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General No'Drak stared at the holotank, leaning back from the table and pushing the plate to the side. He picked up his pack of cigarettes and opened it slowly, looking at the data that he had been looking over while he ate.
Almost every unit was no longer engaged in fighting. There was some mopup, mostly being handled by the light infantry, mechanized infantry, and the light attack craft units. Third Armor was undergoing refit and examination.
The tanks of Third Armor and First Armored Recon had long lists of malfunctions, errors, and breakdowns, most of them overlapping.
The meme of "Your old tank" and "Your new high tech supertank" had millions of likes, recasts, and other engagement metrics.
No'Drak knew anger when he saw it.
He compared the maitenance lists for the old tanks that Third Armor and First Recon had swapped out after the Telkan Campaign to the current list, then compared it to the new armor that First Telkan Marines and Fifth Powered Infantry Division was using.
Third Armor and First Recon had nearly six times the amount of part and software failures that were standard across virtually 80% of the tanks. The biggest piece was the battlescreen frequency algorithm software had been patched in the field by an enlistedman from 27th Maintenance Brigade.
No'Drak opened the reports on the software. Corps software analysis stated there was nothing wrong with the algorithm, everyone below Corps stated bluntly that the software was trash. The enlistedman from 27th's report was more in-depth. While most of it was formula and went over No'Drak's head, there was one part that he noted.
Every 82 seconds the software restarted at the same frequency before rotating through six different frequencies within a thirty second interval, afterwards randomization improved.
The second part was that the early frequencies all matched the mining lasers used by most mining systems, including Precursor systems.
While the system should have discarded that set of frequencies and not used them further, it did not lock those frequencies out.
Corps Maintenance claimed that the software did and showed simulations where it did so.
The enlistedman had countered that after approximately 185 to 383 seconds it reset completely, wiping out the frequency lockouts and returning to factory baseline.
The One Star General in charge of Corps Maintenance had recommended that enlistedman be punished for insubordination due to fact that when the General replied that Corps simulations did not show that, the enlistedman replied "Actual use is different and you'd know that if you'd been in a tank in the last three hundred years instead of hiding behind a desk."
No'Drak sighed. It was a clear case of insubordination in writing. He wrote a quick recommendation to the enlistedman's commander to fine the enlistedman one narcobeer, require ten pushups, and force the enlistedman to recite the Corps motto ten times at high volume as a punishment.
He then penned a letter to the General, telling him that he would be personally looking over the after action reports regarding the new armored vehicles and armored infantry suits.
Next up was the logistics report. General No'Drak sighed. The current General in charge of logistics was a perfectly servicable subordinate, but he lacked General Tik-Tak's flair for producing two bullets when he had only had an expended shell casing. The General was complaining about nanite depletion, work performance metrics dropoffs, morale issues, retention issues, and, of course, the fact that he had busted black market rings twice and a prostitution ring another time.
General No'Drak just signed the receipt and promised himself he'd look over it real soon.
Clone Warfare was reporting that they were no closer to solving the issues with rapid growth clones and the Born Whole system, and as of the writing of the report the two systems were to be considered unavailable. Simba, Goodboi, and Purrboi production was starting to have problems with neurological system collapse but Clone Warfare was checking the issue to see if it was a possible mutation in the Friendkiller Virus. Additionally, there were now issues with transferring SUDS templates across hardwired systems and it was possible the entire system would go down.
That one was an issue. No'Drak signed the sheets and ordered the entire Clone Warfare Division to be taken out of the order of battle, despite the problems it would cause with reinforcement and replacement.
General No'Drak punched up his Table of Organization & Equipment, looking for an older section. There, 21st Replacement Battalion. He reactivated it, pulled men from retention offices, medical oversight judgement boards, and other places, and ordered the old unit's colors uncased and the unit brought back online.
The FTL needlecast superluminal communications system was back online. He sent memos to the other units within a month's travel distance, advising the other Generals of the issues currently plaguing V Corps (Old Blood) and 7th Army (Old Blood) as well as his ideas on how to mitigate the problems.
He suggested that reactivating 21st Replacement and doing Old Blood/New Blood calls could relieve some tensions, as well as recruiting from the former neo-sapient populations for integrated forces.
He also made sure to annotate that while the various units of 7th Army had not taken many casualties (less then 1% of force levels) during the last few battles it could not be assumed that there would be no serious mass-cal events in the future.
Ge'ermo'o watched with interest. Dealing with force level issues was never a problem in the Great Herd. For every lost soldier there were millions, billions more to take their place. He was interested in seeing how General No'Drak would handle the issue.
The warning was something that made Ge'ermo'o nod.
While there has always been billions of replacements awaiting any Great Herd that took casualties, I can no longer rely on such a depth of replacements any longer. The new tanks being developed for Great Grand Most High A'armo'o will take weeks, possibly months of retraining to use, which means that any replacements brought in from other Great Herd units would require the same training, Ge'ermo'o thought to himself. He quickly opened his dataslate's message application and began drafting a report to Most High A'armo'o that the Great Armored Herd might be facing retention, replacement, and recruiting issues in the near future, highlighting the fact that the new weapons and vehicles required training that needed to take place outside of a combat zone.
Ge'ermo'o nodded to himself as he sent the message.
He was a most observant commander, which allowed him to see issues that others may not.
General No'Drak saw the message go out and opened it. He looked it over and nodded to himself, restraining from looking over at Ge'ermo'o, who was going over the estimated casualties from the long battle to save the planet.
He could tell from the phrasing that what Most High Ge'ermo'o had been suggesting was tantamount to heresy to Lanaktallan sensibilities.
But the Lanaktallan had learned.
More than that. Had applied what he learned to spot a potential problem in the making.
He forwarded it to MI and CID to add to the undoubtably growing files on Lanaktallan and Most High Ge'ermo'o both.
That done he turned his attention back to the map.
Below the mountain still burned 1st Platoon, HHC, 1st Telkan and two other icons.
What is happening down there? he wondered.
He reached out, tapping 108th Military Intelligence Battalion, requesting a situation report. It came back within minutes, complete with video.
No'Drak checked the templates first. Templates for Mantid cryosleep fluids, parts for cryosleep pods, templates for precooked turkey, chicken, goose, and ham. A question of whether or not a suckling pig could be produced by a template-cracked Class III Nano-forge. (No, it could not, not alive) A request for a template of a "Goddess Pele Succulent Fire Walking Roast Pig Feast" for a Class-III nanoforge. A request for templates for UV lights calibrated to solar output of the planet prior to the Precursor AWM attack, templates for a holoemitter that could provide eVR non-hookup works with a "Pre-Attack Surface Park".
It looked weird but No'Drak changed the order of the data requests several times, then went back over the requests one at a time, complete with any images sent back by Casey.
One was a helmet cam from 1LT Vuxten. It showed an armored Sergeant Addox with at least thirty little green mantids huddled around him. Most were asleep, but a good number of them were eating strips of grease dripping still steaming meat.
When No'Drak heard the audio he groaned and turned it off.
"So the kid, right? He totally rocks sixth grade. Letters in track and field and grav-skiing, is voted most popular, even has top mark grades, and his dad, right, his dad decides that the kid deserves the bangingest reward possible," Casey was saying.
No'Drak wasn't falling for that one again.
Instead No'Drak paid attention to the displayed troop stress levels as Vuxten's cam panned over them. They were all well within resting baseline, even if all of them but Vuxten and Addox were paying attention to Casey, who was talking while he was messing with something on his loading frame.
No'Drak opened up a file and started moving data. Pretty soon he had a good idea what was going on.
There was a facility beneath the mountain that dated back to the initial Precursor War. The Mantid upper class had rebelled against the Queens for unknown reasons. The remaining upper class had been relegated to a hell of cryostasis and revival since then. Vuxten and Addox, with the help of that lunatic Casey, were bribing the Mantid upper class remaining with turkey to surrender.
No'Drak shifted his attention, looking at possible exit points for a deep level mining vehicle leaving the facility. He ordered Clone Warfare Division to run off from pigs, turkeys, and other food animals preferred by mantids and have them on standby.
He then copied what he was doing to a memo and sent it to Casey's contact in 108th MI, to forward to Casey.
-------------
"Your blinky is flashing," Private Nulfret said, pointing at the round device on Casey's loading frame.
"Oh, nice," Casey broke off the joke, reaching down and tapping the device while turning over his left hand so it was palm up. The holoemitter implanted in his hand twinkled and he stared at it for a long moment.
"Lieutenant Vuxten, sir," Casey said.
"Go ahead, Sergeant," Vuxten said.
"Commands creating a 'temporary EPOW site with live animals, Mantid rated shelter, and everything else, including psychic dampeners for our soon to be defectors," he said. "Coordinates incoming, but we have a place to take these guys in the sun."
Vuxten nodded. "Do your meme magic. Let's keep memeing these guys to life."
Casey nodded. "I'll get right on it, sir."
Vuxten looked over at Addox, who had every green mantid that had wandered into the room clustered tight around him. "How you doing, Sergeant?" he asked.
"All right. Most of them are asleep. Its hot and sweaty in my armor, but their color's getting better," Addox answered.
"All right. We're going to lay a heating pad on a grav-dolly once the work crew gets back and they can transfer there. We'll put some low power phasic inhibitors on it," Vuxten said. He turned to where 471 and some of the other greenies were gathered together around a data-cable.
"How's it going on your side?" Vuxten asked.
--own this thing-- 471 said. --hemming in vi right now--
--tough security-- 568 said. --five digit password/login single entry combo--
That made Vuxten snort. His pay-card had a six digit PIN and had thumbprint verification.
--oh no how we outclassed-- 834 said. --asking for three digit number only passcode--
"Gotcha. Just taking time to figure it all out. Keep it up," Vuxten said. He moved over and sat down on a large piece of computer equipment that the greenies had cut out of the system and had pulled away.
Is it weird that I miss being enlisted? he thought to himself.
His suit's VI tossed up an image meme. It was blank, just a line in the middle, with "TOP TEXT" at the very top and "BOTTOM TEXT" at the bottom.
Vuxten sighed. They were out of range of everything. That didn't bother him so much, back during the Second Telkan War he'd been deep enough in the jungle enough times that he didn't have communication with anyone else.
But back then it was mostly just keep him and his squaddies alive, follow orders, and fight the good fight.
He knew this was part of the good fight, sitting and watching Casey twiddle with his hologram, Addox pet a little greenie that had stopped in place, turned to look at him, then asked for food, and watching the rest of the platoon sitting around playing cards. Three of them were using their palm mounted holo-emitters to toss a glittering ball back and forth.
Vuxten had seen the training films, knew that despite the urgent feeling to do something that what he was supposed to do, as a leader, was simply project an aura of calm and control. He was tempted to do a maintenance check on his stubber, but knew that would increase his platoon's anxiety and he didn't want anyone else following his example and taking apart their weapon only to have something, anything, attack and catch them unarmed.
Training films are different, he lamented. I'm starting to understand Casey's pink golfball joke and why he keeps starting it over and over. It's not supposed to end. It's supposed to be a kind of touch stone to keep everyone grounded, help pass time, and relax everyone because things have to be going good if a Senior NCO can start the joke over to make sure everyone's in on it, Vuxten suddenly realized. He almost groaned out loud at how obvious the whole thing was.
"Sir," Casey's voice broke into Vuxten's thoughts.
"Go ahead, Sergeant," Vuxten said.
"I need you to come with me. I need to move as far away from those little guys as possible," he said.
"What's going on?" Vuxten asked.
"Finished my meme. Gotta go with the rest," Casey said. "Well, it's less a meme and more a pictograph series to convince those big guys something."
The big human got over and started moving to the far end of the room, on the other side of huge banks of computers. Vuxten followed, curiosity starting to well up. When he got over there Vuxten saw Casey holding a piece of warsteel in his bare hand, his gauntlet sitting on the barrels of the minigun.
"Crank up your phasic inhibitors the greenies installed on your armor to max and max out your psychic shielding as high as you can without passing out," Casey said. He opened his faceplate and took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
"Uh, all right," Vuxten said. "Should I bring over 471?"
"No. Just us, sir," Casey said. He clenched his fist around the piece of warsteel as Vuxten cranked his internal psychic shielding up to almost 140%, the max he could handle before he started getting tunnel vision.
Casey squeezed the warsteel and Vuxten watched as muscle spasms made the muscles along the side of Casey's jaw ripple. Vuxten suddenly smelled dry dusty air, a hint of stale sour human body odor, scorched molycircs and warsteel. His reactor level twitched and he saw his psychic shielding suddenly go amber. Casey was whispering something to himself in a language that Vuxten didn't understand and that his suit's VI didn't translate. It felt like heat was emenating off of Casey, an almost physical pressure against Vuxten that seemed to push through his armor to press against his skin.
WARNING! PSYCHIC DANGER! WARNING!
flashed on his visor, in his cybereye, was announced in his ear.
Casey opened his eye and Vuxten tried to resist stepping back but was unable.
Casey's eye was glowing a bright steady crimson, bright enough to illuminate the eye socket. More, there was a dull red shining from behind the patch. Casey transferred the piece of warsteel to the frame for his minigun and picked up another, squeezing it and then repeating the whole thing twice more.
Vuxten watched as Casey closed his eye, took several deep breaths, and relaxed.
The bar for his psychic shielding's load dropped from reddish amber to yellow to green to blue.
"Everyone OK?" Casey asked, slowly standing up.
"What was that?" Vuxten asked.
"Just bad old memories," Casey said dismissively. "Nothing major, nothing important."
"Oh," Vuxten felt completely out of his element.
"Just don't tell the Colonel you saw me do that, it freaks her out," Casey grinned.
It freaked me out too, Vuxten thought to himself but kept the thought to himself. "So what is that for?"
Casey flipped his face shield back down. "Imprinting a piece of warsteel," he said. He opened his hand and Vuxten saw that it was squeezed like a piece of taffy. "This is going to convince the Mantid big boys not to fight us."
"How?" Vuxten asked.
"So, warsteel can be imprinted by intense exposure to anger, love, fear, other intense basic emotions," Casey said. "So, I just imprinted it with battle fury."
"You're going to have your meme warn them if they fight you'll rip them in half, provide the piece of warsteel as psychic proof, to convince them to go into cold sleep till we can get them somewhere they can be unthawed," Vuxten said. putting it all together.
"You're quick, sir," Casey said. "I don't want to fight these guys, I don't think they want to fight, but getting them to the surface has problems."
Vuxten nodded. "Close quarters in one of the mining machines to travel to the surface. Who knows how they'll react to our battle buddies, you and Addox, not to mention all of us Telkan."
"Exactly, sir," Casey said. He moved over to the little robots he had built. He put a piece of warsteel in each of the robots, putting the warsteel in a grasper claw.
"All right. The pictogram basically says that me and Addox are dangers. We aren't mentioning you or the battle buddies. That we don't want him to get hurt," Casey started.
Vuxten listened to the rest of the plan.
"Sounds good, Sergeant," Vuxten said. "Let's hope it works."
-----------------
Cordexen stood under the air vent, eyes closed, fantasizing about standing in the long waving grain of where he had grown to maturity in the service of the queens. About the warmth of the sun on his carapace. How the wind smelled of ripening grain tended to by the russet and golden mantid of the servitor castes.
In the long forever he had been trapped in the facility he had admitted that given what he now knew, he would have preferred to have become a crop tender, overseeing the gold and russet mantids working the fields to provide grain for the herds.
The little robot rolled back in, beeping.
Cordexen looked up, happy to have his thought interrupted.
The hologram appeared and it took Cordexen a moment to take it all in.
It showed Cordexen next to a cryostasis tube. Then it split in two. One side showed Cordexen refusing. A bipedal primate came in, trying to be friendly. Radiation, marking psychic danger, radiated from the biped's head and Cordexen exploded. On the other side Cordexen got inside. It then showed the primate carrying the cryopod up to the surface where it opened and Cordexen got out to eat turkey in the sunshine.
Cordexen scoffed slightly. After all, he was the premier psychic predator in the galaxy?
The robot beeped and a robotic clamp raised up.
Cordexen recognized it as Substance W.
He reached out with one bladearm and tapped it.
YOU CAN NOT STOP ME! NOTHING CAN STOP ME! YOU CAN'T KILL THIS MOTHERFUCKER! NOBODY CAN SAVE YOU FROM ME! MY HATE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES THAT YOUR ILK CAN FLEE BEYOND! YOU CAN NOT STOP ME! MY WRATH, MY RAGE, WILL NEVER EVER STOP!
Cordexen was almost overwhelmed by the images that slammed into his mind and threatened to tear him apart like cardboard trying to hold back an atomic explosion.
Ruined cities burning, blasted landscape, scorched skies. The sound of millions screaming in terror and agony. The terrible silence of being the only living thing.
He was wrapped in Substance W, in strength enhanced armor, wading into his foes. Screeching things, warped things, that his fists crushed, his hands tore asunder, that his guns shattered. Their jaws snapped at him, their caustic drool flooded from their jaws, poison billowed around him, fire surrounded him.
He was surrounded, overwhelmed, cut off, alone, by twisted mockeries of life that gibbered and howled and capered and danced even as they killed and destroyed.
But that wasn’t the worst to Cordexen’s senses.
The rage that filled him. The all consuming fury. A need to destroy, to smash, to hammer the enemy into nothing more than carbon paste that would drip from his fists. To howl and bellow his rage and fury at an uncaring universe even as he thirsted for carnage and mayhem.
His thoughts were charged with it, buoyed by it, flooded with it. Images of men and women and children being slaughtered did nothing more than fill him with even more rage, more anger, more fury, stoking into an all consuming fire that burned hotter than the atomic explosions that roared to life around him.
Nothing could quench that all consuming fury, that need to destroy.
It needed fed.
Cordexen slammed back, against the wall, panting. His abdomen heaved with each breath he took and he was aware that he was rubbing his vestigial wings together in anxiety as he stared in horror at the piece of Substance W as it slowly lowered down into the robot.
The front of the robot opened to show more turkey.
He moved forward, picking up the turkey, and went to sit on his command couch.
The robot turned and moved away, taking that piece of unbridled fury with it.
He suddenly found that he did care if he lived or died.
When asked, he would allow himself to be put in cryostasis.
Anything to avoid the creature that had touched that piece of Substance W, infusing it with more than wrath.
Cordexen knew he had tasted another being’s hate.
He did not wish to taste it again.
------------
Vuxten looked at Addox, who had just finished putting the last little green mantid on the grav-dolly, setting it gently on the warming pad. Two privates were covering the little greenies with another warming pad.
“They’re in cryostorage pods and being loaded onto Gobbler,” Vuxten said. “The rest of the pods are already loaded.”
“We’ll load these guys up then,” Addox said. “How long till we get to the surface?”
“Four hours,” Vuxten said. He looked around at the computer and control center. “The computer system will shut this facility down into standby mode in six hours, in case we have to come back.”
Addox nodded. “I’ll just be glad to get out of here.”
“Me too, Sergeant, me too,” Vuxten agreed.
------------------
General No’Drak had just returned from the latrine when the icon started flashing.
“Sir, Adder-One has made surface. They’re requesting mantid capable medical services and evac,” one of his aides said.
No’Drak felt a wave of relief fill him knowing the mountain was going to stay intact.
“May I ask a question?” Ge’ermo’o asked the Treana’ad general.
“Go ahead,” No’Drak said.
“Does it bother you that it seems anti-climatic?” Ge’ermo’o asked. “I have spent the past several days nervously awaiting an explosion that would turn the central mountain range hub into a fiery pit of doom but yet nothing happened.”
No’Drak gave the Treana’ad equivalent of a smile. “Yeah. It’s almost disappointing, isn’t it?”
Ge’ermo’o nodded. “Indeed.”
“Well, let’s find out what they found down there,” No’Drak said. He turned back to his aide. “Get medical teams in there. I want a full debrief as soon as possible,” he said. He turned back to Ge’ermo’o. “Why don’t you accompany me.”
“I would like that,” Ge’ermo’o said.
----------------
Casey stood next to Vuxten, watching the medical personnel unload the cryostasis pods from the massive mining machine. Glory was sitting behind them, mechanics going over her left leg and hip.
“You know, I thought we were going to end up shooting our way out, not bribing them,” Vuxten said.
“Shooting our way out would have been the easy way,” Casey shrugged. “We were ready for that. We got lucky.”
“How so?” Vuxten asked.
Casey looked down at the Telkan officer. “We had an arrangement of skillsets and knowledge that normally isn’t available without prior preparation. Between all of us we had the skills necessary to get out of a jam without having to resort to combat. That’s rare.”
Vuxten nodded and filed the information away.
Next time I might not be so lucky.
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STATUS: DEPENDANT SPOUSE-HUMAN [SSBverse] Private Lessons and Private Conversations

