Fantasy football rb to pick up

I'm wanting to mod a Brass Henry Big Boy in 357 with the octagon barrel and barrel band I picked up a couple of days ago but I'm finding a lack of options for Henry's that have the Barrel Band. Am I just out of luck or is there someone who makes m-lok handguards for Henry's with the barrel band?

I'm trying to find a player younger than Gallagher that wasn't a high pick and ended up having a decent career with us. Lehkonen I guess exceeded expectations considering his draft position, but not exactly a star player.

Heya folks - I'm returning a few years after I was able to complete my first build with help from this community. I'm back with an upgrade question.
I started to run into display output issues. The first time this happened it was recommended I test with a new GPU. I picked up a cheap replacement from a local store to test. Turns out the one shipped to me was faulty. I got lazy and kept the test one because it worked fine enough.
Fast forward ~3 years, I'm experiencing display output issues again and suspect my GPU has died. I need another GPU to confirm my suspicions, but figured I'd upgrade this time.
I've been trying to do some research, but there seem to be an endless amount of options.
I mostly play games and watch movies. My current games are Warzone and Bioshock Infinite. I will likely get Diablo 4 at some point.
My current build
My (very basic) understanding is that core clock speed is more important to gaming. I'm looking at two cards, but have reached an impass. The cards are comparable in clock speed, but they differ in memory. The card with less memory is cheaper and some tests have it ranked higher than the more expensive card that has more memory. I'm trying to make sense of this as well as find some guidance on what would be the better buy.
Asus ROG STRIX GAMING OC Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB
Gigabyte EAGLE GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB
Apologies in advance if this is not the right place to post this. Thanks!

Hi ladies,
I am 30 M from Mumbai, working as a Financial Analyst in one of the top most international banks. I am unmarried, and have been into roleplays since past 10 years (yahoo time player). Over the years I have explored almost all the fantasies through roleplay, I usually prefer to play long term, day to day life based, slow paced roleplays. Such plays makes you feel like living in that fictional world and lets you fulfill those fantasies that you cant think of executing in real life.
So recently, I had played plots based on cuckold lifestyle, and mind you cuckolding is a vast fantasy in itself, it can be played in many ways, to list a few:

1. Loving but poor in bed husband being lovingly and consensually cucked by his sl utty wife.
2. Shy and conservative wife, who is forced/convinced to sleep with the other person as her husband has such fantasy
3. Strong and bold wife taking control over everything, and makes her husband a house sl ave
4. Emotional plot: where its a perfect couple, but still wife somehow cheats, and then regrets and then it will lead to emotional drama.
5. Kinky widowed/divorcee mother using cucking her son and using him as a Pimp
6. A married couple decides to spice up their sexual life, and visit a swinging couple and things takes a huge turn from there.

There can be many more combinations here, would love to brainstorm and explore the same.
Most importantly, I am not into real stuff like pictures, voice or anything else, but I expect equal contribution from partner in story building. I would love to explore your ideas and kinks too, as it makes a good connect between players and make the entire roleplay experience a lot more joyful.
So my kinks are - interfaith, cuckold, non consensual, romance, real life play, difficult situations, kinky plays, emotional drama, dialogue based play, para player, submission and dominance, playing cuckold couple, femdom etc
My limits - gay stuff, vomit, shit, toilet stuff and blood
Timings - I get free usually after 6 PM IST on weekdays, and on weekends we can have long sessions as per mutual availability
Feel free to ping me if you are interested in serious roleplay based relationships. Fake people please stay away.
I am 18+ and all participants and characters must be 18+

So, 2 years ago, I've taken around 150-200 dried liberty caps (small-medium size), I couldn't even aprox. how much that is in grams. I've placed myself in bed and was listening to music, was pretty anxious but I knew it would eventually pass but i was pretty scared because I never took more than 40. After 30-40 minutes, the music which was pretty chill started to annoy me and got angry and turned it off. Stood there another 10 minutes still anxious and all of a sudden, just automatically got up and I couldn't tell why but this thought came trough my mind "Something is really wrong with me". Next thing I know i go to the bathroom and puked everything out. When I came back into the bed I started shivering and I realized I was getting confused. Now looking back I was really cold even if in the room was a normal temperature. I couldn't figure out why I was shivering back them and thought my nervous system was overly stimulated and thats why I was shaking. The shaking felt like someone would pick-hammer a wall, and was quite painful. From the physical pain then I started thinking about my fked up life and the fact that I lack love and security. Then I completely forgot who I was, and I was trying to figure out who I was. I started naming myself the names of people who popped out in my head, like my boss's name, my fathers, my best friend etc. It felt like I was ME, but didnt have any details of who I was. Then I forgot where I was and got completely out of space and time, I just remember watching the window and thinking to myself that I should stay away from the window not to fall (this was a fear of mine before thinking about doing this heroic does).
I went multiple times to the bathroom, and had quite severe distortions but I knew I was tripping and it's all in my head, so I relayed on my memory rather than perceptions to navigate my home, which worked perfectly. I was expecting the visuals to get more out of this reality but they never did to such extend, I remember drinking water and seeing in the jug the water balls running weirdly into my mouth.
I was shivering really bad and it was hurting to the point of which I started praying to God, I didn't know any details of God, but I remember asking "Please help me God, this pain of this reality is too much!"Then I started ranting about the reality of this universe, how there are 2 realities colliding, "left and right" and I'm in the middle of them. "Who the fuck am I and why am I stuck here between these 2 realities, always deciding which reality to follow? Leave my alone, I don't deserve to be here, I just was to be left alone"
After going to the bathroom several times and drinking water, I started to come back to myself and started remembering. My memory would come bit by bit, but before I could remember who I was, I would remember my car, colleagues, my boss, my mother, the girl who I was talking at that time. A sadness came upon me and I felt lonely because none of these people could contain me or my suffering, and they couldn't comfort me in any way.
After that I came to myself, and felt apathetic for a few days, realizing that I'm alone in this world which somehow I was ever since I was little. No one really saw me for who I was and they never could understand what I was feeling.
​
I think I have a really different neuro-biology of my brain/nervous system. Every time I did mushrooms I took low dosages and always had this highly profound thoughts and feelings of love/sadness/purpose, and little to no visual distortions. I have great imagination and visual perception but weirdly enough my mind images are quite unclear ever since I was little.
I guess you guys might have little knowledge of this, and you guys are not scientists or doctors, but I have a few questions.
Did you guys have any memory problems on trips?My mother has functional paranoia and I fear I might have a predisposition to schizophrenia or something like that.Are you guys cold when tripping? I'm always cold, even if it's hot outside.Took once 7 mid-large lib caps and I thought of having just "Fun", but full blown emotions overwhelmed me, sadness and missing love. Am I highly sensitive?
I think something inside me, an unconscious mechanism understood the dangers of too many mushrooms and forced me to puke. I don't know what to think about this, maybe its all in my head.

I've been keeping my eyes on a game called Mistwind by First Fish Game, should be hitting Kickstarter this year
Really drawn in by the premise of a pick up and drop off game based on giant flying whales
Just wondering if anyone's had a chance to playtest or try it at any cons or just generally had any thoughts on it?

