Instant google street view

Spouse and I went to PV for 2 weeks in 2013, over xmas and NYE and it was amazing. We stayed in a little boutique hotel right in ZR (villa olivia) and loved it. We are generally adventurous travelers (been to 6 continents) and did things like taking the bus to the botanical garden, eating at tons of amazing local restaurants, walking all over town when it poured down rain for two days, etc. One of my fondest memories is sitting on the balcony, eating our daily pre-dinner snack of pico de gallo and fresh tortilla chips from the mercado down the street with cold beers. I live in San Diego and I have still not been able to find PdG that rivals that.
Anyway, now we have two kids.... and are exhausted. We just want a vacation where we can turn our brains off and not worry about safety (bc kids, not bc Mexico) or driving (carseats, etc). So... I think we want an all inclusive resort.
I realize it will be a completely different experience and the food will probably be meh, but here we are. We are not even going soon, but I REALLY need something to look forward to and plan. This is the first stage of planning, after going down a google rabbit hole last night. The sheer options of the AI resorts and trying to compare all of them is hurting my sleep deprived brain.
About us/what are priorities are:

• Hoping to travel Fall/Winter 2024/25
• 2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 preschooler (ETA: that's the projected age of children at time of trip)
• Love actual authentic Mexican food (we are from San Diego and spouse is Mexican American)
• Looking for a zombie, brainless vacation where all we have to worry about is pool or beach? Beer or cocktail? Are the kids alive? Is it naptime yet?

Priorities for trip

• Hotel room must at least have a balcony (kid naps and early bedtimes), a 1 bedroom suite would be perfection
• Realizing food at AI resorts are not great, looking for best/most decent AI options, or at least one(s) that have decent mexican and seafood.
• price range: willing to pay up to ~$500/night all inclusive for the family.
• Good beach for very young children (toddler, preschool aged)
• Not very crowded pool situations (fighting for a chair, etc), and a kid's pool or shallow entry pool would be amazing
• If the hotel is walkable to ZR, we'd go there. If not, we will just stay at the resort the whole time. Either is fine
• Room service included in AI amenities
• Nice but not necessary, kid's club/ babysitting service for young children provided by resort
• Comfy beds, quiet rooms
• An upscale resort that feels really safe for little kids

What would you recommend? TIA!

Truly a very good and reputable hacker is hard to find. I searched the dark web, encountered some frauds but eventually luck was on my side when i found this amazing male hacker. he helped me cleared my doubts and was extremely you are in need of a hacker that is knowledgeable, reliable, efficient and actually knows what his doing, i'll advice you contact this hacker, he listens and was very understanding. His skills are extraordinary, he also provided a friend of mine with phone monitoring hack which helped her get through her divorce.They are also expert with recover of scam funds and investment funds. Recover Your Lost And Stolen Crypto/Forex/Usdt/ETH. Recover My Lost Usdt/Ethereum From A Crypto Investment Scam.
Many services he can render include: Social Media Hack( Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook/Messenger, Twitter, Viber etc.), GPS Location Tracking, Recovering of lost bitcoin/ bitcoin account, Incoming calls Restriction, Intercepting and Retrieving Instant Messages, Grade Hacking, Credit Score Increase, USSD Control Commands, WhatsApp Spy, Viber Spy, Facebook/Messenger Spy, Skype Spy, Hacking into Databases of all kinds, Calendar Monitoring, Internet Usage Monitoring, Remotely Accessing SMS, Game Hacking and Cracking, Key Logging, Remote Email Spying, and more. Also Colleges/University upgrades, mobile phone hack and provider, Clearing criminal record, clear your bank debt and mortgage, retrieve deleted files, private investigator, crypto currency wallet hijack, erase leaked sex tape of all kinds. He also sell email extractor, bulk google voice, turbo mailer, bulk emails and any hacking app. What made me had trust in him was his offer of total Refund of any displeasing services but i didn't have to use that Choice.
Contact him darkdantehackingagency AT GMAIL DOT COM

Can anyone tell me what manner of evil beastie this is? Screenshot of my 8 inch tablet, which has standard sized medium font, taken with my google pixel phone.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Gjd0IjT5b-KetCeqMFwsZrAFwbXaJwb/view?usp=sharing
It may be important to know, I have a dog and two cats. Also, I was going through many boxes containing paper documents as well as other items. I did not have the tablet with me while I did this. I just barely noticed the movement on the tablet screen and had to magnify the image to get this picture. The critter is very small. I am in the Southern California mountains and we have no fleas or ticks in this area. The house I am in was built in 1932, but I hope this particular bug is not that old!
Thanks in advance.

> Be Anon, average tech enthusiast.
> Tired of being a face in the crowd.
> Discovers the magic of ChatGPT.
> Decides to give LinkedIn profile a glow-up.
> Injects tech keywords and SEO, crafted by ChatGPT.
> Turns into an IT consulting champion overnight.
> Suddenly, LinkedIn is on fire.
> Notifications exploding with messages.
> Interview requests? Nah, straight to offers.
> Phone ringing off the hook, emails pinging non-stop.
> Recruiters hustling and bustling, jostling to get to Anon.
> Tech giants swinging six-figure salaries like clubs.
> Google, Amazon, Tesla - all fighting for Anon.
> Anon, sipping coffee, amused by the chaos.
> Handpicking offers like choosing candy in a store.
> Recruiters rioting in the streets, 'We want Anon!'
> Accepts mind-blowing offer from a unicorn startup.
> More zeros in the paycheck than Anon has fingers.
> Anon laughing all the way to the bank.
> Raises a toast to ChatGPT.
> Anon's life now a tech fairy tale.

Can anyone tell me what manner of evil beastie this is? Screenshot of my 8 inch tablet, which has standard sized medium font, taken with my google pixel phone.
It may be important to know, I have a dog and two cats. Also, I was going through many boxes containing paper documents as well as other items. I did not have the tablet with me while I did this. I just barely noticed the movement on the tablet screen and had to magnify the image to get this picture. The critter is very small. I am in the Southern California mountains and we have no fleas or ticks in this area. The house I am in was built in 1932, but I hope this particular bug is not that old!
Thanks in advance.

Truly a very good and reputable hacker is hard to find. I searched the dark web, encountered some frauds but eventually luck was on my side when i found this amazing male hacker. he helped me cleared my doubts and was extremely you are in need of a hacker that is knowledgeable, reliable, efficient and actually knows what his doing, i'll advice you contact this hacker, he listens and was very understanding. His skills are extraordinary, he also provided a friend of mine with phone monitoring hack which helped her get through her divorce.They are also expert with recover of scam funds and investment funds. Recover Your Lost And Stolen Crypto/Forex/Usdt/ETH. Recover My Lost Usdt/Ethereum From A Crypto Investment Scam.
Many services he can render include: Social Media Hack( Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook/Messenger, Twitter, Viber etc.), GPS Location Tracking, Recovering of lost bitcoin/ bitcoin account, Incoming calls Restriction, Intercepting and Retrieving Instant Messages, Grade Hacking, Credit Score Increase, USSD Control Commands, WhatsApp Spy, Viber Spy, Facebook/Messenger Spy, Skype Spy, Hacking into Databases of all kinds, Calendar Monitoring, Internet Usage Monitoring, Remotely Accessing SMS, Game Hacking and Cracking, Key Logging, Remote Email Spying, and more. Also Colleges/University upgrades, mobile phone hack and provider, Clearing criminal record, clear your bank debt and mortgage, retrieve deleted files, private investigator, crypto currency wallet hijack, erase leaked sex tape of all kinds. He also sell email extractor, bulk google voice, turbo mailer, bulk emails and any hacking app. What made me had trust in him was his offer of total Refund of any displeasing services but i didn't have to use that Choice.
Contact him darkdantehackingagency AT GMAIL DOT COM

Last month's progress report: https://www.reddit.com/juststart/comments/1335hr1/month_1_ish_progress_report/
Last month's goals for this month:

• Have a total of 28 posts published (using proper keyword phrase research for any and all new ones)
  
