Hello everyone,
Your Coming Summer of Blackouts The grid monitors say two-thirds of the U.S. risks electricity outage. -WSJ
US power grids vulnerable to extreme heat conditions this summer, NERC says -Reuters
Next Gen Battery Storage and Solar Power for Industrial and Residential Use
NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) Poised to Take Advantage of Government Incentives, Impressive Management and Experiencing Rapid Growth
Current Price $2.80/Share Public Float 28.28M Shares Held by Insiders and Institutions 18.07% - Source Yahoo Finance
About NeoVolta - NeoVolta designs, develops, and manufactures advanced energy storage systems for both residential and industrial use. Its storage solutions are engineered with lithium iron phosphate (LiFe(PO4)) battery chemistry, which is clean, nontoxic, and nonflammable. The residential-focused NeoVolta NV14 is equipped with a solar-rechargeable 14.4 kWh battery system, a 7,680-Watt inverter, and a web-based energy management system with 24/7 monitoring. The system’s 6,000-cycle battery life, one of the longest on the market, translates to 16.5 years of useful life, based on a full charge and discharge each day. The NV14 has passed the product safety standards set forth by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for battery energy storage safety testing.
Award Winning Technology
The NV14 system has been named one of Solar Power World’s Top Solar Storage Products for 2022. This marks the fourth consecutive year the NV14 has received the award from Solar Power World, one of the solar industry’s leading media outlets.
How it Works
Engineered For Safety With Iron, Not Ion Home Energy Storage Built with Safer Lithium Iron Phosphate Built with Lithium Iron Phosphate [LiFe(PO4)] Longer-lasting and safer battery technology
Non-toxic, cobalt-free energy storage Built for Stability Non-toxic, with superior thermal and chemical stability
NeoVolta Is Built with Safer Lithium Iron not Lithium Ion with Cobalt Built specifically for solar energy storage Batteries are designed for homes, not for cars
NV14 has a higher temperature tolerance than Lithium-Ion batteries Under extreme heat, Iron outperforms Ion
No Maintenance Costs Required 10 year warranty
Built with longer-lasting IRON, not ION 13,896 Wh X 365 days x 10 years 50,720 kWh lifetime throughput
Floor or Wall Mounted Easy Installation Weatherproof and installs in a garage or on the side of a home.
Remote Monitoring They monitor the health of the system so you don't have to.
VIDEO: See How the NeoVolta NV14/NV24 Work
NeoVolta’s NV14 is the first Lithium Iron Energy Storage System to be approved by the California Energy Commission. It seamlessly powers up to 16 breakers and 32 amps of continuous power through peak rates or grid outages.
Connect to DC solar installations without any external inverters or to AC solar installations via String or Micro Inverter.
The rapid auto transfer switch, ensures that even when the grid goes down, power remains uninterrupted.
Recent News
NeoVolta’s Backup System Saves MDX Labs’ Lifesaving Medications During Multiple Grid Outages
- Commercial Battery Backup System Has Prevented the Loss of MDX’s Critical Functions and Thousands of Dollars in Inventory During Numerous Power Failures
SAN DIEGO, May 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, has kept MDX Labs protected during multiple grid outages with reliable battery backup. Thanks to NeoVolta, the laboratory’s critical functions (refrigeration, server, and lights) have kept running, saving thousands of dollars while sustaining lifesaving medications and vaccines.
Founded in 2020, Henderson-based MDX Labs is the top privately held molecular and clinical diagnostic laboratory in the state of Nevada. MDX provides on-site testing services to a range of manufacturers, casinos, entertainers, restaurants, and nonprofit organizations, and it is the official overflow laboratory for the Southern Nevada Health District.
MDX Labs houses large quantities of vaccines, patient samples, and medications that require refrigeration. When grid outages occurred in the past, MDX would often lose tens of thousands of dollars in product and face periods of product unavailability while awaiting restock. In late 2021, MDX began searching for a battery backup system and discovered NeoVolta, which features a clean lithium iron phosphate battery and a hybrid inverter that can accept 208-volt power connections. NeoVolta can also charge from the power grid, eliminating the need for solar installation. In March 2022, MDX Labs installed NeoVolta’s NV14 Energy Storage System.
“Being able to support commercial facilities that are powered with 208-volt electricity is an amazing capability. Transformers are not required, which saves customers thousands of dollars and eliminates loud equipment that gives off radiant heat,” said Brent Willson, CEO of NeoVolta. “Our energy storage solutions are a very smart investment, especially considering the cost and consequence of an outage that would result in the loss of vital medical supplies and medications. We are thrilled to be partnering with MDX, a world-class clinical diagnostic laboratory.” FULL ARTICLE
NeoVolta Approved for Partnership by GoodLeap, the Top U.S. Financer for Solar and Sustainable Tech
- Offering Flexible Options for Consumers to Pay for Battery Storage
- NeoVolta Approved for Partnership by GoodLeap, the Top U.S. Financer for Solar and Sustainable Tech
SAN DIEGO, May 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, has partnered with the sustainable home improvement finance platform GoodLeap to make solar energy storage as affordable as possible for more homeowners.
GoodLeap will finance standalone NeoVolta Energy Storage System (ESS) installations with or without solar panels. They offer flexible terms and highly competitive rates. As of 2022, GoodLeap was the number one financing platform, responsible for 26% of the entire U.S. residential solar market.
To apply, homeowners can coordinate with their installer on costs and then complete an online application. The process is fast and easy, and the underwriting is very flexible so that more homeowners get approved. Finally, GoodLeap has a strong reputation for exceptional customer service, with phone calls answered live by experienced solar professionals.
“GoodLeap’s low financing rates will allow more homeowners to enjoy years of utility savings and long-lasting blackout protection with NeoVolta energy storage,” said CEO Brent Willson, CEO of NeoVolta. “Our energy storage solutions are a very smart investment, and it’s never been easier to get started. With GoodLeap financing, NeoVolta’s market is opening to a much bigger audience. We are thrilled to be partnering with a world-class provider of sustainable home improvement financing.”
The partnership with GoodLeap is expected to help fuel NeoVolta’s continued success in the rapidly growing home energy storage market.
Devastating power outages throughout the country, caused by wildfires, extreme weather, and an increasingly unstable grid system, have underscored the urgent need for home backup power.
NeoVolta storage systems are designed for safety and performance. They use lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry, the nonflammable and nontoxic alternative to lithium ion. NeoVolta’s flagship NV14 energy storage system has a very high storage capacity of 14.4 kilowatt-hours, expandable to 24.0 kWh with the optional NV24 battery—without the expense of a second inverter. The system’s inverter discharges 7.7 kilowatts of instantaneous power, more than most mainstream competitors.
For its superior safety, performance and compatibility with any solar system, new or existing, the NV14 has been named one of Solar Power World’s top storage products four years in a row. FULL ARTICLE
NeoVolta Selected to Provide American Development Partners with Energy Storage for More Than 400 Regenerative Treatment Centers
- NeoVolta’s Energy Storage and Intelligent Power Management Will Be Deployed in Treatment Center Builds Nationwide Over Next Seven Years
- NeoVolta Selected to Provide American Development Partners with Energy Storage for More Than 400 Regenerative Treatment Centers
SAN DIEGO, March 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, announced today that its systems will be deployed in more than 400 Orthagenex treatment centers nationwide. This is part of a rollout of NeoVolta batteries in thousands of American Development Partners (ADP) properties across the country over the next several years.
Together with ADP, NeoVolta will provide energy storage systems and intelligent power management for Orthagenex’s cutting edge regenerative medicine treatments centers. These 400 builds over the next seven years will be equipped with NeoVolta’s NV14 and NV24 Energy Storage Systems. The clean solar energy stored in the NeoVolta batteries will be used to dramatically reduce electric bills and serve as a backup in the event of a power loss.
American Development Partners developer Manny Butera said, “At ADP, we work with companies who innovate. NeoVolta’s advanced energy storage product is a perfect fit for the properties we are developing. We are thrilled to continue our close relationship with NeoVolta.” FULL ARTICLE
NeoVolta Poised for California’s NEM Incentives to Pair Solar with Battery Storage
- Additional $630 Million in California State Funding Set Aside to Support Residential Low-Income Solar Plus Storage Adopters
- NeoVolta Poised for California’s NEM Incentives to Pair Solar with Battery Storage
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, announced today that it expects California’s recently updated Net Energy Metering (NEM) program to drive increased demand for energy storage systems.
On December 15, 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision to update the NEM tariff to promote consumer adoption of solar and battery storage. The program will go into effect on April 13, 2023. According to the CPUC, the move was designed to financially incentivize Californians to install both battery and solar systems.
The CPUC stated that the current NEM 2.0 program was not aligned with California’s grid reliability and climate goals, noting that the increased use of electricity between 4 and 9 p.m. causes dependence on fossil fuel gas plants to meet the demand. With the battery storage incentive, the CPUC hopes to see an increased adoption of residential energy storage that will better support the needs of the grid, with customers saving self-generated solar energy for use in the evening hours.
An additional $630 million in state funding has been set aside by the California State Legislature for residential low-income solar plus battery storage adopters. The decision bolsters federal incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and battery storage.
It’s important to note that NEM 3.0 is not retroactive. Rooftop solar systems installed under NEM 2.0 will remain under that policy for a 20-year grandfathering period. This means existing rooftop solar owners who add a battery after the April 13 deadline will not be subject to NEM 3.0.
“We expect that NEM 3.0 will make Californians more aware of their energy consumption, encouraging them to conserve energy and pair rooftop solar systems with battery storage,” said NeoVolta CEO Brent Willson. “Californians who adopt this strategy will dramatically reduce their electrical bills while increasing their energy resiliency during periods of prolonged blackouts, fires, and flooding.”
California’s vast solar plus storage market has a dramatic impact on the grid. California has about 12 GW of distributed solar generation already installed, equal to nearly 25% of peak demand statewide. California also has more than 80,000 customer-owned batteries connected to the grid, with a storage potential of 900 MW, according to a September 2022 study by the California Solar & Storage Association. FULL ARTICLE
Homebuilder Rebates and Savings
Starting 2020: California Requires Solar On New Construction Each NeoVolta NV14 Could Save Builders $8,500+ (Equipment & Rebates)
Impressive Management
Brent Wilson, CEO
Brent Willson is a retired USMC Colonel with 30+ years of experience, who managed $100B aviation acquisition portfolio for the Defense Department. Brent is passionate about clean energy and providing battery energy storage solutions to consumers that provide the comfort of black out protection and the ability to offset increasing grid costs, with the solar power they produce.
NeoVolta Directors & NeoVolta Advisory
An older investor presentation (2019) but still relevant.
I'll be back with more soon on NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV)
Disclaimer

