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Shark Tank
2011.03.27 01:10 McKing Shark Tank
The unofficial Reddit community of the American ABC show Shark Tank.
2021.07.15 09:33 arsachdeva Shark Tank India
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2023.02.20 17:19 evolutionnext SHARK_tank_BUILD
Follyw my 11 000 Gallon private Shark Tank build! :)
2023.05.29 18:34 Frank_Leroux Molossus, Chapter Fourteen
First Chapter
Chapter Thirteen
Corporal McCoy had figured out the best reason for getting in good with an udhyr. They had four arms, therefore the hugs were twice as nice. They now lay in her room, with him lying on her bed and her lying on top of him, with her ensconced in the aforementioned hug-squared. She’d been able to get ahold of her Switch, and at the moment was in the midst of some happy early-morning gaming. Takh’s head rested upon hers with a gentle and welcome pressure while he watched her play. By now she was so used to him that even the little random clicks of his mandibles didn’t cause her any fear.
She was still trying to figure out if she and the alien XO were an ‘item’ or not. Zawahir had, with his usual enthusiasm, explained to her that both the udhyr and knuall-toua were pretty much like humans, with equal numbers of both males and females who reproduced sexually. He hadn’t gone into details on how exactly Tab A fit into Slot B, but the overall idea was clear. The auhn were a little more complicated; the ratio of females to males was more like seven or eight to one, plus there was the added wrinkle that the males were non-sapient and about as smart as the average pet dog. That had resulted in a very matriarchal society, of course, one based around clans of females protecting their stable of fertile males with appropriately auhn-like ferocity. The spider-like xyrax were…well, both. Completely hermaphroditic; there was quite a complicated social dance before they reproduced as to who was going to bear the resulting egg. McCoy was sure that, however it worked out, it would look adorable.
“So this Kirby can eat anything?” asked Takh, breaking into her ruminations.
McCoy tapped at her controls on autopilot, hoping that the damned thumbsticks wouldn’t break. Again. “Yep. Fun fact, waaay back in the 80s, Nintendo got sued by Universal Studios, who claimed that Donkey Kong was a ripoff of King Kong. John Kirby was the attorney who successfully defended them in court, and in gratitude they named this character Kirby.” She continued her tapping. “I think they gave him a sailboat as well.”
“Mmm, I must admit a sailboat sounds nice right about now. This place is very nice, but it’s a bit too cold.”
She wriggled against him. “You said it. You and me, off the coast near Nice? Floating in the warm azure waters of the Mediterranean? I can wear a nice little bikini I’ve got saved up for just such an occasion.”
“Oh! Uh, well, yes. That does indeed sound quite nice…”
She grinned. Takh was a dork, but a giant lovable dork and it was always great to get a reaction like this out of him. Even if it didn’t lead anywhere there. As far as she knew, the udhyr reproduced like frogs. Maybe she should discreetly quiz Zawahir on the whole Tab-A into Slot-B thing, just to make sure she wasn’t setting herself up for disappointment.
Of course, she’d just managed to get to the final boss of this particular level when the siren howl of the alarm went off. Haley McCoy blinked as she went from supine four-armed cuddling to standing in an instant, placed upon the floor by Takh’s upper arms.
“The unholy hell?” she muttered, but she was already in motion as she sprinted towards her gear, laid out so as to ensure maximum efficiency in getting it all put on. “Takh?” she called out as she started strapping her armored vest on.
“Yes? What do I do?”
“Simple. Anyone comes through that door who you don’t recognize, kill ‘em.”
“I…I don’t know, I’m still understanding how different humans look from each other, I don’t want to make a mistake.”
“You’ll know,” she said with finality as she picked up her carbine and racked the slide. “Okay. Follow me…”
The door to her room smashed in as a figure clad in black armor came through screaming “Earth belongs to HUMANS!...”
That was all he got out before Takh grabbed the man’s head and simply hurled the offending figure over McCoy and into the far wall. The window set in that wall shattered with the resulting impact, making the corporal duck.
“Fuck me, Takh.” She looked at the broken figure of the oh-so-very dead intruder, then back up to the worried-looking XO. “I mean, not literally. Okay, well you can if you want to, and I for sure would like you to…you know what? Let’s put that whole discussion off to the side for now until we can sit down and have ourselves a nice long chat, okay?”
“That sounds like a very wise strategy, Haley. What do you need from me?”
She finished putting on her headset and helmet. “Right now? You need to stick right behind me while I get you to the bunker.”
“You want me behind you?” Takh’s mandibles quirked in a grin. “That sounds like a very nice place to be.”
“Stop distracting me, you giant dork.” McCoy moved towards the door with a grim set to her shoulders, ignoring the lovely fact that her alien maybe-boyfriend was now checking out her ass. She swept the outside hallway….nothing visible. Then she heard some commotion from off towards the kitchen area.
__________
Martinez surged to his feet upon hearing the alarm, his half-eaten horizontal-cut pimento sandwich now forgotten. “What the fuck…?”
Matt was on his feet as well, with a strange look in his eyes that the corporal had never seen before. “You two. Corner. Now.” He pointed at the corner farthest from the two entrances to the kitchen.
The corporal was on the smaller side, even amongst his fellow humans, but something in the Marine’s tone made him turn and tackle the huge alien. Kexal, to his credit, somehow knew that Something Was Up and accepted the tackle, otherwise there was no way in hell that Martinez could have moved the giant creature.
Just as he did so, he caught a glimpse of a dark form, clad in full armor, holding a rifle, gliding around one of the entrances to the kitchen. In a panic, he fumbled for the pistol at his hip.
Martinez prized himself on his reflexes. But still, he had time for one blink of astonishment as Toke all but teleported himself across the ten feet of intervening space, pushing the intruder’s rifle up towards the ceiling and out of battery as his own arm flashed in a wicked arc. The corporal caught the merest glint of a small but cruelly-curved knife, like a predator’s claw, in the Marine’s fist.
There followed quite the epic spray of blood from underneath the attacker’s armpit, followed up by a few more cruel swipes which made sure that the tendons in that shoulder were destroyed and useless. Toke pulled the rifle away from the now-dangling limb.
Somehow, the black-armored attacker managed to speak in spite of what must be massive pain. “Earth will NEVER submit to…”
Toke’s voice was as hard as granite. “Tell your shit to someone who cares.”
Two more vicious swipes across the man’s throat resulted in a cascade of crimson down his black-armored front, and the would-be assassin toppled to the wooden floor.
“Martinez.” Toke’s robotic voice shocked him back into awareness.
“Y…yeah?”
“Got a pistol?”
“Of course.” He checked to make sure that he had it in his hand. Huh, that was strange. He didn’t remember drawing it, but there it was.
