Yeah the title is corny but whatever
I am trying to decide, should I message the girl I have a crush on or should I just let it go. I know her from work. Her position was seasonal and our last day of work together was about 3 weeks ago. We had some moments together that I hope to always remember. They were really simple but thinking about them now, on my own, in quiet reflection, they make my heart feel full. Knowing that, what are the reasons I am telling myself I should not message her? The hard truth is she lives a roughly ten hour drive way. I don’t know what a flight would be like but comparing 10 hours of driving on beautiful highways to the cost and frustration of flying, I think I might be inclined to drive. Another excuse I keep telling myself is that we worked together. But, the keyword is “worked”. The “ed” means we don’t work together anymore. But for some reason I still feel like it’s inappropriate. The last time we talked was a little less than 3 weeks ago. It wasn’t much of a conversation either. She didn’t respond to the last couple of things I sent her on Instagram. I keep feeling like no answer is my answer. Other people are telling me I’m overthinking it. She might not be much of a texter. She might not have realized I was expecting a reply. She might have read them and forgot to reply. Either way I am overthinking it… It’s been a few weeks and now I am worried it’s just been too long. Then there are things I keep telling myself even though I know they aren’t true. Someone like her would never want me. She’s too pretty for me. She would never like the real whole me. She’s too good for me (which in context could mean something true or untrue). One of the biggest reasons for all these thoughts is that I am currently and probably always will be dealing with relationship trauma that might be difficult for her or anyone else to deal with. But none of that should mean I don’t deserve to be loved. So why can’t I let myself say fuck it and send her a message? I’m afraid of rejection. I’m afraid of the uncomfort she might feel in rejecting me (something she said once makes me wonder if that’s a narcissistic thought). I’m definitely venting my thoughts to the void, but if you did read this I’m curious what you think.

And aside from the Big Fish adventure games in the play/apple store (which we can't recommend enough!) we love the heck out of Fantasy Garden!
Stay on top of the latest trends in video games- or just have something to talk about. 3D oil style landscapes are becoming a gaming sensation.
Bob Ross is singing on the nightshift- oil painting has finally gone digital. Textures, for 3D objects in gaming have finally shifted gears so that they can use actual artist's renderings. Rather than flat 2D cartoons, or painstakingly rendered pixel art, the game got blessed with actual artists, painting actual scenes, in three dimensions.
Brought to us by 6waves - a venture capitalist company- the technique is hitting casual gaming in a big way. While you're waiting to wander into a not pixelated land to have an adventure that rivals Breath of the Wild, try out time management (vis a vis Stardew Valley) and enjoy some of the more creative twists that the gaming companies brought to the table- like buying art supplies for energy- with Fantasy Garden. Gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIPxzPKaSJA&list=PLzUVFtoYb6_Kh8PXJlUu_xSMBjW93l_Wu&index=41

The Terrans were known as a prideful yet generous species. They kept to their respective system and distant stars and stood their ground when the need arose. But whenever conflict broke out, the Terrans were always present. Never actively participating in combat but always giving aid and supplies to both sides, no matter the qualms or reasons sputtering their way.
That was until a vicious Hive-like species entered the fold seemingly out of nowhere. It referred to itself as the Zygon. Relentlessly the Zygonians devoured everything in their path, seemingly on an almost engrained primitive motive.
It was no surprise to the rest of the galaxy, especially the Black Star Conglomerate, that the Terrans were the first to pour copious amounts of troops and resources at the Hive's ever-expanding front.
News of the Terran's progress took a lot of work to come by throughout the galaxy; whether it was because the information was being lost, destroyed, or outright with held, no one could figure it out. But everyone had speculations. The biggest was that the Terrans were losing and didn't want the galaxy to know simply because of their pride. But in all reality, even if it was true, no one wished those rumors to be true.
Almost two years later, a Terran envoy disheveled and raving about incoherent nonsense appeared at Gilla Prime, the Black Star Conglomerates' home world. It took nearly a week and the best of our medical professionals to calm him enough to figure out why he was there. And we realized just how horrifying the whole situation was.
He told us how the Terrans fought for the first 3 months to get a stable front line and set up proper supply lines and the works. By month 8, the front was primarily secured and even advancing in some portions. By month 12, the Terrans started to secure occupied planets only to learn the awful truth the Zygonians did to the world. Gods forbid any intelligent life.
That's when the fall happened. The Zygonians sent wave after wave of troops and fighters. The envoy stated it was 10 to 1 on the quietest parts of the front. And slowly, the Terrans were pushed closer and closer to their home world. The envoy said the front was only 25o light years from their home world when he was sent to find aid. And by the time he had got here, the Zygonians had pushed the Terrans back half that distance.
The Council of The Black Star ultimately refused to send troops or supplies to help the Terrans. But offered the envoy a safe haven to stay planet side. Enraged and bewildered, the envoy refused their offer and stormed off to his shuttle to go die with his brethren.
That incident transpired 1 month ago. We the Black Star Conglomerate, received their final transmission "Terra is lost if anyone receives this RUN!"

