Looking for your advice guys. I am planning to upgrade my system and hope it will somewhat future proof for next 5 years or so. I have already ruled out upping to 7000 series CPU's due to the overall cost involved to upgrade and the limitations on my budget and personally, I don't think I need to. So I want to max out my current set up which is:
Corsair 4000X Tinted PC Case.
Asus B550 Strix E-Gaming Wifi
Ryzen 7 3700X
Gigabyte RX5700XT
32gb (4x8gb) 3600mhz LPX Vengeance CL18
Samsung 980 Pro 1tb Gen4 M.2.
Corsair HX750I 750w 80+ Platinum PSU.
I will be purchasing my first ever monitor in the coming days. After a lot of research I have decided my sweetspot is 1440p at either 144 or 165hz. So I am going for a 32" IPS in the €350 to €450 range. I live on my PC and do not watch TV. I have been using my old 43" HD TV up to now (1080p).
My PC use is split 30% Gaming, 30% Browsing and watching videos and around 40% amateur music production. I do not play online with others and prefer to play at home on my own mainly but sometimes with mates. My favourite games are Far Cry, Assassins Creed, Red Dead 2 and Halo to give you an idea of my use.
This will be my last investment for a long time and I want to get it right. I want to be able to play at max settings, with great quality images etc. & get the most out of my monitor. I want to achieve a balanced system with no bottleknecking. I have little to no interest in overclocking. I like "Set & forget".
What CPU/GPU combination do you recommend? My CPU considerations are: 5600x, 5700x, 5800x, 5800x3d, 5900x My choice for GPU's are: RX6750XT, 6800XT or 6900XT. At the time of posting, 7000 series cards have become more affordable. The more I spend on a CPU the less I will have for my GPU.
Will I benefit from the extra cores of the 5700x, 5800x, 5800x3d or 5900x in current & future games?
Should I save money and go with the 5600x and a high end GPU?
Would the 5600x bottlekneck the 6900xt or a 7900xt?
Very interested in your opinions. Would also like to learn something from the process, so please explain your reasons rather than simply suggesting a pairing. Thanks in advance guys!
Note: My current PSU is supposed to be powerful eough to run up to a 5900X with a 7900XT

TLDR: I traded DJ Moore, Elijah Moore, and the 1.08 for Justin Fields. Good or bad trade?
I recently made a trade and wanted some thoughts and feedback on it. I traded away DJ Moore, Elijah Moore, and the 1.08 draft pick for Justin Fields. Here’s some context on my team and league:
League Info: Superflex

• 12 Team Dynasty PPR
• 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 2 flex (W,R,T), 1 Superflex (W,R,T,Q)

Remaining Draft picks: 1.01, 1.04, 2.11, 2.12, 3.01 (I have no future picks)
Players before the trade:

• QBs: Jimmy G, Jordan Love, Mac Jones, Matt Corral
• RBs: J.K Dobbins, Javonte Williams, Tyler Allgeier, James Robinson, Gus Edwards, Jaylen Warren, Jordan Mason
• WRs: DJ Moore, Brandon Aiyuk, Brandon Cooks, Allen Robinson, Jameson Williams, Treylon Burks, Elijah Moore, K.J Osborn, Khalil Shakir, David Bell, Wan’Dale Robinson
• TEs: Kyle Pitts, Daniel Bellinger, Cade Otton

I consider myself to be in a rebuilding phase. However, with our league transitioning to a superflex format, I needed to upgrade my QB situation for long-term success. My goal is to build a team that can contend for years without constantly rebuilding.
So, what do you think of the trade I made? Did I give up too much for Justin Fields? Do you have any suggestions on my next move? I appreciate any feedback or advice. Plus, I’m excited to build a good team and talk some smack with my league-mates who think they’re the fantasy football gurus!

I work at TJ MAXX and yesterday a customer threw one of these at me and then tried to act like she was the victim. So, note of propriety, the linked photo is not the exact item, I couldn't find one of the TJX website so I just found a similar result on Google, but it's basically identical. For story's sake, not that it actually matters, I'm 7 months pregnant. I only mention this because the cops made a big deal about it. No person should ever be assaulted by anyone.
On to the story.
So, the one we sell at TJ must either be made or manufactured in California because on the backside of the price sticker it had a Prop 65 sticker (This Product Was Found To Cause Cancer or Birth Defects in California). Lady comes to my register, she's about 80/85, old enough to know better. She grabs it from the cart and shows me the sticker, says she doesn't want it because she doesn't want to get cancer from it. Thinking I'm being helpful I politely explained to her that it was very likely the item wouldn't give her cancer but the state of California legally has to display those stickers on items made in it's state. We're in North Carolina so I can't fault an older person for not knowing California law.
Lady flips a fucking switch and screams at me, "I said I don't want it! Don't you force me to take it! I don't want cancer!" And then, (The Lion, The Witch, and the Audacity of this Bitch) grandma hauls back and throws the motherfucking spiky sphere at me. Now, these things weigh less than a pound but its a ball covered in metal spikes and it was thrown pretty hard at me from a distance of maybe 6 feet width (as wide as the counter was) so the spot where it hit my arm has some little red pin-prick scrapes and where it rolled down my arm has some line scrapes. Honestly, my cats have done worse, it's already fading, but, still.
Because it was still early in the workday the line wasn't very long so when she started screaming it went quiet, and the associates in Makeup, Handbags, and Jewelry and the few customers around us, all stopped what they were doing to see what was up, meaning I had about twelve witnesses to her throwing the item at me. I think the old lady immediately realized she'd fucked up because she went quiet, dropped her face, and started unloading her cart.
My CEC had come down right as the ball was thrown so she got over the headset for the manager, who came running. In the melee the manager misheard and thought I'd assaulted a customer. We set the situation right when she got up to the front. She asked the old lady why she'd thrown it and the old lady says to her, "I told the little idiot I didn't want to get cancer from it and she tried to make me buy it! If she'd just shut up and done her damn job I wouldn't have had to throw it!"
Now, up until that point I was fixing to just let it go. I was going to refuse to serve her and the manager probably would have asked the lady to leave without service, but she decided to call me an idiot and then try to act like I was forcing her to buy a cancer-causing object. I very quickly told the manager all I did was explain why the sticker was on the object in effort to ease a customer's concerns, I was never trying to make her buy it. Old lady calls me a "damn liar and a little brat" and that "I wanted her to die."
Manager asks me what I'd like to do next since she sees I'm injured. I told her to please call the police because I'm not about to be assaulted by anyone but especially not for something as stupid as this. Old lady immediately begins crying and begging us not to call the police. The entire time she's wailing on and on about how I'm the one in the wrong, I was trying to make her do things she didn't want, I was mean, blah blah blah. But, here's the kicker, she is still unloading her shopping cart. This bitch seriously thought she was going to be able to purchase her items. She even asked me why I wasn't ringing her items up.
Anyway, cops show up, two cruisers, four cops. One takes me aside, one takes Old Lady aside, manager takes the other two to the office to show them the security camera footage (while we waited for the cops to arrive she called whoever does our security and asked for the footage to be emailed ASAP and I guess they sent it right away). Now, I had witnesses, and I had an injury, so kind of cut and dry. Cops ask me if I'm sure I want to press charges and I asked them if I actually had a chance of the lady getting punished or would a judge let her go because of her age. Cops said I actually have a pretty decent chance and based on the Old Lady's conduct a judge probably wouldn't be too favorable, especially considering that I'm pregnant as fuck in a county as red as a firetruck.
They told me she opened right up to them and admitted she threw it at me, and a few minutes later when they Mirandized her she admitted to having throw the ball again. They said that her confession coupled with the camera footage and all the eye-witness accounts (a lot of people spoke to them on my behalf) that the DA might not even need speak with me. They took photos of my arm, got my contact info, said I might get a call, I might not get a call. Because it was Tuesday and the lady taught Jesus when he was a boy the lady would probably get a quick bail hearing but she'd probably just be released on low-bail or no-bail. Chances are, even if her lawyer sucks balls, she'll get a slap on the wrist.
I made the cop laugh when I asked if I could do the wrist-slapping, preferably with the same item she threw at me.

A little bit of background, this happened on my 19th birthday after my first semester of college. My birthdays have never been too crazy since it's a couple of days before Christmas, however this time I didn’t celebrate it with any friends and only 3 family members. I lost touch with a lot of my friends and all my college friends were hours away so no one could come. This unsurprisingly made me very upset, I impulsively posted on my story “who wanna hang tonight for my B-day” as a last-ditch effort to see if anyone was free and luckily two of my high school homies came through. We had agreed to go out to a park and smoke some weed and chill out.
​
I picked up one of them from her house (Z) and met the other at the local supermarket (L). When we met up with L we agreed that Z would become dd since me and L were planning on getting fucked up, and oh boy was I in for a treat. We all hopped in my car and drove to the local park. We all live in a very backwater redneck county so there is no sign of life or light anywhere, I kid you not we could barely see the road in front of us. Despite this very scary setting, I decided that it was “good enough” and hopped out of the driver seat and took shotgun while Z hops in the driver seat.
​
I take out my wag (weed bag) and pull out my magnum opus, the GB this thing got me through my first semester of college and always comes in clutch. At this point in my life, I was a daily smoker, ripping GBs at least 4 times a day. I got everything set up and decided to mix all of the strains of weed I had since “It's my birthday.” L and I both took two monster pulls off the GB each and started to relax. I remember Z rolled down the window to let some air in and at that moment I heard a walking sound coming from outside the car which was followed by Z rolling the window back up. I jokingly said “Z said fuck that noise” and started to laugh, she looked at me dead in my eyes and said, “what noise?”
​
At this moment I knew I was going to be fucked, It had only been about 5 minutes and I'm already hearing auditory hallucinations. I brushed it off and tried to relax again, I looked in the back seat and tried to talk to L with no success. Then everything went to shit, I ran my hand over my face and I had the most horrible gory image of all of my skin melting off with my hand. I Imedidatly shot up and started repeating “what the fuck what the fuck.” I tried to tell myself it's all in your head man ur good, then the image started to flash over and over again. I started to feel blood dripping down my face, my lips falling off revealing bloody gums, my nose completely removed from my face, and my eyes melted out of their sockets. And not only was I seeing this I was feeling it too. It was terrifying.
​
I looked over at Z and noticed that she was scrolling through Tik Tok, I leaned on her and said “keep scrolling it's making me feel better.” she replied, “ummm areee you ok?” I tried to reassure her that everything was fine but I was trying to reassure myself. Now with the way I was leaning on her my side was touching the intercom, the part that was touching it felt like it was splitting open and I got another terrifying image of my guts falling out of my body. I shot back up again trying to ground myself. I again looked back at L and he was just on another planet. I tried doing breathing exercises to calm myself down but with every breath I took I tasted and felt blood leave my mouth. I felt my teeth crack and chip inside my mouth when air hit them. This went on for what felt like hours, repeating images of my disfigured face and the taste of blood in my mouth.
​
Eventually, I started saying out loud “I love breathing” and “this is fucked” over and over again. Then I had this feeling of pins and needles inside my lungs, it ticked and relaxed me a bit. This was coupled with the feeling of electricity coursing through my veins. Then I went completely silent and started to rub my legs on the glovebox trying to ground myself to reality, then everything stopped. It was very quiet but I felt sober, I thought I finally had peace.
​
I then put my hands together and started studying them, it was like I was looking at them for the first time. I then made a diamond with my fingers and closed my eyes. I then saw a pulsing jade diamond, when I opened my eyes again I saw it floating in front of me and a glowing white ball appeared in the center of it. I started to move around but it kept its position as if it were there, I then touched the white light and everything went into slow motion. I looked over at Z and tried to reach out to her, screaming “ HOLY SHIT” before switching to Z's point of view and seeing myself at that moment. I then shot back into my body then back out, I felt like I was going into hyperdrive, I saw three copies of me stacked on top of each other being stretched out as if they were entering a wormhole. I then shot back into my body jerking forward. I was breathing heavily trying to take in what the fuck just happened. This moment of peace was short-lived because soon after I had the thought man it sure would suck if it went bad again, It did. This time was way more intense, I imagined my arm melting out of its socket and felt it as well. The false pain that I was experiencing was way more intense this time.
​
My brother told me that if I ever wanted to sober up fast to drink coffee, I asked my friends if we could go pick some up from the store. When I started putting my seatbelt on it was so painful, I felt like it was slicing me open but I was still not prepared for what was to come. Cars headlights looked dangerous to me and every time we would pass a vehicle a voice in my head would say “shredder” and I would get a gory visual of my face being ripped apart by knives and saws. We agreed that Z would go into the store alone since L and I were fucked. L was completely silent up to this point and later on, I learned that he wasn’t having a fun time either, he said that he was trying to reconnect his limbs to his body.
​
I started to talk to him and tell him about what I was feeling, this is roughly how the conversation went.
D: dude would talking about what's going on make me feel better?
L: yeah man totally
D: ok, so like visually everything right now is very vibrant and colorful and beautiful and shit but like I feel like I'm dying dude
L: what?
D: So like all of this is cool but I feel all of the skin on my stomach had been removed, my guts are currently falling out into my lap, my lungs are exposed, and I'm dying, this sucks.
L: Damn
​
Z soon came back with one of those monster coffee energy drinks and I chugged it, the rest of the night got a lot better. We went to Zs house to chill out for the rest of the night. The scary visuals started to die down and I played VR games with Zs little brother. I would love to say that after this experience I was completely fine but that would be a complete lie. For about a week after my birthday, I couldn’t breathe without thinking blood was leaving my mouth, I still get flashes of my gory face, and I haven't smoked a GB since. It's been about 3 months now and I finally feel comfortable talking about it in full. One day I hope I can pick up smoking again because it was really fun, I made so many friends and memories from it but for now, imma keep getting high on life. Worst 19th ever.

