Grey and white nails with glitter

I know Batman has Batwing. But there is a specific type of street level stuff characters like Luke Cage, Black Lightning, and Static Shock deal with. I think this can be interesting from a perspective of a non powered character. I don't consider Flacon a street level character. And obliviously Black Panther is not street level, and still somewhat have magical powers.
So far most of the black characters seem to have powers on average. Or the few non powered characters there are not street level. While badass normals that are street level seem very common among their white counterparts.

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

• Gaming / potentially streaming - I play a lot of Sims 4, would probably also play open world games like Red Dead, GTA, etc in the future

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

• 1500 (looking to spend 2000 max)

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

• not sure, just want to get an idea

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

• tower, OS, and monitor

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

• TN, USA. It’s a bit of a drive to a Microcenter but I’m willing!

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

• Not reusing

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

• Nope

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

• Large storage would be good, also interested in 2 monitors but am willing to give that up for budget purposes if need be

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

• Black, brown - neutral colors. Like the idea of LED but probably just in white

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

• Yes, no preference

First, I'll like to wish a happy Pride Month to the beautiful people of lgbt!
​
I am bi. I have known it for the majority of my life. I tried to deny it for a long time, and have dealt with some rather unsavory opinions of myself because of it. 5 years ago, I told my best friend and he was and is supportive. He is the only person in my life who knows.
I would like to ask 2 questions.
My first question is about masculinity. I fully believe that any and all combinations of GSRM identities are valid; except for my own. I find myself saying horrible things to myself. Things that that I don't believe about anyone else, such telling myself that I am not effeminate enough to be bi, or that since I have never dated a man that I am lying to myself, or that I am just saying I am bi to make myself interesting since nothing else about my personality is. There are worse things that read like a tweet from the worst bigot ever, but I think it is best to leave those unwritten. I have never had any of these thoughts about anyone else and I cannot stress enough how much I disagree with these ideal. Yet, my brain attacks itself with these thoughts multiple times a day. How do I accept myself as I do others?
My other question is about coming out. I see nothing but downsides to coming out. I will lose my entire family if I do, and while they all terrible people who hate everyone who is not a cishet, white, conservative christian bigot from the southern US, they are still my family. For as long as they believe I am like them, they will help me should I need it and provide a me a sense of belonging. I am autistic, which causes me just enough hardship for me not to be confident in my ability to survive 100% alone in the world. My family provides a safety net to life that I don't think I can live without. So, I am careful and meticulous. I tell no one. I have no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc... because they may find me. I've never been in a relationship, since dating anyone but a cis woman would cost me my safety net and because I prefer men romantically (Also because I would be a terrible person for expecting someone else to love and accept me when I don't even love and/or accept myself, but that is not the topic of this post). I don't go out and make friends. My options are a peaceful and secure life of misery and self disgust and denial as the hostage my family doesn't know they have, or a life of truthfulness to self which is rife with financial instability and a moderate potential of homelessness. When I know all of this to be true, why do I still want to tell them? It makes no rational sense for me to tell anybody, so why do I have an urge to? And why does not telling people that I am bi make me feel like I am lying to myself about it?
P.S. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading my rant.

It's not even my birthday yet, but I am blown away by the number of cards I have already received. My mailbox was filled multiple days in a row! I'm especially touched by people who just had my address on hand still and thought to send me a birthday card. Thank you so much!
u/Rura_Penthe924 Thank you for the space postcard! I can't believe we can see something that's 75 million light years away. Thank you also for the kind birthday message about new experiences! trying to go visit my bff in California this year and that will be a new experience for me
u/ninajyang Thank you for the birthday cake birthday card! I love love the color combo of the black, gold, and teal! I have a couple fun things planned for my bday this week, mostly focused on food lol but also on playing mini golf
u/TyeDyeAmish Thank you so much for the Zombie Party birthday postcard! It's so cool; very on theme!!! Also love the little holographic popcorn sticker you used on the back!
u/okayflan Thank you for the "celebrate today!" birthday card and the confetti (aka stickers). The way you taped them in there with a giant "x" made it look like they're trying to escape lol. They were all really cute but the girl and the little bear in the upside-down umbrella was my favorite
u/ezw_ Thank you for the large birthday card with the very beautiful pictures of the beach! I'd love to be lying in a hammock near crystal blue waters right about now! I think my mailman will definitely be impressed with the number of cards I got this year. He is probably very confused about what goes on around here, because every time I put a card out for him it's headed to a different country. Thank you for wishing me "minimal bees," that made me laugh
u/SherlockLady Thank you for the handmade purple Halloween-themed birthday card! I laughed at the first line of the message being "These Markers suck!" Art is a struggle lol. I loved the black envelope, and black and white cat stickers and washi, too. Thank you, also, for the bounty of stickers! This purple poison apple is dope
u/canameow Thank you for the truly amazing haunted house post card with the ghost cats! It's so perfect! I love all the washi you used on the envelope and on the card, and the stickers, especially the little ghost eating a donut. Thank you also for your kind words about my card-making! I LOVE the halloween papers you sent. This purple and black one is SO beautiful. I will definitely be able to use them. Thank you also for the little cat envelope filled with ("questionable" lol) cat stickers and Halloween stickers :)
u/Neona65 WOW! This embroidered card is GORGEOUS! I love the colors. The bright yellow and soft pink look amazing on the black background! I can't believe you can sew thread into paper like that. Thank you for taking so much time and care to make me something so lovely for my birthday! I like that it has 6 petals, too, for the 6th month :)
u/oneiricOstrich x2 This is the most immaculately decorated envelope I've received so far! I love how every inch of it is covered in something shiny or colorful or spooky! Even the stamps are on theme! Thank you for the "Trick or Treat" birthday card and for the Raspberry Paper postcard (it's so so cute!); both are great. I love the kitty bookmark, too, as I am always searching for a bookmark and just end up using random pieces of paper or receipts lol

