I don't know if this is allowed, If not, I'll happily delete. This is a recent comment on one of Jessica's articles about the Idaho Murders and...I can't. I just can't.
We are being lied to about what happened that night. Let's remember, law enforcement is allowed to lie to us and they are under NO obligation to share the truth with the public! Nothing about the official narrative makes ANY sense and there is indeed a cover-up of epic proportions taking place! They are protecting some very important people, as well as the University, the town of Moscow - and their profit$! Everything points to this being drug related and a lot of people on the peripherals are somehow involved - including some corrupt law enforcement. Here are some things I've learned about this tragedy that I wanted to share with everyone...
Please keep in mind that anything I share has not been proven as fact and this is only information I've gathered from different sources which I believe to be true (or very close to the truth) :
1. Everyone go check out the YouTube channel: Thou Shall Not Kill. He has been 'boots on the ground' in Moscow ID and his videos contain unique local footage, information and perspectives. His sources offer the best theory I've heard so far - the theory that makes the most sense - it's very eye opening!
2. This was about DRUGS. Apparently Maddie was upset because the drugs being sold out of the house were being cut with fentanyl (and could therefore kill people).
Allegedly Maddie flushed roughly $275,000 worth of drugs down the toilet and threatened to 'snitch' on the operation and the dealers and report it to the authorities if it didn't stop. Xana was the one responsible for stashing the drugs and this would explain why she had the lock fixed on her bedroom door and didn't want the other roommates (or anyone else) having access to her room. Maddie "told Adam everything" - and Jack S (who was acquainted with Emma Bailey and maybe others involved in the drug ring) knew she was in danger and that "they were gonna get her for this" - which they DID - just a few hours later. Word got back to the 'King Pin' of the operstion and he ordered the hit - a gruesome cartel-style slaughter - to send the message that you don't F around with them or this is what happens!
3. Research and look into the REAL owner of the Mad Greek restaurant, where both Xana and Maddie worked. His name is 'Constantinos' and allegedly he's an international drug King Pin with legitamite business fronts all over. His daughter is in the same sorority as one of the roommates and she's also the owner of the abadoned white Elanta found in Oregon apparently. (This statement about the Oregon Elantra could be incorrect and I'm not 100% certain of this).
4. The owner(s) of 1122 King Road are involved somehow - that house is owned by an LLC and they were VERY quick to just give their house away to the University.. who can afford to just throw away a WHOLE HOUSE?!
5. Dylan (and possibly Bethany) knew something was gonna go down, they were told it would be some kind of a shakedown - NOT that the four would be murdered. I believe this is how they were able to get Dylan to cooperate and play a part, and how they had someone 'on the inside'. D & B were fully aware their "friends" were being murdered at the time and her story in the PCA is BS. They were likely involved in the cleanup afterwards and the killers told them to wait until NOON to call 911 - but to first call over some of their friends to muck up the killers' tracks and taint the crime scene. These girls are scared for their LIVES and it's why they won't step foot near Idaho. It's really weird they don't talk to any of their sorority sisters or friends in Moscow ID anymore ... you'd think that after something so horrific and traumatizing you'd would want the support of your friends and especially your sorority sisters .. but I guess not if you have something to hide and to protect ...
6. That VSCO picture of Dylan gazing at the camera with a HUGE knife - is creepy AF! Who takes a picture like that? It's not done in a funny or jokey way - it's intense and kinda terrifying - and if you ask me - very telling. Kinda like the matching tattoos Dylan and Bethany got VERY SOON after the murders .. TOO soon IMO. Those tattoos come across as a 'badge of honor' more than a tribute to the victims. Super sketchy.
7. Emma Bailey, Demetrius Robinson, Quinn Kelley and Brent Kopacka had something to do with the murders - as did some corrupt law enforcement (local police officers/FBI?) Officer Payne of Moscow PD owns some kind of warehouse for a meat processing/packing business in North ID close to the border apparently.
Large scale drug rings require the involvement and protection of LE to be successful and make the kind of money they make. Payne and Kopaka are connected through the Military (?) I believe. It's alleged that Emma stashed drugs in the house with Xana (and possibly also in the empty room that was under Ashlyn Couch's name on the King Rd. lease). Emma Bailey lives super close just behind the King Rd. house - and would be a very close spot for the killers to flee to after the murders.
8. The leaked audio is REAL and shows there was some kind of ambush that night. The authorities have 'debunked' it as fake - because it is proof of what really transpired! It's not as if they would admit to the public it is real.. This was an ambush and the killers were KNOWN to the victims in one way or another. No one snuck in the back sliding door in the dark, like some ninja assassin, and stabbed 4 people on two separate floors, inflicting such horrific injuries in such a VERY SHORT amount of time - then just dissapeared into the night without so much as a trail of blood! Sorry but that just didnt happen. The victims were awake and things went from normal to deadly fast.
9. There were at least 3 people inside the house that night - and likely a few more outside and on the perimeters, keeping watch. The cops nearby at around 3 AM who were busting those kids for drinking were lookouts that night. The officer involved in that encounter has since left the Moscow PD force - which I find to be a strange and suspect coincidence (?) Those cops were in plain clothes and an unmarked/undercover car RIGHT NEXT to the King Rd. house at the SAME TIME as the murders. I find it really ODD that they busted those kids (who were being pretty responsible really) and held them up for SO LONG, asking them A LOT of unnecessary - and frankly dumb - questions, like: "what brand of beer were you drinking?" If you watch the bodycam footage you can tell the cops were trying to draw that encounter out for as long as possible and stall those kids to prevent them from going anywhere near 1122 King Rd! You can even see 3 or 4 dark silhouettes (people) running in single file from the direction of the murder house in the bodycam footage! I don't believe that Moscow PD has undercover officers in plain clothes and unmarked cop cars just lurking around Greek Row at 3 AM to catch drunk kids stumbling out of apartment buildings.. I just don't buy that.
10. Drugs are a HUGE problem in Idaho and a quick Google search will show there is solid evidence the Cartels operate in that area. This has been covered by their local media many times and it's not like it's a secret!
It's not like it's far-fetched to say that huge drug rings operate in Moscow Idaho. It's a FACT. And it's not like it's far-fetched to say college campuses are a HUGE market for these drug rings and can make them a TON of money! Fraternities and Sororities are well known for dealing drugs ... just think about this: if every person at that 150-person party at King Rd. (that took place the night before the murders) spent $$ on drugs - that would be thousands of dollars in profit - in just ONE night at ONE party. It's not far-fetched to assume that pretty sorority girls would be tasked with supplying drugs to all the college kids and all their friends - because who would suspect them?! Especially considering we now KNOW FOR A FACT that they were all connected to Emma Bailey, who is a convicted drug dealer! There is even bodycam footage of her leaving the King Rd. house on one occasion.
11. Where there's smoke - there's fire.
We must ask ourselves WHY do we keep hearing that this was a known drug house and all these things alluding to drugs and a shakedown gone wrong - if there's nothing to it? WHY have so many people that are close to the murders (Jack S, Inan Harsh, the surviving roommates) all left town, never to return? WHY are the locals still so scared if the guy who did it is behind bars? WHY is there such secrecy surrounding the case and WHY do they want to demolish the King Rd. House before the trial even starts?!!
​

So I met this guy at school and have known him for ~10 months, but we only started really talking 3 months ago when we started working on a project together.
He has a great sense of humor, similar interests and is vv cute and hella smart. Naturally, I grew to like him :/
Normally, when I have a crush, I keep it pretty much to myself but this time was different cause I felt like he might actually like me back. Some of things he did were giving me chocolate all the time, cutting up food for me (one time though), helping me out all the time. But my personal favourite is this: one time we were working and playing songs on the speaker. I went out for a couple of minutes and he’d paused the music and when I came back, he proceeded to say “This song is about you”. My mind went blank and then after a few seconds, he says ‘Oh, it’s because you are woman’. The song was called Woman fml.
On the last day of school, when he was leaving, I awkwardly asked him to wait and then started off with the worst possible way to say anything. “Okay, so don’t get weirded out or freak out when I say this…”. And he was smirking, telling me I can say whatever I wish. He knew. This entire time he knew ;-;
Anyway, I ended up saying ‘no, it’s too late. You should go’ and he left. Only to come back after 2 minutes, looking for something I believe but I was on the phone with a friend by then.
In hindsight, he have actually been just very friendly and I was unnecessarily romanticising every single interaction I had with him. Ah, I’m so delusional RIP. Please tell me I’m delusional and it’s time to move on lol.

My mom is starting to show early signs of dementia. No one around me does anything because they think it’s normal. She’s the only person who has a job in the house and I can’t leave because I’m still in school. We basically live in squalor, the house is cleaned like once every two months, it always smells of something and my dumb fucking mom always lets dogs in. I have to be honest, I think that if she ever goes away for more than a day I will definitely put them up for adoption. No one other than her can Stand those dogs, they all have behaviour problems and make everything stink. What pisses me off more than anything is that no matter how I tell my mother she has problems she won’t understand it. Apparently illness in this house doesn’t exist, to the point where when I had covid and I had to tell my school my mom had a mental breakdown and didn’t talk to me for a week because for her I was supposed to go. For any simple drive, she takes an hour and sometimes drives around the same town 4 times, while hitting her head against the car seat. She has intense moodswings. All that she does is talk about the man she works in the office for. It’s gotten so annoying that whenever she comes home I straight up leave. She won’t divorce my dad because he has a house and she doesn’t wanna pay for her own. Other psychotic things she did were screaming at me saying I was gross for an hour when I got earrings and she once purposely dropped dish soap on my hair when I dyed it. She forced me to wash it 10 times in a row. When I was a kid she’d rip apart my books because she did not want to help me do my homework. When I was 12 and showed signs of suicidal behaviour, she straight up stopped talking to me for the whole year. In fact I don’t have any memories with my mom at that age. All that she does is take me and my friends to expensive places so she can I hold it back against me if I point out something bad she did. She has a weird shopping compulsion, she literally goes grocery shopping everyday. It’s funny that she does this then say we’re poor. My dad isn’t any better. Although he’s mildly rational, he’s unemployed and does violent things. For as long as I remember, he would get mad and break things. When I was 15 I went to take a shower before a doctors appointment and while he was fine 10 mins before that, after he went insane and almost broke down the door, yelling that I was worse than my cousin who’s a drop out with sociopathic tendencies. For context, I’ve never done anything bad, I’m literally known as someone who’s always quiet. When I was a kid my dad would always yell at me in public and at home sometimes he’d beat me. What’s insane is that both of my parents hit me as a kid and whenever I would bring it up they’d always say they never did it. When I brought up actual times they did it they just said it was my fault. To see a picture of me as a 5 year old and think that somebody would beat that kid breaks my heart. How on earth can someone beat a kid? For almost my whole childhood I was home alone,daydreaming about being somewhere else. All this trauma led me to being unable to love anyone, hating myself to the point that I’m disgusted by people who love me and hating everyone.