• Continue to see upward trend with impression in GSC
  
• Acquire at least 1 new backlink for 3 different pages
  

tldr; updated a few previous articles, posted 14 new articles, Amazon commissions starting to come in, things have started heating up towards the end of May
Backstory and Learnings:
Following from last month, I was in the middle of removing Ezoic from my site. I fully finished that up a day or two after I posted my first month's progress report. That was my main priority and then I started using my SemRUSH trial to its full advantage. I began collecting keywords to start writing articles and also started researching keywords for my previous articles that I just wrote on a whim, trying to make them more viable. As of the middle of May, most of views were coming from 2 articles, with a view here and there for other miscellaneous articles as well.
I really liked SemRUSH, but for right now, and with my site's infancy, I can't justify continuing with the service. It is for sure something I will circle back to in the future, though. Getting back to the articles, I began writing. I've noticed a pattern with myself, I'll go 5-6 days without writing and then all of a sudden, crank out handful in succession. 3 of the articles from the first batch I wrote near the beginning of May are starting to show promise. I have 1 article with 5 clicks, another with 24 clicks and the last one with 38 clicks. The rest of the articles are duds or are still cooking, I suppose.
I have also noticed some of my articles from the initial 10 I launched my site with are starting to get a bit of attention as well. The 2 articles I mentioned in the first paragraph that account for my most views are part of this initial 10 group. And to be fair, that does make sense, since they have been live the longest and have had (albeit minimal) time to age. I have a mixed feeling of joy and worry. I know that SEO and all of that is a waiting game, but I can't help but wonder and worry about my non-successful posts.
In terms of hitting my goals defined last month for this month, I can say I was able to accomplish them, for the most part. I wanted to make reasonable goals for myself that could actually be attained. I aimed for upping my post count from 18 at the end of April to having 28 at the end of May. In total, I finished May with 32 total published posts. I feel good about the upward trends I am seeing in GA, GSC and even Bing (screenshots below). I did acquire a few new backlinks as well, but nothing too special. Mainly just forum/community posts. I need to do some outreach and plan to start at least trying in the near future. In total, according to GSC, I have 56 external links from 5 different domains. Bing shows 9 total backlinks from 4 referring domains. Interestingly, Bing has a few domains Google does not have. Dunno what's up with that.
On to monetization. As mentioned in last month's progress report, I was a bit too hasty with ad placement. I was kinda feeling a bit bummed out by signing up for Amazon Associates so soon, but I think that was the right call. I have made, what looks like, 9 total sales, including the 1st one mentioned last month in April. I believe I did get a bit lucky, though. I had one sale where someone purchased a $600 item that gave me nearly $13 USD in commission. As exciting as that is, that was not one of the items I have on my site. But hey, it still counts, so yeah. Taking that one away, I still did pretty good IMO with $8+ USD in May. And I officially got the approval email from Amazon as well, which was really neat to see.
I am having some struggles with Social Media and have all but given up (for now) with the exception being Pinterest. I have been creating unique images and creating pins for every new article I write and posting them to Pinterest. Not seeing much from it though. According to GA, I have gotten 3 users and 4 sessions from Pinterest since going live on March 26th. I have been trying to research a bit and it seems like Pinterest is like Google in that the pins need time age as well. Hopefully, with enough determination and consistent posting, I will see some more traffic come from Pinterest.
Numbers:

• Google Site Search
  
• Bing
  
• Google Analytics
  
• Amazon Associates
  

I am a bit confused why so much of my traffic is coming from direct. I noticed I am starting to get impression on GSC under the 'Discover' button, but only 2 clicks so far from it. So that can't be it. Aside from the huge spike at the end of may (which was all direct and I still haven't figured out why), I am still getting anywhere from 3-7 sources as direct per day. I whitelisted my IP address in GA, but my traffic is still coming through. But to combat that, I am using private mode in FF since GA is blocked.
Things I am Investigating:

• Before, whenever I posted a new article, I could find my article eventually on Google 24-48 hours later using the keyword I am targeting. Sometimes it would be on like page 20, but I could at least find it. Lately though, any new article I post does not come up at all on Google. They are indexed, but nothing from my site is showing for the keyword.
  
• I am also having trouble with articles that are in the same genre, but not showing up for the correct keywords in Google. For example:
  

Keyword: borderlands legendary loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-legendary-loot Ranks # 3 for keyword
Keyword: borderlands rare loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-rare-loot Does not rank (I cannot find this page unless I type the URL into Google), Legendary page ranks # 15 for Rare keyword
Keyword: borderlands uncommon loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-uncommon-loot Just created, nothing is ranking for this keyword yet

• I am looking into using CloudFlare as a CDN for my site. I have a caching plugin, and that is working fine, but I am on a shared hosting account. A few times this past month my site has gone done because of another user's actions, which is obviously not good

This Month's Goals:

• I want to focus on fixing/bettering my previously posted articles, so I am only shooting for a total of 38 published posts by the end of June
  
• Start doing 'cold-call' backlink outreach - offer to create posts for other folk's blogs in exchange for a backlink
  

Accomplishments:

• Got my first legit comment on an article
  
• Achieved over 300 clicks from Google in May
  
• Starting to see some positive movement on Bing
  

Last month's progress report: https://www.reddit.com/juststart/comments/1335hr1/month_1_ish_progress_report/
Last month's goals for this month:

• Have a total of 28 posts published (using proper keyword phrase research for any and all new ones)
  
• Continue to see upward trend with impression in GSC
  
• Acquire at least 1 new backlink for 3 different pages
  

tldr; updated a few previous articles, posted 14 new articles, Amazon commissions starting to come in, things have started heating up towards the end of May
Backstory and Learnings:
Following from last month, I was in the middle of removing Ezoic from my site. I fully finished that up a day or two after I posted my first month's progress report. That was my main priority and then I started using my SemRUSH trial to its full advantage. I began collecting keywords to start writing articles and also started researching keywords for my previous articles that I just wrote on a whim, trying to make them more viable. As of the middle of May, most of views were coming from 2 articles, with a view here and there for other miscellaneous articles as well.
I really liked SemRUSH, but for right now, and with my site's infancy, I can't justify continuing with the service. It is for sure something I will circle back to in the future, though. Getting back to the articles, I began writing. I've noticed a pattern with myself, I'll go 5-6 days without writing and then all of a sudden, crank out handful in succession. 3 of the articles from the first batch I wrote near the beginning of May are starting to show promise. I have 1 article with 5 clicks, another with 24 clicks and the last one with 38 clicks. The rest of the articles are duds or are still cooking, I suppose.
I have also noticed some of my articles from the initial 10 I launched my site with are starting to get a bit of attention as well. The 2 articles I mentioned in the first paragraph that account for my most views are part of this initial 10 group. And to be fair, that does make sense, since they have been live the longest and have had (albeit minimal) time to age. I have a mixed feeling of joy and worry. I know that SEO and all of that is a waiting game, but I can't help but wonder and worry about my non-successful posts.
In terms of hitting my goals defined last month for this month, I can say I was able to accomplish them, for the most part. I wanted to make reasonable goals for myself that could actually be attained. I aimed for upping my post count from 18 at the end of April to having 28 at the end of May. In total, I finished May with 32 total published posts. I feel good about the upward trends I am seeing in GA, GSC and even Bing (screenshots below). I did acquire a few new backlinks as well, but nothing too special. Mainly just forum/community posts. I need to do some outreach and plan to start at least trying in the near future. In total, according to GSC, I have 56 external links from 5 different domains. Bing shows 9 total backlinks from 4 referring domains. Interestingly, Bing has a few domains Google does not have. Dunno what's up with that.
On to monetization. As mentioned in last month's progress report, I was a bit too hasty with ad placement. I was kinda feeling a bit bummed out by signing up for Amazon Associates so soon, but I think that was the right call. I have made, what looks like, 9 total sales, including the 1st one mentioned last month in April. I believe I did get a bit lucky, though. I had one sale where someone purchased a $600 item that gave me nearly $13 USD in commission. As exciting as that is, that was not one of the items I have on my site. But hey, it still counts, so yeah. Taking that one away, I still did pretty good IMO with $8+ USD in May. And I officially got the approval email from Amazon as well, which was really neat to see.
I am having some struggles with Social Media and have all but given up (for now) with the exception being Pinterest. I have been creating unique images and creating pins for every new article I write and posting them to Pinterest. Not seeing much from it though. According to GA, I have gotten 3 users and 4 sessions from Pinterest since going live on March 26th. I have been trying to research a bit and it seems like Pinterest is like Google in that the pins need time age as well. Hopefully, with enough determination and consistent posting, I will see some more traffic come from Pinterest.
Numbers:

• Google Site Search
  
• Bing
  
• Google Analytics
  
• Amazon Associates
  

I am a bit confused why so much of my traffic is coming from direct. I noticed I am starting to get impression on GSC under the 'Discover' button, but only 2 clicks so far from it. So that can't be it. Aside from the huge spike at the end of may (which was all direct and I still haven't figured out why), I am still getting anywhere from 3-7 sources as direct per day. I whitelisted my IP address in GA, but my traffic is still coming through. But to combat that, I am using private mode in FF since GA is blocked.
Things I am Investigating:

• Before, whenever I posted a new article, I could find my article eventually on Google 24-48 hours later using the keyword I am targeting. Sometimes it would be on like page 20, but I could at least find it. Lately though, any new article I post does not come up at all on Google. They are indexed, but nothing from my site is showing for the keyword.
  
