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stories from the front desk of hotels/hostels/and others in the hospitality industry
2013.03.11 09:05 stories from the front desk of hotels/hostels/and others in the hospitality industry
A place where people from the hotel industry can come and share the stories of the things our guests do and say that make customer service the hated job that it is.
2014.12.23 14:49 quicksilver101 War Snipers 2.# Clash Family
Hello there reader! This sub is for our Clash of Clans clan family called **War Snipers 2.#** This clan family is based on the concept of war sniping, i.e. sniping the TH & storages of top 2 of enemy clan and taking the 30% loss loot bonus as loot! Farm War Alliance Orange League FWA OL
2023.03.22 07:28 SPdoc Does time make one lose interest even if nothing was wrong with the partner?
I think about the last person I was really into (briefly saw each other casually for 3 dates and talked daily for 1.5 months). We initially agreed on a break and rekindling due to life circumstances, but in a span of 3 months they lost interest, and I was met with indifference.
Makes me wonder if people just outgrow someone they briefly dated with time even if they were very attracted and got along well, or if not having the drive to rekindle in the future time means they weren’t that into you in the first place.
Would love to hear experiences of people on either end.
submitted by SPdoc to dating_advice [link] [comments]
Makes me wonder if people just outgrow someone they briefly dated with time even if they were very attracted and got along well, or if not having the drive to rekindle in the future time means they weren’t that into you in the first place.
Would love to hear experiences of people on either end.
2023.03.22 07:26 SPdoc Does time make one lose interest even if nothing was wrong with the partner?
I think about the last person I was really into (briefly saw each other casually for 3 dates and talked daily for 1.5 months). We initially agreed on a break and rekindling due to life circumstances, but in a span of 3 months they lost interest, and I was met with indifference.
Makes me wonder if people just outgrow someone they briefly dated with time even if they were very attracted and got along well, or if not having the drive to rekindle in the future time means they weren’t that into you in the first place.
Would love to hear experiences of people on either end.
submitted by SPdoc to OnlineDating [link] [comments]
Makes me wonder if people just outgrow someone they briefly dated with time even if they were very attracted and got along well, or if not having the drive to rekindle in the future time means they weren’t that into you in the first place.
Would love to hear experiences of people on either end.
2023.03.22 07:26 rhune-asphodel I (24F) am struggling with repulsion (ick) in my relationship with my (36M) partner…
Has anyone been able to come back from feeling utter repulsion from their partner? There’s no particular reason, just a lot of very small ones.
I (24F) met my 36M partner while working together at a really stressful job that required us to be together alone for extended periods of time. We have (I suspect) trauma bonded and now have been “dating” for 3 really long and kind of miserable years. I was living on my own for the majority of this relationship so I was able to push off a lot of the things I did not like about my partner. When I didn’t want to see him I could simply stay home or make an excuse. Well, about six months ago he pushed hard for me to move in with him into his very, very small home. I’ve felt trapped and claustrophobic ever since I’ve arrived here. All of the things that I STRONGLY dislike about him are now glaring me in the face. He refuses to use good table manners. He generally smells bad due to mouth breathing and doesn’t put any effort into his appearance. Having conversations about regular life things are now repulsing me from him because I feel like there is a disconnect in perspective. I also feel disparity in intelligence and creativity between us. He is unorganized, consistently makes unhealthy choices, and has made startling subtle homophobic/ transphobic and even racist comments at times. It is apparent he has failed in many aspects of his life as he has few friends and essentially lives as a hermit. No goals or ambitions and regularly states that he has “wasted a decade” smoking weed and playing video games. On top of all this, any time I stand up, he’s right behind me. There is no room for my hobbies here. I haven’t painted, or practiced yoga, etc. The big problem for me is that he isn’t a mean or cruel person. He is kind where it matters and loyal to me. It’s hard to deal with these feelings of repulsion when there no obvious conflict in our relationship. I’m concerned I should’ve ended this relationship when I realized I wouldn’t enjoy the idea of living with him. We are moving into a bigger place in a different city. I’m hoping that these huge changes with help me build a better relationship with him but I just feel weighed down. I’m not sure what I’m looking for here in this subreddit. I’m just feeling alone and overwhelmed. I’ve been married and divorced before (high-school sweetheart) and this is my first relationship outside of that. I’m afraid I’ve dug myself in too deep. I’m afraid I’m dating a loser.
submitted by rhune-asphodel to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
I (24F) met my 36M partner while working together at a really stressful job that required us to be together alone for extended periods of time. We have (I suspect) trauma bonded and now have been “dating” for 3 really long and kind of miserable years. I was living on my own for the majority of this relationship so I was able to push off a lot of the things I did not like about my partner. When I didn’t want to see him I could simply stay home or make an excuse. Well, about six months ago he pushed hard for me to move in with him into his very, very small home. I’ve felt trapped and claustrophobic ever since I’ve arrived here. All of the things that I STRONGLY dislike about him are now glaring me in the face. He refuses to use good table manners. He generally smells bad due to mouth breathing and doesn’t put any effort into his appearance. Having conversations about regular life things are now repulsing me from him because I feel like there is a disconnect in perspective. I also feel disparity in intelligence and creativity between us. He is unorganized, consistently makes unhealthy choices, and has made startling subtle homophobic/ transphobic and even racist comments at times. It is apparent he has failed in many aspects of his life as he has few friends and essentially lives as a hermit. No goals or ambitions and regularly states that he has “wasted a decade” smoking weed and playing video games. On top of all this, any time I stand up, he’s right behind me. There is no room for my hobbies here. I haven’t painted, or practiced yoga, etc. The big problem for me is that he isn’t a mean or cruel person. He is kind where it matters and loyal to me. It’s hard to deal with these feelings of repulsion when there no obvious conflict in our relationship. I’m concerned I should’ve ended this relationship when I realized I wouldn’t enjoy the idea of living with him. We are moving into a bigger place in a different city. I’m hoping that these huge changes with help me build a better relationship with him but I just feel weighed down. I’m not sure what I’m looking for here in this subreddit. I’m just feeling alone and overwhelmed. I’ve been married and divorced before (high-school sweetheart) and this is my first relationship outside of that. I’m afraid I’ve dug myself in too deep. I’m afraid I’m dating a loser.
2023.03.22 07:25 CyberEcstasy Swine Wine
Today was the factory tour. I had won a spot through our local radio station. They were giving out two free passes, but I had no one else to take so I sold the other. I had called mostly out of boredom and to try out my luck. I was, to my surprise, the first to call in.
Pickup was at 9:00 AM. It had been arranged by Ardec & Ordec Winery. The cab had arrived five minutes past the pickup time: a factory van hosting the company logo on its side pulled up. I stared at the large, superimposed face of a larger woman drinking from a glass of wine. Her lips were bright red, her cheeks rosy; hair long and brown.
The door had slid open by itself. Inside, several other guests - I counted seven - greeted me with excited smiles. I stared up at the blistering sun and stepped in. The fresh air conditioning was paradise, and it smelled of lavender. The seats and floors were especially clean, as if someone had meticulously gone through every corner, crevice, and hole.
I introduced myself to the other guests, whom I noticed were holding glasses of freshly poured wine, and they introduced themselves in return. One woman, Maria, had caught my eye; strangely resembling the woman on the side of the van. Before I could utter a word to her, a glass of white wine was handed to me.
"Freshly made," said the man who had handed it to me. "Bottled just this morning."
I gave my thanks, sniffed it, and took a snip. I wasn't a wine connoisseur, but I loved the taste of it. It was exquisite, refreshing, fruity, and sweet. My personal favorite.
The tour group and I chatted on our way to the factory.
I noticed the windows were dark. When I asked why, the same man who had handed me my wine stated, "Long drive, not much to see but countryside."
Seeing the countryside was my favorite part about leaving the city on road trips. But soon, videos advertising Ardec & Ordec wines were projected onto the windows. A young woman, donning a white coat with the factory logo embroidered on a pocket, appeared as b-roll of the factory played behind her. She discussed the process of collecting the swine for winemaking and then a brief overview of what to expect during our factory tour. They gave away very little about the winemaking process, which I appreciated.
We arrived shortly after 9:30.
Upon our arrival, we were offered several more samples of their wine. One in particular, a chardonnay they had said, was especially tasty. I felt partly out of place, unable to engage with the others as they discussed different notes and characteristics of the wine.
A buzz had settled in, though, and soon, I stopped caring. I promised myself I'd enjoy the tour, and think little about whether I could participate or not. The wine tasted good. The fresh, country air was refreshing.
The factory, from what I could see, shielding my eyes from the sun, was its own small town; made up of several tall and large brick buildings. Before we could enter, our tour guide, John, instructed us to put on masks; the kind you see doctors wear.
"It's to help mask the smell," he stated, handing masks out to each member of our group. We put them on quickly, eager to get started with the tour already.
We entered through a side entrance, directly onto the main floor where the swine were housed and their sweat collected for winemaking.
The heat was almost unbearable.
Our tour group had begun to fan themselves with their hats and shirts; some pressed the still-cold wine glasses to their foreheads and cheeks.
John explained the heat was generated by industrial heat lamps. They hovered above the swine and were used to accelerate perspiration. He claimed the sweat was a key and "secret" ingredient used to give the wine its distinct flavor.
Despite the masks, it smelled foul - mostly of bacon when it's cooking and feces. Some of the other guests turned their faces away from where the smell was emanating. John noticed and instructed us to pinch the top of our masks, where the bridge of our noses met. A new smell, one of perfume, quickly replaced the former one.
John smiled up at us. "Better right?"
We nodded in unison and made our way over to a brightly lit hallway.
This hallway was as clean as the van had been. We were instructed to stand under several different shower heads. John said this would help sanitize us, as we might be bringing in germs and bacteria from the outside that could infect and harm the swine.
Finished, we entered the main factory building. It was a large, open space comprised of three rows. Each row contained six large cages where the swine were numbered and housed. The cages were made of thick iron bars and an electric netting above to keep the swine from escaping.
As John had stated, round industrial heat lamps hung from the netting. The cages contained two long troughs: one for feeding and another filled with water. They sat atop a soft, netted floor, where the sweat fell through and collected in large tanks. Large ostomy bags hung from their sides, but some were ripped open; likely from stress.
Beyond this, there was little space for the swine to move around; not that they could have moved much if they had the space.
Some of the swine weighed near 600 pounds - the illegal weight limit for our country - but most were far bigger than this, having been here for so long. They were naked; their bellies full of dirt, dead skin, and grime. Their entire bodies were soaked in sweat. Their backs and scalps were singed from being so close to the heat lamps. Some of the swine had lost their hair from so much pulling, exposing raw patches of scalp that had begun to cook underneath the heat. Flies swarmed around them, feeding and breeding on the exposed flesh.
One in particular, a female, cried out for her mother. She was the smallest of them. Number 23.
John explained she was new and had not yet acclimated to her new home. She was collected at seventeen years old, having reached the illegal weight limit a year earlier but kept hidden by her mother. The mother, he explained, had been executed.
One of the members of our tour group broke away, teasing number twenty. He looked over at us and, asking John, said, "What happens when they die?"
"Leather," he replied. "And meat."
I looked at my watch, noting the leather band had a small stamp on it: A&O.
Maria approached Number 23, with a look of recognition and sorrow on her face. She held onto one of the bars with a shaky hand.
Before anyone could take notice of her, an older woman approached us with two silver plates of freshly poured wine. They were passed around quickly, as the heat had become truly unbearable at this point. We drank in the wine, savoring more of the taste, just as Number 23 had begun to claw at her thick bed of hair; crying still for her deceased mother.
submitted by CyberEcstasy to nosleep [link] [comments]
Pickup was at 9:00 AM. It had been arranged by Ardec & Ordec Winery. The cab had arrived five minutes past the pickup time: a factory van hosting the company logo on its side pulled up. I stared at the large, superimposed face of a larger woman drinking from a glass of wine. Her lips were bright red, her cheeks rosy; hair long and brown.
The door had slid open by itself. Inside, several other guests - I counted seven - greeted me with excited smiles. I stared up at the blistering sun and stepped in. The fresh air conditioning was paradise, and it smelled of lavender. The seats and floors were especially clean, as if someone had meticulously gone through every corner, crevice, and hole.
I introduced myself to the other guests, whom I noticed were holding glasses of freshly poured wine, and they introduced themselves in return. One woman, Maria, had caught my eye; strangely resembling the woman on the side of the van. Before I could utter a word to her, a glass of white wine was handed to me.
"Freshly made," said the man who had handed it to me. "Bottled just this morning."
I gave my thanks, sniffed it, and took a snip. I wasn't a wine connoisseur, but I loved the taste of it. It was exquisite, refreshing, fruity, and sweet. My personal favorite.
The tour group and I chatted on our way to the factory.
I noticed the windows were dark. When I asked why, the same man who had handed me my wine stated, "Long drive, not much to see but countryside."
Seeing the countryside was my favorite part about leaving the city on road trips. But soon, videos advertising Ardec & Ordec wines were projected onto the windows. A young woman, donning a white coat with the factory logo embroidered on a pocket, appeared as b-roll of the factory played behind her. She discussed the process of collecting the swine for winemaking and then a brief overview of what to expect during our factory tour. They gave away very little about the winemaking process, which I appreciated.
We arrived shortly after 9:30.
Upon our arrival, we were offered several more samples of their wine. One in particular, a chardonnay they had said, was especially tasty. I felt partly out of place, unable to engage with the others as they discussed different notes and characteristics of the wine.
A buzz had settled in, though, and soon, I stopped caring. I promised myself I'd enjoy the tour, and think little about whether I could participate or not. The wine tasted good. The fresh, country air was refreshing.
The factory, from what I could see, shielding my eyes from the sun, was its own small town; made up of several tall and large brick buildings. Before we could enter, our tour guide, John, instructed us to put on masks; the kind you see doctors wear.
"It's to help mask the smell," he stated, handing masks out to each member of our group. We put them on quickly, eager to get started with the tour already.
We entered through a side entrance, directly onto the main floor where the swine were housed and their sweat collected for winemaking.
The heat was almost unbearable.
Our tour group had begun to fan themselves with their hats and shirts; some pressed the still-cold wine glasses to their foreheads and cheeks.
John explained the heat was generated by industrial heat lamps. They hovered above the swine and were used to accelerate perspiration. He claimed the sweat was a key and "secret" ingredient used to give the wine its distinct flavor.
Despite the masks, it smelled foul - mostly of bacon when it's cooking and feces. Some of the other guests turned their faces away from where the smell was emanating. John noticed and instructed us to pinch the top of our masks, where the bridge of our noses met. A new smell, one of perfume, quickly replaced the former one.
John smiled up at us. "Better right?"
We nodded in unison and made our way over to a brightly lit hallway.
This hallway was as clean as the van had been. We were instructed to stand under several different shower heads. John said this would help sanitize us, as we might be bringing in germs and bacteria from the outside that could infect and harm the swine.
Finished, we entered the main factory building. It was a large, open space comprised of three rows. Each row contained six large cages where the swine were numbered and housed. The cages were made of thick iron bars and an electric netting above to keep the swine from escaping.
As John had stated, round industrial heat lamps hung from the netting. The cages contained two long troughs: one for feeding and another filled with water. They sat atop a soft, netted floor, where the sweat fell through and collected in large tanks. Large ostomy bags hung from their sides, but some were ripped open; likely from stress.
Beyond this, there was little space for the swine to move around; not that they could have moved much if they had the space.
Some of the swine weighed near 600 pounds - the illegal weight limit for our country - but most were far bigger than this, having been here for so long. They were naked; their bellies full of dirt, dead skin, and grime. Their entire bodies were soaked in sweat. Their backs and scalps were singed from being so close to the heat lamps. Some of the swine had lost their hair from so much pulling, exposing raw patches of scalp that had begun to cook underneath the heat. Flies swarmed around them, feeding and breeding on the exposed flesh.
One in particular, a female, cried out for her mother. She was the smallest of them. Number 23.
John explained she was new and had not yet acclimated to her new home. She was collected at seventeen years old, having reached the illegal weight limit a year earlier but kept hidden by her mother. The mother, he explained, had been executed.
One of the members of our tour group broke away, teasing number twenty. He looked over at us and, asking John, said, "What happens when they die?"
"Leather," he replied. "And meat."
I looked at my watch, noting the leather band had a small stamp on it: A&O.
Maria approached Number 23, with a look of recognition and sorrow on her face. She held onto one of the bars with a shaky hand.
Before anyone could take notice of her, an older woman approached us with two silver plates of freshly poured wine. They were passed around quickly, as the heat had become truly unbearable at this point. We drank in the wine, savoring more of the taste, just as Number 23 had begun to claw at her thick bed of hair; crying still for her deceased mother.
