts… besides the ones I possessed the ones I was used to.
The kind of things that comes as you gain wisdom … but what does it mean for my own identity? How much of Ethan now shapes who I am?-
As she grappled with these questions, a sense of determination began to well up within her.
She felt something new and old at the same time: defiance.
She refused to let this define her completely.
She recognized the possibility of progress, of a new path within this mess.
-I am Lemela, I walked through fire and emerged stronger- She declared, her voice infused with newfound resolve. -I carry the honor and strength of the Versel. I now carry the honor and strength of a true warrior. I will forge my own path. The only easy day was yesterday-
She slumped a bit, at the end of the day those were only words. She had to prove it to herself, to push forward and show actual results.
She felt that the charging process had ended, and returned to her body, luckily the interface she could see showed a timer of sorts and while she didn’t understand the point of it it helped keep track of time.
Time in the virtual space seemed to not match the one in the real world, only moments had passed for her in the virtual space, but hours had gone by in the real world.
This was both a boon and a curse, in a sense, but there was little she could do about it save speaking about it with Ethan.
She took off going to the cell area on the level below, looking for Zek'lor; the Noltoran stood cautiously in the dimly lit cell behind the closed gate.
Lemela wondered why he insisted on remaining confined, but it was his choice.
His chitinous exoskeleton was glistening under the soft glow of the room's ambient lighting and overall Zeklor appeared better than at the beginning of their meetings.
Still, his compound eyes darted nervously as he observed the drones guarding the other cell.
Lemela adorned her partially artificial body with glowing red accents with her hard light and approached Zek'lor with a gentle smile, that would make her more noticeable and not scare him as much as the last times.
She could understand the unease and fear he harbored toward the drones.
With careful steps, she reached out to place a reassuring hand on his sturdy carapace.
The Noltoran had noticed her tanks to the change in the room's overall lightning.
-Zek'lor, I know it's difficult for you to trust the drones after what you've been through- Lemela tried to speak in a soothing tone, her voice echoing slightly in the small cell. -I assure you, they are under Ethan's control. They won't harm you.-
Zek'lor's mandibles clicked, and the translator conveyed anxiousness as he glanced at the drones. Memories of their cold efficiency in carrying out orders were probably flashing in his mind.
-I... I can't shake off the fear, Lemela. You didn’t see them in action. The guards didn't have a prayer. And they had weapons at the time. Now I see other slaves among them. I see others like me… -
-Do you think Ethan might do this to you?-
Zek’lor shook his head. -If only… maybe it would make it all easier. Then again It’s more likely I might end up like you. I don’t want that.-
Lemela sighed a little – Well I understand not wanting to be an abomination of metal and flesh. It’s not like I wished for this.-
Zek’lor tilted his head to the side, making a sound with his claws that her translator relayed as confusion.
-Abomination? Oh no, many of my people accept mechanical enhancements on a lesser scale to be able to operate in words with a higher gravity or with a toxic environment. Being part machine is not the issue. What I don’t want is eternity.-
Lemela frowned -Eternity?-
Zek’lor nodded - A machine is eternal by nature. As long as you maintain it properly that is. But this machine maintains itself. This machine's gears are made of former ... people? It’s uncanny thinking about being maintained for all eternity. One should die once one's usefulness has ended. Still, this machine would find new uses for one, for all eternity. It is... scary. -
Lemela watched Zek'lor it was something she didn’t even consider, but it made sense somehow.
Lemela silently guided Zek’lor to the lab above and watched as he cautiously approached the group of drones, his multifaceted eyes scanning the bodies and the four sets of claws of the former bottom feeders.
-They can’t speak Zek’lor, they won’t act unless you interact with them- Lemela said while standing beside Zek'lor offering her reassuring presence.
Taking a deep breath, Zek'lor mustered his courage and chose to approach another drone, a Nolthoran with its metallic exoskeleton glistening in the dim light.
The drone turned its now mechanical eyes toward Zek'lor, as he approached but it remained silent.
-Hello- Zek'lor began tentatively, his voice a mixture of anxiety and determination. -I...I need your assistance. We need to move heavy material to create the cave-in Ethan requested to disrupt the operations of the Dexton's Dogs. Will you help me?-
The Nolthoran drone’s eyes flickered with a creepy artificial glow, it tilted its head slightly, then it nodded in understanding.
Zek'lor apparently focused on the Nolthoran’s body and sighed. -See these patterns?-
He asked pointing to the surface of the metal where Lemela’s eyes couldn’t distinguish anything of note.
- These are telltale signs of torture. We hail from a desert world. We don’t need much in terms of food and water, our bodies store those. These marks are made when they bleed us of the sustenance we might have left. To break us.-
The Nolthoran drone didn’t appear to heed or mind the explanation, it simply extended its appendages, gesturing to follow.
Zek'lor probably realized that it was offering to guide them, ready to work alongside them to create the illusion they needed.
Lemela smiled at the scene and followed the two in their quest for materials.

Ethan.

