I have a group of four close friends (we were two guys and two girls) that I became close with all throughout my high school years. One of those girls, I developed a close relationship since we talked a lot during the pandemic. But I made sure that it was all platonic and my intentions were just friendly. One time, she confessed to me that she likes me, but I expressed that I didn't like it so I fixed it and said that she must stop liking me because that is not my intention in the friendship that we have. Our friendship kind of quieted down since last year, because of college, and we are not that close anymore since she also has her own boyfriend.
Fast forward to today, I have a girlfriend of almost 1 year soon. From the start she was already aware of my close relation with that girl friend of mine and I made sure to assure her that our friendship was nothing more than just platonic. She didn't express any uncomfortability, or so I thought. One night, we were having problems together and I wanted to give her space for some time to calm down. It has been a confusing and stressful days for our relationship so I wanted to vent out to someone. Ironically, I saw that girl friend of mine and felt that she was qualified to listen she is in a relationship of her own too and she might understand since she's a girl herself. It was our first time talking to each other for a while so we were catching up and I opened up that me and my girlfriend were going through a rough patch. She said that I can open up if I wanted too, so I did because I needed to get her insight. Because we haven't talked for some time, I may have shared too much details about our relationship and our problems.
Tomorrow that evening, me and my girlfriend went out as a way also to fix our recent problems. As I don't hide my phone to her I left it on the table and she saw my conversations with that girl friend of mine. She stayed quiet the whole time and didn't tell me what's wrong until we went home. She said that she felt disrespected that I had to share our relationship problems to her and I even went into full details. She revealed that she was holding a grudge against that girl for a long time, stating that one time that I intended to give that girl friend a gift for her 18th birthday (which was a plushie), and said that she felt weird about it since I made extra efforts to make her feel special. In my mind, it was nothing more but an act of decency and appreciation to my friend's birthday and there was no other intentions. But I didn't continue giving this gift to my friend, so instead I asked my girlfriend if she wanted it instead and she said yes. She revealed that she also didn't like this as she felt like a dumpster. She also didn't like when I shared a song of our favourite band (we went to this band's concert a while ago) to this friend of mine since those songs meant a lot for us.. But i just sent these songs to that friend because the songs felt sad, and I told my friend that listening to those songs made me feel emotional since me and my girlfriend are going through a hard time. I wasn't dedicating it to her. I already apologized to her and I have already cut ties with this friend and blocked her, as I prioritize her more than that friend of mine. But she still can't stop feeling hurt and keeps on saying that I betrayed her by making someone feel special. She keeps on comparing my treatment to my friend to her, saying that I care more about my friend than her. But that is just not true, as I have given more efforts to her than I could have given to anyone else in my life.
The thing is, I was unaware that she was having weird feelings for this friend of mine. If she has said it earlier, I could have prevented my connection with her and cut ties earlier because I'm fine with doing anything just to make her feel safe. She's saying that I was insensitive and that she didn't need to point out things to me as I should have figured that out myself, since I wouldn't like it if I was in her position. I still want to fix things since it's all preventable and it wouldn't happen again since I'm dedicated on cutting my relationship with my friend and keeping that forever, but she keeps on pushing me away and neglecting communication and she has blocked me in almost every account.
TLDR; I opened up about my relationship problems with my girl friend and I shared too much full details and my girlfriend saw our conversation and she felt disrespected. How badly did I mess up and what can I do or say to my girlfriend to save our relationship and make her understand that my actions were nothing more but pure and "friendly" including the time I gave a plushie to my friend (an act of decency since it was her 18th birthday) ?

In January 2022, I (20M) was cucked by someone I thought was a good friend, and nobody I've told about it seems to be all too concerned about me or upset by it, so that tells me that maybe I really am a bad person or did something to deserve it. Maybe he really was a good friend and I'm just a jealous biatch with a grudge.
Long story short, my two coworkers (a female 6th grade teacher and male kindergarten teacher) at the elementary school I used to work at introduced me to this girl (about 8 years older than me) who they wanted me to smoke weed with because she's known for being emotional and stressing and feeling bad about herself. I would later learn that she has borderline personality disorder.
At first glance, I thought I was just being used for my weed, but then she never actually wanted to smoke my weed, so I figured maybe they just genuinely wanted to try and set us up. So I spent the next couple months slowly letting us get to know each other and get comfortable with each other. I brought her flowers a couple times when she was stressed out and going through things, we took each other to our work Christmas parties, and I even wasted $40 on silver earrings for her for Christmas.
Looking back on it, I was a loser simp who caught feelings way too fast.
Then she maybe pretended that she was having emotional stress over that 6th grade teacher I mentioned so she'd have an excuse to not wanna do anything to celebrate her birthday. (I heard from a different coworker that they were roommates during the 2019-2020 school year, and this girl wanted to hang out with this lady all the time like they were best friends, but when the lady's grandson moved in and she started dedicating more time to him, it became a triangle where she was unhealthily attached to this lady and needed to be told when to back off, so this girl ended up moving out and later left town that summer just before I started working at the school with the 2020-2021 school year, and then she came back in the summer of 2021 to work at a different school in town the following year).
I felt bad and wanted to try make her feel better and at least do something for her for her birthday, so I left a card and a couple flowers on her porch while she wasn't home, and then came over later that evening to find her drunk off her ass with that kindergarten teacher guy I mentioned earlier.
Looking back, it should have been clear to me that they were there together because she called him over to drink and fuck, and she didn't wanna drink and fuck me, I guess. But I hung out for a little bit watching someone I thought was this innocent, school teacher, sweet girl swearing and talking raunchy, fucked up shit. Normally, it would've been funny, but because of what happened with how she was stressing over that lady, it looked like legitimate unhealthy depression coping. And then she was talking on the phone with some dude from out of state in her contacts saying "if I had a boyfriend, he'd come over and fuck me", and that's when it happened.
If the dude had simply said "look, you're a nice kid, but we're kinda already here together doing our own thing and you're kinda being a third wheel here, can you please go?", all these problems could've been avoided.
But NO, he wanted to punk me and make me feel like a loser POS by lying and saying he needed to take her out for a drive to let her scream and get her energy out before he had a serious talk with her. How fucking LAUGHABLE that sounds looking back at it, I was A PATHETIC IDIOT for ever believing that bullshit. Everyone knows you NEVER EVER leave the girl you like alone with another dude like that, that's just asking to get cucked. He knew I gave her flowers and those earrings and shit and obviously had a thing for her, and he just wanted to punk me and make me a cuck loser.
And then the next day, this girl had a brusied shoulder and acted traumatized and claimed to have been blacked out (bitch, you were NOT passed out or incapacitated, you were walking around, talking, and also talking about wanting to fuck; I've never been drunk before, but I've been super stoned many times, so I know what intoxication is like). She claimed that they drove out to the beach and she took his joint and smoked it, and then they went home and she didn't know if she was taken advantage of or not.
The 6th grade teacher lady came to talk to me and see if I was alright, and said that 1) she might think she was a victim, but she was responsible for her own actions, and 2) that dude didn't have anything against me and I could still trust him without fear. Then I saw her whispering something in his ear and glancing over to me a minute later (probably saying "I took care of that little punk/losebitch, he's not gonna be a problem").
The only reason I continue to speak with these people today is because I'm still not 100% sure about what happened. I'm like 99% sure that all three of them played me for a fool, but there's still a part of me that believes that maybe she actually was blacked out and ended up in an unfortunate/regretful situation.
If it's the first one, I'm just a jealous loser with a grudge over a girl, and if it's the second one, I'm a misogynistic asshole who doesn't believe women when they claim to be blacked out and assaulted. I'm a POS in this scenario either way.
She had a half-birthday celebration with that lady and some of her coworkers six months later in July 2022, and that's when she flat out broke out crying in front of all of us and said something like "I shouldn't have done this celebration, I feel awful because I fucked someone on my birthday, and I thought it'd be a good idea to get drunk and high, and I woke up in the middle of it."
After that outburst, we all left, but the thing that got me though was that she said "I fucked someone", not "someone took advantage of/assaulted me", which implied to me that maybe she really did want to fuck that dude, but then she also mentioned waking up in the middle of it and I remembered her bruised shoulder, which only made me feel like even more of a POS (one viewpoint is jealous, the other is misogynistic, either way I'm a loser).
Ever since that day in January 2022, I felt like the world was conspiring against me and that people were talking bad about me and plotting/scheming to hurt/embarass me. I didn't know who to trust, my older stoner cousin was clowning on me with his friends (dude kicked me in the head, yelled my name in front of the cops when we were smoking weed, and threw spam and mangoes at my car), I felt like even my own mother and brother had grudges against me at times, I ended up arrested for the 2 oz of weed I had in my car, I lost the job I had working at the elementary school because I flipped someone who snapped at me and they all pretended to feel unsafe/fearful of my presence, kids and parents didn't seem as enthusiastic about seeing me as they used to, and I just felt like the worst person I knew.
I just felt like the universe just felt like karma the universe was telling me "see, you're a POS asshole who's also a pathetic loser, this is what the world thinks of you and this is how we're gonna treat you. You think ANY woman would want you, or man would respect you, you little bitch? Because I just feel like fucking you over right now, loser."

I had a relationship with this guy, let's call him either D or G (he has two names). this was last year that started the relationship with him, I had a crush on this guy for 6 years and I confessed to him a few times but ended up being rejected (well most of the times he's dense asf so I took it as a rejection). back when we were classmates, he was like really sweet and all but in reality, he was quite a bully to other people, I was too blind to see lmfao. so fast foward from 6 years till to this specific day, 8/8/22 (16 at this time) I got back home from first day of school and straight up talking to him about my day and such, he out of nowhere confessed to me. You can say that I was super happy that I cried out of joyfulness, I was finally happy that he became my boyfriend (he's my first).
For the past few months, we've been updating ourselves of our school days and played video games together through online and one time he asked me for something and he asked for some nudes? or well a picture with an underwear on, I find it weird and felt uncomfortable about and told him that I don't really feel comfortable about sending pics or even take a picture of myself with it, but he begged and he said he'll do an exchange by sending some of himself as well. (dear lord, i feel sorry for my eyes for what I witness). I decided to give in and sent one and he did his as he said, I still felt uncomfortable about it, as in I lost respect of myself of sending something I don't like. On 10/29/22, we had our first double date with my best friend (14) along with her recent boyfriend, it was actually our first time meeting each other for the last 6 years so I felt in cloud 9 with him when I saw him, we went to a mall and yk do couple things like holding hands and such, he was really clingy and I find it cute.
He still continue to ask me for "nude" pics of myself and will still do an exchange, I told him that I felt not comfortable bout it a few times but he doesn't seem to care much and still wants it. I was naive and well I want to make him happy and make him stay with me so I did what he told me to do, whenever we video call, he wants me fully in my underwear, no clothes whatsoever, I didn't like that idea at all, even though I was smiling in front of the camera as we call and talk stuff at late nights, I seriously hate the idea of me not wearing my clothes in front of him. There was a time that I accidentally dozed off to our texting and next day, I apologize that I slept off without saying goodnight and love you stuff (like how couples do lol) and he kinda got pissed off about it, he said that I should at least try to tell him that I was sleepy but I didn't even notice I was tired because I was distracted of his text messages. so I was afraid he'll break up with me so I apologize multiple times, afraid of him leaving me, he said it's fine and said this: "I won't break up with you, unless I get bored" (???) I overthink about those words and well did my best not to bore him. At 12/2/22, I met him again since my bestie's bf invited us to his cousin's bday and ofc I will go because my ex will be there, so when we arrived at my bestie's bf's house, we just do what we usually do at birthdays, I wanted to be close to my ex since my best friend is with her boyfriend, I tried to cling onto his arm to surprise of my sudden move but he pushed me away, I was shocked at his action and didn't bother to try again, afraid of him getting mad.
Lately, he lets me come to his house and do...intimate stuff. not exactly though, we didn't do sex or anything, just more on making out and well, stuff lmfao. anyways, the whole month of December was.. feeling off, since I'm an overthinker, I felt like there's something gonna happen between us eventually, he mentioned something about him breaking up with me as a joke and I didn't like his thought cuz that triggered my overthinking and has been bothering me for a month. we haven't texted much during that month since he's at his parent's farmhouse and the signal was low, so I waited till next year (1/1/23). we greeted each other and tell each other's days and yk what it was fine till the next night, he wanted to tell me something and my gut just instantly knew what it's gonna be, I decided to cut to the chase and asked if he's gonna break up with me, and he said yeah (16 yrs old me was crying bro) he apologized for being a perv and asked if it's still okay with being us friends, of course that pissed me off and told him that I needed some time off and well we stopped texting, I didn't block him or anything, I was too scared to let him go, I tried to move on but it was really messing up with my mental health, I couldn't focus on my studies, barely taking care of my looks and health, even the littlest things that reminded me of him can triggered into a breakdown, I've talked to my friends about it but it felt like it wasn't enough. Now I'm currently 17, me and my ex haven't talked since and well my mental health is still messed up, I'm still trying to move on and well try to see other people but I'm too scared to fall in love again and feel the abandonment again, I've gain so much trust issues with people that I don't want to be around them anymore.
(I'm pretty sure my ex has a reddit account, so if he sees this, fuck you lol)

In January 2022, I (20M) was cucked by someone I thought was a good friend, and nobody I've told about it seems to be all too concerned about me or upset by it, so that tells me that maybe I really am a bad person or did something to deserve it. Maybe he really was a good friend and I'm just a jealous biatch with a grudge.
Long story short, my two coworkers (a female 6th grade teacher and male kindergarten teacher) at the elementary school I used to work at introduced me to this girl (about 8 years older than me) who they wanted me to smoke weed with because she's known for being emotional and stressing and feeling bad about herself. I would later learn that she has borderline personality disorder.
At first glance, I thought I was just being used for my weed, but then she never actually wanted to smoke my weed, so I figured maybe they just genuinely wanted to try and set us up. So I spent the next couple months slowly letting us get to know each other and get comfortable with each other. I brought her flowers a couple times when she was stressed out and going through things, we took each other to our work Christmas parties, and I even wasted $40 on silver earrings for her for Christmas.
Looking back on it, I was a loser simp who caught feelings way too fast.
Then she maybe pretended that she was having emotional stress over that 6th grade teacher I mentioned so she'd have an excuse to not wanna do anything to celebrate her birthday. (I heard from a different coworker that they were roommates during the 2019-2020 school year, and this girl wanted to hang out with this lady all the time like they were best friends, but when the lady's grandson moved in and she started dedicating more time to him, it became a triangle where she was unhealthily attached to this lady and needed to be told when to back off, so this girl ended up moving out and later left town that summer just before I started working at the school with the 2020-2021 school year, and then she came back in the summer of 2021 to work at a different school in town the following year).
I felt bad and wanted to try make her feel better and at least do something for her for her birthday, so I left a card and a couple flowers on her porch while she wasn't home, and then came over later that evening to find her drunk off her ass with that kindergarten teacher guy I mentioned earlier.
Looking back, it should have been clear to me that they were there together because she called him over to drink and fuck, and she didn't wanna drink and fuck me, I guess. But I hung out for a little bit watching someone I thought was this innocent, school teacher, sweet girl swearing and talking raunchy, fucked up shit. Normally, it would've been funny, but because of what happened with how she was stressing over that lady, it looked like legitimate unhealthy depression coping. And then she was talking on the phone with some dude from out of state in her contacts saying "if I had a boyfriend, he'd come over and fuck me", and that's when it happened.
If the dude had simply said "look, you're a nice kid, but we're kinda already here together doing our own thing and you're kinda being a third wheel here, can you please go?", all these problems could've been avoided.
But NO, he wanted to punk me and make me feel like a loser POS by lying and saying he needed to take her out for a drive to let her scream and get her energy out before he had a serious talk with her. How fucking LAUGHABLE that sounds looking back at it, I was A PATHETIC IDIOT for ever believing that bullshit. Everyone knows you NEVER EVER leave the girl you like alone with another dude like that, that's just asking to get cucked. He knew I gave her flowers and those earrings and shit and obviously had a thing for her, and he just wanted to punk me and make me a cuck loser.
And then the next day, this girl had a brusied shoulder and acted traumatized and claimed to have been blacked out (bitch, you were NOT passed out or incapacitated, you were walking around, talking, and also talking about wanting to fuck; I've never been drunk before, but I've been super stoned many times, so I know what intoxication is like). She claimed that they drove out to the beach and she took his joint and smoked it, and then they went home and she didn't know if she was taken advantage of or not.
The 6th grade teacher lady came to talk to me and see if I was alright, and said that 1) she might think she was a victim, but she was responsible for her own actions, and 2) that dude didn't have anything against me and I could still trust him without fear. Then I saw her whispering something in his ear and glancing over to me a minute later (probably saying "I took care of that little punk/losebitch, he's not gonna be a problem").
The only reason I continue to speak with these people today is because I'm still not 100% sure about what happened. I'm like 99% sure that all three of them played me for a fool, but there's still a part of me that believes that maybe she actually was blacked out and ended up in an unfortunate/regretful situation.
If it's the first one, I'm just a jealous loser with a grudge over a girl, and if it's the second one, I'm a misogynistic asshole who doesn't believe women when they claim to be blacked out and assaulted. I'm a POS in this scenario either way.
She had a half-birthday celebration with that lady and some of her coworkers six months later in July 2022, and that's when she flat out broke out crying in front of all of us and said something like "I shouldn't have done this celebration, I feel awful because I fucked someone on my birthday, and I thought it'd be a good idea to get drunk and high, and I woke up in the middle of it."
After that outburst, we all left, but the thing that got me though was that she said "I fucked someone", not "someone took advantage of/assaulted me", which implied to me that maybe she really did want to fuck that dude, but then she also mentioned waking up in the middle of it and I remembered her bruised shoulder, which only made me feel like even more of a POS (one viewpoint is jealous, the other is misogynistic, either way I'm a loser).
Ever since that day in January 2022, I felt like the world was conspiring against me and that people were talking bad about me and plotting/scheming to hurt/embarass me. I didn't know who to trust, my older stoner cousin was clowning on me with his friends (dude kicked me in the head, yelled my name in front of the cops when we were smoking weed, and threw spam and mangoes at my car), I felt like even my own mother and brother had grudges against me at times, I ended up arrested for the 2 oz of weed I had in my car, I lost the job I had working at the elementary school because I flipped someone who snapped at me and they all pretended to feel unsafe/fearful of my presence, kids and parents didn't seem as enthusiastic about seeing me as they used to, and I just felt like the worst person I knew.
I just felt like the universe just felt like karma the universe was telling me "see, you're a POS asshole who's also a pathetic loser, this is what the world thinks of you and this is how we're gonna treat you. You think ANY woman would want you, or man would respect you, you little bitch? Because I just feel like fucking you over right now, loser."

Since we're nearing the one year anniversary of JWD release, I thought it was a good opportunity to share with you the ideas I had for a rewrite of the film. I grouped them in a detailed pitch which I will present this week in a series of five posts. Today's post is about the story's prologue and first act. Tomorrow's will about the second act and so on... This detailed pitch is divided scene by scene and is accompanied by a few notes. It's basically similar to something that someone would present in a pre-production meeting.
However, before you start reading that series of post, I'll suggest that first you check the foreword on this page (https://archiveofourown.org/works/47647999/chapters/120097705) and secondly that you carefully read the paragraph below, as it's about the connection between that JWD rewrite and my previous rewrites (don't worry, you don't have to read the entirety of my stories before this series of posts, just the information below).