2023.03.22 07:21 Other-Borderlands K♥️: Sanctuary [Part 1]
![K♥️: Sanctuary [Part 1]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/CzzQblh26klSj7FmSYtq9KS3IdGJKqHNwT8Qb7cLnjU.jpg "K♥️: Sanctuary [Part 1]") | K♥️: Sanctuary [Part 1] submitted by Other-Borderlands to u/Other-Borderlands [link] [comments] Venue: Church This game is part of a series of games, where I am writing games for all 52 cards for a borderlands in the UK. Each one includes a story of how I imagine the game playing out. You can find all entries here. Remaining Games First Day of Exhibitions He awaited his first lost sheep the morning the second round began. He stood at the churchyard gates, next to the sign he had put up the night before, which told players no external weaponry was permitted, and beneath read the name of the game, sanctuary, as well as a warning to players looking for a true game to visit the Jack or Queen of hearts. He stood for half an hour after the start of the second phase, before a you man walked up to the gates, seeing him standing there. “Hello my son! Do you wish to join my sanctuary, where we will live in peace with this world, free from future sin, to repent our past.” He said, and the man looked at him. “Are you off your rocker?” The man said, and the King responded by pointing at his signs. The man walked towards him, and into the churchyard. “So what are the rules? What hab I got to do?” He asked. “Nothing. Live here in harmony with god, and we will be forgiven. In this place you are given respite from the cruel games out there. While playing a game, your visa is frozen, and so by staying here you may live your life to the fullest.” The king explained, and the man turned. “What? You mean this isn’t a game?” He asked. “Well, of sorts. The game ends when I press the big red button on the church altar. The only rules are no violence, and no leaving the churchyard once you have entered.” He said. The man tried to respond, but the King cut him off “Shall I give you a tour of the church?” They walked inside, and the king showed him the area allocated to sleeping, rows upon rows of bunk beds in the main church hall. Further down, past the bunk beds, was a makeshift kitchen, with hobs, knives, chopping boards, everything one might need. Next up, the King showed him his elaborate plans for the church, with various extra rooms in the church allocated to entertainment, medicine, etc, places in the churchyard for starting an allotment, a cabin, and some more projects. They had plenty of food, materials and power stored, and they could easily create a self sustaining colony here. The more the pastor spoke, the more and more the man was convinced that this could truly become their home. In a world of little hope, in the place where it was least expected to find some, the king of hearts, stood the hope of safety, and freedom from the games. Once they had finished the tour, the king asked the man what he was best at, and what he would like to start work on. “I’ve always enjoyed gardening…” The man said. “Wonderful! I shall allocate you to the allotment to take care of our crops.” The King said, handing the man various equipment, as well as seeds, charts for what to plant next to each other, and sent him off to begin the work. The King walked back to the churchyard gates, waiting another participant. The sun rose higher in the sky, as a woman and two of her friends walked up. “Who are you? You another participant?” She asked, and he responded. “No, I am the King of hearts.” He took a bite from an apple. “This is sanctuary. Sanctuary from the games. If you step inside I can tell you more, but do not enter expecting a game like the others you have played.” “I see the manipulation has already begun.” She said, stepping in, followed by her friends. “Right, tell me the rules.” “The rules are simple. There is a button on the altar. If I press it, it is game clear for everyone. Violence and leaving the church premises are not permitted.” He said. “What? That’s not a game!” She said. “I did warn you before entering that this would not be like any of the other ‘games’ you have played.” The King said, “Now, should I show you around our colony?” He gave them a tour, showing them the bunks, the kitchen, the garden, the supplies, the whole church. As they walked, they began to feel the Kings silken word wrap around them, giving them hope. They were going to stay here, and spit in the face of whoever had created this cruel place. They would live together, in peace, until their deaths, within the church. They all got to work, setting up the garden, improving the extra rooms, and they for the first time since they arrived here they truly felt free. The King returned with his apple to the gate, awaiting more of gods children ready to join him in his colony in this uncaring world. He had chosen to remain here, in this world of death and despair, as he felt it needed god more than any other. When he had been competing, it had been rumoured that the citizens were once players too, and after pulling through the King of hearts game, he decided he would stay, to bring god to the lives of the hopeless. But this world made him even question the existence of god. He didn’t know how god could permit this, and all the countless other things in the old world continue to happen, yet held onto the hope that there was a god. After all, why else would he have created this place? Two more friends approached the venue, and the King told them as much as he was permitted to about the game. He had a thought, and brought one of the others of his colony to the gate, to tell them about the nature of this game. This brought on the trust of the players, and he told them to spread the news that this place was a sanctuary. They walked off, but he doubted that they would be believed, as he looked at the blimp above the church, the King of hearts waving in the wind. The idea that he would be a master of manipulation meant nobody would believe his good will until they enter the venue themselves, or at least got close. Over the course of the day, two more people joined the colony, and as the sun went down he surveyed the progress that had been made. They had started their garden, meaning they would soon have self sufficient food supplies, likely soon after all that was already stored in the church ran out. At around lunch time one person had begun working on a large soup, with carrots, potatoes, onions, and all of them graciously ate it, their first proper meal in weeks, maybe even months. They then began to tell stories, in the well lit church, about their time here. The King gave them as much about him as they were permitted to know, and they were soon joined by one more person, who the King welcomed, and explained everything to. Eventually they all went to sleep, free from the fear of ever having to participate in a game again. The King surveyed his colonists, happy that they had all adapted to life here so easily. This place, while not perfect, was a veritable paradise compared to the world beyond the churchyard walls, and he was glad the others appreciated the effort he had put into it, and the effort they would put into it. He had intentionally made sure there was still plenty of work to be done to improve the church, as to stifle boredom. He had planned every detail, and knew it was perfect. Second Day of Exhibitions They woke up early, ready to continue the future of his utopia. They got to work on various projects, such as the allotment, and someone began work on the games room he had planned. He helped out I the kitchen too, cutting veg and preparing meals for the day. He was cooking another soup today, while their vegetables were still few in number. Over the course of the day more arrived, and he welcomed them. They were at first suspicious of his utopia, but he managed to convince them that this was for the greater good. The Day was fruitful, and soon they had planted various vegetables, and were growing potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, tomatoes, as well as various fruits. He congratulated the gardeners, and then he checked out the games room. It had been redecorated, and the Games organised. In fact, it had been done so quick the others had started work on the library, organising all of the books carefully in order of genre and author surname. This place was becoming more and more like the Utopia he envisioned. He poured some oil into the pan, before tipping in his diced onion, frying them a little, before adding water to boil the carrots and potatoes he had stocked up in. He made some vegetable stock from a pack he had in his spice cupboard, and with the help of the other cooks, they now had a meal for al of them. They filled it into bowls, handing them out to everyone in the church’s sanctuary, and they each ate gratefully, thanking him for his work, as well as the kindness of establishing this place. They began to talk over such about what they had done so far. “So, the allotment is looking good at the moment. By the time our stocked food will have run out, we should be swimming in produce of our own growing. Also, this soup is really nice Noah, you and the cooks did a great job!” The Gardener said, and Noah nodded, saying he couldn’t have achieved this without them. The room brimmed with happiness, at the salvation these people had found in this world. That this was the way forward, the way to continued prosperity. “Well, I improved the games room. That billiards table was a good idea Noah. Thanks also for bringing in so many board games and sets of cards. While we may not have always enjoyed them in the old world, I’m sure here they will become classics quickly, and we will play them till old age. Also, as you said earlier, I checked from the roof to see how many other cards are left. It looks like the King of Clubs, Queen of Spades, and Jack of Diamonds went down yesterday.” The Woman said. “Thank you for informing me. We should hope and pray for those we have lost, they are now in a better place.” Noah said. They continued to talk over their food, and just before they were about to return to work, a woman walked in through the doors. “Hello, my child, welcome to sanctuary!” Noah said. “Yeah yeah, quit the bullshit, tell me the rules.” She said. “Well, The ‘game’ is simple. The game end when I press that button on the altar over there, willingly. Otherwise, you mustn’t leave the game venue, or act violently.” Noah explained. “This place is a sanctuary from the outside world. A refuge for those who have been crushed by the horrors of the Games.” “What? What about Visas?” The Woman said confused. “While in a game, your visa does not decrease. This place gives you time to live the rest of your days out, without the threat of the laser. This place is my Ark, if you will.” The King said, pointing to the church. “This world makes it appear as if you must kill others to survive. That is not true. If you can resist the temptations of this world, you will receive salvation.” Noah then gave the woman a tour of the grounds, before asking her what she wished to do. She ended up working in the garden, and Noah returned to the gates, to welcome any possible new colonists. His sanctuary was coming to life, an example of how humans can collaborate and triumph in a world without hope. No new people arrived after Sandra interrupted them at lunch, and the King gathered everyone around for tea and began to tell stories about his experiences. “When I came to this world, I realised how important it was to trust god. I played the games set up by the old Kings, Queens and Knaves. They slowly fell, and when We had finally defeated them all, we were offered a choice by the ruler of this land. Stay, and accept citizenship, or decline. I accepted, to allow this land, a land without god, to see the light of good, and forge a beacon of hope for all who came.” Noah said, as his followers watched intently, and he began to recall his first games, the Jack and King of hearts, and how in the King game he had saved a young man, who grew to become the King of Clubs. It became later and later, and Noah advised them to go to bed, telling them he would continue to tell them about his experiences the next day, and then the others could tell them theirs. Third Day of Exhibitions On the third day only one blimp went down, that of the Queen of Clubs. Noah awoke bright and early, ready for the day. He slowly got everyone else up, while preparing breakfast. They ate in their own time, before leaving to go out and work. Noah walked to the gates, apple in hand. He waited there for a few minutes, and watched as some new followers-to-be began to arrive. He introduced himself, giving his regular explanation, and before they stepped inside, was backed up by one of the gardeners, who happened to be walking past. The group stepped inside, introducing themselves as Alfie, Tracy and Roger, a group that had beaten the King of Clubs together. “A shame. The King of Clubs was a good man.” Noah said, leading them into the main hall. “He definitely wasn’t what I expected from a King, to say the least.” Tracy said. “Neither are you.” “The manipulation is still to come.” Alfie said, not trusting Noah. “Well, I can assure you that I have all of the residents of this countries best interests in mind. We could live here for many years without problem. Just ask any of the other players that have stayed with us for a while, they all trust me.” Noah countered. He walked up to the altar. “This here is the game clear condition. If I press it, I die, and our colony is terminated. The game ends, everyone gets a game clear. I have no intention of doing so.” Noah said. “So you are our jailor.” Alfie said to him. “If you need to see it that way, yes.” Noah said. “But in truth I am your saviour. Without me you would soon be playing another game. You would live in fear of your life. Here, that all fades away. You regain free time, as you need to care less and less about your own survival. Don’t you see the utopia we will forge?” Alfie shrugged. “Now, if you will please allow me to ask what jobs you would be comfortable doing…” He asked. He got them all started on their tasks, and the day went smoothly. He spent a while talking with Roger as they prepared food, talking about his life, and soon they called everyone in for Lunch. In the meantime, tracy had begun speaking to Sandra, and learned about her. Alfie, on the other hand, had remained distant from the others, refusing to participate in work. He walked over to Roger and Tracy while they were eating their food. “Don’t you find this a little suspicious? He’s way to kind for someone who’s gone through what we’ve been through. I don’t trust this guy one bit.” Alfie said. “Why, all he’s done is be nice to us!?” Tracy said. “He’s forged a home for us in this uncaring world. How can you disagree with that?” “He’s already gotten to you. Don’t you see? He’s indoctrinating you. This is a cult!” Alfie protested, perhaps a little too loud. “Now, how about we all calm down a little.” Noah said, walking over. “I see our new member wishes to leave. Trust me Alfie, it’s Alfie right? This place will be our beacon of hope, our zone of safety. Please, don’t fight us. It’ll only harm you.” Alfie nodded, but still had a scowl fixed on his face. “Good. Now, how about we all return to work, and reconvene later for tea.” He said, walking away. The others returned to work, and Alfie was left alone in the Hall. Noah turned. “You should also get to work. It won’t reflect well on you if you eat our food but don’t help out.” Roger had by this point returned to the garden. He liked gardening, and had constantly recommended the performers establish one while they were still in large numbers, so they would have a continued food supply. He gave up on the idea after continued rejection, and the dwindling number of performers meant there was almost no point, they all believed they would die anyway. But now he had a communal garden, where he could help a group of people he cared about. He dug, and planted some seeds. They were almost out of the space allocated. Oh well, they would always need to attend to plants to help them grow. He wasn’t sure how well they would grow in this strange climate, but he held out hope. He spent the hours until dusk in the garden with a man who claimed he was the first to join Noah. They exchanged trivial details about their lives, as well as their time in this land. They both admired Noah for his ability to create hop in a world without it, and how he kept order in a world seemingly without any. When they gathered around for Noah’s story and food, they listened intently, hearing about his exploits during his time as a player, how he had helped those in need. How he had not killed anyone during his time as a player. Alfie watched from afar, seeing how the group worshiped the ground he walked on. Why couldn’t anyone but him see it? |
2023.03.22 07:16 Available-Egg6947 MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE ATTESTATION IN KUWAIT
Marriage certificate attestation is the process of verifying the authenticity of a marriage certificate for legal or official purposes for applying for a residency visa or registering a marriage with the Kuwaiti authorities.
Here's what you need to know about the process of marriage certificate attestation in Kuwait:
Step 1: Notarization
The first step in the marriage certificate attestation process is to have the certificate notarized. This involves having the certificate certified by a solicitor or notary public in the country where the certificate was issued. This step is important to confirm the authenticity of the certificate.
Step 2: Legalization
After the certificate has been notarized, the next step is to have it legalized by the appropriate authority in your home country. In the UK, this typically involves getting the certificate legalized by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
Step 3: Translation
If your marriage certificate is not in Arabic, you will need to have it translated by a certified translator in Kuwait. The translation should be accurate and complete and should include all relevant information from the original certificate.
Step 4: Attestation
Once your certificate has been notarized, legalized, and translated, you can take it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kuwait to have it attested. This step involves verifying the authenticity of the certificate and ensuring that it meets all the necessary requirements for legal use in Kuwait. Depending on the purpose for which you need your certificate attested, you may also need to have it attested by the embassy or consulate of the country where you will be using it.
The process of marriage certificate attestation in Kuwait can be complex, especially for individuals who are not familiar with the legal or bureaucratic procedures involved. However, there are several resources available to help couples navigate the process, including legal professionals, translation services, and government authorities.
It's important to note that the specific requirements for marriage certificate attestation may vary depending on the country where the certificate was issued and the purpose for which you need it attested. It's always a good idea to check with the relevant authorities in both your home country and Kuwait to ensure that you have all the necessary documentation and that you follow the correct procedures.
Marriage certificate attestation is an important process for couples planning to move to Kuwait, and it's essential to understand the requirements and procedures involved. By following the steps outlined above and seeking guidance from reliable sources, couples can ensure that their marriage certificates are properly attested and ready for use in Kuwait.
Helpline Group of Indian Marriage Certificate attestation in Kuwait is an ISO-certified and Embassy-approved agency operating under the highest standards. Helpline Group rendered long 20 years of excellent service to our clients and is focused on meeting the expectations of our customers, delivering the best outcome. We are a globally integrated firm with a vision to provide the absolute solution for your Marriage certificate attestation for Kuwait visa needs. Helpline prioritizes our customers needs and ensures they are promptly met and efficiently executed within the stipulated time frame. Helpline provides fast and reliable service at competitive prices and provides up-to-date information about their documents, thus making them stress-free. Contact us today!
submitted by Available-Egg6947 to u/Available-Egg6947 [link] [comments]
Here's what you need to know about the process of marriage certificate attestation in Kuwait:
Step 1: Notarization
The first step in the marriage certificate attestation process is to have the certificate notarized. This involves having the certificate certified by a solicitor or notary public in the country where the certificate was issued. This step is important to confirm the authenticity of the certificate.
Step 2: Legalization
After the certificate has been notarized, the next step is to have it legalized by the appropriate authority in your home country. In the UK, this typically involves getting the certificate legalized by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
Step 3: Translation
If your marriage certificate is not in Arabic, you will need to have it translated by a certified translator in Kuwait. The translation should be accurate and complete and should include all relevant information from the original certificate.
Step 4: Attestation
Once your certificate has been notarized, legalized, and translated, you can take it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kuwait to have it attested. This step involves verifying the authenticity of the certificate and ensuring that it meets all the necessary requirements for legal use in Kuwait. Depending on the purpose for which you need your certificate attested, you may also need to have it attested by the embassy or consulate of the country where you will be using it.
The process of marriage certificate attestation in Kuwait can be complex, especially for individuals who are not familiar with the legal or bureaucratic procedures involved. However, there are several resources available to help couples navigate the process, including legal professionals, translation services, and government authorities.
It's important to note that the specific requirements for marriage certificate attestation may vary depending on the country where the certificate was issued and the purpose for which you need it attested. It's always a good idea to check with the relevant authorities in both your home country and Kuwait to ensure that you have all the necessary documentation and that you follow the correct procedures.
Marriage certificate attestation is an important process for couples planning to move to Kuwait, and it's essential to understand the requirements and procedures involved. By following the steps outlined above and seeking guidance from reliable sources, couples can ensure that their marriage certificates are properly attested and ready for use in Kuwait.
Helpline Group of Indian Marriage Certificate attestation in Kuwait is an ISO-certified and Embassy-approved agency operating under the highest standards. Helpline Group rendered long 20 years of excellent service to our clients and is focused on meeting the expectations of our customers, delivering the best outcome. We are a globally integrated firm with a vision to provide the absolute solution for your Marriage certificate attestation for Kuwait visa needs. Helpline prioritizes our customers needs and ensures they are promptly met and efficiently executed within the stipulated time frame. Helpline provides fast and reliable service at competitive prices and provides up-to-date information about their documents, thus making them stress-free. Contact us today!
2023.03.22 07:08 cutmypieintwopieces Why is he (30M) reaching it to me (30F) even though he lost interest in me and got into a relationship?
Please read 🥺
EDIT: once he got in a relationship with this woman (a month after he said lost his spark), he deleted his Hinge and updated his fb status. We are all about mental health and stuff like that because our upbringing was a bit similar. We come from a generational toxic family. His relationship with his family is great though. He’s so family-oriented and very close to his brother (only sibling). He wouldn’t tell me why he lost interest in me when I asked at the time. He said it’s not important and that I doesn’t matter..
Met a guy on dating app towards end of last November. It was going great, so much in common and our views, values, interests, and birth date as well. We have not been in a relationship in a while. We both let each other know that we are dating with the intention of being in a relationship with someone.
After 2 dates, he was calling me pet names, which was a bit odd for me but I was accepting of it. He did ask me weeks later how long does it take me to make it exclusive with someone. I said naturally, the topic doesn’t come up until later, but maybe 2-3mo in. He said he evaluates after 4-5 dates but if I need another month, he can wait. We would send each other memes, reels, songs, animal videos daily. It was just our thing and we enjoyed giving each other a good laugh. We what’s a really good bond tbh.
Long story short….it has been a month of us talking and we’re still so excited about each other. But the following day (and the next 3 weeks), he was pulling back. I asked him twice if everything is okay and brought up my concerns, he said everything was good. He brought me around his family twice and they were aware of us going on dates and they were excited for him.
