#rc speed run

[reality-detective]

Where are all those people who were telling us there is no plan and nobody is coming to save us?

I used to be inundated with them telling me I was fool for following Q and it was a psyop to get us all to be complacent and comply with the globalists agenda of total enslavement.

They wanted us to rise up violently and remove the government.

They wanted a civil war.

We didn’t take the bait.

Instead, we are witnessing a complete dismantling of the insurgency in real time. Faster than ever.

How?

Q told us to “follow the money.”

That’s the “keystone.”

Q drop

5

“FOLLOW THE MONEY, it’s the key.

What is Pelosi’s net worth by way of one example. Why coincidentally is her memory apparently going?

Cover for possible future indictment to plead what?

What if John M never had surgery and that was a cover for a future out if needed against prosecution?

Why did Soros transfer his bulk public funds to a NP? Note this doesn’t include massive slush funds that are pulled by several high ups.

Why did Soros’ son have several meetings with Canadian PM and how is that related to Clinton’s?

Can you rely on being able to board a plane and fly away?

Why is MS13 a priority _ nobody got this.

Could people pay such gangs to kill opponents and why / how to insulate against exposure?

The truth is mind blowing and cannot fully be exposed.

Also many are thinking from one point of view, US only, this evil is embedded globally. US is the first domino.

Have faith.”

Following the money will reveal the entire web of corruption going back many decades. It has always been the KEYSTONE.

Q drop

167

POTUS opened the door of all doors.

Expand your thinking.

What is the KEYSTONE?

Q

DOGE was planned for a long time.

By making Elon and his data investigators “Special Government Employees,” it allows them to access every department and agency.

Trump knew that when all of this theft of taxpayers money is proven, the American people will scream for justice.

Trump’s team didn’t just hit the ground running, they have hit the entire insurgency with an offensive “blitzkrieg” that they never expected.

They have called Trump “Hitler” for eight years and now he’s hitting them with another boomerang.

Blitzkrieg

Military tactic calculated to create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy forces through the employment of surprise, speed, and superiority in matériel or firepower.

Aren’t the democrats and RINOS in shock and don’t they look totally disorganized?

Why were they so unprepared for this complete dismantling of their entire corrupt system?

Q told us.

“She was never supposed to lose.”

Here’s a Q drop by Trump himself. Trump is Q+.

Q drop

1834

THEY NEVER THOUGHT SHE WOULD LOSE.

NOW THEY ALL LOSE.

Q+

When Trump won the presidency in 2017, the game was over.

Here’s a portion of

Q drop 2

“POTUS knew removing criminal rogue elements as a first step was essential to free and pass legislation.

Who has access to everything classified?

Do you believe HRC, Soros, Obama etc have more power than Trump? FANTASY.

Whoever controls the office of the Presidecy controls this great land.

They never believed for a moment they (Democrats and Republicans) would lose control.

This is not a R v D battle.

Why did Soros donate all his money recently?

Why would he place all his funds in a RC?

Mockingbird 10.30.17

God bless fellow Patriots.”

Trump chose to play the long game because he knew that just removing all of the insurgency, without first exposing all the corruption, would be a high risk for civil war.

The enemy desperately wanted a civil war because that would help them to escape justice.

This is why some of those big influencers on social media were attacking Q followers.

We “trusted the plan” and they were trying to get the American people to arm themselves and rise up to take on the government.

They failed...

I know a lot of people will call me crazy among other things because they think dates came and went with nothing happening... Well what people failed to understand is those so-called dates, we're NOT dates! They were chapters and paragraphs in the "Law of War Manual." I have posted about it before.

I can't change anybody, change is your job🤔

[ghostofskywalker]

There Are Many Benefits to an (Unauthorized) Vacation

RC 1262 Scorch/Fem!Reader

Words: 1,507

Summary: The building tension between you and Scorch finally yields something more than glances and wishes while the squad is taking a bit of time to themselves.

Prompt: "There is no shame in using a pool floatie.” - “Yes there is. I’m shaming you.” || any delta squad

Note: this was written for the @cloneficgiftexchange seasons prompt-a-thon event, which is currently open for submissions! there are a bunch of amazing prompts for every seasonal situation, and i was so excited to try out writing for scorch!

Clone Troopers Masterlist

If the Republic or the GAR ever reached out to you and asked why this mission in particular was taking longer than the originally designated two rotations to complete, you would simply tell them that the team had run into complications when it came to surveillance and simply had to extend your stay in the safe house. You would reiterate the importance of the intel that you were gathering, and even go one step further to remind your superiors of the dedication of the group you were working with. 

The truth however, probably wouldn’t get you any kind of medal or award. 

You didn’t really care though, because this was an opportunity that you would probably never get again. Not only did the safe house you were staying in have a gigantic pool and accompanying lounge chairs, but this was the time of year where the weather was best for swimming. With this planet’s sun high in the sky and no neighbors within earshot of the building, Delta Squad had no trouble making the decision to extend the assignment by a rotation or two (even Boss was on board from the start).

You of course did not complain, especially now that you were laying out on an inflatable raft while the cool water lapped up your legs. Every once in a while a few droplets of water hit your face from the boys’ splashing, but it was never anything bad enough that you actually had to sit up and see what was going on. Right now, you were content enough to just listen to their conversations from the sidelines. 

Scorch, as usual, was nothing but humble about his skills, and was more than comfortable in the water. “I bet I could swim laps around you!” 

“I highly doubt that,” Sev retorted. “We’re made of the exact same genetic material, our speed is the same as all the other troopers.” 

“Wanna bet?” 

Boss’ voice floated through the air at Scorch’s proposition. “Save it for the training facilities, why don’t you?” You didn’t even have to lift the sunglasses from your face to tell that he hadn’t gotten into the pool yet, as the lounge chairs on the patio had become his favorite part of this assignment. 

“Why, Sir?” Scorch called back, voice glinting with the joyful mischief you’ve come to expect from him at this point. “Afraid you’d lose?” 

Boss sighed. “No, I just intend to squeeze every drop of relaxation I can out of our extra time here. It’s not like this will ever happen again.” 

“He’s right,” Fixer’s voice joined the conversation. You couldn’t tell where he was simply by the volume and direction of his voice, but if you had to guess, he was probably sitting on the edge of the pool with just his legs in the water. “I have half a mind to relax like Y/N over there.” 

“You should,” you said as the pool water rose just a little higher, providing the most wonderful relief for your sun-warmed skin. “This is the best experience I’ve ever had.” 

“I don’t know if it’s worth it for how ridiculous you look,” Scorch responded. 

“I do not look ridiculous! And there is no shame in using a pool floatie to relax.” 

“Yes there is, especially when said pool floatie is shaped like a bantha. I’m shaming you.”

You scoffed. “I don’t care what this thing looks like,” you said, finally opening your eyes to look at Scorch with your eyebrows raised. “I’m so relaxed right now, I don’t think a droid attack would even affect it.” 

“Oh really?” A small splash accompanied the commando as he swam over to you, and suddenly you were really close to an incredibly attractive clone (who just so happened to be shirtless). “Even if someone…flipped you?” 

Lifting your sunglasses up so that the two of you could lock eyes, you couldn't help the way your heart fluttered. There was something about Scorch in particular that made you act like a cadet, and now that you had more time to relax, the tension had slowly been building. “Not even then,” you said lowly, reaching up to pat his cheek. 

As you lowered your sunglasses over your eyes once more, you could see a glint of something you couldn’t quite place in Scorch’s expression, and you truly wondered if he was going to try and test your statement (and your patience). But no attack ever came, and you spent the rest of the afternoon floating in the sun, a part of you wishing something further had happened with every passing moment. 

***

In your opinion, the time went by too fast. Tomorrow morning you would be getting back on the ship to receive your next assignment from the GAR, and life would once again become dangerous, tiring, and stressful. Everyone else had stayed inside for the evening, but you were determined to get as much use out of the pool as physically possible, so you had kept your bathing suit out when packing the rest of your things away. 

If floating during the day was like paradise, at night it was some kind of heaven. The humidity had cut significantly, there was a cool breeze rustling the trees, and the chirping of birds and bugs provided a symphony of conversation as you stared upwards, the last trails of the evening light slowly disappearing across the sky. 

The sound of the door opening brought you back to the present, and Scorch’s voice entered the space moments later. “Thought I might find you out here.” 

“Yeah, I really don’t want to leave,” you said softly. 

“Me too,” he admitted, sitting down at the edge of the pool and putting his legs in the water. You watched as he slowly lowered himself in, throwing his shirt on one of the lounge chairs before it got completely soaked. 

It hit you moments later: that Scorch was once again standing over you, and that oh-so recognizable tension was once again building, charging every molecule of air around you. If he leaned down and you leaned up, your lips would be touching. 

“All good things have to come to an end I suppose,” you said softly.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t make the most of things.” 

Maker, you were so close to him. “And how would you want to make the most of it right now?” 

There was a pause, it was as if he was considering all the implications of your words. “I think I’d do this,” he finally said, in a voice much softer than you’ve ever heard him use. 

The moment your lips touched, it felt as though time had stopped. None of this felt real, especially not the fact that you would be returning to the front lines of a deadly conflict tomorrow morning, or that his brothers could walk out the back door at any moment and see the two of you in the pool. Right now, you and Scorch were the only two people in the entire galaxy. 

Or at least, you were until you felt the pool floatie begin to shake, and soon your entire body was plunged into the (pleasantly warm) water. That di’kut. 

You opened your eyes underwater, and you could see a grainy figure laughing above the surface. It was the perfect time to strike back, and you certainly took the opportunity. Leaping up out of the water, you tackled Scorch, using his surprise to your advantage as you dragged him down with you. 

You couldn’t really hear that well underwater, but his joy was obvious. The two of you chased each other through the pool, dragging one another countless times into the now choppy waters and laughing with every breath you took. 

Once again, you two were alone in the galaxy.

It was only when your lips had found each other for the second time did someone else walk out the door, and the two of you broke apart to see Fixer and Sev staring in your direction, one of them looking much happier than the other. 

“Ha, I called it! It’s time to pay up, Oh-Seven,” Fixer laughed, elbowing his brother next to him, who looked genuinely annoyed at the situation.

“You guys couldn’t have waited until the next time we hit 79’s?” Sev grumbled, heading inside to pay his lost bet. 

Fixer just winked at the two of you standing speechless in the pool before following his brother inside, and you were once again alone with Scorch. There was a smile on his face that you were sure not even an explosion could wipe off, and you knew that you must have looked just as wild, soaking wet in the evening’s almost-darkness. “Want to keep making the most of things?” he whispered. 

Your response was to pull him into another kiss, one that was instantly reciprocated. 

Tomorrow you would have to return to the war and the GAR, but tonight, you wanted to make sure that was the furthest thing from your mind.

- the end -

i no longer have a taglist! if you're interested in being notified when i post, you can follow my library blog @ghostofskywalker-library and turn on notifications!

[mission2mordor]

🌈 EMOJI GAME! 🌈

————————-———

Seeing as I’ve been tagged three times by @machtaholic, @pentapoctopus, and one other, let’s play a game for WIP weekend!

I’ve not done very many games or challenges on here just because I’m not avidly active a lot, but I’m attempting to change that, so here we go!

Thank you to @strangerthingswritersguild for the opportunity!

☀️ How it works: you send me an emoji in my asks and I write 3-5 sentences/paragraphs from that WIP! I’m open to any amount or combination.

Options:

🪵 Brokeback Mountain AU - Steddie

🪶 Thunderbird - Steddie bigbang 2k25

⛪️ Steve Harrington big bang fic

⚠️ DANGER ZONE - Steddie JACKASS AU

🏞️ Southern Steddie fic pt 2

🩸 Vampire Eddie AU

🎲🎰 Shake it, Steal it, Run - Steddie pet project (interactive)

🦋 Choices - GrahamScott (Life Is Strange)

No Pressure tags!

@cloudsurfing42 @salamandergoo @hbyrde36 @little-annie @vthx @queenofshenanigans @maxfandoms @pearynice @turinspeachjam

Snippet from DANGER ZONE under the cut!

[The camera opens with Lucas and Mike laughing at Eddie carrying a bright pink pony out of the store, while wearing a ridiculously large hat. Robin and Steve ride theirs around at maximum five miles per hour, and Dustin is for some reason holding a bright pink flamingo inflatable. A few moments later, Jeff, Gareth and Donny all come from the adjacent store, dressed in only inflatable pool floats.]