Important notes on my AU:

1) For those who didn't read my previous stories
- The stories told in this AU have a darker tone and are more adult than those of the films. Thus don't be surprised by some character actions or events. If they were films, they would be unsuitable for children under 12 in Europe (and the limit would be probably higher in North America). Thus, I would say that the Read at your own risk rule applies here for the younger users of this subreddit. I'm not trying to be edgy or whatever. I'm just an adult writing from an adult perspective. Nothing more and nothing less.
- By the late 2010's and early 2020's, there is still a considerable population of de-extinct dinosaurs and pterosaurs in the Five Deaths. An UN-backed paramilitary organization, the Grey Guard, protects the archipelago and had troops on Nublar up until the fall of Jurassic World.
- The Jurassic World park had feathered dinosaurs and Owen's Achillobator quartet were among those.
- The Fall of Jurassic World happened in 2017 and the Lockwood estate incident in 2019. The Indominus' rampage and the Sibo's eruption happened at the same time while the Costa Rican incident which preceded that of the Lockwood estate happened in the mainland and not on Nublar. Those two incidents are told in Jurassic World: The Red Queen, my FK rewrite (and which we'll abbreviate as TRQ).
- Roberta and the mosasaur died after the Fall of Jurassic World. Thus, they are not in TRQ and The Hegemony of Biosyn. In those stories, Roberta's role is mainly filled by Acrocanthosaurus.
- Claire and Owen aren't exactly identical to their versions from the official film canon. In terms of look, Owen is closer to Jason Momoa than Chris Pratt and Claire, while still being a fair-skinned redhead, is a bit taller and more intimidating-looking than BDH.
- In this AU, Claire is a far more morally ambiguous character than Trevorrow's version. She's more outspoken, and has a the end justifies the means mindset. For a time, she had serious PTSD from the Fall of Jurassic World, during which she was mauled by the Indominus (which clawed her face and bit off one of her arms). She also didn't create the DPG in this AU (someone else did).
​
2) Spoilers of the end of The Red Queen necessary to better understand the context and plot of The Hegemony of Biosyn.
- The Dinosaur outbreak which resulted from the Lockwood estate incident is less severe than in Trevorrow's version. Dozens of dinosaurs still escaped into the Californian wilderness but by the beginning of The Hegemony of Biosyn, they hadn't the time to establish considerable wild populations (except perhaps for the smaller species) while the dinosaur alert is mostly restricted to western North America. Broad strokes, there is no "Dinosaurs are everywhere on Earth. We're in deep shit! You're wondering how? Shut up, it's magic!" at the start of this Dominion rewrite but more sporadic incidents here and there and only beginnings of biological invasions in some areas. Moreover, TRQ's epilogue insists more on the propagation of de-extinction technology.
- At the end of TRQ, Claire and Owen are hired as field agents by the World De-extinction Monitoring Centre (WDMC), a UN agency.
- Maisie isn't adopted by Claire and Owen. In TRQ, she even has limited interactions with them (she gets involved in the incident only when the Indoraptor enters her room) and Owen isn't her saviour in that story. After the incident, she stayed at the manor with the Lockwood estate employees and just before his death, Lockwood entrusted her to Wu.
- In the late 2010's, InGen's biggest rivals were Biosyn and Grendel. At the end of TRQ, a collapsing InGen is bought by Biosyn and Wu hired by the latter's R&D department.
- Wu and Claire became sworn enemies when she became park director of Jurassic World (this relation worsened during the park's fall following some revelations) and while she left him alone at the end of TRQ, she told him she'll show no mercy if he has a share of responsibility in another disaster.
3) Notable differences between The Hegemony of Biosyn and Colin Trevorrow's Dominion.
- Grant, Malcolm and Sattler are absent. I preferred to leave those characters in peace rather than mistreat them (and even after I finished THOB's detailed summary, I don't see how I could have integrated them in a pertinent way, and there is already many... many characters).
- Most of the fan-service towards the first Jurassic Park was flushed down in the toilets.
- Barry Sembène is absent too. Not only the reasons of his inclusion in Dominion's story didn't conviced them (how what seemed to be just an animal wrangler ends up being now a secret services agent?) but in this alternative universe, him and Owen had started to fall out during the fall of Jurassic World and at the beginning of The Red Queen, we learn that he went back to France. I originally intented to make him one of the main characters of a spin-off set in France (and after the events depicted in The Hegemony of Biosyn) and we would have saw him again only then (wishing to leave dinosaurs behind him, he took a zookeeper position in some zoo in Ile de France, where he works with birds of prey. But a crisis in another part of the country force another of the protagonists (a gendarme) to recruit him due to his experience in InGen's IBRIS program). Thus, the role he's having in Trevorrow's Dominion is given to other characters in The Hegemony of Biosyn.
- Some characters have a different fate.
- A longer story, sometimes similar to that of a political thriller.
- Additional characters and subplots. A hypothetical casting for the original characters is available on the Archive of Our Own page linked above.
​
Without further ado, let's dive in the story.
​

Prologue

The prologue is set in mid-2022, in a village of the Austrian Alps, near the Italian border. On the village's outskirts, a man is awakened in the middle of the night by the panicked bleating of his goats. After checking them, he is attacked and killed by a mysterious small predator while one of the goats, a black billy, runs away. Nothing is seen of the predator during that sequence but the two-toed tracks it leaves in the ground.

ACT I: The chessboard and the pawns

Drive-in
After the prologue in Austria, we move to North America and more precisely an Oregon wood where an Acrocanthosaurus (a species introduced in TRQ) is being chased by a Fish and Wildlife Service helicopter. It's basically the drive-in scene from Trevorrow's version except that Roberta is replaced by the Acrocanthosaurus.
News Montage
Soon, the drive-in incident is in the news and we have a news montage with the world situation three years after the Lockwood estate incident. We learn that:
- De-extinction technology is mastered by various organizations across the globe.
- Incidents involving loose de-extinct animals occur from time to time. The controversial Grey Guard, an UN-backed paramilitary organization based in the Five Deaths, has been solicited by various nations to help their authorities deal with those incidents. The USA are however among the nations who refuse to let them intervene on their soil and instead, the US government use the CIA's Dangerous Species Division (which recruited several former InGen employees like Doctor Kajal Dua).
- Mantah Corp fell during those three years while Grendel was considerably weakened after some deadly incidents in Cameroon and southern India (one of their consequence is the outbreak of a dinosaur-related encephalitis in Cameroon, quite similar to one which occurred in Costa Rica in the late 2010s), leaving Biosyn as the number one in the field of genetic engineering.
- All of its biggest rivals now out of the equation, Biosyn has a hegemony and is thriving more than ever despite heavy criticism by some people who bring out the corporation's past controversies (like a certain rabies vaccine test in Chile). In a conference scene, Zoe Murdoch, Biosyn's vice president presents their newest creations, which includes variants from species already introduced in the series (She compares InGen's tyrannosaur, original trilogy's Raptor, Triceratops, Compsognathus and Quetzalcoatlus to Biosyn's. The raptor is feathered, the rex and trike are more in line with modern scientific depictions, the Compy is feathered and docile enough to be sold as a pet, while the quetzal is more pleasant looking than InGen's flying abominations which massacred people during the Fall of Jurassic World). The report also precise that Biosyn created tailored and more docile dinosaurs and use the example of the pack of featherless raptors they made foloaned to motion picture company Europacorp for one of their action films, showing footage of featherless and boxy-headed raptors jumping from roof to roof during a film shooting, where they were handled as easily as trained big cats or even dogs (This use is possible partly because de-extinct creatures have less rights than modern animals).
- Biosyn is also contracted by several governments, including the US, to capture the loose dinosaurs. To their sanctuary and research facility in the Dolomites valley of Auronzo, they sent some of the escapees from Lockwood's estate and their offspring, the animals which escaped Grendel's facilities in Cameroon and India (A group of Nasutoceratops and a 2010's style Spinosaurus are seen during that part of the report), and others... The close ties between Biosyn and the US government are also mentioned (in addition to providing help to the FWS agents, Biosyn has also several important contracts with the government and some people within the Agriculture department and the Food and Drug Administration are former Biosyn employees).
- However, there are some rumours that the Cameroon and Indian incidents were actually triggered by Biosyn and incriminating proofs were brought before the US congress but the investigation commission, led by Senator Christine West, rejected them.
San Francisco
Shortly after this testimony, Guillaume Vuillier, the World De-extinction Monitoring Centre's general director, is seen in the agency's headquarters in San Francisco. Since the US government doesn't seem to be willing to act against Biosyn, he's afraid that the WDMC and its allies have to deal with Biosyn's case alone. After some incidents in the Alps along the border between Italy and Austria involving creatures they presume to be raptors due to the nature of the tracks found, the UN and the Italian and Austrian governments have imposed an inspection on Biosyn's Sanctuary in Auronzo Valley. Vuillier and others suspect that the attacks' perpetrators indeed came from the Sanctuary.
The Inspection
Vuillier travels to Venice, where he meets with Dougal Benett, one of his European field agents, and the rest of the inspection group, which includes Mario Viscontini, head of the AISI (Italy's internal intelligence agency), and Giovanni Pazzi, Minister of the Interior. The inspection group then heads to its rendez-vous point with Biosyn, meets Murdoch and Ramsay (both usually work at Biosyn's HQ in Cupertino, California), and then embark on a Biosyn helicopter which takes them to the Dolomites and the Citadel, Biosyn's research facility (Though it's not as pretty as the building from Trevorrow's vision and a little bit more austere-looking, it's still impressive) which overlooks the Sanctuary.
The group inspect the facility, with head of security Lucrezia Pellegrino explaining how the dinosaurs can't leave the valley (through control chips and invisible fence systems), and even get to meet Dodgson, who made sure to hide anything controversial and have everything look in order. Thus, the inspection group doesn't find anything suspicious and returns to Venice. But the WDMC employees and Viscontini weren't fooled by Biosyn's "Everyone is beautiful. Everyone is nice" presentation, Vuillier points out the Sanctuary's flaws (too small to let a huge number of animals roam it freely, climate is not ideal enough for dinosaurs...) and are aware that controversial, if not illegal research must be conducted in the Citadel's secret wings (as it's way more isolated and hard to access than Cupertino's HQ).
Dodgson is aware of their distrust and both he and Vuillier start moving their pawns on the chessboard.
The DSD
In the CIA's DSD headquarters in San Francisco, the division's leader Isaac Gibbon (and perhaps senator West. I'm not yet sure if I include her in this scene or not. She could be visiting the division about funding matters or something like this) attends a presentation made by one of his agents, Jessica Bigelow. The presentation's topic is Claire Dearing and after summarizing her life (with a few saucy anecdotes and pictures from Claire's youth and early years at JW), Bigelow shows how the fallen park director fascinate some people, especially online, and how she managed to put a part of the public opinion on her side in the recent years after being treated like a pariah in the couple of years that followed the fall of Isla Nublar (Being positively depicted in the DPG documentary Franklin Webb made back in 2019; occasionally making vlogs; appearing on Stephen Colbert's show without her mask and answering his questions with honesty and self-derision...). The CIA agents say that she's the WDMC's most surprising and promising element alongside her fiancé Owen Grady. Both are nicknamed Vuillier's Wolves by them as they, especially Claire, are tend to be ruthless with those who oppose them, especially in unofficial and borderline illegal missions Vuillier give them, consisting in spying and/or sabotaging nefarious de-extinction related organizations. Bigelow also mention that it's highly probable she's also The Ghost of Nublar, a mysterious figure who challenged the Indominus during the Invasion of Burroughs, when Isla Nublar fell.
The ranch
One night, somewhere in the western US (could be Nevada like in Trevorrow's version), a trio of people is seen breaking out in a ranch-like facility. Once they're in its heart, the group split up, with one of its members heading towards another building. The two others, revealed to be Zia Rodriguez and Franklin Webb from the Dinosaur Protection Group (which is led by Zia, as the organisation's founder resigned at the end of TRQ) enters a warehouse which contains rows of cages with baby ceratopsians. While Zia and Franklin film the evidences of the animals' mistreatment, we return to their mysterious companion, whose face is concealed by a balaclava. However, an attentive viewer can recognize her green eyes and her prosthetic hand: It's Claire, who's on an unofficial mission for the WDMC. After avoiding or neutralizing some guards, she breaks out in the facility's offices. There, she discovers documents which might contain indicate a connexion between the illegal dinosaur exploitation and Biosyn (who could be selling embryos, eggs or juveniles to those exploiters before denouncing or sabotaging them years later, being paid by the government for capturing the dinosaurs and finally sending them to their Sanctuary). After this infiltration segment, ensues an action scene where our protagonists have to escape the facility aboard a vehicle stolen by Claire. During this scene, she seriously injures or even kill one guard, something she doesn't care much about at the moment but which will have some consequences.
The following morning, Claire phones Peggy Zubiri (Guillaume Vuillier's assistant, who sometimes act as a "Mission control" person for Claire and her colleagues) to tell her that she has the evidences they were looking for. The former director of Jurassic World then has a discussion with the two DPG members in which Zia laments that despite all her organization's actions, it seems that things aren't evolving in the good direction for de-extinct animals and that the morale within the DPG is at its lowest. They then departs for San Francisco, where Claire has to give Peggy the documents she found before returning to her and Owen's cabin.
The wranglers and the thieves
We then cut to Owen, who's in the middle of a WDMC-US FWS joint operation somewhere in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where they have to capture some dinosaurs (candidates could be Dryosauruses or juvenile Gallimimuses and Hadrosaurs, as wrangling adults on horseback is quite unrealistic to be honest). However, as they are leading the captured dinosaur(s) back to their base camp, our group has an encounter with Rainn Delacourt and his men. It plays out like in the extended version of Trevorrow's film, with Owen and his companions being forced to give the animal(s) to Rainn. However, just as Rainn's team are taking the dinosaur(s) away, Owen tells one of the FWS agents that this situation is only temporary, as Rainn will soon get a surprise...
Maisie
In Orick, Maisie Lockwood exits the estate to go biking in the area. A scene where she encounters some dinosaurs like in the film might be included here. O'Hara (the old lady who participate to her kidnapping in Trevorrow's film) is seen watching her. She returns to the manor just before the evening. The place is not as vibrant as before (it's almost a ghost manor. As it's the autumn, the place would even look ominous), with only a handful of employees remaining, including Theo Lomas, the man who saved her from the Indoraptor three years ago and who now works as the estate's guard. Officially, Henry Wu became Maisie's foster father when Benjamin died but the geneticist, who was assimilated by Biosyn when it bought InGen at the end of TRQ, now lives in the Dolomites facility and his visits to Orick are rare. Thus, Theo became Maisie's true foster father in addition to being the closest thing to a friend for her. He expresses his worries about her long excursions outside but as she's started to become a rebellious teenager, things are tense.
Vuillier's interview
We cut to an interview of Guillaume Vuillier on the French television set just a few days after the Dolomites Inspection. At first, the journalist ask questions about the inspection of Biosyn's complex and the incidents in the Alps before addressing the rumour which says that the masked individual who recently attacked illegal dinosaur breeders might be a WDMC agent, Claire Dearing to be precise (as the colleagues of the deceased guard(s) claimed the attacker was a woman with a prosthetic arm). The journalist brings out another case where Claire made veiled threats to a suspect while on an official mission (with said suspect declaring she almost acted like a Gestapo member or something like this), and as Claire is Vuillier's subordinate, the journalist ask if he intent to sanction her. Annoyed, Vuillier retorts that she acted on legitimate defence and that those people had the choice to cooperate but didn't. Having noticed strange in the journalist's attitude, he suspect that the French government (Due to certain events in TRQ I won't name to not spoil you, the latter has Vuillier and the couple in their radar) paid them and tried to discredit him through that topic. The interview makes some buzz, enough to attract the attention of Odegaard, Vuillier's boss and the leader of the UN environment programme (the character is mentioned but never seen).
Sightings map
We get several little family scenes with Claire, Owen and Sigurd, their four-year old son. One of those scenes shows Owen briefly looking at a map he pinned in their office, depicting California and the neighbouring states. On it, he put Blue's sightings. The last of those was in Yosemite area, where the Raptor Whisperer searched the Achillobator earlier in the autumn but to no avail.
In the meantime, we learn that Rainn was arrested after the authorities followed the tracking chip Owen put in the animal the poacher stole. With the animal seized by the FWS and him heavily compromised on a judicial standpoint, Rainn is raging.
Nyamu
Just after his return to San Francisco, Vuillier receives a video call from Lester Nyamu, a friend and colleague from the UN environment programme's HQ in Nairobi. After that interview in the French media, Nyamu tells Vuillier that Odegaard fears the bad publicity Claire might give to the WDMC and wants to send him to the US at the end of the winter and have him follow Claire in her missions, acting as an inspector. His inspection will decide if they can keep Claire as a field agent or not.
While on an official field mission, Claire is contacted by Vuillier, who tells her about the current controversy. He announces he is forced to send her back home and have her do teleworking and not participate to any field mission, official or not, until further notice.
Resonating Chamber
Stuck at home, Claire takes interest in raptors' behaviour and reads not only her fiancé's IBRIS stuff but also whatever the WDMC has on the topic, including reports from the scientists stationed in the Five Deaths and the testimonies and notes of Alan Grant and Billy Brennan. After watching a video where a group of WDMC scientists and grey guards stops a raptor attack on Sorna by using a resonating chamber identical to the one Brennan made back in 2001, she remembers Owen commissioned a similar one for Achillobators and finds it. She then start learning to use it.
The Palaeontologist
As Auronzo Valley has received its first snow falls, we are introduced to Biosyn Sanctuary's resident palaeontologist, the Scotsman Rod Drummond. Dodgson asked him to act as a tour guide for two teenage girls, the daughters of an investor with which he is negotiating, but they are not interested in the slightest about what's he is saying and are on their phones even though there's dinosaurs outside (a group of Stygimoloch is seen foraging in the snow). Short-tempered (the character is a bit like the lovechild of Gordon Ramsay and Westworld's Lee Sizemore), Drummond grab one of the phones and smash it against the nearest wall. The girls protest but Drummond gives a long rant in which he almost reveal the Sanctuary's true purpose, something he's really uncomfortable with. When they return, Dodgson ask the girls if they're okay (he has a soft spot for children) and yells at Rod but the palaeontologist ignores him and storms off to his office. Some minutes later, he receives the visit from the girls' father, Nathan Quinn. The investor apologies for his daughters' behaviours and tell Rod that he accepted Dodgson's offer in exchange of a seat in the board of directors.
Bailed out
Rainn is bailed out by a mysterious ally and once free, he plans his vengeance upon Owen. He receives a phone call from an unknown woman and first presumes it's her who bailed him out but it isn't the case. She tells him that she has a mission for him, consisting in capturing a particular dinosaur, a blue Achillobator. Having been told about the relationship Owen had with this animal, Rainn accept the mission, claiming he'll succeed where other poachers failed.
Achillobators
There is a time jump to the middle of the winter, just after the New Year. Claire and Owen recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of their meeting and the Raptor Whisperer is in their office, once again studying Blue's moves on the map, trying to discern a pattern or a trajectory. He ends up realizing that she's heading right towards the area where they live. As if to confirm his guess, there is a shot which shows an Achillobator in the snowy woods.
A few days later, Sigurd, Claire's and Owen's son, is playing in the snow when a young Achillobator with blue feathers steps out of the nearby woods. It's about to pounce on the child when its mother, none other than Blue, calls it back, recognizing the boy from the Orick incident (she nearly devoured him during it but changed her mind at the last second when she recognized Owen's smell on him). Owen rushes to grab his son and Blue stands before her young. Claire steps out of the cabin and while walking towards her fiancé and their child, she uses the resonating chamber. At first, it seems to calm Blue but the raptor then decides to retreat into the woods with her young. The family go back inside the cabin and the couple have a talk about what just happened and debate about what they should do with the two Achillobators as they can't be left in the wild, both for their own safety and that of the local animals and people. One of them think about telling the Fish and Wildlife Service but the other retorts that the FWS is likely to send Blue and her young in their complex in Pennsylvania, where the captured de-extinct animals are usually given to Biosyn and flown to Europe, and that they're not sure if Auronzo Valley's sanctuary is truly safe for them. An alternative is suggested, consisting in capturing them without telling anyone but a few trusted people and then bringing them to the local Wildlife Park Owen worked for between JW's fall and the 2019 incidents. This would only be a temporary solution (if Blue kills locals, they're afraid that the park will be targeted) while Claire would negotiate with Vuillier and one of her friends, Lord Francis Clayton, a British aristocrat who owns one of England's largest zoos and wanted to buy Blue during the 2019 auction InGen held at Lockwood estate (a legal one, unlike the one organized by Mills at the same moment). The couple indeed thinks that the two raptors will be safer in the United Kingdom than in the US, where Biosyn's influence is much stronger. During that scene, Owen also gives a name to Blue's young: Victoria, after Victoria Beckham (in TRQ, it's revealed that he originally wanted to name the raptor squad after the Spice Girls). (Thus, bye bye Beta)
The couple starts planning and organizing the capture operation, even asking the help of Zia as they need a veterinarian, but the news of two hunters mysteriously disappearing in the area reminds them of the situation's urgency. And hearing about this, Rainn Delacourt soon arrives in the area.
Wu's call
Wu calls Maisie, telling her he has something important to show her and he invites her and Theo to the Dolomites. As it's about her mother Charlotte, Maisie accepts.
Tragedy in the Sierra Nevada
Zia, Franklin and one or two other DPG members, along with a couple of people from the before mentioned wildlife park and one of the FWS agent from the wrangling scene, arrive at Owen's cabin, ready to offer their help in Blue's and Victoria's capture. The couple and their allies set off.
But Rainn and his men finds the raptors first and lure Victoria into a trap. Blue tries to free her and kills all those standing in her way but Rainn mortally wounds her and leaves with Victoria before Owen can stop him. During the skirmish, one of the DPG members and the FWS agent are also wounded and Claire and Franklin are forced to drive them to the nearest clinic while Owen, Zia and the others search for Blue. When they find her, they realize she's in agony and Zia tells Owen that this time, she can't save the Achillobator. With great difficulty, Owen takes the decision of putting an end to Blue's suffering. She is buried in a secret location deep in the woods and just before he, Zia and their colleagues departs, Franklin tells Claire that this failed mission was the final straw and that he'll leave the DPG and consider a job offer he recently received, arguing that when amateurs try to make things right, innocents gets hurt and that they should let those kind of issues to competent authorities.
Claire then informs Vuillier about the incident.
Leaving Orick
O'Hara, the Biosyn employee dispatched at Orick, picks up Maisie and Theo at the manor and they leave the estate.
​
End of Act I.
See you tomorrow for Act II.

