In the current time of economic volatility and uncertainty, it’s no surprise that financial considerations remain a critical measure of success for most content producers. Right now, it’s more important than ever that spending on content production not only delivers value for money, but also produces measurable results.
Against that background, the figures in TKM’s latest Benchmark Report on Offshore Production, sponsored by We Are Amnet, show that companies and agencies in pretty much every sector are turning to offshoring: 60% of respondents currently offshore some elements of their creative production or post-production.
The offshoring trend that began with big corporations in the 1960s and ‘70s, and saw a new wave during the IT revolution of the ‘90s, has disrupted every sector. Some have adopted the model more readily than others: in the pharma sector, for example, there is still some room for companies to catch up. In our recent online forum Outperform Your Competition With Content at Scale, Puneet Srivastava, Head of Digital Content & Services Lab at Roche, said “Pharma is still on a learning curve at the moment compared to other industries, when it comes to how to operate to be most effective in the digital space.”

Offshoring adds value beyond just cost—but the numbers are unarguable

One of the principal barriers to offshoring content production remains concern about the quality of the work. It’s clear that the critical importance of this metric hasn’t changed: it’s one of the top three assessment criteria when considering offshoring as part of a content production model, cited by 45% of respondents. Furthermore, quality of work remains an important measure of success for 91%.
Having said that, in the current economic climate, money talks: 81% of respondents rated access to lower-cost skills and resources in their top three drivers for offshoring. Given all these figures, the levels of satisfaction from organizations that do offshore creative production are illuminating; 69% of respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied with their offshore partner.
In the pharma sector, the approach to content production has changed considerably in the last few years. According to Puneet Srivastava, “A few years ago, everything was driven by one agency. But pharma has really learned a lesson, and actually created roles in production that challenge what can be done.” So it’s clear there has been an evolution in content production models in the search for quick turnaround at high quality, and cost savings—41% of companies expect typical savings of 40–60% across all services lines. Put bluntly, these days, if you’re not leveraging the opportunities to make the savings that new content production models offer, you’re overpaying.

73% of participants agree or strongly agree with the Smartshoring® approach to offshore creative production.

Save money without compromising other metrics

The models continue to evolve; even for organizations that are already offshoring or are committed to doing so, there is a more cost-effective and scalable solution available—Smartshoring®. Born out of a need to invest in smarter content production solutions, and a hybrid model of in-country teams and offshore expertise, Smartshoring® makes use of the best talent, wherever it may be. Particularly strong for Tier 3 and Tier 4 content production, it’s proving such a successful model that we’re increasingly seeing Tier 2 work being tasked to Smartshoring®.
It’s a model that goes beyond just cost saving. As Puneet Srivastava pointed out, retaining talent is another problem companies and agencies are facing, and Smartshoring® is the scalable, flexible solution to that problem. Combining offshore expertise with local quality control and management, Smartshoring® is tomorrow’s model for producing global content at scale.
In creative content production nowadays, those who aren’t offshoring are running the risk of not only paying a premium for their creative production but being left behind technologically and operationally, especially in the sectors like healthcare where it’s still an emerging model. Talk to us to see what Smartshoring® can do for your organization.

Just looking for some opinions on center diff upgrade for rustler 4x4 vxl 3s, running on sledgehammer tires or 2.8 proline badlands belted.
I am primarily driving on loose dirt, grass. Mainly just ripping around with light to moderate jumps. I do tend to be hard on the throttle, love rooster tails and wheelies. Not many chances to get to a proper track for “racing” but the back yard circuit is starting to take shape.
I am aware of the what/how a center diff works vs slipper. And I can see it technically being a benefit. My question is more, will I really notice a difference/improvement in “performance” with the center diff?
In terms of reliability/durability? What is your experience in how it holds up vs slipper setup? Ie: stripping pinions?
Thanks

Good morning RonaPA!
Hope your spring is safe and healthy going into April.

VOCs

Nationally, nothing much different as far as XBB.1.5 goes, but XBB.1.6 is making some very concerning gains on it every day.
In PA, we're pretty much full of XBB.1.5.x.y so far, not much XBB.1.16 yet which is good.
The CDC NOWCAST is still not updated as I post this.

Lineage News

XBB.1.16 is the top lineage of concern for the viral research community right now.
It's already been sequenced in at least 15 states including PA, and is already spawning subvariants (XBB.1.16.x.y).
The newest lineages are extremely concerning because the virus is starting to adjust proteins in the body of the virus and not just the spike proteins.
I'm going to add a nifty new educational website from Science.org to the "education" section here, that goes into detail how SARS-CoV-2 battles our immune system and what different proteins on the surface of the virus contribute to!
The mutated proteins on the virus greatly increases its ability to switch off interferons, avoid T-cells, and in a way, doesn't just "shut down the fire alarm", it also "cuts the phone cables" to the fire and police departments! Your immune system CANNOT HELP YOU if it doesn't know a pathogen is there!
This means eventually, more Long Covid cases, more immune dysregulation (if you or your kids have been mysteriously "always sick" in the past year or so, that IS immune dysregulation!), more mysterious sudden death including heart attacks, and more erratic and aggressive behavior.
All countries where XBB.1.16 is gaining ground are going vertical in numbers, though sample numbers are small yet. It'll be very important to keep watch of this variant.
All XBB lineages are at the dangerous intersection between high cell binding ability (causing more severe disease) and also high immune escape (which means vaccines are less effective in preventing infection, and prior infection is useless at conferring protection!)
Another lineage of concern is XBC.1.6 which is a true "Deltacron" recombinant. It's mostly in Australia right now. It's being monitored for international spread.

Wastewater

Nationally, there is a slight increase of COVID material found in wastewater, probably due to XBB.1.16 and XBB.1.9.1 adding themselves to the mix.
Regionally, the downward direction of cases is clearly slowing down a bit.
In PA, a concerning number of stations are starting to tick upward. Boosters will help control severe disease. Masks and air filteration are variant-proof!

Daily Numbers

Medriva has the PA daily average at 684 cases per day.
Walgreens has the national +rate at 25.0% (+0.3% to LW.) We might be seeing the start of XBB.1.9.1+XBB.1.16 growing.
In PA, the +rate is at 13.0% (-6.5% to LW)! This is fantastic! Let's work together to keep it this way! 💐

CDC

There are a few counties where hospitalizations have increased over the past 7 days:
Lawrence
Jefferson
Clearfield
Centre
Clinton
Lycoming
Tioga
Lancaster

Editorials

Neat trackers:
🔴-Covid Variant Dashboard by Arkansas data scientist Raj Rajnarayan
🔴-Walgreens' positivity tracker
🔴-Biobot (Wastewater)
🔴-CDC NOWCAST variant proportion tracker
Education:
🔴 -An important post here (found on Twitter, posted by tern) recently on this EXTREMELY IMPORTANT .PDF release from the CDC that contains:

However, patients who recover from the acute phase of the infection can still suffer long-term effects (8). Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), commonly referred to as “long COVID,” refers to the long-term symptoms, signs, and complications experienced by some patients who have recovered from the acute phase of COVID-19 (8–10). Emerging evidence suggests that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, can have lasting effects on nearly every organ and organ system of the body weeks, months, and potentially years after infection (11,12). Documented serious post-COVID-19 conditions include cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, renal, endocrine, hematological, and gastrointestinal complications (8), as well as death (13).

It's under "Certifying deaths due to post-acute sequelae of COVID-19".
If you didn't catch/test +/deal with symptoms of COVID-19, DO NOT seek out to get infected with it.
If you caught COVID-19 once, DO NOT seek out catching it again.
And WEAR A MASK. Don't spread it!
🔴 -COVID-19 Immunology 101 for Non-immunologists by Dr. Akiko Iwasaki
🔴 -How the Immune System Works, beautifully illustrated by Kurzgesagt. (Seriously, Kurzgesagt is wonderful, go check it out.)
🔴 -The T-cells are Not Alright, an interview with Dr. Anthony Leonardi
🔴 -How SARS-CoV-2 Battles Our Immune System: Meet the protein arsenal wielded by the pandemic virus
🔴 -How to Build a Corsi-Rosenthal Box and then make them look snazzy!
🔴 -Safer, more cautious gatherings.
🔴 -MASK TYPE MATTERS with the latest Omicron Sars-CoV-2 mutations. Here is a chart comparing mask types, mutation type, and the time it takes in each to receive a problematic dose of Sars-CoV-2.
🔴 -A thread by Dr. Jeff Gilchrist explaining how high level respirators work, more mask comparisons, and answers to why we can still smell things even with high level respirators on.
Continue to have a great and safe spring season! 💐

Hey everyone, looking to see if anyone can help shed some light on this situation.
We went to a dealership yesterday, and the salesperson said that we could order the car my husband was looking for (2023 Subaru Impreza Sport in Ocean Pearl Blue). They would just require a refundable $500 deposit, and when it arrived he could make the final decision if he wanted it or not. They showed us this on his computer through the Subaru-intranet.
We decided to think on it.
We asked a representative from another dealership that we had worked with before, and he said that wasn't possible - there was no way he could have ordered it. He thinks maybe we were led on. This guy has been in the business awhile, so he definitely has more experience.
Just looking to get my honey the car he wants - have any of you had a similar experience?