What's this, a weapon tier-list more than a decade after the game is published?
Yes.
I have Dead Space on the brain and I misspent many hours of my young adulthood on this game, so please suffer through my autism rant. My truth yearns to be told. I've stress-tested solo runs of every weapon back in the day and ran them through the Transit Hub fight as a testing ground to learn all the mechanics. And it needs escape after being penned-up for a decade. I love this franchise.
What's surprising about Dead Space 2 is that most of the guns are actually viable and fun. So even guns lower down on the list can comfortably beat the game if you know what you're doing. And there are very few actual truly bad weapons.
That said, here we go:
#1 Pulse Rifle (S-tier)
Best gun in Dead Space 2. Blasphemy. I know, I know, I love Plasma Cutter as much as the next guy, but after many many many playthroughs in Hardcore and Zealot, I have to narrowly award this the best gun.
Plasma Cutter is almost as good as the Pulse Rifle, but Pulse Rifle has a grenade launcher. So it has a built-in panic button that can just delete Necromorphs in a hurry. And like the cutter, has infinite range, fast reload, good damage and ammo capacity.
With the Cutter, I just leave it on horizontal cutting 100% of the time and never interact with the alternate fire mode. So the simple fact that there is a nuclear option on the Rifle puts it over.
You can animation cancel the Pulse Rifle to interrupt the burst to only fire one bullet. You do this by starting the firing animation then dropping the ADS midway. So you can always get pinpoint precise one-bullet shots doing this.
It's a bit hard to pull off under stress, but it's a great way of saving ammo if you have time to pick shots or just don't want to waste ammo on smaller and weaker targets. (The children Necros, for example.)
#2 Plasma Cutter (S-tier)
This needs no explanation. Plasma Cutter is the gold standard by which the other guns in this game are measured by. You can solo the entire game with this weapon and it's entirely self-sufficient and versatile in every situation.
While Plasma Cutter doesn't have a real "alt fire" mode, Stasis more than makes up for it. So that's not a real problem. And even so, it's an excellent gun if you position correctly. You don't really need "shotgun" support because the Cutter really is just that strong on its own.
#2 Javelin Gun (S-Tier)
The Javelin is just straight-up the superior version of the Seeker Rifle in every way. There's no tunnel-vision from scoping. It has pinpoint accuracy, high damage and high rate of fire. You can just kill Necromorphs by double-tapping Necromorphs in the chest. Weaker types just die in one-hit when fully upgraded. Also, it's ammo is stupidly cheap.
On top of that, it's alt-fire mode electrifies the last javelin you fired and then detonates it. So it's also an AOE explosive. You can also animation-cancel javelins to get them to detonate prematurely by firing another spear off.
Basically: This gun is just about spamming death spears without caring about cutting off the limbs mechanic. If one spear doesn't kill it, then two or three will. Who cares? High ROF and cheap ammo. If you somehow have terrible aim, don't worry, just buy more.
The only reason it isn't higher on this list is because it has a low magazine capacity and it's just a bit awkward to deal with swarm enemies. But it's still an S-tier gun. It's entirely self-sufficient and can deal with any situation in the game.
#3 Force Gun (A-Tier)
I'm dropping this gun down to A-Tier for a couple reasons.
First, it's not entirely self-sufficient. There are a few cutscene events where this gun will not do any damage. So you're forced to complement it with other weapons as companions to get through those parts.
Second, it has inferior range to every gun in S-tier. It's still very good range. It just isn't theoretically infinite.
But all that aside, it's a very comfy space shotgun. The primary fire zones enemies in your face and the secondary fire is a large blast that goes up to a good distance and does good amounts of damage. It's very forgiving and bypasses the need to aim at specific limbs. Counterintuitively, the primary fire is the utility while the secondary is the actual damage.
There is a bit of a charge delay to fire off the secondary, but I haven't found this to be a real drawback in actual stress-testing in gameplay. It's an easy weapon use to get excellent results.
#4 Flamethrower (A-Tier)
Yes. Flamethrower is a weapon players have been sleeping on. Yes it's better than everything lower on the list. Mald. Like the Force Gun, this weapon excels in medium to close ranges.
And by medium range, it's further than you think. The mistake most players (and myself) have made is that you underestimate its reach. It goes out a good distance so you need to fire a little early.
It like the Force Gun and Javelin gun doesn't care about aim. Just wash it over everything in reach and you will stunlock everything to death in a pretty short amount of time, even in Zealot. It's very good at zoning and controlling everything in reach. It has high capacity so you don't feel it's "wasted" on weaker enemies.
The alt-fire also throws a fire bomb canister as an AOE explosive. And it will pretty much one-shot most enemies. That said, it's strictly just a worse version of the the Pulse Rifle grenade because it doesn't detonate on impact, bounces for a bit and is a bit slow to fire and reload. Still, it's nice that you have the option.
Another downside is that it's not self-sufficient in all cut-scenes so you will have to companion it some of the time.
#5 Seeker Rifle (B-Tier)
This gun is extremely fun to use, but has a high skill ceiling to get the same results as better guns. You have to just completely change your playstyle altogether to solo-run the entire game with this.
It's good in all situations theoretically, but really really hard to master. It has a medium rate of fire, low magazine cap and high damage. You can just body shot enemies to death because it does so much damage. The ROF is just low enough that you really can't make too many mistakes.
I've figured my way around this by just keeping the Seeker Rfile on full-magnification. I only pull up ADS when I'm ready to acquire a target rather than tunnel-visioning at all times. It's definitely a weird mentality to approach the game, but it taught me to start doing that on other guns since it's easier to maintain peripheral vision if you're not hard-scoped all the time.
#6 Line Gun (B-Tier)
It's just a worse Plasma Cutter.
Sorry, I want to like it, but I don't. It's theoretically self-sufficient in all situations, but its rate-of-fire is painfully slow and its alternate timed explosive is extremely awkward and slow to place. On paper, it sounds like a great weapon, but the details of its implementation suck.
It has a higher skill ceiling for worse results than any other gun above this one. There are a lot of situations where Necromorphs slip in between the pacing of my shots. And that's no accident. Every gun above this one can basically just stagger stunlock enemies with a high rate-of-fire, then follow up the stuns with more precise killing shots at a low investment in time/cost.
You cannot miss with the Line Gun. You have to be perfect to never take damage. And its high damage and forgiving width doesn't justify how clunky it is overall. It's a good gun held back by a few major flaws.
Keep in mind, I just listed two guns that are pretty much AOE weapons and are braindead to the point of never needing to aim. And here? You have a slow gun you have to aim. And on top of all that, those other guns just have better alternate fire modes.
The more precise guns higher up on this list don't need to be precise all the time. You can just hammer the chest of a Necromorph to stunlock it then slowly creep your shots over to a killing shot. Just that barrage of shots will kill faster than you think.
#4 Ripper (C-Tier)
So take all the complaints I had so far and apply it to this gun.
The primary fire only zones a tiny space in front of you. The Flamethrower and Force Gun far outclass it here. It also has a very low damage over time effect and you can lose the sawblade if you're hit by an enemy.
So yeah, you lose your defensive zoning if you're hit. The number of times I've had an enemy just jump past my sawblade to hit me is too numerous to count. This is not an issue with the other short-range guns.
It's alt fire is theoretically mid-ranged projectile. Just inferior in every way to every other gun above this one. Line Gun sweeps a larger area without any projectile drop off. Javelin has high ROF, pinpoint accuracy and raw damage. Flamethrower just blankets a cone that you can sweep back and forth while stunlocking anything caught by it. Force Gun has better AOE hitscan coverage.
This gun is the most overrated gun in the Dead Space fandom. It's a fun gun but it's just a security blanket for bad players. A crutch. I almost want to put it lower on the list out of spite, but it's technically viable without wanting to pull out all your teeth.
Oh and it's not self-sufficient because it won't work in all cutscenes. Just to add insult to injury.
#5 Contact Beam (D-Tier)
It's just a worse version of the Seeker Rifle and Javelin.
Yes it one shots enemies. But has a longer charge time than the Force Gun, which does pretty close to the same damage in most situations. The difference is the Force Gun barely needs to be aimed.
Seeker Rifle can basically pop off two shots in the same time. Javelin could hurl out 2-3. The Pulse Rifle probably can just more cost-efficiently spam grenades at everything.
Its alternate fire is just garbage. Again it one-shots in an AOE, but who cares? It locks you into the animation to execute and you will and can take damage during it. Stasis is just better in most situations.
Oh and all the ammo is expensive. There's just no point to this gun. Spamming Javelins is way cheaper and does more damage.
#6 Rivet Gun (F-Tier)
This is the DLC weapon. Again, fun for meme runs, but it's just a bad gun. It has a high rate-of-fire and high capacity but somehow does less damage and is less forgiving than the Ripper or Plasma Cutter. It's like the worst combination of every weapon.
The alternate-fire mode is wonky and inconsistent with its physics. Basically it explodes all the nails you've already shot into an enemy, but even this doesn't guarantee a kill. While other alternate fire modes just don't need all this set-up to instantly delete enemies.
#7 Detonator (Worst Gun)
Okay, in fairness this gun isn't supposed to be a primary weapon. I think its intent is to be this minelayer gun that you can use to prep the battlefield.
It's just bad at that too.
The Detonator basically sets lasers in a line. It fires projectiles if anything trips those lasers. Also I think it explodes? It's been awhile since I played the game, much less used this weapon. I just remember hating it.
It will explode if you manage to hit it perfectly on an enemy. But if you miss it'll just latch onto wherever it lands.
So you can't theoretically use it as a direct fire weapon. But it's hitbox is small and you'll miss a lot. And it won't guarantee a kill even if you do land the shot.
As a trap, it just isn't practical. You could spend the entire game mining every vent. But this is boring and unfun. Not every vent will spawn an enemy. And even if it does, the lasers are so precise and finicky that you can't guarantee that an enemy will trip it, let alone die instantly from tripping one.
You'll have to metagame to even use the weapon properly and it'll still suck.