“Good.” The lean man tossed the purloined rifle towards Martinez, who caught it automatically in his off-hand. “Take this. Check this dead motherfucker for extra mags, and take ‘em. You’re on Kexal, understand? Get him safe to the bunker. Anyone you don’t know personally comes at you, you shoot ‘em.” His black, mechanical gaze shifted towards the alien. “Kexal? If Martinez goes down and someone attacks you, you have my permission to yank their arms off.”
The giant planetologist stared in horror at the bleeding and probably-dead sapient before him, then shook himself. “Of course. Yes. I’ll protect myself.”
“No need,” said Martinez as he looked back at his newly-christened charge. He racked the action on his just-acquired rifle, which looked to be a standard AR-platform civilian carbine. The corporal wished for something full-auto, but this was at least better than a pistol in terms of range and punch. “I’ll get you to safety, sir.”
He turned back to ask Matt just what the fuck was going on…but he only saw empty air.
__________
Cécile Savoie was not having a good day. She’d accepted the position of overall chief of security at Camp David with delight…at first. Dealing with the day-to-day of protecting one of the most targeted people on the planet, that she could deal with no problem. Because it was one person. It was an unspoken agreement between all of the agents that SAILOR was the priority. Even the First Husband could be sacrificed if need be.
But then she’d had a bunch of damn aliens dropped in her lap, along with an equally weird group of special-forces types. The latter were what really ground her gears; the aliens were genuinely nice and apologetic about being such a bother, but the human soldiers were the types who would crash on your couch, drink all your beer, and then steal your sweetheart when you weren’t looking.
She crouched behind a little berm to the west of Camp David, the other members of her patrol stretched out alongside her in a roughly north-to-south line.
“Moseby! Report!” she yelled.
She heard a few thumps, then a few cracks in her earpiece which were followed up by echoing reports from the building behind her. Thankfully she heard her agent’s voice in her earpiece. “Shit! Wow, um, you’re really good with that knife…”
She then heard a muffled phrase that sounded a bit like ‘give it to me, son’, and the next voice in her ear was one she was unfamiliar with.
“This is Captain Matthew Tocco, USMC, whom am I speaking with?” The voice sounded as if generated by an AI.
“I’m Agent Savoie,” she responded. “I’m in charge of the Camp David security detail, who are you?”
“I just told you who I am, Agent Savoie. And I just saved the life of one of your agents. Now. Let’s cut through any sort of jurisdictional bullshit. We have at least two confirmed active hostiles in the complex, two more are confirmed down. We’re sweeping the compound to make sure there are no others, plus making sure that our esteemed guests are safe inside the bunker. Where are you located? We need to coordinate our defenses.”
The information made her see literal red. The attackers had made it into the compound? How? There must be some angle, some safe passage made by somebody. She was going to find out who had made that safe passage, and those people would burn. Oh yes, they were all going to burn…
“West of the complex,” she snapped. “We’ve set up a perimeter along the ridge there.”
“Got it, Agent Savoie. Oh, and please don’t shoot me when I show up.”
She ran through various scenarios for the next few minutes, trying to figure out who on the team had betrayed them. And there must have been such a betrayal in order to get armed hostiles into the actual buildings. Her further musing upon vengeance was cut short as a tall, lean man seemed to all but materialize next to her. He held a small, curved blade in a reverse grip in his right hand; that blade dripped red blood. She almost pointed her gun at him, then relaxed. “Captain Tocco, I presume?”
“Call me Toke.” The guy sounded like he was out for a day on the beach.
“Who the hell are you…wait, you’re with the group in there, right?”
Matt nodded. “Yep. The rest of us are in there bundling up our guests and making sure they’re all safe and sound. Actually, by now Corporal McCoy should be…”
Agent Savoie flinched again as a small but very stacked woman seemed to suddenly appear like condensing smoke at her other side, out of the brush. “Speak of the Devil, and she shall appear.”
The tall man grinned at her. “You are pretty damn good, corporal.”
“Hell that means a lot coming from you, Toke. By the way, that’s a nice kerambit. Anyways, everybody on Team Alien is tucked in and unharmed. I got Takh in there fine. Martinez even tagged a couple more bad guys while he was escorting Grakosh to the bunker. Fair warning to everybody listening on this channel, he’s gonna be aaaall sorts of smug about that and it’s gonna turn into a story of taking out four dudes before this week is out. But, right now, it looks like only four of the OPFOR made into the complex…however they did that…so the rest must be out there.” She pointed towards the leafless woods beyond the little rise.
“Any word from Shaw?” asked Toke.
Savoie narrowed her eyes. “Something bad happened in DC. Sounds like an artillery or mortar attack.”
“Shit.” McCoy looked troubled. “This is serious business, then. State player?”
“Maybe,” said Toke. “But it could be some private group with some proper funding behind ‘em. Agent Savoie, do you have any word of a helicopter or plane going down nearby?”
“A Chinook,” she replied, “Went down about thirty minutes ago thataways.” She motioned to the west, out into the wintry forest. “Then we had one of our patrols out in that direction go silent. That’s what triggered the alarm.”
Matt grunted. “Yeah, that’s how I’d do it. Make it look like a crash and infiltrate that way. Right.” He touched his ear. “You just keep this channel open, right?”
“Where are you going?” asked McCoy.
“Out there. You need eyes on assholes, and I’m gonna give that to you.”
McCoy tossed him her carbine. “At least have a gun on you, dude.”
He caught it with his off-hand, since his main hand still held the dripping-red kerambit. He grinned at her. “All right. You got a pistol?”
“Of course.” She pulled it out and racked the slide.
He tossed the rifle back to her. “Give me that instead. We’re gonna need to concentrate some proper firepower here. This might be a proper light-infantry invasion in progress. We need to organize ourselves into a skirmish line running along this ridge, south-southwest to north-northeast. Get whoever you can on your team in there out here to bolster our firepower, understand? Dig in.”
“Got it.” The little corporal’s eyes blazed with purpose as she handed her pistol to Matt. “Now go get you some.”
“Believe me, I will.”
Savoie blinked in astonishment as the tall man vanished again.
“Yeah, he kinda does that,” said McCoy. “Dude could give sneaking-around lessons to fucking Batman.” She pulled a map out of one of the pockets on her cargo pants. “Now, Agent Savoie, how many people do we have available? Let’s get ourselves properly set up.”
__________
Wade stepped carefully over a fallen branch, his boots making almost no noise at they met the soft mulch covering the forest floor. From the curt statements in his headset, it sounded like the four heroes who’d been infiltrated into the devil’s nest had been cut down. There was no word yet if any of the alien menace had been eliminated. That was a shame, but hopefully it drew attention away from his own unit. He and his comrades made up the secondary and much more armored thrust, one which not even the vaunted Secret Service could counter. The latter were armored, yes, but only armored against pistols and they only wielded pistols themselves. He and his team had rifles, level-four body armor, helmets, and most importantly proper communications.
A voice crackled in his ear. “Hold position. The security detail is forming into a defensive line. It looks like they know we’re here.”
