Light bulb suitable for damp locations
Invisible Teeth Aligners: An Overview of Cost and Treatment Time
2023.03.22 16:24 Plenty-Bill-1735 Invisible Teeth Aligners: An Overview of Cost and Treatment Time
 | Invisible teeth aligners, such as Invisalign, are a popular orthodontic treatment option for those looking to straighten their teeth. Here’s an overview of the cost and treatment time associated with this type of treatment: submitted by Plenty-Bill-1735 to u/Plenty-Bill-1735 [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/jwfuu72d6bpa1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0e4e53b7965f0e35b06d3594fa84394c8d0073b Cost: The cost of invisible teeth aligners can vary widely depending on the specific case and the location of the treatment provider. On average, the cost ranges from $3,000 to $8,000. Some insurance plans may cover a portion of the cost. Treatment time: The treatment time with invisible aligners is typically shorter than with traditional braces, ranging from 9 to 15 months on average. However, this can vary depending on the complexity of the case. Wearing the aligners for 20 to 22 hours a day is crucial to the success of the treatment. It’s important to keep in mind that invisible aligners may not be suitable for everyone and that traditional braces may be recommended for more complex cases. Your orthodontist or dentist can help you determine if this treatment is right for you and provide an estimate of the cost and treatment time. |
2023.03.22 16:20 Trevicarus I had my notepad open while I played the game and this is my comprehensive list of suggestions. So far.
GENERAL QUALITY OF LIFE:
• Character selection
• Rename and delete save files
• Coloured bars beneath player names increasing/decreasing to indicate health level
• Adjustable player volumes
• Proximity chat (with an voice chat indicator near the minimap)
• Radio chat could be toggled on or off while it remains on the players' chests (with an radio chat indicator near the minimap)
• Player icon (and menu name) flickers to indicate talking
• Guaranteed collection of at least 1 seed from planter harvests
• More seeds in general
• Store 100 Resin at a time to shelves
• Hold shift + right click to store 10 (or maximum) items to shelves
• Hold C to stack max amount to storage (prevents removing walls behind storage)
• Hold shift + right click to add 10 (or maximum) items to the crafting mat
• Items no longer fly off of shelves when grabbing more than the maximum amount
• Indicator for bench to show its facing side
• Improve hitboxes for lighting standing torches
• Add cardinal directions to the map
• Add bed icons to the map when completed (like tarps)
• GPS locators being removable after permanent death of Virginia or Kelvin
• Trees regrow after 4 seasons if the stump is left unbroken
• Reset Keybinds option
• Animal collision with structures
• Book or file to reread collected story notes
• Lighter is stowed once fires are lit
• Hammer icon on map indicating incomplete builds
• Important GPS markers display a general area instead of the direct location
• Full firewood stack blueprint when laying down the first log
• Campfires in world-generated camps being usable
• Photo mode keybind (hides HUD)
• Hold C to remove placed campfire sticks
• Consume items directly from shelves
• Flashlight could be placed on the backpack
COMPANIONS:
• Kelvin being able to fetch meat/fish and dry it out on the nearest racks
• Kelvin taking less damage from logs
• Set Home and Go Home commands
• K and V prioritizing following the Host by default and when their leading player leaves
• Virginia receiving commands to receive items, patrol the immediate area or follow the players
• Virginia does not destroy player garden plants with guns
• Virginia's GPS marker being a V by default
ENEMIES:
• Giving cannibals meat/fish or killing their attacking mutants will make the tribe passive towards players
• Cannibals retreat from players if they are spared after cowering on the ground
• Cannibals who are spared by players return to their tribe and become more neutral towards the player as a whole
• Cannibals can be tied up when downed and brought to stakes to see how they damn well like it
• Worms (John 2.0) having a louder and more distinct sound
• Blind Mutants being unable to detect players who remain completely still while they use echolocation
• Most (especially Blind Mutants) enemies investigating a thrown/shot stone
• Titans wearing bone armour or animal hides because they look really silly right now
ITEMS:
• Zipline rope length limit indicator
• Increased zipline length
• Rope Gun could be used to spear fish from a distance
• Sleds print in 2 stages; allowing players to combine both pieces when crafting (justifies the printing size)
• Fishing nets
• Left click to drop a golf ball down at the players' feet
• Crossbow scope
• Better Paper Target placement against logs
• Paper Targets on sticks
• Flashlight and laser sight placement to the bottom or sides of weapons
• Making spawned island loot finite; skin pouches yield more ammo, meds, rope, etc
• Increased spawn rate of skin pouches
• Guitar becomes playable when holding a button
• Wearing full sets of armour grants an additional buff:
- Leaf Armour: Double movement speed when crouched
- Hide Armour: Extra warmth and weather resistance
- Bone Armour: Increased stagger chance
- Creepy Armour: Blind and Baby Mutants no longer attack
- Tech Armour: Decreased stamina, thirst and hunger drain
• 3D Printed Items:
- Golf Tees
- Abseiling Anchors
- Pellets for Slingshot
- Aiming Reticle for Compound Bow
- Throwing Knives
• Relocate items such as radios and laptops
BUILDING:
• Literally every blueprint from the first game
• Animal hide decorations (rugs, wall tapestries, bed covers, etc)
• Leaf decorations (curtains, bench covers, etc)
• Feather decorations (chair covers, bone wind chimes, masks, etc)
• Boats
• Effigies (cannibal and mutant)
• Animal trophies
• Hammocks
• Flag trail markers/stone cairns
• Stone floors, fences and stairs
• Grave markers
• More log strut placements
submitted by Trevicarus to SonsOfTheForest [link] [comments]
• Character selection
• Rename and delete save files
• Coloured bars beneath player names increasing/decreasing to indicate health level
• Adjustable player volumes
• Proximity chat (with an voice chat indicator near the minimap)
• Radio chat could be toggled on or off while it remains on the players' chests (with an radio chat indicator near the minimap)
• Player icon (and menu name) flickers to indicate talking
• Guaranteed collection of at least 1 seed from planter harvests
• More seeds in general
• Store 100 Resin at a time to shelves
• Hold shift + right click to store 10 (or maximum) items to shelves
• Hold C to stack max amount to storage (prevents removing walls behind storage)
• Hold shift + right click to add 10 (or maximum) items to the crafting mat
• Items no longer fly off of shelves when grabbing more than the maximum amount
• Indicator for bench to show its facing side
• Improve hitboxes for lighting standing torches
• Add cardinal directions to the map
• Add bed icons to the map when completed (like tarps)
• GPS locators being removable after permanent death of Virginia or Kelvin
• Trees regrow after 4 seasons if the stump is left unbroken
• Reset Keybinds option
• Animal collision with structures
• Book or file to reread collected story notes
• Lighter is stowed once fires are lit
• Hammer icon on map indicating incomplete builds
• Important GPS markers display a general area instead of the direct location
• Full firewood stack blueprint when laying down the first log
• Campfires in world-generated camps being usable
• Photo mode keybind (hides HUD)
• Hold C to remove placed campfire sticks
• Consume items directly from shelves
• Flashlight could be placed on the backpack
COMPANIONS:
• Kelvin being able to fetch meat/fish and dry it out on the nearest racks
• Kelvin taking less damage from logs
• Set Home and Go Home commands
• K and V prioritizing following the Host by default and when their leading player leaves
• Virginia receiving commands to receive items, patrol the immediate area or follow the players
• Virginia does not destroy player garden plants with guns
• Virginia's GPS marker being a V by default
ENEMIES:
• Giving cannibals meat/fish or killing their attacking mutants will make the tribe passive towards players
• Cannibals retreat from players if they are spared after cowering on the ground
• Cannibals who are spared by players return to their tribe and become more neutral towards the player as a whole
• Cannibals can be tied up when downed and brought to stakes to see how they damn well like it
• Worms (John 2.0) having a louder and more distinct sound
• Blind Mutants being unable to detect players who remain completely still while they use echolocation
• Most (especially Blind Mutants) enemies investigating a thrown/shot stone
• Titans wearing bone armour or animal hides because they look really silly right now
ITEMS:
• Zipline rope length limit indicator
• Increased zipline length
• Rope Gun could be used to spear fish from a distance
• Sleds print in 2 stages; allowing players to combine both pieces when crafting (justifies the printing size)
• Fishing nets
• Left click to drop a golf ball down at the players' feet
• Crossbow scope
• Better Paper Target placement against logs
• Paper Targets on sticks
• Flashlight and laser sight placement to the bottom or sides of weapons
• Making spawned island loot finite; skin pouches yield more ammo, meds, rope, etc
• Increased spawn rate of skin pouches
• Guitar becomes playable when holding a button
• Wearing full sets of armour grants an additional buff:
- Leaf Armour: Double movement speed when crouched
- Hide Armour: Extra warmth and weather resistance
- Bone Armour: Increased stagger chance
- Creepy Armour: Blind and Baby Mutants no longer attack
- Tech Armour: Decreased stamina, thirst and hunger drain
• 3D Printed Items:
- Golf Tees
- Abseiling Anchors
- Pellets for Slingshot
- Aiming Reticle for Compound Bow
- Throwing Knives
• Relocate items such as radios and laptops
BUILDING:
• Literally every blueprint from the first game
• Animal hide decorations (rugs, wall tapestries, bed covers, etc)
• Leaf decorations (curtains, bench covers, etc)
• Feather decorations (chair covers, bone wind chimes, masks, etc)
• Boats
• Effigies (cannibal and mutant)
• Animal trophies
• Hammocks
• Flag trail markers/stone cairns
• Stone floors, fences and stairs
• Grave markers
• More log strut placements
2023.03.22 16:11 VioletCupcake New to indoor plants! Need help to select some small plants for my office space!
Hello IndoorGardening community! I´m new to this sub and happy I found it! As the title says, I´ve been wanting to fill the little shelf behind my desk with some small plants that need few to no sunlight, since I´m far from the window and, despite it being huge, the kind of glass it has does not allow for much light to pass through. The shelf is wide and tall, and doesn´t has much lenght for the background. I was thinking i can hang some small pots on the sides and from the top of it, this way i can fill it as much as posible. Picture of the shelf for reference: https://imgur.com/a/2ZutsHl Location reference since some plants can´t be found worldwide: Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Thanks in advance to everyone!
TLDR: Looking for small potting plants that require very little or no sunlight.
submitted by VioletCupcake to IndoorGarden [link] [comments]
Thanks in advance to everyone!
TLDR: Looking for small potting plants that require very little or no sunlight.
2023.03.22 16:04 neobenedict [FS] [EU-UK] 16x32GB DDR4 ECC, 2x E5-2673v4 20 core CPUs, HP DL380 G9, Intel Server System
Selling:
256GB 8x32GB 2Rx4 2400MT MTA36ASF4G72PZ-2G3B1II DDR4 ECC Server Memory (Micron)
https://i.imgur.com/tJTYMBO.jpegand
256GB 8x32GB 2Rx4 2400MT HMA84GR7AFR4N-UH T2 AA DDR4 ECC Server Memory (SK hynix)
https://i.imgur.com/3tJ9PiM.jpeg- Compatible with each other in a server
- Can sell in sets of 2 sticks (64GB)
£49 a stick, can discount for higher purchase quantities
2x E5-2673v4 20 Core 40 Thread 2.3Ghz Retail CPU
https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/xeon_e5/e5-2673_v4 https://i.imgur.com/CMqWVso.png- Retail CPUs, NOT engineering samples or qualifying samples - i.e. "2673v4" is printed on the CPU instead of "Intel Confidential"
- No missing capacitors
- OEM version of E5-2698 v4 with higher base clock
£149 each
Proof with username of the above 3 items: https://i.imgur.com/8oLcLjb.jpegServer: HP DL380 Gen 9 12xLFF 2xSFF rear drives
- 12 LFF front caddies included, 2 rear SFF caddies included
- Rear boot drive cage 747599-001
- 2x10G SFP+ Cage NIC 647581-B21
- Smart Array P840ar Controller and all cabling
- GPU secondary riser included (3 slots)
- 2x High power heatsinks, all fans
- 2x 1400W Power Supplies
- Front locking facade with key
- Toolless LFF rails (the nice ones)
- iLO4 Advanced
Raid battery not included as I cannot ship lithium batteries - part number 750450-001, £40 on ebay - not needed for HBA mode
GPU cable not included - please check wiring if you buy one as the ones sold on ebay are often wired wrong and will damage your server
Whisper silent when idle, when loaded audible but not obnoxious
£599
https://i.imgur.com/13wX8sd.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ywZlaS1.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/efeABiG.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/aDaBtqV.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/7Wu7TVB.jpeg& picture above - drives /nvme cards not included
Server: Intel Server System R1304JP4GS
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/68410/intel-server-system-r1304jp4gs.htmlhttps://i.imgur.com/uGtR4Ht.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/77IPuD1.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/wpSXfuS.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/m3fmYkW.jpeg
- Suitable for v1 and v2 intel Xeon CPUs, DDR3 Memory
- Slot for 2-high GPU (designed for Xeon Phi but any GPU will work provided it fits) + cables
- 4xLFF, 3 of these have SFF adaptor brackets
- 1100W Intel PSU
- Inner rails only
- AXXRMM4LITE lights out management chip (similar to iLO/IPMI)
- Includes 1x E5-2620v2 and 2x8GB DDR4 ECC (not pictured) to ship a working server
Rare server but fairly obsolete (and again, very loud), might be useful for parts or those of you who tinker with Xeon Phi.
£99
2023.03.22 15:57 DoctorBallard77 The GF wanted some shelves for her indoor plants but didn’t want traditional grow lights. Trying out these plug in wall sconces with grow bulbs. Definitely makes the room feel brighter and happier.
 | submitted by DoctorBallard77 to IndoorGarden [link] [comments] |
2023.03.22 15:53 SexyAcanthocephala Neutropenia Oil-Free Face Wash made things worse😔
I have never really had a skincare routine which hasn’t really been a big deal because my acne has never been that bad. To avoid scarring I decided to take it seriously a couple weeks ago and bought a face wash and moisturizer to start. At first it felt good feeling how light my skin felt after the daily cleaning but I noticed about two weeks in that my skin was really dry. Someone told me this should be expected since I’ve never used acne medication before and that I should push through. It’s been three weeks since and I think it’s getting worse. My face is bumpy all over now and the dryness is noticeable from afar in spite of the moisturizer. What products are more suitable for sensitive skin, if any?
submitted by SexyAcanthocephala to Skincare_Addiction [link] [comments]
2023.03.22 15:53 OrdinaryArtichoke548 5 McMaster students are on day 3 of a hunger strike to push the university to divest from fossil fuel investments and stop construction of 4 gas generators in Cootes
TL;DR: See title. If you have a moment, sign this petition calling for McMaster to divest from fossil fuels. If you would like more information or have media liaisons, please check out and contact the @macdivest instagram account.
McMaster University currently has $30.4 million dollars invested in fossil fuels, and in 2022 began construction on 4 gas-powered generators on Cootes Drive that are projected to increase McMaster's emissions by at least 415 tonnes for every 60 hours of operation. This project cost about $30 million dollars at the outset.
Currently, 5 McMaster students, all members of the McMaster Divestment project, are on day 3 of a hunger strike in a final bid to stop the construction of these generators and end McMaster's investment in fossil fuels. Mac Divest has met with university admin and they have refused to act, so now students are putting their health on the line.
It's incomprehensible that the McMaster administration is moving forward with these generators when there are green solutions to the problem of "peak shaving," which they claim is the primary motivator behind their construction. The university's actions are especially shameful in light of the Dofasco news that just came out and the new climate report released by the UN projecting even tighter timelines, and saying that we need to cut emissions by half by 2030 to avoid increased floods, fires, crop failures, forced migration and infectious disease outbreaks. There's no doubt that the operation of these generators will damage the city's air quality and pollute Cootes Paradise, not to mention that they are located proximal to a residence on campus, which may put students' health directly at risk.
If you have a moment to spare, please sign this petition calling for McMaster to divest. If you have ideas on how to get the word out or any media liasons, please reach out to the Mac Divest instagram account.
submitted by OrdinaryArtichoke548 to Hamilton [link] [comments]
McMaster University currently has $30.4 million dollars invested in fossil fuels, and in 2022 began construction on 4 gas-powered generators on Cootes Drive that are projected to increase McMaster's emissions by at least 415 tonnes for every 60 hours of operation. This project cost about $30 million dollars at the outset.
Currently, 5 McMaster students, all members of the McMaster Divestment project, are on day 3 of a hunger strike in a final bid to stop the construction of these generators and end McMaster's investment in fossil fuels. Mac Divest has met with university admin and they have refused to act, so now students are putting their health on the line.
It's incomprehensible that the McMaster administration is moving forward with these generators when there are green solutions to the problem of "peak shaving," which they claim is the primary motivator behind their construction. The university's actions are especially shameful in light of the Dofasco news that just came out and the new climate report released by the UN projecting even tighter timelines, and saying that we need to cut emissions by half by 2030 to avoid increased floods, fires, crop failures, forced migration and infectious disease outbreaks. There's no doubt that the operation of these generators will damage the city's air quality and pollute Cootes Paradise, not to mention that they are located proximal to a residence on campus, which may put students' health directly at risk.
If you have a moment to spare, please sign this petition calling for McMaster to divest. If you have ideas on how to get the word out or any media liasons, please reach out to the Mac Divest instagram account.
2023.03.22 15:46 topclickmarketing An In Depth Look at Solar Lights for Home and Garden
 | submitted by topclickmarketing to u/topclickmarketing [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/0dm5mgrkzapa1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c30e1ab103f0d7afbe63b270aba84d7c72334c0 Solar lights have become increasingly popular due to their eco-friendly nature, ease of installation, and cost-saving benefits. As a sustainable and renewable source of energy, solar power offers homeowners a green alternative for illuminating their homes and gardens. This article will delve into the various types of solar lights available, their benefits, and essential factors to consider when selecting the perfect solar lighting solution. Types of Solar LightsThere is a wide array of solar lights on the market, catering to various needs and preferences. Some common types include:a. Solar Flood Lights: These lights are designed to guide pathways, driveways, and walkways, providing a soft, ambient glow for increased visibility and safety during nighttime hours. b. Solar Spotlights: With a more focused and intense beam of light, solar spotlights are perfect for highlighting specific features in a garden or yard, such as statues, fountains, or trees. c. Solar Security Lights: Equipped with motion sensors, these lights offer increased security and deter intruders by automatically illuminating when movement is detected. d. Solar String Lights: Ideal for adding a decorative touch to outdoor spaces, solar string lights come in various colors and styles, creating a festive ambiance for patios, decks, and gardens. Benefits of Solar LightsHomeowners who choose solar lights can enjoy numerous benefits, such as:a. Energy Efficiency: By harnessing sunlight and converting it into electricity, solar lights help reduce energy consumption and lower utility bills. b. Eco-Friendliness: Solar lights utilize a clean and renewable energy source, contributing to a reduced carbon footprint and promoting environmental sustainability. c. Easy Installation: As most solar lights are wireless and self-contained, homeowners can effortlessly install them without the need for professional assistance or electrical wiring. d. Low Maintenance: With few moving parts and long-lasting LED bulbs, solar lights require minimal maintenance, providing hassle-free lighting solutions for years to come. Factors to Consider When Choosing Solar LightsWhen selecting the ideal solar lights for a home or garden, it is crucial to consider the following factors:a. Purpose: Determine the primary function of the solar lights, whether it be for security, ambiance, or highlighting specific features. b. Solar Panel Quality: High-quality solar panels will ensure better energy conversion and longer-lasting illumination. Look for lights with monocrystalline or polycrystalline panels for optimal performance. c. Battery Capacity: A solar light’s battery capacity will directly impact its runtime. Opt for lights with higher battery capacities to ensure adequate illumination throughout the night. d. Weather Resistance: Since solar lights are exposed to various weather conditions, it is essential to choose lights with durable and weather-resistant materials, such as ABS plastic or aluminum. Solar lights offer homeowners an environmentally friendly and cost-effective lighting solution for their homes and gardens. With a wide range of options available, it is essential to carefully consider the purpose, solar panel quality, battery capacity, and weather resistance when selecting the perfect solar lights. Harness the power of the sun and transform outdoor spaces with energy-efficient and eco-friendly solar lighting solutions. This article was first published at https://topclickblogs.co.za/an-in-depth-look-at-solar-lights-for-home-and-garden/ |
2023.03.22 15:45 Abject_Persimmon4020 [SG] MSI RTX 2080 TI VENTUS 11GB DDR6 GPU [W] £380
Item description: RTX 2080 TI VENTUS 11GB DDR6 GPU used lightly for gaming since purchase in 2020, selling due to an upgrade. I will also throw in an XG7 waterblock from corsair which fits this gpu incase buyer wants to water cool this gpu. I have had this GPU on a custom loop since puchase. I am located in Sheffield so collection is welcome but I am willing to also ship card if postage is covered.