Part 1
"When we Firmas were pushed north into the Pyrimian mountain valley after the death of their chain of command, they settled down and instead of focusing on expansion focused on necessities like food. With co-operation from the first goblins and other creative minds that joined the First Wave of the migration, they managed to grow food over the summer in first-iteration greenhouses. "My parents were part of the first wave. They were old for a couple, but joined the Firma clan in founding a government and keeping the area safe, as well as spreading word. The dragonic gods didn't like their behavior at all; cities burning is more entertainment for them, so they were the first to be Forsaken in this era, publicly, in the main square of the old Dragonic Capital. "However, that backfired, with more and more dragons tired of running around and fighting all the time, they decided to settle down in a place where nobody would bother them; now that they had this place given to them, and the Second Wave started. Basically the entirety of the dragonic clans and several other species amassed in this wave, and the Sapient Unification Government held. "My parents had an egg in one of the more northern caves, right on the coast. Then, the third wave arrived and everything went downhill from there. "The Unification Wars were fought between those who wanted one government to cover this region, and those who wanted governments segregated by species. This would have been fine if the secessionists didn't step in on people's behalves, without their consent; it took fifteen years of war for the war to end. Millions died and some species like the Snow Fox beastpeople almost went extinct. My parent were part of the death wave. "The war evolved so rapidly it was impossible for a commander to last more than two months. It started with sticks and stones and within a month there were arrow volleys. A year saw guns, two tanks, three battleships, four planes. Bombs, bigger bullets, bigger guns, bigger bombs. "In the last few months of the war, the first nuclear devices were used, creating miniature stars on the land with immense destructive potential unleashed. It ended with mutually assured destruction protocols being activated, and when all was said and done the land was a snow-fallen irradiated dustball. "It took years for the survivors to pick up the remnants of our short-lived civilization and restart it into the Terra Firma Sapience Union. All the time, my egg didn't hatch because I had no incubator, but didn't die thanks to my ice type. It was located close enough to a mana vein where I just... absorbed the entire vein. When the cave was found by explorers following maps for my parents den, all they found was my egg glowing brighter than Sunstones. "I was taken to an incubation facility in Cellyia, one of the bigger cities. There I hatched, and after more than one test I grew. My growth was still... affected by the time without an incubator, so my already slow growth stopped after fifty years instead of continuing to infinity. And then I took some magic courses, did my best to drain my mana reserves, and settled down here, well away from... the bustle of Cellyia. It never quite felt like a home, you know. It was a good place to grow up, don't get me wrong, but I like it here better. Remote, and in the same place my parents met for the first time. As much as I can tell, anyway; a number of records were destroyed in the Unification War. "When your heroes continued to come up here, I would be the one on first guard. Damming a river, I used water magic to break it. Trying to destroy some transit infrastructure, I would be the first one to either fake it, finish it off, or lure them away. When your latest one decided to head for Cellyia, it was out of my range for such activities. I shadowed the party on the way and let others take care of it. "I never thought that your 'heroes' would be heartless enough to burn what they were told and even acknowledged as a hospital with patients inside. A library and museum with most of our pre-unification works inside. An orphanage, a school... an entire neighborhood of ten thousand citizens' homes. What for? To try to kill just one of us. "We... couldn't take that kind of behavior. Cellyia might have not been the best place for someone with my personality to grow up, especially without parental figures, but that orphanage still had some good memories. An all-citizens vote was called, an all-citizens vote was passed, and we started a counter-offensive military campaign into your Civilization Nations. We've been waiting for you elves, leaders of the Civilized Nations, to advance your society; it's been seven hundred years, all the most you've done is grow your population and add an extra floor to your townhomes. "So we're going to do it for you. You ran our patience down, so we're going to change your society for you. Is it a repeat of the Unification War? I don't think so, given that you Civilized Nations never rescinded the declaration of war against us 'monsters' over two thousand years ago; one that you still follow through on to this day. "But that isn't the end of my story. "When the gods forsook us, they tried to pry away our magic, our land, and our lives. So we defended. Space radars monitor their movements on the mortal plane. There's so many more technical details I can go into. All I can tell you is, at one point, the old god of Dragonic Princess-kidnapping; yes, they were a god; they came and asked us to restart worshiping them. "That went over as well as you'd expect, and the next thing that happened... was that I absorbed her mana and powers. Technically, I am an undefined god, and... at this point, I'm afraid to get a definition. "What if it's something I don't like? Something evil, immoral... something my parents, the leaders of the Second Wave, wouldn't be proud of? What if... what if it kills me? Everyone hates me? I'd no longer be free... "So my solution was to hide. Here, in a mountain cave in the middle of nowhere. This is my life, all of it... and I don't know where to go from here." ----- "So... you're a god?" I asked. I couldn't think of another question to ask. "Yes and no." The cat replied. It did nothing to satisfy my fearful curiosity. How could one both be and not be a god? "Princess-kidnapping was a... niche god, rarely prayed to by still enough to be, you know, and actual deity. So her mana ran out first, and most of it dissipated back into the environment yada yada yada, but like the sponge my mana reserves are, I sucked more of it up than I should have; enough to had just a slight touch of divine control. On par with a low-level demigod. If I was omnipresent, I'd solve me problems with a snap of my claws, and then I wouldn't be hiding from my problems here." "If your powers came from a god, how are yours undefined?" My mind was seeking knowledge now. I was a mage, after all, and this was more than just the opportunity of a lifetime; it was the opportunity of a aeon. "Because I absorbed her essence from the environment before it had the chance to fully dissipate, but still late enough where it was no longer hers." Vixie shrugged "Or something like that, mana gets weird sometimes. All that matters now is my stockpile is slowly increasing its grow rate, which gets annoying pretty fast." "Annoying?" The cat laughed again. "Do you think this is all of my baseline reserve? Half of the reason I stay away from the rest of society is because the last time someone with multiple aura got involved with politics..." She trailed off, and then let another, this time impeccably cast illusion fall. The air around her was burnt crisp with the power of several mandatory auras in her current small size. Twelve tails flicked behind her back, eleven of them made of energy. Floating specs of light, some smaller while others the size of ice crystals surrounded the air around her. The six orbs on her back were joined by six more, and were attached to a ring. Her head had two halos, and her entire body was engraved with glowing lines. If she before radiated power, now she was made of it. The lights on the cave's ceiling flickered as more and more of the illusion fell away. Geometric shapes orbiting her body, a platform made of mana at her feet, lightning whizzing between all sorts of objects. Finally, it was gone, and the cat that stared at me with big, sad, glowing blue eyes had told me her deepest secret. As soon as it had started, the illusion repaired itself, and before me was one cat, a halo, six orbs, two crystals, and two mana tails. I did the second most instinctive thing when it came to seeing a cat. I pulled her in for a hug. There was a quickly quieted hiss as she squirmed a bit in my grip, trying to get more comfortable, before letting herself get stroked by me. Several images flashed before my eyes, and a tear came out of mine. We had gone to war against the less lucky sapients on our world, and were now paying the price. It felt like hours, but then my stomach growled, reminding me I hadn't eaten in literal days. Vixie shot out of my grip and led the way down into the cave. I followed, and soon enough I was eating some salted crackers with dried meat and cheese while Vixie moved around between other caves. "What are you doing?" I asked her between bites. "Packing," She replied. "Why?" "It's time I got out of here and, to follow the phrase, touched some grass." ----- It took three days for the elf, whose name was Nick, to recover enough to be able to make the journey to Cellyia. In those three days, I realized just how - and why - the Civilized Races looked at us the way they did. For starters, I'd forgotten just how many things ran on electricity, let alone other, more complicated mechanics. Pressurized water, instant hot water, even sinks, showers, and