Hello folks, I just upgraded my AM4 system to an AM5 system and put everything together. When I booted the system I get a red DRAM led light on my motherboard and no image on my monitor. Ram sticks are all glowing tho so that’s what makes me also think that it could be neither the board nor the sticks, no clue as to what tho. System is not rebooting or anything, it just keeps running but nothing shows. As title says I already tried every ram stick in every ram slot, with dual channel, without, single stick etc but I get the same error pattern. How can I be 100% certain that the motherboard is faulty and not something else? As the ram sticks are glowing I don’t think that they are faulty. Parts are really hard to get by at my location so it would be a bummer needing to replace any. I also tried getting into the bios but that didn’t work at all.
Specs if they are important: Ryzen 5 7600x Gigabyte X670 Gaming X AX 4x16GB Corsair vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 Corsair TX750M
Thanks a lot in advance to everybody!

Sorry if this is off-topic, but i couldn't find much usefull advice until now.
Pretty much title. My pc just shut down after i heard a second cracking sound, just barely audible with my headphones. Noticed a bad smell after the first. Immediately cut power and inspected my machine, but appart from a bit of dust, i didn't notice anything off.
No smoke, none that i saw anyways. Suspected a problem with my distributer socket, since my desktop lights went out as well, only for a split second though, but that didn't seem to be the problem either.
Since i didn't see any damages, no smoke or smoulder, i then tried starting my pc again, to which it didn't respond. It's reconnected to power and all, but nothing happens, appart from the fan's LEDs to light up shortly.
To be fair, while setting up originally, we installed a salvaged part (a harddrive) from my old computer, and had to solder a few cables for it to work. But there have been no problems for the last two years, and those cables were only used by the harddrive itself.
As the shutdown happened, i was running a game that did require a bit of performance (theHunter Call of the Wild), but i've been running it without a hitch until now. And it's been only abour half an hour of playtime at the point of error.
Tl;dr: gaming pc shut down mid session, following 2 cracking sounds. Bad smell ensued, no visible damage, doesn't boot up again.
If there's any more details needed, i'll provide what i can. Sadly i'm not too knowledgable in pc stuff. It's a secondhand machine from my brother, so i'm not too sure what kind of GPU it's got, and i suspect that's where the problem lies.

I’ve posted many times before and spoke to some interesting people but never “the one” and keeping up with the responses got a bit overwhelming.
Yes, my picture is the meme of the 40 something guy who never smiles. I assure you, I smile. Just not in selfies. If you do reply, please also send a picture. I feel it’s fair since I posted one.
I’m 41, single, no children and I live in San Diego. single since 2019. 5’10.5”, 189lbs. Ethnically ambiguous (Latino but people always think middle eastern) INFJ. Virgo. (I don’t put too much stock in that type of compatibility though).
What I am looking for in a potential partner:
I have few and very generic prerequisites. You should be a critical thinker. In the current climate of intentionally misleading headlines and generally biased news, I think being able to suss out what is real and what’s misleading is important.
I value intelligence. Like I don’t require a masters degree but I’d like to feel like the person I’m chatting with is somewhat smarter than me. I can’t 100% say I’m sapiosexual because I do want to be with someone I find attractive, but I’m most attracted to Intelligent people.
I really like people who generally laugh first before getting upset. People who can make a morbid joke in a bad (but not life threatening) situation. Like if you’re on a road trip to Vegas and get a flat tire. You could get really upset… or you could say “welllll I guess we’re going to be late picking up the hookers”.
In terms of introversion vs extroversion I don’t really have a preference. I get along with both. I’m an introvert who is always happy to go just about anywhere as long as you are the one dealing with the traffic and parking :)
I am generally never really bored. If I’m not pondering the nature of existence or having some sort of internal debate, I’m watching science documentaries or on Wikipedia or YouTube falling down a rabbit hole. I know a little bit about a lot of things and have an absurd amount of random but not quite useless information floating around in my head. I love deep talks. But I also love some good old fashioned low brow humor. Except dad jokes. I just can’t get into them.
I’m not religious. You could say I’m spiritual but not in a theological way. I don’t care if god exists and doubt god wound care what my thoughts were. I can’t really say I’m an atheist. I dislike extremes and absolutes. My motto is generally “I could be wrong” and it’s served me well in my times of existential crisis (which have become fewer as I’ve gotten older). I take comfort in my belief that there is no beginning or end. Time is a man made construct and nothing ever really ceases to be, it just changes. I don’t believe I will simply “stop existing” when I die. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I think those concepts are tied to a superstitious belief in absolute good or absolute evil. And as I said, I dislike absolutes. Even in science, absolute rules are sometimes amended. I do good deeds because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, not for the promise of reward or the fear of punishment. Strangely, even though I’m undecided on the existence of “god”, I regularly look up and talk to god. I believe in its psychological importance. Looking upwards tends to improve optimism. And I am an optimist.
I dated quite a lot in my younger years. I “tried on” a lot of different types of people. I learned to get over people when they weren’t healthy. I learned that I was not the “best boyfriend you’ll ever have” as so many “nice guys” believe they are (before they date much). It’s a valuable experience to figure out you’re not offering anything literally any other person could. You learn that you need to work towards things together and give the other person what they need rather than what you like to offer. Of course there’s always a compromise.
Dating over 40 has been a mixed bag. I’m not great at making new friends or meeting people. The apps required a lot of effort for the minimal responses you get. And the pool of people in my age group was tiny.
I got married at 32 and Divorced at 38. I took the relationship seriously and cultivated the ability to cut conversations with flirtatious people short. That’s a hard habit to break. Especially since I do take the pandemic seriously and have laid low and avoided large gatherings . I made it till December of 2022 without catching Covid!
I have acclimated to things changing as I’ve aged. At first the changes bothered me (receding hairline, slower metabolism, grey hairs in my beard etc) but eventually I came to an equilibrium where I embrace and accept that we all age and change.
As such, I’m not big on plastic surgery or attempts to look younger or “fix” your physical features. I don’t think it’s good for your self esteem. And I think the longer you put off accepting aging, the harder it will be to take when the inevitable happens.
Along the way, I came to the conclusion don’t want to have kids. If you have them, that’s fine. But I’m not looking to procreate. If there was any lingering “maybe” I had, the looming threat of WW3 and a world wide pandemic murdered it.
Nothing is more attractive than confidence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself and always put your best foot forward but confidence is key. Believe it or not, some people like your “non standard” features. And what is the standard, really?
I have IG for photography and can’t help but notice how much everyone filters their pictures and falls prey to the “beauty standards” posted by people who do not meet those standards without heavy editing. The world is full of naturally beautiful people. And I do not see that reflected in social media. I debate deleting it daily but worry about offending the people I only connect with through it.
I am a musician of 25 years (I say that loosely). I’ve been playing guitar for quite a long time. From the moment I first plucked a string (on a broken , hand me down acoustic) I was hooked. It was like a drug. I use to just place my ear to the body and strum. Listening to the rich tone. It would give me shivers. I actually still feel that way. I feel like in some ways, music saved me. Before I found it, I was into drawing. I was quite good but it frustrated me often. Music has never really done that. You can haphazardly create beauty and if you do something wrong, it’s gone and you move on. I love all music but I tend to like things with angst and “oomph” that tend to be (but not always are) guitar driven. To put that into perspective, I love Hendrix and dislike John Mayer. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m a decent cook. I could go on blathering about how I fell in love with it or what a huge influence Anthony Bourdain was but let’s just say I can’t be with a picky eater. Having food allergies (shellfish, peanuts) means I stare longingly and jealously at people eating the things I can’t. I want to eat adventurously but can’t. So I take great care to appreciate what I can and try what I can.
Photography… I haven’t picked up my camera in months. I actually really love photography. But sometimes you get up and go to shoot…To find the lighting during that time of day is horrible. And I’m not an early riser. So golden hour seems elusive. I love photo walks though. Casually walking and talking with a friend is great. I just don’t have anyone to do it with anymore. I like taking pictures of things rather than people. I like light and deep shadow. Sean tucker is an amazing photographer that captures what I love perfectly. I also love Harry gruyaert. I’m low key jealous of photographers who live in cities which are full of amazing architecture and color. San Diego is beautiful, but not in that way.
I play video games but don’t consider myself a gamer. Right now I’m binging on genshin impact. Before that I played (and loved) both horizon games. I generally play games that can be played with friends and tend to lose interest in anything else. Co op pve is great. PvP is not my thing.
Sports… although I’m not a sports guy, I actually am EXTREMELY into european football (soccer to us Americans). I watch every Manchester United game per season. I watch the champions league (and Europa league if Man U are in it). I dabble in all the big leagues but am most interested in the premier league. And when the World Cup comes around I really make an effort to wake up early and soak it in. There’s something beautiful about it being the worlds sport. There is no dominant race. There is no requisite body type. Short. Tall. Fast. Slow. Strong. Weak. They can ALL play the beautiful game. I love that. Generally, I root for the US first. But once they’re out I would equally root for any team that plays their hearts out.
Ok the essay is over. I think I’ve talked your ear off long enough. You got a snippet of who I am. Tell me about yourself?
I’m hoping to meet someone local or within say a 2 hr drive of San Diego but I am open to anyone who occasionally travels here. And accents are dead sexy. Especially all of the regional British ones.
If I didn’t bore your socks off, I have a ton of posts detailing my views on things. Feel free to browse. Or if you’d rather take the old fashioned approach, feel free to ask whatever you like.

me

I just found it kind of boring that it feels sub-optimal for arcane casters if they don't pick up Fireball since the spell is overtuned. Wanted to see what people think before I run it by my DM.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/1694510-aethels-necrotic-flames
A flame that consumes the light around it erupts from the point your eyes focus at. Each creature in a 40-foot-diameter cone centered on that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 6d6 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. On a failed save the flames cling to the target's flesh and continue to burn away at them, at the start of their turn they take 1d6 necrotic damage and can make a Dexterity saving throw to end the effect. A creature that ends it's turn prone will end this effect. (Stop, drop, and roll).
The fire spreads around corners. It ignites flammable objects in the area that aren't being worn or carried.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the necrotic damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd. At 5th level the burn damage increases to 2d6 and at 7th level to 3d6.