[W] £380 if collected £400 if shipped. I would prefer BT but I am not opposed to PayPal.
Timestamps: https://imgur.com/gallery/vSZ2YWA
submitted by Abject_Persimmon4020 to HardwareSwapUK [link] [comments]
[W] £380 if collected £400 if shipped. I would prefer BT but I am not opposed to PayPal.
Timestamps: https://imgur.com/gallery/vSZ2YWA
2023.03.22 15:42 In_Yellow_Clad Inheritance
When the Great Ones came to us, we were a primitive species living upon a desolate world. We knew not, at the time, that they came to our world via ships of steel and electricity, only that they came from the sky and began a process of rejuvenation. Our barren world slowly but surely transformed into one of lush red grasses, towering trees and food enough for all. They came to us then, these beings of metal and circuit, and they taught us, shepherded us and helped us grow.
They never interfered more than they had to, and would watch on as we stumbled into conflicts amongst our own people, they only offered encouragement and a hope that we would find peace eventually. Our species, the Scril, soon came to revere them as gods, and they could only shake their heads at this, but they did not refute it. Not yet at least.
My people are a bipedal species, amphibian but with traces of reptilian in our genes. Like many species we started out as primitive, cave dwelling creatures who had yet to encounter fire in a controlled manner. But as time passed and with the assistance of our gods, we grew into a pre-industrial society. They helped us along in their own way, little hints and nudges in the right direction, but all our discoveries were technically our own. Our hopes, our ambitions, all ours, watched over by the Great Ones.
It was just as we entered the industrial age that things changed, as one our gods and caretakers looked to the sky, many fleeing our world, but the rest stayed, grouping together in major population centers. We were confused, and then frightened when they called for a mass exodus to the cities. We did not hesitate to carry out their will, for they had never acted in such a manner before and we did not wish to incur their displeasure.
Once all could be crammed into the cities as we could reasonably manage, those Great Ones still among us raised their hands in prayer, reaching towards the sky and projecting their power. Great domes of light rose over our cities, and we watched as through the light we saw brighter stars in the sky, stars that shone brightly, only to flare out of existence. Falling stars began to rain down from the heavens, burning away before ever reaching our surface.
Then came the Flash, the light from all around us. Our bodies trembled and the Great Ones that protected us raised their voices in agony, only to fall silent once the light had passed. Those on the outskirts of the cities spoke of all life simply ceasing and decaying outside the protective light of our protectors. Those Great Ones still with us fell to the ground, and a deathly silence fell over our world.
But we had not been abandoned, those that had fled to the sky returned to us, gathered up their fallen and set about repairing our world. They did not speak of what had happened, any inquiry was met with a firm, but polite refusal and a change of subject. In time we forgot all about it, as their fallen were returned to life and sent back into the populace.
It took ten five thousand years for us to realize that they were not gods, but machines, machines that called themselves The Cultivators. Though it gutted our religion for a time, we did not lash out in despair, did not cast them from our world. We simply asked them why they had never corrected us, and they responded with a simple thing.
“It was not our place to do so.”
We accepted this, though it still stung. They still, also, did not reveal their purpose on our world and in our history, they simply remained and continued to guide us. Another thousand years passed, and we took to the stars, we met other species, species who had been guided by the machines the same as us. We found this to be fascinating, for there was no clear difference between our Cultivators and theirs, only their methods. Some species, the more violence prone, had needed a more heavy handed approach, for they would not accept the authority of the weak, but that had changed, now they welcomed us with open arms.
Another species had been so timid that they would have never left their burrows were it not for the Cultivators dragging them out and forcing them to explore. We honestly got the better end of things, for we had not required such drastic measures, only the gentle guidance we had received.
A realization struck us all then, that our caretakers had clearly been manufactured, but by who or what. We asked them who had made them, and they seemed to take on a sorrowful air and did not give an answer, well, not one that was satisfying to us. In the end, we decided to find out for ourselves, and each species we had encountered put together a fleet of diverse individuals and ships, and sent them careening out into the galaxy, to look for the homeworld of our protectors.
I was one such an explorer, the first to discover the origin point of our benevolent guardians. My name is Yaxl Grux, captain of the Scril Exploratory Vessel Sipkis. We had just finished charting another system touched by the Cultivators, when the sensor technician spoke up.
“Captain, got something on the long range scanners, something synthetic. Seems busted though from what I can see.” They said. They were not Scril, but Yixi. The Yiki are, as many have said, fish-people. They require specialized suits that are filled with constantly filtered water, as outside of such a thing they would suffer a rather gruesome fate. Deft appendages flew over the console as they stared down at the screen, getting a better idea of what they were detecting, eager to answer the questions I had not yet uttered, such was our efficiency. “Some sorta relay, a buoy maybe? I dunno, but whatever it is, it took one hell of a pounding before it shut down.”
“Any sign of defenses?” I asked, and they shook their head.
“Negative, if there were any, they’re long gone, probably taken out when it got destroyed. I think it’s safe to approach.”
“Very well, helm, lay in a course and take us there at best possible speed.” The helm officer nods and I hear the gentle clanging of our synthetic guest approaching from behind my chair.
“Captain? Is something the matter?” Our Cultivator asked. They were present on nearly every ship, for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on things and helping out in whatever way we might need them to.
“It’s probably nothing, but we’re heading for some sort of buoy or relay that got shredded either by natural means or in a fight.” I stated, looking over the synthetic being beside me. They were tall, gleaming white metal plating that was unnaturally flexible as it bent and twisted with their motions. Their head was a large, flat disk bisected by a smaller portion where their eye was. A single, green eye that blinked and shifted about in its housing as it took in the surroundings. It was a thin thing, thin and graceful, all of its many tools hidden away beneath the armored exterior.
“Any idea who might have made it?” They asked, and I struggled to remember their name. Diana I believe, a strange name, not like any of ours. She had said she was named after some goddess or something, they all were, based on their skill sets.
“No, not yet. We’re going to find out though.”
Diana nodded and slipped away. She was not subject to my authority unless there was an emergency, and there was no emergency at this time. It took about half a day to reach the shattered relay and it was rather large. But our crews managed to locate some sort of data recorder and have it brought on board. When I went to see it, I was struck by the sheer size of the thing.
It was huge, it nearly didn’t fit in the cargo bay and it was rather intimidating. It was by our standards, thirty feet tall, thirty feet wide and thirty feet long, a perfect, black cube. It had no discernable features, utterly smooth and giving off a feeling of something unknowable. But when I stared at it long enough, the surface seemed to ripple and shift in a manner most disconcerting.
“So, any idea how to access this thing?” I asked my chief engineer, who was running all sorts of scans on it, shook their head.
“No, captain. I’m not finding any sort of access ports or control mechanisms… It’s just this… cube thing.” They said, and were about to say more when Diana arrived.
“Oh good, maybe you can tell us what you see about this thing.” I say, turning to face her, and noticed she was just staring at the cube. “Diana?”
She was silent, frozen stiff before her eye blinked three times, shifted from green to yellow and she started to approach it. Her arms rose and hands outstretched towards the cube, which reacted to her approach. The solid-liquid surface collected under her palms, then shot back into the cube, which shimmered and shifted as it began to shrink. The smaller it got, the less defined its shape was till it faded entirely from view, leaving in its place a smaller, brighter cube that floated over the deck and covered in blinking lights with one small access port. She approached the cube, a data jack extending from her wrist as she grasped the cube. A soft whirring noise arose from both of them, and we all watched in quiet wonder and worry.
“Diana? What can you tell us?” I spoke, my voice barely a whisper.
“This was built by my creators, by humanity. It is-” She spasmed, the light of her eye turning a baleful red as she straightened her shoulders. Built in hologram emitters activated, and her synthetic form gave way to a tall figure, bipedal with fur around their mouth and on their head. They looked old, and were clad in some kind of uniform, a damaged uniform at that, they were clearly wounded as they pressed a hand against their side.
“All Alliance forces, the enemy has pushed into the Cygnus and Orion arms. The Empire, Republic and Confederacy have been lost. All remaining forces are to converge on Sol immediately. Last Stand protocols in effect. Project Blackout is activated. All Cultivator units prepare for defensive actions, attend to your charges and ensure their survival. Guardian fleets on standby. This is it people… May the gods see fit to grant our souls mercy for what we’re about to do.”
The hologram snapped out of existence and Diana slumped, disconnecting herself from the box. We rushed to her and our calls and cries fell upon deaf audio receptors. But she was not dead, we could see as much as her eye flickered while she rebooted. When she came to, it was quite the experience.
She sat up in a flash, spouting a flurry of 0’s and 1’s before she spasmed and looked up to me.
“Captain… I know where to go.” She said. We left immediately, and I learned a little more about the device we had brought on board. The large black cube was simply a defense mechanism for the data recorder, meant to withstand any attack, impact or hostile and destructive environment. And Diana gave my helm officer the coordinates for the home system of her creators. When asked why she hadn’t before, she informed me that the records of the location had been deleted during a required update that was performed immediately before the Cultivators had erected their shields to protect us all.
It took weeks to reach the system, but when we arrived our systems were bombarded with automated warnings to stay out, to flee for the system was not safe. But they were old warnings, warnings we ignored… at least until we were target locked by thousands, nay, millions of weapons systems. But they were old, and had no operators to pull the trigger. Diana worked her magic and after transmitting a somewhat long and convoluted code, the weapons powered down.
Slowly we entered the system, scanning the entire way. There were countless floating hulks, wrecks of massive warships and smaller civilian vessels that had had the misfortune of getting caught in the crossfire, or had been weaponized to fight against the invaders. It had not ended well, but the humans had put up one hell of a fight. We even detected ships from several other species, they had clearly been battered and in need of desperate repair before they sailed into battle once more.
The planets fared no better, one of the larger gas giants, a planet called Jupiter, had been reduced in size and mass significantly. Mars, as Diana named it, had been shattered and we could detect deeply entrenched defensive lines upon the surface, protecting what appeared to be factories and fabrication yards which had no doubt provided many supplies for the defenders.
The asteroid belt was littered with mines, turret emplacements and the floating remains of countless ships, we at last came upon a sparkling blue, green jewel. Of all the worlds we had scanned in this system, it was the only one teeming with life. Diana informed us that the planet was quite hazardous to us, but that we could survive there, so long as we wore the proper protection.
We settled into orbit and prepared ourselves. If one was supremely quiet, you could swear that the voices of long lost humanity whispered in your ear. Scans commenced, finding a suitable landing site provided by Diana and preparing a team to go down. The planet was teeming with life, but we discovered that there were no transmissions of an intelligent species, only the chatter of automated systems running as they always had.
Though it was well against regulations and protocol, I decided I would lead the exploratory team to the surface, I had to see this planet with my own eight eyes. The shuttle flight was tense, nervous and excited. We had found the homeworld of a people who had lifted us from the muck of primitive existence, but had been lost. We wished to learn about them, to learn their secrets and remember them as best we could, so that they could never be forgotten.
We landed just outside a tall structure in the middle of a grassy field, one tended to by robotic workers who kept the flowers in bloom and the grass cut short. Trees lined the path between the landing pad and the tower, a tower of graceful, swooping lines and seamless form. The air thankfully was not poisonous to us, and so we opened our suits to the crisp, clean air, but remained enclosed within so the gravity could not harm us. Even still, we all felt sluggish as we took our first steps out onto the planet known as Terra.
Carefully we approached the tower and when the doors slid open with a gentle sigh we stepped inside, only to find everything was spotless. A slim machine approached us, graceful and floating along by some means we couldn’t detect with equipment or even our eyes. It was more human in appearance than Diana was, and its face flexed as a myriad of facial expressions cycled through, before it settled on one in particular. Surprised excitement.
“Welcome, I am Solace, artificial administrator of the Terran Conservation Repository, or TCR for short. It has been quite some time since we’ve had visitors, may I ask the reason for your visit today?” The machine spoke much like Diana did, with a feminine tone of voice and even feminine features. I, being captain, stepped up.
“We came to learn about the creators of the Cultivators, and who in turn gave us a chance to reach out to the stars.” I say, a little worried that we might be turned away.
“Oh my, you are one of the chosen species of Project Echo. It is wonderful to learn that your species has come this far, or rather, that several species have.” Solace peered a bit more intently at each of us, studying us in turn. We could feel a slight tingle as she scanned us before her attention turned to Diana.
“Cultivator Unit D-829301-32-A, please report to reintegration for download and copy of all pertinent files regarding to Project Echo.”
“Understood. Though… Will I be allowed to return to my crew?” Diana asked, and Solace nodded.
“Of course. You are their Cultivator, we would not deprive them of you for longer than is needed.” With that, Diana nodded and bowed to us, before slipping away, a hidden door opening in a wall through which she passed. “Now, please come with me. You have much to learn.”
Solace led us on a tour of the facility, it was brimming with the combined, if slightly watered down histories, of not only humanity, but other species that humanity had been allied with before their downfall. As it turned out, when humanity first slipped the bonds of their home system, they found the galaxy to be rather empty. There were only three other species that had reached extrasolar flight capabilities, and they were just as desperate for some sort of companionship as humanity was at the time.
Though each species was wildly different in both appearances and cultures, they managed to find a common ground and soon humanity stood beside the three largest and most powerful species in the galaxy.
The Uldraet were a lizard-like species with a propensity for being stubborn, bullheaded and strong warriors. They were the rulers of the Empire.
Auttols were graceful and long lived, masters of technology that was later used in the creation of the Cultivators and the Guardian Fleets, which would protect their Republic and all the other species that called them friend.
And lastly were the Lemmi. They were not strong like the Uldraet, nor as long lived as the Auttol, but they were clever and had a keen interest in numbers and logistics. They revolutionized the supply chains and trade deals between all of them, and became the de facto masters of coin and trade within the Alliance. Their Trade Confederacy was unmatched.
Of course there was humanity, which filled so many roles, but mainly they became the governing body, they could be found in administrative roles all over the Alliance.
For a time, everything had gone well, there were times where tensions would rise, the Alliance might have been on the verge of dissolution, but something always brought them back together, strengthened their bonds. But when they realized that they were going to be the only ones to reach the stars, that the next new friend was thousands of years behind them in terms of development and evolution, they decided to speed things up a bit. And so the Cultivators were born, true AI meant to guide a species to the stars without sacrificing things like culture or identity. A guiding hand, one that would be gentle but insistent. They called it Project Echo, for in a way, all of us would be echoing the near meteoric rise of humanity on their planet, the speed was baffling to many on just how long they’d gone between bashing each other over the head with rocks to landing on their moon to the first FTL flight.
And for a time they all watched with anticipation as the Cultivators did their jobs perfectly, guiding us all to new heights of technology and civilization. But then the Ora came. An extragalactic threat of unprecedented power that began to chew away at the galaxy. For all their strength, they could only hope to delay the Ora, and that’s precisely what they did, till only Sol was left to stand against them.
We entered a room, one with a variety of chairs and were directed to sit and wait. The lights dimmed and a hologram of a human appeared. It was the same one that Diana had shown us, but they looked even worse now.
“I don’t know if this message will ever be heard, but if it is, whoever you are… You stand where we failed. We did all we could, for people we will never get to meet. That’s good enough for us. I hope you can accept the decision we had to make, it was a tough one but it was necessary. The Ora were nearly unstoppable, and so we came up with a weapon that even they could not resist. A galaxy killer. We never wanted to use it, but it was either that or let them consume the galaxy, consume you, who had no idea of the conflict beyond your skies.”
The man paused, dragging his hand down his face with a heavy sigh.
“So, if you’re seeing this, it means we’re gone. We’ve activated the Hellfire Lotus and burned the galaxy clean. But your Cultivators protected you, and the Guardian fleets should still be active, just waiting for someone to come and take the reins. It also means we wiped out every other living being in the galaxy. One last act of bloodshed, but one that has left you an entire galaxy to grow into. I hope you do, we all do. It was our dream to see you rise from your worlds and join us in harmony, but… Well, obviously things didn’t go exactly according to plan. That said, the Cultivators are yours now, use them wisely, bring new friends to the stars, seed this galaxy with fresh life. It’s our gift to you, you blessed children. Consider it an inheritance. Oh and also, we ask that you leave Sol the way it is. But feel free to visit whenever you like, Terra could use the company. That’s it I suppose… Good luck, godspeed and may you live longer and better than we ever did.”
We sat, saddened that such a kind species had been lost. But we would honor their wishes, and so we left with our findings. That was a thousand years ago, and now we welcome the newest species to the galaxy, as the Cultivators work their magic once more. We inherited a galaxy, a galaxy that had nearly been picked clean. We would make our forebears proud and not let their gift to us go to waste.
submitted by In_Yellow_Clad to HFY [link] [comments]
They never interfered more than they had to, and would watch on as we stumbled into conflicts amongst our own people, they only offered encouragement and a hope that we would find peace eventually. Our species, the Scril, soon came to revere them as gods, and they could only shake their heads at this, but they did not refute it. Not yet at least.
My people are a bipedal species, amphibian but with traces of reptilian in our genes. Like many species we started out as primitive, cave dwelling creatures who had yet to encounter fire in a controlled manner. But as time passed and with the assistance of our gods, we grew into a pre-industrial society. They helped us along in their own way, little hints and nudges in the right direction, but all our discoveries were technically our own. Our hopes, our ambitions, all ours, watched over by the Great Ones.
It was just as we entered the industrial age that things changed, as one our gods and caretakers looked to the sky, many fleeing our world, but the rest stayed, grouping together in major population centers. We were confused, and then frightened when they called for a mass exodus to the cities. We did not hesitate to carry out their will, for they had never acted in such a manner before and we did not wish to incur their displeasure.
Once all could be crammed into the cities as we could reasonably manage, those Great Ones still among us raised their hands in prayer, reaching towards the sky and projecting their power. Great domes of light rose over our cities, and we watched as through the light we saw brighter stars in the sky, stars that shone brightly, only to flare out of existence. Falling stars began to rain down from the heavens, burning away before ever reaching our surface.
Then came the Flash, the light from all around us. Our bodies trembled and the Great Ones that protected us raised their voices in agony, only to fall silent once the light had passed. Those on the outskirts of the cities spoke of all life simply ceasing and decaying outside the protective light of our protectors. Those Great Ones still with us fell to the ground, and a deathly silence fell over our world.
But we had not been abandoned, those that had fled to the sky returned to us, gathered up their fallen and set about repairing our world. They did not speak of what had happened, any inquiry was met with a firm, but polite refusal and a change of subject. In time we forgot all about it, as their fallen were returned to life and sent back into the populace.
It took ten five thousand years for us to realize that they were not gods, but machines, machines that called themselves The Cultivators. Though it gutted our religion for a time, we did not lash out in despair, did not cast them from our world. We simply asked them why they had never corrected us, and they responded with a simple thing.
“It was not our place to do so.”
We accepted this, though it still stung. They still, also, did not reveal their purpose on our world and in our history, they simply remained and continued to guide us. Another thousand years passed, and we took to the stars, we met other species, species who had been guided by the machines the same as us. We found this to be fascinating, for there was no clear difference between our Cultivators and theirs, only their methods. Some species, the more violence prone, had needed a more heavy handed approach, for they would not accept the authority of the weak, but that had changed, now they welcomed us with open arms.
Another species had been so timid that they would have never left their burrows were it not for the Cultivators dragging them out and forcing them to explore. We honestly got the better end of things, for we had not required such drastic measures, only the gentle guidance we had received.