I'm an older man looking for a girl who wants to be close and intimate with me and is willing to get pregnant. You tell me you want a baby and you're ready to let me give you one. It would be sweet to make passionate love and put my seed in you every time. I would never wear a condom and you would be off the pill and always hoping to have my baby. You can't wait for the day your baby bump starts to show. I'm a dad with responsibilities but we can still have a loving relationship and make this baby together. I'm white mostly but it doesn't matter what race you are. It might happen this summer for us if we try.

this is a prototype Yugen Glyph (hunt for my previous post lol or my medium article here ). Magic is not yet ready, this is just a prototype for capturing full concepts, I think instead of making it it's own language, it should act as a wrapper for all existing languages.
Put numbers where the text in the example is, put that numbered up version of the graph, on the front page of a document or sub-document, and then use bulleted paragraphs, or bulleted hyperlinks to parallel documents, and in each paragraph or parallel document: be as detailed or vague as is your accurate impression of the subject.
for example someone who really loves mathematics, will have a very detailed and huge document tree centered around this graph about their impression of math, and what is the opposite of math? for some folks the opposite is literal Nothingness with a capital N because math is Everything with a capital E. For others, the opposite of math is social studies, or art (people who think math and art are opposites, I mean I'd like to have a word with them, and would like to impress upon you that I think they are WRONG!! because perspective and symmetry and even the chemistry of the optics of our perceptions and neurochemistry of our impressions- all of art, is just layers... and layers... of math, but at the same time I feel why they may be misguided into that perception, because math not as a subject but as discipline is rather rigid whereas art is like Bob Ross' TV persona, it embraces mistakes as a part of the process whereas math as a discipline sternly rejects them! but math the subject and math the discipline are two different animals, math the subject is just pattern recognition and construction taken into the furthest reaches of human capacity as an elevated artform. so math the discipline is a bit like professor Snape from Terfy/Harry Potter, math the subject is a friggin kaleidoscopic rainbow of infinite imagination and possibilities, math professors create worlds with the best of em man. Like portraits of possibility written out like the rules to an otherwise inconceivable game! I love math! I hate being taught it, but I LOVE exploring it!!!! Just as much as I love a good anime or trip to the art museum or a fun creative novel or cool visual patterns on cute clothing Math Art what's the difference really, art is just math with fun inaccuracies, math with wiggle room, but they'll always be two heads attached to the same Demogorgon)
I rambled... where was I.... Yes, I may disagree with someone who thinks art and math are opposites but disagreement, truckloads of it, all of the disagreement that is physically capable of existing in the same place at once without collapsing into a blackhole, none of it will invalidate their experience and that's what this linguistic wrapper is about. It's about...
...Dreams Nightmares The Holy Spirit, Trips to the depths of Hell, good days and bad days, weird experiences that last only a fleeting instant and leave a deep impression. All of that.
Doesn't matter if you believe in it or not, because the it as it was perceived may not exist, whilst at the same time (and read this maybe a few times) the it as a perception is irrefutable.
Peoples WRONG >-( feelings are still valid man... I mean you may think drinking your own pee kept you hydrated in the desert and drinking alcohol kept you warm in the tundra, you'd be oh so very wrong (to the point of nearly killing yourself) but that comfort you felt when you thought you were surviving in the wilderness like a pro, that was real, the way misinformation was munched on by your brain like it was the good stuff, that was also very real and you, yourself are valid no matter what.
Like what is reality? that's a linguistic question more than a scientific one.
If you define it as what is felt to be real, then hey, people who remember shit vividly, even when it's factually incorrect, like how myself among many others remember the Bearenstein Bears, whom according to all outside stimuli I generally trust, were actually historically always the Bearenstain Bears, and likely because of the cartoon introduction pronouncing it with a thick accent, and me reading them when my trained mental optical character recognition skills for the english language were at a fledging capacity because I was very very VERY young, my ears hear the woman with the thick accent call them Bearenstein, my eyes were not yet trained to strongly discriminate between "a" and "e". I can safely conclude I remembered it wrong and was the victim of multimodal confusion.
However a good deal of people have come to a much cooler set of conclusions; ready?!
They believe that either A) they are from a parallel history that was destroyed by something and their souls migrated here; B) that a bunch of very skilled book ninjas replaced every book with an identically weathered copy of itself except for small changes to the print, or C) that God did like the ninjas in the previous example did, and either physically changed history but left some of us with a spiritual memory of our alternate history for whatever reason, or to the same effect God just did as the ninjas in the previous example did and used God power to rearrange the ink on every page of the books.
Hey those conclusions are wild, and sometimes when I'm feeling fanciful I do indeed like to imagine or even convince myself I am from a parallel earth where minor details about things are definitely different because I remember them "wrongly" so vividly, it would be MORE fair of a world if my memory was flawless and thus proof that I am a world wrangler of some kind. I don't believe that. that's not my reality.
But that's my point, from an evidentiary perspective trying to prove you are from a parallel universe is like trying help Sisyphus take a break, or trying to reconstruct the 'original' ship of Theseus even whilst the ship is still arguably here. it's not impossible per se, but what does it even mean man? is it even possible? does it even make sense to say outloud? ...or is it just some gnome chopsky meaninful gibberish type stuff?
mind-blown... but whilst they might not be from a alternate universe, because that would imply that evidentiarily there would be some kind of coordinate to visit where they come from... is it really wrong to say they're from an alternate reality? I'd argue no, reality is a word that linguists bitch about, because in English we use the same word and spread it over a couple of separate concepts, the physical present as the arithmetic mean of measurers' consensus has it, and then present internal personal experience. both are reality.
I mean if you stick something friggin cold on my skin, I might experience an internal reality of paradoxical heat, whilst someone peeping through a thermal imaging cam would experience a physical external measurement of me being exposed to extreme cold.
which one is "true"?
well for us, "us" the cold is true, but for me, myself, I, alone; the hot was what I felt most vividly, that's "my truth" as the south of the USA annoyingly puts it. (the idea that truth isn't singular still annoys me).
(TRUTH is singular, but I'd argue TRUTH is also beyond the perceptual capacity of mortals)
we don't converge on truth we converge on measurable contemporary consensus about our perceived external reality, which as luck would have it is practically the same as truth but slightly different. We'll never know if the universal constants we take for granted are just one click away from some cosmic teenager tweaking a couple setting on their screensaver and erasing us from existence, and since we can't measure this cosmic teenager, we don't bother about them, but hey, maybe someday they'll get bored of their current screensaver, we'll all just kind of disintegrate like when Thanos Snapped in the Marvel End Game event.
Just minding our own business and then atoms all over the world turn to jelly when exposed to sunlight or something. not likely according to what we know, but we know we can't know everything, so just be grateful it isn't our current reality and continue taking thing for what they appear to be for now I guess.
As for internal reality, that's what's driving me to write this. that's what drove you here for whatever reason. we have more direct contact with internal reality, external reality is just some consistent pattern pattern we or you or I feel internally as if we have less control over it than we do over our thoughts, so it feels external, whether or not reality warpers that can bend reality just as easily as you can choose to compose a naughty joke in your head exist, that's a matter for science fiction writers and philosophers and fringe bio-physics researchers.
And subtractively some people have more intrusive thoughts than controlled thoughts, some people have and other people don't have inner voices; some people have high resolution internal imaging software for pictures and sounds that they vividly hallucinate at will, other people have very delicate and subtle to no imagination capacity, if we can subtract from inner reality it makes sense to imagine that adding to it is not out of the question.
is control and perception of your limbs inner reality? yes, but does it have some small interference effect on this external reality we feel exposed to... (rather than as familiar with as a bodily or mental sensation) ...sometimes, not if you're percieving the movement of a severed or paralyzed limb though.
what about dreams, they can feel just as external as the waking world, but with this weird capacity to exist on a scale of externality to internality, a lucid dream, is basically what the external world would be like if your thoughts could reshape it at will. I find that depressing, so maybe my soul if you believe in that sort of thing cordoned off its godlike powers to enter a simulation (this place) willing so that it could feel the comfort of a world that is managed by relatively firm seeming laws, rather than one where my intrusive thoughts might erase things from history or change the people I love without their consent, maybe this "external"/"physical" universe is like a mental hospital for reality warpers who have intrusive thoughts, and we belong to some hive mind species from an external universe, but we're in therapy right now, to learn to tell the difference between concepts that are important to our ilk, and or to just be allowed to safely be ourselves without accidentally committing super powered crimes against our ilk unintentionally.
for most people under most circumstances in this world a thought does not immediately cause an action, our mind subconsciously proposes several possible actions and we analyze them come to a few conclusions pit those conclusions against eachother, and then let the winner lead us to the most victorious action/behavior chain, and then immediately after doing all of that subconsciously we become consciously aware of our behaviors, make up some random likely rationale for why we chose those behaviors, and then we sit back and enjoy the show as the consequences of our conscious and subconscious choices roll in, which we consciously and subconsciously react to and mull over to lead to hopefully better decisions in the future, or atleast that's my understanding of the gist of it.