Officials declared a public health emergency at an overcrowded Detroit-area jail for kids, a step that could lead to improved staffing and more services. “The situation has become untenable for nearly 140 youths that are currently residing there. Extraordinary action has become necessary,” Wayne County Executive Warren Evans said during a speech Tuesday night. Evans … Continue reading Public health emergency declared at overcrowded Detroit-area jail for children

Hi everyone! I'm a new Betta owner and just got this guy a week and a half ago! I'm trying to learn how to properly care for it like all of you! Living in a filtered, heated tank, (granted I also live in Florida and the house is 72F), using the AquaSafe for Bettas on the water, live plants. But I noticed the look of his head seems to have changed since I got him from the store, I'm not sure if this is natural or if he is unwell?! He's eating, swims around, flares up just fine, but his head and face don't look very well..
Images

• Tank size: 3.5g, I know I need to upgrade to a 10g but didn't know when buying!
• Heater and filter? (yes/no): Yes
• Tank temperature: 78
• Parameters in numbers and how you got them: Don't know! I don't have a test kit yet, I'm new I'm sorry! Will be getting
• How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?: A week and a half
• How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?: Have changed it once so far, 25%
• Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each: No mates although have thought about getting some ghost shrimp
• What do you feed and how much: Feeding TetraBetta Select Floating Pellets, have been doing once a day, 2 or 3 pieces, that's just what the employee at the pet store said to do (tell me if I should be doing otherwise)
• Decorations and plants in the tank: Live plants, I forget the kinds but two of them, some seashells, a hidey hole temple