PART SIXTY-FIVE
[Previous Part] [Beginning]
Whether it was a snow half-orc thing or because Felipe was the chief and in better control of himself, his rage, as he surged to the nearest tree and tore it to pieces, then ripped it out by its massive roots and beat it all into kindling (roaring the whole time), was the extent of his outpouring. Part of me felt sorry for the tree, but better it than us.
Tarq maintained a protective stance half a step ahead of me, tensing when Felipe began punching into the frozen soil, but within a minute or two, with both hands pressed into the ground, he leaned over the top of them and stilled.
In the past, half-orcs had been known to rage for hours … sometimes days, depending on the slight. When Felipe turned to us, his eyes were red with unshed tears. “Where is he?” he asked, his voice thick and gravelly.
“With the rest of my party, having his first meal. He’s scared, Felipe. We haven’t questioned him yet, except to learn his name is Shobi, and even that’s more a play on the slave designation they gave him. Snow-Half-Orc-Eight-One … and a few other numbers.”
Felipe frowned. “They’ve got more than half-orcs,” he said without hesitation.
I nodded in agreement. “I thought as much too. Why allocate the species in the brand unless you have others that are different?”
“Are you going to tell Gimweren?”
“I’ll let her know of the possibility. More to the point, you know your people better than I do. Should we let your troops know now or hold off in the hopes that they don’t locate the slave pits? How you were able to contain your rage just then was impressive, but neither place will be a good time to lose so many snow half-orcs to a war craze.”
Felipe looked away from me, palming his braid with both hands thoughtfully. “We get angry, but we don’t do the psychotic rage like our green-skinned cousins,” he said, which coincided with what I knew of the battle-grain debacle of the past. “And we are just settling in for the night. I’ll speak to the boy first, then talk to a small group of my people. Once they have accepted the situation, I’ll have them move out to notify the others. Hopefully, most, if not all of my people, will be apprised of the situation by morning.”
“Shobi is understandably very nervous. Do you need another few minutes to clear your head properly, or are you good to go?”
His lips pinched as he thought about it, then turned to a brand new tree and punched his fist dead centre through it up to his bicep. “Okay,” he declared after extracting his arm as if he were pulling it through water. “I’m good now.”
I dismantled the opaque sound-blister I had created around us and led him back to our area, showing him where the opening in our protection dome was. He paused at the human-sized entrance he and the other half-orcs could pass through. “You’re very scary, Emeron. You know that, right?”
“Sorry?”
He flicked a finger at the opening. “I had no idea this spell could be modified like this.”
To me, it wasn’t a modification. Not like the ones I was actively avoiding to side-step a potentially cataclysmic event like blending chain lightning and fireballs to create a firestorm. This was more like having a thousand troops in front of me and ordering nine hundred to turn left and use their shield to form a testudo, leaving the other one hundred as they were. I lifted my left shoulder, uttered a dismissive sound, and went inside.
Felipe followed, losing all interest in me and my magical ability as his eyes zeroed in on the boy tucked in behind the opening where no prying eyes would see him. Shobi had his head covered by a blanket, with another wrapped around his waist, still eating whatever rations my friends had found in my pack while I’d been away talking to Felipe. What stunned me was the sight of Milo chopping up my vegetables into fine cubes with the speed and grace of a professional chef. He caught me staring at him and lifted his knife just enough to point at Shobi.
I’m not entirely sure why I thought Milo couldn’t cook. Perhaps it was because the roles in his shire were so gender defined or because he’d never offered to before. But that skill with a blade didn’t come from butchering prey, and it was a story I made a mental note to ask him for as soon as I got the opportunity.
Felipe swivelled on his heel to face the boy and then dropped to his knees, his eyes taking in the gaunt features of a man-child who’d probably never had a real meal in his life. “Do you understand me?” he asked.
The boy’s eyes were so wide it would have been comical if it wasn’t so tragic as they took in every facet of the man kneeling before him before returning to his face and nodding silently.
“Do you speak?”
Shobi swallowed heavily and nodded again.
“Do you know who your parents are?”
Instead of answering, the boy reached out one hand and gingerly touched the leather bracer of Felipe’s armour. Felipe turned his hand, allowing the boy to trace his fingers across the seams and down onto his battle-hardened palms. “You fight,” he said, looking up at Felipe’s face.
“When I have to,” Felipe agreed. “And as of now, I will fight for you.”
The boy’s eyes immediately filled with tears. “I don’ wancha t’ die.”
It was more than the boy had ever said before, and I could already hear the differences in the dialogue. Shobi’s was more like the regular half-orc.
Felipe’s lips twitched into a forced smile. “I don’t plan on doing it anytime soon either, son. But those people who did this to you?” He lifted his hand to push back the blanket covering the boy’s head, and I watched the pain that danced across his face as the short hair, then the branding as the boy leaned forward, came into view. “I will end them all for this.” His tone had dropped to something I felt belonged on the other side of the gates of hell.
Shobi started to shudder. A little at first, but then more violently as Felipe’s words sank in. “No. No!” he insisted, his small frame shaking with determination. “Run. Flee! Hide! Free!” He gripped Felipe’s forearm, desperate to convey that message.
With his free hand, Felipe reached over his shoulder and drew one of his two swords, pointing it tip down and to the side where Shobi could see it. “We are not unarmed,” he said in his most assertive voice.
If anything, the sight of the sword made Shobi even more frantic. “NO!” he insisted, rising to his feet and pulling Felipe to his. “You not win! You not! Run! Run or we die!”
“My gun says we can,” I said, using their distraction to unsheathe my light weapon and hold it towards the roof of our dome with my finger nowhere near the trigger. I watched as Shobi’s eyes went wide with recognition, which confirmed what I’d thought. The Consitors also had light weapons. “That’s right, Shobi. We have them too.”
I saw his eyes drop to my gloved wrist and knew what he was looking for. “I am not one of them,” I promised. “And this is Chief Felipe. We’re here to free everyone, and we’re not leaving until we do.” It may not have been on my original agenda, but now that I knew about it, it was damn well up near the top of my to-do list, coming in just under the evisceration of the Consitor infiltrators. “And we have the numbers to do it. What we don’t have, is what you know. You escaped, Shobi. You got out. And now you need to tell us how you did that so we can use it to our advantage.”
“Emeron,” Felipe said, so softly I almost didn’t catch it.
“Yes?”
“I want my people to see Shobi as he is, but once that is done, would you please heal him?”
I looked between him and the boy. “I’m not sure what you’re asking,” I admitted. “He’s not in great health, but he’s not …”
“Could you heal his scalp and then grow his hair so that he never has to see himself like this again?”
I breathed out slowly. “Healing the burnt tissue is something any defence mage can do, however forcing one aspect of someone to age faster than normal, which is essentially what you’re asking me to do—that I’m not so sure of. I wouldn’t want to risk accidentally aging the boy as well.”
Felipe’s nose screwed up in annoyance. “Is that a light weapon?” he asked, finally noticing my gun.
“Yes,” I nodded. “And it is connected to me and me alone. If anyone else were to try and use it, they would die.”
“Yuh, yuh!” Shobi agreed, nodding emphatically. “They scream, fly apart and poof. Gone. Bad! Very bad!”
That was something I didn’t know, and Shobi was apparently speaking from experience. “When did you see it happen?”
Shobi’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Masters drop guns. Good vermins get food. Vermins who use them…”
I sheathed my gun while Felipe’s attention was on the boy, then snapped my fingers twice for both of their attention. “Vermins?” I tried very hard to keep the censure out of my tone, but the way Shobi’s head dipped low, I hadn’t been overly successful.
I watched Shobi patting himself on the chest while his other hand squeezed Felipe’s wrist. He then pointed out Milo, Thalien, Lanna and Tarq before he stopped and stared hard at Shay-Lee since our resident half-elf looked more human except for her slightly pointed ears.
“Her too,” I growled, for again, his twisted worldview confirmed much. Vermins? I would not show these Consitor dogs any mercy at all. The extent of my mercy went to how quickly that ship of theirs was destroyed. I saw Felipe’s jaw clench and knew we were of the same mind there.
“Alright,” I said, releasing the breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding. “This is how we’re going to proceed. Felipe, you bring up to speed only those who were at that first meeting in Tetorli. I’ll come with you and erect another opaque sound blister so their various reactions won’t be seen by others. Thalien, you and Lanna go to Gimweren and speak to those she had at that same meeting. We’ll reconvene here after that, and Shobi can tell us what we need to know about getting into Jinis Ridge.”
I waited just long enough for everyone to agree to my directions, then continued, “This will be the first time we’ll have information on what’s going on inside Jinis Ridge, but Shobi is young and clearly exhausted, so we won’t be pushing him too hard for details tonight. We’ll get what we can and pick it up again in the morning, but not before you and Gimweren spread the word that we’ll be camping an extra day here.”
“We’re only a day’s ride from Cerro Nexo,” Shay Lee quickly argued. “Why not ride there with him and have this discussion with the elves too?”
Thalien hummed in agreement, and in fairness, I could see the merits of their argument. Ironically, ten years ago, I’d have done just that and to hell with what the boy had endured. “Because I’m not about to force this young man back towards the one place he’s just killed himself to escape from. He got this far all by himself, and although I plan on winning this war, there will be casualties. He will NOT be amongst them. We’ll draw all the information we can from him, and then we’ll get him the hell out of here.”
I felt Shobi’s eyes on me, and when I turned, Felipe had his hand on the boy’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “Is that what you wish? To be safe, far, far from here?” he asked. Shobi nodded so hard I thought his neck was going to snap. “Very well. I have fighters outside. Many men and women who will die to protect you. Once you’ve told us everything you can about your …err… where you were,” —like me, Felipe would rather gargle crushed glass than speak of the slave pits to Shobi— “They’ll take you far away, to our home in the south. Thousands of us are there. You’ve been so brave to come this far, and I promise you, with everything in me and our people, you’ll never be alone again.”