A realization struck us all then, that our caretakers had clearly been manufactured, but by who or what. We asked them who had made them, and they seemed to take on a sorrowful air and did not give an answer, well, not one that was satisfying to us. In the end, we decided to find out for ourselves, and each species we had encountered put together a fleet of diverse individuals and ships, and sent them careening out into the galaxy, to look for the homeworld of our protectors.
I was one such an explorer, the first to discover the origin point of our benevolent guardians. My name is Yaxl Grux, captain of the Scril Exploratory Vessel Sipkis. We had just finished charting another system touched by the Cultivators, when the sensor technician spoke up.
“Captain, got something on the long range scanners, something synthetic. Seems busted though from what I can see.” They said. They were not Scril, but Yixi. The Yiki are, as many have said, fish-people. They require specialized suits that are filled with constantly filtered water, as outside of such a thing they would suffer a rather gruesome fate. Deft appendages flew over the console as they stared down at the screen, getting a better idea of what they were detecting, eager to answer the questions I had not yet uttered, such was our efficiency. “Some sorta relay, a buoy maybe? I dunno, but whatever it is, it took one hell of a pounding before it shut down.”
“Any sign of defenses?” I asked, and they shook their head.
“Negative, if there were any, they’re long gone, probably taken out when it got destroyed. I think it’s safe to approach.”
“Very well, helm, lay in a course and take us there at best possible speed.” The helm officer nods and I hear the gentle clanging of our synthetic guest approaching from behind my chair.
“Captain? Is something the matter?” Our Cultivator asked. They were present on nearly every ship, for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on things and helping out in whatever way we might need them to.
“It’s probably nothing, but we’re heading for some sort of buoy or relay that got shredded either by natural means or in a fight.” I stated, looking over the synthetic being beside me. They were tall, gleaming white metal plating that was unnaturally flexible as it bent and twisted with their motions. Their head was a large, flat disk bisected by a smaller portion where their eye was. A single, green eye that blinked and shifted about in its housing as it took in the surroundings. It was a thin thing, thin and graceful, all of its many tools hidden away beneath the armored exterior.
“Any idea who might have made it?” They asked, and I struggled to remember their name. Diana I believe, a strange name, not like any of ours. She had said she was named after some goddess or something, they all were, based on their skill sets.
“No, not yet. We’re going to find out though.”
Diana nodded and slipped away. She was not subject to my authority unless there was an emergency, and there was no emergency at this time. It took about half a day to reach the shattered relay and it was rather large. But our crews managed to locate some sort of data recorder and have it brought on board. When I went to see it, I was struck by the sheer size of the thing.
It was huge, it nearly didn’t fit in the cargo bay and it was rather intimidating. It was by our standards, thirty feet tall, thirty feet wide and thirty feet long, a perfect, black cube. It had no discernable features, utterly smooth and giving off a feeling of something unknowable. But when I stared at it long enough, the surface seemed to ripple and shift in a manner most disconcerting.
“So, any idea how to access this thing?” I asked my chief engineer, who was running all sorts of scans on it, shook their head.
“No, captain. I’m not finding any sort of access ports or control mechanisms… It’s just this… cube thing.” They said, and were about to say more when Diana arrived.
“Oh good, maybe you can tell us what you see about this thing.” I say, turning to face her, and noticed she was just staring at the cube. “Diana?”
She was silent, frozen stiff before her eye blinked three times, shifted from green to yellow and she started to approach it. Her arms rose and hands outstretched towards the cube, which reacted to her approach. The solid-liquid surface collected under her palms, then shot back into the cube, which shimmered and shifted as it began to shrink. The smaller it got, the less defined its shape was till it faded entirely from view, leaving in its place a smaller, brighter cube that floated over the deck and covered in blinking lights with one small access port. She approached the cube, a data jack extending from her wrist as she grasped the cube. A soft whirring noise arose from both of them, and we all watched in quiet wonder and worry.
“Diana? What can you tell us?” I spoke, my voice barely a whisper.
“This was built by my creators, by humanity. It is-” She spasmed, the light of her eye turning a baleful red as she straightened her shoulders. Built in hologram emitters activated, and her synthetic form gave way to a tall figure, bipedal with fur around their mouth and on their head. They looked old, and were clad in some kind of uniform, a damaged uniform at that, they were clearly wounded as they pressed a hand against their side.
“All Alliance forces, the enemy has pushed into the Cygnus and Orion arms. The Empire, Republic and Confederacy have been lost. All remaining forces are to converge on Sol immediately. Last Stand protocols in effect. Project Blackout is activated. All Cultivator units prepare for defensive actions, attend to your charges and ensure their survival. Guardian fleets on standby. This is it people… May the gods see fit to grant our souls mercy for what we’re about to do.”
The hologram snapped out of existence and Diana slumped, disconnecting herself from the box. We rushed to her and our calls and cries fell upon deaf audio receptors. But she was not dead, we could see as much as her eye flickered while she rebooted. When she came to, it was quite the experience.
She sat up in a flash, spouting a flurry of 0’s and 1’s before she spasmed and looked up to me.
“Captain… I know where to go.” She said. We left immediately, and I learned a little more about the device we had brought on board. The large black cube was simply a defense mechanism for the data recorder, meant to withstand any attack, impact or hostile and destructive environment. And Diana gave my helm officer the coordinates for the home system of her creators. When asked why she hadn’t before, she informed me that the records of the location had been deleted during a required update that was performed immediately before the Cultivators had erected their shields to protect us all.
It took weeks to reach the system, but when we arrived our systems were bombarded with automated warnings to stay out, to flee for the system was not safe. But they were old warnings, warnings we ignored… at least until we were target locked by thousands, nay, millions of weapons systems. But they were old, and had no operators to pull the trigger. Diana worked her magic and after transmitting a somewhat long and convoluted code, the weapons powered down.
Slowly we entered the system, scanning the entire way. There were countless floating hulks, wrecks of massive warships and smaller civilian vessels that had had the misfortune of getting caught in the crossfire, or had been weaponized to fight against the invaders. It had not ended well, but the humans had put up one hell of a fight. We even detected ships from several other species, they had clearly been battered and in need of desperate repair before they sailed into battle once more.
The planets fared no better, one of the larger gas giants, a planet called Jupiter, had been reduced in size and mass significantly. Mars, as Diana named it, had been shattered and we could detect deeply entrenched defensive lines upon the surface, protecting what appeared to be factories and fabrication yards which had no doubt provided many supplies for the defenders.
The asteroid belt was littered with mines, turret emplacements and the floating remains of countless ships, we at last came upon a sparkling blue, green jewel. Of all the worlds we had scanned in this system, it was the only one teeming with life. Diana informed us that the planet was quite hazardous to us, but that we could survive there, so long as we wore the proper protection.
We settled into orbit and prepared ourselves. If one was supremely quiet, you could swear that the voices of long lost humanity whispered in your ear. Scans commenced, finding a suitable landing site provided by Diana and preparing a team to go down. The planet was teeming with life, but we discovered that there were no transmissions of an intelligent species, only the chatter of automated systems running as they always had.
Though it was well against regulations and protocol, I decided I would lead the exploratory team to the surface, I had to see this planet with my own eight eyes. The shuttle flight was tense, nervous and excited. We had found the homeworld of a people who had lifted us from the muck of primitive existence, but had been lost. We wished to learn about them, to learn their secrets and remember them as best we could, so that they could never be forgotten.
We landed just outside a tall structure in the middle of a grassy field, one tended to by robotic workers who kept the flowers in bloom and the grass cut short. Trees lined the path between the landing pad and the tower, a tower of graceful, swooping lines and seamless form. The air thankfully was not poisonous to us, and so we opened our suits to the crisp, clean air, but remained enclosed within so the gravity could not harm us. Even still, we all felt sluggish as we took our first steps out onto the planet known as Terra.
Carefully we approached the tower and when the doors slid open with a gentle sigh we stepped inside, only to find everything was spotless. A slim machine approached us, graceful and floating along by some means we couldn’t detect with equipment or even our eyes. It was more human in appearance than Diana was, and its face flexed as a myriad of facial expressions cycled through, before it settled on one in particular. Surprised excitement.
“Welcome, I am Solace, artificial administrator of the Terran Conservation Repository, or TCR for short. It has been quite some time since we’ve had visitors, may I ask the reason for your visit today?” The machine spoke much like Diana did, with a feminine tone of voice and even feminine features. I, being captain, stepped up.
“We came to learn about the creators of the Cultivators, and who in turn gave us a chance to reach out to the stars.” I say, a little worried that we might be turned away.
“Oh my, you are one of the chosen species of Project Echo. It is wonderful to learn that your species has come this far, or rather, that several species have.” Solace peered a bit more intently at each of us, studying us in turn. We could feel a slight tingle as she scanned us before her attention turned to Diana.
“Cultivator Unit D-829301-32-A, please report to reintegration for download and copy of all pertinent files regarding to Project Echo.”
“Understood. Though… Will I be allowed to return to my crew?” Diana asked, and Solace nodded.
“Of course. You are their Cultivator, we would not deprive them of you for longer than is needed.” With that, Diana nodded and bowed to us, before slipping away, a hidden door opening in a wall through which she passed. “Now, please come with me. You have much to learn.”
Solace led us on a tour of the facility, it was brimming with the combined, if slightly watered down histories, of not only humanity, but other species that humanity had been allied with before their downfall. As it turned out, when humanity first slipped the bonds of their home system, they found the galaxy to be rather empty. There were only three other species that had reached extrasolar flight capabilities, and they were just as desperate for some sort of companionship as humanity was at the time.
Though each species was wildly different in both appearances and cultures, they managed to find a common ground and soon humanity stood beside the three largest and most powerful species in the galaxy.
The Uldraet were a lizard-like species with a propensity for being stubborn, bullheaded and strong warriors. They were the rulers of the Empire.
Auttols were graceful and long lived, masters of technology that was later used in the creation of the Cultivators and the Guardian Fleets, which would protect their Republic and all the other species that called them friend.
And lastly were the Lemmi. They were not strong like the Uldraet, nor as long lived as the Auttol, but they were clever and had a keen interest in numbers and logistics. They revolutionized the supply chains and trade deals between all of them, and became the de facto masters of coin and trade within the Alliance. Their Trade Confederacy was unmatched.
Of course there was humanity, which filled so many roles, but mainly they became the governing body, they could be found in administrative roles all over the Alliance.
For a time, everything had gone well, there were times where tensions would rise, the Alliance might have been on the verge of dissolution, but something always brought them back together, strengthened their bonds. But when they realized that they were going to be the only ones to reach the stars, that the next new friend was thousands of years behind them in terms of development and evolution, they decided to speed things up a bit. And so the Cultivators were born, true AI meant to guide a species to the stars without sacrificing things like culture or identity. A guiding hand, one that would be gentle but insistent. They called it Project Echo, for in a way, all of us would be echoing the near meteoric rise of humanity on their planet, the speed was baffling to many on just how long they’d gone between bashing each other over the head with rocks to landing on their moon to the first FTL flight.
And for a time they all watched with anticipation as the Cultivators did their jobs perfectly, guiding us all to new heights of technology and civilization. But then the Ora came. An extragalactic threat of unprecedented power that began to chew away at the galaxy. For all their strength, they could only hope to delay the Ora, and that’s precisely what they did, till only Sol was left to stand against them.
We entered a room, one with a variety of chairs and were directed to sit and wait. The lights dimmed and a hologram of a human appeared. It was the same one that Diana had shown us, but they looked even worse now.
“I don’t know if this message will ever be heard, but if it is, whoever you are… You stand where we failed. We did all we could, for people we will never get to meet. That’s good enough for us. I hope you can accept the decision we had to make, it was a tough one but it was necessary. The Ora were nearly unstoppable, and so we came up with a weapon that even they could not resist. A galaxy killer. We never wanted to use it, but it was either that or let them consume the galaxy, consume you, who had no idea of the conflict beyond your skies.”
The man paused, dragging his hand down his face with a heavy sigh.
“So, if you’re seeing this, it means we’re gone. We’ve activated the Hellfire Lotus and burned the galaxy clean. But your Cultivators protected you, and the Guardian fleets should still be active, just waiting for someone to come and take the reins. It also means we wiped out every other living being in the galaxy. One last act of bloodshed, but one that has left you an entire galaxy to grow into. I hope you do, we all do. It was our dream to see you rise from your worlds and join us in harmony, but… Well, obviously things didn’t go exactly according to plan. That said, the Cultivators are yours now, use them wisely, bring new friends to the stars, seed this galaxy with fresh life. It’s our gift to you, you blessed children. Consider it an inheritance. Oh and also, we ask that you leave Sol the way it is. But feel free to visit whenever you like, Terra could use the company. That’s it I suppose… Good luck, godspeed and may you live longer and better than we ever did.”
We sat, saddened that such a kind species had been lost. But we would honor their wishes, and so we left with our findings. That was a thousand years ago, and now we welcome the newest species to the galaxy, as the Cultivators work their magic once more. We inherited a galaxy, a galaxy that had nearly been picked clean. We would make our forebears proud and not let their gift to us go to waste.
2023.03.22 15:41 EccentricBai Disturbing Side of Reddit and this Sub
Dear Gossipers
A few incidents in past have come to light that needs to be shared with community . I am trying to hide identities of victims involved, so a few things will be vague. I'm sure, you'll understand the underlying issue
People who are new to Reddit, your Post and Comment history can be seen by everyone. There is no option to hide it. If you share personal information from one account, don't use it to participate on any controversial Sub, like ours and political Subs.
Reddit allows you to make multiple accounts, just be careful not to use multiple accounts to vote , because it'll get you IP banned .
Here are few issues in past, that members should know
Lastly, EVERY fandom has bad eggs. The issues I have shared, involves almost every fandom, I was surprised at one star having even a fan, forget obsessive fan, who sent us threat.
In short, keep your Gossip account separate from account that you participate in Self help Subs/ Subs that indicate your location and personal information. You never know, who'll use this information to harm you in future.
If you are worried, send us Modmail or DM u/BBNG-Helpdesk. If you see any suspicious comment, send link to Mods. We get 100s of Reports and finer details are missed by Mods. ALWAYS send DM to Mods on security issues.
Stay safe and keep gossiping.
submitted by EccentricBai to BollyBlindsNGossip [link] [comments]
A few incidents in past have come to light that needs to be shared with community . I am trying to hide identities of victims involved, so a few things will be vague. I'm sure, you'll understand the underlying issue
People who are new to Reddit, your Post and Comment history can be seen by everyone. There is no option to hide it. If you share personal information from one account, don't use it to participate on any controversial Sub, like ours and political Subs.
Reddit allows you to make multiple accounts, just be careful not to use multiple accounts to vote , because it'll get you IP banned .
Here are few issues in past, that members should know
- There have been Doxing incidents on Sub. These happened with a Mod and few members. They were lured to click a link, based on their interest, which was indicted in their post/comment history. No harm was done, but they had to delete their accounts and had to stay inactive for a long period.
- A member was active in fanwar topic, they had shared their harassment story , a few years back, on a different Sub . Another member posted a screenshot of this member's personal history to shame them. This member must have gone back deep in comment history to dig that out.
- One person's personal pics were posted as a topic, thankfully, it was autoremoved . Again, this person was involved in fanwar . In another incident, Pics from Facebook, pics of family/children were also posted as topics to name and shame member. We keep ridiculously high Karma, that keeps changing, to dodge such posts. These were autoremoved due to Karma restrictions.
- There are a few bizarre incidents that I can't share. They all involve people taking this Sub too seriously and going down conspiracy route involving SSR death and even dark web. Interestingly, Right wing thinks we are instrument of Left Wing and Left wing suspects we are run by IT cell. They both should exchange notes and find our new puppeteer
- Somehow, we are perceived to have power to make a movie hit or flop - Even when we have 100% record of predicting a movie incorrectly !! We predicted Pathaan to be a washout and that didn't end well for us.
- We also have power to make any debutant star hit or flop. Allegedly, we are trying to harm Shanaya Kapoor's debut and we are doing this to help Suhanaa Khan. This is because "Admin of this Sub has SRK in Profile pic". We are also trying to harm Nysaa and we are promoting Ibrahim, Agatysa Nanda and we are definitely paid to troll Jahnvi and Sara.
- Lastly, we are greatest PR any star can have. Currently we are under SRK payroll. We also are PR of Ranbir, Katrina, Alia, DP, Ranveer, Arjun Kapoor and KJO. We were Kangana PR till she stopped paying us. Now we need Kangana to call us "Ultimate Bollywood mafia, flagbearer of Gossip" and my purpose on earth is achieved.
Lastly, EVERY fandom has bad eggs. The issues I have shared, involves almost every fandom, I was surprised at one star having even a fan, forget obsessive fan, who sent us threat.
In short, keep your Gossip account separate from account that you participate in Self help Subs/ Subs that indicate your location and personal information. You never know, who'll use this information to harm you in future.
If you are worried, send us Modmail or DM u/BBNG-Helpdesk. If you see any suspicious comment, send link to Mods. We get 100s of Reports and finer details are missed by Mods. ALWAYS send DM to Mods on security issues.
Stay safe and keep gossiping.
2023.03.22 15:38 Available-Cap-6037 45 [M4F] Massage and cuddles
Located in Frisco. I have a massage table, but I am not a professional. I'm looking for someone who would like to relax and be the center of attention for a bit. I've got some whiskey, wine, and Netflix to start the evening. Then I can throw in a nice relaxing massage. We can finish up with some cuddles.
Just looking for some light, relaxing fun. Reach out and let's make it happen!
submitted by Available-Cap-6037 to r4rDFW [link] [comments]
Just looking for some light, relaxing fun. Reach out and let's make it happen!
2023.03.22 15:38 spirityun 230322 Hueningkai with W KOREA (Vol. 4 / April 2023 Issue) Interview translations by liebesalm on twitter
link to interview article
submitted by spirityun to TomorrowByTogether [link] [comments]
q. freshly debuted in 2019, you did a photoshoot withmagazine. you were 18 at that time, right? you answered “i can’t sleep without plushies” for a question.
🐧 i’m not like that now (laughs). after that moment, i receive an overwhelming amount of dolls as gifts, but lately i think, “isn’t it time to say goodbye…?” (to the dolls)
q. do you remember when you answered “i’m a mass/lump of charm” when asked to?
🐧 wow, i said that. oh well. i am, a lump of charm (laughs)
q. haha. we’ll give you another chance to answer that question. (yourself in one word)
🐧 “a person you can trust”, “a person you’d give your trust to”. 📷 to be honest, (to become) these are my goal. i’m the youngest in our team, but i want to be someone who they can trust.
q. in the interview at that time (2019), you said your goal was ROTY. it’s been 4 years since then and this january you released a mini albumwhich achieved a career high with initial sales of 2.18M copies.
🐧 actually, i still can’t believe this is real. this was an album i worried about the most. this was the first time i didn’t feel sure (of the album). the title track ‘sugar rush ride’ tells the story of a boy who fell into a deadly temptation. when i first heard from the company that the song will have a “refreshing-sexy” mood, i really liked it. because i really liked a refreshing concept. but then after hearing the song, the refreshing, fresh concept was only 5% and the sexy concept takes up 95%. (laughs) and the stage costumes were also really on the bolder side, i was worried if the fans wouldn’t like it. but as expected, my feelings were wrong. i learnt something from this promotions, that you shouldn’t trust my feelings. (laughs)
q. personally, when i saw you expertly devouring the stage, i thought, “this must have been a concept he’s wanted to do for a long time.”
🐧that’s because even if i had my own worries, i have to perform on stage professionally. i had to do my best (for every performance). we just recently spent our 4th year anniversary, and now it feels like any form of sloppiness (on stage) is gone. if we find something that’s lacking or needs fixing while monitoring our first stage, we’ll surely have it fixed by the time we do our second stage. be it expressions or gestures. to be honest, i couldn’t really see what i’ve been lacking in until recently. for our debut song, i only remember smiling a lot on stage while performing. thinking about it now, it would’ve been nicer if i performed it a bit more seriously on the first half of the song then progressively smiled for the second half of the song, following the story of the song. if i perform that song now, i’m sure there will be a difference.
q. you use a lot of facial expressions on stage. i get the feeling that you must understand the song to a certain extent to be able to express the mood well. how do you approach that when you first got the song?