now what if that whole automatic suggestion of possible actions we could take, which we you know, think of as a good thing, is actually a mental illness in some culture we don't know we belong to, and when combined with our mental reflexive power to warp reality, makes us basically their cultures version of violently reactive psychopaths, but because they can read minds they don't harbor ill will towards us, they just know we're not put together correctly, so they've made us a new type of external reality that neutralizes our bad nature and allows us to live with this incurable mental illness in a safe environment with the opportunity to seize happy lives for ourselves?
If our minds were wiped after the simulation box was activated around us, I mean it's just a scifi twist on the allegory of the cave, and the matrix did pretty much it similarly.
but what this does illustrate besides my urge to do creative writing, is that internal and external reality are separated by a fuzzy line, if there's even a line there at all.
Yet whilst on one hand the boundary is so ill defined it looks more like a continuum.
On the other hand the boundary is night and day.
I don't live in your fricken head, and if you live in mine you've been really respectful cos I haven't noticed ya.
and people get hurt because the way they think things works is proven wrong the hard way and it sends them to the hospital all the time.
Like oh, petting this bear is a smart decision... ...3 hours later, wakes up on the hospital bed feeling drowsy and with strange sensations in random parts of the body, nurse leans over face: "your lucky to be alive" says the nurse.
because guess what, weirdly it's obvious what's part of your reality and what's part of our reality, until you try to give a fuck, then it's nonobvious again.
circling back around, are people whom genuinely feel as though they are from alternate realities crazy? maybe.
Are they actually experiencing what it is like to be from an alternate reality? yes, absolutely, they know how strange it feels, to them it is real, their experience is valid, and their feelings matter!!
No I speculated about meta-realities a couple times here (realities that are outside "the matrix" as the kids say). but I haven't like vividly experienced a meta-reality, infact most people want "out" I want in deeper, I'm a gamer and a dreamer, I want more of the good stuff, and for me that's a machine of my own making within the machine we all call home, If I were Plato in the cave, and I escaped my shackles, I'd go spelunking for a deeper cave and a better fire, I wouldn't worry about what the sun was on about or how fresh feels superior to grimey cave air, I'd be ALL about my shadow puppets man, and differently colored fires, pretty much the only way that I'd be bothered to leave the cave, would be to get supplies to pimp out my cave. That's just my perception of myself, and it's valid.
You wanna leave, well, don't kill yourself illegally, but when you die of natural causes, for find a legally sanctioned way to off yourself under the supervision of the law and behind a lot of red tape to ensure that you are just clinically depressed and trying to fix temporary problems with permanent solutions... ...like, leave, you're not my hostage. I care. I want you to be happy. but my cave's not for everybody and I respect if you've had enough of this ride man. #love by the way please really don't kill yourself without asking your local family and municipalities for permission, suicide is like vigilante justice mixed with self harm, it might seem cool if you're emotionally stunted in some way, but Pheonix Jones ("the only real life superhero" look him up.) allegedly (and I use that word mostly to avoid being sued) allegedly turned out to be a drug dealer, that's how he got money for his cool hero cave and his bullet proof armor and stun sticks and fancy form fitting outfit and probably a lot of the stuff that made him seem cool... drug dealer... "I'm gonna save people can't swim" he says, jumping into the pool, without knowing how to swim.
Beating up people for the minor crime of being drunken assholes, meanwhile secretly a hardcore drug dealer.
Don't idolize the people who beat people up for fame, idolize the people who give food to homeless people and money to shelter programs.
Likewise don't idolize suicide, your valuable, and I know you don't know anymore about the afterlife than I do, nobody has measured it thus far so your playing bingo and Russian roulette at the same time when you die, is Shiva the master of all things? Is Santa clause? AM I GONNA BECOME AN ELF WHEN I DIE!? Who the fuck knows, it's a bad idea to fuck around and find out. So step back from that ledge my friend. maybe we're all just shopping mall mannequins who dream of being alive and each time we die we wake up paralyzed and faceless and powerless trapped in our own bodies and ignored by everyone save those whom want to vandalize us and dress us up in clothes we're not allowed to pick for ourselves, and maybe we're even telepathically subjected to the thoughts of every soul in the mall from the others like us to the selfish shoppers to the rats in the ventilation shafts, and then these moments of fleeting life our the most precious things to our existence until our plastic bodies gradually get buried beneath the earth or overgrown of abandoned malls and country dumps and thousands of years later we enter the geological cycle and are crushed and melted by the powers of the earth into unrecognizable forms and our minds will be set back to the carefree lives of amorphous inorganic formless chemical floating across the universe as we once were before some chemist in a lab trapped us into the form of a plastic press fit human sculpture... ...you don't know man... you may only get to live like us in your dreams and who knows what schedule a mannequin dreams on... most people think you're inanimate and you only get to feel the pleasures and pains of life for yourself when you have blessed dreams like these. So don't throw this dream way.
If you are in a dark place, and want to kill yourself to fix it, I find that to be a kind of paradoxical optimism. you really think that it'll be better on the outside? when has anyone ever said, "man I am so glad I have to go to work and stop playing my favorite videogame." NEVER (unless they meant in hindsight because they met their future romantic partner during an otherwise normal work day, but aside from uncommon exceptions nobody says that!) life is a game, you're stuck on a hard part right now, don't press the quit button, because the haters are invading, and the world needs more good people like you alive in it, so that other good people can live comfortable lives, and possible share that happiness with you down the road once they find out what a cool person you are!!
Now that I've gotten the "who knows what's out" the "are they really crazy" and the "please don't commit suicide willy nilly" out of the way, let's get back to wrapping things up, this is a quasi-conlang, it's like a framework that any written language can squeeze into to augment itself.
It's a graph that you can put pictures numbers petroglyphs or ideograms on, whatever is your speed.
If you write really small you can fit all of the information on the graph and then just use A FRIGGIN MAGNIFYING GLASS (or microscope honestly) to read back what you wrote to yourself, alternatively you can make citations that lead elsewhere wherehaps there is more writing space :-)
then you fill out the glyph with your maximum literary capacity, take a break, comeback, read everything again and internalize it and mentally partition it to each aspect of the Yugen Glyph, then you stand back and look at the Yugen Glyph one last time fully appreciating it by picturing all of the aspects of this particular version of the glyph, in simultaneity and symmetric juxtaposition. this isn't just the concept in some idealized platonic form, this is much much cooler than that; it's your inner world's platonic atomic unit of that concept, albeit, you're now able to reflect and express full perception that your past self had...
....and sadly as a state cannot fully observe itself without changing and thus getting caught in one of those nasty infinite polymorphic loops, the moment you fill this graph out in whatever languages of your choice... (I'm gonna mix english with my emoglyphs with this graph/wrapper because english is my native language and my emoglyphs depict other important aspects of the inner reality in great detail) ...is the moment you confront this concept in its truest form as you are currently capable of perceiving it. Some things like to change the moment you observe them. You may go, "oh wait I can add more details now..." or "oh wait, it suddenly feels different to me now that I've gotten a good look at the way I'm looking at it". and that's okay, this sort of pulls the concept out of your body.
I forgot whether it was Sophie's world (a book I read a long time ago) or an actual philosopher who gave this example, but basically rivers are always flowing, their only constant is change, humans are much the same way. When a person is standing in a river they are in sync with the river they are closely acquainted with this river, they are one with the flow and the flow has become one with them. Then when that same person steps out of the river to go dry off and get a snack, they are obviously no longer one, but when that person eventually comes back to that river, even if they stand in the same map coordinate as before, them and the river have to get reacquainted, as they have fallen out of sync, it's a new river, there are new grains of sand under this person's feet, and this person isn't quiet as young as the last person, even if they are technically "the same person" according to the memory and experiences of this new person.
These concepts are like people standing in the river of your mind, and my Yugen Glyph is like some mystical force that can eject them from you, so that you can get reacquainted with them in your own right, or distribute them to other rivers to help you propagate and introduce some concepts native to you into the public zeitgeist.
Some of these concepts are like people who have entered you by force and then become one with your flow, others are like the local wildlife that has been a part of your flow in a flowing away eversince your flow first formed, either way the intent of these Yugen Glyphs is to empower you to control the ecosystem of your flow and the flows around you better, because everything is connected and power of concepts is itself a powerful concept.
The YugenGlyph filled with placeholder text that you might need to zoom in on super closely to read in some parts... lol XD.
​
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The Blank conceptogram for you to save and print out and draw on. If you ask me nicely, I'll make a printer friendly version, but you have to beg and make me feel like royalty XD JK lol, nah, if any body is interested in printer friendly just ask I'll simplify the design add some patterns to compensate for the lack of color (black and white no gray) and then I'll be like \"K, here, you can play with it now.\" :-)
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the end that's it you made it
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postamble: remember this is a prototype I may adopt more than one thing as my "Yugen Glyphs" before I settle on a final design.
This is MK1 of an unknown incoming number of Yugen glyphs, please offer creative stirrings to me.
I'm not really open to criticism at the moment as I'm, just doing this to get steam out and hence don't care for advice on how to do it right, it's an energy sponge project, it's here to capture my excess energy and channel it into something non-destructive and it is doing its job very well I can attest to that. if it bothers you that I don't care, no one is making you hang out with me, just leave, stop torturing yourself it encourages my evil side to laugh at you. (rightfully so since you coming here to complain would be self inflicted psychic slapstick comedy in a way)