First Chapter Chapter 6-The Second Dojo Chapter 8- If...
Chapter 7-Private Lessons and Private Conversations
Travis stood over the pan, watching the bacon fry. He had set it in the pan about 2 minutes ago and it was sizzling rather nicely. He had eggs whipped up for scrambled eggs ready and the batter ready to fry. Mel’Bae was in the shower. It had been three months since he and Mel’Bae had started dating and things were going great. The dojo had grown in the first month to about 20 new students, but over the month it fell to about twelve, when the ladies figured out it wasn’t a dating service. Well, not intentionally.
Tonboon, the usually studious med student had become a bit of a ladies man. Hell, he practically had a sign-up sheet! Sensei had to take him aside and give him a talk about not hooking up inside the dojo. What he does outside is ok, but in class we gotta keep it professional. He’s almost a black belt and the rules are different when you attain that rank. Tonboon and Travis weren’t the only ones that had been involved with the Shil’vati in more than a professional manner. While Travis hadn’t seen Sensei or Sadie. Travis had seen Mark sneaking out of one of the officer’s quarters. It took Travis a moment of shock to process what he was feeling. He hadn’t had the time to even form the words in his head: What do I do about this? Should I tell Julie? When he then saw her, sneaking out of the same room. Oh, well thank Goddess for that!
Goddess? Damn Mel’Bae’s rubbing off on me.
Travis was staying over with her about three or four times a week now. They were still being exclusive together. They had talked about maybe adding someone new, but he wasn’t ready for that yet.
The bacon was done so he pulled it out. He skimmed off a bit of grease and then added the eggs to what remained, letting it slowly fry before folding it over itself to make sure the eggs turned out smooth and not dry. Using a towel, he wicked his forehead to keep the sweat out of his eyes from the hot stove and the hot room.
He had come up with a novel solution to staying in a room set to her preferred temperature. He was wearing a YUKATA. The thin, cotton KIMONO-like robe that was a gift from a friend during a summer festival in Japan was comfortable at Shil’vati temperatures, it also covered his body enough for their ideas of male modesty. It worked well in the kitchen too, as it kept him from violating the general rules of bachelor cooking:
1 Always wash your hands before going to the bathroom if you have been handling chilies.
2 Never fry bacon naked.
It also had one more advantage: it was easy to slip on and off.
The eggs were ready and he put them on a serving plate. Next he re-greased the pan with some of the leftover bacon grease and began to pour the batter in small batches waiting for it to fry and bubble up. When it was golden brown he flipped it over to cook on the other side.
Mel’Bae got out of the shower, she pulled on a sports bra and a pair of shorts. Then toweled her long hair off before tying it loosely behind her back, she usually did this most mornings now waiting to put it up in her usual bun until after breakfast when she had to go on duty.
Travis set the table and each scooped eggs and bacon out onto their plate. For the other item Travis had some honey (real maple syrup was out of his price range, and he refused to buy the imitation “maple flavored” crap) and some elderberry jam his mom had sent him. Mel’Bae and his mom hadn’t met in person yet, but they had talked through video conferencing. Similarly, Travis had only seen recorded messages from Mel’bae’s family. She apparently had six mothers. All of whom Travis was trying to tell apart. No real word sent by her father though. Deal with that later, Travis thought.
“I’ve got to run back to my apartment today,” He told Mel’Bae. “But I should be back by the time you’re off duty. I’ve got a private class with Nosis at ten o’clock and his wife probably will want to talk to me afterward.” Nosis was Agent Sommarsdar’s young husband. Travis couldn’t judge the dude for marrying into money, I mean both men and women have been doing that for centuries.
He was coming along as a good student and taking private lessons from Travis had improved him in regular classes quite a bit. Though it was odd, training with him felt a lot like training with a gentler version of Sadie. Which is either the most logical or the strangest thing to think.
“I’ll pick up some stuff from the commissary annex for dinner,” Mel’Bae offered. The Base’s version of a grocery store.“ Any chance back in town you could pick up some more of the stuff to make these?” She asked as she held up a piece of one of the golden brown disks with her fork. “They’re really good. What are they called again?”
“They’re flapjacks.” Travis told her.
_____________________
Mel’Bae gave him a quick kiss as she headed out to start her shift in the shuttle hangar. Things between them hadn’t cooled in the bedroom exactly, but they were restraining themselves from copulating in the mornings, well in the mornings she had to go on duty. If they both had Shel off…
He hung up his YUKATA and took a shower. Getting ready for his private class. The stipend the military was paying for Sensei to teach lessons was enough to keep their regular dojo open, though they still didn’t have any new students walk through the door. And with Travis teaching some private classes he had enough money to meet his needs without having to bounce if he didn’t want to. He would occasionally pick up a shift as a favor to someone, but that was just as a little extra spending money.
Showered and shaved, he put on his regular clothes and placed his GI in his backpack. He loaded up the omni-pad Mel’Bae gave him as a gift. Saved on it was the complete series of Aikido videos he could use to show Nosis to help him understand how techniques could be done. In a ready-to-transfer file he had uploaded a bunch of videos and texts for his wife to help her understand humanity better.
Perhaps it was all just subterfuge, him teaching her husband, but Agent Sommarsdar had been picking his brain to help herself understand humanity. And if it meant less loss of life to help the Shil’vati figure out how to drain the ranks of angry young men and women from the rebels, then he was happy to do it. Today’s collection was of original texts, essays, and commentaries from some of the great thinkers in human military strategy. Clausewitz, Sun Tsu, Musashi Miyamoto, Max Brooks.
All packed up he turned his attention to clearing the dishes and getting some laundry done before his class. Since he was crashing at her place he had taken up more responsibilities of basic housework. It was best to try to use the laundry room in the mornings when most of the Marines were on shift. Nobody had yet tried “the ol’ grab ‘em by the dick” brand of courtship with him yet. However the best way to win a confrontation was to not be in one. Gathering up his and Mel’Bae’s clothes he headed out.
__________________
“SHIT!” Nosis whined as Travis corrected his movement, showing him how to lift his arm in such a way that his whole body was aligned in the movement and focused on the weakest part of his partners arm allowing it to raise easily.
“It’s OK, just remember to keep your hand inside of his arm, if it goes to the outside he ..um..or she can use their bicep to pull you down. Raising this way works on the triceps muscle which is not as strong. But the most important part of Tenshinage is the bottom hand. You’ve got to draw it down and to the side like this.” Travis slid at a forty-five degree angle in toward Nosis and lowered his hand that he was grabbing. Nosis’ shoulder dropped and he lost his balance. “Like this, Tenshinage doesn’t look like much, and almost nobody will ever grab you this way, but It has the building blocks of a lot of different moves.
“How do you remember all of this stuff!?!” He asked exasperatedly.
“Hey, remember, over ten years vs about three months. You’ll get there, you just have to keep trying and have patience. It’s like Zen meditation, minus the getting hit with sticks part. You do it a thousand times, or ten thousand times wrong then one day it comes to you.”
“If you two are ready to call it a day, I’ve got us some lunch.” Said Agent Sommarsdar coming into the room. Travis had been teaching Nosis for the last two hours in their home.
“Sure we can end here.” Travis then turned to Nosis and bowed.
“Thank you, Sensei.” Nosis called out
“Hey, remember, our Sensei is Sensei, I’m just Travis or if you want to Travis Sensei.”
“Sorry, Travis Sensei.”
“Don’t worry about it just remember next time. Ok on three.”
“Domo arigato gozaimasu,” They bowed to the picture of the O sensei, the founder, that Travis had brought. “Well, let’s get lunch.”
_________________
Sitting around the table eating with the two of them it was easy to remember how alien they were. Agent Sommarsdar treated her husband with a level of pampering or maybe mothering he and Mel’Bae definitely did not have with each other nor did he want there to be. She was practically spooning his food into his mouth for him. It made the conversation a little distracted. “What you really need to understand is very complex in its simplicity: if humans feel they are treated well, we will be the best friend you ever had. If we feel disrespected and put down, we’ll hate ya till the day you die.”
“But we are treating you well. Your standard of living has increased significantly and you are from what was the wealthiest of your nation states. What we’ve done for some of your ‘lesser developed nations’ should have been seen as a Goddess sent miracle.”
“You’re right, but that’s not how most people feel,” he tried to explain. “For a lot of people anti Shil’vati sentiment and resistance started when we saw the footage of that incident at the Grimmsville Hospital. None of us knew that woman, or her husband, but seeing that we all felt like we did. She could have been our sister, or wife, or mother. That could have been our child or grandchild. If the roles were reversed Nosis, even with amazing leaps forward in living do you think you could forgive?”
Nosis looked at Travis, you could see that the idea had struck a nerve with him. And with his wife. “Have you...”, he asked, “Been able to forgive?”
“I try to.” Travis thought about the best way to phrase his next words. “I try to remember that Shil’vati are people no better or worse. and judge the individual by their actions. Do I feel that the Shil’vati in charge should face some punishment for her incompetence? Yes.” This garnered a look from Agent Sommarsdar, She seemed to be thinking of something, or remembering. "However, I don’t blame all of the imperium for her actions. It's hard sometimes to separate the actions of a system from that of the individuals in that system. But that’s basically how my country was founded.”
“Have you read any of the works about the British Empire?” He continued. “They, at their height, controlled a quarter of the planet. The country I grew up in was started when they felt disrespected. They fought because they were taxed without having a say in the government. From that start they became the world's largest political and military power. I grew up believing in the idea of ‘American Exceptionalism’. The idea that we were, despite our faults, the best there was. That belief has been shattered and many now feel that they are fighting to get that back.” Travis took a breath. “Even though they’re fighting for an idea that was a lie. Yeah America had the greatest military strength, but we also had a crumbling infrastructure and massive debt that was the cost of that military. There was a political deadlock that made sure every problem was politicized and argued about endlessly and never fixed.”
“So you never saw this American Exceptionalism?” She asked holding out another morsel for Nosis to pluck from her hand.
“I saw it every time I saw a homeless man with a sign that read:
HOMELESS VET
PLEASE HELP
GOD BLESS”
“I hope you’re not thinking of The Imperium as some kind of flawed saviors.” Nosis added. Which earned him a reproachful look from his wife. Travis had learned that he was the far more liberal of the two.“
“Oh God...dess no!” He blurted out. “I know you didn’t come here for our benefit but for yours. You took us over ‘cause we were here. But in the end It’s simple. Like a… a marriage.” Pointing to the two of them. “Humanity needs to feel special.”
“That’s a lot to think about,” Agent Sommarsdar replied. “But sadly our lunch needs to come to an end. I’ve got to get back to the office, my sweet.” she said to Nosis.
“Yeah I gotta get going too. Before I go though, have you thought about that riddle I gave you.”
“I have but I’m still puzzled.”
“What riddle?” Nosis asked.
“Maybe you can solve it for her. What’s the easiest way to get someone to clean your house for free? Think about it awhile and maybe next private class you can give me an answer.”
_____________________
Travis walked around the grocery store picking up the ingredients for making more pancakes as well as some large ham steaks that would go well with them. It seemed like he was turning more into a homemaker, cooking and taking care of Mel’Bae, but to be honest there wasn’t much to do with his time right now that his financial situation was more stable.
It was strange the way things that would appear bizarre to an outsider become normalized after a few months. The fact that he was practically living with Mel’Bae now was one of those bizarre facts. For humans it was bizarre because he was livin’ in sin with an alien woman, and for Shil’vati because he was doing it with only one of them. But hey, it was working for them right now so why try to mess with a good thing? However, he knew his ego would draw the line if she tried to start hand feeding him.
Nosis had been a wealth of information for Travis on how the Shil’vati were viewing his group. Being that they are the first civilian employees on any military base. In a way, it was funny, the nicknames the ladies came up with for them sounded almost like they were a boy band. Sensei was still Sensei, but Tonboon was the sexy one. Sadie was the scary one. Julie and Mark were the lovers. And Travis?
The boring one.
Heading up to the check out Travis thought. Who cares if I’m boring, I’ve got a lover and I’m getting laid regularly. How many of them can claim that? The answer to that though probably depended on how tired Tonboon was on any given day. Sensei and himself might have to do another sit down with their soon to be black belt in the near future.
_________
Travis walked down the hallway to his apartment door. Grocery bag in his left hand as he took out his phone. He had gotten through the security check point rather fast. Last time he had been stopped and taken into the back room because the marine on station was one of their students and she had a question about last class. Which then turned into a fifteen minute impromptu workshop on Kaitennage. Travis unlocked his phone and looked at his messages. It had been a while since he had come back to his apartment. He started writing down the codes for his door so that he wouldn't forget. He glanced at the number and then put his phone away. Even now too many people still spent most of their life looking at a screen and not paying attention. Before coming up with the idea to teach the Shil’vati, Travis had thought about printing up business cards that had the dojo’s logo and phone number on them. Then have everyone go around slapping them onto the screen of someone they notice being too absorbed in their phone or tablet or omni-pad. The card would simply read. If you knew Aikido, I would have never got this close.
Getting to the door he keyed in the code and pressed UNLOCK. The door pushed open. Home sweet home, except for the three men standing in his room. One of whom was the man that had followed him from the hotel.
First Chapter Chapter 6-The Second Dojo Chapter 8- If...
Author's Post Script: Thank you again to u/WastedHope17 for all of his help as well as my Beta readers. You all ROCK!
I'm not sure how long I can commit to two chapters a week due to my work picking up but I will try to continue till I cannot.
Thank you all again for reading my work.