He revered back to dry texting even though he was texting me every day. I would still give him space and not respond at times, and he would double text or triple text. So I figured he still had interest. I asked him one more time another occasion and he admitted he lost his spark :/ we tried to be friends, then fwb but we never got to see each other. He bullshitted me twice and another few times, I couldn’t go see him because of work or traveling. We tried one day before I left out of town but he said, “I’m getting serious with someone and by the time you come back, I may be intimate with them. Tonight would’ve worked but moving forward, not so much.” So we said our goodbyes. Then 2 hours later he asked if I can try again because he really wanted to see me and misses me. I had already left to the airport though. He was willing to see me when I got back. Days later, he messages me and said he’s off the market. I offered to be friends but he said out of respect for his relationship, we can’t be friends since we were physically intimate before. And I agreed. He kept me on all social media though.
Two weeks later, he randomly sends me some reels on Instagram. I literally haven’t heard from him in 2 weeks since he got into a relationship. I said I thought we were not on speaking terms for now? He said he thought sending reels were harmless. I didn’t respond. He sends me more a few days later and I just reacted with emojis but didn’t respond. Then I had posted something on Snapchat and he responded, making small talk. But I wasn’t really engaging in the conversation. It was very brief, few sentences to each other.
He has not been inappropriate (made any sexual advances or flirt, etc.) since he’s reached out. But what’s the point of him doing this? Like why bother? If I were to even ask, he wouldn’t tell me. I’ve “known” Him for 4 months now and his gf roughly a month. So I’m wondering if he’s getting bored or moved too fast and has second thoughts, or misses me, or wants to hook up. But again, he hasn’t said anything sexual to me. It’s all casual talk. He doesn’t reach out daily. He reaches out at any time of the day or night.
submitted by cutmypieintwopieces to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
EDIT: once he got in a relationship with this woman (a month after he said lost his spark), he deleted his Hinge and updated his fb status. We are all about mental health and stuff like that because our upbringing was a bit similar. We come from a generational toxic family. His relationship with his family is great though. He’s so family-oriented and very close to his brother (only sibling). He wouldn’t tell me why he lost interest in me when I asked at the time. He said it’s not important and that I doesn’t matter..
Met a guy on dating app towards end of last November. It was going great, so much in common and our views, values, interests, and birth date as well. We have not been in a relationship in a while. We both let each other know that we are dating with the intention of being in a relationship with someone.
After 2 dates, he was calling me pet names, which was a bit odd for me but I was accepting of it. He did ask me weeks later how long does it take me to make it exclusive with someone. I said naturally, the topic doesn’t come up until later, but maybe 2-3mo in. He said he evaluates after 4-5 dates but if I need another month, he can wait. We would send each other memes, reels, songs, animal videos daily. It was just our thing and we enjoyed giving each other a good laugh. We what’s a really good bond tbh.
Long story short….it has been a month of us talking and we’re still so excited about each other. But the following day (and the next 3 weeks), he was pulling back. I asked him twice if everything is okay and brought up my concerns, he said everything was good. He brought me around his family twice and they were aware of us going on dates and they were excited for him.
He revered back to dry texting even though he was texting me every day. I would still give him space and not respond at times, and he would double text or triple text. So I figured he still had interest. I asked him one more time another occasion and he admitted he lost his spark :/ we tried to be friends, then fwb but we never got to see each other. He bullshitted me twice and another few times, I couldn’t go see him because of work or traveling. We tried one day before I left out of town but he said, “I’m getting serious with someone and by the time you come back, I may be intimate with them. Tonight would’ve worked but moving forward, not so much.” So we said our goodbyes. Then 2 hours later he asked if I can try again because he really wanted to see me and misses me. I had already left to the airport though. He was willing to see me when I got back. Days later, he messages me and said he’s off the market. I offered to be friends but he said out of respect for his relationship, we can’t be friends since we were physically intimate before. And I agreed. He kept me on all social media though.
Two weeks later, he randomly sends me some reels on Instagram. I literally haven’t heard from him in 2 weeks since he got into a relationship. I said I thought we were not on speaking terms for now? He said he thought sending reels were harmless. I didn’t respond. He sends me more a few days later and I just reacted with emojis but didn’t respond. Then I had posted something on Snapchat and he responded, making small talk. But I wasn’t really engaging in the conversation. It was very brief, few sentences to each other.
He has not been inappropriate (made any sexual advances or flirt, etc.) since he’s reached out. But what’s the point of him doing this? Like why bother? If I were to even ask, he wouldn’t tell me. I’ve “known” Him for 4 months now and his gf roughly a month. So I’m wondering if he’s getting bored or moved too fast and has second thoughts, or misses me, or wants to hook up. But again, he hasn’t said anything sexual to me. It’s all casual talk. He doesn’t reach out daily. He reaches out at any time of the day or night.
2023.03.22 06:56 ThrowRAcarmen My religious boyfriend (23M) won’t speak to me (21F) because I gave him oral
It was consensual. And yes, he did enjoy it and got off to it. Things started with me giving him a handjob, then escalated slowly by me involving my tongue which ended up with him fully in my mouth. Not even once did he complain or tell me to stop. But when he finished he was pissed saying he can’t believe I’d do something as disgusting as that, and how genitals (which we use for filthy things) weren’t meant to go in our mouths (which we eat by) because “that’s something gross and unnatural”. I asked him why he remained quite while I did it if it repulsed him so much? He claimed that he was way too lost in the moment and “drunk with pleasure” that he didn’t have it in him to tell me to stop. With all due respect, it sounded a bit hypocritical to me.
For reference, he was raised in a strictly Catholic house by extremely religious parents and he’s still a practicing Christian who attends church on every Sunday, so he has a lot of interesting takes on sex. But he never shared his dislike for oral with me or else I wouldn’t have done it.
It’s been two weeks, when we met up last weekend I went back home disappointed cause he kept making weird insinuations and looked at me with disdain in his eyes. It’s clear that he thinks lowly of me now and has lost some of the respect he had. Currently, he won’t even speak to me, and when he does it’d be done half-heartedly in a weird way that leaves me feeling empty. I’m confused about this whole thing and don’t really know what to do. Any advice?
submitted by ThrowRAcarmen to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
For reference, he was raised in a strictly Catholic house by extremely religious parents and he’s still a practicing Christian who attends church on every Sunday, so he has a lot of interesting takes on sex. But he never shared his dislike for oral with me or else I wouldn’t have done it.
It’s been two weeks, when we met up last weekend I went back home disappointed cause he kept making weird insinuations and looked at me with disdain in his eyes. It’s clear that he thinks lowly of me now and has lost some of the respect he had. Currently, he won’t even speak to me, and when he does it’d be done half-heartedly in a weird way that leaves me feeling empty. I’m confused about this whole thing and don’t really know what to do. Any advice?
2023.03.22 06:52 ManagerSensitive Sexually Questioning for a long time now.
This has been a secret of mine for a long time now, I just want to air it out a bit.
I've suspected that I (25F) could be asexual (maybe demi/gray) for probably 10 years now. I've gone back and forth on it, thinking certain experiences mean I was wrong, but I keep coming back here.
It all started in high school. I've always desired a relationship with a male identifying person. I had plenty of crushes and was very interested in dating. But I felt I was different from my friends. They would show each other pictures of shirtless muscley men, or go watch the boys basketball team and scream and swoon over how hot they are, but I never understood. Seeing a shirtless man never made me feel anything. My friends thought I was weird, and I thought they were weird. I preferred the romantic side to relationships. But I also did have a "type" and enjoyed men for how they looked. But it was never sexual, just aesthetic ally pleasing.
I got my first boyfriend at 18. I loved him, but I never had any sexual feelings or desires to sleep with him. We dated for a year and I never did anything sexual with him because I felt uncomfortable.
For many years I struggled with what I called a "penis phobia". They really freaked me out, and thinking about seeing or touching one made my heart race (not in the good way). Though eventually I did get over it.
I lost my virginity at 21. This is where I started to believe I wasn't asexual. I had sex and even enjoyed it. I felt some attraction. But since then it's disappeared. I've been with the same man (different one) for the last 5 years. The relationship was sexual in the first year (when everything was new and exciting) but now I don't really feel any sexual desire or attraction at all. It's kinda like once I experienced it and learned what it was all about I lost my excitement. I had a few relationships in my early 20s where I did feel an attraction, sexual desire, and I did engage in activities that I enjoyed. But now it's all gone away again.
For a short while sex didn't bother me, but now I'm back to sex making me uncomfortable. Im uncomfortable with nudity, my own and others. I don't like being touched in sexual areas but I force myself to relax so my partner can get some enjoyment. I hate kissing on the lips. I think it's slobbery and gross. Being eaten out is so uncomfortable, I get no pleasure from it at all. I feel uncomfortable and anxious just talking about it. I've tried hard to get over it, but I've also come to the conclusion that why should I change so other people will like me.
However, the one place I do experience sexual desire for is my vibrator. I can think about my vibrator and get turned on just by thinking about it. That's never happened to me for any relationship or human male.
I've also experienced sexual attraction and arousal to men and women online, like social media influencers. Sometimes I'll masturbate to them. Which I find particularly odd because I have never felt that way about a real life male or female. Because of this I've also wondered if I'm bisexual. I think women certain women are beautiful and attractive. However, I don't desire a relationship with a woman, or to have sex with a woman. I also have never felt that way about a woman I've met in real life.
I find it interesting that I've experienced sexual attraction to things that aren't real people (sex toys and online figures). As far as I know, I don't have any sexual trauma.
I know my discomfort and disinterest in sexual activities are hallmarks of asexuality, which is why I keep coming back to it. But yet that I've experienced it briefly in my past makes me question it.
I've only had two sexual partners and I've been with the same man the last 5 years. I often wonder if I just haven't met the right person, but I am very happy in my relationship and I have no reason to feel unsafe or insecure.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
submitted by ManagerSensitive to asexuality [link] [comments]
I've suspected that I (25F) could be asexual (maybe demi/gray) for probably 10 years now. I've gone back and forth on it, thinking certain experiences mean I was wrong, but I keep coming back here.
It all started in high school. I've always desired a relationship with a male identifying person. I had plenty of crushes and was very interested in dating. But I felt I was different from my friends. They would show each other pictures of shirtless muscley men, or go watch the boys basketball team and scream and swoon over how hot they are, but I never understood. Seeing a shirtless man never made me feel anything. My friends thought I was weird, and I thought they were weird. I preferred the romantic side to relationships. But I also did have a "type" and enjoyed men for how they looked. But it was never sexual, just aesthetic ally pleasing.
I got my first boyfriend at 18. I loved him, but I never had any sexual feelings or desires to sleep with him. We dated for a year and I never did anything sexual with him because I felt uncomfortable.
For many years I struggled with what I called a "penis phobia". They really freaked me out, and thinking about seeing or touching one made my heart race (not in the good way). Though eventually I did get over it.
I lost my virginity at 21. This is where I started to believe I wasn't asexual. I had sex and even enjoyed it. I felt some attraction. But since then it's disappeared. I've been with the same man (different one) for the last 5 years. The relationship was sexual in the first year (when everything was new and exciting) but now I don't really feel any sexual desire or attraction at all. It's kinda like once I experienced it and learned what it was all about I lost my excitement. I had a few relationships in my early 20s where I did feel an attraction, sexual desire, and I did engage in activities that I enjoyed. But now it's all gone away again.
For a short while sex didn't bother me, but now I'm back to sex making me uncomfortable. Im uncomfortable with nudity, my own and others. I don't like being touched in sexual areas but I force myself to relax so my partner can get some enjoyment. I hate kissing on the lips. I think it's slobbery and gross. Being eaten out is so uncomfortable, I get no pleasure from it at all. I feel uncomfortable and anxious just talking about it. I've tried hard to get over it, but I've also come to the conclusion that why should I change so other people will like me.
However, the one place I do experience sexual desire for is my vibrator. I can think about my vibrator and get turned on just by thinking about it. That's never happened to me for any relationship or human male.
I've also experienced sexual attraction and arousal to men and women online, like social media influencers. Sometimes I'll masturbate to them. Which I find particularly odd because I have never felt that way about a real life male or female. Because of this I've also wondered if I'm bisexual. I think women certain women are beautiful and attractive. However, I don't desire a relationship with a woman, or to have sex with a woman. I also have never felt that way about a woman I've met in real life.
I find it interesting that I've experienced sexual attraction to things that aren't real people (sex toys and online figures). As far as I know, I don't have any sexual trauma.
I know my discomfort and disinterest in sexual activities are hallmarks of asexuality, which is why I keep coming back to it. But yet that I've experienced it briefly in my past makes me question it.
I've only had two sexual partners and I've been with the same man the last 5 years. I often wonder if I just haven't met the right person, but I am very happy in my relationship and I have no reason to feel unsafe or insecure.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
2023.03.22 06:51 Sevchenko874 [Fan Work of Fan Work] Koishi Komeiji's Heart Throbbing Adventure The Interim Chapter 12
You Matter to Her in a Way No One Else Could
When you died and were reborn, you became divine. You were love, and you were violence, and you were my miracle. A God sprung forth from the decaying machinery of your broken body. Koishi, the God of Love and Hate—have mercy on us all.
Down by the shore of one of the great Lunar seas, there sat a lonely shack thatched with feathers. Inside, there was a massive wani no less than eight leagues long… and her infant son. To that crocodile who had never known true familial love, that delicate little child—who cooed and smiled at his mother’s every move—was nothing less than a miracle. Such a delicate life in her claws, who knew nothing but unconditional love for his mother—to the crocodile, it was proof there was still good in the world.
She was tired, but the crocodile forced herself to stay awake. There was something she needed to do—a memory she wanted to share with the most important person in her life.
So, with all the caution and tenderness in the world, she picked up her child with her jaws and coaxed him into her throat pouch. The newborn child, perhaps having some shared instinct with his crocodilian mother, did not cry or struggle. Instead, he let out a giggle as he poked his head out from between his mother’s jagged teeth. With a snort, the dragon climbed out of her thatch hut, and crawled along the shore, drawing a meandering trail in the sand as she went.
When she reached the point where the water came to shore in gentle waves, the crocodile set herself down in the sand, letting the waves wash in and lick at her child in gentle sprays. Her child giggled as the Lunar sea’s tickled him with its pure waters, and as he did, his mother couldn’t help but feel at peace.
Nothing. Nothing at all would be able to take this from her.
Her miracle.
Toyohime opened her eye to clear blue skies.
She flexed her fingers, and instead of feeling the cold steel of the ship she started to tear apart, she felt so many tiny pebbles, warmed by their time in the sun. Sand? She brought a fistful of the stuff into her vision, before letting it fall through her fingers and run down her face. It was too real to be a dream.
Toyohime sat up to observe her surroundings. As far as the eye could see, there were infinite stretches of sand collected into wind-swept dunes that obscured the horizon. It was hot. Unbelievably so for what was supposedly the void. She felt a gentle gust of warm wind pass by her and toss her hair. This place… this impossible place… was she dead?
She rose to her feet, fighting biting aches and pains from her battle not too long ago. No—not dead. Somehow, she had survived—there was no other explanation. And as she looked down to assess the damage she had taken, her suspicions were only confirmed. Her right arm was missing, and in its place was nothing but a healed stump. The nasty cuts and bruises she had received in the fighting had all healed over for the most part, the only evidence they happened at all being residual scars that were yet to disappear. The ground was covered in dried blood. She must’ve been laying here in this sand trap for hours.
She brought her free arm, completely healed, up to the general space where her right eye was to find an arrow still protruding from it. Wrapping her fingers around the shaft, Toyohime tore it out in a fluid motion, causing the wound to reopen and drip blood onto the sands below. But, through some miraculous action, it was mere moments before the flow of blood stopped as the wound healed shut. Her right eye was still inoperable, but this healing ability was downright uncanny, even for a god.
She flexed her fingers. It felt like there was a hole in her head from which memories and feelings poured out. The mystery of how she got here, who she killed, and whether she could even trust her own senses had no answer—Toyohime knew she herself had made sure of that. She supposed there was a good reason. The less she knew, the better. That was something she could trick herself into believing.
Though no matter how much she forced herself to forget, she had the horrible feeling she had done something unforgivable—something she would kill over. In a sea of atrocities however, she could hardly even begin to suppose what that might have been. Maybe the heat was starting to fry her brain.
After spending a few minutes snapping the arrows lodged in her body by their shafts, Toyohime looked to the horizon, and then up. Ahead, there was a massive sand dune, no less than five times her height, and beyond the crest—a black pillar of smoke. Toyohime was not alone.
As she made her way up the shifting incline, Toyohime got to thinking about her next course of action. If this wasn’t a hallucination, then it most certainly had to be some extension of Koishi's will. Land in an impossible space… the creation of something impossible like that could only be a factor of a deteriorating mind, or God. And Toyohime had no time to consider the possibility of a crumbling psyche—not when she had a duty left unfulfilled.
But then… that would mean this was the paradise of Koishi’s mind. Surely, by her side is where she would find her salvation. She had already come to terms with it—that there was nothing left for her in the old world. Koishi could pervert and corrupt reality in whatever twisted ways she wanted—as long as it was the creation of her heart, it would be sufficient. Everything beyond that was not worth saving to the former princess.
… But that also meant there would be more enemies. More people she had to kill. She was ready. Ready to kill and ready to die in the name of love.
And as she planted her boot upon the peak of that sand dune, she saw the whole world become bare before her. A fair distance away was the crashed wreck of a golden ship, releasing plumes of black smoke as it burnt away. From this distance, it was difficult to make out any finer details, but she was sure the occupants had escaped. Satori was resourceful and stubborn, if nothing else. Dying in a crash was an impossibility.
She then traced a line from the ship through the shifting sands—to a city upon the horizon. Massive towers of glass and steel pushing against the sky, half buried in the sand, bending light around them as they reflected the intense heat of the sun. It gave the sight an unnatural fuzziness, as if the city was threatening to disappear at any moment.
As she traced the decaying visage of those buildings upwards, she saw a thin line reach beyond and into the sky. The line separated into two before converging back on itself. Above the city, etched upon the sky itself, was a pitch black gap in reality, opened and filled with so many eyes. And above still, the object of Toyohime’s desires and her sole driving factor—Koishi Komeiji.