toilets were all completely unknown to the 'civilized races.' Ah, yes. Civilized without toilet paper. Bitter ramblings about the people who set off the chain reaction of events that killed my family aside, those were the second longest three days of my life; the first was my thirteenth birthday so I could get a personal HUD and social media. I was also a mess of thoughts. The elf had shown me, over the course of the three days - aside from the two-minute get-my-life-together moment - that I couldn't hide from my problems forever, or they would team up and try to hunt me. Hence my new, reluctant guest from the overflowing hospital they had oh-so-nicely delivered to my door. I had words for the medical staff. And I was also a mess of thoughts. Did I mention that one already. In all seriousness, Nick adapted to electronics pretty well. All I had to do was explain what it was, what it did, and file it under the name of science. It took an impressive four minutes of rambling about quantum mechanics before Vick realized that he was in way over his head asking how the 'magic rock that can half-think with bottled lightning' worked. He backed out when I yanked a textbook from my knowledge hoard and flipped through the pages to the start to explain how quantum superposition affected the set of particles it was entangled to. Fun. Finding out what toothbrushes were took some convincing, but soon the elf's teeth started to recover from lack of proper dental care. Food was easier than I expected, and Vick was pretty accepting of whatever I tossed on his plate. Except for artichokes, for some reason he hated those. Over the three days we bonded, and Nick got pretty used to life in my home. On the second day I moved him to the guest bedroom I had built but never maintained, but one wave of my paw and a splurge of magic later that was solved. "Why don't you use magic more often?" Nick asked. I explained that was much as I wanted to burn my reserves like they were a forest before a forest fire, the mental strain was tough without learning proper casting, which requires one to drain their reserves to practice wielding physical willpower. That meant that I was caught in an infinite loop of negativity, so I could only get away with a couple spells a day before the mental exhaustion metaphorically turned my brain to mush. On the morning of the fourth day, we left. Honestly, Nick could have left on the first day but I wanted him to be able to have the stamina to walk around for hours on end with me in Cellyia. Either way, as long as he kept by me it would be fine. There was a small population of elves, humans, and dwarves who had come up to the TFSU for one reason or another and never left, which meant that he wouldn't be too far out of place. My plan, instead of just flying into the Cellyia while steering clear of the airport, was to make it to the closest town, Lymian, and take a train from there north to Union Station. It would dump us a bit further downtown than I liked, but Cellyia was built in levels, and I could take the footpath level to wherever I needed. All said and done and one passenger seat clipped to my saddlebag harness on my dragon form, I opened the door to my cave. And was promptly blocked by a wall of snow. "Right," I half-grumbled. I enjoyed tunneling through snow, but spray would make the entrance cave wet and that wouldn't dry for another couple days, and until it did the sound of drips would echo throughout my home like nothing else. Either way, checking one last time that Nick was secure, I prepared my wings and powered forward. The snow and ice parted for me, and then melted and fixed itself back together behind me as I power-swam through the snow the same way I would through water. After ten seconds of this, I burst up from the snow-covered mountain the snowstorm had left behind and started to change my heading for Lymian. It would take thirty minutes of flying to get there, as I was flying lower and slower than usual to take care of my passenger, but we soon enough turned the next mountain and saw the town. The elf gasped as he took in the sights, while I kept my eye out for more activity. It had been fortified as a military base due to the war, but not by much; the town was useless from a defensive standpoint anyway. I spotted the next train arriving from its winding track around the next mountain, which also meant that I was a bit early. The citizens of Lymian were used to my presence, as I usually stopped by to pick up supplies and occasionally a bit of correspondence. So when I landed on top of a several story tall snow pile, nobody cared. I let Nick out, and then transformed into my cat form and slid down the snow pile to start to jogging towards the train station. That's when I remembered that unlike me, elves without snowshoes do not float on snow. Oops. ----- The sights were more than pretty, more than beautiful... If the gods had rejected these people, they might have just as well done it out of jealousy. After I'd been dropped off on top of a snow mound, I immediately flattened myself on my stomach to not fall through. I'd been in more than enough snowstorms and snow mounds to know how it would go if I didn't. The cat climbed the hill below me, reappearing as naturally as the snow fell. "Sorry," Vixie apologized. "Here, let me..." I felt the snow melt around me and we descended down to the ground. Vixie glowed brightly, literally; Even using as little magic as reshaping some snow was threatening to cascade out of her form. We moved to the train station without incident, where the massive 'train cars' were loaded full of passengers and cargo and then taken off towards the big city. Apparently this was the same one the hero burned, but the 'rebuilding and recovery efforts we going well; no critical infrastructure had been severely damaged.' Either way, the ride there was uneventful. Stepping out into Union Station was different. It was like I had entered a busy capital marketplace or square, with everyone rushing in another direction to another place. I trailed after Vixie, where even the oddity of an elf in these mountains was outshone by just how many different races there were; beastkin and kobolds and orcs and undead all filled the streets in, well, peace. "The city is built in layers," Vixie explained. "So while yes, residential and office towers here in the capital were set alight, underground public transit, personal transit, and cargo and fluid transit was all untouched, so we were able to circle around the hero and put out the fires to be replaced with smoke generators, and a couple holograms snatched from a nearby cargo transport." I had no idea what any of that meant, only that the city also had extensive underground bits. The towers soared over everything, and lights covered every spare centimeter of the city. Vixie led me down market stalls, across plazas, through parks and through building lobbies. Eventually, the babble increased, something I didn't think was possible. "Welcome to the commercial district," Vixie said after she had pulled me into a corner away from the masses of people and crowds moving around. "We're right near the harbor, and when we get there I'm going to show you the lighthouse and explain the city a bit better." I almost lost track of Vixie as we continued to move through the throngs of people going about their daily lives. I saw a couple boarded up shops, but most of them were either undamaged or didn't care about the scorch marks on their shops. Jewelry boutiques and grocery stores lived in tandem with furniture stores and a massive slab of too-smooth-to-be-natural stone of a rock type I had never seen before. It was covered in signs depicting some kind of diagram. Right around the corner was the waterfront, with a massive promenade running alongside it. Snow-covered trees lined the walkways, and soon enough Vixie and I came out of the crowd near a large, tall abandoned - though no unmaintained - building. "Right then," Vixie explained and started climbing. "Here's the old lighthouse, it's perfect for seeing the city. They never officially decommissioned it, so it's still legal to climb and properly maintained, but they never use it either." "What was the large thing they were building?" I asked, clambering onto the next ladder. "That? Oh, that was the space elevator." Vixie replied. "The ground part has been completed for three years now, we're just waiting for the rest of the nanotubes to make it into orbit and then run a kevlar cord up, follow it down with the space-grade heavy-duty nanotube cord, and then that's that." "Space?..." I was confused. "When the gods said that they were higher than mortals, you took that both figuratively and literally; they live above you and in a higher dimension. In this case, space is where they live in terms of height, but not number of dimensions. We're working on interdimensional travel, and interuniversal too, but those aren't replicatable on any sort of large scale yet." Vixie shrugged. "Either way, it's not like I care." "But you have it?" I pressed. "Dimensional travel." "Yes." She replied. "Well," I let out a short laughed. "The Civilized Nations are screwed over." "That's putting it lightly," She climbed on top of the last platform and showed me the city against the setting sun, lit up brighter than the night sky and more lively than the earth. It was beautiful. I sat there and watched the city glow with a power not even the gods had, side by side with not a dragon or monster, but a friend. END. A/N: Rushed this last bit of the arc, but school is ramping up at the end of the year so it was either fast story or incomplete story, and I chose fast story. Happy pride month, everyone, and I hope to see more of you when I have more time.
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 1