I’ve posted many times before and spoke to some interesting people but never “the one” and keeping up with the responses got a bit overwhelming.
Yes, my picture is the meme of the 40 something guy who never smiles. I assure you, I smile. Just not in selfies. If you do reply, please also send a picture. I feel it’s fair since I posted one.
I’m 41, single, no children and I live in San Diego. single since 2019. 5’10.5”, 189lbs. Ethnically ambiguous (Latino but people always think middle eastern) INFJ. Virgo. (I don’t put too much stock in that type of compatibility though).
What I am looking for in a potential partner:
I have few and very generic prerequisites. You should be a critical thinker. In the current climate of intentionally misleading headlines and generally biased news, I think being able to suss out what is real and what’s misleading is important.
I value intelligence. Like I don’t require a masters degree but I’d like to feel like the person I’m chatting with is somewhat smarter than me. I can’t 100% say I’m sapiosexual because I do want to be with someone I find attractive, but I’m most attracted to Intelligent people.
I really like people who generally laugh first before getting upset. People who can make a morbid joke in a bad (but not life threatening) situation. Like if you’re on a road trip to Vegas and get a flat tire. You could get really upset… or you could say “welllll I guess we’re going to be late picking up the hookers”.
In terms of introversion vs extroversion I don’t really have a preference. I get along with both. I’m an introvert who is always happy to go just about anywhere as long as you are the one dealing with the traffic and parking :)
I am generally never really bored. If I’m not pondering the nature of existence or having some sort of internal debate, I’m watching science documentaries or on Wikipedia or YouTube falling down a rabbit hole. I know a little bit about a lot of things and have an absurd amount of random but not quite useless information floating around in my head. I love deep talks. But I also love some good old fashioned low brow humor. Except dad jokes. I just can’t get into them.
I’m not religious. You could say I’m spiritual but not in a theological way. I don’t care if god exists and doubt god wound care what my thoughts were. I can’t really say I’m an atheist. I dislike extremes and absolutes. My motto is generally “I could be wrong” and it’s served me well in my times of existential crisis (which have become fewer as I’ve gotten older). I take comfort in my belief that there is no beginning or end. Time is a man made construct and nothing ever really ceases to be, it just changes. I don’t believe I will simply “stop existing” when I die. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I think those concepts are tied to a superstitious belief in absolute good or absolute evil. And as I said, I dislike absolutes. Even in science, absolute rules are sometimes amended. I do good deeds because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, not for the promise of reward or the fear of punishment. Strangely, even though I’m undecided on the existence of “god”, I regularly look up and talk to god. I believe in its psychological importance. Looking upwards tends to improve optimism. And I am an optimist.
I dated quite a lot in my younger years. I “tried on” a lot of different types of people. I learned to get over people when they weren’t healthy. I learned that I was not the “best boyfriend you’ll ever have” as so many “nice guys” believe they are (before they date much). It’s a valuable experience to figure out you’re not offering anything literally any other person could. You learn that you need to work towards things together and give the other person what they need rather than what you like to offer. Of course there’s always a compromise.
Dating over 40 has been a mixed bag. I’m not great at making new friends or meeting people. The apps required a lot of effort for the minimal responses you get. And the pool of people in my age group was tiny.
I got married at 32 and Divorced at 38. I took the relationship seriously and cultivated the ability to cut conversations with flirtatious people short. That’s a hard habit to break. Especially since I do take the pandemic seriously and have laid low and avoided large gatherings . I made it till December of 2022 without catching Covid!
I have acclimated to things changing as I’ve aged. At first the changes bothered me (receding hairline, slower metabolism, grey hairs in my beard etc) but eventually I came to an equilibrium where I embrace and accept that we all age and change.
As such, I’m not big on plastic surgery or attempts to look younger or “fix” your physical features. I don’t think it’s good for your self esteem. And I think the longer you put off accepting aging, the harder it will be to take when the inevitable happens.
Along the way, I came to the conclusion don’t want to have kids. If you have them, that’s fine. But I’m not looking to procreate. If there was any lingering “maybe” I had, the looming threat of WW3 and a world wide pandemic murdered it.
Nothing is more attractive than confidence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself and always put your best foot forward but confidence is key. Believe it or not, some people like your “non standard” features. And what is the standard, really?
I have IG for photography and can’t help but notice how much everyone filters their pictures and falls prey to the “beauty standards” posted by people who do not meet those standards without heavy editing. The world is full of naturally beautiful people. And I do not see that reflected in social media. I debate deleting it daily but worry about offending the people I only connect with through it.
I am a musician of 25 years (I say that loosely). I’ve been playing guitar for quite a long time. From the moment I first plucked a string (on a broken , hand me down acoustic) I was hooked. It was like a drug. I use to just place my ear to the body and strum. Listening to the rich tone. It would give me shivers. I actually still feel that way. I feel like in some ways, music saved me. Before I found it, I was into drawing. I was quite good but it frustrated me often. Music has never really done that. You can haphazardly create beauty and if you do something wrong, it’s gone and you move on. I love all music but I tend to like things with angst and “oomph” that tend to be (but not always are) guitar driven. To put that into perspective, I love Hendrix and dislike John Mayer. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m a decent cook. I could go on blathering about how I fell in love with it or what a huge influence Anthony Bourdain was but let’s just say I can’t be with a picky eater. Having food allergies (shellfish, peanuts) means I stare longingly and jealously at people eating the things I can’t. I want to eat adventurously but can’t. So I take great care to appreciate what I can and try what I can.
Photography… I haven’t picked up my camera in months. I actually really love photography. But sometimes you get up and go to shoot…To find the lighting during that time of day is horrible. And I’m not an early riser. So golden hour seems elusive. I love photo walks though. Casually walking and talking with a friend is great. I just don’t have anyone to do it with anymore. I like taking pictures of things rather than people. I like light and deep shadow. Sean tucker is an amazing photographer that captures what I love perfectly. I also love Harry gruyaert. I’m low key jealous of photographers who live in cities which are full of amazing architecture and color. San Diego is beautiful, but not in that way.
I play video games but don’t consider myself a gamer. Right now I’m binging on genshin impact. Before that I played (and loved) both horizon games. I generally play games that can be played with friends and tend to lose interest in anything else. Co op pve is great. PvP is not my thing.
Sports… although I’m not a sports guy, I actually am EXTREMELY into european football (soccer to us Americans). I watch every Manchester United game per season. I watch the champions league (and Europa league if Man U are in it). I dabble in all the big leagues but am most interested in the premier league. And when the World Cup comes around I really make an effort to wake up early and soak it in. There’s something beautiful about it being the worlds sport. There is no dominant race. There is no requisite body type. Short. Tall. Fast. Slow. Strong. Weak. They can ALL play the beautiful game. I love that. Generally, I root for the US first. But once they’re out I would equally root for any team that plays their hearts out.
Ok the essay is over. I think I’ve talked your ear off long enough. You got a snippet of who I am. Tell me about yourself?
I’m hoping to meet someone local or within say a 2 hr drive of San Diego but I am open to anyone who occasionally travels here. And accents are dead sexy. Especially all of the regional British ones.
If I didn’t bore your socks off, I have a ton of posts detailing my views on things. Feel free to browse. Or if you’d rather take the old fashioned approach, feel free to ask whatever you like.