Though the God’s eye was open, as well as the myriad collection of smaller eyes and drooling jaws that had lined every square inch of her squirming appendages, it was hard to tell if she was awake or conscious. Toyohime knew Koishi best, and if she had any guess as to what Koishi had been doing in the time they spent apart, it was receding back into the numbing comfort of her own mind. Even now, Toyohime figured she was still dreaming, avoiding the cruel weight of her responsibility. What manifested outside of her mind must’ve been some sort of twisted runoff.
Down there, hidden in the dunes, Toyohime knew there were those who would take this dream from Koishi. Those who would hurt Koishi. Those people would’ve done just as well to dig their own graves and build their own coffins. Because so long as Toyohime drew breath, she would protect Koishi with everything she could muster—that was her promise and the nature of her impossible, unconditional love.
Koishi was Toyohime’s second chance.
This time, one way or another, there would be no opportunity for a third.
Mima, on the other hand, had woken up quite a bit earlier than Toyohime had.
She had not suffered any fatal wounds or debilitating strikes leading up to the point where the reality around her started to crumble and distort—but she had briefly lost consciousness regardless. She figured that might’ve been a good thing; an action so absurd and so against everything she knew, perpetrated by an impossibly powerful being… even if a mere glimpse didn’t physically tear her mind to ribbons, she had no interest in trying to understand such a nonsensical event.
Mima awoke not in a desert, but in a grand sprawling city of seemingly human construction. Though the sun still hung overhead, the impossible hills and mountains of sand that caged the city in, always seemed to shift and move in the most calculated way… such that the sun was always put out. Caught in the shade, the city looked like it was in a perpetual night, in spite of the blinding yellow of the endless desert just beyond its limits.
Though that was the case, the city was far from dark. Street lamps, blinding neon signs, blinking traffic lights, apartments and houses with windows illuminated by the fluorescent lights within… It gave the impression the city was alive. It seemed exactly as a real bustling city at night, with its breathing and blinking—but there were no people. No matter how far Mima walked, no matter how many buildings she popped in, she would encounter no souls. She would find, in those buildings, immaculate setpieces filled with lived-in charm, hints and implications of life—but not people. Not even Yukari, who she wandered the streets in search of.
She recognized this place. This city—Tokyo. It couldn’t have possibly been, but it was the same Tokyo she grew up in, back before the Moonlight Descent and before the Kaiju. Before her chance meeting with the youkai who used to be her friend. This city, trapped in the middle of the desert, caught in an artificial night that obscured the flow of time—somehow it managed to be the perfect recreation of a long lost city, as if someone had taken a scalpel to the part of Mima’s brain that held onto the precious memories of her past life. It was comforting, being back in familiar territory, but it also carried along a pervasive uneasiness. The nostalgia said it was real, but the rational mind knew better than to buy into an impossible mirage—made all the more uneasy by the deathly silence of its streets.
After wandering around for a dozen minutes or more, Mima eventually came to find Yukari in a 24-hour fast food joint. She was sitting, out of her suit and miraculously healed, on a stool that faced the street outside, with her head down and a small pool of drool collecting at the point where the corner of her mouth met the countertop. Renko always said Maribel could fall asleep anywhere.
Mima floated back and forth around the gently snoring form of Yukari for a bit, considering her options. She changed back into her Renko form for a second, and after adjusting her hat a little, she reached over to tap Yukari on the shoulder… but then shied away. Glancing at Yukari, then back to her bag, she rummaged through its bottomless contents and pulled out a whole host of items: hand mirrors, makeup kits, two liter bottles of listerine, mints and peppermint breath spray and assorted beauty products.
She stole a quick glance back at Yukari to make sure she was asleep before going at it—in one go, she dumped every minty product she could into her mouth before swishing the unholy mixture in her mouth. It was not a moment later that she coughed out all of that liquid ice with a retch and a gag. Sheepishly, she turned her head to see if Yukari had woken up in all the commotion. Luckily, she was still knocked out something fierce. Mima might’ve guessed she was dead, if it weren’t for the occasional snore.
Undeterred, she opened a hand mirror and began to apply her makeup. Carefully. There was a subtle art to it—she only needed enough to hide any unsightly blemishes she might’ve gotten from her rather shut-in lifestyle as a ghost. Anything more, and Maribel was bound to notice Mima was purposefully fixing her appearance around her. None of that. Mima was trying for a more subliminal approach… It’s what worked in the past, after all.
Well, upon further thought, Mima figured “worked” was too strong a word. She did die before she saw any results, after all. But enough of that, Mima thought—now that she regained her memories, she’s finally gotten another shot. This being the apocalypse and all, she figured she should probably make it count.
She clicked close her portable hand mirror and, along with the rest of her stuff, threw it back into her field bag. She stole one last glance at Yukari, who was still sleeping soundly, before straightening her hat and clearing her throat.
“Maribel…” she said in a quiet, sing-song voice. She placed a hand on Yukari’s shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. “Maribel, wake up.”
No response. Mima pouted as she shook her around again. “Merry? It’s so scary around here—I need someone super strong and amazing by my side. Maybe we could hold hands?”
Nothing but more snoring. Mima’s expression fell. “... Okay, seriously. Wake up.”
“Don’t make me break out the big guns, Merry,” Mima said, digging through her bag and pulling out an airhorn. “I’ll do it. You think I’m bluffing?”
A tense beat passes. Mima stows away the airhorn. “... Ah, I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t do something like that to you. You’re too cute, hehe.”
“I’m not above this, though.” She reaches back into her bag and pulls out a spray bottle filled with water… before giving Yukari’s face a couple of quick spritzes.
That quiet, tranquil expression to Mima seemed almost a timeless representation of the relationship she shared with Maribel quickly contorted into one of disgust. After a moment of being pelted with spray after spray of water droplets, Yukari finally was roused from her sleep, a squinty, grouchy mess.
“Who..? Urgh…” She mumbled with a groan. When Yukari saw Renko, immaculately constructed before her with enough accuracy to convince her she came straight from her memories, she froze. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “... Renko?”
“Hehe… Yep, it’s me! Your best friend. Best girl-friend, even. That is, a girl who is also a friend. Not a girlfriend, you know? Aha… Unless? Kidding, kidding.” Mima flashed an easy smile. “Glad you’re awake. Hey, before you say anything else—how do I look? I look cute, right? I know we’re in the middle of saving the world and everything, but I’ve actually been spending a lot of time taking care of my appearance.”
As Mima continued to ramble on and Yukari continued to wake up, her expression made a slow and gradual pivot. Where at first Yukari couldn’t hide her bemusement from her face—as well as that strange pained expression someone would have, seeing a loved one they have long since finished mourning appear upon their doorstep—she eventually came to settle on an empty stare and a neutral, apathetic expression. It hurt Mima a little, seeing such a radical turn in her demeanor.
“Oh,” Yukari muttered. “It’s just you.”
Mima didn’t think she intended it, but there was a layer of latent annoyance in her words. Or maybe it was disappointment? A thousand years or more apart did a lot to shift their relationship. That much was clear—and it hurt.
Yukari took a moment to look Mima up and down. With a scoff and a roll of her eyes, she delivered an unceremonious answer. “You look fine.”
Mima sighed in response. “Hey, I’ll take it.”
“More importantly…” As Yukari continued, she craned her neck around to absorb every detail of her surroundings: everything from the light fixtures above to the tables that were so meticulously set and prepared. “... Where are we?”
Her eyes naturally gravitated toward the front counter and the kitchen section that was just behind—meticulously wrapped burgers and fresh fries, set underneath heat lamps… it was as if they were all made recently. But that wasn’t even the strangest detail Yukari’s eyes were able to pick out. Upon one of the tables was a tray, filled with half eaten food—as if the patrons ceased to exist in the middle of their meal. This was beyond a mere liminal space, where it gave the impression of once being a place where people gathered—it was closer in relation to the scene of an ongoing disaster, where people had left in a hurry.
In that way, it didn’t carry much of the surreal quality of a place no longer meant for humans—it more so felt like a place with a cursed history, its sinister and mysterious narrative etched into its skin and flesh through the vestiges of human presence. Mima could tell, being a ghost herself, there was more to this place than the physical construction. As to what ‘more’ was, she could not place.
She could tell Yukari was thinking something similar by the way she walked around and took in the feeling of the place. Her posture was rigid and cautious, but not necessarily ready and waiting for danger. There was a quiet dread to the things that weren’t, but should’ve been.
“I’m trying to figure that out myself,” Mima replied, following Yukari around with her arms folded behind her back. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but… I think we’re back in Tokyo.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy.” Yukari replied. She walked over to the table with the food and traced a finger across its top. No dust clung to the surface of her finger, as if the tabletop had recently been cleaned. She brought the back of her palm close to the food. It was still radiating just a little bit of heat, as if it had been freshly served. “That’s the part that scares me.”
“... Assuming this is all very much real, this must be Koishi’s doing,” Yukari declared, taking a moment to look down at herself. As she flexed her fingers, her eyes narrowed. Mima figured she might’ve just realized she had been healed and mysteriously back to her usual outfit. She still looked younger and weaker than she once was, but there was an undeniable, albeit subtle increase in the vitality she seemed to convey. As Yukari’s eyes wandered to the empty city street outside, Mima couldn’t help but notice that expression—that idle, faraway gaze that looked like Yukari had trapped herself in a vivid daydream. She couldn’t help but realize how much Maribel had changed—and yet stayed the same.
“Whatcha thinking, Merry?” Mima tried, shuffling up to Yukari’s side.
“Yukari.”
“Oh. Right. Ha, that’s my bad. My bad…”
“I’m thinking: why Tokyo specifically?” With a wave of her hand, Yukari opened a gap next to her. Through that little tear in reality was a bird’s eye view of the whole city, as well as the infinite desert that surrounded it. “... There must be some significance to this location, but I couldn’t possibly imagine what it could be. Not right now, knowing what we know.”
“Hey, I grew up in Tokyo, you know? Maybe it has something to do with that? And… y’know, we were teaching in Tokyo before…” Mima gestured vaguely around herself. “... Everything, I guess. Maybe Koishi’s reacting to our memories.”
“Could be. Could just as easily be something related to Koishi. Could be nothing at all.” The view through the gap eventually fizzled out, leaving nothing but the inky blackness of the pocket dimension Yukari held dominion over. She let out a sigh before stitching the gap closed with a wave of her hand. “I’d suggest we keep on moving. Collect as much information as we can about this place. But only what we need—the plan is still largely the same. There’s no telling when she will appear again. Best be as quick about it as we can.”
“Oh. Uh… Alright. That’s cool.”
“... What?”
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong? You disagree?”
“Oh no, ah…” A sheepish grin crawled across Mima’s face. “I was just thinking about how much you’ve changed, is all. It’s just… you know, a huge city missing all of its people is pretty mysterious, huh? Don’t you want to do more exploring? Poke around a bit and take in the sights? Like we used to—just one last time?”
There was an unsettling period of silence where Yukari stared straight through Mima with that flat look. She averted her eyes for a passing moment. When Yukari returned her gaze to Mima, it was steely and cold. “No. Neither of us are kids anymore. We have duties and responsibilities that we can not abandon. Not for anything.”
Yukari brushed past Mima. The gesture wasn’t very rough at all, but Mima felt it come at her hard. As Yukari opened the door, she looked back at Mima and gestured to her to follow.
“Let’s go.”
Orin did not want much from life.
There was Satori, her master, who she cared about deeply. There was Okuu, her best friend, who she loved. There was Koishi, the younger sister of her master, who she felt obligated to take care of. And of course, there was her job of transporting corpses, which she could do endlessly and without tiring. Those things more or less encompassed everything she cared about—Orin was a simple person.
So as she crawled out the emergency hatch located at the top of the ship her master had so recklessly buried into a sand dune, she couldn’t help but feel so hopelessly out of her depth. With a groan, she hoisted herself over the lip of the hatch before losing her balance and tumbling over.
As she tumbled downward, bumping her head against every little edge the ship had on her way down, the visor to her suit cracked and then shattered. But as she flopped down into the warm sand, her arms and legs spread in a state of absolute fatigue, she couldn’t really bring herself to care about the warning tones in her helmet—or the fact she was able to breathe the air here, in what used to be the void. Frankly, all she could think about was how much she wanted to go home.
“Orin! Are you okay?” A familiar voice called from somewhere outside her field of vision. It was followed by the hasty clattering of boots on metal as they no doubt clambered down the ship in a hurry.
All Orin could offer in response was a weak grunt and the extension of a thumbs up.
“Are… are you insane?” Another voice called soon after, all breathless and hoarse. It cracked with exertion, as if it had already been worn out by so much screaming. “Satori, what form of devil possessed you to do that? We could’ve all died!”
Satori, of course, didn’t respond. Not before she entered Orin’s field of view, her own helmet long since thrown away. Her face was etched with a rare look of concern, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw Orin manage a weak smile. Wordlessly, Satori jostled off the smashed helmet from Orin’s suit and brushed away any remaining debris… before pulling her into a tight embrace.
Orin, dazed and shocked from the crash, could manage little else than to rest her head upon her master’s shoulders as she was pulled in. But through whatever stores of energy she had left, she managed to raise her arms and wrap them around in loose reciprocation.
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”
Satori pulled back from the hug, but stayed kneeling by Orin’s side. Cautiously, she looked to the horizon, as if she had caught a vanishing glimpse of something stalking them from behind the shifting sands. She extended an elbow for Orin to grab on to. “Let’s go. Can you stand?”
“I… I think so,” Orin mumbled, hooking one of her arms around Satori’s elbow and placing a hand on her shoulder for support. Her master lifted, and in response Orin tried her best to stumble onto her feet, with mixed results. As she straightened herself out with the help of Satori, she heard her bones shift and crackle in strange ways—followed by an absolute lightning strike of localized pain in the leg and the fuzzy static that came to replace it.
After a sharp intake of breath and a pained wince, Orin settled into a decidedly unconvincing posture—she plastered a smile on her face and shifted all of her weight onto the other leg in a poor imitation of nonchalance, but Satori’s face only got graver. It broke Orin’s heart. For a moment, Orin tried to separate herself from her master so she could stand on her own—but Satori only squeezed her in closer, as if she would’ve lost Orin the second she let go.
That didn’t surprise Orin much. She knew better than anyone that the events one year ago were still fresh in her master’s mind. Even now, it haunted her every action, and now the consequences were starting to catch up with everyone involved. But to Orin, that didn’t matter. It never did—not so long as Satori was her master, and Orin was her pet. Satori could march to the deepest pit of Hell, pick a fight with a God, oppose reality itself… and Orin would march along right beside her, no matter what.
Patchouli, on the other hand, did not share the same sentiment. She marched up to the two, at least temporarily uncaring of the fantastical environment they found themselves in, and went straight to airing out her grievances.
“Recklessly engaging with Toyohime like that, against all better logic… one day, and this day might very well come sooner than you think, your obsession with that cursed woman will hurt someone you care about,” Patchouli snapped. As she looked to Orin, whose body was riddled with evidence of blunt trauma, her expression softened. “... It already has.”
“As if we had any other choice. It was our best shot to kill her, once and for all,” Satori replied, stone-faced and cold. “... Besides, let Orin speak for herself. As if you know what she does and doesn’t wish for.”
“... Orin wasn’t the only person who got hurt. Or killed.”
“It just so happens that Eirin conveniently falls outside my definition of ‘people I care about.’ I fail to see the issue.” Satori snorted with disgust, as if offended by the mere implication. Orin wanted to speak up and cut between the fighting, but couldn’t find the strength to oppose her own master. “That aside, who says I was the one who got her killed? She got herself killed, following her own incomprehensible mess of half-baked ideas and strategies. What are you coming at me for?”
“How could you be so cold toward someone like her? Especially since we were all fighting out there together, as comrades? Have you no shame?”
“I’ve no love for her. Not after what she did to my sister.” Satori stared straight into Patchouli’s eyes. Sometimes her master was like this—staring straight ahead through a person, as if judging the content of their soul itself. Sometimes, this was literally the case, given that she made liberal use of her opened third eye. “We might be fighting beside each other, but we’re fighting for completely different things. Yukari, Eirin, Kaguya, even you and I—we’re all fighting for something different. Those are just the facts. Just as it was a fact that Koakuma had darkness in her heart. It’s that kind of fact.”
“How cynical. Aren’t we friends?”
Satori fixed Patchouli with a steady glare as she thought through her answer. Even with an open eye, Orin found her master’s thought process difficult to parse.
“... No. We aren’t,” Satori settled. “It’s not a secret—I’m fighting to get my sister back. I’m fighting to kill the person who turned her into a monster. I’m fighting to protect my family. You are doing none of those things—you’re fighting for a more abstract reason: protecting the world, or preventing human suffering, or whatever other justification you assign to your actions. It’s admirable, but recognize that It’s only by convenience that we’re here, helping each other out.”
“... Is that right?” Patchouli muttered under her breath. “Then if it came between Yukari, or Eirin, or me, or anyone else… and your family. Who would you choose?”
Silence.
“It’s best to be honest with ourselves. It saves us the heartache.”
“I see.”
In the silence that came after, the atmosphere seemed to become heavier. Orin spent each passing beat being suffocated by the pressure. Her eyes darted from Patchouli to her master, and then back again.
“Er…” Orin started. “Let’s ah… could we just figure out what we’re going to do next, maybe? Without fighting—that would be nice.”
“Good plan, Orin,” Satori said. Though strangely enough, she wouldn’t take her eyes off of Patchouli. “I’m not quite sure what we would do without you.”
Patchouli looked away. Orin couldn’t help but feel vaguely responsible—though the second the thought even popped into mind, Satori squeezed a little tighter, as if in reassurance.
“... There’s no use in arguing,” Patchouli said with a heavy sigh. “Or rather, it’s a subject for later, when we aren’t all in danger. For now, I agree—we should figure out our next steps.”
The guns had long since run quiet.
Those satellites—their powerful bodies forged by the greatest minds, cast in the strongest metals, and mounted with the fiercest weapons humanity could muster—how could they have possibly matched the horror of God’s wrath? They could never, and for their hubris, their bodies and their souls were scattered and broken as a million glittering lights upon the ocean.