Hello, all!
I am just writing in hopes for some advice on how to might go about finding the owner of a missing cat.
My friend and I were walking back from downtown TC last night, and at 10:30pm we found a kitten on the corner of 14th street and division. Across from the Speedway.
The cat does not have a collar on, but it is very very well groomed. Its coat is shaved short all the way up to the tip of its tail where it’s left as a fuball. Kind of like Simba from Lion King. It’s hind legs are shaved the same way, where the leg kind of meets the ankle. Fur is a light and dark brown/beige and white. Its a really pretty cat, very nicely manicured and taken care of obviously. Albeit no collar or anything. So it’s obvious it has a home and the owners take very well care of the cat.
It ran up to us and was whining and looked very confused on its whereabouts and would not stop following us. It was about 10:30pm last night so we brought it inside because it was running through the street and traffic.
It had been whining profusely to leave, so we brought it back to the spot where it found us just in hopes that maybe it did actually know the area, but it still appeared confused, scared and lost, and as we tried to leave it just stared at us leaving.
We brought it back to the house and it’s been trying to leave all night, trying to get out the doors and windows and continues to do the same thing this morning. We got it food, water, but not sure what to do at this point.
My friend just moved into her house so we’re hoping we can find out what to do with the cat. The cat has already ruined a few blinds trying to get out of the house. It clearly wants to leave but this area is obviously very busy and the cat did not know where it was last night. But it is very sweet.
My friend also made a few posts on her social media so hopefully that fares well.
I feel really bad for the cat and we don’t know what else to do. Hopefully it is chipped and the owners can go about finding it that way but we really need to find its home.
So I’m wondering, is there any reliable ways of going about the missing cat and finding its owners? For this side of town? I’ve never had to deal with this before so I’m clueless on what to do.
Thank you.

I (35M) grew up a big town. My family had been based there for 4 generations, so I grew up spendinga lot of time at my grandparents, and with other extended family.. After finishing high school, I moved to another state to go to college. I met my wife (33F) at my part-time job while studying. She had grown up in another town in our home state, only a couple of hours drive away. We stayed in the city we lived in after completing our studies, a few years later got married and moved in together.
When my wife was expecting our first child(son, now 8yo), we thought long and hard about our living situation. Our apartment wasn't really suitable for a newborn, and we didn't have any nearby relatives. So we decided to move back closer to home, so our children would have the opportunity to grow up around their cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course, their grandparents. Our families were thrilled when we announced our plans. I started looking for work after a few months, I managed to secure a transfer from my employer to a sister company's office in my home town. Our son arrived safely into the world not long after settling into our new home.
We really enjoyed being new parents, but we noticed after 6 months or so that visits started slowing down. We put this down to the novelty of the new baby wearing off, didn't think too much of it, although it was testing at times to not have that support when we needed some parental advice. Or even a break from the baby for a few hours. We persevered and continued to host family get-togethers, as both my parents and my in-laws homes were too small for the entire family to come by at once. We later welcomed a baby girl to our family. (Now nearly 4yo). Now this was a difficult decision for us to try for another baby. Although we wanted to expand our family, I was having reservations about how little we were seeing our families, and whether we could really lean on that support like we'd hoped to when we moved back home.
Fast forward to now, those reservations are unfortunately holding true. We still see both our parents regularly, but they'll only ever stay for long enough for a cup of coffee and barely interact with the kids while they're here. I just don't get it!. Growing up I saw my grandparents often, I usually stayed overnight once a week or so too. It's been more than 5 years since our son got to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for the night, our daughter has never had the privilege. They live less than 10 minutes away, I feel like we should be able to hope for more from them than this.
The thing that hurts the most, is this alienation doesn't seem to apply to our siblings and their children respectively. I had to console my son a couple of nights ago. When I asked what was bothering him, he wanted to know why Grandma picked up his cousins from school all the time, but never him. I didn't know what to say. I just held him and until he stopped crying, turning out the light so he couldn't see my own tears.
I don't even know how to approach this anymore, it really shouldn't take this much prompting encouragement for grandparents to show interest in their grandchildren. I can only put it down to the fact that I left our hometown after high school, something that my sister, nor my wife's brothers did. We're seriously considering upping roots and leaving the state again. They say it takes a village to raise a child, it just seems home will never be that village.
If you made it this far, thanks for listening to my vent.

Ok, so this might be a long one, which i may or may not add to through edits if people decide to tell me otherwise or chime in with legit theories. Also this is just an observation and discussion, if you think that i have gotten things wrong, please tell me, it will give me some time to kill till Sunday-Funday.
I've been following the general subject for a long time (compared to my current age), I have been meaning to write something but due to stigma i thought that it was a little silly to get too heavily involved in the sub. But all the recent negativity has almost forced me to feel inclined to chip in.
First I'll start with some basic observations concerning UAP/UFO lore-

1. There is always an attempt at a coverup by people who we could consider "above the government"
2. The videos that we do get to view are always blurry
3. People both skeptics and believers demand hard evidence that they simply aren't entitled to get.
4. The witnesses that are involved with situations like these and people who talk about these points have an opportunity to use their fame to make a living.
5. There is a media drip that allowed the stigma for the field of study to be ridiculed.
6. There are disinformation campaigns that pollute the very core of the subject.
7. Extremely reputable people will come forward and be ridiculed by the general public due to mental and cultural conditioning.
8. There is no definition between fields of studies within even this sub itself. (This is a big one!!)
9. The UAP is in expected to be benevolent, by a large majority of the users.
10. The necessity and also danger of skepticism.
11. The conspiracy mindset.
12. The increase of reports, and why the Whistleblower is more important than previous events (thing Greer's disclosure meeting event)

So to expand,

1. The coverup of something you are not supposed to see is a great casus beli, why haven't we got any proof? Because the the people who are paid money to focus on this one aspect of disinformation are simply very good at their jobs. Think of a World renowned chef, or heart surgeon, they most likely don't even need to think about what they are doing, and do not put any extra effort at their job, they live and breathe this line of work. It would most likely be a similar situation with someone who has devoted their lives to disinformation and media manipulation.
2. The videos are alway blurry, we have had accounts of many sightings, lots of video footage, some spectacular, some absolute rubbish (think las vegas zoomed in aliens (even though you're probably already sick of this)). So many times in accounts, there has been records of people saying UAP's and creatures are simply "hard to look at". which covers the shitty side to this. BUT when there is some exceptional footage, it's always 'too good to be true'. Must be CGI, must be faked somehow. So it's a lose-lose situation. There is no consensus on what would be considered by this sub to be honest verifiable information.
3. Lots of people are banging on about how they "need to see hard evidence" and that's all that will convince them. So this evidence is potentially top secret, so im sorry, what makes the people who have the most intricate disinformation campaign, hide stuff from people in much higher places than you, think that. Hey this UAP sub is pretty legit, we are going to give them all the information because they deserve it. Fun fact, in their eyes, you are worker bees, and they are the beekeepers. they are a higher entity than you in that regard and they see you as something akin to an insect. Without demanding that this gets released to congress and then declassified, you are never going to see legit papers (without occasional leaks (and possibly controlled leaks)). People with this as their only way of fully believing might as well just get out of this conversation and join the rest of the public to wait for full disclosure, as for them it's either everything or nothing.
4. Stains on the reputations of yourself and myself, Think someone like Steven Greer and the more fringe abduction stories etc. I think there is no further explanation needed on this part. It damages the reputation to such a degree, that anyone joining the conversation will immediately leave the talk. Is this another level of disinformation? Hard to tell, but as i will go into detail about later whoever is running the disinformation campaigns is surely benefiting from these people whether their intention or not. (even the rift they create in the community is beneficial to disinformation)
5. The media drip is a simple concept, any thing until a few years ago that mentioned aliens was ridiculed by the media, these reports were always from the angle of comedy. ill put the next bit in brackets, because even for myself it is a little wild, but more of an example into how it could be used, (this is most likely not true but the CONCEPT stands (Look at steven Spielberg's E.T., people who are into this line of thinking are believing they have magic fingers and ride in bikes in front of the moon with children, add in some weird connection with almost undertone of romance, hey presto the UAP following community are connected with Pedophilia.)) Play destroy all humans, the game, look at all the obvious references to current UAP lore, it bleeds through, and this game is a comedy game (great game btw).
6. The disinformation campaigns run into the very core of this subject, and it could be argued that it runs so well that outside intervention is not actually necessary to the upkeep of these campaigns (more on this later)
7. Unfortunately for the mass of the public, it would take the president him/herself to declare this as a real phenomenon in a world address to make this seen as legit. Even though in theory the President of the USA is only a temporary employee position of the US government, and someone who is already in the loop theoretically holds a higher position than a public, temporary employee. They are the face of the USA, but looking at it from a reasonable perspective, someone who has been working a high position in the DOD for 50 years or whatever would have seen over 10 presidents (that's a guess). The label "Deep State" has actually damaged the accessibility of the concept (another disinformation?), where it is actually simple, people who have worked in structured hierarchies outside of the temporary domain of the public representatives have almost autonomy, due to the very nature of 'Classified' information.
8. This is a big one, and IMO it should really be addressed within this community. Why does a legit study of UAP's need to crossover with something as reputation breaking as gathering together to meditate to summon a UAP mothership. The lack of definition between subjects causes all the fringe theories to be mixed into one melting pot, then be branded as simply "batshit crazy" by outsiders. The whole WOO thing (even if it has some sort of credibility) is just damaging the reputation of a legit study into the phenomena. Think of the 4chan leaker, the conversations was littered with (yes racism, its 4chan, what do you expect) people saying they can summon UAP's with their mind, and this is not a foreign concept within the reddit subs. This really needs to be addressed, the scientific community has shied away from this subject en masse because of the stigma, that much is true. Saying you can summon UAP's with your mind (etc.) is only increasing the stigma. And on the flip-side, what a perfect disinformation concept... Why would you want to be involved with this community if you knew for a fact that recently outside your town thousands of people meditated and tried to summon an alien entity, (very cultic action BTW) who ever runs the disinformation campaign either heavily influenced this, or is laughing because they made his/her job easier, and simply did it for them.
9. Are they benevolent? This is a big part of the argument, we don't know enough to actually understand this. People assume the release of information coined the "Great Disclosure" will only bring positives to this world. What happens if there is truly terrifying reasons that has kept disclosure from becoming a thing. Hell it may bring world peace and people making love not war with other alien species, or it could reveal we are under some sort of extreme oppression and danger. The problems of this are not privy to the general public, we simply don't know. I assume there is a real reason for the existence of UAP's to be a conspiracy to some extent.
10. Last part, the Skeptics. So this is an interesting subject. Skeptics are necessary in their own right, but due to the levels of fanatics we find following UAP lore and theory (Think WOO), we also get an equal problem where skeptics will try to debunk things with equally wild claims. The skeptics aren't like a scientific community, they don't try to disprove theories with as much effort, (mostly), with corabarating data that backs up their claims, they just throw the classic "FAKE" at it, claim CGI, claim balloons where it is unlikely, (Except the Mothers day balloon guy VS metapod, that was actually legit and impressive, Kudos), meteor showers, bugs on the lens, whatever etc. This goes to such an extreme, that it is almost easy to tell this may be the effects of a well oiled disinformation campaign, i.e. they are disproving themselves within their own community. You don't find skeptics anywhere else except from the conspiracy community, there are only opposing theories. hell there are even people who have said that the Government released videos are; Fake; CGI; Stupid; Balloons. How great is this level of disinfo where people are questioning the validity of government approved released UAP videos.
11. So the conspiracy mindset is an interesting thing to look at, because of decades of disinfo, and ridicule it has increased the paranoia of some of the conspiracy theorists. a recent example: New Whistleblower? Must be a disinfo campaign, the government is trying to plant something to mislead us; Vegas? Must be a campaign to distract us from the Whistleblower news. Now this mindset is something that has permeated the Mentality of the community for a long time, and i fully believe it is heavily linked to both disinformation and the paranoid mindset, in this example, we are told to focus on the original narrative because this is fabricated to distract us, which is such a ludicrous concept that benefits a disinformation campaign wholly. Why not focus on both? because one is made to discredit the other? how deep into the conspiracy mindset when you can't just take at face value that both have the validity to be true. They are too close together? Yes sometimes in every field two unrelated events occur almost instantaneously and that is the nature of something being truly random. The most logical explanation is that they simply are both happening.
12. This current whistleblower is more important because of ease of access to information that this direct era is privileged to. The people who can't see that and argue, "but they did this in 1978" (Or whatever) are forgetting the concept that information travels much, much further now. I think the people who previously ran the disinfo campaign are actually giving up, due to everyone having cameras, and the seemingly decreasing effectiveness to simply "scrub" information from public record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmBniAE4y8E This is a great example for the argument.