Despite addressing her absence and changing whereabouts a few times, it took The Simpsons 33 seasons to finally explain how Homer lost track of his mother. In its many years on the air, the long-running animated series has only offered a little insight into Homer’s relationship with his mother, Mona Simpson. She first appeared in The Simpsons season 7 and periodically cropped up later in the series, before eventually becoming one of the very few characters killed off on The Simpsons.
However, despite establishing that Mona was never happy with Homer’s father, The Simpsons never explained how Homer lost contact with her. The show did mention that Grandpa told Homer his mother was dead at a young age, but a Simpsons season 33 episode retconned this and explained how Homer almost reunited with Mona in his teens. Surprisingly, it was his closeness with Grandpa that led Homer to miss out on reconnecting with his mother.
The Simpsons season 33, episode 9 “Mothers and Other Strangers,” showed a flashback of a teenage Homer trying to track down Mona and succeeding very briefly, but his decision to help Abe out of a jam instead of following his mom meant he gave up the chance to catch up with her. Although the revelation is a sweet Simpsons moment, it is undercut by Abe telling Homer he made the wrong decision by coming back to help his struggling father. While the trio was being pursued by FBI agents through a ravine, Homer turned around to help Grandpa after he became caught between two rocks, rather than continuing to pursue Mona. This explanation is the first time that The Simpsons has depicted Homer choosing Abe over his mother rather than simply being separated without a choice in the matter.
It is perhaps not a surprising origin story for Homer’s separation from his mother since the character has consistently stuck up for Grandpa over the years. However, the Simpsons season 33 episode did also retcon some vital canon from the series while explaining how Homer and his mother ended up so distanced. Although Mona Simpson appeared on The Simpsons numerous times before being killed off, the episode sees Homer and Grandpa claim that they have not seen her since Bart’s birth. It is an odd claim and one that flies in the face of numerous classic Simpsons plots without adding much to the episode’s explanation of Homer’s abandonment by his mother.
Although hearing that Homer has not seen his mother in almost a decade is tragic, it is contradicted by the numerous Simpsons episodes wherein she arrives in Springfield and interacts with the family. Like the death of Maude Flanders, this Simpsons mistake seems unnecessary and serves mostly to complicate the show’s messy chronology, and was not necessary to make the story of Homer being left behind by his mother effective. The crux of The Simpsons season 33 episode is explaining that, in the heel of the hunt, Homer chose to stick with Grandpa over Mona, a decision that is both true to his character and poignant as well.

Chapter 1 Previous Chapter *** Author Note: Never post from a phone again... urgh otherwise you can post twice >.< Annoying... ***
“Say, if I get out of here, would you like to come outside as well?”, he asked. Yes! I want to see your world!
The little bird perched upon his head brought a much-needed lightheartedness to Raphael's weary soul. Like a gentle breeze, it swept away the weight of his sorrows, if only for a fleeting moment. In the midst of darkness and chaos, the bird became a beacon of hope, reminding him of the light that still existed in this world that turned out much more twisted than he ever thought possible. It was a reminder he desperately needed, a spark of joy he was on the verge of letting slip away.
“And how can do that Azura?” You mentally ste-
Raphael's eyes blinked open, greeted by the sight of an unfamiliar wooden ceiling basking in the glow of ample light. Disoriented, he surveyed the plainness of the bedroom, devoid of any personal touches. Just the bare essentials, devoid of books or plants that would add warmth. However, there, lying peacefully with her head on the bed, was Sanya. A surge of relief washed over him, confirming their successful escape and subsequent elusion from capture. A tender smile etched across his face as he gazed upon her slumbering visage, momentarily transporting him to a world where nothing was amiss, where everything was right, reminiscent of days long past. Almost. Were it not for the slender, elongated black tail encircling her body, a visible reminder of the altered reality they now faced. With care, Raphael retrieved the blanket that had enveloped him and gently draped it over Sanya, a small gesture of protection and comfort. Rising from the bed, he approached the window, his eyes casting out onto the world beyond. They found themselves in an apartment, likely occupying the sixth or seventh floor. In this city, at least, the world seemed to have settled into a temporary calm, a respite from the tumult that had ravaged New Trampton, wherever they may be. People of various ethnicities roamed the streets, seemingly oblivious to the transformative events that had unfolded. Non-human beings remained hidden from sight, but the chaos that had gripped where they came from appeared distant, as if the very air breathed an air of tranquility. As Raphael stepped out of the bedroom, his gaze was drawn to the kitchen, where the familiar figure of George the Orc busily prepared a meal. Settling onto a barstool at the kitchen counter, he observed George's culinary prowess unfold. The tantalizing aroma of eggs, sausages, and bacon wafted through the air, awakening his senses. Raphael couldn't help but feel his mouth water as he watched George skillfully craft what he assumed was a hearty breakfast.
“You knocked me out pretty good, back then.”
Caught off guard, George spun around, his hands still clutching the pan of scrambled eggs. An unmistakable sense of uncertainty etched across his face as he struggled to find the right words to express himself. However, before he could utter a single syllable, Raphael swiftly raised his hand, signaling for silence, urging George to listen intently for a moment.
“I understand why you did what you did. And I am thankful. Still, I hate you for it.”, Raphael began. “I hope you have remembered where the manor was, I will go there as soon as possible and free Vivian. With or without you.” “With me and I do remember, this is Offerstone we are in. But not how ya think it will go. No, now ya let me speak.” George said, as this time he raised his hand to demand silence. “I was not completely honest with ya. While I am a tattoo artist, a pretty good one, let me tell ya that, my store is also a front for underground auctions. And the place we escaped from is one of our clients.” George said, setting the pan back onto the stove. He walked around and opened up a laptop sitting on the counter. “I only got a connection when I used the cable, but I had an email from him asking to set up an auction for some exotic creatures he wanted to sell and guess what creature he wants to sell.”
Raphael's senses were utterly bewildered. Before him, displayed on the laptop screen, were a series of photographs depicting Vivian trapped in her confining cage. Accompanying the images was a chilling description detailing the vile methods used to capture her and the sinister intentions of those who sought to profit from her captivity. A surge of disbelief and revulsion coursed through Raphael, intertwining with an overwhelming sense of anger that surged from the depths of his being. The depths of his soul were engulfed in an intense loathing for the perpetrators of such despicable acts.
“We can get her, that’s no problem. Rather we need to think about what comes after.”, George said “What do you mean what comes after? We are taking her, end of the story!”, Raphael exclaimed loudly “Don’t be so naive! If it would be only ya, ya pet and me then fine, but ya saved Sanya and we are now responsible for her!”, the Orc said, slamming his fist on the counter, making some glasses jump.
Raphael felt stupid, as he realized his momentary lapse of focus. In his eagerness to secure Vivian's safety, he had momentarily forgotten about Sanya, even though he had just tenderly covered her with a blanket. Yes, he understood that they were now responsible for Sanya too, at least until they could reunite her with her parents.
“Then, let's bring her to her parents and then we rescue Vivian. You can set up a date and time and then we plan how to save her.”, he said abashed.
The Orc let out an audible sigh, clearly annoyed by the presence of the insistent Elf before him. With a disapproving shake of his head, he conveyed his refusal without uttering a word.
“If it would be that easy, I would have done that while ya were still out. Look at the mails before that one.”
As Raphael opened the remaining emails, his heart sank further with each word he read. These were not ordinary exchanges; they were communications between influential figures and government officials. The gravity of the situation began to weigh heavily on his shoulders. The messages echoed with a resounding prejudice. They branded the transformed beings as abominations, claiming they were even worse than humans. The fearmongering was palpable, painting them as a dangerous threat that needed to be contained, eliminated, or subjugated. Some proposed confining them to zoos, while others advocated for segregated camps. A chilling proposal even suggested legalizing their enslavement. But it was the final email that sent shivers down Raphael's spine. It originated from the Presidential House itself, stripping demi-humans of their rights and granting humans free reign to treat them however they pleased. Attached was a grotesque image of Richard McKennsy, reveling in his position of power, a cigar in one hand, whiskey in the other, his feet resting callously on the exposed body of a cat-eared female. The caption beneath the picture brazenly proclaimed, "Fuck 'em all up. Enjoy the free slaves. R. "
Next Chapter
Thanks for reading

Title goes for itself, however to elaborate me and a FWB recently became exclusively dating around 8 months ago. After just under a year of FWB.
All was going great and I was enjoying the relationship, however yesterday she was acting off and we normally watch her friends monologues via Snapchat on her phone, however this time when we did this she refused to let me hold the phone and became very defensive. Eventually I saw a guy was messaging her and I asked to see the message, she refused and became very cagey. A few minutes later she'd left her phone I picked it up and checked, the message said "head needed" naturally suspicious I asked to see the rest of the chat, she broke down and started crying saying I shouldn't read it and I should just break up with her now. An hour or so later I read the chat going up to a week ago getting increasingly flirtatious. Turns out this was an unsuccessful hookup from when we were FWB who she has sent nudes to before we became official. The messages culminated in him offering her to come round and stay the night and her saying he could come round tomorrow (today) as I am away for work in Holland. This relationship was going very well before with her telling me she loved me just before we decide to become a "couple" I've asked her and she said nothing happened n she wouldn't have let it was just some drunken flirting that got out of hand. I broke up with her last night and am currently en route to Holland regretting it, she's sent plenty of messages saying she loves me etc. I just don't understand why she's done this, she wears my clothes, has my name on a necklace she wears constantly, wants to get my eyes tattood on her and constantly talks about wanting to be together forever.
She wants me to believe it was a mistake and it'll never happen again, n swears nothing physical has happened with anyone since we became official but how can I trust her now?