The entire crew was there, or at least all of them who could make it.
They were sitting in the chow hall, staring at the door and waiting.
There was conversation of course, but the real issue was something far more interesting, which was about to walk through that door.
Sunny sat with them, a mixture of worry and gleeful amusement.
A scrape on the floor caused the entire cafeteria to turn and go completely silent, as the commander shuffled in through the door.
His hair was a ragged mess, his eyes were red with exhaustion, attested to by the dark circles under his eyes. He wore a pair of shorts, and a somewhat rumbled top, unbuttoned down the front. Not out of any need to show off, but probably because the buttons wouldn't be likely to button over the six, black alien eggs nestled flat against his stomach.
He walked over to the far counter to pour himself some orange juice, and when he turned around it registered in his head that he was being stared at.
The frown that crossed his face was a rather awkward mixture of annoyance and embarrassment,
"The hell are you looking at?”
He growled to the room, and they quickly turned away, pretending not to stare, which was difficult to hide since they all totally were.
Commander Vir grumbled, grabbed a plate, and then two of the pancakes, before walking over to the table at which Sunny sat, throwing himself down next to her, shoulders hunched.
The marines that sat at the table with them exchanged glances, grinning stupidly at each other.
"How did you sleep last night commander?"
Wondered one of the marines. She almost pulled off sounding concerned.
But only almost, her bright smile betrayed her true intentions.
Commander Vir lifted his head, eyeing the group of them,
"Horrible, I can't sleep on my stomach... I always sleep on my stomach."
He turned back to his food, shoveling pancakes into his mouth with careless abandon.
"I think my wife has an old pregnancy pillow you could use."
Ramirez choked on his juice.
The table finally broke into a fit of giggling, contained since the man had walked into the room,
"You know what, fuck you Palensky, and your stupid hair!"
That just caused another eruption of giggling about the table, as the man tried to ignore them going back to his food.
"You might want to slow down there commander, they aren't going to grow legs and run off."
"I'm HUNGRY, so sue me."
"I'm not entirely sure hungry is an apt description."
One of the marines pointed out, watching as the commander pilfered a plate from one of the marines who was conveniently looking the other way.
"Sorry, “ravenous”, I just didn't want to use words too big for you jarheads."
He tucked in as the unfortunate marine turned around and noticed his plate missing, before sighing and getting up to retrieve another one.
"Chairforce."
Came the retort
"Bullet Sponge."
"That's army."
"Fine you're ugly and stupid."
"At least I'm not pregnant."
The bright green eye turned an angry glare on the grinning marine,
"I'm not 'pregnant' I have a parasite."
"Pretty sure that's a synonym for pregnant."
Sunny added smugly, as the commander turned to glare at her.
"Coming from someone who doesn't even speak english."
He sighed looking down at his stomach,
"These are exogenous egg sacks that have attached themselves to my organs and are now feeding off my innards."
"Kind of like how an egg attaches to the lining of the uterus and then attaches itself to your innards..."
One of the female marines wondered innocently,
The angry gaze turned to her,
"I hope the next time you're on your period you have a sneezing fit."
She frowned,
"That's cold... wait... how did you know about that?"
"I have a sister, so don't jump to any stupid conclusions."
He sighed,
"My back hurts."
More giggling.
"Shut up, these things are heavy ok, like five pounds each."
It was just then that doctor Katie and Krill made their way into the room. They appeared to be discussing some charts, speaking animatedly with each other before walking over.
Katie squeezed in next to him and one of the marines, while Krill floated at her side.
"How are we feeling this morning, commander?”
"Friggin' fantastic, can't you tell?"
He gave an exaggerated crazy person smile, before going back to frowning.
She placed a hand on his forehead, turning to look at Krill,
"No fever, which is what he hoped for. No signs of rejection."
"Great."
The man grumbled, trying to pull away from her, as she continued to examine him.
"Dry skin..."
She glanced down,
"Excessive hunger?”
He shot another glare at her,
"Mood changes."
"Sounds like a protein deficiency."
Krill muttered
"In under a day?... seems a bit unlikely."
The doctor waved his hands,
"Well so does one of our crew members getting together with an alien, but here we are."
Giggling.
The commander turned to look at them,
"Ok, first of all, I did not, 'get together' with her, I'm just the incubator."
"If any of us was going to get it on with an alien, it was gonna be him."
One of the marines muttered.
The commander slammed his fork down on the table,
"Alright THAT'S IT."
And before anyone could do anything, he was across the table and was reaching for the marine who had opened his mouth.
Sunny, strong as she was, caught him around the legs and hauled him back,
"Alright, That's enough. Why don't we go see if the doctors can figure out what's wrong?”
She carried him away, glaring back at the table of giggling marines.
”Yeah that’s good, show him how to properly carry a whining baby, he’ll need it.”
The whole table lost it and burst into laughter.
[…]
Turns out, they weren't entirely inaccurate on the protein assessment. As a primarily carnivorous species, the eggs were taking heavily from his already existing protein. If this were to continue, he would probably see an extreme drop in weight.
By the time he returned to the bridge, his mood from that morning had significantly improved.
"Feeling any better, commander?"
Sunny ventured, unsure which man she should be expecting.
He turned, his signature lopsided and rather rueful smile,
"A lot better, thanks... there is some amount of good news to this whole thing."
The bridge crew looked up from their work, interested as he took his seat,
"I can eat whatever I want whenever I want in whatever quantity I so please..."
He tried adjusting his jacket over the concealed eggs.
Beneath the rather, bulky leather jacket, one might have simply assumed the man was carrying a few extra pounds instead of some alien egg sack.
"Ok, now that's just not fair."
The crew turned to look at the lieutenant, who had crossed her arms angrily over her chest,
"When I had kids I was so hungry I could have eaten everything in existence, but they told me just to eat an extra yogurt. This is bullshit."
Commander Vir smirked,
"I guess I have that going for me."
The smile then slipped from his face,
"Now to.... make a couple of calls. Specialist, get me the admiral and the Galactic assembly chairwoman on a conference line, they will probably want to know what's going on."
He leaned back in his chair as the projection leapt up in front of them. They had to wait a good five minutes for the call to connect, and the screen split into two separate feeds. One was the face of their admiral, she looked tired with dark circles under her eyes barely visible against her deep skin tone. The commander couldn't have said what the Rundi chairwoman looked like, they weren't exactly known for their mobile facial expressions.
Honestly, she just looked like some bizarre ant-headed ostrich as always.
"Commander, I received your transmission. You said it was urgent?”
The Rundi chairwoman shifted in her place, dark robes flowing about her strange alien frame,
"This isn't about your first contact with the Adaptids, is it? We were hoping for your report yesterday."
The man shifted nervously in his seat,
"Well... yes, this is in fact about our contact with... what did you call them, the Adaptids."
"Well, I am assuming you are here and alive, so I assume things went well?”
He shifted again nervously,
"Well... actually... ma'am, we caught a bit of a snag."
The Rundi chairwoman sighed and shook her head,
"I was worried something like this would happen. Did they reject our overtures of peace, did something go wrong. Did we offend them somehow?"
The commander lifted his hands,
"No, no... nothing like that. I... it's just... well. They agreed to ally with us as friends."
The admiral leaned back in her chair,
"That is good news isn't it, commander?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Then I hardly see the snag?"
The Rundi chairwoman nodded her head in agreement.
The commander sighed,
"Were you aware of the Adaptid's... peculiar... mating rituals?"
The admiral shook her head, but the chairwoman nodded,
"We were aware of their trigender system."
The commander's eyes narrowed slightly,
"Were you also aware of their ability to borrow and lightly rewrite the DNA of other species?"
"Yes, we were passingly aware of that as a matter of fact. We theorized that's why they look so... how shall we say... thrown together. Almost as if other creatures had been assimilated."
"So than you have only yourself to blame for what happened."
The commander accused, leaning forward in his seat.
The admiral leaned forward in confusion,
"What are you talking about, commander!?"
She was ignored for the moment as commander Vir and the Rundi chairwoman locked eyes,
"You were completely aware of this, and decided not to warn my crew before going out there..."
She remained very quiet for a long moment,
"Oh no..."
"Oh no what!?"
The admiral demanded,
"If Someone doesn't tell me what's going on in the next five seconds I-"
She was cut off as the commander unzipped his jacket, allowing the leather to slide off his shoulders and onto the chair behind him. He was standing now, and from the back he looked almost completely normal, at least to Sunny. A structure made up of powerful corded muscle flexing smoothly under the sheet of pale, scarred skin. But when he turned, the issue became more than abundantly clear,
"You knew this might happen!"
The. commander growled, as the Rundi chairwoman covered her face in stunned horror.
The admiral leaned in, eyes narrowed with confusion and fascination,
"What the fuck is that, commander?"
Commander Vir turned to look at the Rundi chairwoman,
"Why don't you go ahead and tell the admiral what these are?”
The admiral did not appear particularly happy, glowering at her screen and, what must have been, an image of the Rundi chairwoman,
"Go on."
The chairwoman dropped her hands from her face and sighed,
"We discovered the adaptids a little over two cycles ago. At first, we weren't sure if they were sentient, based on the way they communicate. It took a very long time for even our best linguists, along with our best chemical analysis to determine that they were, in fact, communicating in some rudimentary way. Of course... while we were there, we did notice that they had a strange mating system. The common binary male and female pair, but with the addition of the third gender to incubate the eggs, a third party without which they would not survive, a trigender system if you will. Of course, we also noticed that the eggs had the DNA of all three parents."
"No... no, don't tell me you're going where I think you're going."
She kept it up with a sigh of frustration,
"When they implant the eggs, they are attached first to the skin, but then send filaments into the body which take nutrients and DNA from the third parent.... it does not require a specific reproductive system for this third event to be accomplished."
The admiral stood nearly knocking over her chair,
"AND YOU DIDN'T THINK THIS WAS IMPORTANT TO MENTION!?"
She waved her hand wildly at the screen,
"You neglected to share information, as was your duty, and now one of my men is harboring an alien parasite that is borrowing his DNA... and now we are going to end up with some sort of arachnid-human hybrid!"
The chairwoman slumped in her seat,
"We had no idea that the queen would do this without discussing it first... the other times we tried-"
"Now hold the damn phone for just one second. The FIRST time you tried! Are you telling me you tried to make OTHER hybrids. Not to mention that these things can BARELY communicate and you expected it to have the foresight to ask permission first... no no, you know what; you gave it permission when you decided to experiment... what were you even doing anyway?"
She slumped further down in her seat,
"We thought that if they were able to use the DNA of a host species, then the offspring might have the ability to use language, to communicate like the rest of us. Their particular abilities make them invaluable in the GA, on ships, everywhere. Can you imagine what would happen if we crossed them with something like the starborn... what they could do...?"
"Screw you, screw that. You had no idea what you were doing, and now one of my men is having alien babies! Not a sentence I ever wanted to fucking say, you absolute bag of-"
"I would watch your tone admiral, what's done is done, and I am still head of the council."
"A council that has withheld information from one of their most important assets, and now you are responsible for whatever abominable human hybrid is going to come out of those things."
She paused for a moment eyes darting towards the commander,
"... unless we... get rid of them."
"NO!"
The two figures turned to their screen in shock, as did the rest of the crew as the voice rang out across the bridge.
Commander Vir had taken a step back from the screen chin dropping over his exposed neck, shoulders hunching hands held slightly out to cover the eggs,
"No, you are not killing them!”
The admiral turned her head in confusion,
"But commander…"
"No, I agree with you that the chairwoman and the council were out of line when they neglected to warn us about the potential consequences, but I will NOT let you or anyone else hurt them."
"Commander, it is in your best interest to get rid of them!”
Over the screen, the man's single green eye was cold and still,
"Is that an order... because if it is I will tender my resignation right here and now, and you can find someone else to command this fleet."
The room was dead silent stuck in place with shock and surprise.
Sunny didn't even notice that her mouth had fallen open.
Adam loved his job, he would never.
Silence, and then the admiral sighed,
"No, commander, that is not an order. Calm down, I was only exploring our options, but clearly this is not one, though I hardly understand why..."
Commander Vir took his seat,
"It isn't an option because, while I'm not exactly pleased, and it wasn't exactly my first choice, well... there are worse things I suppose. I'm just feeding them and keeping them warm."
"And allowing them to borrow some of your DNA."
The admiral pointed out.
"Yes, let's hope that they get my vocal cords."
The admiral sighed deeply head in her hands,
"Very well commander, but I want you down here immediately, so we can keep an eye on your for the foreseeable future. I don't want to lose one of my men if things go sideways."
"Yes Ma'am. I will be sure to keep in contact."
The admiral nodded and then turned her steely amber eyes upon the Rundi chairwoman,
"And you, you are going to send someone down here to assist us. You've made your bed, now lie in it, cut transmission."
The screen went dark, and Adam slumped back in his chair head back,
"Well, that went about as well as expected. Specialist, send the next transmission to my quarters if you would. The number one spot on my personal contact list. Make sure you get permission from the UNSC for this one."
[…]
He was actually more nervous about this call than he was about the first one, which is why he had roped Sunny into being his support system.
She sat herself at his desk, head tilted curiously as he paced about the room waiting for the transmission to go through.
"Why did you say no?"
She finally queried,
"This could all be over if you wanted."
He lifted his head from his contemplation and looked her in the eyes,
"Curiosity... But mostly... well I. I don't think it's as big a deal as everyone is making it out to be. It's not hurting me physically or psychologically, it's no different from a parasite, causes less problems, and if not, they may eventually be useful to us."
"Do you really want this to be the first use of your DNA?"
She ventured curiously.
He tilted his head,
"You make it sound like they are actually my kids. Look if someone took my DNA and made a homunculus out of it, I would feel the same way I do now. I am a means to an end an adaption for them."
He turned away from her,
"Besides it's not like my DNA was being put to any particular use anyway, might as well let someone else borrow it."
She shook her head, but whatever thoughts she might have had about the situation were cut off as the transmission tone came on.
"Accept transmission."
The commander said, taking a seat on a chair opposite of Sunny.
"Adam, are you alright?"
A wry smile,
"Can't I just call my parents because I love them?”
"Did you gain weight?”
He frowned,
"Serious mom, that's what you notice?"
The human woman in the image crossed her arms,
"Only in conjunction with the bags under your eyes. You look exhausted, are you ok?"
"Yes, mother, I'm fine... well mostly fine."
Her voice rose a few octaves,
"What do you mean mostly fine? Adam what happened. Honey! Come here, something happened to Adam!"
"Mom, calm down its ok. You don't need to bring d-...father…"
"Adam, what's all this about something happening to you... did you gain weight?"
He huffed,
"Ok, no I did not, and both of you need to stop with that... see it's really no big deal. I'm fine, everyone is fine no one is hurt or dying or sick, and as far as I know…"
He griped,
"No one has gained an exorbitant amount of weight."
"I'm sensing a but in there, boy, so spit it out."
He sighed and sat back on his chair,
"Look, I was sent out to make contact with another alien species, like I normally do.... there was a.... miscommunication."
His father's eyes narrowed,
"What sort of... miscommunication? Boy…what did you do?."
"They.... incubate their eggs at high temperatures, the higher the better usually around 90 degrees, but they also require a... host to survive, and since we were making a peace overture, the queen thought that the best way to show her interest in what we were saying was to..."
He was cut off,
"Oh no, no no no, Adam please don't tell me what I think you're telling me."
Instead of answering, Adam reached up and gripped the zipper of his jacket,
"Promise you keep this secret. No one said anything out right, but I'm assuming it's classified."
His mother moaned in inner emotional pain,
"No Adam, please no."
He unzipped his jacket, tossed it on the bed, standing straight and holding his arms out so they could see the six, painfully obvious fist-sized black eggs attached to his skin.
His mother screamed, his father spit out a line of truly horrendous curses Sunny wouldn't have expected him of knowing.
"That's it! We are coming up there right now! Whose alien ass do I have to kick to-"
"Mom"
"The audacity, the sheer nerve of that c-"
"MOM!"
She went silent, though the thunderous look on her face remained,
"I'm ok, honestly they're just attached to the outside, and yes ok maybe they are borrowing my DNA and.... my lungs and my liver, but no big deal. Krill says they should be gone in a month."
His father held up a hand,
"Now hold on… Son, did you say DNA..."
He sighed deeply,
"Yes, sir, DNA. The male and female are the primary donors, but then they have a third... sort of host who supplies the rest. It appears as if they can assimilate DNA from any species as long as they can survive."
His father crossed his arms,
"So, to put that bluntly, my next grandchildren are going to be some kind of alien human hybrid. Is that what I'm hearing?"
Adam sighed deeply, punching the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb squeezing his eyes shut,
"No, that's not what I'm saying, dad, not in the way that we understand it anyway. Technically these things will have less than a third of my DNA, they won't be structurally human in any way, but they may adapt to take the traits which may be best to survive. It's Evolution but scaled incredibly quickly."
"That all seems like semantics to me."
His father continued stubbornly.
Adam sighed.
"Can't you just get rid of them?"
His mother wondered, Adam frowned,
"Why does everyone keep suggesting that. Did you ever suggest that to my sister?"
"I thought you just said these were parasites, not children."
His father pointed out, Adam groaned,
"Yes, and no... ahhhg, look, I'm not getting rid of them, and that's final. I just wanted to call you guys and let you know what's going on. I am going to be fine, and who knows, we may be able to communicate with these things once it's all said and done."
His mother did not look convinced,
"I don't like this Adam, not one bit. Why do you constantly insist on getting yourself into trouble with aliens, and then once you do, you defend them. Sometimes I really wonder what’s next, a religious alien jihad and you try to teach them about better religion? Meeting a giant ass space dragon and you try to ride it like a pony? Getting trapped by hideous aliens like some sort of weird space parrot? I swear you always do the weirdest sh… stuff, the weirdest stuff."
Sunny remained silent; she knew exactly who his mother was talking about.
She had never liked Sunny much, not after she learned what she had done to Adam during the war.
"Because I'm not nearly as angry at them as you are. Besides mother this is just two months, it isn't going to change my life, and it may actually be useful. So, my decision is final."
He crossed his arms over his chest,
"I have to go... oh, and mom."
"Yes Adam?"
"Don't let Jeremy and my other siblings know. I'd never hear the end of it, transmission over."
The screen went dead and he slumped back into his seat with a groan.
"Are you alright?"
Sunny ventured quietly, Adam threw up his hands in frustration,
"I'm beginning to wonder if I should be more upset about this than I am. Everyone else seems to think it's some horrible issue. It's just two months, and I'm ok."
Sunny stood and walked over to sit next to him, placing a hand on his arm,
"Not so many people are as forgiving as you are. A violation of their privacy, a decision made for them against their will?"
He snorted, leaning his head against her arm,
"Yeah because my abs are such a great violation of my personal space. Now if she had laid them down my throat, I think I might just take issue with that."
"Well, they did attach themselves to your liver."
"Yeah, one of the organs that I can grow back, ohhh I am so offended."
Sunny shook her head,
"You're a strange man, Adam."
"I know, but you love it."
"Do I?"
He closed his eyes,
"Yeah, you do."
Previous First [Next](link)
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Whaaat foreshadowing and spoilers? Noooo, I don’t know what you are talking about…
Previous First [Next](link)
The entire crew was there, or at least all of them who could make it.
They were sitting in the chow hall, staring at the door and waiting.
There was conversation of course, but the real issue was something far more interesting, which was about to walk through that door.
Sunny sat with them, a mixture of worry and gleeful amusement.
A scrape on the floor caused the entire cafeteria to turn and go completely silent, as the commander shuffled in through the door.
His hair was a ragged mess, his eyes were red with exhaustion, attested to by the dark circles under his eyes. He wore a pair of shorts, and a somewhat rumbled top, unbuttoned down the front. Not out of any need to show off, but probably because the buttons wouldn't be likely to button over the six, black alien eggs nestled flat against his stomach.
He walked over to the far counter to pour himself some orange juice, and when he turned around it registered in his head that he was being stared at.
The frown that crossed his face was a rather awkward mixture of annoyance and embarrassment,
"The hell are you looking at?”
He growled to the room, and they quickly turned away, pretending not to stare, which was difficult to hide since they all totally were.
Commander Vir grumbled, grabbed a plate, and then two of the pancakes, before walking over to the table at which Sunny sat, throwing himself down next to her, shoulders hunched.
The marines that sat at the table with them exchanged glances, grinning stupidly at each other.
"How did you sleep last night commander?"
Wondered one of the marines. She almost pulled off sounding concerned.
But only almost, her bright smile betrayed her true intentions.
Commander Vir lifted his head, eyeing the group of them,
"Horrible, I can't sleep on my stomach... I always sleep on my stomach."
He turned back to his food, shoveling pancakes into his mouth with careless abandon.
"I think my wife has an old pregnancy pillow you could use."
Ramirez choked on his juice.
The table finally broke into a fit of giggling, contained since the man had walked into the room,
"You know what, fuck you Palensky, and your stupid hair!"
That just caused another eruption of giggling about the table, as the man tried to ignore them going back to his food.
"You might want to slow down there commander, they aren't going to grow legs and run off."
"I'm HUNGRY, so sue me."
"I'm not entirely sure hungry is an apt description."
One of the marines pointed out, watching as the commander pilfered a plate from one of the marines who was conveniently looking the other way.
"Sorry, “ravenous”, I just didn't want to use words too big for you jarheads."
He tucked in as the unfortunate marine turned around and noticed his plate missing, before sighing and getting up to retrieve another one.
"Chairforce."
Came the retort
"Bullet Sponge."
"That's army."
"Fine you're ugly and stupid."
"At least I'm not pregnant."
The bright green eye turned an angry glare on the grinning marine,
"I'm not 'pregnant' I have a parasite."
"Pretty sure that's a synonym for pregnant."
Sunny added smugly, as the commander turned to glare at her.
"Coming from someone who doesn't even speak english."
He sighed looking down at his stomach,
"These are exogenous egg sacks that have attached themselves to my organs and are now feeding off my innards."
"Kind of like how an egg attaches to the lining of the uterus and then attaches itself to your innards..."
One of the female marines wondered innocently,
The angry gaze turned to her,
"I hope the next time you're on your period you have a sneezing fit."
She frowned,
"That's cold... wait... how did you know about that?"
"I have a sister, so don't jump to any stupid conclusions."
He sighed,
"My back hurts."
More giggling.
"Shut up, these things are heavy ok, like five pounds each."
It was just then that doctor Katie and Krill made their way into the room. They appeared to be discussing some charts, speaking animatedly with each other before walking over.
Katie squeezed in next to him and one of the marines, while Krill floated at her side.
"How are we feeling this morning, commander?”
"Friggin' fantastic, can't you tell?"
He gave an exaggerated crazy person smile, before going back to frowning.
She placed a hand on his forehead, turning to look at Krill,
"No fever, which is what he hoped for. No signs of rejection."
"Great."
The man grumbled, trying to pull away from her, as she continued to examine him.
"Dry skin..."
She glanced down,
"Excessive hunger?”
He shot another glare at her,
"Mood changes."
"Sounds like a protein deficiency."
Krill muttered
"In under a day?... seems a bit unlikely."
The doctor waved his hands,
"Well so does one of our crew members getting together with an alien, but here we are."
Giggling.
The commander turned to look at them,
"Ok, first of all, I did not, 'get together' with her, I'm just the incubator."
"If any of us was going to get it on with an alien, it was gonna be him."
One of the marines muttered.
The commander slammed his fork down on the table,
"Alright THAT'S IT."
And before anyone could do anything, he was across the table and was reaching for the marine who had opened his mouth.
Sunny, strong as she was, caught him around the legs and hauled him back,
"Alright, That's enough. Why don't we go see if the doctors can figure out what's wrong?”
She carried him away, glaring back at the table of giggling marines.
”Yeah that’s good, show him how to properly carry a whining baby, he’ll need it.”
The whole table lost it and burst into laughter.
[…]
Turns out, they weren't entirely inaccurate on the protein assessment. As a primarily carnivorous species, the eggs were taking heavily from his already existing protein. If this were to continue, he would probably see an extreme drop in weight.
By the time he returned to the bridge, his mood from that morning had significantly improved.
"Feeling any better, commander?"
Sunny ventured, unsure which man she should be expecting.
He turned, his signature lopsided and rather rueful smile,
"A lot better, thanks... there is some amount of good news to this whole thing."
The bridge crew looked up from their work, interested as he took his seat,
"I can eat whatever I want whenever I want in whatever quantity I so please..."
He tried adjusting his jacket over the concealed eggs.
Beneath the rather, bulky leather jacket, one might have simply assumed the man was carrying a few extra pounds instead of some alien egg sack.
"Ok, now that's just not fair."
The crew turned to look at the lieutenant, who had crossed her arms angrily over her chest,
"When I had kids I was so hungry I could have eaten everything in existence, but they told me just to eat an extra yogurt. This is bullshit."
Commander Vir smirked,
"I guess I have that going for me."
The smile then slipped from his face,
"Now to.... make a couple of calls. Specialist, get me the admiral and the Galactic assembly chairwoman on a conference line, they will probably want to know what's going on."
He leaned back in his chair as the projection leapt up in front of them. They had to wait a good five minutes for the call to connect, and the screen split into two separate feeds. One was the face of their admiral, she looked tired with dark circles under her eyes barely visible against her deep skin tone. The commander couldn't have said what the Rundi chairwoman looked like, they weren't exactly known for their mobile facial expressions.
Honestly, she just looked like some bizarre ant-headed ostrich as always.
"Commander, I received your transmission. You said it was urgent?”
The Rundi chairwoman shifted in her place, dark robes flowing about her strange alien frame,
"This isn't about your first contact with the Adaptids, is it? We were hoping for your report yesterday."
The man shifted nervously in his seat,
"Well... yes, this is in fact about our contact with... what did you call them, the Adaptids."
"Well, I am assuming you are here and alive, so I assume things went well?”
He shifted again nervously,
"Well... actually... ma'am, we caught a bit of a snag."
The Rundi chairwoman sighed and shook her head,
"I was worried something like this would happen. Did they reject our overtures of peace, did something go wrong. Did we offend them somehow?"
The commander lifted his hands,
"No, no... nothing like that. I... it's just... well. They agreed to ally with us as friends."
The admiral leaned back in her chair,
"That is good news isn't it, commander?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Then I hardly see the snag?"
The Rundi chairwoman nodded her head in agreement.
The commander sighed,
"Were you aware of the Adaptid's... peculiar... mating rituals?"
The admiral shook her head, but the chairwoman nodded,
"We were aware of their trigender system."
The commander's eyes narrowed slightly,
"Were you also aware of their ability to borrow and lightly rewrite the DNA of other species?"
"Yes, we were passingly aware of that as a matter of fact. We theorized that's why they look so... how shall we say... thrown together. Almost as if other creatures had been assimilated."
"So than you have only yourself to blame for what happened."
The commander accused, leaning forward in his seat.
The admiral leaned forward in confusion,
"What are you talking about, commander!?"
She was ignored for the moment as commander Vir and the Rundi chairwoman locked eyes,
"You were completely aware of this, and decided not to warn my crew before going out there..."
She remained very quiet for a long moment,
"Oh no..."
"Oh no what!?"
The admiral demanded,
"If Someone doesn't tell me what's going on in the next five seconds I-"
She was cut off as the commander unzipped his jacket, allowing the leather to slide off his shoulders and onto the chair behind him. He was standing now, and from the back he looked almost completely normal, at least to Sunny. A structure made up of powerful corded muscle flexing smoothly under the sheet of pale, scarred skin. But when he turned, the issue became more than abundantly clear,
"You knew this might happen!"
The. commander growled, as the Rundi chairwoman covered her face in stunned horror.
The admiral leaned in, eyes narrowed with confusion and fascination,
"What the fuck is that, commander?"
Commander Vir turned to look at the Rundi chairwoman,
"Why don't you go ahead and tell the admiral what these are?”
The admiral did not appear particularly happy, glowering at her screen and, what must have been, an image of the Rundi chairwoman,
"Go on."
The chairwoman dropped her hands from her face and sighed,
"We discovered the adaptids a little over two cycles ago. At first, we weren't sure if they were sentient, based on the way they communicate. It took a very long time for even our best linguists, along with our best chemical analysis to determine that they were, in fact, communicating in some rudimentary way. Of course... while we were there, we did notice that they had a strange mating system. The common binary male and female pair, but with the addition of the third gender to incubate the eggs, a third party without which they would not survive, a trigender system if you will. Of course, we also noticed that the eggs had the DNA of all three parents."
"No... no, don't tell me you're going where I think you're going."
She kept it up with a sigh of frustration,
"When they implant the eggs, they are attached first to the skin, but then send filaments into the body which take nutrients and DNA from the third parent.... it does not require a specific reproductive system for this third event to be accomplished."
The admiral stood nearly knocking over her chair,
"AND YOU DIDN'T THINK THIS WAS IMPORTANT TO MENTION!?"
She waved her hand wildly at the screen,
"You neglected to share information, as was your duty, and now one of my men is harboring an alien parasite that is borrowing his DNA... and now we are going to end up with some sort of arachnid-human hybrid!"
The chairwoman slumped in her seat,
"We had no idea that the queen would do this without discussing it first... the other times we tried-"
"Now hold the damn phone for just one second. The FIRST time you tried! Are you telling me you tried to make OTHER hybrids. Not to mention that these things can BARELY communicate and you expected it to have the foresight to ask permission first... no no, you know what; you gave it permission when you decided to experiment... what were you even doing anyway?"
She slumped further down in her seat,
"We thought that if they were able to use the DNA of a host species, then the offspring might have the ability to use language, to communicate like the rest of us. Their particular abilities make them invaluable in the GA, on ships, everywhere. Can you imagine what would happen if we crossed them with something like the starborn... what they could do...?"
"Screw you, screw that. You had no idea what you were doing, and now one of my men is having alien babies! Not a sentence I ever wanted to fucking say, you absolute bag of-"
"I would watch your tone admiral, what's done is done, and I am still head of the council."
"A council that has withheld information from one of their most important assets, and now you are responsible for whatever abominable human hybrid is going to come out of those things."
She paused for a moment eyes darting towards the commander,
"... unless we... get rid of them."
"NO!"
The two figures turned to their screen in shock, as did the rest of the crew as the voice rang out across the bridge.
Commander Vir had taken a step back from the screen chin dropping over his exposed neck, shoulders hunching hands held slightly out to cover the eggs,
"No, you are not killing them!”
The admiral turned her head in confusion,
"But commander…"
"No, I agree with you that the chairwoman and the council were out of line when they neglected to warn us about the potential consequences, but I will NOT let you or anyone else hurt them."
"Commander, it is in your best interest to get rid of them!”
Over the screen, the man's single green eye was cold and still,
"Is that an order... because if it is I will tender my resignation right here and now, and you can find someone else to command this fleet."
The room was dead silent stuck in place with shock and surprise.
Sunny didn't even notice that her mouth had fallen open.
Adam loved his job, he would never.
Silence, and then the admiral sighed,
"No, commander, that is not an order. Calm down, I was only exploring our options, but clearly this is not one, though I hardly understand why..."
Commander Vir took his seat,
"It isn't an option because, while I'm not exactly pleased, and it wasn't exactly my first choice, well... there are worse things I suppose. I'm just feeding them and keeping them warm."
"And allowing them to borrow some of your DNA."
The admiral pointed out.
"Yes, let's hope that they get my vocal cords."
The admiral sighed deeply head in her hands,
"Very well commander, but I want you down here immediately, so we can keep an eye on your for the foreseeable future. I don't want to lose one of my men if things go sideways."
"Yes Ma'am. I will be sure to keep in contact."
The admiral nodded and then turned her steely amber eyes upon the Rundi chairwoman,
"And you, you are going to send someone down here to assist us. You've made your bed, now lie in it, cut transmission."
The screen went dark, and Adam slumped back in his chair head back,
"Well, that went about as well as expected. Specialist, send the next transmission to my quarters if you would. The number one spot on my personal contact list. Make sure you get permission from the UNSC for this one."
[…]
He was actually more nervous about this call than he was about the first one, which is why he had roped Sunny into being his support system.
She sat herself at his desk, head tilted curiously as he paced about the room waiting for the transmission to go through.
"Why did you say no?"
She finally queried,
"This could all be over if you wanted."
He lifted his head from his contemplation and looked her in the eyes,
"Curiosity... But mostly... well I. I don't think it's as big a deal as everyone is making it out to be. It's not hurting me physically or psychologically, it's no different from a parasite, causes less problems, and if not, they may eventually be useful to us."
"Do you really want this to be the first use of your DNA?"
She ventured curiously.
He tilted his head,
"You make it sound like they are actually my kids. Look if someone took my DNA and made a homunculus out of it, I would feel the same way I do now. I am a means to an end an adaption for them."
He turned away from her,
"Besides it's not like my DNA was being put to any particular use anyway, might as well let someone else borrow it."
She shook her head, but whatever thoughts she might have had about the situation were cut off as the transmission tone came on.
"Accept transmission."
The commander said, taking a seat on a chair opposite of Sunny.
"Adam, are you alright?"
A wry smile,
"Can't I just call my parents because I love them?”
"Did you gain weight?”
He frowned,
"Serious mom, that's what you notice?"
The human woman in the image crossed her arms,
"Only in conjunction with the bags under your eyes. You look exhausted, are you ok?"
"Yes, mother, I'm fine... well mostly fine."
Her voice rose a few octaves,
"What do you mean mostly fine? Adam what happened. Honey! Come here, something happened to Adam!"
"Mom, calm down its ok. You don't need to bring d-...father…"
"Adam, what's all this about something happening to you... did you gain weight?"
He huffed,
"Ok, no I did not, and both of you need to stop with that... see it's really no big deal. I'm fine, everyone is fine no one is hurt or dying or sick, and as far as I know…"
He griped,
"No one has gained an exorbitant amount of weight."
"I'm sensing a but in there, boy, so spit it out."
He sighed and sat back on his chair,
"Look, I was sent out to make contact with another alien species, like I normally do.... there was a.... miscommunication."
His father's eyes narrowed,
"What sort of... miscommunication? Boy…what did you do?."
"They.... incubate their eggs at high temperatures, the higher the better usually around 90 degrees, but they also require a... host to survive, and since we were making a peace overture, the queen thought that the best way to show her interest in what we were saying was to..."
He was cut off,
"Oh no, no no no, Adam please don't tell me what I think you're telling me."
Instead of answering, Adam reached up and gripped the zipper of his jacket,
"Promise you keep this secret. No one said anything out right, but I'm assuming it's classified."
His mother moaned in inner emotional pain,
"No Adam, please no."
He unzipped his jacket, tossed it on the bed, standing straight and holding his arms out so they could see the six, painfully obvious fist-sized black eggs attached to his skin.
His mother screamed, his father spit out a line of truly horrendous curses Sunny wouldn't have expected him of knowing.
"That's it! We are coming up there right now! Whose alien ass do I have to kick to-"
"Mom"
"The audacity, the sheer nerve of that c-"
"MOM!"
She went silent, though the thunderous look on her face remained,
"I'm ok, honestly they're just attached to the outside, and yes ok maybe they are borrowing my DNA and.... my lungs and my liver, but no big deal. Krill says they should be gone in a month."
His father held up a hand,
"Now hold on… Son, did you say DNA..."
He sighed deeply,
"Yes, sir, DNA. The male and female are the primary donors, but then they have a third... sort of host who supplies the rest. It appears as if they can assimilate DNA from any species as long as they can survive."
His father crossed his arms,
"So, to put that bluntly, my next grandchildren are going to be some kind of alien human hybrid. Is that what I'm hearing?"
Adam sighed deeply, punching the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb squeezing his eyes shut,
"No, that's not what I'm saying, dad, not in the way that we understand it anyway. Technically these things will have less than a third of my DNA, they won't be structurally human in any way, but they may adapt to take the traits which may be best to survive. It's Evolution but scaled incredibly quickly."
"That all seems like semantics to me."
His father continued stubbornly.
Adam sighed.
"Can't you just get rid of them?"
His mother wondered, Adam frowned,
"Why does everyone keep suggesting that. Did you ever suggest that to my sister?"
"I thought you just said these were parasites, not children."
His father pointed out, Adam groaned,
"Yes, and no... ahhhg, look, I'm not getting rid of them, and that's final. I just wanted to call you guys and let you know what's going on. I am going to be fine, and who knows, we may be able to communicate with these things once it's all said and done."
His mother did not look convinced,
"I don't like this Adam, not one bit. Why do you constantly insist on getting yourself into trouble with aliens, and then once you do, you defend them. Sometimes I really wonder what’s next, a religious alien jihad and you try to teach them about better religion? Meeting a giant ass space dragon and you try to ride it like a pony? Getting trapped by hideous aliens like some sort of weird space parrot? I swear you always do the weirdest sh… stuff, the weirdest stuff."
Sunny remained silent; she knew exactly who his mother was talking about.
She had never liked Sunny much, not after she learned what she had done to Adam during the war.
"Because I'm not nearly as angry at them as you are. Besides mother this is just two months, it isn't going to change my life, and it may actually be useful. So, my decision is final."
He crossed his arms over his chest,
"I have to go... oh, and mom."
"Yes Adam?"
"Don't let Jeremy and my other siblings know. I'd never hear the end of it, transmission over."
The screen went dead and he slumped back into his seat with a groan.
"Are you alright?"
Sunny ventured quietly, Adam threw up his hands in frustration,
"I'm beginning to wonder if I should be more upset about this than I am. Everyone else seems to think it's some horrible issue. It's just two months, and I'm ok."
Sunny stood and walked over to sit next to him, placing a hand on his arm,
"Not so many people are as forgiving as you are. A violation of their privacy, a decision made for them against their will?"
He snorted, leaning his head against her arm,
"Yeah because my abs are such a great violation of my personal space. Now if she had laid them down my throat, I think I might just take issue with that."
"Well, they did attach themselves to your liver."
"Yeah, one of the organs that I can grow back, ohhh I am so offended."
Sunny shook her head,
"You're a strange man, Adam."
"I know, but you love it."
"Do I?"
He closed his eyes,
"Yeah, you do."
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Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