[ [FIRST] [NEXT>]
Season 5 “Exotic Pets”
Episode 2 “Night’s Touch”
He stares at her as Keya’s voice starts to slowly grow louder “I know you have people who can deal with this. This is supposed to be a priority line, as well!” her tone was still flatter than it should be, it was loud but lacked inflection giving it a false impression of cold anger.
“We have arranged previous protocols for similar situations”
“You can’t possibly be so unwise as to not be ready for nonstandard behavior”
“Please find someone with authority or at least knowledge of the situation”
“Yes I am the-”
“I am very much aware of the limitations of our deal, I am asking about a similar but new situation”
“The chief of an exterminator precinct is calling you because an endangered exotic animal requires some form of acceptable solution. I am calling you despite a clear lack of protocols in this specific situation. I am calling you because I have no real solutions and if there’s one species, one government left in this brahking galaxy that CARES it’s you so please, please give me something, ANYTHING” it was disturbing, incredibly so, to watch her inflection just waver and shift like that.
“Very well, I will put you on speakers” finally a reprieve from hearing a one-sided conversation, Keya sets down her holopad in the table at the center of the couches. Santos comes closer, still with one of the hensa snugly stuck inside his shirt while Orran slowly walks over to look, but he doesn’t sit, still holding the female protectively.
In the screen is another human, she is dressed in a very plain black suit with a necktie that’s been loosened and her short hair is disheveled. Clearly, Keya’s conversation had managed to stress her out. The dark-skinned woman scans her light blue eyes through the three visible people across from the call, her direct sight quickly stopping on the small beast in Orran’s grasp “They’re like tiny panthers” she says, softly
After a few more moments she continues “Alright, call me Janice. As I’ve told your boss” she says, presumably trying to aim her gaze at Santos, which isn’t quite possible through a video call “We might have a good solution. But that’s a maybe on the good solution, depends on if I can call on people here. And we have an okay solution, but that depends on what you’re willing to do, Mister…”
At that, the yotul recognizes it’s his turn to speak “Orran, my name is Orran”
“Mister Orran. So, here are the two possible solutions. The worst of them is to simply arrange a transfer for them to Leirn, but that is not an optimal solution. Not only would it take time, as we don’t currently have the logistic means to expedite transport in official vessels and we do not have the funds to find a quick and safe civilian willing to make the trip, we currently have no ongoing deals with the planetary government regarding fauna returns”
“I’m sure I could find a good transport to get there, ma’am.” Orran interrupts “I got them here, I can get them back if I need to”
“That might be true” the woman on the video continues, waving dismissively as she visibly slumps down on the seat “But we still have no official deals with their government regarding wildlife rescues. We have ongoing negotiations but nothing concrete, so in order to get your little fuzzballs over there we’d need to divert personnel we do not have available at the moment to secure a proper location, hopefully a wildlife shelter or similar”
“I could-” Orran tries but he’s interrupted
“Yes, you could go and uproot the entirety of your life again for the sake of those. Which is what we’d ask of you in this case, the best we could do for this worst-case scenario is some bureaucratic facilitation for your travel.” then she moves closer to the camera and puts her elbows on, presumably, the desk and rests her chin on her hands “But we might have a better solution”
“You better not be about to rope this man into some weird quasi-legal scheme” Santos interrupts “Your track record has been real spotty when dealing with anything at this scale”
Janice sighs, rubbing her eyes as she pulls a holopad off from the side “Yes, yes I know. You would fucking know wouldn’t you, Mr. Exterminator. But no, no, the plan is to take advantage of an ongoing research project to find far safer shelter right here on Venlil Prime.” she returns to her slacked pose as she brings her pad up with her, sharing her attention between the two “There’s a variety of projects researching the possible introduction of new species to this planet to increase the resilience of the biomes near the core of the habitable zone, an offshoot of the Cradle restoration research, as well as a bit of a hare-brained little project researching the feasibility of shipboard pets to increase soldier morale” she offers a hand to the camera “We can have your hensa housed in the facilities of any of such projects. This way we don’t need to redirect any voidborne assets, which as you know are all completely committed to the ongoing war, and you don’t need to give up your life here, Mr. Orran”
Santos turns to watch the yotul, who now has a contemplative look. It was always weird when he realized he could read alien expressions that well, a closed eye with the head slightly tilted the same direction and both ears flat towards the same direction read the exact same way as a human looking upwards in thought, apparently he’d grown accustomed to them very much. “And what would being housed here require, and how would they be treated”
Janice takes a deep breath, and can be seen pulling a second holopad from somewhere offscreen “IF I can make this work, and this is an if because it depends on finding a receptive project lead, for now they’d just be housed in the animal shelters those projects have for their studies. Currently the studies are only observational in how they relate to local species, with periodic medical checkups, being held in a few biome-isolation facilities. Should they prove suitable for the goals, and hell that depends on the projects being feasible to begin with, then they’ll be added to acclimated breeding programs.”
Orran looks down at the heavy female on his arms, then looks back at the screen “And should they not be?”
Janice grins “That’s the trick. At that point the UN will have taken over responsibility for them, and now they have an endangered species on hand and a million and one laws on how to treat them. So they’ll be forced to keep them in a wildlife shelter until they can be safely relocated to their natural environment. Which is something that will likely only happen after the end of the war given how bureaucracy works” then she looks down at the holopads and types something down in one of them “And if the war takes longer than that to end, I don’t think any of us will be around to worry anymore, so”
“Isn’t that a bit pessimistic” Santos adds with a raised eyebrow
“You would be, sitting here in this chair” she retorts
He looks at Orran, ultimately the choice is his, given it’s both his little creatures and his life in the line. The yotul spends a few moments thinking “Then please see what you can do. How long until we have an answer?”
“Hah!” Janice exclaims triumphantly, startling all three “I wouldn’t be in this job if I couldn’t multitask this well. I already have an answer, seems like the local fauna reintroduction project has shown interest. Can’t have only one pestkiller species in the same niche, it seems they want to have some competition to keep populations controlled or something” she still has a wide smile when she directly addresses Orran “If that project pans out, your kitties’ descendants will wind up in a competitive space with ours. But that’s for multiple generations from now, it seems. Currently, those two would wind up in an observation shelter to see how they interact with a population of voidpins as well as how they interact with terran cats. Is that acceptable or should I try to find another project?”
At that Orran laughs lightly “Ooh, nightside? That’d be perfect, most hensa are twilight creatures but nightweavers are nocturnal, that’d be the best for them” he gently caresses the feline in his arms “Hear that Lodestar? You get to have some darkness again”
Janice nods on the screen “Alright, then… Let’s see… Oh, oooh that’s convenient” she is tapping at the holopad “How much time do you need to prepare them for a trip? Would you like to come along for the handoff? CnT Freight -that’s an unfortunate name- seems to have a pickup of carbon in the next town over for us, we can have someone take advantage of the trip and come pick your kitties up”
Santos tilts his head to the side “Carbon? That might be over in Long Cliff if I remember the surrounding towns correctly. That’s almost a two hour trip”
Janice nods “Yep. I’ve sent a message to that project’s lead, they’ll get someone in our already-scheduled resource pickup trip and they’ll meet up with you. But we’re working with already existing schedules so… They should be over there in, let’s see… Fifteen hours or so” she takes a deep breath “So if that’ll be all? I got more calls in the queue”
“This will be enough” Keya’s voice is still weird
And with that the other human unceremoniously ends the call “That’ll be around three claws, Orran” Santos offers “I hope you don’t mind if we wait over here?”
The yotul is surprised, taking a step back “W-wait here? Why?”
Santos sighs “Three things. You already panicked once, and fled an entire planet over it” he gives Orran a side glance, which now that he thinks about it wouldn’t read the same for an alien would it? “Don’t want to risk you panicking again and messing yourself up”
Orran looks sheepish for a moment “Second, I want to have a look outside for some things. This place was the location of something very suspicious a few paws ago and this is the only chance I have to properly look for evidence around here” he gives the yotul a shrug “None of it is your fault, to clarify. I just want to figure out where that nixa came from”
And finally, he stands up and grabs Keya by the shoulders “And third, this woman did not sleep and is five seconds away from a mental breakdown” he lifts her off the ground with great effort, takes a couple of steps to the side and forcibly shoves her into the largest couch “And I want her to try to get a full rest before we need to deal with the delivery, because we will invariably be involved”
Despite the annoyed position of her ears and thrashing tail, Keya doesn’t move from the position she’s been put into “Santos, I’m fine”
“No you’re not, you started screaming an hour into your sleep cycle and never went back to bed. Try to get some sleep, I’ll be here” he turns over to Orran “Yes, I’m taking a bit of advantage of your situation, I’m sorry.”
If the yotul had eyebrows, he’d be raising one of them right now “I take it this isn’t a normal situation. If that’s why you need to stay around it’s fine.” he takes a deep breath “Turns out I owe her, apparently, so consider yourselves guests”
And so they waited. It did not take long for Keya to fall asleep, meanwhile Santos sat down on the couch and started fiddling with his holopad. It wasn't a random distraction, however, as he was reviewing the calls on Orran’s little project. Maybe it was just human pareidolia speaking, but something about the calls had been nagging him. It did eat at him doing this to Orran, however. The man was already stressed out enough as it was, and here he was taking complete advantage of what is essentially a hostage situation so his boss could sneak some sleep during a work shift.
As the hours passed he'd periodically get pulled out of his work as he watched Orran come and go, doing whatever his job was. Turns out an agriculturalist’s job also involves a lot of paperwork, it seems, for the man at some point had three holopads out doing who knows what, presumably data comparison. Himself, he eventually found what his instinct had been nagging him about. All of the calls on those little beasts, aside from the very first, were not made from within Blackriver. If his understanding of comms-codes in this planet was right, and if he wasn’t just seeing patterns where they did not exist, those anonymous calls were all from a number in a nearby town. But before he could start making more connections he heard something he was hoping not to hear. He hears Keya’s breath quickening.
He quickly sets down his pad and, after a bit of effort, manages to dislodge the two alien felines that had decided his lap was the correct place for a nap. Then he heads over to Keya and kneels down beside her, causing Orran to focus on him. “Don’t do anything, Orran” he instructs