(Any sentences or phrases wrapped with brackets "[ ]" are designated as inner monologue!)
Thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating this wonderful literary universe!
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Memory transcription subject: Lemva, Venlil Archeologist
Date [standardized human time]: July 13, 2165
The attendant, Harold, had told me that there would be another passenger boarding shortly several minutes ago, and since then I couldn't keep still wondering who I was going to meet.As I sat on the couch, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on the conversation that Harold had just started with the other passenger. As I heard a new voice respond to Harold’s greeting my heart started beating faster. Wait, the voice sounded familiar…
My heart rate quickened as footsteps came closer down the hallway.A man wearing a black suit and indigo tie came walking around the corner and my heart fluttered a little as I looked up at his face.
“Lemva?”
“James?” I squeaked as I said his name. I jumped up off the couch and ran toward him, throwing my arms around him and nearly knocking him over. “Lemva!”
Looking up at him, I realized what I had just done, backing off slightly embarrassed. “James! I haven’t seen you in so long, what have you been up to?”
“Looking into ancient history, studying declassified documents, bringing back ancient history, that sorta thing.” James kneeled slightly and looked at me with a wide smile, I’d missed that smile so much. He opened his mouth to speak. “I wasn’t expecting to see you on this flight. It’s very good to see you!” “It’s good to see you too! So you’re one of the others that the UN’s invitation spoke of.” “It seems that way, yeah.” He chuckled slightly.
“I see you two are getting along well! I don’t even have to introduce you.” I realized Harold had been standing there watching the interaction the whole time. I straightened myself out, even more embarrassed than before. Harold chuckled. “Alright you two, we’re going to be taking off shortly. I’ll be in the cabin along with the captain. If you need me, press these buttons.” He handed us both a device with a singular blue button labeled “call”.
The man turned around and headed through the door leading to the cockpit. Leaving us alone. We both sat on a couch. James spoke, “So, do you know anything about the job being offered?” “I was going to ask you the same thing.” “Hmm, well we’re going to be in for a long flight, may as well catch up on some things.”
Me and James had known each other since we attended MIK, and had a lot of history. We met in the college’s history club, and quickly became friends. We both had a passion for learning about things that most others had forgotten, and theorizing about what life was like in ancient times. He didn’t know it but I had a huge crush on him at the time.
We stayed in contact long after we both got our doctorates, despite the large distances between us. Eventually James suddenly stopped contacting me, I never understood why. I had worried that it was something I did, that I had pushed him away. Then, after a while, he faded from memory, only existing in the back of my mind. I needed to know why. But not now, this was too soon.
“I know I already asked what you’ve been up to since we last spoke, but still. Discovered anything new?”
“Yeah, I got my hands on some recently declassified Fed info and artifacts around 8 months back. Studied them and found out they were ancient Gojid pottery, inscriptions described some sort of fertility god? Found some other inscriptions describing the site of an ancient Gojid city on The Cradle and got in contact with a dig team to go search there. Hit the motherlode and-” He spoke so enthusiastically about his findings. Just seeing him so happy about his work made me bloom, but thankfully he didn’t notice as he kept talking, waving his hands to emphasize his words. “-trying to find a museum that has the room for all of them.”
“Wow, that’s a lot more than what I’ve been doing.” “Really? Lemva hasn’t done anything interesting lately? I find that hard to believe.” James took on an amused expression. “Yes, really. I’ve been on vacation with my family for a little while, that’s all. It had been a while since I’d seen them.”
I could see his smile visibly lessen, he shifted his eyes, seeming to be deep in thought. Had I said something wrong? “Hey, are you okay?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m fine. Your mention of family brought back some… memories.” A singular tear formed below his left eye, before he looked away. I didn’t want to push, despite his failed attempt at hiding his sadness. “Oh, we can change the subject if you want.”
He wiped his eyes and shuddered, before straightening himself out. “No, it’s ok. You should probably know anyway. It’s part of the reason I haven’t talked to you in so long.” I was hoping to get some answers but now I didn’t know if I wanted to if it was making him this upset.
“A- alright, go ahead. You can stop at any time if you want to.” “Before I start I want to say how sorry I am for ghosting you.” He closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply. A somber expression filled his face as he opened his eyes. “Okay. You know my parents right? Bill and Angene?” “Yeah?” “A couple years back, I was doing a small job for a little town on Nishtal. Not much pay but that didn’t matter. This was during the time when the anti-human movement was in full effect.”
My heart stopped, I immediately knew where this was going.
“I wasn’t worried for them cause they were on Earth. I thought they would be away from the violence because the rioters would be too scared to be among so many ‘predators.’” His voice dripped with malice as he spat out the last word. He was always treated… differently from other people. Even so long after the war, “predator” hate was still common. He kept speaking. “Clearly I was wrong, or maybe one of those fucking rioters hated us too much to care about their own safety.” I only now noticed that he had been shaking as he spoke, but he suddenly stopped. He looked defeated, on the verge of a breakdown. “They were just bringing home groceries, that’s all. They were friendly and happy and polite and all they were doing was bringing home some things for dinner. But because they had committed the SIN of being born with forward facing eyes everyone hated them.” “On the phone the next day, I was told that my parents had been stabbed to death when walking home. I had to attend their funeral several days later, and that night the police took me in to meet their murderer. It took every ounce of energy that I could muster to not turn their disgusting little face to orange mulch.”
If anyone else had looked at James’ face at that moment, they would have seen nothing but a rabid animal looking for something to rip apart, but I didn’t see that. I saw a man that just wanted his parents back, a man that wished the world didn’t hate him. James crumpled over and started sobbing violently, and without thinking I got up and gave him the biggest hug my small arms could allow. He wrapped his muscular arms around me and buried his head into my wool, his sobs shaking my whole body. I stroked the back of his head in an attempt to comfort him, and tried doing those shushing sounds that human mothers do to calm down their children but ended up making a strange sputtering sound instead. I heard the sounds of giggling interspersed with the sobbing, leading into a fit of coughing from James. He lifted his face from my shoulder and stared into my eyes, still dripping tears but starting to smile now. He rested his chin back on my shoulder, and I gladly let him.
“I’ve missed you Lemva, you have no idea just how much I’ve missed you. I’m so sorry I left so quickly, I’m so sorry.” “I’ve missed you too James, and you don’t need to apologize, I understand. Why don’t we go drink some water and get some sleep, okay?” The man on my shoulder croaked out a hoarse “Okay” before slowly pulling himself off of me. We both got up and walked into the kitchen to grab some water. James chugged down several glasses before he was satisfied. We made our way to our separate bedrooms before saying goodnight to each other and closing our doors. I pulled the warm blankets over myself and laid my head down, exhausted from the short but intense emotional interaction. As thoughts floated through my mind, I drifted off into a deep sleep.
<<>>
I awoke to a familiar sensation, it felt as if I was standing in a shallow pool of oil. My eyes were met with black for as far as the eye could see, a seemingly endless floor of tar, and a distant orb of light. This sight had become less eerie and more frustrating the more times I had seen it. [Not this again…] I had been having this dream nearly every night for the past 3 weeks, ever since I had received the invitation from the UN. It was always the same. Endless void, endless black oil, a light always seeming within reach but always too far to catch. I decided to play along with the dream and walk towards the light, the faster I go through with this charade the faster I can wake up and talk to James again. My footsteps echoed into infinity as I waded through the sticky oil, the sensation was awful. I stopped and thought for a moment. [Know what? Fuck it, might as well do something different this time.] I turned around and walked away from the orb of light that had been taunting me for 3 weeks straight. As I walked, I could feel the texture beneath my paws slowly change. I looked down to notice that the tar floor I had grown accustomed to was now an endless field of silver sand. My paws were still sticky from the tar and were now covered with sand, great. As I stared down at the ground beneath me, it slowly started glowing brighter and brighter until it hurt my eyes. It was reflecting something.
I looked up to try to find the source of the light and stared in shock at the sight before me, despite the pain in my eyes. I could not turn away. [By the creator…]
Filling the darkness above me was a white dwarf, its brilliance seeming to burn away the darkness surrounding it. Burning streams of plasma buffeted sand in the distance, leaving only glass. I could feel it watching me, judging me. The air around me swirled and roared, picking up fragments of glass and flinging it against my face as I stood in awe. Clouds of silver shards swirled forever around me, scraping away my wool and flesh but I did not move. I could not turn away. The star seemed to fall toward me. I could not turn away. Instantly, the fury of the wind around me calmed, dropping mountains of the glittering sand onto the ground. The sands whispered to me, filling my mind with a single message.
“Find us. We await.”
<<>>
Date [standardized human time]: July 15, 2165
I stood alongside James near the airlock, we were finally here. It had been two days since I and James had boarded the ship, and we were finally on an approach to Aafa’s spaceport. I felt excited theorizing what job the UN had for us, but couldn’t help but notice a feeling of dread in the back of my mind. Aafa was the capital of the Federation before the UN Coalition began their occupation, and as a result there would probably be more xenophobia on the streets. Hopefully we wouldn’t have to stick around long enough to see it.
“Attention passengers, we are now breaking through the atmosphere, brace yourself on a nearby hand-rail or other stationary object until further notice.”
Me and James grasped the hand-rails tightly as the ship jostled through the turbulent atmosphere, the surface outside the airlock view-port slowly grew larger and larger as we descended. A beautiful city came into view as the clouds’ obfuscation subsided. I had been to Aafa twice in my life before and every time I saw its grand cities I felt a sense of wonder. I could feel the ship level out and slow down, we were almost docked. I felt a small jolt as the landing gear gently touched down on the landing pad.
Harold’s voice came through the PA system. “Alright you two, we’ve landed. I’ll be with you shortly to show you to your escort group.” James and I looked at eachother, I could see a glint of worry in his eyes. Though whether he was worried about the reactions of Aafa’s inhabitants or worried about his first impressions with such important UN personnel, I could not tell.
I heard the cabin door open far behind us and heard Harold’s footsteps make their way toward the airlock where we stood in wait. He stepped past us and took a position at the airlock door.“Welcome to Aafa.” Harold pressed a button and the blast-door slid open with a pneumatic hiss. “Follow me.” We walked down the ramp and onto the hangar bay floor. As my eyes wandered around the large room I noticed how much better kept this spaceport, or at least this hangar, was than the port on Venlil Prime or Earth. Harold took us through a door and into the main hall for this level.
As we made our way to the nearest elevator a kolshian man walked toward us, his gait taking on a menacing feel as he drew closer. When he saw me he smirked. “You sure you wanna keep walking with these predators, little lady? You’d be a lot safer with me instead of them.” I was astounded by how blatant this man was with his opinions. I tried to respond calmly to the man but couldn’t hide my offense. “No thank you, I’m perfectly fine walking with these “predators” thank you. Speak your xenophobia to someone who cares to listen.” The kolshian’s smirk disappeared as he walked toward me faster. Harold’s arm shot out in front of me, blocking the man from getting any closer, the chipper smile he usually displayed was gone from his face. “Please leave sir, we have things to attend to.” The kolshian’s angry expression intensified. “I’m not taking orders from any damn predator.” I could see the man pulling out an object from behind his back. Before I could react, I heard a sickening crunch as Harold’s fist connected with the kolshian’s face, and the man tumbled to the ground. I heard a sound as the knife we were about to be stabbed with clattered to the ground, the tentacle he had been using to wield it clutching his bleeding face. Harold in a swift motion kicked away the knife and put the kolshian in a choke hold while a group of UN security officers rushed over. Two officers cuffed the bleeding kolshian and another walked up to Harold most likely to ask for an explanation.
Harold put back on his usual cheerful expression as he turned to speak to us.“You two head down to the first floor, your escort group and the other 2 invitees will be waiting in the main lobby, they should be pretty obvious to spot. I’ll catch up soon but I have to explain the situation with security.” I turned to look at James as we hurried to the elevator. I could tell he was angry, but he had a glint of satisfaction in his eyes, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little similar. James scrolled down the list of floors on the screen and selected the number 1. The Aafa spaceport was easily the largest structure I had ever seen, I guess there wasn’t enough room for 400 buttons. As the elevator descended, James spoke.
“Hey Lem, you ok?” “Yeah, my heart’s beating pretty fast though. Who knows what would have happened if Harold wasn’t with us.” “Yeah, did you see how fast he handled that? Guy must be a veteran or something.” The idea brought a question to the surface of my mind that I had been pondering since I first received my invitation. “Yeah… I’ve been wondering why we’ve been treated so well ever since we got aboard the ship. I mean, we’re just a couple historians, why spend so much on the ship and all the protection? What could this job possibly be?” As I spoke, James stared past the transparent wall of the elevator and into the city skyline, he seemed to be deep in thought. “Yeah I’ve been thinking about that too… I don’t think we’ll have to theorize for much longer though, just a short drive and we can ask whoever invited us.”
My attention was brought back to reality as a DING sounded from the doorway, indicating that we were at the ground floor. The doors slid open silently and revealed a veritable swarm of people walking through the main hallway loop, several people of different species squeezed into the elevator we were just in as we walked out. James and I followed the signage on the walls for several minutes and entered into the main lobby, where we could see a group of humans with a Gojid in the middle. The humans wore black suits and sunglasses, I could also barely make out earpieces and microphones hidden among their clothing. They reminded me of the secret agents in the human spy movies I enjoyed watching. They must be our escort group.
We approached the menacing humans and they turned to look at us. Before I could speak up I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Harold catching up with us. “Sorry for leaving you alone for a bit. I’ll talk with your escorts.” Harold walked up to the closest escort and flashed a badge at them, turning around once the mysterious man nodded. The escort spoke something into his earpiece but I couldn’t quite make it out. “Well, I’d best be going to sort out matters with the captain. I’ll meet up with you later.” Harold handed us off to the mysterious entourage and walked back into the crowd.
One of the bodyguards spoke up. “Follow me and don’t stray off course, we’ll be taking you to the senate building.” As our guards escorted us to our vehicle, I spoke to the gojid accompanying us. “Hi, my name is Lemva, this is James. Are you one of the other people invited by the UN?” The gojid spoke up in a soft voice. “Yeah, though for what reason I do not know why. My name is Cayek by the way, nice to meet you. Do you mind if we get some introductions out of the way before we arrive at the senate building?” James responded first and stretched out his arm for a handshake. It took a second for Cayek to reciprocate. “Sure! As Lemva told you, my name is James. I was born on Earth and currently live on Venlil Prime. I’m a historian and got my doctorate at MIK, where I met Lemva. We’ve known each other quite a while. I like coffee and hate the ocean.” “Oh cool, I attended there too! Got my doctorate in linguistics. When did you attend?” “Sent in an application in 2140, as soon as it opened. Got accepted around a month later.” “Nice, that was around when I joined too. We must not have crossed paths often. Though your face does seem vaguely familiar.” Cayek looked at me and I began speaking. “My name’s Lemva, though I already said that. I attended MIK with James. Went there to get a doctorate in archeology. Was born on Venlil Prime and I’ve moved too many times to count, but my latest home is on Earth.”
I noticed that we had reached our ride. Our vehicle was a black limousine, it looked slightly larger than others I had seen, perhaps it was armored? One of the guards escorting us, who I could only assume was the one in charge, opened the side door and we all crawled inside. Cayek, James, and I settled in our seats and the guard closed our doors before entering through a door closer to the front to sit facing us. The guard sat unnaturally still, staring directly at us as the vehicle drew out of the underground parking area, making me feel uneasy. I looked over at James and Cayek, they seemed just as uncomfortable as I. The ride to the Senate building was silent.
I watched the buildings glide past us as we drove down Main, toward the Capitol. The large dome shaped building grew larger as we crept closer. Nervousness invaded my mind as I wondered what the task we had been chosen for was. Why did the UN spend so much to get us here? What’s with all the security? Why us? We had reached our destination. The limousine passed through several security gates and slowed to a halt at the entrance of the grand building. The guard that had been staring at us spoke, “We’ve arrived, please exit the vehicle and follow me. As you enter the building you’ll undergo several security checks to make sure you don’t have any weapons or banned items. Don’t worry, this is all standard procedure.” Two guards who had been waiting to the side of the entrance walked over to the car and opened the side doors, allowing us to crawl out. Though it had only been a 5 minute car ride, it felt like I had been stuck in that cramped vehicle for hours.
We walked toward the entrance of the titanic building, a large podium with a hologram of the Coalition logo orbiting an artistic depiction of our sector of the galaxy stood just before the doors. The first time I had gone to Aafa as a child, the podium had supported a large statue of Chief Nikonus, the president of the Federation at the time of the war. Good riddance. Our group stepped past the threshold of the senate building and submitted for the security checks that our escort had told us about. As soon as we were cleared, we were led to one of several large doors, it looked like an oversized elevator. Inside was a holographic display of the building showing us our current position, along with a small keypad to the side. I braced myself for the elevator to start ascending as our escort input some numbers into the pad but nearly fell over when it unexpectedly started moving sideways. James chuckled amusedly and I looked at him with a mock pouty face, my tail flicking in slight annoyance. Our escort tried to wipe a tiny smirk off his face as he helped me back to my feet. “We had these installed after a couple instances of people passing out trying to navigate around. Most Coalition species don’t have the amount of endurance humans do and this building is quite large.”
Several moments later the tram came to a halt and the doors slid open. The escort chaperoned us down a short hallway with a decently sized wooden door at the end. I braced myself for whoever would be behind it. Impressions were of utmost importance when meeting government officials. However, I was not prepared for who I would see as the door swung open.
Is that an Arxur?
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The maw of the moss-wolf chomped down on the treat, its partner patiently waiting its turn, an eye trained on the Human providing the sustenance. Joseph reached into the pouch, counting out what he had left and mentally setting a few aside for the raven-like birds that Scarlet had trained to bother him.
Well, ‘bother’ might be a strong word. They would whistle at him and wait for food. Upon getting their hard sought quarry, they would return to share it with the rest. Surprisingly cooperative, all things considered. Scarlet had apparently been getting them to associate certain short melodies with members of the pack, allowing her to send the avians after whoever she wanted for more snacks.
If they didn’t get any, then they would yell something not dissimilar to a caw until either food was procured, or they grew bored. Given that they had taken to humouring Violet in her attempts to be a mobile perch, that usually took a while.
It drove Nalah nuts, which seemed to be part of the reason the blond-furred female was included in the ritual at all. Harrow was apparently the favourite target of the nuisance when she was outside the base, but he couldn’t say why.
The tell-tale scratching had been somewhat muted since the shift in medium, but Violet’s writing was always something he kept an ear out for, his daughter presenting her tablet excitedly. [It blinked!]
He turned his head to the cow-looking thing, the unwavering stare held until he gave up. “I swear you guys are just messing with me.”
“Or we merely enjoy your suffering,” Sahari suggested with a smirk, the black-furred female standing taller than him for a moment as she stretched her legs out. Settling into a height that was level with him, she attempted to offer the wolves food. Receiving a fearful retreat instead, the black-furred female frowned, the two canines shifting in their enclosure to be closer to Joseph and Violet. “They still seem to distrust any but yourselves.”
He shrugged, taking the scrap from her and giving it to the young Atmo to pass along, her chittering laugh when the wolves accepted the morsel breaking the soft sound of trickling rain outside the barn. “Faye was the one who started this. I guess they treat her like an alpha of sorts, and seeing her bow to the two of us so often told them that she’s lower on the pole. That’s my guess, anyway.”
“That is….rather intelligent of them, if so,” Sahari commented pensively.
The Grand Hunter tipped his head in agreement. If anything, it was an understatement. The six-legged canines were remarkably receptive to taming, though he couldn’t say how much of that was due to Faye taking to his suggestion so seriously. He had only offered it as a passing thought, but she had set to it like their god had mandated it.
He fought back a sigh at the reminder of his placement in the whole thing, his foot kicking the ground to adjust the new sandals he was wearing until Pan finished proper shoes.
One day, he was a divorcee flirting with random women on a cruise ship so that the rejection validated his own self-esteem issues. The next, he was a guy in charge of a settlement nearing one hundred people and had become a manifestation of religion condensed into the form of some random moron.
He snorted at a morbid thought. How would Emma react to his ‘rise to fame?’ His acquisition of more than they had ever thought for themselves back on Earth?
Owning a territory? They could only manage a nice apartment that could fit several times over inside the base. Friends? Hell, he had a group of people who have helped him through some of the worst the planet had to offer. Kids...well, nothing could replace Violet. He doubted Emma would see it the same way, though.
A paw enclosed his shoulder, dragging his mind from more sombre thoughts. It had been quite a while since everything fell through and he had moved on, but it still stung every now and again.
“What ails your mind, Joseph?” Sahari asked with a concerned inflection. He looked over at her, a smile becoming easier after a moment.
“Just wondering how my ex-wife would react to seeing what I’ve turned into. What she’d say to all of this,” he admitted honestly with a wide gesture to everything. She patted his back, a small pride in her gaze.
“You continue to heal, Grand Hunter, but you are still scarred. Your previous mate would curse her decisions were she to see what you have accomplished.”
He snorted, a wide dry grin breaking out. “I’d love to see her face going back with two alien wives and this sweetheart as a daughter,” he teased, giving Violet a thorough rub on the head. She purred, chittering between breaths as she fought off the rough affection playfully while keeping her blades tucked for safety.
The black-furred female tilted her head and shifted her weight to her other foot. “You’ve mentioned that there is a specific procedure for binding the lives of your people, no?”
He blinked, his mind flickering to the two rings he had prepared, yet held some modicum of expectation around before he whipped them out. Not least of all was the foreign sensation of doing it again twice, nor finding an appropriate time to do it. It was hard to pick a picturesque moment when each day was paperwork, punching people in the face during spars, and orchestrating the well-being of such a large group. Given that the closest thing he could get to a romantic occasion was laying down on the grass while Nalah barked orders at the construction crews in the distance, he didn’t feel like it was ever a good time to ask. It was even harder picturing himself doing it to the two of them, as if it cheapened the gesture in some way.
Then there was the part of himself that feared rejection—as stupid as it sounded. They could deny the alien practice, not share the same sentiment, or any number of disagreements that would render him kneeling like an idiot. As unlikely as it was, it could even be too great a commitment for them, the implication of their entire lives being pledged solely to him being a crushing weight, rather than a promise of mutual loving dedication.
Sure, now they were speaking as if it was the case, but the circumstances as they were lent themselves to it being a product of necessity. Who was to say that it would remain the same once they got off this rock and—hopefully—in touch with their own people again. Would they still feel the same way with an entire species back on the table as possible romantic partners? Would he still be enough?
“Joseph,” Sahari called out with worry and irritation in equal parts. “You are making me anxious.”
“Hm? Oh, sorry,” he apologized sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as he was reminded that more than one person could be afflicted by his emotional state. She placed a paw to her hip.
“Are the proceedings really such a means for strife?”
“Ah, no, it’s just…” He averted his eyes, offering Violet a token smile when she seemed to be concerned about him. He inhaled deeply. “It’s just…I have reservations about it.”
She raised a brow. “I need not a bond to know you care for them deeply enough to toss your life to the Void for them.”
His weak smile faltered further. “Well, yeah. They mean everything to me, but I cant help but remember how things went last time, I guess. There’s a million and one ways it could go up in smoke, and I…” He fell quiet for a moment, Violet pressing herself into his side in an attempt to cheer him up. He rested a hand against her back, the texture comforting in a way. “I want it to be an important moment in our lives, rather than some disposable token that they accept without thinking much. It’s not like they’re swimming in potential romantic partners here, so it feels like they’d be agreeing for lack of options.”
She stared at him with a hesitant expression, her cheek pinched between her teeth and eyes narrowed in thought. “Pan would sooner end her own life than be separated from you, and Tel would end any who so much as suggested such,” she stated finally. “To you, the mark upon your flesh is but a sting that fades. To them, it is their declaration that they have found their reason to live. A declaration that is shown to all others of our people the moment they draw near. Though Pan lacks the means to impart her own, she is rather pleased that another is able to in her stead and treats it as her own for all intents.”
She grabbed him roughly by the arm, pulling him into her breast as she stood to her full height, a surprised yelp stifled by soft clothing and fur.
“Unfortunately for you, openly voiced or not, we all feel as such. Though you bear not the mark of everyone in the den, I assure you that to be removed from you would leave us lesser, regardless of bond.”
He shut his mouth at the last addition. There was a weight behind knowing that people were likely to simply give up on living if you were away for too long. It put the relationship in front of a loaded gun for both parties. They couldn’t afford to break it off from him because existing would become a living hell, and he couldn’t change his mind for any reason because it would be the same as killing them.
What kind of marriage was one built upon such fragile pillars? How could they be happy when every fight was tempered by the threat of the end of everything? What about Sahari? Could she ever pursue her own life with Nalah when she had the bond shackling her to him? How long until that became a stinging poison, rotting away the veins and arteries of her psyche? How long until death became preferable to being around him?
A strong impact to his stomach winded him, though the unnoticed hyperventilating left him little to eject as he fell to his knees. Violet clicked in surprise, the wolves backing away at the unexpected violence.
He coughed, sputtering spittle as he fought the urge to evacuate his breakfast. A pained glance up revealed Sahari still clutching a fist, her expression just as hurt.
“You hear my words and twist them, Joseph,” she chastised softly, crouching to look at him better. “We pledged our lives to you. Not because we had no choice, but because we believed you to be our future. From that moment on, our desire was to remain with you.” Her voice grew weak, almost pleading. She placed her forehead to his, the contact an intimate touch. “Your experiences may suggest our bond a prison, but for us, it is an ambrosia for our soul. It completes us like no equal. Jax and Harrow care for you immensely, Nalah and myself owe you everything that we are, and your mates will fight the Hunt Mother herself if it would mean even one more sun with you.”
He found himself speechless, wading through the emotions behind her words a syllable at a time. The feeling of Violet pressing into his back in an embrace stung as much as soothed, his mind rejecting the idea, yet so desperate to accept it.
“Do not desecrate our affections because you had been scorned by one who did not see within you that which we covet,” she implored sombrely, raw emotion oozing through the confines of speech. “Though you doubt it, none would know how much value you place in the ‘mark’ of your people more than your mates. If merely thinking about the unlikely event that they refuse tortures you so deeply, than the elation they would share with you when they agree would likely see Pan unable to contain herself for many suns after.”
He stayed on his knees, the warmth surrounding him from both sides seeping within and thawing the frozen excuses he held onto to prevent exposing himself to potential rejection. Every step of the way since he had met them, it had made him fearful of losing their company. At first, the thought of being left alone to brave the planet was too much to bear, but he would try. Now? Now he felt like he understood where the minds of those bonded Lilhuns had been. Even considering being away from his new loved ones pulled at a primal part of himself, each tug stronger than the last, each suggestion fanning the flames barricaded behind morals—the depths he would trudge to see it never come to pass.
Sahari nuzzled into his neck for a moment before parting, a somewhat satisfied smile given towards the emotionally fragile Human they had taken to depending on. He returned his own, though it was tinted with a bit of embarrassment.
Violet stepped back to allow him room to stand, the extended joint of her blade asking to be held like he did with her adoptive mother. His expression softening, he did as requested, lightly rubbing the smooth surface with his thumb. It soothed a part of him to be holding his daughter’s ‘hand’ while they watched the wolves slowly approach the front of their enclosure again, now that the momentary intensity had faded.
With a self-deprecating roll of his eyes, he nodded, promising himself to follow through with his small wish the next time the chance revealed itself. It didn’t need to be perfect, but it would be nice if it was at least private. The dull ache in his stomach would be a reminder not to second guess himself anyway.
The wolves yipped, ignoring Sahari as they moved towards the other corner. Joseph glanced at where they were focused, his curious gaze replaced by surprise, then shock.
Raine supported Faye over her shoulder, the deep gold-furred female’s breath short as she rested her weight over her brown-furred counterpart, their black leather coats dripping water onto the floor as it wrapped tightly around them, concealing their armour. A steady trickle of blood flowed from a long gash on Faye’s leg, her free arm clutching across her breast to keep her coat closed.
Without waiting for either to speak, he ran to pick up the Wraith, slinging her across his shoulders and tearing off to the base. He could barely hear Sahari over the rain and his own blood pounding through his ears, his heart hammering in his chest. Though they had established something of a clinic for minor injuries that were sustained constantly, his singular focus was getting Faye into the medbay.
Pack members cleared the way, some jumping to the side as he barrelled through the sparely populated routes between home and workplace. More than one tripped over themselves in shock, the Human never having a reason to go at a full sprint before. He was slower than a Lilhun like this, but he could make it the full distance before them. He didn’t need to slow down.
Harrow pushed open the doors to the hub, her distant expression as she examined thin ironwood tablets perking, his rapid heavy footfalls telling of his arrival before she had the chance to see him. Her eyes lit up, her brows furrowed, and a hurried pull of the door kept it open for him, all in sequence. He didn’t have the spare breath to explain or thank her.
The orange-furred female bolted across the hub, slamming into the crash-bar installed into the facilities wing entrance to force it open, only barely outpacing the Grand Hunter in his rush. She staggered to her feet behind him, rushing to collect herself and assisting in tearing the pants off of the injured female when Joseph laid her on the bed.
Modesty being the least of his concerns, he braced an arm across her pelvis to stop her hips from bucking as Harrow wiped off any dried blood to see the extent of the damage on her thigh.
“What happened?”
He tightened his hold on Faye as his friend tentatively spread the wound to check for debris. “Don’t know. Didn’t ask. Saw her bleeding, rushed her here,” he answered through deep breaths, each strike of his adrenaline-fuelled heart pressing against his lung capacity.
Harrow frowned, grabbing some sterile water to pour over the wound and picking out a stray splinter of wood that looked to be from her missing leg armour. Faye let out a small whine, but didn’t have it in her to talk yet, signs of exhaustion and pain unfocusing her eyes.
The Head of Technology—and current medical expert in the room—pursed her lips against her muzzle. “We need to stitch it. It’s too big for just healroot.”
Joseph nodded, easing his weight off the Wraith and wiping his sweat from his brow. “Pan!”
Noticing the urgency in his voice, he could hear her throw the door to the sewing room wide open and jog to the medbay, her wide eyes steeling as she assessed the situation.
“Idee with you?”
She nodded, ears turned perfectly towards him.
“One of you boil off some palm string, the other sterilize the thinnest quill you can get away stitching a wound closed with. I don’t care who, but we need one of you to close this up.” He glanced at Harrow. “Grab some alcohol. I keep a bit in the closet in my room, next to the old crossbow prototypes. We need to flush this out and kill off anything that might have gotten in.”
The orange-furred female tipped an ear in confusion as Pan took off to do as he asked. “I thought you didn’t have medical-”
“I’ve been around enough workplace injuries, okay? Go!”
His shout jolted her into action, a few steps required to gain traction as she ran out the door. Applying solid pressure to the wound with one hand, he used the other to lightly tap Faye’s cheek.
“Faye? Faye, you with me?”
Her eyes languidly turned to him, slow blinks and meaningless mouthing ceased, a soft smile forming under her pained expression. “Hello, sir.”
He exhaled a relieved huff. “Welcome home, Faye. What happened?”
She seemed confused by his question, glancing down to her leg after a few seconds. With widened eyes, she struggled to sit up, Joseph forcibly pressing her to the bed.
“Stay.”
All resistance disappeared in an instant, her body complying despite the obvious urgency. He hardened his expression.
“What happened?”
She breathed deeper a few times before speaking. Each word was hesitant, as if the memory was hazy and diluted, though he couldn’t tell if it was due to blood loss or exhaustion. “A large grey beast…teeth, large mouth...attacked wolves...”
His brow knitted, Faye’s coat moving. A small whine came from her again…no. Not her.
A small yellow canine head freed itself from the confines of black leather, a weak keening produced from a tiny moss-wolf. Faye looked at him guiltily, a pleading look in her eyes given as she composed herself.
“It lost its parents…”
His protest died in his voice, a distant memory of a wolf being torn in two came to mind. The time before they had even moved to the pod, let alone met the Lilhuns, him and Violet checking snares shortly after his ankle had healed. A time so long ago, yet remained with him under the surface.
“You saved this little guy, huh?” he asked gently, wincing in tandem with her own when he leaned heavier on the massive gash in her thigh. She nodded, averting her eyes. “Did you get the ‘beast?’”
Faye shook her head. “Raine lured it away, but it still remains.”
“That’s fine. You’re back, that’s all that matters right now.”
Harrow bumped into the doorway, failing to shed all of her speed as she returned from fetching a smaller container that Joseph kept in case the rest of the pack burned through their stores of alcohol. Her eyes flicked to the wolf pup before disregarding it to hand him the ethanol. He lifted his hand, Harrow pouring some water to wash off the blood. Volta would be busy later, it seemed.
Gesturing for the orange-furred female to hold the leg down, he poured the alcohol into the wound, grimacing at Faye’s pained gasp. They didn’t have anything for her to bite into, but that would be a future consideration.
Pan and Idee entered the medbay, the former moving like a machine with purpose while the visiting seamstress took a moment to size up the situation. The Paw fetched a tray from the shelf, laying out several strings of softened palm and a few thin quills, threading one and passing it to Idee. The light brown-furred female accepted it, Harrow making room as she stood next to Joseph.
Pan handed him a tough leather strip as wide as his palm. Seems like she saw the problem before he did.
“Open up,” he prodded, placing the leather between Faye’s teeth. “This is going to fucking suck. We don’t have anything to numb you, so you need to stay as still as possible, okay? I’ll be here the whole time.”
The Wraith nodded, staring at him for a moment before closing her eyes in acceptance, her grip on the pup firming.
“Want me to take the wolf?”
She lightly shook her head, him exhaling hesitantly in response. Idee readied herself, looking to him for confirmation, Pan holding Faye’s ankle flat to the bed.
“You’re good,” he responded, pressing an arm to Faye’s chest and hips to hold her down.
The deep gold-furred female managed a quiet muffled groan of pain as the quill pierced her flesh.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
He entered the hub, dropping himself on the couch and ignoring the sweat on his brow. He had only just managed to get the blood off of his hands after Idee finished, but it was still staining his clothing. Pan was off to rinse it out of her fur while Faye slept off her exhaustion. As far as they could tell, she had avoided any infection thanks to Raine half-dragging the female back to them as quickly as she did. The wolf pup was staying with her for now, since—even in her sleep—she refused to let it go. The little guy didn’t seem to be complaining, so they just left it where it was comfortable. Ferra would be by later to check it out, apparently, and he didn’t see a reason to complain; she was their animal expert.
Scarlet offered him some tea, the warm liquid whetting his pallet that had since dried. Sahari had checked on them during the process, leaving to keep anyone who had questions in the loop. Given that half the damn pack either saw or heard about the Grand Hunter running like a bat out of hell, pretty much everyone was worried. Either about some urgent threat that might befall them, or about one of the quiet servants they had grown used to seeing around.
Looked like the Wraiths had taken to offering small services and assistance to people who needed it when they didn’t have anything better to do, so the pack was curious about what had happened. It was a small blessing that the usual armour they wore when ‘on duty’ was covered by the cloaks, otherwise he would have more questions coming that he didn’t want answered.
Raine stood a few paces in front of him, her bowed posture holding a hint of fear under his unwavering stare. He waited for whoever else was going to show up for the report, Tel and Pan insisting that they be involved. Harrow followed behind the two entering from the facilities wing, either because she had gotten wrapped up in the whole thing, or because she wanted to be included.
Pan sat to his left, Tel taking a place behind him to remain standing. Harrow surprised him, her recently elusive presence firmly displaced as she dropped onto the couch to his right, her tail curling around his calf—not that she seemed to notice.
Given that both Tel and Pan trapped a limb or two with their tails regularly, he didn’t stop to put thought into it, the encapsulating appendage crossing him as a common occurrence.
“I don’t know how accurate it was, since she’s still pretty out of it, but Faye said one of those grey bear-deathtraps attacked some wolves before she stepped in to save the pup,” he opened, glancing at Scarlet. The almost black red-furred female was maintaining a surprisingly commanding presence, her attention laser-focused on Raine. The brown-furred Wraith kept her gaze fixed to the floor, too ashamed or nervous to move it.
“I apologize for her error in her stead,” she announced, the slightest of grip in her folded paws digging her claws into her skin. “The fault is also mine for not preventing her misstep. I will accept any punishment for our mistake.”
He exhaled heavily. “I’m not mad that you guys had an original thought, Raine. I’m worried about those iron-maiden-looking fucks being around again, and I’m concerned about you getting hurt.”
“Of course, sir. Forgive me for the arrogance of assuming your priorities.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose, Pan squeezing his thigh in support. Tel rested her head on his, the weight somehow comforting despite the grin at his annoyance. “We can talk about not getting yourselves killed later. Are you injured at all?”
Raine’s ear twitched. “No, sir. I am whole.”
“Good,” he sighed, nodding lightly. “That’s good. Faye’s patched up for now, but she’ll be under observation to keep on top of any possible infection. How did the ‘mission’ go?”
The Wraith perked up a bit, the conversation moving away from her perceived failure. She produced a satchel, pulling a rather thick stack of tablets from it and passing them to Scarlet, the latter ferrying them to Harrow. He thought it was an odd choice, but the orange-furred female started giving him an abbreviated translation of the text.
Line after line of transactions. What was offered and received, any debts and who owed them, as well as small notes about what should be brought next time. It was a comprehensive copy of the ledger that the trading caravan kept. His brows raised at the sheer density of information, and for them getting it from something he was only partially sure existed.
“You managed to get this much?” he asked in disbelief. “Jesus. Were you caught?”
Raine shook her head. “If we were to be seen by them, we would be nothing more than a stain against our Blademaster.”
Compliment or boasting, doing this much was damn impressive. Especially with just the two of them.
“Shit. Well, good fucking job, I guess,” he managed, still reeling a bit from the unintended scope of the task. Harrow continued to dig through the report, though stopped voicing it aloud. Joseph turned his attention back to the Wraith. “Anything else of note? Rumours?”
The Wraith grew pensive. “Though we returned partially through their return trip to Grand Hunter Pernel, we did overhear some conversations. There were discussions of other packs simply no longer occupying their settlements.”
He leaned forward in his seat, dislodging Tel as his elbows rested against his knees. “What do you mean?”
“Some of their usual trade locations were purportedly burned down, others merely abandoned. A few were apparently littered with corpses,” she explained more steadily. “From what we could gather, the reason they came to trade with our settlement at all is that the others along the way were in such states. It seems they intended to restock and head back out immediately to accommodate the loss in trading partners.”
He bit his lip as he thought about it, letting himself fall back against the couch.
“What do you guys think of it?” he asked with a glance to his mates. Pan seemed to be mirroring his own apprehension openly, while Tel kept a more serious expression.
“I believe there is something larger happening,” Tel concluded, taking a few seconds before returning to using him as a headrest. Pan nodded her agreement, but didn’t have much to add to it otherwise.
“It would explain how desperate they were for food,” he mused aloud, raising a brow when Harrow shifted to lean against him, one foot placed on the edge of the seat forcing the posture. “Any details of interest, Harrow?”
The orange-furred female jolted, only just stopping from moving her foot back to the floor before committing to using him as a backrest. She turned back-on fully, stretching her legs over the remainder of the seat and placing tablets she had finished with on her lap.
“It didn’t take very long for the methods you sold to propagate,” she responded, holding up a few of the tablets before laying them in their own pile. “Looks like Pernel has been spreading it around by buying some from places that have bows and snares to sell where they don’t.”
“Supply and demand, or arming people with the tools that would help them survive?”
“Hard to trade with the dead,” Harrow commented dryly, starting a new pile. He nodded in exaggerated fashion.
“What about the Atmo?”
She tapped the small stack she just started. “I’m trying to separate these by inventory type. Give me a bit.”
Deciding to trust the woman in charge of managing this kind of thing while she was on the ship, he glanced back to Raine, the female easily mistaken for a statue if not for the subtle sway of her breathing. “The grey-bear-thing. How far away is it?”
“Too close,” she responded firmly. “We did not get a chance to verify their numbers, but there was evidence of at least that singular beast making our territory its hunting ground.”
“Fuck,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “We’re going to need to hunt that thing down.”
Pan looked worried at the prospect, Harrow stiffened in her sorting. The Wraiths were the only ones who seemed completely at ease with the suggestion, Tel not so much as twitching. Harrow laid down the tablets she had yet to categorize, her gaze aimed at her lap.
“Joe, don’t think that taking one out is easy.”
“We have ranged weapons and more than a few people who can use them,” he pointed out with a breath. “Ideally, we go as a larger hunting party and take the damn thing down through sheer volume of fire.”
“Their skin is tough,” Harrow replied with a shake of her head, her ears pivoting back towards him. “I don’t know if our bows could pierce it as easily as we might like.”
He furrowed his brow. “So, what? Let it close in until it eats everything and starves us out? Until it thinks we look tasty?”
“I don’t know. I’m just saying that this won’t be as simple as firing a few arrows and patting ourselves on the back for a job well done.”
Joseph felt the stiffness of his brow start to hurt from how tight they were knitted. A deep breath centred his thoughts. “We’ll arrange an armoured hunting party soon. Better to take it down before it becomes an issue.”
The orange-furred female nodded, quickly leafing through the remaining tablets and only pulling two more out for the pile she indicated earlier.
“Here,” she said, tapping the stack. “These are records for trading Atmo.”
He suppressed the sigh when he genuinely tried to read the mess they called a language. “How many? Who bought them?”
She hesitated, reforming the copy of the ledger—sans the relevant tablets—and placing it on the floor. The remainder in paw, she held them up over her shoulder, Tel accepting it and going over the contents with an interested tilt of her head.
“From what I can see here, Pernel traded two hundred.”
“Two…” he squeaked, his eyes wide. “Two hundred?”
She nodded, pacing around the couch to stop in front of Pan. “It seems others heard of his willingness to barter for them. He accepted quite a few deals before selling them off again.”
“To who?”
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The door to the ship closed with a hiss, Willin shaking his head at Nav’s questioning gaze. “Nothing.”
Tech removed her CARDs, storing them in the weapons locker before shrugging off her AMR to place in its own unit. “Nothing living, anyway.”
“That bad?” Nav asked, deflating after yet another failed attempt to contact a settlement. The dark green-furred male stored his rifle, seating it into its receptacle with a click.
“Tell Comms to add another eighty to the count.”
“Four hundred eighty-two,” the purple-furred female supplied as she walked past Nav to enter the ship proper. Willin followed after, hanging his pistol holster on the side of his chair as he dropped into it.
“Thirty were covered in wounds, twenty or so were executed, twenty-five looked to have died of accumulated trauma, and the rest were found with singular cuts to the throat.”
“Not quite,” Tech remarked, interfacing with the systems. “Only eight of the ‘executed’ seem to have been done up close.”
“Sniper?” Comms asked as he entered the room, nodding his greetings and taking a seat at his station. Nav crossed their arms and leaned against the doorway as Tech Ops ran some numbers on her screen.
“Wounds are consistent with Anti Material Rifles, and debris suggest they took the ‘material’ part into consideration with their shots. There were a few holes in the buildings that didn’t quite get removed by the fires.”
“Covering evidence?” Willin mused aloud, receiving a thoughtful shake of her head.
“No, I don’t think so. My guess is that the buildings were already on fire when they did it, based on the splinters around the exit holes.”
Comms’ eyes widened in surprise. “Shooting through a burning building? That is rather impressive.”
“Blades?” Nav suggested. “Avalon is required to act against those who break the treaty, no?”
“Maybe,” Tech allowed tentatively. “If it was them, then that would explain the lack of targets.”
Willin scratched at his ear, furrowing his brow as Comms ran another scan for any communications being made. Though a few suns had passed since they had unwittingly agreed to involve themselves in what was likely the first case of war that this planet had ever seen, nothing was being sent anywhere. Regardless, the male kept the scans regular, just in case.
Nav switched the foot they were resting on. “Why not just dispose of everyone breaking the treaty?”
“Maybe they did,” Comms commented, turning back to the conversation as the program ran in the background. “Blades typically function under strict conditions. If they removed anyone who was commanding the hostile action, then they did as required of them. The moment the attack stopped, they completed the terms of the treaty.”
“Or if the Grand Hunter here surrendered and allowed their pack to be subsumed,” Willin proposed, the others glancing at him in curiosity. He waved a paw dismissively. “If everyone in the conflict becomes a single pack, then any fighting from those who still disagree with it is now an internal dispute, thus outside of the purview of the Blades. Check the notes on Grand Hunter Toril and High Hunter Bratik.”
Tech’s eyes unfocused for a moment as she accessed the system. “Avalon is forbidden from interfering with internal politics. Toril was sheltered by Bratik. Since Bratik was from outside of Toril’s pack, it counted as acting against their right to manage their own affairs. Hasen was given a perfect reason to take over, and it forced Grand Hunter Trill to exile the both of them to adhere.” She looked around the room aimlessly as she thought, her eyes snapping to Willin when he spoke.
“And a perfect loop-hole to exploit. Toril loses his supporters, Trill loses a member of his command structure, and Hasen rises in power while leaving Avalon to grit their teeth.” He shook his head, both impressed and disgusted. “Once he attacks another pack, he just forces a vassalage and subsequently executes the new High Hunter for whatever reason he wants. The Blades can’t act on a technicality.”
“So Grand Hunter Pernel….”
Willin nodded at Comms' unfinished question. “In the count.”
“There was a bit of a weird holding area,” Tech added after a moment. “Seemed like somewhere to hold livestock, but even then, it was a bit big. I’m not sure what used to be there, but tracks suggest carts left with whatever it was not long before everything went down, so probably a trade caravan.”
“Well, at least someone made it out,” Nav sighed, pushing off the wall to resume their station. “Where are we going next?”
Willin toyed with the odd silver tablet in his paw, the two unrecognizable scripts curious and alien. “The only pack left before we see what all the fuss is about. Let’s pay a visit to Grand Huntress Sunundra. Hopefully she knows something we don’t.”
Next
A/N: Been a while since we’ve had a proper A/N, huh. Welp, here’s this one. Patreon is currently set to ‘per post’ because i made the account ages ago. Waiting on support to help me switch it to monthly, then I’ll post the Silva render i have. RR is at 30k views and 100 followers.
Figured I’d ask how you guys are liking this arc, hows Willin’s team coming across, etc.
Final note: I’m thinking about rewriting the first ‘book’ so i can get it edited and published! Problem: i have no fucking clue where to cut book 1, and editors are expensive. Where should book 1 end? All i know is that I’d prob end up adding extra chapters to it, as well as lengthening the OG chaps. RR is a ‘touch-up’, not a final product, so those don’t count!