me

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Memory Transcription Subject: Bak, Extermination Officer, Rangha Surface City
Date [Standardized Human Time]: September 16, 2136
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Blinding white light filled my vision as I opened the door to my apartment. I looked away and closed the door immediately. It's yet another bright day today. Cursing myself, I looked for the black glasses I put somewhere in the room. 10 months of living on the surface, and I still manage to forget that I live here from time to time. I put on the black glasses and head to the city extermination office for work.
Public transport seems to be more crowded than usual. Many of them seem to be aliens, specifically aliens from beyond the empty space. That's weird. Tourists aren't normally that numerous this time of the year.
A Sivkit couple seemed to be arguing about something, unaware of the curious Ranghals, including me, eavesdropping on their conversation.
"I don't care how many times I have to say this- we are not moving here. Did you forget how long we had to stay in the spaceship to even get to this planet? Now imagine how much of a nightmare it'll be to move our stuff from our home planet. We had our fun, but we should go back now", the male of the couple piped up. It sounded like it wasn't the first time they were having this argument.
The female replied, "But it's so much safer here. This place is so far away from the Arxurs. Come on, think about it, we'll never have to worry about the predators raiding us anymore."
"Our homeworld is safe enough as it is. Do you really want to live so far away from the greater herd? The Federation can't protect a planet this far away from their space."
"They don't have to. This place hasn't had a single raid in the last 150 years. I'm telling you, it's the safest place in the galaxy"
"And what if the Arxur start attacking? Then what? Besides…", the male tried to lower his voice, "... They're all very primitive, all 3 of them. You saw how backwards their technology is, right? So many of them still live underground. They're barely more advanced than the Yotul. I don't think they have the capabilities to evacuate themselves if they get attacked."
The couple kept arguing back and forth like this until I came to my stop. It was nothing new. Every few months, you could hear tourists contemplating staying on this planet permanently, along with backhanded insults about our species. We had to get used to it, being offended at these remarks was not a luxury we could afford.
Rangha, and the Ghedi and Firin homeworlds, exist quite a distance away from the nearest Federation space. Our uplifting started as an effort to expand Federation territories, but was stopped once the war with the Arxur got worse. One month of FTL travel through empty space meant running supplies and personnel was too costly to consider. Even FTL signals from their capital takes 4 days to reach here. So most aliens that come from the Federation are tourists, drifters and, most regrettably, the exterminators.
The distance also meant that the Arxur would probably never consider attacking us. Which is both a blessing and a curse, since the lack of any potential threat meant the Federation would not clear us to have any sizable military fleet. Despite being so far removed from the "Herd", as the Federation liked to call themselves, we were still living under their claws. It was hard not to feel a little jealous of the Arxur. For as evil and cruelty-driven as they seemed to be, they at least had the means to fight the Federation.
For now, we Ranghal have to make do with fighting from the shadows. It's the only way to survive until we can figure out how to obtain enough military power. It's why I joined the extermination office, it's a draining and blasphemous job, but keeping the exterminators in check was of the utmost importance.
I entered the office building to see several exterminators in the main hall. Most of them were aliens, with only 5 Ranghals in the office. The Federation didn't trust "primitives" to effectively run the extermination business.
"Hey Bak, did you hear? We finally sent Jhekl to the mental correctional facility yesterday", Lenli, a Venlil, told me as I sat at my table.
"The Ghedi? What did he do?", I asked.
"You know how that brat has been giving us trouble lately?", a Harchen, Pard, entered the room.
"He called you a demon right to your face", Lenli's ears flicked in amusement.
"The nerve of that kid!", Pard continued, "Anyway, we got suspicious so we investigated his house yesterday", there was a hint of smugness in his voice, "Guess what we found. Two Chiki corpses in his room. That piece of shit even tried to attack us when we went to capture him"
I asked in disbelief, "What was he doing with those?"
"Eat them, play with them. Who knows how these predator diseased freaks' brains work?", Pard said dismissively.
"I say why even waste resources trying to correct them. Just set these freaks on fire and get rid of the menace", Lenli said as his tail swished back and forth.
Pard laughed, "Yeah. Set an example. So many people with predator disease seem to be popping up lately"
"Nothing to do about it, I guess", I said as I remained expressionless, trying to hide the anger building inside me.
Predator disease. A term these exterminators throw out against anyone who try to raise a voice against them. Apparently standing up for yourself was a sign of being a predator according to them.
I guess you would be scared of predators if your species lived as prey their entire existence. But you wouldn't know they were prey if you looked at the exterminators. I strongly believe all of them were predator diseased themselves. The only reason they were here was because they were exiled from Federation space, or because they were trying to escape judgment before the more sane of their species got wise to their condition. Here, where they hold much more power, they can do whatever they want without scrutiny. When they were not taking enjoyment from burning animals and their babies alive, they were extorting people on their patrols. It was amusing for them to exercise power on people who didn't fight back because they trusted the exterminators to protect them. And the ones that did fight back, like Jhekl, got falsely accused of having predator disease and taken to a correctional facility.
It wasn't hard to deduce that Jhekl's predator disease was fabricated too. Regular people, especially aliens, don't look too closely at accusations like this. Most of them trust exterminators blindly, or are too busy being scared out of their skin to question it. However, Surveillance Office definitely knew Jhekl was innocent. But they won't do anything about it since he's an alien. It didn't feel right. Alien or not, the Ghedi are our neighbours. No-one should suffer injustice like this.
I wasn't on patrol duty today, so I was hoping to stay the whole day in my office. A bright day like this was not the time to go out for a walk. I would've preferred the night shift, but so would most Ranghals, it wasn't something newer exterminators like me got right away. I was getting a bit anxious too. It had been 4 months since the extermination office last encountered a real predator. A nest of small Orbhead birds, barely any danger to anything but insects. But it was enough to send the aliens that discovered it into a stampede. The exterminators that were assigned tracked the bird down into a forest, and burned it and its chicks alive as soon as they found it, along with the part of the forest around the nest.
And now the exterminators were getting impatient. I fear they were itching to use their flamethrowers again, looking for any excuse to justify it.
My fears were realized when Dagh came into the room.
"Lenli, Pard, Bak. Come to the Head exterminator's office. Rajan said we have a mission", Dagh said before he walked out.
Lenli and Pard looked at each other.
"Predators?"
"I sure hope so. It gets so boring here doing nothing all these days"
There was a spring in their steps as they walked to the Head exterminator's office. My steps, however, were filled with dread. I have no doubt this mission will involve us burning down our sacred forests. And this time I'll be a part of it.

I’ve posted many times before and spoke to some interesting people but never “the one” and keeping up with the responses got a bit overwhelming.
Yes, my picture is the meme of the 40 something guy who never smiles. I assure you, I smile. Just not in selfies. If you do reply, please also send a picture. I feel it’s fair since I posted one.
I’m 41, single, no children and I live in San Diego. single since 2019. 5’10.5”, 189lbs. Ethnically ambiguous (Latino but people always think middle eastern) INFJ. Virgo. (I don’t put too much stock in that type of compatibility though).
What I am looking for in a potential partner:
I have few and very generic prerequisites. You should be a critical thinker. In the current climate of intentionally misleading headlines and generally biased news, I think being able to suss out what is real and what’s misleading is important.
I value intelligence. Like I don’t require a masters degree but I’d like to feel like the person I’m chatting with is somewhat smarter than me. I can’t 100% say I’m sapiosexual because I do want to be with someone I find attractive, but I’m most attracted to Intelligent people.
I really like people who generally laugh first before getting upset. People who can make a morbid joke in a bad (but not life threatening) situation. Like if you’re on a road trip to Vegas and get a flat tire. You could get really upset… or you could say “welllll I guess we’re going to be late picking up the hookers”.
In terms of introversion vs extroversion I don’t really have a preference. I get along with both. I’m an introvert who is always happy to go just about anywhere as long as you are the one dealing with the traffic and parking :)
I am generally never really bored. If I’m not pondering the nature of existence or having some sort of internal debate, I’m watching science documentaries or on Wikipedia or YouTube falling down a rabbit hole. I know a little bit about a lot of things and have an absurd amount of random but not quite useless information floating around in my head. I love deep talks. But I also love some good old fashioned low brow humor. Except dad jokes. I just can’t get into them.
I’m not religious. You could say I’m spiritual but not in a theological way. I don’t care if god exists and doubt god wound care what my thoughts were. I can’t really say I’m an atheist. I dislike extremes and absolutes. My motto is generally “I could be wrong” and it’s served me well in my times of existential crisis (which have become fewer as I’ve gotten older). I take comfort in my belief that there is no beginning or end. Time is a man made construct and nothing ever really ceases to be, it just changes. I don’t believe I will simply “stop existing” when I die. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I think those concepts are tied to a superstitious belief in absolute good or absolute evil. And as I said, I dislike absolutes. Even in science, absolute rules are sometimes amended. I do good deeds because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, not for the promise of reward or the fear of punishment. Strangely, even though I’m undecided on the existence of “god”, I regularly look up and talk to god. I believe in its psychological importance. Looking upwards tends to improve optimism. And I am an optimist.
I dated quite a lot in my younger years. I “tried on” a lot of different types of people. I learned to get over people when they weren’t healthy. I learned that I was not the “best boyfriend you’ll ever have” as so many “nice guys” believe they are (before they date much). It’s a valuable experience to figure out you’re not offering anything literally any other person could. You learn that you need to work towards things together and give the other person what they need rather than what you like to offer. Of course there’s always a compromise.
Dating over 40 has been a mixed bag. I’m not great at making new friends or meeting people. The apps required a lot of effort for the minimal responses you get. And the pool of people in my age group was tiny.
I got married at 32 and Divorced at 38. I took the relationship seriously and cultivated the ability to cut conversations with flirtatious people short. That’s a hard habit to break. Especially since I do take the pandemic seriously and have laid low and avoided large gatherings . I made it till December of 2022 without catching Covid!
I have acclimated to things changing as I’ve aged. At first the changes bothered me (receding hairline, slower metabolism, grey hairs in my beard etc) but eventually I came to an equilibrium where I embrace and accept that we all age and change.
As such, I’m not big on plastic surgery or attempts to look younger or “fix” your physical features. I don’t think it’s good for your self esteem. And I think the longer you put off accepting aging, the harder it will be to take when the inevitable happens.
Along the way, I came to the conclusion don’t want to have kids. If you have them, that’s fine. But I’m not looking to procreate. If there was any lingering “maybe” I had, the looming threat of WW3 and a world wide pandemic murdered it.
Nothing is more attractive than confidence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself and always put your best foot forward but confidence is key. Believe it or not, some people like your “non standard” features. And what is the standard, really?
I have IG for photography and can’t help but notice how much everyone filters their pictures and falls prey to the “beauty standards” posted by people who do not meet those standards without heavy editing. The world is full of naturally beautiful people. And I do not see that reflected in social media. I debate deleting it daily but worry about offending the people I only connect with through it.
I am a musician of 25 years (I say that loosely). I’ve been playing guitar for quite a long time. From the moment I first plucked a string (on a broken , hand me down acoustic) I was hooked. It was like a drug. I use to just place my ear to the body and strum. Listening to the rich tone. It would give me shivers. I actually still feel that way. I feel like in some ways, music saved me. Before I found it, I was into drawing. I was quite good but it frustrated me often. Music has never really done that. You can haphazardly create beauty and if you do something wrong, it’s gone and you move on. I love all music but I tend to like things with angst and “oomph” that tend to be (but not always are) guitar driven. To put that into perspective, I love Hendrix and dislike John Mayer. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m a decent cook. I could go on blathering about how I fell in love with it or what a huge influence Anthony Bourdain was but let’s just say I can’t be with a picky eater. Having food allergies (shellfish, peanuts) means I stare longingly and jealously at people eating the things I can’t. I want to eat adventurously but can’t. So I take great care to appreciate what I can and try what I can.
Photography… I haven’t picked up my camera in months. I actually really love photography. But sometimes you get up and go to shoot…To find the lighting during that time of day is horrible. And I’m not an early riser. So golden hour seems elusive. I love photo walks though. Casually walking and talking with a friend is great. I just don’t have anyone to do it with anymore. I like taking pictures of things rather than people. I like light and deep shadow. Sean tucker is an amazing photographer that captures what I love perfectly. I also love Harry gruyaert. I’m low key jealous of photographers who live in cities which are full of amazing architecture and color. San Diego is beautiful, but not in that way.
I play video games but don’t consider myself a gamer. Right now I’m binging on genshin impact. Before that I played (and loved) both horizon games. I generally play games that can be played with friends and tend to lose interest in anything else. Co op pve is great. PvP is not my thing.
Sports… although I’m not a sports guy, I actually am EXTREMELY into european football (soccer to us Americans). I watch every Manchester United game per season. I watch the champions league (and Europa league if Man U are in it). I dabble in all the big leagues but am most interested in the premier league. And when the World Cup comes around I really make an effort to wake up early and soak it in. There’s something beautiful about it being the worlds sport. There is no dominant race. There is no requisite body type. Short. Tall. Fast. Slow. Strong. Weak. They can ALL play the beautiful game. I love that. Generally, I root for the US first. But once they’re out I would equally root for any team that plays their hearts out.
Ok the essay is over. I think I’ve talked your ear off long enough. You got a snippet of who I am. Tell me about yourself?
I’m hoping to meet someone local or within say a 2 hr drive of San Diego but I am open to anyone who occasionally travels here. And accents are dead sexy. Especially all of the regional British ones.
If I didn’t bore your socks off, I have a ton of posts detailing my views on things. Feel free to browse. Or if you’d rather take the old fashioned approach, feel free to ask whatever you like.