Part 2
If you travel far enough North on the map, well above where the Civilized Nations stop because no crops grow, you'll find a mountain range. Crossing this range leads to the Monster Kingdom, though for some reason they prefer the name 'TFSU.' Yes, they prefer. The literal forces of anarchy and chaos in the universe have a government. However, ignoring that whole thing, the Monster Kingdom is fine. No armies march on them, mostly because of supply and logistical issues. The Monsters never say how they grow their own food, but given that they don't trade and millions of kobolds worth of food don't go missing every day, it's safe to say they make their own. Now, that doesn't stop the Civilized Nations to send one hero a decade to 'keep them in check.' Four decades ago, the hero closed off a mountain pass, which was supposed to cause a massive flood. Four days later, it was cleared, and the only thing to show for it were the cities that glow like the sun at night. However, yesterday, the Hero returned having burnt one of the bigger cities down. It was empty of all monsters, but the act was the first real damage they had taken in seven hundred years, since their founding. For seven hundred years, the TFSU have taken the beating of seventy heroes and simply moved on. But now. Now, millions of kobolds make up heavy 'machinery' units that march in armored, self-moving caridges that spit fire and metal. Thousands of beastpeople make up scouting and light infantry ranks. The TFSU use hellish 'guns' that hit harder than a catapult from kilometers away, all in a single 'bullet' not the size of a human's thumb. Metal birds and dragonflies join dragons as they assault cities. We poke the very literal sleeping dragon in the eye. Yet the armies don't do much. They march for our capitals and leaders, but on the way our civilians live. Surendees live. People go about their daily lives without too much change. Of course, that fact didn't stop the front line from finally crashing over my small village, located so close to the pass for a while we thought they the monsters had bypassed us entirely. The Civilized Nations had decided to send an entire legion to prevent the Monsters from getting across a nearby canyon pass. We were hit with an air-based assault with only dragons and metal dragonflies, our balista uselessly demolished by pillars of metal and flame thrown out of the metal dragonflies. I blacked out when the legion managed to shoot enough arrows to take down one of the dragonflies. I remember it crashing down onto my house... and then nothing.
-----
The elf stirred as they woke up. I'd been raised in the Terra Firma Sapience Union, so I was... less than familiar with the clothing and lifestyle the Southerners used. The elf groaned again, before their eyes shot open and they looked around, quickly settling on my frame. "A-Are you going to kill me now?" They asked, their voice shaken with fear. I let out a laugh. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." I decided to transmorph into my secondary form - a cat - to help the conversation go better. In a land where humans lived to forty, elves only lived to a hundred, and that meant that even I was older than this elf, and they were no older than thirty. The elf, to their credit, quickly figured out I wasn't pulling any mindgames. I'd heard tales from my relatives before the Kobolds founded the TFSU. People, especially when panicked, usual acted with more than enough stupidity to make the situation worse. "Where am I?" The elf asked. Their tone told me that they were still suspicious, but it wasn't outright denial of the situation. "My home," I answered bluntly. "Your village tried to fight our ground forces when they moved in, so most of them are currently under house arrest." Still in my cat form, I created a portal into my storage cavern and reached my arm through, while summoning a lab coat around my shoulders and glasses. It was a trick I had only learned to do recently. "Let's see..." I found the clipboard and brought it out, flipping to the elft's page and taping the pen against the paper. "You suffered a collapsed lung, severe burns on the right side of your body, three broken ribs and two fractured ones, shattered three wrist bones, three breaks in your right upper arm and another two in your lower arm, and on the left side you have another fractured rib and three broken fingers. Your left leg was shattered and your left foot was completely torn up. Healing magic stabilized you and surgery did the rest. You've been comatose for the past three days, and was brought to my home yesterday due to a surge in hospital patients from the seige of Trembolorne. "In terms of organ damage, that was also severe. A busted kidney, I already mentioned a collapsed lung, and your entire digestive system was... well, pulverized would be putting it lightly. Also, unrelated to the incident with the helicopter, you had cancer in your liver and kidney. "In terms of medical treatment, you've been given an IV line for the past couple days and several painkillers, and you underwent four separate surgeries. We reconstructed your organs, welded your bones to metal plates, and used a genetic printer to replace your skin. You're lucky to have gotten time with the genetic printer in the first place, you know; those things are expensive, and I mean expensive to run. Though it's all billed on the government anyway, but that just means that they'll only run it if they have to." The elf sat up in bed looking at me as I just stood on two paws on the cave floor. "Right, sorry, you wouldn't understand most of that." I sheepishly scratched the back of my head with my right paw. "Um... put this way, you were crushed by debris and we basically reconstructed your body before you died. So not necromancy, though you did get close to needing more advanced magical treatment." "Oh," The elf replied. The cat thing seemed to have helped, because they were no longer stuttering with their single word response. "Um... do you want anything to drink?" I tried to kickstart a conversation. "Where am I?" The elf asked again. I was silent for a second. "My home? It's right on the edge of TFSU territory, one of the southernmost places you can be while still being with the recognized borders. I chose this place because I like to fly out in the summer over the flowers in the forest at the foot of the mountains. Your village is a couple hour dragon-flight time away." "Mmmhm." The elf commented halfheartedly. "OK, um... who are you?" "My dragonic name isn't something most can pronounce, so my public name is just Vixie Remminie." I answered. "What's yours?"
The elf's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know my name." I blinked. "Because... It's a name? I'm not a Fey, you know, it's not like I can tie ancient demons to your soul and call it a prank or something ridiculous like that. Besides, you asked for mine; now I get to ask for yours." "And who says you won't just burn my village to the ground and eat me right now!?!" The elf suddenly burst out. "You monsters ruin everything! You trespass on our land, take our resources, and kill our people! All we did was try to defend ourselv-" I cut him off, and poured just a bit of attention in giving myself an aura. Blue fire licked the bottom of my vision as I rebuttaled his point. "Don't forget, you stole the land from us. We were the ones living in the wild when you razed our forests and grew crops. We couldn't even purchase land to live on! So yes, we stole what we could to survive and those who didn't starved and died! And when all was said and done, you tried to kill us and turned it into a war, one where we had no choice but to kill you back. And when we found someplace to run, a spot to hide and do our own thing with our own land? You blistering idiots sent you 'courageous heroes' to try and kill us! What for? Nothing! Just your stupid, moronic fear making, forcing you to decide to 'kill the big thing over there!' We can't even have freaking farmland, we have to grow it all in hydroponic farms and harvest thousand-year-old vines out of caves because this is all we have!" I realized that my aura was burning fully and scorching the ground around me. I let out a long sigh, and it died down. Several memories flashed through my head, but I pushed them away. "Apologies, my parents are still a... sensitive topic for me. It would be best if we just stayed away from talking about the war until the hospital has room for more patients again." "Yeah?" The elf was still enraged. Even sitting down, they were still trying to construct an argument. "You parents who killed how many? Your family killed how many more? You dragons, you monsters are nothing more than one large grouping of murders that deserve to die! As the gods will!" The elf was spitting in rage, but I recognized his determination to hold onto his worldview. It was the one thing I needed to pry away before it got out of hand. "And you elves killed how many more?" I asked in a low voice. "Can you tell me the number of kobold dens exterminated in caves, the number of beastpeople sent to an early grave in slave camps? Because I can tell you ours. My father's was two, my mother's four, and my extended family including deceased relatives is one hundred and thirty seven. "You declared war against monsters, you child of an elf," I growled. "And death the reality of war. We know. The Unification Wars weren't fought with swords and honor. They were fought with artillery barrages and death. They were fought with miniature suns and political backstabbing, with tanks and guns and submarines and warships and all the more death. "You say the gods don't like us! That's put lightly. They forsook us! Abandoned us in our hour of need. So we learned to live without them. There are no gods we pray to anymore, elfling. Only each other, our creations, and the universe itself. They don't want us, we don't need them. It's more than they deserve." My aura was once again charring the floor and I had transformed back into my dragon form, but this time I refused to cool it down. "You call us creations of death, the primal forces of anarchy? We are you. You are us. We are sapient, we are all mortals, no matter our advantages. We are bound to this dimensional plane, forced to serve our betters, and live out our lives not with earnest but with trepredition for when it ends. We are all death incarnate, because we can all die. That is just the way it is. Besides, you've wondered about my kill count; tell me, can you tell me the gods'? Can you tell me how many souls they have cut from fate for their own entertainment? No? I can tell you." I growled, moving closer until the blue flames enveloping my body threatened to light the elf's cot on fire. "More people than are alive on this planet right now." I pulled back, bottling up my aura and reverting to my cat form. "We can talk all we want about death and destruction, and I won't lie and say you aren't victims of the war; pre-unification dragons we're exactly kind and merciful to those with treasure hoards. But perhaps, I implore you to consider that maybe we both are victims of the war, and maybe we can one day work together instead of fighting each other. "Maybe, one day, we can fight for our rights against the gods." I moved into my dragon form and darted deeper into my cave, moving so fast I could hear the howl of the wind against my ears. Only when I had reached my memorial wall for my parents did I stop and take a breath and think over my conversation with the elf. We had a long way to go, but I hoped I had put a little bit of sense into him. I hoped that the world could change.
-----
When the dragon cat thing sped away, I took a moment to survey my surroundings. Only now did the effects of my first question hit my formerly-groggy head. "My home." He said. Dragons live in caves. Oooooh. I'm screwed. However, there were no treasure hoards visible from my perspective; then again, while the Monsters were stupid, they still had brains to them, and carrying me into a treasure room would probably be something they'd be able to tell was a bad idea. Pops said never underestimate you foe, A voice in the back of my head said, and the dragon even launched in a full conversation with you. You're selling the dragon very, very shor- Shut up I growled internally to the treacherous voice in my head. The cave itself was... a cave. There was a metal slab on one end, it went deeper in the other, and that was that. In a 'corner' of the jagged room there were a number of red, glowing rods attached to some kind of giant mechanism three elfs wide and six deep, but the rods glowed against the cave's light- What light source? My eyes darted around looking for one. Only now was I aware of how unnatural each shadow was, how awkward each shining rock looked, how each stalagmite could hide an entire dragon, and that was before they started transfiguring into cats. How bright the ceiling- I looked up. The bright light burned my eyes, but I needed to know what fiendish magic was in play so I could counter it. But the light didn't flicker like fire - they were far too bright for that anyway - but they also didn't have the magical circles surrounding each spell. They were... lights. As if the universe simply willed brightness into existence. Each far-too-bright-hurts-to-look-ats was placed along a main hallway clear of stalagmites running from the metal slab deeper and around a corner where I couldn't see. The lights were only poised above this one hall, and they just... shone one the rest of the cave. Looking closer, I could see thin black lines, too thin to be mana feeds, running along the walls to both the glowing red rods and to the so-shiny-the-lit-up-the-cave. And... that was that. There was no massive pile of treasure in the hall, though I suspected the dragon kept their hoard deeper than... wherever I was. There was no pile of skull trophies or the banner of cities and armies slain, and I noted that while he had told me his parents', the dragon had never told me his own. Then again, the cat thing could be lying. Dragon transfigured into a cat. Probably has Circle Of Truth around his entire den. Nonsense, dragons can only do elemental magic. Evidently not. Would you just shut up already? No- I moved my attention back to the metal slab, cutting off whatever the voice in my head had to say about my current situation; it wasn't every day one just got kidnapped by a nation of monsters, after all. The slab was truly elegant. It was painted with the monster language, and then was painted with some kind of mural. I could barely make out a blue circle with green splotches on it surrounded by twelve rings in the bottom corner because most of the door was taken up by a ice-blue cat with lighter strips engulfed in blue fire. It was a mural of the dragon cat thing. That didn't stop it from being pretty, and someone had obviously put a lot of effort into it. The flames looked realistic from what I had seen minutes ago, and the cat's details were perfectly engraved. It was... acurrate. Yeah, because I think Vixie was just trying to tell you that they built their civilization for a reason, and it wasn't carnage. You don't know what you're talking about. We both know I do. How else to you think- Listen to me, you treasonous voice of a- No, you listen to me, you pathetic excuse for a brain. The dragon was able to hold and win an argument with you, fixed your wounds that would've been a dead write-off for any other hospital, and then you think SHE barely meets the threshold for sapient? THE ABSOLUTE MORON I'M ARGUING WITH IS THE ONE YOU BARELY MEETS IT!!! You moved to your frontier village because the world was changing, Lazerot the Sixth. Congrats, you were right. It did change. Now shut your OVERSIZED EGO up at being bested by a creature ten times older than you, and go appologies before they decide that saving your life wasn't worth it. I... I... OK- No. I'm in control now. Shut up. I....... yes, sir. Good. With new resolve, I stood up. My head throbbed, and the next thing I knew was my face hitting my cot again.
-----
When I heard the thud of something falling in the entrance cave, I carefully moved back into the entrance cave. The elf was face-down in their cot, unconscious again. It looked like they had tried to stand and just.... fallen over. I sighed and used a claw to nudge the elf back onto his pillow, and then covered him with a blanket. I watched him for a minute, and then returned to the deeper parts of my home. The TFSU was completely overloaded with the number of patients needing treatment. Apparently, the Southener's hospitals just... didn't do anything, so in addition to soldiers, there was a massive influx of civilians to our hospitals too. Of course, this meant that they were absolutely overloaded, and the Civilized Nations strategy of fighting to near-death and then surrendering wasn't helping. So, stable recovering civilians like the elf were just... shipped out. When shelters filled up because the Civilized Nations overpopulation crisis was too bad to do anything, people just had to take them into their homes. Long story short, the government was in way over their head attempting upgrade the standard of care in the Civilized Nations while occupying their territory. My job so close to the border was remote infrastructure maintenance, and my ability to change size while not dissolving made me an expert at it - and that was before my two hundred years of experience. And then I didn't need a vehicle to get on-site, and was fast. The alarm pinging me that one of the space radars was down again gave me an excuse to avoid the elf and do some work. I grabbed a pack of supplies, put on my shapeshift-compatible uniform, and wrote down a note on a piece of paper. On my out past the sleeping elf, I dropped it for him.