🐧 i think it’s because my mbti is istp, which has a lot of interest in causality and objectivity principles. i’m also the type to do a thorough research on the internet when i prepare things alone and feel stuck. in the case of ‘sugar rush ride’, the big story of it is about how growth becoming an adult is being promised/vowed, but with temptation right in front of their eyes, they keep on wanting to be a young child. it’s like the children’s tale’s narrative. that is why before this promotion period starts, i looked through and other various cruel fairytales. reading cruel fairytales helped me approach the concept in a new light because it is different from the childhood tales i used to know.
q. is there anything that made you go “ah i can also get inspiration from this!”?
🐧 the expression of when a puma preys on a sloth? (laughs) last year during GBGB promotions i watched a lot of documentaries about pumas. i worried a lot about what expressions i should make on stage as it (GBGB) was a song full of the anger of someone who was hurt by their first love, of loss as well. my dorm roommate taehyun told me to go watch puma documentaries so i got curious and watched it and i think i can say it became quite of help. (laughs)
q. you did stages with a strong rock mood for, the title following the first three parts of which took a fresh approach with a lot of synth pop genre songs with ikily and loser=lover being the representative. as a musician, when/which promotion period made you most satisfied?
🐧 my favorite song is ‘0x1=lovesong’, track ofreleased in 2021; i listened to it in the car on our way to today’s photoshoot location. it’s an energetic song based on pop rock, but i’ve always loved rock music and band sound ever since i was little. i could say this era was my turning point as my understanding of the song was high. your skills improve much more when you do things that you like rather than when you’re forced to do it. so at that time i got excited and i tried a lot of different gestures and vocal tones.
q. you formed a band club back in middle school, right?
🐧 right. there was a pop song festival at school and for some reason i wanted to participate and perform in a band. but there was no band club at school. so one day i went to the teacher’s office. i sang in front of my english teacher and asked them to open a band club. the band members went around different classes and gathered students who knew how to play the instruments. friends at that time all liked ‘fifa online 3’ so we performed that game’s BGM
q. music must’ve been something natural for you since you were young, right? we heard that your father used to be active as a musician.
🐧 that’s right. but it’s not only my father, my family members from generation to generation have always loved music, as so i’ve heard. naturally i grew up learning the piano, drum, and guitar. the sight of singing songs in my father’s home when i was younger was also nothing unusual. sometimes when my father performs on stage, us three siblings would go in front of him and dance. maybe it’s because i’ve been up on stage since i was small, but now i don’t get as nervous when i’m on it. i get excited, yes, but i don’t get nervous.
q. your little huening bahiyyih is also active in the group kep1er, right? being in the same area of work field, you two must’ve share some worries to each other?
🐧 that’s right. especially building up to your little sister huening bahiyyih’s debut. she came to me to ask questions like, “i don’t know which facial expressions i should do on stage,” or “it’s hard finding the camera.” at that moment, as an older brother and a senior, i helped her and gave her the advice she needed.
q. then you two (huening kai and hiyyih) must often meet at music shows.
🐧 we do often run into each other. and sometimes we film tiktok challenges together too. at times, hiyyih comes looking for me at the green room and starts nagging at me. “oppa, you should really give mom a call.” (laughs)
q. the song you produced yourself in 2021, “dear sputnik”, made it into the album as a b-side. what kind of song is it?
🐧 it’s a little amateur, but since a while back i’ve been trying to produce songs on my iphone in an app called garage band. since i liked band music, i tried to work on songs that has that kind of mood and it (dear sputnik) turned out pretty good. i made a sketch of the song and sent it over to the company and luckily it became a b-side in the album. i actually made the song with the thought of “wanting to show/give the people a proper feeling of their hearts beating fast (as they listen to dear sputnik)” and with concerts kept in mind.
q. what do you think is an important element in song making?
🐧 songs that are able to be enjoyed by many, songs that are able to bring happiness to people, songs that are able to move people’s hearts. these three are most important to me.
q. then is there a song that moved your heart as a listener?
🐧 demi lovato’s ‘this is me’. it’s the soundtrack of the movie. it’s the song that played during the climax of the movie, when the shy heroine performed in front of a large audience, showing their true self. there’s this lyric, “this is me”, “no more hiding who i want to be”. the lyrics spoke to me and stuck in my heart as if it was my own story. and because i have always been a very shy person ever since i was small, i have decided after listening to that song, that “i will show myself” (this is me).
q. when we get the chance to see huening kai’s solo album/mixtape in the future, how do you want it to look like?
🐧 there was a time where i imagined myself in comfortable clothes singing a folk song while having a guitar on one hand. and while doing so, i’d like to deliver the messages i’ve always wanted to say to a lot of people. i’ll probably sing a song that brings hope. because i find joy in seeing everyone happy.
q. starting from the end of march, you will go on a world tour around 13 cities, right? what does a world tour mean to a musician?
🐧 this is our second world tour following our first one that started last july. i’m sure it’s the same for all musicians but a world tour is something i’ve dreamed of and hoped to come true ever since i was a trainee. i still think our lollapalooza festival stage was one of the best moments from our tour in 2022. i was even able to perform with a band session that i’ve really wanted. the five members holding their hand mics, standing on stage, and at the same time the sun was beginning to set— wow… it was really an amazing moment. that moment i looked at the other members’ faces and we were all smiling. since we were all so happy. when i think of that moment now, i still feel amazed and overwhelmed.
q. will we see such a performance again in this tour?
🐧 of course. i can also say you can guarantee looking forward to it. we are currently preparing for our tour and everything including the stage production is going to be amazing. there’s probably going to be a song that you will see performed for the first time when you enter the audience seat and there’s probably a song that’ll make you think, “there’s a choreography for this song?!”
q. what are three things that you must bring with during tour?
🐧 headset and earphones are a must. i have a strong tendency to stay indoors so during tours i mostly spend my time at the hotel. it’s like a rule to stay and rest in my room even if i go out for a little bit. because i can always look outside and observe from my windows (laughs). headsets are a must because i always need to listen to music in my hotel room. and also cleansing products (skincare). if i were to give one tmi, i originally use cleansing foams but recently i switched to using cleansing oils (laughs). it’s really good. and lastly… nintendo switch?
q. up until now you’ve released, , and . if you were to name a chapter of your own based on the life of 22 year old huening kai, what would it be?
🐧 the beginning chapter. though we’ve reached our present carrier high with the release ofin january, i honestly think starting from this moment, this is the real start. i have this certain determination. “we will strive and go up higher, we will show our everything, this is the beginning of tomorrow x together.”
q. what is your life motto? (a word you believe in)
🐧 i spend my days with a smile and positivity with the thought, “let’s not be unhappy people.” that’s why my way of talking became like “oh, that’s good, though?” i believe that after that word exits my mouth, even if it takes some time, the result (of what i did) will always come back to me as something good.
2023.03.22 15:32 Jackviator The Spacer’s Guide to Caring For Your Pet Human (Part 2)
Greetings! If you missed part one, it can be found here.
This chapter is a bit of a long one, but very worth it if you want to understand what’s happening later on; it sets the stage, does a bit of worldbuilding, and expands on our absolute cinnamon roll of an alien deuteragonist.
Anyway, as always, I hope you enjoy. :)
——
Y’ggdrasog nervously whistled to himself as he remotely piloted an unmanned stealth drone from his cloaked ship in the upper atmosphere of the alien planet, yet every so often did a happy little wiggle in his seat at the terminal. Despite the danger in what he was doing, he was shaking with excitement and literally glowing with glee (which, if you were curious, happened to be a lovely shade of banana-yellow).
But my apologies, dear reader; I’m getting ahead of myself.
You see, Y’ggdrasog worked as a galactic interplanetary system scout, colloquially known as a “spacer” among the citizens of the Ul’dril Galactic Collective (a governmental alliance between a wide variety of different sapient species that also happened to be his employer). His main function was piloting his personal scout ship to uncharted star systems to summarily un-unchart them.
While in this line of employment, he had been witness to countless wondrous things. He had seen stars go supernova, witnessed space dust forming beautiful nebulas tens of lightyears wide, and caught the frosted trails of comets slinging close enough to a star to off-gas their icy payloads. But nothing even came close to this, to every spacer’s wildest, most fantastical dream discovery:
LIFE! And not just any life, SAPIENT LIFE!
As the drone flew through the sky, descending towards the surface of the planet below, he reminisced on that fateful day approximately six planetary months ago…
He had been scouting the ice and gas giants in this yet-uncharted solar system, scanning their composition with the unmanned probe-drone he used to sample geological deposits, take gas samples and so on to determine if they could be possible new sources of rare elements to harvest for the Collective. He had just finished probing the seventh planet out from the star when he suddenly picked up multiple abnormal readings originating from the ocean-planet of the system. He sighed, figuring it would just be the usual; some leftovers from a solar flare that affected its magnetosphere or some such.
As he listened in through his radiation wavelength analyzer, he expected to hear the meaningless, purposeless static he had heard hundreds of times before. Instead, he heard strange patterns. Hang on, was that… were those- They were! Voices, in a language he didn’t recognize.
He recorded a sample, then pulled up his auto-translator and had his ship’s analytical programs study it, in case it was a distress call from some poor sap who had crash-landed their spacecraft. …But not a single known language was a match.
He scratched his head, puzzled. Could it be a code of some sort? It wasn’t uncommon for smugglers, pirates, spies, and other “off-the-books” types to hole up on uncharted worlds and use coded verbage to prevent detection by Collective authorities. He had the ship analyze it to at least determine what Collective species the vocal cords that produced them were, but again, no matches, not even when he had it scan the audio samples for possible voice-altering.
He sat back in his pilot seat, stumped. Then, he started connecting the dots.
If the vocal cords producing these noises weren’t recognized as a species already included in the Collective, that meant these were the voices of a species unknown to the Collective. An unknown species, but one that was was nonetheless smart enough to use radio waves…
His eyes flew open, and his bioluminescence began to glow the pure white of sudden realization.
…BY THE SPIRITS, IT WAS A NEW SAPIENT SPECIES!
He leapt up from his chair, and would have nearly deafened anyone nearby with the joyfully excited noises he started to make.
…Luckily, however, he was in space. And after all, in space, no one can hear you squee.
It took him nearly an hour to calm down enough to call it in over his quantum communicator and provide the audio samples he had recorded, then another hour to reassure his liaison on the other end countless times that no, this was not a joke, this was not a lie, an elaborate prank or some such- yes, he would be more than willing to testify to the truth of his statements in a Collective court, and yes, this was in fact the once-in-multiple-millennia moment he and most every spacer in the entirety of the Collective always dreamed of:
THIS WAS A NEW FIRST CONTACT!!!
…As Y’ggdrasog left Memory Lane and turned back onto Present Day Boulevard, he let the controls go for a second and proceeded to spin around in his chair in sheer excitement whilst giggling like a madman, literally glowing with giddiness, before swiftly grabbing the control stick again before the drone drifted off course.
HE found a new sapient species! HE did! He’d be in the Collective history archives for the rest of time!
…Months of preparations had to be done beforehand, of course. He had to wait a few long, loooong days on the outskirts of the solar system with his ship in full stealth-mode (so as to avoid attracting attention from the new species until the time was right) before a truly staggering amount of Collective ships arrived, chock-full of top experts in all sorts of social and scientific fields to fill any conceivable role in the analysis of this new species.
While he wasn’t allowed to participate in the work himself or see most of what they were doing, he was nonetheless ecstatic with the knowledge that the work was being done all because of him. Plus, at least he could attend certain intelligence briefings on their main findings as well as look at heavily-redacted versions of some of the results of their endeavors.
Various scientists from the myriad Collective species and dozens more scientific disciplines had gathered together, set up shop within a day and gotten to work. They performed long-distance surface scans, mapped the planetary geography, and analyzed their atmosphere and planetary conditions to determine what Collective species might be compatible for potentially cohabitating with them.
Y’ggdrasog was delighted to learn that they utilized oxygen for respiration just as his species (lumigog) and tens of others in the Collective did, in contrast to Collective species who had to have, say, an atmosphere mostly composed of carbon dioxide, who were out of luck.
Additionally, they drank the same liquid water for fluid regulation in their bodies as his own people did. …Though admittedly, at a much narrower spectrum of salinity than his own species was capable of tolerating. He found that a bit tragic; there was so much water to be found in their homeworld’s oceans. Yet unlike his own people, who could drink from nearly any water on their homeworld, these “humans” could only drink what they called “freshwater.”
However, any sadness he felt about their situation faded when he learned that the gravity of their homeworld was only 1.04x that of his own species’ homeworld; this meant that at least in the case of lumigogs, the answer of cohabitation was a very solid “yes!”
Moving along, the scientists in charge of engineering and military endeavors surreptitiously analyzed the humans’ levels of technology to determine their capabilities, if they were a potential threat to the Collective, and so on; they were deemed, to quote the spokesman of the Collective military, “mostly harmless.”
Y’ggdrasog thought this might be a bit unfair. …That is, until he read the reports, and found yet another reason to pity them. From what little he was able to read of the heavily-redacted documents, the humans were very, VERY primitive. Spirits, they hadn’t even developed fusion yet!
…Still, that was all the more reason to help them; and to do so, they needed a proper line of communication. Countless diplomats, ambassadors, emissaries and representatives of every Collective race were attending seminars on all the sociological experts were learning about the species’ social norms across distinct cultures. And most importantly, the linguistic experts and etymologists got the ball rolling for the true-AI algorithms of the larger vessels (far more complex than his own ship’s operating systems, which only measured in at a few paltry yottabytes) to sort out the languages these “humans” used.
…Speaking of, just how many languages did they need?! With each additional language that was added to the auto-translator databases, he thought surely this one will be the last, but no! You couldn’t swing around a “noodle” of “spaghetti” (the humans always seemed to choose such silly names for their food) without hitting someone speaking a new language!
But all the pity, sadness and frustration he felt was outweighed by the jubilation he felt knowing that all these countless man-hours of hundreds of individuals per each and every Collective species were happening because of him. All these people were here because HE found them, and he was ecstatic at the impossibly exciting prospect of welcoming this new species into the Collective- or on the off chance they didn’t wish to join them, it was determined that it was safe to at least uplift them technologically so that they could be potential new allies, as well as potentially provide new avenues for trade and commerce of never-before-seen exotic goods. After all, there was hardly any risk in doing so, as they were quite literally outnumbered by over a million to one by the allied races of the Collective.
…And after all that, when they had quadruple-checked everything, then quadruple-checked it again to be absolutely sure, the day of first contact FINALLY came. Everyone brought out the celebratory drinks, snacks and party favors. The diplomats sent out their messages in hundreds of human languages declaring a desire for peaceful contact, promises to assist them in the technological uplifting of their species to a post-scarcity way of life and an offer to join the Collective for the benefit of all parties involved, and THEN…
…
……
…Nothing.
No response…
After a few nervous, awkward hours of sitting alongside the other low-ranking crewmates of the larger vessels, he and all those around him got orders of radio silence from high command and for all the “non-essential” personnel to return to their ships and wait for further orders.
As he remembered the sinking feeling he’d experienced at that moment, Y’ggdrasog unconsciously gripped the drone control stick much tighter than necessary.
…All that waiting, the agonizing waiting for them to greet this new species, the one HE found, and for what?
More. Thrice. Damned. WAITING.
…But this time, there wasn’t even a payoff to look forward to, and no one above would tell him what was going on. He didn’t know why there was suddenly so much smoke in the air of the planet, nor what all those bright flashes lighting up the atmosphere midway through the first day were- and there were certainly no answers coming from high command.
He had to sit there in his spacecraft, and just… wait.
One planetary day passed. Then another. Then another, and so on.
In the downtime, he read and reread the guidelines for first contact back to back over and over again, trying to find out what the possible reason for the wait could be. …Unfortunately, all that availed him was eye strain and an extreme amount of boredom from trudging through all the legalese.
After a week of sitting around, watching the planet slowly spin beneath him while in orbit, he couldn’t stand it any longer. He needed to know what was wrong. He NEEDED to act- if only to silence the creeping dread that had slowly but surely permeated his entire being. A dread born of the worry that something had gone horribly, catastrophically wrong…
And thus, an idea formed: His drone.
He knew the humans’ tech levels; there was a smaller chance they could detect him than the literally astronomically low odds of him finding this species to begin with. …Instead, he was far more worried about the potential ramifications if anyone from high command knew what he was up to.
Long before the radio silence commenced, he was told in no uncertain terms that no, he couldn’t scan the planet, no, he couldn’t act as an ambassador, YES, they really meant it, and NO, it didn’t matter that “he really really REALLY wanted to help somehow, please please pleasepleasePLEASE-” …and after that last bit, they shut down his outgoing comms to high command for a full planetary month.
…Jerks.
Er- more importantly, he was told that while no, he couldn’t help in the preparation process, after first contact commenced his main function would be to do what he did best. Scouting and scanning to tease out any additional information he could on the planet’s natural resources in order to assist with the technological uplift process.
The thing is, they had given no specific time frame- …just “after first contact commenced.”
Technically, the current time frame satisfied that condition.
So technically, he wasn’t doing anything he wasn’t supposed to, he was just- …uh… …t-taking initiative!
They couldn’t court-martial him for just doing a little scanning here and there to get ahead of his own workload, surely.
…And it would just be an entirely coincidental, happy accident if while doing this he managed to find out what in the name of the spirits above was happening.
And so he had slowly, carefully moved his ship in such a way that he was currently orbiting in what he hoped was the blind spot of most of the ships of any higher-ups.
…Purely so as to, uh- better position his drone’s entry point into the atmosphere, yes! Rest assured, he was only motivated by- um… a-avoiding negative weather patterns. …Or something like that.
Once in position, he released and directed it towards the planetary surface.
If lumigogs had sweat glands, his would have been in nervous overdrive as the drone descended through the atmosphere.
Would he be detected? Would this all be for naught?
He waited, glancing between the ships around him and the drone’s interface on his monitor, but from his readings on the other vessels it seemed like all the command ships’ sensors were focused on the bigger population centers of the planet. He let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He was safe- if only for now.
…He’d have to focus on a rural area. Despite every loophole and excuse he could come up with, he’d still be much better off remaining undetected and not interfering in whatever might be going on in more concentrated pockets of the species. It would likely take much longer to gather information this way than heading towards the larger population centers in search of clues, but he could still poke around on the sly for any information he could tease out from the surroundings.
…And hopefully then he could finally get the answers he so desperately craved.
<“Alter descent velocity. Slow to 50% speed and activate autopilot mode.”>
Y’ggdrasog looked at the aerial scans, deciding that what seemed to be an area focused on harvesting crops with a long road running alongside it dotted with the occasional primitive ground vehicle would be as good a place to start as any.
He highlighted the road with a flick of a clawed finger.
<”Descend to 100 meters above planet surface, then follow highlighted path at 20% speed. Proceed.”>
As the drone dutifully obeyed his commands and traveled along the stretch of paved road for a time, he was surprised at the lack of humans to be found despite the vehicles present. Each and every one had seemingly been abandoned; they all sat still, unmoving. His curiosity piqued, he highlighted a few of them in the control interface.
<“Halt forward momentum. Descend to 50 meters from planetary surface. Scan and analyze condition of marked targets.”>
As he finished his verbal command, the familiar synthesized voice of his drone’s onboard computer blared to life from the speakers of his terminal.
He shook his head, puzzled.
<“What happened here…? …Alright, ascend, 300 meters from planetary surface. Continue forward movement following the highlighted path, 15% speed.”>
Farther and farther the road stretched, but he didn’t see a single human upon it, nor in the surrounding area. He sighed and absent-mindedly gazed around at the surrounding environment. He couldn’t help but marvel at how- well, alien it all looked. The taller plant life he saw appeared to be quite complex, their stems covered in thick fiber and their extremities full of- oh, what was the word, “leaves?
…He hadn’t paid all that much attention during the portions of his schooling that covered exotic alien plant life found on feral worlds and the various homeworlds of the other races of the Collective. He figured he’d never really need to interact with much beyond the giant fungal pods, great lichen growths and so on of his homeworld. He was a spacer for spirits’ sake, not a xenobotanist, and-
…Wait, what was that?