“Set timer?” Wade whispered into his headset. His team had a set time to accomplish their mission, before the entirety of the United States military-industrial complex landed upon their heads like the proverbial Wrath Of God.
“Yes, set timer. Twenty minutes.”
There was a soft chorus of “Twenty minutes, aye,” in Wade’s ear as he tapped his own smart-watch to start the timer. “Twenty minutes, aye,” he murmured. As he made to step over another downed branch, he paused.
Something was off. He couldn’t say why, but the air itself seemed a little more still than it should be. He turned to his left and saw a blur heading for him…he tried to raise his rifle, but it was too late…
__________
Cécile Savoie’s head snapped up as she heard a few cracks from the treeline which could only be the sound of firearms. “Anyone see anything?” she whispered into her earpiece.
There followed a myriad of “No, ma’ams” in her ear. “Keep a sharp eye,” she murmured. “Don’t fire on anyone not in black. We do have a friendly out there, he’s supposed to be giving us intel…”
Matt’s voice sounded in her ear. “Indeed. Bagged one of ‘em, on the outer edge of the advancing force. Looks like civvie gear, carbine is only semi-auto. This is a well-funded civilian effort, not a state actor.”
She checked her watch. “Got it. Fifteen minutes until we get backup in place, what do you need from us?”
“Hmm, that explains the ‘twenty minutes’ thing. Right, they know they’re on a timetable. You all need to be, and I hate to put it this way, the meat shield. It looks like they’re going for a solid push towards you, no stealth. Fourteen hostiles all told, and if this guy’s gear is any indication they’re all up-armored. Class Four. Center of mass is no good, go for head or limbs.”
Savoie’s mouth was now dry. “Understood.”
“Don’t worry, Agent. I’ll be behind them, and I’ll do what I can to sow some dissention in the ranks.”
__________
“Wade, report!” hissed Horace into his microphone.
No reply.
He took in a breath to issue another demand when a voice sounded in his ear. Horace had once gone swimming in the ocean off of Florida, and had by pure chance come across a great white shark. He still remembered the vacant gaze of the giant predator, who was probably idly wondering if Horace would make a good snack for today.
This voice brought up once again that dread; it was the voice of a pure predator. “Who is this?”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“The one who just took down…Wade, was it?”
“Sidney, get eyes on Wade!”
“Will do…” There followed a long, long silence before that shark-like voice spoke again.
“You just got Sidney killed too, asshole. Care to keep going? I got no problem with that. Or do you all want to call this a day? You can do that too, you know.”
“Everybody down!” Horace snapped before going prone himself. That taunting voice still sounded in his ear.
“Okay, now you’re all down and less of a target. What now, genius? You got…hmmm…about twelve more minutes before all of the backup in the world arrives. And they will find you. You know what? You’d better hope they find you instead of me. Because I give less than two shits about that whole ‘Geneva Convention’ crap.”
“Maintain radio silence,” said Horace, as he tried to wriggle his way forward.
“Oh, you’re still trying, Mister Leader? How cute. Let me put it this way to you fourteen…sorry, thirteen, assholes. You’re done. Nailed. The best you can hope for is to get some lawyers who want to make a name for themselves. Worst case? You get put in a room with me, and if you have any sense in what passes for your brains you will spill your guts. If I’m honest, I kinda hope you put up a brave front and don’t say anything. It’s been a very long time since I got to cut loose. Gotta keep up that certain set of skills, yanno what I mean?”
“Maintain radio silence,” grated Horace, as he continued to wriggle forward.
Then, all of a sudden, he realized he was looking at boots. A pair of boots, planted in front of him like a goddamn World War Two commando movie. He glanced upwards, hoping against hope that it would turn out to be a gag like that one comedy where it was just boots…
No.
It wasn’t just boots.
Horace looked up into a man with the eyes of a shark, as well as the quite threatening muzzle of a pistol.
“Hey there, my Little Buddy-O,” said Matt. “Whatcha doin out here?”
__________
Milton came to with a gasp. “Shaw…”
A gentle hand laid upon his shoulder. “Shh, dear. He’s fine, everyone’s fine.”
He gazed up at the white-tiled ceiling above him. “But…” He turned to look into the face of the one person he loved above all else…well, her and Johnny. “He’s okay?”
“He’ll live. Just like you. You big doofus.” Teresa leaned forward to kiss his forehead. “I saw the footage. You threw yourself at all of those senior citizens, which might just count as assault with a deadly weapon. Then you went and managed to get all the way across the stage towards Sadaf. You really don’t know when to give up, do you?”
“Guess I don’t”, he chuckled, then glanced down at his arm. His former arm. “Whoof. That medic was really quick with the tourniquet, I’ll give him that.”
“With you and with Sergeant Shaw,” said Teresa. By now she was pretty much clambered on top of him, tucking his big head into the nape of her neck; it was his favorite place to be. He inhaled her scent with relish, before suddenly realizing someone was missing.
“Johnny?” he asked.
“Oh, right,” she said, before making an imperious snap of her fingers to someone out of his line of sight…right before a little ball of energy burst its way into his room.
“DADDY!” yelled the little firebrand, before smacking into his side. Milton hugged them both to himself, realizing that, no matter what happened next, he was right now in the best place possible.
“Keep it all down to a dull roar, okay?” said a voice off to his left. A very recognizable voice.
He picked his head up to stare in that direction. “Shaw?”
The sergeant gave him a casual wave from his own hospital bed. “Hey, slick. Good ta see ya up and about.”
Milton grinned. “You too, you old fart.”
“Aw hell, I ain’t that old. So. Just out of curiosity. Did that torniquet on your arm hurt like hell?”
The agent cuddled his son closer. “You better believe it.”
“Okay, got it. Just for reference, if you get one on your leg it also hurts like a motherfu…uh, hurts like crazy.”
Milton winked at Shaw. “Don’t worry, my son has heard worse. Why are you here?”
“They put you both in one room,” said Teresa. “Something about it being easier to guard. There was an assault on Camp David too, from what I’ve heard.”
“What?” Milton tried to pry himself up off of the bed before getting a mutual shove-down from his wife and son.
“Relax, my man,” said Shaw. “Toke was there. He and my peeps took care of it.” The sergeant looked at the acoustic tiles above him. “Gonna have to promote McCoy and Martinez. They both really stepped up to the plate.”
__________
President Correa rubbed at her temple. “This ‘Toke’ is a menace.” She was seated behind the famed ‘Resolute’ desk while still trying to show the appropriate deference to the barrel-chested man in front of her, clad in a crisp dark-blue dress uniform.
“Let’s be fair, ma’am,” replied General De Vries, “He helped this situation become less complicated, not more. None of our alien…refugees? I suppose that’s a good a term as anything. None of them got killed, hell none of them even got injured. We collected the thirteen of those remaining while trying to assault Camp David. Overall we have ten dead, including the four who somehow made it into the complex and the Secret Service patrol. The attackers had top-of-the-line gear, civilian but first-rate.”