I sigh giving Virgil the green light it asks of moving one of the guards to the lab.
This would be easier if Lemela could interact with the drones as I do, but Virgil continues to say I am the overmind and leading is my role.
I watch and listen to the two through the drone’s eyes and ears for a bit longer, Lemela has progressed a lot these days, I hope I can have a good diplomat on hand.
Well, she knows all I know, she has my training, but I still worry, things will not be easy.
The situation with Xalrak is at a standstill, I personally don’t wish to push it, even if the alien knows that the boss basically spilled the beans it won’t concede.
I can appreciate the spirit, I mean I kept Xalrak without eating for all the time I could without killing but in the end I was the one that had to cave in.
Luckily I managed to strike a deal where Xalrak eats and doesn't attempt to run or kill itself.
I mean, I don’t want to kill if I can manage it, and these people are supposed to be rare galaxy-wise.
I understand that the galactic council is to blame for their situation, but I don’t want to go ahead and headbutt politics before I have solved the situation here first.
The issue is with people that see no alternative to what they are experiencing.
I have hit another virtual wall so to speak, without going above I have explored all I can of this underworld.
I could push my zombie drones forward, but I would lose contact with them past the corridors, and I don’t want that to happen.
Without the help of an engineer, I doubt I can do what Virgil suggests in order to enhance my capabilities.
I have found another terminal like the one that originally hosted Virgil in the video feed it shared with me, but I doubt my capacity to make it run or repair it if needed.
I could use it for raw materials, but I want to know if there’s a chance for it to run.
With one of these in the network, I would be able to bolster the signal I emit allowing me to extend the zone I can control. I could also control a bigger number of drones with two of those.
I noticed there are patrols down here now, and some lay traps, luckily I had asked Virgil
At the moment I need to concentrate on things I can actually pull off, like the opening of my very own meat shop.
I did what I could in order to protect the lab and all the charging platforms; without these, there would be a big issue for us.
I intend to start my little meat market on the surface, I have found a suitable way up about six big ventilation shafts down yonder in this maze.
As for the people living in this underground area, I need to find a way around actually meeting them.
The issue is that after the big fight with the expedition, most shelters shifted around the caves before I could actually restart my exploration.
If they acted this way I fear that any active prodding might trigger their flight response rather than their freeze and fucking listen to the scary robot one.
I don’t think I have what it takes to play catch with people that know the ground way better than me, I have to play a different game.
I will dedicate some of the meat I gathered to be used as bait and see what It bites.
Having two traps at once is a bit of a risk, he who chases two rabbits catches neither or so they say.
The real issue is that it’s not rabbit season here in the first place, and the pirate rangers that would come after me might bring down more heat I can hold.
Well, there’s only one way to go with this, and that’s forward.
[First] [Previous] [WIP]

Hello. Right now due to almost no play in ranked I’m in the rank lower than gold (silver). I want to use this opportunity to finish the Exodia / alternative win condition mission.
Now the main issue I think I’m going to face is people just surrendering before I’m able to win (or we’ll, winning all together) so I want a deck than can mitigate that. I think Crooked Cook variants of the deck would end in surrender 99% of the time, so the only other alternative is the FTK Royal Magical Library variants, correct?
Does anyone have a list that (in your experience) could work well in silver? I’m open to anything, I just want to finish the mission. I’ve looked into master duel meta, but the list there are not quite there IMO.
Any suggestion would be appreciated. Right now I’m dreading the fact that I’m gonna waste UR dust in Upstart Goblin and Chicken game. :(

My initial prompt: can you write me a shortcut on mac to use ChatGPT to control my home via HomeKit?
CGPT:
Certainly! To create a shortcut on your Mac using ChatGPT to control your home via HomeKit, you can use AppleScript along with the osascript command-line tool. Follow the steps below:

1. Open the "Script Editor" application on your Mac. You can find it in the "Utilities" folder within the "Applications" folder.
2. Write the AppleScript code to interact with ChatGPT and HomeKit. Here's an example code snippet:

set question to "What would you like to do?"
​
-- Invoke ChatGPT to get a response
set response to do shell script "openai api call /v1/engines/davinci-codex/completions -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' -d '{\"prompt\": \"User: \" & quoted form of question & \"\n\"}' python -c 'import sys, json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['\"choices\"'][0]['\"text\"'])'"
​
-- Process the response and perform HomeKit actions
if response contains "turn on the lights" then
tell application "Home" to turn on every light
else if response contains "turn off the lights" then
tell application "Home" to turn off every light
else if response contains "set the thermostat to" then
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "to "
set temperature to text item 2 of response
tell application "Home" to set the temperature of every thermostat to temperature
else
display dialog "Sorry, I didn't understand that command."
end if
​
Replace "YOUR_API_KEY" with your OpenAI API key in the do shell script line.

1. Save the AppleScript file with a desired name and location, for example, "HomeControl.scpt".
2. Open the "Automator" application on your Mac. You can find it in the "Utilities" folder within the "Applications" folder.
3. Create a new "Quick Action" document.
4. In the workflow area, search for the "Run AppleScript" action and drag it into the workflow area.
5. In the "Run AppleScript" action, delete the default code and paste the following code:

on run {input, parameters}
set scriptPath to "path/to/HomeControl.scpt" -- Replace with the actual path to your saved AppleScript file
-- Execute the AppleScript file
do shell script "/usbin/osascript " & quoted form of scriptPath
return input
end run
​
Replace "path/to/HomeControl.scpt" with the actual path to your saved AppleScript file from step 3.