Tears welled in Shobi’s eyes, and without warning, he lurched forward and wrapped his arms around Felipe’s neck, burying his face against his throat. Felipe tipped backwards under the unexpected impact, but Tarq’s reflexes had him standing behind the snow half-orc chief, supporting Felipe’s back with his legs.
The second blanket fell away at the sudden movement, reminding me he was dressed only in a leather loincloth. Felipe closed his eyes and angled his head against Shobi’s, curling his arms around the younger man’s trembling body. Now and again, his hand would travel up to Shobi’s back to cup his shaved head, only to change direction before coming into contact with the brand.
I stared at Felipe’s clothing, knowing there weren’t any class distinctions between him and what his people wore, and commanded the dust dots to create an exact copy of it in Shobi’s size. Truthfully, I should’ve done this before, but better late than never. Included in that order were the boots and whatever passed for snow half-orc underwear. Yes, it would mean every nick, tear and stain in the chief’s clothes would be replicated in the smaller size, but better that than botching something more fundamental.
The dust dots whirled, creating something from nothing until they had everything piled neatly on my outstretched hand. Except for the boots on top, the dots had even gone to the trouble of putting it in the order that it would be donned.
Poor Shobi had never worn clothes, and as soon as Felipe pulled each piece into place, the boy tugged and picked at the hems and seams. He was delighted to be rid of the loincloth, though. That he threw straight into the fire.
I tried very hard not to react to something like that and our food being within the same proximity. At least it had been cleaned, thanks to Lanna; otherwise, we’d probably all be gagging on the stench that would quickly follow.
The boots were the most challenging thing for him to adapt to. His ankles rolled with each step, and sheer pride kept him upright. “They pinch my toes,” he complained to Felipe, his new hero.
“Your toes have spread from not wearing shoes. Even now, look,” the big man explained, putting his booted foot down beside Shobi’s. “Yours are wider in the toe than mine because those boots were made specifically for you. They fit fine.”
Shobi squinted, realising his were at least an inch wider, despite the rest of the boot being two-thirds of Felipe’s. Shobi’s feet were more like that of a regular half-orc, probably for the same reason.
When Felipe and I went to leave to speak to the other snow half-orcs, Shobi clung to Felipe’s hand and all but wrapped himself around the chief’s arm. Nothing either of us said could convince him to let go.
“My people will not be happy to learn you have been treated like an animal,” Felipe tried to explain for the hundredth time. “I don’t want them to frighten you when they start throwing things to vent their anger.”
“You be here?” Shobi asked, somehow interlocking their fingers even as he pointed to where Chief Felipe stood.
“Of course.”
“I hide behind you.”
Felipe snorted, and I had to smirk as well. That wasn’t precisely what Felipe had meant, but it seemed Shobi had chosen himself a champion. “Nothing untoward will ever touch you again as long as I breathe, boy. Count on that.”
Shobi pressed his forehead into Felipe’s upper bicep, and Felipe’s jaw tensed as our eyes met, both of us silently wishing we could purge all that had happened to the youngster. It didn’t take a genius to realise it would take magic and a crowbar to separate them, either.
“Okay,” I said, coming up with a new plan on the fly. I hid my hand inside my jacket and had the dust dots craft me a quilted coif in Shobi’s size, having it appear in my hidden hand. From there, I went over to the boy and slid it over his head to hide his brand, and when his head lifted to see what I was doing, I tied the strings under his chin. “Leave that on,” I said as he went to touch the fabric. My eyes then went to Felipe. “Once those at this meeting have seen the brand, Thalien and Milo will remove the boy and repair his scalp. Time will grow his hair out, but at least he won’t have that brand beyond tonight.”
I put my hand on Shobi’s cheek and guided his face to look at me. “Have you ever seen a half-orc in a rage? When they get really, really mad?” I didn’t care how much he clung to Felipe. If this were all too new for him and the sight of his own people raging frightened him, I’d have Harmony put the boy to sleep for a few minutes while we were away.
Shobi nodded. “Sportsday.”
I really didn’t want to know what he meant by that. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay here with Harmony and Liab?”
Shobi looked past me to where Harmony and her familiar sat, watching. I took the tightening grip on Felipe’s arm to mean ‘No’.
“Alright then,” I said, waving them both towards the opening. “Let’s do this.”
The snow half-orcs reacted as well as I expected, but an hour later, I had fifteen of one race and sixteen of the other sitting inside our dome. The line of myself and my friends with our backs to our fire was no different to that night in Tetorli, though this time, Felipe sat directly across from me instead of on my right. Shobi sat on his feet, his shins flush to the ground and his weight leaning sideways against Felipe. More interestingly, Felipe had draped his braid across Shobi’s shoulders with the weighted end pooled possessively in the boy’s lap. The way Shobi’s other hand caressed the braid and smiled shyly at those around him, he was nervous, but Felipe’s presence made him feel safe.
I couldn’t help but look to my left where Tarq stood, knowing that feeling very well.
“Let us see it,” Gimweren commanded, flicking her finger at the youngster.
“Do not bark orders at him, Overseer,” Felipe warned. “It is only through his bravery that you are now aware that they could very well have the young of your kind in there as slaves too.”
“They do,” Shobi answered, looking up at his hero. “They have all vermins.”
Gimweren met Felipe’s eyes, but then she drew in a deep breath and held it for several seconds before dipping her head in a silent nod. I noticed several of the warriors on both sides had dragged their hands through the frozen ground to control their tempers, partially due to the boy’s presence but also because they were under my roof, which was where they wanted to stay. “Alright, lad. When you’re ready, please take off the coif and twist around so we can see what those animals did to you.”
Even though I’d seen it before, looking at the seared flesh and burnt bone, my stomach roiled, and no less than three dwarves rose to their feet. “Boy,” they all shouted at once. If it weren’t for the concern in their eyes, I would’ve ordered them back to their seats.
“Shobi,” Felipe corrected.
“Shobi,” the dwarf closest to me repeated while the other two retook their seats in deference to him. “Would you allow me to fix that for you right now? I’m Overseer Gimweren’s personal defence mage. Do you know what that is?”
Shobi leaned harder against Felipe and shook his head.
“Among other things, I’m a magical healer, and I’m begging you to let me take that scar away. Please?”
Shobi looked at me, and when I rolled my hand to give him the choice, he looked up at Felipe. “They won’t hurt you, son,” he promised.
The son part was new.
“I’m assuming no one needs to see it again?” the male defence mage ran his eye along both sides, almost daring anyone to argue with him. Unsurprisingly, no one did. The dwarf then moved to stand directly in front of Shobi and knelt in front of him.
We all waited while the defence mage completed the sequence that would make the dust dots repair the physical damage. It only took a minute. “There,” he said with a smile, reaching forward to touch the back of Shobi’s head. I couldn’t see Shobi’s reaction since the dwarf stood between us, but I could picture it, especially when the defence mage continued on. “The snow half-orcs have always looked after their own, but you have my vow now to add to that. Anyone who comes at you must go through me first.”
“AYE!” “Hear, hear!” the line of dwarves cried in unison. Even Gimweren added her shout to the cry.
I looked back at my friends and saw Harmony and Lanna clasping their hands to their chests, both fighting the tears that banked in their eyes, and I could appreciate the sentiment. The boy had won the respect and loyalty of not one army but two.
For the next hour, Shobi told us in his limited dialect about his life in the slave pits of Jinis Ridge. Many of his explanations required physical prompting when words failed him, but no one spoke to contradict or interrupt him. If he was to be believed, he wasn’t a captured prisoner turned slave like I thought. He’d been born in the pits from parents who’d been brought together for the specific purpose of breeding.
And as I listened to his tale, I thought about our own slave trade and realised his story probably wasn’t that different to so many others. The palace didn’t have slaves; only a few of the capital’s population kept them, but they weren’t outlawed.
In fact, people in certain provinces made good coin peddling in flesh. I myself had parted with a significant sum of money to buy Harmony’s freedom when she’d been taken, and I hadn’t thought to ask myself why I had even allowed it to happen in the first place. The slaves were former citizens whose citizenship was stripped from them by others who were only citizens themselves. A collar and a brand were all that separated an imperial citizen and a slave, and we had allowed that to happen.
No … I had allowed that to happen.
It was a startling wake-up call to realise the only difference between the two types of slavers was their place of origin. That if the Consitors were Imperials, we wouldn’t be so up in arms about them enslaving people.
I glanced at where Felipe sat protectively at Shobi’s side and knew I had to amend that. The snow half-orcs were the exception. No one had ever taken a snow half-orc as a slave before that I knew of.
I felt a hand on each of my shoulders and knew without looking that one belonged to Harmony and the other to Milo. Tarq always knew what I was thinking, but those two had the uncanny knack of knowing instinctively what I was feeling, and right then, it wasn’t good. I hadn’t protected all of my people—only some of them.
When this was all over, I knew I’d be discussing this at length with Roald, and I wouldn’t stop until he agreed to make a proclamation outlawing slavery within our borders. Some livelihoods would suffer, but on the whole, we didn’t need slaves. They were simply convenient. Buying someone outright instead of paying a daily wage was easier.
Depending on how wound up I got, I might even push for a total ban on slaves within the empire, including any overseas visitors.
Leave them home, or watch them be taken from you and freed.
I liked the sound of that.
Perhaps I was getting too emotionally invested, but what was the point of being the Emperor’s Shadow if I couldn’t do what should’ve already been done to safeguard not just the majority of my people but each and every imperial citizen? Slaves, before they were enslaved, would have paid their taxes too, which should have given them certain protections, and I had seriously fallen down on the job there.
Not anymore.
* * * ((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗 )) For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here. FULL INDEX OF WE PLAN, GODS LAUGH TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