Hello everyone,
Your Coming Summer of Blackouts The grid monitors say two-thirds of the U.S. risks electricity outage. -WSJ
US power grids vulnerable to extreme heat conditions this summer, NERC says -Reuters
Next Gen Battery Storage and Solar Power for Industrial and Residential Use
NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) Poised to Take Advantage of Government Incentives, Impressive Management and Experiencing Rapid Growth
Current Price $2.80/Share Public Float 28.28M Shares
About NeoVolta - NeoVolta designs, develops, and manufactures advanced energy storage systems for both residential and industrial use. Its storage solutions are engineered with lithium iron phosphate (LiFe(PO4)) battery chemistry, which is clean, nontoxic, and nonflammable. The residential-focused NeoVolta NV14 is equipped with a solar-rechargeable 14.4 kWh battery system, a 7,680-Watt inverter, and a web-based energy management system with 24/7 monitoring. The system’s 6,000-cycle battery life, one of the longest on the market, translates to 16.5 years of useful life, based on a full charge and discharge each day. The NV14 has passed the product safety standards set forth by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for battery energy storage safety testing.
Award Winning Technology
The NV14 system has been named one of Solar Power World’s Top Solar Storage Products for 2022. This marks the fourth consecutive year the NV14 has received the award from Solar Power World, one of the solar industry’s leading media outlets.
How it Works
Engineered For Safety With Iron, Not Ion Home Energy Storage Built with Safer Lithium Iron Phosphate Built with Lithium Iron Phosphate [LiFe(PO4)] Longer-lasting and safer battery technology
Non-toxic, cobalt-free energy storage Built for Stability Non-toxic, with superior thermal and chemical stability
NeoVolta Is Built with Safer Lithium Iron not Lithium Ion with Cobalt Built specifically for solar energy storage Batteries are designed for homes, not for cars
NV14 has a higher temperature tolerance than Lithium-Ion batteries Under extreme heat, Iron outperforms Ion
No Maintenance Costs Required 10 year warranty
Built with longer-lasting IRON, not ION 13,896 Wh X 365 days x 10 years 50,720 kWh lifetime throughput
Floor or Wall Mounted Easy Installation Weatherproof and installs in a garage or on the side of a home.
Remote Monitoring They monitor the health of the system so you don't have to.
VIDEO: See How the NeoVolta NV14/NV24 Work
NeoVolta’s NV14 is the first Lithium Iron Energy Storage System to be approved by the California Energy Commission. It seamlessly powers up to 16 breakers and 32 amps of continuous power through peak rates or grid outages.
Connect to DC solar installations without any external inverters or to AC solar installations via String or Micro Inverter.
The rapid auto transfer switch, ensures that even when the grid goes down, power remains uninterrupted.
Recent News
NeoVolta’s Backup System Saves MDX Labs’ Lifesaving Medications During Multiple Grid Outages
- Commercial Battery Backup System Has Prevented the Loss of MDX’s Critical Functions and Thousands of Dollars in Inventory During Numerous Power Failures
SAN DIEGO, May 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, has kept MDX Labs protected during multiple grid outages with reliable battery backup. Thanks to NeoVolta, the laboratory’s critical functions (refrigeration, server, and lights) have kept running, saving thousands of dollars while sustaining lifesaving medications and vaccines.
Founded in 2020, Henderson-based MDX Labs is the top privately held molecular and clinical diagnostic laboratory in the state of Nevada. MDX provides on-site testing services to a range of manufacturers, casinos, entertainers, restaurants, and nonprofit organizations, and it is the official overflow laboratory for the Southern Nevada Health District.
MDX Labs houses large quantities of vaccines, patient samples, and medications that require refrigeration. When grid outages occurred in the past, MDX would often lose tens of thousands of dollars in product and face periods of product unavailability while awaiting restock. In late 2021, MDX began searching for a battery backup system and discovered NeoVolta, which features a clean lithium iron phosphate battery and a hybrid inverter that can accept 208-volt power connections. NeoVolta can also charge from the power grid, eliminating the need for solar installation. In March 2022, MDX Labs installed NeoVolta’s NV14 Energy Storage System.
“Being able to support commercial facilities that are powered with 208-volt electricity is an amazing capability. Transformers are not required, which saves customers thousands of dollars and eliminates loud equipment that gives off radiant heat,” said Brent Willson, CEO of NeoVolta. “Our energy storage solutions are a very smart investment, especially considering the cost and consequence of an outage that would result in the loss of vital medical supplies and medications. We are thrilled to be partnering with MDX, a world-class clinical diagnostic laboratory.” FULL ARTICLE
NeoVolta Approved for Partnership by GoodLeap, the Top U.S. Financer for Solar and Sustainable Tech
- Offering Flexible Options for Consumers to Pay for Battery Storage
- NeoVolta Approved for Partnership by GoodLeap, the Top U.S. Financer for Solar and Sustainable Tech
SAN DIEGO, May 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, has partnered with the sustainable home improvement finance platform GoodLeap to make solar energy storage as affordable as possible for more homeowners.
GoodLeap will finance standalone NeoVolta Energy Storage System (ESS) installations with or without solar panels. They offer flexible terms and highly competitive rates. As of 2022, GoodLeap was the number one financing platform, responsible for 26% of the entire U.S. residential solar market.
To apply, homeowners can coordinate with their installer on costs and then complete an online application. The process is fast and easy, and the underwriting is very flexible so that more homeowners get approved. Finally, GoodLeap has a strong reputation for exceptional customer service, with phone calls answered live by experienced solar professionals.
“GoodLeap’s low financing rates will allow more homeowners to enjoy years of utility savings and long-lasting blackout protection with NeoVolta energy storage,” said CEO Brent Willson, CEO of NeoVolta. “Our energy storage solutions are a very smart investment, and it’s never been easier to get started. With GoodLeap financing, NeoVolta’s market is opening to a much bigger audience. We are thrilled to be partnering with a world-class provider of sustainable home improvement financing.”
The partnership with GoodLeap is expected to help fuel NeoVolta’s continued success in the rapidly growing home energy storage market.
Devastating power outages throughout the country, caused by wildfires, extreme weather, and an increasingly unstable grid system, have underscored the urgent need for home backup power.
NeoVolta storage systems are designed for safety and performance. They use lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry, the nonflammable and nontoxic alternative to lithium ion. NeoVolta’s flagship NV14 energy storage system has a very high storage capacity of 14.4 kilowatt-hours, expandable to 24.0 kWh with the optional NV24 battery—without the expense of a second inverter. The system’s inverter discharges 7.7 kilowatts of instantaneous power, more than most mainstream competitors.
For its superior safety, performance and compatibility with any solar system, new or existing, the NV14 has been named one of Solar Power World’s top storage products four years in a row. FULL ARTICLE
NeoVolta Selected to Provide American Development Partners with Energy Storage for More Than 400 Regenerative Treatment Centers
- NeoVolta’s Energy Storage and Intelligent Power Management Will Be Deployed in Treatment Center Builds Nationwide Over Next Seven Years
- NeoVolta Selected to Provide American Development Partners with Energy Storage for More Than 400 Regenerative Treatment Centers
SAN DIEGO, March 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, announced today that its systems will be deployed in more than 400 Orthagenex treatment centers nationwide. This is part of a rollout of NeoVolta batteries in thousands of American Development Partners (ADP) properties across the country over the next several years.
Together with ADP, NeoVolta will provide energy storage systems and intelligent power management for Orthagenex’s cutting edge regenerative medicine treatments centers. These 400 builds over the next seven years will be equipped with NeoVolta’s NV14 and NV24 Energy Storage Systems. The clean solar energy stored in the NeoVolta batteries will be used to dramatically reduce electric bills and serve as a backup in the event of a power loss.
American Development Partners developer Manny Butera said, “At ADP, we work with companies who innovate. NeoVolta’s advanced energy storage product is a perfect fit for the properties we are developing. We are thrilled to continue our close relationship with NeoVolta.” FULL ARTICLE
NeoVolta Poised for California’s NEM Incentives to Pair Solar with Battery Storage
- Additional $630 Million in California State Funding Set Aside to Support Residential Low-Income Solar Plus Storage Adopters
- NeoVolta Poised for California’s NEM Incentives to Pair Solar with Battery Storage
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV) – NeoVolta Inc., manufacturer of Smart Energy Storage Solutions, announced today that it expects California’s recently updated Net Energy Metering (NEM) program to drive increased demand for energy storage systems.
On December 15, 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision to update the NEM tariff to promote consumer adoption of solar and battery storage. The program will go into effect on April 13, 2023. According to the CPUC, the move was designed to financially incentivize Californians to install both battery and solar systems.
The CPUC stated that the current NEM 2.0 program was not aligned with California’s grid reliability and climate goals, noting that the increased use of electricity between 4 and 9 p.m. causes dependence on fossil fuel gas plants to meet the demand. With the battery storage incentive, the CPUC hopes to see an increased adoption of residential energy storage that will better support the needs of the grid, with customers saving self-generated solar energy for use in the evening hours.
An additional $630 million in state funding has been set aside by the California State Legislature for residential low-income solar plus battery storage adopters. The decision bolsters federal incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and battery storage.
It’s important to note that NEM 3.0 is not retroactive. Rooftop solar systems installed under NEM 2.0 will remain under that policy for a 20-year grandfathering period. This means existing rooftop solar owners who add a battery after the April 13 deadline will not be subject to NEM 3.0.
“We expect that NEM 3.0 will make Californians more aware of their energy consumption, encouraging them to conserve energy and pair rooftop solar systems with battery storage,” said NeoVolta CEO Brent Willson. “Californians who adopt this strategy will dramatically reduce their electrical bills while increasing their energy resiliency during periods of prolonged blackouts, fires, and flooding.”
California’s vast solar plus storage market has a dramatic impact on the grid. California has about 12 GW of distributed solar generation already installed, equal to nearly 25% of peak demand statewide. California also has more than 80,000 customer-owned batteries connected to the grid, with a storage potential of 900 MW, according to a September 2022 study by the California Solar & Storage Association. FULL ARTICLE
Homebuilder Rebates and Savings
Starting 2020: California Requires Solar On New Construction Each NeoVolta NV14 Could Save Builders $8,500+ (Equipment & Rebates)
Impressive Management
Brent Wilson, CEO
Brent Willson is a retired USMC Colonel with 30+ years of experience, who managed $100B aviation acquisition portfolio for the Defense Department. Brent is passionate about clean energy and providing battery energy storage solutions to consumers that provide the comfort of black out protection and the ability to offset increasing grid costs, with the solar power they produce.
NeoVolta Directors & NeoVolta Advisory
An older investor presentation (2019) but still relevant.
I'll be back with more soon on NeoVolta Inc. (NASDAQ: NEOV)
Disclaimer

Keeping it simple.
In center, during training, my time was 3:30 Now at home, same machine settings, it's 4:15. I was told this would let me be on the cycler less than in center.
My flow rate is 400. 30L total dialysate volume Set to take off .7L.
What are the logistics to balance treatment time, and total uf? I can't be on this 4 hours a day. I am busy. Please help if anyone knows this issue

Continuing with the exercise of sharing an easily digestible and smaller version of the main updates of the day in the world of AI.

• Top AI scientists and experts sign a statement for safe AI to facilitate open discussions about the severe risks. The statement highlights the importance of addressing this issue on par with other societal-scale risks like pandemics and nuclear war.
• Microsoft Teams has announced Intelligent Recap, a comprehensive AI-powered experience that helps users catch up, recall, and follow up on hour-long meetings in minutes by providing recording and transcription playback with AI assistance. The feature shipped in May, with several features continuing to roll out over the next few months.
• According to a Pew Research Center survey, about 58% of U.S. adults are familiar with ChatGPT, but only 20% found it very useful. Americans' opinions about ChatGPT's utility are somewhat mixed.
• Paragraphica - A camera that takes photos using location data. It describes the place you are at and then converts it into an AI-generated photo.
• ChatGPT iOS app is now accessible in 152 countries worldwide. OpenAI says, Geographic diversity and broadly distributed benefits are very important to them.
• UAE rolls out AI chatbot 'U-Ask' in Arabic & English. The platform allows users to access service requirements, relevant information based on their preferences, and direct application links.

More detailed breakdown of these news and innovations in the daily newsletter.

Hello, GameDeals!

Star Deal

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Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition	79%	$10.49	£7.34	€8.39	Steam 91% with 6,729 reviews (Very Positive)	Single-playeOnline PvP	99½ hours	Yes	Unsupported	Platinum

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• Build an all-star Digimon team to take on opponents in classic turn-based battles.

System Shock 2023

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System Shock	Steam	15%	$33.99	£29.74	€33.99

System Shock is the fully fledged remake of the ground breaking original from 1994, combining cult gameplay with all-new HD visuals, updated controls, an overhauled interface and all-new sounds & music; it even has the original voice actor of SHODAN, one of gaming’s most iconic villains. Witness the rebirth of one of the greatest and most influential games ever created.

SHE IS SELF-AWARE AND AWARE OF YOU

Meet SHODAN. The psychotic AI has taken control of Citadel Station and turned the crew into an army of cyborgs and mutants; She now plans to do the same to Earth. You must explore and battle your way through the depths of a space station gone to hell. Stop SHODAN and avert humanity’s destruction.

HER TERMINATION IS OUR SALVATION

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• Fight to death in the depths of space
• Face off against the forces of a rogue AI gone mad
• Improve your skills and adapt to take on your foes
• Discover a non-linear story unfolding at your own pace
• Jack into cyberspace to hack the system and open other routes
• Innovative art style combines retro future design with modern technology

Become fully emersed: shoot, brawl, crawl, climb, leap and think your way through Citadel Station.