“What? What’s going on?” he sounds worried, as he should be
“I was hoping she’d wake up to a normal nightmare but it seems like it’s a bad one again” he stares at his boss, whose breathing is getting faster and faster. She opens her mouth and starts making a noise.
Orran steps closer “Shouldn’t you wake her up?”
It’s now that Keya starts screaming, familiar screams of fear “No, not yet. Wake her up too early and she’s going to be in a state of panic for multiple claws.” Keya’s screams start getting worse as she grabs at the couch and digs her claws in, her legs and tail thrashing wildly as if she were running. And suddenly her creaming stops with a choked noise as she brings her hands up to her chest.
Orran takes a step back as the next stage of Keya’s nightmare makes itself manifest in her noises, a choked scream that brought a chill down his spine, a scream that was eerily reminiscent of the sounds he’d heard in an ‘instructional’ video about the greys a long time ago. “Wake her up too late and she’s not going to have any of her emotions left” the human comments, as the venlil frantically claws at her own chest.
She screams for just a little while longer, until Santos forcibly puts his hand over her chest “Boss, I’m here” he says with an authoritative voice “The only predator in this room is me, listen to my voice” he puts pressure in her chest “You’re alive, listen to me” he lowers his body closer to her “Wake up and listen”
The distressed hensa had been staring up at the venlil from the ground, emitting a low, bassy growl all this time in a sign of worry. But when Keya sits up suddenly they both run back behind Orran “I… Am awake” she says mechanically.
Santos sighs, stares at her for a while, then stands up and offers his hand. Keya ignores him and stands up, looking around the house “Cold bastard woke up this time, eh?”
Santos and Orran watch as Keya ignores the question as she looks around, eyes seemingly staring off into the distance. She finally stops “Yes” and then turns her entire body towards a small desk near the front door, and turns her head to face it.
Santos raises an eyebrow at her motion, and he notices Orran’s tail started lightly thumping on the floor and his body was shaking slightly. He’d seen people getting unnerved at the cold bastard, but he had the feeling that if he were a human right now he’d be sweating bullets. He follows the direction Keya is facing, that was such a blatantly human motion she had performed it was obvious what she intended, and sees something.
“Haven’t seen a proper paper letter in a long, long time” he comments a technical lie, a few seconds after Orran had moved to pick up said letter from the desk and shove it into a drawer. But he had already seen what Keya wanted him to.
“Y-yeah I’m… Still fond of some traditional things” the man says, still looking nervous.
He takes a deep breath. He’d already seen it, in the letter, the mark of three crossed leaves. “Alright… Me and Keya are going to go outside to check something. And when we come back, you’re going to tell me the truth, right?” he stares directly at Orran
“What do you-”
“AFTER we’re back” he interrupts “Because this is either nothing worth worrying about, or you were saved from death by the power of ignorance” but he doesn’t let Orran answer as he and Keya step out into the yard.
He looks around at the yard, already predicting this would be a difficult mission. A physical letter with a familiar symbol, Orran mentioned he had a way to bring his felines to this planet and could use it as a way out, those were carnivores as far as he knew so he had to get food somewhere, and the man had those kept in here since before humanity’s first contact so it wasn’t some cloned meat he was using.
Keya grabs his shoulder and turns him towards the shed, every house in this place has the same general structure, including the shed in the backyard. The two of them start heading over there and study it. Those are wooden windows, closed, barring any sight from the inside and the front door had a lock in it, but it was slightly ajar. He looks at Keya, who seems to not notice his stare, and then gently opens the door.
The light from the outside streams in, and the sight is somewhat heart wrenching. This was, at some point, pretty much a cat house. There were shelves along the walls with nothing in them for them animals to walk about, wooden towers and other acrobatic toys, there were plastic toys scattered around and most tellingly some bowls on the ground. He kneels beside the bowls, there’s a tiny scattering of kibble indicating which ones were likely kibble and which ones were likely water, but they were marked with the same signs as the rest of the toys and furniture, deep marks of a nixa’s claws.
“Here” Keya’s toneless voice calls him out, and as he arrives he finds the proof of what he expected. There’s a rather crude metal box sitting there, full of scratch marks and bloodstains, inspecting it closer he finds tufts of dark fur and… Fabric.
Before he can inspect closer Keya hands him something- A plastic bag “Always prepared aren’t you?” he kneels closer to look at it, it’s definitely fabric, torn fabric in fact, with a fragment of the nixa’s claw attached to it. Gingerly he puts it in the plastic bag, looking at it.
“It is not good for my mental health, but it is useful in situations like those” Keya offers, before turning to the door to leave.
Santos stands up and takes a deep breath. Those calls all came from outside, and everything’s starting to make sense. He speeds up to move ahead of Keya as they enter Orran’s house, to find the yotul sitting on a couch, seemingly staring at something but in truth his eyes were distant in thought. “Alright, Orran. The first question, where did you get food for your hensa?”
Orran nearly jumps out of his skin, before turning an eye to Santos “I… I have an offworld contact. They, uhm… They can get some stuff shipped from Leirn for me”
Santos nods, and sits beside the man. Keya, on the other hand, walks behind him and simply looms over, causing the agriculturalist to shrink “Next question. Who brought you here?”
“It… It was the same people”
He crosses his arms “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that your hensa have suddenly decided that they don’t want to leave the house anymore since a few days, I mean, paws ago, right?”
At that Orran gasps “How did you know?”
He leans back on the couch “Your little ones saved your life, just so you know. Whoever it is you’ve got your trip, and the food from… You still owe them, right? And they’re the kind that comes collect” he’s looking at the ceiling right now
“C-collect? What do you mean?” he can see Orran trembling in his periphery
“Fifty seven of the calls on your hensa were from outside town” he turns his head slightly to give Orran a side-eyed stare “And we figured out where whoever it was dropped a very angry and very hungry nightside predator a few paws ago. You know, at the same point in time where I can only imagine your little friends stopped going to their playground out back”
“Wait” Orran seems frozen “That… That was because…”
Santos shrugs “I don’t know who they are. I doubt they’d like it if you talked, so i’m not asking. I’m just going to ask, how much do you owe them?”
The yotul looks down “Five hundred and twelve thousand credits… But I’ve been paying, I swear-” he grabs at Santos’ arm
“Chill out” he takes a deep breath “None of us are related to them in any way, before you get the wrong impression”
“It should be doable” Keya has brought up her datapad, causing the other two to look up at her “It is possible that I can organize a donation drive able to reach the nearby towns. Coupled with a secondary source I have available it is plausible acquire the amount of credits to clear his debt”
Orran stands up quickly in surprise “Y-you’d do that for-”
“Those people have shown themselves capable of causing serious collateral in their attempts at punishment and have shown to be a threat to the safety of the town.” she continues with a toneless voice “You, also, are part of this town. A group capable of smuggling contraband across planets is not a group we are capable of protecting the town from, therefore, the only measure left is appeasement.” she explains like it was a lecture, causing Orran’s ears to droop.
“The condition of this aid is as follows. You will hand over that letter, as I recognize it is their method of contacting you. You will, also, follow the humans to wherever the delivery will take place and you will only return to this town once I have contacted you to do so and you have paid your debts.” she turns her head sideways to direct one of her eyes at the yotul, he takes a step back cowering from the icy stare in a way Santos could never cause “If they make any further attempts at you, they will not endanger this town”
Santos sighs “Yeah, that looks like a wise choice” he pats Orran gently on the shoulder “I know the cold bastard is a lot but that’s a good plan. We’ll help you out, get your kitties a safe new home and nobody gets hurt”
To say the mood in the residence was soured by the experience was an understatement. And yet they were forced to wait even further in the collective company, Santos gently trying to coax some unrelated small talk out of Orran for the sake of the man’s sanity while he could not keep himself from continually building up more and more stress as he watched Keya silently stare down at her datapad nearly motionless.
Ultimately, Santos breaks the stress spiral by convincing the yotul to prepare for the trip. The lack of clothing articles, he noticed, made packing very much easier than it would be for a human. But a few cleaning articles, the remaining kibble for the hensa, a carrier cage that was uncleverly hidden under the bed and a few more moments spent preparing some travel snacks and there’s a knock on the front door.
Who’s behind the door is a distressingly short little Nevok, sent as the person to pick up the hensa. It took a bit of convincing, but under the cold gaze of Keya the woman eventually relents to allow Orran to accompany his animals, just to facilitate the handoff and to ensure the team’s knowledge of them is correct.
Santos and Keya see the two off, but as they return to the car that had been waiting for them for hours, she stops him. She opens the driver’s seat and points him there, takes the back seat herself and immediately brings out her datapad. Santos looks at the strange car, bites down his lower lip in thought and sighs. There’s no use discussing with the cold bastard.
-^-
[Excerpt from the social site Bleat]
#BadParents - A thread for bad parents with unruly pups
[email protected] - Hey guys, I need some help. The guests’ kids brought some weird candy home, what do I do
[email protected] - What kinna candy, is it tasty?
[email protected] - Does it smell funny?
[email protected] - Try it, it’s real good. I think I know what it is. Your kids are gunna get real loud about it.
[email protected] - hay guys, one of the neighbors broke some of the other guys’ toys and now he has to pay it back. But i’m kinda broke, you know how dad is, so I can’t help out. Can we get a pot rolling here?
[email protected] - Oh dear, think I can just give one of my toys up to make up for it? It wouldn’t be a bother.
[email protected] - I can help out, i’d ask my pups to help out too but they haven’t been listening to me for a while.
[email protected] - Same deal but at least I can get something going, I think the guests here would be up to help.
[email protected] - Oh, oh, I think I can get my pups to help, i’ll help out too. They’ve been trying to do good!
[email protected] - Me and the pups can help out too, they’ve been behaving a lot since last time.
[email protected] - Sorry guys, gotta sit out of this one. You know why.
[email protected] - It’s fine, it’s fine. Only help if you can. And no need, [email protected], just help out with the pot.
---
What? Did you thinking smuggling a pair of little predators off a planet currently ongoing purge across the stars and keeping carnivores fed in a planet where the mere mention of that kind of food could get you killed was possible without the aid of people you don't want to cross?
Sometimes you do what you have to do.
This is the end (mostly) of the "Exotic Pets" season! Thankfully our little hensa get a proper home, and maybe their descendants might help save a planet. This isn't the last adventure involving a pet, however, but the next season "Fighting Fire" might not end quite as peacefully.
Also I know I got zero schedule, never pretended i'd ever have I know myself. But don't expect anything next week, life sure is hard.