First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 404

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General No'Drak had been a staff officer in the Confederate military for decades. He had started his staff officer career as the one star general in charge of the 4313rd Infantry Horde and slowly climbed the ranks. He had been given an opportunity to serve as the commander of the Smokey Cone Defensive Forces or taking command of the V Corps and a shot at commanding VII Army at a later date.
He had, of course, taken V Corps. An "Old Blood" unit was prestigious, but also had a mathematically measurable chance of being dropped into the fire. Chaos theory mathematics could account for why, once the phasic energy formula were added.
While holding the command was a pleasure, V Corps had a tendency to, well, roll hot.
Which is why he was nibbling at the tip of a bladearm as he stared at the holotank. He was not worried about the mopup of the Precursor machines. Trucker, Ekret, and A'armo'o had that well in hand and he knew they would all operate best if he merely observed from a distance.
No, it was a single icon.
1st Telkan Marine Corps, HHQ Battalion, HHC, 1st Platoon.
Of course, having Casey's icon attached just made it worse.
I have a Telkan who ignited a volcano that emits pure molten warsteel, No'Drak thought, staring at the tank as he slowly packed his cigarette pack. To top it off, I've got a human who is not only capable of detonating antimatter enhanced atomic weapons in a civilian populated area, but has shown his willingness by doing so when he felt there was no other choice.
He slowly opened the pack, using the gold winder thread to break the seal on the plastic. He carefully unwrapped the cellophane from the top as he stared.
Sergeant Addox isn't much better. His platoon was cut off for two weeks during the Second Telkan War and he got them all through it. Superficially, it looks good, but at the end they were all jacked up on stims to the point they were sweating amphetamines, he thought to himself. And it wasn't the first time Addox was cut off. During the Skalcupeck Rebellion he held together a patchwork force of miners, wildcatters, and logistics personnel for almost six months in a firebase that had been abandoned two decades prior until relief arrived.
He opened the pack, slowly withdrawing one cigarette, turning it over, and sliding it back into the pack.
The Telkans were pushed to the brink twice in less than a decade, and the two Terrans supporting them are both men with records that are worrisome apart and downright concerning together, No'Drak thought.
He slowly pulled a cigarette out, holding it in his mandibles as he put the pack away.
Glory isn't as innocent as her warsteel chassis might suggest. During the Unverak-7 Conflict she 'body swapped' twice into a lobotomized BOLO chassis and held the moon of Cultineeti virtually on her own, he thought. Three borderline red-line cases with a Telkan infantry platoon, beneath the surface of the planet, in what can only be a Mantid Precursor facility.
He withdrew his lighter, slowly opening it, and struck the wheel. The flame was blue with yellow edging.
Many of our allies believe that the Terran Confederacy believes in 'Victory at All Costs', when nothing could be further from the truth. There are members of our military that will go to any lengths necessary to survive and achieve victory, but we know well that the truth of victory lies in the proper application of force when necessary, No'Drak thought.
He lit the cigarette, puffing on it several times to ensure it was well lit. He felt the nicotine and other chemicals enter his system, bringing about a steady calm as his own pheromones were swept away.
But we fight the Precursors, who are hell bent on exterminating all life to conserve resources that they believe only they may possess, he took another long drag, only peripherally aware that the Lanaktallan officer Ge'ermo'o was watching him.
It is wars like this one that have battles where men like Casey and Addox and Glory shine. Where historians point at logistics, or enemy mistakes, or other factors, and ignore that Sergeant Addox and his men ate rock dust ran through a broken nanoforge for six months, No'Drak mused.
"General," one of the Military Intelligence analysts on the floor called up.
"Go ahead," No'Drak said, his voice steady and level, betraying none of his internal concern.
"Another data request from Sergeant Casey," the analyst said, as if it was the most banal thing in the world. "I've cross-checked with the Imperium forces and they have the data Casey is requesting."
No'Drak nodded, puffing out rings of smoke around his footpads. "What data is he requesting?"
"A First Mantid War Era linguistic codex," the analyst said. He consulted his screen. "Intelligence estimates a 85.5% chance that the facility is a Precursor Mantid facility with a 12% chance of being occupied. Currently the last estimation has jumped to 92%, based on observational data transmitted to 108th Military Intelligence."
"Toss the request transmission up to my tank, let me see it," No'Drak ordered, shuffling in place to turn and get a good look at the holotank.
A window opened up and No'Drak could tell it was being recorded from the internal cameras on Casey's faceshield. Casey was in the upper right of the picture, in a small window, while the rest of the window was panning over wreckage.
"Peak, Case here. Check this out. Mantid bodies, the majority of them the chitin exploded outward," the man was saying. His face was sweaty and the bottom of his eyepatch glittered red. "Check this out."
The window focused on an object that made No'Drak hiss and back up two steps. Ge'ermo'o made a bellows noise, inflating his crests.
It was a massive Speaker corpse. Well, the chitin that had hardened into resin-like epoxy, like amber from a hundred million years prior. The brain case was ruptured, same with the compound eyes, the rupturing obviously occuring by increased pressure internally. The view panned down the body, showing that the thorax and abdomen had suffered rupturing in a line.
"That's his primary phasic spinal trunk. Had to have been overloaded," Casey said. He took a swallow of water from a tube them grinned. "Wait to you see by who."
The view slowly moved upward and No'Drak realized with a shock that he was staring at a Mantid Queen's corpse, still hanging from the gantries and exuded biomatter. Her chest was slashed and punctured, her head had huge rips in it, both eyes were ripped from the sockets.
"She got ganked by her own people, babe. Her and the others," Casey said. The view panned across, showing a half dozen massive shadowed forms, one substantially larger than the others. "But that don't mean this place is empty, babe."
Casey took another hit off the water as the view changed, Casey moving. He knelt down, the angle changing, to show a small green Mantid running a welder along a pipe.
"Check him out," Casey said. "Watch for a moment, Peak. I don't think this has happened since the Mantid hit Earth."
Casey's psychic shielding dropped to only 60%.
The little green mantid suddenly stopped, shutting off the welder. It started to look around, the antenna lifting, its eyes seeking out the source of the disturbance.
It made a click and a chitter.
"Now watch this, Peak," Casey said. He moved back quickly, the psychic shielding rising back up to 125%.
The little green mantid stood still for a long moment, then the antenna drooped. It lifted the welder and began working again.
"Peak, babe, see if you can get me a Pre-War Mantid lexicon. Use 12Zip compression so it doesn't take a weak and I'm not running up a couple more processors off my poor cracked nanoforge," Casey said. "Got a feeling I'm gonna need it."
The one eyed human suddenly grinned. "Glad things are going good topside. We'll get out of this, you'll see, then we'll party like it's Ninety-Nine Ninety Nine. Stay safe, babe."
No'Drak thought over what he'd seen for a long moment.
"Transmit the lexicon as soon as you have it. Let's see how this pans out," No'Drak said.
The room went silent except for the muttering of the intelligence analysts.
"He seems unusually upbeat and high morale for someone who is trapped behind, or rather, underneath enemy lines," Ge'ermo'o suddenly said. "That is a statistical aberration that concerns me and makes me desire more data."
"It's not his first hyperjump," No'Drak said absently.
Ge'ermo'o thought about what was said before opening his mouth to protest that Casey was not engaged in a hyperjump. He realized that No'Drak was hyperjump as a metaphor for Casey having been behind enemy lines before.
Ge'ermo'o was proud of his deductive reasoning.
After all, he was a most observant commander.
No'Drak felt a chill run down his upper and lower spine.
"All units not engaged with Precursor elements are to pull back from the mountain range central hub by at least two hundred miles. Alert any shelters in the area to prepare for heavy seismic activity," he ordered.
He turned back to the holotank.
Casey's one-eyed mug grinned back at him.
--------------------
Vuxten watched Casey grin as he sat on the fallen gantry, working on something involving the minigun without even watching his hands.
"So, the kid, right? He goes to fifth grade, since his dad is doing better now with that new job, he doesn't have to attend eVR classes and goes to a meat school. The kid does amazing, top grades, really popular, wins some science awards, even has a girlfriend even though he's too young to know what to do with her," Casey was saying as he pulled the ammunition belt from the minigun.
Vuxten nodded, caught up in the joke again. Casey had started it over, to remind everyone what was going on, and it had taken nearly a half hour to get to this point. The entire time everyone was eating, drinking, and the little green battle buddies were huddled up to comfort each other after the shock of seeing the dead queens.
"So the end of the year gets there and the kid is like a rock star. Star of the school play, everything. His father comes up and goes 'My son, my beloved only son, you have surpassed all I have asked of you and more. What can I give you that you feel would reward your gallant efforts? A trip to Mouse World? A trip to Zaginaw Beach? A trip to see where the Yamato was lifted from the sea bed to add to the Black Fleet?' and the kid, right, the kid looks up, his face resolute, and says "A pink golf ball, father. That is all I wish, all I have worked so hard for.' So the father, right, he figures 'well, the kid is consistent if nothing else,' and gets him the golf ball."
Vuxten saw the light blinking on the little device Casey had on the thigh of his armored loading frame go from yellow flashing LEDs to solid green.
"Your thingamabob is done," Vuxten said.
"Hell yeah. Peak comes through again," Casey said, his grin getting wider. "Goddamn, that girl is too good for me."
Vuxten watched as he plugged the datacable into it and text flowed by on his visor, backwards from Vuxten's point of view.
"OK, she forwarded us lexicon. Two types. Imperial, Republic, and Combine codexes as well as Mantid Civil War lexicons," Casey said. "Catch."
The big human waved one armored hand and Vuxten's armor automatically accepted the download.
"Even got stuff for the greenies to talk to their brothers," Casey said. He tapped the side of his helmet and his visor went dark. He reached down, grabbed the ammo belt, and snapped the last round into the chamber.
"We're good to go, sir," he said, thumbing the self-check stud on the weapon.
It came back green.
Vuxten turned to Addox and PFC Thoral. "He still there?"
Addox didn't move, holding still. A little green mantis was standing on his helmet, working on a wire Casey had cut above Addox's head.
"Yes, sir," Thoral said. "Looks like he's getting the patch done."
"471, you guys all right?" Vuxten asked.
--shielded and ready-- 471 answered.
"Got the lexicon loaded?" Vuxten asked.
--roger roger-- 471 answered.
Vuxten triggered the Lexicon, watching his armor's computer systems bog down slightly until the computer addons that Casey had fabbed up and put in between the phasic disrupters took over.
**AWAITING INPUT** his suit stated.
"All right, Sergeant, like we said," Vuxten ordered.
"Dropping psychic shielding by one percent every two seconds," Addox said.
Vuxten caught himself holding his breath as the little green mantid kept working.
"Under one hundred percent load," Addox said. "Keeping the aux system on standby."
More seconds passed.
The little green mantid suddenly paused, its antenna lifting, trembling, as it turned its head to feel the air around it.
"Right there," Vuxten snapped.
"Sixty-two percent load," Addox said.
Vuxten moved up, kneeling down.
The little green mantid turned and looked at him.
"Take it easy. Give it a moment," Vuxten said softly. His suit speakers chirped and clicked.
The mantid shivered, antenna flicking, as it looked around slowly, the hard chitin covers of its eyes flicking back and forth as it was trying to clear debris.
"Can you understand me?" Vuxten asked.
The little mantid gave a few chirps and some clicks and Vuxten saw the sine wave for psychic emissions begin to dance.
--compensating-- 471 transmitted. --formal speak old old old--
"Let us try again. Can you understand me?" Vuxten asked softly.
"Affirmative," the little green worker chirped. "Free?"
"If you stay right there," Vuxten said.
"Free?" the worker chirped again. It put its tools away slowly, carefully, as if it was made of fragile glass. "Speak?"
"Yes, you can speak. You can speak to me," Vuxten said gently.
"Cold," the greenie said. It lowered its abdomen until it rested on the top of Sergeant Addox's helmet. "Warm here. Am cold, is warm. Stop work?"
"Yes," Vuxten said. He was sweating hard, his muscles trembling like he was engaged in combat, and he knew his anxiety monitors were peaking. Vuxten looked closer. The little green mantid had a powdery look to him, and he could see the veins were blue instead of a healthy brown color. He switched to Addox's channel. "Turn up your internal heat a degree or two, he's cold."
"Roger that, sir. I'll dump nanoforge heat," Addox said.
"Is good," the little green mantid said after a moment.
Vuxten lifted his knife, where he had a small piece of meat that 471 had run off of the nanoforge on Casey's armor.
"Food," Vuxten said.
The little greenie reached forward carefully, stabbing the meat with its bladearms and bringing it up to its mouth. It began munching and paused.
"Is real meat? Is good," it said.
"Turkey is delicious," Vuxten said, feeling slightly foolish at repeating 471's comment.
"More?" it asked.
Vuxten held out another strip of it and the little greenie took it.
"Cannot hear others," it said. "Lonely."
Vuxten switched channels. "That's your cue," he told 471.
The other mantid moved out of the shelter, heavy psychic shielding on his helmet. It moved up, crawling quickly up Vuxten's armor to stand on its head.
"Oh. Another," the little one said. It hid the turkey strip behind its thorax.
Vuxten watched as the two started comparing mathematical formulae rapidly, almost too fast for his suit's computers to keep up. Complex theorems and long formulae that Vuxten didn't even bother to try to decipher.
"If we let him go, he will get smothered. He cannot think, cannot report anything but equipment and machine statuses," 471 said over the translator. "He says there's something called the phasic hive mind augmenter still running, still doing the job of the queens."
"Can he show us where it is? Where the computer core is?" Vuxten asked.
More formula.
"Yes. Can show. More turkey?" the little green one asked.
Vuxten handed him another piece of turkey.
"Will ride here. Is warm. Am cold," the greenie said. It pointed with a bladearm. "Direction."
"He says the computer core and the phasic system is that way. We'll ask him more on the trip," Vuxten said, standing up. "Addox, he's gonna ride on your head."
"As long as he doesn't start talking about pink golf balls," Addox grumbled.
----------------------
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Did anyone else hear that?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Hear what?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
I could have sworn I heard a tiny voice say that turkey is delicious.
It's probably nothing. I'm still stressed over what the Lanaktallan have been doing with all those resources.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Well, the voice isn't wrong. Turkey is delicious.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL
It very much is.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
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Small galaxy part 14