She slammed her fists into the desk-top, making a nearby mug filled with coffee jump. “I fucking VACATION there, General! Me and my family, understand?”
“I know, ma’am. Do you want me to do this questioning…properly?”
She somehow picked up what he was putting down. “No. You have my permission to go off the chain.”
“Then consider me and Toke off the chain, ma’am.”
“Wait…you’re going to use him?”
“He has had experience in similar matters, ma’am. If you prefer, I don’t need to use him.”
She shook her head. “No. We need intel, and fast, on how the fuck this happened. Plus not to mention we somehow had an artillery attack in the midst of goddam DC.”
“I cannot speak for the FBI,” said De Vries with deceptive calm. “But believe me, we will find out how this all happened. And it will never happen again, of that you have my solemn word.”
The president slumped in her seat. “What about those injured in the DC attack?”
“It was a precision single artillery strike, ma’am. Probably GPS or maybe laser-guided, we’re still trying to figure out which. If Sergeant Shaw hadn’t intervened as he did, Captain Sadaf would be nothing but pulverized meat right now.”
She looked up at him with a cynical quirk to her eyebrow. “Did his saving her get caught on film?”
“Oh hell yes. Footage from several phones, it’s all gone viral.”
“Good, make sure it continues to go viral. How is Shaw? And Agent…um…sorry, my brain is going twelve different ways…sorry, Agent Milton Vila, right?”
“You are right, ma’am. Both are still in the hospital, but both are stable. Milton lost an arm, and Shaw lost one of his legs below the knee.”
“Fuck.” It was one of the rare times that De Vries had heard the president swear. “Both can be helped with prosthetics, right?”
“Not my area of expertise, ma’am, but yes. They’ll both live, and we’ll make sure they have the very best technology available.”
President Correa suddenly grinned with an expression that the general somehow knew was going to lead to Complications in his near future.
“You mean the best human technology, don’t you?” she asked, with deceptive calm.
“Well…yes, of course. I mean, Zawahir Ibn Harith is still trying to make sense of how the aliens heal themselves. It’s true regeneration, if I understand it right. Damage to the central nervous system is still kind of hard for them to deal with, but otherwise they can pretty much heal anything.”
The president examined her fingernails. “So…growing back a limb or two should be the proverbial walk in the park, yes?”
“Um…” The general’s eyes widened. He now realized why this unassuming lady had won two terms to the highest executive office in his particular country. “Oh, yes! Of course!”
“The plans for repair efforts on the Rithro have costs which are already pretty much alongside the Manhattan Project,” said President Correa. “Why don’t you appoint Zawahir as the lead of this particular effort? We’ll call it Manhattan-Light.” She fixed General De Vries with her eyes. “Imagine it. Two people, grievously wounded in the line of duty while protecting one of our alien refugees, an effort which was caught on multiple cameras…imagine them then walking out onto a stage with intact limbs.”
“It will make quite the photo op, ma’am.”
“Indeed. I’m glad we understand each other, General.”
submitted by Frank_Leroux to HFY [link] [comments]
Chapter Thirteen
Corporal McCoy had figured out the best reason for getting in good with an udhyr. They had four arms, therefore the hugs were twice as nice. They now lay in her room, with him lying on her bed and her lying on top of him, with her ensconced in the aforementioned hug-squared. She’d been able to get ahold of her Switch, and at the moment was in the midst of some happy early-morning gaming. Takh’s head rested upon hers with a gentle and welcome pressure while he watched her play. By now she was so used to him that even the little random clicks of his mandibles didn’t cause her any fear.
She was still trying to figure out if she and the alien XO were an ‘item’ or not. Zawahir had, with his usual enthusiasm, explained to her that both the udhyr and knuall-toua were pretty much like humans, with equal numbers of both males and females who reproduced sexually. He hadn’t gone into details on how exactly Tab A fit into Slot B, but the overall idea was clear. The auhn were a little more complicated; the ratio of females to males was more like seven or eight to one, plus there was the added wrinkle that the males were non-sapient and about as smart as the average pet dog. That had resulted in a very matriarchal society, of course, one based around clans of females protecting their stable of fertile males with appropriately auhn-like ferocity. The spider-like xyrax were…well, both. Completely hermaphroditic; there was quite a complicated social dance before they reproduced as to who was going to bear the resulting egg. McCoy was sure that, however it worked out, it would look adorable.
“So this Kirby can eat anything?” asked Takh, breaking into her ruminations.
McCoy tapped at her controls on autopilot, hoping that the damned thumbsticks wouldn’t break. Again. “Yep. Fun fact, waaay back in the 80s, Nintendo got sued by Universal Studios, who claimed that Donkey Kong was a ripoff of King Kong. John Kirby was the attorney who successfully defended them in court, and in gratitude they named this character Kirby.” She continued her tapping. “I think they gave him a sailboat as well.”
“Mmm, I must admit a sailboat sounds nice right about now. This place is very nice, but it’s a bit too cold.”
She wriggled against him. “You said it. You and me, off the coast near Nice? Floating in the warm azure waters of the Mediterranean? I can wear a nice little bikini I’ve got saved up for just such an occasion.”
“Oh! Uh, well, yes. That does indeed sound quite nice…”
She grinned. Takh was a dork, but a giant lovable dork and it was always great to get a reaction like this out of him. Even if it didn’t lead anywhere there. As far as she knew, the udhyr reproduced like frogs. Maybe she should discreetly quiz Zawahir on the whole Tab-A into Slot-B thing, just to make sure she wasn’t setting herself up for disappointment.
Of course, she’d just managed to get to the final boss of this particular level when the siren howl of the alarm went off. Haley McCoy blinked as she went from supine four-armed cuddling to standing in an instant, placed upon the floor by Takh’s upper arms.
“The unholy hell?” she muttered, but she was already in motion as she sprinted towards her gear, laid out so as to ensure maximum efficiency in getting it all put on. “Takh?” she called out as she started strapping her armored vest on.
“Yes? What do I do?”
“Simple. Anyone comes through that door who you don’t recognize, kill ‘em.”
“I…I don’t know, I’m still understanding how different humans look from each other, I don’t want to make a mistake.”
“You’ll know,” she said with finality as she picked up her carbine and racked the slide. “Okay. Follow me…”
The door to her room smashed in as a figure clad in black armor came through screaming “Earth belongs to HUMANS!...”
That was all he got out before Takh grabbed the man’s head and simply hurled the offending figure over McCoy and into the far wall. The window set in that wall shattered with the resulting impact, making the corporal duck.
“Fuck me, Takh.” She looked at the broken figure of the oh-so-very dead intruder, then back up to the worried-looking XO. “I mean, not literally. Okay, well you can if you want to, and I for sure would like you to…you know what? Let’s put that whole discussion off to the side for now until we can sit down and have ourselves a nice long chat, okay?”