I have been eyeing this deal for a long time, and now BestBuy is saying the deal will run out soon! (Tonight!)
ROG Zephyrus with AMD Ryzen 9 and Radeon RX 6800S currently $1,250
Maybe I am overly stressing this one and making it a bigger deal than it is, but I can't help it. That's why I'm asking for help.
I'm currently running this ACER Nitro 5 that I have had for almost 2 years now, and I have travelled and moved with it quite a few times and now the monitor is glitched out. I'm basically using it like a desktop at this point (got separate kb+m and monitor) but it runs okay.
Wondering if it would be a good idea to make this upgrade, or if maybe I should wait for the next great deal that might be under $1,000. Also been thinking about the desktop life but right now a laptop would fit my lifestyle better.

Timestamps
Looking to sell my Fractal North case in white (mesh side panel version). Great looking case and easy to build in, but went back to ITX for the Dan C4 and no longer need this. The case is in great condition and comes with all screws and accessories. I also still have the box for easy transport.
Looking for $120 picked up.
Please comment before messaging, thanks!

Just for fun, and with the reboot of "White Men Can't Jump" out, who would you select as your all-time NBA starting five for above-the-rim white guys? (NOT the greatest players).
My team:
PG - Mac McClung
SG - Pat Connaughton
SF - Brent Barry
PF - Tom Chambers
C - Chris Andersen
Four slam dunk contestants, two of which won. Connaughton has a solid dunk highlight reel, as does Chambers, with his jam on Mark Jackson an all-time poster.

I was wanting to convert some Custodes models (specifically the Wardens and Allarus) with Grey Knights Terminators to make them stand a tad taller. I don't want to go through all of this work only for them to come up super short compared to the new terminator size. Does anybody know how much the size difference between the 4 models is? If there is a place I could get a side by side of the 4, that'd be awesome. I've tried looking but couldn't find anything.

Everyone raves about it, I used to be one of those people, but since they started parking two boats there, I really don't like it. Prices have skyrocketed and it's more crowded than ever. We stopped going to the water park since it's often almost $200 and wait times for the slides have gotten ridiculous. Other excursions sell out WAY in advance so if you book relatively close in, you don't have any options including private options to do. Shopping is limited to overpriced garbage at the Straw Market, including magnets that have "Cococay" hand-written over "Nassau" on Bahamas magnets. Pool is nice but always cold. This past trip was the final nail in the coffin for me. It was drizzly raining and people had nowhere to eat that was sheltered from the rain, so they just stood right at the buffets with their plates and ate. Staff said nothing about them dropping taco from their mouth back down onto the buffet.

Hey ladies,
Happy Sunday! Hope you’re enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather in the Bay today!
I’d love to make your weekend even better with a massage and oral worship - even though it’s nice outside, there’s nothing I’d rather do than work the stress out of every knot in your body. I absolutely love the intimacy of giving a massage and oral, and figured that given my last posts’ successes, I’d post again.
Me: white collar, well educated professional who had a part-time job as a masseuse during my younger years. I love making other people’s bodies feel good and pay extreme attention to detail. I also LOVE to diligently please a woman orally. A literal kiss ass and an unselfish giver 😊
You: Loves receiving oral and massages; bonus points if you like facesitting!
Physically I’m 5’10, fit with a runners body and some muscle. DDF (recently tested) and fully vaccinated.
I can host at my place in Mountain View / Palo Alto, I can travel to you, or we can get a hotel. I am also happy to grab food and drinks beforehand, or go for a walk.
If you’re interested, please message me and I’m happy to share pictures after we’ve chatted a bit.

Say you took a white cis het man who is actually cis het and not repressing anything and has like the normal level of confidence and security for a healthy adult. Not some amazingly confident super person, nor someone with Anxiety, but like normal amounts of confidence.
When they go through their days/weeks how many people would need to be randomly mean or somehow unkind to this person before they start to develop anxiety?