Cpl Cooper's eyes opened, very, very slowly. Faint sounds of M-16's chattered softly in his ears as his platoon returned fire against the late afternoon N.V.A ambush. His face hurt, no doubt due to the impact of Private Henley's skull into his own. Private Henley lay silently over Cooper, or at least what was left of him did. Henley was missing his right arm and most of his face was now a charred mangle of flesh. His U.S. Marines fatigues were now black and smoldering were they hadn't just disappeared after the grenade went off and knocked both the men back. Cpl Cooper pushed the larger man off of him, requiring more strength than he thought he'd need. He eyed his former brother in arms for a moment, the usual feelings of terror and disgust threatening to overwhelm, as friends met their end in the jungle around him. A familiar voice could be heard now yelling something, drawing Cooper's attention. Lt. Murdock was pointing at him for some reason, before turning and barking orders in between bursts of his rifle.
Strong arms grasped Cooper and yanked him to his feet. He steadied himself and attempted to clear his mind. Another familiar face stared back at him, looking suspiciously like Private Harris motioning for him to duck. Dirt and blood speckled his dark skin as he rapped his knuckles against Cooper's helmet and shouted, "YOU GOOD DOC?"
Cooper immediately ducked and then nodded his head, unsure if he was answering truthfully.
Private Harris unslung an M-16 and pressed into Cooper's hands and shouted, "YOU DROPPED THIS!"
"THANKS!", Cooper yelled as he gripped his weapon and quickly checked to see its functionality. No sooner than he had done so, Harris's eyes went wide and began yelling, "CHARLIE! 6 O'CLO.." before two rounds pierced his throat and forehead and dropped him. Cooper pointed and fired blindly. Emotion flowed from him through every round he dispensed. He emptied his entire magazine into the forest behind the main group of soldiers and repeated Harris's announcement.
"6 O'CLOCK, 6 O'CLOCK!!"
Cooper ripped the grenade off his belt, put the pin in his teeth and pulled it out with great satisfaction. He cooked the grenade for a second before tossing it out with a hearty "FUCK YOU!" Cries of surprise and screams of pain followed the explosion. Cooper ejected his magazine and replaced it as the sound of dozens of Viet Cong infantry screamed towards him. Sgt. Phillip's massive bulk stepped into view with a scream of his own. Phillips leveled his flamethrower and began dousing the forest with flame. Cooper had learned to admire the big man, as this hadn't been the first time he'd stepped in to save him. The terrible acrid stench of fuel, fire and burning flesh assaulted his senses. Body after body fell in flames. Phillips had his typical wide eyed, maniacal grin he usually had when he was killing. Cooper started firing alongside him. Five more Marines stepped in beside them and unleashed hell at the enemy. The ambushes had been coming now for days, whittling down Cooper's platoon and exhausting everyone who survived. He was tired, he had seen far too many friends die, and he just wanted to go home. Incoming fire eventually stopped coming from the platoon's rear now, and the fireteam began fanning out to clear the area.
Cooper quickly sprinted towards Lt. Murdock who was now yelling coordinates into a radio. Two Marines lay next to him, one convulsing and one lying still. Cooper slid down next to the convulsing one and checked him for extra holes, for which he had one in his gut. He pulled out a shot of morphine and dosed the man, which slowed his shaking. Checking the wound, he saw what was clearly a large amount of blood loss and began putting pressure on the wound with his right hand.
"Shit, Shit, Shit, come on man don't fucking die!"
With his left hand he checked the soldier's pulse, finding it extremely weak and thready. The man's eyes rolled up towards his eyebrows and his breaths began to slow. Not again, Cooper thought. Too many. He'd seen too many friends die, he couldn't watch another one. He buried his head into the man's chest and began to sob as he felt the rise and fall of his chest quickly begin to cease. Cooper grasped the agate stone that hung on a necklace alongside his dogtags, and cursed the mystic shop owner who had sold it to him. The guys in his troop had laughed at him when he bought it back in Saigon, telling him that no magic stone would protect him when he was out in the shit. He hadn't cared, thinking that any superstition that gave you hope, was as good as another.
He ripped the stone off and placed it over the man's chest as he began compressions. After two intervals he checked the pulse. Nothing. He was gone. Emotion filled Cooper. He couldn't tell what he felt, but he was sure it wasn't sadness. This was more like determination. He funneled all of his thought and consciousness into the ball that was his fist and slammed it into the chest of the corpse. Nothing. Cooper hit him again. And again. Rage pouring out of him with each strike. Rage for this God forsaken jungle. Rage for this God forsaken war. Rage for his failure.
The still body twitched. Cooper nearly fell back in amazement. Fingers straightened out and eyelids burst opened wide. The man sat up impossibly fast with a pale, surprised look on his face and drew in a deep, loud breath. Cooper nearly pissed himself. The once dead soldier looked around in bewilderment and pulled up his shirt to expose his bullet entry wound. Blood still pooled around him, but the wound had apparently already clotted. In fact, color even began returning to the man's face.
"Uhhh Doc?...." the bewildered man asked.
"What's your name soldier?" Cooper asked.
"Private Ortiz."
"Well Ortiz, it seems you just had an out of body experience."
Ortiz gave a half-hearted chuckle, "No Shit?"
The sounds of battle had begun to fade to the outskirts of the valley that the ambush had been launched. Laughs and cheers could be heard as Murdock called out to his men that air-support was coming and the N.V.A. was falling back.
Cooper stared incredulously at the necklace in his hand for a moment. Could the knick knack have done it? Ortiz broke his concentration by asking,
"Doc, are you religous?"
Cooper didn't know what to believe in this moment. He shook his head.
"No, Agnostic apparently."
Ortiz stared uncomfortably into Cooper's eyes, grabbed him by collar and said,
"I fucking met him Doc. The guy who takes you to hell. He was all teeth, and fucking eyes all over him. And he smiled.... That fucking smile. I can't unsee it!" Ortiz rubbed his face, "He says your name and tells you he's been waiting." A tear rolled down Ortiz's face. "Then, I felt a pounding on my chest and suddenly I see you."
Cooper knew that some people claim to have seen things when they come back from Cardiac arrest. He remembered his trainer telling him an anecdote of something similar during medic school.
"Well you're back with us now Ortiz. Try not to move too much, I gave you morphine so you'll have trouble walking."
Lt. Murdock approached the two men and said in his customary confident manner,
"Cooper, Ortiz, glad to see you're still with us. Let's get everyone mobile in ten, we're heading home."
Back in Saigon, Cooper and Ortiz stood facing a small shop, nestled comfortably within a busy market near the outskirts of town. Ortiz had a puzzled look on his face.
"You got it here?"
Cooper half shrugged,
"Told you, nothing special."
Cooper led Ortiz into the shop. Shop was a generous name, as it was little more than the a hovel that was converted into a shop during the day. A Vietnamese man, small in stature but beaming with pride, stood in the middle of the store and graciously invited the men inside. He spoke very limited English so conversation was, interesting. Cooper held out his necklace to the shorter man.
"You sold me this, remember?"
The shop owner stared for a moment at the necklace before he shook his head.
"No refund."
Cooper shook his own head in response,
"No no, I don't want a refund. I want to thank you!"
The shopowner looked perplexed. Cooper spread out his arms and motioned for a hug. The shopowner took a careful step back. Ortiz laughed and held out his hand toward Cooper.
"Doc, I don't think he's a hugger."
Ortiz pointed at the necklace and slowly asked the shopowner,
"Do you have more of these?"
The shopowner smiled and motioned them towards a small bamboo box full of the things. The two soldiers stood in awe.
"Bring good fortune." The shopowner spoke the words in a practiced fashion. "Ten Cent."
Cooper scoffed. "You charged me a quarter last time."
The shopowner switched to his native tongue and spoke in a much louder fashion now. It was clear whatever the smaller man thought he had heard was insulting. Cooper put his hands up.
"Ok, OK, fine."
Ortiz reached into his pocket and pulled out a dime, then presented it for payment. The shopkeeper picked up the coin and stuffed it into a pocket. Then he held up one finger, indicating how many they were welcomed to. The two soldiers selected one and left.
Tran Văn Ngo stood in his shop, his usual beaming pride awash on his face. Liem, his wife, tapped him on the shoulder after the two soldiers had been clearly seen rounding the corner out of their market.
"What the fuck was their deal?" She asked her husband.
"Fuck if I know?" He gestured at the recycled treasures that had been salvaged off dead soldiers. "They crowed about how much they liked that useless crap we got." Liem giggled. "Fucking seriously?" Tran giggled himself. "Fucking seriously."