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Galactic Standard date: Year 11356 Day, 88. Sol Standard date: 3/31/3267
Catherine was just waking up to a new fun filled day when the idea hit her. She sat bolt upright in her bed and yelled, " They haven't seen any movies yet!" Catherine threw on her clothes and flew out of her bedroom heading towards the new ambassadorial residences.
So'Ran was researching the Terran anatomy books when Catherine knocked on his door. " Are you awake So'Ran? I have a neat thing to show you!" she said happily.
So'Ran shut down his VR suite and looked to the wall where he could see the outline of a door. " Give me just a moment my lady, I will be right out." he said as he threw on his ambassadorial garments that he had customized earlier that day to look somewhat suitable to a being serving under a goddess. So'Ran hit the button for the door and kneeled before it had even finished evaporating.
Catherine waited for the door to poof away only to see the Atteni ambassador kneeling down in the doorway. " Whatcha doin hun? Did you lose something? Here let me help you." she said as she knelt down and reached a hand out to So'Ran to help him up.
So'Ran heard nothing over the pounding in his chest, the next thing he knew after he knelt was that his object of worship and admiration was extending her hand to him, beckoning him to her side. So'Ran reached out to her and and pulled himself up into her hand. His heart started pounding more, he had been accepted as a follower. He knew that he had a duty to spread the word now. That would require him to leave his lady's side but it was necessary. Whenever they left to go retrieve Valenthi's younger sister he would request the time necessary to go recruit a following.
Catherine just looked at the Atteni who had curled onto her hand and somewhat up her arm. He looked so happy and determined she forgot about the whole dropping something bit that had happened as she let out a happy sigh and headed towards Valthan's room.
Valthan heard a knock at his door and threw down his tools and his engineering for dummies book as he raced to hit the button hoping that it was his lordship coming to teach him the ways of ascendant engineering. Instead he was greeted by the other ascendant Catherine along with his fellow Atteni. " Hello your ladyship. What may I do for you today?" he said bowing deeply.
Catherine just smiled and said, " Awww, my, what a gentlemouse you are! I only have one thing I want right now and that's to share one of my favorite movies to you little guys! Its a classic from 2035 but we are going to watch the remastered version in VR." she said as she waved to Valthan for him to follow her to Valenthi's room.
Valenthi was in the middle of a full sprint on her wheel when she heard the knock. She got startled and tripped which brought her full circle a few times before allowing her to deposit herself on the floor. She stood up and steadied herself as she heard another set of knocks. " Give me a minute please, i was exercising and i would like to dress myself appropriately." she said as she grabbed her ambassadors robes and a handheld paper fan from her people.
Catherine waited as patiently as she petted So'Ran. Finally the door fell away into dust to reveal the Atteni who was giving a little bow with a paper fan in hand and Catherine couldn't handle the cute little fan in her tiny hands so she squee'd and picked up Valenthi with her other arm much to So'Ran's dismay. " Awwwwww I cant wait to see how you guys react to this movie! Its made from an author who started out on an old internet website called reddit that died out in 2022. Some of those authors that were writing in this sub genre called HFY were actually pretty close to how the future really panned out. A few conspiracy theorist think that humanity actually used to be able to see the future because of that!" She said while laughing. " The movies we are going to watch are called " The wrath of vuxten" " He who is wreathed in love and wrath" and we are going to be watching these back to back baby!
Catherine walked to an empty room and set the nanites to fab up a VR theater while she setup the measurements on the Atteni for the movie. They were each going to get to experience Vuxten's battles on Telkan after biological warfare had been initiated. She was so excited she began to shuffle around in place while the room finished setting up. As a heads up these might be a little scary! The three Atteni shrugged it off. Their people had horror movies, this shouldn't be too scary.
After the room had finished Catherine immediately threw the little wire headset that they put on after laying down. Their whole world changed, they could feel, smell, taste, hear, and see in the world. Almost better than the real world. So'Ran gagged as the taste of a world that consisted of nothing but death and despair assaulted all five senses. His visor flashed ATOMIC ATOMIC ATOMIC then he felt the planet itself quake in fear and agony. He wanted to huddle down and hide but he then started moving along without any real input. Then he remembered that he was in a movie and had no way to actually do anything, he was just along for the ride. This thought calmed him until a tree developed a mouth with large serrated teeth and tried to eat him before a bug that was atop his shoulder shot with an itty bitty rifle.
Valenthi was dropped into a forest where she was leading a group of soldiers that appeared to be a mix of Terran and whatever she was supposed to be inhabiting. She then threw up a closed fist and told the group to spread-out. Something was wrong, they were overlooking a lake that she had recently visited but it seemed wrong somehow. Then her eyes landed on it. There was an island in the center of the lake that hadn't been there the week before. She opened up with every weapon she had in her arsenal as she sounded the retreat to her group. An array of missiles, grenades, and bullets impacted the island which just seemed to piss it off as it then stood to its full height and bore down upon Valenthi who was still shooting wildly into the creatures massive fanged maw. The creature slammed its face towards her to try and eat her but she pulled out a wicked looking chainsword and jabbed it into its face being brought up with it as it recoiled. She was then notified of a new meme scrolling past her eyesight as she screamed in rage and fury cutting into the creature that was over 100 times her size.
"This lake is reserved for podlings" scrolled across her sightline as she buried the chainsword to the hilt and began to make mincemeat of the creatures brain.
"Worker Vuxten, you are fined one days pay for dirtying the lake." played across her vision as she fell to the ground along with the giant that she had felled.
Valthan was dead, yet he was alive. All he could feel was love and wrath for scorched Telkan. He stood in front of the unending tides of enemies before him. A lone man who needed nothing more than his love and rage to sustain him through battle. He fired shoulder mounted missile launchers into the masses as he waded into the mass of flesh with his chainsword in a bloody dance of death that left nothing but the pulped remains of his enemies in his wake. Valthan started laughing harder than he ever had before. " So this is true power? This is the power of the gods? I will try my best to reach your heights Jason!" he said as he impaled a 15 foot long creature that was covered in venous spikes.
---------------- Nothing follows ----------------
Whew im glad i finally got to the first contact reference! I got permission from u/Ralts_Bloodthorne a while back to do this chapter but i was in the process of worldbuilding so it had to get shelved. i couldnt wait to reference his work though. How will this movie series change the Atteni though? perhaps they will stop worshipping humanity? Perhaps it'll only get worse!