Those were the kinds of things Kaguya Houraisan thought about as she sat beside a flickering fire, her only source of light deep in the darkness of a desert night, not a few meters from the turned and battered wreckage of the CNS Beyond the Sun. In the void, It was battered by unseen force, turned three times—and upon the fourth, struck down and consumed by the void, as was the divine will of God. To its crew, it might have seemed like nothing less than a castigation of divine nature—but Kaguya knew it was nothing more than the temper tantrum of a child. As infant children must necessarily cry, Koishi must necessarily kill—it was her unconscious will.
Woe upon humanity, as its greatest accomplishment was brought low and made worthless before a child. Her own child. What a dubious honor it was—being the mother of such a terrifying, omnipresent killer.
Kaguya was on the ship when it was attacked by Toyohime. She was there to see Eirin march on to meet her. And she was there to see her die. It didn’t bother Kaguya too much—after all, she had watched Eirin die countless times. She will likely watch her die countless more, before all is said and done. But it was there, seized by the temporary shock, that Kaguya lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was deep within the fresh wreckage of humanity’s greatest weapon—alone. On what happened to her crew, and why Kaguya was spared, she could only make guesses.
With no direction and no plan, Kaguya spent what felt like hours wandering the claustrophobic halls of that great metal cage of a ship. But she was alone. Alone in such a way that not even the impression of humanity remained. Even the spot where she saw three men become atomized by Toyohime’s attack, which had burnt dark impressions of their silhouettes into the steel, was mysteriously void of any sign they were killed at all. The damage remained, but the people were gone—erased from existence in a way only God could manage.
When she eventually emerged from the dark recesses of the ship into a darker night, with nothing but the stars above and the inexplicable ground below, she could do nothing but start a simple fire. The night was cold, and she had a feeling it would be long. Warmth would be needed.
This, alone and huddled by a dying fire, must have been the end. Kaguya shifted closer to the flame, and held her knees closer to her chest. She didn’t know what to do. When her own daughter had sought her out, she didn’t know what to say. All she could do was recognize—that in pursuit of an easy life, she had made things so much worse. She wondered if it was too late to make things right between herself and Koishi. If Kaguya had looked up to her daughter now, and said sorry, would she hear? Would she care?
She wasn’t sure. And she wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out.
As she stared at the stars above, Kaguya heard the shuffling of boots displacing the sand. The sounds came in an irregular, halting motion. When it came to a stop, Kaguya lowered her gaze to the figure who stood at the edge of her fire’s light.
A moon rabbit in a pilot suit, all ripped up, tattered, and blackened by combat. In the gaps of her suit, her skin had melted away from severe burns—and froze in place, creating large patches of gangrenous tissue that covered her body. As Kaguya’s eyes drifted downward, she noticed a patch of body that had a view to the other side. Somehow, by some miracle of medicine, the wound remained stable and closed.
Her face was concealed by her helmet, tinted and patterned by a spider web of cracks, but by the way she stood, so still and lopsided, Kaguya had the impression of an empty gaze just behind the facade.
The moon rabbit carried in her left hand a revolver, its chambers empty and on display as the mechanism that connected the grip to the top half of the hung loose. In her other hand, was an ax, splintered in half at the handle from excessive use and its blade caked in a thick layer of blood.
Without a word, the moon rabbit collapsed into a heap by the fire.
Kaguya rushed to the moon rabbit’s side and, upon removing her helmet, froze.
Atonement—she wondered if it was even possible.
Previous Chapter:
Interim Chapter 11
submitted by Sevchenko874 to touhou [link] [comments]
When you died and were reborn, you became divine. You were love, and you were violence, and you were my miracle. A God sprung forth from the decaying machinery of your broken body. Koishi, the God of Love and Hate—have mercy on us all.
Down by the shore of one of the great Lunar seas, there sat a lonely shack thatched with feathers. Inside, there was a massive wani no less than eight leagues long… and her infant son. To that crocodile who had never known true familial love, that delicate little child—who cooed and smiled at his mother’s every move—was nothing less than a miracle. Such a delicate life in her claws, who knew nothing but unconditional love for his mother—to the crocodile, it was proof there was still good in the world.
She was tired, but the crocodile forced herself to stay awake. There was something she needed to do—a memory she wanted to share with the most important person in her life.
So, with all the caution and tenderness in the world, she picked up her child with her jaws and coaxed him into her throat pouch. The newborn child, perhaps having some shared instinct with his crocodilian mother, did not cry or struggle. Instead, he let out a giggle as he poked his head out from between his mother’s jagged teeth. With a snort, the dragon climbed out of her thatch hut, and crawled along the shore, drawing a meandering trail in the sand as she went.
When she reached the point where the water came to shore in gentle waves, the crocodile set herself down in the sand, letting the waves wash in and lick at her child in gentle sprays. Her child giggled as the Lunar sea’s tickled him with its pure waters, and as he did, his mother couldn’t help but feel at peace.
Nothing. Nothing at all would be able to take this from her.
Her miracle.
She flexed her fingers, and instead of feeling the cold steel of the ship she started to tear apart, she felt so many tiny pebbles, warmed by their time in the sun. Sand? She brought a fistful of the stuff into her vision, before letting it fall through her fingers and run down her face. It was too real to be a dream.
Toyohime sat up to observe her surroundings. As far as the eye could see, there were infinite stretches of sand collected into wind-swept dunes that obscured the horizon. It was hot. Unbelievably so for what was supposedly the void. She felt a gentle gust of warm wind pass by her and toss her hair. This place… this impossible place… was she dead?
She rose to her feet, fighting biting aches and pains from her battle not too long ago. No—not dead. Somehow, she had survived—there was no other explanation. And as she looked down to assess the damage she had taken, her suspicions were only confirmed. Her right arm was missing, and in its place was nothing but a healed stump. The nasty cuts and bruises she had received in the fighting had all healed over for the most part, the only evidence they happened at all being residual scars that were yet to disappear. The ground was covered in dried blood. She must’ve been laying here in this sand trap for hours.
She brought her free arm, completely healed, up to the general space where her right eye was to find an arrow still protruding from it. Wrapping her fingers around the shaft, Toyohime tore it out in a fluid motion, causing the wound to reopen and drip blood onto the sands below. But, through some miraculous action, it was mere moments before the flow of blood stopped as the wound healed shut. Her right eye was still inoperable, but this healing ability was downright uncanny, even for a god.
She flexed her fingers. It felt like there was a hole in her head from which memories and feelings poured out. The mystery of how she got here, who she killed, and whether she could even trust her own senses had no answer—Toyohime knew she herself had made sure of that. She supposed there was a good reason. The less she knew, the better. That was something she could trick herself into believing.
Though no matter how much she forced herself to forget, she had the horrible feeling she had done something unforgivable—something she would kill over. In a sea of atrocities however, she could hardly even begin to suppose what that might have been. Maybe the heat was starting to fry her brain.
After spending a few minutes snapping the arrows lodged in her body by their shafts, Toyohime looked to the horizon, and then up. Ahead, there was a massive sand dune, no less than five times her height, and beyond the crest—a black pillar of smoke. Toyohime was not alone.
As she made her way up the shifting incline, Toyohime got to thinking about her next course of action. If this wasn’t a hallucination, then it most certainly had to be some extension of Koishi's will. Land in an impossible space… the creation of something impossible like that could only be a factor of a deteriorating mind, or God. And Toyohime had no time to consider the possibility of a crumbling psyche—not when she had a duty left unfulfilled.
But then… that would mean this was the paradise of Koishi’s mind. Surely, by her side is where she would find her salvation. She had already come to terms with it—that there was nothing left for her in the old world. Koishi could pervert and corrupt reality in whatever twisted ways she wanted—as long as it was the creation of her heart, it would be sufficient. Everything beyond that was not worth saving to the former princess.
… But that also meant there would be more enemies. More people she had to kill. She was ready. Ready to kill and ready to die in the name of love.
And as she planted her boot upon the peak of that sand dune, she saw the whole world become bare before her. A fair distance away was the crashed wreck of a golden ship, releasing plumes of black smoke as it burnt away. From this distance, it was difficult to make out any finer details, but she was sure the occupants had escaped. Satori was resourceful and stubborn, if nothing else. Dying in a crash was an impossibility.
She then traced a line from the ship through the shifting sands—to a city upon the horizon. Massive towers of glass and steel pushing against the sky, half buried in the sand, bending light around them as they reflected the intense heat of the sun. It gave the sight an unnatural fuzziness, as if the city was threatening to disappear at any moment.
As she traced the decaying visage of those buildings upwards, she saw a thin line reach beyond and into the sky. The line separated into two before converging back on itself. Above the city, etched upon the sky itself, was a pitch black gap in reality, opened and filled with so many eyes. And above still, the object of Toyohime’s desires and her sole driving factor—Koishi Komeiji.
Though the God’s eye was open, as well as the myriad collection of smaller eyes and drooling jaws that had lined every square inch of her squirming appendages, it was hard to tell if she was awake or conscious. Toyohime knew Koishi best, and if she had any guess as to what Koishi had been doing in the time they spent apart, it was receding back into the numbing comfort of her own mind. Even now, Toyohime figured she was still dreaming, avoiding the cruel weight of her responsibility. What manifested outside of her mind must’ve been some sort of twisted runoff.
Down there, hidden in the dunes, Toyohime knew there were those who would take this dream from Koishi. Those who would hurt Koishi. Those people would’ve done just as well to dig their own graves and build their own coffins. Because so long as Toyohime drew breath, she would protect Koishi with everything she could muster—that was her promise and the nature of her impossible, unconditional love.
Koishi was Toyohime’s second chance.
This time, one way or another, there would be no opportunity for a third.
She had not suffered any fatal wounds or debilitating strikes leading up to the point where the reality around her started to crumble and distort—but she had briefly lost consciousness regardless. She figured that might’ve been a good thing; an action so absurd and so against everything she knew, perpetrated by an impossibly powerful being… even if a mere glimpse didn’t physically tear her mind to ribbons, she had no interest in trying to understand such a nonsensical event.
Mima awoke not in a desert, but in a grand sprawling city of seemingly human construction. Though the sun still hung overhead, the impossible hills and mountains of sand that caged the city in, always seemed to shift and move in the most calculated way… such that the sun was always put out. Caught in the shade, the city looked like it was in a perpetual night, in spite of the blinding yellow of the endless desert just beyond its limits.
Though that was the case, the city was far from dark. Street lamps, blinding neon signs, blinking traffic lights, apartments and houses with windows illuminated by the fluorescent lights within… It gave the impression the city was alive. It seemed exactly as a real bustling city at night, with its breathing and blinking—but there were no people. No matter how far Mima walked, no matter how many buildings she popped in, she would encounter no souls. She would find, in those buildings, immaculate setpieces filled with lived-in charm, hints and implications of life—but not people. Not even Yukari, who she wandered the streets in search of.
She recognized this place. This city—Tokyo. It couldn’t have possibly been, but it was the same Tokyo she grew up in, back before the Moonlight Descent and before the Kaiju. Before her chance meeting with the youkai who used to be her friend. This city, trapped in the middle of the desert, caught in an artificial night that obscured the flow of time—somehow it managed to be the perfect recreation of a long lost city, as if someone had taken a scalpel to the part of Mima’s brain that held onto the precious memories of her past life. It was comforting, being back in familiar territory, but it also carried along a pervasive uneasiness. The nostalgia said it was real, but the rational mind knew better than to buy into an impossible mirage—made all the more uneasy by the deathly silence of its streets.
After wandering around for a dozen minutes or more, Mima eventually came to find Yukari in a 24-hour fast food joint. She was sitting, out of her suit and miraculously healed, on a stool that faced the street outside, with her head down and a small pool of drool collecting at the point where the corner of her mouth met the countertop. Renko always said Maribel could fall asleep anywhere.
Mima floated back and forth around the gently snoring form of Yukari for a bit, considering her options. She changed back into her Renko form for a second, and after adjusting her hat a little, she reached over to tap Yukari on the shoulder… but then shied away. Glancing at Yukari, then back to her bag, she rummaged through its bottomless contents and pulled out a whole host of items: hand mirrors, makeup kits, two liter bottles of listerine, mints and peppermint breath spray and assorted beauty products.
She stole a quick glance back at Yukari to make sure she was asleep before going at it—in one go, she dumped every minty product she could into her mouth before swishing the unholy mixture in her mouth. It was not a moment later that she coughed out all of that liquid ice with a retch and a gag. Sheepishly, she turned her head to see if Yukari had woken up in all the commotion. Luckily, she was still knocked out something fierce. Mima might’ve guessed she was dead, if it weren’t for the occasional snore.
Undeterred, she opened a hand mirror and began to apply her makeup. Carefully. There was a subtle art to it—she only needed enough to hide any unsightly blemishes she might’ve gotten from her rather shut-in lifestyle as a ghost. Anything more, and Maribel was bound to notice Mima was purposefully fixing her appearance around her. None of that. Mima was trying for a more subliminal approach… It’s what worked in the past, after all.
Well, upon further thought, Mima figured “worked” was too strong a word. She did die before she saw any results, after all. But enough of that, Mima thought—now that she regained her memories, she’s finally gotten another shot. This being the apocalypse and all, she figured she should probably make it count.
She clicked close her portable hand mirror and, along with the rest of her stuff, threw it back into her field bag. She stole one last glance at Yukari, who was still sleeping soundly, before straightening her hat and clearing her throat.
“Maribel…” she said in a quiet, sing-song voice. She placed a hand on Yukari’s shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. “Maribel, wake up.”
No response. Mima pouted as she shook her around again. “Merry? It’s so scary around here—I need someone super strong and amazing by my side. Maybe we could hold hands?”
Nothing but more snoring. Mima’s expression fell. “... Okay, seriously. Wake up.”
“Don’t make me break out the big guns, Merry,” Mima said, digging through her bag and pulling out an airhorn. “I’ll do it. You think I’m bluffing?”
A tense beat passes. Mima stows away the airhorn. “... Ah, I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t do something like that to you. You’re too cute, hehe.”
“I’m not above this, though.” She reaches back into her bag and pulls out a spray bottle filled with water… before giving Yukari’s face a couple of quick spritzes.
That quiet, tranquil expression to Mima seemed almost a timeless representation of the relationship she shared with Maribel quickly contorted into one of disgust. After a moment of being pelted with spray after spray of water droplets, Yukari finally was roused from her sleep, a squinty, grouchy mess.
“Who..? Urgh…” She mumbled with a groan. When Yukari saw Renko, immaculately constructed before her with enough accuracy to convince her she came straight from her memories, she froze. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “... Renko?”
“Hehe… Yep, it’s me! Your best friend. Best girl-friend, even. That is, a girl who is also a friend. Not a girlfriend, you know? Aha… Unless? Kidding, kidding.” Mima flashed an easy smile. “Glad you’re awake. Hey, before you say anything else—how do I look? I look cute, right? I know we’re in the middle of saving the world and everything, but I’ve actually been spending a lot of time taking care of my appearance.”
As Mima continued to ramble on and Yukari continued to wake up, her expression made a slow and gradual pivot. Where at first Yukari couldn’t hide her bemusement from her face—as well as that strange pained expression someone would have, seeing a loved one they have long since finished mourning appear upon their doorstep—she eventually came to settle on an empty stare and a neutral, apathetic expression. It hurt Mima a little, seeing such a radical turn in her demeanor.
“Oh,” Yukari muttered. “It’s just you.”
Mima didn’t think she intended it, but there was a layer of latent annoyance in her words. Or maybe it was disappointment? A thousand years or more apart did a lot to shift their relationship. That much was clear—and it hurt.
Yukari took a moment to look Mima up and down. With a scoff and a roll of her eyes, she delivered an unceremonious answer. “You look fine.”
Mima sighed in response. “Hey, I’ll take it.”
“More importantly…” As Yukari continued, she craned her neck around to absorb every detail of her surroundings: everything from the light fixtures above to the tables that were so meticulously set and prepared. “... Where are we?”
Her eyes naturally gravitated toward the front counter and the kitchen section that was just behind—meticulously wrapped burgers and fresh fries, set underneath heat lamps… it was as if they were all made recently. But that wasn’t even the strangest detail Yukari’s eyes were able to pick out. Upon one of the tables was a tray, filled with half eaten food—as if the patrons ceased to exist in the middle of their meal. This was beyond a mere liminal space, where it gave the impression of once being a place where people gathered—it was closer in relation to the scene of an ongoing disaster, where people had left in a hurry.
In that way, it didn’t carry much of the surreal quality of a place no longer meant for humans—it more so felt like a place with a cursed history, its sinister and mysterious narrative etched into its skin and flesh through the vestiges of human presence. Mima could tell, being a ghost herself, there was more to this place than the physical construction. As to what ‘more’ was, she could not place.
She could tell Yukari was thinking something similar by the way she walked around and took in the feeling of the place. Her posture was rigid and cautious, but not necessarily ready and waiting for danger. There was a quiet dread to the things that weren’t, but should’ve been.
“I’m trying to figure that out myself,” Mima replied, following Yukari around with her arms folded behind her back. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but… I think we’re back in Tokyo.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy.” Yukari replied. She walked over to the table with the food and traced a finger across its top. No dust clung to the surface of her finger, as if the tabletop had recently been cleaned. She brought the back of her palm close to the food. It was still radiating just a little bit of heat, as if it had been freshly served. “That’s the part that scares me.”
“... Assuming this is all very much real, this must be Koishi’s doing,” Yukari declared, taking a moment to look down at herself. As she flexed her fingers, her eyes narrowed. Mima figured she might’ve just realized she had been healed and mysteriously back to her usual outfit. She still looked younger and weaker than she once was, but there was an undeniable, albeit subtle increase in the vitality she seemed to convey. As Yukari’s eyes wandered to the empty city street outside, Mima couldn’t help but notice that expression—that idle, faraway gaze that looked like Yukari had trapped herself in a vivid daydream. She couldn’t help but realize how much Maribel had changed—and yet stayed the same.
“Whatcha thinking, Merry?” Mima tried, shuffling up to Yukari’s side.
“Yukari.”
“Oh. Right. Ha, that’s my bad. My bad…”
“I’m thinking: why Tokyo specifically?” With a wave of her hand, Yukari opened a gap next to her. Through that little tear in reality was a bird’s eye view of the whole city, as well as the infinite desert that surrounded it. “... There must be some significance to this location, but I couldn’t possibly imagine what it could be. Not right now, knowing what we know.”