[Intro theme (clip taken from ‘My Own Worst Enemy’ – Lit) plays, circus horn sounds briefly]

“Please, for the love of fuck, don’t try this at home.” Steve says, pulling his goggles down over his face. Eddie grins and pops up from behind him, hands on his own pair. Robin shakes her head disapprovingly as she pulls her own into place. Mike throws a pink feather boa at Eddie, who takes it and wraps it around his neck foolishly.

“We’re professionals, kids!” Robin calls, situating herself on the horse.

“We’re trained professionals.” Steve nods at the camera and starts trying to get comfortable on the RC horse. Down the line, the others are finding a comfortable position, Jeff trying his best to fit his legs on the horse’s ears.

“Incredibly stupid, borderline insane, trained professionals.” Eddie grins even more wildly. Steve shakes his head and starts to mutter something.

“Eddie, how many times do I have to tell you, don’t use that—”

“I’m Eddie Munson, and welcome to the Danger Zone!” He yells as he runs, sliding his goggles down and launching himself sideways onto his own RC horse, not bothering to get on properly. The air horn Nancy is holding begins to blare and their partners throw the RC horses into full speed.

“Oooooh shit!!!” Steve yells, struggling to fix his feet. Eddie cackles as the horses slide down the hill.

“Giddy up horsey!” Dustin yells and speeds Steve’s horse up.

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟

Just got home from Jamaica but still have a few days of travel ahead of me so answers will still be slow!

Obligatory trip photo until I run out:

69 sentences:

---

It doesn’t take long for the intruders to hear it. The sound of a child laughing, coming from behind the back shed. The laughing tapers off into a quiet chatter as two of the three men go to check it out. Watching from the security cam room, Karen hits the joystick of a remote. 

The men look around, confused, when they can’t immediately see the source of the laughter. There is no child present for them to steal. They look at each other for a moment, then one points. The other follows his gesture to where a little RC car is slowly driving off with a kids recording microphone toy taped to it. 

They say something back and forth. Karen can’t hear. The cameras don’t pick up audio. She hopes they’ll take the bait. She hopes curiosity will proverbially prove fatal. 

She releases a hefty exhale when one of them - a big guy with uncomfortably sharp features - follows the RC car. They’re falling for it. And, judging by the apprehensive look on the other guy’s face, he knows they’re falling for something.  

The RC car picks up speed. Karen doesn’t want to be entirely obvious that she’s luring him towards a trap, but they are. Even if one seems to understand, the other still bumbles after the toy car. Karen carefully weaves it around the rocky landscape. She needs to get this just right.  They’ve only got one chance at two detonations. 

“So close!” Maddie exclaims, watching over Maddie’s shoulder. 

Karen can’t even reply. Her jaw is clenched with focus. This has to go according to plan. 

The second guy, the one who didn’t go after the car, calls the third intruder over to him. They both shout something at the first guy. Telling him to leave it, likely. He listens, to Karen’s disappointment. She holds her breath. 

“No!” Maddie cried. “He was right there.”

He was. He really was. Karen can’t give up now, though. She has to keep trying. 

She spins the car around and drives it right back towards the guy, Away from her ideal destination. She does a few frustrating, taunting circles around the man, then drives off full speed in the direction of one of the two planted bombs. A Hail Mary, or whatever they call it in sports. 

Luckily, she’s right about the sort of personalities she’s dealing with. The man, frustrated, chases after the RC car. He gets closer and closer. Karen stops the car right where it needs to be. 

“Oh, god,” Maddie frets. “I don’t know if I can watch.”

“You need to hit the detonator,” Karen reminds her gently. 

But as it turns out, she doesn’t. Neither of them do. 

The second guy steps off to the side to angle himself properly, raises his weapon, and sends a spray of ammunition at the car. The accuracy is low but the result is perfect. A shot hits the first planted bomb. 

The explosion is huge. Bigger than Karen even expected. There’s a low rumble in the library. The blast is like a thunder clap, even indoors. 

“Oh, my god!” Maddie cries out again.

Karen gasps with relief. 

The remaining two men are knocked off their feet as their friend is killed instantly. One clutches his ears and makes an agonized face. The other scrambles to his feet and stumbles over to the mangled, flaming remains.

[specs-does-stuff]

Jojo's Bizarre Adventures Fan Stands #3! - Twenty One Pilots

Stand Name: 「 Twenty One Pilots 」

Stand Master: Vasylyna Vinya

Power: B

Speed: C

Range: A

Durability: E

Precision: B

Potential: B

Stand Type:  Long-Distance - Colony - Artificial Non-Humanoid

Namesake: Twenty One Pilots - American Alternative Hip-Hop Duo

Meet The Stand:

Manifesting itself as both an RC Remote and a fleet of 21 RC attack helicopters piloted by small toy soldiers, Twenty One Pilots is a long-range, colony type stand commanded by Vas, Vas commands and leads the heavily armed choppers into battle with her remote.

The Twenty One Pilots fleet is divided into two different subgroups, Gunners and Bombers, and with the extra soldiers mounting the chopper’s machine guns, Twenty One Pilots has around 4 soldiers composing each unit, amounting to 84 in total.

Gunners are armed to the teeth with deadly machine guns that possess great range, though their bullets are tiny, they are still very fast and can do lots of piercing damage.

Bombers carry small bombs hidden inside their compartments that Vas can deploy during combat to blow her enemy away or create distance when necessary, the explosions are small, but still dangerous.

Bombers are also equipped with two miniature rockets, don’t let their small size for you, the explosions they create on impact are devastating and easily the most destructive weapons in Twenty One Pilots’ arsenal.

Albeit an undeniably dangerous stand, Twenty One Pilots also has certain limitations that extend beyond it's users' own physical limitations, as the helicopters that compose the fleet are the definition of glass cannons, they can cause great damage, but can't sustain significant battle damage either without running into the risk of being shot down and being put out of commission for the rest of the battle in the process.

Vas also needs a clear visual on her target, Twenty One Pilots cannot and will not engage unless they have a clear shot.

Meet The Stand Master:

Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Vasylyna is the youngest child of the Vinya family, her father being a decorated pilot of the Ukrainian air force and her mother being a Russian nurse.

Growing up, vas was taught to be proud of her heritage and culture, wishing to follow in the footsteps of her father and older sister, Raisa, the latter of whom had already become an accomplished pilot for the air force herself, Vas was determined to bring honor to her family and her country…

That was, until shortly after her 10th birthday, when suddenly, she felt herself getting weaker and weaker, doing basic things such as walking suddenly became much more taxing for the young girl and she’d always get exhausted, her legs feeling weaker and weaker with each passing day, until an incident in her home where her legs suddenly gave out and she found herself falling down the flight of stairs of her home and seriously injuring herself in the process.

Whilst she was in the hospital, vas was diagnosed with Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD) a type of muscular dystrophy that had rapidly weakened her muscles to a point where just walking was an exhausting, painful task for the girl, and unfortunately for the Vinya’s, there no known cure for Vasylyna’s condition, she found herself stuck on a wheelchair to move around, and while her parents were horrified at her condition and the implications this would have on vas’ future, vas was mad, mad at herself for being weak, for now being physically incapable of protecting her country like she had dreamed of, for now she wouldn’t be seen as an equal to her father and her sister… but as a burden.

And unfortunately for Vas, Raisa, the older sister she loved oh so much, ended up being stationed in the boarders of their home country, in order to fight an ongoing border conflict that was tearing up their nation.

Raisa didn't even have time to bid either her sister or parents farewell, before she was dragged off into the war, leaving Vas feeling truly alone in the process.

Vas grew more and more resentful of her situation as time went on, this wasn’t fair, none of this was fair, all her dreams had been taken away from her in an instant, suddenly people didn’t look at her as the brave, strong young girl who would grow up to defend her country and her people, but rather as a weak little girl who couldn’t do anything by herself and needed to be constantly coddled and looked after, they only looked at the wheelchair, not the girl sitting in it.

That was until Vasylyna discovered she wasn’t as weak or defenseless as she was starting to believe herself to be, she came to discover she had a truly bizzare ability, she didn't know the origins of this mysterious power, if they were a gift from god or a malevolent spirit possessing her...

But that was alright with her - for now - she wouldn't be piloting an aircraft.

Instead, she would be commanding an entire fleet.

Faceclaims & Sources for Images Used:

Comanche Defense from Bloons

Armie Buff from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit Of Justice

Fun Fact: Vas was designed for a Jojo's Bizzare Adventure RP I signed up for last year, which you might notice why she has so much more lore behind her compared to some of the previous characters I shared in here, unfortunately the RP itself didn't pan out, but I still really like Vas and I wanna get a chance to user her in a future RP one day.

Also, yes, it IS the same type of stand as Bad Company. I just think it's neat!

[darkfictionjude]

As another fellow RC baddie I feel I need to say my fav stories and who I romanced

My first ever story I played on the app was Heavens secret, I started out w Lucifer bc he was the biggest red flag but then Malbonte came along and I ran to him, stayed w him through heavens secret 2 🤪 I was also on the both path? i forgot what its called but u can balance ur demon and angel points and be on both paths

Then w Kali Call of Darkness I chose Amrit cuz red flags and a lik crazy, loved that story to death, the prequel starting off okay but it became rlly meh

I liker Arcanum, and the plot twist was actually crazy (i forgot who i romanced, the ro's werent that interesting, i wish i could ro myself)

I also liked on thin ice and I stayed w hodge

Now onto the ongoing stories

THE CRIMSON NILE HAS ME HOOKED, I WILL GIVE MY LEFT KINDEY FOR THIS STORY. I ofc had to go with Amen bcuz HELLO? tall, strong, mean? UGH AHH AHH AHH

Astreas broken heart is also good, but when I found out it was connected to Heavens secret and heavens secret requiem i was kinda disappointed at first (spoiler for you? idk, hope not if so im sorry Jude) bc I wanted stuff w the supernatural with werewolves and vampires and stuff but I was romancing everyone praying for a reverse harem route to open up but it didn't so I chose Malek 😛😛😛

Heavens Requiem, i love it and Cain is just so yummy HEHHEH, im acc on the devil route cuz idk theres something abt being bad rather than good, There was also something so good abt Yan but I had to go w the bigger and badder man bc yea

I liked garden of eden but I feel the plot needs to speed the fuck up and romancing Doo-yeong is so hard cuz we barely see the mfer

The time catcher having a poly route but barely giving me anything has be ripping my hair out! DO BETTER HOE

But yeah, tihi, theres alot more stories, I been playing for like 3 years or some and the older stories I played for gems bc the artstyle was too.. yeah no i couldn't get into it.

There also needs to be a mermaid/siren based game on that app because there aren't any and there aren't much mermaid/siren based games anywhere 🥲

Also theres lik tip if anyone needs it, idc if its cheating but i can't play without the walkthroughs, I NEED THEM FOR MENTAL HEALTH. if u go on google or whatever and search for example "heavens secret walkthrough" it will take you to a page and theres a lot of info ok everyone too and stuff so yh

I will do the siren story nonnie if ever they open writing applications again or… I move to Moldova and learn Romanian haha which ever comes first 😭 ngl it would be fun to make an interactive visual novel like wwc in there

I play with the walkthroughs too! I like perfect runs so I need and I use it to see where romance content is coming up to save diamonds

I also romance the trash puppies 😞 I am too obsessed with growing my collection of red flags

[superm4ks]

im very happy max won but the more i think about his pole being taken away/vsc or safety car not being deployed immediately/the flip flopping bw dwys n yellows and green flags etc. the more cynical i feel about the sport🙁what do u think? is this weekend an outlier or is this j how things are now? common sense out of the window, decisions taking ages…

UMMM I'll hold ur hand when I say this but Qatar definitely wasn't an outlier, prolly the most egregious showing since the sprint in Brazil, but F1 always has like 4 races in every season where u kinda wonder if ur watching a sport 😐 This gonna get long but theres some important context I think ur asking for here also I kinda lose it at the end I'm sorry but yuh.

Saur after Vegas everybody was like omfg daddy Marques is here to save us, he addressed some basic track issues and nobody got fucking paralyzed by a pothole exploding thru their ass hurray, so there was hope that maybe Marques was off to a better start than his predecessors and wud maybe give the fans a better ending to the season. But putting Qatar after Vegas is like quizzing somebody on shapes and then asking them to solve a rubriks cube or whtvr.

Qatar was originally built for motogp so the whole thing is designed to be quick and relentless. That means lots of medium to high speed corners, long straights basically 2 hours of edging ur braking. Most drivers consider it a cool track, very demanding sure but fun to drive. For us fans, though, its an odd 1 because theres no reference points so it can be hard to follow. Think of it as the opposite of tracks like Miami or Monaco. RC did a particularly heinous job here because Qatar was Marques' first taste of a track where u either plug the first leak in record time or the whole thing goes to shit. Like, his job.