Update 47: Ratatouille

Humanity's first interstellar war

Posted without title to /tg/ by Tripcode !U7wWt335F 11/06/13(Wed)15:48:42 No.18628132
"Proceed, counselor", said the Lord Adjudicator, her outer eye stalks sinking into her head. The body language translators told the humans it was condescension.
"Thank you, your Lordship", the Praax counselor said as he gave a shallow bow before getting up to walk about on his stilt-like legs. They appeared ungainly but gave his gait an elegant way. "Your Lordship, The Praax have existed for approximately nine point two billion years. Far older than Resource Node Designate 2242-92G -- the humans call it Earth. Before the humans even evolved, one of our scouting vessels made its way through 92G's system and marked it on our charts for strip-mining, as per our way of life, if you know our history. Seeing as it was previously unmarked, and under Council statute 9917 Article 33, subsect 98, paragraph 412, the planetoid belonged to the Praax Conglomerate.
"As bad luck would have it, a sapient species began to evolve on 92G. Humans, they call themselves. By some terrible galactic roll of the dice, our property had managed to grow enough to support life. But this does not detract from the fact that 92G is Praax property. Given that much of the galaxy these days is already claimed, the Praax are short on resources and must act on the ownerships with which it has secured, as other resource nodes have been made unavailable to us. Perhaps if we had acted quicker upon 92G this entire situation could have been...avoided, but the fates would not have it so, and here we are. Under Council statute 14722, Article 923, subsect 2, paragraph 66, and as demonstrated in Praax Conglomerate versus Xenobio Wildlife Consortium, the evolution of an intelligent species upon the property of a Council race does not remove ownership from the original claimants. I submit my words for your consideration, your Lordship."
The Lord Adjudicator's eyes panned slowly to the other side of the chambers, falling upon the humans still frantically pouring over the 3-ton book of Council law.
"Do the humans rebut?"
"Yes", said one human, stammering, "just one moment, your highness—I mean Lordship! Sorry, Lordship", he said to the amused chittering of the chamber space. Laughter, said the translators. The fate of humanity on the line and other peoples were laughing. Three of the humans pointed excitedly to a passage of text, and the head counselor straightened his suit before approaching the bench.
"Your Lordship, everything the Praax counselor has said is true. According to claim manifests recorded before my race had even crawled out of the proverbial primordial muck, our planet—Earth—was claimed by the Praax Conglomerate. By all articles we can find in Council law, the planet is indeed theirs."
he Lord Adjudicator coiled her eye-stalks together. "Are the humans arguing for the opposition now?*
"No, your Lordship", he said, smiling, "of course not. I'm sorry, let me get to the point. My Praax colleague pointed out the case Praax Conglomerate versus Xenobio Wildlife Consortium, in which a form of arthropodal life evolved to the point of rudimentary communication and social structure on a planet they dubbed 213-12C. These creatures possessed the same level of intelligence our apes or aquatic mammals have — smart enough for fluid social structures and varying levels of communication with other species, but lacking any kind of greater racial imperative; no civilization, no works of art, nothing. Seeing as how we are indeed intelligent, we must be given special consideration." The Praax counselor scoffed.
"Which is why the human race is willing to relinquish Earth under the condition that the Praax Conglomerate fully provide for the relocation of every Earth inhabitant and every piece of infrastructure we have constructed since the beginning of our civilization."
The Praax counselor erupted from his seat. "Absolutely preposterous! There exists no legal precedent for --"
"The Praax Conglomerate will remain silent!", shouted the Lord Adjudicator before turning her attention back to the human in front of her. 'Continue, please?
"If your Lordship will recall the Xoenakus Conflict, the defeated sued for peace. As per the Capitulation Act of G-date 920, the losers secured the right to continued existence. Seeing as the victors wished for the planet itself, the Council made the winning party responsible for relocating the surviving population and as much of their property as they could, a judgment which the victorious party complied with."
The Praax counselor's mouth dropped. The Lord Adjudicator sat back in her seat, her eye stalks at half-mast.
"You humans", she said gravely, "consider this situation a matter of war?"
"With the survival of eighty percent of our race in the balance, we most certainly do."
The Lord Adjudicator slumped back into her seat again, most intrigued by the turn of events. The humans remained absolutely still, unable to even breathe for the weight they felt on their shoulders. The Praax counselor, unamused though forever arrogant, so sure nothing the humans could say would swing things in their favor.
"The Court rules in favor of Humanity and agrees that, under the circumstances, a declaration of war has occurred simultaneously with a declaration of capitulation. Under the Capitulation Act of G-date 920, the Praax Conglomerate is found responsible for the relocation of Humanity and all of its holdings from Earth."
The chambers grew loud with a dull roar as the crowd began stirring. The Praax counselor jumped to his feet. "Your Lordship! As I stated before, the Conglomerate is already short on resources! We could not possibly comply with the relocation, we don't have the funds to—'
"If the Praax Conglomerate is unable to provide for the aforementioned conditions, then victory must instead be awarded to Humanity."
The chambers went quiet. Quiet enough to hear the squishing sound the Lord Adjudicator's eyes made as she flexed her eye-stalks. The Praax counselor felt himself weaken under the unyielding glare of the crowd, of the humans, of the Lord Adjudicator. He fell back into his seat, his teeth chattering as he searched for words, any words that could fix the situation. He could think of none.
"The Praax...The Praax Conglomerate capitulates. Ownership of 92G is relinquished to Humanity."
And without a single shot fired, without a single death, without a single ship even leaving port, Humanity had won its first interstellar war.

Album of the Year #28: Flatbush Zombies - now, more than ever

Artist - Flatbush Zombies
Album - now, more than ever
Date Released - June 5, 2020
Listen
Spotify
Apple Music
Background
Flatbush Zombies are a hip-hop trio (composed of rapper Meechy Darko, producerapper Erick Arc Elliott, rapper Zombie Juice) based in Flatbush, New York that formed in 2010. Since then, they have long been making waves in the New York underground with critically acclaimed mixtapes D.R.U.G.S. (2012) and BetterOffDEAD (2013) and for their work with other groups such as The Underachievers and Pro Era, together with whom they form the collective Beast Coast. Their more psychedelic, substantively lyrical approach to hip-hop gained them a relatively large following moving into the release of their debut LP, 3001: A Laced Odyssey in 2016. While the album was well received critically, it wasn't the immense success many hoped it to be, primarily due to the lack of sample-based beats that had been present in their earlier work. The trio came back in 2018 with their sophomore album, Vacation in Hell. In contrast to their first project, Vacation in Hell was large in musical scope, combining elements of pop, rock, and trap in hopes of appealing to a more mainstream audience. In their 2019 collaboration with The Underachievers and Pro Era as Beast Coast, they stuck to this more mainstream style and while fans of the trio were generally pleased with Erick's hazy production, Juice's passionate crooning, and Meechy's off-kilter delivery, all traits they had come to expect from the group, the album was largely panned for not being as innovative as it could have been. Going into 2020, Flatbush Zombies was relatively silent. While the tail end of 2019 saw the release of a single, "Monica" featuring Tech N9ne, to promote their third studio album, it wasn't until after the national George Floyd protests began in May 2020 that the trio began to release new material again. The promotional single for their new EP, "iamlegend," released on May 28, 2020, just two days after protests began to break out all across the United States. The single targeted themes of revolution, police brutality, and hope. With fans anticipating a more focused thematic approach and reinvigorated passion in their message, the trio released their debut EP now, more than ever on June 5, 2020.
Review
The 6-track, 20-minute EP now, more than ever kicks off with Zombie Juice singing "Get the lighter, roll the sticky, let's get high" on the opening cut "herb." The track is relatively simple in concept: it's an ode to marijuana. Even so, there appears to be a level of artistic progression and introspection that while characteristic to earlier Flatbush Zombies releases, carries much more weight in the context and short-form approach of the project. The track is backed by constantly evolving production from Erick Arc Elliott, transitioning between sections of twinkling pianos and reverberating guitars. Fan favorite Meechy Darko saves his powerful verse for last. On this track, as he does on much of the project, he questions human conflict and strife, claiming "the most dangerous animal on the planet is two-legged." Meechy delves into a more personal side of himself as well with the line "intoxication, so far from home, but still my problems waiting"; alcoholism being a vice that he will continue to revisit throughout the EP.
The following track "iamlegend" was released as the single just about a week prior to the release of the EP. It's clear why; the track's synth-backed trap-influenced beat and catchy hook makes it one of the most conventional songs on the record. But while the track doesn't have the bounce of "herb" or the emotional weight of later tracks such as "quicksand" and "when i'm gone," it still doesn't necessarily detract from the project's themes of unity, struggle, and suffering. In the context of the protests that defined the project, Meech's standout bar "destruction is a form of creation" indicates a penchant for revolution and its capacity to lead to a better future. Furthermore, Erick acknowledges in his verse that "[he] just hopes to see the day when niggas ain't shooting it out," sounding equal parts pained and optimistic. Zombie Juice takes up hook duty yet again, which isn't a slight at all, considering how effortless and natural his whispered chorus comes across on the track. His words betray the ubiquity of hustling and struggle throughout his life, yet carry behind them the significant hope and longing that characterizes much of the track, referencing a "light through the tunnel" that he alone has the power to pursue.
"quicksand" is particularly unique in that it is a Meechy solo track. This isn't new to the Flatbush Zombies catalog, we've seen Meechy perform on his own before in 3001 solo cuts like "Fly Away" and "Ascension." And just like on "Fly Away," Meechy proves on "quicksand" that he has a distinct talent for carrying emotion and pain through his one-of-a-kind voice. We've seen Meechy touch on his vices in "herb," but on "quicksand" the reference abruptly materializes into an honest recollection of his sins. The verses on this track will grab you instantly, because they're delivered in two different pitches at the same time. In the main channel, Meech's voice is muted, sounding restrained and barren. One could almost mistake him for being entirely emotionless, but lower in the mix he's delivering an entirely different performance of the same song, one where he sounds unhinged, chaotic, and on the verge of self-destruction. It's fitting for the message of the song because at times, his lyrics are shockingly nihilistic. "I swallow my courage and then I swallow my fears and then I swallow every ounce left in a bottle that's near," he delivers, sounding distant in one voice and deeply hurt in the other. "I know that drugs kill, so do cops, who cares?" is another line that packs a punch. He's essentially relaying his feeling of total inevitability of death in the context of the protests, recontextualizing his own addictions with respect to the present hostility toward the black race. It's lines like these that make this project much more than a response to the protests, but one that shows how the circumstances are perceived through the eyes of the Flatbush Zombies. Notably, the intro and outro to this track feature a sampled quote from Meechy's father, who died in January 2020, just months before the release of this EP. It's evident that Meech's pain in this track is the resultant of his death, a questioning of spiritual faith. After all, he begs listeners "don't pray for me" in the event of his own death, just moments after his father proclaims that Meechy is "the most important God." Religion, despite its relative presence in the concept of the EP, seems to be the furthest thing from Meech's mind; it's not an answer to his father's death nor is it an answer to the protests.
The subsequent track, "dirty elevator music," is my favorite track of 2020. It likely has my favorite production of any track from that year too; it sure sounds like something that would be playing in some post-apocalyptic elevator taking you straight to hell. The beat alternates between reversed warbles, foreboding chord rhythms, and jingling piano arpeggios. However, all these components are coming and leaving at different times, all of them sometimes alternating in pitch for effect. So while the beat uses the same sounds, it's rare that you'll encounter the same loop. In terms of lyrical content, the track is still tied to the 2020 riots with the performance of two absolutely stellar verses from Meechy Darko and Erick the Architect. Meechy's verse is filled with grisly imagery, a deranged depiction of his "riot-inciting" passion; he threatens to "kill you on cam" and "take your life for likes". "Gucci sweats while casket shopping" and "Ask why Satan cried when I was baptized" are personally some of the hardest bars of 2020 as well. It would seem that no rapper could match Meech's constantly varying flows and pitch, but Erick's verse is equally as impressive, if not better. He takes a similar approach to Meechy throughout the verse, threatening all those who dare to oppose him and braggadociously asserting the Zombies' goal to "[take] over this globe." Yet in line with much of this project, behind all the flexing and celebration of their dominance, there's deeply wounded bars that merit a second look: for instance, he's "bowling with pins of woes." It seems like the riots that define the project have forced the Zombies into a spot where they're simultaneously questioning themselves and their trials while also presenting their skill and victory as a way of demonstrating their dominance, or perhaps the strength of the black race as a whole. The contrast between tracks like "herb" or "dirty elevator music" and more cerebral cuts like "blessings" and "quicksand" only serve to accentuate this contrast.
Speaking of "blessings," it follows "dirty elevator music" as the fifth track on the EP, and couldn't be more different stylistically. Erick's hook on this one is smooth and relaxed, he adopts a quasi-speaking tone in contrast to his punctuated exclamations on the previous track. In the interview for the making of this EP, Erick explains that on "blessings," "Juice is more like the angel, and I'm more like the devil," which seemingly feels cryptic at first. But the differences are stark: Juice's verse is composed of short reflections on his personal talent and come-up; he commands listeners to "shine like my skin, the melanin," which undoubtedly conveys a sense of angelic imagery. Erick's verse is about violence, stone, and smoke, a hellish depiction of what the streets have taught him. Like in the previous track, the contrast seems to be set between two very different methods the Zombies have for dealing with their trauma. Nevertheless, the two verses are tied together by Erick's hook, pondering their blessings, one being the very fact that they are still alive. In doing so, Erick establishes the idea that his fire-and-brimstone esque trials are conversely a blessing, although it is Juice who claims his blessings came "disguised as lessons." And the central angel in the center of the EP's cover continues to assert the fact that blessings, spirituality, and death are in fact central to the theme of the record. Erick asserts on the hook that "Heaven sent me this angel," which could potentially refer to the EP cover but also a broader representation of his blessings. In contrast to Meech's dismissal of religion, Erick's angels empower him to help him believe "there's nothing [he] cannot handle."
That being said, the final track on the EP "when i'm gone" ties together all these themes masterfully. This track has the only feature on the record, with a monumental chorus from Sophie Faith. It's no surprise that the title "when i'm gone" itself refers to death, given its omnipresence throughout the EP. It seems like all three Zombies, expectedly given their name, have dealt with some form of death that they are now addressing on record. Juice proclaims that he "just wants to die," in the same breath that he references his mother's death and that "every damn day niggas dyin' in the streets." Like Meechy's bold claim "I know that drugs kill, so do cops, who cares?" on "quicksand", death from the riots and their personal death experiences seem to be indistinguishable to the Zombies. More than wallow in his death-induced sorrow, Juice advocates for hope and recognition of one's blessings: "Sometimes it's hard, but nigga, you alive." Erick's recognition of death comes in the abstract by referencing fallen soldiers and human desentization. His claim that "life ain't supposed to be this way" is one we can all relate to; never mind the fact that we are living through a pandemic that is a staunch reminder of the inevitability of death. But he is correct that we are all desensitized, desentized to the reminders of death on the news every day. Whether it is pandemic-related or protest-related, it is simply death, "the pain we can't ignore." Meechy's final verse could be the best on the record, beginning with a triumphant scream of his condolences for the late Mac Miller, a visceral summation of the death that has haunted him throughout the record. "You are not gone, you entered the void," he states, which is more than likely a reference to his father but can be construed as a reference to those who are dead at the hands of the present circumstances.
In conclusion, now, more than ever is more than an EP. It's a statement, coming at a deeply meaningful time and tackling the subject of police brutality and violence with introspection, rage, and gratitude. In doing so, the Zombies create a project that is thematically and structurally sound and certainly bodes well for future projects to come. Coming up on almost 8 months since the release of this EP, it's unfortunate that the Flatbush Zombies have not released their third studio album. Yet when it does arrive, if it is anywhere close to the quality of now, more than ever, it could be the Zombies' best album yet.
Discussion Questions

How do you think the themes and topics of this EP will play into Flatbush Zombies' third studio album?
Why do you think projects like these get so little attention despite being amongst the best of the year?
What is your favorite track off the project and why?
How does this EP compare to previous releases by the Zombies?