“Hey, I grew up in Tokyo, you know? Maybe it has something to do with that? And… y’know, we were teaching in Tokyo before…” Mima gestured vaguely around herself. “... Everything, I guess. Maybe Koishi’s reacting to our memories.”
“Could be. Could just as easily be something related to Koishi. Could be nothing at all.” The view through the gap eventually fizzled out, leaving nothing but the inky blackness of the pocket dimension Yukari held dominion over. She let out a sigh before stitching the gap closed with a wave of her hand. “I’d suggest we keep on moving. Collect as much information as we can about this place. But only what we need—the plan is still largely the same. There’s no telling when she will appear again. Best be as quick about it as we can.”
“Oh. Uh… Alright. That’s cool.”
“... What?”
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong? You disagree?”
“Oh no, ah…” A sheepish grin crawled across Mima’s face. “I was just thinking about how much you’ve changed, is all. It’s just… you know, a huge city missing all of its people is pretty mysterious, huh? Don’t you want to do more exploring? Poke around a bit and take in the sights? Like we used to—just one last time?”
There was an unsettling period of silence where Yukari stared straight through Mima with that flat look. She averted her eyes for a passing moment. When Yukari returned her gaze to Mima, it was steely and cold. “No. Neither of us are kids anymore. We have duties and responsibilities that we can not abandon. Not for anything.”
Yukari brushed past Mima. The gesture wasn’t very rough at all, but Mima felt it come at her hard. As Yukari opened the door, she looked back at Mima and gestured to her to follow.
“Let’s go.”
There was Satori, her master, who she cared about deeply. There was Okuu, her best friend, who she loved. There was Koishi, the younger sister of her master, who she felt obligated to take care of. And of course, there was her job of transporting corpses, which she could do endlessly and without tiring. Those things more or less encompassed everything she cared about—Orin was a simple person.
So as she crawled out the emergency hatch located at the top of the ship her master had so recklessly buried into a sand dune, she couldn’t help but feel so hopelessly out of her depth. With a groan, she hoisted herself over the lip of the hatch before losing her balance and tumbling over.
As she tumbled downward, bumping her head against every little edge the ship had on her way down, the visor to her suit cracked and then shattered. But as she flopped down into the warm sand, her arms and legs spread in a state of absolute fatigue, she couldn’t really bring herself to care about the warning tones in her helmet—or the fact she was able to breathe the air here, in what used to be the void. Frankly, all she could think about was how much she wanted to go home.
“Orin! Are you okay?” A familiar voice called from somewhere outside her field of vision. It was followed by the hasty clattering of boots on metal as they no doubt clambered down the ship in a hurry.
All Orin could offer in response was a weak grunt and the extension of a thumbs up.
“Are… are you insane?” Another voice called soon after, all breathless and hoarse. It cracked with exertion, as if it had already been worn out by so much screaming. “Satori, what form of devil possessed you to do that? We could’ve all died!”
Satori, of course, didn’t respond. Not before she entered Orin’s field of view, her own helmet long since thrown away. Her face was etched with a rare look of concern, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw Orin manage a weak smile. Wordlessly, Satori jostled off the smashed helmet from Orin’s suit and brushed away any remaining debris… before pulling her into a tight embrace.
Orin, dazed and shocked from the crash, could manage little else than to rest her head upon her master’s shoulders as she was pulled in. But through whatever stores of energy she had left, she managed to raise her arms and wrap them around in loose reciprocation.
“I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”
Satori pulled back from the hug, but stayed kneeling by Orin’s side. Cautiously, she looked to the horizon, as if she had caught a vanishing glimpse of something stalking them from behind the shifting sands. She extended an elbow for Orin to grab on to. “Let’s go. Can you stand?”
“I… I think so,” Orin mumbled, hooking one of her arms around Satori’s elbow and placing a hand on her shoulder for support. Her master lifted, and in response Orin tried her best to stumble onto her feet, with mixed results. As she straightened herself out with the help of Satori, she heard her bones shift and crackle in strange ways—followed by an absolute lightning strike of localized pain in the leg and the fuzzy static that came to replace it.
After a sharp intake of breath and a pained wince, Orin settled into a decidedly unconvincing posture—she plastered a smile on her face and shifted all of her weight onto the other leg in a poor imitation of nonchalance, but Satori’s face only got graver. It broke Orin’s heart. For a moment, Orin tried to separate herself from her master so she could stand on her own—but Satori only squeezed her in closer, as if she would’ve lost Orin the second she let go.
That didn’t surprise Orin much. She knew better than anyone that the events one year ago were still fresh in her master’s mind. Even now, it haunted her every action, and now the consequences were starting to catch up with everyone involved. But to Orin, that didn’t matter. It never did—not so long as Satori was her master, and Orin was her pet. Satori could march to the deepest pit of Hell, pick a fight with a God, oppose reality itself… and Orin would march along right beside her, no matter what.
Patchouli, on the other hand, did not share the same sentiment. She marched up to the two, at least temporarily uncaring of the fantastical environment they found themselves in, and went straight to airing out her grievances.
“Recklessly engaging with Toyohime like that, against all better logic… one day, and this day might very well come sooner than you think, your obsession with that cursed woman will hurt someone you care about,” Patchouli snapped. As she looked to Orin, whose body was riddled with evidence of blunt trauma, her expression softened. “... It already has.”
“As if we had any other choice. It was our best shot to kill her, once and for all,” Satori replied, stone-faced and cold. “... Besides, let Orin speak for herself. As if you know what she does and doesn’t wish for.”
“... Orin wasn’t the only person who got hurt. Or killed.”
“It just so happens that Eirin conveniently falls outside my definition of ‘people I care about.’ I fail to see the issue.” Satori snorted with disgust, as if offended by the mere implication. Orin wanted to speak up and cut between the fighting, but couldn’t find the strength to oppose her own master. “That aside, who says I was the one who got her killed? She got herself killed, following her own incomprehensible mess of half-baked ideas and strategies. What are you coming at me for?”
“How could you be so cold toward someone like her? Especially since we were all fighting out there together, as comrades? Have you no shame?”
“I’ve no love for her. Not after what she did to my sister.” Satori stared straight into Patchouli’s eyes. Sometimes her master was like this—staring straight ahead through a person, as if judging the content of their soul itself. Sometimes, this was literally the case, given that she made liberal use of her opened third eye. “We might be fighting beside each other, but we’re fighting for completely different things. Yukari, Eirin, Kaguya, even you and I—we’re all fighting for something different. Those are just the facts. Just as it was a fact that Koakuma had darkness in her heart. It’s that kind of fact.”
“How cynical. Aren’t we friends?”
Satori fixed Patchouli with a steady glare as she thought through her answer. Even with an open eye, Orin found her master’s thought process difficult to parse.
“... No. We aren’t,” Satori settled. “It’s not a secret—I’m fighting to get my sister back. I’m fighting to kill the person who turned her into a monster. I’m fighting to protect my family. You are doing none of those things—you’re fighting for a more abstract reason: protecting the world, or preventing human suffering, or whatever other justification you assign to your actions. It’s admirable, but recognize that It’s only by convenience that we’re here, helping each other out.”
“... Is that right?” Patchouli muttered under her breath. “Then if it came between Yukari, or Eirin, or me, or anyone else… and your family. Who would you choose?”
Silence.
“It’s best to be honest with ourselves. It saves us the heartache.”
“I see.”
In the silence that came after, the atmosphere seemed to become heavier. Orin spent each passing beat being suffocated by the pressure. Her eyes darted from Patchouli to her master, and then back again.
“Er…” Orin started. “Let’s ah… could we just figure out what we’re going to do next, maybe? Without fighting—that would be nice.”
“Good plan, Orin,” Satori said. Though strangely enough, she wouldn’t take her eyes off of Patchouli. “I’m not quite sure what we would do without you.”
Patchouli looked away. Orin couldn’t help but feel vaguely responsible—though the second the thought even popped into mind, Satori squeezed a little tighter, as if in reassurance.
“... There’s no use in arguing,” Patchouli said with a heavy sigh. “Or rather, it’s a subject for later, when we aren’t all in danger. For now, I agree—we should figure out our next steps.”
Those satellites—their powerful bodies forged by the greatest minds, cast in the strongest metals, and mounted with the fiercest weapons humanity could muster—how could they have possibly matched the horror of God’s wrath? They could never, and for their hubris, their bodies and their souls were scattered and broken as a million glittering lights upon the ocean.
Those were the kinds of things Kaguya Houraisan thought about as she sat beside a flickering fire, her only source of light deep in the darkness of a desert night, not a few meters from the turned and battered wreckage of the CNS Beyond the Sun. In the void, It was battered by unseen force, turned three times—and upon the fourth, struck down and consumed by the void, as was the divine will of God. To its crew, it might have seemed like nothing less than a castigation of divine nature—but Kaguya knew it was nothing more than the temper tantrum of a child. As infant children must necessarily cry, Koishi must necessarily kill—it was her unconscious will.
Woe upon humanity, as its greatest accomplishment was brought low and made worthless before a child. Her own child. What a dubious honor it was—being the mother of such a terrifying, omnipresent killer.
Kaguya was on the ship when it was attacked by Toyohime. She was there to see Eirin march on to meet her. And she was there to see her die. It didn’t bother Kaguya too much—after all, she had watched Eirin die countless times. She will likely watch her die countless more, before all is said and done. But it was there, seized by the temporary shock, that Kaguya lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was deep within the fresh wreckage of humanity’s greatest weapon—alone. On what happened to her crew, and why Kaguya was spared, she could only make guesses.
With no direction and no plan, Kaguya spent what felt like hours wandering the claustrophobic halls of that great metal cage of a ship. But she was alone. Alone in such a way that not even the impression of humanity remained. Even the spot where she saw three men become atomized by Toyohime’s attack, which had burnt dark impressions of their silhouettes into the steel, was mysteriously void of any sign they were killed at all. The damage remained, but the people were gone—erased from existence in a way only God could manage.
When she eventually emerged from the dark recesses of the ship into a darker night, with nothing but the stars above and the inexplicable ground below, she could do nothing but start a simple fire. The night was cold, and she had a feeling it would be long. Warmth would be needed.
This, alone and huddled by a dying fire, must have been the end. Kaguya shifted closer to the flame, and held her knees closer to her chest. She didn’t know what to do. When her own daughter had sought her out, she didn’t know what to say. All she could do was recognize—that in pursuit of an easy life, she had made things so much worse. She wondered if it was too late to make things right between herself and Koishi. If Kaguya had looked up to her daughter now, and said sorry, would she hear? Would she care?
She wasn’t sure. And she wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out.
As she stared at the stars above, Kaguya heard the shuffling of boots displacing the sand. The sounds came in an irregular, halting motion. When it came to a stop, Kaguya lowered her gaze to the figure who stood at the edge of her fire’s light.
A moon rabbit in a pilot suit, all ripped up, tattered, and blackened by combat. In the gaps of her suit, her skin had melted away from severe burns—and froze in place, creating large patches of gangrenous tissue that covered her body. As Kaguya’s eyes drifted downward, she noticed a patch of body that had a view to the other side. Somehow, by some miracle of medicine, the wound remained stable and closed.
Her face was concealed by her helmet, tinted and patterned by a spider web of cracks, but by the way she stood, so still and lopsided, Kaguya had the impression of an empty gaze just behind the facade.
The moon rabbit carried in her left hand a revolver, its chambers empty and on display as the mechanism that connected the grip to the top half of the hung loose. In her other hand, was an ax, splintered in half at the handle from excessive use and its blade caked in a thick layer of blood.
Without a word, the moon rabbit collapsed into a heap by the fire.
Kaguya rushed to the moon rabbit’s side and, upon removing her helmet, froze.
Atonement—she wondered if it was even possible.
Interim Chapter 11
2023.03.22 06:47 seedling-ghostling Healing through reflection bursts
I've become numb to simple pleasures of life as if I have lost my awe and wonder and have forgotten to be grateful. I had an unstable upbringing, always moving around with my mum to reside at her temporary boyfriends houses to stay away from home with dad (who I now feel deeply empathetic towards). I grew up in a third world country, where my mum is from - my dad is a foreigner. My mum knew there wasn't much for me in this small town... (I was the only "white/mixed" kid in school. She has always been free spirited maybe sometimes a bit too much where she isn't really my mum, but more of a friend.. My family were very broke..I remember debt collectors would come knocking on our doors with death threats..She knew I always wanted to live in the country my dad was from..Cleaner environment, public transport, free healthcare and maybe I can make some friends. So we left.. I remember calling my dad on the phone while I was at the airport telling him mum and I weren't coming home.... My mum and I stayed at her sisters tiny unit (my aunt). It was a 2 bedroom, with my aunt and her partner and her two kids. Mum and I would sleep in the same bed on the floor of the kids room until I could get a part-time job and move into a sharehouse (I was 15 at this point) I was enrolled into highscool, would work after work and on weekends just to make ends meet, and was able to get into a sharehouse with my own room. My mum had to go back to her country due to financial and visa issues. And I've been on my own since. I loved making friends, but it was hard for me to accept that the people I met here were born here, or grew up here. And they had family homes, and pets and stable finances and connections. So my friends focus was purely on what they wanted to do and who to be. I never told anyone about how envious I was, it's hard to admit to say I was envious but I was definitely hurt. "Why not me". Friendships became harder to maintain when people wanted to go to the beach or the next party but I was always working just to keep a roof over my head or food on my plate. Or even, send my mum a little bit of money because she couldn't make ends meet back in her country... At 17, I was introduced to drugs. And I lost control. It took away all my stresses, I felt free.. Eventually the escape was all I wanted.. I stopped going to school. I stopped going to work.. I got evicted.. I couch surfed at a few peoples places that did drugs..I started stealing for clothes..and for coins I would find to buy more drugs because I couldn't come to terms with how my life was heading. Then, I took 2CI - a synthetic LSD with a group of people I didn't really know. I went into psychosis.. And couldn't come out of it.. I would get emails from my mum and dad asking whats happening where am I why am I not responding. My aunt must have called the police on me, as they rocked up to my friends place looking for me. I ignored it all. Finally I reached out and said..I need help, I need to come home. And dear god, there must be something out there protecting me or the mind can work in really mysterious ways. I managed to get on a flight back home with borrowed money. I was exteremly underweight and didnt have nice clothes. My mum was horrified. My mind eventually couldn't come to terms with how everything has turned out and I lost it.. I remember waking up in hospital and asking what the date was.. 3 months had passed. I was diagnosed of schizrophrenia, bipolar 2, psychosis
submitted by seedling-ghostling to u/seedling-ghostling [link] [comments]
2023.03.22 06:45 Pickle2Armadillo University violated lease agreement. What should my roommate and I do?
My roommate and I (both female) are first year students at a canadian university. Yesterday at approximately 1pm, two men who said that they were working for our dorm residence unlocked our door and walked in (without notice) while we were asleep in bed. There reasoning was that they “needed pictures of our kitchenet for another rooms renovation.” This is a but TMI but pertinent to the story, but my roommate and I were both in our underwear and bra taking a nap (we are pretty comfortable with one another, but regardless we were not in clothing we would want strangers to see us in). Both of us heard a loud knock and before we could get up and check, were shocked to hear that there were people inside of our dorms main room. We were lucky that we were in the bedroom, however, that does not mean that we felt safe. What if one of us were in our undergarments grabbing a cup of water when the guys were there? Both of us felt extremely unsafe and just utterly shocked.
Upon reviewing the residence agreement on our University website, we read that this act was in violation of the agreement. Within the agreement it states that “Notice may not be possible in the following cases: a) an emergency b) a threatening situation c) belief that the room has been abandoned or vacated, or d) belief that a violation of this agreement, a university policy or procedure or a violation of law is occurring.” And that any other circumstance requires a 24-hour notice of entry. None of the above reasons were stated to us and a simple “we need a picture for another room” should not be enough to enter our living space without a written notice 24 hours in advance.
Both of us talked to our parents about it, and as both of us our far away from home for school, we both felt extremely unsafe and scared. Our parents agree that we should talk to the university about this. My roommate and i deserve to have a place we feel free and safe in. What should we do? Please help and advice is appreciated. Thank you.
submitted by Pickle2Armadillo to legaladvicecanada [link] [comments]
Upon reviewing the residence agreement on our University website, we read that this act was in violation of the agreement. Within the agreement it states that “Notice may not be possible in the following cases: a) an emergency b) a threatening situation c) belief that the room has been abandoned or vacated, or d) belief that a violation of this agreement, a university policy or procedure or a violation of law is occurring.” And that any other circumstance requires a 24-hour notice of entry. None of the above reasons were stated to us and a simple “we need a picture for another room” should not be enough to enter our living space without a written notice 24 hours in advance.
Both of us talked to our parents about it, and as both of us our far away from home for school, we both felt extremely unsafe and scared. Our parents agree that we should talk to the university about this. My roommate and i deserve to have a place we feel free and safe in. What should we do? Please help and advice is appreciated. Thank you.
2023.03.22 06:32 inyofacemf How do I convince my parents to let me study UG abroad?
My_qualifications - passed 12th this year
1 have my profile I have my options I know what I want to study and where and how to get there but what I do not know is how to convince my parents to let me leave.
One year ago for 4 years my parents were convinced and were ready to let me go abroad. In fact in 11th grade my dad applied for his work visa, he was going to shift to the USA with me and we were looking at multiple colleges, deciding when to take ielts and sat. Last year this time he changed his mind said he didn’t want to go through with his visa and wanted to stay here.
I was devastated because this put me back in the engineering entrances rat race here and I had to catch up with everyone else which I really struggled to do.
He’s not willing to send me because he feels I’m not ready for it and it’ll be hard without any family there. I personally think he’s spoken to a lot of people who sent their kids abroad and heard they’re struggling or heard something negative I don’t know but I know that whatever it is has influenced him against the idea of undergrad abroad.
I do have family there now, my first cousins who I grew up with shifted there for work so it’s not like I’ll fully be alone. I’m fully aware of the challenges I’ll face there and I know myself, I’m ready for it.