It wasn’t until recently that I became a travel minimalist. Matter of fact, when I was in my teens, I was basically packing everything except the kitchen sink (never could resist cramping in 3-4 towels).
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Then my mindset started making a U-turn when I got a cheap 20 lb backpack. Filled with black tea and chocolate bars, it was my faithful travel companion whenever a music festival would roll around.
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In 2022, I decided to set out on my first-ever trip – a whole six months across Europe. All on my own, trusty bag notwithstanding. I stuffed it with everything I thought I’d need for 6 months on the road. When I arrived in Italy, I realized I overdid it and brought more than I needed. I just started to leave the stuff I didn’t need in the hotel room.
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That period of traveling with everything I needed to live comfortably in just 1 bag was a total game-changer. May sound cliche, but traveling lightly really did change my outlook on life and materialism.
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So without further ado, here are my tips for minimalist travel.
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1. Try to aim for hand luggage

Taking hand luggage forces you to be organized and bring only the essentials with you due to the limited space. The bigger the bag, the more likely you are to fill it, even if it’s not needed. It’s sort of bag psychology!
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Not only is it cheaper to use hand luggage as you don’t have to pay for the bag to go into the hold - it’s quicker too. You can literally exit the airport and without having to wait ages for your bag. My friend has a similar philosophy for travels and work. She used to go to the office with a huge handbag filled with all kinds of crap. Now all she takes with her is a full-grain leather CITY Laptop Bag. Minimalistic, convenient, practical. The bigger the bag, the more stuff you fill it with, so do yourself a favor and go small.
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1. Give packing cubes a go

Sometimes people pack as if they’re going to another planet. Shops do exist where you’re going unless it’s somewhere remote. On the rare chance you need to buy something you didn’t pack, you’re likely to have that option.
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1. You’re not flying to Jupiter

I’d heard a lot about compressible packing cubes. I eventually borrowed one from my brother and finally got all the hype!
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You can fold up clothes in a bag, zip it up, then use the second zip to compress it even further. Definitely keeps the clothes organized and saves loads of space.
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1. Plan in advance

If you pack last minute like your train is due to leave in 5 min, you’re more likely to not only pack more but pack inefficiently. Everything you pack should be thought out and serve a purpose. I take a week in advance to draw up a list of the things I need.
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1. Check the weather beforehand

Sound obvious, but checking the weather for both day and night is crucial to know what type of clothing you need, and is something I’ve neglected to do in the past. Do your research about altitudes as well if you’re planning a trip to the mountains. I have frozen my butt off in the Alps because I underestimated how cold it could get.

Wanting to vent it out, knowing that he probably don't care anymore.
After my ex broke up with me, I started getting overwhelmed with feelings and had panic attacks, because the person whom I loved so much would not be a part of my life anymore. This led me to start begging him for stay. Sending long paragraphs of how much I love him and want to support him. In the beginning he used to respond with but after a week it stopped. He started ignoring my text and begin to ghost me. What hit me the most was that I loved him so much and drew a goodbye drawing for him as a gift, and wished him best for his future. But he ignored them too. I realised that the more he ignored, the more I desired for last comfort. After few days I became very emotional and texted him "please just one last call, after that I will never bother you." Yea....got ignored.... He then left saying that he won't be available to talk. So, I haven't contacted him in one month. Now, I feel very ashamed of what I did. I put myself down for someone who didn't cared. He was always hot and cold in the relationship, and I still desired some love back from him. What was wrong with me??? I was bothering him a lot through my text, I probably should have not begged him and let him go. But I know there is not going back, so I will let him go forever. I will never contact him again.