I may add some more if this conversation gains a little traction. I only thing that it should be stated at some point, Yes the title even-headed could be argued to be complete bullshit, and that is peoples opinions. I think that the key point i'm trying to make is that because this was previously a 'tinfoil hat' conspiracy subject, doesnt mean we cant evolve from that and be an actual place of reasonable discussion, with reasonable skepticism. Bring in the extreme on both sides and pull them together to create a more realist focus of discussion (or cut out the extreme for more fringe sites). And focus on the credible and reliable centre discussion, (compared to aliens made me sterile etc.)
There are many viable reports and legit documents i have read in the last year, and some of these have had no focus whatsoever, but in actual reports where the data corroborates each other massively is where any researcher will find truth. If I can be bothered i will add it in another time.
Oh and for the love of god if anyone calls this a disinfo attempt is clearly too far gone for a reasonable conversation.
​

So this is going to be a ridiculously long post. Sorry if this is too much to follow, I tried to make it as organized as possible.
Basically I keep seeing post after post of people suggesting different places to look at online and I think it's misguided to think we'll ever somehow magically find something on the internet that solves this mystery.
I think we should start by looking at what we do know-- i.e. the leads that have been looked into and what we can deduce from what we learned. The fact seems to be that VERY few people will actually have any concrete information.

• Paul Baskerville has no memory of playing TMS (if he even did) and how would he? It's one song he (might've) played ~40 years ago. The other host who could have played TMS is deceased.
  • In an interview, he said "I still have my record collection at home - about 10,000 records - only, I wouldn't know where to start. I mean, should I just start with [letter] A and then look for a record cover that I don't recognize immediately? If it seems a bit post-punk, then I can take it out and play it, but I'm not retired yet, I don't have that much time, that's the problem."
    • While there's a remote possibility that Paul has TMS in his vinyl collection somewhere, we can't exactly just demand that he retire and dedicate the rest of his life to combing through his collection to satisfy our curiosity, especially when he himself doesn't seem all too interested in the song.
  • Furthermore, In an NDR TV clip that aired about TMS, Paul himself indicated that it's more than likely that TMS was a one-off demo tape they played once and immediately tossed out. I think this is almost certainly the case and that Paul has absolutely no further information that could help us.
    • Paul mentions a venue called LOGO in this clip at which TMB might've played, but this has also been a dead-end. (However, huge props to those who went through each of these performances!).
• For similar reasons as Paul stated, I don't think it's likely a producer or studio would have a memory of a particular band decades ago out of the thousands of similar bands that recorded with them. Even if somehow they did, our chances of finding every studio that existed in 80's Germany and getting into contact with those producers and somehow getting a definitive answer is next to zero.
• NDR and GEMA have been a bust. No offense to NDR, their team did a lot of work to release those records, and it's greatly appreciated, but ultimately TMS just wasn't listed. I think NDR gave us everything they possibly could and there's no more we can ask of them.

So this means we have pretty much exhausted every known connection to the song we've gotten so far. I didn't mention Lydia/Darius because they never had any direct information about the identity of TMB at any point, so they inherently can't provide us with that info. We know everything they did.
This means that a lot of the search has moved to scouring the internet, but let me explain why I think we won't find anything there:

• I know this is highly contentious, but I genuinely do not think TMS has ever existed on vinyl. Honestly if it was, we probably would've found it by now. I think it was a demo tape. My only argument here is that it is so unlikely to have been a released record. What is the likelihood that TMS had a vinyl run, but:
  • There are no copies that have ever been found.
    • Either a mass amount of copies have been lost, or it was a very small production run (which is highly unusual from my understanding, but correct me if I'm wrong).
  • NDR never recorded it being played and it was never listed with GEMA.
    • Why wouldn't it have been listed in the NDR logs or with GEMA unless it was a one-off demo tape like Paul Baskerville said in the above posted clip?
  • NDR has no copy of it.
    • In the above NDR TV clip, the archivists said they've been actively searching for it. If TMS was a record, surely they'd have a copy and it would have been found by now.
  • It hasn't ever been found on Discogs.
    • I know people are actively searching Discogs, but there's NO sign of it by now, even though so many people have been searching for years?
  • Also, I think if TMS did ever have a vinyl run, it would indicate that it was produced by a band with some fame and following. And somehow we have never heard from a single fan? Not even anyone who has claimed to have heard the song before?
• Again, this is not to say that we can definitively rule out a vinyl existing, but it seems so unlikely that I don't think we should focus all of our efforts on it. Because it seems most likely that TMS was a demo tape, I think we can assume the only people who would recognize TMS are those who directly had a hand in creating it.
• Searching for any info online therefore also seems pointless; in order for TMS to have some undiscovered presence online, the only possibility that makes sense is if was uploaded by a band member. Just to clarify, I say this because, if TMS was just a demo like I believe it was, there's no way for music channels or individual fans to have any copies to upload. IF then a band member did upload the song somewhere, we would have to assume many of these these things to be true:
  • The song title is completely unrelated to the lyrics OR it was posted under something generic like "demo.mp3" (otherwise it would have been found by now)
  • The song also has no relevant tags (otherwise it might have been found by now)
  • Someone in the band still had masters, equipment to digitize their tapes, AND cared about work they did ~20-40 years ago, but didn't care enough to properly title/tag their video or leave lyrics in the description (as again, we'd have found it by now if lyrics were uploaded anywhere).
  • Someone in the band, somewhere in their 40-70's, was tech savvy enough to digitize their tapes and upload them online, but not tech savvy enough to post their video around.
• While all of these things are possible, it seems to me unlikely enough to assume it probably didn't happen. For reference, I had a history professor a few years ago who stumbled upon a punk-rock album his band made in the early 90's; they digitized the tapes and uploaded them to Youtube, Spotify, Bandcamp, and made Facebook posts about it. If someone in TMB took the time to upload their old music, you'd think they'd put that level of care into it.
• But even if it did happen, and there's some undiscovered upload of TMS somewhere by a band member, we simply will never be able to find it.
  • The internet is unimaginably vast. Just looking at Youtube alone, 30,000 hours of content are uploaded to every hour. To put this further into perspective, in one single day 720,000 hours of content is uploaded to Youtube. That's a little over 82 years of video content uploaded every single day. That's an entire lifetime.
  • Like I said before, if there is an upload, it is not titled after the lyrics and it has no tags. With absolutely no keyword search criteria to go off of, we would have to somehow manually scrub the entire internet in search of an upload (obviously impossible).

This mystery isn't going to get solved just by looking at the internet harder. But I don't mean to just be cynical with nothing to offer, I'm going to make a part 2 in just as much detail later (if not tonight, the next few days) with how I think we should tackle the search going further. Also, I figure this is more than enough for 1 post LOL.
Lastly, I don't mean to be dismissive of all the work that has been done so far. Everything that's been done up until now has been important in getting to this point.
TL;DR: From what we know so far, we can infer that TMS did not have a wide enough release (if it was released at all) to justify scouring the internet for any more leads. More to come on new strategies.

I regret moving schools, self harm played a major part in this.
I’m in year 10 and I had to leave my first school since I was bullied after getting into a fight that started out of nowhere. I was punched 8-12 times in the head. Afterwards I stabbed my hand with scissors and had to go to hospital which a lot of people made fun of me on and blamed me.
Before this all happened, I was usually playful and did stupid funny stuff in class. I wasn’t too distracting and people thought I was sweet and chill. After the fight, I started to become completely quiet and barely talked to anyone, even my friends.
3 days after the fight, I returned to school. When I came back, this one girl started to be unbelievably nice and we started to become friends. Of course I still got some support from other people but she was the only one who checked up on me daily.
The few days while I was back, a lot of other people made fun of me for going to the hospital a lot of people were mad at me for calling the police and didn’t really get any support besides this one girl and two of my other good friends, even some of the friend group weren’t on my side or cared, even though I did nothing to start the fight.
I self harmed about 3-4 times a month since June 2022 but ever since the incident (beginning of March) it has been about 3-4 times a week. Barely anyone noticed before the incident but then I started to do it more frequently and didn’t try to hide it as much.
The worst time was about April when I brought a knife in and stabbed myself in the hand to the point I could barely move it. This was when people started to sympathise but it was also when people were at their worst. Some people made fun of me for stabbing my hand and refused to be near me, even my other ‘friends’ still.
The school had to check my bag everyday now. Soon, I brought in a knife another time but I was told if I did it again, I would get expelled. I was given 2 days inclusion. I sneaked in scissors another time and the school was mad at me but didn’t expel me. I was again given 2 days inclusion. I sliced my hand with a sharpener blade and got another day inclusion lost my support from the headteacher. They didn’t expel me. But they said for definite if I did it again, I’m expelled.
At this point everyone felt bad for me, besides these 2 people (one of them being who punched me). They were still mad and hated me for stabbing myself. They were a major reason why I moved schools. It was the worst decision I’ve ever made.
I still had the 3 really good friends (one boy, 2 girls) who have been on my side all the time and cared for me a lot. Although I still had thoughts about them and not wanting to move because of them, I still did. I just didn’t think they were enough. The dumbest reason why I left and my main regret was because I a crush on one of the girls but it was clear they liked someone else so I just couldn’t handle it anymore. They were still a really, really good friend and the only one who comforted me a lot ever since the fight. This was one of the dumbest reasons that influenced me to move. I can not emphasise enough how much I regret this decision.
I had a sudden breakdown in front of my dad and brought up everything that has ever happened. This was when I asked him to move schools. It was two weeks later when I moved. And within those two weeks I’ve told my friends. The main 3 convinced me to stay but I didn’t listen to their advice. They brought up stuff like ‘you need to make new friends, you’ve been with us for 3 years, you won’t find anyone with connection you have with us’. I should’ve listened to them. I would have listened to them but the fact that the headteacher said I could get expelled if I did again went to my head. I thought for definite I would do it again. I felt regret even before I moved, I would’ve asked if my dad if I can just stay at my old school and stupidly I thought it would be too awkward.
The last week at my old school was my hardest. I genuinely felt happy and I felt like all my prior problems that happened had finally stopped. I started to become more playful. But I felt dread knowing I was going to move, the bad feeling when I asked my dad to move had completely gone. I wanted to stay but all the paperwork had been done and it was too late.
I kept the fact that I was going to move from everyone else until the last day. When they all found out, they all looked sad. Even the people who made it clear they didn’t like me said sincerely they would miss me. I spent most of my last day misbehaving and having fun with everyone else, which I haven’t done for a while. But, the friend group I didn’t like as much didn’t even bother to say goodbye or hang out with me on my last day, this really made my decision on moving definite, I somehow felt happy I was moving and eager to start the new school.
The next day, I started the new school. I expected everyone to be nicer and more friendly but my first lesson everyone didn’t want to be next to me. The reasons they said was because ‘He’s Chinese’ and ‘He so ugly’.
2 days later I was invited to join a friend group. I felt happy that they invited me but they ended up being the most bullied people in the year. I wouldn’t have minded it but how weird they acted compared to how chill I wanted them to be disappointed me. They do weird stuff (not like morally bad) that I just feel uncomfortable to be around. They were nothing like my old friends and I don’t feel comfortable acting the way they act. So currently I’m just sitting there on my phone for the entire of break and lunch and occasionally having small conversations with two out of 7 of them. They’re not all bad people but just don’t want to hang out with them. However, one of the guys punched a Year 8 girl in the face and threw hot chocolate at her for only making fun of him and his friend’s glasses. I do not want to be near him but he’s the only guy who would talk to me.
I’ve had to urges to self harm again but if I did, self harming was one of the main reasons why I moved so I couldn’t do it again or else I moved for no reason. I’m still hated and unpopular but my new school just makes me feel worse.
I still talk to the main 3 over the phone but it just sucks not being able to see them as much, especially how they live in another town.
What’s worse is how I had to pick up an entirely new subject (geography) that I have to catch up on by myself and have to learn two more English literature texts (Romeo and Juliet & A Christmas Carol) before the mocks which is in 2 more weeks. AND I still need to be up to date with all my other subjects since all my classes are much ahead of me. I have been unbelievably stressed trying to catch up with all the work I’ve fallen behind in.