me

Hello folks, I just upgraded my AM4 system to an AM5 system and put everything together. When I booted the system I get a red DRAM led light on my motherboard and no image on my monitor. Ram sticks are all glowing tho so that’s what makes me also think that it could be neither the board nor the sticks, no clue as to what tho. System is not rebooting or anything, it just keeps running but nothing shows. As title says I already tried every ram stick in every ram slot, with dual channel, without, single stick etc but I get the same error pattern. How can I be 100% certain that the motherboard is faulty and not something else? As the ram sticks are glowing I don’t think that they are faulty. Parts are really hard to get by at my location so it would be a bummer needing to replace any. I also tried getting into the bios but that didn’t work at all.
Specs if they are important: Ryzen 5 7600x Gigabyte X670 Gaming X AX 4x16GB Corsair vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 Corsair TX750M
Thanks a lot in advance to everybody!

Yep! You saw that title right. I am also looking for a new best friend. So we should get to know each other! I'll start off. I'm 20 years old and from Tennessee! Which means I may have a funny accent to some. I love playing games (PC), calling on Discord, and 20th century war history. If that is enough to catch your attention, then please do read on!
I will go ahead and get my preferences out of the way!

Gaming on PC with calls are a very highly appreciated. At least calls are a must!
Would love to meet more people from EU but NA is fine as well!
Discord is the main way I communicate but I also have Snap that we can use.

Now onto my interests and such!
My interests include:

Gaming (PC) I would say this is high appreciated if we are going to have a long term friendship!
- Games I would like to play with someone include: Orcs Must Die! 2, Valheim, Shellshock Live, Warhammer Vermintide 2, Halo Infinite, Stellaris, Northgard, Civilization 6, etc. I also have Game Pass PC!

Listening to music such as:
- Rock/Metal (Fame on Fire, Avenged Sevenfold, I Prevail, Ozzy Osbourne, Sabaton, Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, Slipknot, System of a Down, Tool, Alice in Chains, Rammstein, etc.)
- Rap (NF, Eminem, Run The Jewels, Stormzy, Logic, Quadeca, Childish Gambino, Hopsin, Joyner Lucas, etc.)
- Pop/HipHop (Aurora, NetNobody, Billie Eilish, Ashnikko, Corpse, etc.)

Watching YouTube and Twitch, a lot of gaming people specifically:
- Teo, Sovietwomble, Oversimplified, Markiplier, CinnamonToastKen, etc.
- Watching Twitch, mostly just competitive R6, but occasionally popping in for a Teo stream.

History related stuff. Especially World War 2 related. It has just always been something that fascinates me. Love watching shows and documentaries about it. So if ya wanna learn about that stuff, I am your guy.

Severe weather. I know it sounds strange, but I live in Dixie Alley, which tends to get a fair bit of severe weather every year. And it just fascinates me. I love keeping track of certain severe storms and would like to one day even head out to the Midwest to do a bit of storm chasing! Though I am not exactly thrilled about the weather potential today where I live. We have a moderate 4/5 risk with a 15% significant severe tornado risk. Hooray. (note the sarcasm)

Calling on Discord (And maybe video chatting once we get more comfortable but not necessary) Calling is a must though! It just makes the friendships better and also makes it feel more real than just texting one another. Voice notes are also pretty neat so I am down for those as well!

As for TV shows, I am currently watching:
- Haikyu, My Hero Academia, RWBY, and Attack on Titan.
As for TV shows I want to watch, there is:
- Elfen Lied, House of the Dragon, Peaky Blinders, a few WW2 related shows and documentaries on Netflix, and a few more I cannot think of off the top of my head!

And I of course love watching stuff with people so we could definitely do movie and tv show hangouts! Watching random youtube videos is so fun to do. And also this could be watching one another play games if that is something you are into.

One last hobby I almost forgot to mention is Scale Modeling. I got into the hobby around September of last year. I have quite a few kits currently and I am still working on my first three. One is an Airfix North American P-51D Mustang. Another is an Airfix Supermarine Spitfire. And the one I am actively working on (or rather about to start) is a F-86F-30 Sabre. Would love to chat about this hobby if you are interested in learning about it!