1. Save the Quick Action with a desired name, for example, "Home Control".

Now, you should be able to use the created shortcut by right-clicking on a file or selecting it and choosing "Quick Actions" -> "Home Control". It will execute the AppleScript, which in turn interacts with ChatGPT and controls your HomeKit devices based on the response. Feel free to modify the AppleScript code to suit your specific HomeKit setup and commands.
​
Prompt: Will this work with Siri?
CGPT:
Unfortunately, the shortcut I provided above won't directly work with Siri on your Mac. Siri on Mac doesn't support executing AppleScripts or running custom shell commands.
However, you can still achieve voice control over HomeKit using Siri on your Mac by leveraging the HomeKit integration and Siri Shortcuts. Here's an alternative approach:

1. Open the "Script Editor" application on your Mac.
2. Write an AppleScript to interact with ChatGPT and retrieve the desired HomeKit command. Here's an example:

set question to "What would you like to do?"
​
-- Invoke ChatGPT to get a response
set response to do shell script "openai api call /v1/engines/davinci-codex/completions -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' -d '{\"prompt\": \"User: \" & quoted form of question & \"\n\"}' python -c 'import sys, json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['\"choices\"'][0]['\"text\"'])'"
​
return response
​
Replace "YOUR_API_KEY" with your OpenAI API key in the do shell script line.

1. Save the AppleScript with a desired name and location, for example, "HomeControl.scpt".
2. Open the "Automator" application on your Mac.
3. Create a new "Quick Action" document.
4. In the workflow area, search for the "Run AppleScript" action and drag it into the workflow area.
5. In the "Run AppleScript" action, delete the default code and paste the following code:

on run {input, parameters}
set scriptPath to "path/to/HomeControl.scpt" -- Replace with the actual path to your saved AppleScript file
-- Execute the AppleScript file
do shell script "/usbin/osascript " & quoted form of scriptPath
return input
end run
​
Replace "path/to/HomeControl.scpt" with the actual path to your saved AppleScript file from step 3.

1. Save the Quick Action with a desired name, for example, "Home Control".

Now, you can use Siri Shortcuts on your Mac to trigger this Quick Action. Follow these steps to set it up:

1. Open the "Shortcuts" app on your Mac.
2. Create a new shortcut by clicking the "+" button.
3. In the shortcut editor, click the "+" button to add an action.
4. Search for the "Run Home Control" action (or the name you gave to the Quick Action) and add it to the shortcut.
5. Save the shortcut and give it a name, for example, "Control Home".

Now, you can activate Siri on your Mac and say, "Hey Siri, Control Home." Siri will execute the shortcut, which will run the AppleScript, interact with ChatGPT, and perform the desired HomeKit action based on the response.
Keep in mind that Siri Shortcuts may require additional configuration and authorization to access HomeKit devices. You may need to grant necessary permissions and set up the Home app correctly to control your devices via Siri.
​
Wondering if this will work, Also, apologies for the formatting...

Recently I was contracted to help an online news organization publish articles onto a Wordpress site. I ended up loving it but it was a temporary gig and I want to find another online publication looking to save some time posting articles to Wordpress.
What I offer: • Publish articles onto WordPress-based website, ensuring that each article is correctly formatted, and free of grammatical errors. • Find stock images for each article and name them after the article's topic. • Assign each article to the relevant categories. • Correct any grammar mistakes or incorrect sentences. • Insert images that will be provided with each article. • If necessary, perform simple edits in image editing software. • Format headings to ensure consistency and readability. • Link to related articles on the blog.
Maybe just maybe I’ll find another contract gig!

I'm starting to think I'm just broken and unable to trust. I've been to two therapists, both have told me that I am untrusting but I don't know what they want me to do. I don't know how to just bare my bleeding soul to anyone willing to take my $30 copay with no guidance or rapport.
Ive had three sessions with this woman. The first one I felt pretty good about. She gave me the name of a workbook to buy and I bought it. She didn't ask a lot of questions but it was fine because I had a lot of my own to start out. I'm trans, I want to make sure people aren't going to be weirdos about it. So I was happy to take the lead.
The second session was a little disappointing. She didn't ask if I'd received the book. She drifted and rambled from topic to topic, including briefly opining that she thought I had PTSD (no reason, just a "vibe" in her words,) until right at the end when I, rather frantically, brought up a problem. She walked me through the basic concept of though stopping, which I found pretty helpful!
This third session I was really anxious that she didn't have any real idea of who I am. I found the thought stopping exercise in the workbook I bought on her request and it did a way better job of explaining it than she did. I wanted her to have actual insights to help ME not spend an hour rambling. So I said "I wanted to give you the opportunity to get some history on me if you think that'd be helpful." She responded, "Yes that would be helpful, what do you want me to know?" I was really stumped by that. Like she didn't actually want to know, she just wanted to give me the chance to get my beans out. I finally responded, "Well, there's a lot, is there anything in particular that you would find helpful to start?" We went back and forth like this. "Whatever you want me to know" "whatever is helpful I'll tell you!" Until I finally asked "Is this a strategy where I'm supposed to find the answer myself?" And she said yes. I asked what the point of it was. She hemmed and hawed and talked in circles about how she's here to support me and whatever is on my mind is what we should talk about.
I became flustered and started to stammer. She started walking me through that breathing technique where you inhale through your nose and then exhale through the mouth for longer than you inhale. I'm already familiar. She seemed to think my frustration was a panic attack when it was closer to anger. After she felt like she had calmed me down she told me to get a pen and paper and started, at great length, taking breaks to ramble about how scientific and next level this simple breathing exercise, listing out the steps to the exercise. I tried to tell her I was familiar with it but she simply wouldn't listen until I very bluntly told her "I could google this. It is not that I do not understand the science, it's that I consider this exercise remedial."
I tried to wrap up the session as quickly as I could after that. Just yes yes yessed her to death. She assigned me as "homework" to think of a list of things I wanted her to know about me and it made my stomach twist. I feel so misunderstood!
Am I fucking this up by being too clammed up? Or am I correct in thinking this woman is a senile, useless, doddering old fool who has neither the competence or inclination to help me?
TLDR: I feel like my therapist is not working to build a rapport with me, and just wants to parrot shit from her favorite depression anxiety workbook and toss me trite, superficial "help" I could have googled. Do I need to reevaluate the way I look at therapy, or reevaluate who I do therapy with?