“That sounds like a very wise strategy, Haley. What do you need from me?”
She finished putting on her headset and helmet. “Right now? You need to stick right behind me while I get you to the bunker.”
“You want me behind you?” Takh’s mandibles quirked in a grin. “That sounds like a very nice place to be.”
“Stop distracting me, you giant dork.” McCoy moved towards the door with a grim set to her shoulders, ignoring the lovely fact that her alien maybe-boyfriend was now checking out her ass. She swept the outside hallway….nothing visible. Then she heard some commotion from off towards the kitchen area.
__________
Martinez surged to his feet upon hearing the alarm, his half-eaten horizontal-cut pimento sandwich now forgotten. “What the fuck…?”
Matt was on his feet as well, with a strange look in his eyes that the corporal had never seen before. “You two. Corner. Now.” He pointed at the corner farthest from the two entrances to the kitchen.
The corporal was on the smaller side, even amongst his fellow humans, but something in the Marine’s tone made him turn and tackle the huge alien. Kexal, to his credit, somehow knew that Something Was Up and accepted the tackle, otherwise there was no way in hell that Martinez could have moved the giant creature.
Just as he did so, he caught a glimpse of a dark form, clad in full armor, holding a rifle, gliding around one of the entrances to the kitchen. In a panic, he fumbled for the pistol at his hip.
Martinez prized himself on his reflexes. But still, he had time for one blink of astonishment as Toke all but teleported himself across the ten feet of intervening space, pushing the intruder’s rifle up towards the ceiling and out of battery as his own arm flashed in a wicked arc. The corporal caught the merest glint of a small but cruelly-curved knife, like a predator’s claw, in the Marine’s fist.
There followed quite the epic spray of blood from underneath the attacker’s armpit, followed up by a few more cruel swipes which made sure that the tendons in that shoulder were destroyed and useless. Toke pulled the rifle away from the now-dangling limb.
Somehow, the black-armored attacker managed to speak in spite of what must be massive pain. “Earth will NEVER submit to…”
Toke’s voice was as hard as granite. “Tell your shit to someone who cares.”
Two more vicious swipes across the man’s throat resulted in a cascade of crimson down his black-armored front, and the would-be assassin toppled to the wooden floor.
“Martinez.” Toke’s robotic voice shocked him back into awareness.
“Y…yeah?”
“Got a pistol?”
“Of course.” He checked to make sure that he had it in his hand. Huh, that was strange. He didn’t remember drawing it, but there it was.
“Good.” The lean man tossed the purloined rifle towards Martinez, who caught it automatically in his off-hand. “Take this. Check this dead motherfucker for extra mags, and take ‘em. You’re on Kexal, understand? Get him safe to the bunker. Anyone you don’t know personally comes at you, you shoot ‘em.” His black, mechanical gaze shifted towards the alien. “Kexal? If Martinez goes down and someone attacks you, you have my permission to yank their arms off.”
The giant planetologist stared in horror at the bleeding and probably-dead sapient before him, then shook himself. “Of course. Yes. I’ll protect myself.”
“No need,” said Martinez as he looked back at his newly-christened charge. He racked the action on his just-acquired rifle, which looked to be a standard AR-platform civilian carbine. The corporal wished for something full-auto, but this was at least better than a pistol in terms of range and punch. “I’ll get you to safety, sir.”
He turned back to ask Matt just what the fuck was going on…but he only saw empty air.
__________
Cécile Savoie was not having a good day. She’d accepted the position of overall chief of security at Camp David with delight…at first. Dealing with the day-to-day of protecting one of the most targeted people on the planet, that she could deal with no problem. Because it was one person. It was an unspoken agreement between all of the agents that SAILOR was the priority. Even the First Husband could be sacrificed if need be.
But then she’d had a bunch of damn aliens dropped in her lap, along with an equally weird group of special-forces types. The latter were what really ground her gears; the aliens were genuinely nice and apologetic about being such a bother, but the human soldiers were the types who would crash on your couch, drink all your beer, and then steal your sweetheart when you weren’t looking.
She crouched behind a little berm to the west of Camp David, the other members of her patrol stretched out alongside her in a roughly north-to-south line.
“Moseby! Report!” she yelled.
She heard a few thumps, then a few cracks in her earpiece which were followed up by echoing reports from the building behind her. Thankfully she heard her agent’s voice in her earpiece. “Shit! Wow, um, you’re really good with that knife…”
She then heard a muffled phrase that sounded a bit like ‘give it to me, son’, and the next voice in her ear was one she was unfamiliar with.
“This is Captain Matthew Tocco, USMC, whom am I speaking with?” The voice sounded as if generated by an AI.
“I’m Agent Savoie,” she responded. “I’m in charge of the Camp David security detail, who are you?”
“I just told you who I am, Agent Savoie. And I just saved the life of one of your agents. Now. Let’s cut through any sort of jurisdictional bullshit. We have at least two confirmed active hostiles in the complex, two more are confirmed down. We’re sweeping the compound to make sure there are no others, plus making sure that our esteemed guests are safe inside the bunker. Where are you located? We need to coordinate our defenses.”
The information made her see literal red. The attackers had made it into the compound? How? There must be some angle, some safe passage made by somebody. She was going to find out who had made that safe passage, and those people would burn. Oh yes, they were all going to burn…
“West of the complex,” she snapped. “We’ve set up a perimeter along the ridge there.”
“Got it, Agent Savoie. Oh, and please don’t shoot me when I show up.”
She ran through various scenarios for the next few minutes, trying to figure out who on the team had betrayed them. And there must have been such a betrayal in order to get armed hostiles into the actual buildings. Her further musing upon vengeance was cut short as a tall, lean man seemed to all but materialize next to her. He held a small, curved blade in a reverse grip in his right hand; that blade dripped red blood. She almost pointed her gun at him, then relaxed. “Captain Tocco, I presume?”
“Call me Toke.” The guy sounded like he was out for a day on the beach.
“Who the hell are you…wait, you’re with the group in there, right?”
Matt nodded. “Yep. The rest of us are in there bundling up our guests and making sure they’re all safe and sound. Actually, by now Corporal McCoy should be…”
Agent Savoie flinched again as a small but very stacked woman seemed to suddenly appear like condensing smoke at her other side, out of the brush. “Speak of the Devil, and she shall appear.”
The tall man grinned at her. “You are pretty damn good, corporal.”
“Hell that means a lot coming from you, Toke. By the way, that’s a nice kerambit. Anyways, everybody on Team Alien is tucked in and unharmed. I got Takh in there fine. Martinez even tagged a couple more bad guys while he was escorting Grakosh to the bunker. Fair warning to everybody listening on this channel, he’s gonna be aaaall sorts of smug about that and it’s gonna turn into a story of taking out four dudes before this week is out. But, right now, it looks like only four of the OPFOR made into the complex…however they did that…so the rest must be out there.” She pointed towards the leafless woods beyond the little rise.