About Davidscloud: Davidscloud is a long-standing gaming community that believes in creating a place for all gamers to get together and enjoy playing various games together without worry of pay-to-win spoiling the enjoyment. Our community is friendly and works together to achieve a place everyone can find something to enjoy. Cloud City is a community of mature roleplayers who are looking to recruit other like-minded adults for some drama-free, action/comedy-rich roleplay. We have a special place in our hearts for people that are brand new to GTA RP. We’ve all been there ourselves, and know it can be hard to take that leap. We could be your first home, or your new one! Here, you’ll find a fully developed city with all the bells and whistles, with more on the way. Come join us, and see what all the fun is about!
Features: Something for everyone! -Fleshed out discord for members to hang out and communicate outside of roleplay. -QBCore framework -Actual custom content/scripts (written and actively worked on by our team). -Active Development with daily updates and planned DLCs -18+ populated city with men and women, at all hours of the day and night. Members from multiple continents. Drama and Greifer free, no shit lording tolerated. -200+ Imported Cars, 1500+ imported clothing items (Non-Esl) -Buy and customize your own house -Own/Stock/Price items at your own store -Available activities include restaurants, paintball, hunting, gambling, fishing, trucking, and more for civilian RP. Many more activities are coming in planned DLC's! -Hiring citizens for Local PD, State PD, Judges, Lawyers, Car Dealer, the highest paying jobs in the city -Unlimited business potentials! -Criminals can rob convenience stores, NPC's, Jewelry Stores and Banks. They can also start their own Gangs/Criminal Organizations -You can find and craft items and weapons at locations all across the State -You can find, cultivate, process and sell Weed, Coke, Meth, Heroin, Vicodin, LSD! -You can chop cars for useful and valuable parts! -A 30-day daily rewards system that rewards money, weapons, and vehicles -Free Casino spins every 24 hours for a chance to win casino chips, money, and vehicles, if you're lucky
How to get started: Join the fun! 1.) FiveM Server Address: Search “Cloud City RP” in FiveM and connect. No whitelist application needed. 2.) Join us on Discord at: https://discord.gg/wDPY5yr​

A couple months later, we can declare the MBTA's efforts to remove speed restrictions an unmitigated failure. These restrictions will be a permanent feature of the system for the rest of its life. Until recently, there was an illusion of progress. The center of the system was starting to clear out of restrictions. But in the last few weeks, the T has just lengthened and added more and more slow zones in places they just fixed. Park to Charles is back to a slow zone. The orange line has added more in places that were getting shut down every weekend. And don’t forget, the N. Quincy-JFK stretch has been shutdown constantly, and zero progress is being made. The net result? In the past month, the red line has cleared a net of ZERO restrictions. The Orange Line has GAINED one.
Think that this is overreacting? Let’s not forget that last summer, the D branch was overhauled completely, and yet now most of the line is under a slow zone. There is absolutely precedent for the T “fixing” things that just break instantly.
And the green line has just been completely ignored. Work near the fenway/st.marys portal was announced, but never took place. Not even officially cancelled, it just literally never happened. And they seem content to let the main trunk, the busiest transit corridor in America with 2-3 minute headways in rush hour, just clog up with slow trains crawling along.
The old T, flawed as it was, is never going to come back. They'll keep doing shutdowns just to try and keep the status quo from devolving further, but no progress will ever be made.

We're in a relationship of four months. Everything is good except his time management. It happens a lot. He does not value my time at all. He even says he differentiates if we talk on the phone or are meeting um irl. Meaning, if his weird female roommate wants to smoke with him, he will do that without any fricks given and lets me wait 10 minutes, even though we agreed on a certain time! If we meet up irl, he forgets (??) to take a shower and ends up letting me wait an hour.. (this is happening right at this moment, lets bet he won't make it in an hour for some "reason").
At this point I feel like everything's more important than me. His actions show me, that he simply doesn't want to make the effort to show up when agreed upon..
Can you please help me find the right words to talk to him about this issue? The first few times I wasn't concerned, but waiting three hours at the bus station for him is getting tiring.
What can I do?

Hey, Just ranting and fuming yknow - apologies in advance for the block of text incoming.
I work FT at a NFP arts center, only two of us (manager and me) in the department. I wanted to do some professional development so recently started an online 6 week course and mentorship which is directly related to my profession/role.
I paid for this course (over $1000) out of my own pocket as I believe this was an investment for my career and would help me improve in my role. I was talking to another co-worker about this course, and they mentioned I should apply for time in lieu (TIL) for the study period as other co workers have done the same - except where the organisation has actually contributed to covering the course fees plus considered study time as TIL.
So I applied to HR, my manager and their boss - I didn’t even ask for money to be contributed, but just that the 3hours of study a week could acknowledged as TIL. No financial contribution required, just TIL. And?? Denied!
It’s sort of just soured my view completely. HR gave excuses as to why it wasn’t allowed that went round in circle but yet other workers are allowed. And my manager was against it as they said they couldn’t possibly lose me for 3 hours a week. And yet my manager comes in half an hour late every morning and leaves half an hour early (over three hours a week). And same manager saying I’m going to have to start taking over some of their management reporting as they can’t keep up. I found out recently that my manager when WFH didn’t even have access to our venues booking system or main shared email??? Like what are they doing then?
And I am always the one who works nights and weekends. I hardly ever get to take a proper lunch break as picking up the slack of others. And my role has had a high turnover in the past and they are trying to change but then this?
I’m fuming as it feels like what is even the point of trying? It’s so deflating and demotivating. I enjoy the work, even if the money isn’t great being a nfp but now I just feel absolutely taken advantage of. And I just want a manager that encourages me and has my back in these situations.
It’s also frustrating as I want to escalate the situation but it will just be more drama and cause friction as it’s small organisation.
I think I need to step back, set better boundaries and prioritise myself.

Hey everyone. So to start things out, I applied to so many positions at my alma mater and one finally got back to me, it was in my university’s hospital, i dont mind but it was typically not ideal. When I went to the interview they asked me if i knew the position was part time, I didnt but I didnt wanna play dumb either. So i did the interview kinda hoping they would forget me and wouldnt get back to me bc I am a pushover. Also i live in the suburbs and it wouldn’t be worth it to commute all the way to the city just to be part time.
Fast forward a month later (maybe even less) I get a call from their hr and get offered the position, im hesitant at first bc i applied to so many positions with them i wasnt 100% sure which one it was. I ask about the pay, the person on the phone didn’t give a clear answer, so I told them id let them know and I remember asking my friends what to say and they just told me to ask more about the pay, so i called maybe a few days later and asked again and was told it would be around 26k but it didnt seem official, more like an estimate. i asked if I can get an email for an official offer of employment to read through, and they told me I dont get that unless I accept the offer over the phone. So I said I would let them know bc I needed some time to think about it, the person gave me a few days and I knew I didnt want the job but at the time I had no other prospects so I thought i should just take it. It wasnt till the last minute or even after the deadline they told me to let them know by where I accepted the offer over the phone. I got the offer letter through their system where I had an account and didnt know it was a file so I thought it was just a congratulations thing that I had to click “accept” on bc their site is a little confusing for me, but just now, a day later I looked at it (i guess i know how to work it now) and there was a pdf with all the information and the pay was 24k part time, which idk how to calculate hourly bc i was told id be working for 3 days a week and theyd be 8 hours a day. I go through the medical clearing and the background check took the longest bc my employment was bard to verify. See this is where I feel like shit bc I dragged that out and took forever to get proof bc I was working one job already so I procrastinated on it and didnt give them proof till like 2 weeks later and that proof didnt work so I didnt give them another till a week after that, so it was my fault id see their emails and say yeah ill do it and procrastinate it.
I get a call saying im all cleared to start and if i can right away, I said yes but they had to push my official orientation to june 12. So yesterday was my first day and traffic was not good. But its the city so i don’t expect anything else. I get there and everyone is so nice and welcoming, which is honestly one of the reasons i feel so guilty other than dragging out my background verification and pretty much wasting their times. I had to fill out a bunch of modules and stuff but they didnt have an office for me yet because the hospital was going through a lot of changes so i was doing it in a visitor room, its a hospital and there was one small room that was for visitors that i think was no longer used for that purpose. After that, I sat with someone from my department and accompanied them while they were doing their tasks in the clinic area and helped a bit and it was so lovely. Everyone was so friendly!! And I made friends with them all. In all I think I should’ve started when it was more prepared for me to have an office space, around my orientation date bc I was kinda floating, again though, my fault bc I said I can go in asap. Later that night I talked to pretty much everyone I knew and they agreed it wasnt worth the job. So i sent out resignation emails literally at 10 pm.
Onto the main reasons I quit:
When I was emailed more details (like the system username and registration stuff) there was a link for parking plans available if I planned to drive, and since I interviewed for a different position with this university, they gave me a parking pass just for the interview so I assumed id be getting a parking pass. It said that there are parking plans available and if I wanted to register for a parking plan then it would come out of my paycheck. So I thought that 24k part time couldn’t really be that much but taking money out for parking makes that even less, especially when gas nowadays is over $4 a gallon. Plus i clicked the link and it didnt work.
Then i thought about public transportation. however, i live in the suburbs and the nearest train station to my house is 20 min away and id still have to pay parking there and then train passes, which really adds up. There was no win here. All in all, i really think that parking + gas is so expensive that Its just not worth it. Id be making money just to spend it.
Side note: My supervisor offered for me to be full time up until my orientation to be more familiar with everything, I agreed bc idk how to say no. Looking back at it, a day later, I realize that my pay was salary and exempt, so I wouldn’t have been getting paid for it (i think)
I really think this couldve been avoided if I just declined the offer but I cant help but feel bad. Am I wrong here?

Us: mid 30s, married 6 years, 2 kids (5 and 1). High earners ($200k+) both work FT.
Currently live in my home city. We moved here when our oldest was 1 assuming a certain level of help from my parents and extended family, who all live here. I pushed the move based on this assumption.
My sister watches our youngest every day (paid). My parents pick up our older child from school twice per week, one of those nights keeping for dinner and bringing home before bedtime. There is no taking them out for ice cream/to the park/over to their house spontaneously. They do babysit occasionally but it feels like a burden. We go out several times per month either alone or with friends and pay a sitter. Extended family gets along well and we all get together somewhat frequently.
Spouse has been struggling mentally/emotionally being away from their family and best friend. They become angry/sad around family events when they are here and their family is not present. They are struggling with living far from aging.
Spouse wants to move our family to their hometown (14 hrs away, pop 1500). The town is a summer hotspot and has a few breweries, shops and eateries but few conveniences outside of gas and small supermarket. There is one school in the town (k-12). Any convenience such as a gym or even a Walmart is a 20+ minute drive in the mountains with things like a Target store, mall, etc 1 hour away.
Spouse feels that by moving there we would have more “support” with our kids (frequent visits throughout the week, a 1-2 day monthly getaway for us because their parents “would just do it”). Spouse also argues that their best friend, spouse and child would visit frequently (live an hour from hometown). We are part owners of a lake house 20 minutes outside of town and we would be able to visit there on summer weekends. Spouse feels our kids could spend their days at the lake instead of paying for summer camp here. Spouse would like to be involved in a community they have ties to.
Spouse feels like they have been “eating it” for 5 years, missing loved ones, for family “support” that hasn’t materialized how we had hoped. They feel that it is my turn to “eat it” and we should “try it my way”.
I feel that moving there would not be better for our family. We could afford a 15 year mortgage there but the house would be at least $150k more for one not as nice as ours. Our current home is nice and will be paid off in 11 years. Because of the location I would likely be driving at least 20 mins each way to work (if not much longer) in the mountains. We have no daycare there; spouse states they and MIL would share daycare, though spouse WFH full time and travels frequently during part of the year. The school is small (20 kids/ grade). Any convenience is a drive. Spouse is not close with extended family there and dislikes their sibling.
AITA for not wanting to move based on logical reasons if it would emotionally benefit my spouse to move?