<“Halt forward momentum. Reverse 50 meters. Pan visual sensors left, 30 degrees.”>
He squinted at the incoming visual feed. He was right, there was something laying in that ditch! Probably just a random piece of detritus, but better safe than sorry. He highlighted it.
<”Scan target. Assess.”>
<”...Descend toward target, 5% speed.. 2%... halt.”>
His eyes narrowed further as he zoomed the forward visual lens in. Whatever it was, it looked to be a biped, and-
…Wait a minute, he recognized that body structure! Spirits be praised, this had to be one of the members of the new species!
It- they, he corrected himself- had pale skin, long, dark brown fur atop their head, and were wearing clothing covering their torso and legs- though much of it was stained red, running all down the left side of their body.
What were they doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? And why were they laying in a ditch, unmoving? …Were they ok?
<”Scan target, and establish connection to ship auto-doc subsystem. Assess physical condition and cross-reference with known anatomical data of species designation: human.”>
Y’ggdrasog nervously swallowed, trying to center himself and focus despite what he had just heard. Well, that certainly answered that; no, she very much was NOT ok. Whatever had happened to her, it really messed her up.
<”Analyze if damage sustained is life-threatening without intervention given circumstances and location.”>
He swore under his breath.
<”...Expand and clarify analysis.”>
<”C-certainty of analysis conclusion…?”>
He put his head in his hands, his bioluminescence flickering between several colors- none of them good. Spirits above... She was going to die unless someone helped her!
…
…But he was in no position to do so…
He knew deep down that he was deluding himself if he thought he could get away with this if he was caught. No amount of loophole abuse and“legitimate” excuses could save him from severe negative repercussions, not when it came to something as serious as first contact.
He was already risking enough as it was…
Maybe he could let someone in one of the other ships know- no, that would give away that he’d been poking around on the sly…
Maybe- maybe someone else would find her in time, and they could save her? Or maybe, despite the odds, she might just get better on her own? Even if it took her past the 1.3 cycle mark to do so, there was still a- his brow furrowed as he did the math- 0.0000028% chance that she could survive, and a chance was a chance! …Right…?
No one would know if he didn’t intervene. It would be so easy- no chance of getting caught, no risk, no danger, just pull the drone-prone back to the ship, return to his original position, scrub the flight logs, and-
…
……
…No.
No, she’s not.
He opened his eyes and spoke, voice full of grim certainty.
<”Descend to two meters above highlighted subject. Very, VERY carefully use stasis field to attach to subject, entangle her matter with an equivalent mass of carbon from the fabricator hold, then return to quantum anchor point with cargo and safely lower the subject prone beside the drone chassis. Proceed.”>
He got up from the terminal and took off for the drone bay as fast as his taloned feet could carry him, one thought repeating itself over and over in his head as he went, a mantra of sorts:
submitted by Jackviator to humansarespaceorcs [link] [comments]
This chapter is a bit of a long one, but very worth it if you want to understand what’s happening later on; it sets the stage, does a bit of worldbuilding, and expands on our absolute cinnamon roll of an alien deuteragonist.
Anyway, as always, I hope you enjoy. :)
CHAPTER 2
15 minutes ago——
Y’ggdrasog nervously whistled to himself as he remotely piloted an unmanned stealth drone from his cloaked ship in the upper atmosphere of the alien planet, yet every so often did a happy little wiggle in his seat at the terminal. Despite the danger in what he was doing, he was shaking with excitement and literally glowing with glee (which, if you were curious, happened to be a lovely shade of banana-yellow).
But my apologies, dear reader; I’m getting ahead of myself.
You see, Y’ggdrasog worked as a galactic interplanetary system scout, colloquially known as a “spacer” among the citizens of the Ul’dril Galactic Collective (a governmental alliance between a wide variety of different sapient species that also happened to be his employer). His main function was piloting his personal scout ship to uncharted star systems to summarily un-unchart them.
While in this line of employment, he had been witness to countless wondrous things. He had seen stars go supernova, witnessed space dust forming beautiful nebulas tens of lightyears wide, and caught the frosted trails of comets slinging close enough to a star to off-gas their icy payloads. But nothing even came close to this, to every spacer’s wildest, most fantastical dream discovery:
LIFE! And not just any life, SAPIENT LIFE!
As the drone flew through the sky, descending towards the surface of the planet below, he reminisced on that fateful day approximately six planetary months ago…
He had been scouting the ice and gas giants in this yet-uncharted solar system, scanning their composition with the unmanned probe-drone he used to sample geological deposits, take gas samples and so on to determine if they could be possible new sources of rare elements to harvest for the Collective. He had just finished probing the seventh planet out from the star when he suddenly picked up multiple abnormal readings originating from the ocean-planet of the system. He sighed, figuring it would just be the usual; some leftovers from a solar flare that affected its magnetosphere or some such.
As he listened in through his radiation wavelength analyzer, he expected to hear the meaningless, purposeless static he had heard hundreds of times before. Instead, he heard strange patterns. Hang on, was that… were those- They were! Voices, in a language he didn’t recognize.
He recorded a sample, then pulled up his auto-translator and had his ship’s analytical programs study it, in case it was a distress call from some poor sap who had crash-landed their spacecraft. …But not a single known language was a match.
He scratched his head, puzzled. Could it be a code of some sort? It wasn’t uncommon for smugglers, pirates, spies, and other “off-the-books” types to hole up on uncharted worlds and use coded verbage to prevent detection by Collective authorities. He had the ship analyze it to at least determine what Collective species the vocal cords that produced them were, but again, no matches, not even when he had it scan the audio samples for possible voice-altering.
He sat back in his pilot seat, stumped. Then, he started connecting the dots.
If the vocal cords producing these noises weren’t recognized as a species already included in the Collective, that meant these were the voices of a species unknown to the Collective. An unknown species, but one that was was nonetheless smart enough to use radio waves…
His eyes flew open, and his bioluminescence began to glow the pure white of sudden realization.
…BY THE SPIRITS, IT WAS A NEW SAPIENT SPECIES!
He leapt up from his chair, and would have nearly deafened anyone nearby with the joyfully excited noises he started to make.
…Luckily, however, he was in space. And after all, in space, no one can hear you squee.
It took him nearly an hour to calm down enough to call it in over his quantum communicator and provide the audio samples he had recorded, then another hour to reassure his liaison on the other end countless times that no, this was not a joke, this was not a lie, an elaborate prank or some such- yes, he would be more than willing to testify to the truth of his statements in a Collective court, and yes, this was in fact the once-in-multiple-millennia moment he and most every spacer in the entirety of the Collective always dreamed of:
THIS WAS A NEW FIRST CONTACT!!!
…As Y’ggdrasog left Memory Lane and turned back onto Present Day Boulevard, he let the controls go for a second and proceeded to spin around in his chair in sheer excitement whilst giggling like a madman, literally glowing with giddiness, before swiftly grabbing the control stick again before the drone drifted off course.
HE found a new sapient species! HE did! He’d be in the Collective history archives for the rest of time!
…Months of preparations had to be done beforehand, of course. He had to wait a few long, loooong days on the outskirts of the solar system with his ship in full stealth-mode (so as to avoid attracting attention from the new species until the time was right) before a truly staggering amount of Collective ships arrived, chock-full of top experts in all sorts of social and scientific fields to fill any conceivable role in the analysis of this new species.
While he wasn’t allowed to participate in the work himself or see most of what they were doing, he was nonetheless ecstatic with the knowledge that the work was being done all because of him. Plus, at least he could attend certain intelligence briefings on their main findings as well as look at heavily-redacted versions of some of the results of their endeavors.
Various scientists from the myriad Collective species and dozens more scientific disciplines had gathered together, set up shop within a day and gotten to work. They performed long-distance surface scans, mapped the planetary geography, and analyzed their atmosphere and planetary conditions to determine what Collective species might be compatible for potentially cohabitating with them.
Y’ggdrasog was delighted to learn that they utilized oxygen for respiration just as his species (lumigog) and tens of others in the Collective did, in contrast to Collective species who had to have, say, an atmosphere mostly composed of carbon dioxide, who were out of luck.
Additionally, they drank the same liquid water for fluid regulation in their bodies as his own people did. …Though admittedly, at a much narrower spectrum of salinity than his own species was capable of tolerating. He found that a bit tragic; there was so much water to be found in their homeworld’s oceans. Yet unlike his own people, who could drink from nearly any water on their homeworld, these “humans” could only drink what they called “freshwater.”
However, any sadness he felt about their situation faded when he learned that the gravity of their homeworld was only 1.04x that of his own species’ homeworld; this meant that at least in the case of lumigogs, the answer of cohabitation was a very solid “yes!”
Moving along, the scientists in charge of engineering and military endeavors surreptitiously analyzed the humans’ levels of technology to determine their capabilities, if they were a potential threat to the Collective, and so on; they were deemed, to quote the spokesman of the Collective military, “mostly harmless.”
Y’ggdrasog thought this might be a bit unfair. …That is, until he read the reports, and found yet another reason to pity them. From what little he was able to read of the heavily-redacted documents, the humans were very, VERY primitive. Spirits, they hadn’t even developed fusion yet!
…Still, that was all the more reason to help them; and to do so, they needed a proper line of communication. Countless diplomats, ambassadors, emissaries and representatives of every Collective race were attending seminars on all the sociological experts were learning about the species’ social norms across distinct cultures. And most importantly, the linguistic experts and etymologists got the ball rolling for the true-AI algorithms of the larger vessels (far more complex than his own ship’s operating systems, which only measured in at a few paltry yottabytes) to sort out the languages these “humans” used.
…Speaking of, just how many languages did they need?! With each additional language that was added to the auto-translator databases, he thought surely this one will be the last, but no! You couldn’t swing around a “noodle” of “spaghetti” (the humans always seemed to choose such silly names for their food) without hitting someone speaking a new language!
But all the pity, sadness and frustration he felt was outweighed by the jubilation he felt knowing that all these countless man-hours of hundreds of individuals per each and every Collective species were happening because of him. All these people were here because HE found them, and he was ecstatic at the impossibly exciting prospect of welcoming this new species into the Collective- or on the off chance they didn’t wish to join them, it was determined that it was safe to at least uplift them technologically so that they could be potential new allies, as well as potentially provide new avenues for trade and commerce of never-before-seen exotic goods. After all, there was hardly any risk in doing so, as they were quite literally outnumbered by over a million to one by the allied races of the Collective.
…And after all that, when they had quadruple-checked everything, then quadruple-checked it again to be absolutely sure, the day of first contact FINALLY came. Everyone brought out the celebratory drinks, snacks and party favors. The diplomats sent out their messages in hundreds of human languages declaring a desire for peaceful contact, promises to assist them in the technological uplifting of their species to a post-scarcity way of life and an offer to join the Collective for the benefit of all parties involved, and THEN…
…
……
…Nothing.
No response…
After a few nervous, awkward hours of sitting alongside the other low-ranking crewmates of the larger vessels, he and all those around him got orders of radio silence from high command and for all the “non-essential” personnel to return to their ships and wait for further orders.
As he remembered the sinking feeling he’d experienced at that moment, Y’ggdrasog unconsciously gripped the drone control stick much tighter than necessary.
…All that waiting, the agonizing waiting for them to greet this new species, the one HE found, and for what?
More. Thrice. Damned. WAITING.
…But this time, there wasn’t even a payoff to look forward to, and no one above would tell him what was going on. He didn’t know why there was suddenly so much smoke in the air of the planet, nor what all those bright flashes lighting up the atmosphere midway through the first day were- and there were certainly no answers coming from high command.
He had to sit there in his spacecraft, and just… wait.
One planetary day passed. Then another. Then another, and so on.
In the downtime, he read and reread the guidelines for first contact back to back over and over again, trying to find out what the possible reason for the wait could be. …Unfortunately, all that availed him was eye strain and an extreme amount of boredom from trudging through all the legalese.
After a week of sitting around, watching the planet slowly spin beneath him while in orbit, he couldn’t stand it any longer. He needed to know what was wrong. He NEEDED to act- if only to silence the creeping dread that had slowly but surely permeated his entire being. A dread born of the worry that something had gone horribly, catastrophically wrong…
And thus, an idea formed: His drone.
He knew the humans’ tech levels; there was a smaller chance they could detect him than the literally astronomically low odds of him finding this species to begin with. …Instead, he was far more worried about the potential ramifications if anyone from high command knew what he was up to.
Long before the radio silence commenced, he was told in no uncertain terms that no, he couldn’t scan the planet, no, he couldn’t act as an ambassador, YES, they really meant it, and NO, it didn’t matter that “he really really REALLY wanted to help somehow, please please pleasepleasePLEASE-” …and after that last bit, they shut down his outgoing comms to high command for a full planetary month.
…Jerks.
Er- more importantly, he was told that while no, he couldn’t help in the preparation process, after first contact commenced his main function would be to do what he did best. Scouting and scanning to tease out any additional information he could on the planet’s natural resources in order to assist with the technological uplift process.
The thing is, they had given no specific time frame- …just “after first contact commenced.”
Technically, the current time frame satisfied that condition.
So technically, he wasn’t doing anything he wasn’t supposed to, he was just- …uh… …t-taking initiative!
They couldn’t court-martial him for just doing a little scanning here and there to get ahead of his own workload, surely.
…And it would just be an entirely coincidental, happy accident if while doing this he managed to find out what in the name of the spirits above was happening.
And so he had slowly, carefully moved his ship in such a way that he was currently orbiting in what he hoped was the blind spot of most of the ships of any higher-ups.
…Purely so as to, uh- better position his drone’s entry point into the atmosphere, yes! Rest assured, he was only motivated by- um… a-avoiding negative weather patterns. …Or something like that.
Once in position, he released and directed it towards the planetary surface.
If lumigogs had sweat glands, his would have been in nervous overdrive as the drone descended through the atmosphere.
Would he be detected? Would this all be for naught?
He waited, glancing between the ships around him and the drone’s interface on his monitor, but from his readings on the other vessels it seemed like all the command ships’ sensors were focused on the bigger population centers of the planet. He let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He was safe- if only for now.
…He’d have to focus on a rural area. Despite every loophole and excuse he could come up with, he’d still be much better off remaining undetected and not interfering in whatever might be going on in more concentrated pockets of the species. It would likely take much longer to gather information this way than heading towards the larger population centers in search of clues, but he could still poke around on the sly for any information he could tease out from the surroundings.
…And hopefully then he could finally get the answers he so desperately craved.
<“Alter descent velocity. Slow to 50% speed and activate autopilot mode.”>
Y’ggdrasog looked at the aerial scans, deciding that what seemed to be an area focused on harvesting crops with a long road running alongside it dotted with the occasional primitive ground vehicle would be as good a place to start as any.
He highlighted the road with a flick of a clawed finger.
<”Descend to 100 meters above planet surface, then follow highlighted path at 20% speed. Proceed.”>
As the drone dutifully obeyed his commands and traveled along the stretch of paved road for a time, he was surprised at the lack of humans to be found despite the vehicles present. Each and every one had seemingly been abandoned; they all sat still, unmoving. His curiosity piqued, he highlighted a few of them in the control interface.
<“Halt forward momentum. Descend to 50 meters from planetary surface. Scan and analyze condition of marked targets.”>
As he finished his verbal command, the familiar synthesized voice of his drone’s onboard computer blared to life from the speakers of his terminal.
He shook his head, puzzled.
<“What happened here…? …Alright, ascend, 300 meters from planetary surface. Continue forward movement following the highlighted path, 15% speed.”>
Farther and farther the road stretched, but he didn’t see a single human upon it, nor in the surrounding area. He sighed and absent-mindedly gazed around at the surrounding environment. He couldn’t help but marvel at how- well, alien it all looked. The taller plant life he saw appeared to be quite complex, their stems covered in thick fiber and their extremities full of- oh, what was the word, “leaves?
…He hadn’t paid all that much attention during the portions of his schooling that covered exotic alien plant life found on feral worlds and the various homeworlds of the other races of the Collective. He figured he’d never really need to interact with much beyond the giant fungal pods, great lichen growths and so on of his homeworld. He was a spacer for spirits’ sake, not a xenobotanist, and-
…Wait, what was that?
<“Halt forward momentum. Reverse 50 meters. Pan visual sensors left, 30 degrees.”>
He squinted at the incoming visual feed. He was right, there was something laying in that ditch! Probably just a random piece of detritus, but better safe than sorry. He highlighted it.
<”Scan target. Assess.”>
<”...Descend toward target, 5% speed.. 2%... halt.”>
His eyes narrowed further as he zoomed the forward visual lens in. Whatever it was, it looked to be a biped, and-
…Wait a minute, he recognized that body structure! Spirits be praised, this had to be one of the members of the new species!
It- they, he corrected himself- had pale skin, long, dark brown fur atop their head, and were wearing clothing covering their torso and legs- though much of it was stained red, running all down the left side of their body.
What were they doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? And why were they laying in a ditch, unmoving? …Were they ok?
<”Scan target, and establish connection to ship auto-doc subsystem. Assess physical condition and cross-reference with known anatomical data of species designation: human.”>
Y’ggdrasog nervously swallowed, trying to center himself and focus despite what he had just heard. Well, that certainly answered that; no, she very much was NOT ok. Whatever had happened to her, it really messed her up.
<”Analyze if damage sustained is life-threatening without intervention given circumstances and location.”>
He swore under his breath.
<”...Expand and clarify analysis.”>
<”C-certainty of analysis conclusion…?”>
He put his head in his hands, his bioluminescence flickering between several colors- none of them good. Spirits above... She was going to die unless someone helped her!
…
…But he was in no position to do so…
He knew deep down that he was deluding himself if he thought he could get away with this if he was caught. No amount of loophole abuse and“legitimate” excuses could save him from severe negative repercussions, not when it came to something as serious as first contact.
He was already risking enough as it was…
Maybe he could let someone in one of the other ships know- no, that would give away that he’d been poking around on the sly…
Maybe- maybe someone else would find her in time, and they could save her? Or maybe, despite the odds, she might just get better on her own? Even if it took her past the 1.3 cycle mark to do so, there was still a- his brow furrowed as he did the math- 0.0000028% chance that she could survive, and a chance was a chance! …Right…?
No one would know if he didn’t intervene. It would be so easy- no chance of getting caught, no risk, no danger, just pull the drone-prone back to the ship, return to his original position, scrub the flight logs, and-
…
……
…No.
No, she’s not.
He opened his eyes and spoke, voice full of grim certainty.
<”Descend to two meters above highlighted subject. Very, VERY carefully use stasis field to attach to subject, entangle her matter with an equivalent mass of carbon from the fabricator hold, then return to quantum anchor point with cargo and safely lower the subject prone beside the drone chassis. Proceed.”>
He got up from the terminal and took off for the drone bay as fast as his taloned feet could carry him, one thought repeating itself over and over in his head as he went, a mantra of sorts:
2023.03.22 15:26 sassystew Beautiful Downtown Office with Amazing View For Rent - Perfect for Remote Work! $600/mo includes all utilities and High-Speed Business Internet (this is rented by me - an individual, not a company or realtor)
 | (I am re-posting after some helpful advice!) submitted by sassystew to columbusclassifieds [link] [comments] This is a single office in a downtown building for rent by me; an individual, not a company or realtor. :) It has a stunning view, a lovely art deco lobby, is semi-furnished - and is move-in ready. The office is the perfect size for 1-3 people. Ideal for remote working if you need to get out of your place to be more productive and inspired in a lovely space away from home. The office would also be great for a small business owner to run admin, or be their "HQ". The office is located in the heart of downtown in a secure, beautiful art deco building on a higher floor with full privacy. The office is quiet and cozy with amazing light through the 2 large windows. There is also a conference room available for your use directly next door. Parking is the responsibility of the tenant. There is a large lot located about 20 feet from the front door, and street/meter parking is available and what I typically use. It is also on a bus line, and a hub for COGO bicycles and scooters is located out front. A Starbucks and multiple restaurants/bars are on the same block. The Scioto Mile is within walking distance. The office is semi furnished, however you can bring items you may need such as an office chair, monitors, etc. We can also have it emptied if that is your preference. The office has a large shelving unit, a new large desk, one oversized chair, a small couch, large mirror, and desk lighting. A brand new small fridge is also included for use. The office is ideal for an independent remote working person. It is not available for use as a public retail space. The price is $600/mo. A deposit of $600 is required, and the only way I will hold the office for you. The listing is straightforward, includes all utilities and "AT&T Business High Speed" Internet. This place is a total gem, and I’m excited to share it with someone who really loves the vibe! Minimum lease is 6 months, although a possibility for more or less time is potentially workable. If interested, please reach out via DM - serious inquiries only. Thanks! exterior of building, view from office window, art deco lobby. all pics taken by me. desk, sofa, chair, view hallway, elevators, view, new black & decker fridge, gray apoxy floor, art deco lobby. (edit typos) |
2023.03.22 15:23 chastised_peacock Gaming PC. PS4 to PC. New to this. ~1000usd.