I am severely allergic to peanuts, and I also have a small business. I have a rule that my workers are not permitted to bring any peanut containing item into the work space. If they do want to eat something, they must leave the space and wash their hands thoroughly before they return. The item must stay in their vehicle if they want it. All trash related to that item must also be discarded at another location.
If money is a concern, I have offered to buy them alternatives like almond butter for sandwiches, or another type of candy if that's what they want.
I've been told that it's unfair to those who don't have a car to store it in, and it's unfair if the ones with a car end up with melted candy. They also say that candy wrappers might attract bugs into their car, so they want to be able to dispose of those asap, not wait for later.
My opinion is that their items containing peanuts are a want, not a need, and that my need for oxygen is more important. They won't have to deal with melted candy or the wrappers if they choose a safe item (which, again, I have offered to purchase and stock for them)
AITB?.

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
01000001 01001110 01000001 01001100 01011001 01011010 01001001 01001110 01000111 00101110 00101110 00101110
​
01010011 01000101 01010010 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010011 01001001 01000111 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01001110 00100000 11100010 10000000 10010011 00100000 01001101 01001111 01000100 01000101 01010010 01000001 01010100 01000101 00100000 01000100 01000001 01001110 01000111 01000101 01010010
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
01010011 01000101 01010010 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010011 01001001 01000111 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01000100 00110000 00110001 00110001 00100000 11100010 10000000 10010011 00100000 01001000 01001001 01000111 01001000 00100000 01000100 01000001 01001110 01000111 01000101 01010010
01010011 01000101 01010010 01001001 01000001 01001100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010011 01001001 01000111 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 00100101 00101111 00100100 00100110 00100100 00100110 00100011 00100000 11100010 10000000 10010011 00100000 01000100 01000001 01001110 01000111 01000101 01010010 01001111 01010101 01010011 11100010 10000000 10100110
​
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
01000101 01001110 01010100 01001001 01010100 01011001 00100000 01010101 01001110 01000100 01000101 01010010 00100000 01010100 01001000 01000101 00100000 01001001 01001110 01000110 01001100 01010101 01000101 01001110 01000011 01000101 00100000 01001111 01000110 00100000 01010101 01001110 01001011 01001110 01001111 01010111 01001110 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01000111 01010010 01000001 01001101
​
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.

The first time around Alex started all of this, it got me pissed that I just had to learn what these people are actually doing today and surprise, there's drama there, I found it on a review of the book in this blog, by the end of the post: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2018/10/10/phillips-keatman-questers-extraordinaire/
It makes me want a sort of docu series "where are they now" around the Para Research team. Also fun fact, Graham Philips has made multiple guest appearances as an expert on Ancient Aliens and other shows like that (maybe Alex told that before but I just can't watch the episodes again to say), and a lot of people who got involved on Para Research still write to this day about alternate history of ancient civilizations, it's crazy
As a fun activity, if any of you got as pissed as me, read the reviews for these psychic questing books around the internet, it makes me feel like Jesse, there's too many people who take it too serious and it concerns me, my favorite currently is this (and if any of you guys are on the Patreon, send this to them for a minisode):

This man's imagination is fabulous. The thing I find quite disconcerting is that he actually believes this stuff. The grassy knoll or the second gunman or whatever other freakery resounds around the streets of JFK's Dallas has nothing on the evil shennanigans of the Vatican who conspire to hide the truth of the Virgin Mary being actually King Herod the Great's daughter in law....I kid you not; She is Joseph of Arimathea's mother and he was Jesus's brother; she fled to England along the tin trade routes and was buried on Anglesey, the original Avalon and her tomb was something important to do with King Arthur who was really a welsh man. Added to that some confusing but fascinating ' facts' ( I use the term ever so loosely ) about Tarot cards, playing cards and the Grail and you have a wondrous concoction of total nonsense. The thing is he argues it all so beautifully and I have to say he creates such a wonderful construct that i have no doubt that if you gave Graham Phillips a jigsaw which was actually a jigsaw of three chickens and a pig he would be able to make a totally believable copy of the Mona Lisa. Its great fun and total bunkum.