[excerpt from defense and security writer Kyle Mizokami, 2019]
During a recent Pentagon roundtable, Task & Purpose’s Pentagon reporter Jeff Schogol asked if the Space Force “is concerned about threats posed by extraterrestrial intelligence.” The official answer he got back? “No.”
Schogol’s question was asked with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but the revelation last year that U.S. Navy fighter jets encountered alleged UFO craft in 2004 and again in 2015—in both instances appearing on radar and leaving behind video evidence—makes one wonder.
If the unidentified flying objects described by Navy pilots, as well as military and civilian personnel for the past seventy years, are really of extraterrestrial origin and unfriendly, how would the Pentagon deal with them? If UFOs suddenly descended from the skies, toasting the Statue of Liberty, the Great Mall of America, and the Golden Gate Bridge with death rays, the Pentagon would need to convene some sort of study group to quickly determine what kind of threat it was dealing with. If that happens, forget the Air Force. Ironically, the service that would most likely take the lead is the U.S. Navy.
Why the Navy? Aliens would likely come from vast distances, traveling light years in long distance voyages, to smash puny humans. The U.S. Navy is unique among the services in planning similar, though much, much shorter voyages. Both submarines and UFOs deal with pressure—in the case of submarines the pressure is on the outside, while in space the pressure is on the inside of the vehicle. From an operational and technical standpoint, aliens and sailors have a few things in common.
There are other reasons the Navy might take the lead. Seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, and if aliens operated from the water (remember, the 2004 sighting included reports of a 737-sized object on the surface of the ocean) the Navy is unique in having manned aircraft, surface ships, and submarines prowling above, on, and below the surface of the ocean. The Navy could also sail to the most remote locations in the world’s oceans, establishing a military presence for weeks or months, to investigate and monitor for enemy activity.
The Air Force could operate against aliens, but the service’s fighters and bombers could only remain on station for mere minutes or hours before returning to base. Against a terrestrial threat this isn’t really a big deal, but against an alien threat we know nothing about—and according to the 2004 incident, theoretically capable of traveling extraordinary distances in a blink of an eye—such a force will be less useful.
If humans could lure aliens into a set-piece battle the Air Force could bring a lot of firepower, but how one lures aliens into battle is anyone’s guess. In the meantime the Space Force, nestled under control of the Air Force, would contribute to the alien war by maintaining the U.S. military’s network of position, navigation, and timing/GPS satellites, communication satellites, and other space-based assets.
The Army would be the service responsible if aliens attempted a landing in the United States, or presumably one of our allies. The Army’s 10 combat divisions would spring into action, attempting to destroy the aliens with fire and maneuver. It would be in many ways similar to countering an airborne landing, with the Army attempting to destroy the alien’s landing zone and prevent the flow of alien reinforcements. The Marines could also get in on the alien fighting, particularly overseas in Asia, Europe, or even the Middle East—though one would like to think aliens would be smart enough to avoid that region and the prospect of their own 18-year war altogether.
Of course, all of this is contingent on the U.S. military being on par with alien technology... which, frankly, is extremely unlikely. The universe is billions of years old, and other races could easily have a head start of a million years or more on us. And certainly, any species capable of interstellar flight is far more technologically advanced.

Hello reddit.
I come here out of desperation. Something has happened to me today that I can still not comprehend. As I'm typing this, my hands are still shaking and my heart still pounds like never before. My mind is still trying to process the events that happened earlier this morning and I can not tell if what I've saw and felt was real or not. My only resort was to tell this story to someone and I believe you guys can help me out. One thing that I would like to settle is that English is not my first language and I'm pretty nervous typing this, so forgive me for any mistakes I make. Without any further ado, let's start.
First, I believe some context is essential.
I'm a college student from southern Brazil currently, studying medicine hoping for one day to become a doctor. My itinerary is complex and ever-changing, so I usually arrive early at my college and leave late at night. As for such, I usually have a car to transport myself. I still live with my parents and the car in specific is not mine, but rather my mom's. My mom worked for many years for delivery services, and so used this car for her job. After I entered college, she let me borrow this car in order to better transport myself from home to there and vice-versa. Currently, she uses her own car for work, however sometimes she still needs her work car (the car I'm using) for a variety of reasons, either it being because her car is being tuned-up or broke down, etc etc. Sincerely, I don't mind that, her work car is already a bonus for me, so if she needs it, she can have it whenever she needs.
On this oportunate situations, I go to college through different means, usually by my friends giving me a ride or by calling transportations services such as Uber or conventional taxis. This morning was no different.
Last night, my mom let me know in advance that she would be needing her work car today. At first, nothing unusual, I will just book a cab or call an Uber and everything will go as it normally goes.
I woke up this morning at 5:50 AM. My classes start at 07:40 AM, however, since I wouldn't be having my car today, I woke up earlier than usual to guarantee I wouldn't be late. I would be on the responsability of another person after all.
I got up, had breakfast, dressed up, got my bag and stepped out of the house no later than 06:30. It is currently winter in Brazil at this time of the year, and since it rains frequently in my town, the day is usually dark. The sun rises around 7 AM, and the sky is usually heavily clouded, so it's normal for this time to still look like night-time and from 8 am to 6 pm for the day to look darker than the rest of the year.
So here I was, on the sidewalk in front of my house in the usual darkness of the morning. I took out my phone and wondered what method I should use today. First, I intended in calling two of my friends whom also go to college with me, however it was early and they were probably still asleep at the time. I then decided to call for an Uber, but my mobile data isn't the best and calling an Uber would've taken an eternity. The only thing working properly was my phone's signal, which I could use to call a cab. And that's what I did. Now, I look back and realize I should've never done that.
The call was nothing out of the ordinary. I called in a cab from a local taxi company, gave my address and waited patiently. It was not like if I have never done that before. 5 minutes went by, then 10, 20, and I started to worry if the company had really dispatched someone to pick me up, and that's when I saw what I was looking for.
Turning on a street corner, came a regular white cab tagged "Taxi" on the roof of the car and the company's name tagged on the corner of the windshield. A swarm of relief hit me and I signalized for the driver that I was the one who called. The cab slowed down and eventually came to a stop next to where I was, I opened the back seat door and placed my bag behind the front passenger seat, to which I closed the door and entered and sat on the front passanger seat, next to the driver.
As I sat down and closed the door, I told the driver that I've placed my stuff on the back of the seat I was sitting on and I was about to tell them where I was headed to... And what I've saw made me stop speaking mid-sentence.
The driver was a short young woman, probably between 30 and 35, with a short hair, colored mixed between a blonde and whitish color and, in normal conditions, I would have considered her relatively pretty if it was not for what made my blood freeze almost instantly. The woman driving the car had bulged, soulless, never-blinking eyes fixated on the road. The woman had her head slightly tilted up, looking down with those mysterious yet horrendous eyes to the road. You know when you are going downstairs but don't tilt your head down to look where you are going but instead use only your eyes with your head still heading front? That's exactly how she was, but her head was tilted upwards and her bulged big eyes looking down in order to see the road. Look, I'm studying medicine and I've already seen patients with exophthalmos, a clinical condition where patients have their eyes bulged anteriorly by an anormality in their thyroid gland, but this... This was different. Those eyes were not normal, they were big and kept starring at the road motionless, soulless with what felt like no emotion at all.
I stopped speaking and froze as soon as I saw her. The woman did not answer. Hell, she did not even look at me or even seemed to notice I've entered the car... She just kept starring at the road with her head tilted up. Those seconds of silence felt like minutes, I could feel every hair on my body standing up and my heart starting to pounce like a festival drum. My only desire was to scream and run from that woman, the atmosphere she passed was so uncomfortable that I can't even descrive the feeling.
For some stupid moral principle, I tried to shrug it off and tell myself it was all in my head. Perhaps that woman had a medical condition that I did not know and I was afraid of nothing at all. With that thought and a lot of internal strengh, I managed to continue the phrase where I left off and gave the address to my college. The woman again did not respond, just kept her motionless stare at the road.
After around 10 seconds or so, that woman started driving away and making our way to my college. I'm usually a very sociable person and I love to talk to new people, but this situation did not make me wake that feeling. That woman was so weird, so unnatural, almost like she was not meant to be here, and yet she was. The only movements the girl made were to shift gears, accelerate, break, just the essential to move the car. She did not look both sides when crossing intersections, did not look at traffic lights, she did not even change her sitting position, and yet managed to drive like she was doing all of those things, she never cut anyone's front, did not run over red lights, almost like an AI drives, but this girl looked like flesh and organic, she definetly was NOT an AI. Most of the ride I felt uncomfortable, ocasionally looking at her still trying to process what I was seeing, and I swear in God's name she did not blink not even once during the whole ride.
After around 10 minutes of disturing silence, we finally made it to my college. I said one very embarassed and out-of-place "thank-you" to her and asked how much it was, and of course she did not answer, just kept that static position she mantained throught the entirety of our time. I took out my wallet and grabbed a considerate amount of money; much more than any other cab service would have asked for a service such as this, however I did not want to take my chances with whatever this girl was. I said how much I was paying and that I would be placing it in the cup-holder between the seats, and just stepped out of the car as fast as I could. I did not expect nor wanted any change, I just wanted to get out of that car and go on with my routine and maybe forget that whole incident. While I was stepping out of the cab, I told her, even without knowing if she was listening or not, that I would just grab my bag on the backseat and leave, to which of course no response. I shrugged it off and opened the backseat door to grab my stuff.
When I opened, I saw that my bag rolled over to the opposite side from where I was standing on the way, which meant that I would have to reach all the way down on the floor on the car inside to grab the bag handle in order to take it out. I really REALLY did not want to spend any more time inside with that woman than necessary, but I still needed my material. With one fast prayer to all the gods I knew, I semi-crawled on the backseat in order to grab my bag handle and just get out of there as soon as possible, and that's when it hit me.
Out of a sudden, a wave of panic descended upon me. My fight-or-flight response activated, my blood rushed, my heart pounced like never before, I felt a sheer wave of an iced-like cold sensation spike through my organs, the fear in me grew exponentially to such a point that the only thing that seemed rational was to scream for help and run for my life. Never have I ever experienced such fear in my entire life. Frozen by the fear and shaking like a newborn chihuahua, I slowly and painfully raised my head to look at what was making me feel that way, and I saw... her.
The woman, or whatever the hell that was, for the first time, moved. I don't know when or how I did not notice it but when I lifted my head to see her, she was still in the driver seat, but starring right at me with those menancing, disturbing, bulged eyes and with the creepiest, scariest, most blood-curdling smile I've ever seen. She was not with her head tilted up anymore, she was starring straight forward at me with those eyes at the center of those giant eyeballs, and toppled with that ear-to-ear smile. That stare without any emotion behind was now changed to a different stare. I'm not sure what she was thinking, but I swear that those eyes now had intentions, she was looking into my very soul with a killer-like instinct that made every cell in my body scream in agony. This was probably the first experience I've had to what it feels like to be stared at by an assassin. It took half a second, but for me it felt like I was starred into for an entire hour, and as my rushing mind was comprehending the danger of the situation, the girl suddently steps on the gas and takes off with the car faster than I could follow, it's still starring at me and not at the road.
I was still inside the car with my bag in hand when she did this and I still don't know how I managed to jump out without hurting myself on the process. That could've gone wrong in so many ways but I managed to stay in one piece and leave the car faster than I ever did. As I saw the cab go, although I could not see her, I could tell clear as day that she was watching me as she drove away.
It took me several minutes to come to myself again. I puked on some plants on the side of the parking lot I was at and pratically dragged myself to my empty classroom. Even though my friends eventually came and my classes started, I couldn't focus. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that woman... That monster that made me fear for my life more than I've ever imagined. I'm now in a bathroom stall, with my phone in hand typing everything I felt, feel and lived. Telling this via a written story is way easier than telling face-to-face without breaking into tears or having a panic attack. Just remembering this incident makes me anxious, nervous, I start to shake the moment I remember that smile.
If someone can tell or explain to me what I lived today, I would be insanely grateful. It doesn't even have to be complex nor make sense, even a simple hypothesis or theory is already enough for me to calm down a little, since my mind is still anesthetized and failing to comprehend anything. I feel like knowing what I've experienced can make me control my emotions and understand better the situation I was in.
Anyhow, I believe that, should I need to go to college through a different mean, next time I will just walk my way there.