Space radar system needs repair, as it's returning a false positive. It's my job to repair all the infrastructure around here, so I need to go fix it. I'll be back soon. If you're hungry, my pantry is the first cave on the right. You can just eat anything that's easily open-able in there. If it has a lock or airtight opening mechanism (anything more than a clip, really) then don't eat it. If your thirsty, there's a stream in the entrance cave near the heaters. When the door mechanism beeps, step back. Sometimes pressure in the cave can get a bit wonky, and I don't want you to get hurt. Other than that, feel free to explore. I've locked all the doors to the rooms I don't want you to enter. For toilet necessities, the second cave on the left has a properly-sized toilet. And running water, but stuff I can explain later means don't drink it. See you soon! - Vixie.

Satisfied, I left opened the door. There was a puff as the air from inside flowed out to the lower-pressure atmosphere. I could spot a snow squall to the north, and the pressure meant that it was probably coming my way. I moved out onto the ledge and closed the door behind me. At high altitudes this far north, the air was already near-zero and it was still five in the afternoon. I took just a second to confirm with the weather report that the snowstorm was in fact going to arrive on my doorledge using a smartwatch I had strapped around my wrist. When I found that the storm was coming, I opened my wings and flew. Being an Ice Dragon had its advantages, but being a Water-Ice Combined Dragon was much better. The frosty air curled around my wings as the freedom of ignoring gravity filled my brain. Ice and Water dragons both had large wings to deal with the cold air (and lower pressure leading to the requirement for more surface area to achieve the same amount of lift) and incompressable water physics (to let the wings act like a one-way fan blade as they move back and forth, increasing efficient). Dragons might be magestic creatures, but we were still bound to the physics of the mortal plane, after all. Being part of both, my wings were even bigger, making me one of the best high-altitude fliers on the planet. The ability to use both gills and lungs at said altitudes helped with oxygen also helped. Air Dragons were better at flying in normal air, but I liked to think of it like stats from a video game. Air Dragons min-maxed their stats for low-altitude, but I could go anywhere - even underwater - can keep my speed relatively high. I took full advantage of this on my way to the space radar, soaring well above the cloud ceiling and to the point where I could make out the curvature of the planet below me. The ocean spread out to my west, while more land was to my east. Snow covered the north as to the south was the telltale splotchy color of industrialism. My smartwatch beeped, as I crossed the normal altitude limit. I hadn't realized I'd gone so high; I had a radar to repair, after all. I dove down towards the surface, ignoring more beeps as I crossed half the way to the speed of sound. The wind howled angrily in my ears, but I flattened those (thank you, streamlined water genetics) and came out of my death dive right over the radar. The repair itself went relativity smoothly, though I couldn't find a broken component and chalked it up to more space anomalies. They weren't infrequent, and usually marked where the gods decided to look over the planet. For my radars, anyway. Further north, ignoring the north pole, almost no gods came out and wanted to deal with us. Our unspoken agreement was held that way. I flew straight back for my return journey. The storm was definitely closer, but fifteen minutes of flying later and I was entering the opening mechanism for my door. As it swung inwards, I heard the high-pitched scream of an elf.
-----
When I awoke, I found myself tucked into some covers. It took all of seven seconds for reality to catch up with me. Right. I got into a heated argument with a dragon. I instinctively touched the part of my face that had been closest to the dragon's flame. I'd read about Auras in books, but never thought I'd get to see one. They were only ever found in the most powerful and competent individuals of a race in an entire plan of existence. I wondered which skill gave the dragon hers - Vixie, I reminded myself. Either way, given that Auras are technically illusions, I wasn't hurt. The flames didn't get close enough to hurt anyway, but that didn't stop me from checking. This time, I was much more careful when I stood up. I sat up first, then started to kick my legs back and forth. That's when I spotted a paper on the other side of my cot. I stood up without thinking, but managed to keep my consciousness this time and moved towards the note. It was handwritten and contained a lot of jargon that I wasn't familiar with. Space. Radar. False positive. Airtight opening mechanism. Heater. Beep. Pressure. Toilet. Running water. I could deduce some of it. A message had come in requesting the services of the local dragon to repair a thing that has an issue, and that she would return shortly. I could wander around as I pleased, besides eating food that wasn't open or contained in a clip bag. From the tone of the message, I could deduce what a 'toilet' was. The heaters would logically be things that produced heat, so all I had to do was look for those. I wasn't able to tell time, but I supposed at this point it didn't matter. I moved over deeper into the cave, and quickly heard the sound of a stream. It led directly into a forest of stalagmites. After clambering over those, the temperature started to increase, which was all I needed to know that I was getting a drink of water. I was only now catching up to the fact that I had been out for three days, and that meant that I was extremely thirsty. I wasn't sure how I wasn't dead of dehydration at this point. I found the stream next to the glowing metal rods, and with it a clear path to my location. Sighing slightly at the wasted effort on climbing through Rock Forest, I snatched an undersized cup off a rack built into a nearby jut in the cave wall and filled it, before entering the bliss of fresh water. Back in the village, we had some of the best and cleanest water in all the land thanks to snow melt, but this took that to a new level. Cold, crisp water melted in the sun only minutes ago. It was... pure. I spent the next couple minutes simply drinking and processing everything over in my mind. The gods might have willed the monster dead, but if even the monster gods had abandoned them and survived... then how come the Pantheon never told us? Religious issues aside, there were more practical issues regarding my own survival. How did I get out. There was a thud at the metal slab, and I moved back towards it, leaving my cup to dry on the rack I pulled it from. The engraving of the cat on the metal slab was- BEEEP! What was that sound? There was a hiss, and the slab started to peel away. A gust of frigid cold air washed over me as a mage Ice-Water hybrid Aura-capable dragon that I had argued with stared me down. I did the instinctive thing and let out the scream of a human three year old, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the final blow. When the end of my life didn't arrive, I reopened my eyes to find the sky-blue cat standing in the hole where the metal slab was supposed to be. Then there was another... sound, and the metal slab started to move back into position. The cat was surprised for a single moment before simply charging the door and jumping through, skidding to a halt right in front of me. Which meant that I got a closer look at her. Ocean-blue strips crossed an ice-blue body fur in a fifty-fifty ratio. Small crystals of ice twinkled, floating here her wings would be. One tail was accompanied by two more made of pure blue-white energy, and the cat even had a halo. Six orbs of blue-white light hovered in lazy circles around her back, and even in a diminutive form the size of a cat the being radiated the power of an aura-capable creature. "Oh, right, sorry," Vixie said, and all the ethirial energy disappeared. Now that I knew what I was looking for, however, I could just barely tell, using my power as a mage, that Vixie was using illusion magic to hide her true energy. "You don't need to hide your reserves," I said. "Though if you're shapeshifting into forms so small that you need to expose yours, then you should just burn yours instead. It's not worth the trouble of people bottling yours." Vixie gave some kind of half-shrug. "They're not reserves, no." She said, emphasizing the word. I looked at Vixie with a sharp look, and for a second I forgot I was talking to a dragon. "Then what are they?" "They're..." The cat blushed, something I wasn't even aware was possible. She let the illusion fall away, and the tails, crystals, orbs and halo returned. "They're my regenerative baseline minimum." I looked her up and down for a second, dumbstruck. She really is a creature of power, huh? "Um.... uh..." I stuttered. "Is... that where you get your aura from?" I asked. Vixie closed her eyes with an expression on her face, and this time green flame started to peel off her. "Part of it, yeah." To control an aura like that... two auras. Just how powerful is she? I was so deep in thought that I didn't realize that the expression on her face was pain. "I... uh... what happened?" I asked, shellshocked. "Why aren't you fighting in the war?" The worldwide-powerful dragon masquerading as a cat sighed. "I... haven't told anyone. It's... personal." "I..." Only now did it hit me that I was talking with a dragon, not another person. Not just a monster, but a... creature with emotions. "You don't have to tell me." I quickly backtracked. "No, no, it's a fair question. It..." The cat let out a chuckle, and it filled the cave with a beautiful sound. "I suppose it's kind of ironic... but it starts with a kobold and a god, back when the Firma kobold tribe decided to travel north to escape the civilized nations, shortly before the amassing of all creatures in these same northern mountains and the Unification War. "Back before the gods forsook us."
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 2