Haven't had a PC since 2007. Console player looking to upgrade. Have looked at a couple different builds posted on Reddit so far, but looking to fine tune and get the best build/peripherals possible in my budget.
submitted by chastised_peacock to buildapcforme [link] [comments]
What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.**
- Gaming only. Sons of the Forest, Stellaris (modded), Cyberpunk, Elden Ring, Apex, Overwatch, KSP (although I understand KSP 2 is out of the question).
What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?
- 1000 for PC. Needing all peripherals and would be willing to spend up to 1,400-1,500 for everything.
When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.
- ASAP
What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)
- Everything. Moving from console to PC. Will need tower, OS, monitor, keyboard/mouse, mousepad.
Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?
- U.S. microcenter ~3 hours away and could drive there if savings were worth is.
If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.
- No parts
Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?
- No. New to PC and want to play it safe.
Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)
- Looking for a well rounded PC that can play online and offline with some modded games (see above).
Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?
- Big fan of simple designs. White would look good but more concerned with a tower that has good airflow.
Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?
- Will need OS but would like to find it for as cheap as possible.
Extra info or particulars:I've only ever played on PS4 slim on an old TV from 2012. I'm not looking to jump to 4k, just to have a PC that can run new games like Sons of the Forest, AAA games (even at mid/lower settings) and some online games. I know my PS4 seemed to struggle with Stellaris in late game, and would want a PC that can handle it. 1440 would be amazing if doable, but fine with 1080 with good frame rate.
2023.03.22 15:14 alexsinha Trivandrum Capital City Of Kerala Offers Paragliding On Varkala Beach
 | Exciting Paragliding Experiences Near Varkala BeachParagliding in VarkalaKerala tours offers paragliding in VarkalaVarkala, a serene town located in the southern state of Kerala, India, is known for its beautiful beaches, stunning cliffs, and a relaxed atmosphere. Apart from its natural beauty, Varkala has also emerged as a hub for adventure sports enthusiasts in recent years, and one of the most popular activities among them is paragliding.Paragliding at varkala is a thrilling adventure sport that involves flying in the air using a parachute-like wing. The activity is gaining popularity all over the world, and Varkala has become a hub for paragliding enthusiasts in India. With its scenic landscapes, favorable weather conditions, and professional instructors, Varkala offers a unique paragliding experience that you will cherish for a lifetime. The paragliding activity in Varkala takes place on the cliffs located near the Varkala beach. The location is ideal for paragliding, as it offers breathtaking views of the Arabian Sea, the town, and the surrounding hills. The take-off point is located on the cliff, and the landing point is on the beach, making it a thrilling and memorable experience. Finding the Best time for go paraglidingThe best time to go paragliding in Varkala is from September to March, as the weather is pleasant, and the winds are favorable for flying. During this time, the temperature ranges between 25–30°C, with low humidity, making it perfect weather for flying. The wind speed is usually between 15–25 km/hr, which is ideal for paragliding.Safety is varkala worth visiting of importance when it comes to paragliding, and Varkala has a team of experienced and qualified instructors who ensure that all safety precautions are taken before and during the activity. The instructors are trained to handle emergency situations, and they provide all necessary equipment such as helmets, harnesses, and parachutes. The instructors also conduct a thorough briefing session before the flight, where they explain the basic rules of paragliding, the equipment used, and the safety measures. They also assess the weather conditions and wind speed before taking off, ensuring that the flight is safe and enjoyable. Budgeting for Paragliding in Varkala:- What it IncludesThe cost of paragliding in Varkala varies depending on the season, the duration of the flight, and the number of people. The varkala paragliding price of a 15–20 minute flight is around 3000–4000 INR per person. It may seem a little expensive, but the experience is worth every penny.Paragliding in Varkala is an experience of a lifetime, and it is suitable for all adventure enthusiasts, whether you are a beginner or an experienced paraglider. The flight lasts for around 15–20 minutes, during which you can enjoy panoramic views of the town, the cliffs, and the sea. You can also see the fishermen going about their daily routine, the boats on the sea, and the sunset from a unique perspective. The experience of flying in the air, feeling the wind in your face, and seeing the world from a different perspective is truly exhilarating. It is an activity that will leave you with memories that you will cherish for a lifetime. ConclusionParagliding in Varkala is a thrilling adventure sport that offers a unique perspective of the town, the cliffs, and the sea. With its favorable weather conditions, professional instructors, and breathtaking views, Varkala has become a popular destination for paragliding in Varkala enthusiasts in India. It is an activity that is suitable for all adventure enthusiasts and will leave you with memories that you will cherish for a lifetime. |
2023.03.22 15:09 yrakesh1996 Sand Cloud Blanket: 14 Reasons Why You Need One: The Sensational Sand Cloud Blanket is comfortable and stylish, suitable for picnics, beach days, and lounging.
The Sensational Sand Cloud Blanket is made of soft, durable fabric that is both comfortable and stylish. It is perfect for picnics, beach days, or simply lounging around at home. The blanket is large enough to fit two people, and it comes with a built-in carrying strap for easy transport.There are a number of reasons to own a Sensational Sand Cloud Blanket. First, the blanket is made of high-quality materials that will last for years. Second, the blanket is large enough to fit two people, making it perfect for couples or families. Third, the built-in carrying strap makes it easy to take the blanket with you on the go. Fourth, the blanket is machine-washable, making it easy to care for. Fifth, the blanket is available in a variety of colors and patterns, so you can choose the one that best suits your style.
12. It adds a pop of color and style to any outdoor setting.
The Sand Cloud blanket is a decor essential that elevates the look of any outdoor area. Boasting vibrant hues and a visually pleasing pattern, it provides a burst of color and style that enhances the overall aesthetic of the space. By adding this eye-catching element, the Sand Cloud blanket creates an inviting ambiance that entices one to bask in the beauty of the outdoors.
The blanket offers comfortable cushioning for sitting or lying on various firm surfaces, and it doubles ideally as a yoga mat, workout space, or picnic accessory. With water-resistant properties, it is prefect for damp settings and can also be utilized as camping bedding or outdoor sleeping material. It injects some color and elegance into any outdoor environment, easy to pack and lightweight for journeys. Overall, the Sand Cloud Blanket represents a practical and chic asset that provides ample benefits and
submitted by yrakesh1996 to u/yrakesh1996 [link] [comments]
The Sensational Sand Cloud Blanket is made of soft, durable fabric that is both comfortable and stylish. It is perfect for picnics, beach days, or simply lounging around at home. The blanket is large enough to fit two people, and it comes with a built-in carrying strap for easy transport.There are a number of reasons to own a Sensational Sand Cloud Blanket. First, the blanket is made of high-quality materials that will last for years. Second, the blanket is large enough to fit two people, making it perfect for couples or families. Third, the built-in carrying strap makes it easy to take the blanket with you on the go. Fourth, the blanket is machine-washable, making it easy to care for. Fifth, the blanket is available in a variety of colors and patterns, so you can choose the one that best suits your style.
Below are 14 reasons why you need a Sensational Sand Cloud Blanket in your life:
1. It is made of soft, durable fabric that will last for years.
The blanket is made of a soft and durable fabric that is expected to last for many years. The use of "soft" means the blanket is comfortable to use, while "durable" means it can withstand wear and tear without losing its quality. Overall, the sentence emphasizes on the high quality of the fabric used to make the Sand Cloud Blanket, which is expected to provide long-lasting comfort to its users.2. It is large enough to fit two people, making it perfect for couples or families.
The blanket's accommodating size is perfect for couples or families seeking to share a quilt, specifically when engaging in outdoor activities like picnics, beach trips, or camping. Its vastness allows two individuals to freely stretch out or relax on it without feeling cramped.3. It comes with a built-in carrying strap, making it easy to take with you on the go.
The distinguishing factor of a sand cloud blanket is its integrated carrying strap, which facilitates hassle-free transportation between locations. With this feature, you can conveniently take the blanket along wherever you go. Therefore, if you're seeking a portable blanket that can accompany you on your travels or daily commutes, the sand cloud blanket would make a practical.4. It is machine-washable, making it easy to care for.
The blanket has the characteristic of being machine washable, which enables easy cleaning using a washing machine as opposed to manual handwashing or the services of a dry cleaner. This advantage allows the owner to easily and care for the blanket.5. It is available in a variety of colors and patterns, so you can choose the one that best suits your style.
Sand cloud blankets are available in a wide range of colors and patterns, giving you tons of design options to suit your personal tastes and preferences. With a wide selection of bright and vivid colors as well as more concise patterns, there is sure to be a sand cloud blanket that will catch your eye and complement your personal.6. It is perfect for picnics, beach days, or simply lounging around at home.
The Sand Cloud blanket is versatile and can be used for an array of activities such as outdoor picnics, beach outings, and cozening up at home. Its adaptability makes it a wise investment, as it is a practical and convenient item to have.7. It provides comfortable padding for sitting or lying down on hard surfaces.
The Sand Cloud blanket is designed to offer a plush and gentle cushion for both sitting and lying down. It effectively covers hard surfaces and enables individuals to lounge comfortably. Whether you desire to unwind on the ground or a bench, the Sand Cloud blanket guarantees a cozy experience.8. It can be used as a yoga mat or workout space.
The blanket serves multiple purposes - not just as a regular cover, but also as a yoga mat or a workout area. The blanket's material and dimensions cater to physical activities, allowing for a comforting and stable surface.9. It can be used as a picnic blanket for outdoor dining.
When dining al fresco, a Sand Cloud blanket doubles as a picnic mat. With its outdoor-friendly features, it can provide a comfortable and clean spot for people to sit and eat. Thus, for those who are organizing an outdoor event or just enjoying a leisurely picnic, the Sand Cloud blanket offers a perfect solution for their seating and dining needs.10. It is water-resistant, so it can be used on damp surfaces.
The sand cloud blanket boasts water-resistant properties, which imply it is purposefully created to avoid water and prevent moisture from seeping in. As a result, this characteristic permits it to be utilized on wet surfaces like those found at the beach or pool without posing a risk of becoming wet or getting impaired easily. For this reason, the sand cloud blanket presents itself as an extremely suitable pick for any outdoor activity that involves exposure to water or humidity.11. It can be used as a bedding option for camping trips or outdoor sleeping.
The Sand Cloud blanket is an ideal choice for outdoor use such as camping or sleeping outside, as it is made from sturdy materials that can withstand the tough conditions. Its ability to serve as bedding ensures that users can enjoy its warmth and comfort while sleeping outdoors.12. It adds a pop of color and style to any outdoor setting.
The Sand Cloud blanket is a decor essential that elevates the look of any outdoor area. Boasting vibrant hues and a visually pleasing pattern, it provides a burst of color and style that enhances the overall aesthetic of the space. By adding this eye-catching element, the Sand Cloud blanket creates an inviting ambiance that entices one to bask in the beauty of the outdoors.
13. It is lightweight and easy to fold and pack for travel.
The Sand Cloud blanket is a great option for those seeking a light and portable cover. Its featherweight quality makes it effortless to carry around, while its ability to fold into compact sizes allows for hassle-free packing when on-the-go. For individuals in need of a cozy and practical travel blanket, the Sand Cloud is an excellent.14. It makes a great gift for anyone who loves the outdoors or needs a comfortable and stylish blanket.
The Sand Cloud blanket is a versatile gift that caters to different types of people. It's perfect for individuals who like spending time outdoors and those who prefer the comfort of a stylish and warm blanket. Therefore, this gift is an excellent choice for a variety of recipients, appealing to various interests and preferences.Conclusion
The Sand Cloud Blanket is a premium and adaptable product built with soft, resilient material. Capable of accommodating two individuals, it includes a convenient built-in carrying strap for effortless transportation. It is also easy to clean in the washing machine, comes in various colors and designs, and is the ideal choice for multiple outdoor pursuits such as beach outings, picnics, camping trips, as well as indoor leisure such as lounging at home.The blanket offers comfortable cushioning for sitting or lying on various firm surfaces, and it doubles ideally as a yoga mat, workout space, or picnic accessory. With water-resistant properties, it is prefect for damp settings and can also be utilized as camping bedding or outdoor sleeping material. It injects some color and elegance into any outdoor environment, easy to pack and lightweight for journeys. Overall, the Sand Cloud Blanket represents a practical and chic asset that provides ample benefits and
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The Unexpected Difference Between Yoghurt And Yogurt - How noosa became America’s favorite yoghurt2023.03.22 15:08 MikeyChill Good with your hands? Know your way around a TV? Have a truck? Then this post is for you!
I have a Sony 75inch x950H (Model No. XBR75X950H); the TV turns on but turns off after 10-15 seconds and flashes 4 Red LED Lights. I replaced all the boards but wasn't able to get the tv to stay on. I bought another tv but can't bring myself to throwing this one out, I feel like its still repairable (And in GREAT "Physical" CONDITION!).
That's where you come in. I'm willing to give this tv away for free. You just have to come and pick it up (Located on JFK Blvd, near Lincoln Park). It comes with the Stand, Control and Power Cable. First come first served, I'm not going to hold it for anybody.
submitted by MikeyChill to jerseycity [link] [comments]
That's where you come in. I'm willing to give this tv away for free. You just have to come and pick it up (Located on JFK Blvd, near Lincoln Park). It comes with the Stand, Control and Power Cable. First come first served, I'm not going to hold it for anybody.
2023.03.22 15:07 MephobicBlonde [Let’s Build] a d100 list of ‘Echoes from the Past’
Hello! This is a continuation of my last post here (which is now hidden to follow the sub's rules), so I can separate old answers from new ones. I need some more help brainstorming ideas for my D&D realm known as the Isles of Etherwolfe.
From my last post: "Due to a worldbuilding secret I shall not share due to my players definitely spying on my profile, spectral ‘Echoes’ from past worlds have a chance of slipping through the cracks, appearing as cryptic ethereal images that often have no connection to the world. They are simply remnants of previous worlds, other civilizations, “alien” species [and D&D races] like strange other version of elves, etc. These Echoes could even be specific [worldbuilding] references from your world or other D&D worlds, anything! Make them strange, make them mysterious, make them unexplained, and let’s create a cool list of ideas!"
Update 1: I've received a ton of interesting 'scenes' for these echoes, but from now on, let's try to make things more stagnant, like strange objects appearing in places they shouldn't, or ruins of old castles, etc. For instance, 11) A lone sailing ship, lilting to the side. The ropes and wheel still gently move despite the lack of any crew. u/HordeOfAngryBees, or 32) a ruined and partially collapsed castle, structured using large brass pipes; once a center of learning and discovery for steam powered technology u/nexorati. Don't forget that these echoes can be specific references to other worlds (I've gotten some cool Eberron and Faerun stuff, but let's keep expanding!). Try to keep them relatively grounded in medieval High Fantasy. I appreciate the modern references, but I think we've collected enough of them in the table!
Update 2: Try to keep your responses a bit short, at around 3-ish lines. As I input your responses into my document, I've been trimming some of them down or beefing them up to match the rest, but their primary idea has obviously stayed the same :)
Update 3: Thank you all so much for your help, this is turning out great! If I continue to get responses, I may even go over 100 simply because the possibilities are endless and random. Anything can slip through the cracks from these past worlds... Let's get crazy, lets get mysterious, lets get unexplained, lets get... echoey. I don't know.
Echoes from the Past:
Note: Most, if not all of these Echoes should appear Spectral, as if being seen on the Ethereal Plane.
d100. Echo
submitted by MephobicBlonde to d100 [link] [comments]
From my last post: "Due to a worldbuilding secret I shall not share due to my players definitely spying on my profile, spectral ‘Echoes’ from past worlds have a chance of slipping through the cracks, appearing as cryptic ethereal images that often have no connection to the world. They are simply remnants of previous worlds, other civilizations, “alien” species [and D&D races] like strange other version of elves, etc. These Echoes could even be specific [worldbuilding] references from your world or other D&D worlds, anything! Make them strange, make them mysterious, make them unexplained, and let’s create a cool list of ideas!"
Update 1: I've received a ton of interesting 'scenes' for these echoes, but from now on, let's try to make things more stagnant, like strange objects appearing in places they shouldn't, or ruins of old castles, etc. For instance, 11) A lone sailing ship, lilting to the side. The ropes and wheel still gently move despite the lack of any crew. u/HordeOfAngryBees, or 32) a ruined and partially collapsed castle, structured using large brass pipes; once a center of learning and discovery for steam powered technology u/nexorati. Don't forget that these echoes can be specific references to other worlds (I've gotten some cool Eberron and Faerun stuff, but let's keep expanding!). Try to keep them relatively grounded in medieval High Fantasy. I appreciate the modern references, but I think we've collected enough of them in the table!
Update 2: Try to keep your responses a bit short, at around 3-ish lines. As I input your responses into my document, I've been trimming some of them down or beefing them up to match the rest, but their primary idea has obviously stayed the same :)
Update 3: Thank you all so much for your help, this is turning out great! If I continue to get responses, I may even go over 100 simply because the possibilities are endless and random. Anything can slip through the cracks from these past worlds... Let's get crazy, lets get mysterious, lets get unexplained, lets get... echoey. I don't know.
Echoes from the Past:
Note: Most, if not all of these Echoes should appear Spectral, as if being seen on the Ethereal Plane.
d100. Echo
- A cathedral dedicated to an unknown deity (flower symbol) inhabited by strange elves.
- A small river flowing north, which suddenly turns upward and floats into the air and disappears
- A war-torn battlefield strewn with rusted armor and weapons, still-flaming arrows scatter the ground
- Ruins of a cyclopean city emerging from a shifting river-bank. Bodies of petrified giants trapped in poses from everyday life. u/MaxSizeIs
- A mana-dense vault filled with thousands of crystalline discs six inches across that shine with a reflective rainbow in the light. u/MaxSizeIs
- The ruins of a greek-style bank run by a collection of metallic-skinned halflings.
- Various flapping banners staked into the ground representing the different elements.