I haven’t eaten in 3 days. But I feel like a massive Ahole for telling him I don’t want to try to help him quit anymore and to go to his parents house instead of coming to our apartment.
I (35F) have been with my bf (37m) for about a year. I could genuinely see myself spending the rest of my life with him. He’s an amazing person and treats me fantastically…. When he’s sober. He drinks a lot. At least 3+ beers a day and shots of tequila when he thinks I’m not paying attention. Some days he’s fine. Other days he over does it and, while he never hits me, he gets mean. I don’t have to say a word, he’ll start an argument in his head between us. He’ll start saying “whatever I’ll just leave. I’ll just get in my car and leave. F this”. I’ll get upset and say wtf and then he’ll start. He’ll throw my exes and the shit they did in my face. If I say he needs to stop drinking so much, he’ll tell me I eat junk food sometimes and he doesn’t stop me from doing that. He always threatens to leave when I get upset at what he’s saying to me and then will 180 and “baby let’s just go to bed” And want to cuddle And doesn’t understand why I’m still upset. The next day it’ll be “how much of yesterday do you remember?” And it’s always “I was drunk I didn’t mean it I’m sorry”
So yesterday. We went to his friends house to hang out while I finished working (wfh) and then we’re going to the water park by their house with them and their kids. He got wasted of beer before 11am. He broke his glasses, again, and shattered his expensive vape mod, and passed out on the tile floor for 3 hours. When he got up finally, his friend had to physically walk him to the bathroom. I begged him to not drink the rest of the day. He looked in my eye and promised he wouldn’t. I go out to the garage where the guys are not even a minute later and he’s got a beer in his hand. I snapped. I told him he likes drinking more than me and he can go ahead and stay and drink but I’m done and grabbed My stuff and tried to leave. The friends wife was parked behind me so I was stuck. We argued infront of everyone. He brought up my exes, my weight and eating, and said he’d just get his stuff and leave me all infront of his friends while I cried. They somehow convinced me not to leave. We went to water park and had a decent time. I mostly just hung out with his friends wife the whole time.
We head home and he demands I stop at the liquor store so he can get beer and shots. I said I didn’t want to and he started saying he’ll just drive himself when we get home. He’s clearly still intoxicated and I don’t want him driving so yes, in that moment ITA and stopped. I asked him to please not get any shots at least. He did not listen. We get home. I went to bed cuz I just didn’t want to deal with him anymore. He took two shots and a beer and then came and passed out next to me. I got up and moved to the living room. This was 430pm. His parents were calling him a bunch so I woke him up at 930 to call them back. After. I told him we had to talk. I told him he likes drinking more than me and I can’t do this anymore. If he wants to keep drinking then I’m done, I won’t be around if he drinks anymore. I told him he should go to his parents house for the weekend and take a few days to think about things and figure out what he wants. He said nothing. I waited. Then just “I guess I’ll just sleep on the couch tonight” Awesome. I went to the bedroom and laid down and started crying. I hear him say “really? Why are you even crying? Seriously?” Then 10 minutes later he comes and lays with me and it’s the 180. “I’m sorry. Give me one more chance. Etc” We fall asleep. Wake up today. I feel awful. Migraine and throwing up. Great. I come out the bathroom. We’ve been up 5 minutes. It’s 415am. There’s a fresh open beer on the counter. I fell apart. He comes back out after getting dressed and asks what’s wrong. I told him I said last night that he had to choose between being with me or drinking and there’s a brand new beer already on the counter so I guess I have my answer. He gets upset and cries and says he’ll dump it out and he’s sorry.
. I’m recovered myself, I’ve been sober 4 years. It’s hard as hell being around someone drinking all the time. I’ve told him this.
I just don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve tried to do so many things, hobbies, working out, taking etc to try to help him quit. I’m tired. AITA if I just can’t anymore?