• I am also having trouble with articles that are in the same genre, but not showing up for the correct keywords in Google. For example:
  

Keyword: borderlands legendary loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-legendary-loot Ranks # 3 for keyword
Keyword: borderlands rare loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-rare-loot Does not rank (I cannot find this page unless I type the URL into Google), Legendary page ranks # 15 for Rare keyword
Keyword: borderlands uncommon loot guide Page: https://www.mydomain.com/borderlands-uncommon-loot Just created, nothing is ranking for this keyword yet

• I am looking into using CloudFlare as a CDN for my site. I have a caching plugin, and that is working fine, but I am on a shared hosting account. A few times this past month my site has gone done because of another user's actions, which is obviously not good

This Month's Goals:

• I want to focus on fixing/bettering my previously posted articles, so I am only shooting for a total of 38 published posts by the end of June
  
• Start doing 'cold-call' backlink outreach - offer to create posts for other folk's blogs in exchange for a backlink
  

Accomplishments:

• Got my first legit comment on an article
  
• Achieved over 300 clicks from Google in May
  
• Starting to see some positive movement on Bing
  

Hello all, thanks In advance for reading
I’ve (25m) been thinking about seeing someone to try and overcome some issues I’ve been having
I’ll try to be brief: I have a hard time in social settings normally, but it is generally something I can overcome
If I’m put in a situation where I have to talk to my boss at work for example, my chest gets tight, I start sweating, and it is very hard to manage breathing and talking. Never mind trying to come up with thought out responses that I should be
I believe it has something to do with authority. I had to be very submissive growing up, my dad had anger issues. In order to avoid getting smacked or some other form of punishment I would try to hide if I was doing something he may not approve of. (I remember if I was on my computer when he got home from work and I heard his truck pull into the drive it was time to instantly shut it off and pretend to be doing something else)
There are plenty of other examples, but if I’m being honest I’ve blocked out a lot of my childhood.
If someone that I view has authority over me called me into their office and made an accusation that I did something wrong that I didn’t do I would completely freeze up and not be able to stand up for myself. It seems like I have this sense that I’m doing something wrong even if Im not In any way
Im sure there are better ways to explain this. Please ask questions if i need t clarify anything. Im tired of living like this. Thank you in advance

I need the information to fill out an application to schedule his neutering. He is a light brown and white cat. Here is his photo.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sQBzxvqa1epLHaU4FgEf5k_g3ZXalE8view?usp=sharing

How does everybody keep their photos synced?
Obviously iOS seamlessly keeps all the photos synced with iCloud, virtually perfectly.
On android it’s a hot mess. And with Samsung it seems even trickier.
The Samsung gallery app is nice, but there is no way to view it on a different device.
Google photos is pretty good, but the website is quite poor on different devices. Plus the photos(edits, favs) don’t seem to sync from the gallery app.
I would be happy if you could just make Google Photos the default, the one and only gallery app on the Galaxy, but you can’t.
So in apps such as Facebook and Instagram it’s a hot mess trying to find a picture that’s saved in Google Photos two years ago.
I guess these are late night ramblings, but they’re frustrating none the less.
How do other people manage their photos on the Galaxy?