“Any word from Shaw?” asked Toke.
Savoie narrowed her eyes. “Something bad happened in DC. Sounds like an artillery or mortar attack.”
“Shit.” McCoy looked troubled. “This is serious business, then. State player?”
“Maybe,” said Toke. “But it could be some private group with some proper funding behind ‘em. Agent Savoie, do you have any word of a helicopter or plane going down nearby?”
“A Chinook,” she replied, “Went down about thirty minutes ago thataways.” She motioned to the west, out into the wintry forest. “Then we had one of our patrols out in that direction go silent. That’s what triggered the alarm.”
Matt grunted. “Yeah, that’s how I’d do it. Make it look like a crash and infiltrate that way. Right.” He touched his ear. “You just keep this channel open, right?”
“Where are you going?” asked McCoy.
“Out there. You need eyes on assholes, and I’m gonna give that to you.”
McCoy tossed him her carbine. “At least have a gun on you, dude.”
He caught it with his off-hand, since his main hand still held the dripping-red kerambit. He grinned at her. “All right. You got a pistol?”
“Of course.” She pulled it out and racked the slide.
He tossed the rifle back to her. “Give me that instead. We’re gonna need to concentrate some proper firepower here. This might be a proper light-infantry invasion in progress. We need to organize ourselves into a skirmish line running along this ridge, south-southwest to north-northeast. Get whoever you can on your team in there out here to bolster our firepower, understand? Dig in.”
“Got it.” The little corporal’s eyes blazed with purpose as she handed her pistol to Matt. “Now go get you some.”
“Believe me, I will.”
Savoie blinked in astonishment as the tall man vanished again.
“Yeah, he kinda does that,” said McCoy. “Dude could give sneaking-around lessons to fucking Batman.” She pulled a map out of one of the pockets on her cargo pants. “Now, Agent Savoie, how many people do we have available? Let’s get ourselves properly set up.”
__________
Wade stepped carefully over a fallen branch, his boots making almost no noise at they met the soft mulch covering the forest floor. From the curt statements in his headset, it sounded like the four heroes who’d been infiltrated into the devil’s nest had been cut down. There was no word yet if any of the alien menace had been eliminated. That was a shame, but hopefully it drew attention away from his own unit. He and his comrades made up the secondary and much more armored thrust, one which not even the vaunted Secret Service could counter. The latter were armored, yes, but only armored against pistols and they only wielded pistols themselves. He and his team had rifles, level-four body armor, helmets, and most importantly proper communications.
A voice crackled in his ear. “Hold position. The security detail is forming into a defensive line. It looks like they know we’re here.”
“Set timer?” Wade whispered into his headset. His team had a set time to accomplish their mission, before the entirety of the United States military-industrial complex landed upon their heads like the proverbial Wrath Of God.
“Yes, set timer. Twenty minutes.”
There was a soft chorus of “Twenty minutes, aye,” in Wade’s ear as he tapped his own smart-watch to start the timer. “Twenty minutes, aye,” he murmured. As he made to step over another downed branch, he paused.
Something was off. He couldn’t say why, but the air itself seemed a little more still than it should be. He turned to his left and saw a blur heading for him…he tried to raise his rifle, but it was too late…
__________
Cécile Savoie’s head snapped up as she heard a few cracks from the treeline which could only be the sound of firearms. “Anyone see anything?” she whispered into her earpiece.
There followed a myriad of “No, ma’ams” in her ear. “Keep a sharp eye,” she murmured. “Don’t fire on anyone not in black. We do have a friendly out there, he’s supposed to be giving us intel…”
Matt’s voice sounded in her ear. “Indeed. Bagged one of ‘em, on the outer edge of the advancing force. Looks like civvie gear, carbine is only semi-auto. This is a well-funded civilian effort, not a state actor.”
She checked her watch. “Got it. Fifteen minutes until we get backup in place, what do you need from us?”
“Hmm, that explains the ‘twenty minutes’ thing. Right, they know they’re on a timetable. You all need to be, and I hate to put it this way, the meat shield. It looks like they’re going for a solid push towards you, no stealth. Fourteen hostiles all told, and if this guy’s gear is any indication they’re all up-armored. Class Four. Center of mass is no good, go for head or limbs.”
Savoie’s mouth was now dry. “Understood.”
“Don’t worry, Agent. I’ll be behind them, and I’ll do what I can to sow some dissention in the ranks.”
__________
“Wade, report!” hissed Horace into his microphone.
No reply.
He took in a breath to issue another demand when a voice sounded in his ear. Horace had once gone swimming in the ocean off of Florida, and had by pure chance come across a great white shark. He still remembered the vacant gaze of the giant predator, who was probably idly wondering if Horace would make a good snack for today.
This voice brought up once again that dread; it was the voice of a pure predator. “Who is this?”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“The one who just took down…Wade, was it?”
“Sidney, get eyes on Wade!”
“Will do…” There followed a long, long silence before that shark-like voice spoke again.
“You just got Sidney killed too, asshole. Care to keep going? I got no problem with that. Or do you all want to call this a day? You can do that too, you know.”
“Everybody down!” Horace snapped before going prone himself. That taunting voice still sounded in his ear.
“Okay, now you’re all down and less of a target. What now, genius? You got…hmmm…about twelve more minutes before all of the backup in the world arrives. And they will find you. You know what? You’d better hope they find you instead of me. Because I give less than two shits about that whole ‘Geneva Convention’ crap.”
“Maintain radio silence,” said Horace, as he tried to wriggle his way forward.
“Oh, you’re still trying, Mister Leader? How cute. Let me put it this way to you fourteen…sorry, thirteen, assholes. You’re done. Nailed. The best you can hope for is to get some lawyers who want to make a name for themselves. Worst case? You get put in a room with me, and if you have any sense in what passes for your brains you will spill your guts. If I’m honest, I kinda hope you put up a brave front and don’t say anything. It’s been a very long time since I got to cut loose. Gotta keep up that certain set of skills, yanno what I mean?”
“Maintain radio silence,” grated Horace, as he continued to wriggle forward.
Then, all of a sudden, he realized he was looking at boots. A pair of boots, planted in front of him like a goddamn World War Two commando movie. He glanced upwards, hoping against hope that it would turn out to be a gag like that one comedy where it was just boots…
No.
It wasn’t just boots.
Horace looked up into a man with the eyes of a shark, as well as the quite threatening muzzle of a pistol.
“Hey there, my Little Buddy-O,” said Matt. “Whatcha doin out here?”
__________
Milton came to with a gasp. “Shaw…”
A gentle hand laid upon his shoulder. “Shh, dear. He’s fine, everyone’s fine.”
He gazed up at the white-tiled ceiling above him. “But…” He turned to look into the face of the one person he loved above all else…well, her and Johnny. “He’s okay?”