Few fragrances that (probably) smell like space objects or ...

I like things about space, such as movies, sci-fi and recently I found that some fragrances are kind-of imitate some space smells in artistic way. We don't know how some space objects smell, specifically if there are no atmosphere in there, but imagination could give us some pictures. I did small research that somehow could imitate space smells in artistic way.
While doing my research I met many fragrances named by space objects but smell nothing like it (by people reviews). They aren't probably were targeting to make them smell like space objects. For example, Xerjoff has a whole collection of fragrances called "Shooting Star Collection". Note from brand tells us: "In 1947, an awe-inspiring shower of meteorites fell to earth in Eastern Siberia, beyond the foothills of the Sikhote-Alin mountains. Each fragrance in the Shooting Stars collection has been chosen to reflect the special nature of this event: a real meteorite fragment from this fall has been placed in each gift box together with the perfume flacon itself, crowned with a gold plated stopper." Having a real metorite fragment is cool. However, reading about fragrances from that collection I haven't found anything with metallic notes, or something that could represent space-y vibes. Reviews of people were pretty good for most of fragrances from that collection, but there was nothing told about space.
Same things goes for recent release by Louis Vuitton called Meteore which is a citrus spicy fragrance. Nishane did create fragrance called B-612. A note from brand: "The creative directors Mert Guzel and Murat Katran first aimed to capture the aromas that they fantasise to suit the best the asteroid of the Little Prince to make the wearers feel what it is like to be on your own astreoid. According to the novella, Asteroid B-612 was first discovered by a Turkish Astronomer and NISHANE becomes the first perfume house to materialize the scent of the Asteroid B-612. B-612 will make the wearer imaginative, open-minded, and aware of and sensitive to the mystery and beauty of the world with its alluring structure bringing back the forgotten traits from the childhood." I was looking for it, not because of "asteroid smell", but because recently I was looking into "barbershop" type of fragrances and this one by many reviews is fitting such category. So, is it another bait for space lovers?
Talking about Asteroid B-612 another fragrance is comind to mind. Designer Marc-Antoine Barrois together with perfumer Quentin Bisch created a fragrance called B683. "The name is inspired by the asteroid (B612) of the Little Prince by Saint Exupery and by the birth date of the couturier who made it his own imaginary planet. It is a fragrance that blends leather and spice in a subtle, powerful and distinguished refinement." Well, this is actually "a magical and pleasant fragrance with its notes of spices, leather and wood." Seems like nothing asteroid-y, right? Reviews also mostly telling about leather. But second fragrance from Marc-Antoine Barrois, award winning Ganymede is a whole difference experience. Named by moon of Jupiter discovered by Galileo in 1610 that covered with a vast saltwater ocean. This one is close to what we probably looking for when we see a fragrance with name of some space objects. Mineralic, metallic, cold with hint of citruses on top. This one is really unusual and won many awards for a reason.
Another interesting concept we are getting from Centauri Perfumes called Proxima. A note from the brand : "Inspired by the limitless possibilities of the future, exploring new worlds and star systems. This is the expression of that air on a new world, explored for the first time by humanity. Visiting one of our closest neighbors, Proxima Centauri a meer 4.2 Light Years from Earth. Where one day our future may lead us to explore." Who knows what grows on Earth-like planet so far away from here, but here we are getting some wild berries, grapefruit, black currant, ozonic notes, aldehydes. At least it looks exciting and as some people say "futuristic".
Proxima is a star system. Such systems is a part of galaxies mostly with black holes in their center. How does it could smell? You got a fragrance to try to acknowledge that! Center of the Universe by Alkemia Perfumes contains raspberry, metallic notes, hot iron, gunpowder, coal. Although some people called it raspberry dominant, many others also noticed that it is different and strange. Always looking forward to such scents, honestly. A note: "In a vast dust cloud at the center of the Milky Way there is an abundance of ethyl formate, a simple aliphatic ester found in the aroma of rum and raspberries. To these elements, we've added notes from astronauts' descriptions of the smell of their suits when they return from space walks - freshly welded metal, gun powder, seared steak in an iron pan, burnt almond cookies, charcoal, and ozone."
Oliver & Co. has series called Nebulae dedicated to some other unknown planet, populated entirely by endless forests, the big bang, molecular clouds etc. What is unusual about some fragrances from that series is that they contain a lot of notes. Got not too much reviews , though...
But what about dark side of "space fragrances"? Probably, we got one. Juliette Has A Gun Into The Void is " 'the perfume with dark energy' ". It has woody-oriental character, 'perfume with gravitation forces, invisible yet so destructive. In a vacuum, we are free from all physical forces and laws. " ‘Scientific achievements and progress of our knowledge during time enable us to realize and explain numerous phenomena. But one mystery still remains unsolved – black holes. Everything breaks in their heart. Space, time and light disappear; leaving place to the unknown world in which rules of modern physic break down and gravitation goes crazy.’ " Oh, wow. Sounds exciting, isn't it?
When I think about space I can not ignore one of the biggest dude in solar system. Some theories saying that he is a defender of our planet because he literally consumes many dangerous objects comind from outside of solar system keeping life on our planet safe. Yes, I'm talking about Jupiter. And I would be really sad if someone from perfumers of our planet could've been ignored him in artistic way, but fortunately there are someone who didn't. Toli Pefume has fragrance called Jupiter. It has really bold chemicals as notes, such as ammonia, sulphur, metallic notes and also strawberry, rum. Looking lovely, but there are not much reviews about this one. Just note from the brand: " Jupiter captures the smell of outer space, the giant planet Jupiter more specifically. The perfume made either for those conteplating an ador experience of the planet, or for the curious minds simply looking for a different, original and unique fragrance."
There are also "fallen meteorites" fragrances such as Meteorite by Cuarzo The Circle, which could make us "feel the energy of a Meteorite that fell to Earth over 6,000 years ago in Campo del Cielo (Sky Field, Patagonia) transformed into a fusion of cold, metallic raw materials with an aromatic touch and the power of the Diamond Quartz…" and Peau d'Ailleurs by Starck which is a " is strange, undefinable and elusive. An exploration into ourselves, through the elsewhere and the unconscious, its perfume is also an escape into the infinite territory of dematerialization, where the scent of the cosmic void comes into contact with that of a Terra Incognita." What an abstract text...
Also, for those who could feel like an astronomer brera6 perfumes created Hesperia. "69 Hesperia is the name of the asteroid discovered by the famous Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli on April 29, 1861, by the Astronomical Observatory of Brera in Milan. The fresh, pungent air of a spring night. The sky, deep blue, overhangs the distant city. It breathes calmly, in an almost obscured atmosphere.The quietness of night-time darkness has the scent of green and earthy notes, which come from the underlying Botanical Garden." - a note from the brand.
That's pretty much it. If you know something that could be about space, let us know. :)

An Astrological Breakdown: Zac & Tayshia vs. Brendan & Tayshia

Someone had made a post that pondered how Brendan and Tayshia's relationship would've turned out had he been the F1 after all, which sparked my inspiration for this post, which is a compare/contrast on how I think Zac and Tayshia will pan out vs. how Brendan and Tayshia probably would've turned out, but in an astrological sense:
Tayshia is a Virgo (mutable Earth sign) while Zac is a Capricorn (cardinal Earth sign) and Brendan is a Scorpio (fixed Water sign).
Zac and Tayshia form what's called a "trine" aspect in astrology, AKA the most compatible and favorable aspect you can have! You're trine with anyone who shares the same element as you, 120 degrees away from one another. The three signs that make up any element are all trine and all 120 degrees away from each other, forming a perfect 360 when combined. Each element also represents one of the three modalities, between cardinal, mutable, and fixed, which are discussed much less often than their elemental counterparts. Virgo, Taurus, and Capricorn make up the three Earth signs, and I personally feel like Earth signs love being with other Earth signs (I'm also a Virgo who's dated many Earth signs) because they're more of the "great minds think alike" & "birds of a feather flock together" whereas, say, maybe a Fire or Air sign would be more open to having a partner that's very different from them. Virgo and Capricorn complement each other very well and have the same core values and philosophies, They're dependable, practical, loyal, logical, pragmatic, serious, analytical, sensual, and appreciative. Virgo rules the planet Mercury, which is the planet of communication, so it comes as no surprise that Tayshia's love language is words of affirmation. As a Capricorn, Zac has no trouble expressing his feelings for Tayshia. Capricorns will sometimes come off as reserved or shy, but once they open up, they light up, as Zac himself said he was feeling. Capricorns are in it for the long haul, and once they make a commitment, they're in it for a lifetime. They're very loyal, and will always defend their partner in crime. As a cardinal sign, Capricorn is confident, outspoken, and strong in their convictions. Sometimes they can come off as "too serious", too frugal, and too judgemental, but oftentimes other chart placements (say, a Mars in Gemini or Moon in Cancer) will water down these negative traits and help create a very well-rounded individual.
On the other hand, Tayshia and Brendan form a sextile aspect, which is also considered a positive, favorable aspect. Virgo and Scorpio are 60 degrees from each other, which defines a sextile aspect (for reference, Virgo also forms a sextile aspect with Cancer, another Water sign, which is two signs before them). Scorpio is a Water sign, which is next in line for "most compatible with an Earth sign" after Earth itself, of course. Pisces is Virgo's opposite at 180 degrees and the 3rd Water sign. I won't go into my opinions of the Virgo-Pisces dynamic right now as it's not very relevant, but I think it's almost stronger than an Earth-Earth pairing since they're both mutable signs (DM me if you'd like to hear more). I digress-- Scorpio as a Water sign is very emotional, very deep, very intense. They also come off shy and reserved at times, but usually seem to hold a more mysterious, sinister appeal about their nature and attitude. This probably stems from Scorpio ruling Pluto and the 8th house, which is the house of death, rebirth, transformations, and also coincides with investigations, uncovering secrets, and the "darkside". Of course, not all Scorpios hold this type of energy, but I definitely felt it ruminating from Brendan. You can tell he's a good guy and doesn't want to make any more mistakes than he's already made, but he's an obsessive overthinker. Obsession is very Scorpio-adjacent, and actually very Water sign-adjacent. They mull over everything and think of every possibility and sometimes get stuck in their heads and seem paralyzed by their own thoughts and worries (Ashley I. is a Pisces and Jared is a Scorpio, for example). While Earth and Water complement each other well, they can also make too much mud, which you can get stuck in. Earth also has obsessive tendencies, and Virgo more than any other sign is not only critical but self-critical. A Virgo-Scorpio pairing is honestly a toss-up, depending on other chart placements, where these individuals find themselves in their lives during their relationship conception, and how evolved these individuals are as people. They can easily make for a lifelong partnership, but they can just as easily bring the worst out in each other. Scorpio makes Virgo second-guess their decisions and vice versa. As a fixed sign, Scorpio is very stubborn and headstrong, and they don't like being told what to do or how to do it, and sometimes Virgo just cannot help but say how THEY think it should be done. To me, it seemed like Brendan was almost getting in his own way, second-guessing his convictions and readiness to be in a committed, long-term relationship again. Much like Capricorn, Scorpio is also very serious, very loyal, and very much in it for the long haul when they do make the commitment and promises. However, unlike Capricorn, Scorpio will oftentimes find themselves in a downward shame spiral if they feel like they've failed at love or been heartbroken, so it makes sense why Brendan was more afraid to take the risk at getting engaged and have the possibility of t not working out again.
Overall, I think Capricorn Zac is not only a more dependable and reliable choice for Virgo Tayshia, but a more long-lasting, easygoing, and deep-rooted relationship that will require much less effort and much less hardship than Scorpio Brendan (more than likely) would have caused.
Just my two cents, this is of course all subjective, not all Capricorns, Virgos, and Scorpios will exhibit the behaviors or traits I laid out in this post, so please don't come @ me! Also, this is an analysis merely based on their Sun signs. Most astrologers refer to a couple’s Venus, Mars, Moon, and Eros (an asteroid) signs and their aspects/relations when looking into romantic/sexual comparability, so there’s a lot more to it than just Sun-sign compatibility!
Wishing everyone a safe, finasco-free holiday season 💋❄️✌️🏽🔮🕯🧣🕊🎁🕯
ETA: unusedtrainwreck asked me for some recommendations on researching astrological compatibility, so I thought it could be helpful to share these Cafe Astrology links with y’all (also, I know CA isn’t perfect and their birth chart algorithm sometimes is off, but I think these pages in particular are helpful and that CA overall is helpful for those just starting out because it explains things in a simplistic way that’s easy to digest):
Venus-Mars Compatibility
Love Sign Compatibility Grid
Compatibility Calculator
Astrology of Love and Sex
Sexual Astrology
Sexual Attraction
Synastry Reports (w/ & w/o birth times)
Romantic Compatibility Analysis
Soulmate Astrology
ETA #2: For those of you who have asked me about the Virgo-Pisces relationship, here's a little breakdown of my thoughts on this opposing axis. Also, I realize that Ivan is a Pisces, but this is more about Virgo and Pisces in general rather than Ivan and Tayshia. As rivkaroses broke down in the comments, Tayshia and Zac's moons are also trine (Pisces and Cancer) and Tayshia has a Venus in Leo/Mars in Gemini and Zac has a Venus in Sagittarius/Mars in Scorpio, so their Venus signs are ALSO trine, and it's important to look at the relationship between one partner's Venus and the other's Mars, and when you look at Tayshia's Mars in Gemini opposing Zac's Venus in Sag, it explains so much as to why she's so magnetically attracted to him and has such a strong, sexual connection, even if it can't be explained! So Zac and Tayshia's compatibility goes so much further than just analyzing Tayshia as a Virgo and Ivan as a Pisces!
Alright, enough on these two lovebirds: The Virgo-Pisces dynamic. Let me start by saying a few things: as a Virgo, I've been engaged to a Taurus, married (and then divorced) to a Capricorn (I know, seems silly I've hyped up Zac and Tayshia, but it goes a lot deeper than our compatibility, which was off the charts), and also engaged to a Pisces up until he passed, so we never broke things off. Also, my connection with the Pisces went beyond our Sun signs, we both had trine Air sign risings/Venus as well, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. As I mentioned above, Earth signs even more than most other signs are usually attracted to like-minded people, and fall under the "birds of a feather flock together" rather than "opposites attract". I always say Virgo and Taurus go together like bread and butter-- they just mesh together so seamlessly, they make sense, and it's very easy to make a path from point A to point B. Initially, they're attracted and excited by being similar and understanding what each other needs. However, sometimes that spark can wear off, and once the "honeymoon phase" has ended, they begin to see the downsides in being with someone so similar. Not always the case, but sometimes it feels like you're holding up a mirror, and you'll start to see your own shortsightedness and downfalls in your like-minded partner. It's not that they bring out the worst in you, but you recognize your worst traits in them. On the flip side, the initial idea of being with a Pisces, Virgo's exact opposite, seems unrealistic. Pisces are Water signs that are always painted as flaky, having their head in the clouds, and all over the place. But there's something that I feel like is always under-discussed when it comes to your opposite sign: they share the same modality as you. Both Virgo and Pisces are mutable signs, meaning they're adaptable, malleable, fluid, and open-minded. Taurus is a fixed sign, like its opposite Scorpio, which is stubborn, inflexible, and cemented. Capricorn like its opposite Cancer is a cardinal sign, who are often seen as leaders, self-assured, and strong in their convictions. One's modality is often less regarded in discussing compatibility because other than your opposite, the two other signs that share your same modality form a square aspect to your sign, which is considered the most difficult and challenging aspect for a union (astrology gives you so many patterns, which is why I love it so much!) so it makes sense why it's often looked over. Both Pisces and Virgo are similar in their needs deep down-- they love affirmations, they need to feel secure in order to thrive, and they'll be incredibly doting and affectionate if they feel like they can fully trust their partner. They share the same viewpoints when it comes to their attitudes, morals, beliefs, and how they treat others. Neither Virgo nor Pisces will do something because they think they should or because they want attention, they believe the proof is in the pudding and intentionally act as genuine as they can because they believe "if they don't like me for me, they aren't the right person for me". When it comes to differences and downfalls, Virgo and Pisces have the capability of filling in each other's blind spots. Unlike Virgo-Taurus where they see their own worst qualities in their partner, they see qualities they can help their partner overcome or understand in a different light. Since they're both mutable signs, Virgo and Pisces have the ability to break down some of their walls and mold their shortcomings by evolving into better people, if they're willing to let go of their ego/pride and let their partner take the reigns from time to time! Luckily, both Virgo and Pisces are considered to be two of the least "ego-driven" signs, so it's easier for them to allow. Virgo and Pisces can learn a lot from each other. They admire the other's differences and together have the possibility to form a superb connection. It's like DNA and genetics when it comes to choosing a partner-- we've discovered that finding a mate who has differing chromosomes and genes will actually make for stronger children since their children will inherit many different gene patterns rather than two parents whose makeup is very similar.
That being said, I don't think every opposition is as strong as the Virgo-Pisces axis. For example, Taurus and Scorpio, as mentioned before, are both fixed signs, but I believe their stubbornness might get in the way of being able to form a long-lasting connection. Even the other mutable-mutable opposition in Gemini and Sagittarius doesn't seem as successful to me, because Gemini and Sagittarius are both so independently-driven, that sometimes it can be like two ships passing in the night. I think Virgo is a lot more emotional and needy than they would like to let on, and with the right partner like Pisces, they have the foundation to feel those vulnerabilities. Conversely, I think Pisces likes more order and structure than they let on and Virgo can help them feel more grounded.
Again, this is just my two cents, and this is just a Sun-sign analysis. There's so much more that goes into you and your partner's charts, so it always depends on those factors.