First Previous Next
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
— Langston Hughes
Catalogue Description
Self-Monitoring Behavioural Management Report: Casimir Szymański, Scazim Institute of Science and Technology - English Translation
Date:
15 Summer-2 3429 (Standard Parimthian Calendar)
November 23rd, 2162 (Gregorian Calendar)
Held by:
The UK National Archives, Kew
Legal status:
Public Record(s)
My father worshipped a fabricated, pagan prophet.
The Senghavi of the Parimthian Empire are principally joined under the ditheistic religion called Siedi, which I do not subscribe to. Of course, the Senghavi's literature, art, and faith flooded the whole of Earth upon their arrival a century ago. From this ocean of civilised culture, my degenerate species drew a sample, claimed it as our own, and polluted it with a distorted, appropriated, dumbed-down doctrine.
The central figure in this corrupt sample of Siedi was a man whom my father called Jesus Christ. He was said to have offered himself as a sacrifice that could be made to a single God. It was a final sacrifice, one beyond lambs or cattle or people. One that would atone for humanity's sins, so that we could have the free choice between the eternal presence of God and the eternal absence of "Him."
My father dressed himself in black, with a standing collar whose white fabric was exposed at the centre. That much, I could recall. He preached to hopeful humans in what was called a church, though I did not know what he was preaching. At the very least, my childhood is fuzzy in that regard.
The pain that throbbed through my skull, after the blonde savage had slammed my head against the ridges of the airlock, faded into the background. I could not focus; perhaps, I thought, one of their improvised explosives had gone off by accident. There was blue Senghavi blood staining my dress shirt. The rush of air escaping into vacuum pierced my ears.
Perhaps it was thirst of water, which binds most sapient beings—the Sons of Liberty had reached an agreement with the Colonial Defence Force to allow spacecraft delivering food, water, and medical aid, only to unleash the anti-collision lasers of this cursed spaceliner upon those very ships.
Or perhaps it was the explosion, as I initially thought, an inadvertent complication which had wrought injury and death over my countrymen, and which had forced the terrorist savages to attempt to patch up the many hull breaches left by debris.
Or perhaps it was simply the stress of betraying, in my desperate efforts to save everyone from this senseless violence, the greatest secret of the Senghavi Terrans: our antimatter research. Word of it had likely been forwarded already, hundreds of light-years away, to that pink-hued marble which was Parimth itself.
Or perhaps it was all three; thirst, explosion, and stress. In any case, my mind shut it all out, and something lost from my childhood flashed before me:
We're standing on the cracked street of the Vennec Human Reservation. In the distance, the Senghavi's white, glassy spires reach above the clouds, their accents of luminescence dim in the broad daylight.
I hold a ball in my palm. It's wrapped in white leather held together with red stitching. I toss it to Dad.
Instead of his clerical uniform, he wears the normal "T-shirt" and "cargo shorts." Along with the clerical getup, they are just two of the many sorts of clothing which the Senghavi have invented for humanity. I toss the ball to Dad, and he swings a primitive wooden bat.
The ball goes soaring, further than he meant to. He jogs down the road to retrieve it, then gives me the wooden bat. The breeze ruffles his hair just as he ruffles mine with his hand.
"Now, you try," he says. "It's just practice, that's all."
For some reason, he lifts one leg in the air, then pitches the ball to me. I swing. The impact of the ball shakes through the wood, and it goes careening off to the left.
"I did it!" I yell. "But it went out of bounds."
"Heyyyy, that's not bad," Dad says with a reassuring voice. "Good job, just try to go a little more right next time."
Mom comes out onto the front porch, the breeze ruffling her dress as she waves to Dad. "Dinner's ready, and Mom's pie is... almost ready."
I stare blankly at her until I realise that she is talking about her Mom, Grandma, who is the best at making pumpkin pie.
"The pie!" I shout, running and jumping to the front door. "I totally forgot about that!"
I am ready to speed my way through dinner just so I can get to dessert, but Dad stops me before my first bite.
Of course, I think. We need to say grace. Me, Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa all hold hands, thanking God for our food, and then dig in. But Mom and Dad just talk about work, and I am too focused on finishing my food quickly to pitch in.
Finally—Grandma's pie!
When you bite into the soft, smooth filling, you can instantly tell it's been made with fresh pumpkins, not the boring canned ones. The taste of cinnamon and spice is balanced out perfectly with the coolness of the whipped cream.
The flavour spreads through my tongue and nostrils, filling my entire brain with a feeling of amazing-ness. If I wrote the Simple-Speak Dictionary for Senghavi Terrans, I'd put Grandma's pie next to the translation of "perfection."
I should save a slice, I think, for the Senghavi kid.
Even though it's only been a week since I met him through the playground fence, we already told each other where we live, and I want to get to know him more. He doesn't live on the Vennec Human Reservation, but his house is just a bike-ride away in Fellye Neighborhood.
I wonder if anyone's ever given pumpkin pie to an alien before. Even though humans only invented it fifty years ago, it makes me feel proud of my species!
When Mom tucks me into bed, kissing my forehead, I tell her what I'm going to do.
"Oh, you wild thing," she coos. "You're so much like your father. And you have his eyes, you know? Just stay safe."
"Don't worry, I'll do my best."
>! "Good night. I love you." !<
>! "I love you, too, Mom," I say. I hug her tightly from my bed, and a warm, fuzzy feeling blossoms within me. I can hardly fall asleep in my excitement. !<
Luckily, Fellye Neighborhood doesn't take apartheid that seriously, and I don't think anybody cares about an eight year-old human riding his bicycle around the gates.
Next evening, I do just that, peddling out of the Reservation's entrance into the violet dusk. When I get to Mensim's address, I ring the hi-tech front doorbell, and a really tall Senghavi shows up.
"Oh, dear," she says in Parimthian. "A barbarian hatchling—by what name do you go?"
"I'm Casimir," I say nervously. I don't pay that much attention in school, but I know just enough Parimthian to talk to the Senghavi woman. "Are you Mrs. Munghazi? Is Mensim fe Munghazi here? I got two slices of pie. You can have one, too!"
She looks at me suspiciously, antennae twitching. "That would be Teacher Munghazi to you; I know not why you natives invented these odd 'Mister' and 'Missis' honorifics. Hold on—Ghanvati! A native hatchling stands at our doorstep!"
Ghanvati must be Mensim's dad. I wonder where his other moms are; only one has shown up to the door. Ghanvati shows up with two of them—they are both shorter and daintier than Teacher Munghazi, their raptorial forelimbs folded shyly against their bodies. In front of the group of three is Mensim, and I involuntarily gasped with excitement.
"Mensim!"
"This is your new companion?" Ghanvati asks Mensim.
Mensim's papery forewings flicker with affirmation. "I met him at school."
"What, pray tell, is the point of apartheid if it does not actually keep natives away from Senghavi?" whines one of Ghanvati's wives.
Ghanvati's antennae droop as if to say "I don't know," while Mensim lifts my arms, inspecting me like I am a test animal in a mad scientist's laboratory.
"How do you guys not get cut all the time?" he asks, tracing his tarsal hairs over my bare skin. "You're so fleshy!"
"I do get cut all the time," I giggled. "We just use band-aids. Oh, do you wanna eat a pumpkin pie?"
It turned out that pumpkin pie is bad for alien stomachs. Mensim had to go to the bathroom for a long time, and three of his moms got mad at me.
When I got back, Dad and Mom were arguing. I snuck close to the back porch, making sure they couldn't hear me.
"Yes, they leave some people alone," Dad said. "Obviously, they can't spy on every single human who believes in human religions. But Katarzyna, they still need people to make an example out of, and I don't want to be that person!"
"Casimir is a responsible kid," Mom retorts. "I told him he can't tell anyone what you do, and he listens to me."
"He's eight years old. You can't just let him wander around aliens with a secret that could have me killed! Or have you killed!"
Mom cups Dad's cheek and looks him in the eye. She's a lot shorter than him. "Look, love. You're a great father, and I think it's amazing that you spend time with him. But you're the only person he talks to. You know just as well as I do that he needs to talk to other kids! It's not healthy; even Teacher Perevvoxath agreed. And now he finally has a friend."
Dad sighs, running his hands through his black hair. My hair. "You really think aliens are a substitute for human interaction?"
>! "I think every human needs a person they can talk to, and Casimir found one. If you really care about him, stop preaching for a while! Your church isn't gonna die without you. It'll be okay." !<
The next day, I visit Mensim's house after school again. And the next day after that, and the next after that. His dad Ghanvati is formally named Engineer Munghazi. I am to call his moms Teacher Munghazi, Teacher Munghazi, Teacher Munghazi, Accountant Munghazi, Priestess Munghazi, Doctor Munghazi, and Maidservant Munghazi.
A couple weeks later, Mensim and I are lounging together on his couch, watching a Parimthian war movie. The main characters are fighting against the evil forces of the Imperium of Orion. Under his head capsule, Mensim is munching something called Synth-Fruit, which is imported from a faraway planet called Mryi. I eat Pop-Tarts, which I'm pretty sure are toxic to him.
"Come on, just give me one," Mensim exclaims, reaching over to steal the sweet snacks from me. "It can't be that bad!"
I lift the Pop-Tarts away from him, laughing. "Stoppit, you're attacking me! Pay attention to the movie, or I'm gonna shoot you!"
"But I just want one..."
"It's gonna poison you, and you're gonna get your weird alien throw-up all over me!"
Priestess Munghazi, the oldest of his moms, bursts into the living room, her jewellery clinking over her clerical cape.
"Your sister conveyed to me quite the disturbing piece of news, Mensim," Priestess Munghazi cries. "The father of Casimir is a priest of a most barbarous and evil perversion of the Siedi faith. Ghanvati and I spoke, and we agreed that you are not to consort with this primitive, pagan savage any longer."
I drop my crumbly Pop-Tart on the couch, confused at the sudden order.
"But Priestess Munghazi, I'm not dangerous or evil. I'm just a kid."
"Nonsense! You are dangerous; your father is a barbarian worshipper of this evil, primate paganism that is called Christianity, and a most woeful effect is begot that even self-respecting Senghavi have 'gone native,' as they say. Mensim, if you continue to consort with this native spawn, I will be impelled to inform the Siedi Court, and they may by chance see to it that he is executed!"
"W-Wait!" Mensim says, holding up the remote to pause our movie. He gets off of me, suddenly losing interest in my Pop-Tart, his vestigial forewings rising with concern. "Please, Mother. I promise he won't be any trouble."
My blood runs cold. Dad, executed? Just because what he believes in isn't "civilised" enough? Actually, I thought that Mom told him to stop preaching for a while.
Mensim scrambles to *his father's sleeping quarters, and I trail frantically after him.*