A lil lesser known fact is that they had Marques on double duty that weekend because the person who replaced him to direct the F2 heat got the boot before her plane even landed and they had NO one else to do it. So Marques had to direct both the f1 AND the f2 Qatar races the same weekend. And thats not all. Just before his inaugural run in Vegas he had just been at the helm of the iconic Macau GP that saw 12 red flags in 40 minutes of qualifying. I wont even tell u how many SC were deployed but only 12 out of 27 drivers finished the race. Ugo my most beloved won so this has nothing to do wid Qatar and Macau and the way its used by the FIA in terms of junior development is a can of worms I cant open rn but like just to show u thats the type of shit Marques had been dealing wid on a weekly basis once we got to Qatar. So truly bro never stood a chance.

When Alexs mirror fell on track the only possible course of action is to get it OFF. Idc if u wanna do VSC or a full SC u need to clear that track NOWWWWW. 3 cars caught strays from that mf before a SC was even deployed. To fuck up that badly that early in the race just showed exhaustion, it showed immaturity and frankly it showed incompetence. Its unacceptable. Wud a different RD have reacted earlier? who tf knows tbh, because these 'mistakes' always happen and they're always dismissed as 'one of those crazy ones' in the season and nothing ever gets done to improve the standards of the personnel ((theres no personnel left btw)).

Then u got the long awaited return of the stop and go and drive thru pens which was super forced and made no sense and immediately showed why those bitches been sat in a corner catching dust because theres literally always better alternatives and they almost never serve actual officiating purposes. 'Precedence' means fuck all if u also have the 'precedence' of not fucking doing that and being way more consistent and delivering better racing. But ohhhh he had to stop in the pits and THEN he had to go back out ohhh he had to go thru an area of the track thats not the right one and lose a bunch of time and become essentially worthless in the race we love when competitive cars do that. Sorry this isnt directed at u I just have a very particular beef wid fans who act like drive thrus and stop and go's are these celestial artifacts that are gonna restore balance in the universe like the harder u throw the book at these drivers the better the product will become. I cud live 200 lives and not have enough time to explain how thats the actual furthest thing from the truth but ur innocent and ily so lets regroup. ❤️ My actual conclusion to ur q is that this is how things have always been and no they're not likely to improve. Unfortunately I gotta borrow even more of ur time to show ur how truly bleak it cud get real soon.

FIA been circulating a bunch of changes to their rules that are prolly gonna be approved at their general assembly in about 10 days. These 'new statutes' include 1) changing the governing bodys ethics rules so that Sulayem can in fact talk to drivers however the fuck he wants and THEY will be held in contempt for criticizing him 2) the 'compliance officer' responsible for overseeing Sulayems spending cannot report to an independent committee and propose an investigation unless directly asked by the Senate President who .. and ur not gonna believe this .. is appointed directly by Sulayem. 3) yes u understood it correctly FIA will prolly become a system where the FIA president and the president of the senate that he chose decide each other's fate in any ethics inquiry.

Sulayem is up for re-election and its becoming more and more likely that hes gonna run unopposed. A sporting director, a technical director, multiple heads of mobility, communications, legal affairs, the women in motorsport commission, several race directors, stewards, a compliance officer, deputy directors. All fired under his watch. Dozens of others quit.

Stewarding has become so abysmal Max received a one place grid drop AND a penalty point as a mitigating punishment for something he literally didnt do under circumstances that didnt warrant any type of punishment let alone a mitigating one like the document literally says that 'unusually, neither car was on a push lap' because if they had been on a push lap max wud have received a 3 place grid drop but 1 and 63 were not on push laps so naturally we have to give Max a one place grid drop and a penalty point for not doing the thing that he would've been punished for had he done it. This isnt even the most controversial or confusing aspect of this years Qatar race. Im gonna kill m

So about ur cynicism and ur concern and ur general discomfort wid how the future is looking. When the GPDA posted that ig statement telling Sulayem to watch his tone and asking where the money was, these proposed changes to the ethics commission and the financial oversight were the FIA's direct answer. And if they do go into effect on December 13th bro I think Abu Dhabi gonna be the end of more than the 2024 season.

Happy Wednesday lmfao

[artificialinsanity]

Hunting the Missing Link

Written by TheShootingRaiStar and @home-sweet-hive

Story Summary: When a mysterious individual crash-lands in the sleepy town of Starlight Edge, four unassuming individuals begin on a journey to find its origins, kickstarting a chain of events that would alter thier lives forever.

Chapter Summary: On the run from the police, and running low on time, the group tries to find any way to break away from the action, and continue thier mission, while encountering some old new friends along the way.

[Previous]

[Next] (TBA)

Story under the cut.

A loud screech echoed through the quiet night in Starlight Edge, followed by the blaring wails of several sirens as Emily’s Eclipse careened down the street with several police cars in hot pursuit, tracking and following her every move. Swerving to the left, then the right, every which way, down the tightest roads in a half sensical manner, and past open, now vacant streets at blistering speeds, Emily somehow managed to evade the seemingly neverending onslaught of police for an admittedly brief amount of time, as soon enough, more were right on her tail again almost immediately.

“How the hell are there so goddamn many of them!?” She exclaimed in confusion as she took a hard right, causing the car’s occupants to slide in thier seats despite thier seatbelts.

“I know, right?” Stella said as she was thrown into the passenger door. “They’re like the cops in the Highway Robbery franchise - They just don’t quit!”

“This is just like in City Escape!” Lyla exclaimed over the commotion. “How the hell are we gonna get out of this?

“What I do know is there's not nearly enough space for us all on these streets.” Emily yelled. “I might have to take this onto the highway.”

“Hold on - What of our mission?” Ellipse blurted out from the trunk.

“Can't you see we're a bit distracted right now!?” Emily screeched in anger, before making a hard left near RCS Field, taking her out of town.

As she swerved onto the highway with all the grace of a pug riding a skateboard on an iceberg, a massive, swarming wave of cop cars crashed in from the on-ramp like a tsunami, chasing down this single Mitsubishi Eclipse with damn near every cruiser in the entire state. Shifting and swerving in between traffic to keep her speed up, Emily shifted into a higher gear, and swerved into oncoming traffic to throw off the cops.

“Jeez, this heat's not letting up,” Emily exclaimed. “It's like we're boiling alive out here. How's Vicki?”

“Still asleep!” Lyla yelled from the backseat, almost surprised. “Somehow.”

“Let's hope she stays that way for now,” Emily replied. “As for the rest of you, hang on!”

Stella began to interject: “To what?- oH CRAP-”

Suddenly, Emily swerved to the right, hard, enough to spin the car completely sideways. Then, with a few careful flicks of the wrist, even further than that. Suddenly, the car was completely turned around, the steaming skidmarks the tires left on the pavement still fresh. Then, Emily sped off back the way she came, as she left the swarm of cops to keep speeding off behind her.

“Heh. So long, suckers!” Emily said with a gentle chuckle to herself.

But just before she could catch her breath, another cop pulled in from the off-ramp, and began pursuing the quartet.

“Oh, you've gotta be fucking kidding me!” Emily exclaimed in frustration.

“May I make a suggestion?” Stella interjected.

“This car is stock, it has no nitrous. Plus, nitrous doesn't even work like that.” Emily predicted.

“Not what I was gonna say.” Stella said. “That's a Lyla thing, anyway.”

“I FEEL LIED TO!” She yelled from the back seat.

“So what's your brilliant idea, Stella?” Emily spoke again.

“Okay, hear me out - slow down.”

“You're crazy.”

“No no, trust me-” Stella began to explain. “It's like a brake check. Maybe we'll catch him so off guard that he just flies right past us, leaving us to sneak away like nothing happened!”

“Sure, maybe if this were an action movie,” Emily retorted. “How the hell do you expect that to work in real life?”

“Hold on, Emily-” Lyla said from the backseat. “I have faith in Stella's plan.”

Emily gave a long, drawn-out sigh. “Alright, here goes nothing.”

And with that, she stepped on the brakes, going from 100 to 0 as quick as that poor Mitsubishi Eclipse could. And somehow, just as predicted, the cop car pursuing them just completely passed them, allowing Emily to turn around and keep driving as if nothing happened.

“Huh.” She blurted out. “That worked too well.”

“TO NOTHING!” Lyla cheered in excitement from the backseat.

“What made you have so much faith in Stella anyways?” Emily asked Lyla in confusion.

“Hmm. Dunno!” Lyla exclaimed. “Guess it's just luck?”

Emily narrowed her eyes a bit, but continued driving uninterrupted regardless, only to check her mirror and see that the cop they just shook off caught on to thier ploy. And this time he brought company - 4 more cop cars were now pursuing them.

“Shit!” Emily exclaimed. She began to floor it in the hopes of outspeeding them, but it was no use - One of the cruisers pulled up to her passenger side rear wheel. Emily knew what was about to happen, so she simply braced herself for the inevitable.

Just as she predicted, the cop car pulled to the right a bit, and slammed into her rear wheel with full force, spinning her sideways. If she wasn't careful about this, this could be it, and it would be over for all of them.

Luckily, whether it be through sheer skill or just dumb luck, Emily managed to spin the car in just the right way so that the wheels were still aligned with the road. However, she quickly realized that she was facing the wrong direction, and shifted gear into reverse just in time to keep speeding down the road, nearly as fast as she was before.

“Holy smokes, Em!” Stella yelled in amazement. “Where'd you learn skills like that?”

“Hell if I know,” Emily responded. “Maybe it's just luck?” This time, Lyla was the one to narrow her eyes at Emily through the rearview mirror.

“Hang on, I wanna do something-” Stella said to Emily before rolling down her window.

“Stella, are you sure about this?-” Emily began to ask, but Stella was already busy sticking her head out the window and flipping off the cops that were now in full view of thier front bumper.

“FUCK OFF!” She shouted before retreating back into the car.

“Stella, do we really need more trouble with the law!?” Emily exclaimed with astonishment and concern.

“We're already this deep into this, what's the worst that can happen?” Stella said in response.

Suddenly, Emily had to step on the brakes, as she noticed in her rearview mirror a police roadblock. She stopped and swerved, and while shifting into another gear, the cops that were chasing her created a roadblock behind her, boxing her in.

“We have you surrounded!” One of the officers shouted from thier cruiser. “Come out with your hands up!”

Emily glared at Stella with murderous intent.

“Yeah, it's always a stupid idea to say something like that.” She admitted.

“What are we gonna do!?” Lyla panicked from the back.

“Stay calm!” Stella assured Lyla. “I'm sure Emily can get us out of this mess!”

“Where the hell would we even go? They have us boxed in!” Lyla continued.

“I'm sure we'll think of something!” Stella tried to calm Lyla down. “It's never over until you say it is!”

“It's over! We're gonna rot in prison for the rest of our lives!”

“Don't be so defeatist, Lyla! Emily's gonna get us out of this mess! Right, Emily?”

“...”

“...Emily?”

Emily was completely frozen in terror. There was nothing she could do. The police had her car boxed in, this was it. She couldn't save anyone. She had doomed her friends to a lifetime in prison. Everything had gone to shit, and it was all her fault. It always was her fault. Everything was her fault. The only thing she could do was just accept the consequences of her action, and wait out the inevitable. With a heavy head, and a heavier heart, Emily put the car in park, and began to roll down her window.

“What are you doing, Emily?” Stella asked, confused.

“Giving up.” Emily said in response.

“We surrender!” She shouted out the open window to the officers. “We'll come quietly. We mean no harm.”

“I thought you said Emily had a plan, Stella?” Lyla shouted, still panicking.

“I- I'm sure she still does!” Stella tried her best to be calming, but even she was hesitant to believe her own words at this point. “Let's just…

“Let's just see where this goes…”

Emily steps out of the car, hands above her head. Stella follows soon after, and, much later, Lyla, trembling, follows suit. A police officer steps out of his car and approaches them.

“Do you have any idea how many crimes you've just committed?” The officer, Brian again, asked them.

“Several.” Emily replied.

“Now's not the time to be coy,” Brian said. “You're all gonna go away for a LONG time. This all of you?”

Emily began. “No, there’s-”

“Just one.” Stella interjected. “In the back. Just be gentle with her, she's still asleep.”

Brian was just about to open the back door of the Eclipse, when his eyes glanced over to Lyla.

“And what about you, twitchy?” He said, in a clearly nasty manner. “You got something to say? Something to get back to?”

Lyla tried to stomach her fear. “N- n- no, sir.”

“You s- s- sure about that, little miss stutter?” He replied in a mocking tone. “Sure there isn't something m- m- more important you could be doing?”