If there is one issue that plagues the Catholic Church, its this particular topic. I made a post last week in terms of Pope Francis's statements on this topic as well as the statements of previous leaders historically in the Catholic Church. For this post I would like to focus on Pope Francis's actions on this topic since he inherited this crisis from his predecessors. This will look at both failures and successes. This will also look at the complex partisan politics involving the abuse scandal under the Papacy of Pope Francis. What we see is both major mistakes as well as an evolution and the implementation of key and important reforms on this issue.
Papal failures

• The public funeral that he gave for Cardinal Bernard Law in Rome when he died, burying him with full rites in 2017. This was a failure image wise because in the funeral mass there was no mention of Law's role in the cover ups of the abuse scandal in Boston.
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse in Argentina such as the cases involving the deaf, the most infamous being the case of Fr Julio Grassi
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse when it comes to cases of abuse within the Italian Catholic Church which are of a similar nature to the ones in Argentina. Unlike other European countries the Italian sexual abuse cases have been the slowest in terms of accountability by both Church and State officials
• The initial failure to act on cases of abuse in the Chilean Catholic Church as well as the fatal mistake of making Juan Barros a priest who was both mentored by and helped cover up the infamous cases of Fr Fernando Karadima in 2015. This decision would prove to be a disaster sparking a backlash during the Papal visit to Chile in 2018