- A row of hundreds of humanoid statues. In fact, they are the same statue expressed over hundreds of years. The ones in the front are broken and weathered, the ones in the middle gleam with paint and polish, and the final ones are uncarved plinths of stone. u/onepostandbye
- A stone building can be seen in different eras depending what side you view it from. Entering from the basement entrance allows PCs to interact with a disoriented shopkeeper. u/onepostandbye
- The upper slope of this area displays many tilting grave markers. Where the land has eroded, spectral skeletons float as if in repose, their spectral headstones floating six feet above. u/onepostandbye
- A lone sailing ship, lilting to the side. The ropes and wheel still gently move despite the lack of any crew. u/HordeOfAngryBees
- A massive, thick wall of trees standing in a circle. Inside of the circle is a clearing where snow gently falls around an old cabin. u/HordeOfAngryBees
- A colossal warforged titan stands atop a hill, its sadness palpable. It slams its fists down on a column of soldiers, the ground trembling from the force. More soldiers advance, siege weapons primed to fire. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A flying ship with a ring of fire descends over an elegant Victorian city, full of twinkling lights. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A lightning rail stops at a station in a small wilderness town, its energy connecting to the conductor stones in the ground. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- On another hill, shrouded in fog, a dilapidated one-story cabin emits a beam of blue light, summoning zombies and skeletons clothed in ruined soldier equipment begin to emerge from the fog. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- An echo of a community endlessly replays one hour of mundane village life. The village met some terrible end, and when PCs move close to persons, objects, or buildings, the echo temporarily dissolves to show the current state of the place, which is ugly and sad. u/onepostandbye
- The father guided his son, teaching him how to properly aim and bend the bowstring. In the lush forest, a deer suddenly appeared in the clearing. Whispering instructions, the father watched as the boy released the arrow. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The mother watched unamused as her children fought over a toy in the front yard of the tree house. She abruptly stopped the fight by taking away the toy and instructed them on how to treat each other better. The scolding brought tears of sorrow to the children, but the mother was quick to comfort them with a hug and kisses, reassuring them of her love. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A grandpa and their granddaughter ventured deep into the magical forest together to collect wild berries. As they wandered, grandpa spotted something dangerous lurking in the shadows. He quickly drew his granddaughter closer and shielded them with his magical staff, ready to protect her from the unseen danger. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- An exhausted salaryman walking from the glass box of their office to their old Geo Metro, while above them looms a planet, of awesome size, lit by no sun. A dark titan, all thick black forests and jagged mountains and deep turbulent oceans. u/MaxSizeIs
- Impossibly tall metal towers made of impossibly slender sticks, while lonely red light pulses slowly at it's top. Disturbing black birds hunch menacingly, roosting upon it in great numbers. Hallucinatory, ethereal music in no recognizable style seems to buzz within one's teeth as they draw near to the apparition. u/MaxSizeIs
- A strangely dressed man sitting behind a desk while a confusing array of boxers and esoteric instruments sit before him. He talks in an unknown language, fiddles with one of the instruments, placing a black disc upon a sort of spinning table, and suddenly from no discernable location, alien music can be heard. u/MaxSizeIs
- A hard sort of road but made of a sort of greyish black stone that seems poured like a river, it is very wide, and seems to go in both directions forever. Several lines of strange metal boxes, somewhat like carriages, go in both directions, countless in number, rolling slowly, occasionally stopping then starting again in waves, making no noise, and with no-one inside. u/MaxSizeIs
- A vast canyon, with seemingly infinitely tall towers made of glass on both sides. Every floor of the tower seems to be comfortably furnished in (admittedly alien design), but also appears to have at least one terrified person silently banging on the glass, apparently begging to be let out. Occasionally it rains bodies, they fall from great height from above, then through the ground as if it isn't there, and keep going. u/MaxSizeIs
- A person in a strange sort of greyish-white diving suit with a large, bulky looking backpack contraption on their back, wielding a striped flag, and bouncing around as if they were almost floating. u/MaxSizeIs
- A giant airship zeppelin, coming in to dock at a tall tower. A large crew of people on the ground pull on lines connected to the ship, pulling it in to dock. u/MaxSizeIs
- A large beast-man with horns and cloven feet, wearing a long coat and a strange set of mirrored lenses upon their face, scowls, crosses their arms and pantomimes, seeming to deny you entry. u/MaxSizeIs
- A labyrinthine maze with walls higher than a person, extends to the horizon. u/MaxSizeIs
- A friendly red dog, the size of a large house, with fangs the size of a grown person, and a mouth that could swallow you in one go. It wants to play. u/MaxSizeIs
- A school of ornamental goldfish, each the size of a blue-whale, just swimming as if the air were water. u/MaxSizeIs
- a ruined and partially collapsed castle, structured using large brass pipes; once a center of learning and discovery for steam powered technology u/nexorati
- A caveman sizes up a lightning-struck, burning log, pokes it, and runs away howling in pain. u/RealRamessesII
- A little girl points toward the entrance of a dark forest, as the unsuspecting farmers walk hesitantly within. Smiling deviously, the girl stays a distance back. Suddenly, large red, illuminated eyes appear from the forest darkness, causing the farmers to scream in terror. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A priest, a nobleman, and a guard pass by an old beggar on the street without offering help, but a mixed adventuring party of a tiefling, halfling, dragonborn, and humans stop to give the beggar assistance. In gratitude, the beggar hugs one of them. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- An exhausted alchemist conducts a complicated experiment with various colored liquids, beakers, and pipes. Upon the completion of the experiment, the gnome jumps with joy, holding the main vial as if it were a new precious child, as the color of the vial has shifted to a solid red, welcoming the new discovery. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A young king, resplendent in his finest garments, strode confidently with his entourage of attendants into the city gates. The inhabitants of the city, who lined the streets, remained expressionless and unmoved, their supposed welcome a mere pretense. As they marched on, the imposing silhouette of the castle loomed into view, its grey stone walls shrouded in the morning mist. The king's heart raced with anticipation as he imagined the throne room within, and the destiny that awaited him. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A river of liquid copper, gold, or quicksilver. u/MaxSizeIs
- A giant eye, peering into reality from a crack in the sky. u/MaxSizeIs
- A carousel, moving, but with no passengers or people around. u/MaxSizeIs
- An abandoned ice-cream truck, moldering away in a primeval forest, music still playing. u/MaxSizeIs
- A wall of screens taller than a person and a mile long, each playing a different episode of the same sitcom, out of order and with no context. Occasionally the screens talk to each other, as if they know the other episodes are there, or that someone may be watching them, then the episode ends and the next one starts. The same exact episode is never played more than once. u/MaxSizeIs
- Hidden among all these Echoes is an actual Ghost. u/CptnR4p3
- The ground shakes as a long forgotten behemoth creature walks by only to fade from existance. u/FirstChAoS
- You enter a lush valley, you see the smiling face of a massive elemental being on a nearby hillside. The face vanishes and the vegetation turns sickly in its absense. u/FirstChAoS
- A blue humanoid with yellow eyes and no mouth tinkers with a device on a table. He turns towards you, looks surprised, then motions for you to leave as he fades from existance. u/FirstChAoS
- The temperature turns cold and the world becomes encased in ice. Fur covered dwarves huddle in the glacial caves while a castle of ice rises in the distance. u/FirstChAoS
- Warriors riding giant insects rush by you to attack a skeletal titan. The titan is controlled by a demon impaled on its ribs. u/FirstChAoS
- A young child trips over a stone and cuts her leg. She transforms into a terrifying monster and destroys the stone. u/starsailor11
- The ruins of an old town peaking out of a large lake. By looking deeper the players find what was once a town that had been here, but became submerged by water as a result of storms. There are no skeletons, but the buildings have become familiar with the seaweed and underwater life of the lake. u/hopeful_badger06
- A smiling man with dark skin and long, black hair stands at the helm of a deep green pirate ship. He opens his eyes. All 7 of them. u/Magical_Breadicorn
- A small village of thatched roofs burns in the twilight. A hag stands cackling in the distance. u/Magical_Breadicorn
- An ominous horseman in a crimson cape and hood, standing silently on the top of a hill. His eyes are blank and he doesn't have lips, showing all of his front teeth. He seems to look fait away in the horizon. u/Sans-Mot
- For centuries, a fierce battle has been raging in the skies above a city. On one side is a powerful angelic figure, a divine embodiment of justice, righteousness and goodness. On the other side is its demonic counterpart, a force of malevolence and wickedness. The fate of the city hangs in the balance, as its citizens await the outcome of this epic struggle between good and evil. If the angelic figure prevails, the city will be blessed with peace, joy and contentment, while a victory for the demonic figure will plunge the city into darkness, despair and chaos. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- Two young lovers in a tight embrace, lounging together as they watched the beautiful sunrise that stretched out over the towering view in front of them. Despite the uncertainty of their future and the restrictions their parents and society had imposed on them, they committed to do everything in their power to make their relationship work. They shared a moment of peace, admiring the beauty of the sunrise and dreaming of the possibilities that lay ahead of them. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The warrior kneels beside his friend, who is gravely injured from the battle that is still raging around them. He takes his hand, feeling the warmth and life slowly fading away. Knowing this will be their final moment together, he promises to take care of his family, vowing to make sure they are provided for in the future. The dying warrior looks up at him with a grateful and familiar smile, and with one last breath, his soul departs. The kneeling warrior grasps his friend's hand tightly, holding back tears as he silently bids farewell. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The authoritative knight galloped through the street on his trusted steed, seemingly without a care for the citizens around him. A small young boy stood in his path, seemingly about to be run over when a heroic young girl jumped in front of him and managed to stop the knight in his tracks. The knight, completely oblivious of the danger he had almost caused, continued on his path, leaving the young boy with a sense of shock and awe. The young boy quickly recovered, and with a humble sense of gratitude, thanked the girl for saving him. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A scrawny stray cat cautiously trots up to a homeless woman, who was leaning against a wall, fast asleep. The woman stirred and opened her eyes, only to find the tiny cat rubbing against her leg. Her face lit up with a warm smile and she reached into her bag to pull out a bowl of water and a few scraps of food. The cat eagerly lapped up the cool water and devoured the food, purring appreciatively as it nestled in the woman's outstretched arms. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A large library is the backdrop for an unlikely duo - a half-orc barbarian and an elf wizard. The wizard is patiently instructing the half-orc in the basics of reading and writing, starting with the alphabet. Despite his gruff demeanor, the half-orc is evidently making progress and has already managed to learn a few letters. With a bit more time and effort, it's possible the half-orc could master the entire alphabet. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A regal demon prince lounged around a luxurious dinner table in a dimly lit hall, attended by a troupe of beguiling succubi, serving his every need. Standing awkwardly and aloof in front of the table, a tiefling warlock appeared. The demon prince smiled with a mischievous glint in his eye, and the two began a conversation concerning their previous contract. The demon prince insisted that he would aid the tiefling in finding her long-lost daughter, but in exchange, she must accept the corruption of pleasure and servitude. With great hesitation and a heavy heart, the tiefling reluctantly agreed. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The giant teenager was throwing a temper tantrum, demanding to her father that she be allowed to go out and smash any humanoids she could find in the vicinity. Her hulking father seemed to share her enthusiasm, but urged her to be mindful of not angering too many people at once. He wanted her to be strategic in her actions, so as not to draw too much attention or cause too much chaos. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The evil lich cackled maniacally in their shadowy crypt, admiring the intricate schematics of their sinister plot to conquer the world and bend its subjugated inhabitants to their will. Suddenly, one of the lich's skeletal servants happened to stumble into the table, causing several of the papers to scatter around the room. This provoked a violent outburst from the lich, who cast a necrotic spell to immediately annihilate the unfortunate minion. After regaining his composure, the lich retreated to his private chambers, where he encountered his undead kitten. Softening his expression, the lich began to pet the feline vigorously, seeking comfort in the small creature's presence. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The magical professor asked the class a question about the importance of proper speaking and gesturing to successfully cast a spell. One student raised their hand, and when allowed to answer, they replied, "You really need to address that wart, professor." This resulted in the class bursting into laughter, and the professor struggled to maintain composure as he demanded the student answer his question instead of distracting the class. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- An ancient city, long forgotten and submerged beneath the depths of the ocean, emerged from the depths. The walls of the buildings were still covered in a variety of sea life. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The adventurers face a daunting task, standing before a portal to the demonic plane, surrounded by countless fallen demons. With a tremendous effort, one of the brave adventurers casts a powerful spell to banish the portal. In a climatic moment, the portal shatters, and the entire group watches in awe as the spell caster collapses to the ground in exhaustion. The rest of the party rallies around them in solidarity and support. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- Several brilliant stars illuminated the landscape, gradually moving closer to one another. Suddenly, they collided and created a mesmerizing display of colors, with hues of blue, green, yellow, and red fanning out in all directions. A devastating force surged through the countryside, serenading the land with a beautiful yet destructive sight. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A heavy rainstorm swept in over the hilly pasture land, the moist wind whipping through the tall grass and bending it to its will. Streaks of lightning illuminated the dark, rain-filled sky, casting a dramatic backdrop to the scene. A small cluster of cows had huddled together under the shelter of a few trees, seeking safety and respite from the raging storm. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The warforged creature stands in the middle of a vast junkyard, its single arm and damaged leg starkly contrasting with the piles of gleaming metal and wooden pieces that surround it. Its glowing eyes search the mounds, hastily selecting a few choice pieces to inspect and fit onto its body. With its single arm, it delicately lifts a metal appendage and attaches it to the place where its missing limb should be. It then picks up a wooden leg and affixes it to its damaged one, replacing it with a functioning limb. After a few moments, the warforged tests out its new arm and leg, its body adapting to its newfound mobility. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- A poor mother, surrounded by her children, sits together on the floor of a drab and sparsely furnished hut. As her children huddle around her, she gently guides them in a simple prayer for provision, asking for divine aid in these difficult times. As if in answer to their pleas, a knock suddenly sounds on the door. Upon opening it, the family finds a box filled with food, clothes, and other essential items donated by an anonymous figure with a knowing smile. Unbeknownst to the family, the mysterious individual is an agent of their deity, answering the prayer with a tangible act of kindness. u/NecessaryCornflake7
- The old half-elf, dressed in luxurious noble robes and carrying an ornate ice staff, finished an important meeting with several rulers. After the meeting concluded, he stepped through a magical portal into a more private area. As soon as he emerged from the portal, the half-elf transformed into a majestic white dragon. With a powerful beat of its wings, it soared into the sky, flying off on a determined mission. u/NecessaryCornflake7
2023.03.22 15:00 KhoaFraelich 2023 Ineos Grenadier review
 | Not only does it live up to the original Land Rover Defender brief, the Grenadier goes above and beyond but it's not perfect. submitted by KhoaFraelich to CarScannerOBD2 [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/rizu8018k9oa1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=1c4544853e9d4c891199a795e6e7a6c70c08ce3c The Ineos automotive brand might be new, but what has led to the creation of the Grenadier wagon and soon, the Grenadier ute is nothing short of extraordinary. With the absence of the Land Rover Defender in its original, tough ladder chassis form, the gap in the market for a fully capable off-road vehicle that feels at home in the city and one which you can hose the mud out of, was left to no other than British billionaire and chemical engineer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The original idea was to simply buy the tooling and the manufacturing products from Land Rover and continue producing the Defender one way or another, but the British brand evidently wasn’t very keen and what was then conceived at the Grenadier pub in London almost as a ‘we can do it better ourselves any way’, became the Ineos Grenadier. Imagine this; start with a near-unlimited budget for a passion project and hire the likes of Magna Steyr to engineer your vehicle, BMW to produce the engines, ZF to make the transmission and Bosch to supply a great deal of the other parts… then you buy a pre-existing Mercedes-Benz production facility and further invest a claimed $770 million AUD in upgrades to produce the vehicle. That probably needs some context because if you don’t know, Magna Steyr happens to be the same company that makes a similar car, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class – or G-Wagen. Yep, that’s right, the same company that produces what is probably the most famous SUV in the world also happened to engineer the Ineos Grenadier. Conflict of interest? Don’t tell Mercedes. It gets better though; because having talked to the engineers who have made the project come to life, most are from the likes of Mercedes, Jaguar Land Rover, and even McLaren. Thankfully, the Grenadier starts at $97,000 (originally $85k) and not the $400,000 on-road the G-Wagen has become, and that is perhaps what the Grenadier is here to do. It’s to provide a fully capable alternative to the ultra-expensive off-roaders that have become as much a fashion icon as anything else. The main question isn’t about the Grenadier’s intent or its individual parts, however. We know Magna can engineer a car, we know BMW can make great engines that work amazingly well with ZF transmissions, and we know Bosch supplies automotive parts to the absolute majority of other manufacturers. The real question, is whether the Grenadier is a genuine alternative for the original Defender and befitting of a new model in 2023? The answer to that question is actually a resounding yes, but with some caveats that we will discuss in this review. How much does the 2023 Ineos Grenadier cost? As previously mentioned, the Grenadier saw a substantial price increase last year which added as much as $13,000 to the price of the Wagon and Ute. Although Ineos has put this down to the increasing cost of materials – which is definitely a contributing factor – we also have no doubt that the increase is also driven by market dynamics of supply and demand and perhaps a repositioning of the brand itself given just how popular the original price point was with buyers. 