Hi all,
I know there was a question about the CUH parking a year ago, to which I replied as well.
However my question is a tad different. My missus will start working in the CUH next month and we are unsure about the staff parking. A friend who already works there mentioned it is crazy.
Anyone have information on where to park if the staff parking is full? The shopping center probably isn't a long term solution.
Worst case would be I drive the missus to work and lose 2 hours of my life and the will to live.

Please Support this story on nosleep here.
The common consensus on what a curse even is can be ambiguous, so many cultures and ideas reframe and retool to fit the central tenets of their thematic cores. One thing is common amongst all interpretations however, their aim is to cause harm. One might wonder at what point is a curse conceived, not just the rituals and requirements that are needed to conjure a curse. No, what is it that makes up a curse, what feeds it? Some might answer hate or jealousy, and while those might be true for some. For me, the curse I bore and the curses I will bear are made up of one thing. Resentment.
I first noticed its infection one morning while getting dressed for classes. Running my fingers along the slight depression brought out goosebumps. It was slightly tender and if I pressed on it hard it elicited a painful pinch that caused my insides to tangle in panic. Withdrawing my fingers to inspect them I noted a slickness I couldn’t account for. A slight black tint colored my fingertips and I quickly rinsed them under hot water but it did little to wash away the wave of anxiety that had come over me. I tried to push it aside, I had classes, term papers, and tests to worry about. I held out until the middle of my 3rd class, by then all I could think about was the series of horrible and fatal medical implications of the indentation. I ran all the way home, body wracked with shivers, and slammed myself inside my dorm bathroom, stripped off my shirt, and took a good look at it. It had gotten deeper, at least 2 centimeters into my chest now. It was where my sternum was, dead center between my two pectoral muscles. I pushed my finger in and it actually gave some, causing a shudder of agony to blossom and ride through every nerve in my body. I spent the rest of the day researching what I could, some stuff about dietary insufficiencies causing swelling and easily depressed skin, but this was different. The anxiety attacks started then and continued for the next few hours. My roommate walked in during the midst of one and saw my huddled form, trying to breathe. I heard the audible click of his tongue and he left.
3 am neared and I still hadn’t escaped that sinking feeling, the one that feels like an endless plunge towards death, and all the while your lungs struggle to pull enough air to fuel a scream. Drowning in plain sight. I looked desperately through Jake’s things and found a bottle of Benadryl. I washed a couple of them down and waited until my eyelids grew heavy. I was barely able to crawl into bed before I fell into a deep slumber. The dreams it brought were bizarre and vivid. I was wandering through a landscape of abandoned suburbs, going from door to door, looking for one that was the right color. It was late into the night when I finally found it, a dim street lamp casting down an amber spotlight in front of a dilapidated two-story with a red door.
The door opened as I walked up to it, revealing a barren living room lit by a corner lamp that flickered every few seconds. At its center was a cobblestone well, ancient and unnerving. I recognized it. I had seen it countless times. On my worst days, I had dreamt of standing before it, yearning for hope or absolution. I had been silent instead, letting all I could not say seep into it. This inverted well, one that fed on despair instead of dreams, was now vibrating, shifting. Something was rising from its depths to greet me and I was ready for it, yearned for it. Black fluid erupted from its opening, spraying the ceiling and walls and splattering across my face.
Somewhere, a scream was reaching a fever pitch. I looked down and saw that my chest had split open and the black fluid was streaming down in a cascade of pitch. An eye blossomed from the depths of that gaping ravine in my chest. It stared, focused, and recognition flooded into the empty white. From the hole in my chest, something was rising - a realization. The screaming… it had been me the whole time.
I jolted awake, the pain in my chest the first thing to greet me. I heaved to suck in a breath and my senses came alive. Next was the sweat-slick coat that had pooled around me and I turned over to flip on a lamp. Light flooded my vision, but still, I was surrounded by darkness. No, not darkness, but stains. Black ink had seemingly spurted from my chest and splattered my bedding and floor. I ran my finger through it, all along my sternum, but I could not find the indentation, nor a source for the fluid.
I got up in a panic, looking around the room. I was alone, my roommate never having returned, but there was a trail of black ooze. I followed the most prominent streak to a corner. There was a lump there, a polished shiny black orb where the oily ooze seemingly seeped from. My heart thundered as I approached it, I swore I thought I saw it twitch. I was in the middle of my hands and knees crawling towards it when it jerked, moved, and stood.
I fell back on my ass letting out a half yelp, frozen as my gaze locked with it. It was the size of a rabbit, its tar-black skin reflective and polished. It had these beady eyes that were somehow darker than the rest of its body, and it waddled forward on stubby legs no longer than two inches. It had arms too, stubs too, and they reached for me. I was scooting away from its path when it spoke in a pained and squeaky voice as if its anatomy was ill-fitted for human speech, even its grasp of human words was feeble.
“No harm. I’m an ally.”
“What?” I couldn’t help but respond.
“You fed me, so now I repay you?”
“How? In what way? What are you?”
It blinked as if contemplating how to answer my barrage of questions. It didn’t have a mouth, but it spoke regardless. There was distance to its voice, so I was certain that it didn’t speak directly to my mind, but then again I didn’t even think that was possible until now.
“I am grown, don’t know from where, or why. I think I could be a tool or weapon. I eat bad feelings, but I was left with no one around to feed me. Then you came and fed me, for a long time. Now I’m finally strong enough to repay.”
“Repay me how?”
“I have fed on the dark of your heart. I know what it desires, I can take the shape of a curse,” it said
“You’re going to curse me? As repayment?”
“No, that’s not what was in your hearts. Yes, you hated yourself, but you hate others more. I can be the curse you cast on them.”
Something clicked in place and made its way closer to my mind, but didn’t bridge the distance entirely. It spoke, knew that I’d ask it how.
“Pick the kind of curse. I can be misfortune, blindness, madness… even death, a killing curse,” it said.
I reached towards it, even as its body distorted and elongated and reshaped into a foot-long, skinny, jagged oily centipede. I froze but it skittered forward, crawled across the back of my hand, and wrapped around my wrist. It tickled my skin, slick but warm. Almost uncomfortably so.
“Pick the kind of curse you want me to be, and feed me to whom you want to inflict. It’s easy, but curses burn up in daylight if not attached. You’ll have a few hours past dawn before I turn to ash.”
It fell silent afterward as if slumbering, but I couldn’t sleep. I sat in the corner thinking, watching the black stains left by the living curse dry up and evaporate into nothing. I had to look periodically at the oily centipede wrapped around my wrist to remind myself that I wasn’t dreaming, but all it did was convince me that I had careened off the precipice of sanity into some functional hysteria. I sat there until the sun rose, and like a clockwork mechanism, I got dressed and went to class. I was on autopilot, more depersonalized than I had ever felt before I watched myself go through the motions of my life. It should have been a cry for help, you could see it spelled out clearly as day and no one could have missed it. But they did - or rather, they chose to ignore it, because that was what you were supposed to do with people like me. Dull rage set in and it was what I stewed in as the hours ticked by, a building fury that could have blown but only boiled over and settled into dejected acceptance. I was ready to leave it at that, to let myself fade into a shadow like I had my entire life. To give up and crawl away to some recess, never to be found. But the searing pain of dozens of clawed insect legs digging into my flesh brought back presence of mind “Now. Now! Now! NOW!” a voice chirped. I ran into a storage closet, barred the door, and pulled back the sleeve that hid the living curse.
“What is it, are you about to die?”
“Not die, return. Back to the labyrinth. Pick a curse now, feed me to your enemy, before I disappear and all you’ll be left with is ash.”
“And if I haven’t picked anyone? If I don’t want to hurt anyone?”
“Then let me burn in the light, let me go, never visit my well, never feed me again. Move forward from your life, move away from me, and you’ll be free of me”
It could be that easy to rid myself of this wretched thing. I thought about my day, my life, and the people closest to me. I couldn’t let go, not when they had all walked by ashamed or indifferent, or worst of all, fearful. I had done nothing and they feared me.
“I won’t let it go, I can’t. I don’t know what I’ll do, but I can’t move on from this. I can’t give you up, but I can’t choose someone to suffer you.”
“Then eat me.”
I looked at the wriggling centipede confused, black fluid dripping from its body.
“If you eat me, you inflict the curse upon yourself. Not at full potency, but I’ll live until you’re ready to choose. If you hate enough, if you have the resolve, you can cast a shadow of my curse on all who meet your gaze, but you must hurry, my time… fades.”
“I don’t know what to pick. I don’t want to suffer.”
“Then pick the curse that causes the least pain.”
“Which is? I don’t know, pick for me!”
“I am delirium, now eat me, before it’s too late.”
I didn’t notice any change in the curse, except for the small cracks appearing in its carapace and the fraying of its antenna. I hesitated until a large crack formed across its back; at that moment, I hoisted it up and opened my mouth wide, closing my eyes as I lowered it. It did the rest of the work, jerking free of my grip and slithering down my throat with brute force, trailing that oily substance, I gagged, screamed, tears ran and I choked. But once it was down and settled I was alone in that room, nothing different.
Until I stepped out, and it began. A blurring of the world, where every sound was too sharp and grating, every color too vibrant. My head was swelling with immense pressure as it was filled with hundreds of trivial conversations, all spewing from the mouths of every student and professor in this wing. I couldn’t handle it, so I ran, flinging the doors open to the outside.
Except outside wasn’t outside, no, the doors opened up to a hallway I had been trying to forget all my life, framed with pictures of me and my family. I turned, hoping I could reach the living room so I could leave through the front door but what faced me was another room, one I had forgotten about until now. A barred door, walls burned black, stained with soot and char. A sound jolted me back around, the sound of a belt being unbuckled and fabric hitting the floor. Panic rose within me and I felt like I was in free fall, plummeting from astral orbit, through the earth's crust, and straight into the pits of hell. Except I wasn’t. No, I was in my middle school nurse's office. The scent of floor polish and cheap perfume tickled my nose.
“If it hurts you can stop it anytime, you know? Just change your habits, it’s not that hard,”
Ms. Rena, my middle school nurse, was talking to me. I stared into her eyes, and the world quieted and came into focus. They were green, as beautiful as emeralds. I couldn’t help but stare at them every chance I got. They brought forth feelings within me I had never felt before, an awakening. I blinked and they were burning now, bright green flames that sloughed the flesh from her face and I turned away and screamed. The scream pitched, bent, and distorted into a siren, ascending and descending endlessly. I don’t know how long I was caught in its loop but I couldn’t cling onto a single coherent thought longer than a second, as if my mind had been partitioned half a dozen times and all were battling for the sphere of influence that was my perception.
Then clarity, or an illusion of such. In reality, it was only a fleeting break from the delirium, long enough for me to gather my faculties so that the second dive into madness would hurt just that much more. But time was relative here, stretching out longer than it had any right to. The curse was there, in the hallway of my dorm, no longer a centipede but a tall humanoid thing, seemingly made of old motor oil.
“What’s happening? What did you do to me?!” I pleaded.
“You are suffering the curse of delirium. You chose this, remember?” it said, its voice no longer airy and whistling, like a bird’s. Its speech was no longer jilted and tenuous. Now when it spoke, its voice was deep and full of power.
“You said it would be weaker, subdued.”
“This is subdued, I’m a powerful curse after all.”
“What are you? Where do you come from, I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know, I’m searching for the answer myself. I was malnourished for so long that my mind splintered, I suffered my own madness, and I just know bits and pieces now. I know that in the city of Cradle, the word they call me means ‘Demon Seed’. That’s all I know of my identity.”
“I-I didn’t want this,”
“You’ll grow accustomed to it, with time. Not fully, if you could ignore the delirium it wouldn’t be much of a curse. If it’s too much for you to handle, if the pain is unbearable, you can always make it go away.”
“How?”
“Expel me from your body, feed me to someone else, or let the sun take me.”
I exhaled long and slow, and felt the prickling at the corner of my mind. The madness was near, but all I could feel was anger. At the curse, at myself, at the world. I turned away and faced a world of static and incomprehensible whispers, deafening and all-consuming. I collapsed into myself, held my hands to my ears, and balled into the fetal position. It did little to shut out all that was happening, but it did dull it for a moment until a quiet, throaty keening cut through and pierced my mind directly. I imagined a small undying animal having an army knife stab them at consistent intervals, the pace changing periodically so it could never get used to the pain. And then the violence was reflected onto me except there was no perpetrator. An invisible force sliced into the flesh of my sides, my back, until I was ridden with countless wounds. The pain spurred me to crawl forward on all fours, hoping to escape it but it was endless. I was bleeding so much, black blood, my blood was black. I laughed, then cried, and then crawled forward as the stabbings continued, except now the pain had dulled into an ache that still caused my breath to hitch.
I crawled for what seemed like hours, never getting used to the barrage of thoughts, images, and sounds, all the while the stabbing refused to stop. Even after my body had been shredded to ribbons and I had been bled of all its blood it continued, lazily now, as if the invisible force had grown tired but not enough to cease. Then I hit a wall, flesh, thin, like an amniotic sac, and on impulse I pushed through into it, harder and harder until it started to rip. Somewhere someone was breathing heavily, no more than one, with a rising rhythm and intensity, like a panic attack reaching its peak. I struggled forward, trying to break the damn thing, but it would not give. I was exhausted and so collapsed into it as if sleeping, but time passed and sleep did not come. But the end of the breathing did, once it reached a fever pitch. I shifted, realizing the stabbing had stopped, trying to move but then of all times the amniotic sac burst and I fell into whatever lay beyond it.
I was in my dorm room, a break in the madness. I was free for a moment, act, I had to act. Dawn was starting to peek through the window blinds. I stood up and froze, seeing what the rays of light were cast onto. My roommate Jake lay in his bed, naked. A woman just as naked was wrapped around him, body slick with sweat, its scent perfuming the room. He had seen me suffering, in the midst of a panic attack, left me to cope with it alone, and when I hadn’t returned he took the chance not to look for me or tell anyone, instead using it for his own benefit. Anger coursed through my veins, a fresh injection of hate kicking me into action. I opened my mouth and with my pointer finger and thumb reached in, the curse met me halfway and slid into position. I gripped it and pulled it, hand over hand now as a seemingly endless centipede being expelled from my stomach. I looked at the black segmented body, it writhed and moved in such a way that it reminded me a bit of an umbilical cord, and in a way, it was. A curse was being birthed, having grown stronger after I had housed and fed it with my own being. It was time to cut the cord then, I walked over to the pair as I pulled the last of the length free.
The curse popped out like a cork, sending a spray of black fluid across the couple. Droplets of varying sizes landed and stained the woman’s breasts, most of it pooling in between them at her sternum. I stifled a laugh as that’s where I had first gestated this curse. I looked at Jake, the black spray had stained his face, beard, and clavicle, and a particularly large globule resting upon his lower lip. I shifted my gaze to the wriggling centipede before me. It was at least four feet long now and twice its original width.
I shuddered, clarity flooded over me, and at that moment I realized that sometimes clarity was just perspective. I thought I knew suffering, thought I knew what it meant to shuffle through every day dreading that the next day would be more of the same. But the inescapable madness brought a new understanding to me. I could have changed. At any point in time, I could have ended my ostracization. Sure, it was socially imposed, but it was not an incurable delirium. Follow the rules, conform, and you’ll be mostly fine, you can make the hurt stop anytime you want. So why didn’t I, why can’t I now at this very moment? I knew now that it was because it would be a rejection of self, the world goes on and on about how you should be yourself. That in itself was a virtue lauded and held up as one of the most important facets of existence. But now I know what they really meant was “Operate within the constantly shifting parameters of acceptability - fail to adhere, evolve or predict, and you are a threat.” The true self that others reveled in evaded people like me, instead we had to construct a facade we passed off as real in order to thrive.
But so many didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t. How could they? It was all they knew, how could you discard that which defined them, the filter of their reality? I know what I am now, a worm that slinked through grime and lived in darkness, and when others took me and held me to the light, saying, “See, this is how you should be, and why you should be, it’s for the better of everyone,” it didn’t bring me to enlightenment, but to resentment and hate. I knew what I could do to make them see more than just a freak, a threat, but unconsciously I never took the steps because I knew only what it was to exist within the margins, in a periphery. An exile imposed by all, including myself.
I held the curse higher, feeling grateful that I had survived it, suffered it, and was blessed by its clarity. Light streamed in now as the sun crossed the horizon into a bright morning. The curse was still, despite the lethal light upon it. Let it go and move on, or revel in it? I looked back down at the pair, at Jake. He was an acceptable version of me, softly rebellious. Had thoughts, beliefs, mannerisms, and behaviors that neared the boundaries but never crossed them. Scruffy-faced, soft-eyed, short hair spikey and messy but never disheveled, charming in an irreverent way, unassuming cock but he fucked like a jackhammer obviously. An outsider that wasn’t really an outsider, he never was the great other that haunted dreams and fueled paranoia. I held the curse out in front of them and spoke to it.
“Your choice, Demon Seed. Wither in the sun, or choose one to torment. I don’t care which.”
It was still for a moment before diving into Jake's mouth. Silently, effortlessly, it slipped inside him and was gone. I walked out of the room, legs wobbling a bit, I was riding a high I had never felt before.
Jake was dead by the end of the month, he had been institutionalized until he wasn’t and then he stumbled onto train tracks. Rest is history, no body left to bury. His girlfriend, lover, or whatever the fuck was the one to break the news to me. Thought because I was his roommate I cared or at least should care. It was a few weeks later when I felt that sting and oil-slick fluid in my sternum, Demon Seed, the curse had enjoyed itself.
Twice more I’ve birthed a curse, let it choose its victim, let Demon Seed choose its form. He is the shaky finger of tragedy that strikes without cause or rhyme, deliriously pointed at someone, anyone. And I am the great well of resentment that feeds him. We are the what world needs, a calamity, the great other, something to fear, something to hate. And with each glare and impassioned condemnation, the curse grows stronger within me.
TW