Well, I am sure I have taken up a fair bit of your time with this post. I do appreciate if you did go through and read it all! But if you read it and it does interest you, please do feel free to reach out in chat with a bit about yourself and we can go from there! Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Neysihen
The Crimson Tear took some getting used to... and occasional checks of her communicator to navigate when going from place to place. Her permanent room was in the same living space as the older Bridger daughters. She'd met Joan and the girls and they got on well enough, even if the boisterous Cannidor were a bit... intense, compared to what Neysihen was used to. Still, they were her mistress's daughters, so it was only right to get along properly with them. That was a problem for a few months from now, when she was wearing her PFC stripes for real instead of the bright triangular red flashes that marked her out as a Marine recruit. Till then she was living in a barracks with some other recruits awaiting training. They weren't run particularly hard, but NCOs would come to lecture them on military skills, and there was daily physical fitness training to prepare them for the rigors of Marine or Navy boot camp.
Past those little tastes of their lives as recruits, they were more or less left to their own devices, besides being handed their 'bibles' and told to get their noses in the books. A recruit being found without his or her Green Monster for would be Marines, or Bluejacket Manual for sailors would catch six types of hell from whatever NCO who found them.
There was some disparity there. The Marines tended to be a bit more strict than their Navy counterparts. A minor hardship that the Navy recruits never missed a chance to tease their Marine recruit counterparts about, and the Marine recruits wore with pride, already taking on a bit of what Captain Bridger had told her was the characteristic Marine pride of having it rougher than the other services.
Still, Neysihen had found she was a bit... lonely of all things. Eymali spent a lot of time with her, training her well beyond what her fellow recruits would get, but that wasn't really a friendship. Maybe one day, assuming Neysihen managed to become a full huntress and she could call Eymali a peer, but till then, it was mistress and student. The Bridger daughters too were friendly, but were already finished soldiers with power armor master badges gleaming on their breasts, freshly awarded after their exemplary display of skills on the Talasar Spire. So there was a distance there too, one Neysihen knew was temporary, but she had to earn her place first and foremost.
Still, her connection to the Bridger family was known by the other recruits, as was her intended occupational specialty... commando and critical skills operator. That too had created a degree of distance from her peers. Perhaps they thought she thought she was better than them? She wasn't sure, but nonetheless she found herself walking to the chow hall for lunch alone again. Not that she wasn't invisible and unable to have a casual chat while she did it of course, which admittedly limited her opportunities to socialize somewhat.
The mess hall itself was a fascinating opportunity for observation and people watching. It was one of the largest mess halls on the Tear, designed to service a full half the battalion of Marines embarked on the Tear at once if need be. In theory. In reality the mess was broken into spaces that reduced or changed the capacity somewhat. According to her Green Monster, protocol generally demanded three mess halls on a human warship. One for junior enlisted, one for noncommissioned officers, sergeants and petty officers, and the officer's mess. Which usually was the Ward Room. There was a Ward Room on the Tear, which doubled as the officer's club, and two exclusive facilities for the two flavors of NCO. For normal dining however, small barriers were all that was really needed to enforce social distinctions.
There was however, on the Tear at least, a fourth dining area. The fourth is for 'family' dining, for families with members of different ranks, or even with civilian members of the family. The latter would be unheard of on a human military vessel, but Director Sylindra had insisted, and it had proven quite popular for morale. Just having a chance to see spouses or children during the work day was considered an incredible luxury... and fulfilled Madame Director and the Skipper's plan to make the Crimson Tear a family as much as a strange hybrid of civilian vessel and warship.
The civilian spaces were completely different than the military spaces, Neysihen reflects, still a functional spacecraft, but unless you knew the military spaces were there, or ran into off duty soldiers or sailors... or stuck your head in the bars that catered to the military population of the ship on the Promenade, you'd never know there was anything special about the Crimson Tear. It was just another mass conveyor, albeit one with an interesting series of production spaces.
Neysihen moves through the line with her mind on autopilot, getting today's meal, meat loaf, which pleased her. Human style food that was actually edible was great, hearty and filling, and meat loaf somehow managed to be a near universal comfort food for omnivores and carnivores. How the simple pile of ground meat managed to appeal to such a broad variety of culinary backgrounds Neysihen wasn't sure, but she enjoyed it with a little galaxy safe ketchup regardless. Some vegetables, and a big glass of bug juice and Neysihen moves towards the enlisted seating... and the tables reserved for recruits. If invited they could eat with their instructors or with their seniors, but that was a rare occurrence. Instead they ate with each other, usually under the watchful eye of a drill instructor, ensuring everyone was behaving themselves properly.
Today however Neysihen appears to have company at the far end of the table where she normally sits alone. New faces she didn't recognize. A tough looking Ikiya'Mas woman with blue triangles on her fatigues, and a collar flash indicating she'd been selected for the Master at Arms program, a naval shipboard police officer.
Most of the recruits had one collar flash or another, indicating ratings for sailors or broad military specialties for Marines, the most common being a pair of crossed rifles for the 0300 series, infantry. Only one infantry specialty had its own marking. A sheathed dagger, and it was part of what marked Neysihen out... which makes it all the more surprising that the Feli woman sitting with the Ikiya'Mas also has the dagger flash and red patches.
Another hopeful for the Commando course?
Neysihen grabs a chair next to the Feli as a Merra joins them, she was wearing blue flashes, and had the enlisted flight crew rating marker on her collar.
"This seat open?"
"Sure! If you want to sit with a bunch of pirates." laughs the Ikiya'Mas.
"Considering a solid third of the military crew of this ship are former pirates at least it'd be harder to not sit with a bunch of pirates." The Yauya offers wryly. "Neysihen."
The Ikiya'Mas scarfs a bite of food before tossing Neysihen a two fingered salute. "Talciea. Former pirate off the Prancing Pavorus. I knew these humans were crazy but they said my aptitude tests lined up with being a cop!" She barks with laughter before taking a sip of bug juice. "Imagine that! Pirate to cop! Ah, if my mother was still alive I bet she'd have a heart attack if she heard that!"
The Merra rolls her eyes. "Ignore her, she's always been a big softy. Mikena Aleriah, off the Prancing Pavorus, like these two miscreants."
The Feli looks up from where she'd been vigorously tucking into her meat loaf, realizing it was her turn to introduce herself. She swallows loudly.
"Ah, sorry. Need all the protein I can get. My workout routine is killing me! Purisha Velour, former engineer off the Pavorus like Miki and Tala said."
The Feli looks Neysihen up and down and her eyes lock on the sheathed dagger on her collar.
"Hey! You have a dagger too! You're going to the commando course!? Whew! I thought I was the only one trying in our boot platoon."
"There you go Purisha, you have a friend. Maybe she'll join you in your workout routine." Talciea remarks, gesticulating with her fork before stabbing downward to break off some more meat loaf.
Neysihen shrugs. "Certainly couldn't hurt if you're looking for a gym buddy Purisha."
"That'd be great!" Pursiha takes another great bite of meat loaf, chasing it with bug juice.
"So what's your story Neysihen? We're all pirates, but where'd you come from?"
Neysihen smiles. "I had a little run in with Captain Bridger back on Awauynis. He was the subject of a mating hunt due to some political BS, and he ended up evading a city's worth of huntresses. He happens to be married to a huntsmistress I uh. Well. Idolized really. I was a big fan. Still am. I was posted as a scout by my guild as we tried to hunt the Captain, and he ended up on my roof where we got ambushed by some dirt bags. He took them out. I helped a little... then a damaged air bike kicked me off the roof. Captain Bridger saved my life! And had been encouraging me to sign up. So I asked Eymali to make me her apprentice. Part of the deal is I have to do time as an Undaunted commando too. So here I am. I train a lot with Eymali, so hopefully I can find the time to join you at the gym Purisha."
The three women look at their younger associate with a mix of awe and disbelief.
Talciea speaks first. "Alright, Miki and I both met the Cap'n on the wrong end of his rifle, and he's pretty damn amazing, but I'm calling BS." Her tone and expression were light and playful, but she clearly wanted some sort of proof.
"I got the best proof you can ask for. Come to my billet later, the whole thing's on Tri Vid. It's like a damn movie, complete with one of Captain Bridger's wives putting the moves on him at the end! Lieutenant Bari Bridger proposed to him at the end of the hunt!"
Mikena's eyes widened in recognition. "Hey I know her! She came by to interview me. I might be going to the Nightstalkers when I finish Aerospace Crew Candidate school after boot. I didn't know she'd only gotten married to the Captain recently! No wonder she's so moony eyed! Not that I can blame her! What a hunk! I always thought I liked more traditional guys, but these Undaunted guys have really sold me on... what'd that chick call it? Beef cake?"
Talciea nods. "Yeah beef cake. Can't say I disagree. Both on the beef and the fact that Captain Bridger's a hell of a catch. Someone linked me the video of his 'first date' with Mrs. Jaruna and he's a really nice guy for apparently being hardcore enough to be able to keep up with a Cannidor without power armor! I mean. Hell he didn't kill me. Even gave me my plasma pistol back!"
Talciea pats the leather shoulder holster that contained the lovingly maintained custom plasma pistol. A very nice weapon for any pirate to have. The other girls had been issued Sig P320s and were permitted to carry them after an initial qualification. They had regular pre-boot marksmanship training, and even as recruits they were expected to turn out and repel boarders under the command of their drill instructors. Talciea glances over at Neysihen's shoulder holster.
"Hey you have something different too! What's that beast of a pistol, Neysi?"
"Neysi?"
"What? Haven't had a nickname before?"
"Just haven't been called something like that in awhile. Anyway this is a PSD, it's a more common variant of the household pistol of the Bridger family, the BRNO Field Pistol. I earned it from Eymali as a reward for completing a series of hunting challenges with her. My stealth is up to snuff by her standards. She's still got plenty more to teach me, but she decided to pass me a PSD as a reward. I'll get a field pistol when I make Journeyman huntress."