I’m really lost on how to convince him, I know my opportunities are better met abroad than in India and I know money is not the issue.
I don’t know how else to convince him and I fear that any way I do will end up with us fighting. Everytime I try to go to him and tell him I can’t do something he gets mad because he thinks that I think I know better than him but I don’t.
I only what is better for me and he does not see that. I’m open to any kind of solutions thank you for reading till here.
TLDR - dad’s mind fully changed on me studying UG abroad and I don’t know how to convince him now
submitted by inyofacemf to Indians_StudyAbroad [link] [comments]
1 have my profile I have my options I know what I want to study and where and how to get there but what I do not know is how to convince my parents to let me leave.
One year ago for 4 years my parents were convinced and were ready to let me go abroad. In fact in 11th grade my dad applied for his work visa, he was going to shift to the USA with me and we were looking at multiple colleges, deciding when to take ielts and sat. Last year this time he changed his mind said he didn’t want to go through with his visa and wanted to stay here.
I was devastated because this put me back in the engineering entrances rat race here and I had to catch up with everyone else which I really struggled to do.
He’s not willing to send me because he feels I’m not ready for it and it’ll be hard without any family there. I personally think he’s spoken to a lot of people who sent their kids abroad and heard they’re struggling or heard something negative I don’t know but I know that whatever it is has influenced him against the idea of undergrad abroad.
I do have family there now, my first cousins who I grew up with shifted there for work so it’s not like I’ll fully be alone. I’m fully aware of the challenges I’ll face there and I know myself, I’m ready for it.
I’m really lost on how to convince him, I know my opportunities are better met abroad than in India and I know money is not the issue.
I don’t know how else to convince him and I fear that any way I do will end up with us fighting. Everytime I try to go to him and tell him I can’t do something he gets mad because he thinks that I think I know better than him but I don’t.
I only what is better for me and he does not see that. I’m open to any kind of solutions thank you for reading till here.
TLDR - dad’s mind fully changed on me studying UG abroad and I don’t know how to convince him now
2023.03.22 06:31 inventcolabsS123 How does Artificial Intelligence help to Improve Your Business?
 | Any successful business is the sum total of great products, timely innovation, and excellent customer service. Do you know AI technology can help you improve all these key elements of your business? submitted by inventcolabsS123 to u/inventcolabsS123 [link] [comments] What exactly is AI?Think of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as highly advanced computer algorithms. These algorithms have some advanced capabilities- they can learn and improve with new training data. What does that mean? It means machines are now capable of performing tasks that for a long time required human intelligence.Artificial Intelligence For instance, until a decade ago it was next to impossible for a computer application to write an essay on the impact of the industrial revolution on global warming. But thanks to AI-powered language models such as chatGPT it is now possible. In fact, in some chatGPT outperforms human writers by a fair margin. An essay that would generally need 3-4 hours for a human, chatGPT writes that in 5 mins. Yes, that’s how powerful AI solutions can be! Role of AI in BusinessHow can AI help your business? After all, businesses have been run without the help of AI for centuries. Yes, but we now live in a digital age. Businesses now have access to an ocean of data. And AI technology has all the potential businesses need to turn this data into gold.Each business is different and will experience different benefits from AI implementation. The important thing is to partner with an Artificial Intelligence App development company that understands your specific needs and can help you realize those benefits. AI Technology for Enhanced ProductivityAn AI application can automate tasks like responding to customer inquiries or routing more complex ones to the right person. Plus, AI solutions can be extensively used for automating processes and workflows in manufacturing, logistics, and supply chains.AI for Well-informed Decision Making Business is all about decision-making. From product manufacturing to distribution, deacons you take shape the growth and revenue of your business. AI can play a significant role in improving business decision-making. For example, a retail brand could use AI to decide what products to stock in its store. They could use machine learning to analyze customer purchase data and identify patterns in what people buy. Based on those patterns, they can predict the new products customers are interested in. Or let’s consider the example of a financial institution trying to prevent fraud. They could use machine learning to analyze transaction data and identify suspicious activity. Then, they could flag those transactions for a detailed review. Benefits of AI in BusinessArtificial Intelligence in Business
Strategies for Getting Started With AISo now let's move on to the most important part- AI integration and implementation. How to use AI in a way that benefits your business?Like with any technology integration, you got to have a strategy. It is true for AI too. There are going to be challenges initially. But you can get over them.
Final WordsIn conclusion, Artificial Intelligence app development offers businesses limitless opportunities. From customer service to process automation, you can implement AI to supercharge your business.However, it is also important to implement AI with caution. It is a significant investment and needs a good amount of planning. Discuss with other stakeholders in your organization and ensure that your investment will generate excellent ROI in the long term. In case you need any help, don’t hesitate. Consult an AI development company for a perfect AI roadmap for your business. |
2023.03.22 06:30 ImaginationSea3679 Near-Tragedies of Venlil Prime: Outburst Part 7
Check out u/se05239 for his amazing fanart of Tarho!
Anyway, I hope you haven’t gotten too depressed.
Expect some intensity coming up.
————————————
Memory Transcription Subject: Tarho, venlil civilian and former predator disease facility patient
Date[standardized human time]: November 7, 2136
Blank.
That’s the only thing describing my afterlife so far.
Bleak emptiness, without any meaning.
That is, until I opened my eyes to bright lights over my head.
At first, I was confused. Did I survive the fall? Did the drugs finally-
Wait.
I called them drugs, not medicine.
Did… did I finally regain control?
I bolted myself into an upright position. I was in a hospital room. Things still felt a little disproportional, probably because there was still a small amount of drugs in my system, but aside from that, it was just… a hospital room.
I felt myself over. My fleece felt… clean. I could no longer feel the sticky texture of mold and mildew coating me. I moved to my mouth. It seemed that all of my remaining teeth had been pulled, probably because they were too rotten to save. Thankfully, my gums didn’t seem to ache anymore.
I…
I’VE DONE IT! I FINALLY HAVE CONTROL OVER MY LIFE!
Morning time, time for medicine.
…
Oh no.
“You’re shtill here.” I said out loud. I took notice of the lisp caused by my missing teeth.
Of course I am, I live here.
“You… you aren’t alive. You’re jusht a trace mixchure of drugs shtill in my body.” I said out loud, hoping that volume would make it easier for me to banish the false identity.
So long as I am in your mind, I’m real, because reality is subjective.
I stared into space. What kind of philosophical bullshit was that supposed to be?
The kind that a healthy mind can come up with.
I became quite angry. I grabbed the nearest reflective surface, which turned out to be a glass of water. I drank the fresh water, savoring the taste, before starring at the barely visible face in the clear reflection of the glass.
The reflection’s eyes were clouded, and the fleece and mouth were still infected by mold and disease. It was most definitely him.
“Listhen here you little shit. Thish ish MY body, controlled by MY brain. YOU are jusht a stowaway in my life, keeping yourshelf alive with the ushe of dangerous chemicals. I shwear that when my syshtem is finally fully flushed of those drugs, both you and that shentient fight or flight response are going to FUCKING DIE! YOU HEAR ME! YOU ARE GOING TO CEASE TO EXIST-“
“Sir?” I heard a feminine voice speak.
I screamed like a little girl and nearly leapt full out of my bed at the interruption.
Predator?
SHUT UP, YOU SURVIVALIST PSYCHOPATH!
“Yesh?” I asked simply, as though there was absolutely nothing wrong with anything that I had probably just done right in front of the nurse.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“No.” I answered with 100% honesty. “No I am not alright.”
“I assume that it’s related to the drugs?” She asked.
“They aren’t drugs. They are medicine.*
“They are not medichine you fucking retard.” I spoke, almost on reflex, straight at a wall.
“… medicine?” She asked.
“Those drugsh were preshcribed by ‘doctors’ from the ‘predator disease’ fachility.” I made sure to stress my words to focus of how ridiculously cruel my situation was.
The nurses confusion increased as it mixed with shock.
I looked down at the floor in pain of my memories. I was finally able to tell my story, but I needed to keep myself from sobbing as well.
“It was only a couple of yearsh ago when I was dragged away. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was jusht having a bad day. The outbursht I had out on the shtreet was jusht me letting out my anger. Nobody even got hurt. Of course, the exterminatorsh immediately mishtook my anger for a shign of predatory behavior, and dragged me to the fachility. They put me in the chair. I hated that fucking chair. I begged for a way out, and they offered a way out. ‘Tesht out this batch of medichine’ they shaid. ‘If you shurvive, you can leave with shome preshcription’ they explained. I took the drugs, and I jusht happened to not die, and the effects that the drugs had were what they conshidered acceptable. Now, they require that I take the preshcribed doshes every day. As I took the medicine, I began to hear voices. As the voices got louder and louder I realized something.” I explained, my voice growing more cracked as I spoke.
I felt my stress cloud my mind. I could feel my sentient fight or flight response wanting to lash out. To add to the description. I honestly didn’t have the will to stop it.
”I hate them. I fucking hate them. They just like the predatorsh. They inflict shuffering for their own pershonal gain. They desherve to die horrible deaths.” I turned my head at the ‘nurse’. “You desherve to die ash well. All of you shtood by and watched as my body washted away! How could you do that?! You’re shupposed to be empathetic you shick fucks! WHY THE FUCK DOESHN’T ANYONE SHARE THAT WITH ME!?!”
I continued to stare at the nurse as she started back with…
…sympathetic horror in her eyes.
I regained control over myself as I broke into sobs. “I jusht want to go back. Back to the way thingsh once were. Ish that sho much?” I said, trying not to choke between sobs.
I felt a pair of comforting arms wrap around me. With some hesitation, I returned the embrace.
“Sir… I’m sorry to inform you…” What? Sorry to inform me what?
Am I going to die?
I hope you die, in all honesty.
“We took scans of your brain. We compared them to scans from the last time you were screened. I’m sorry to inform you that… the continuous use of so much drugs has permanently altered your brain chemistry. In other words… you now have a mental illness.” The nurse explained.
Yay! I’m not dying!
My blood ran cold. I was too shocked by the revelation to have any meaningful reaction. That means that I now have to deal with these horrible voices forever.
Heh.
The irony isn’t lost on me.
The facility meant to cure predator disease actually afflicted me with it instead.
Previous
submitted by ImaginationSea3679 to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]
Anyway, I hope you haven’t gotten too depressed.
Expect some intensity coming up.
————————————
Memory Transcription Subject: Tarho, venlil civilian and former predator disease facility patient
Date[standardized human time]: November 7, 2136
Blank.
That’s the only thing describing my afterlife so far.
Bleak emptiness, without any meaning.
That is, until I opened my eyes to bright lights over my head.
At first, I was confused. Did I survive the fall? Did the drugs finally-
Wait.
I called them drugs, not medicine.
Did… did I finally regain control?
I bolted myself into an upright position. I was in a hospital room. Things still felt a little disproportional, probably because there was still a small amount of drugs in my system, but aside from that, it was just… a hospital room.
I felt myself over. My fleece felt… clean. I could no longer feel the sticky texture of mold and mildew coating me. I moved to my mouth. It seemed that all of my remaining teeth had been pulled, probably because they were too rotten to save. Thankfully, my gums didn’t seem to ache anymore.
I…
I’VE DONE IT! I FINALLY HAVE CONTROL OVER MY LIFE!
Morning time, time for medicine.
…
Oh no.
“You’re shtill here.” I said out loud. I took notice of the lisp caused by my missing teeth.
Of course I am, I live here.
“You… you aren’t alive. You’re jusht a trace mixchure of drugs shtill in my body.” I said out loud, hoping that volume would make it easier for me to banish the false identity.
So long as I am in your mind, I’m real, because reality is subjective.
I stared into space. What kind of philosophical bullshit was that supposed to be?
The kind that a healthy mind can come up with.
I became quite angry. I grabbed the nearest reflective surface, which turned out to be a glass of water. I drank the fresh water, savoring the taste, before starring at the barely visible face in the clear reflection of the glass.
The reflection’s eyes were clouded, and the fleece and mouth were still infected by mold and disease. It was most definitely him.
“Listhen here you little shit. Thish ish MY body, controlled by MY brain. YOU are jusht a stowaway in my life, keeping yourshelf alive with the ushe of dangerous chemicals. I shwear that when my syshtem is finally fully flushed of those drugs, both you and that shentient fight or flight response are going to FUCKING DIE! YOU HEAR ME! YOU ARE GOING TO CEASE TO EXIST-“
“Sir?” I heard a feminine voice speak.
I screamed like a little girl and nearly leapt full out of my bed at the interruption.
Predator?
SHUT UP, YOU SURVIVALIST PSYCHOPATH!
“Yesh?” I asked simply, as though there was absolutely nothing wrong with anything that I had probably just done right in front of the nurse.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“No.” I answered with 100% honesty. “No I am not alright.”
“I assume that it’s related to the drugs?” She asked.
“They aren’t drugs. They are medicine.*
“They are not medichine you fucking retard.” I spoke, almost on reflex, straight at a wall.
“… medicine?” She asked.
“Those drugsh were preshcribed by ‘doctors’ from the ‘predator disease’ fachility.” I made sure to stress my words to focus of how ridiculously cruel my situation was.
The nurses confusion increased as it mixed with shock.
I looked down at the floor in pain of my memories. I was finally able to tell my story, but I needed to keep myself from sobbing as well.
“It was only a couple of yearsh ago when I was dragged away. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was jusht having a bad day. The outbursht I had out on the shtreet was jusht me letting out my anger. Nobody even got hurt. Of course, the exterminatorsh immediately mishtook my anger for a shign of predatory behavior, and dragged me to the fachility. They put me in the chair. I hated that fucking chair. I begged for a way out, and they offered a way out. ‘Tesht out this batch of medichine’ they shaid. ‘If you shurvive, you can leave with shome preshcription’ they explained. I took the drugs, and I jusht happened to not die, and the effects that the drugs had were what they conshidered acceptable. Now, they require that I take the preshcribed doshes every day. As I took the medicine, I began to hear voices. As the voices got louder and louder I realized something.” I explained, my voice growing more cracked as I spoke.
I felt my stress cloud my mind. I could feel my sentient fight or flight response wanting to lash out. To add to the description. I honestly didn’t have the will to stop it.
”I hate them. I fucking hate them. They just like the predatorsh. They inflict shuffering for their own pershonal gain. They desherve to die horrible deaths.” I turned my head at the ‘nurse’. “You desherve to die ash well. All of you shtood by and watched as my body washted away! How could you do that?! You’re shupposed to be empathetic you shick fucks! WHY THE FUCK DOESHN’T ANYONE SHARE THAT WITH ME!?!”
I continued to stare at the nurse as she started back with…
…sympathetic horror in her eyes.
I regained control over myself as I broke into sobs. “I jusht want to go back. Back to the way thingsh once were. Ish that sho much?” I said, trying not to choke between sobs.
I felt a pair of comforting arms wrap around me. With some hesitation, I returned the embrace.
“Sir… I’m sorry to inform you…” What? Sorry to inform me what?
Am I going to die?
I hope you die, in all honesty.
“We took scans of your brain. We compared them to scans from the last time you were screened. I’m sorry to inform you that… the continuous use of so much drugs has permanently altered your brain chemistry. In other words… you now have a mental illness.” The nurse explained.
Yay! I’m not dying!
My blood ran cold. I was too shocked by the revelation to have any meaningful reaction. That means that I now have to deal with these horrible voices forever.
Heh.
The irony isn’t lost on me.
The facility meant to cure predator disease actually afflicted me with it instead.
Previous
2023.03.22 06:18 AdMajor5734 Best Digital Marketing Company in Bangalore
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Kinds of things for the high-level promoter
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In this article, we’ve mentioned the essential kind of energy that sharp significant level advertisers ought to have in their high-level publicizing stores.
We should nerd out!
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Additionally, on the off chance that you can make an eye-getting infographic with essential or hard information, your business can immediately turn out to be more dependable and fair.
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At the end of the day, making drawing in video content is one of the simplest ways to deal with snatching more eyeballs in a raised round of bleeding edge showing scenes.
Modernized correspondence besides gives you to empower a relationship with your gathering. Utilizing a conversational voice tone, recapping attractive stories, and giving a splendid chat on the mechanized correspondence assist the gathering with feeling like they unquestionably know you on a solitary level.
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That is how you can make more leads and construct a steady relationship with your gatherings.
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Wrapping Up Having a substance-rich site can assist you with propelling perfect of your modernized showing tries. Those convincing and connecting with content higher your opportunities to keep afloat in a field of modernized rivalry and stand isolated from the get-together. It doesn’t influence how especially organized your site is; without high-performing content, it’ll eventually fail spectacularly. Also, look at the top digital marketing agencies in Bangalore.
submitted by AdMajor5734 to u/AdMajor5734 [link] [comments]
Content is the groundwork of mechanized exhibiting tries. Trying to deliver a triumphant electronic showing effort with in every practical sense, no satisfaction is an unbelievable plan like attempting to drive a vehicle without a motor — it’d stay a crazy dream. Moreover, you ought to look at the best digital marketing company in Bangalore or any part you live in.
Kinds of things for the high-level promoter
High-performing, the quality substance will not just redesign your significant level displaying effort execution, but, it also keeps your business running finally. The key here is to ensure that the substance you make is distant from striking undertakings to pander.
At this point, the solicitation is: what are those high-performing and quality substances we’ve been discussing?
In this article, we’ve mentioned the essential kind of energy that sharp significant level advertisers ought to have in their high-level publicizing stores.
We should nerd out!
- Blog passages Blog segments are one of the most famous sorts of content involved in relationships in different undertakings. It’s a particularly impressive method for extra making Web synthesis improvement practices and driving additional normal traffic to your page from web search gadgets.
Thusly, it ought to stagger no one on the off chance that blog entries can in addition higher your possible results by developing strong regions for both your leads and existing gatherings. Similarly, look at the Top digital marketing companies in Bangalore.
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It’s no enormous shock that over 72% of clients would like to find out about a thing or association through video, as per the most recent video-propelling encounters.