"Father," Mensim says. "Is Casimir's father's job so ghastly that he should be executed by the Siedi Court?"
"We can't just let the natives spread the same barbarous religions that they used to kill each other," Ghanvati replies, his secondary arms clasped together. "It's a threat to safe, moral society. Priestess Munghazi told me his father spreads evil and paganism. I have no reason not to trust the oldest of your mothers."
"But Casimir's my best friend! If you tell the Siedi Court about his father, I'll... I'll run away! I'll hate you!"
Distressed vibrations emanate through the floor beneath my feet; Mensim's antennae and papery forewings and hindwings go limp. Something like lilies and the earthy scent of rain fills the air.
"My dearest Mensim," Ghanvati says softly, dipping his head capsule with compassion. "I will hold off, just this once. It would be apt of you not to cause me to reconsider."
"T-thank you, Engineer Munghazi," I say, wiping my own tears. "My dad's not a bad person, I promise."
After confronting his dad, Mensim and I keep on watching movies and playing digital games. He always wins when we wrestle, but I still haven't given up (even though Priestess Munghazi always tells us to stop roughhousing).
I even bring my Lego pieces to his house. He doesn't know what Legos are, but later, in his sleeping quarters, we build together. He makes a cool-looking spaceship that he calls a "negative energy generator."
"Hey, you took all the cool black and grey pieces," I complain. "Now I can't finish my army base!"
"This is cooler than your army base," Mensim says proudly. "Father used to work in one. It uses the superposition of squeezed vacuum states to produce a field of negative energy density."
"I have no idea what that means, but that sounds really smart."
"No kidding! It's how people make wormholes and fly all the way to other stars."
"Well, my army guys could beat your negative energy-thingy. They have machine guns."
"My guys could just fly a [~million billion trillion kilometres] away, and yours can't do anything about it!"
"Then your guys are wimps. But my guys aren't. Because they're the Army!"
>! We also explore the pine forest in his backyard. Within just two more weeks, we have uncovered all sorts of interesting things, like a piece of a real human skull. One time, we found a human foot sculpted and smoothed out of stone—who would make such a thing?—and a dead metal device with the icon of a bitten-out-of apple printed on it. !<
There were also other human body parts made out of ancient stone, too: the cracked half of a man's face buried a foot deep, a muscly arm sticking out of the soil. Even a private part, which I snickered at, though Mensim seemed unfazed.
There is something else we start to do. My parents have given me "the talk," and Mensim told me that his parents gave him the Senghavi version of it. And so even as we talk and play in the woods, we experiment—because we are curious, and why should we not be?
A fragment of a memory in the forest; Mensim's raptorial forelimbs are set on my shoulders as his compound eyes look into my primate eyes, and he says, "You cannot tell anyone about this. Anyone. Absolutely no one."
I don't know how, but Priestess Munghazi learned of what we were doing, and now she expresses anger and disgust alike, her wings and antennae wild and rigid. Ghanvati is the same. Mensim and I... We're actually making them reconsider their decision not to tell the Siedi Court about my dad.
A fragment of a memory... I feel like I am in space, stranded aboard a spaceliner that has been hijacked by terrorists, its atmosphere venting amid a backdrop of violence... But I am not, I am in the forest that Mensim and I talked and played in; I am in Mensim's home, terrified as I am yelled at by Ghanvati, whose compassion no longer shines through, accompanied by Priestess Munghazi.
"By the names of the Gods, it's those false, pagan corruptions which humans have named as their religions, that are spouted by your father," Priestess Munghazi spits. I am teary-eyed and snot-nosed from guilt and embarrassment. "How horrid is the link between the state of barbarism and a most revolting and shameful propensity for bizarre and perverted behaviour!"
Then I am in my own family's living room, and the mom I love so dearly yells at me, too, but my father is quieter and only seems disappointed. This must be the first time in my life that I have felt true shame, I think; the kind that leaves you with an emptiness inside. Like the whole point of existing just vanished inside of me.
The worst part is that I cannot even lean on Mom's shoulder, because she is distressed—because she knows what will happen—
"This is all on you, Casimir!" she screeches, tears in her eyes. "All on you!"
I remember telling Priestess Munghazi that 'I'm not dangerous or evil; I'm just a kid,' but now I can't be sure anymore. I can tell I am different in the eyes of my family. They are disgusted by me.
It is my fault, after all, that Priestess Munghazi tells the Siedi Court of my father's evil, barbaric Christian teachings.
The Parimthian soldiers bring my father to the gallows. Their snow-white exoskeletons gleam under a burning sun. They have dressed him in his clerical uniform, and the camera is close enough that I can see his cross necklace.
I have been grounded in my room; still, I have a television to see the live broadcast.
Hanging works for primates and mantids alike. It happens in the Forum of Movvaeti, the venue for public events in our area, where my father is a lesser criminal compared to the native leaders and Senghavi malcontents who have dissented from Colonial Governor Nieve fe Skellth.
He is joined with seven other convicts, three humans and four Senghavi, and their crimes are read to the crowd—blasphemy, paganism, monogamy, witchcraft, seditious libel, insulting the Parimthian Crown, treason against the Parimthian Crown, and refusal to quarter Parimthian soldiers.
Why? None of this feels right. Why should my father be killed because of what he says and believes? Why can't these people be judged with fairness, rather than at the whim of some distant space emperor?
Not only have I been grounded, but I grow cold without my mother's touch. I want to hold someone's hand while watching Dad lose his life, but nobody is there. Mom brings me food, but she doesn't even look at me. Why can't she look at me? Why can't she speak to me? I just want things to be the way they used to be, when Dad would help me practise hitting a ball with a bat on the street.
I watch him turn down a caped, bejewelled priestess of the Siedi faith, who thought she could make my dad accept their Gods before his death. Before a modest crowd of humans and Senghavi alike, all eight of the convicts have their arms and legs bound with rope.
I am begging myself to turn the TV off, but I can't bring myself to. The Senghavi executioner uses some kind of hi-tech display to remove the supports from beneath the convicts' feet. My stomach flips over inside of me, a nausea of shame filling my body.
I can't deny it any longer. This is my fault—this is why my family avoids me—this is why they are disgusted by me—and Dad falls and his head jerks when the noose goes taut.
As he hangs there, I cannot tell for how long he remains alive. My insides are cold. After the broadcast ends, after night falls and I sit in the moonlight spilling faintly through my windows, that is when it all comes out. I sob alone. I scream for Mom to help me and be there for me, but she does not come. Her harsh voice resonates through my memory; this is all on me. I am a disgrace to everyone I love, and that is why they have left me here. Why they avoid me as if I am a disease.
The only thing I want is to see Dad again, but he is gone forever. I curl up on my room floor. What is this? What is this loneliness? This stinging hatred I feel against myself?
No one, human or mantid, will be there for me. I cry until my throat cannot ache any more harshly, until my eyes cannot sting any more painfully, and then I go cold inside, my body shivering in the moonlight. I retreat into my happy memories with Dad until it is too painful to bear.
I wish so dearly I could end it all, to take my own life and join Dad in the heaven that he believed in. There is a belt in my closet that I can use on myself in the way the Siedi Court killed Dad.
But beneath the sickly well of shame, the nausea and crushing humiliation at the stupid antics of Mensim and I, with which Mom's brief gaze pierces me—beneath the weight of knowing that I will never fill the torturous vacuum Dad left, knowing that I am a foul and disgusting son to the mother I so desperately need, that I see no end to the infinite river of anxiety and guilt pouring through the hole left in my heart—beneath my isolation and my longing for human touch—something breaks inside of me.
An emptiness of purpose. There is no point in going on, and I feel nothing, not even the desire to stop living. There is one exception: A hatred of myself, and of the humans I loved as family.
One day, Mom appears in my doorway, and she just stands there. Before, I would've welcomed being offered interaction with her beyond just receiving food, but now I am numb, my eyes all out of tears to cry.
"Pack your things," she says, her voice flat. She still doesn't look at me; the eyes she once said I inherited from Dad, she now shuns. "You're going to a residential school."
Indigenous Residential Schools; that is what Colonial Governor Nieve fe Skellth calls them, I think. They're for human kids who have trouble letting go of their "savage" roots; kids that the normal schools aren't enough to civilise. Schools that show you how to act Senghavi, to think Senghavi, to... be Senghavi.
There was a human kid in normal school whose sister went there, but they said that something had happened to her there; something in that residential school had changed her before she finally returned.
But I feel no fear as I pack my clothes into my bags. Every time I look in my bedroom mirror, a violent feeling rushes to my chest, only to dissipate into the hatred-tinged numbness I have grown so used to.
Finally, the time comes to depart. In the early morning, I am already aboard the autonomous public transport. It pulls out of the cracked street I once played with Dad in, passing by the entrance of Fellye Neighborhood, driving off into the fiery, violet Terran dawn. I see my faded reflection in the window, and my chest jumps with revulsion.
So I look down, fidgeting with my touchpad—then the numbness abruptly leaves, and my tears fall once again.
Forgive me for all the redaction, Doctor Morgthax. While I will not disclose what I wrote, you are correct, as always, about the act of writing. There is some semblance of psychological relief in typing one's sullen inner thoughts onto a touchpad. As if one can be heard without being heard.
By the time I drifted back to reality, my mouth and lips dry from dehydration, the hijackers had patched up the holes punched through the hull by the accidental explosion. Plenty of Senghavi passengers were spilling cerulean blood from beneath their exoskeletal coverings; though they were all alive, they needed medical attention.
Two hundred-something Senghavi civilians aboard this luxury spaceliner, and none had yet died. That stroke of luck offered me a glimmer of hope.
Pavok, the child, was emitting vibrations through the floor in his despair, the smell of rain and lilies becoming evident to me. It is starkly fascinating, the evolutionary dissimilarity between how native Terrans and Senghavi Terrans cry.
Those ships were delivering medical aid and critical provisions to the passengers, Commander Lokprel barked, the neutrino signals that encoded his gruff voice coming out from the intercom. Why did you laser them?
"Stop playing games," Jake snapped wearily into his radio. I recalled that his full name was Jacob Weaver, as Commander Lokprel had mentioned. A drop of blood streaked down his face. "We know what you're up to."