Papal successes/positives

• Establishing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. This is a international commission the Pope established in 2014 currently lead by Cardinal Sean O Malley who's aim is the institution of global anti abuse protocols and prevention methods. It helps develop the development of anti abuse policies to Episcopal Conferences, religious institutes, religious orders and other institutions in the Catholic Church. Crucially, victims of abuse are involved in the formation of policy that the Pontifical Commission is involved in.
• Expanding the portfolio of the Centre for Child Protection in Rome. Founded in 2012 under the auspices of the Gregorian University, it integrates anti abuse training as well as child protection in seminary formation and other forms of institutional formation and under Hans Zoller it has become one of the world's most respected anti abuse platforms. Initially founded under Pope Benedict, under Pope Francis Hans Zollner has expanded its anti abuse education programs to over 70 countries across the globe.
• Lifting the Pontifical Secret when it comes to cases of abuse in the Catholic Church. The Royal Commission on Abuse in Australia had put forward as one of its recommendations the lifting of this policy. Established in 1971, it is a confidentiality protocol for the Vatican's Secretariat of State(the equivalent of the State Department in the Vatican) for all of its diplomatic and political dealings. The cases surrounding abuse had been under these confidentiality protocols. Pope Francis lifted this in 2019 which gives activists, legal aids and prosecutors access to key and important files.
• Overhauling Canon Law to give canonical protections to whistleblowers who come forward to report abuses. This overhaul also makes it illegal under law for Church officials to engage in NDAA(Non Disclosures) subjecting it to an excommunicatable offense.
• The greater level of transparency when it comes to the National Bishops Conferences and abuse reports. In the past when a report of abuse was put out in the media, it was typically activists and investigative journalists who forced the issue. Now what has happened is that indifferent parts of the Catholic Church you have had national bishops conferences releasing their archives and working with law enforcement to produce these reports. A good example of this is the French Report on Abuse in 2021. That was done as a collaborative effort between the Bishops, Law enforcement, Theologians, Canonists and legal experts. The author of that report who came from outside the walls of the Catholic Church stated explicitly in its preamble that Pope Francis made it possible.
• Establishing some of the first protocols for the removal of bishops who have been accused and found guilty of cover ups of sexual abuse

Partisan politics surrounding the clerical abuse scandal and the attempted coup de tat against Pope Francis:
Now like any scandal there are those who weaponise it for partisan political ends. In American politics you have the Democrats using the Russia stuff to go after Trump. You have the Republicans using stuff around Benghazi and Emails to go after Hillary Clinton and the Dems. In Canadian politics you have the Conservatives using SNC Lavalan to go after Justin Trudeau and vice versa. In the Catholic Church(and outside of it as well) its not different. Different partisan factions use the abuse scandal for their own ends. Some on the right use the abuse scandal in order to push a traditionalist, anti homosexuality perspective(stating that homosexuality was the driving force of the abuse scandal). Some of the liberal or left end of the spectrum use the abuse scandal to say things like celibacy has to end and women should be ordained(even though female religious leaders like nuns are also involved in cases of abuse). Well this partisan divide would deepen under Pope Francis when elements of the political and religious right used the abuse scandal to attempt a coup against the Pope in the Summer of 2018. These are the multiple threads that lead up to that event:

• In the summer of 2018 the Pennsylvania Grand Jury and attorney general of Pennsylvania at the time Josh Shapiro releases the Pennsylvania report which documents cases of abuse up to 2002. This of course leads to a summer of outrage. At the same time the Pope is making a Papal visit to Ireland, where there has been case after case after case of sexual abuse scandal in the Irish Catholic which produces things such as the March for Truth by abuse survivor and Amnesty International activist Colm O Gorman under the banner "Tell the Damn Truth".
• In Italian politics the Italian far right under Matteo Salvini(who is now Deputy PM of Italy) become increasingly angered at the Pope over his stances on Muslims and African migrants. They support a harsh deportation policy while Francis and the Italian Bishops continue to shield African migrants and Muslims who cross the Mediterranean from detentions and deportations. They increasingly see them as a political enemy.
• In the Walls of the Catholic Church many among the conservative factions become increasingly disillusioned and irate and what is seen as Francis's lack of upholding orthodoxy and his support for leftist causes. This comes to a head after the release of Amoris Laetitia where the Pope takes a less rigid approach to the issue of divorce and remarried Catholics which prompts traditional and conservative leaders and clerics under people like Raymond Burke to issue what is called a "dubia" or clarification. Francis does not respond to the dubia.
• In the Vatican itself you have Archbishop Vigano who was the Vatican ambassador to the United States. In 2015 during Pope Francis's visit to the U.S he arranges a controversial meeting between Pope Francis and the controversial county kentucky clerk Kim Davis, famous for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples after the U.S Supreme Court ruling legalising same sex marriage. She is in a line up of hundreds of people and out of one of a hundred the Pope shakes her hand and gives here a rosary. This is then reported in the media as a Papal endorsement of Kim Davis. The Vatican pushes back against this narrative and releases a video of the Pope meeting a gay couple he was friends with the same day from Argentina. The fallout of this is that the Pope and the Vatican remove Vigano from his post and replace him with Archbishop Christophe Pierre who changes the approach of the Apostolic nuncio from culture war topics to issues around immigration at the Mexican border, climate change, refugees and other topics. Vigano is irate at Pope Francis and develops a grudge against him.
• In the U.S itself members connect to both the political right and the Trump faction of politics such as the Koch Brothers as well as Steve Bannon increasingly oppose Pope Francis because of his clashes with Trump and his criticisms of capitalism and stances on environmentalism. Steve Bannon in particular states "The Pope is a problem" and allies with hardliners to oppose the Pope.

All of these factions connect together in their opposition to Francis. A blogger close to Matteo Salvini in Italy contacts Archbishop Vigano over their shared opposition to Francis. This is followed by connections made with both elements of the political rights in the U.S such as Steve Bannon and the Koch Brothers. During this time Vigano develops and pens an explosive allegation that Pope Francis covered up cases of sexual abuse by Cardinal Theodore Mccarick. Vigano states that a culture of homosexuality and a homosexual agenda was behind all of this and the Pope covered this up in order to use Mccarick as a powerbroker to promote more liberal and progressive bishops who Vigano alleges also has cases of sexual abuse due to them promoting a "homosexual agenda". But they wait for months before releasing this allegation. Then when August 26 of 2018 comes, 11 days after the Pennsylvanian report drops and the day the Pope is completing his visit to Ireland after the abuse scandals there, Vigano releases the report and calls for Francis's resignation as well as the resignation of all the progressive and liberal bishops that he appointed. Allies of Salvini in Italy are happy because they see a potential Papal removal as removing a roadblock to their defense of hardline anti immigrant policies in Italy. The Pope at first refuses to respond to the allegations because he doesn't think he needs to. He remains silent because he doesn't think anyone from his perspective would be gullible enough to believe that conspiracy theory. He takes the approach Barack Obama took when elements on the right sent out birther conspiracy theory. But because of the timing of the allegations right after the Pennsylvania report the public is more likely to believe it. And his left flank, who normally defends him because of his perceived "progressiveness" do not defend him as much because of their anger and disillusionment with the abuse scandals, while the right essentially pounce. Eventually the Vatican releases all of the records of Francis's involvement in the Mccarick case, refuting Vigano's theories. Then Mccarick is permanently laicised and his convicted of counts of sexual abuse.
This of course isn't the first time political games are played around the abuse scandal during the Francis Papacy. One of the origins of the Pope's original mistake in Chile over the Chilean abuse cases was due to the actions of some of the Chilean Bishops. When allegations of abuse and cover up were levelled against Juan Barros, the Pope wanted an investigation into these allegations. The investigation ended up clearing Barros of these allegations. So when the Pope goes to Chile he believes that Barros is innocent and is confused by the protests. Then he orders a second investigation by sex crimes prosecutor Archbishop Charles Sciliuna. It is shown that some of the Chilean Bishops hid information from the Pope on Barros, including destroying documents, essentially misleading him and setting him for a political trap. The Pope eventually meets Juan Carlos Cruz, sex abuse survivor and initial critic of Pope Francis. Pope Francis initially did not believe his story during the Papal visit but after meeting him in Rome and being told the truth, they end up becoming allies and best friends and following Cruz's advice and information sacks the Chilean bishops behind the cover ups and deception. So what we see is both in terms of Pope Francis's record on the abuse scandal, and the partisan politics surrounding the issue in his Papacy....things are complicated.

If there is one issue that plagues the Catholic Church, its this particular topic. I made a post last week in terms of Pope Francis's statements on this topic as well as the statements of previous leaders historically in the Catholic Church. For this post I would like to focus on Pope Francis's actions on this topic since he inherited this crisis from his predecessors. This will look at both failures and successes. This will also look at the complex partisan politics involving the abuse scandal under the Papacy of Pope Francis. What we see is both major mistakes as well as an evolution and the implementation of key and important reforms on this issue.
Papal failures

• The public funeral that he gave for Cardinal Bernard Law in Rome when he died, burying him with full rites in 2017. This was a failure image wise because in the funeral mass there was no mention of Law's role in the cover ups of the abuse scandal in Boston.
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse in Argentina such as the cases involving the deaf, the most infamous being the case of Fr Julio Grassi
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse when it comes to cases of abuse within the Italian Catholic Church which are of a similar nature to the ones in Argentina. Unlike other European countries the Italian sexual abuse cases have been the slowest in terms of accountability by both Church and State officials
• The initial failure to act on cases of abuse in the Chilean Catholic Church as well as the fatal mistake of making Juan Barros a priest who was both mentored by and helped cover up the infamous cases of Fr Fernando Karadima in 2015. This decision would prove to be a disaster sparking a backlash during the Papal visit to Chile in 2018

Papal successes/positives

• Establishing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. This is a international commission the Pope established in 2014 currently lead by Cardinal Sean O Malley who's aim is the institution of global anti abuse protocols and prevention methods. It helps develop the development of anti abuse policies to Episcopal Conferences, religious institutes, religious orders and other institutions in the Catholic Church. Crucially, victims of abuse are involved in the formation of policy that the Pontifical Commission is involved in.
• Expanding the portfolio of the Centre for Child Protection in Rome. Founded in 2012 under the auspices of the Gregorian University, it integrates anti abuse training as well as child protection in seminary formation and other forms of institutional formation and under Hans Zoller it has become one of the world's most respected anti abuse platforms. Initially founded under Pope Benedict, under Pope Francis Hans Zollner has expanded its anti abuse education programs to over 70 countries across the globe.
• Lifting the Pontifical Secret when it comes to cases of abuse in the Catholic Church. The Royal Commission on Abuse in Australia had put forward as one of its recommendations the lifting of this policy. Established in 1971, it is a confidentiality protocol for the Vatican's Secretariat of State(the equivalent of the State Department in the Vatican) for all of its diplomatic and political dealings. The cases surrounding abuse had been under these confidentiality protocols. Pope Francis lifted this in 2019 which gives activists, legal aids and prosecutors access to key and important files.
• Overhauling Canon Law to give canonical protections to whistleblowers who come forward to report abuses. This overhaul also makes it illegal under law for Church officials to engage in NDAA(Non Disclosures) subjecting it to an excommunicatable offense.
• The greater level of transparency when it comes to the National Bishops Conferences and abuse reports. In the past when a report of abuse was put out in the media, it was typically activists and investigative journalists who forced the issue. Now what has happened is that indifferent parts of the Catholic Church you have had national bishops conferences releasing their archives and working with law enforcement to produce these reports. A good example of this is the French Report on Abuse in 2021. That was done as a collaborative effort between the Bishops, Law enforcement, Theologians, Canonists and legal experts. The author of that report who came from outside the walls of the Catholic Church stated explicitly in its preamble that Pope Francis made it possible.
• Establishing some of the first protocols for the removal of bishops who have been accused and found guilty of cover ups of sexual abuse

Partisan politics surrounding the clerical abuse scandal and the attempted coup de tat against Pope Francis:
Now like any scandal there are those who weaponise it for partisan political ends. In American politics you have the Democrats using the Russia stuff to go after Trump. You have the Republicans using stuff around Benghazi and Emails to go after Hillary Clinton and the Dems. In Canadian politics you have the Conservatives using SNC Lavalan to go after Justin Trudeau and vice versa. In the Catholic Church(and outside of it as well) its not different. Different partisan factions use the abuse scandal for their own ends. Some on the right use the abuse scandal in order to push a traditionalist, anti homosexuality perspective(stating that homosexuality was the driving force of the abuse scandal). Some of the liberal or left end of the spectrum use the abuse scandal to say things like celibacy has to end and women should be ordained(even though female religious leaders like nuns are also involved in cases of abuse). Well this partisan divide would deepen under Pope Francis when elements of the political and religious right used the abuse scandal to attempt a coup against the Pope in the Summer of 2018. These are the multiple threads that lead up to that event:

• In the summer of 2018 the Pennsylvania Grand Jury and attorney general of Pennsylvania at the time Josh Shapiro releases the Pennsylvania report which documents cases of abuse up to 2002. This of course leads to a summer of outrage. At the same time the Pope is making a Papal visit to Ireland, where there has been case after case after case of sexual abuse scandal in the Irish Catholic which produces things such as the March for Truth by abuse survivor and Amnesty International activist Colm O Gorman under the banner "Tell the Damn Truth".
• In Italian politics the Italian far right under Matteo Salvini(who is now Deputy PM of Italy) become increasingly angered at the Pope over his stances on Muslims and African migrants. They support a harsh deportation policy while Francis and the Italian Bishops continue to shield African migrants and Muslims who cross the Mediterranean from detentions and deportations. They increasingly see them as a political enemy.
• In the Walls of the Catholic Church many among the conservative factions become increasingly disillusioned and irate and what is seen as Francis's lack of upholding orthodoxy and his support for leftist causes. This comes to a head after the release of Amoris Laetitia where the Pope takes a less rigid approach to the issue of divorce and remarried Catholics which prompts traditional and conservative leaders and clerics under people like Raymond Burke to issue what is called a "dubia" or clarification. Francis does not respond to the dubia.
• In the Vatican itself you have Archbishop Vigano who was the Vatican ambassador to the United States. In 2015 during Pope Francis's visit to the U.S he arranges a controversial meeting between Pope Francis and the controversial county kentucky clerk Kim Davis, famous for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples after the U.S Supreme Court ruling legalising same sex marriage. She is in a line up of hundreds of people and out of one of a hundred the Pope shakes her hand and gives here a rosary. This is then reported in the media as a Papal endorsement of Kim Davis. The Vatican pushes back against this narrative and releases a video of the Pope meeting a gay couple he was friends with the same day from Argentina. The fallout of this is that the Pope and the Vatican remove Vigano from his post and replace him with Archbishop Christophe Pierre who changes the approach of the Apostolic nuncio from culture war topics to issues around immigration at the Mexican border, climate change, refugees and other topics. Vigano is irate at Pope Francis and develops a grudge against him.
• In the U.S itself members connect to both the political right and the Trump faction of politics such as the Koch Brothers as well as Steve Bannon increasingly oppose Pope Francis because of his clashes with Trump and his criticisms of capitalism and stances on environmentalism. Steve Bannon in particular states "The Pope is a problem" and allies with hardliners to oppose the Pope.