“D- Don't patronize me.”

“Ooh, patronize! I'm surprised you know that word!” He said with clear animosity. Stella could tell his hand was already on his gun.

And then Lyla's hand twitched.

It was involuntary, but it didn't matter. The officer took it as a sign of aggression, and fired at her. Lyla was too caught off guard to avoid the shot, and it hit her in the shoulder.

And with that, it was as if something snapped in Emily. Something that finally put her in the right headspace. This wasn't over. This was FAR from over. And if the cops are going to treat her friends like this? Then she would rather die fighting for thier safety than subject them to this any longer.

Thinking quickly, she gave the officer a leg sweep, knocking the gun out of his hand.

“Back in the car!” She shouted. Stella and Lyla did so immediately.

Now Emily was seemingly back in her prior predicament of having nowhere to go. But this time, she wasn't gonna let that stop her. She revved up her tires, put the car back in drive, and blasted through several police cruisers to wind up back on the highway.

“That paint job's gonna cost a fortune to redo!” Stella yelled to Emily.

“Your lives are more important than some silly paint job!” Emily shouted back. “Just trust me, I know a surefire way to lose them. For now.”

“That sounds promising.” Lyla added sarcastically, still recovering from her earlier panic, and wound.

“Just shut up and trust me!” Emily added in her signature cold, but caring attitude.

Emily pulled right up to the guard rail, clearly waiting for something. The police, quickly recovering, began swarming her again, pulling ever closer to her bumper. Suddenly, as the guard rail broke away near an exit ramp, Emily pulled her car into a hard swerve to the left, driving directly into oncoming traffic, just as the cop car behind her was about to shunt her bumper.

It was then when Emily saw a sign that reassured her - Road Work Ahead. That meant this plan was going to work after all.

“Let's hope it doesn't.” She said to herself as she sped up.

“Uh, what do you mean, Emily?” Lyla asked with concern.

“You'll see.” Emily responded, cocky and confidently.

She noticed on her left some flashing signs and knew what she had to do. Yelling at everyone to hang on, she tore through the cones and jumped through a hole in the guard rail, ramping herself off the highway. Though, on her way through, she accidentally clipped a pebble, sending the car into a barrel roll. Everyone held thier breath as the world span around them - Stella grabbed the handle above her seat, Lyla held onto the seat in front of her, and Emily held onto the steering wheel tighter. Before they knew it, everything was upside down, and Lyla began to feel a little lightheaded. Then the world once again became sideways, and Lyla reached her hand out to make sure Vicki didn't get hurt. This continued for what felt like an eternity, before the Eclipse just barely managed to flip right-side up before hitting the ground again. Emily sped off as quick as she could, but not before checking her rear-view mirror to make sure no one was stupid enough to follow them after such a stunt.

No one was there. For the first time in what felt like hours, the coast was clear.

Everyone in the car briefly cheered to each other, before realizing something all at once:

Where do we go now?

“Try that back alley!” Stella shouted, pointing to an alleyway behind a professional looking building. “Just as a temporary spot for now until we can find something better.”

And so, Emily pulled into the alley, and set the car to a stop, providing a brief respite in this rollercoaster of a night.

–

Some time passed, and everyone was given a chance to take a few long, deep breaths. Save for Ellipse, who doesn't have lungs. The car had been parked and shut off for now, so as not to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves as Emily had said. The group had all dispersed to various places closeby, also save for Ellipse, who was told to stay in the trunk: Stella had stayed in the car next to the still sleeping Vicki, Lyla was leaning against the building, holding her still somewhat fresh wound, and Emily was leaning on the hood of the car, head down, looking forlorn.

“So what do we do now?” Stella finally asked. “Where do we go from here?”

“I don't know,” replied Lyla. “I hope we'll make it out of this.”

“I know we will,” Stella answered.

“Frankly this has been a rather confusing endeavor, and I am unsure as to why you insist that we must do these things,” Ellipse butted in from the trunk.

“Dude, it's the cops,” Stella remarked. “Have you never interacted with the police before?”

“Awfully bold of you to assume I have.”

“I-” Stella was genuinely perplexed. “I am genuinely perplexed right now. I- What do I even say?”

“They shoot people, for one!” Lyla shouted. Stella reminded Lyla of Emily's earlier advice in a bit of a harsh tone.

“I shoot people, too, you know,” Ellipse added. “How am I any different from these ‘police’?”

“The cops enforce thier own form of ‘justice’ by shooting anyone they deem unflattering,” Stella offered.

“Did I not threaten to do the same to you when we first met?” Ellipse added in response.

“I- Ellipse, you're not a cop, okay!? I don't know how else to put it!” Stella yelled, forgetting her own reprimanding of Lyla earlier.

“Yeah, dude, you're our friend!” Lyla said.

“So friendship differentiates ‘cop’ from ‘non-cop’?” Ellipse questioned. “Why not just befriend the cops, then?”

“Ellipse, no, that's not how that works-” Stella interjected.

“I don't think the cops WANT to be our friends, Ellipse,” Lyla added. “They shot at me, for one.”

“I think you mentioned that,” Stella responded.

“Oh did I? Sorry about that, it's just that I got SHOT IN THE TORSO-” Lyla yelled back, sarcastically.

“Are you fuckers done arguing yet?” spoke a sleepy voice from the backseat, in a slurred, Irish accent.

“Oh, hey Vic’,” Stella answered. “Did we wake you? I'm sorry.”

“That, and I heard gunshots,” Vicki said in response. “What the fuck happened?”

“Heyyy Vicki," Lyla slurred, coughing up a bit of blood. “How are things?”

Vicki paused for a moment, in a combination of shock and worry. “Lyla, I want you to be brutally honest with me. Please don't lie like you normally do:

“Are you injured?”

“What? Noooooo!” Lyla lied.

“She got shot in the chest,” Stella answered for her, feeling bad.

Vicki went white. “I'm sorry, she fucking WHAT?”

“It's not THAT bad-”

“YOU GOT SHOT IN THE CHEST, LYLA! Why haven't we taken you to a fucking hospital already!?”

“Because we were being chased by the police?” Stella added, which just made Vicki more angry at the rest of them.

“What the everloving fuck happened while I was asleep!? You got chased by cops and Lyla got shot!”

“Yeah, that's pretty much everything, I think-” Lyla tried to recall.

“I mean, we did also do a barrel roll at the end there-” Stella added on.

“That's it - I'm not fucking sleeping tonight,” Vicki concluded in anger. “I'm not sleeping a goddamn wink until we get out of this mess.” Saying this, she also pulled Lyla over to her to patch up her wounds.

“It's all my fault…” Emily spoke to herself, but just loud enough for everyone else to hear her.

“Maybe it was if you were this irresponsible!” Vicki shouted, letting her anger control her. “Why the hell didn't you try to stop any of this!?”

“I tried, you ass!” Emily yelled back. “My failure to do so is why we're IN this mess!”

“Guys, please, stop fighting!” Stella interjected, worried.

“Stella! Why the hell didn't you wake me up when things started getting bad?” Vicki raged. “Why did you think it was a good idea to let me sleep like that?”

“I- I don't know, okay!?”

“And why the hell did you fuckers let Lyla get shot? She could have died, and believe me, if she had, the fates I'd have for you would be MUCH worse than death-”

“Do you think we fucking WANTED this, Vicki!?” Emily snapped. “I didn't fucking want this when I got us into this mess! And yet here we fucking are! My incompetence nearly killed my best friend! I nearly got us incarcerated for life! I endangered all of our lives! Did you think I did that on fucking PURPOSE!? Do you think I'm TRYING to kill you!? It was an accident, you piece of shit! And of course it was my fault this happened! It's always my fucking fault!”

“Where the fuck is all that racket coming fro-!?”

Suddenly, Dr. Theo Clysedale walked out the back door of the building they were parked near, shocking everyone involved. Ezriael followed close behind.

“Stella!?”

“Ez!? Theo!?” Stella exclaimed in shock. “What are you two doing here!?”

“We live here?” Both Clysedales said at once.

“...Huh.” Stella replied in unsatisfactory shock.

“Anyway, what's with all the shouting?” Theo asked in bleary response.

“Oh, just a spat between friends,” Stella answered back.

“Just a 'spat', huh? You sure about that!?” Vicki shouted, still enraged.

“I can’t help but to agree with the corvid on this one,” Ezrieal remarked. “The tone seems too… dire for just a ‘spat between friends’.”

“Ugh, alright, fine,” Stella remarked with a disgruntled sigh. “We got chased by the cops.”

The Clysedales were stunned in silence, clearly looking for some kind of response, but coming up short.

“We're fine, though, honest!” Stella quickly added for clarification's sake. “Aside from Lyla's injuries-”

“Injuries?” Ezrieal said. 

“What do you mean by ‘injuries’?” Theo added.

“I think my wailing about having been shot in the chest would be enough to clue you in,” Lyla added sarcastically.

“Well, it's not like either one of us could make out the words from out here,” Theo pointed out.

“Yeah, that's fair,” Emily added, still somber.

“But regardless of any of that, a shot in the chest is quite dire. How about you all come inside the clinic and I can help get that patched up for you, hmm?” Ezrieal then offered.

“We appreciate the offer, Doc, but, aren't you a wisp physician?” Stella questioned, confused. “Do those qualifications overlap?”

“Ah- Well- You see, I-”

“It’s just simple first aid, my dear. I’m sure anyone could do it, especially Ez.” Theo explained on Ezrieal’s behalf.

“For a bullet wound?” Lyla chimed in, perplexed.

“Is it not in your mind?” Ezrieal inquired, pulling themself together.

“I think you need to go to the ER for things like that-” Vicki spoke, no longer as angry.

“In this economy?” Theo questioned.

“Yea, but-”

“Hold on, Stella,” Emily interjected. “They do have a point. Hospitals are expensive, and we don't have the money, or the time, to spare.”

“So now you trust them?” Stella added, pointing out the hypocrisy.

“Do we have any other choice?” Emily said. “We're kind of at the end of our rope here. We're on the run from the cops, Lyla's injured, and we have no place left to go. We either take the hospitality, or it's over. For all of us.”

“Typical Emily, always having a plan,” Lyla teased.

“Hey, someone has to-” Emily teased back.

“Very well, then! Theo, you help the yellow one to the clinic. I’ll help carry anything else you all might have on hand.” Ezrieal instructed, beginning to walk towards the trunk of Emily’s car.

“I have a name, you know,” Lyla responded, slightly agitated. “It's the only one you've heard so far?”

“Oh, and one more thing-” Emily began. “Don't open the trunk.”

Ez jumped back at that statement, right around when they looked at the badge of the car. “What, is there a dead body in there, or something??”

“Well, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm alive-” Ellipse finally spoke from in the trunk.

“And just who are you??” Ezrieal exclaimed, flinching.

“Do I really have to do the spiel again?” Ellipse groaned.

“Yeah, that's Ellipse,” Stella said. “Fell at our doorstep, lost his memory. All this is kind of his fault.”

“I can hear you, you know,” He responded.

“I don't care,” She replied snarkily. “It's true.”

“... ‘Ellipse’… huh?” Ezrieal said.

“You know that punctuation, with the three dots?-”

“I AM AWARE, THANK YOU-” Ezrieal lashed out at Ellipse, seemingly out of nowhere. “... Ugh, I wanna go back to bed…” They added, grumbling.

“So does that mean you're not gonna help us then?” Emily asked, concerned.

“... Right, right. Yes, I will. Sorry if I implied I wasn’t going to.” Ezrieal responded.

“Welp, guess since the cat's out of the bag, or, rather, the Ellipse is out of the trunk,” Stella spoke, kicking the rear fender of the car twice. “That's your cue, dumbass. Get out.”

“Why are you so aggressive all of a sudden?” He said, stepping out of the open trunk.

“Because tonight is hell and I'm mad at you. Come on.”

The five of them followed the Clysedales inside, through the back door into a surprisingly luxurious looking home. The soft warmth of the entrance rug was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the attention-grabbing quality of the home’s furnishings, the nicely polished marble countertops sitting upon rustic and yet well kempt wooden drawers looking especially homey as they reflected the house’s lighting that was just as warm as the rug - and in contrast to the somewhat chilly feeling of the kitchen’s tiled flooring. With that and how it looked even more polished than the countertops, it was easy to assume the floor had been recently mopped.

“Wow,” Stella spoke in awe, taking in the sights just long enough for a noticeable pause in her words to elapse. “You guys live here?”

“It’s quite nice, ain’t it?” Theo remarked.