I think something needs to be clarified...
Jamie has had ZERO to do with anything that has occurred. PERIOD. And, going after her, or Margaret, or anyone else is simply wrong.
The entire issue began as a result of ODA being contacted about the potential of a visitors permit to Ohio for family needs. From there, ODA did their work, and nothing more.
No one made a claim of a dangerous animal in anyway. In Ohio, according to state laws, banned animals are classifed as DWA, Dangerous Wild Animals. No one spoke of that.
ODA has been watching all of the videos and info since the date they were contacted for the visitors permit.
In Ohio you can get a permit for DWA, however, you cannot get that permit if the animals are in possession prior to issuance. You also are allowed to visit in state for 48 hours, but only if your primary residence is located outside of the state of Ohio, and according to Ohio ordinance that out of state residence must be where your drivers license and taxes are filed. All of this can be verified by simply speaking to any representative at ODA. The only other exception for such animals if for deaf and blind individuals whoo's animals have come from one of a couple of chosen organizations approved by ODA. These are the laws.
Ohio sets the temperature for all of the exotics world, thanks to Jack Hannah, Zanesville and multiple other issues over the years.
Lots of facts are being skewed and misrepresented. There are 47 minutes of unseen footage from that day. Mike King and the other officers present on that day can be reached for verification. However, a report to be obtained by FOIA cannot be completed until the case is closed. That will not occur until the ordinances and laws are in compliance for the parties involved. However, with other misrepresented facts, you can FOIA the report on Eric, aka RICO, and find the facts, which do not match the stories being told. The same is true of the investigation and facts of Union Ridge, of which you can also contact the OSA for further information.
It is easy when emotions are high to jump on a band wagon. I have made it very clear to ODA and the officers, while my name has long been on the list of approved out of state options for primates, I have zero interest in these animals. I do not need or want anyone else's animals. The same was true with Rico. I housed Mike, his vervet, for 3 months until he was able to satisfy the requirements of ODA, during which time I was accountable and in constant contact with ODA to meet their requirements for temporary care. Including working direct with the Tennessee Dept of Ag and USFW for documentation and veterinary care. reported direct to Dr. Alex McCourt during that time, as well as Jason King, the head of Enforcement in Ohio.
All of this can be verified by simply speaking to ODA, and requested a FOIA of Rico. I was also always in contact with ODA during the messy interactions and duration of attempting to help Union Ridge.
In my 3 interactions in Ohio, the only success was helping Rico. Union Ridge was a mess, and Jason King warned me prior to my involvement to stay away. Because I am one to rescue and help no matter what and I saw some potential in the situation, I forged ahead, a mistake that was hard to handle in my reputation and work.
My greatest mistake is always helping no matter the cost. For those picking at SPARTN, the work we have done is as a support to multiple individuals, facilities and more. Those did include Union Ridge and Rico. They have included the Wildlife Way Station, Christina's work in Ecuador, multiple ongoing projects in Texas and Florida. All of the information regarding SPARTN and the audited financials are available upon request from the 990's at the IRS.
All of the documentation of these things is available for anyone.
Melissa, I am sorry for what you have faced and are facing. While I believe many of the purported facts are not aligned with what y understanding is.... I believe you are determined to find a way. My intent has never been to cause such as shit storm, or to hurt a family. However, I am not in control of the
Choosing to report me and my work to any agency or group will prove a headache for sure. But, it will pose a danger, a direct danger to other monkey families who are not in legal areas. The agencies who have been contacted, and some by myself to preclude the possible reports by those in this feed, have been given access to my full records, phone info, texts and more. And the things in those records could be potentially damaging to others, as contrary to popular opinion here, I have not reported or tried to take anyone's animals. When you FOIA, when those documents are available, while I did speak to ODA, you will find in these purported incidents, I am not the person(s) who filed any official report or complaint.
When it comes to the governance of Monkeys, it is State to State and County to County. USDA only regulates the care, breeding and exhibition of the animals in places where the local laws allow and support. The ALDF and PETA are leading the charge to close down more and more of these freedoms. ALDF is the pressure behind USDA to regulate social media, and USDA and USFW, along with state agencies, have entire groups who monitor social media. When they identify individuals who they believe are in violation they track and contact those individuals using the GPS/Geotagging data available in content posted online. In May of 2022, I was contacted directly by the USDA, the were able to find my info and sent a registered letter to notify me that I must come into compliance. The same happened with Rico and many others who have a presence online. This is going to increase.
Attacking and being cruel to those who are my friends is a cheap, low brow display of character. I would ask that any and all of you please step away from any criticism of Jamie, Margaret, BossMom and any others whom I consider friends. If you choose to be upset with me, then have your go, but the others have had literally nothing to do with any of the things to which you have complained. So, be human beings with the amount of charity and compassion you claim I am missing, and offer that to my friends....
While I am addressing all manner of items. I realize how the posts on twitter are misconstrued for what someone feels.... but context is everything. I do not have a single issue with folks who are fat. I have a deep issue with building this culture to celebrate being obese as a beautiful standard... Because it is dangerous and deadly for many. I can't stand that. I cannot stand the Transexual mania cult, the kind that fights to mutilate kids for "affirming care"... Kids, and even those in their early 20's barely have the ability to understand being sterilized and having their bodies changed by surgery and hormones. And I have watched lives wrecked and destroyed, and my trans friends agree with me. It would be smarter for many to have context, but I will take responsibility for making posts that may have felt unkind in your eyes.
Guys, I have not been in here, and refuse to read in here.... So I will not be back to respond... But wanted to speak to things, and mostly make the request that you all stop any attacks and action towards Jamie, Margaret, Bossmom and others. Thanks for reading, have a great Wednesday!
~Michael