PART SIXTY-FIVE
[Previous Part] [Beginning]
Whether it was a snow half-orc thing or because Felipe was the chief and in better control of himself, his rage, as he surged to the nearest tree and tore it to pieces, then ripped it out by its massive roots and beat it all into kindling (roaring the whole time), was the extent of his outpouring. Part of me felt sorry for the tree, but better it than us.
Tarq maintained a protective stance half a step ahead of me, tensing when Felipe began punching into the frozen soil, but within a minute or two, with both hands pressed into the ground, he leaned over the top of them and stilled.
In the past, half-orcs had been known to rage for hours … sometimes days, depending on the slight. When Felipe turned to us, his eyes were red with unshed tears. “Where is he?” he asked, his voice thick and gravelly.
“With the rest of my party, having his first meal. He’s scared, Felipe. We haven’t questioned him yet, except to learn his name is Shobi, and even that’s more a play on the slave designation they gave him. Snow-Half-Orc-Eight-One … and a few other numbers.”
Felipe frowned. “They’ve got more than half-orcs,” he said without hesitation.
I nodded in agreement. “I thought as much too. Why allocate the species in the brand unless you have others that are different?”
“Are you going to tell Gimweren?”
“I’ll let her know of the possibility. More to the point, you know your people better than I do. Should we let your troops know now or hold off in the hopes that they don’t locate the slave pits? How you were able to contain your rage just then was impressive, but neither place will be a good time to lose so many snow half-orcs to a war craze.”
Felipe looked away from me, palming his braid with both hands thoughtfully. “We get angry, but we don’t do the psychotic rage like our green-skinned cousins,” he said, which coincided with what I knew of the battle-grain debacle of the past. “And we are just settling in for the night. I’ll speak to the boy first, then talk to a small group of my people. Once they have accepted the situation, I’ll have them move out to notify the others. Hopefully, most, if not all of my people, will be apprised of the situation by morning.”
“Shobi is understandably very nervous. Do you need another few minutes to clear your head properly, or are you good to go?”
His lips pinched as he thought about it, then turned to a brand new tree and punched his fist dead centre through it up to his bicep. “Okay,” he declared after extracting his arm as if he were pulling it through water. “I’m good now.”
I dismantled the opaque sound-blister I had created around us and led him back to our area, showing him where the opening in our protection dome was. He paused at the human-sized entrance he and the other half-orcs could pass through. “You’re very scary, Emeron. You know that, right?”
“Sorry?”
He flicked a finger at the opening. “I had no idea this spell could be modified like this.”
To me, it wasn’t a modification. Not like the ones I was actively avoiding to side-step a potentially cataclysmic event like blending chain lightning and fireballs to create a firestorm. This was more like having a thousand troops in front of me and ordering nine hundred to turn left and use their shield to form a testudo, leaving the other one hundred as they were. I lifted my left shoulder, uttered a dismissive sound, and went inside.
Felipe followed, losing all interest in me and my magical ability as his eyes zeroed in on the boy tucked in behind the opening where no prying eyes would see him. Shobi had his head covered by a blanket, with another wrapped around his waist, still eating whatever rations my friends had found in my pack while I’d been away talking to Felipe. What stunned me was the sight of Milo chopping up my vegetables into fine cubes with the speed and grace of a professional chef. He caught me staring at him and lifted his knife just enough to point at Shobi.
I’m not entirely sure why I thought Milo couldn’t cook. Perhaps it was because the roles in his shire were so gender defined or because he’d never offered to before. But that skill with a blade didn’t come from butchering prey, and it was a story I made a mental note to ask him for as soon as I got the opportunity.
Felipe swivelled on his heel to face the boy and then dropped to his knees, his eyes taking in the gaunt features of a man-child who’d probably never had a real meal in his life. “Do you understand me?” he asked.
The boy’s eyes were so wide it would have been comical if it wasn’t so tragic as they took in every facet of the man kneeling before him before returning to his face and nodding silently.
“Do you speak?”
Shobi swallowed heavily and nodded again.
“Do you know who your parents are?”
Instead of answering, the boy reached out one hand and gingerly touched the leather bracer of Felipe’s armour. Felipe turned his hand, allowing the boy to trace his fingers across the seams and down onto his battle-hardened palms. “You fight,” he said, looking up at Felipe’s face.
“When I have to,” Felipe agreed. “And as of now, I will fight for you.”
The boy’s eyes immediately filled with tears. “I don’ wancha t’ die.”
It was more than the boy had ever said before, and I could already hear the differences in the dialogue. Shobi’s was more like the regular half-orc.
Felipe’s lips twitched into a forced smile. “I don’t plan on doing it anytime soon either, son. But those people who did this to you?” He lifted his hand to push back the blanket covering the boy’s head, and I watched the pain that danced across his face as the short hair, then the branding as the boy leaned forward, came into view. “I will end them all for this.” His tone had dropped to something I felt belonged on the other side of the gates of hell.
Shobi started to shudder. A little at first, but then more violently as Felipe’s words sank in. “No. No!” he insisted, his small frame shaking with determination. “Run. Flee! Hide! Free!” He gripped Felipe’s forearm, desperate to convey that message.
With his free hand, Felipe reached over his shoulder and drew one of his two swords, pointing it tip down and to the side where Shobi could see it. “We are not unarmed,” he said in his most assertive voice.
If anything, the sight of the sword made Shobi even more frantic. “NO!” he insisted, rising to his feet and pulling Felipe to his. “You not win! You not! Run! Run or we die!”
“My gun says we can,” I said, using their distraction to unsheathe my light weapon and hold it towards the roof of our dome with my finger nowhere near the trigger. I watched as Shobi’s eyes went wide with recognition, which confirmed what I’d thought. The Consitors also had light weapons. “That’s right, Shobi. We have them too.”
I saw his eyes drop to my gloved wrist and knew what he was looking for. “I am not one of them,” I promised. “And this is Chief Felipe. We’re here to free everyone, and we’re not leaving until we do.” It may not have been on my original agenda, but now that I knew about it, it was damn well up near the top of my to-do list, coming in just under the evisceration of the Consitor infiltrators. “And we have the numbers to do it. What we don’t have, is what you know. You escaped, Shobi. You got out. And now you need to tell us how you did that so we can use it to our advantage.”
“Emeron,” Felipe said, so softly I almost didn’t catch it.
“Yes?”
“I want my people to see Shobi as he is, but once that is done, would you please heal him?”
I looked between him and the boy. “I’m not sure what you’re asking,” I admitted. “He’s not in great health, but he’s not …”
“Could you heal his scalp and then grow his hair so that he never has to see himself like this again?”
I breathed out slowly. “Healing the burnt tissue is something any defence mage can do, however forcing one aspect of someone to age faster than normal, which is essentially what you’re asking me to do—that I’m not so sure of. I wouldn’t want to risk accidentally aging the boy as well.”
Felipe’s nose screwed up in annoyance. “Is that a light weapon?” he asked, finally noticing my gun.
“Yes,” I nodded. “And it is connected to me and me alone. If anyone else were to try and use it, they would die.”
“Yuh, yuh!” Shobi agreed, nodding emphatically. “They scream, fly apart and poof. Gone. Bad! Very bad!”
That was something I didn’t know, and Shobi was apparently speaking from experience. “When did you see it happen?”
Shobi’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Masters drop guns. Good Vermins get food. Vermins who use them…”
I sheathed my gun while Felipe’s attention was on the boy, then snapped my fingers twice for both of their attention. “Vermins?” I tried very hard to keep the censure out of my tone, but the way Shobi’s head dipped low, I hadn’t been overly successful.
I watched Shobi patting himself on the chest while his other hand squeezed Felipe’s wrist. He then pointed out Milo, Thalien, Lanna and Tarq before he stopped and stared hard at Shay-Lee since our resident half-elf looked more human except for her slightly pointed ears.
“Her too,” I growled, for again, his twisted worldview confirmed much. Vermins? I would not show these Consitor dogs any mercy at all. The extent of my mercy went to how quickly that ship of theirs was destroyed. I saw Felipe’s jaw clench and knew we were of the same mind there.
“Alright,” I said, releasing the breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding. “This is how we’re going to proceed. Felipe, you bring up to speed only those who were at that first meeting in Tetorli. I’ll come with you and erect another opaque sound blister so their various reactions won’t be seen by others. Thalien, you and Lanna go to Gimweren and speak to those she had at that same meeting. We’ll reconvene here after that, and Shobi can tell us what we need to know about getting into Jinis Ridge.”
I waited just long enough for everyone to agree to my directions, then continued, “This will be the first time we’ll have information on what’s going on inside Jinis Ridge, but Shobi is young and clearly exhausted, so we won’t be pushing him too hard for details tonight. We’ll get what we can and pick it up again in the morning, but not before you and Gimweren spread the word that we’ll be camping an extra day here.”
“We’re only a day’s ride from Cerro Nexo,” Shay Lee quickly argued. “Why not ride there with him and have this discussion with the elves too?”
Thalien hummed in agreement, and in fairness, I could see the merits of their argument. Ironically, ten years ago, I’d have done just that and to hell with what the boy had endured. “Because I’m not about to force this young man back towards the one place he’s just killed himself to escape from. He got this far all by himself, and although I plan on winning this war, there will be casualties. He will NOT be amongst them. We’ll draw all the information we can from him, and then we’ll get him the hell out of here.”
I felt Shobi’s eyes on me, and when I turned, Felipe had his hand on the boy’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “Is that what you wish? To be safe, far, far from here?” he asked. Shobi nodded so hard I thought his neck was going to snap. “Very well. I have fighters outside. Many men and women who will die to protect you. Once you’ve told us everything you can about your …err… where you were,” —like me, Felipe would rather gargle crushed glass than speak of the slave pits to Shobi— “They’ll take you far away, to our home in the south. Thousands of us are there. You’ve been so brave to come this far, and I promise you, with everything in me and our people, you’ll never be alone again.”