Paranoia will get you nowhere, Jacob. If we don't work with each other, you won't survive. We have detected an explosion aboard the spaceliner. Is anyone dead?
"Not yet," Jake growled. "But Fenni Svim will be if your forces keep approaching!"
Fenni Svim—the Senghavi from the Vellir Veneti Physics Lab, against whose skull Jake had pressed his pistol to halt the CDF's initial approach, hours ago—stiffened in her seat. I had never known the nuclear researcher very well before this barbarous event, but I prayed to the Gods of Siedi (whom I do not really believe in) that she would be okay.
Many of the passengers were still being kept by the windows to deter snipers. They included Pavok, behind whom Khadija stood guard.
"Sorry for attacking you," Jake suddenly said to me, his voice worn-out. "It's like Khadija said. The bugs know that humans are strong when they're united. It's why they try to play us against ourselves, to ally with just some of us, to try to make us hate each other; to hate ourselves. It's how they tore the United States apart. Everything they do... It's to make us ashamed of our species, our own culture, to lose hope in the future. If we were united, Casimir... they'd be terrified of us. And make no mistake—we're uniting again."
"E-even if what you say about mankind is true," I croaked, "Our species would not have settled anywhere but Earth. Our culture and history would still have been negligible and primitive, the richness and complexity of the Senghavi, still greater by many orders of magnitude."
"Casimir, did you go to one of the Indigenous Residential Schools?" Khadija asked.
"Y-yes," I managed, dusting off my formal wear and cleaning my glasses. "I was sent to one as a child. They are for those of us savage natives which conventional education could not sufficiently civilise."
Khadija's eyes softened with compassion, and she gestured to my wrist. "I asked because of that code on your wrist. I've heard about some of the things that happen in those places. The cruelty; the abuse."
I glanced at the abstract identification code tattooed onto my skin, faded with time. I hadn't thought about it in ages; it was but a remnant of my childhood, and I never paid it any attention.
"Residential schooling is necessary and proper," I tell her. "It is similar to human-mantid apartheid in its purpose; it keeps the public safe from savagery. "
"If we get out of this alive, I'm gonna take you with me to Russia," she said, wiping sweat from her brow. "Specifically, Moscow. It's where I lived after the fall of Türkiye. Man controls it, not the Senghavi."
I was already aware that a vast, untamed region named Zvorriu-Sai, located in Earth's northeastern quarter-sphere, is called Russia in simple-speak. A decade ago, Nieve fe Skellth had tried to civilise the hunter-gatherers who lived there, but his troops starved and froze in the snow.
It was with the multitude of planetary habitat fabricators that his army had been using that the native primates of Zvorriu-Sai constructed such cities as Moscow or Saint Petersburg.
"Russian civilization goes back over a millennium," Khadija explained. "I don't give a fuck about what the Senghavi have built on this planet; Russian architecture is my favourite, hands down. Anyway, it's the most stable and self-sufficient of the ten countries we've got left. Hard to invade, you know? It's seen better days, but the cities are nice, the economy is good. I think you'll find it's a hell of a lot less 'savage' than whatever the fuck the Parimthian Empire is doing."
To corroborate her claims, she showed me a photo from the gallery of her cracked, dusty touchpad. Before a busy canal, the waters tinted orange by a rising sun, a more relaxed version of her smiled into the camera alongside some human of the phenotype I had seen in the video of Tokyo. Looming over them was an intricate, palatial structure topped with colourful, onion-shaped domes.
"How... quaint," I replied, unsure of what to say, though it ignited dry laughter in Khadija.
"Looks like we got a communiqué from the UN," another hijacker announced, his mask still covering his face. I couldn't place his accent at all. He held up his own touchpad, displaying photos of the Colonial Governor herself—Perellanth fe Sumur—flanked by armed UN military personnel. They were clad in urban camouflage that was marred with blood. The black, plant-like extraterrestrial gazed defeatedly in the sterile lighting.
The UN had captured her! The Crown's decision to appoint a Vire as the leader of a Senghavi colony had been no small event. I was certain that after all the talk of Senghavi Terran independence, then followed by the Colonial Governor's capture, His Imperial Majesty regretted his progressivist decision.
"We... We did it!" Jake exclaimed, his voice disbelieving. "We took down Perellanth!"
You achieved nothing, Commander Lokprel retorted over the intercom. Not beyond the promotion of Benghoviu fe Prim to Acting Colonial Governor. If you kill Governor Sumur, Governor Benghoviu will become the permanent Colonial Governor as per the chain of command, and he will carry on the fine work of his predecessor.
Jake seemed to consider that situation a fair one, and he nodded to himself subtly. "Okay, sure. But if you do nothing, we'll still kill our first hostage."
What I can promise you is that Delegate Essintsya fe Baryn will submit an Act to the Forum of Delegates to recognize the sovereignty of the UN. It will be deliberated over for months, but it is your only realistic option. In return, we demand that you allow the passengers injured by one of your explosives to board CDF medical ships.
I recalled that the Forum of Delegates had voted Benghoviu fe Prim as Vice Colonial Governor just a year ago. And before even that, the Senghavi who lived on Vennec—my home continent on Earth—had popularly elected the ever-prudent Essintsya fe Baryn to the Forum. She was quite the economic liberal, as her sort was called.
Delegate Baryn's statements on the social contract between a people and their government, as well as her rejection that the Parimthian Crown ruled by divine right, had resonated deeply with me.
Jake's eyes hardened, and he turned his radio back on. "I said no games!"
There are no games here, Jacob! We only aim to preserve as much sapient life as possible. And you are out of options.
The hijacker who had shown Colonial Governor Sumur's prison photo gave Jake a withering look. "We're dragging this on, man. I don't want anyone to die."
"Don't talk to me about death, Ramiro. Not after what happened in the US."
The so-called United States of America... called Gholo Vieda in Parimthian. That region was Nieve fe Skellth's last successful conquest before he attempted to take on the vast, snowy expanses of Zvorriu-Sai. I wondered if, like Khadija's experience in Türkiye in the Niethvahi region, Jake had witnessed firsthand the cultural assimilation and political integration of Gholo Vieda into the rest of Parimthian Earth.
The conquest of Gholo Vieda and Niethvahi were the great accomplishments of Perellanth's predecessor, of course; but, in my opinion, the devotion of the (now captured) Perellanth to the causes of liberty, reason, equality, and sapientism far outshadowed anything that Nieve had done. I am certain, however, that the Parimthian Crown disagrees.
In any case, my faith in CDF Commander Lokprel loth Fonvie had not risen. Perhaps that was a good thing; otherwise, I might have regretted betraying the knowledge of antimatter research in order to elicit a more competent Parimthian intervention.
More security forces took up positions around the spaceliner, each ship split sharply into sunlight and shadow amid the black of space. The hijacker called Ramiro pointed to a series of smaller craft, which seemed to be pulling away from the luxury spaceliner. Escape pods!
"Hostages are falling through our fingers," Ramiro said. "We need to do something."
"Go to the rear," Khadija ordered. "Stop anyone else from sneaking out!"
Jake's radio crackled with the voice of someone in the cockpit. We've intercepted a neutrino transmission from the new guy, Benghoviu fe Prim. He's calling for some kind of emergency council at the highest levels in the Parimthian Empire.
I scoffed internally. The Crown would intervene for the sake of investigating all this talk of antimatter, whose alluring utility had hitherto been confined to theory and fiction. But it was doubtful that His Imperial Majesty would agree to an emergency council for the sake of his colonists' security and well-being. As (relatively) progressivist as he was in policy, he was still very much a punitive emperor, not a rewarding one.
"I told the commander to stop advancing—dammit!" Jake spat. "We're only letting medical craft get any closer. Fire at the corvettes!"
Affirmative, his radio crackled. Targets in sight.
The spaceliner's anti-collision lasers flashed against several faraway spacecraft. A succession of oxygen-fueled fires, each lasting for a [~split-second] against the vacuum of space, flared in the distance. Even so, the growing array of naval craft began to close in upon us again, surrounding the spaceliner in every dimension.
Switching again to the neutrino-connected channel, Jake gave a disgusted scowl. "Are you deaf, Commander? If your people keep getting closer, the deal is off!"
The more you fire, the closer we will get, *Lokprel said. *We are just making sure it is safe for the medical craft. As long as you refrain from harming them, we will not hurt you.
The hijacker in the cockpit radioed to Jake again, her voice sounding more alarmed.
We're picking up a massive object on our scanners. It's headed our way.
"How massive are we talking?" Jake asked.
It's... some kind of warship, I think. Over a hundred times our size.
"You're joking, right?"
"A Parimthian spacecraft carrier," murmured a soft, whimpery voice.
It was Fenni Svim again, her praying raptorial forelimbs tucked close in fear.
"The Imperial Parimthian Navy?" I asked. "They're really here?"
"Y-you shouldn't act surprised," Fenni said. "I know you were speaking to someone on the P-Parimthian side. You leaked our greatest secret, Casimir."
"R-right."
"What's she talking about, dude?" Khadija asked. Suspicion of betrayal lingered in her dark eyes. She had believed the lie that I was only calling a loved one when I contacted Mensim, >! who is at present an agent of Parimth!<; she had trusted me, and defended me against Jake's wrath.
I didn't answer. The very reason we needed antimatter was that the colonists' outerspace spanned but a meagre few millionths of the Parimthian Empire's total volume. I did not know what exactly a spacecraft carrier one hundred times the size of our spaceliner could do for the hostages, but it would be far more competent than the comparatively flimsy Colonial Defence Force.
Finally, after so many years of strategic modesty in the administration of the Crown's distant colony, of his Earth, as His Imperial Majesty suffered expense upon expense in countering the Imperium of Orion... Parimth had sent a warship of the Imperial Parimthian Navy, here in full force!
There was no need to inquire as to its distance; I could see it through my window. It was far enough that I could view the whole of its great form. Senghavi architecture, of course, is usually round, white, and glassy, traced with glowing accents; however, the imperial warship was boxy and shadowy black, visible only by the silhouette that it carved into the beaming sun.
Already, dozens of smaller craft—operated by some of the finest Senghavi pilots in the Milky Way—began spilling out from the spacecraft carrier, moving in the shadow of their gargantuan mothership. As even the hostage passengers became aware of its presence, the muted chatter and whimpering, which had been ambient across the aisles of the spaceliner, finally ceased.
Because of me, all of us—colonists and savages alike—were, for the first time in a decade, going to face a military intervention by Parimth itself.