So I guess newsreaders can hide their emotions really well on TV. I’ve never seen Mary Markov in any state of heightened temper. The time she came down to help after I’d burned down the FunFlair building with Frankie was definitely a first in that regard. Then again, I’d never committed arson before either, so there were a lot of firsts that night. It’s been two days, but I can still see her angry face before me when I close my eyes. It frightened me a little.
After the fire had been doused by her staff, she gave Fran and me a look unlike anything I’d ever seen before. There was a homicidal rage in her eyes, her mouth had turned into a thin, steely line and the vein on her forehead threatened to pop. To my surprise (and admittedly relief), she turned the entirety of that wrath against Frankie Preston. “What in the world were you thinking?” she thundered, looming dangerously over the shorter man. “You committed a goddamn crime! If you were a normal person, I’d have to get you behind bars now!”
“Wait, I’m the privileged one here?” he snapped. “That woman tortured me! She brought me into this world by fault and proceeded to make me wish I’d never been born! And there was nothing I could ever do about it, because, oh, that’s right, I’m not a normal person! As you so endearingly put it. No one has a fucking clue what I am, so it’s okay for me to suffer, isn’t it?”
Mary opened her mouth to respond, but only ended up shutting it again. Then she focused her scrutiny onto me. “I thought you’d have known better.”
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I knew what I was getting myself into. This was a contemplated decision.”
“Was it ever.”
I motioned for her to step aside with me, bringing a bit of distance between ourselves and my waiter. “I’ll make it up to you,” I began. “I will, but please, please drop this.”
“Did he force you to come?”
“You don’t actually believe he could force me into anything, do you?”
Mary Markov sighed. “I guess not. Look, it’s not like I don’t understand his grudge. And from what I know of Ms Wallis, she won’t be missed by many. I just wish it didn’t have to come to this. This means a ton of work for me.”
“It means so much more to him.”
Another sorrowful moan. Then, “Alright. I have your back. But don’t, um… encourage this kind of behavior in him, please.”
“I won’t,” I promised. “What are you going to do about the other doll?”
“She’s in bad shape—”
“Trash shape,” Fran chimed in from behind, having inconspicuously strayed closer.
“She’s in bad shape,” Mary repeated, pointedly ignoring him, “and currently unresponsive, but since you said she’s shown signs of sentience, I guess we’ll have to look into her. It prompts a very interesting question, after all.”
“Being?” I offered.
“Think about it. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the other two living dolls, Zion Boyd and Bunny Martell, but they came alive after Frank tinkered with them. And now there’s this one. Maybe your little boyfriend has some kind of yet to be explored ability, seeing as he was the first to gain awareness.” She fell silent for a pregnant pause, glancing between the two of us. “Something to ponder on your drive home. Which you will be starting now.” She made a shooing motion with both her hands.
The message being quite clear, Frankie and I got back into his car. The ride was quiet at first, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable stillness. It felt like a weight I didn’t know I’d been carrying had been lifted. I stared at the server’s profile, alternately framed by nightly darkness and moonlight, drinking in every little detail about it. It was hard to believe that someone as cruel as Philomena Wallis had created something this breathtaking.
“So you’ll probably wanna talk about all of this, huh. About what I am, I mean.” Frankie’s voice was light and relaxed with only a hint of uncertainty gnawing at it.
“What’s there to talk about?”
“Aren’t you surprised? A little… disgusted, maybe?”
“I always knew you weren’t human. Beyond that, it doesn’t really matter to me what you are.” I shrugged. “I mean, I’d be fine if you were human, too. I’d be fine if you were a squonk.”
“What’s a squonk?”
“I don’t know, I just made that up. Anyways, did you actually think I would be grossed out? Did you?”
He smiled. “I guess not. This’ll sound crazy, and it’s hard to explain, but it’s like I got a voice in the back of my head constantly telling me that… that I should wash myself again or that I ought not to touch you. I suppose it’s not really a voice; it’s only these thoughts that kind of keep pushing into my mind even though I should know better. And I do know better. But that doesn’t stop the thoughts.”
I nodded slowly. “I think I understand. I can’t tell you how much I disagree with that voice, though. You’re the cleanest person I’ve ever met and if I could, I’d live in your hair like a cootie."
"That's how close you want me?"
"Yup.”
He let out a soft laugh. “I’m really, really glad you came with me. If there’s ever anything you need, I’ll do it. No matter what. If you want to bury a body, I’ll dig the hole.” He paused. “Actually, we should sell any corpses you might have. It’s wonderfully lucrative.”
I shot him a quick smile before turning to stare out the window with knitted brows. “What do you think about what Mary Markov said? About you being able to make the dolls come alive somehow.”
“I don’t know if there’s anything to it. I don’t remember doing anything special with them. Zion and Bunny were just standing around when I turned them on, and they came to within minutes. I figured they were sentient before, and it was simply repressed. I woke up randomly, too, after all.”
I hummed pensively. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Well, if you’re implying it’s some kinda superpower, then that’s probably the most useless one ever.”
“We don’t have to talk about this now,” I told him, to which he gave me a grateful half-grin.
Per my request, he dropped me off at Nettie’s place. I kissed him goodbye on the crown of his head and told him we’d text the following day. He thanked me again and I watched him drive off before going up to ring the doorbell, mentally preparing an apology for showing up at five-thirty in the morning. My savior human was surprisingly quick to answer, giving me an indulgent wave as soon as I stumbled over my first “I’m sorry”.
“It’s fine,” she muttered. “I hadn’t gone to bed yet.”
I gave her an incredulous look and she sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her normally soft, rounded cheeks were sunken, her eyes oddly dull. Judging from the angry red marks, she’d apparently been chewing on her lower lip with some force. It was only then that I took note of the sweater she was wearing. A faded, shaggy piece of fabric that clearly hadn’t been washed since Kit Sutton had given it to her on the cliff that day. I felt a sharp pang in my chest and pulled her into a hug as soon as I’d stepped inside with her.
She stifled a sob when she wrapped her arms around me in return. “It’s hit or miss with me when it comes to sleep lately,” she confessed in a brittle voice.
I swallowed. “I’m working on it. I’ll get her back for you, I have a lead. Is there anything I can do in the meantime?”
“Not really. I just gotta distract myself ‘til the morning comes, I’ll be fine then.”
“Then I’ll stay up with you.”
It was thus decided. We sat down in the living room for a while, then went out into the garden to watch the sunrise. My savior human had taken her place in her mother’s chair while I whipped up some chocolate chip pancakes (one of her favorites) for her for breakfast. I carried them out to her on a little plate with a cup of tea, and for a moment, her expression cleared up for a beam of happiness to shine through. “We should do something productive,” she remarked, and I gave her a questioning tilt of the head. “I’ve been thinking,” she went on. “Isn’t it weird how all these years, you didn’t hop dimensions once, and now all of a sudden it keeps happening?”
“Don’t worry about that right now.”
“I always worry, baby girl. It’s my natural state of being.”
“It shouldn’t be,” I insisted. “It feels wrong. You have your own problems, I don’t want to add to that.”
“Seriously, that’s not what’s happening here. This is just how I keep my mind off… things.”
I rolled my lips together. Blue-haired things, probably. “You deserve so much better. You deserve this to be way, way easier,” I stated.
“That’s a nice thought. But it doesn’t change anything right now. You can control your body, can’t you? Your teeth and tentacles?”
“Yes. It happens automatically when I get scared sometimes, but for the most part, I’m actively doing it.”
“Then how about if we could somehow start getting you on top of your dimension jumping, too? It would be a tad risky and I’m not sure how to go about it exactly, but it would be far better if you could toggle it. You’d be able to stop yourself from hopping when you don’t want to, but maybe you could venture into these other spaces for exploration purposes, too.” The words spilled out of her like a babbling little waterfall as she plucked apart one of her pancakes and stuffed them into her mouth. “Because there has to be more to this. I just have that feeling. So I reckon we try and find a way to work with this. What do you think?”
“Sure. I guess I’d be… open to that.”
“Really? I-I don’t want to pressure you…”
“No, no, it sounds fine! I wanna try!”
“Okay!” She set aside her plate, rubbing her hands in blatant excitement. “So it happens when your flight instinct kicks in, correct? How about we get you in that headspace on purpose?”
“How would we do that?” I asked cautiously.
When I was sitting cross-legged on the ground among my savior human’s countless flowers with my eyes closed and her hand in mine, that question had pretty much answered itself. Nettie Peterson was leading me in a “guided meditation” consisting of several intrusive queries about my first ever jump—the most terrifying moment of my entire life.
“The thing, that floating maw, what did it look like?” she began, referring to the creature that had ended it all.
I furrowed my brows. “It didn’t look like anything,” I replied meekly. “Mostly, it was just… really big and dark.”
“Dark? What color dark?”
“Black, I guess. It swallowed the light.” A pulsating pain began to flare up behind my forehead. “It was nothing. It was like a giant ball of nothing.”
“You told me once that it made a noise,” my best friend went on, her fingers grasping mine a little tighter. “Do you remember that sound?”
I winced. “Yes.”
“Describe it.”
“It was more like a vibration that went through everything,” I mumbled. “The ground was shaking. And then we all screamed.”
“Did you see inside its mouth?”
“No. There was nothing inside of its mouth. There was nothing inside of it. Just emptiness.” I shifted my weight. Images were flashing in front of my inner eye, filling the darkness behind my closed lids. My breath had caught in my throat and it felt like ants were crawling beneath my skin. “And then all of us were suddenly… nothing, everything was gone and at that last moment, everyone was so terrified. They all knew it was over. All of them.”
At first, I thought Nettie Peterson’s hand was trembling. Then I realized it was my own, shaking hers through the contact. For a moment, my body felt feather-light, but not in a relaxing or comfortable way. It was as though I was afloat, out of control and weightless. I didn’t like it. “Can we stop?” I choked out.
“Of course,” my best friend replied, gently squeezing my fingers.
I let go of a deep breath, blinking my eyes open. Across from me, Nettie was giving me a soft but deeply apologetic smile. “Did I push you too far?”
“It’s not your fault. I think I simply wasn’t ready for this.”
“I understand. Let’s go inside and make some more of those—” She stopped mid-sentence. She’d been pointing her chin at the plate of pancakes resting on her chair, only to see that it had changed.
The food I had just served her half an hour ago had turned into a moldy, rotten mess. A couple flies were circling it, emitting a low, almost melodic buzz. My savior human and I traded wide-eyed glances, disbelief, fear and excitement mirrored in our eyes. We then got up to take in our surroundings. The flowers surrounding us weren’t the same anymore. They were either withered or deathly pale; formerly pink, yellow and red petals had become either light gray or iridescently white. Thick, soupy fog was hanging over everything, it was denser and heavier than any we’d ever had in town before. The mist seemed to have consumed all the noise and color in the world, leaving only cold, oppressive silence.
Nettie was the first to regain speech. “It worked! Oh my Lord, it actually worked.”
I clasped her arm and she immediately fell silent. Wordlessly, I pointed at the rolling fog on the other side of the garden fence. There was something moving within. An enormous, caterpillar-like shape soundlessly dragged itself through the air, its long body slowly moving along across the street. My savior human’s jaw had dropped, her mouth wide open as she followed my gaze. Neither of us moved a muscle as we waited for the creature to pass by. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to take note of us at all. I didn’t want to imagine what could happen if one were to draw its attention.
“This is… I don’t believe this,” Nettie breathed, running a hand over her mussed coils. “You did it. We’re not home anymore.”
“What do you propose to do now?”
“Keep our heads low and try to find out anything useful, I’d say.”
I nodded and she folded her hand into the crook of my arm. Together, we proceeded through the open door back into the house. Wammawink and Nettie’s old convertible were standing in their garage, a pool of motor fluid surrounding each vehicle. The paint was peeling from the car doors, matching the way the pictures and photographs around her house had faded.
The food in her kitchen had morphed into a self-contained ecosystem. Bugs were crawling up and down the walls and ghostly white mice scuttled across the floor with shocking brazenness. There was no trace of human life anywhere in sight. We stepped out the front door and into the street only for Nettie to grab me and fling me to the ground next to her. We flattened ourselves against the curb as another one of the gigantic caterpillar-figures snaked its way along just a couple feet above our heads. I craned my neck to give my best friend a sidelong glance out of terrified, saucer-sized eyes. I could see my reflection in hers as she pressed a finger to her lips. I gave her a tiny nod.
Finally, it was gone again and we helped each other to our feet. Nettie brushed down her sweater with great care before tilting her head at me as though asking if I was alright. I gave a reassuring, albeit wavering smile which she returned with a slight strain to her brow. We linked arms again and started walking down the street. The whole dimension seemed to be a mirror image of our hometown, only deader. Aside from the flies and vermin, there seemed to be very little life. All of the houses we were so familiar with looked decrepit, old and empty. Walls were crumbling down, roofs looked to be seconds away from caving in and most windows were shattered. It was impossible to see ahead through the mist, but we managed to hide from the flying worm-things everytime they came up.
We were starting to become a little frustrated seeing as our exploration yielded nothing of note. There was hardly anything to be seen safe from the depressing alternate version of our neighborhood. On top of that, the clammy chill that hung in the air along with the fog was making us increasingly uncomfortable. Finally, we decided we should try and get back home. We returned to Nettie’s garden where we crouched down once again, hand in hand. Before my savior human could begin her questioning though, the ground beneath us suddenly began to shudder, heaving as if moved by some kind of subterranean pulse.
Nettie Peterson and I snapped our eyes open at the exact same time, mouths agape in bewilderment. And then we saw it. It was in the sky, partially veiled by the thick fog yet impossible to overlook. It became darker and darker as it neared, its indescribably large form seemed to envelop the entirety of the heavens. It had been five years since I had last seen it, but I recognized it immediately. Not that it had any features I could have recognized. I remembered though, and in that moment, it all came flooding back to me. The breeders that threw themselves in front of their young, the cries that echoed across the plains together with the stones and soil sent rolling by the earthquake. I caught my best friend’s gaze, read the terror in it and knew that it was just as immense as my own. Her lips were parted in an ear-piercing scream that ended up being drowned out by the hovering roar of the Devourer Of Worlds.
I squeezed her hand so tightly I feared I’d snap her fingers. And suddenly, before I knew it, all was silent again. The air was warmer, filled with the fragrances of countless different flowers. The early morning sun was shining down on us, and it felt like it was heating up my very core. We were back. In the blink of an eye, Nettie had thrown her arms around me, pulling me close to her chest.
“Baby girl,” she whispered.
“That was it,” I rasped out. “That was it.”
“I know.” Withdrawing just an inch, she wiped a thumb over my eye, careful not to scrape me with her nail. It was only then that I realized I was crying. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, noiseless and hot, dripping from my chin and wetting my chest.
"You're not hurt, are you? Look, it's going to be alright. You just take it easy now. We'll go inside, have some tea or coffee or whatever and calm down, a-and then we can figure this all out. Come on. Get up. Easy, easy now." She hugged me even as she pulled me to my feet and into the house alongside her. "So tea. How about strawberry? Or Turkish apple? Or classic chamomile? Something for the nerves, at any rate."
"Wait," I stammered, interrupting her monologue. "What about you? Are you okay?"
"Oh, no. No, no, no, far from it. I'll sign us both up for therapy once I find the time, but for now, tea! Tea."
"Nettie, please don't strain yourse—"
"Listen here, I'm gonna make you some goddamn tea and we'll sit down with it and it's gonna be warm and nice and we'll forget all about this. I'm here. I can take care of you. You do not need to be scared." She pressed her face close up to mine, her voice sharp and a mite threatening.
"I'm sort of scared of you right now."
"Oh." She drew back. "Pardon. I'll put on the tea." A forced, crooked tune tumbled from her lips as she went ahead into the kitchen.
We've both simmered down a little since the incident. It's been two days now. I used most of that time to unwind and recover from what had to be the single most eventful night of my time here on earth. Keep in mind, this happened the morning after the fire. The calm is not going to last much longer, though. I don't mind that, I just need to brace myself.
Rhonda's been in touch.
X
1
2: deadbeat roommate
3: creepy crush
4: relocation
5: beach concert
6: First date
7: Temp work
8: roommate talk
9: a dismal worldview
10: warehouse
11: staircase
12: explanation
13: hurt
14: hospital
15: ocean
16: diner
17: government work
18: something in the caves
19: shopping cart
20: olms and Jewels
21: long hair
22: recruitment
23: waitresses
24: dollhouse
25: burning plastic