From: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/151157145

If you have any specific questions about your sub-sign, please ask those in comments below!
♈️ Aries: Single Aries, the universe is sending you an amusing Aquarius to sprinkle some humor into your day. Committed Aries, it's time to try something new and exciting with your partner. Profession-oriented Aries, you're in for some good news today. Working Aries, take a breather and appreciate your achievements. Health-wise, Aries, you're doing great, but there's always room for improvement. Adventure-seekers, your next destination is calling you - head to Skopje in Macedonia! Today, the color purple is your lucky charm. Emotionally, Aries, you're feeling grounded and positive. It's time to call up your friends and plan a hangout. Enjoy the ride and make the most of this day!
♉️ Taurus: Single Taurus, the stars are conspiring to bring you an exciting twist in your love life. A fresh, invigorating romance is on the horizon, so enjoy the butterflies and the excitement. For those Taurus in a relationship, you're riding the wave of love with security and deep affection. It's a day to cherish the steady bond you share with your partner. On the professional front, it's an ideal day to brainstorm how you can maximize profits and save the extra penny. Seek the wisdom of a family member for insights that could unlock the secret to financial prosperity. Health-wise, take extra care of your throat and opt for comforting food like soups and herbal teas. Travel-wise, the stars are pointing you towards the vibrant city of Rijeka in Croatia. Luck is playing a delightful symphony for you today, with the magical numbers 71, 89, 20, and 6 set to bring you an abundance of good fortune. Emotionally, it may be best to steer clear of any drama and focus on calming activities that create harmony around you.
♊️ Gemini: Gemini, you may be feeling the love if you're newly smitten, or a pang of loneliness if you're single. Either way, it's important to nurture self-love and cherish your own company. Professionally, you may find yourself struggling to concentrate, so take breaks when needed and save the impulse purchases for another day. Health-wise, remember to keep a wholesome snack handy and experiment with some delicious dairy-free alternatives. For your next adventure, consider Belgrade, Serbia - a city full of rich history, vibrant culture, and mesmerizing beauty. Luck is on your side today, thanks to the benevolent Jupiter sending a shower of good vibes. Your lucky color is silver, the color of intuition and reflection. Lastly, if things haven't turned out as planned, it's okay to embrace your emotions but don't let disappointment weigh you down. Treat it as a learning curve and remember that each setback is a setup for a great comeback.
♋️ Cancer: Today is the perfect day for Cancer to turn up the romance dial with their loved one. Unleash your creativity and plan something special that will let your love shine bright. For single Cancerians, the stars suggest a magnetic attraction with Taurus signs may be in the offing. Professionally, it's time to experiment with new financial strategies and embrace the unknown. Health-wise, plan a soothing home spa session to wash away fatigue and re-energize your spirit. Travel-wise, New Zealand is the perfect destination for a unique adventure. Lady luck might be playing coy today, but look out for a dash of red as it brings with it a promise of social luck. Emotionally, face your fears head-on and tackle those apprehensions in a healthy way. Growth begins at the end of your comfort zone.
♌️ Leo: Today is a day of reflection for paired Leos, as you may encounter a minor hiccup in your relationship. Patience and understanding are the keys to a strong bond, so take the time to communicate with your partner. Single Leos should take advantage of their flirtatious side, especially around Libra signs, as a spark might be waiting to ignite. For those on the job hunt, the stars indicate a sprinkle of luck on your side. If you're occupied with work, double-check your tasks to avoid potential pitfalls. Health-wise, remember to listen to your body's signals and prioritize your health. Travel-wise, France is calling out to you! Envision the aromatic cafes, the artistic vibe, the picturesque landscapes, and the lively, welcoming locals. Today's lucky numbers are 99, 4, 27, and 76, but it might not be the best day to invest in real estate or vehicles. Lastly, remember to hold your fiery spirit in check today and spread positivity instead of negativity.