All of these factions connect together in their opposition to Francis. A blogger close to Matteo Salvini in Italy contacts Archbishop Vigano over their shared opposition to Francis. This is followed by connections made with both elements of the political rights in the U.S such as Steve Bannon and the Koch Brothers. During this time Vigano develops and pens an explosive allegation that Pope Francis covered up cases of sexual abuse by Cardinal Theodore Mccarick. Vigano states that a culture of homosexuality and a homosexual agenda was behind all of this and the Pope covered this up in order to use Mccarick as a powerbroker to promote more liberal and progressive bishops who Vigano alleges also has cases of sexual abuse due to them promoting a "homosexual agenda". But they wait for months before releasing this allegation. Then when August 26 of 2018 comes, 11 days after the Pennsylvanian report drops and the day the Pope is completing his visit to Ireland after the abuse scandals there, Vigano releases the report and calls for Francis's resignation as well as the resignation of all the progressive and liberal bishops that he appointed. Allies of Salvini in Italy are happy because they see a potential Papal removal as removing a roadblock to their defense of hardline anti immigrant policies in Italy. The Pope at first refuses to respond to the allegations because he doesn't think he needs to. He remains silent because he doesn't think anyone from his perspective would be gullible enough to believe that conspiracy theory. He takes the approach Barack Obama took when elements on the right sent out birther conspiracy theory. But because of the timing of the allegations right after the Pennsylvania report the public is more likely to believe it. And his left flank, who normally defends him because of his perceived "progressiveness" do not defend him as much because of their anger and disillusionment with the abuse scandals, while the right essentially pounce. Eventually the Vatican releases all of the records of Francis's involvement in the Mccarick case, refuting Vigano's theories. Then Mccarick is permanently laicised and his convicted of counts of sexual abuse.
This of course isn't the first time political games are played around the abuse scandal during the Francis Papacy. One of the origins of the Pope's original mistake in Chile over the Chilean abuse cases was due to the actions of some of the Chilean Bishops. When allegations of abuse and cover up were levelled against Juan Barros, the Pope wanted an investigation into these allegations. The investigation ended up clearing Barros of these allegations. So when the Pope goes to Chile he believes that Barros is innocent and is confused by the protests. Then he orders a second investigation by sex crimes prosecutor Archbishop Charles Sciliuna. It is shown that some of the Chilean Bishops hid information from the Pope on Barros, including destroying documents, essentially misleading him and setting him for a political trap. The Pope eventually meets Juan Carlos Cruz, sex abuse survivor and initial critic of Pope Francis. Pope Francis initially did not believe his story during the Papal visit but after meeting him in Rome and being told the truth, they end up becoming allies and best friends and following Cruz's advice and information sacks the Chilean bishops behind the cover ups and deception. So what we see is both in terms of Pope Francis's record on the abuse scandal, and the partisan politics surrounding the issue in his Papacy....things are complicated.

If there is one issue that plagues the Catholic Church, its this particular topic. I made a post last week in terms of Pope Francis's statements on this topic as well as the statements of previous leaders historically in the Catholic Church. For this post I would like to focus on Pope Francis's actions on this topic since he inherited this crisis from his predecessors. This will look at both failures and successes. This will also look at the complex partisan politics involving the abuse scandal under the Papacy of Pope Francis. What we see is both major mistakes as well as an evolution and the implementation of key and important reforms on this issue.
Papal failures

• The public funeral that he gave for Cardinal Bernard Law in Rome when he died, burying him with full rites in 2017. This was a failure image wise because in the funeral mass there was no mention of Law's role in the cover ups of the abuse scandal in Boston.
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse in Argentina such as the cases involving the deaf, the most infamous being the case of Fr Julio Grassi
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse when it comes to cases of abuse within the Italian Catholic Church which are of a similar nature to the ones in Argentina. Unlike other European countries the Italian sexual abuse cases have been the slowest in terms of accountability by both Church and State officials
• The initial failure to act on cases of abuse in the Chilean Catholic Church as well as the fatal mistake of making Juan Barros a priest who was both mentored by and helped cover up the infamous cases of Fr Fernando Karadima in 2015. This decision would prove to be a disaster sparking a backlash during the Papal visit to Chile in 2018

Papal successes/positives

• Establishing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. This is a international commission the Pope established in 2014 currently lead by Cardinal Sean O Malley who's aim is the institution of global anti abuse protocols and prevention methods. It helps develop the development of anti abuse policies to Episcopal Conferences, religious institutes, religious orders and other institutions in the Catholic Church. Crucially, victims of abuse are involved in the formation of policy that the Pontifical Commission is involved in.
• Expanding the portfolio of the Centre for Child Protection in Rome. Founded in 2012 under the auspices of the Gregorian University, it integrates anti abuse training as well as child protection in seminary formation and other forms of institutional formation and under Hans Zoller it has become one of the world's most respected anti abuse platforms. Initially founded under Pope Benedict, under Pope Francis Hans Zollner has expanded its anti abuse education programs to over 70 countries across the globe.
• Lifting the Pontifical Secret when it comes to cases of abuse in the Catholic Church. The Royal Commission on Abuse in Australia had put forward as one of its recommendations the lifting of this policy. Established in 1971, it is a confidentiality protocol for the Vatican's Secretariat of State(the equivalent of the State Department in the Vatican) for all of its diplomatic and political dealings. The cases surrounding abuse had been under these confidentiality protocols. Pope Francis lifted this in 2019 which gives activists, legal aids and prosecutors access to key and important files.
• Overhauling Canon Law to give canonical protections to whistleblowers who come forward to report abuses. This overhaul also makes it illegal under law for Church officials to engage in NDAA(Non Disclosures) subjecting it to an excommunicatable offense.
• The greater level of transparency when it comes to the National Bishops Conferences and abuse reports. In the past when a report of abuse was put out in the media, it was typically activists and investigative journalists who forced the issue. Now what has happened is that indifferent parts of the Catholic Church you have had national bishops conferences releasing their archives and working with law enforcement to produce these reports. A good example of this is the French Report on Abuse in 2021. That was done as a collaborative effort between the Bishops, Law enforcement, Theologians, Canonists and legal experts. The author of that report who came from outside the walls of the Catholic Church stated explicitly in its preamble that Pope Francis made it possible.
• Establishing some of the first protocols for the removal of bishops who have been accused and found guilty of cover ups of sexual abuse

Partisan politics surrounding the clerical abuse scandal and the attempted coup de tat against Pope Francis:
Now like any scandal there are those who weaponise it for partisan political ends. In American politics you have the Democrats using the Russia stuff to go after Trump. You have the Republicans using stuff around Benghazi and Emails to go after Hillary Clinton and the Dems. In Canadian politics you have the Conservatives using SNC Lavalan to go after Justin Trudeau and vice versa. In the Catholic Church(and outside of it as well) its not different. Different partisan factions use the abuse scandal for their own ends. Some on the right use the abuse scandal in order to push a traditionalist, anti homosexuality perspective(stating that homosexuality was the driving force of the abuse scandal). Some of the liberal or left end of the spectrum use the abuse scandal to say things like celibacy has to end and women should be ordained(even though female religious leaders like nuns are also involved in cases of abuse). Well this partisan divide would deepen under Pope Francis when elements of the political and religious right used the abuse scandal to attempt a coup against the Pope in the Summer of 2018. These are the multiple threads that lead up to that event:

• In the summer of 2018 the Pennsylvania Grand Jury and attorney general of Pennsylvania at the time Josh Shapiro releases the Pennsylvania report which documents cases of abuse up to 2002. This of course leads to a summer of outrage. At the same time the Pope is making a Papal visit to Ireland, where there has been case after case after case of sexual abuse scandal in the Irish Catholic which produces things such as the March for Truth by abuse survivor and Amnesty International activist Colm O Gorman under the banner "Tell the Damn Truth".
• In Italian politics the Italian far right under Matteo Salvini(who is now Deputy PM of Italy) become increasingly angered at the Pope over his stances on Muslims and African migrants. They support a harsh deportation policy while Francis and the Italian Bishops continue to shield African migrants and Muslims who cross the Mediterranean from detentions and deportations. They increasingly see them as a political enemy.
• In the Walls of the Catholic Church many among the conservative factions become increasingly disillusioned and irate and what is seen as Francis's lack of upholding orthodoxy and his support for leftist causes. This comes to a head after the release of Amoris Laetitia where the Pope takes a less rigid approach to the issue of divorce and remarried Catholics which prompts traditional and conservative leaders and clerics under people like Raymond Burke to issue what is called a "dubia" or clarification. Francis does not respond to the dubia.
• In the Vatican itself you have Archbishop Vigano who was the Vatican ambassador to the United States. In 2015 during Pope Francis's visit to the U.S he arranges a controversial meeting between Pope Francis and the controversial county kentucky clerk Kim Davis, famous for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples after the U.S Supreme Court ruling legalising same sex marriage. She is in a line up of hundreds of people and out of one of a hundred the Pope shakes her hand and gives here a rosary. This is then reported in the media as a Papal endorsement of Kim Davis. The Vatican pushes back against this narrative and releases a video of the Pope meeting a gay couple he was friends with the same day from Argentina. The fallout of this is that the Pope and the Vatican remove Vigano from his post and replace him with Archbishop Christophe Pierre who changes the approach of the Apostolic nuncio from culture war topics to issues around immigration at the Mexican border, climate change, refugees and other topics. Vigano is irate at Pope Francis and develops a grudge against him.
• In the U.S itself members connect to both the political right and the Trump faction of politics such as the Koch Brothers as well as Steve Bannon increasingly oppose Pope Francis because of his clashes with Trump and his criticisms of capitalism and stances on environmentalism. Steve Bannon in particular states "The Pope is a problem" and allies with hardliners to oppose the Pope.

All of these factions connect together in their opposition to Francis. A blogger close to Matteo Salvini in Italy contacts Archbishop Vigano over their shared opposition to Francis. This is followed by connections made with both elements of the political rights in the U.S such as Steve Bannon and the Koch Brothers. During this time Vigano develops and pens an explosive allegation that Pope Francis covered up cases of sexual abuse by Cardinal Theodore Mccarick. Vigano states that a culture of homosexuality and a homosexual agenda was behind all of this and the Pope covered this up in order to use Mccarick as a powerbroker to promote more liberal and progressive bishops who Vigano alleges also has cases of sexual abuse due to them promoting a "homosexual agenda". But they wait for months before releasing this allegation. Then when August 26 of 2018 comes, 11 days after the Pennsylvanian report drops and the day the Pope is completing his visit to Ireland after the abuse scandals there, Vigano releases the report and calls for Francis's resignation as well as the resignation of all the progressive and liberal bishops that he appointed. Allies of Salvini in Italy are happy because they see a potential Papal removal as removing a roadblock to their defense of hardline anti immigrant policies in Italy. The Pope at first refuses to respond to the allegations because he doesn't think he needs to. He remains silent because he doesn't think anyone from his perspective would be gullible enough to believe that conspiracy theory. He takes the approach Barack Obama took when elements on the right sent out birther conspiracy theory. But because of the timing of the allegations right after the Pennsylvania report the public is more likely to believe it. And his left flank, who normally defends him because of his perceived "progressiveness" do not defend him as much because of their anger and disillusionment with the abuse scandals, while the right essentially pounce. Eventually the Vatican releases all of the records of Francis's involvement in the Mccarick case, refuting Vigano's theories. Then Mccarick is permanently laicised and his convicted of counts of sexual abuse.
This of course isn't the first time political games are played around the abuse scandal during the Francis Papacy. One of the origins of the Pope's original mistake in Chile over the Chilean abuse cases was due to the actions of some of the Chilean Bishops. When allegations of abuse and cover up were levelled against Juan Barros, the Pope wanted an investigation into these allegations. The investigation ended up clearing Barros of these allegations. So when the Pope goes to Chile he believes that Barros is innocent and is confused by the protests. Then he orders a second investigation by sex crimes prosecutor Archbishop Charles Sciliuna. It is shown that some of the Chilean Bishops hid information from the Pope on Barros, including destroying documents, essentially misleading him and setting him for a political trap. The Pope eventually meets Juan Carlos Cruz, sex abuse survivor and initial critic of Pope Francis. Pope Francis initially did not believe his story during the Papal visit but after meeting him in Rome and being told the truth, they end up becoming allies and best friends and following Cruz's advice and information sacks the Chilean bishops behind the cover ups and deception. So what we see is both in terms of Pope Francis's record on the abuse scandal, and the partisan politics surrounding the issue in his Papacy....things are complicated.