Tears welled in Shobi’s eyes, and without warning, he lurched forward and wrapped his arms around Felipe’s neck, burying his face against his throat. Felipe tipped backwards under the unexpected impact, but Tarq’s reflexes had him standing behind the snow half-orc chief, supporting Felipe’s back with his legs.
The second blanket fell away at the sudden movement, reminding me he was dressed only in a leather loincloth. Felipe closed his eyes and angled his head against Shobi’s, curling his arms around the younger man’s trembling body. Now and again, his hand would travel up to Shobi’s back to cup his shaved head, only to change direction before coming into contact with the brand.
I stared at Felipe’s clothing, knowing there weren’t any class distinctions between him and what his people wore, and commanded the dust dots to create an exact copy of it in Shobi’s size. Truthfully, I should’ve done this before, but better late than never. Included in that order were the boots and whatever passed for snow half-orc underwear. Yes, it would mean every nick, tear and stain in the chief’s clothes would be replicated in the smaller size, but better that than botching something more fundamental.
The dust dots whirled, creating something from nothing until they had everything piled neatly on my outstretched hand. Except for the boots on top, the dots had even gone to the trouble of putting it in the order that it would be donned.
Poor Shobi had never worn clothes, and as soon as Felipe pulled each piece into place, the boy tugged and picked at the hems and seams. He was delighted to be rid of the loincloth, though. That he threw straight into the fire.
I tried very hard not to react to something like that and our food being within the same proximity. At least it had been cleaned, thanks to Lanna; otherwise, we’d probably all be gagging on the stench that would quickly follow.
The boots were the most challenging thing for him to adapt to. His ankles rolled with each step, and sheer pride kept him upright. “They pinch my toes,” he complained to Felipe, his new hero.
“Your toes have spread from not wearing shoes. Even now, look,” the big man explained, putting his booted foot down beside Shobi’s. “Yours are wider in the toe than mine because those boots were made specifically for you. They fit fine.”
Shobi squinted, realising his were at least an inch wider, despite the rest of the boot being two-thirds of Felipe’s. Shobi’s feet were more like that of a regular half-orc, probably for the same reason.
When Felipe and I went to leave to speak to the other snow half-orcs, Shobi clung to Felipe’s hand and all but wrapped himself around the chief’s arm. Nothing either of us said could convince him to let go.
“My people will not be happy to learn you have been treated like an animal,” Felipe tried to explain for the hundredth time. “I don’t want them to frighten you when they start throwing things to vent their anger.”
“You be here?” Shobi asked, somehow interlocking their fingers even as he pointed to where Chief Felipe stood.
“Of course.”
“I hide behind you.”
Felipe snorted, and I had to smirk as well. That wasn’t precisely what Felipe had meant, but it seemed Shobi had chosen himself a champion. “Nothing untoward will ever touch you again as long as I breathe, boy. Count on that.”
Shobi pressed his forehead into Felipe’s upper bicep, and Felipe’s jaw tensed as our eyes met, both of us silently wishing we could purge all that had happened to the youngster. It didn’t take a genius to realise it would take magic and a crowbar to separate them, either.
“Okay,” I said, coming up with a new plan on the fly. I hid my hand inside my jacket and had the dust dots craft me a quilted coif in Shobi’s size, having it appear in my hidden hand. From there, I went over to the boy and slid it over his head to hide his brand, and when his head lifted to see what I was doing, I tied the strings under his chin. “Leave that on,” I said as he went to touch the fabric. My eyes then went to Felipe. “Once those at this meeting have seen the brand, Thalien and Milo will remove the boy and repair his scalp. Time will grow his hair out, but at least he won’t have that brand beyond tonight.”
I put my hand on Shobi’s cheek and guided his face to look at me. “Have you ever seen a half-orc in a rage? When they get really, really mad?” I didn’t care how much he clung to Felipe. If this were all too new for him and the sight of his own people raging frightened him, I’d have Harmony put the boy to sleep for a few minutes while we were away.
Shobi nodded. “Sportsday.”
I really didn’t want to know what he meant by that. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay here with Harmony and Liab?”
Shobi looked past me to where Harmony and her familiar sat, watching. I took the tightening grip on Felipe’s arm to mean ‘No’.
“Alright then,” I said, waving them both towards the opening. “Let’s do this.”
The snow half-orcs reacted as well as I expected, but an hour later, I had fifteen of one race and sixteen of the other sitting inside our dome. The line of myself and my friends with our backs to our fire was no different to that night in Tetorli, though this time, Felipe sat directly across from me instead of on my right. Shobi sat on his feet, his shins flush to the ground and his weight leaning sideways against Felipe. More interestingly, Felipe had draped his braid across Shobi’s shoulders with the weighted end pooled possessively in the boy’s lap. The way Shobi’s other hand caressed the braid and smiled shyly at those around him, he was nervous, but Felipe’s presence made him feel safe.
I couldn’t help but look to my left where Tarq stood, knowing that feeling very well.
“Let us see it,” Gimweren commanded, flicking her finger at the youngster.
“Do not bark orders at him, Overseer,” Felipe warned. “It is only through his bravery that you are now aware that they could very well have the young of your kind in there as slaves too.”
“They do,” Shobi answered, looking up at his hero. “They have all vermins.”
Gimweren met Felipe’s eyes, but then she drew in a deep breath and held it for several seconds before dipping her head in a silent nod. I noticed several of the warriors on both sides had dragged their hands through the frozen ground to control their tempers, partially due to the boy’s presence but also because they were under my roof, which was where they wanted to stay. “Alright, lad. When you’re ready, please take off the coif and twist around so we can see what those animals did to you.”
Even though I’d seen it before, looking at the seared flesh and burnt bone, my stomach roiled, and no less than three dwarves rose to their feet. “Boy,” they all shouted at once. If it weren’t for the concern in their eyes, I would’ve ordered them back to their seats.
“Shobi,” Felipe corrected.
“Shobi,” the dwarf closest to me repeated while the other two retook their seats in deference to him. “Would you allow me to fix that for you right now? I’m Overseer Gimweren’s personal defence mage. Do you know what that is?”
Shobi leaned harder against Felipe and shook his head.
“Among other things, I’m a magical healer, and I’m begging you to let me take that scar away. Please?”
Shobi looked at me, and when I rolled my hand to give him the choice, he looked up at Felipe. “They won’t hurt you, son,” he promised.
The son part was new.
“I’m assuming no one needs to see it again?” the male defence mage ran his eye along both sides, almost daring anyone to argue with him. Unsurprisingly, no one did. The dwarf then moved to stand directly in front of Shobi and knelt in front of him.
We all waited while the defence mage completed the sequence that would make the dust dots repair the physical damage. It only took a minute. “There,” he said with a smile, reaching forward to touch the back of Shobi’s head. I couldn’t see Shobi’s reaction since the dwarf stood between us, but I could picture it, especially when the defence mage continued on. “The snow half-orcs have always looked after their own, but you have my vow now to add to that. Anyone who comes at you must go through me first.”
“AYE!” “Hear, hear!” the line of dwarves cried in unison. Even Gimweren added her shout to the cry.
I looked back at my friends and saw Harmony and Lanna clasping their hands to their chests, both fighting the tears that banked in their eyes, and I could appreciate the sentiment. The boy had won the respect and loyalty of not one army but two.
For the next hour, Shobi told us in his limited dialect about his life in the slave pits of Jinis Ridge. Many of his explanations required physical prompting when words failed him, but no one spoke to contradict or interrupt him. If he was to be believed, he wasn’t a captured prisoner turned slave like I thought. He’d been born in the pits from parents who’d been brought together for the specific purpose of breeding.
And as I listened to his tale, I thought about our own slave trade and realised his story probably wasn’t that different to so many others. The palace didn’t have slaves; only a few of the capital’s population kept them, but they weren’t outlawed.
In fact, people in certain provinces made good coin peddling in flesh. I myself had parted with a significant sum of money to buy Harmony’s freedom when she’d been taken, and I hadn’t thought to ask myself why I had even allowed it to happen in the first place. The slaves were former citizens whose citizenship was stripped from them by others who were only citizens themselves. A collar and a brand were all that separated an imperial citizen and a slave, and we had allowed that to happen.
No … I had allowed that to happen.
It was a startling wake-up call to realise the only difference between the two types of slavers was their place of origin. That if the Consitors were Imperials, we wouldn’t be so up in arms about them enslaving people.
I glanced at where Felipe sat protectively at Shobi’s side and knew I had to amend that. The snow half-orcs were the exception. No one had ever taken a snow half-orc as a slave before that I knew of.
I felt a hand on each of my shoulders and knew without looking that one belonged to Harmony and the other to Milo. Tarq always knew what I was thinking, but those two had the uncanny knack of knowing instinctively what I was feeling, and right then, it wasn’t good. I hadn’t protected all of my people—only some of them.
When this was all over, I knew I’d be discussing this at length with Roald, and I wouldn’t stop until he agreed to make a proclamation outlawing slavery within our borders. Some livelihoods would suffer, but on the whole, we didn’t need slaves. They were simply convenient. Buying someone outright instead of paying a daily wage was easier.
Depending on how wound up I got, I might even push for a total ban on slaves within the empire, including any overseas visitors.
Leave them home, or watch them be taken from you and freed.
I liked the sound of that.
Perhaps I was getting too emotionally invested, but what was the point of being the Emperor’s Shadow if I couldn’t do what should’ve already been done to safeguard not just the majority of my people but each and every imperial citizen? Slaves, before they were enslaved, would have paid their taxes too, which should have given them certain protections, and I had seriously fallen down on the job there.
Not anymore.
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((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗 ))
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF WE PLAN, GODS LAUGH TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