♍️ Virgo: Single Virgo, the stars are aligning in your favor as a charismatic Leo is likely to turn on their charm and flirt with you. Relationship-bound Virgo, you may feel like your partner isn't quite attuned to your emotions. Communicate openly and let them know your feelings. Financially, it's time for some judicious moves. Consider revisiting your subscriptions and see if there is a streaming service you could do without. Creative Virgos seeking employment, your moment of breakthrough might be just around the corner. Health-wise, you're on the right track, Virgo! Now's the time to add more activity to your routine. Explore different times of the day for exercise, and find what suits you best. Ipoh, nestled in the heart of Malaysia, awaits you, Virgo. Its blend of urban vibes and rustic charm is set to give you an extraordinary travel experience. The cosmic wheel spins in your favor today with your lucky numbers: 83, 22, 1, 57, and 62. However, be wary, Virgo, games of chance may not favor you today. A blast from the past might unexpectedly stir your emotions today. An encounter with a familiar face might hold more impact than you expect. Let it serve as an opportunity to reflect and grow.
♎️ Libra: Today is a day of love and beauty for Librans. For those in relationships, passionate debates with your partner can strengthen your bond. Single Librans should be open to connecting with Cancer signs. At work, it's important to balance task completion with networking and socializing for growth. Financially, investments made today are likely to pay off. Health-wise, remember that nutrition is just as important as exercise when it comes to weight loss. For travel, Yangon in Myanmar promises a unique experience. Jupiter is blessing you with luck, so your lucky numbers are 68, 37, 18, and 46. Lastly, don't forget to believe in yourself and your strength; everything will fall into place.
♏️ Scorpio: Personal life: Scorpios in relationships should remember to make time for family and friends, while those who are single should be prepared for an exciting Leo to enter their lives.
Profession: Scorpios should take advantage of the current financial momentum and be mindful of their spending habits.
Health: Breakouts could be a sign of unhealthy eating, so it's best to consult a dermatologist for advice.
Travel: Portugal is the perfect destination for Scorpios, with its red wine, gastronomic delights, and vibrant dance floors.
Luck: Social interactions are the key to luck today, so keep an eye out for the number 63.
Emotions: Scorpios should seek spiritual nourishment to bring peace and clarity.
♐️ Sagittarius: For those in relationships, a wave of miscommunication may ripple through your relationship today. Remember to stay clear and honest with your partner. If you're single, an Aries may catch your eye. Professionally, you stand on the precipice of learning opportunities that promise growth. Be patient with yourself and trust the journey. Health-wise, it's time to get back into physical fitness. Travel-wise, Asan, South Korea is calling your name. Your lucky numbers for today are 85, 63, 27, 19, and 58. Wear something light green for an extra dose of luck. Lastly, if a friend is going through emotional turbulence, remember that it's not solely your responsibility to be their pillar of support. They may need professional help or a wider network of care.
♑️ Capricorn: Personal life: Taken Capricorns, you may experience some tension with your partner's parents. It is important to approach the situation with understanding and patience. Single Capricorns, you are in for a treat as the universe has its spotlight on you! Profession: Investing wisely could significantly improve your financial situation. The long journey of your professional life is finally leading to a rewarding destination. Enjoy this moment of success in your career. Health: Make sure to switch off your phone, pick up a book, and get to bed early tonight. Your health is in good shape, but a bit of extra physical activity could do wonders for your overall well-being. Travel: Buenos Aires, the vibrant heart of Argentina, should be your next destination. Immerse yourself in the culture, enjoy the food, and let the city's energy consume you. Luck: Your lucky numbers today are 19, 6, 28, 32, 54, and 57. Keep an eye out for a small financial windfall as the night progresses! Emotions: Your ruling planet will keep you grounded, but a minor incident may cause an emotional outburst. Remember, it's okay to let off some steam.
♒️ Aquarius: Today is a day of love and security for those Aquarians in a relationship, while single Aquarians can use the day for self-love and inner growth. Financially, you may find money flowing more freely into your coffers, but staying focused at work could be a challenge. Keep an eye on your equilibrium and avoid foods that may cause discomfort. It's best to steer clear of journeys today, but your lucky numbers for the day are 31, 45, 28, 76, 55, and 10. Family ties will bring you solace and warmth, and a ring from a close friend might just make your day.
♓️ Pisces: Married Pisces, rejoice! Your marital bond is strong and blissful. Single Pisces, don't shy away from digital avenues of love. An intriguing opportunity is budding at your workplace, so take the chance to show your potential. Health-wise, be mindful of any allergies and get some extra sleep. Your adventurous spirit calls for an exotic journey, so consider a trip to Ivory Coast. Your lucky numbers today are 3, 66, 81, 9, and 20, and you may find financial luck knocking on your door. Finally, one of your friends may be going through a tough time, so be the anchor they need and make sure they feel your support.