It's good to see you again, I'm sure you've been pretty busy lately. Don't bother ordering anything to eat, this shouldn't take that long. A drink might be in order though. Something strong. Nothing for me, thanks, I've work to do soon.
Now, while a social call would be pleasant I'm afraid I've reached out to you for some important business. I have seen the risen body of the king.
Sit down! Quiet. No need to make a scene, now. I can answer your questions once I've said my piece. We can leave the why for later, it's a bit complicated. Was a bit complicated. Simpler now, but... hard to explain. The how is an easier place to start.
You might think there's no way to slip by unnoticed somewhere as restricted as the exclusion zone - that they'd have sensor drones and satellites flag you the moment you stepped in and you'd be removed within minutes. In most places you'd be right, but the valley of the tomb is not most places. I'm sure you remember the beginning of the raid, before any of us knew what we were getting into. The whole place was covered in a haze so thick we had to tie ropes to eachother just to stay together, and what little sunlight made it through came down wrong. A thin, fetid color that should have been a beautiful gold but felt more like the yellow of rancid grease. The only other light that didn't die five feet from its source was from the constant flashes of actinic lightning that just so happened to drown out any radio signals.
I suppose they could set up the borders farther away, but honestly? I don't think they want to. Nobody sane would ever think of getting in, and they know they're not stopping anything that comes out. Better to let themselves think nothing comes in or out, that the exclusion zone is a formality to keep out the occasional crazy from wandering in. I think they're scared that if they keep too close an eye on things they'll see something that breaks that assumption. Something they don't want to think about.
I'm rambling a bit. The important part is that the only thing keeping me out was the patrols. They weren't much trouble though. Even outside the fog that place wears on you. Keeps you from sleeping right. Makes you feel like someone's watching. A few months of that, and I made sure to go in right before they got rotated out, and it's not hard to write off that figure in the distance as a trick of the mind.
Once I made it inside I knew things had gotten worse. The first few dozen yards were the same but past that I soon reached a point where no sunlight reached the ground at all. I found my way first by the the constant flashes of lightning, and, when even they had been eaten by the choking fog, and my flashlight served only to illuminate a yard or two ahead of my feet, by the pull of that damned place. I suppose I could feel it to begin with, that it was why I went back to begin with, but it was always in the background... Still calling me but ignorable, at least for a time... You can feel it too, right? Just over that hill to the North......
On second thought maybe I will have a drink. One moment.
Much better. Now, back to the story. It took me about an hour to reach our old base camp. I thought for sure it would have been destroyed but... Hmm? Well, yes, I did come from the opposite direction, but you're thinking too literally. A place like that is very abstract, much more about the journey you see, and the journey I set out on started with darkness, then the base camp, then the tomb, and then... I'll leave the end for the end, but the point is that I couldn't have passed them in any other order. It's like a story - the order is fixed once the book is printed.
From that explanation you might think the camp twisted into some metaphorical mockery of itself, or perhaps ruined to symbolize mankind's weakness, or some other similar thing, but what I came across impacted me far more deeply. It was intact. No, not intact, preserved. I've seen the old base camps from when we were cleaning out bandits, old tents abandoned for just a couple years to the sand when it was deemed not worth recovering them until we came along for some late cleanup, and it's amazing how fast the elements set to work on something not meant to stay in one place for more than a few days. It had been there for nearly a decade, with all the equipment we'd brought left in place, and yet not a speck of dust had found it.
I'm sure you recall how we were found afterwards, lying in the arid scrublands just outside the storm with nothing but our jumpsuits. I found our arms and armor there as well, neatly folded and placed in footlockers. Whatever made us flee, we didn't run in a panic - we calmly put everything in its place and simply walked away. We all said that we ran, though, that we had been chased. Isn't that curious to you? Probing my memory before the incident I still recalled panic, being paralyzed before an overwhelming presence, and yet I had nothing afterwards. Not a single clear image from after we breached the tomb. I said we ran because all I could remember was the fear, and that was the explanation that made the most sense of things.
At first I thought there wasn't much for me there besides the realization. The fuel cells had all gone dead, of course, and our records were all stored on the camp's computers. When I attempted to retrieve the memory cards, however, I found them gone - not just the cards themselves but the caddies that would normally extend to receive them. Propping open the spring-loaded slot and turning my flashlight to it, I could see that the entire computer was not without power, it had been entirely hollowed out. I will admit to having fallen into a bit of a panic at that, blindly tearing apart anything else electronic - no doubt the old base camp will prove far less preserved for whoever managed to stumble upon it next - but in all of them I found the same result. Even the displays had been stripped of their circuitry, leaving only black panels with not even a scrap of wire dangling from them to indicate they had ever been used as part of a larger device. Thankfully we'd taken purely mechanical weapons on that first expedition, and I took the opportunity to arm myself before proceeding, with great trepidation, to the tomb itself.
It was not similarly untouched. Most of the outer walls were intact, at least from what little I'd seen - those walls of some unknowable black material, broken up by countless gold adornments and engraved with what looked like stories of some great god-king. Carvings that would have found themselves perfectly at home in the stone burial halls of ancient Merkat or Hattesh, although I concede to not having looked too closely. I was far more focused on that great door where we had made our original entrance.
It had taken us hours to make that hole after the door had refused to open, even with the explosives at our disposal, and while the gap itself was thankfully still there, the edges had started to heal. That word, heal, is very important - nobody was rebuilding it. I saw no evidence of tools nor worldly methods of repair. Instead the edges had grown over with a bulging, fibrous mass that I took to be scar tissue. I attempted to take a sample, to see if any of the scientists could tell me its makeup, but it was just as cold and unyielding as the false-stone which surrounded it. I hurried inside after that, secure at least in the knowledge that if it was still growing the stiffness of it would make the process so slow as to not impede my escape.
Once inside the pull was much stronger, to the point I could barely resist it. Whatever those black walls had been made of was proving itself effective as insulation. I soon found myself abandoning any further investigation, only barely restraining myself from sprinting as I made my way into the central burial chamber...