First post on Reddit. I'm reaching out because I find myself in a challenging situation during my PhD journey and I could really use some advice. I apologize in advance for the long post, but I feel it's important to provide some context. For the past two years, I have been facing difficulties in my work environment that have taken a toll on my mental health. The isolation at work, combined with the overwhelming workload and lack of guidance, eventually led me into depression and burnout. I have sought help from a psychologist and psychiatrist to manage these challenges. I have tried expressing my struggles to Joe, my PI, but I always approached the topic cautiously due to fear of his wife Jane, who was a PostDoc in the lab. She has previously labeled me as "fragile" and "overreacting." I have witnessed her mocking other colleagues who experienced burnout and even heard her refer to a fellow doctoral student as autistic simply because the student lacked self-confidence. Additionally, I didn't want to speak up because Jane and Joe offered me their house to stay, which is only 20min away from the lab, while I was still living with my parents over an hour away. I felt indebted to them and hesitant to voice my concerns about the lack of supervision, insufficient lab records to continue their work, and unhelpful remarks. Colleagues from other teams within the lab have often pointed out that my situation is not normal. They emphasized that I shouldn't have been expected to be independent right from the start, let alone be alone in the lab. However, I had a hard time accepting their perspective, believing the problem was solely mine and that I should be able to handle everything. At a certain point, my mental state deteriorated to such an extent that Sven, my other PI and head of the team, organized a meeting with Joe and me. Despite having a lot on my mind, I didn't dare speak up because Jane was present. Sven reassured me that this situation wouldn't last. Indeed, last September, Joe returned to the lab, but Jane had to stay to finish her contract at another location. Another engineer, Achille, was also hired, making the lab feel less empty and lifting my spirits. However, having scientific discussions with Joe remained challenging, especially since Jane became pregnant and Joe was frequently absent. I confided in a friend from another team about my distress, and I suspect that the assistant director of the building overheard our conversation and relayed it to the unit director. The director confronted me in his office, stating that he had heard I wasn't doing well due to supervision issues. I reassured him that things had improved and solutions had been put in place (which is true, with the return of Joe and Sven, weekly meetings had resumed). I also mentioned that I had informed my team about my psychological fragility, and Joe was now more attentive to my well-being. However, the director's intervention made me reflect deeply and filled me with some fear. Following this, I shared my concerns with Achille, the new engineer. I expressed my guilt about tarnishing Joe's image and then he revealed many things about Joe's perception of me. Essentially, he suggested that my distress was not solely due to professional isolation but rather because of my long-distance relationship with my fiance. This triggered some connections in my mind. Joe would often say things like, "When things aren't going well in your personal life, it affects your work too," or "Yes, Intel is sad because his wife is far away," or "We would like to send OP to your place, as she is fiance's girlfriend" I started questioning whether I was seen as a second-year PhD student, or just my fiance's depressed girlfriend. I discussed this with Sven, who once again assured me that I was recruited for my skills and not just because the lab was empty. He also revealed that when Joe was separated from Jane during his postdoc in Canada, he called Sven in tears, unable to handle the emotional separation. Joe seems to assume that I am experiencing the same emotional struggle with my fiance. Sven advised me to forgive Joe, which I did. However, a week later, Joe completely ignored me over a salad incident. Tom, another colleague, returned from a mission and asked if we could have lunch together after a meeting. I called Joe to discuss my results, and he informed me that he would only be available at noon because he was at the doctor's with his wife and newborn. I mentioned that Tom would be disappointed as he wanted to have lunch outside with the team. Suddenly, Joe became upset and took it upon himself to say that we would meet at a Salad Bar, with his wife and child, waiting in the parking lot until 11:45 before settling down. I kindly reminded him that I didn't like that restaurant and suggested an alternative. He replied that I could make it up with dessert. Noon arrived, and Tom was still in the meeting. I informed Joe, and he told me to inform Tom that there was an emergency in the lab, which I felt was inappropriate. In the meantime, I bumped into Achille and shared the plan with him, jokingly mentioning that it's a shame since I don't like salad. He responded that he didn't like it either and called Joe to convey that message, even though I told him it wasn't necessary. Nevertheless, he called Joe and returned, informing me that Joe agreed to go somewhere else. Still no news from Tom. Ten minutes later, Jane called Achille and unleashed her anger, saying they were waiting in the car with their newborn, and I hadn't thought to inform Achille since it slipped my mind while I was working. Achille was confused, and Jane said it was no longer necessary for us to join them. Achille relayed the conversation, and I felt a bit lost. Tom came out of the meeting, and Achille shared all the details with him. Tom decided not to join Joe and Jane, so we followed suit. When we returned, I went to see if Joe had come back to apologize for the misunderstanding, but I caught him angrily scolding Achille. I got scared and discreetly left the scene. This was followed by three weeks of Joe giving me the cold shoulder, and I was afraid to approach him. Finally, I gathered the courage to apologize for the misunderstanding, but I faced an avalanche of reproaches. Joe was disappointed that I hadn't come to apologize earlier, and he compared me to a manipulative person. All of this over a salad misunderstanding. Once again, I'm at a loss as to how to resolve this situation. According to Joe, he remained "professional," but every time he approached me, he exuded frustration and criticism. I confided in Sven about everything, despite my reluctance to bother him once again. He reassured me that I had nothing to blame myself for and that there must be something else behind all of this. Sven had a conversation with Joe about the salad incident and my concerns regarding supervision. Joe didn't take it well and took two weeks of leave. Jane returned to work the following week and accused me of accusing Joe of "psychological harassment." All I wanted to convey was that I regretted not having received adequate supervision and apologize once again for the misunderstanding. I was lost about what to do next. It feels like a toxic environment, and I worry about the impact it's having on my mental health and overall well-being. I genuinely want to focus on my research and make progress in my PhD, but these personal challenges and the strained work environment are hindering my ability to do so. Have any of you faced similar situations or dealt with difficult work environments? How did you navigate through them? What steps did you take to address the issues and create a healthier and more supportive work environment? I'm interested in hearing suggestions on how to effectively communicate with my supervisor and address the challenges I'm facing. How can I express my concerns without fear of retribution or further worsening the situation?

Hello y'all, ya boi is back with another fun drama.
Last time I presented y'all some juicy drama about my favourite hobby: martial arts and fighting (and the lack of knowledge about that the brings so much funny drama).
Today instead I present you some rather interesting and absurd drama coming straight up from a place that would taste the faith in humanity and God of even even the firmest saint and anchorite: Christianity.
So let's start with a lil' introduction then we'll go to have fun with the drama!
So, we all know that religions and art have always had a bivalent relationship of love and hate: religion can be a great source of inspiration and a terrible detroyer of art, many masterpieces were created thanks to various religions and as many were destroyed by the same. We have the Sistine Chapel thanks to a pope that commissioned it while another pope had all the dicks cut off the statues in the Vatican and this is just one of the many ambivalent examples.
I could go on for hours with examples about all of this but that's not the point.
I said all of this as an introduction to present you the latest round of this strange relationship brought to us in form of glorious drama by our beloved subject that got presented here again and again: Christianity.
Let's star then!
Here is the whole post that became the fuse of the drama:
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
It's a simple question about "The Resurrection" of Pericle Fazzini, wich as you can see it's a rather particular representation of Jesus resurrected from a nuclear crater.
Onto the comments then:
Straight off the bat drama starts in the first thread where OOP recives a normal answer but from there things get out of hand with a question that I never thought I'd say in my life: is that Jesus or a damn dragon? A loooooooooong discussion ensue about this.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxjy0r?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
As a bonus I'll also add another fun answer to this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmyls4h?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Another person answers again but they add that this is "rotten art" that should be "melted down" though.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxunis?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Right after it's again the turn of the confused-dragon-guy that decided he didn't had enough drama for today. To fix that they made their own thread to have plenty of people to argue with.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxja4t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Another person starts their own thread about how they interpretate the statue: what if instead of Jesus resurrecting after a nuclear explosion the real meaning is about Satan killing Jesus and dragging Him to Hell? Fortunately or unfortunately this won't be the last Satanist conspiracy thread here.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxnfyx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
In fact here we go with the second Satanist conspiracy thread, honestly it's just so much that I dunno how ro describe this, just read it yourselves and try to make sense from it if you manage 'cause I didn't.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmybppq?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Now for the next thread: this time the creator hates both the Church and any art representation of God and they are ready to die on that hill against all of that.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxnu9k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Were you hoping that the Satanic conspiracy threads were done? Or did you want more? Anyway, we close in style this post with the third one and honestly after reading it my reaction was the same of that only other user that answered that thread.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxnu9k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Here are some bonuses before finishing:
Now, what does this statue makes you wonder? Maybe we'll never know.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxm5jd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Was the sculpute high on acid the whole time while they made this?
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmy7fy0?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
As a last random bonus: a whole thread removed and deleted, we can just speculate about wich sacred mysteries the discussed before being taken out by some Church sniper.
https://www.reddit.com/Christianity/comments/140whn8/what_kind_of_statue_is_this/jmxj4j6?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Here are what I learned from a book called "The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work" by Shawn Achor.
- When we are positive, we make a success like doing well on an exam.
- Shawn’s to-do list for us
- Meditate: “Neuroscientists have found that monks who spend years meditating actually grow their left prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most responsible for feeling happy.”
- Find Something to Look Forward To: “One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent.”
- Commit Conscious Acts of Kindness: A long line of empirical research, including one study of over 2,000 people, has shown that acts of altruism—giving to friends and strangers alike—decrease stress and strongly contribute to enhanced mental health.
- Making time to go outside on a nice day: “One study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather not only boosted positive mood but broadened thinking and improved working memory.”
- Try watching less TV: “Studies have shown that the less negative TV we watch, specifically violent media, the happier we are.”
- For those who worry about not knowing life’s risks: “Psychologists have found that people who watch less TV are actually more accurate judges of life’s risks and rewards than those who subject themselves to the tales of crime, tragedy, and death that appear night after night on the ten o’clock news.”
- Move: “Three groups of depressed patients were assigned to different coping strategies—one group took antidepressant medication, one group exercised for 45 minutes three times a week, and one group did a combination of both.33 After four months, all three groups experienced similar improvements in happiness. The very fact that exercise proved just as helpful as anti-depressants is remarkable, but the story doesn’t end here. The groups were then tested six months later to assess their relapse rate. Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38 percent had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group were doing only slightly better, with a 31 percent relapse rate. The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9 percent! In short, physical activity is not just an incredibly powerful mood lifter, but a long-lasting one. Walk, bike, run, play, stretch, jump rope, pogo stick—it doesn’t matter as long as you get moving.”
- Spend Money (but Not on Stuff): “Spending money on other people, called “prosocial spending,” also boosts happiness.”
- Use a Signature Strength: “When 577 volunteers were encouraged to pick one of their signature strengths and use it in a new way each day for a week, they became significantly happier and less depressed than control groups.”
- Where to find the Signature Strength: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
- Align our tasks with our personal vision to see work as a calling.
- What is the purpose of this task?
- What will it accomplish?
- What does this result lead to?
- Believe in others’ potential: the Pygmalion Effect: when our belief in another person’s potential brings that potential to life.
- Be optimistic: “Studies have shown that optimists set more goals (and more difficult goals) than pessimists, and put more effort into attaining those goals, stay more engaged in the face of difficulty, and rise above obstacles more easily.12 Optimists also cope better in high-stress situations and are better able to maintain high levels of well-being during times of hardship.”
- Believe that you are a lucky person: “A researcher asked volunteers to read through a newspaper and count how many photos were in it. The people who claimed to be lucky took mere seconds to accomplish this task, while the unlucky ones took an average of two minutes.”
- Write down three good things each day: “One study found that participants who wrote down three good things each day for a week were happier and less depressed at the one-month, three-month, and six-month follow-ups.”
- Make mistakes to grow more!: “The earlier we face difficulties and drawbacks, the better prepared we are to deal with the inevitable obstacles along our path”
- Explain your past events positively: “People with an optimistic explanatory style interpret adversity as being local and temporary (i.e., “It’s not that bad, and it will get better.”). They automatically imagine alternative scenarios that make them feel fortunate, interpret setbacks as short-lived and small in scope, and see inherent opportunity where others only see foreboding while those with a pessimistic explanatory style see these events as more global and permanent (i.e., “It’s really bad, and it’s never going to change.”) In the world of sports, studies of athletes ranging from collegiate swimmers to professional baseball players show that explanatory style predicts athletic performance.”
- Set reasonable expectations for yourself and make small success:
- Harvard Business School professor Peter Bregman “Don’t write a book, write a page.… Don’t expect to be a great manager in your first six months, just try to set expectations well.”
- “Small successes can add up to major achievements.”
- Make good habits: “Habits are like financial capital—forming one today is an investment that will automatically give out returns for years to come.”
- Passive leisure, like watching TV and trolling around on Facebook, might be easier and more convenient but doesn’t provide the same rewards as Active leisure like hobbies, games, and sports. Studies have found that American teenagers are two and half times more likely to experience elevated enjoyment when engaged in a hobby than when watching TV, and three times more likely when playing a sport.
- 20-Second Rule: Preparation for a good habit should be 20 seconds to lower resistance.
- Form good relationships: “Researchers have found that social support has as much effect on life expectancy as smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and regular physical activity.” “Studies have found that people with strong relationships are less likely to perceive situations as stressful in the first place.”
- Our external circumstances predict only about 10 percent of our total happiness. It means whatever your job is, you can be happy.
- Belief shapes our perception: “One study found that two people can look at the same picture of a friend and see two completely different expressions on that friend’s face.”
- Don’t worry!: “After an initial adjustment and period of hardship, most victims of paralysis bounce back to just about the same level of happiness they experienced before.”
- “Online advertisers now conduct market research with sophisticated eye-tracking machines, determined to develop the perfect place for a banner ad on a website.”
Let's discuss it!

I’ve been doing EMDR for cPTSD for a year now. I’m still doing it but I feel like at this point I processed most of my traumas. Wanted to share my experience and how EMDR helped me with cPTSD.
The progress I made: - Hyper vigilance dropped l would say 90% - I can finally feel how it is to be peaceful in my body - The processed traumatic memories are not inflicting an emotional and somatic response in the present - The realisations from talk therapy are now aligning to how I feel inside - I feel more stable and secure in my relationship - Less brain fog - Progress when it comes to executive functioning - Became aware about self sabotaging behaviours like procrastination, overthinking, rumination, perfectionism and predicting negative future outcomes and not trying for a fear of failing - Became aware of freeze and fawn responses and what triggers it - I cannot stress how important this was for me - Awareness about focusing on others not myself as a direct result of having had an extremely unpredictable parent - Less scared/distrusting of other people and feeling like everyone is better or knows better than me - Realised I can recognize danger, but don't know how to recognise healthy/safe people. While being in their presence made me feel weird and out of place, being around toxic people made me feel “normal”. - Awareness of not feeling safe enough to assertively express needs and feelings, instead bottling up to the point of not being able to maintain relationship anymore - Self compassion rather than thinking “what’s wrong with me, why am I like this”. Processing traumas gave me perspective on WHY I am “like this”. Going back and then seeing it from an adult perspective made me realise I wasn’t broken/bad seed/wrong from birth. This was the single most important realisation for me. I could see how people who raised me were messed up. I cried a lot for me, the child who was treated like this. I understood it was never about me and felt blame leaving me.
It was very difficult at times as I felt enormous amount of grief and loss. Before starting to feel better, I felt depressed for 2 months or so and couldn’t wrap my head around how I feel soo bad. Most people say it gets worse before it gets better and it is true.
After doing this for a year I am finally starting to feel free. I am not done with EMDR, but the progress I made so far is enough to finally feel “unstuck” in life. I am aware EMDR is not for everyone, however it did wonders for me. Apart from EMDR, helpful resources for me were books on this matter and personally most helpful was Pete Walker’s cPTSD book, Mindfulness journal and reading about other people’s cPTSD experiences.

For the context, I'm not talking about meals you have while celebrating your grandma's 70s birthday or New Year's Eve, I'm talking about regular everyday meals.
I've just remembered how when I and my siblings were kids, we weren't allowed to talk until we were done with our meals. I can't remember if my parents and grandparents talked much to each other, but they certainly didn't remind each other to stop talking like they did with us kids if it wasn't anything directly related to the meal. And of course there's a Russian saying that goes * Когда я ем, я глух и нем (When I eat, I am deaf and mute)* that got drilled in every kid.
And then there are those American films where you can see the whole family talking about their day or arguing about something during their Wednesday dinner. And it got me wondering, how common is it actually for families to talk while eating and how common is it for kids to be a part of such conversation in other countries?

Did you know that a group of scholars and translators in medieval Spain played a crucial role in the development of modern science and other disciplines? They were part of the Toledo School of Translators, a renowned intellectual hub that translated works from Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek into Latin and Spanish. These translations not only facilitated cultural exchange but also disseminated knowledge that shaped the intellectual landscape of Europe for centuries. In this article, you will learn about the historical significance of the Toledo School of Translators and their enduring importance in the advancement of scientific knowledge.
The Toledo School: A Nexus of Intellectual Exchange
Toledo, a vibrant city in Spain, was known for its rich multicultural heritage. Under Muslim rule from 711 to 1085 CE, Toledo became a center of multilingual culture, where Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin coexisted. It was in this multilingual environment that the Toledo School thrived, serving as a melting pot of knowledge and ideas.
The Toledo School of Translators was a group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries. They translated works from various fields, including philosophy, science, law, history, geography, literature, and theology. They attracted scholars and translators from different cultural backgrounds, including Christians, Muslims, and Jews. They collaborated and exchanged ideas in a spirit of tolerance and intellectual curiosity.
Translation as a Catalyst for Modern Science and Beyond
The translation efforts of the Toledo School of Translators were not limited to Arabic sources alone. They also translated works from Hebrew and Greek into Latin and Spanish, expanding the horizons of European scholars even further. The Arabic translations of Greek works, which were preserved and expanded upon by Arabic-speaking scientists in the eastern Muslim lands, also found their way to Al-Andalus, including Toledo. Renowned scholars such as Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Tufayl, and Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) contributed to the preservation and development of these works in Al-Andalus.
The impact of these translations on modern science and other disciplines cannot be overstated. The Toledo School of Translators played a pivotal role in the dissemination of knowledge across various fields. The translated works became foundational texts that shaped the intellectual landscape of Europe and influenced prominent European scholars throughout history.
For example, the works of Aristotle, Plato, Ptolemy, Euclid, Archimedes, Avicenna, Averroes, and others were introduced to Europe through the translations produced by the Toledo School. These works inspired European scholars such as Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Dante Alighieri to develop their own theories and discoveries. The works also fostered a culture of inquiry and critical thinking that paved the way for the scientific revolution of the Renaissance.
Enduring Legacy and Modern Relevance
The influence of the Toledo translations reached far and wide. They not only contributed to the advancement of specific scientific disciplines but also fostered a culture of inquiry and critical thinking that continues to drive scientific progress today. They also facilitated cultural exchange and dialogue among different civilizations and religions.
Furthermore, the multicultural environment of the Toledo School serves as a testament to the power of diversity in intellectual pursuits. The collaboration and exchange of ideas among scholars from different cultural backgrounds fostered a spirit of innovation and open-mindedness that continues to be valued in modern scientific endeavors.
The Toledo School of Translators was not the only source of knowledge exchange and translation in medieval Europe but one of the most important and influential ones. Other centers of translation such as Sicily¹, Antioch², and Baghdad³ also played significant roles in preserving and transmitting knowledge across cultures.
The Toledo School of Translators stands as a testament to the transformative power of knowledge exchange and translation. Through their diligent efforts, they brought forth a wealth , and collaboration in the pursuit of knowledge and progress. The Toledo School of Translators serves as a reminder of the invaluable role that translation and multiculturalism play in shaping the world of ideas.