If there is one issue that plagues the Catholic Church, its this particular topic. I made a post last week in terms of Pope Francis's statements on this topic as well as the statements of previous leaders historically in the Catholic Church. For this post I would like to focus on Pope Francis's actions on this topic since he inherited this crisis from his predecessors. This will look at both failures and successes. This will also look at the complex partisan politics involving the abuse scandal under the Papacy of Pope Francis. What we see is both major mistakes as well as an evolution and the implementation of key and important reforms on this issue.
Papal failures

• The public funeral that he gave for Cardinal Bernard Law in Rome when he died, burying him with full rites in 2017. This was a failure image wise because in the funeral mass there was no mention of Law's role in the cover ups of the abuse scandal in Boston.
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse in Argentina such as the cases involving the deaf, the most infamous being the case of Fr Julio Grassi
• Failing to act on cases of sexual abuse when it comes to cases of abuse within the Italian Catholic Church which are of a similar nature to the ones in Argentina. Unlike other European countries the Italian sexual abuse cases have been the slowest in terms of accountability by both Church and State officials
• The initial failure to act on cases of abuse in the Chilean Catholic Church as well as the fatal mistake of making Juan Barros a priest who was both mentored by and helped cover up the infamous cases of Fr Fernando Karadima in 2015. This decision would prove to be a disaster sparking a backlash during the Papal visit to Chile in 2018

Papal successes/positives

• Establishing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. This is a international commission the Pope established in 2014 currently lead by Cardinal Sean O Malley who's aim is the institution of global anti abuse protocols and prevention methods. It helps develop the development of anti abuse policies to Episcopal Conferences, religious institutes, religious orders and other institutions in the Catholic Church. Crucially, victims of abuse are involved in the formation of policy that the Pontifical Commission is involved in.
• Expanding the portfolio of the Centre for Child Protection in Rome. Founded in 2012 under the auspices of the Gregorian University, it integrates anti abuse training as well as child protection in seminary formation and other forms of institutional formation and under Hans Zoller it has become one of the world's most respected anti abuse platforms. Initially founded under Pope Benedict, under Pope Francis Hans Zollner has expanded its anti abuse education programs to over 70 countries across the globe.
• Lifting the Pontifical Secret when it comes to cases of abuse in the Catholic Church. The Royal Commission on Abuse in Australia had put forward as one of its recommendations the lifting of this policy. Established in 1971, it is a confidentiality protocol for the Vatican's Secretariat of State(the equivalent of the State Department in the Vatican) for all of its diplomatic and political dealings. The cases surrounding abuse had been under these confidentiality protocols. Pope Francis lifted this in 2019 which gives activists, legal aids and prosecutors access to key and important files.
• Overhauling Canon Law to give canonical protections to whistleblowers who come forward to report abuses. This overhaul also makes it illegal under law for Church officials to engage in NDAA(Non Disclosures) subjecting it to an excommunicatable offense.
• The greater level of transparency when it comes to the National Bishops Conferences and abuse reports. In the past when a report of abuse was put out in the media, it was typically activists and investigative journalists who forced the issue. Now what has happened is that indifferent parts of the Catholic Church you have had national bishops conferences releasing their archives and working with law enforcement to produce these reports. A good example of this is the French Report on Abuse in 2021. That was done as a collaborative effort between the Bishops, Law enforcement, Theologians, Canonists and legal experts. The author of that report who came from outside the walls of the Catholic Church stated explicitly in its preamble that Pope Francis made it possible.
• Establishing some of the first protocols for the removal of bishops who have been accused and found guilty of cover ups of sexual abuse

Partisan politics surrounding the clerical abuse scandal and the attempted coup de tat against Pope Francis:
Now like any scandal there are those who weaponise it for partisan political ends. In American politics you have the Democrats using the Russia stuff to go after Trump. You have the Republicans using stuff around Benghazi and Emails to go after Hillary Clinton and the Dems. In Canadian politics you have the Conservatives using SNC Lavalan to go after Justin Trudeau and vice versa. In the Catholic Church(and outside of it as well) its not different. Different partisan factions use the abuse scandal for their own ends. Some on the right use the abuse scandal in order to push a traditionalist, anti homosexuality perspective(stating that homosexuality was the driving force of the abuse scandal). Some of the liberal or left end of the spectrum use the abuse scandal to say things like celibacy has to end and women should be ordained(even though female religious leaders like nuns are also involved in cases of abuse). Well this partisan divide would deepen under Pope Francis when elements of the political and religious right used the abuse scandal to attempt a coup against the Pope in the Summer of 2018. These are the multiple threads that lead up to that event:

• In the summer of 2018 the Pennsylvania Grand Jury and attorney general of Pennsylvania at the time Josh Shapiro releases the Pennsylvania report which documents cases of abuse up to 2002. This of course leads to a summer of outrage. At the same time the Pope is making a Papal visit to Ireland, where there has been case after case after case of sexual abuse scandal in the Irish Catholic which produces things such as the March for Truth by abuse survivor and Amnesty International activist Colm O Gorman under the banner "Tell the Damn Truth".
• In Italian politics the Italian far right under Matteo Salvini(who is now Deputy PM of Italy) become increasingly angered at the Pope over his stances on Muslims and African migrants. They support a harsh deportation policy while Francis and the Italian Bishops continue to shield African migrants and Muslims who cross the Mediterranean from detentions and deportations. They increasingly see them as a political enemy.
• In the Walls of the Catholic Church many among the conservative factions become increasingly disillusioned and irate and what is seen as Francis's lack of upholding orthodoxy and his support for leftist causes. This comes to a head after the release of Amoris Laetitia where the Pope takes a less rigid approach to the issue of divorce and remarried Catholics which prompts traditional and conservative leaders and clerics under people like Raymond Burke to issue what is called a "dubia" or clarification. Francis does not respond to the dubia.
• In the Vatican itself you have Archbishop Vigano who was the Vatican ambassador to the United States. In 2015 during Pope Francis's visit to the U.S he arranges a controversial meeting between Pope Francis and the controversial county kentucky clerk Kim Davis, famous for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples after the U.S Supreme Court ruling legalising same sex marriage. She is in a line up of hundreds of people and out of one of a hundred the Pope shakes her hand and gives here a rosary. This is then reported in the media as a Papal endorsement of Kim Davis. The Vatican pushes back against this narrative and releases a video of the Pope meeting a gay couple he was friends with the same day from Argentina. The fallout of this is that the Pope and the Vatican remove Vigano from his post and replace him with Archbishop Christophe Pierre who changes the approach of the Apostolic nuncio from culture war topics to issues around immigration at the Mexican border, climate change, refugees and other topics. Vigano is irate at Pope Francis and develops a grudge against him.
• In the U.S itself members connect to both the political right and the Trump faction of politics such as the Koch Brothers as well as Steve Bannon increasingly oppose Pope Francis because of his clashes with Trump and his criticisms of capitalism and stances on environmentalism. Steve Bannon in particular states "The Pope is a problem" and allies with hardliners to oppose the Pope.

All of these factions connect together in their opposition to Francis. A blogger close to Matteo Salvini in Italy contacts Archbishop Vigano over their shared opposition to Francis. This is followed by connections made with both elements of the political rights in the U.S such as Steve Bannon and the Koch Brothers. During this time Vigano develops and pens an explosive allegation that Pope Francis covered up cases of sexual abuse by Cardinal Theodore Mccarick. Vigano states that a culture of homosexuality and a homosexual agenda was behind all of this and the Pope covered this up in order to use Mccarick as a powerbroker to promote more liberal and progressive bishops who Vigano alleges also has cases of sexual abuse due to them promoting a "homosexual agenda". But they wait for months before releasing this allegation. Then when August 26 of 2018 comes, 11 days after the Pennsylvanian report drops and the day the Pope is completing his visit to Ireland after the abuse scandals there, Vigano releases the report and calls for Francis's resignation as well as the resignation of all the progressive and liberal bishops that he appointed. Allies of Salvini in Italy are happy because they see a potential Papal removal as removing a roadblock to their defense of hardline anti immigrant policies in Italy. The Pope at first refuses to respond to the allegations because he doesn't think he needs to. He remains silent because he doesn't think anyone from his perspective would be gullible enough to believe that conspiracy theory. He takes the approach Barack Obama took when elements on the right sent out birther conspiracy theory. But because of the timing of the allegations right after the Pennsylvania report the public is more likely to believe it. And his left flank, who normally defends him because of his perceived "progressiveness" do not defend him as much because of their anger and disillusionment with the abuse scandals, while the right essentially pounce. Eventually the Vatican releases all of the records of Francis's involvement in the Mccarick case, refuting Vigano's theories. Then Mccarick is permanently laicised and his convicted of counts of sexual abuse.
This of course isn't the first time political games are played around the abuse scandal during the Francis Papacy. One of the origins of the Pope's original mistake in Chile over the Chilean abuse cases was due to the actions of some of the Chilean Bishops. When allegations of abuse and cover up were levelled against Juan Barros, the Pope wanted an investigation into these allegations. The investigation ended up clearing Barros of these allegations. So when the Pope goes to Chile he believes that Barros is innocent and is confused by the protests. Then he orders a second investigation by sex crimes prosecutor Archbishop Charles Sciliuna. It is shown that some of the Chilean Bishops hid information from the Pope on Barros, including destroying documents, essentially misleading him and setting him for a political trap. The Pope eventually meets Juan Carlos Cruz, sex abuse survivor and initial critic of Pope Francis. Pope Francis initially did not believe his story during the Papal visit but after meeting him in Rome and being told the truth, they end up becoming allies and best friends and following Cruz's advice and information sacks the Chilean bishops behind the cover ups and deception. So what we see is both in terms of Pope Francis's record on the abuse scandal, and the partisan politics surrounding the issue in his Papacy....things are complicated.