Many praises to u/SpacePaladin15 for this universe.
Credit again to u/TheManwithaNoPlan for helping edit! And u/cruisingNW for their help in this chapter as well!
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Memory transcript: Tarlim, Wealthy Venbig. Date: [Standardized human time] October 4th, 2136
I set my pad on speaker and placed it on the counter so I could talk and work. “Hey, Sharnet! I was just thinking about you and thought I would call you!”
“T-Tarlim?” I heard her stutter through the speaker, “S-sorry. I was expecting another person.”
“Oh,” I replied, my ears slightly lowering, “well, I can call back later if-”
“No! No, it’s actually wonderful to hear from you. Oh, Stars, so much has been happening the past [few weeks]. Lots of travel, talking to people, finding where to go next, just… whuu-eeh! Thank you so much for calling. It is so good to hear from you again.”
“Same here!” I gave an amused whistle as I pulled out my large mixing bowl. “I have some good news to share! Remember when I told you about how my landlords fired me?”
“The puddles of Speh, yes. Part of me wants to believe that if they and their corporations were raided by the Grays, nothing of value would really be lost.”
I felt my tail begin to wag and have to be careful not to hit any of the fruits. “Something of value came from them this time!”
“Oh? What?” I could hear her amused whistle. It echoed wonderfully down my ears.
I chirruped excitedly as I told Sharnet of my stroke of good fortune. “My lawsuit was settled! They paid me out!”
“Really? That’s wonderful! I had thought for sure they would have fought you hard!”
“Oh, I am sure part of them wanted to.” Okay, there’s the first set of baskets done. “My lawyer said he looked like he wanted to cry when he signed.”
“Do you want to say how much, or is that something you’re not ready for?”
“Heh. Well, I got both unemployment and a very generous severance along with the payout.” I grabbed a couple stringfruits from their crate, “I won’t say the actual amount out loud because there are other people listening,” Yeah, I see your ears pointing to me! Focus on the baskets! We gotta make sure they feel welcome! “I’m glad to say that I’ve put it to good use already!”
“Good use?” I could mentally picture her tail wagging. “There are so many things I could think of that you could do that I don’t even know where to start. So what did you settle on?”
I pushed another completed basket to the side as I grabbed another jar of Starberries. “Well, it might have been buried under all the other news where you are, but our Magistratta decided to take in a good number of refugees from The Cradle. They will be living in our apartment complex for the near future.”
“The- the refugees?” I stopped for a moment at hearing her surprise. “S-stars. The invasion. That’s right. Those poor people. Huuuh. So much has been happening lately that it just… slipped into the background.”
I set the JuiceFruit down in the basket and picked up my pad. “Don’t blame yourself for that. You have been so focused on the Overseers, and I thank you for that. Some of the people here didn’t even think about it until I told them either.”
I heard a slightly relieved sigh come from the speaker. “Thanks, Tarlim. I… wait. People? What do you mean?”
I am so glad she asked! “Well, the refugees deserve a greeting! A warm welcome! So, using a bit of the settlement money, I got myself, Jacob, and a few of the braver residents together to help make some fruit baskets for them!” I glanced over to the line of people of all different species currently standing behind their own counters assembling basket after basket. It was a small miracle that anyone in my building would willingly be in the same room as me, but it showed progress. A few neighbors, some of my previous maintenance team, and even Pharva from the pharmacy! It might not be much, but they were able to be convinced!
Of course, Jacob subtly shaming them about a predator being more willing to help those in need than the “empathetic” Venlil probably had a part in that. To think it takes a predator helping for the average person to step up. How….amusingly predictable. Sharnet made a happy noise over the phone, slightly garbled by the distance. “Oh, that’s great! When do they arrive?”
“Oh, in a couple paws,” I replied, “from what I’ve seen, they might arrive in time for news about how the UN did in their attempt to retake The Cradle.”
“Retaking a world from the Arxur… do you truly think that such a thing is possible?”
I unconsciously waved my tail in thought as I placed a jar of nightberry preserves in the basket. “Humans have surprised us before. I wouldn’t put it past them to do so again.”
“We plan to!” A shout echoed over everyone working. It was Jacob. He was holding up a particularly plump Twilight Plum JuiceFruit. “We gonna make sure that the Gojid know the feeling of their homeworld being theirs once more! And We’re all doin’ our part! Makin’ sure they know they are welcomed and around people who care! Ain’t that right, everyone?!”
Murmurs and statements of agreement came from people in the room, all tinted with varying levels of shame, though for most an earnest focus on their task overcame that tint.
I wagged in agreement and turned back to my pad. The whistle of amusement coming from it is wonderful! “It would certainly seem like Jacob’s made himself at home! I was worried for a while that he might be…well, you know.”
That brought my mood down slightly, remembering the fiascos of Paws past. “Well, it wasn’t always clear weather in that department. There have been ups and downs, but we’re…we’re past that now.” I looked on as Jacob waved at one of the Venlil who had been attempting to sneak out after only having done 10 baskets. No we’re not. “All we can do is move forward and look towards the future.”
“A future full of new refugees, I presume!” Sharnet whistled in amusement again. I couldn’t help but join her. I like how she can lift my mood.
“Yes, quite a few at that! Ah, it has been great to hear your voice. I really should get back to focusing on these baskets. I hope we talk later?”
“Any time you want. I’m looking forward to it!”
My tail wagged again. By the Tenants, I hope she enjoys me telling her how the greeting goes. “I may take you up on that. For now, see you later.”
“See you later!”
I closed the connection on my pad and let out a contented sigh. I placed the jar I was holding into the basket I was working on before placing it to the side, finished. For me, that comes to 50. With 13 people doing maybe… 75 baskets per paw, there should be one for every refugee instead of just one per apartment.
Which, of course, requires people to actually make them.
“P-please! It- you don’t need me! You- you have the others!!”
The Venlil was one of my former coworkers, likely only here due to being in the same room as the rest when we found them. He acted very resistant, only going along due to the pressure of his work herd. His work was by far the slowest as he acted like he was only moments away from screaming the whole time he was here.
“C’mon,” Jacob held up another complete basket in his hands, giving it a little shake for emphasis, “don’t you want to let the refugees feel welcome?”
The single striped Venlil turned to look at Jacob, his tail swaying smugly, “I think you’ve got the welcome handled. Ten baskets is more than enough, so I’m just gonna head out.”
With a sweeping wave of his arm towards the ground, he made his leave once more. Jacob called out as the selahk turned his back on us, “Hey man, every little bit helps! Worst case, you spend a few hours making someone feel the best they had in weeks!”
The Venlil turned again, the door propped open behind him. “The worst case? No, the worst case is I spend a claw or more of my break stuck in a room with you when I could be doing literally anything else right now. The Magistratta’s already organizing and paying for it, so why should I stick around if they already have it handled? So if you’ll excuse me, I need to meet my tube so I can watch tonight’s Exterminators; and if the rest of you brasels are a smart herd, you’ll do the same.”
He held open the door after addressing the other residents, his sight scanned the room. After a few seconds, he called out again. “Well? Anyone else coming?”
I looked around at the ten others in the room. At the invitation of the man, three were hesitantly putting down the fruit in their paws. One already had their bag over their shoulder and stopped mid stride as the eyes of the herd fell on them.
A moment’s pause passed before the brasel stepped back into the room, the door closing behind him. “C’mon, I can’t be the only one who sees this for what it is. The Magistratta wants to make a good impression so the Gojid will bring their money and labor. Tale as old as time! New workforce comes in, and people like me are the first to go. Well! I’m not going to give them an extra welcome, just because some…some Giant wants to feel good about himself, so who’s with me?”
The four who had been making to follow paused in their step. It seemed that this extra appeal gave them pause for thought. From the sway of their tails, they were somewhat agreeable to him up until he mentioned his job, then they drooped almost completely when he mentioned me. Perhaps things were changing after all.
I capitalized on their hesitation and spoke up. “I’m not doing it to feel good about myself. I’m doing this so that people who have had their world ripped out from under them know there’s still a place in the galaxy they are welcome. I want to ensure that they get what I never did. I want to be there for them like I wished someone was there for me.”
Jacob, that amazing man, capitalized on the opportunity as well. “Ah heard that one of your phrases was that the herd protects and cares for its herdmates. Even if you never met them, these people are part of your herd. They’re still people who deserve a happy life. We, here, can help ensure that they know that they remain part of that herd. We can help mothers feed children, fathers find work, orphans find friends. And since all that is in the future, we can start with this.” He slid yet another finished basket to the side. He motioned to the undecideds. “If the rest of y’all want to leave, go ahead. Ah’ll pick up yer slack to ensure not a single refugee goes hungry when they arrive.”
The others who had remained seated through the brahkass’s proposal glared at those ready to leave, obviously swayed by Jacob’s speech as much as the rest of us were. The undecided’s ears and tails drooped as they slunk back to their stations to keep working, becoming decider’s in the process. The striped Venlil scoffed at them and turned again. “F-Fine, let a predator tell you what to do! At least I’ll actually be living my life!” With that, he stormed out, letting the door slam behind him.
I was about to speak up, but Pharva beat me to it. “That puddle of Speh couldn’t understand what it means to assist the Herd if an Arxur screamed it in his face!” He picked up a pair of Stringfruit from a crate and placed them in the basket he was working on. “You say no refugee will go hungry? I say that not only that, but they shall all eat their fill!”
I let my tail wag as I began my next basket. “I thank you all for being here, and moreover, for staying here after that selahk tried to convince you otherwise. What we’re doing here is going to make a lot of people happier than they’ve been in a long while, and if that isn’t worth a few break claws, I don’t know what is.”
As I watched people make their baskets, something blossomed inside me that I had thought functionally dead. The Venlil weren’t just talking amongst themselves, but with Jacob, and he talked back from behind his visor. A few even ventured a short conversation with me from time to time as we processed baskets. I finally felt a feeling that I hadn’t felt since my parents were alive.
Hope. For the future, for the galaxy. For me.
I grabbed my next basket and began to fill.
​
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I (26F) work part time at a grocery store. My job consists of printing tags and store signs, making sure items are properly tagged after resets, replacing tags and store signs, etc. My section is only general items and liquor but I also tag grocery items if need be. This happened towards the end of April between me and my store director (who I'll call Mike).
At the end of every month, store signs for almost every general item and liquor have to be replaced along with tags. Store signs take priority regardless of section, then tags. Excluding grocery, I had around 50-70 store signs and 5,000-7,000 tags (give or take). Tags came in on Tuesday and were supposed to be put up by the end of Wednesday, but since I was only part time I could only complete what I could.
I spent my Tuesday shift separating tags and didn't have time to place any of them (separating tags is not necessary but it saves time and makes the job a lot easier). Wednesday morning, I was busy replacing signs when Mike kept bothering me. We agreed that morning I would do store signs before working on tags, but he seemed adamant that tags took priority. He bothered me over tags about 3-4 times even while I was taking a break (I was entitled to a 15 minute break).
Mike asked me what I was doing, then said I was "making him nervous" for not working on tags right away. At that point I was getting a headache from the stress but it upgraded to a migraine. I was almost crying as well and could not speak. I spent 10 minutes trying to calm myself but it didn't work, so I texted Mike that I was leaving early and left.
A month after I explained it to my store manager and he said I should've been written up (this was a week before he started working at our store so he had no idea this happened). I am also guilty for not working on tags. Our liquor manager named Rachel was also helping me with tags so I also didn't feel right by leaving her. I have since apologized to Rachel and while she understands why I left I still don't know if I did the right thing.
So AITA?

5 months ago, i had a part time secretary job at a small company (hence why they accepted i work part time). The CEO of the company (or - my boss) had to fly for some meeting in Germany. I am also a college student at some uni near home, and my boss wanted me to join him for that 4 day trip. At first i disagreed because I couldn’t miss the classes at that period of time, but he managed to convince me saying he will pay for all my expenses and that he will pay me twice what i make for trip. I accepted because that would have helped me paying off my loans. We got to the hotel, to find out that they overbooked rooms, leaving me and my boss to a single room and a single king sized bed. First night went smoothly, we both stayed at our sides of the bed, even though he mentioned that he moves a lot during the night. We had the first meeting on the second day, which went flawlessly, and we came back to the hotel very happy, and both quite tipsy. I woke up the third morning with his hand over me (kind of hanging on me) and my ass half laying on his morning wood. I got out of bed and kind of shook it off. That third day went pretty good too, and we came back to the hotel happy that this trip is successful and done with. In the evening we were both getting ready to go out and walk around the city etc, each on his own. He was in the shower when i left, and when i came back to take my card i walked on him completely naked, with his dick hanging around, and headphones on so he didn’t hear me. I was kind of shocked for a couple seconds, took my card and left quickly without saying another word about it. I came back to the room when he was already out, and decided to shower with some music on. He came back like 10 minutes after i did i think, and decided to walk in the shower (which idk how I didn’t hear or notice) fully naked and get in with me. He hugged me from behind, placing both his hands on my boobs and freaking me out, rubbing his dick on my ass. I immediately struggled him and pushed him away, asking what he is doing. Apparently he noticed me looking at his dick a bit earlier, and thought that i wanted it. I finished showering him off me and came out straight to bed, needless to say he didn’t say anything else to me until we got back. (For those concerned, he slept on the floor that night). He gave me a quite significant raise since, and made sure i know that he didn’t mean to hurt me in any way and that he is very sorry for what happened. Our relationship since was nothing but top notch professional.
Phew, that was something i never told to anyone yet. Sorry for the long post, thank you for anyone that read and was interested in it!