The System was a scam, period.
I had leveled up five whole times after our fight against the Wendigo and I had not received any kind of reward. Sure, my mana pool had grown a little bit and my [Mana Exhaustion] had been slowly receding, but other than that I wasn’t getting stronger, faster or more agile. I didn’t even have a measly new skill to show for it.
“What a scam, I want a refund.” I muttered.
“I already told you, there was only a small chance for the Wendigo to have an elemental crystal. You only start seeing stuff like that after level fifty.” Elincia huffed in front of me. The mountainous path was steep but at least we had left the forest behind. Elincia had told me that Farcrest was just beyond the mountain range.
“People should get shit after leveling up five damn times!” I angrily said as if Elincia was somehow responsible for the shitty progression system.
The white haired suddenly stopped and turned around. For an instant I thought she was going to scold me but then, out of nowhere, she put her hands on my shoulders and locked her eyes into mine. I tried to control my blush with little success and hoped she would attribute it to the arduous hike.
“I’m sorry to break this down to you, Robert Clarke, but support classes don’t get crap from the System.” Elincia said with a solemn tone just to smile a moment later. “In any case, you should be happy because your mana pool is so huge. Scholars are known for having lots of mana but, dude, you are on another level.”
One thing was sure, I wasn’t getting used to receiving compliments any time soon.
[Awareness]: You are absolutely correct.
I ignored the System prompt. At least I was getting very good at doing that.
“The amount of mana you need to materialize a [Mana Blade] without a skill is ridiculous. Are you sure you are a low level Scholar?” Elincia asked as we resumed the march. As we came near the edge of the Farlands, she grew more relaxed.
There haven't been any signs of monsters since the previous night.
“You still don’t believe in me?” I replied.
“At this point you could say you are the son of a Fire Dragon and a virginal maiden and I’d believe you.” Elincia shrugged her shoulders. “It might be a long shot but, have you ever been in a System Shrine?”
As good a liar as I was, I couldn’t just bullshit my way out of such a direct question. Elincia was too keen for that. A System Shrine sounded like basic knowledge.
“Haven’t heard about that in my life.” I replied.
Elincia stopped for a second and gave me one of her looks of disbelief that made me feel like a kid without his homework. I wondered if she had practiced that expression. After all, she had five stacks of [Favorite Teacher], she might as well have experience publicly humiliating kids.
“You don’t have System Shrines in the City of Light?” Elincia asked in disbelief.
I just shrugged my shoulders to avoid giving an answer. Also, there was the fact that the hike was taking a toll on my lungs. I didn’t know how Elincia could sustain a conversation. If I knew I was going to get transported to a magical world, I would’ve exercised more back on Earth.
“The System blocks certain titles from low level individuals.” Elincia started explaining. “Let’s say a Lv.1 Soldier survives the scuffle against a flock of Fire Dragons and gets the [Dragon Killer] title which gives fire resistance. There is a high chance the System withholds the title from the Soldier on the basis that [Dragon Killer] is an overpowered title for a mere Lv.1.”
I nodded. It made sense the System had a method to prevent power leveling, if only to maintain some semblance of normalcy. Earth would be plunged into chaos very quickly if suddenly a bunch of people with godly powers appeared out of nowhere.
“With the help of a System Shrine and a competent System Zealot the Soldier could unlock [Dragon Killer] even without the required level.” Elincia finished with her explanation. “Maybe you are benefiting from a hidden title.”
“Maybe,” I replied.
I couldn’t imagine having any useful titles considering how ordinary my life has been before arriving in the Farlands. When I was in college, I was able to comfortably outdrink all my group of friends, but then I lost that skill just after graduating. And there was the fact my only title at level one was [Lonely Boy] so my hopes of having a nice hidden title weren’t particularly high.
“Does Farcrest have a System Shrine?” I asked.
My question prompted a dry laugh from Elincia.
“Don’t get your hopes too high. Farcrest is a shithole.” She warned me as we climbed a rocky path between the two mountain ranges that separated the Farlands from the Kingdom of Ebros. We were almost there.
“Why is there a town so close to the Farlands anyway?” I asked.
Elincia lent me her hand and helped me climb a step boulder.
“To prevent monsters from pouring into the Kingdom. Think of Farcrest as a cork.” Elincia pulled me up the boulder.
Suddenly, we were on top of the path between two mountain ranges. I glanced down the valley ahead expecting to see a handful of rustic cabins scattered across a modest patch of farmland with a rotten palisade and a muddy road; however, Farcrest was a town in its own right. It was located on the top of a soft hill, surrounded by a high stone wall with several watchtowers. An impressive church made of the same dark stone rose above the thatched rooftops and, on the highest part of the hill, a great hall, half palace, half fortress, dominated the valley.
“Doesn’t look like a shithole to me.” I said as we started the descent from the other side of the hill. It looked like a picturesque European medieval town.
“You’ll see.” Elincia replied, with a hopeless sigh.
About two hours later, we reached the city outskirts. The main road was neglected and the farmland’s irrigation canals blocked by debris. As we approached the city, the picture became even more bleak. I didn’t need [Awareness] to tell me the crops were sickly and weak. Most of the farmers were older men and women that moved slowly among the plots of land.
“Where are the young people?” I asked, discarding the idea of a disease. If there was a plague ravaging Farcrest, then there wouldn’t be old people working on the fields.
“They are in the eastern frontier, fighting the King’s wars.” Elincia replied dryly.
I recalled Elincia telling me there was a shortage of alchemical ingredients due to a war in the western frontier.
“War against who?” I asked. A war-torn country might not be too welcoming to strangers like me.
“Against the Farlands. The king is obsessed with expanding the kingdom’s territory and uncharted lands and their resources.” Elincia sighed. “It’s a meat grinder. A bunch of low level kids trying to push deeper and deeper into monster territory while the real warriors are protecting the imperial capital and the frontiers.”
[Awareness] sent me down a stream of reasoning. Numbers and equipment were the basis of any military force back on Earth. However, in this world, a single individual with a powerful class and a high level could potentially be a one man army.
“What about power leveling the new recruits? You know, pairing them with a bunch of high level people and fighting monsters together?” I asked again.
“You might be a genius, Robert Clarke! How had no one thought of that before?” Elincia replied as she mindlessly drummed her lips in a gesture I recognized as deep concentration.
“Really?”
“You really think Kings, Scholars, and Generals didn’t think about powerleveling new recruits? The System doesn’t allow that.” A tired smile was drawn on Elincia’s face.
Seeing Elincia’s expression, I decided to drop the topic about the war. I wondered how many of her friends and acquaintances have gone to the frontline to never be heard of again. The Farlands were a dangerous place and the King’s troops lacked the advantage of firearms like me.
“Let’s go to my place.” Elincia said as we approached the city walls. “You should make yourself presentable before going to the Great Hall for that transit permit, and we have to appraise the herbs.”
It didn’t take a genius to realize Elincia was desperate for alchemical materials, otherwise she wouldn’t invite a stranger like me to her home. Or maybe there was a really charitable soul beneath the layers of mistrust and suspicion. The aftermath of the combat against the Wendigo had brought us a lot closer.
“Sounds like a plan to me.” I replied wondering if I was going to meet Elincia’s kid. Or her partner.
Farcrest was only a few hundred meters away. Up close, the black stone wall was taller and sturdier than I initially thought. Then I remembered they weren’t built to resist medieval armies but the assault of skills and magic spells. The double wooden gate was wide open but nobody bothered to stop us or ask about the business that brought us to the city.
As we passed through the hole in the wall, I spied into a guardhouse. I saw young men and women playing cards and drinking booze. Well-fed and well-dressed troops loyal to the Marquis, I assumed. Up close, Farcrest was further away from the bucolic city and dangerously close to a feudal dystopia.
Elincia and I walked along the wall towards the northern district. As we progressed through the city, houses became more and more neglected to the point it seemed outright abandoned to me. Kids ran barefoot in the street, fetid puddles adorned the alleys, and most of the stores were closed. Farcrest was a ghost town.
“How long has there been war?” I asked.
“Seven years now?” Elincia replied. “We are close.”
After five more minutes of meandering through alleys, we emerged in front of a great manor made of stained white walls and washed out blue shingles. For a moment I was out of words. Was Elincia the heir of a noble family fallen from grace? Her dignified appearance and beautiful features made me think so, however, she was a bit too wild to be a noblewoman.
The manor was old. The white painting of the front was peeling away and water stains plagued the nooks and crannies of the structure. A low stone wall marked the perimeter and a quick glance revealed it had served in the past as the foundation for an iron fence long gone. The only section of the outer wall that had survived the decay of the city was the iron gate.
Elincia opened it and we entered the front yard. I was about to ask a hundred questions when the front door slammed open and a stampede of small kids came to meet us. I managed to count at least a dozen before they reached us. Elincia greeted them with arms open as the little ones burst into tears at the first sight of the woman.
I froze. Not all of them were human.
There were two small snakefolk kids with bright yellow eyes. The blue-scaled snake-kid was dressed in a ragged brown dress while the green-scaled one had an oversized white shirt and frayed pants. At the end of the retinue, somewhat late to the reception, appeared a small winged girl with a hesitant gait. Her beautiful golden feathers contrasted with the old pillowcase she used as a dress.
Before I could react, both of the snake-kids jumped into my arms, crying a river of tears. Surprisingly enough, they were warm to the touch. I tried to exchange a glance with Elincia but she was busy trying to calm a handful of small kids on her own.
How many kids Elincia had?
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Discord Royal Road