This is a Nature of Predators Fanfic
First Previous Next
Amelia was excitedly telling a sea-loving Krakotl about her own childhood trips to the beach when she heard a shrieking laugh behind her. She turned to the sound instinctively, and saw her boyfriend laughing with the bartender. She smiled widely, tipsiness making her forget to hide her teeth. She was considering whether she should get up and join him at the bar, or wait for him to come to her, when she saw Jaisa fly over to him. Talva had been right, it looked like she was happy to see an old friend.
Then, she kissed his neck, and he sensually stroked her feathers.
The smile fell from Amelia’s face. If that was how they greeted each other, they must be really “good friends.”
The Krakotl she had been talking to chirped and tilted his head at her. She refocused on him and realized she’d stopped talking mid-sentence.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I got distracted, my boyfriend just walked in. Forgive me, that was rude. You were asking if we enjoy the wind currents? Honestly, we like getting in the water more, although we do use the wind to sail boats. We do have a sport called surfing, though, let me see if I can find a video for you.”
While the Krakotl watched the video, Amelia took a breath and reminded herself not to jump to conclusions. She had made the decision to date an alien, and difficult cultural moments were an inherent part of that. Heck, the only reason Glenil had had the courage to ask her out was because she’d misinterpreted one of his platonic gestures as romantic in intent. Besides, she knew next to nothing about Krakotl culture. Physical contact between friends was perfectly acceptable in her own culture, after all. She shook her head slightly. She just needed to put that image of Jaisa’s beak on Glenil’s neck out of her mind until she could talk to him in private.
“Hello, beloved,” his warm voice sounded behind her. “I got a spiked tayri juice for you.”
“Hey handsome,” she told him brightly. “Thanks for the cocktail. This is Krisim, we were just talking about swimming at the beach.”
“Well, I was talking about soaring at the beach,” he corrected her.
“Wait, you can swim?” Jaisa asked incredulously.
“I mean, not as well as actual aquatic animals, but we like splashing around, sure!”
“Cute,” Jaisa smirked. “I just can imagine a group of you teaching your hatchlings how to splash around in the most elegant possible manner.” She pushed Glenil’s shoulder with her wing and giggled musically.
Amelia’s eyes narrowed infinitesimally; was Jaisa being intentionally condescending and touchy with Glenil? Don’t jump to conclusions based off your own culture, she reminded herself. She pasted a toothy, white smile on her face. “Yep, swimming lessons are definitely fun.”
Glenil leaned over her and deposited a quick kiss on her cheek in the human fashion, before murmuring that he wanted to catch up with Jaisa.
She watched them walk away to a nearby table with a sinking heart. Amelia tried to focus on the conversation with the group she’d just been hitting it off with, but couldn’t quite muster the enthusiasm she’d felt just moments before.
Mariah glanced from Amelia to Glenil and back, and raised her eyebrows. Her dark eyes emoted concern, but Amelia just shrugged. “It’s fine,” she mouthed at her. “I’ll talk to him later.”
Well, Amelia’s relationship was her concern. Mariah herself was not feeling fine. Just moments ago, some jerk had dive-bombed her group and called them “ugly, stinking, skin-monsters.” While she was grateful that the other Krakotl had intervened and apologized for his boorish behavior, she felt twitchy every time one of them lifted a wing or cawed too loudly. She sipped at her second glass of algae bloom — Krisim had wordlessly gotten it for her when he noticed her blinking back tears — and tried to calm herself by simply listening to the conversation around her.
It seemed the Krakotl were amused over Amelia’s choice of beverage.
“I wouldn’t have thought a predator would like fruit juice, let alone drink it at a bar,” one chuckled.
“Well, if she doesn’t like the algae blooms, it’s not like she could drink the Venlil swill! We can commiserate with you on that one, human.”
“That’s true,” Krisim said. “Venlil eat lots of fruit, and for their ancestors, eating the fermented fruits on the forest floor was a big evolutionary advantage. We eat fruit, sure, but our ancestors mostly ate algae, which is always fresh. We just didn’t evolve that alcohol tolerance the way the Venlil did. Humans and Krakotl have that in common, I suppose.”
Mariah nodded slightly but didn’t venture to speak. Every time Amelia talked, more birds flocked to her, and Mariah just didn’t want them focused on her. She was terrified one of them would ask about her family or home, and she’d dissolve.
“Speaking of things in common, do humans dance?” Krisim’s friend, Laimil, asked.
“Of course! I took classes as a kid, but I’m not great or anything. Mariah over there is who you should talk to about human dancing.”
Mariah’s mind rushed back to her childhood, learning to dance in her family’s kitchen to the rhythm of their old dishwasher, feet balanced on top of her father’s shoes as he showed her how to step to the beat and her mother laughed. That was all gone, now. That dishwasher wasn’t just sitting in a junk heap somewhere, it had been obliterated by an antimatter bomb, and everything she loved with it. She couldn’t even think about dancing right now, let alone talk about it with these feathered aliens.
Sitting next to her, Talva noticed Mariah’s eyes filling with tears, and her knuckles turning white around the handful of skirt she was clenching. Talva rested her hand comfortingly on her friend’s forearm, and decided to turn the conversation away from the teary girl.
“I clearly remember you doing choreography, Amelia!” Talva blurted. “I’d bet we all want to hear about that!”
Mariah shot her a grateful look and sighed.
“Talva!” Amelia exclaimed, flapping her hand at her friend. “That was not real dancing, you can’t tell people about that!”
The avians around the table ruffled their feathers in laughter. “What kind of choreography would be ‘not real dancing?’” Krisim asked, eyes glinting with mirth.
Amelia glared daggers at Talva, who wagged cheerfully back at her.
“Human kids do these silly dances to popular songs. It’s a common activity for a group of friends to make up and learn a dance together, and record a video of the group dancing. A couple weeks ago, someone played a song at the bar we usually go to that was popular when I was a kid, and probably half the English speakers — uh, sorry, that’s the language of my tribe, which is spoken by several other tribes, too — immediately just busted out these inelegant, ridiculous moves we all learned back in 2115.”
“I’m surprised the Venlil weren’t terrified at a group of humans moving in unison,” someone squawked mockingly.
“It was too hilarious to be threatening,” Talva chortled.
“But I refuse to let something as clumsy as my half-remembered schoolyard choreography be taken as an example of human achievement in dance!” Amelia finished, emphasizing each word with a tap of her hand on the table top.
The Krakotl around them were making bizarre, light skreetches that Amelia strongly suspected was giggling. Embarrassing as getting called out on her decades-old boy band dance routines in front of strangers might be, she strongly preferred that to them being scared of her.
As Laimil turned to Mariah to ask her about “real” human dancing, Amelia drained her juice and got up to buy another. The air pressed on her ear drums as a Krakotl beat their wings to clear the table and land next to her.
“Mind if I join you?” Krisim asked. “It’s been such a pleasure talking to you, I’d be honored if you let me buy you a drink.”
Amelia’s eyes widened. She glanced across the room at her boyfriend — wait, did Jaisa have her wing around his shoulders?? — and back at the Krakotl in front of her, and let out a breath.
“That is so generous of you. But, um, in my culture, that has romantic implications? And I do have a boyfriend…” she told him awkwardly.
Krisim gestured graciously with his wing. “I completely understand, and I thank you for your frank explanation. I wasn’t sure if your people were even monogamous. Although, he doesn’t appear to be buying you a drink at present. If you decide differently, let me know.”
Amelia blushed. That definitely sounded like flirting to her. She would just have to do her best to be friendly, but not encouraging. That balance was hard enough to strike with others from her own cultural background, let alone with a bright, blue, alien, space turkey.
After a moment’s silence, Krisim continued. “Revealing one’s bright coloration does convey rather romantic intentions in my own culture. I only tell you so that you may conceal the vivid tones in your face to avoid such miscommunications if you wish.”
Amelia’s jaw dropped open, and she covered her face with her hands. “Well, I can’t control it, especially if I’ve had a few drinks. It’s a blood pressure thing.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize. I’d seen humans with more and less vivid coloration on their skin and thought it was something you did at will, like how we can show off or hide our brightest feathers.”
“Well, we do, but it’s with paint, not something we can just do at a moment’s notice.”
“I see, fascinating. This is why I was so excited to see a human here today. You’re so spectacularly alien!”
“Well, thanks, I guess.” They fell silent as Kisoar confirmed they both wanted another round of the same drinks they’d been having.
“Is it an everyday, normal thing for a Krakotl to nuzzle people with their beaks?” Amelia blurted suddenly, after Kisoar flapped to the end of the bar to refill the massive jug of algae bloom he needed to top up Krisim’s glass.
“What do you mean by that?”
Amelia ignored the fact that her cheeks were still burning and sending those mixed messages to everyone in the bar, and gestured at her neck. “Like as a greeting, would you platonically greet someone by nuzzling their neck with your beak? And if they like, stroked your whole wing, what kind of signals would that be sending?”
“That’s a typical interspecies embrace. When Krakotl meet friends and family, we embrace and smooth each other’s feathers with our beaks. It’s called allopreening. You mammals can’t do that, so we approximate the motion, and the mammal strokes our wing with their paw. It’s perfectly platonic.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good then,” Amelia said, gaze lowering to the bar. She’d known all along her concern had been unfounded and silly!
Krisim chortled at her. “You weren’t jealous of Glenil spending time with his ex-lover, were you?”
Amelia’s head snapped back around, and her eyes narrowed at the Krakotl male. “His what?”
His eyes widened and his feathers puffed up; his tail fanned out behind him in alarm. Just a minute ago, he’d been somewhat attracted to the predator’s charmingly bright cheeks, and now she looked like she’d break his neck in an instant. “I thought you knew!” he squawked, flapping his wings slightly. The bar got quieter as the inhabitants who had been keeping one eye on the predators noted the Krisim’s barely-suppressed intimidation display. Outside of Amelia’s field of vision, Talva leapt out of her seat and jogged towards her friend.
Some part of Amelia’s brain realized she had inadvertently freaked Krisim out. She turned her head away from him in an effort to show she wasn’t sizing him up for a meal. “God dammit. I’m sorry, Krisim, I realize my facial expression was a little intense there. Another cultural miscommunication, I guess. I just didn’t realize Glenil dated Jaisa. Thanks for telling me.”
Kisoar pushed a green, fermented algae to Krisim, who took it and flew away in a flap. Kisoar gave Amelia her alcoholic juice, and fixed her in his gaze.
“Humans are territorial, right?” he asked her. Taking her silence as an affirmative, he went on. “We are too. We’re known for being more aggressive than other Federation species, and part of that is because we evolved to defend our nests, both from predators, and from other Krakotl with flashier feathers. At least, that’s what some of the historians who go against the Farsul narratives have been saying. My point is, the Venlil aren’t like that. They’re not as placid as people like to think they are, but, they don’t look at a romantic relationship as something that needs to be defended like we do.”
“Is that why you were worried about inviting him here?” Talva squeaked from behind Amelia’s shoulder.
Amelia jumped. A Venlil would have seen Talva there, but with her human skull structure, Amelia was caught unawares.
“Oh my god, girl, when did you get here? Never mind. No, I was worried about inviting him because in my culture, it would be rude to invite my boyfriend on a girls’ night. If I’d known they dated, I might have felt a little worried about that, but that wouldn’t change the fact that they’re friends. People are allowed to be friends with their exes. But a human would know to be up front and clear about that so that their girlfriend wouldn’t get blindsided by that information and have to deal with that revelation in front of everyone.”
“Human, working here, I see a lot of interspecies couples of all types,” the bartender went on. “This kind of conflict around cultural expectations comes up with all of them. Channel whatever it was that Noah used to explain himself to the Federation, and let your mate know what you’re feeling and thinking. Oh, and get him to dance with you so that the rest of these curious lekkers will realize you’re not available.”
“Lekkers?”
“A group assembled to compete for mates - flashing their colors, flirting, you know.”
Amelia nodded contemplatively. “I have to say, it’s a relief to realize I’m not the only one with these issues. You can imagine how it went meeting his family, I’m sure.”
“Oh, Inatala, that must have been difficult.”
Amelia sipped her tayri cocktail contemplatively. “He stood up for me, though. He always does.”
“I’m not surprised. He’s a good guy. Got all of the best qualities of a Venlil, and few of the annoying ones.”
Talva flicked her ears in annoyance as Amelia barked out a laugh. “You’re not wrong, Kisoar. Hey, while I’ve got you dispensing advice, you mentioned I should dance with Glenil - dancing’s a romantic thing for the Krakotl?”
Kisoar bobbed his head noncommittally. “It can be. Dancing as a couple, one-on-one, is usually an expression of pointed interest or commitment. It’s a pretty common lekking activity. Dancing in a larger group doesn’t have that connotation.”
“Depends on the context, then. Just like us. Hey, could I have a glass of whatever Glenil had?”
Kisoar tilted his head cautiously at her. “For him, or for you? No offense, but I don’t need a human passed out on my floor.”
“For him, obviously!!” Amelia rotated her head quickly from side to side, as if checking for predators, before leaning forward conspiratorially. “Between you and me, I value my life far too much to drink that poison.”
“Hey!” Talva swatted her with her tail. “I ignored the ‘annoying qualities of a Venlil’ comment, but just because you can’t handle a real drink doesn’t make the finest brew in the galaxy ‘poison!’”
————————————————————
Amelia and Talva approached Glenil and Jaisa’s table.
“Mind if we butt in?” Amelia asked with a smile, setting the clear glass down in front of Glenil.
“Of course, beloved,” Glenil said with an affectionate wave of his tail.
“Actually, Jaisa, could I talk to you?” Talva asked. “I got you a drink, and I’ve got an idea I wanted to sprout with you. Plus, we should save Mariah from those lekking males.”
Jaisa chirped a cheerful agreement and followed Talva away from the table.
“Do you want to do some dancing? I thought that you might enjoy that, and Mariah is said to be a gifted dancer.”
Jaisa tilted her head. “And you had to ask that in private?”
“Well, Amelia is shy when it comes to dancing, I didn’t want to embarrass her! And… I wanted to ask if you are still interested in Glenil,” she admitted.
“Oh Inatala, no! He’s sweet, but sweet just isn’t my type. That’s why we broke up, remember?”
“Right. That and the jealousy.”
“Ugh, you Venlil are always thinking the slightest thing is too aggressive. Protective doesn’t always mean jealous.”
Vala chuckled. “Well, you Krakotl are always jumping to conclusions.”
Jaisa squawked a laugh as Vala whacked her with her tail. “That’s why we’re such good friends. You talk me down when I’m swooping to divebomb something, and I make you stand up for yourself. I’ve missed you, friend. Maybe it’s a good thing we’ve both been so busy, though. I would have told you not to sponsor that predator coming to Venlil Prime, but she’s actually perfectly nice. And, to answer your initial question, yes, I think dancing would be fun.”
Mariah’s head perked up to look at them. She excused herself to the person she had been talking to, and smiled broadly at Jaisa as she perched next to her. “Did I hear you say ‘dancing?’”
Although she’d done her best to present a cheerful face, she had been on edge ever since that one Krakotl had dive-bombed them, even though the rest of the bar had made it clear they didn’t agree with his intolerance. If she didn’t do something to help her feelings dissipate, she felt she might explode. Moving to a rhythm did always lift her mood.
The floor at the center of the room was clear of tables and perches to allow plenty of room for dancing. Several Krakotl were already dancing, and Jaisa easily fell into an elegant pattern of movement across from them. She bobbed her head to the song, and flared and shook her feathers along with the harmonic trills. When Mariah tried to join her, she found that even finding the beat to the music was a challenge. She had heard that Krakotl music was known throughout the Federation for its unique complexity, but had not expected to find herself unable to match the beat for longer than a few seconds at a time before it got away from her. While Mariah had years of formal training in ballet, jazz, and hiphop, and a childhood spent dancing to the complex beats of her father’s Igbo music, this music was simply more alien than anything she’d heard before.
As she realized that this music didn’t adhere to the same rules that governed human music, she came to a stop. She dropped her drink on a nearby table and closed her eyes. She snapped the fingers of her right hand along to the beat, and when the song shifted to no longer match, she patted her left hand on her thigh. It shifted again, and she tapped her toes. The song finally changed back to match her initial, finger-snapping pattern. She listened, focusing on the three time signatures she was measuring with her body. After a few minutes, she realized that each time the dominant beat changed, the harmony subtly carried the theme of the other two rhythms. She had learned young that if you could find the beat, you could dance to anything, even a noisy dishwasher. Now, she just had to figure out how to follow this one.
Jaisa was disappointed to see the human fumble instead of dancing as confidently as Talva had promised. She’d liked her confidence, but she’d been silly to think a predator, of all people, would be able to discern the complex flows, currents and wingbeats of Krakotl music to dance gracefully. The human had seemed to realize her own failure and froze, eyes closed as if in an effort to hide. She stopped trying to dance, and simply made small movements with her extremities to the wingbeats of the music. Jaisa wondered if the female would take offense if she offered to try to show her how to move.
Mariah opened her eyes again and took a few steps. She combined elements of a waltz, a cha-cha, and a foxtrot to create a footwork pattern that could dynamically shift with the beat of the song. Once her feet successfully navigated the complex musical phrases without tripping over the constantly changing time signatures, she let the rest of her body shimmy, twist, bounce, and swoop with the soaring and flitting harmonies.
Jaisa trilled in surprise. The human wasn’t clumsy at all! Once she had mapped the currents of the music, she soared along the ground with surprising elegance and poise. Jaisa frilled her tail to show off her bright plumage along to the sweeping flow of the music, and incorporated some of Mariah’s alien footwork into her own dance. Mariah smiled as she noticed, and echoed the feather movements with her hands. Jaisa was glad she’d bullied Talva into bringing the human; this was fun.
As she twisted and twirled, Jaisa noticed iridescent highlights on the human’s cheekbones. Those colors had to signal interest, she couldn’t think of any possible reason a being would evolve iridescence other than to attract a mate. She wouldn’t have thought that predators would be civilized enough to understand the concept of couple-bonding without reproducing, whether same- or opposite-sex. Now that she’d actually talked to humans, she realized that had been an ignorant assumption. If Mariah was interested in her, well, she could certainly use the rebound. Besides… she’d never met anyone that moved like this. Jaisa fluttered closer to her, wings and tail shifting in time to the music to display her iridescence to the utmost effect.
Mariah wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light making Jaisa appear more colorful as she moved. But she did notice the avian woman’s intent focus on Mariah’s steps, and that every time Mariah mirrored one of her moves, Jaisa would borrow one of hers. The bird trilled and shimmered the feathers on her neck. Mariah overtly ignored the other Krakotl around her and focused on dancing confidently with her new friend, closer and closer with each phrase of the music. For the first time since Talva had mentioned going to a Krakotl establishment, Mariah actually felt at ease.
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