A light bulb clearly goes off behind Purisha's eyes. "Hey. Do you think she'd be willing to teach me stealth and stuff too?"
"I mean I don't see why not. I'd have to ask her though. I'm actually going to a training session next. Want to come along?"
"Hell yes!"
"Good for you Purisha, you'll get your dream man for sure." Talciea says, her grin clearly communicating she's messing with her friend.
"I told you, it's not about that! I mean. Well. It's also about that, but that'd just be the icing on the cake. I want to be a commando for me... and for. Well. You know."
The other pirates go quiet quickly, the three of them clearly remembering something unpleasant. Eymali had told Neysihen a little bit of what had gone down on the Talasar Spire... and about the Narlabore. It didn't take much to add up that Purisha had ended up on the wrong end of them somehow.
"Well look, you come along with me Purisha, and we'll see if Eymali will give you some training. Just... be careful what you wish for. She's strict as hell. Then we can all meet up for evening chow. We should be on liberty so we can go up to the Promenade and grab a multimedia room and watch some of the Captain's greatest hits so you girls can get another view on the organization you've signed up with. Sound good?"
"I can take it! Let me just finish scarfing this and let's go!"
"Sounds good to me. What about you Talciea?"
"Yeah alright I'm in. Let's get some of those crepe things and maybe hit up the range too. I want to try that hand cannon of yours!"
Neysihen smiles to herself as she digs into her own lunch, not even trying to match the gusto with which the Feli next to her was eating.
Maybe she wouldn't be quite so lonely after all.
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Chapter 17 - In a Small Clearing There Lived a Mouse
Last Time: Having left Eightside, Laran, Leor, and Aiden began to make their way towards Tripit. Aiden took the opportunity to learn more about his companions, at least partially to distract himself from the less desirable aspects of traveling long distances by foot. Eventually, the three of them come across a strange sight - a chimeric creature drinking in the middle of the road. The creature seemed to desire the group to follow it, so they did. That is how they found Oriwyn, a hunter of spirits who had been paralyzed by her quarry for an entire night and who had sent her companion - the creature Brams, who she referred to as a winged badat - to go find help. Leor was able to remove the paralysis from Oriwyn, who then promptly requested to be added to the group. Seeing no reason to deny her request, Aiden accepted. Before she could completely join them on their travels though, Oriwyn asked to go back home to her mother.
Oriwyn was true to her word. Unless asked a direct question, she stayed quiet for a full twenty minutes. By the end of the time I think Leor felt kind of bad for being so snippy with her, as she immediately tried to strike up a conversation with the eccentric goblin with the oddly-shaped ears.
“So, Oriwyn, why did you just ask to join us without really hearing anything about us? We could be brigands or some other unsavory sort.”
Oriwyn grinned at the dwarf broadly.
“Call me Ori if you want! It’s easier to say! And I joined you because you seemed like good people - are you brigands?”
I watched the interaction with interest. If I was going to be the Commander of this particular outfit, I figured I should take an active interest in how people’s personalities worked together or clashed. Leor could be crabby and sarcastic, and so far Oriwyn seemed like sunshine personified in all ways except her occasionally grim turns of phrase. It was definitely a mix that felt like it could create problems. For the moment though, Leor just gave off a snorting laugh at Ori’s question.
“No, we aren’t brigands. But we could have been!”
Ori smiled sweetly. “Oh, I doubt it. Brams is an excellent judge of character!” Leor’s eyes squinted and I figured she was looking for any hint of sarcasm in our new companion’s answer. To be fair, I was too. For his part, Brams just walked ahead of all of us. He had a bald tail - it reminded me of a rat’s - which he swung around jauntily. At the sound of his name being mentioned he turned back over his shoulder and gave a small grunt. Regardless, both Leor and I came to the conclusion that Oriwyn implicitly trusted Brams’ judgment. I wondered if he was some form of animal companion, which would make Ori some form of Ranger if Earth class tropes still held. I felt like it was a safe bet she was the Wheel of the Shaded Forest at least, given her location and generally nature themed powers. My contemplation reminded me we actually didn’t know much about Oriwyn’s abilities, so I decided to ask about that. I waited for Leor and Ori to finish up whatever they had been discussing while I zoned out.
“Hey Ori, I was wondering what sort of things you could do in a fight. We have a lot of time to talk in fights, but I feel like it’ll be helpful to know before we get into one.”
Oriwyn nearly vibrated in excitement. “Yes! Dad always said that knowing who was at your back was ninety percent of surviving. Let’s see now… Is there any sort of stuff you particularly want to know?”
I thought for a moment. So far, it seemed like Roles were the best indicator of abilities, so I thought I’d start there. Distractedly, I also figured I should scry her to see what that could tell me.
Oriwyn Hawthorne, Level Seven (Shaded Forest)
I sighed - heaven forbid it be too easy for me to get any information in this world. Out of curiosity, I also scried Leor. I hadn’t done so during the fight with Stabby and Shooty, and had been too distracted with preparations to do so since.
Leor Whisper, Level Five (Great Secret)
That was somewhat confusing. Leor had said she was an Augur. Laran had told me he was a geomancer, and when he’d been in my party I could see him marked as such, but despite the same information from Leor she was unmarked. I decided to check to make sure I could still see his Role.
Laran Agana, Level Four (Geomancer)
I reflected that things were weird again, though in the end they probably weren’t any weirder than what I normally dealt with. I debated a few ways to go about trying to figure out what was going on with Leor and Oriwyn and eventually just settled on honesty. My head snapped back to the present moment - Oriwyn had asked me what sort of information I wanted, and I figured I should actually answer.
“If you know it, I’d love to know your role. I’m a Commander - I’ll explain what that is as we walk - and Laran here is a Geomancer. Leor’s an Augur, though I’m admittedly having trouble identifying her at the moment - I’ve got a thing that lets me see information about people, but it just says she is in the Wheel of the Great Secret. For what it’s worth, it seems like you’re in the Wheel of the Shaded Forest.”
Oriwyn looked like she was trying to sponge the knowledge up. She must have held her father’s advice in high esteem, as she seemed to be trying to follow it enthusiastically. As she spoke, she sounded proud.
“Oh, my role? I’m a Ranger like my dad was - or, kind of like he was. He had a hawk named Red, while I’ve got Brams here. Also he was a lot better of a fighter than I was.” Internally, I noted the use of the past tense. Whoever her father had been, it seemed like he was unlikely to be around anymore. I tried not to think about what had gotten him killed - Ori had said her father was an adventurer. Regardless of what had happened to him - or, I wondered, because of what had happened to him - she had sounded very sincerely interested in joining us. Ori continued talking.
“I’ve not really fought a lot of things before, so you’ll need to give me some pointers.” This surprised me. She was level seven - a full two levels ahead of Leor, who was the next highest leveled. As I’d walked around Eightside, I had gotten the sense that most people were between levels one and five. I wondered if Oriwyn was holding something back. After all, we had found her trying to hunt down a spirit. Maybe her father had gotten her started and her own interests had pushed her further? Come to think of it, I didn’t understand how leveling up worked exactly - it would likely be a good idea to try and get us all to roughly the same level range before we got into the thick of things too badly. Oriwyn still had more to say too.
“I’m also a herbalist - Mom taught me. You’ll get to meet her soon! Her name’s Aspen, and she’s not going to like what I have to say. She’ll be grateful you came to get me though, so you’ve got that going for you. Also, I’m not sure I ever said thank you. If I didn’t, thank you! Everything was starting to hurt pretty badly and I’m sure the fact I got soaked in rainwater would have caused problems eventually.”
The speed at which Oriwyn talked had slowed a little. Her words definitely always felt like they were fighting each other to escape from her mouth, but there was more control now than there seemed to have been when she was first awakened. I wondered if she had just been really happy to be rescued? It was definitely possible. Leor seemed to be slightly warming to her, or at least she wasn’t actively trying to hide from Oriwyn anymore. I wondered about that too - had Leor just been overwhelmed? Was she actually annoyed, or was it more like it was just too much for her to deal with? I had noticed she moved quickly to help Oriwyn once the cause of her condition had been made clearer - I figured that could either be because she wanted to trade for Oriwyn’s silence, or because she had felt pity for the goblin with the strange ears. I shook my head - when one’s team was living, breathing people as opposed to digital ones and zeros, handling emotions suddenly became more important. I resolved to bring that up with Laran at some point - I didn’t think he would know much more than me about handling different personalities, but it would feel good to have someone else to rely on instead of trying to take it all on myself.
Conversation continued for a bit as we walked, but eventually we all got too tired to keep talking. I could tell that Oriwyn was very fatigued, as I could see her ears drooping and she would have absent-mindedly collided with a tree had Brams not interposed himself between her and the obstacle and gently redirected her. Laran was mostly fine, as was I - I really must have gotten a stamina upgrade coming to Tal, since the me from Earth would be feeling horrible with how much hiking I’d done in the past few days - but Leor looked rather tired. She had taken a lightning bolt to the gut and burped it out over the trees, so I guess that made sense.
Uncle Iroh made it look so easy though. Maybe the others would find it funny that my thoroughly non-magical world had stories like that.
Finally, we found a game trail. It wasn’t broad, and I didn’t think a cart could make it down the path, but it was clear ground and that meant we didn’t need to plow through low-lying branches and dense foliage to make forward progress. As we moved forward, Oriwyn began to walk a little taller. I could hear her taking deep breaths and wondered what was going through her mind.
“Mom’s house is about ten minutes away. I’ll announce our presence. She’ll probably yell at me a bit for being beat up, but it’s fine. Also, we’ll probably duck away from the rest of you to discuss… things. It’ll be fine, I’ll convince her that it’s a good idea to go with you all!”
This time, I could hear through Oriwyn’s positivity. There was an undercurrent of unease and worry which permeated her words. I spoke up, trying to give her an out.
“You know, Oriwyn, I’m flattered you want to join us, but if it’s going to be a problem you don’t have to. I don’t want to cause trouble with your mother…” As I trailed off, Oriwyn turned back to me and smiled. This smile was tinged with something I couldn’t quite recognize, but which I could partially describe as wistful.