“It's nicer than where I live, and I make four times living wage,” Emily spoke, a twinge of jealousy noticeable in her admittedly dull tone.

“Well, I must thank you dearly for such compliments,” Ezrieal said. “Theo and I made quite the effort in making this place our own~!” Thier comment seemed to imply that the home’s impressive decor was achieved through D.I.Y., and for the counters, the wooden dining table placed opposite to the cooking supplies, and even the little island counter in the kitchen’s center, this claim was believable. But the sight of a wood oven existing comfortably within the rest of the cooking appliances in the kitchen made the idea a bit less convincing.

“No way, this is the good kind of oven!” Stella gasped with excitement. “Oh, I bet you could make the best kind of pizza in this!”

“H- Hey! Maybe now's not the best time to be sightseeing!” Vicki interjected, a slight stutter returning to her voice after her prior outburst. “Lyla's still injured, remember?”

“Oh, yes! The clinic area is just beyond here.” Ezrieal spoke, making thier way across the kitchen and proceeding to unlock a door that was placed at the end of the room. The door was one of five, the others connecting from the kitchen from various other points. One looked to lead to the home’s bathroom, another two seemed to lead to a pair of bedrooms, while the last, rather mysteriously, seemed to also be locked.

“What's in there?” Emily said bluntly, pointing at the mysterious door with several padlocks on it.

“Don’t go in there.” Theo told her, not answering her question.

“Normally, I wouldn't,” Emily began, “But since we've shown you our secret, well, fair is fair-” As she concluded her thought, she pulled out a hairpin.

“What do you think you’re doing??” Theo snapped rather suddenly. His voice hadn’t gotten any louder, but the sudden sharpness with which they spoke in the moment was sure to give some whiplash regardless. “I just told you not to go in there!”

“And I'm pretty sure I told you not to look in my trunk,” Emily egged. “And yet here we are.”

“The robot made his presence known with his own doing, I at no point did so much as touch your… vehicle.” Ezrieal argued.

“Yeah, I guess that's fair,” Emily concluded, putting her hairpin away. “I mean, it's not like whatever's in there is stupid enough to make its presence known, or anything.”

“For some reason I feel like I should take offense to that,” Ellipse said.

Ezrieal and Theo shared glances with each other that lasted for a rather extended amount of time, before looking back at the others looking rather unimpressed.

“Well, fair's fair, and fair says that's enough for one night,” Emily said playfully.

“I certainly agree.” Ezrieal answered bluntly.

“Are you done being a little shit now?” Lyla jabbed. “I feel like we keep getting distracted from the fact I've got a bullet wound in my chest. Do we all have ADHD, or something?”

The room fell quiet.

“Huh. Lucky guess,” She concluded.

“Wait, hold on a second, I just remembered something - This is the clinic?” Stella asked, dumbfounded.

“No. The clinic is in here.” Ezrieal replied, opening the door to reveal a room that looked just like a doctor’s office - almost uncannily so compared to the cozy vibes of the kitchen. Stella had remembered this room from her visit earlier today. “Lyla, please take a seat on the chair over here.” Ezrieal kindly instructed as they made thier way to the small desk placed in the corner of the room, populated by several stacks of medical papers, a small computer, and a keyboard and mouse to go with the computer. The chair Lyla was asked to sit in was a few feet from this desk, placed in the center of the office.

“No shots, please, I'm allergic,” Lyla joked as she sat down, practically falling into the chair with nearly enough force to break a board.

“Of course not, dear! The one you’ve endured today must be quite enough stress already, I imagine.” Theo jested. 

Lyla audibly guffawed at such a response. “That's a good one!”

“Thank you! I try.” Theo said.

“Now, Lyla, I’m going to have to put you under anesthetics for a little while, just while I patch up your wound, alright?” Ezrieal informed her gently.

“Well I assume some minor surgery is required, so yeah that's expected,” Lyla spoke nonchalantly, almost as if she wasn't still bleeding.

“Fair enough.” Ezrieal remarked, placing the Schimmelbusch mask over Lyla’s nose and mouth, the anesthesia beginning to flow into her system and beginning to put her in a state of slumber.

“So how long do you expect this to take?” Lyla said just before going under.

“Oh, not too long. Probably just half an hour, really.” Ezrieal answered.

—

Stella, Emily, Vicki, and Theo were sitting in the waiting room, which was just as homey feeling as the kitchen had been. It had the same warm lighting, a rug that covered most of the floor that was even warmer and fluffier than the entrance mat had been, an arrangement of very comfortable looking chairs all throughout the room, and even a fireplace attached to one of its walls! They had been here for a few moments waiting for Lyla's recovery, when somebody spoke up.

“Oh, by the way, Stella.” Theo had said, catching her attention.”Where’s Vimu? I haven’t seen him at all since we came inside, come to think of it.”

“Oh, he's in the car,” Stella confirmed.

“Oh, that’s good! I was afraid that you had forgotten about him, or something.” Theo replied with relief.

“Nah, he's fine!” Stella said. “He's got snacks and video games in there, he'll be fine.”

“Hey, speaking of snacks, I'm kinda hungry.” Emily added.

“Understandable! Allow me to grab some for you.” Theo told them, leaving through the entrance door, most likely planning to enter the kitchen as all of them had earlier rather than going through the clinic again so as to not disturb his sibling.

Entering the kitchen once more, Theo was rather shocked to see Ellipse still standing in the middle of the room, as if waiting for some sort of command.

“What are you still doing here, robot?” He questioned confusedly.

“The entrance was a bit crowded, so I decided to wait here until you guys got back,” Ellipse responded.

“... Oh. I… That’s understandable, I suppose.” Theo said. “Well, your friends are in the waiting room right now - aside from Lyla. Would you like me to take you there?”

“Uh, sure,” He responded, sounding slightly confused. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course it is! Ez is just patching Lyla up right now in the clinic.” Theo explained cheerfully.

“That's good,” Ellipse said in a pleased tone of voice. “How long do you expect this to take?”

“Not very long at all, just about a half an hour, according to Ez! I was just about to grab some snacks for the others to have while they wait.!” Theo answered.

“Hang on - a half hour?“ Ellipse asked, slightly concerned.

“Oh, did you have plans?” Theo wondered.

Ellipse tapped the side of his head twice, changing his eyes to the face of a digital clock reading 8:30:21 PM. “That's cutting it very close. We have to be out by 9.”

“I see. I’ll ask Ez if they can speed things up a little for you - as much as safety will allow, anyway.” Theo offered. “I’d hate for us to cause you all to run late.”

“I should probably go tell the others the news,” Ellipse said. “Don't want them to be caught off guard now.”

“Good idea,” Theo spoke. “Would you mind taking this with you, too?” They then asked, handing a bag filled with various snack foods to Ellipse.

“Uh, sure,” Ellipse said. “I promise to deliver this payload swiftly, and with minimal damage.”

“Yeah, I’ll be counting on ya, you hear?” Theo replied light-heartedly.

“Yes, sir!” Ellipse said with a salute, before catching himself, realizing the awkward situation he's put himself in. “Er, wait, uh-”

“Now now, let’s not hesitate, robot!” Theo insisted, already heading out of the kitchen and to the clinic room. “Time is of the essence, isn’t it?”

“Yes, boss- Dammit, I did it again!” Ellipse yelled.

Theo simply chuckled slightly in response before leaving the kitchen entirely. Ellipse then proceeded to slink out the back door awkwardly, before quickly rushing around to the entrance.

“Oh, hey Ellipse!” Stella yelled as he entered with snacks in tow. “Where's Theo?”

“He's checking up on Lyla,” Ellipse said in response. “Which might cut it a bit close to our deadline.”

“Wait, what?” Vicki asked.

“The doc said it'll take half an hour, and it's currently 8:31.” Ellipse confirmed. “We may be a bit delayed.”

Suddenly, Theo came back into the waiting room, entering from the clinic door. “Sorry for the wait ladies - and El. I talked with Ez and we’ve managed to cut down our operating time to 15 minutes. I hope that’s not still too long for you.” They explained.

“That should be plenty. Thank you very much,” Ellipse replied.

“Oh, I’m glad!” Theo exclaimed. “Though, if you don’t mind me asking… What is it that you’re in such a rush for, anyway? Does it have anything to do with you getting chased by the cops earlier?” He then inquired.

“I'm afraid that's going to have to remain a secret,” Ellipse replied, genuinely unsure himself. “But yes, yes it is.”

“Oh, I understand!” Theo replied. “I’ve been there before.”

“You have?” Stella questioned, shocked and confused.

“Yes. But I’m afraid that such a thing is also going to have to remain a secret.~” Theo answered. “For now, at the very least.”

“That's fair,” Emily said in response.

–

After just a few more minutes of waiting, Ezrieal poked thier head out from the clinic door. “She’s all ready to go!” They announced.

“Well, that was fast,” Emily responded.

“You’re welcome!” Ezrieal exclaimed.

“Hey guys! What'd I miss?” Lyla said, walking upright as if nothing had even happened.

“Eh, not much.” Emily answered.

“Figured as much,” Lyla stated. “I think I had a nightmare while I was under, but deep down I knew things would be okay.”

Stella tackled Lyla to the ground in excitement.

“Easy, Stella!” Emily chastised. “She's still recovering from her wounds!”

“Emily is right, my dear.” Theo interjected. “You shouldn’t be so rough with her so quickly. Even with-”

“What are you talking about? I healed up a couple of minutes ago!” Lyla interrupted.

“... Right.” Theo uttered, looking a bit stunned.

“Wow, that procedure must have been quick, if you've already recovered!” Vicki exclaimed.

“Actually, we just finished.” Ezrieal revealed.

“Huh,” Stella said flatly. “Neat.”

“Well, I suppose you all should get going now, yeah?” Theo remarked.

“Oh, where are you off to?” Ezrieal asked.

“Can't say,” Ellipse said. Emily's ear twitched. “I'm afraid we must keep this a secret,” He continued.

“Well, if you can’t tell us, maybe you can show us, then?” Ezrieal then proposed, even catching Theo off guard.

“Huh? Whaddya mean by that, Ez??” Theo questioned.

“We’ve already closed up for the night, why not go out for some fun tonight?” Ezrieal elaborated.

“Uh, guys-?” Emily got up from her seat, and began to say something, but was seemingly ignored.

“Well I guess it has been a bit since we’ve gone on an adventure of any sort. Especially on our own!” Theo recollected.

“Exactly! We deserve a little treat. ~” Ezrieal stated.

“Well, I’m convinced.” Theo said, following up with something towards Ezrieal that the others couldn’t quite understand.

“Well if you're coming along, then come with me,” Emily spoke, frantically rushing to the back door. “We have to leave. Now.”

Theo and Ezrieal silently nod in unison and follow behind Emily. Stella and Lyla get up off the floor and follow behind, a little confused, with Vicki trailing a little behind.

“Wait, right now?” Ellipse said, following the group in the back.. “Why?”

“We have you surrounded! Leave the premises with your hands up!”

“That’s why,” Emily muttered with a sigh. “The cops are back for us. I heard the sirens.”

“Yeah, I’ll have my hands up alright. Up in fists!” Theo exclaimed, cracking his knuckles.

“Not today, Theo. This is a getaway, not a battle.” Ezrieal reminded him teasingly.

“Wait, the car only has 4 seats!” Vicki yelled out. “What are our seating arrangements?”

“Theo and Ezrieal will have to squeeze in the back with you and Lyla!” Emily shouted back. “Ellipse is gonna have to go back in the trunk!”

“Why am I ALWAYS in the trunk!?” Ellipse hollered, slightly offended.

“Because if they find out about you, the rest of us are dead!” Emily yelled back. “Now get in the fucking trunk!”

And so the seven of them rushed out the back into Emily's Eclipse, with Emily obviously in the driver's seat, and Ellipse climbing into the trunk. Stella took the passenger side, and Lyla, Theo, Ezrieal, and Vicki all squeezed together to fit into the back seats, as Emily put her key in the ignition, and got the hell out of there as fast as she could.

“Well, here we go again,” Lyla groaned. “Try not to let me get shot this time.”

And thus, the chase was on, again. They were like Pac-Man running the maze, with thousands of angry ghosts hot on thier trail. Zigzagging through the streets of Starlight Edge, it was hard not to feel the tension and fear of everyone involved. Even Emily, the coldest, most emotionless of the 7, couldn't help but grimace out of fear and remorse.

“Were there this many of them on your tail last time??” Theo questioned, sounding both astonished and concerned.

Emily checked in her rear-view mirror and saw at least 50 cops behind her with a single cursory glance. “No! What the fuck!?” She blurted out in shock.