I never met my birth parents. They both died on a job when I was a baby, and I went into foster care. I didn’t have any interest in knowing anything about them; my adoptive parents are the ones who raised me.
However, everything changed a week ago when a group of men came knocking at my door. They wore what looked like military uniforms, but instead of the usual green, they wore a distinct red color instead. They loaded me, along with my foster parents into an unmarked matching red van. We were rushed to a farmhouse on the opposite side of Washington where the facility was heavily guarded with intimidating men and unfamiliar machines that appeared like they required several men to operate.
Being an IT major, I had no knowledge nor interest in these things. I’m not a runner, fighter or a strategist, so I couldn’t fathom what they wanted from me.
They relentlessly interrogated me for three days, bombarding me with questions and then, when they concluded that I was blissfully unaware, intimidated me with frightening information. Dumbfounded, I soaked in every ounce of knowledge they offered me. The new knowledge I gained made me see my parents in a new terrifying light. I couldn’t help but feel more resentment, adding on to the existing resentment I harboured. My parents not only betrayed themselves, but me as well and part of me feared that I would never be safe again. I couldn’t help but feel manipulated. They were long gone, but their past still controlled my fate.
I was eventually uprooted to a secondary protective facility, one in which I was not permitted to know the location of. For my own safety, they assured me. Once settled, they supplied me with new electronics and destroyed my old ones. They warned me that I was to stay under the radar, completely untraceable. Again, for my own protection. I was confident that given my knowledge of IT, software engineering and cyber security, I would remain unseen and untraceable to anyone who might be hunting me.
Now that I am sure I am safe, I can finally write this message and warn anyone connected to the initial bloodlines involved. It is crucial for my message to reach you.
The story begins with my biological grandfather. He worked for a branch of the government closely related to NASA. Following the moon landing there was a great deal of classified developments that the population was oblivious to. The department my grandfather worked for protecting the world against extra-terrestrial threats or extra-terrestrial terrorism as they described it.
Paranoia gripped them after the moon landing and they took drastic measures to prepare. Five years later, they deciphered the first communications and signals from frequencies previously unknown to them. These signals were so powerful that they destroyed entire systems, disrupted the power grid and took down entire radio stations. This special branch of government discovered they could tap into these signals which revealed that our galaxy has been under constant surveillance. This was ironically discovered by extra-terrestrials working within this branch, tasked to monitor and prevent extra-terrestrial terrorism on a much larger scale.
At this point in their story, the soldiers were reluctant to divulge more. Insisting that they already revealed too much. But I demanded full transparency, refusing to cooperate with their equivocation. It was essential that I know my involvement in these matters. So, they continued, placing a huge box in front of me, overflowing with papers. They swiftly unveiled its contents to me, Stacks of documents and old tapes they tossed onto the table, one after the another.
The documents contained, amongst others, details of weapons the organisation, known as ESA were crafting and testing along with formulas to create immensely powerful weapons. They used advanced calculations to try and manufacture better equipment that could be sent up to space. They were doing this undisclosed, to monitor and learn as much as they could.
The ESA spent millions designing and building a spacecraft to contain their equipment, if the situation ever called for it. It is still a work in progress. All of this is actively happening, the documents and footage stamped up until a week ago.
I opened a document with a list of classified individuals who had this information. Presidents, EU members, a handful of the rich and powerful, who used this information to design and construct underground bunkers, granting that, if anything were to ever happen, they’d be prepared. These aren’t a new concept though, the extremely rich and powerful have been known to publicly sponsor new technological advancements. Well some may think this gave them the upper hand, it eventually proved their foolishness.
The following is what I saw in the most crucial videos:
Video 1: dated 1975 The video opens in an empty cell, appearing to be a reinforced holding chamber. At first, the room is dark, then the spotlights switch on, illuminating the centre of the room. Now in the light, I could clearly make out what looked like a reinforced metal wall with chains protruding from it. The focus shifts to the back of the room where a large door opens and something is dragged in a sheet, concealing its identity, and tied down with thick chains. The video ends.
Video 2: June 1975 I saw about 20 armed men entered the room and start to unwrap the sheet from what they hauled in. After several minutes of unwrapping, the identity of the thing they brought in is revealed.
There seemed to be a glitch in the recording, at different points in the video the screen was covered in static. The sound was muted, and the figure was hard to make out. It appeared that the creature was attempting to change shape, vibrating as if to phase into a different shape. Despite its best attempts, it remained unsuccessful and reverted back to its original form. .
Video 3: the very next day wnd June 1975
The video opens with the creature fully in focus. Within the 18 hours of footage, the creature is constantly seen attempting to change form. It fails every time, but that doesn’t prevent it from trying again. It looks like a blur, occasionally a second head or what appears to be a human hand. It’s apparent the creature has shapeshifting abilities.
The next 200 videos are identical. To the naked eye, it seemed like a loop. But it wasn’t. The creature was, however, relentless in its attempt to free itself or escape.
Video 204: October 1975
This time the alien appeared to be asleep, head limp and no movement. This video had sound, but it was accompanied by a high pitch buzz that made my ears hurt. At the six-hour mark, the faint cry of a baby can be heard before gradually escalating into full-blown screaming.
At first I suspected that one of the scientists had brought their child along, but the agents assured me the crying was coming from the creature. As the video progresses, the cries grow louder and more demanding, eventually accompanied by a deep voice. Close to the end of the video, 22 hours in, multiple voices begin to scream simultaneously, causing everything to shake.
The documents show that, after this incident, the cage was reinforced. The next few videos are static, proving that the creature has the uncanny ability to manipulate video and disrupt frequencies.
Video 340 February 1982
The creature, with its brown discoloration, possessed crocodile like scales and an eagle like head, but it was entirely reptilian in nature. It stood at a whopping 12 feet tall and was covered in an unknown slime like substance.
The chains were substantially thicker than they were years earlier, and the cage has been fortified. It looked like a different room altogether.
The agents explained that the creature got loose and attacked 12 soldiers, absorbing them into itself instead of merely killing or eating them.
The creature was taken to Nevada, close to the desert, where a strong armoured underground structure had been constructed, far from civilization. The facility has been equipped with high level security precautions which allowed sections of the building to be sealed off and rigged to explode, guaranteeing that, if necessary, the building would collapse in on itself, trapping the creature within its cage, underneath the rubble.
The creature mirrored the image I conjured up in my head when I pictured the devil; brown, scaly, a demonic voice. The eyes were its most terrifying feature, shaped like that of a reptilian, but blood red. I counted 4 horns on its head, and it bore a pair of nasty fangs. Its feet bore the resemblance of a dinosaur, but it lacked a tale. Once the creature was no longer phasing in and out, it settled on a more consistent appearance, one that was easier to recognize.
Video 341 February 1982
This video marked the first appearance of my grandfather. He entered, along with four other men in lab coats, carrying a large syringe, approximately the size of my arm. He stuck it into the beast’s heart, causing it to instantly fall into a deep sleep. He proceeded to connect various machines onto the slumbering creature, attaching electrodes to its head and chest which were linked to a sizeable computer or something that resembled a computer. The video cuts off after this, leaving us to guess what occurred next.
Video 343 February 1982 The lights in the room were far brighter than before, and it once again lacked the presence of sound. The reason for this remained unknown.
Within the room stood a table filled with an assortment of equipment that appeared to be severely damaged. The lights flickered at intervals, and the creature began to phase in and out once more. This made it difficult to distinguish its appearance amid the static moments and blurred movements. The scientists observed the creature a safe distance away.
The scientists were relying on a certain frequency they discovered to keep the creature at bay. It seemed to produce positive results for the next few videos.
The videos that followed held a similar pattern. The creature remained silent, wired to machines while people came in and out taking notes or the occasional blood or slime sample. The creature remained composed, not once attempting to shift or escape again.
According to the agents’ records, everything proceeded as planned. My grandfather welcomed his first son, my father in 1975, he subsequently resumed his project until his resignation in 2008 when he was 55. A year later, he had a fatal heart attack, my grandmother following soot. My father was 34.
My father and his younger brother began working for ESA in 2004, when they were 28 and 24. New technological advancements introduced better cameras and electronic equipment for testing purposes. Since the technology became so advanced, their visits to the cage became as infrequent as once a week, or even less often. With new needles, enhanced equipment and upgraded data collection, the project transferred to electronic records ushering changes in the filing system.
While we waited for my transportation, they shared more classified documents. According to the notes, the once wild and violent creature was now unrecognisably tame and responsive, even answering questions. It remained unclear whether they had intentionally provoked it or stumbled upon a means to subdue it.
The circumstances surrounding my birth were strange. My dad impregnated a college classmate, and they made the mutual decision to put me up for adoption since neither of them had the desire to raise a child. My mother was studying biology and my father, a young genius physicist that found it hard to understand basic human interaction as it was. According to my foster parents, I was born in 2000, but the data I was presented proved I was born two years prior. This revelation had a more profound effect on me than anything else I’d seen.
Regardless, I was immediately given up for adoption and my existence was all but forgotten about. My adoptive parents moved to Iowa, and that’s where I lived up until 2018 when I left for Harvard. I always wondered what my birth parents were like. My adoptive parents told me I was a genius and speculated that I inherited my brain from somewhere. It’s an uncanny feeling; the knowledge that every aspect of my life was monitored.
The videos documenting the creature continued for the next 6 years. It became routine, apart from the indistinct chatter from the observing scientists and other government employees. There were no other sounds, incidents or noteworthy occurrences.
The tests revealed that the creature’s biology was predominantly alien, with no genetic material in common with humans. The scientists highlighted the alarming fact that the creature’s DNA was ever changing, resulting in frequent sample collection and analysis.
They concluded that, the creature was still a baby at the time of capture, which made it easier to contain. They did, however, underestimate its shocking growth rate which resulted in the deaths of the 12 soldiers’ years prior. At the time, it was still in its adolescent phase. Further research uncovered that the creature had the unique ability to absorb the genetic material of the men it came into contact with. The more humans it absorbed, the more diverse its gene pool became. A portion of the genes obtained gradually became more similar to those observed in humans. It’s as if the creature dove into an immense pool of genes and, as it absorbed more humans, its genetic makeup gradually began to adopt more human like qualities. Although difficult to comprehend at first, the basic explanation is that with every absorption of genetic information, the creature’s genetic composition seemed to evolve, storing human qualities within its own gene and gradually becoming more human-like That is my understanding of it.
Which brings me to the final video they have. Prepare yourselves.
Video: mov5078436b The creature behaved normally before viewing was disrupted by static. Among the sudden legion of voices, it echoed my father’s name, simultaneously expanding in size which causes the surroundings to convulse. Alarms resounded, piercing the silence as the creature tugged at its chains, cracking the floor ceiling in its attempt to break free. An ear splitting roar escaped its mouth as hordes of armoured soldiers rushed the cage, massive tasers in hand. They zapped the creature at maximum voltage as it continued to roar, lights flickering excessively. The camera feed is interrupted again by bouts of static.
A second group arrived, armed heavily with guns, increasing the crowd to a total of 30. The gunfire was so severe that it affected the video’s audio. One of the chains bound to the roof of the cage had already broken loose by the time the third group of soldiers arrived. This group carried a machine emitting bursts of fire, which had no effect on the creature aside from antagonizing it. It releases a powerful blast from its hand, causing the room to tremble which shattered the bulletproof glass into millions of pieces and sent the men flying across the room. Both of the creature’s hands were now free, and it began to morph.
Finally, a third group arrived in heavily armoured suits, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. They wielded lasers and what appeared to be a concentrated lightning gun. I was grateful they hadn’t made use of nuclear weapons which would have wiped everyone out. After every attempt, the creature remained standing. Now it was his turn.
The creature freed itself from the remaining shackles and unleashed a blast with both its hands. All that was left of the solders was a gruesome mess of blood where they stood. The air filled with a haunting scream that echoed throughout the halls. The creature released a menacing growl in the form of words that sent chills down my spine, “Dennis McCarthy”, my father’s name.
Right before the camera blacked out, I could have sworn he was in the brink of morphing into a human form, but the recording was cut short by the thunderous detonation of explosions that sent the building into destruction, burying the truth within its rubble.
The scientists, including my dad, were taken by the ESA (extra-terrestrial security agency) and hidden in a heavily guarded underground haven. They were issued new identities and relocated, which isn’t a new concept for the government.
As far as the drones’ visual feed could capture, the entire operation was terminated, leaving behind the collapsed and buried ruins of a facility that was once fully functional. It was under strict surveillance for any signs of life, but as the years rolled by, complacency set in, compromising their once strict security measures.
My father, uncle and the rest of the scientists assumed new lives and identities. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, they were dead.
In 2010, an unexpected interruption occurred. Reports indicated that the drones simultaneously malfunctioned, and the video feed erupted into static. A team arrived at the site to find it disrupted, all the drones lay in scattered heaps across the landscape.
Before anyone could investigate or react, all communication with the agents safeguarding the scientists was abruptly terminated. One be one, the connections were severed, leaving them permanently unreachable. When they reached my father’s safe house, they were greeted with his spine-chilling absence. He had vanished without so much as a trace that he had ever been there to begin with—no signs of struggle or any shred of evidence left behind. He was lost in an infinite void of mystery. The only indication that something was amiss was the eerie blue glow invading the monitors moments before blackout. The only accurate word for it would be ‘suction’, leading the team to believe that they had been absorbed. It remained a speculation, though plausible enough to send waves of panic up their spines.
As we speak governments around the world have been swept up into the desperate search to locate the alien as well as training an elite group of drone pilots and soldiers in an attempt to confront and defeat the elusive entity. Furthermore, every effort at locating surviving relatives of the missing scientists, including my father, had fallen short. They too had vanished into an infinite cloud of mystery, not one left unscathed to provide answers.
Considering the site’s altered state, the complete destruction of the drones and the fact that the creature they had held captive was constantly evolving, they were profoundly aware of the unravelling truth.
I am the sole living descendent of the scientists that worked for ESA. The creature has made it his mission to eliminate any and all traces of their existence. This is the sole reason I was upended from my life and relocated to a heavily guarded facility, and this is the reason I feel compelled to share their stories.
I couldn’t comprehend why the creature would hunt me since I didn’t share the sins of my father, but I felt paranoid and vigilant regardless. I couldn’t help but feel compelled to look into the disappearances myself, perhaps due to some lingering hopes that the information was wrong. My pursuit for answers turned up nothing, not even social media accounts. It was as if any trace of their existence was utterly obliterated, there was no digital footprint left.
The reason I am now convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life is in danger is because I have started catching glimpses of subtle movements in my peripheral, a shadowy figure lurking around the premises, disruptions in the signal of my appliances, even the phone I am using right now.
Call me foolish for even relying on the very technology that might lead to my demise, but I felt compelled to warn anyone else who might be a descendent of the team that worked for ESA: project corrosion.
If you’re aware then heed my words and flee. If you are unaware, observe the news for any sudden or unexplained disappearances, and I regret to inform you but, if you come across the creature then it’s too late.
Stay safe my friends

I never met my birth parents. They both died on a job when I was a baby, and I went into foster care. I didn’t have any interest in knowing anything about them; my adoptive parents are the ones who raised me.
However, everything changed a week ago when a group of men came knocking at my door. They wore what looked like military uniforms, but instead of the usual green, they wore a distinct red color instead. They loaded me, along with my foster parents into an unmarked matching red van. We were rushed to a farmhouse on the opposite side of Washington where the facility was heavily guarded with intimidating men and unfamiliar machines that appeared like they required several men to operate.
Being an IT major, I had no knowledge nor interest in these things. I’m not a runner, fighter or a strategist, so I couldn’t fathom what they wanted from me.
They relentlessly interrogated me for three days, bombarding me with questions and then, when they concluded that I was blissfully unaware, intimidated me with frightening information. Dumbfounded, I soaked in every ounce of knowledge they offered me. The new knowledge I gained made me see my parents in a new terrifying light. I couldn’t help but feel more resentment, adding on to the existing resentment I harboured. My parents not only betrayed themselves, but me as well and part of me feared that I would never be safe again. I couldn’t help but feel manipulated. They were long gone, but their past still controlled my fate.
I was eventually uprooted to a secondary protective facility, one in which I was not permitted to know the location of. For my own safety, they assured me. Once settled, they supplied me with new electronics and destroyed my old ones. They warned me that I was to stay under the radar, completely untraceable. Again, for my own protection. I was confident that given my knowledge of IT, software engineering and cyber security, I would remain unseen and untraceable to anyone who might be hunting me.
Now that I am sure I am safe, I can finally write this message and warn anyone connected to the initial bloodlines involved. It is crucial for my message to reach you.
The story begins with my biological grandfather. He worked for a branch of the government closely related to NASA. Following the moon landing there was a great deal of classified developments that the population was oblivious to. The department my grandfather worked for protecting the world against extra-terrestrial threats or extra-terrestrial terrorism as they described it.
Paranoia gripped them after the moon landing and they took drastic measures to prepare. Five years later, they deciphered the first communications and signals from frequencies previously unknown to them. These signals were so powerful that they destroyed entire systems, disrupted the power grid and took down entire radio stations. This special branch of government discovered they could tap into these signals which revealed that our galaxy has been under constant surveillance. This was ironically discovered by extra-terrestrials working within this branch, tasked to monitor and prevent extra-terrestrial terrorism on a much larger scale.
At this point in their story, the soldiers were reluctant to divulge more. Insisting that they already revealed too much. But I demanded full transparency, refusing to cooperate with their equivocation. It was essential that I know my involvement in these matters. So, they continued, placing a huge box in front of me, overflowing with papers. They swiftly unveiled its contents to me, Stacks of documents and old tapes they tossed onto the table, one after the another.
The documents contained, amongst others, details of weapons the organisation, known as ESA were crafting and testing along with formulas to create immensely powerful weapons. They used advanced calculations to try and manufacture better equipment that could be sent up to space. They were doing this undisclosed, to monitor and learn as much as they could.
The ESA spent millions designing and building a spacecraft to contain their equipment, if the situation ever called for it. It is still a work in progress. All of this is actively happening, the documents and footage stamped up until a week ago.
I opened a document with a list of classified individuals who had this information. Presidents, EU members, a handful of the rich and powerful, who used this information to design and construct underground bunkers, granting that, if anything were to ever happen, they’d be prepared. These aren’t a new concept though, the extremely rich and powerful have been known to publicly sponsor new technological advancements. Well some may think this gave them the upper hand, it eventually proved their foolishness.
The following is what I saw in the most crucial videos:
Video 1: dated 1975 The video opens in an empty cell, appearing to be a reinforced holding chamber. At first, the room is dark, then the spotlights switch on, illuminating the centre of the room. Now in the light, I could clearly make out what looked like a reinforced metal wall with chains protruding from it. The focus shifts to the back of the room where a large door opens and something is dragged in a sheet, concealing its identity, and tied down with thick chains. The video ends.
Video 2: June 1975 I saw about 20 armed men entered the room and start to unwrap the sheet from what they hauled in. After several minutes of unwrapping, the identity of the thing they brought in is revealed.
There seemed to be a glitch in the recording, at different points in the video the screen was covered in static. The sound was muted, and the figure was hard to make out. It appeared that the creature was attempting to change shape, vibrating as if to phase into a different shape. Despite its best attempts, it remained unsuccessful and reverted back to its original form. .
Video 3: the very next day wnd June 1975
The video opens with the creature fully in focus. Within the 18 hours of footage, the creature is constantly seen attempting to change form. It fails every time, but that doesn’t prevent it from trying again. It looks like a blur, occasionally a second head or what appears to be a human hand. It’s apparent the creature has shapeshifting abilities.
The next 200 videos are identical. To the naked eye, it seemed like a loop. But it wasn’t. The creature was, however, relentless in its attempt to free itself or escape.
Video 204: October 1975
This time the alien appeared to be asleep, head limp and no movement. This video had sound, but it was accompanied by a high pitch buzz that made my ears hurt. At the six-hour mark, the faint cry of a baby can be heard before gradually escalating into full-blown screaming.
At first I suspected that one of the scientists had brought their child along, but the agents assured me the crying was coming from the creature. As the video progresses, the cries grow louder and more demanding, eventually accompanied by a deep voice. Close to the end of the video, 22 hours in, multiple voices begin to scream simultaneously, causing everything to shake.
The documents show that, after this incident, the cage was reinforced. The next few videos are static, proving that the creature has the uncanny ability to manipulate video and disrupt frequencies.
Video 340 February 1982
The creature, with its brown discoloration, possessed crocodile like scales and an eagle like head, but it was entirely reptilian in nature. It stood at a whopping 12 feet tall and was covered in an unknown slime like substance.
The chains were substantially thicker than they were years earlier, and the cage has been fortified. It looked like a different room altogether.
The agents explained that the creature got loose and attacked 12 soldiers, absorbing them into itself instead of merely killing or eating them.
The creature was taken to Nevada, close to the desert, where a strong armoured underground structure had been constructed, far from civilization. The facility has been equipped with high level security precautions which allowed sections of the building to be sealed off and rigged to explode, guaranteeing that, if necessary, the building would collapse in on itself, trapping the creature within its cage, underneath the rubble.
The creature mirrored the image I conjured up in my head when I pictured the devil; brown, scaly, a demonic voice. The eyes were its most terrifying feature, shaped like that of a reptilian, but blood red. I counted 4 horns on its head, and it bore a pair of nasty fangs. Its feet bore the resemblance of a dinosaur, but it lacked a tale. Once the creature was no longer phasing in and out, it settled on a more consistent appearance, one that was easier to recognize.
Video 341 February 1982
This video marked the first appearance of my grandfather. He entered, along with four other men in lab coats, carrying a large syringe, approximately the size of my arm. He stuck it into the beast’s heart, causing it to instantly fall into a deep sleep. He proceeded to connect various machines onto the slumbering creature, attaching electrodes to its head and chest which were linked to a sizeable computer or something that resembled a computer. The video cuts off after this, leaving us to guess what occurred next.
Video 343 February 1982 The lights in the room were far brighter than before, and it once again lacked the presence of sound. The reason for this remained unknown.
Within the room stood a table filled with an assortment of equipment that appeared to be severely damaged. The lights flickered at intervals, and the creature began to phase in and out once more. This made it difficult to distinguish its appearance amid the static moments and blurred movements. The scientists observed the creature a safe distance away.
The scientists were relying on a certain frequency they discovered to keep the creature at bay. It seemed to produce positive results for the next few videos.
The videos that followed held a similar pattern. The creature remained silent, wired to machines while people came in and out taking notes or the occasional blood or slime sample. The creature remained composed, not once attempting to shift or escape again.
According to the agents’ records, everything proceeded as planned. My grandfather welcomed his first son, my father in 1975, he subsequently resumed his project until his resignation in 2008 when he was 55. A year later, he had a fatal heart attack, my grandmother following soot. My father was 34.
My father and his younger brother began working for ESA in 2004, when they were 28 and 24. New technological advancements introduced better cameras and electronic equipment for testing purposes. Since the technology became so advanced, their visits to the cage became as infrequent as once a week, or even less often. With new needles, enhanced equipment and upgraded data collection, the project transferred to electronic records ushering changes in the filing system.
While we waited for my transportation, they shared more classified documents. According to the notes, the once wild and violent creature was now unrecognisably tame and responsive, even answering questions. It remained unclear whether they had intentionally provoked it or stumbled upon a means to subdue it.
The circumstances surrounding my birth were strange. My dad impregnated a college classmate, and they made the mutual decision to put me up for adoption since neither of them had the desire to raise a child. My mother was studying biology and my father, a young genius physicist that found it hard to understand basic human interaction as it was. According to my foster parents, I was born in 2000, but the data I was presented proved I was born two years prior. This revelation had a more profound effect on me than anything else I’d seen.
Regardless, I was immediately given up for adoption and my existence was all but forgotten about. My adoptive parents moved to Iowa, and that’s where I lived up until 2018 when I left for Harvard. I always wondered what my birth parents were like. My adoptive parents told me I was a genius and speculated that I inherited my brain from somewhere. It’s an uncanny feeling; the knowledge that every aspect of my life was monitored.
The videos documenting the creature continued for the next 6 years. It became routine, apart from the indistinct chatter from the observing scientists and other government employees. There were no other sounds, incidents or noteworthy occurrences.
The tests revealed that the creature’s biology was predominantly alien, with no genetic material in common with humans. The scientists highlighted the alarming fact that the creature’s DNA was ever changing, resulting in frequent sample collection and analysis.
They concluded that, the creature was still a baby at the time of capture, which made it easier to contain. They did, however, underestimate its shocking growth rate which resulted in the deaths of the 12 soldiers’ years prior. At the time, it was still in its adolescent phase. Further research uncovered that the creature had the unique ability to absorb the genetic material of the men it came into contact with. The more humans it absorbed, the more diverse its gene pool became. A portion of the genes obtained gradually became more similar to those observed in humans. It’s as if the creature dove into an immense pool of genes and, as it absorbed more humans, its genetic makeup gradually began to adopt more human like qualities. Although difficult to comprehend at first, the basic explanation is that with every absorption of genetic information, the creature’s genetic composition seemed to evolve, storing human qualities within its own gene and gradually becoming more human-like That is my understanding of it.
Which brings me to the final video they have. Prepare yourselves.
Video: mov5078436b The creature behaved normally before viewing was disrupted by static. Among the sudden legion of voices, it echoed my father’s name, simultaneously expanding in size which causes the surroundings to convulse. Alarms resounded, piercing the silence as the creature tugged at its chains, cracking the floor ceiling in its attempt to break free. An ear splitting roar escaped its mouth as hordes of armoured soldiers rushed the cage, massive tasers in hand. They zapped the creature at maximum voltage as it continued to roar, lights flickering excessively. The camera feed is interrupted again by bouts of static.
A second group arrived, armed heavily with guns, increasing the crowd to a total of 30. The gunfire was so severe that it affected the video’s audio. One of the chains bound to the roof of the cage had already broken loose by the time the third group of soldiers arrived. This group carried a machine emitting bursts of fire, which had no effect on the creature aside from antagonizing it. It releases a powerful blast from its hand, causing the room to tremble which shattered the bulletproof glass into millions of pieces and sent the men flying across the room. Both of the creature’s hands were now free, and it began to morph.
Finally, a third group arrived in heavily armoured suits, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. They wielded lasers and what appeared to be a concentrated lightning gun. I was grateful they hadn’t made use of nuclear weapons which would have wiped everyone out. After every attempt, the creature remained standing. Now it was his turn.
The creature freed itself from the remaining shackles and unleashed a blast with both its hands. All that was left of the solders was a gruesome mess of blood where they stood. The air filled with a haunting scream that echoed throughout the halls. The creature released a menacing growl in the form of words that sent chills down my spine, “Dennis McCarthy”, my father’s name.
Right before the camera blacked out, I could have sworn he was in the brink of morphing into a human form, but the recording was cut short by the thunderous detonation of explosions that sent the building into destruction, burying the truth within its rubble.
The scientists, including my dad, were taken by the ESA (extra-terrestrial security agency) and hidden in a heavily guarded underground haven. They were issued new identities and relocated, which isn’t a new concept for the government.
As far as the drones’ visual feed could capture, the entire operation was terminated, leaving behind the collapsed and buried ruins of a facility that was once fully functional. It was under strict surveillance for any signs of life, but as the years rolled by, complacency set in, compromising their once strict security measures.
My father, uncle and the rest of the scientists assumed new lives and identities. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, they were dead.
In 2010, an unexpected interruption occurred. Reports indicated that the drones simultaneously malfunctioned, and the video feed erupted into static. A team arrived at the site to find it disrupted, all the drones lay in scattered heaps across the landscape.
Before anyone could investigate or react, all communication with the agents safeguarding the scientists was abruptly terminated. One be one, the connections were severed, leaving them permanently unreachable. When they reached my father’s safe house, they were greeted with his spine-chilling absence. He had vanished without so much as a trace that he had ever been there to begin with—no signs of struggle or any shred of evidence left behind. He was lost in an infinite void of mystery. The only indication that something was amiss was the eerie blue glow invading the monitors moments before blackout. The only accurate word for it would be ‘suction’, leading the team to believe that they had been absorbed. It remained a speculation, though plausible enough to send waves of panic up their spines.
As we speak governments around the world have been swept up into the desperate search to locate the alien as well as training an elite group of drone pilots and soldiers in an attempt to confront and defeat the elusive entity. Furthermore, every effort at locating surviving relatives of the missing scientists, including my father, had fallen short. They too had vanished into an infinite cloud of mystery, not one left unscathed to provide answers.
Considering the site’s altered state, the complete destruction of the drones and the fact that the creature they had held captive was constantly evolving, they were profoundly aware of the unravelling truth.
I am the sole living descendent of the scientists that worked for ESA. The creature has made it his mission to eliminate any and all traces of their existence. This is the sole reason I was upended from my life and relocated to a heavily guarded facility, and this is the reason I feel compelled to share their stories.
I couldn’t comprehend why the creature would hunt me since I didn’t share the sins of my father, but I felt paranoid and vigilant regardless. I couldn’t help but feel compelled to look into the disappearances myself, perhaps due to some lingering hopes that the information was wrong. My pursuit for answers turned up nothing, not even social media accounts. It was as if any trace of their existence was utterly obliterated, there was no digital footprint left.
The reason I am now convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life is in danger is because I have started catching glimpses of subtle movements in my peripheral, a shadowy figure lurking around the premises, disruptions in the signal of my appliances, even the phone I am using right now.
Call me foolish for even relying on the very technology that might lead to my demise, but I felt compelled to warn anyone else who might be a descendent of the team that worked for ESA: project corrosion.
If you’re aware then heed my words and flee. If you are unaware, observe the news for any sudden or unexplained disappearances, and I regret to inform you but, if you come across the creature then it’s too late.
Stay safe my friends