“It’s okay, really. Mom will be sad, and she’ll try and talk me out of it, but this is what I want. She’s not been happy that I’ve kept training like Dad taught me to when I was young, but she hasn’t stopped me. I’m doing this for Dad’s memory, for us as a family, and for myself. I just need to tell her that.”
Oriwyn smiled again, a little sad and a little determined but still very excited to go, and I believed her. She was putting a lot of faith in us - and, though she probably didn’t know it, a lot of faith in me in particular - and I would see that her faith was well-founded.
As we rounded a corner in the road, we came into sight of a clearing. Oriwyn’s face immediately brightened up. The clearing was large and absolutely overgrown with low-lying plants. Small purple flowers grew on clustered stems, reminding me of lavender. Vines wound over and around lattices of wood. Bees buzzed everywhere in the warm spring air, and instantly I felt a sense of calm come over me.
In this ocean of flowers and herbs and life, it felt like nothing could touch us. Time itself seemed to flow around this place, as if it could never be anything other than what it was right now. Overhead, a hawk circled and craned its head down at the clearing - it must be hunting where there was no tree cover. Oriwyn looked up at the hawk and waved to it before taking a deep breath, setting her face, and walking on towards the house.
“Mom, I’m back! I have some companions!”
From behind a wooden door in the stone cabin, a beastkin emerged. She wasn’t very tall and had broad, near-circular ears coming prominently out of her head. I suddenly understood the descriptor of someone having “mousey brown hair” for the first time - something about the color of the hair that flowed around her ears indicated her mouse-like nature. She wore clothes dyed in bright, solid colors with a green belt. All in all, she looked almost exactly what I would have expected a herbalist to look like. It was nearly dark from the time it had taken us to find Ori and walk to her house, so she waited until we were quite close to greet us.
As we stepped into the light that was thrown from the interior of the house, I saw the mouse beastkin - Aspen - tense. I took a look at Oriwyn and was surprised to see how rough she looked. Maybe she had simply looked better earlier because we were comparing her to when she had been paralyzed, but now the large cuts seemed very obvious, as well as the various stains from rain and tree-sap and blood which colored her clothing. Still, Aspen didn’t say anything and nodded to us all cordially.
“Welcome to our house travelers, and unless I am much mistaken, thank you for saving my daughter from her… enthusiasm getting the better of her.”
There was a look passed between Oriwyn and Aspen which lasted a few seconds. I could see the opening salvos of an argument begin, could almost hear the worried protests of the mother and the confident, placating reassurances from the daughter. Eventually, with a sigh, Aspen broke the eye contact and turned to the rest of us.
“How about you come in and rest your weary legs? I know we are far from the road, and I would not have you stand and tire yourselves further if you’ve already come a long way.”
I thanked Aspen, as did Leor and Laran. I was surprised how comfortable it felt to sit down, how much my feet hurt as soon as I thought about it. Oriwyn had instantly scurried off to fetch a few chairs, which we all sank down into gratefully. With that done, Aspen simply motioned for her to sit at the table next to her. With a sigh, she did. Aspen pulled out a large mortar and pestle and began to collect herbs from the walls. Bundles were hung up everywhere, presumably to dry, and they infused the air with a floral, heavy smell which weighed on my eyelids heavily. Satisfied with what she had gathered, Aspen poured a small amount of oil into the mortar, added several of the gathered herbs, and began to mix them. Her posture radiated tension and concern and a slightly uneasy silence fell across the room. She cleared her throat.
“So, Ori, what happened to you?”
I could see Ori wince. I got the impression it wasn’t because of whatever her mother was putting on her wounds.
“So don’t get mad, but there was a lightning spirit, and-”
“Ori!” her mother nearly shouted. There was a look in her eyes and she let her hand drop. “You know better than that! Spirits are dangerous things! If your father was around, he would have-”
“He would have hunted the spirit just like I did, before it got into a town and hurt someone.”
There was silence. I feared to make any noise, and I figured Laran and Leor felt the same. Voices weren’t raised to the point of yelling, but it was clear that the emotions going on between mother and daughter were strong. After a second, Aspen raised her hands back to Oriwyn’s wounds and continued to work on them.
“Your father would have gotten a group together to help him.” There was sadness in Aspen’s voice. Oriwyn nodded along, agreeing with her mother.
“Yes, he would have, but there wasn’t a group of people to gather. That’s why I want to go with Aiden, Laran, and Leor here. They’re a party of adventurers, and they’re looking for more people to join them.”
Aspen’s face went through several emotions in rapid manner. Oriwyn simply held her hands out towards her mother, who took both of them. She leaned forward and rested her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“Please, Mom. I can feel this is right.”
Aspen looked extremely conflicted. She looked over at us, and I could feel the evaluating weight of her gaze. I wanted more than anything to avoid the intensity coming from her eyes, but I steeled myself and met it instead. Aspen slowly shook her head. Looking at her daughter, she spoke in a strained tone of voice.
“Oriwyn, you can’t just… Fine, we’ll talk about it.” She looked back over at the rest of us.
“Could you give us some time to speak? We don’t have lodging in the house for this many, but feel free to set up tents in the clearing. I didn’t see any of the rain-teller plants folded up, so it should be a dry night. Should you need food, please let me know, but for the moment I beg you pardon my breach of hospitality and give me some privacy to speak with my daughter.”
I instantly agreed and got to my feet despite my protesting legs. Leor and Laran swiftly followed - I don’t think any of us could have imagined ignoring her request. As we left, Leor caught Oriwyn’s eye. She nodded once, sharply, and Oriwyn nodded back. We closed the door behind us, and left the family to discuss whatever it was they needed to.
We set up camp quickly and made our own food. None of us felt like intruding in whatever was going on to ask for a meal. The night was pleasant with a slight wind which washed away the remaining mugginess from the previous night’s rain. We sat out and looked at the stars for a bit, occasionally conversing quietly.
“I wonder what happened to her father,” I mused out loud. Laran and Leor just nodded, but none of us speculated past that. It wouldn’t have felt right. Silence stretched out, and I glanced towards the house. There was still light visible from the windows, but we couldn’t hear anything nor see either Oriwyn or her mother. With a sigh, Leor spoke up.
“Well, I think she’s brave.”
I was surprised and raised an eyebrow questioningly at Leor. She just shrugged and went back to staring in the fire while Laran looked thoughtful. I didn’t press, and she didn’t offer any explanation, so the topic died. Shortly thereafter, Leor was the first to go to her tent. When she was gone, I sat next to Laran.
“So, what are you thinking?”
Laran was silent for a bit longer. He had taken his shoes off and had buried his toes into the ground. I had noticed him doing some of the techniques he used when he meditated. When he had found his answer, he looked at me and smiled.
“I had never thought that we would be dealing with so many… emotions. For the whole adventuring party thing that is. I thought it’d be only adventure an’ fighting an’ the like. Not this.”
I nodded silently and leaned against him. He leaned back, and thus we sat supporting each other under the moonlight. Soon I was nearly nodding off, and I excused myself to go back to my tent. Laran nodded and squeezed my hand as I left.
I don’t remember falling asleep, but I do remember waking up the next morning. The day had dawned a little chilly, though it felt bracing instead of cold. The scents of pollen and flowers hung in the air, and I could almost swear that the sun shone in rays through the golden dust that the plants produced.
There was not much fanfare when Oriwyn came out of the house. She had a pack on and a huge grin on her face. Brams was with her, of course, and he also seemed eager to go. Aspen followed her out and came to talk to me.
“Aiden, from what Oriwyn said yesterday you’re the leader of this group. It isn’t my position to restrict my daughter from going anywhere or doing what she pleases but…” Aspen’s voice dropped to a croak and she fell silent, blinking violently and clearing her throat. Her eyes were puffy, likely the result of having cried the night before. “...but please keep her safe. She’s the only family I have left.” Tears ran down Aspen’s face silently as she looked up at me.
“I’ll try, I promise you I will try with all my might.” A thrill of panic shot through me as I was speaking - I was putting us all in possible danger just by adopting the lifestyle of an adventuring party, and I feared the day that I would need to deal with the consequences of that - but my resolve was firm. I was the Commander. I would keep everyone safe.
Aspen’s smile was watery but seemed genuine.
“That’s all you can ask of anyone. Drenza would have loved to have met you - I’m sure he could have told you a story or two about what it’s like to be an adventurer!”
I looked at the rest of my party. Laran was finishing up packing a tent while Leor had nearly instantly gone to talk with Oriwyn. We would be fine. We would work as a team. We would win when we needed to fight.
It was this thought that hardened my resolve. I needed to find a way for all of us to train. Laran, Leor, and I said our goodbyes to Aspen, and Oriwyn hugged her tight for a full thirty seconds. They exchanged words, but none of us listened to them. After that, Oriwyn turned to us, wiper a tear from her eyes, re-affixed her grin to her face, and began to confidently stride away from her home.
Elsewhere: Daisy was wearing a yellow dress which was scandalously low cut. Despite the formal clothes that everyone else wore, she still wore her large, chunky boots. They looked horrid in combination with the dress, and made a lot of noise besides. The boots clomped on the dancefloor like the falling blows of a hammer, and with every footfall her dance partner flinched. He was a very tall human with salt and pepper gray hair and a thin mustache that moved nervously on his lip. As they spun in a stately waltz, Daisy spoke. “Dahling, you look so nahvous - why don’t you relax an’ just ahnjoy the musahc?” Daisy’s partner blanched. He hated it when she did that stupid accent - it meant she was feeling mischievous. As mayor of the city, he should be carting Daisy off to the stockades for all she had done, but here she was at the Duke’s birthday party. Her own goons were serving drinks, and the worst part of it all was that this was normal. This was the twelfth time he had ended up as Daisy’s dance partner, and he had no illusion that she was doing it by accident. Everything from her fake accent to her ridiculous dress to her impeccable dancing conveyed one thing to the beleaguered mayor: “You may be the mayor of the city, but this is my town.”
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