“This is less of a chase, and more like a goddamn ambush!” Ezrieal exclaimed.

“Where'd they get the funding for shit like this!?” Vicki suddenly shouted.

“We need to get off the streets before we're boxed in!” Emily disregarded the question, and booked a hard left near RCS Field like before, hoping to open things out on the highway, before quickly screeching to a halt, as she ran headfirst into the thickest police roadblock she'd ever seen. With the swarm of cops piling up behind her, she knew there was no exit. Not even sneaking around would work this time.

This was it. She had truly failed. And it was all her fault.

“Emily. I can tell what you’re probably thinking at this moment, and I want you to stop that train of thought at once. There’s still a way out of this!” Ezrieal piped up.

“How?” Emily leaned her head back and sighed, defeated and afraid.

“We go on the offense!” Theo answers her with a wide grin, pulling out a Lightning wispon from a bag that he had with them - one that had gone unnoticed until now.

“Woah woah woah!” Stella stammered. “Won't that just put us in more trouble? More danger?”

“Not if we’re efficient enough!” Ezrieal responded, also pulling out a wispon from the bag, a Rhythm wispon.

“I don't think this is a good idea at ALL!” Stella shouted.

“They're right,” Emily spoke, a fire in her eyes. She’d had enough. She was tired of running away from everything. She was tired of being backed into a corner like a scared animal. She was tired of letting her fear win. She was going to pick up the Power Pellet and turn the tables, because it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do. It was either this or risk the safety of everyone she cared about.

And she was not going to let that happen again.

Never again.

Emily pulled out a pistol from under the dashboard, and brought it to her side. “If they want a battle…”

“Let's give them a war.”

Saying this, she fired a round out in front of her, puncturing the gas tank of one of the cruisers, lighting it up in a fiery explosion that cascaded to all the other cruisers around it. After a few short moments, she put the car in drive, spun her wheels, and floored it to the highway as fast as she could.

“That was incredible!!” Theo shouted excitedly.

“Where did you get that pistol from, if you don’t mind me asking?” Ezrieal inquired.

“Stella made it!” Emily shouted back, excited. “It's a special kind of pistol that allows me to fire my own quills at high speeds! And it even comes in a set of 2!”

“I hate bullets,” Stella stated. “Too messy, and too unwieldy. I prefer firepower with more exotic ammunition anyways.”

“Well in that case - excellent craftsmanship, my dear Stella!” Theo exclaimed in awe.

“Thank you!” She shouted back, blushing slightly.

“They feel reminiscent of a Spike wispon. To me, anyway.” Ezrieal remarked.

“I've never heard of those before,” Stella said, slightly puzzled. “Perhaps you could show me sometime?”

“I’m sure I have one back at the clinic that I could use to demonstrate at a later date.” Ezrieal replied.

“Can't you guys make date plans some other time!?” Lyla interjected loudly. “We got bogeys on our six!”

“What?” Theo said.

“She means we've got cops on our tail,” Emily explained, looking at her rear-view to see 5 cruisers still in pursuit. “Which is a problem.”

“Let me see if Theo and I can lock onto them from the rear side windows!” Ezrieal proposed.

“Not sure if my wispon is the type for that range of attack, but-” 

“Hold that thought,” Emily said, determined, slowing her speed down slightly. “I've got an idea.”

“What are you gonna do?” Vicki asked with a devilish intonation.

Emily looked out her side window as a cop car pulled up next to her.

“What do you call a male sheep?” She questioned.

Just then, she swerved to the side, slamming into the cop car at full force, spinning it out and knocking it off the road. Immediately afterwards, both of the Clysedales, as well as Stella, began to cackle loudly. Vicki hollered something, but it was basically inaudible behind the laughter, and her heavy accent.

“I don't get it,” Lyla retorted.

“Ram, Lyla. The joke was ‘ram’,” Emily said in response.

“Ohhhhhhhh,” Lyla spoke. “I still don't get it.”

“God damn it, Lyla,” Stella exasperated with a sigh as Emily finally hit the on-ramp onto the highway.

“Are we clear to initiate our plan of attack now, Emily?” Ezrieal asked.

“Yeah, I guess. As long as nothing else goes wrong,” Emily responded.

Suddenly a large thump was heard, and the entire car shook violently. Emily had to use some quick thinking to keep it steady.

“What the hell was that?” Lyla pitched in, slightly frightened.

“They rammed into our back bumper!” Theo explained.

“A shunt?” Stella added.

“Is that what it's called?” Theo queried.

“That's what the Ignition franchise taught me,” Stella remarked, rather proud.

“We’ve been shunted!” Theo announced once again.

“Ugh, I'll teach you to scratch my paint, you porcine bastard!” Emily cursed, before slamming yet again, sending the cruiser off the road and slamming directly into the concrete divider between highway lanes, crumpling its front bumper and sending its driver flying.

“Ooh, visceral!” Lyla exclaimed.

“Hmph… Seems that things keep going awry whenever we attempt to execute our plan. Perhaps we should forgo it for the time being.” Ezrieal suggested to Theo.

“You’ve gotta be kidding! We can’t just give up! Not like that!!” Theo argued. “You know what they say, third time’s the charm!”

“I thought it was ‘the more, the merrier’?” Lyla butted in with a snicker.

“Also that, but that phrase is irrelevant to the current situation.” Theo dismissed.

“Hey, that's not entirely true!” Lyla argued. “For example: More firepower equals a merrier time for all of us!”

“Speaking of firepower,” Vicki chimed in with devilish intent, “Can I shoot at some cops, too?”

“Vicki! That's highly irresponsible and dangerous!” Stella chastised, causing Vicki to roll her eyes. “Having two people shoot out of one window at the same time is never a good idea! Wait your turn.”

“Works for me!” Vicki giggled.

Theo and Ezrieal gave each other a nod and positioned themselves on each side of the backseat area - Theo positioned on the right side and Ezrieal positioned on the left. Sticking thier heads out the windows corresponding to each side, they both took a few seconds to assess the situation taking place before them before putting thier wispons into position as well.

“Ready?” Theo spoke.

“Aim.” Ezrieal replied.

“Fire!!!” Lyla shouted, looking out the rear window and pointing with gusto. The two took that as thier cue, and fired thier wispons on all cylinders to the best of thier ability. Ezrieal used thier Rhythm wispon to crack windows and send cars flying backwards with its audiosonic soundwaves. Theo used his Lightning wispon to send electrifying shockwaves back towards thier pursuers, and temporarily disabling thier engines. Whenever a car got close, Ezrieal would signal to Theo, and he'd strike with his Lightning wispon, flipping cars and shutting off more engines with each blow.

“Heh. That went better than I expected it to!” Theo remarked.

“Naturally. ~” Ezrieal surmised with a hair flip.

“Not to cut this short,” Emily interjected, “But there's still a few more behind us.”

Vicki chimed in with a gasp, star in her eyes. “Is it my turn?”

“Yes, Vicki,” Emily affirmed. “It is your turn.”

Vicki lit up with emotion, pulling out an ornate, futuristic bow from behind her, and equipping herself with a quiver she hid under her seat. “Lyla, spot me!” She shouted, and Lyla poked her head out of the opposite window while Vicki aimed, guiding her sights.

Lyla shouted “On your right!” Vicki fired an arrow with a smooth motion, striking the engine perfectly.

“Left!” With barely any recovery from the last shot, another smooth shot straight through the windshield, missing the driver by less than a centimeter. He spins off the road mere moments later.

“Center!” Vicki pulls three arrows from her quiver and fires them one by one like a machine gun, striking the most vital points and leaving the car to rust on the side of the highway.

“One left! Give it your all!” With this, Vicki pulled out one final arrow, and aimed further down than before, firing directly into the cruiser's front tire. At speed, the arrow provides the car with lift force, flipping it off the ground, and onto its hood, where it soon explodes in a blaze of glory.

Lyla and Vicki briefly celebrate in the car, before Vicki decides to play dead, and lie limp in the backseat, playing up the theatrics.

“Vicki?? What are you doing? Are you alright??” Theo questioned with concern.

“It's simple!” Vicki spoke with a giggle. “Now I'm just like those cop cars - a Downed Victoria!” Vicki, Lyla, and Stella all erupted in laughter at the joke.

“... I am afraid that we do not understand the joke.” Ezrieal spoke on the behalf of both themself and Theo, who nodded in agreement.

“Oh, those cop cars are a specific model of Ford vehicle, known as Crown Victoria's, or Crown Vic's for short,” Stella began. “Cop cars have been Crown Vic's for decades, and they are the official Ford vehicle of the police.”

“Ah.” Both Ezrieal and Theo uttered in response.

“Hey guys?” A voice finally spoke from the back. “I'd hate to crash your party, but we're late to ours.”

“Huh?” Stella looked out her window in shock, and it was then when she noticed it - a red blimp on the horizon, headed south.

“Shit, he's right!” Emily scowled. “We gotta get out of town now! We need to follow that blimp!”

“What about the cops?” Lyla responded.

“We'll just have to find a way to lose the heat!” Ezrieal exclaimed.

“Same method as before? Or should we try something new this time around?” Theo wondered.

“Shooting at them just seems to attract more,” Emily stated. “We need to get them off our tail for good.”

“Perhaps we try a roadblock?” Stella said, pointing out a semi truck in front of them on the highway.

“How are we gonna do that, Stella?” Emily chided.

Suddenly, the trunk of the car burst open, Ellipse pointing his arm cannon directly at the semi. He fires, sending a shockwave towards the truck just rough enough to flip it over, blocking all the officers from pursuing them.

“That should buy us plenty of time!” Ellipse said as he receded back into the truck. “Now get moving!”

“Roger!” Emily said as she looked for an exit ramp.

“Is that your target?” Theo inquired, pointing out the blimp.

“Well, you're in the thick of this with us now, no point in hiding it anymore,” Stella lamented. “We're chasing that thing to its destination, looking for answers as to what the hell our friend in the back really is.”

“Well, that explains the rush you all were in earlier!” Ezrieal commented.

“But what it doesn’t explain is why you had kept it a secret from us until now.” Theo added.

“I- Look, sometimes you just gotta keep things secret, just in case it's some kind of accidental government secret or war crime or other such illegal things,” Stella tried her best to explain after a brief pause. “We don't know anything, so we just have to make some assumptions.”

“Fair enough.” Theo relented, also after a brief pause.

“Okay, we're coming up on the best exit we have!” Emily shouted to everyone. “This next exit is a straight shot south, so we'll be out of town and en route in no time!”

“Sounds good to me!” Stella yelled in response.

Suddenly, just as they pulled off the exit ramp, 25 more cop cars pulled in behind them, continuing thier chase.

“Oh my gods, can these fuckers give it a god damn break!?” Emily cussed, blinded by rage.

“Everyone! Back into position!” Ezrieal commanded.

“On it!” Theo instinctively responded.

“That's IT!” Lyla burst out in frustration. “I am SO SICK of this BULLSHIT! This has gone on LONG ENOUGH! GODS, It's like a fucking HYDRA! You get rid of one, and it spawns 50 MORE! I'm ENDING this!”

“Wait, Lyla-!”

But before Stella could finish, Lyla had already jumped out the window and ran to a nearby gas station.

“You wanna play with fire, fuckers? Let's see how badly you get burned!”

She delivers a swift kick, and the entire thing goes up in a massive burst of flame, smothering the entire stretch of road in fire, smoke, and ash. Lyla had quickly rushed back to the car, speeding away rapidly, watching as the entire sky was clouded in the aftermath.

Once safely out of the city, Emily pulled her car to a stop at the side of the road, and everyone got out to watch it all unfold.

“Do ya think there’s any casualties down there?” Theo speculated.

“Theo-!” Ezrieal immediately scolded him.

“I'd sure hope not, or we'll be in big trouble when we get back,” Stella fretted.

“They don't seem to be following us anymore,” Emily pointed out.

“Maybe they realized we were more trouble than they bargained for!” Vicki chuckled.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case!” Theo remarked. “You all did wonderfully out there, and with our help, it made us as a collective practically unstoppable!” 

“And this gives us a clean getaway,” Ellipse added. “Ensuring the safety of our mission.”

“Oh yeah, that's right!” Stella remembered, pointing to the Clysedales. “I assume you two will no longer be joining us?”

“What makes you say that?” Ezrieal puzzled.

“You guys have jobs, right?” Stella queried. “At the Clinic? You're doctors?”

“Oh!” Theo exclaimed.

“Right!” And then Ezrieal exclaimed as well.

“Suppose then we should make our way back!” The two of them concluded in unison.

“It was a pleasure working with you two, Theo and Ezrieal Clysedale,” Ellipse remarked, bowing to one knee.