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP
Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me out of some hang ups, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good.
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Memory Transcription Subject: Christopher A. Dewey, Human Merchant Sailor, Venlil-Human Exchange Participant
Date [Standardized Human Time]: August 29th, 2136, Very Early Morning.
We got a message an hour ago from Videk, ordering us to report to Hangar-08 to start On-Stick training; and to bring our bags! I guess the guy had wanted to get as much out of the day as he could. That or he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
Videk met us at the doors to the hangar, a small travel bag sitting on the floor by his side, tail swaying slowly as he watched us approach. “Good Waking, Taisa. Good Waking… Christopher.” An improvement, I’ll have to ask Taisa about that talk they had.
“This,” He continued, motioning to the shuttle parked in the hangar behind him with his tail. “Is your training shuttle: registration C1-0V3R-HR-EX.Your first On-Stick training assignment will be to follow appropriate lift off and departure procedures, plot and follow a course to The Capitol on Venlil Prime, seek permission to land from the proper authorities, and land safely and legally following those permissions. All of this, while following proper procedure and regulations. All of this will be graded.”
As he speaks the door behind him slides open, revealing a broad hangar bay, heavy clamshell doors dominate the far wall. At the center of the bay sits a stout craft painted white and black, a pair of stubby wings jutting from its sides flowing into a pair of engines flanking a singular tail. Venlil script is painted at the root of the tail and on the top of the rear ramp.
“Upon arrival in the Capitol you will have some paperwork to do at the U.N. offices with regards to your habitation. I will need to pick up some equipment from the training facility at the landing fields. After our respective errands, let’s say half a claw, we will meet up back at the shuttle and from there you will be plotting an in-atmosphere route to Shadetree, Sunward of the Capitol, to drop me off and wait for me to install and calibrate the remote instructing equipment. Once that is completed, you will plot another in-atmosphere course to Heartwood River, concluding this paws evaluations. Do you have any questions?”
I shook my head, and Taisa flicked her ears, in what I believed was a negative. “Very good, load your stuff and we’ll begin immediately.”
After a few minutes of finding places to tie off our belongings and get everything situated, I sat in the pilot’s seat and ran through the pre-flight check with Taisa. We caught a pair of faults in the starboard fuel delivery units. Videk seemed pleased we had caught them, and that he hadn’t had to tell us they were there. I could feel a slight smile tug at the corner of my mouth.
Devious little bastard makes for a damn good instructor.
Once the preflight was complete I closed the rear ramp and hailed the flight control tower. “Tower this is shuttle C1-0V3R-HR-EX requesting clearance for departure, place us enroute to Venlil Prime with planned landing zone of Capitol Shuttle Field 13-Bravo.” A Human voice came back over the line, a bit of mirth in their voice. “Shuttle, Tower, you are clear for departure, opening bay doors now. Good luck and Godspeed.”
The doors to the station hangar yawned open, filling the viewport with the void and all its stars beyond as I slowly brought the shuttle off the hangar floor, easing it out through the opening. I reached over to the nearest display and opened the Nav-computer interface, plotting our course to VP, and then on to the Capitol landing fields. Once I was confident I had the proper navigation commands and sequences set I called over Videk to have him review my work.
He gave me a quick flick of his tail before saying “Looks good, Christopher. Feel free to spool and jump when you’re ready.”
Videk’s approval given, I reached over and pushed forward on the throttles, engaging the drive and hurtling the shuttle into subspace.
It. Was. Beautiful. Everything seemed to stretch, stars in the distance turning from pinpricks of light into brilliant colorful streaks, lengthening as we bounded through the void. Lines of light far off in my periphery zip past like tracers as the ones before me feel as if they’re pulling me in with their kaleidoscope of color. The hum of the shuttle fell into the background while I became entranced by the light show in front me, picturing myself on the set of one of those old sci-fi shows I would watch with Pa on the weekends. The Future my ancestors had imagined was Here, right before my eyes and at the tips of my fingers! This view was… Hypnotic. The simulator couldn’t hope to do it justice.
Two hours. That was it.
Two hours to travel what, until very recently, would have been considered an insurmountable distance for Humanity. Dropping from Sub-space into the proximity of Venlil Prime was another astoundingly brilliant view. Scorched white deserts flowing into massive swathes of golden sands cut by the occasional streak of blue before blending into a beautiful verdant mix of turquoise and green fields, with vast lakes and rivers dotting the forests, flowing into wide marshy wetlands. Before finally, the curve of the planet fell away from its star, allowing the fading sunlight to showcase glittering city lights dotting the countryside.
The thrusters burn to life, crackling and thrumming with power as they drive us forward through the void to the beautiful marble before us. I flip two switches on the overhead, tapping the leftmost display to call up the local channel list and place a hail to the Capitol’s landing fields to request clearance and pad assignment. A quick ping, signifying my hail had been acknowledged, chimed over the console speaker.
“Capitol Shuttle Field 13-Bravo this is Shuttle C1-0V3R-HR-EX requesting clearance for landing at an available pad of convenience.” “C1-0V3R-HR-EX, you are cleared for landing, 13-Bravo, direct to pad Charlie-5.”
The Flight through the Void may have had some feeling of familiarity and nostalgia to the old Sci-fi shows at home; but in-atmo had the far better view! Rolling turquoise fields and towering thick trees, with their canopies tilted greedily towards that unmoving sun, falling away to a gargantuan metropolitan area, its architecture entirely alien yet still somehow familiar. Massive skyscrapers soar to touch the sky, reflecting light in brilliant angles and colors, the space below them populated by squat sturdy buildings and deep black roads. The Venlil going about their lives below look like ants as I ease off the throttle, taking the speed down to prepare for the final approach. The display on the viewport flags my landing area with a small pip guiding me in, slow and easy.
The cabin jostles slightly as the ship settles onto its landing gear. Videk seemed impressed; his ears up as he tapped away at his data pad! Taisa’s tail sways happily back and forth as she runs through the diagnostics of the landing, checking system status reports.
“Looks like we’re all clear. Videk do you have a time we should try and be back by?” Taisa beeps, showing the flight instructor the console in front of her.
“I just need to pick up the equipment and get it linked up, that should only take about a half a claw. Walking to and from the landing field and the U.N. Offices should put you at about the right time.” Videk turned away and made for the ramp; Taisa’s talk helped, and he was clearly trying, but he was still a bundle of nerves around me. His fur was so puffed out it looked like he was holding more static than a thunderhead.
As we stepped out of the artificial gravity of the shuttle I felt like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. My first step faltered making me stumble down the ramp and bounce off the… soft pavement? “Oh, forgot about that.” Videk winced sympathetically, “Our gravity is about twenty percent more than earth’s, so be careful. Falls are likely to hurt a little bit more here.”
“Would’ve been nice to know first, Videk.” I groaned, rolling myself over and sitting up, luckily the visor hadn’t fallen off; I would need to add one of those new back braces and some knee compressors to that order of stuff from home. “Do you know where the U.N. Offices are? Or should we just ask around to find our way there?”
“I do not, but you should be able to get directions on your pad. I trust the two of you can figure it out, so I’m going to go get the equipment I need. I will wait for the two of you with the shuttle once I am ready.” With a parting flap of his ears, Videk turned and walked away; flicking the tip of his tail back and forth as he did.
“Alright then,” I grumbled, forcing myself up off the pavement, swaying as I found my new equilibrium. “let’s get going. Can you pull up those directions?” She nodded slightly, flicking her ears forward. “Got them up already! You alright there?”
“I’m fine.” I grunted, rolling out my shoulder a little. “Feels like I weigh a quarter ton, but I’ll get over it with time. Lead the way.”
After a few minutes of walking we were off the landing fields and into the streets of the city. My boots sinking into the pavement a little with each step, just like on the landing field. “Taisa, what is this stuff? I figured it was just to make landings a little softer on shuttles but it’s everywhere! Looks like pavement but it gives like rubber; why are your roads like this?” “Anti-stampede concrete.” She stated, matter of factly, like that meant literally anything to me. My silence must have tipped her off that I wasn’t getting it as she focused one eye on my visor. “Oh… I guess Humans wouldn’t need that. It’s to help reduce stampede fatalities, it’s the same reason the roads and buildings have gentle curves, no sharp angles.” Looking around at the way the groups of Venlil flowed through the streets I realized she was right, what I had thought was a futuristic aesthetic design was just to keep people from killing each other against walls or trampling them into the ground when they got scared. How strange… and slightly worrying.
“Weird, that sounds like some crazy wonder material. Bet we’d have a bunch of uses for it back on earth.” My eyes watched the tips of skyscrapers towering above us, “How far out does it say we are?”
“Only a little further, about one and a half kilometers.” She responded, a slight pant in her voice. I wasn’t in the best shape, cardio wise, but I couldn’t imagine getting winded after 10 minutes of walking; guess all that talk about the Venlil having less stamina than us was right.
The U.N. Office complex was a series of giant flowing buildings built on a large park area. It wasn’t any design I had ever seen so I figured it had to have been an existing complex that just got turned over to the U.N. for their uses.
Passing through the heavy glass front doors we found a wide receptionist's desk, with several Humans sitting behind it, answering questions and directing people where they needed to go. One of the receptionists, a short dark haired woman with a visor obscuring her face, beckons us over. “Hello! How can I help you today?” “H-Hi!” Taisa beeps excitedly, her tail swaying behind her confidently as she takes a deep breath and straightens her back. “We’re part of the ‘integration’ experiments, we were told we need to fill out some forms for habitation. Where do we go to do that?” “Oh! Congratulations! That would be Suite 216-B” The receptionist answered, excitement in her voice as she pointed to a room on the map infront of her.
“Thank you!” Taisa responded, turning to head up the stairs behind the receptionist's desk. Halfway up the stairs she swiveled her ears over to me before saying. “Sorry, I figure if I’m probably going to have to work with Humans other than you for this I should try and at least work on being able to talk to them.” “It’s alright,” I chuckle, patting her shoulder. “That’s a great idea and you’re doing alright!” Walking down the hallways we saw prints of landscapes from Earth, Machu Picchu, the Uyuni Salt Flats, The Grand Canyon, YellowStone, Hạ Long Bay, The Zhangye Mountains and Plitvice Lakes. I pointed out the places I had been to as we walked past them, finally stopping at suite 216-B.
The door was open so we knocked, getting a quick ‘enter’, before stepping in. A man sits behind a desk, the top covered in organized files and folders, a placard on his desk declares his name as ‘Obediah Kamara’ with a small Liberian flag stamped beside it.
His visor obscures his face as he looks between the two of us before beginning. “I presume you are…” He sorts through a couple of the files and folders before stopping on one and opening it, pulling out a document packet. “Christopher Dewey and Taisa. Correct?”
We both respond in the affirmative as he gestures for us to take the seats across from him, sliding the documents across the table as Taisa’s pad pings on her belt. “These are agreements to ensure that you,” He starts, looking at me. “Understand the rules in regards to your habitation here on Venlil Prime. I understand that part of your integration will be taking you off world to and from Earth, these rules primarily apply to your time here. We ask that you remain considerate of the provided rules and guidelines on the ship if you are carrying Venlil passengers. Taisa, those are the terms, conditions, compensations and requirements for your family to house a human when the two of you are present. Virtual signature of that document is required within the next 3 of your ‘paws’.” Taisa stiffened a little bit, likely thinking about her Mother’s response to my arrival; that was something we were probably going to have to have a talk about later. I had an idea for the short term, at least. I ran through the paperwork real quick and it was all pretty simple: don’t be without the visor or some kind of face covering in settings where you couldn’t guarantee that an unprepared Venlil wouldn’t see you, avoid aggression, speak quietly, no eating meat, animal products or byproducts, no hunting local wildlife; bit odd considering I didn’t even have a bow or a gun but rules are rules, I suppose.
“Sounds good to me,” I said, signing the indicated portions of the document. “When are my items supposed to get here?”
“We don’t expect your requested items to arrive for another week or so, for now you’ll have to make do with what you brought with you.” Obediah responded, shuffling the packet of papers back into the folder they had come from. “With that complete you are free to go. I understand you have training to complete, so I wish you good luck with your endeavor. If you have any questions or needs with regards to your habitation you can contact Sam, their details will be forwarded to your communication devices.”
I caught Taisa’s tail twitching as her ears swiveled nervously out of the corner of my eye; even with her attempts to push through it I think the amount of Humans around was starting to get to her. Still, she was doing better than I think a lot of Venlil would be able to manage. I reached over, gently tapping my hand against her paw, trying to ground her a little before motioning to go, she nodded slightly as she flicked her ears.
“Thank you, Obediah, we’ll be sure to get into touch with them once we get their contact. Have a good day!”
Taisa and I stood, exiting the room and making our way out of the building, stopping to look at another picture or two along the way. Something needed to be done about possibly not having a place to stay to put my, and more so Taisa’s, mind at ease. I figured I could sleep in the shuttle, if I had to. It wouldn’t be particularly comfortable but I could certainly do it; I’d need a mat, maybe a sleeping bag or some blankets and a pillow.
I had no clue where I was going to get my hands on those, or at least a set of them big enough for me to actually use.
Then I saw the temporary units in the field near the offices. Men and Women in U.N. fatigues were milling about the area. Barracks? That could solve the problem, if they’re willing to help out a man in need, of course.
“Hey, Taisa, I need to make a stop real quick.” I state, walking briskly towards the largest of the buildings. “What’s up?” She asks, ears focused on me as she tilts her head a little.
“Well, I was thinking, I don’t think your parents, your Mom especially, won’t, uh… won’t want me around. At least not for a little while until she gets to know me better.”
“I think you can get past it, she’s not that bad… It’ll just be tough.”
“Oh I’m sure I can get past it, but I’d rather not just sleep in the grass in the meantime.” “I don’t think she’d make you sleep in the grass…” “I like being prepared, if she doesn’t want me in her house I’m not going to push the issue.”
“I just… I hope it doesn’t come to that, I’m not going to let her toss you outside like an animal.” She sighs quietly as we push through the front door of the barrack building.
A desk manned by a napping U.N. Marine with Private ranks stuck to his shoulders filled the space beyond the doors. He stirs as the doors clank shut behind us before scrambling to throw on his Visor as he notices Taisa.
“Hello, Uh… Can I help you? This area is for active U.N. personnel only.” He starts, his voice finding its authority only about halfway through the statement.
I stand straight, trying to muster the stern demeanor I’d found in my father and his friends so often when they tried to get something on base after their retirements. “Easy, Private. It has come to my attention that my accommodations lack proper bedding.” “O-Oh, uh, I apologize…” He stammers out, searching for something to say, likely looking to find a way out of trouble for sleeping on duty.
“Sir.” I state. “What’s your name, Private?”
“A-Alvarez, Sir.”
“Alvarez. I’ll remember that, Alvarez, how about we make this quick, you get me a wrap of blankets, 3 pillows and a bedroll and I don’t find your commander to report your… lack of enthusiasm.”
The private snaps to attention before firmly stating. “Yes Sir! I’ll be right back, Sir!”
As the private turns and walks away crisply I hear Taisa whistle with laughter a little beside me. “I’m surprised that worked.”
“You’d be surprised what a hard voice, straight back and the right slacking Private can get you if you just don’t go pushin' it too far in your story.” I whispered with a wink.
After a few minutes of waiting Private Alvarez returned with a duffle bag, stuffed full with blankets and pillows, as well as an inflatable bedroll under the other arm. “Here you go, Sir. Will this be ok?” He asked, passing the items over to me.
“Perfect, thank you Private.” I took the bundle of bedding and turned to the door, before turning my head back over my shoulder, “Oh, and Private? Do try and get proper rest before duty.”
A shaking “Y-Yes, Sir.” followed Taisa and I out of the door.
The first half of the walk back to the landing field was quiet, I was scanning the skyline again, I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was on another planet. Taisa however had her ears pinned back, her paws lightly holding her tail tuft as we walked.
“What’s got ya down?” I asked, watching the herd of Venlil glide around us as we came, trying their best not to get too close to me.
“I’m… concerned.” She sighed, the tip of her tail twitching between her paws.
“About?”
“My mother, what she’ll say… What she’ll do.”
“I can’t exactly say I know what her reaction’ll be… But, whatever it is we’ll just have to deal with it. It’ll probably take time, but we’ll get by.” I soothed. She let go of her tail, placing the tip of it on my back, but her ears didn’t let up at all.
The rest of the walk to the shuttle was quiet as she fidgeted with her paws, trying to take her mind off of the subject. Videk was there waiting for us, a few crates secured to the cargo area of the shuttle that weren’t present before.
“You two ready?” He asked, flicking his tail at us.
“I think so.” I responded, stowing the bedding in an empty compartment as Taisa flicked her ears.
We ran through our preflight checklist again, finding another pre-placed failure from Videk waiting for us, this time in the starboard control surfaces. Once the check was done we radioed the tower for clearance to take off and set an in-atmo course for Shadetree to drop off Videk. It was a short hop, about a half hour of flying or so before I had to call ahead for clearance to land again.
Most of the flight from the Capitol to Shadetree had been rolling turquoise and green hills or open fields of produce growing in the everpresent light. A sudden dense forest rose from the fields, thick dark brown trees with fluttering golden leaves stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. A sudden break in the forest revealed a clearing for the Landing field, much smaller than the one at the Capitol. The city was built under the canopy of the trees, giving it a constant filtered light casting down through the shifting leaves. It was certainly a beautiful town, I’d have to come back to visit some day. Maybe once Videk had warmed up to me a little bit more.
As the ramp fell ,a small cargo truck arrived alongside the shuttle to collect Videk and his equipment. I offered to help but the Venlil driver just about ran when I started talking so I figured it was probably best to just keep out of it. Once the cargo truck departed, Taisa came back up to the cockpit, plopping down in her seat, and looked through the viewscreen at the trees beyond. The soft hiss of the ramp closing marked the finality of Videk’s departure.
“So, how are you feeling about Venlil Prime so far?” She asked, one eye on my face as I finally slipped the visor off.
“I like it! Between the beautiful scenery, interesting architecture and hanging out with you and Shamrock, here I’m having a great time!” I responded, rubbing my hand on what amounted to the shuttle's dashboard.
“... Shamrock?” She asked, her tail swaying in what I figured for amusement.
“Yea! Remember how I told you Humans like looking for patterns? Well it works on words and numbers as well. The tail number for the shuttle could be taken to spell ‘Clover-HR-EX’, or just clover for short. Clovers are a type of plant on earth that a few cultures believed to be lucky, one way or another. One of the nicknames for them was a Shamrock!”
She laughed at me.
“You are such a dork.” She said, wiping a tear from her eye as her tail whipped back and forth. “It’s a good name, usually shuttles don’t get one. I think it fits.”
I chuckled, a thought crossing my mind. “Think we could get any shuttle-grade paint? Preferably green, yellow and black?” She raised an eyebrow at me as her ears cocked at different elevations. “Oh? Someone feeling a little artistic?”
“Well, I could always paint a Shamro-” I was interrupted as the ping signifying we were being hailed sounded off. “We’ll finish this later.” I said, pointing at her as I accepted the hail.
Videk’s voice bled through the speakers. “Ok, looks like the connection is secure. Let’s go ahead and run through getting you familiar with the software, it should be quick and easy.”
It was not.
It took two hours. After a lot of trial and error, stop and go flights to test the connection and a few near misses with an especially tall tree we had gotten the system setup such that Videk was confident it would work in an emergency if he needed to step in. With that all squared away Taisa and I settled in to get on our way to Heartwood River. Sleeping on the blow up mattress or on a real bed hardly mattered at this point, I just wanted to sleep.
The overall flight time was set to be about an hour and a half, not too bad and man was the view beautiful: rolling fields, roaring rivers, pristine skies and alien forests abounded across the countryside. We had just passed over Hidden Plains when Taisa and I were just settling back into talking about her parents and our best route to try and handle them, when the hail system chimed and immediately spat out a harsh tone without acknowledgement, the same one the simulator used for distress calls.
“Mayday Mayday Mayday. Report of shots fired at residence housing humans. Need immediate medical evac at The Berrypatch Farm in The Grove, 11 minutes Night-ward from Hidden Plains. Hailing all airborn craft, we need a medical evac immediately!”
I immediately returned the hail. “This is cargo shuttle C1-0V3R-HR-EX. Responding to Mayday from the Grove. We are en-route to render aid. Hold tight, we’ll be there.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Taisa tighten her flight harness as I reached for the throttle.
---
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I've got a really weird problem here. Having a MSI Z690 Wifi Edge DDR5 with a 13700kf CPU.
My goal is to undervolt and overclock the CPU. Cooling is okish, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 AIO gets its job done.
So I've got the 7D31vHC BIOS installed.
Here is my issue for x54 multiplikator:

	idle	load	tempthrottle
auto vcore	1.268V	1.368V	yes
audo adaptive	1.410V	1.368V	yes
adaptive 1.4V	1.410V	1.368V	yes
adaptive 1.3V	1.410V	1.368V	yes
adaptive 1.4V global offset -0.050	1.368V	1.368V	yes
adaptive auto + vf curve -0.1V for 54x	1.510V	1.368V	yes
LLC6 and AC_LL=10, adaptive voltage auto	1.468V	1.300V	no

​
As you see the board refuses to undervolt the CPU... Also on complete default settings VDROOP seem to overshoot massively instead of dropping.
The only way I've got a UV working was by using low AC_LL and LLC6. That way I've got voltages down to 1.266V on load and temperatures down to 80. But I have really high idle voltage with this - 1.468V!
Leaving voltage on Auto never matches VID with VR VOUT on LLC5. It should be DC_LL 20 but I have to go down all the way to DC_LL 1 and readings are still off by 30mV. LLC on Auto and Lite load modes never match VID and VROUT...
This CPU seem to work stable on 54x with 1.320 voltage (31k pts on Cinebench R23) but I have no clue how to achieve this with vf curves. They do not work and instead the idle voltage sky rockets... Adaptive voltage is completely useless - it is never applied I can put in phantasy numbers and the board boots but with different voltages.
I first need to figure out how to properly UV so I can later use the headroom for OC higher multi with fewer cores(<60). I can shift away 300W of heat so allcore OC is pretty much limited to <56x if I manage to get UV working.
I already saw the video of scatterbencher who did a full review of 13700k with UV+OC on a MSI board. But his settings crash my CPU when booting and I have 1.530V on idle. It does not even run x58 stable on one CPU core.
What is this mess :/ If you have insights please help. I am doing this for straight 3 days and it is getting more and more confusing...

To anyone struggling to learn the aa, if you have some time maybe 2-3 weeks till exam get a white board paper roll (5-8$ on amazon) put it on your wall draw out the aa and leave it there, If you're a visual learner 10/10 solution not once did I sit down to learn but just after looking at it once every now and then I knew exactly where which amino acid was , I made divisions between the types and used high yield aa video (just search this up it'll prolly show up, he has whole page called high yield mcat) added the uniqueness of the side chain, pkas, three and one letters . Draw them medium sized but big enough to be seen not teeny tiny. Hope this helps anyone struggling.