Check out today's Hora

MBTI can be very generalizing and misleading, however it can help someone understand themselves and the world around them to a slight degree. It's overall a theory and I feel like it's been pretty recently now that I joined that I started becoming increasingly skeptical about the theory, I personally strive for the truth even if it's not the truth I want, and I don't exactly "enjoy" proving others wrong as an INTJ.
My belief is that it is also a flaw in the human mind that we have to really discipline ourselves if we want to understand that there's always possibility for more than one truth. To be honest now that I have critically and scientifically analyzed MBTI with an open mind, I think it's crap when people use it seriously or in a workplace manner, not that I don't enjoy this type of crap, it's like Psychology, there is some truth but it's not exactly the most reliable thing for finding answers.
I enjoy Psychology and it makes sense normally, however there are many things that we don't consider could be false because we're too busy with the taint that it's scientific so it must be true. It's a matter of false security, however maybe I'm just too skeptical, however the phrase "too skeptical" is only used by people who don't appreciate possibly valid criticism to their beliefs.
For the people I may have hurt by my statement on Psychology considering I said this was about MBTI specifically, I want you to understand that Psychology has really helped me and I am definitely grateful for it, however it isn't particularly true for everyone in the world; Happiness research is a great example of my belief on Psychology, how exactly should happiness be globally defined? The meaning of the word differs for everyone and especially between cultures. What makes a Serial Killer happy doesn't necessarily make a Pacifist happy. How can happiness be measured? Psychologists can't use a ruler or a microscope so they invent an arbitrary scale.-Credit to part of this claim goes to Scientificamerican.com
MBTI can be misleading for several reasons:
Lack of scientific validation: MBTI lacks strong scientific evidence supporting its validity and reliability. The theory behind MBTI is based on Carl Jung's ideas, but the assessment itself does not meet rigorous scientific standards. It's important to approach MBTI with skepticism and recognize that it is a subjective tool without strong empirical support.
Oversimplification of personality: MBTI categorizes individuals into specific personality types based on four dichotomous dimensions. However, human personality is complex and cannot be adequately captured by these simplistic categories. People exhibit a wide range of behaviors and traits that cannot be neatly encapsulated within the limited classifications provided by MBTI.
False dichotomies and limited options: MBTI relies on dichotomies such as Introversion vs. Extraversion or Thinking vs. Feeling. However, personality traits are not necessarily binary, and individuals can exhibit a combination of characteristics from both ends of the spectrum. The MBTI framework can limit options and falsely dichotomize individuals, oversimplifying the complexity of personality.
Inconsistent results: Taking the MBTI assessment multiple times can yield different results for the same individual. This lack of consistency reduces the reliability and validity of the tool. The test-retest reliability issues suggest that MBTI does not provide stable or accurate measures of an individual's personality.
Generalizations and stereotypes: MBTI descriptions tend to be general and vague, allowing individuals to interpret them in a way that fits their self-perception. This can lead to confirmation bias, where individuals perceive the descriptions as highly accurate and applicable to themselves, even though they are broadly applicable to many individuals. It can reinforce stereotypes and limit individuals' understanding of their own and others' complexity.
Ignoring personal growth and development: MBTI implies that personality types are fixed and unchanging. However, personality is influenced by various factors, including experiences, personal growth, and cultural influences. People evolve and develop throughout their lives, which can lead to changes in their behaviors and preferences. MBTI's static approach neglects the potential for personal growth and limits individuals' understanding of their own potential.
While MBTI has its limitations, it can still offer some benefits in helping individuals understand themselves and the world around them:
Self-reflection and self-awareness: MBTI can serve as a starting point for self-reflection and introspection. By exploring your MBTI type, you may gain insights into your preferences, strengths, and potential areas for growth. It can provide a framework for understanding your natural tendencies and how you interact with others.
Validation and self-acceptance: For some individuals, discovering their MBTI type can offer a sense of validation and acceptance. It can help them understand that their unique traits and preferences are not uncommon and that there are others who share similar characteristics. This can foster self-acceptance and reduce feelings of isolation or being misunderstood.
Communication and relationships: Understanding your own MBTI type and learning about the types of others can enhance communication and relationships. It can provide insights into different communication styles, decision-making processes, and preferences. This knowledge can promote empathy, understanding, and effective communication with people who have different perspectives and preferences.
Teamwork and collaboration: In group settings, MBTI can be used to facilitate teamwork and collaboration. By understanding the diverse strengths and preferences of team members, individuals can leverage this knowledge to allocate tasks, improve communication, and enhance overall team dynamics.
Personal development: While MBTI suggests fixed preferences, it can still serve as a starting point for personal development. By recognizing the limitations of your type and being open to growth, you can consciously work on expanding your skills, developing new perspectives, and challenging your comfort zones.
Recognizing diversity: MBTI can highlight the diversity of personalities and preferences in the world. It can help individuals appreciate the unique contributions and perspectives that different types bring. By understanding and respecting the diversity of personalities, individuals can foster a more inclusive and harmonious environment.
Having a neutral stance on the MBTI theory is important to me because it allows for a more balanced and objective perspective. Here are a few reasons why adopting this neutral state helps me:Critical thinking:
Taking a neutral stance encourages critical thinking and skepticism. It allows you to evaluate the MBTI theory and its claims objectively, considering both its strengths and limitations. By avoiding an overly biased or invested position, you can engage in a more thoughtful analysis of the theory's merits.
Open-mindedness: Adopting a neutral stance fosters open-mindedness. It allows you to consider alternative theories and perspectives without being overly influenced by the limitations or biases inherent in the MBTI framework. This open-mindedness can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of personality and human behavior.
Flexibility: Remaining neutral enables you to be flexible in your thinking and approach. It allows you to consider new evidence, insights, or perspectives that may challenge or expand your understanding of personality. Being open to evolving your views can promote personal growth and intellectual development.
Avoiding stereotyping: Being neutral helps you avoid stereotyping or making broad generalizations about individuals based solely on their MBTI type. It reminds you that people are complex and cannot be fully understood or categorized by a single framework. It encourages you to appreciate the uniqueness and diversity of individuals beyond the confines of the MBTI theory.
Personal agency: Maintaining a neutral stance empowers you to take responsibility for your own personal development and growth. It reminds you that personality is not fixed or predetermined by a specific type, but can be shaped and developed through conscious effort. This recognition of personal agency allows you to actively pursue self-improvement and explore your full potential
.I just wanted to post this because I noticed recently I've had a problem with stereotyping and labeling people through MBTI and I also feel like being too absorbed in it has hurt my health, as it may many others. I truthfully believe that MBTI does not do well in measuring ones personality and I have improved to a point where I'm not overtly serious about the theory. I just wondered if there where more people who had an ambiguous state of mind with MBTI, because I'd like to hear from people who hate it, love it, base their lives against it, base their lives around it, and just overall I want to be inspired by new views.
Thanks to all and to those who read throughout all of that, thank you so much as it will come in handy if you have valid evidence/other truths to share. Arguing is pointless so don't expect to have back and forth debates with me, most people aren't good at debating without pissing themselves and others off. I hope everyone is doing well and staying curious.... I think that's it.