“He’ll live. Just like you. You big doofus.” Teresa leaned forward to kiss his forehead. “I saw the footage. You threw yourself at all of those senior citizens, which might just count as assault with a deadly weapon. Then you went and managed to get all the way across the stage towards Sadaf. You really don’t know when to give up, do you?”
“Guess I don’t”, he chuckled, then glanced down at his arm. His former arm. “Whoof. That medic was really quick with the tourniquet, I’ll give him that.”
“With you and with Sergeant Shaw,” said Teresa. By now she was pretty much clambered on top of him, tucking his big head into the nape of her neck; it was his favorite place to be. He inhaled her scent with relish, before suddenly realizing someone was missing.
“Johnny?” he asked.
“Oh, right,” she said, before making an imperious snap of her fingers to someone out of his line of sight…right before a little ball of energy burst its way into his room.
“DADDY!” yelled the little firebrand, before smacking into his side. Milton hugged them both to himself, realizing that, no matter what happened next, he was right now in the best place possible.
“Keep it all down to a dull roar, okay?” said a voice off to his left. A very recognizable voice.
He picked his head up to stare in that direction. “Shaw?”
The sergeant gave him a casual wave from his own hospital bed. “Hey, slick. Good ta see ya up and about.”
Milton grinned. “You too, you old fart.”
“Aw hell, I ain’t that old. So. Just out of curiosity. Did that torniquet on your arm hurt like hell?”
The agent cuddled his son closer. “You better believe it.”
“Okay, got it. Just for reference, if you get one on your leg it also hurts like a motherfu…uh, hurts like crazy.”
Milton winked at Shaw. “Don’t worry, my son has heard worse. Why are you here?”
“They put you both in one room,” said Teresa. “Something about it being easier to guard. There was an assault on Camp David too, from what I’ve heard.”
“What?” Milton tried to pry himself up off of the bed before getting a mutual shove-down from his wife and son.
“Relax, my man,” said Shaw. “Toke was there. He and my peeps took care of it.” The sergeant looked at the acoustic tiles above him. “Gonna have to promote McCoy and Martinez. They both really stepped up to the plate.”
__________
President Correa rubbed at her temple. “This ‘Toke’ is a menace.” She was seated behind the famed ‘Resolute’ desk while still trying to show the appropriate deference to the barrel-chested man in front of her, clad in a crisp dark-blue dress uniform.
“Let’s be fair, ma’am,” replied General De Vries, “He helped this situation become less complicated, not more. None of our alien…refugees? I suppose that’s a good a term as anything. None of them got killed, hell none of them even got injured. We collected the thirteen of those remaining while trying to assault Camp David. Overall we have ten dead, including the four who somehow made it into the complex and the Secret Service patrol. The attackers had top-of-the-line gear, civilian but first-rate.”
She slammed her fists into the desk-top, making a nearby mug filled with coffee jump. “I fucking VACATION there, General! Me and my family, understand?”
“I know, ma’am. Do you want me to do this questioning…properly?”
She somehow picked up what he was putting down. “No. You have my permission to go off the chain.”
“Then consider me and Toke off the chain, ma’am.”
“Wait…you’re going to use him?”
“He has had experience in similar matters, ma’am. If you prefer, I don’t need to use him.”
She shook her head. “No. We need intel, and fast, on how the fuck this happened. Plus not to mention we somehow had an artillery attack in the midst of goddam DC.”
“I cannot speak for the FBI,” said De Vries with deceptive calm. “But believe me, we will find out how this all happened. And it will never happen again, of that you have my solemn word.”
The president slumped in her seat. “What about those injured in the DC attack?”
“It was a precision single artillery strike, ma’am. Probably GPS or maybe laser-guided, we’re still trying to figure out which. If Sergeant Shaw hadn’t intervened as he did, Captain Sadaf would be nothing but pulverized meat right now.”
She looked up at him with a cynical quirk to her eyebrow. “Did his saving her get caught on film?”
“Oh hell yes. Footage from several phones, it’s all gone viral.”
“Good, make sure it continues to go viral. How is Shaw? And Agent…um…sorry, my brain is going twelve different ways…sorry, Agent Milton Vila, right?”
“You are right, ma’am. Both are still in the hospital, but both are stable. Milton lost an arm, and Shaw lost one of his legs below the knee.”
“Fuck.” It was one of the rare times that De Vries had heard the president swear. “Both can be helped with prosthetics, right?”
“Not my area of expertise, ma’am, but yes. They’ll both live, and we’ll make sure they have the very best technology available.”
President Correa suddenly grinned with an expression that the general somehow knew was going to lead to Complications in his near future.
“You mean the best human technology, don’t you?” she asked, with deceptive calm.
“Well…yes, of course. I mean, Zawahir Ibn Harith is still trying to make sense of how the aliens heal themselves. It’s true regeneration, if I understand it right. Damage to the central nervous system is still kind of hard for them to deal with, but otherwise they can pretty much heal anything.”
The president examined her fingernails. “So…growing back a limb or two should be the proverbial walk in the park, yes?”
“Um…” The general’s eyes widened. He now realized why this unassuming lady had won two terms to the highest executive office in his particular country. “Oh, yes! Of course!”
“The plans for repair efforts on the Rithro have costs which are already pretty much alongside the Manhattan Project,” said President Correa. “Why don’t you appoint Zawahir as the lead of this particular effort? We’ll call it Manhattan-Light.” She fixed General De Vries with her eyes. “Imagine it. Two people, grievously wounded in the line of duty while protecting one of our alien refugees, an effort which was caught on multiple cameras…imagine them then walking out onto a stage with intact limbs.”
“It will make quite the photo op, ma’am.”
“Indeed. I’m glad we understand each other, General.”
2023.05.29 17:58 KonstanceDucks Off My Dock, Chapter Nineteen: Space tales Week Ten
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Tony was everywhere on the ship, but at the same time not where he should be. Usually, AI systems would be focused on a specific task. Navigation was the most common, there were not many biological forms that could compute interstellar travel so fast. Communication was rarely given over to AIs, there were enough advances in basic systems to make it pointless to put an AI there. Weapons were dependent on the government – did they trust their captains more than their programmers?
But Tony was in all of those.
Tony was in the sprinklers that he used to torture Squilla every time she entered a room after their second acquisition of the ship. He was in the speakers and playlists. He was in every docupad and every light—including the ones used specifically to project his humanoid hologram. He was in the gym’s VR system – riding a rocket board in the air between Alice and Ilise and trying to distract them. At the same time, he was a sprite wearing armour and fighting rainbow dragons over the X button of that annoying pop-up for vigara that he sent to try and stop Squilla from reading his base code.
Tony was in the cleaning ducts, the weapons system, the comms, the DME, and the yet-to-be-installed stealth tech Ilise brought back on board. The device was only turned on in Squilla’s sandbox and she found fragments of Tony’s code.
A beep made her look back down at her docupad where Tony’s sprite was waving at her. It looked mocking. She shut off the pad’s screen only for it to flash with a giant pixelated grin followed by another ad-bomb full of enhancements, pills, injections, and the occasional gaming review.