First off, there's some subjective stuff on this post, It's basically full of my opinions, but bear with me.
Over the years, system memory and video memory sizes have been getting closer to each other. Especially for the average user who only games on their computers.
Here's my history of PC building, unless defined ratio is for ideal ratio:

• 10:1 ratio - Pentium 133mhz with 40MB edoram and 4MB PCI S3 Virge DX
  
• 16:1 (I don't know the ideal of that time) ratio - Pentium II 266mhz with 64MB sdram and same videocard
  
• 8:1 ratio - Pentium III 500mhz with 256MB sdram and 32MB PCI Nvidia (Had to upgrade for GTA3)
  
• 8:1 (ideal) / ratio 2:1 (mine) - Years later upgraded that same PC to 512MB sdram and 256MB AGP radeon because Need for Speed. I still wrote 8:1 ratio because at the time my setup was outdated and all my friends had P4 cpu's with 2GB ddr ram.
  
• 8:1 ratio - Pentium D 2.8ghz with 2GB DDR2 and 256MB Radeon X700 laptop.
  
• 8:1 ratio - Core2Duo 3.0ghz with 4GB DDR2 and 512MB Radeon HD4830.
  
• 8:1 ratio - i5-3550 with 8GB DDR3 and 1GB Radeon HD6870.
  

From here on out, it gets increasingly more worrying. 8GB system memory kept being viable for many years for the average gaming user. But I kept upgrading

• 4:1 (ideal) / 6:1 (mine) ratio, Same system with 12GB DDR3(3-sticks) and 2x1GB Radeon HD6870 in Crossfire. One of the sticks, despite being same brand and model was 2 ranks rather than 1. It was manufactured much more recently than the other 3.
  
• 2:1 (ideal) / 5.33:1 (mine) ratio - I got the other stick working after a bios upgrade, also upgrades my GPU to a 3GB Radeon R280x. But at this time 4GB vram was considered somewhat decent If I remember right.
  
• 2:1 ratio - Ryzen 5 1600AF with 16GB DDR4-3200 and 8GB Radeon RX5500XT
  
• 4:3 ratio - Ryzen 5 5600 with 32GB DDR4-3200 and 12GB Radeon RX6700XT, but 16GB system memory is sufficient, so 4:3 ratio.
  