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The Purge: Election Year (MA)
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (MA)
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water (Vudu)
Thunderstruck (MA)
~~Trainwreck [Theatrical] (iTunes/ports)~~
Transcendence (MA)
Unforgettable (MA)
Warm Bodies (Vudu)
What To Expect When You're Expecting (Vudu or iTunes)
World War Z (Vudu or iTunes)
📽
$2 SD
~~12 Rounds [Extreme Cut/Unrated] (iTunes/ports)~~
127 Hours (iTunes/ports)
22 Jump Street (MA)
A Good Day To Die Hard [Unrated Extended] (iTunes/ports)
Addicted (Vudu)
Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (iTunes/ports)
American Hustle (MA)
Barbershop: The Next Cut (Vudu)
Broken City (iTunes/ports)
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (MA)
Concussion (MA)
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 1 (iTunes/ports)
Don Jon (iTunes)
Due Date (iTunes/ports)
Fright Night 2 [2013] (iTunes/ports)
Fury (MA)
Glee: The Concert (iTunes/ports)
Hot Tub Time Machine (iTunes)
Ice Age: Continental Drift (iTunes/ports)
~~Immortals (iTunes)~~
~~In Time (iTunes/ports)~~
Insidious: The Last Key (MA)
Judy Moody (iTunes)
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (MA)
Orange Is The New Black (Vudu)
Pixels (MA)
Ramona and Beezus (iTunes/ports)
Risen (MA)
Something Borrowed (iTunes/ports)
~~Take Me Home Tonight (iTunes)~~
The Descendants (iTunes/ports)
The Devil Inside (Vudu)
The Equalizer (MA)
The Expendables 1 (iTunes)
~~The Heat [2013] (iTunes/ports)~~
~~The Last Exorcism (iTunes)~~
~~The Muppets [2011] (iTunes/ports)~~
The Perfect Guy (MA)
The Rocker (iTunes/ports)
The Shallows (MA)
The Wolverine (iTunes/ports)
The Vow (MA)
Turbo (iTunes/ports)
Walking With Dinosaurs: The Movie (iTunes/ports)
Wanted (iTunes/ports)
~~X2: X-Men United (iTunes/ports)~~
~~X-Men: The Last Stand (iTunes/ports)~~
Zero Dark Thirty (MA)
📽
$1 HD
Divergent (Vudu)
Fifty Shades Of Grey (iTunes/ports)
Frozen: Sing-Along Edition (Google Play/ports)
~~Magic Mike (MA)~~
~~Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Google Play/ports)~~
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Google Play/ports)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Google Play/ports)
The Dark Knight Rises (MA)
The Hangover Part II (MA)
The Hunger Games (Vudu)
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt 2 (Vudu)
📽
$1 SD
About Last Night (MA)
Chappie (MA)
Despicable Me 1 (iTunes/ports)
~~Family Guy: It's A Trap (iTunes)~~
Dirty Grandpa (Vudu)
One Direction: This Is Us (MA)
Parental Guidance (iTunes/ports)
Skyfall (iTunes)
Step Up: Revolution (iTunes)
Taken 2 (iTunes/ports)
The Avengers (iTunes/ports/no points)
The Expendables 2 (Vudu)
When The Game Stands Tall (MA)

Popheads 2020 Album of the Year #5: Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

Artist: Grimes
Album: Miss Anthropocene (Deluxe | Revised | Revised Deluxe)
Label: 4AD
Tracklist and Lyrics: Genius
Release date: February 21, 2020
popheads [FRESH] thread: Here
Listen: Apple Music (Deluxe) | Spotify (Deluxe V1) | YouTube Music (Deluxe V1)
You know me as the girl who plays with fire,
But this is the song I wrote you in the dark ...
Madness, intellect, audacity?
Grimes, the stage name of Claire Boucher, is an electronic musician and multimedia artist from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. How ordinary and uncontroversial that makes her sound. As any Pophead surely knows by now, Grimes is far from either of those things.
Much of the lore behind Grimes' early career seems well-known by now to her fans: she attend McGill University in Montréal, Québec (a very prestigious school) where she had an interest in neuroscience and worked on her Russian, a language she had first picked up in childhood (she is of French and Ukrainian heritage, and her name means "clear (f.) butcher" in French, a fact she finds hilarious). She chose her stage name after hearing of grime music on her MySpace (which is still around), and listed her music as "grime" despite never having heard grime music before (she ended up liking it, by the way). She also goes by c, the physical constant for the speed of light, because she finds her name hard to pronounce (she has a slight speech impediment, as well as a lisp for the sound /s/, though she doesn't care about the latter).
Grimes learned to use recording software in university (Apple's GarageBand) and about music production from friends, and got involved with the music collective Lab Synthèse, which had a production space in a now-closed warehouse in Montréal and spawned the label Arbutus Records, which has since housed many Canadian indietronica acts. Grimes' first two albums were released on this label: Geidi Primes, a concept album about her favourite novel, the science fiction epic Dune; and Halfaxa, an ambient electronica album that has been described as gothic, both in 2010. Not expecting that anyone would hear her debut (it was first released as a run of 30 cassettes with hand-drawn covers by her), both albums were well-received by critics, to her surprise. All writing and almost all production was done on both by her alone.
Grimes' early work was linked to the "witch house" microgenre, an underground scene of electronic music that was gothic in both sound and aesthetic, and was briefly popular around the early 2010s. (This can be seen on the tracklist of Halfaxa with that scene's trademark use of arcane symbols in their titles.) In 2011, she released the split EP Darkbloom with fellow Canadian electronic musician D'Eon, with the first five tracks being by her. Notably, this EP had her first song to have a music video, the self-directed "Vanessa". Her breakthrough, though, was yet to come.
If you're looking for a dream girl, I'll never be your dream girl
Visions (2012), Grimes' first LP with her new label 4AD, won her widespread acclaim and made her a cultural phenomenon in her home country of Canada. The album gave a more accessible and poppy spin on her early mix of dark, ambient and psychedelic music, and is a bewitching, trance-like album to listen through. Although the first single from it was "Genesis" with a music video featuring Brooke Candy, she won acclaim for her song "Oblivion", written about her own experience with sexual assault and trauma afterward. During this time, Grimes' image became linked with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype, the concept of "kawaii" (a Japanese aesthetic which roughly translates as "cuteness") and her waiflike appearance; as well as her reputation as an outspoken feminist.
Grimes has expressed dislike of being misinterpreted as a less serious musician during this time because of her turn towards a pop sound and aesthetic, as well as frustration at not being taken seriously as a woman music producer, still fairly uncommon in electronic music. Indeed the recording of Visions is a key part of Grimes lore: she made the album alone at her home in a matter of weeks, neither sleeping nor eating, and taking amphetamines to stay focused (she has alluded to possibly having ADHD before). [Author's note: Grimes has since disavowed the association of her music with drugs, saying that she has struggled with addiction in the past.]
Her next album came in 2015: the widely acclaimed Art Angels, which saw a turn towards an even poppier sound and moved away from the ambient and psychedelic feel of Visions towards classic synthpop and electronica. Art Angels was recorded again at her home, now in Los Angeles, and showed a mix of strong pop hooks with more intelligible lyrics that touched on themes of personal doubts, lost friendships, and her place in the music industry. [Because this album is most likely her best-known on Popheads, I will not discuss it in much depth].
Infamously, she was quoted in 2019 as calling the album a "piece of crap", a narrative she has refuted since, saying her comments were taken out of context. Despite her success, neither Visions nor Art Angels had any singles that charted highly even in her home country, but she gained a loyal cult following online. To accompany the album, she also released The Acid Reign Chronicles, a series of music videos by her and her best friend HANA).
How could one follow up an album that's been repeatedly called one's magnum opus? It would have to be something crazy, wouldn't it? Something that's provocative ... it gets the people going ...
This is the sound of the end of the world
Does anyone think global warming is a good thing? I love Grimes. I think she's a really interesting artist
We come to it at last: Miss Anthropocene, stylized at release as Miss_Anthrop0cene, Grimes' fifth studio LP and my pick for album of the year.

It’s called Miss_Anthropocene. It’s a concept album about the anthropomorphic Goddess of climate Change: A psychedelic, space-dwelling demon/ beauty-Queen who relishes the end of the world. She’s composed of Ivory and Oil - Grimes via Instagram

The way I figure it is that climate change sucks and no one wants to read about it because the only time you hear about it is when you’re getting guilted. I wanted to make climate change fun. Miss Anthropocene has got a Voldemort kind of vibe. She’s naked all the time and she’s made out of ivory and oil. It’s going to be super tight. [...] If I’m stuck being a villain, I want to pursue villainy artistically. If there’s nothing left to lose, that’s actually a really fun idea to me. I think it has freed me artistically. The best part of the movie is the Joker. Everyone loves the villain. Everyone fucking loves Thanos. Let’s make some Thanos art. (Source)

If you haven't heard this album or know anything about it yet, you might be thinking: Wait, what?
Miss Anthropocene is a concept album about the apocalypse. As Grimes said, she wants to make climate change fun. We're living in a new epoch, the Anthropocene, the age of humanity, so named because we now have the power as a species to alter our environment, or even destroy it. Some might find this disturbing. Grimes, however, finds it thrilling.