I really like the nighttime aesthetic in this game, but rarely get to enjoy it. I work a job that has me up early in the morning, and am often going to bed by 8:30 in the evening. So sometimes, as I play, I think to myself, "Should I just swap AM and PM?"
If I did it, I would certainly get to enjoy the nighttime aesthetic more... But I might also miss out some days on getting to visit my shops. Nook's won't be opening until right before bedtime, and Abel's won't open until right after! And they'd both be closed by the time I get home from work. Although, realistically, I don't even visit the shops every day... So it could possibly make it more meaningful if I could only do so on my days off.
Yeah, it could also mean my villagers are asleep more while I am playing. But I think I would still get enough time with them...
So, what do y'all think? Should I do it? (And I do want to do it by an even 12 hours so that the clock is otherwise accurate.) Or should I leave it be? If I should do it, should I go 12 hours forwards or backwards? If you have good reasoning, please leave a comment. Either way, please enjoy the convenient poll...
View Poll

Galactic Social Dynamic: Hidden Movement (GSD #96)
////Thirty Days late///
\\Systen ZSU-YY2. UNINHABITABLE\\
The dust rolled over the surface of the dwarf planet ZSU-YY2-003. Nothing moved on the surface, not for long anyway. Below the crust however, Scareek were building numbers.
They had taken to hiding under the surface of worlds centuries ago when they first escaped. Then they focused on developing better pattern recognition. Then they worked on general intelligence. Then they developed their newest tool; absorption. They would take the brightest minds into their hive and break down their knowledge and rebuild a facsimile of the personality to serve the hivemind.
They only had a few such minds. One from humanity that was focused on destroying his old race, an obsession even the hive mind could not explain. They had also absorbed a Jolm colonel and that military mind now led a good portion of their space bound forces. Their latest was a Turyaj with dark fur. It was fighting them.
It was winning. Not by fighting them off, but by dying faster than they could absorb it. The hive mind was displeased.
"I am Cantang Fruft. Captain of the Solar Destiny, former second in command of the Galactic Social Dynamic. I know your plans; you are not as obfuscated as you think, and if I know them, then the Captain knows them. You will be defeated." The Turyaj roared as it used its containment cell walls as a bludgeon to split its skull open for what was a final time.
The hive mind was angered. The Turyaj were actually more volatile than the humans, it would note this and remember the importance of taking the human ambassador. Then it noted an oddity in the gravitational pulls of the system. There was something very large in orbit over the dwarf planet. It recognized the pull,and left the nest.
Another nest lost to the unholy humans and their world maker.
-(GSD)---(GSD)-
Admiral Zandissi watched as the dwarf planet rolled into view as he commanded the ship into geostationary orbit over the small dust rock.
"Admiral, on your order." Command Specialist Duranti said.
"What are we set to make here?" Zandissi asked.
"Calculations show a grassland or waterworks would hold best." Duranti said.
Zandissi grinned. "Drown the fuckers."
"Yes sir." Duranti said as he started the process.
First the machine spread the large metallic arcs on its side to an arc ninety degrees, focused on the planet. The arms charged and with a massive energy spike the rock was bathed in metallic sting and large boulders that would make a temporary magnetosphere. Then those boulders and strings snaked together to create fast acting atmospheric generators. Two hours would pass as the world would be bathed in what humanity called "the worst of billions of years of geographic evolution compacted into a few hours. Once that stage was complete it was repeated at least six times, until the planet was clearly holding its own atmosphere.
Then the second stage activated. This stage varied and utilized the large orb at the center of the massive ship. The Orb was dubbed the Gaia Chamber, or G.C., it contained the molecular blueprints for billions of plants and lower life forms needed to keep a world moving. It was also capable of generating a near endless stream of water.
Shiva's Grace descended closer to the planet, past the new atmosphere. The massive ship was shuddering as the crew slowed it to as close as they could get it. Specialist Duranti pressed a button and a gigantic hose dropped from the core of the Gaia Chamber and began to pour kiloliters of water straight onto the surface of the planet.
"And now we wait." Zandissi said as he absentmindedly stroked Iffi' head. The creature sat at his side watching with a wagging tale.
"This is gonna take..." Duranti whistled at the calculations. "Please tell me we have more than Cluedo and cards to play for the next two months."
Zandissi laughed. "That depends on your neighbors and what the fleet has."
"Sir, don't you have to go back in a month?" Duranti asked.
"For the trial, yes." Zandissi nodded, "But the fact that I haven't been arrested yet tells me a lot about what to expect. Even if the 'good doctor' somehow slipped through Earth United Security."
"She's in GAIA'S good graces I bet." Helmsman Sara Ven said. "Like all good mad scientists."
Zandissi chuckled. "I kind of wish the Immortal had gone after her, but given that he was involved with the Hakkith attack, it may be a better thing he didn't."
"And the Ambassador has a home of her own!" Duranti smiled. "And its bonded to an adorable little kiddo. Like all proper monsters."
Iffi snapped his head to Duranti and let a low growl out.
"They're not idiots, Duranti, they understand us." Zandissi smiled.
"Sorry, didn't mean it like that, Iffi. We're both space monsters, and we're perfect for each other." Duranti laughed.
Iffi snorted and returned to being stroked.
"It's amazing how not boring watching the water pour out is." Ven said as she smiled and kept the ship steady.
"Well, we're taking out the enemy and hopefully seeding life." Zandissi responded.
"This one of the seeding attempts?" Duranti asked.
"What are we gonna do there moonwalk on the ocean?" Zandissi laughed, "No, we see if this holds and what comes of it in the future. At least the Immortal will be able to pass on our hopes to them."
"And the Forge." Duranti added. "And the Glosht."
"Those guys are so freaky." Ven said, "I wish I could have met one!"
"Freaky they may be, but I met their ambassador. He is a clever and good man." Zandissi smiled. "Has a nice oxygen bar too."
Ven shook her head as one of her systems lit up. "Oh, they're making a break for it."
"Fireworks and a show!" Duranti smiled as they watched the fleet that sat behind them fire upon the escaping Scareek.
-(GSD)---(GSD)-
Alien eyes watched the events unfold from hyperspace. The large form sighed as best it could, their scions had taken well to space and the few of his kind left were happy to watch them come to their own.
He only hoped they would not meet the end the other promising species had met. Humanity was the leastodified of the species they had tinkered with; it would be horrific if the clever apes died out.
The large draconic for. Then returned to the nexus of his species. The next few centuries would be their last. Their war with the Forge had dwindled both their numbers to extinction levels, but it seemed The Forge were getting a second chance.
He gave what passed for a grin in his species.
The Forge deserved a second chance. His kind were going to be lucky to be remembered.
////END CHAPTER////
First
Previous GSD!
Previous Zoo-nanigans
Next GSD!
Next Zoo-nanigans
Spotify!
////\\\\
Nearing the end of Volume 1 main stories. Once I'm down with that, I'll get the remaining Zoo-nanigans. Then a break to outline volume 2. Not sure how long that will take.
Once I do return though it will be organized from the start!
Weeeee!!!