“Likewise.” Theo responded. Ezrieal kept quiet. “Well, I hope we see you all again soon! Especially you, my dear Stella. ~” They added, he and Ezrieal beginning to make the walk back to the clinic - but not before Theo handed Stella a small card with a phone number on it. Written on the back of the card, in rounded handwriting, were the words:

You're cute, call me~ ♥︎

-Theo xo

Stella could barely hide her blushing. It was a good thing Theo had his back turned.

“Hey, lovestruck!” Emily called out, breaking Stella out of her trance-like state. “We should probably get going, too!”

“O- Oh! Right,” She finally stammered, getting back into the car as Emily drove off into the night, following after the mysterious red blimp.

To Be Continued.

[justascug]

More predictions for the ep later today! some are explained under the cut if it doesnt make sense

Traps as obstacles- Basically expanding more of whatever the fuck was up with Needle & the pumpkin she picked that was booby trapped. They never elaborated on that after so I assume maybe there'll be more to make it as more of a challenge in phase two? Or it could just be BFDIA being BFDIA

Firey isn't recovered- Could be a chance due to the contestants immediately delving into phase two of the challenge and forgetting about him. Maybe he'll stay dead for that ep so that Leafy doesn't run into him? I also like the theory that Leafy will be the one to recover him at the end, paralleling BFDIA 13

TB's cheating escalates- This one's pretty obvious since they've really been leaning TB into being more 'villainous' but I do think there's still a chance for Golf Ball to reign him in after she caught him. Perhaps it will escalate to the point of penalization/punishment? Though the host doesn't really seem to care much

Everyone teams up on Needle- Needle has a huge advantage + immunity already so she has a big target on her back for sabotage.

Coiny is actually upset- Honestly not really sure about this one myself, but I've seen people theorize that Coiny is pushing his true feelings down about being upset at Pin leaving him to fall,

"Pin! Alliance, remember?"- Goes hand in hand with Leafy potentially meeting Pin. She wants a friend so she tries to make Pin remember the 'good ol days' like she did with Needle, that being her alliance with her, and how they won the first challenge together to convince Pin to let Leafy help her

Book snaps- oh Book. She definitely seems disheartened by her loss & losing streak in general, especially after being so close to winning. As more people point out how bad she performs, she could get more and more upset until she snaps..

Needle super speed- Goes hand in hand with the delivering concept; since contestants may need to be quick on their feet to distribute their items, Needle could pull out her super speed in order to gain an easy lead

WTFers hinder TB- 50/50 on this one since the WTFers evidently love TB a lot and are probably willing to help him win the challenge by distributing themselves, but they are also clingy and may want to stick by TB's side, taking the challenge unseriously and messing around, which could hurt TB in the long run

Leafy's map helps out Book- If the challenge is to distribute items, Book can use Leafy's map to teleport to different locations to do so since she still has it. Though it could be just a Leafy thing she can do, but who knows?

RCs are important- Another one going hand in hand with the delivering concept. Maybe the contestants will have to distribute their items to different recommended characters around the land.

Needle forfeits her win- Since Needle is already safe from elimination, imagine she chooses to help someone (Book) instead of winning for a second time. Maybe this is how she's still in Freesmart for IDFB; she sacrifices another win for a Freesmart member instead of winning for herself since she's already done so. Plus, she knows Book is a weak player, so she may decide to help her out of pity.

Contestants deliver their items- Basically what I think phase two of the challenge will be. The contestants will have to distribute/deliver their items all over Goiky under a time limit. Whoever has the most items delivered will win immunity.

[thecrenellations]

Top 5 Lymond ships?

I’m going to keep this to romantic* ships, but my list of top 5 Lymond relationships of any kind definitely includes some platonic and family ones (and is even more difficult to confine to 5).

*other or additional adjectives may certainly apply…

click below for spoilers and because my answers got long. Augh, these characters!

Francis/Will - The nicknames! The fights! The stars! Strip tarocco and its narrative implications! Then the wedding day sheep battle, the tactical cross-dressing, “everything there was to know about Lymond’s way with women” ?!?!, the ring, the way Will is there at Midculter when Francis comes home in DK… They’re such a disaster, in hilarious and serious ways, but they make it through to real trust and friendship in the end, and I just love them.

Francis/Philippa - Their relationship is always important and telling and entertaining, and after a certain point but before the suffering sets in, they just keep making each other smile and laugh, by accident and on purpose. Reading their scenes in RC is like genuinely being in the room with them, with banter and chemistry that is PALPABLE and makes me into a third wheel, but as a reader I also have insights that they don’t, so I’m in on it too? Or something. They love each other so much! And after everything, they get to be together. Francis, you fool, this is what you should be!

Francis/Jerott - if you’d told me when I was in the middle of reading the series that they’d be on this list, I’d be like, “Uh, ok, sure. Dorothy Dunnett has changed my opinion about characters before.” If you'd told me when I had just finished the series, I’d go, “Huh??” But here I am. There is so much wrong with both of them, and we know it all too well, but they are so important to each other, and Jerott is one of the characters closest to the story's heart. Getting Jerott safely out of the disaster that is DK is one of the things Francis promises himself, and he’s so glad when Jerott decides to stay. Their relationship, especially in PiF, becomes deeply devoted and strange and delicate and absolutely full of self-deception on both sides. But Francis never stops trusting him, even when he’s busy running away from all of his own feelings with increasing speed, even when Jerott is being awful to him. And all the desperate conflict within Jerott distills to the essential element of being there for Francis, every time it comes down to it. Also, the way Jerott calls him his first name more than anyone else (on-page, in the series’ scope) messes me up.

Marthe/Güzel - I REALLY wish we’d gotten to see more of them. For Marthe, PiF is (among many other things) this long, agonizing breakup, but we only get a few clear glimpses of it. That scene between them in Djerba! Marthe plays a song wishing misfortune on the brother she knows her girlfriend is zeroing in on, and she cries because Güzel has happiness (does she though 😬) and she has none! And I cry too! And the whole mess that web of relationships becomes is fascinating (and one of the clearest examples of how queer these books are, yay), and there's also the parallels with Francis and Margaret, to consider? Anyway, to quote @sophosthewisebunny, Marthe deserves better than the shadiest bitch in the Mediterranean/someone who would leave her for her brother, but their relationship is very interesting.

Francis/Güzel - Rereading RC, every scene between them made me feel dead inside, while also making me want to run around screaming and then return to my book to savor every word. There’s so much going on with them, hardly any of it good, and since I was just thinking about the previous ship on the list, I have to wonder how their relationships to Marthe affect how they relate to each other, because that’s an interesting question, too.

honorable mention to Francis/Míkál, entirely because of this, and Francis -ahem- Lymond/Richard Chancellor, because another thing that happened as I was rereading RC was that I realized just how much I’d missed about how important they are to each other, in such a rare and needed way (the first time, I was busy losing it about the brother prophecy and yelling at Francis to be friends with Adam and Alec again).

[officialbambiprescottdeardearest]

PlayStation 7 RC Drone Controller – Advanced Combat Defense Edition

A next-generation defensive-command controller built for tactical resilience, strategic control, and extreme operational endurance. Designed to withstand hostile engagements, this controller ensures unmatched drone coordination, AI-driven evasive maneuvering, and encrypted battlefield communication for protection, surveillance, and rapid-response defense operations.

🛡️ DEFENSIVE-FOCUSED DESIGN

Structural Resilience

Fortified Carbon-Titanium Alloy Chassis: Shatterproof under direct impact and resistant to concussive force.

Ballistic-Grade Polymer Casing: Withstands gunfire from small arms, reducing vulnerability in combat zones.

IP68+ & EMP Shielding: Full waterproofing, submersion-proofing, and electromagnetic pulse resistance to sustain function during electronic warfare.

Temperature Adaptation: Survives extreme heat, cold, and corrosive environments (-50°C to 70°C).

Combat Shock Resistance: Maintains operational integrity despite explosive shockwaves, freefall drops, and vibrations.

🛠️ DEFENSE-ORIENTED CONTROL & NAVIGATION

Fortified Control System

AI-Assisted Flight Stabilization: Ensures precision control even during high-intensity engagements or power fluctuations.

Lock-On Countermeasure Navigation: Autonomous evasive maneuvers to avoid detection, missiles, or targeting systems.

Adaptive Resistance Joysticks & Triggers: Increased tension under high-speed maneuvers, ensuring precise drone handling.

Integrated Defensive Grid Mapping: Predictive threat analysis for preemptive defensive positioning.

Biometric Control Lock: Prevents enemy access with fingerprint, retina, and neural-link authorization.

🔐 DEFENSIVE SECURITY SYSTEMS

Unbreakable Tactical Communication

Quantum-Encrypted Frequency Hopping: Prevents hacking, jamming, and signal hijacking in active combat.

Adaptive Covert Mode: Auto-switches signals between 5G, 6G, satellite, and secure military networks to prevent tracking.

Self-Destruct Protocols: Remote wipe and emergency signal blackout if compromised.

Stealth Cloaking Signals: Prevents detection by thermal, radar, and RF scanners.

🛡️ DEFENSIVE COMBAT & COUNTERMEASURES

Active Protection & Tactical Deployment

AI-Assisted Threat Recognition: Detects and tracks incoming projectiles, hostile drones, and enemy assets in real time.

Auto-Deploy Jamming & Counter-Intel Systems:

Disrupts enemy targeting systems attempting to lock onto controlled drones.

Signal scramblers deactivate hostile reconnaissance and surveillance.

Remote EMP Defense Protocol to disable nearby enemy electronics.

Advanced Drone & Multi-Agent Defense

Multi-Drone Tactical Formation:

Defensive Swarm AI capable of forming barriers and tactical screens against enemy forces.

Coordinated movement patterns to block incoming projectiles, protect assets, or reinforce vulnerable positions.

Autonomous Guardian Mode:

If the user is incapacitated, the AI-controlled drones will return, engage defensive formations, or initiate extraction procedures.

🔋 DEFENSIVE POWER SYSTEMS

Sustained Operation & Emergency Recovery

Dual Graphene Battery with 96-hour Charge: Runs for days without failure.

Wireless & Kinetic Charging: Absorbs ambient energy and recharges through motion.

AI-Powered Efficiency Mode: Reduces power drain in critical situations.

🚨 USE CASES FOR EXTREME DEFENSE & SECURITY

Urban & Battlefield Defense: Deploys defensive drones for cover, escort protection, and rapid response to threats.

Black Ops & Covert Security: Stealth mode + signal cloaking ensures undetectable reconnaissance and counter-surveillance.

Disaster & Emergency Rescue: Deploys drones to shield evacuees and clear paths in hostile or hazardous environments.

Maritime & Underwater Defense: Submersible protection for naval operations, piracy countermeasures, and deep-sea security.

🛡️ FINAL REINFORCEMENTS

Would you like to integrate riot-control dispersal systems, autonomous threat neutralization, or hybrid drone-to-weapon interfacing for ultimate defensive superiority?

[7er1ch0]

So i finally watched all the transformers bay movies and Id like to share my ranking of the movies and thoughts.

1 - Age of extinction

The lack of everyman character Sam Witwicky and the fact that up until now they forgot that the transformers were actual characters and not just weapons and source of all explosions, so everyone was actually interacting with each other and had a fucking personality, that and dinosaurs make it the least worst out of all of these.

2 - The last knight

One of my friends called this the dumbest transformers movie and he wasn't wrong. from the 15 minute speed run of the last of us, the uninteresting romance plot, to the fact that they made my boy Hot Rod French. The only thing that made this movie enjoyable was cogsman.

side note, I now have to rewrite the premise of the movie for a transformers ttrpg.

3 - The first one

sheer nostalgia will go along way.

4 - Dark of the moon

i was trying to think about something that I liked about this movie, and aside from Shockwaves worm, its only better then the second one simply because the second one was so fucking boring.

5 - Revenge of the fallen

this was written during a writers strike and it shows. it was so fucking boring that its the only movie i didn't finish with my friends. I finished it by myself and i had to do it in sittings. plus the little rc car humping the woman's leg and the main character was almost sa'd by a fucking robot and it was treated like a joke really made it hard to watch.

it must be known that while these movies objectively suck i still love them. Except you revenge of the fallen.

[ripplingcurrents]

[The bucket of lava spontaneously starts melting.]

RC jumps back, swearing at the smell of burnt wood and liquified metal. Their first instinct is to try to catch it, they’re not really thinking straight in the moment of surprise. Their hand reaches out and a piece of metal spits, jumping up at them and onto their index and middle finger.

“Fuck!”