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2023.03.22 06:15 it5l8 Employer neglects to enroll eligible staff in simple IRA with employer match
Without giving too much information… What would you do if you found out: A 501c3 Board of Directors assisted in the setup of a simple IRA plan with a 3% match for full time employees. Multiple eligible Employees not only requested but submitted required documentation including voided checks over a period of approximately 7 years. No employee except the Chief of Staff was ever enrolled or drew the employer match from said IRA. Documentation to support these employee requests exists. Documentation of the simple Ira and 3% match exists. Chief of staff repeatedly collected enrollment forms which always went lost or missing… chief of staff, however, budgeted the necessary funds year over year for their own draw down of matched funds in the 501(c)3 budget. Ex: despite having multiple employees request or submit IRA enrollment forms in a given year, the chief of staff only budgets for their own use of IRA match and submits that to the Board of Directors annually over a period of 7 years with no one questioning why no other full time employees are choosing to utilize the program.
The Board of Directors is generally disengaged and does not notice the budget discrepancy over this period of 7 years in the absence of a staff whistleblower. Who is liable? Who can be compensated? Both separated and current employees are concerned about the tens of thousands of dollars of missed employee matches which were clearly intentionally avoided by the chief of staff and sole benefactor of the policy?
To clarify- employer is not sending employment offer letters at hire. They ask employees to sign an employee handbook which more or less states that eligibility for retirement plan can be confirmed by asking chief of staff and enrollment forms can be obtained by chief of staff. Emails around the inception of the policy indicate it is available as a 3% match to all full time employees.
submitted by it5l8 to labor [link] [comments]
The Board of Directors is generally disengaged and does not notice the budget discrepancy over this period of 7 years in the absence of a staff whistleblower. Who is liable? Who can be compensated? Both separated and current employees are concerned about the tens of thousands of dollars of missed employee matches which were clearly intentionally avoided by the chief of staff and sole benefactor of the policy?
To clarify- employer is not sending employment offer letters at hire. They ask employees to sign an employee handbook which more or less states that eligibility for retirement plan can be confirmed by asking chief of staff and enrollment forms can be obtained by chief of staff. Emails around the inception of the policy indicate it is available as a 3% match to all full time employees.
2023.03.22 06:14 OnTopOfAMtn Struggling to find ways to keep our (38f, 42m) relationship from falling apart
I’ve (38f) been with my partner (42m) almost 5 years and we’ve been married for 3.5 years.
I moved country to marry and be with him, which was extra challenging with the pandemic happening at the same time. Our marriage has been very up and down, with other life situations such as job losses, immediate family members being sick/diagnosed with cancer, friend’s deaths, a car accident, sickness, etc.
When things are good between us, we laugh, have fun, all the good things people do. It is almost like a switch that I see in him where it just turns. I started to recognise when he needs less time with me, and more alone time to recharge. Even though I’ve asked him to verbally tell me too, he still doesn’t vocalise when he needs his alone time. He rudely snaps at me, and proceeds to stonewall me, catching me off guard (and upsetting me). He will then stonewall me for days and even weeks, without explanation or a chance of resolution. I get to a point where I start wondering if I need to find a place to live, whether I need a lawyer, or whether I should move back to my home country. Just as I make a decision we turn a page and things tend to be magically resolved. However one of these occasions did lead us to moving bedrooms and now we have been sleeping separately for 6 months.
I am a sensitive soul and try hard to not be affected by other people’s behaviour, but it is something I find very difficult. I was working with a therapist for over a year (to also help as my mum is sick back home) and I did make some progress with this, but I really feel that my partner is not meeting me halfway in trying with communication in our relationship.
Recently, a month ago, he has lost a former colleague to a short terminal illness and he has become more withdrawn (he was already moderately withdrawn). I have tried giving him space, giving affection, asked questions, not asked questions, told him I love him, told him I’m here for him.. all met with nothing. I was in a serious car accident 3 weeks ago and I’ve been processing my trauma alone.
I feel broken when I think of this relationship and what I’ve allowed myself to put up with. I care about him so deeply and love how we are when things are good, but I don’t know if I can I keep doing this or if I should even bother trying.
submitted by OnTopOfAMtn to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
I moved country to marry and be with him, which was extra challenging with the pandemic happening at the same time. Our marriage has been very up and down, with other life situations such as job losses, immediate family members being sick/diagnosed with cancer, friend’s deaths, a car accident, sickness, etc.
When things are good between us, we laugh, have fun, all the good things people do. It is almost like a switch that I see in him where it just turns. I started to recognise when he needs less time with me, and more alone time to recharge. Even though I’ve asked him to verbally tell me too, he still doesn’t vocalise when he needs his alone time. He rudely snaps at me, and proceeds to stonewall me, catching me off guard (and upsetting me). He will then stonewall me for days and even weeks, without explanation or a chance of resolution. I get to a point where I start wondering if I need to find a place to live, whether I need a lawyer, or whether I should move back to my home country. Just as I make a decision we turn a page and things tend to be magically resolved. However one of these occasions did lead us to moving bedrooms and now we have been sleeping separately for 6 months.
I am a sensitive soul and try hard to not be affected by other people’s behaviour, but it is something I find very difficult. I was working with a therapist for over a year (to also help as my mum is sick back home) and I did make some progress with this, but I really feel that my partner is not meeting me halfway in trying with communication in our relationship.
Recently, a month ago, he has lost a former colleague to a short terminal illness and he has become more withdrawn (he was already moderately withdrawn). I have tried giving him space, giving affection, asked questions, not asked questions, told him I love him, told him I’m here for him.. all met with nothing. I was in a serious car accident 3 weeks ago and I’ve been processing my trauma alone.
I feel broken when I think of this relationship and what I’ve allowed myself to put up with. I care about him so deeply and love how we are when things are good, but I don’t know if I can I keep doing this or if I should even bother trying.
2023.03.22 06:09 RRHN711 My experience with Kingdom Hearts 1 - Some simple thoughts of a clear mind
Hello, everybody! Nice to see you all again.
You might not remember me, but i was the guy who 4 months ago posted this text about being playing Kingdom Hearts 1 for the first time and after 4 months i finally finished and wanted to share some thoughts.
Before everything, i just wanted to say that if this kind of post is not allowed i will delete it, just need a mod to talk to me. Also
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
-
-
-
-
-
First of all, it's been 4 months but obviously i didn't played 4 months straighted, i played for like 40 hours. I stopped for some time to play another game
So...i loved it. This game was fantastic. It's hard to put how i'm feeling now in words, it's been just 1 hour since i beat it
The worlds are beautiful. The story was intriguing and had twists i was not expecting. I was not expecting for Maleficent to not be the final boss. I was not expecting for Ansem to be the bad guy, i thought he was going to be an ally, and i pictured him more like an old man, not someone so young.
And what a fight he was, the hardest boss in the entire game for me. His final form almost got me
I was out of itens and just one more hit would kill Sora. Donald had fallen and Goofy was still fighting while i was dodging the attacks waiting for the right time. When Goofy was defeated, i decided to go for it, it was all or nothing. And when everything seemed to be lost i gave the final blow and defeated him
The final cutscene felt deserved. It was beautiful. I was watching with a straight face, thinking of everything i went through, all the times i died, all the worlds i've explored and all the characters i've met. I liked them more than i thought i would. I was tired, but satisfied
When Sora and Kairi were separated and Simple and Clean started to play, my eyes widened for less than 1 second. And i started to cry. This is one of the only pieces of media to every make me cry along with The Little Prince, Klaus (the 2019 movie) and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.
I'm 100% going to play the other games, and i will start Chain of Memories tomorrow. I don't care how long it takes, i'm going to play up until KH3. I have so many questions. I'm seeing this through to the end.
Sorry if this post is relatively short, i'm still a bit dizzy from the ending and i'm very, very tired. Thank you for reading, and as they say on the Earthbound fandom:
"No crying until the end"
P.S.: During the journey i've also made a ranking with all the worlds. I also gave then 1-5 stars depending on how much i enjoyed it. 1 star is bad, 3 stars is average and 5 stars is the absolute best:
1- Hollow Bastion (5 stars)
2- Deep Jungle (5 stars)
3- Halloween Town (5 stars)
4- Olympus Coliseum (5 stars)
5- Destiny Islands (5 stars)
6- Traverse Town (4 stars)
7- Neverland (4 stars)
8- Wonderland (4 stars)
9- End of the World (3 stars)
10- Agrabah (3 stars)
11- 100 Acre Wood (2 stars)
12- Dive to the Heart (2 stars)
13- Monstro (1 star)
14- Atlantica (1 star)
submitted by RRHN711 to KingdomHearts [link] [comments]
You might not remember me, but i was the guy who 4 months ago posted this text about being playing Kingdom Hearts 1 for the first time and after 4 months i finally finished and wanted to share some thoughts.
Before everything, i just wanted to say that if this kind of post is not allowed i will delete it, just need a mod to talk to me. Also
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
-
-
-
-
-
First of all, it's been 4 months but obviously i didn't played 4 months straighted, i played for like 40 hours. I stopped for some time to play another game
So...i loved it. This game was fantastic. It's hard to put how i'm feeling now in words, it's been just 1 hour since i beat it
The worlds are beautiful. The story was intriguing and had twists i was not expecting. I was not expecting for Maleficent to not be the final boss. I was not expecting for Ansem to be the bad guy, i thought he was going to be an ally, and i pictured him more like an old man, not someone so young.
And what a fight he was, the hardest boss in the entire game for me. His final form almost got me
I was out of itens and just one more hit would kill Sora. Donald had fallen and Goofy was still fighting while i was dodging the attacks waiting for the right time. When Goofy was defeated, i decided to go for it, it was all or nothing. And when everything seemed to be lost i gave the final blow and defeated him
The final cutscene felt deserved. It was beautiful. I was watching with a straight face, thinking of everything i went through, all the times i died, all the worlds i've explored and all the characters i've met. I liked them more than i thought i would. I was tired, but satisfied
When Sora and Kairi were separated and Simple and Clean started to play, my eyes widened for less than 1 second. And i started to cry. This is one of the only pieces of media to every make me cry along with The Little Prince, Klaus (the 2019 movie) and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.
I'm 100% going to play the other games, and i will start Chain of Memories tomorrow. I don't care how long it takes, i'm going to play up until KH3. I have so many questions. I'm seeing this through to the end.
Sorry if this post is relatively short, i'm still a bit dizzy from the ending and i'm very, very tired. Thank you for reading, and as they say on the Earthbound fandom:
"No crying until the end"
P.S.: During the journey i've also made a ranking with all the worlds. I also gave then 1-5 stars depending on how much i enjoyed it. 1 star is bad, 3 stars is average and 5 stars is the absolute best:
1- Hollow Bastion (5 stars)
2- Deep Jungle (5 stars)
3- Halloween Town (5 stars)
4- Olympus Coliseum (5 stars)
5- Destiny Islands (5 stars)
6- Traverse Town (4 stars)
7- Neverland (4 stars)
8- Wonderland (4 stars)
9- End of the World (3 stars)
10- Agrabah (3 stars)
11- 100 Acre Wood (2 stars)
12- Dive to the Heart (2 stars)
13- Monstro (1 star)
14- Atlantica (1 star)
2023.03.22 06:07 Kris5050 My husband is a Narcissist
I am 39f married to 45m narcissist. We have been together since April of 2020. We married a few months after we met. Those were the best days. In the beginning, I had never met a man so respectful and such a charismatic gentleman. He would always play talk saying he was just getting in good. I should have believed that. I have a daughter 9, from a previous marriage. It was an abusive relationship that lasted 27 years. How I managed to get out of it was pure work. Years of practicing positive thoughts. I have PTSD, bipolar 1, manic anxiety, and OCD. I see a doctor regularly and I go to any and every chance to learn and grow more to not show any symptoms. Fake it till ya make it. Now my husband has some me tal issues. He definitely is ADHD that's known. But there are others, anxiety being the absolute worst you can imagine, others that are undiagnosed. I was not aware of narcissism at all. 3 years prior to our meeting, he was in a tragic car accident and resulted in traumatic brain injury. Also after that, while taking a walk a car ran him over and left him for dead. His left leg is titanium from knee to ankle. Not only, all his previous relationships were toxic for him actually. Every time the woman left him for another man they cheated with. So along with the childhood trauma that no one wants to admit, he is drinker, previous drug problems from the past, pill problem from the past also, been to jail a couple times. He did got AA to quit drinking and a rehab with a 12 step program. So he still drinks only from time to time, but has been off drugs as pills without wanting to return to that. Now, back to the present day. He has Chronic pain from his leg injury and as of 9 mths ago, hurt his right foot somehow pedaling a bike to rush to see me at the hospital because I had our daughter. That was not planned nor we we're not aware I was pregnant. No baby bump. She is fully developed with absolutely no problems at all. Healthy. So I have a daughter 9 that doesn't live with me but comes for visits, and now another daughter, his only biological daughter that is his exact mini. He loves her and is very protective of her. He doesn't do much as of diapers or feeding with solids, he has done it but cannot stomach the mess of baby food. He does spend time with her and is so doting. He gets depressed and down off and on. He has not worked in a year or so because of the pain and problems worsening physically. Trying for disability. So I take care of him and whatever he needs. He is spoiled yes. But he is built to work that all he knew before so he does help around the house and projects if his liking. He is an angry and bitter man about his past. Holds anyone for anything they done wrong and when they cross his mind he is livid. There was no anger towards me until he lost his last job. He physically was unable to keep on so they let him go. It changed him for the worse. After that happened he went into a very deep depression and started taking his pain and anxiety and anger or anything that bothered him out on me. This was very new to me and very hurtful. I didn't what to think or how to feel because after a short time or a nap he would be normal and loving again. It was odd and confusing. Very hurtful and I started getting worse each time and then more and more. I eventually started fighting him back. Defending myself to his claims. I would get loud and yell because he just wouldn't stop going off. All of it was bs. He never told anyone else about it, just hurt me. Eventually it got so bad that I would physically hurt him then take the baby and leave for a while. One time I slept in my car just to be away from him. No cops ever involved. But he would go through the cycle and apologize and tell me all the good things he used to. He would tell me that the hurtful things were not true, he never felt that way, he would just do that to hurt me. At those times he would admit to the abuse and that he was wrong and hated that he would ever do that. But it would keep happening in cycles. I eventually stopped fighting and just would walk off away and cry. He always said something I did or said would just trigger his anger. So I naturally thought it was all me messing us up. Even went into a hospital for mental health for a week. It isn't me. His mom who I am so close to, told me in passing one day he was a narcissist. I didn't think about it enough or anything to change my mind that it wasn't stemming from his past. Well as of lately she brought it to my attention several times. So I finally saw something on narcissism on TikTok. Which I saw that, I immediately started researching everything I could find about it. I am an empath and he does go through the same motions as every other one. I mean I have read countless articles where the situation was so similar it could have been myself. Through this research I have also learned that it's very possible that he could never get better and in fact as he ages, it will worsen. Now it's been 3 very hard years for us. It has not been all bad. And I have reacted horribly to his outbursts. Now I have decided to try to stay the course. I love him and he does show me love too. I know how to play the game and am willing to play until he leaves himself on his own decision. He has never shut me out or left me at All even at his maddest times. No matter what I did. So I'm not convinced that he will leave. I do think that he has to rely on me so much that it is easier for him not to go. And when he is normal self I am above and beyond happy to help and do for him. When the darkness comes out, I notice it immediately because his tone always changes. He will start the devaluing and I will either agree with him in a nonchalant way or just completely play it off like I truly don't care. So I don't really take what he says in those moments to heart. Truly what he is saying to me is what he is and is doing to me himself. I know to not react to it at all so I don't or I react in a very positive loving way and manner he stops and changes his words back to sometimes even saying that I was right. So I will just play his game with him. When it's good times, it's better than I imagined heaven. When its bad, the hurt has been replaced with what's the sweetest and most positive way to end it quickly. We don't get physical or no raised voices. He says his hurtful things and I might even agree and apologize or walk away and start a complete different subject and that throws him off. Remember he's ADHD, I find a pleasant way to distract him from the madness. It's become just an inconvenience for me and I have struggled to keep my composure, but it's a work in progress. As it took about 10 years to be an automatic positive thinker and person in general, this will take time and practice too. But I think it will be second nature in no time. I have faith! #strong #boss
submitted by Kris5050 to NarcissisticSpouses [link] [comments]
2023.03.22 05:53 it5l8 Employer refused to enroll staff in simple IRA
Without giving too much information… What would you do if you found out: A 501c3 Board of Directors assisted in the setup of a simple IRA plan with a 3% match for full time employees. Multiple eligible Employees not only requested but submitted required documentation including voided checks over a period of approximately 7 years. No employee except the Chief of Staff was ever enrolled or drew the employer match from said IRA. Documentation to support these employee requests exists. Documentation of the simple Ira and 3% match exists. Chief of staff repeatedly collected enrollment forms which always went lost or missing… chief of staff, however, budgeted the necessary funds year over year for their own draw down of matched funds in the 501(c)3 budget. Ex: despite having multiple employees request or submit IRA enrollment forms in a given year, the chief of staff only budgets for their own use of IRA match and submits that to the Board of Directors annually over a period of 7 years with no one questioning why no other full time employees are choosing to utilize the program.
The Board of Directors is generally disengaged and does not notice the budget discrepancy over this period of 7 years in the absence of a staff whistleblower. Who is liable? Who can be compensated? Both separated and current employees are concerned about the tens of thousands of dollars of missed employee matches which were clearly intentionally avoided by the chief of staff and sole benefactor of the policy?
submitted by it5l8 to Whistleblowers [link] [comments]
The Board of Directors is generally disengaged and does not notice the budget discrepancy over this period of 7 years in the absence of a staff whistleblower. Who is liable? Who can be compensated? Both separated and current employees are concerned about the tens of thousands of dollars of missed employee matches which were clearly intentionally avoided by the chief of staff and sole benefactor of the policy?
2023.03.22 05:47 varnikafierro Will I be guaranteed an offer for Bachelor of Arts?
As the title says, I am applying for a bachelor of arts and my score is above the direct entry requirement. However, i am still very anxious if I will get the offer or not. I doubt this course is competitive so what is the likelihood that I will get an offer?
Im sorry if this is a stupid question but I am so worried 😭
submitted by varnikafierro to unsw [link] [comments]
Im sorry if this is a stupid question but I am so worried 😭