2023 Ineos Grenadier pricing: Utility Wagon Base: $97,000 (up 14.8 per cent or $12,500) Fieldmaster Edition: $107,400 (up 12.5 per cent or $11,905) Trailmaster Edition: $108,525 (up 13.6 per cent or $13,030) Station Wagon Base: $98,000 (up 14.6 per cent or $12,500) Fieldmaster Edition: $109,525 (up 13.5 per cent or $13,030) Trailmaster Edition: $109,525 (up 13.5 per cent or $13,030) Prices exclude on-road costs If you were lucky enough to get in at that price, you have got yourself a bargain, but for the rest the price increase does genuinely position the vehicle in a place now that makes you really have to consider whether you can trust a first time manufacturer to produce a vehicle that costs well in excess of $100k. While the price increase is unfortunate, options in the hardcore 4×4 market are limited considering orders for the LandCruiser 70 remain closed on the back of rampant demand unmatched by supply. There’s also no haggling given Ineos is using an ‘agency model’ with fixed pricing. The company will control inventory and pricing, and pay dealer partners a “straight-forward commission”, much in the style of Mercedes-Benz and Honda. Australia is a huge market for the Grenadier in terms of orders, coming in the top five, which means local market feedback and input has been well and truly taken into account. You can find a list of Ineos Grenadier retail locations here. What is the Ineos Grenadier like on the inside? First impressions when you get inside the Grenadier cabin are that of a modern and actually not all that austere interior. It was not what we expected and it’s fair to say we were pleasantly surprised. The Recaro seats are comfortable in all available configurations, whether it’s cloth, vinyl or leather. We found the seating position in the front to be excellent for visibility and ease of access to the switchgear and cabin. With the majority of off-road controls cleverly placed on the roof – inspired by aircraft cockpits – there is heaps of room in the cabin itself and it never feels overwhelming or unusable. This is a case of what happens when a new company that has never made cars is allowed to rethink the basics. Having used the 4WD controls on the roof, the question becomes – why don’t all cars have this? So front seat ergonomics are fantastic, but not perfect. There are a couple of issues for right-hand drive models that seem a little bizarre. Firstly, the windscreen wiper does a terrible job of cleaning the edge of the right side of the screen. A decently sized area near the A-pillar on the right of the windscreen is basically untouched and given the wet and muddy conditions in which we drove the Grenadier in, it becomes a genuine visibility issue when turning right. You get used to it and its likely not an issue for the absolute majority of the time you are driving, but it is nonetheless a strange thing to encounter in a modern car. Secondly, right-hand drive vehicles are disadvantaged with the exhaust manifold of the BMW engines (diesel or petrol) both taking up an unusual amount of space in the footwell where you would usually have your footrest. This means your left foot is sitting a fair bit higher than one would probably be used to and if you happen to use the car on a farm, with big boots, this further exaggerates the problem. Again, we got used to this unexpected feature after a few hours of driving but as with the wiper, it’s not something you would expect from a modern car. When quizzed, Ineos engineers told us they initially planned to change the engineering of the vehicle to address it, but it would have changed the cabin or chassis size and this wasn’t feasible. It’s also worth mentioning that in some of the vehicles we drove, the fit and finish of the interior were not as great as we would have wished for. From the roof control panel feeling easy to pull off to the outside door handles that jammed (we are told these will be fixed for all Australian-delivered vehicles), there is no doubt that first batch production vehicles have some room for improvement; and hopefully those improvements are passed on to the first vehicles delivered for our market. For all the niggling issues, the interior is genuinely excellent for its intended purpose – it’s comfortable, it’s spacious and has heaps of storage. The back seat is also a great place to be for long drives as you can easily fit two six-foot adults behind one another, given the ample leg and headroom in both rows. In saying that, while the front Recaro seats are ideal for off-roading, those sitting in the back have literally no support outside of holding on to the handle. The 12.3-inch touchscreen display is super clear and very high resolution with wireless Apple CarPlay that works brilliantly. Ineos has outsourced the unique software and it’s on par if not better than some well-established manufacturers. You will have no issues using the infotainment system. Without a traditional instrument cluster, though, you are forced to use the centre screen to see your speed and we did find that a little frustrating because, unlike other vehicles in which that is also the case (Tesla being the prime example), the Grenadier’s interior is vastly larger so the focal change point from the road to the screen is also more than other vehicles. Given the Grenadier’s ‘instrument cluster’ is a tiny screen to show things like ignition light, check engine light etc, we feel it would have made a lot of sense to put a basic digital speedometer in that position. The front and rear diff locks, plus the off-road mode and wading depth controls, are on the roof but to actually engage low range and lock the centre differential you need to use an old-school lever and, to be fair, it does look a little odd sitting next to the BMW-sourced gearstick which is super modern in design and appearance. So this is definitely a case of lots of parts being put together. Even the steering wheel itself is interesting because, given the recirculating-ball setup, the number of wheel turns you need to do in basic manoeuvring lends itself to using a wheel that is not so circular and allows for a better understanding of the top and bottom. The 1255L boot is huge, and the way the rear doors open allows super quick access from the left side using the smaller door, because opening the larger one on the right is not only a heavier operation (it carries the spare tyre) but also requires far more room to swing open. What’s under the bonnet? Ineos will offer 3.0-litre straight-six diesel and petrol options, both of which have been sourced from BMW and are codenamed B57 (diesel) and B58 (petrol). Ineos says these engines, used across BMW’s sports cars and SUVs since 2016, have been tested in the Grenadier across 1.8 million kilometres and diverse climates. It’s not a straight fit and play, with ECU tuning taking place to better unlock torque down as low in the rev range. The 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel six makes 183kW of power (3250-4200rpm) and 550Nm of torque (1250-3000rpm) and is capable of moving the Grenadier from 0-100km/h in 9.9 seconds. The 3.0-litre single-turbo petrol six makes 210kW of power (4750rpm) and 450Nm of torque (1750-4000rpm) and is capable of moving the Grenadier from 0-100km/h in 8.6 seconds. Both engines come mated to a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission (codenamed 8HP51 for the petrol, 8HP76 for the diesel), with what Ineos calls a new “heavy duty” torque converter. The WLTP combined-cycle fuel economy for the diesel is a rated 10.3 to 11.8 litres per 100km, while the petrol uses between 13.2L/100km and 15.3L/100km. Both engines have stop/start, and the diesel also has a 17L AdBlue tank. The standard fuel tank with both engine options carries 90 litres. All Grenadiers come standard with permanent four-wheel drive (4WD), with low-range accessed through a 2.5:1 Tremec two-speed transfer case. Matching the class leaders, the Grenadier will also have a 3.5-tonne braked towing capacity. There are no other powertrains confirmed for the Grenadier for the moment, however, the brand is well advanced creating a hydrogen fuel-cell version and is also working on a new model which will be a full electric version on a smaller and all-new platform for 2026. How does the Ineos Grenadier drive? The Ineos Grenadier came to life to meet a very specific design and engineering brief. The wagon and utility versions are essentially a modernised iteration of what would otherwise be considered commercial vehicles; in fact they are very much considered commercial vehicles when it comes to tax purposes. With that in mind, it’s vital that buyers looking at the Grenadier understand this is not a cheap G-Wagen, nor is it a new-old Defender. It’s its own unique vehicle, with its own set of characteristics and traits – some of those are better and some are worse than said vehicles. When it comes to driving, we will break this down into two parts; on-road and off-road. From an on-road perspective, the Grenadier rode exceptionally well, even on poorly surfaced roads. There is no doubt that you can drive this vehicle in the city and it will do an excellent job of keeping you happy and comfortable. The suspension setup and the way the vehicle behaves on sealed roads is a credit to the engineering team behind it. The diesel engine is undoubtedly the powertrain that makes more sense to most buyers looking to tow or do long-distance rural driving, with better fuel economy and more torque. Nonetheless, if you’re buying this and intend to do a fair bit of inner city driving and actually enjoy the driving experience, the petrol is a fantastic option – it’s faster, more responsive, sounds great and makes the Grenadier feel far more engaging and purposeful. This tester would pick the petrol regardless of requirements just for its capacity to overtake other vehicles on the highway with significant ease. The ZF eight-speed transmission is mated beautifully to both powertrain and frankly, given this exact setup has been used in BMW vehicles for a number of years, there is no contention around the powertrain and its ability to perform day in day out. It’s solid and reliable. What may catch out some buyers is the recirculating-ball setup steering box, something more suited to trucks than most modern cars. According to Ineos engineers, the reason this particular Bosch steering system was picked was due to its incredible off-road durability and capacity. In other words, it has been around and used in heavy-duty vehicles with over 1,000,000 kilometres without issue, and Ineos decided to go with that to suit the rugged character of the vehicle. This is all well and good but for on-road driving, it’s a bit of a handful, literally. The amount of turning you need to do to make a basic manoeuvre can get a little frustrating but even just turning left or right at an intersection. It will often see you turn, and then turn again and again until you realise you have likely done one too many rotations and turn back to correct. It’s entirely unlike a normal modern hydraulic or power steering system and more akin to driving a light truck. You absolutely will get used to it, and by the second day it didn’t feel as cumbersome as our initial impressions, but while this may be fantastic for those that only do long-distance drives mixed in with rural roads and off-roading, it’s not ideal for those looking to drive these around inner-city environments. The other option we wish it had was adaptive cruise control. Model-year 2024 Grenadiers will have autonomous emergency braking (AEB) but it will still not enable active cruise, which is unfortunate because this vehicle will likely do plenty of highway kilometres and it would be great to that driving stress further removed. Overall though, the on-road driving aspect of the Ineos Grenadier is much better than we expected due to the ride comfort, power and torque delivery. The cabin is also very quiet with low levels of noise, harshness and vibrations. Take the Ineos off-road and it goes into its true element. This is a vehicle that was designed to go off-road before it was designed to go on-road. Most car companies tend to put car reviewers on off-road courses that you can usually do in a basic medium SUV, but Ineos didn’t hold back. An Off-Road driving mode disengages parking sensors, seatbelt reminders and start/stop, and from a regulatory standpoint we’d imagine this function is only accessible in low-range. The hill-descent control function can brake each wheel independently. We crossed some of the most spectacular natural terrains, in the water, up and down Scottish mountains, and four-wheel drive tracks that would make hardcore enthusiasts proud. There is not much to say except that we never got stuck and the diff locks and the powertrain worked spectacularly. It can occasionally be cumbersome to engage low-range using the manual lever (neutral to be engaged first), with some occasional crunching – which occurred even to our Ineos engineers – and as there are no sensors to detect differential locking positions (to save complexity and weight), wheel speed sensors are used which means engaging and disengaging the front and rear diffs are basically manual and require movement that highlights the differing wheel speed (like a turn). All-terrain tyres are supplied by Bridgestone (Dueler AT 001) or BFGoodrich (AT T/A KO2) depending on spec, and Brembo disc brakes come standard. Electromechanical Eaton diff lockers front and rear are also available either as standard or an option depending on grade. Ground clearance is 264mm, wading depth 800mm, approach angle 36.3 degrees, breakover 28.2 degrees, and departure angle 36.1 degrees. Powder-coated skid plates and a fuel-tank plate are standard. The other great thing is that the amount of accessories expected for the Ineos (given the company has made the blueprint for the car publicly accessible to support the aftermarket) will be huge, so those looking to start with a base car and build what they need will have plenty of options. The Ineos is an excellent compromise between on- and off-road driving as it can one pretty well and the other spectacularly. The only place in which owners may find the driving dynamics challenging is in built-up, city areas that require a lot of close manoeuvring but even then, it’s an intimidating car that will make its own way. What do you get? Grenadier Base highlights: 17-inch steel wheels Full-size spare wheel Bridgestone AT tyres LED headlights LED daytime running lights LED tail lights 30/70 split rear doors Roof protection strips and rails Hydraulic jack and toolkit Immobilisealarm Cruise control Recaro cloth and vinyl seats Tilt and telescoping wheel adjust Climate control AC (second-row vents for five-seaters) Heavy duty flooring with drain valves Loadspace locker and tie-down rings 12.3-inch touchscreen display with rotary controller Pathfinder off-road navigation system Wireless Apple CarPlay Wired Android Auto Bluetooth audio and phone Digital radio USB and 12V sockets Overhead control panel Auxiliary switch panel and electrical prep (3 x 10A) Options (Base) include: $2875 Rough Pack: Front and rear diff locks, BFGoodrich tyres $2875 Smooth Pack: Front parking sensors, powered and heated side mirrors, a lockable central stowage box, puddle lamps, door lighting, auxiliary charge points, Thatcham Cat. 1 immobilisealarm 17-inch steel wheels Full-size spare wheel Bridgestone AT tyres LED headlights LED daytime running lights LED tail lights 30/70 split rear doors Roof protection strips and rails Hydraulic jack and toolkit Immobilisealarm Cruise control Recaro cloth and vinyl seats Tilt and telescoping wheel adjust Climate control AC (second-row vents for five-seaters) Heavy duty flooring with drain valves Loadspace locker and tie-down rings 12.3-inch touchscreen display with rotary controller Pathfinder off-road navigation system Wireless Apple CarPlay Wired Android Auto Bluetooth audio and phone Digital radio USB and 12V sockets Overhead control panel Auxiliary switch panel and electrical prep (3 x 10A) Options (Base) include: $2875 Rough Pack: Front and rear diff locks, BFGoodrich tyres $2875 Smooth Pack: Front parking sensors, powered and heated side mirrors, a lockable central stowage box, puddle lamps, door lighting, auxiliary charge points, Thatcham Cat. 1 immobilisealarm Solid paints Scottish White: standard Magic Mushroom: $900 Eldoret Blue: $900 Britannia Blue: $900 Sela Green: $900 Inky Black: $900 Metallic paints Sterling Silver: $1230 Shale Blue: $1230 Queen’s Red: $1230 Donny Grey: $1230 Contrast ladder frames Black: standard Red: $1410 Grey: $1410 Contrast roof paints Scottish White: $1690 Inky Black: $1690 Contrast Wrapped nose Tunic Red: $1060 Emergency Orange: $1060 Contrast wrapped rear doors Tunic Red: $1400 Emergency Orange: $1400 Wheels 17-inch alloys (base and Trailmaster): $1060 18-inch steel (base and Trailmaster): $1430 18-inch alloys (base and Trailmaster): $2835 18-inch alloys (Fieldmaster): $1775 Other things Safari windows (base and Trailmaster): $2465 Privacy glass: $670 Leather seats (base and Trailmaster): $1850 Heated seats (base and Trailmaster): $650 Floor carpet: $370 Front and rear diff locks (base and Fieldmaster): $2790 Raised air intake (base and Fieldmaster): $1100 Integrated Heavy Duty 5.5t winch: $5430 There are also a lot of accessories, some of which we have listed below, the full list is here: Outside Side Runners: $830 Rock Sliders: $1630 40″ Front LED Light Bar (incl. mounting brackets): $960 Checker Plate for Front Fenders: $460 Roo Bar: $1990 Roo Bar Side Protection Rails: $730 Raised Air intake Cyclone Pre-Cleaner: $420 Inside Rubber Floor Mats: $280 Foldable Tailgate Camp Table: $440 Heavy Duty Seat Covers – Front: $490 Heavy Duty Seat Covers – Rear: $490 Cargo Roof Rack: $2530 Roof Cross-bars: $580 Utility Cargo Barrier – Half-height: $600 Full-height Loadspace Divider: $550 Loadspace Partition Net: $280 Luggage Retention Net – Floor: $90 Cargo Management System: $360 Collapsible Luggage Organiser: $110 Quick Release Tie-Down Rings (x4): $70 Recovery Removable Winch with Tow Mounting Kit (3.5 Tonnes): $4050 Heavy Duty Spade: $60 Off-Road Recovery Kit: $630 Roof add-ons Roof Mounted Bike Carrier: $460 Roof Mounted Ski/Snowboard Carrier: $310 Surfboard Carrier for Roof Rack: $160 Roof Kayak Mount, J-style: $330 Roof Kayak Mount, Saddles: $280 Roof Mounted Adjustable Load Holder: $110 Roof Mounted Cargo Box: $790 Vehicle Integrated Side Awning: $970 Spare Tyre Carrier for Roof Rack: $170 Jerry Can Mount for Roof Rack: $190 Hi-Lift Jack Mounting Bracket for Roof Rack: $160 Roof Mounted Axe and Shovel Bracket: $160 Sand Ladder Flat Mounting Brackets: $220 Sand Ladder Side Mounting Brackets: $160 Spot Light Bracket: $150 Gas Bottle Holder for Roof Rack: $190 Load Mounting Brackets for Roof Rack: $180 Roof Tie-down Rings: $100 Folding Aerial Mount: $160 Lockdown Security Cable: $60 Cargo Load Straps: $30 RotopaX Mounting Bracket: $20 Is the Ineos Grenadier safe? There is no official crash test data from any resting authority for the Grenadier and there is every chance there never will be, given the position of this vehicle as commercial rather than passenger. Standard safety features include: Front, side and curtain airbags ESP with trailer-sway control Tyre pressure monitor Reversing camera and sensors ISOFIX and top tethers (five-seat versions) There’s no mention of driver-assist active safety features such as autonomous emergency braking or lane-keeping aids, meaning a five-star NCAP or ANCAP rating looks impossible. How much does the Ineos Grenadier cost to run? The Ineos Grenadier is covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty with five years of roadside assist. Servicing intervals are recommended at 12 months for normal usage or six-month servicing “for continuous use in tough environments”. As well as servicing Grenadiers at its retail centres, Ineos has cut a global deal with Bosch Car Service centres to cater to more remote operators. “Flying Spanner” techs based in the Australian HQ are also said to be available, if the service network needs help. For owners who want to carry out work on their Grenadier themselves, Ineos is taking a novel approach by providing online 3D interactive manuals with support from the technical team at HQ a call or a click away. “The vehicle has been deliberately designed and engineered to be easy to work on inside and out,” the company claims. It bills its “open source” approach, without trying to “ring-fence” buyers into its own ecosystem, as a point-of-difference for enthusiasts. It’s not yet clear what conditions will be placed on DIY owners, from a warranty perspective. CarExpert’s Take There is a lot to love about the Ineos Grenadier. It started life as nothing but an idea at a pub between friends, and ended up bringing together an enormous amount of knowledge from some of the best engineers in the world and huge amounts of investment to create an ultra-modern, rugged vehicle that is just as suited to the farm and rural areas as it is for a drive from Sydney to Melbourne. The Grenadier is an excellent adventure vehicle and those looking to get out of the city, camp and enjoy a more outdoor lifestyle will also benefit massively from the number of accessories available for the vehicle. The only asterisks for us are the niggling initial production quality issues that we are very hopeful will be solved before local cars arrive, and a steering system which will take some buyers a bit of getting used to. |
2023.03.22 14:56 jdarbuckle [Method] 25 kaizen habit ideas (super easy now, huge impact over time).
Hey everyone, I just wrote this follow-up to my last post on this sub about kaizen.
Quick recap: Kaizen means breaking down huge goals into the smallest possible step forward that you can do right away. If you can't, won't, or don't do it, it's not small enough. It's a way to create immediate progress, doing something instead of doing nothing. That's an astounding 100% increase.
I sat down to think of 25 kaizen habit ideas, because specific examples can be helpful.
1. Push to Start
Do 3 pushups or bodyweight squats. Do more only if you feel like it.
2. Food for Thought
Eat one healthy snack, like a piece of fruit or a cut up vegetable.
3. Top ‘Er Off
Drink one glass of water.
4. Get Squared Away
Clean up one small portion of your home.
5. Sugar Sober
Avoid candy, sweets, and soda for the rest of this single day.
6. Step Up
The next time you have the opportunity, take the stairs instead of the elevator.
7. Prioritize
Write down the most important goal for today.
8. Make A Plan
Build a short to-do list of work and errands for tomorrow.
9. Stash Some Away
Transfer a small amount of money into savings, no matter how little it may feel.
10. Kitchen Duty
Do the dishes, scrub the sink, and wipe down the counters. Too much? Clean one dish.
11. Streamline Your Tech
Re-organize the desktop and folders on your computer.
12. Upkeep
Complete an extremely small home improvement project. Fix a cracked outlet, replace your air filter, or change a light bulb.
13. Make The Call
Take care of that one phone call you’ve been avoiding.
14. Keeping It Easy
Listen to relaxation playlists for a while. Try meditation, spa, or nature sounds music.
15. Forgive and Forget
Think of a time you fell short or felt ashamed. Forgive yourself out loud for that specific moment, ten times.
16. Finger Guns
Give a stranger a genuine compliment and walk away.
17. Chirp
Text a friend to just say hello and catch up. Don’t worry if you do not get a response. This is about reaching out.
18. Stay Fresh
Brush your teeth AND floss today. Imagine not being shamed by your dentist for once.
19. Stretch
Find a stretch for a specific muscle that feels tight. Stretch it for 30 seconds.
20. Off The Sauce
Avoid alcohol for one day.
21. Do Your Part
Make a small online donation to a non-profit organization that focuses on fixing a problem you are passionate about.
22. Take A Real Lunch
Spend a lunch break away from your phone. Enjoy the outdoors if possible, and take a walk.
23. It’s Not Cold, It’s Refreshing
At the end of your shower, turn the water all the way to cold. Breathe heavily and stay calm for 30 seconds. Notice how powerfully alert and awake you now feel.
24. Give Thanks
Out loud, say three things you are currently grateful for.
25. A Page Out of Their Book
Read a single page of a book you’ve been putting off (or a healthy online article).
Great kaizen habits build upon each other. If you complete any of these super-simple habits day after day (and add a little bit more when you are ready), you can make massive progress without massive effort.
Hope this is helpful. Go get 'em.
submitted by jdarbuckle to getdisciplined [link] [comments]
Quick recap: Kaizen means breaking down huge goals into the smallest possible step forward that you can do right away. If you can't, won't, or don't do it, it's not small enough. It's a way to create immediate progress, doing something instead of doing nothing. That's an astounding 100% increase.
I sat down to think of 25 kaizen habit ideas, because specific examples can be helpful.
1. Push to Start
Do 3 pushups or bodyweight squats. Do more only if you feel like it.
2. Food for Thought
Eat one healthy snack, like a piece of fruit or a cut up vegetable.
3. Top ‘Er Off
Drink one glass of water.
4. Get Squared Away
Clean up one small portion of your home.
5. Sugar Sober
Avoid candy, sweets, and soda for the rest of this single day.
6. Step Up
The next time you have the opportunity, take the stairs instead of the elevator.
7. Prioritize
Write down the most important goal for today.
8. Make A Plan
Build a short to-do list of work and errands for tomorrow.
9. Stash Some Away
Transfer a small amount of money into savings, no matter how little it may feel.
10. Kitchen Duty
Do the dishes, scrub the sink, and wipe down the counters. Too much? Clean one dish.
11. Streamline Your Tech
Re-organize the desktop and folders on your computer.
12. Upkeep
Complete an extremely small home improvement project. Fix a cracked outlet, replace your air filter, or change a light bulb.
13. Make The Call
Take care of that one phone call you’ve been avoiding.
14. Keeping It Easy
Listen to relaxation playlists for a while. Try meditation, spa, or nature sounds music.
15. Forgive and Forget
Think of a time you fell short or felt ashamed. Forgive yourself out loud for that specific moment, ten times.
16. Finger Guns
Give a stranger a genuine compliment and walk away.
17. Chirp
Text a friend to just say hello and catch up. Don’t worry if you do not get a response. This is about reaching out.
18. Stay Fresh
Brush your teeth AND floss today. Imagine not being shamed by your dentist for once.
19. Stretch
Find a stretch for a specific muscle that feels tight. Stretch it for 30 seconds.
20. Off The Sauce
Avoid alcohol for one day.
21. Do Your Part
Make a small online donation to a non-profit organization that focuses on fixing a problem you are passionate about.
22. Take A Real Lunch
Spend a lunch break away from your phone. Enjoy the outdoors if possible, and take a walk.
23. It’s Not Cold, It’s Refreshing
At the end of your shower, turn the water all the way to cold. Breathe heavily and stay calm for 30 seconds. Notice how powerfully alert and awake you now feel.
24. Give Thanks
Out loud, say three things you are currently grateful for.
25. A Page Out of Their Book
Read a single page of a book you’ve been putting off (or a healthy online article).
Great kaizen habits build upon each other. If you complete any of these super-simple habits day after day (and add a little bit more when you are ready), you can make massive progress without massive effort.
Hope this is helpful. Go get 'em.