The pain is blinding, and instinctively they jerk their hand as if to dislodge the droplets. Instead it smears them, up and in the direction of the thumb, like twin teardrops. Their ears ring and breath hitches.

RC bolts for the sink. They turn on the tap and immediately the sink again starts shooting out rusty water. They jam their hand under it. They don’t care about the rust or whatever it is in the water. They need it cooled.

A shudder crawls through them as they hold their hand under the sink. The water gushing around it looks like a stream of blood. Their ears ring, they must have screamed something awful; though they don’t remember it in the flurry of panic.

They cast a wary look behind them. The lava is dripping, eating away at the counter and floor, though it’s not making any real progress is spreading. It’s mostly going downwards, thankfully, and not outwards. Nothing is in the way of its path apart from the countertop and the flooring. A small mercy.

Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum. Their heart races in their chest, way too fast and unsteadily. They don’t take their hand out of the water. Their mind tracks through the limited first aid they’d brushed up on.

Cool water for burns. They don’t really have control over these taps, as they gush whatever temperature water they want, but right now it seems vaguely cool at least. A first step.

They stand there for a good few minutes, anxiously waiting for the burns to subside. It’s no longer hot, but they sting like a bastard, the twin tear shaped marks burned into their flesh. They don’t know how deep it is. They’ll have to wait and see. Really, they’re mostly gritting their teeth and pushing through the pain.

Right. Pain. They have painkillers.

Finally they pull their hand out from under the stream of water. They let the tap run, as they don’t want to test their luck in getting it back on at a time like this. Then, they step around around the sizzling and charred remains of the counter, giving a generous berth to the damage, and head to their bag.

It’s awkward fumbling for the first aid kit with one hand. More so seeing it’s their non dominant hand that they’re using. However they manage to get it open, as well as the pill bottle and its lid. They take three painkillers. It’s not the strongest stuff they have, just regular over the counter stuff, so it shouldn’t do any damage. The regular dose is one to two after all. Three shouldn’t cause any real issue.

Unscrewing the cap of a nearby water bottle, they down the pills and water in record speed. It’ll need time to kick in, but it should handle the worst of it.

Pain meds acquired, they stumble back to their feet and return to the kitchen to check on the lava situation.

It has now eaten through the cabinet completely. Today the flooring is a stone tile, so mostly it just sits in a puddle on the ground. The bucket is a shell of what it was. Warped to nearly nothing, it’s twisted and melted so only fragments are left. The rest has seemingly been eaten by the lava.

They grab a mug, and quickly start throwing water on the orange puddle, hoping to get rid of it. It splatters, sizzling like water thrown into a hot pan of grease. They opt for a bigger water container.

They find a fuck-ass, big pot. It’s the kind a grandma might use for canning, or big family stews and it takes a god awful time to fill up. As it does, RC supervises the lava. Lifting the filled pot is an effort, but they’d trained strength before even leaving for this trip. They manage to heave it up on the edge of the sink. Then they hop up on the counter, and overturn it onto the lava as best they can.

The lava spits and hisses like an angry creature as it makes contact with the water. As it dies, it attempts to splatter RC, however, due to them having hopped up on the counter, none of the splashes actually hit. Once that dies down, RC refills the pot and does it again. And again.

Slowly, the lava stops moving. It stops hissing. It dies. The only sound is RC’s ragged breathing and beating heart. They don’t get down from the counter. Instead, they sit up there, awkwardly crouched under the cabinets and catch their breath. Their heart slows.

Gods that was…awful. Their lips purse as they eye the black puddle of rock now sitting artfully in the centre of the kitchen. Carefully they slide off the counter, around the rock, and head to the lost pile.

They’re looking for something long and solid, something they can use to poke the rock and make sure it’s not just a crust but really solid all the way through. Eventually they find a steel pipe that looks like it came out of someone’s sink. It will do.

They poke the rock as if it’s a dead creature. Once. Twice. It feels solid. There’s no crust, no horrible surprise in the centre waiting to gush out. It’s just…a pool of dried lava.

Their right hand wipes across their face in exhaustion and pain spikes up their palm into their arm. Fuck right; the burns. Fire averted, lava killed, and no more imminent danger, they finally take a look at their hand.

It’s not too bad. The drops were small enough that they dried quickly, and their quick action getting it under the sink likely helped. Now, they’re left with two marks, a bit smeared towards their palm, red mixed with a bit of white and already starting to bubble. Ah they suppose that is to be expected. The pain is still there, though it’s minimized thanks to the pain killers. Coincidentally, it’s the same hand that has the deal scarring, though that remains untouched and unblemished by the further up burns. It seemed this hand is really acquiring the scars.

That tugs a deeper frown to their lips. They may have to learn to shoot with their other hand if this keeps up.

Their eyes drag back to the rock on the floor. A grimace spreads across their face.

They may also need to find a way to pay Webby for kitchen repairs.

[jack-in-the-dark]

Jack Builds Spaceboats: The Hyperion Part 3: Kit & Caboodle

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on this game, and some information I present may be erroneous.

So it's about time I talked about the Hyperion's gear. As mentioned, she's built primarily for phaser damage. That said, she also sports one fore and one aft photon torpedo launcher - because also as mentioned, she's a Federation starship. She's not leaving Spacedock improperly equipped, I don't care how much DPS I'm losing.

For the DEWS (Deflector, Engines, Warp core, Shields), she's running an Elite Fleet Intervention deflector (which gives her bonus crit chance and crit damage, a boost to hull and shield capacity, and some bonus speed/turn), the Mycelial-Wave Impulse engines from the Discovery rep (the expected bonuses to speed and turn, plus a boost to engine power out of combat, and to shield power when in combat), an Elite Fleet Plasma-Integrated Warp Core (boosts power transfer rate, makes energy weapons cheaper to fire, and gives a bonus to shield power equal to a percent of my weapon power), and Tilly's Review-Pending Modified Shield from the Discovery rep (enemies I attack take 10% more damage to shields, plus gives me +120% passive hull regeneration for the two-piece Discovery rep set bonus).

Since she's a Miracle Worker ship (I haven't covered that yet, all you need to know at this juncture is that it give me an extra universal console slot), and T6-X2 (two bonus universal console slots), we've got three universal console slots to play with - on top of five engineering console slots. What we do with that is fun.

A while back, STO added "Advanced Consoles," that do really cool things that no other console does. Catch is, you can only have one kind of Advanced console equipped. What we're using here, to maximize our beam damage, is seven Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifolds, with a mix of modifiers that boots either beam or phaser damage.

To elaborate what makes these so good, the damage of energy weapons in STO is based on your Weapons subsystem power level. At 50 power, your energy weapons deal 100% of their damage. Each point of power adds 2% damage up or down, and (typically) your Weapons subsystem caps at 125 power - anything above that adds drain resistance instead. Also, firing energy weapons drains Weapons subsystem power. So naturally, if you want to deal as much damage as possible with energy weapons, you want to keep your Weapons subsystem power levels as high as possible.

What Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifolds do - or Isomags, as they're affectionately known - is provide a boost to Weapons subsystem power, as well as a stacking boost to Weapons subsystem cap. So while the Hyperion's maximum weapon power setting is ostensibly 125, with seven Isomags equipped it's 174. This gives a crazy boost to phaser weapon damage.

The more mathematically astute among you may have noticed that 5+3 is not, in fact, seven. That's because I have a very non-meta console equipped, a Bellum RCS Accelerator that increases turn rate (and crit chance a little). I just like having a heavy cruiser that drifts, okay?

The science console slots, of which there are a grand two, are home to the aforementioned Shield Absorptive Frequency Generator mentioned in Part 2 and a lovely little thing called Experimental Power Redirection. The latter is a clicky that gives me more free attacks along my broadside, +60% energy weapon damage for 15 seconds. It's fun.

In the four tactical slots, we have the classic Lorca's Custom Fire Controls console first and foremost (it give a good boost to shield pen, crit chance, and another boost to weapon power), and three Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infusers. Those little treats boost phaser damage, give a small boost to torpedo damage, and each gives a 25% chance to give me a minor heal-over-time effect to hull and shields every time I activate an energy weapon firing mode (in this case, the BFAW I'm constantly using).

This ship also comes with a single hangar bay, which I've billed with a Valkyrie fighter squadron for gits, shiggles, and a trait we'll talk about in a bit.

Now let's talk about the Bridge Officer seating.

The ship's universal Lieutenant-Commander seat is kitted out with Science Team I for the shield heal and sci cleans, Photonic Officer I for reasons covered in Part 1, and Hazard Emitters III for reasons covered in Part 2.

The ship's Lieutenant-Commander Tactical seat has Tactical Team I for the automated shield redistribution and minor buffs, Torpedo: Spread II (which makes my next torpedo attack a multi-target AOE), and BFAW III which I've already talked about.

The hybrid Lieutenant Tactical/Intelligence seating has Intelligence Team I (which gives some defensive/threat reduction buffs, I'm looking at swapping this for something later), and Attack Pattern: Beta I which debuffs the damage resistance and stealth of enemies I hit for ten seconds.

The hybrid Commander-level Engineering/Miracle Worker seat has Engineering Team I for the minor heals and engi debuff cleanse, Auxiliary Power to the Structural Integrity Field I for reasons discussed in Part 2, Emergency Power to Weapons III for boosted energy weapon damage (plus proccing a trait we'll discuss later), and the wonderful, wonderful Mixed-Armaments Synergy III, which for ten seconds boosts beam, cannon, mine, and torpedo damage by 50% when I fire one (so firing a torpedo boosts beam, cannon and mine damage, and firing beams boosts torpedo, cannon, and mine damage, etc). It doesn't stack, so having two kinds of weapons maximizes the benefits.

The last seat, an Ensign-level Sci seat, is sporting Structural Analysis I (a contagious damage resistance debuff) because I didn't know what else to put there.

Now, the ship traits.

First up, I slotted Emergency Weapon Cycle. On activating Emergency Power to Weapons, this trait increases my firing cycle haste and reduces weapon power cost by 50%. You can see how that's useful.

Next, I've got Over-Powered And Over-Gunned. When I activate an energy weapon firing mode (BFAW), I gain more weapon haste and more weapon power cost reduction. You're probably sensing a theme.

Then, we have History Will Remember which was covered in Part 2.

The next trait I slotted is Superior Area Denial. This is a fun little trait that, when I activate BFAW or Cannons: Scatter Volley, enemies I hit have their damage resistance debuffed even more, and it grants the first rank of BFAW and CSV to me pets as well (in this case, the Valkyrie squadron)

Next up is Calculated Broadside. Whenever I activate BFAW or any Intelligence ability, I gain 35% increased beam damage and increased damage resistance along my broadsides for 15 seconds.

The Best Diplomat is our next trait, which grants +10% to +30% beam weapon damage during BFAW and Beam: Overload, depending on my ship's power levels (which are pretty high, so it's a nice boost).

The final trait is Redirecting Arrays, which we covered in Part 1.

I think that about wraps up the Hyperion, not sure what ship I'll do next. I mean, these posts are less informative and more hyperfocused rants, so yeah.

[ccoocckk]

Here’s my recipe to maintaining a somewhat toned somewhat slim somewhat average body year round with not too much effort:

• it helps to have a daily stimulant prescription for appetite suppression, but you can try other things like cigarettes or caffeine, or just any illegal stim or RC should work just fine

• listen to high BPM music (ideally 160+) and mixes from the moment you wake up till you go to sleep and dance through the day

• go to the gym once a month to work major movements (push, pull, legs) each once and lift heavy

• if you want to do cardio, do a mix of 50% walking at high incline on a treadmill, like 13-15% at 3-4mph and sprinting at high incline, like 5-10%. For like twenty minutes or half an hour. It should be hard but you won’t lose lean muscle compared to running on a flat road and you won’t be as hungry. Also avoid the sun!

• do pull ups halfway seriously three times a week on a door pull up bar

• walk to run most errands (grocery shopping, picking furniture off the street, meeting friends)

• try to catch the bus you might miss and run to it with enough speed so you have some time to spare

• fuck daily, ideally twice a day and get that heart racing

• perfect a recipe you like that’s not boring (no chicken and rice and veggies) that takes like 15 minutes to prepare during meal time that has a good balance of protein, fat, and carbs. I make a Shakshuka with four eggs and meatless meatballs and sometimes three slices of sourdough bread

• drink water when you’re high and get your mind off food and don’t keep snacks around. The munchies will stop bothering you when you ignore the craving and have no place to get food, so get some practice in a few times

• have fun and don’t feel miserable in your diet or workout routine, because then you’ll try to do something drastic that you’ll regret or won’t be able to sustain