For many many months I have been getting bullied by a girl who is in a bunch of my classes who we will just call Madge and she is the WORST bully I have ever had , this is the list of the stuff she has done. (Sexual assault incident's) 1. Poked my butt once or twice in science class 2. Pinched my butt while I was going downstairs (Transphobic incidents) 1. When I was questioning myself if I was trans masc she said to me while I was in computing class that a guy in the same class wanted to go out with me and I said "I'm a guy by the way" and she started laughing. 2. The day after the computing class I heard her whisper to her pal while looking at me "She told me she was a guy.". (Physical assault) 1. She ran up shoved me into a door frame and one or two of her pals (it hurt) 2. Kicking my heels while I was walking I swung my elbow back to get her to back away and she just kept kicking till I yelled "WHAT THE HELL!". (The annoying incidents) 1. Trying to open my bag while I was walking in the hallway TWICE. 2. making a barking noise at me every day I'm a proud furry but it's getting annoying
(The scary one) I'm not sure if this is classed as stalking but first in school I was getting out of my period 3 class to go to math and I heard her on purpose pronunciation my Italian name and walking behind me so I pick up the pace and so does her and her friends so I'm now in a sprint while her 3 or 4 of her pals and one of the boys are calling me and running after me while the guy who we will just call Max is calling "(INSERT LONG ITALIAN NAME HERE)~! come here gorgeous~!." While I am saying to others while I'm heading Past "Sorry can I get past I'm being chased!" Until I land in my math class and my math teacher who we will just call Mr Penny asks me if I'm alright because my legs are shaking and I can barely breathe and I said that I was being chased and after class I was waiting for the others to go past then Mr Penny said "Here are the S5's walk with them they'll be nice to you so I say goodbye and start walking but then I hear them again so I start run. Once again I'm saying "sorry can I get past I'm being chased!" So I run down the down set of stairs while they chase and I'm still saying "sorry can I get past I'm being chased!" and I'm running up the up stairs to my English class and I clock it into my English class which I share with the boy who was chasing me and he's making fun of me running. my legs were shaky, I was teary and I could hardly breathe so I walked towards my English teacher's desk and I asked him if I could speak with him In private so he sent me outside of the classes and he soon joined and I tell him everything that happened up until that point he wrote it down and he tells me to " Stay outside the classroom for a bit to calm down and come back in on your own time." He re-entered the class and so did I. I got my work done then my English teacher who we will call Mr Awesome invited us to his club he hosts during lunch on that day in his class and I see Madge and one of her pals lurking outside of the classroom and her pal clocked me trying to hide from them she said "look it's (INSERT LONG ITALIAN NAME HERE)." "Hurry up (INSERT LONG ITALIAN NAME HERE)" "I think she's staying behind for classics club" the I check the hall still there, Mr Awesome checked it and he looked me in the eye and said to me"it's clear so it should be safe for you now but if you're being chased in the school again you run back up here to my room." And I thank him and I go downstairs to go up the street for lunch and three of Madge's friends see me and one said to the other "look it's (INSERT LONG ITALIAN NAME HERE)" and they start following me FOR THE 3RD TIME THAT DAY!. Then I see my best friend who I will call Fredrik and he instantly knew that something was wrong and he asked me if I was okay and I said "Fredrik I'm being chased we need to lose them." At first he thought that Madge's friends where joking then he realised that it was serious. So we dash through the dining hall and manage to lose them and we are walking up the street to go get lunch and I'm showing Fredrik my pride flag and I see Madge and one of her pals Infront of me so I am crouching behind Fredrik avoiding them then Max from behind sees me and yells "MADGE IT'S YOUR WEE PAL!" the she mispronounced my name again and her and her pal starts walking up to us and I yell "Fredrik we've gotta run!" Then Madge and her pal starts tryna approach us and I nearly make an exit when Madge's friend Steps towards my path and makes a roaring sound then I started to have a panic attack and I know that my uncles music shop is open and that he is there so thought tears of fear I scream "UNCLE DAVID WHERE ARE YOU!" then I get across the road whilst Fredrik is distracting them and he declined their offer to try a vape. I'm now running down the street Fredrik catching up and the girls chasing us I see a "back in 10 mins" sign and I say "God damnit uncle David!" Then I run up to the crossing where I see my uncle "h-h-hi uncle David"I said through tears then Fredrik catches up and the girls are a bit far behind, the green Man comes and I run to my uncle hug him tightly and scream through violent sobbing "UNCLE DAVID! WAAAA! I'M BEING CHASED!." And he said "who's chasing you?" And Fredrik offers to explain the situation and I see the two girls behind me laughing then they go back to the school. My uncle tells Me to get some lunch first then come to the shop, so I let Go and pick a packet of Reese's peanut butter cups and me and Fredrik go up to the counter and I give the money to my best bud and tell him that I'm in no state to talk to a co-op cashier and he handed over the cash and he carried the chocolate and hand's me the change and while we are walking to the music shop he told me "I might get in trouble but if they come back I'll defend you." I thank him and we enter the shop and my uncle tells us to go to the office because he was dealing with a customer. We wait a while and my uncle came to the office and we explain the situation and I started to recover from the panic attack then my uncle calls my mum who at the time was on the train back to Scotland and she was furious and told me to Stay out of school for the rest of the the day and after a while Fredrik went back to School and after more time my little sisters grandad picked me up and dropped me off at home. The day after my mum and me had a meeting with the school and got a statement from me and my mum brought up the stuff that they didn't sort like the sexual harassment and the heel kicking. The day after the meeting (today) Madge shoved me into a door frame and I told the member of staff who was at the meeting and she got a statement from me again and when I got home my mum asked me how I was and I told her about me getting rammed into a door frame and my mum had had it She called the school and was raging at them and then called my aunty Lianne to bring my cousin who we will call Daisy who is in higher kickboxing classes to come and beat the living snot outta Madge. And tomorrow my mum is calling the education board and possibly the cops and my mum asked me if I'm alright with calling the popo on Madge and I said yes. What do you think about it I could do with the support