Looking to get a Crestie for myself and 7 year old. I have had a turtle for over 20 years, but would love to teach her some responsibility with a more interactive pet. I personally like Crested, but am also considering a leopard. I have been doing a lot research and I believe we can take care of either well. Ive been considering a few sources, and I live near a petsmart and petco. I made a trip to both stores a week apart to see the animals over time. I am looking for advice on how to start this journey. I am looking #1 for an animal in good health, and #2 the best one that will be able to be handled safely for both my daughter and the animal. One place had a beautiful cresite, but it was pretty small and not moving much. When I went back, it was in the same position as before, albeit flipped around. It was the only one at the very front of the enclosure not hiding at all, it just picked up is head and ploped it right back down into its sleeping position. If I got this one, I would try to get it larger in a small enclosure before moving it into a larger one and before handling. Another one I liked is from the other store. It's a little larger and I saw it walking sideways on the glass. When I went back, it was in the same general area, but its head was tucked under a leaf, however I thought the eyes looked sunken but I couldn't get a great look. I was told that that animal had been at the store for months. My third option is the reptile zoo that I took my kid to. We got a hands on experience with a leopard that my daughter thoroughly enjoyed, this kicked off her wanting a lizard. I have waited months to consider it because I needed to be sure she really wants responsibility and it wasn't just an impulsive decision. They said that they take in surrendered animals and sell them to new owners. They they have a good amount of Adults looking for new homes. Any advice for a new owner and what would you recommend I look for. Thanks

PJ has been contemplative lately – quiet and withdrawn – he seems to have lost his spark. I found him today on the odd side of the barn, sitting on the post fence looking out over the pasture. It’s a beautiful view, but PJ never had time for it before.
It would be easy to assume that he’s growing more reflective as he begins to step away from the boy inside, but that’s not it. I know him. PJ is a lot like me. He’s had an awful lot to manage. I think quite a lot of that is coming to a head now, as part of his word resolves and another part begins.
He’ a complex kid, but he’s not complicated – there’s a difference. His curious mind has always been eager to see everything there is to see and yet he’s had a way of simplifying the data. He categorizes his world with great care, storing it in manner that makes sense to him. And until the worst night, things made sense to him.
Zach is altogether different. He too is eager, but he is immensely more patient than his brother. Just like his mother, he wants to know why, while PJ only needs to know how. I think that says a lot. Zach is less convinced, less consenting to the world that is, where PJ has historically trusted it. The result is that Zach is a realist, where PJ is a dreamer. Dreamers are harder to fix.
Still, the wonderful thing with PJ is that he possesses unbridled optimism and so his processing will always favor the light. It could be that, for all that’s happened, and for the first time, he’s lost a bit of his light and maybe he doesn’t know what to do. I need to help him find it.
Zach’s world has been continuously active lately; he’s got a lot going on. Celebrations and milestones abound these days, and although Zach had rather cope quietly, it’s hard to let some of these things pass that way. Even PJ would never allow that. Still, and although PJ is purely happy for his brother, it’s not hard to see that he’s been second-chair for a while now and that needs to change.
I had a long talk with Zach tonight where my intent was to assure his understanding that I will be carving out time for his brother alone more and more. Zach’s only response was to rattle off a list of things that PJ would want to do and told me to start tonight. “He needs to be number one now.” He said. Zach sees what I see and he’s been concerned. So “whatever it takes” is his position, and I expected it would be.
I booked this weekend for us – just me and PeeJ – a fairly spectacular array of events that might just blow his mind. He needs to laugh and be excited again. I’ve decided that we’ll drive, rather than fly – PJ loves road trips, and we’ll do every stupid thing along the way. He’ll have my undivided attention.
I’ve been there for PJ through all this mess the very best that I could be, but he’s also been there for me. He’s always been there for me. I need his company just as much as he needs mine – I need his spirit to set me right, because it always does. I think we need each other right now.

The first time around Alex started all of this, it got me pissed that I just had to learn what these people are actually doing today and surprise, there's drama there, I found it on a review of the book in this blog, by the end of the post: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2018/10/10/phillips-keatman-questers-extraordinaire/
It makes me want a sort of docu series "where are they now" around the Para Research team. Also fun fact, Graham Philips has made multiple guest appearances as an expert on Ancient Aliens and other shows like that (maybe Alex told that before but I just can't watch the episodes again to say), and a lot of people who got involved on Para Research still write to this day about alternate history of ancient civilizations, it's crazy
As a fun activity, if any of you got as pissed as me, read the reviews for these psychic questing books around the internet, it makes me feel like Jesse, there's too many people who take it too serious and it concerns me, my favorite currently is this (and if any of you guys are on the Patreon, send this to them for a minisode):

This man's imagination is fabulous. The thing I find quite disconcerting is that he actually believes this stuff. The grassy knoll or the second gunman or whatever other freakery resounds around the streets of JFK's Dallas has nothing on the evil shennanigans of the Vatican who conspire to hide the truth of the Virgin Mary being actually King Herod the Great's daughter in law....I kid you not; She is Joseph of Arimathea's mother and he was Jesus's brother; she fled to England along the tin trade routes and was buried on Anglesey, the original Avalon and her tomb was something important to do with King Arthur who was really a welsh man. Added to that some confusing but fascinating ' facts' ( I use the term ever so loosely ) about Tarot cards, playing cards and the Grail and you have a wondrous concoction of total nonsense. The thing is he argues it all so beautifully and I have to say he creates such a wonderful construct that i have no doubt that if you gave Graham Phillips a jigsaw which was actually a jigsaw of three chickens and a pig he would be able to make a totally believable copy of the Mona Lisa. Its great fun and total bunkum.

From: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/151157145

Hello again HFY, second story. Takes place in the same universe as my last one, no laughing matter, but doesn’t follow the same story, just goes into more detail about the HSS Fuck Physics as requested by u/Yolosnas. Any feedback or corrections are appreciated, I’m not much of a writer and I would like to improve.
Peace is the time between wars when everyone stands around reloading. At least this was the logic the humanity used to justify maintaining such a large military when there hasn’t been any sizable war in living memory.
The galaxy was big and there were many species so minor skirmishes and territory disputes were a given, but they were quickly resolved through diplomacy and never escalated beyond a single minor battle.
But humanity had developed a very “prepare for the worst hope for the best” worldview and were alway trying to make bigger and better weapons. The size and strength of their fleet were nothing to scoff at, indeed it was likely the largest in the galaxy, but they kept it hidden. A fleet like that would raise concern and questions from the more peacefully minded species, the ones who only thought about a military when it was absolutely necessary.
Unfortunately humans can also be very paranoid, and assumed other species had just as large, if not larger fleets that were also kept hidden. Thus the humans began a secret arms race against an imaginary enemy in the longest span of peace the galaxy had ever known. Humans, am I right?
What happened next was a simple system where the government offered large sums of many to any company that could design and/or develop a new weapon. Anything from a new kind of bullet or a more powerful laser to something that could crack planets like they were eggs. As promised, when a company wanting to remain anonymous for obvious reasons proposed such a weapon, the government gave a very generous compensation.
Testing it was difficult, since the destruction of an entire planet was likely to draw attention from someone, which would cause the galactic council to look a bit more closely into just how much they were spending on their military. Eventually the humans managed to test it on an unsuspecting planet and brushed any questions off by saying it had an unstable core.
The test went off without a hitch, and finally the psychotic apes had a weapon they thought couldn’t be improved upon. Where could one even go after destroying a planet?
At least until a red giant in the klantari’s territory seemed to just vanish.
Well, it didn’t vanish, the energy readings from what used to be that solar system were beyond what anyone had ever seen before, and far more than if the star had just gone supernova, so something clearly happened. But no one had any inkling of what, and the klantari couldn’t offer any answers. The humans however were certain. It was destroyed on purpose, which could only mean one thing: someone had a bigger stick.
The reaction in the human government could best be described as what happens when someone puts a bunch of bees in the tube of one of those bank drive throughs, because of course those still existed.
Once again the search for bigger and better weapons gripped the interest of any corporation with even a little engineering prowess. Many designs for a star killer were proposed and deemed infeasible, but with the promise of a massive payday at the end they kept looking.
As was inevitable, some utterly insane individual had an idea. A truly awful idea that any reasonable person would have disregarded immediately, but humans in general aren’t know to be very reasonable. The idea was to use the one thing even more volatile than a star: a blackhole. Specifically the largest one in the galaxy that happened to also be perfectly centralized, Sagittarius A.
The design was simple in principle, not so much in execution. Use the hawking radiation collected from the blackhole to warp the event horizon, creating a passageway directly to the singularity where a massive laser, also powered by hawking radiation, was focused into. What would happen after that was anyone’s guess, but it sure sounded promising. And destructive.
The biggest drawback to the plan was actually gaining access to Sagittarius A. Being the center of the galaxy, lots of hyperspace lanes traveled near it, and certain luxury space cruises saw it as an exotic attraction. The humans weren’t about to let that stop them from having the biggest gun around though so they bribed a few patrols here, brokered a deal with one of the core species there, and next thing you know, the HSS Fuck Physics was under construction. It took 7 years and most of humanity’s military budget for the next 20, but soon enough it was time to make sure the thing actually worked.
No one was entirely sure what would happen when they tried it, but it was either going to be really cool or it would destroy the universe. The day of the test fire was somehow also the first time anyone asked a very simple question.
“How do we aim this thing?”
But they weren’t about to stop the test so they initiated phase one, opening a passage way into the event horizon. Easier said than done, the process to do so would instantly make any matter that tried to pass through stop existing, but it could let light through, and what they saw, after messing around with the settings of the warp drive they were using to make this possible, was a star. After a quick check to make sure this star wasn’t surrounded by an inhabited planet, the sensor station gave the go ahead to fire away.
What happened next almost tore the very fabric space time as the stored energy of 24 months of hawking radiation was released in 24 seconds. The next thing anyone knew once existence settled down was that the star was gone.
It was only at this point that the sensors station realized the star had been a red giant in the klantari’s territory.
Somewhere on earth a grave burst open and the pissed off corpse of Erwin Schrödinger rose from the dead.
This is of course just a long winded way of asking a rather simple question: Who wrote Beethoven’s fifth?
https://youtu.be/u4SEDzynMiQ