I'm taking prescription meds to deal with my hormonal acne. It has changed my skin from oily to combo, even a bit dry. When I don't wear make up my skin seems fine. As soon as I wear make up, I get dry flaky patches. It's to the point where the skin peels off in big flakes. It didn't used to but has become an issue over the past month ever since I had a couple hours in the sun one afternoon (with sunscreen).
Any recommendations for what I can do to prevent flaking of my skin? I still break out but not as bad as before. This is a grey area - is it skincare or makeup?
My skincare consists of double cleansing (oil and gentle cleanser), hatomugi toner and cica toner, a correcting serum from my derm's office and a moisturizer with ceramides, collagen, peptides and amino acids. After my standard skincare routine, I apply sunscreen (Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence)and a Milk makeup mattifying primer. I'm currently using a cushion foundation by Rom &nd nu zero cushion. I apply my cushion foundation and finish with Milk hydro grip setting spray. I wonder if one of these products are causing the drying.

Every Sunday, or whenever it is possible, I give a recap of the sermon I heard at church today. I often alternate between Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches.
Today's readings:
Numbers 11:16-17,24-29

The Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.” So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again. But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!” Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

Joel 2:23-32

Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.”

John 20:19-31

The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Acts 2:1-11

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

John 7:37-52; 8:12

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” So there was a division among the people because of Him. Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him. Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Today is the feast of Pentecost, and the end of the Paschal season which covers Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost. It is the culmination of the event of the resurrection.
In an earlier sermon we discussed why we say specifically “Christ is risen,” and not “Jesus is risen.” We said that it is unremarkable for a man named Jesus, or for instance Lazarus, to be resurrected; as we saw with the latter, this was only a resuscitation to life which still ended up again in death. It is a resurrection to earthly life. But to say Christ is risen has another implication altogether: resurrection to heavenly life.
By His resurrection Jesus teaches us three lessons. Let's review them.
First: Jesus rose from the dead with our very flesh. By His rising from the dead, which is our rising from the dead, Jesus demonstrates the inherent dignity of the human being, which not even death can keep confined. He demonstrates this further by His apparition to Thomas, displaying His very human wounds in His risen body, and by His glorious ascension to the right hand of God by which man is given his place right at the side of God. By His resurrection, Jesus displays the design of God for mankind: to elevate us above everything else.
Second: Jesus puts our humanity above the angels. Indeed, the angels were made to serve not only God but also man. See how the angels advised Abraham (in Genesis 18), saved Lot from Sodom (in Genesis 19), and guided Tobias (in Tobit). As stated in Hebrews 2:5-18, the world was not made to be ruled by angels, but to be ruled by human beings, which Jesus Christ fulfilled in His person. However, Lucifer, the devil, did not accept this, and inflamed himself with pride and revolted because he refused to serve man.
Third: “Christ” means the Messiah, the One sent by God Whom the Jews expected, and today still expect; our belief that the Christ has come as Jesus may be the only thing differenciating us from them, they who are our elder brothers in the faith. To say the One sent by God is risen is to say that God's promise, incarnated and recapitulated in this person, never dies; it remains with us forever, nothing can keep it away from us. This is why, during the Divine Liturgy, we answer to each other “Christ is in our midst—He is and ever shall be.” The Ascension does not contradict this: it is not the farewell of Jesus, but on the contrary the pledge of His everlasting presence. It is the fulfillment of His words in His last discourse (John 16:7): “If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
The Gospel of John often speaks of the Paraclete, which is translated as the Helper but also means the Advocate, Defender, Intercessor. Jesus calls Him the Spirit of Truth. He is the mean by which His words after His resurrection will come true (Matthew 28:20): “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The coming of the Holy Spirit is the permanent presence of Jesus with us. As He also told the Apostles (John 14:16-17): “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
Therefore the Lord sends us His Holy Spirit and remains with us forever, not in His physical presence but in His spiritual presence. Led and empowered and accompanied by Him, nothing is required of us, except for one thing: to know the Spirit. St. Seraphim of Sarov taught plainly that the aim of the Christian life is nothing else but the acquisition and intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit. To this end, let us at least pray daily, morning and evening, from Pentecost to Easter, this prayer which during that time opens all our prayers: “Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of truth, everywhere present and filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of Life, come and dwell in us; cleanse us of every stain and save our souls, gracious One.” Let us also always keep everyday in ourselves the promise of Jesus' enduring and permanent presence in and with us, which becomes a fountain of joy and vivifying comfort and consolation for our troubles. Amen.

Every Sunday, or whenever it is possible, I give a recap of the sermon I heard at church today. I often alternate between Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches.
Today's readings:
Numbers 11:16-17,24-29

The Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.” So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again. But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!” Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

Joel 2:23-32

Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.”

John 20:19-31

The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Acts 2:1-11

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

John 7:37-52; 8:12

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” So there was a division among the people because of Him. Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him. Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Today is the feast of Pentecost, and the end of the Paschal season which covers Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost. It is the culmination of the event of the resurrection.
In an earlier sermon we discussed why we say specifically “Christ is risen,” and not “Jesus is risen.” We said that it is unremarkable for a man named Jesus, or for instance Lazarus, to be resurrected; as we saw with the latter, this was only a resuscitation to life which still ended up again in death. It is a resurrection to earthly life. But to say Christ is risen has another implication altogether: resurrection to heavenly life.
By His resurrection Jesus teaches us three lessons. Let's review them.
First: Jesus rose from the dead with our very flesh. By His rising from the dead, which is our rising from the dead, Jesus demonstrates the inherent dignity of the human being, which not even death can keep confined. He demonstrates this further by His apparition to Thomas, displaying His very human wounds in His risen body, and by His glorious ascension to the right hand of God by which man is given his place right at the side of God. By His resurrection, Jesus displays the design of God for mankind: to elevate us above everything else.
Second: Jesus puts our humanity above the angels. Indeed, the angels were made to serve not only God but also man. See how the angels advised Abraham (in Genesis 18), saved Lot from Sodom (in Genesis 19), and guided Tobias (in Tobit). As stated in Hebrews 2:5-18, the world was not made to be ruled by angels, but to be ruled by human beings, which Jesus Christ fulfilled in His person. However, Lucifer, the devil, did not accept this, and inflamed himself with pride and revolted because he refused to serve man.
Third: “Christ” means the Messiah, the One sent by God Whom the Jews expected, and today still expect; our belief that the Christ has come as Jesus may be the only thing differenciating us from them, they who are our elder brothers in the faith. To say the One sent by God is risen is to say that God's promise, incarnated and recapitulated in this person, never dies; it remains with us forever, nothing can keep it away from us. This is why, during the Divine Liturgy, we answer to each other “Christ is in our midst—He is and ever shall be.” The Ascension does not contradict this: it is not the farewell of Jesus, but on the contrary the pledge of His everlasting presence. It is the fulfillment of His words in His last discourse (John 16:7): “If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
The Gospel of John often speaks of the Paraclete, which is translated as the Helper but also means the Advocate, Defender, Intercessor. Jesus calls Him the Spirit of Truth. He is the mean by which His words after His resurrection will come true (Matthew 28:20): “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The coming of the Holy Spirit is the permanent presence of Jesus with us. As He also told the Apostles (John 14:16-17): “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
Therefore the Lord sends us His Holy Spirit and remains with us forever, not in His physical presence but in His spiritual presence. Led and empowered and accompanied by Him, nothing is required of us, except for one thing: to know the Spirit. St. Seraphim of Sarov taught plainly that the aim of the Christian life is nothing else but the acquisition and intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit. To this end, let us at least pray daily, morning and evening, from Pentecost to Easter, this prayer which during that time opens all our prayers: “Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of truth, everywhere present and filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of Life, come and dwell in us; cleanse us of every stain and save our souls, gracious One.” Let us also always keep everyday in ourselves the promise of Jesus' enduring and permanent presence in and with us, which becomes a fountain of joy and vivifying comfort and consolation for our troubles. Amen.

Hosting today in NW Houston. Interested in hooking up with someone while my wife watches or listens from another room. Male, female, or trans is cool. Video or pictures would be cool too if you aren't comfortable with her being there. I could show them to her later. She might be interested in joining in the future. Please be DDF and send a picture with your chat request.
Me: 36, white, athletic, 5'9, 160lbs Wife: 32, Latina, BBW, 5'1, huge boobs
Bi is preferred, but curious people are welcome to.