I never met my birth parents. They both died on a job when I was a baby, and I went into foster care. I didn’t have any interest in knowing anything about them; my adoptive parents are the ones who raised me.
However, everything changed a week ago when a group of men came knocking at my door. They wore what looked like military uniforms, but instead of the usual green, they wore a distinct red color instead. They loaded me, along with my foster parents into an unmarked matching red van. We were rushed to a farmhouse on the opposite side of Washington where the facility was heavily guarded with intimidating men and unfamiliar machines that appeared like they required several men to operate.
Being an IT major, I had no knowledge nor interest in these things. I’m not a runner, fighter or a strategist, so I couldn’t fathom what they wanted from me.
They relentlessly interrogated me for three days, bombarding me with questions and then, when they concluded that I was blissfully unaware, intimidated me with frightening information. Dumbfounded, I soaked in every ounce of knowledge they offered me. The new knowledge I gained made me see my parents in a new terrifying light. I couldn’t help but feel more resentment, adding on to the existing resentment I harboured. My parents not only betrayed themselves, but me as well and part of me feared that I would never be safe again. I couldn’t help but feel manipulated. They were long gone, but their past still controlled my fate.
I was eventually uprooted to a secondary protective facility, one in which I was not permitted to know the location of. For my own safety, they assured me. Once settled, they supplied me with new electronics and destroyed my old ones. They warned me that I was to stay under the radar, completely untraceable. Again, for my own protection. I was confident that given my knowledge of IT, software engineering and cyber security, I would remain unseen and untraceable to anyone who might be hunting me.
Now that I am sure I am safe, I can finally write this message and warn anyone connected to the initial bloodlines involved. It is crucial for my message to reach you.
The story begins with my biological grandfather. He worked for a branch of the government closely related to NASA. Following the moon landing there was a great deal of classified developments that the population was oblivious to. The department my grandfather worked for protecting the world against extra-terrestrial threats or extra-terrestrial terrorism as they described it.
Paranoia gripped them after the moon landing and they took drastic measures to prepare. Five years later, they deciphered the first communications and signals from frequencies previously unknown to them. These signals were so powerful that they destroyed entire systems, disrupted the power grid and took down entire radio stations. This special branch of government discovered they could tap into these signals which revealed that our galaxy has been under constant surveillance. This was ironically discovered by extra-terrestrials working within this branch, tasked to monitor and prevent extra-terrestrial terrorism on a much larger scale.
At this point in their story, the soldiers were reluctant to divulge more. Insisting that they already revealed too much. But I demanded full transparency, refusing to cooperate with their equivocation. It was essential that I know my involvement in these matters. So, they continued, placing a huge box in front of me, overflowing with papers. They swiftly unveiled its contents to me, Stacks of documents and old tapes they tossed onto the table, one after the another.
The documents contained, amongst others, details of weapons the organisation, known as ESA were crafting and testing along with formulas to create immensely powerful weapons. They used advanced calculations to try and manufacture better equipment that could be sent up to space. They were doing this undisclosed, to monitor and learn as much as they could.
The ESA spent millions designing and building a spacecraft to contain their equipment, if the situation ever called for it. It is still a work in progress. All of this is actively happening, the documents and footage stamped up until a week ago.
I opened a document with a list of classified individuals who had this information. Presidents, EU members, a handful of the rich and powerful, who used this information to design and construct underground bunkers, granting that, if anything were to ever happen, they’d be prepared. These aren’t a new concept though, the extremely rich and powerful have been known to publicly sponsor new technological advancements. Well some may think this gave them the upper hand, it eventually proved their foolishness.
The following is what I saw in the most crucial videos:
Video 1: dated 1975 The video opens in an empty cell, appearing to be a reinforced holding chamber. At first, the room is dark, then the spotlights switch on, illuminating the centre of the room. Now in the light, I could clearly make out what looked like a reinforced metal wall with chains protruding from it. The focus shifts to the back of the room where a large door opens and something is dragged in a sheet, concealing its identity, and tied down with thick chains. The video ends.
Video 2: June 1975 I saw about 20 armed men entered the room and start to unwrap the sheet from what they hauled in. After several minutes of unwrapping, the identity of the thing they brought in is revealed.
There seemed to be a glitch in the recording, at different points in the video the screen was covered in static. The sound was muted, and the figure was hard to make out. It appeared that the creature was attempting to change shape, vibrating as if to phase into a different shape. Despite its best attempts, it remained unsuccessful and reverted back to its original form. .
Video 3: the very next day wnd June 1975
The video opens with the creature fully in focus. Within the 18 hours of footage, the creature is constantly seen attempting to change form. It fails every time, but that doesn’t prevent it from trying again. It looks like a blur, occasionally a second head or what appears to be a human hand. It’s apparent the creature has shapeshifting abilities.
The next 200 videos are identical. To the naked eye, it seemed like a loop. But it wasn’t. The creature was, however, relentless in its attempt to free itself or escape.
Video 204: October 1975
This time the alien appeared to be asleep, head limp and no movement. This video had sound, but it was accompanied by a high pitch buzz that made my ears hurt. At the six-hour mark, the faint cry of a baby can be heard before gradually escalating into full-blown screaming.
At first I suspected that one of the scientists had brought their child along, but the agents assured me the crying was coming from the creature. As the video progresses, the cries grow louder and more demanding, eventually accompanied by a deep voice. Close to the end of the video, 22 hours in, multiple voices begin to scream simultaneously, causing everything to shake.
The documents show that, after this incident, the cage was reinforced. The next few videos are static, proving that the creature has the uncanny ability to manipulate video and disrupt frequencies.
Video 340 February 1982
The creature, with its brown discoloration, possessed crocodile like scales and an eagle like head, but it was entirely reptilian in nature. It stood at a whopping 12 feet tall and was covered in an unknown slime like substance.
The chains were substantially thicker than they were years earlier, and the cage has been fortified. It looked like a different room altogether.
The agents explained that the creature got loose and attacked 12 soldiers, absorbing them into itself instead of merely killing or eating them.
The creature was taken to Nevada, close to the desert, where a strong armoured underground structure had been constructed, far from civilization. The facility has been equipped with high level security precautions which allowed sections of the building to be sealed off and rigged to explode, guaranteeing that, if necessary, the building would collapse in on itself, trapping the creature within its cage, underneath the rubble.
The creature mirrored the image I conjured up in my head when I pictured the devil; brown, scaly, a demonic voice. The eyes were its most terrifying feature, shaped like that of a reptilian, but blood red. I counted 4 horns on its head, and it bore a pair of nasty fangs. Its feet bore the resemblance of a dinosaur, but it lacked a tale. Once the creature was no longer phasing in and out, it settled on a more consistent appearance, one that was easier to recognize.
Video 341 February 1982
This video marked the first appearance of my grandfather. He entered, along with four other men in lab coats, carrying a large syringe, approximately the size of my arm. He stuck it into the beast’s heart, causing it to instantly fall into a deep sleep. He proceeded to connect various machines onto the slumbering creature, attaching electrodes to its head and chest which were linked to a sizeable computer or something that resembled a computer. The video cuts off after this, leaving us to guess what occurred next.
Video 343 February 1982 The lights in the room were far brighter than before, and it once again lacked the presence of sound. The reason for this remained unknown.
Within the room stood a table filled with an assortment of equipment that appeared to be severely damaged. The lights flickered at intervals, and the creature began to phase in and out once more. This made it difficult to distinguish its appearance amid the static moments and blurred movements. The scientists observed the creature a safe distance away.
The scientists were relying on a certain frequency they discovered to keep the creature at bay. It seemed to produce positive results for the next few videos.
The videos that followed held a similar pattern. The creature remained silent, wired to machines while people came in and out taking notes or the occasional blood or slime sample. The creature remained composed, not once attempting to shift or escape again.
According to the agents’ records, everything proceeded as planned. My grandfather welcomed his first son, my father in 1975, he subsequently resumed his project until his resignation in 2008 when he was 55. A year later, he had a fatal heart attack, my grandmother following soot. My father was 34.
My father and his younger brother began working for ESA in 2004, when they were 28 and 24. New technological advancements introduced better cameras and electronic equipment for testing purposes. Since the technology became so advanced, their visits to the cage became as infrequent as once a week, or even less often. With new needles, enhanced equipment and upgraded data collection, the project transferred to electronic records ushering changes in the filing system.
While we waited for my transportation, they shared more classified documents. According to the notes, the once wild and violent creature was now unrecognisably tame and responsive, even answering questions. It remained unclear whether they had intentionally provoked it or stumbled upon a means to subdue it.
The circumstances surrounding my birth were strange. My dad impregnated a college classmate, and they made the mutual decision to put me up for adoption since neither of them had the desire to raise a child. My mother was studying biology and my father, a young genius physicist that found it hard to understand basic human interaction as it was. According to my foster parents, I was born in 2000, but the data I was presented proved I was born two years prior. This revelation had a more profound effect on me than anything else I’d seen.
Regardless, I was immediately given up for adoption and my existence was all but forgotten about. My adoptive parents moved to Iowa, and that’s where I lived up until 2018 when I left for Harvard. I always wondered what my birth parents were like. My adoptive parents told me I was a genius and speculated that I inherited my brain from somewhere. It’s an uncanny feeling; the knowledge that every aspect of my life was monitored.
The videos documenting the creature continued for the next 6 years. It became routine, apart from the indistinct chatter from the observing scientists and other government employees. There were no other sounds, incidents or noteworthy occurrences.
The tests revealed that the creature’s biology was predominantly alien, with no genetic material in common with humans. The scientists highlighted the alarming fact that the creature’s DNA was ever changing, resulting in frequent sample collection and analysis.
They concluded that, the creature was still a baby at the time of capture, which made it easier to contain. They did, however, underestimate its shocking growth rate which resulted in the deaths of the 12 soldiers’ years prior. At the time, it was still in its adolescent phase. Further research uncovered that the creature had the unique ability to absorb the genetic material of the men it came into contact with. The more humans it absorbed, the more diverse its gene pool became. A portion of the genes obtained gradually became more similar to those observed in humans. It’s as if the creature dove into an immense pool of genes and, as it absorbed more humans, its genetic makeup gradually began to adopt more human like qualities. Although difficult to comprehend at first, the basic explanation is that with every absorption of genetic information, the creature’s genetic composition seemed to evolve, storing human qualities within its own gene and gradually becoming more human-like That is my understanding of it.
Which brings me to the final video they have. Prepare yourselves.
Video: mov5078436b The creature behaved normally before viewing was disrupted by static. Among the sudden legion of voices, it echoed my father’s name, simultaneously expanding in size which causes the surroundings to convulse. Alarms resounded, piercing the silence as the creature tugged at its chains, cracking the floor ceiling in its attempt to break free. An ear splitting roar escaped its mouth as hordes of armoured soldiers rushed the cage, massive tasers in hand. They zapped the creature at maximum voltage as it continued to roar, lights flickering excessively. The camera feed is interrupted again by bouts of static.
A second group arrived, armed heavily with guns, increasing the crowd to a total of 30. The gunfire was so severe that it affected the video’s audio. One of the chains bound to the roof of the cage had already broken loose by the time the third group of soldiers arrived. This group carried a machine emitting bursts of fire, which had no effect on the creature aside from antagonizing it. It releases a powerful blast from its hand, causing the room to tremble which shattered the bulletproof glass into millions of pieces and sent the men flying across the room. Both of the creature’s hands were now free, and it began to morph.
Finally, a third group arrived in heavily armoured suits, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. They wielded lasers and what appeared to be a concentrated lightning gun. I was grateful they hadn’t made use of nuclear weapons which would have wiped everyone out. After every attempt, the creature remained standing. Now it was his turn.
The creature freed itself from the remaining shackles and unleashed a blast with both its hands. All that was left of the solders was a gruesome mess of blood where they stood. The air filled with a haunting scream that echoed throughout the halls. The creature released a menacing growl in the form of words that sent chills down my spine, “Dennis McCarthy”, my father’s name.
Right before the camera blacked out, I could have sworn he was in the brink of morphing into a human form, but the recording was cut short by the thunderous detonation of explosions that sent the building into destruction, burying the truth within its rubble.
The scientists, including my dad, were taken by the ESA (extra-terrestrial security agency) and hidden in a heavily guarded underground haven. They were issued new identities and relocated, which isn’t a new concept for the government.
As far as the drones’ visual feed could capture, the entire operation was terminated, leaving behind the collapsed and buried ruins of a facility that was once fully functional. It was under strict surveillance for any signs of life, but as the years rolled by, complacency set in, compromising their once strict security measures.
My father, uncle and the rest of the scientists assumed new lives and identities. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, they were dead.
In 2010, an unexpected interruption occurred. Reports indicated that the drones simultaneously malfunctioned, and the video feed erupted into static. A team arrived at the site to find it disrupted, all the drones lay in scattered heaps across the landscape.
Before anyone could investigate or react, all communication with the agents safeguarding the scientists was abruptly terminated. One be one, the connections were severed, leaving them permanently unreachable. When they reached my father’s safe house, they were greeted with his spine-chilling absence. He had vanished without so much as a trace that he had ever been there to begin with—no signs of struggle or any shred of evidence left behind. He was lost in an infinite void of mystery. The only indication that something was amiss was the eerie blue glow invading the monitors moments before blackout. The only accurate word for it would be ‘suction’, leading the team to believe that they had been absorbed. It remained a speculation, though plausible enough to send waves of panic up their spines.
As we speak governments around the world have been swept up into the desperate search to locate the alien as well as training an elite group of drone pilots and soldiers in an attempt to confront and defeat the elusive entity. Furthermore, every effort at locating surviving relatives of the missing scientists, including my father, had fallen short. They too had vanished into an infinite cloud of mystery, not one left unscathed to provide answers.
Considering the site’s altered state, the complete destruction of the drones and the fact that the creature they had held captive was constantly evolving, they were profoundly aware of the unravelling truth.
I am the sole living descendent of the scientists that worked for ESA. The creature has made it his mission to eliminate any and all traces of their existence. This is the sole reason I was upended from my life and relocated to a heavily guarded facility, and this is the reason I feel compelled to share their stories.
I couldn’t comprehend why the creature would hunt me since I didn’t share the sins of my father, but I felt paranoid and vigilant regardless. I couldn’t help but feel compelled to look into the disappearances myself, perhaps due to some lingering hopes that the information was wrong. My pursuit for answers turned up nothing, not even social media accounts. It was as if any trace of their existence was utterly obliterated, there was no digital footprint left.
The reason I am now convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life is in danger is because I have started catching glimpses of subtle movements in my peripheral, a shadowy figure lurking around the premises, disruptions in the signal of my appliances, even the phone I am using right now.
Call me foolish for even relying on the very technology that might lead to my demise, but I felt compelled to warn anyone else who might be a descendent of the team that worked for ESA: project corrosion.
If you’re aware then heed my words and flee. If you are unaware, observe the news for any sudden or unexplained disappearances, and I regret to inform you but, if you come across the creature then it’s too late.
Stay safe my friends