The common consensus on what a curse even is can be ambiguous, so many cultures and ideas reframe and retool to fit the central tenets of their thematic cores. One thing is common amongst all interpretations however, their aim is to cause harm. One might wonder at what point is a curse conceived, not just the rituals and requirements that are needed to conjure a curse. No, what is it that makes up a curse, what feeds it? Some might answer hate or jealousy, and while those might be true for some. For me, the curse I bore and the curses I will bear are made up of one thing. Resentment.
I first noticed its infection one morning while getting dressed for classes. Running my fingers along the slight depression brought out goosebumps. It was slightly tender and if I pressed on it hard it elicited a painful pinch that caused my insides to tangle in panic. Withdrawing my fingers to inspect them I noted a slickness I couldn’t account for. A slight black tint colored my fingertips and I quickly rinsed them under hot water but it did little to wash away the wave of anxiety that had come over me. I tried to push it aside, I had classes, term papers, and tests to worry about. I held out until the middle of my 3rd class, by then all I could think about was the series of horrible and fatal medical implications of the indentation. I ran all the way home, body wracked with shivers, and slammed myself inside my dorm bathroom, stripped off my shirt, and took a good look at it. It had gotten deeper, at least 2 centimeters into my chest now. It was where my sternum was, dead center between my two pectoral muscles. I pushed my finger in and it actually gave some, causing a shudder of agony to blossom and ride through every nerve in my body. I spent the rest of the day researching what I could, some stuff about dietary insufficiencies causing swelling and easily depressed skin, but this was different. The anxiety attacks started then and continued for the next few hours. My roommate walked in during the midst of one and saw my huddled form, trying to breathe. I heard the audible click of his tongue and he left.
3 am neared and I still hadn’t escaped that sinking feeling, the one that feels like an endless plunge towards death, and all the while your lungs struggle to pull enough air to fuel a scream. Drowning in plain sight. I looked desperately through Jake’s things and found a bottle of Benadryl. I washed a couple of them down and waited until my eyelids grew heavy. I was barely able to crawl into bed before I fell into a deep slumber. The dreams it brought were bizarre and vivid. I was wandering through a landscape of abandoned suburbs, going from door to door, looking for one that was the right color. It was late into the night when I finally found it, a dim street lamp casting down an amber spotlight in front of a dilapidated two-story with a red door.
The door opened as I walked up to it, revealing a barren living room lit by a corner lamp that flickered every few seconds. At its center was a cobblestone well, ancient and unnerving. I recognized it. I had seen it countless times. On my worst days, I had dreamt of standing before it, yearning for hope or absolution. I had been silent instead, letting all I could not say seep into it. This inverted well, one that fed on despair instead of dreams, was now vibrating, shifting. Something was rising from its depths to greet me and I was ready for it, yearned for it. Black fluid erupted from its opening, spraying the ceiling and walls and splattering across my face.
Somewhere, a scream was reaching a fever pitch. I looked down and saw that my chest had split open and the black fluid was streaming down in a cascade of pitch. An eye blossomed from the depths of that gaping ravine in my chest. It stared, focused, and recognition flooded into the empty white. From the hole in my chest, something was rising - a realization. The screaming… it had been me the whole time.
I jolted awake, the pain in my chest the first thing to greet me. I heaved to suck in a breath and my senses came alive. Next was the sweat-slick coat that had pooled around me and I turned over to flip on a lamp. Light flooded my vision, but still, I was surrounded by darkness. No, not darkness, but stains. Black ink had seemingly spurted from my chest and splattered my bedding and floor. I ran my finger through it, all along my sternum, but I could not find the indentation, nor a source for the fluid.
I got up in a panic, looking around the room. I was alone, my roommate never having returned, but there was a trail of black ooze. I followed the most prominent streak to a corner. There was a lump there, a polished shiny black orb where the oily ooze seemingly seeped from. My heart thundered as I approached it, I swore I thought I saw it twitch. I was in the middle of my hands and knees crawling towards it when it jerked, moved, and stood.
I fell back on my ass letting out a half yelp, frozen as my gaze locked with it. It was the size of a rabbit, its tar-black skin reflective and polished. It had these beady eyes that were somehow darker than the rest of its body, and it waddled forward on stubby legs no longer than two inches. It had arms too, stubs too, and they reached for me. I was scooting away from its path when it spoke in a pained and squeaky voice as if its anatomy was ill-fitted for human speech, even its grasp of human words was feeble.
“No harm. I’m an ally.”
“What?” I couldn’t help but respond.
“You fed me, so now I repay you?”
“How? In what way? What are you?”
It blinked as if contemplating how to answer my barrage of questions. It didn’t have a mouth, but it spoke regardless. There was distance to its voice, so I was certain that it didn’t speak directly to my mind, but then again I didn’t even think that was possible until now.
“I am grown, don’t know from where, or why. I think I could be a tool or weapon. I eat bad feelings, but I was left with no one around to feed me. Then you came and fed me, for a long time. Now I’m finally strong enough to repay.”
“Repay me how?”
“I have fed on the dark of your heart. I know what it desires, I can take the shape of a curse,” it said
“You’re going to curse me? As repayment?”
“No, that’s not what was in your hearts. Yes, you hated yourself, but you hate others more. I can be the curse you cast on them.”
Something clicked in place and made its way closer to my mind, but didn’t bridge the distance entirely. It spoke, knew that I’d ask it how.
“Pick the kind of curse. I can be misfortune, blindness, madness… even death, a killing curse,” it said.
I reached towards it, even as its body distorted and elongated and reshaped into a foot-long, skinny, jagged oily centipede. I froze but it skittered forward, crawled across the back of my hand, and wrapped around my wrist. It tickled my skin, slick but warm. Almost uncomfortably so.
“Pick the kind of curse you want me to be, and feed me to whom you want to inflict. It’s easy, but curses burn up in daylight if not attached. You’ll have a few hours past dawn before I turn to ash.”
It fell silent afterward as if slumbering, but I couldn’t sleep. I sat in the corner thinking, watching the black stains left by the living curse dry up and evaporate into nothing. I had to look periodically at the oily centipede wrapped around my wrist to remind myself that I wasn’t dreaming, but all it did was convince me that I had careened off the precipice of sanity into some functional hysteria. I sat there until the sun rose, and like a clockwork mechanism, I got dressed and went to class. I was on autopilot, more depersonalized than I had ever felt before I watched myself go through the motions of my life. It should have been a cry for help, you could see it spelled out clearly as day and no one could have missed it. But they did - or rather, they chose to ignore it, because that was what you were supposed to do with people like me. Dull rage set in and it was what I stewed in as the hours ticked by, a building fury that could have blown but only boiled over and settled into dejected acceptance. I was ready to leave it at that, to let myself fade into a shadow like I had my entire life. To give up and crawl away to some recess, never to be found. But the searing pain of dozens of clawed insect legs digging into my flesh brought back presence of mind “Now. Now! Now! NOW!” a voice chirped. I ran into a storage closet, barred the door, and pulled back the sleeve that hid the living curse.
“What is it, are you about to die?”
“Not die, return. Back to the labyrinth. Pick a curse now, feed me to your enemy, before I disappear and all you’ll be left with is ash.”
“And if I haven’t picked anyone? If I don’t want to hurt anyone?”
“Then let me burn in the light, let me go, never visit my well, never feed me again. Move forward from your life, move away from me, and you’ll be free of me”
It could be that easy to rid myself of this wretched thing. I thought about my day, my life, and the people closest to me. I couldn’t let go, not when they had all walked by ashamed or indifferent, or worst of all, fearful. I had done nothing and they feared me.
“I won’t let it go, I can’t. I don’t know what I’ll do, but I can’t move on from this. I can’t give you up, but I can’t choose someone to suffer you.”
“Then eat me.”
I looked at the wriggling centipede confused, black fluid dripping from its body.
“If you eat me, you inflict the curse upon yourself. Not at full potency, but I’ll live until you’re ready to choose. If you hate enough, if you have the resolve, you can cast a shadow of my curse on all who meet your gaze, but you must hurry, my time… fades.”
“I don’t know what to pick. I don’t want to suffer.”
“Then pick the curse that causes the least pain.”
“Which is? I don’t know, pick for me!”
“I am delirium, now eat me, before it’s too late.”
I didn’t notice any change in the curse, except for the small cracks appearing in its carapace and the fraying of its antenna. I hesitated until a large crack formed across its back; at that moment, I hoisted it up and opened my mouth wide, closing my eyes as I lowered it. It did the rest of the work, jerking free of my grip and slithering down my throat with brute force, trailing that oily substance, I gagged, screamed, tears ran and I choked. But once it was down and settled I was alone in that room, nothing different.
Until I stepped out, and it began. A blurring of the world, where every sound was too sharp and grating, every color too vibrant. My head was swelling with immense pressure as it was filled with hundreds of trivial conversations, all spewing from the mouths of every student and professor in this wing. I couldn’t handle it, so I ran, flinging the doors open to the outside.
Except outside wasn’t outside, no, the doors opened up to a hallway I had been trying to forget all my life, framed with pictures of me and my family. I turned, hoping I could reach the living room so I could leave through the front door but what faced me was another room, one I had forgotten about until now. A barred door, walls burned black, stained with soot and char. A sound jolted me back around, the sound of a belt being unbuckled and fabric hitting the floor. Panic rose within me and I felt like I was in free fall, plummeting from astral orbit, through the earth's crust, and straight into the pits of hell. Except I wasn’t. No, I was in my middle school nurse's office. The scent of floor polish and cheap perfume tickled my nose.
“If it hurts you can stop it anytime, you know? Just change your habits, it’s not that hard,”
Ms. Rena, my middle school nurse, was talking to me. I stared into her eyes, and the world quieted and came into focus. They were green, as beautiful as emeralds. I couldn’t help but stare at them every chance I got. They brought forth feelings within me I had never felt before, an awakening. I blinked and they were burning now, bright green flames that sloughed the flesh from her face and I turned away and screamed. The scream pitched, bent, and distorted into a siren, ascending and descending endlessly. I don’t know how long I was caught in its loop but I couldn’t cling onto a single coherent thought longer than a second, as if my mind had been partitioned half a dozen times and all were battling for the sphere of influence that was my perception.
Then clarity, or an illusion of such. In reality, it was only a fleeting break from the delirium, long enough for me to gather my faculties so that the second dive into madness would hurt just that much more. But time was relative here, stretching out longer than it had any right to. The curse was there, in the hallway of my dorm, no longer a centipede but a tall humanoid thing, seemingly made of old motor oil.
“What’s happening? What did you do to me?!” I pleaded.
“You are suffering the curse of delirium. You chose this, remember?” it said, its voice no longer airy and whistling, like a bird’s. Its speech was no longer jilted and tenuous. Now when it spoke, its voice was deep and full of power.
“You said it would be weaker, subdued.”
“This is subdued, I’m a powerful curse after all.”
“What are you? Where do you come from, I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know, I’m searching for the answer myself. I was malnourished for so long that my mind splintered, I suffered my own madness, and I just know bits and pieces now. I know that in the city of Cradle, the word they call me means ‘Demon Seed’. That’s all I know of my identity.”
“I-I didn’t want this,”
“You’ll grow accustomed to it, with time. Not fully, if you could ignore the delirium it wouldn’t be much of a curse. If it’s too much for you to handle, if the pain is unbearable, you can always make it go away.”
“How?”
“Expel me from your body, feed me to someone else, or let the sun take me.”
I exhaled long and slow, and felt the prickling at the corner of my mind. The madness was near, but all I could feel was anger. At the curse, at myself, at the world. I turned away and faced a world of static and incomprehensible whispers, deafening and all-consuming. I collapsed into myself, held my hands to my ears, and balled into the fetal position. It did little to shut out all that was happening, but it did dull it for a moment until a quiet, throaty keening cut through and pierced my mind directly. I imagined a small undying animal having an army knife stab them at consistent intervals, the pace changing periodically so it could never get used to the pain. And then the violence was reflected onto me except there was no perpetrator. An invisible force sliced into the flesh of my sides, my back, until I was ridden with countless wounds. The pain spurred me to crawl forward on all fours, hoping to escape it but it was endless. I was bleeding so much, black blood, my blood was black. I laughed, then cried, and then crawled forward as the stabbings continued, except now the pain had dulled into an ache that still caused my breath to hitch.
I crawled for what seemed like hours, never getting used to the barrage of thoughts, images, and sounds, all the while the stabbing refused to stop. Even after my body had been shredded to ribbons and I had been bled of all its blood it continued, lazily now, as if the invisible force had grown tired but not enough to cease. Then I hit a wall, flesh, thin, like an amniotic sac, and on impulse I pushed through into it, harder and harder until it started to rip. Somewhere someone was breathing heavily, no more than one, with a rising rhythm and intensity, like a panic attack reaching its peak. I struggled forward, trying to break the damn thing, but it would not give. I was exhausted and so collapsed into it as if sleeping, but time passed and sleep did not come. But the end of the breathing did, once it reached a fever pitch. I shifted, realizing the stabbing had stopped, trying to move but then of all times the amniotic sac burst and I fell into whatever lay beyond it.
I was in my dorm room, a break in the madness. I was free for a moment, act, I had to act. Dawn was starting to peek through the window blinds. I stood up and froze, seeing what the rays of light were cast onto. My roommate Jake lay in his bed, naked. A woman just as naked was wrapped around him, body slick with sweat, its scent perfuming the room. He had seen me suffering, in the midst of a panic attack, left me to cope with it alone, and when I hadn’t returned he took the chance not to look for me or tell anyone, instead using it for his own benefit. Anger coursed through my veins, a fresh injection of hate kicking me into action. I opened my mouth and with my pointer finger and thumb reached in, the curse met me halfway and slid into position. I gripped it and pulled it, hand over hand now as a seemingly endless centipede being expelled from my stomach. I looked at the black segmented body, it writhed and moved in such a way that it reminded me a bit of an umbilical cord, and in a way, it was. A curse was being birthed, having grown stronger after I had housed and fed it with my own being. It was time to cut the cord then, I walked over to the pair as I pulled the last of the length free.
The curse popped out like a cork, sending a spray of black fluid across the couple. Droplets of varying sizes landed and stained the woman’s breasts, most of it pooling in between them at her sternum. I stifled a laugh as that’s where I had first gestated this curse. I looked at Jake, the black spray had stained his face, beard, and clavicle, and a particularly large globule resting upon his lower lip. I shifted my gaze to the wriggling centipede before me. It was at least four feet long now and twice its original width.
I shuddered, clarity flooded over me, and at that moment I realized that sometimes clarity was just perspective. I thought I knew suffering, thought I knew what it meant to shuffle through every day dreading that the next day would be more of the same. But the inescapable madness brought a new understanding to me. I could have changed. At any point in time, I could have ended my ostracization. Sure, it was socially imposed, but it was not an incurable delirium. Follow the rules, conform, and you’ll be mostly fine, you can make the hurt stop anytime you want. So why didn’t I, why can’t I now at this very moment? I knew now that it was because it would be a rejection of self, the world goes on and on about how you should be yourself. That in itself was a virtue lauded and held up as one of the most important facets of existence. But now I know what they really meant was “Operate within the constantly shifting parameters of acceptability - fail to adhere, evolve or predict, and you are a threat.” The true self that others reveled in evaded people like me, instead we had to construct a facade we passed off as real in order to thrive.
But so many didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t. How could they? It was all they knew, how could you discard that which defined them, the filter of their reality? I know what I am now, a worm that slinked through grime and lived in darkness, and when others took me and held me to the light, saying, “See, this is how you should be, and why you should be, it’s for the better of everyone,” it didn’t bring me to enlightenment, but to resentment and hate. I knew what I could do to make them see more than just a freak, a threat, but unconsciously I never took the steps because I knew only what it was to exist within the margins, in a periphery. An exile imposed by all, including myself.
I held the curse higher, feeling grateful that I had survived it, suffered it, and was blessed by its clarity. Light streamed in now as the sun crossed the horizon into a bright morning. The curse was still, despite the lethal light upon it. Let it go and move on, or revel in it? I looked back down at the pair, at Jake. He was an acceptable version of me, softly rebellious. Had thoughts, beliefs, mannerisms, and behaviors that neared the boundaries but never crossed them. Scruffy-faced, soft-eyed, short hair spikey and messy but never disheveled, charming in an irreverent way, unassuming cock but he fucked like a jackhammer obviously. An outsider that wasn’t really an outsider, he never was the great other that haunted dreams and fueled paranoia. I held the curse out in front of them and spoke to it.
“Your choice, Demon Seed. Wither in the sun, or choose one to torment. I don’t care which.”
It was still for a moment before diving into Jake's mouth. Silently, effortlessly, it slipped inside him and was gone. I walked out of the room, legs wobbling a bit, I was riding a high I had never felt before.
Jake was dead by the end of the month, he had been institutionalized until he wasn’t and then he stumbled onto train tracks. Rest is history, no body left to bury. His girlfriend, lover, or whatever the fuck was the one to break the news to me. Thought because I was his roommate I cared or at least should care. It was a few weeks later when I felt that sting and oil-slick fluid in my sternum, Demon Seed, the curse had enjoyed itself.
Twice more I’ve birthed a curse, let it choose its victim, let Demon Seed choose its form. He is the shaky finger of tragedy that strikes without cause or rhyme, deliriously pointed at someone, anyone. And I am the great well of resentment that feeds him. We are the what world needs, a calamity, the great other, something to fear, something to hate. And with each glare and impassioned condemnation, the curse grows stronger within me.
TW