Today, arguably, as a minimum, 16GB system memory is still sufficiently enough for 1080p gaming because more than 12GB memory is rarely used during gaming. While 8GB video memory is not sufficient. Latest titles, or even old titles like RDR2 completely use up the 8GB. Not to mention that both Playstation and Xbox has more video memory. And as a result, recent game titles require more than 8GB vram even at 1080p.
TLDR:
So, at a minimum, one needs 16GB ram and 12GB vram. That is a 4:3 ratio, almost 1:1, this is outrageous. Of course there are no 8GB DDR5 sticks, or they are rare, so you can't sensibly buy just 16GB of DDR5 memory for your computer. At a minimum you can buy 32GB. This skews the ratio to 2.66:1.
But, this is a whole another issue for the desktop market, which is already failing. Everybody knows the server market is carrying x86, but even that is encroached by Arm. I mean, everybody has multiple arm devices, phones, smart TV's, automobiles, more phones. Yet not everyone has a PC. By PC I strictly mean x86 Linux and Windows of course, but I digress. Let me get back to the topic at hand.
Apple, yes that Apple, has made certain innovations that got rid of separate memory for system and video. They market this as "unified memory". Their low-tier has 4 memory channels, mid-tier 8, high-end has 16. This provides so much memory bandwidth it's sufficient for graphics applications. As a result, they do not need specialized memory for graphics.
I have never used a mac or an Iphone, yet this is a much welcome innovation for me. I want Intel and AMD to pick up the pace and give us more memory channels too. Preferably with smaller memory modules.
Because at the end of the day, at any time, one of the memory is always underutilized. Vram is virtually unused while not playing games.
Same thing applies to GPU and CPU too. Because while evaluating the player input and calculating logic, GPU is literally idling. And while rendering the CPU is virtually idling. I say virtually because the CPU needs to micromanage what the GPU does, it's just how the GPU works, it's not magical. It could be argued that these cyclic idling during games is beneficial for cooling or whatever, but it could also be argued that they don't have to.
I've went off the topic again at that last paragraph. But anyway, I don't want to pay for a specialized video memory anymore. Apple's unified memory sounds good, PC market needs that innovation.

Anyone know if bass pros in NY still sell .22 semis? I got a permit , I was on website trying to order one offline and pick up In store. Says can’t ship to store

so there's this one guy who exclusively talks to me here on reddit and he was infatuated with me to say the least. i never thought much about it because i shot him down so many times. i know i'm a dick for being a bit harsh on him at times (something that i apologized for, for a few times at this point) but i actually enjoyed his company because he can hold an intellectual conversation.
earlier, we were catching up and i mentioned that i'm dating someone. we just followed each other and i was staying for a while at a relative's house, picking mangoes from their tree. he asked me if it was still okay to continue talking and i was like, "sure, no problem," because i was actually interested in still being friends but when i came back inside the house, i found myself to be blocked. i don't know why, how and when he did that but i was taken aback.
it brought back all sorts of bad memories from how my ex-boyfriend left my life, which is probably why i'm this furious. i am genuinely pissed off at this guy so i slept it off earlier. but i was rudely awakened by my mother soon as we were about to leave. i'm in a terrible mood then and not much has changed right now. as i'm laying in my bed right now, i'm still irritated as hell.
for someone who was paranoid that i'll ghost him, he sure as hell had guts to be the first one to ghost me. so if you're reading this z, just know, i hate you now. thanks for absolutely nothing.
and so because of this, i'll be uninstalling reddit. i'll still use it from time to time on pc but i doubt that i'd use it on my phone ever again.

So I met the girl on anon.chat APP i gave her my insta my telefon number. I didn't seen that's she me follow at insta. She didn't. So we go to the snapchat . We talk like copule minutes . She asked about face pic i send her then she send me too . Then u know i send her nudes and she's send me. Now I know that's fake. After that she told me to wait. After 4 minutes she send me a screenschots with my data . And my pictures with face and dick pick, and she show me also the screens from the conversations that's she send to my few friends. So i paid her firs 50 $ for delete these screnshots from conversations, then i pay another 50$. She want 300$ I already paid 250 $. What to do guys ? Sorry for my english im not english
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Edit. Im already talked with local Police they cant help me. Im talked with detective too but i need to pay 1000$ for help. That's fucked up .

What's worse?
De Gea - Losing games due to basic goalkeeping errors and not progressing in any way in a cup competitions and losing the one point we start with in a league game with leaving us with nothing ( Sevilla and West ham for example)
A non firing forward line - not able to win games and create confidence however not losing so staying in cup competitions and reaching penalties (Brighton in the FA cup) and picking up the point we start in league games that could secure us a league place like top 4. Yes, we don't pick up the two available to use via a win, but they are the bonus to the win.
One is an absolute (loss of game and points) and the other is a major problrm. One knocks you out of competitions, the other makes it harder to progress
It's about the percentages. A keeper mistake can lose points and trophies. That's worse imo.

About Aqua x Ruby
I admit I'm a biased ruby fan y'all probably already know about it and her happy ending is what I truly want cuz even in reincarnation she's still suffering
I ship them because it's mainly for ruby's happiness she will be happiest with gorou and if y'all worrying about implications this is not really normal either they are reincarnated they have same flesh but different souls
Gorou is literally the reason why she's doing all of this but after learning that her reason to live is no more it broke her more than when ai get killed
And this is fantasy anyway it's not a realistic set up
And if y'all still worrying about the implications of them having a baby then don't have baby at all right? lol them being together is enough for me
i also ship them because I simply like the relationship between gorou and sarina their previous body
and If they are normal siblings i wouldn't ship them but they are reincarnation of gorou and sarina
I really want ruby's happy ending cuz she's the one who's suffering so much right now
(please stop saying bad things because I ship this even i get hurt you know?)
-respectfully my opinion

First, I'm not sure if customers are allowed to post here. If not, kindly point me in the direction of the proper sub. I had an experience yesterday that has me quite upset (and inquisitive). I went in yesterday to pick up several medications, and to my shock, the pharmacy MANAGER (or so she claimed), flat out refused to fill my medications. I was not trying to get my refills early, and I take very common medication for high blood pressure, acid reflux, and nerve pain (pregablin). When I approached the counter, she said they were backed up and "couldn't promise" that she would fill them at all. I'm thinking, ok. I could wait until tomorrow, even though my medications WERE DUE (a few were actually past due). These are common medications that are typically in stock (Lisinopril, 40mg Omeprazole). She would not even look up to see if they were in stock. She said they were so far behind, it could be Monday (this happened on a Friday). I do understand pharmacies can absolutely be swamped, even though I was the only person in line and no one in the waiting area. She made it pretty clear that filling ANY of my meds was just not going to happen, due to being "swamped". I've never had a pharmacist just write me off like this. I've been a customer of this chain for many, many years. I kept my cook, still somewhat confused. I could understand if I was trying to get some heavy-duty Oxy or something like that, but we're talking Lisinopril, Clonidine, Omeprazole and Lyrica. I never pick up my scripts early, never argue, and have had nice experiences with this chain. Is this normal? Especially with blood pressure medications? It was a basic "we're too busy", and then refusal to even look up my medications and tell me if they were even in stock. I left, and went to another branch a few miles away. By the time I arrived there, the nice gentleman there had all of my scripts ready that fast (I called ahead, only a 10 minute drive). Any idea why someone would refuse to even fill my scripts or even LOOK at which meds I was picking up? She seemed to just turn me away, without an explanation, aside from being too busy. Again, no "come back later", or "come back tomorrow". I'm honestly so confused.

Hello guys, I have been a video editor for a UK based company for around 3 years. They have been paying me 4gbp/hr since I worked there. around 8 months ago the company didn't have as many projects so I was no longer working the minimum 8 hours a day for them. They would occasionally give me tasks here and there.
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Recently they have told me that business is picking up and that I would have more workload now, this started last month again I was only paid my old rate. My question now is should I negotiate and increase? I started out only as a video editor with them but since then I would do anything that they needed like graphic design, podcast editing, social media management, content creation, a bit of web design, and the usual corporate videos that they need.
I have been loyal and always available to them. I am unsure of how much to ask and if I should even ask for a raise.