MBTI can be very generalizing and misleading, however it can help someone understand themselves and the world around them to a slight degree. It's overall a theory and I feel like it's been pretty recently now that I joined that I started becoming increasingly skeptical about the theory, I personally strive for the truth even if it's not the truth I want, and I don't exactly "enjoy" proving others wrong as an INTJ, on the contrary I hate telling people their wrong.
My belief is that it is also a flaw in the human mind that we have to really discipline ourselves if we want to understand that there's always possibility for more than one truth. To be honest now that I have critically and scientifically analyzed MBTI with an open mind, I think it's crap when people use it seriously or in a workplace manner, not that I don't enjoy this type of crap, it's like Psychology, there is some truth but it's not exactly the most reliable thing for finding answers.
I enjoy Psychology and it makes sense normally, however there are many things that we don't consider could be false because we're too busy with the taint that it's scientific so it must be true. It's a matter of false security, however maybe I'm just too skeptical, however the phrase "too skeptical" is only used by people who don't appreciate possibly valid criticism to their beliefs.
For the people I may have hurt by my statement on Psychology considering I said this was about MBTI specifically, I want you to understand that Psychology has really helped me and I am definitely grateful for it, however it isn't particularly true for everyone in the world; Happiness research is a great example of my belief on Psychology, how exactly should happiness be globally defined? The meaning of the word differs for everyone and especially between cultures. What makes a Serial Killer happy doesn't necessarily make a Pacifist happy. How can happiness be measured? Psychologists can't use a ruler or a microscope so they invent an arbitrary scale.-Credit to part of this claim goes to Scientificamerican.com
MBTI can be misleading for several reasons:
Lack of scientific validation: MBTI lacks strong scientific evidence supporting its validity and reliability. The theory behind MBTI is based on Carl Jung's ideas, but the assessment itself does not meet rigorous scientific standards. It's important to approach MBTI with skepticism and recognize that it is a subjective tool without strong empirical support.
Oversimplification of personality: MBTI categorizes individuals into specific personality types based on four dichotomous dimensions. However, human personality is complex and cannot be adequately captured by these simplistic categories. People exhibit a wide range of behaviors and traits that cannot be neatly encapsulated within the limited classifications provided by MBTI.
False dichotomies and limited options: MBTI relies on dichotomies such as Introversion vs. Extraversion or Thinking vs. Feeling. However, personality traits are not necessarily binary, and individuals can exhibit a combination of characteristics from both ends of the spectrum. The MBTI framework can limit options and falsely dichotomize individuals, oversimplifying the complexity of personality.
Inconsistent results: Taking the MBTI assessment multiple times can yield different results for the same individual. This lack of consistency reduces the reliability and validity of the tool. The test-retest reliability issues suggest that MBTI does not provide stable or accurate measures of an individual's personality.
Generalizations and stereotypes: MBTI descriptions tend to be general and vague, allowing individuals to interpret them in a way that fits their self-perception. This can lead to confirmation bias, where individuals perceive the descriptions as highly accurate and applicable to themselves, even though they are broadly applicable to many individuals. It can reinforce stereotypes and limit individuals' understanding of their own and others' complexity.
Ignoring personal growth and development: MBTI implies that personality types are fixed and unchanging. However, personality is influenced by various factors, including experiences, personal growth, and cultural influences. People evolve and develop throughout their lives, which can lead to changes in their behaviors and preferences. MBTI's static approach neglects the potential for personal growth and limits individuals' understanding of their own potential.
While MBTI has its limitations, it can still offer some benefits in helping individuals understand themselves and the world around them:
Self-reflection and self-awareness: MBTI can serve as a starting point for self-reflection and introspection. By exploring your MBTI type, you may gain insights into your preferences, strengths, and potential areas for growth. It can provide a framework for understanding your natural tendencies and how you interact with others.
Validation and self-acceptance: For some individuals, discovering their MBTI type can offer a sense of validation and acceptance. It can help them understand that their unique traits and preferences are not uncommon and that there are others who share similar characteristics. This can foster self-acceptance and reduce feelings of isolation or being misunderstood.
Communication and relationships: Understanding your own MBTI type and learning about the types of others can enhance communication and relationships. It can provide insights into different communication styles, decision-making processes, and preferences. This knowledge can promote empathy, understanding, and effective communication with people who have different perspectives and preferences.
Teamwork and collaboration: In group settings, MBTI can be used to facilitate teamwork and collaboration. By understanding the diverse strengths and preferences of team members, individuals can leverage this knowledge to allocate tasks, improve communication, and enhance overall team dynamics.
Personal development: While MBTI suggests fixed preferences, it can still serve as a starting point for personal development. By recognizing the limitations of your type and being open to growth, you can consciously work on expanding your skills, developing new perspectives, and challenging your comfort zones.
Recognizing diversity: MBTI can highlight the diversity of personalities and preferences in the world. It can help individuals appreciate the unique contributions and perspectives that different types bring. By understanding and respecting the diversity of personalities, individuals can foster a more inclusive and harmonious environment.
Having a neutral stance on the MBTI theory is important to me because it allows for a more balanced and objective perspective. Here are a few reasons why adopting this neutral state helps me:Critical thinking:
Taking a neutral stance encourages critical thinking and skepticism. It allows you to evaluate the MBTI theory and its claims objectively, considering both its strengths and limitations. By avoiding an overly biased or invested position, you can engage in a more thoughtful analysis of the theory's merits.
Open-mindedness: Adopting a neutral stance fosters open-mindedness. It allows you to consider alternative theories and perspectives without being overly influenced by the limitations or biases inherent in the MBTI framework. This open-mindedness can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of personality and human behavior.
Flexibility: Remaining neutral enables you to be flexible in your thinking and approach. It allows you to consider new evidence, insights, or perspectives that may challenge or expand your understanding of personality. Being open to evolving your views can promote personal growth and intellectual development.
Avoiding stereotyping: Being neutral helps you avoid stereotyping or making broad generalizations about individuals based solely on their MBTI type. It reminds you that people are complex and cannot be fully understood or categorized by a single framework. It encourages you to appreciate the uniqueness and diversity of individuals beyond the confines of the MBTI theory.
Personal agency: Maintaining a neutral stance empowers you to take responsibility for your own personal development and growth. It reminds you that personality is not fixed or predetermined by a specific type, but can be shaped and developed through conscious effort. This recognition of personal agency allows you to actively pursue self-improvement and explore your full potential
.I just wanted to post this because I noticed recently I've had a problem with stereotyping and labeling people through MBTI and I also feel like being too absorbed in it has hurt my health, as it may many others. I truthfully believe that MBTI does not do well in measuring ones personality and I have improved to a point where I'm not overtly serious about the theory. I just wondered if there where more people who had an ambiguous state of mind with MBTI, because I'd like to hear from people who hate it, love it, base their lives against it, base their lives around it, and just overall I want to be inspired by new views.
Thanks to all and to those who read throughout all of that, thank you so much as it will come in handy if you have valid evidence/other truths to share. Arguing is pointless so don't expect to have back and forth debates with me, most people aren't good at debating without pissing themselves and others off. I hope everyone is doing well and staying curious.... I think that's it.