So my album’s about a modern demonology or a modern pantheon where every song is about a different way to suffer or a different way to die. If you think about it, god-making or god-designing just seems so fun. The idea of making the Goddess of Plastic seems so fun to me. - Grimes

As is common with Grimes: Is she serious? Is she trolling? Being edgy? When the news is full of natural disasters, species extinctions and dire warnings about a climate apocalypse, why would anyone want to make an album about how dying from climate change is awesome? Well, it should be said: Miss Anthropocene is not Grimes. She is a character, a personification of our times, and she is also (this is very key) a villain. This is, as Grimes has done before and shown a long-running interest in, a work of science fiction.
It would be absurd not to talk briefly about how our last year was dominated by the life-altering effects of COVID-19 and how life in quarantine has felt like the apocalypse to many. It's been hard on us, our mental health, our finances. This isn't a "quarantine album", and the album was mostly finished before the virus appeared in the news. Grimes did not predict it, but she ended up making the perfect soundtrack to our dire 2020 anyway and how powerless we felt to do anything about it. "You're gonna get sick, you don't know when", she sings. The threat was always looming whenever we went out, and when we stayed in we had little to do often but doomscroll through news articles about wildfires, protests against police brutality worldwide, a draining election cycle in America, take your pick. Last year was frankly a shitshow no one saw coming - though maybe they should have. Things just aligned right with this album being full of darker lyrical themes, and darker in sound than the bright-sounding Art Angels.
We had a taste of what the album would be like before it came out with the song "Pretty Dark" (video, a demo track released in 2019 that didn't make it onto the album. On this song, Grimes explores alternate characters, being a girl named "Dark", as a chance to escape from her Grimes persona. However, the concept of the album ended up being much more complex, with a whole pantheon of "new gods" that are fitting for our time, each song representing a different facet of the modern world. Here they are as listed on her website months before the album came out:

Goddess of climate crisis: Miss Anthropocene
Demon of addiction: "Delete Forever"
Goddess of ID and social media: War Nymph, her digital avatar
Demon of AI: "We Appreciate Power"
Goddess of gaming: "Violence"
Demon of political apathy: "My Name is Dark"
Goddess of simulation: "4ÆM"
Demon of ego death: "Before the Fever"
Goddess of digital lust: "IDORU"
Demon of sexual assault: "Darkseid"
Goddess of gender roles: "So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth"

Isn't this pretentious? Maybe. But it's optional: you don't need to know all of the album's lore to understand what Grimes is singing about on it. For those who wish to know the background and thought process behind the album in more detail, I highly recommend reading this interview with another uncontroversial Popheads fave, Lana Del Rey first, then delving into her Genius annotations. For now I'm going to give my own, somewhat subjective (!) takes on what each track is about.
Annihilation sounds so dope!

"So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth" (Visualizer)

In 2020, Grimes became a mother for the first time with partner Elon Musk, having a child named X Æ A-Xii (the Roman numeral for 12); a breakdown of how they came up with this unusual name can be found here. Grimes and Musk met in 2018 on Twitter, bonding over an obscure philosophical reference (a thought experiment about the dangers of AI called Roko's Basilisk) and made their first public appearance together at the Met Gala that year. Because Musk is (I would argue) an even more controversial figure than Grimes is, I won't be talking about him otherwise, nor do I believe it's relevant to the album. However, this song does touches on her feelings about pregnancy and motherhood, having to (in her words) sacrifice her body to another being.
When Grimes announced her pregnancy in a rather cryptic Instagram post, there was some debate over whether she was pregnant herself at all (remember, she trolled the media in 2019 by claiming to have had an experimental eye surgery which makes zero biological sense). This was cleared up soon, however. On this song, Grimes reflects on being (as the saying goes) heavy with child, bringing new life into a world with an uncertain future. This entrancing song sets the tone for the rest of the album, as does its music video, which begins with a reference to the classic sci-fi film Blade Runner (a movie about rogue androids in Los Angeles that takes place in the far-off year of ... 2019, the year of the song's first release).

"Darkseid" (Lyric video)

This song references the name of a powerful comic book supervillain, as well as Grimes' Playstation user ID, with online gaming being (her words) "where I go to kill people and stuff". The song features lyrics in Mandarin Chinese by Taiwanese rapper 潘PAN (Pan Wei-Ju), also known as Aristophanes, who had a feature on Art Angels' "Scream". A fan translation can be found here. Here Grimes develops upon her fascination with villains and death, while the lyrics by 潘PAN are hard to interpret literally, but paint a vivid picture of death and decay. The opening line feels quite fitting for a year where many of us sat at home all day being anxious (Unrest is in the soul / We don't move our bodies anymore ...) while the operatic backing vocals call to mind religion and medieval themes, another long-running interest of hers. However this is by far the most difficult song for me to connect with its "god" in concept, and I think its original concept was most likely just abandoned.

"Delete Forever" (Video)

On this song, released only a couple of weeks before the album itself, Grimes surprised fans with a poignant acoustic ballad with influences from country music - not exactly the kind of genre she is known for doing. Taking the title from a prompt on her computer, Grimes wrote this song about the opioid crisis in North America, being saddened by the death of rapper Lil Peep, who had overdosed on fentanyl (a powerful opioid and dangerous street drug). As well, she touches on her own experiences with drug abuse (I did everything / More lines on a mirror than a sonnet) and being around drug culture in her youth, having lost many friends to drug addiction herself; she compares the experience of feeling euphoric on drugs to the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun. Grimes describes this song as emotionally hard to perform for her, as is "Oblivion". In the video, she plays a queen overlooking a crumbling empire.

"Violence" (Video)

Grimes brings up again her fascination with the history of warfare and weaponry over a club banger, produced by the late i_o (Garrett Lockhart) who sadly died in November of unknown causes. Described as a love song sung between the planet Earth and humanity that portrays a dysfunctional relationship between the two; in describing the concept behind the music video, Grimes also talks about digital violence as a modern addition to the physical violence of the past, which is fitting given its "god" is video games.
The video, filmed in the Vibiana cathedral in Los Angeles, features Grimes surrounded by women wielding swords and dance choreography inspired by Tiktok, with a cameo by HANA as the dead woman on the floor. Though Grimes didn't plan to put this song on the album, and the video was choreographed and filmed in a hurry, nevertheless she was pleased with the results. With its edgy and ironic concept (no, Grimes does not really love violence, nor does the Earth; she does collect swords though), as well as its excellent production, this is my own favourite song on the album.

"4Æm" (Performance video)

Written for the long-delayed video game Cyberpunk 2077, in which Grimes plays an NPC named Lizzy Wizzy, this track has Grimes make use of her love of Bollywood films, sampling the soundtrack of the historical drama Bajirao Mastani. Grimes is well-known for her insomnia (see: the recording of Visions above), which is in turn known for its health effects (explaining the lyrics about getting sick). Here Grimes seems to portray being up all night in an ambivalent way. [Having stayed up all night many times, including to write this piece you are reading right now, I can confirm it only feels fun up to a point, after which it becomes exhausting.]
To me this sounds like great music to play in a futuristic city at night - Grimes is a big fan of the cyberpunk genre herself, which tends to feature this setting, as shown by her previous references to Blade Runner and Akira (an influence upon the video of "Delete Forever").

"New Gods"

Here Grimes gets into the theme of the album as being inspired by the "gods" - secular replacements for religion - that underlie the concept of the album, the most important being the goddess of climate change (Miss A herself) but including addiction ("Delete Forever"), insomnia ("4Æm"), and more.

I was like, “Well, who are the new gods?” Because we have all this new stuff. We have plastic and pollution and plastic surgery and social media. The new gods sound sick. They sound like … like the Sailor Scouts, like these sick demons. - Grimes

Here Grimes also alludes to her image as gothic, describing herself as wearing "black attire, black eyeliner", fittingly for a bleak-sounding, pessimistic song. Being the slowest track on the album, it may be hard to get into, but it wouldn't be the same without it.

"My Name Is Dark"

Grimes described her thoughts behind the making of this song in this ... interesting tweet. (I voted for "fighting Balrog", but it seems closer to the latter.) Her "nu metal song about insomnia" ended up being not quite either but does show some of the influence of industrial music on the album; she again brings up drug use, sleeplessness and her alter ego of "Dark" from the single "Pretty Dark".

It’s just about pretty obvious, like, paradise in hell, making the decision to be good or bad. The specter of death always haunting you. It was serious. - Grimes

Grimes depicts herself as jaded and nihilistic (The boys are such a bore / The girls are such a bore / I never trust the government and pray to God for sure, yeah) in the lyrics and alludes to mental illness and self-destructive urges with the opening lines about wishing for annihilation ("When you don’t care if you live or die, when you’re so depressed that you’re like, 'Whatever, fuck it'"). She also hints at her long history of controversies and misconceptions in the media (I'm not shy but I refuse to speak / Because I don't trust you to understand me). Grimes found the song very difficult to make, wanting it to sound "roaring" with its screaming vocals.

"You'll Miss Me When I'm Not Around"

In one of her most melancholy-themed songs, here c. sings openly about suicide ideation, conceptualizing it as another demon of hers. She brings up various suicide methods and self-harm, and imagines herself in death as happy. Despite its morbid subject matter, this is a deceptively upbeat song musically. Although self-destruction and death are recurring themes on this theme, this is the one where she talks most about wanting to die herself.

"Before the Fever"

First of all, that title is almost too on the nose for an album released in February 2020.
Here Grimes sings about hedonism in the first verse and uses an old joke as a metaphor for death (There are many ways in / But there's only one way out), referring to birth and death. She explains the title thus:

Grimes explained how she wanted "Before the Fever" to invoke the "literal feelings" of dying — the uncertainty, desperation, and bizarre tranquility presumably felt when one knows it's the end. "Fevers are just kind of scary, but a fever is also sort of poetically imbued with the idea of passion and stuff, too," she told him. "It's like it's a weirdly loaded word — scary, but compelling and beautiful." What's more terrifying and more beautiful than committing yourself to another person when everything could very well implode in your face? One could even call it romantic. (Source)

Even though it was written before the COVID-19 outbreak became serious, nevertheless the theme of this song could easily be called love in the time of coronavirus for the way it combines metaphors of illness with romance (cf. the analysis of "Violence").

"IDORU"

By far the happiest-sounding song on the album, this seven-minute epic is also the longest, and much needed after the dark themes that pervade much of it. Beginning with what sounds like birdsong, it's a fun, cute, lighthearted ditty that gives a bit of much-needed hope to the album (I wanna play a beautiful game / Even though we're gonna lose / But I adore you). Maybe we're all going to die and humanity will go extinct; maybe not. If that's going to happen, can't we have some fun anyway?
As an aside, the title is a neat pun on the phrase "I adore you" but also seems to be referencing the novel Idoru ("idols") by famed cyberpunk author William Gibson, in turn about the Japanese concept of "idols", a unique kind of celebrity.
There has been fan speculation over who, if anyone, the song may be about; Grimes alluded to its meaning on a livestream with HANA but did not say in the end. My own take is that it could just as well be about the Earth itself.
These are all ten of the tracks on the standard edition of Miss Anthropocene; on the deluxe version(s) there are five bonus tracks, four of which are alternate mixes of other songs on the standard edition that differ mainly in length ("So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth", "Violence", "My Name is Dark" and "IDORU"). These seem to have been done to make the longer tracks more suitable for playlists, explaining the name "algorithm mix" for them. As well, there is one more: the original WAP.

"We Appreciate Power" (Video)

First of all: what a fucking BANGER.
"We Appreciate Power" is a bonus track that was released as a single in 2018. It was originally meant to feature vocals by Poppy, who had featured Grimes on her own 2018 album Am I a Girl? but after a feud between the two, she was replaced with HANA. Musically, it is influenced heavily by nu-metal, it blends crunchy distorted guitars and loud rock drums with an awesome electronic drop. Grimes' and HANA's vocals trade between verses and choruses and blend so well it is hard to tell which part is whose upon first listen. This song was due to have a larger-budget music video, but ended up getting a bare-bones video instead, which is still a very fun watch with its cyberpunk visuals.
Lyrically, it was inspired by a North Korean girl group who make propaganda music for the state, as well as Grimes' fascination with the concept of an AI dictatorship. "We Appreciate Power" touches on common cyberpunk themes like mind uploading, transhumanism and simulated reality. The song portrays AI rule as something desirable yet frightening, punctuating the lyrics with unsettling shrieks and ending the song with Grimes chanting "Submit" repeatedly. Despite its tongue-in-cheek nature, the song's lyrics led to a minor controversy: for her speculation of AI replacing humans, musicians Zola Jesus and Devon Welsh called her a "silicon fascist" and they got into a spat on Twitter that seems to be resolved, with Grimes acknowledging Zola made some good points. As for the prospect of an AI takeover: it's frankly a terrifying thought, but at least we'd have jams like this.
Now is the time to burn twice as bright and half as long. Sincerely, Miss Anthropocene
This writeup is dedicated to all those cyberpunks who fight against injustice and corruption every day of their lives! (DJ mix)
Thanks so much for letting me do this writeup, Popheads - and thank you if you made it to the end. I know there is a lot here, but Grimes is a longtime favourite artist of mine and I had a lot to say. I hope I've been reasonably balanced here and not come off as an apologist stan; I am well aware Grimes can be "messy" or a "problematic fave". However, I've tried to explain the best I can what this album is really about, give my thoughts, and explain why I think it's one of the albums of the year. As well, if I said anything factually wrong, please let me know; I tried my best to source everything and get things right.

Questions for the culture:

[Voice of Anthony Fantano] What did you think of the album? Did you love it? Did you hate it?
The album was infamously leaked months before its release. (I didn't listen to the leak.) Did you listen to it or not, and do you think it may have affected fan reception to the album?
A big problem with concept albums is that they often have an elaborate concept that doesn't come across well in the lyrics. What do you think of Grimes' concept for this album and did she succeed at it? Do you have different readings of the lyrics than what I wrote?
How would you say this album holds up against her others? Was the darker tonal shift a good thing? Would you have liked her to make a more upbeat or poppy album?
How would you rank it this among the year's albums? Were they better on average, worse, etc.?

Feel free to ask me any other questions, bring up other topics as you like and I will respond to everyone. (I just have one request though: please for the love of god do not bring up Grimes' partner or child; I think it's messy and like I said, not very relevant to the album anyway.) Any other topic, no matter how "spicy", is fair game though. Just be nice.
Hope reading this was fun! We have more AOTY posts every day for the rest of the month, so be sure to check those out too.
WE APPRECIATE POPHEADS
- vayyiqra

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