Hi All,
Before I jump in I just want to say that the TF Pro test kit is on its way and I am confident in my ability to be self sufficient once it arrives.
All that said:
I had my pool opened by a professional company that was familiar with my house from the previous owner. They got the pool to basically a clear but somewhat cloudy level, lots of settling dirt so I have vacuumed and brushed several times this week.
My pool test strips seemed to indicate low chlorine, low ph, low total alkalinity. so I decided to take some water to the pool store in the meantime.
Notable they said I have
.2 free chlorine
.61 total chlorine (not sure if this is the same as combined chlorine)
7 Ph
54 total alkalinity
60 calcium hardness
35 CYA
Everything else looked good other than phosphates but I’m not worried about that right now
So anyway, my test strips were generally right and here is what I’ve done so far with some help of the pool math app.
To note, my pool is estimated to be 25k gallons and is plaster.
I added one box of 4lbs of borax
I added 1-128oz bottle of liquid chlorine.
My biggest question is basically the app is calling for nearly 100lbs of calcium chloride to bring the calcium hardness up.that just feels like, idk, A LOT! In addition, what do you use for calcium chloride as far as department store de-icer brands? Also do I need to be careful adding all that in one go due to chemical reactions?
Otherwise, once that test kit comes I’ll know more confidently with where I stand. But I just want to know as a first time pool owner of you were in my shoes, is there anything else you would do right now?
thank you!

Hi there,
I'm a 27-year-old guy from just outside Orlando, Florida and I am seeking a real connection with a dominant woman who knows what she wants, and how to get it. Feel free to reach out if this stands out to you, I'd love to talk. I live alone and have been described by close friends as silly and compassionate, inclusion is one of the most important things in my life. I'm seeking a female-led relationship, the type of dynamic I am looking for is a life partner who is firmly in control, to what extent we can determine what works best for us. I would be more than happy to be your life partner who defers to you on the bigger decisions though I would love for you to have me in mind when making them. I recognize you are a real person so a constant dynamic isn't always realistic.
About me:
Basic stuff: I work a full-time job but also have a side hustle writing, I promise this is not nearly as exciting as it sounds but it is an increasingly lucrative thing that I'm looking to make my full-time focus sooner than later, still figuring out when sooner is though. I'm 5'7, about 140 lbs, here's a recent picture of me for reference. And as I recognize this is important to some people, I do not drive, my eyesight is very poor and as a result, I cannot legally drive, this, however, does not stop me from living an entirely independent life, most people don't actually know/can't tell until I tell them that I cannot drive.
Personal Interests: I love hanging out with friends and doing who knows what, I will admit that I am a bit of a homebody but my greatest joys in life are typically with other people, doing pretty much whatever. I am sober as in I do not drink or smoke but totally cool if you do as long as it is responsibly. I love going to thrift stores, eating great food, and really just exploring. I'm pretty nerdy in that I would say my single favorite thing to do is learn be that via YouTube videos, Reading or just getting out and trying something new, Psychology however is what interests me most and I could spend hours and hours talking about the weird ways people act and why. I also really enjoy movies and would love to know your favorite, I love anything funny or scary, and the Shrek series has a special place in my heart. Also love staying active, recently got back into going to the gym and an avid NBA followefan.
Fun Stuff
I am relatively inexperienced but I am someone who learns quickly and has done a thorough amount of research, enough that I feel that I can confidently serve a woman, the biggest part of all of this to me is the sense of belonging, the feeling of being owned by someone who wants the best for me and thus inspires me to want to be the best possible version of myself for them. I do not take this role lightly and it would be a privilege to be yours.
The things listed above are things I know I would enjoy but are certainly NOT requirements, the emotional aspect of this all is really what I crave so please don't let a mismatch there discourage you from messaging me.
The Person I'm looking for:
I'm looking for a dominant woman either In Orlando or located somewhere in North America with the intention of this becoming an in person thing, I'm very open to relocating for the right situation and while I do like Orlando there isn't anything keeping me here. My ideal partner would be someone emotionally intelligent and capable of communicating in a healthy, consistent way, nothing excites me more than knowing exactly where I stand with you, for better or worse. (So I can improve to better serve.) Body type is unimportant to me as all women are beautiful in their own unique ways, as long as you take care of yourself you are my type. Age and your experience level are mostly unimportant to me as long as you're 20+ and know what it is you're looking for. Just to reiterate the connection is what is most important to me, knowing that someone has my best interest at heart and I have theirs, knowing that while I am still very much a person with real feelings but I want to be yours, completely.
Thank you for taking the time to check this out, I look forward to speaking to you soon.

This one Friday was really busy and of course I got to cashier for 8 hours. Like usual I go through the motions and hope the line starts going down before someone gets frustrated.
This one Lady comes up and I start going through the motions of asking her if she wants a bag and if she found everything ok. All her answers are really short and rushed which I don't pay much mind to.
But then I see some beauty wipes that don't have a tag and let her know I'm going to need to get a price check on them. She looks at me and says loudly and really fast "Oh shit I'm already late I'll go get them" and runs to the beauty section. And when I say run I'm not exaggerating she literally runs and yells "FUCK" I'm in shock and almost can't keep myself from laughing right then and there. She then runs back and I quickly ring her up. She says a really rushed "thank you!" And grabs all her stuff (she really should have said yes to the bag) and starts again running full speed out of the store.
She was the highlight of my shift and if I ever see her again I'm going to thank her

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 41%. (I'm a bot)

SINGAPORE - The defense ministers of Germany and the United Kingdom have pledged to keep up their respective military presence in the Indo-Pacific region, while also outlining their plans for military deployments, at a regional security summit in Singapore.
Wallace said that the Royal Navy will deploy another aircraft carrier and an accompanying strike group to the region in 2025, following a deployment of the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to the region in 2021.
Wallace also cited China's "Epoch-defining" rise as the biggest challenge for the region, warning that "None of our most fundamental global issues can be solved without engagement with China."
For his part, Pistorius confirmed in his speech that Germany will send a frigate and a supply ship to the Indo-Pacific region in 2024.
A German frigate made a similar deployment in 2021, while its Eurofighter multirole combat aircraft undertook a deployment to the region last year, taking part in a large-scale air combat exercise in Australia and visiting several other local countries.
He highlighted Germany's participation in the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, an international agreement dubbed ReCAAP. "Germany also stands ready to support all efforts to promote bilateral or multilateral confidence-building measures such as pre-notification of exercises, mutual invitation to participate in exercises, mutual site visits, inspections of military installations or arms control agreements," Pistorius said, welcoming the Biden administration's offer to enter into negotiations with Russia and China on nuclear arms control without preconditions.

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