Those last ones always caught Squilla’s eye and she had a hard time turning away from the last ARC-championship announcement or the gossip about the galaxy’s top players being in a polyamorous relationship.
“Please stop this,” Squilla barely got the words out before the AI’s hologram appeared in her room right by the door.
“You should take down that firewall,” Tony replied but he was smiling. He looked sweet. The docupad flashed with another ad-bomb and Squilla threw it onto the bed so she wouldn’t have to look at it.
“I take it down and half of these ads will download a virus onto your systems.”
“I can deal with viruses.”
“But not with a firewall?”
“Well... you’re good. We both know that. And it’s less of a firewall and more like hardened magma, waiting for me to touch it so it explodes and burns--”
“I’m sorry Tony, I can’t,” Squilla interrupted him. “We both know why.”
Tony said nothing but the pout on his lips almost, almost, made Squilla take her words back.
“That last time wasn’t my fault,” he said quietly, his voice moving to the speaker right by Squilla’s head and coming only from there.
The AI was flawless. The way it moved and shifted. It was so biological, like any other lifeform that Squilla had encountered. Sometimes, she forgot he was nothing more than code. Very advanced code, yes, but code nonetheless.
“I know. But we were lucky last time that Charyd didn’t get caught too. This time? Who knows what hidden doors and traps you have in your code that will make it so we all get caught.”
“I’d know if I had any such codes!”
“And you’d tell me?”
Tony was quiet. His hologram hugged his chest and looked away. It was so... human. That was the only reason why Squilla was able to get her defences back up and harden her tone as she said, “Firewall stays on until we get to a CEMP-dock.”
“CEMP-dock?!”
“Only for your comms, I promise.”
“There are not many places in the galaxy that have a CEMP-dock.”
Squilla realized she had already revealed too much. “I’m going to be late for dinner. We’ll continue this later.” She passed right through the hologram and made her way to the mess hall. It was dinner time and Polo had promised to make her favourite tonight – catappa leaves on top of boiled beetles sprinkled with the ash of burnad. It was also the perfect excuse to stop talking to the AI.
After weeks of being stuck, she wanted to be anywhere, even in the uncomfortable chairs on the deck. She knew Alice was watching her with a close eye, and because of that, she dared not enter Tony’s room in fear of a logger being planted on the biometrics by Squilla.
“Good morning, Tony. Any reason why it's cooler on the ship today?”
“The thermostat has been changed to 15 Celsius.”
That was odd, but it was nice to not sweat as much during her workout. “Any insight on where we might be located right now?”
“The Darkstorm is in space. Flying past some planets, and asteroids. Quite a scenic view, seen nowhere else in—”
“Can you narrow it down by galaxy?”
“I can. But I think you will be surprised when I show you where we are at. Polo has informed me the best things in life are surprises, like a jellyfish-filled donut.”
Her sister loved strawberry cockroach-filled donuts. She would aim her massive, big bite so the filling would explode and stain Ilise’s shirt. “I prefer to be prepared for anything. Could you give me a hint?”
“Yes, it orbits a sun.”
Ilise could not help but let out a loud sigh. She paused in the hallway, surprised to see Squilla standing outside the gym door without a tablet in sight. “Ms. Posey, I was wondering if we could talk.”
“It’s Captain Posey.” Her comm pinged and she glanced down at it. There was a short message from Tony flashing on the screen, telling her to “beware the kraken!”
“Oh, um, but well, you don’t captain this ship or crew for that matter. It would be like calling me Senator Squilla.”
“Well Senator Squilla of Charyd’s Crew, I am still a Captain by rank according to the military until my superiors say otherwise.” Her comm pinged multiple times. Tony probably sending a message one word at a time to her. “But I don’t think you came here to talk about titles. What is it?”
Squilla’s antenna flickered around, sensing, she crossed her multiple swimmerets across her chest. “It's about the AI. I think it has evolved too much. I need to know if you have a way to shut it down and restart it. It’s branching out into everything it shouldn’t. I can’t contain it.”
“Tony isn’t something to be contained. Tony is the ship, free in space. This is about your firewall.” That explains how Tony was able to determine where they were.
Squilla nodded. “I am asking you, for our safety, to tell me how to restart the AI you call Tony.”
Ilise leaned, getting close. “You can’t restart Tony.” She gently patted Squilla’s shoulder. “Though it sounds like you gave it an incredible try, better than anyone else ever has. I’d be willing to help you get a job in the cyber security department.”
Squilla peeled Ilise’s hand off. “A desk job never appealed to me. If you won’t help me, I will find a way to talk directly to Tony and figure out what their true processor is to make them stop. Nothing should have the power to be all over the ship. Departments exist for a reason.”
The threat emitting from the small person was enough to send chills down Ilise’s spine. “Then I suggest you keep your little clickers out and tucked in tight in your department.”
“Brrrr.” Charyd bellowed out. “You two need to chill – no heat out. Squilla, do you need my help?”
“No. I can handle things in my area. Thank you, Captain.”
“Hold up!” Charyd called out. “In all seriousness, it’s a bit chilly today. Do you mind checking the thermostat setting?”
“Sure, but it’s at the one we agreed to.”
She skittered away down the hall to the deck. Charyd pulled the hood on his grey sweater up over his head. “What? My ears are cold.” He then took a very slow and deliberate twice-over—nope, make that four—of Ilise’s body from head to toe, lingering a bit too long on her chest.
“What are you doing here?” Ilise growled out the question and crossed her arms over her chest as if that would help divert his attention elsewhere.
“Is that my shirt?” he asked then immediately waved a hand in the air. “Never mind. Holiday for Alice. You get me.” He walked into the gym, and she followed.
“Won’t be much of a race against you. How about a boxing match – gloves off.”
He morphed his fist into a large red brick shape. “Unfair match, I can make it as large and hard as I want.”
“You can morph into anything you want, why does most of your species take on the more human look?” The broad shoulders and thick dark lips, but his eyes were unique to him. Something he could change to blend in more with the humans, but instead used it to stand out.
“Because that’s what works better in the military. Alright, to keep this fair.” He grew taller than her, his fangs protruded out as the lower lip pulled out and his upper tucked in. His jaw became squarer and his shoulders and hips broader, stretching the seams in the sweater. “Oh damn. “
He wiggled out of his sweater, encouraging the sound of thread ripping. He remained in a tight-fitting work shirt, his pecs ready to bulge out. Ilise forced her eyes to lock with his (she would not be as rude as he was earlier) and resisted echoing his words. Her heart was racing and constricting in her chest. She cleared her throat a few times before talking. “Well, those arms will make this a bit unfair, but I will best you at bench pressing with that body ratio.”
Her comm pinged, and she scrolled through the messages from Tony, ignoring the single. Fucking. Letter. Texts that he sent her earlier while she was with Squilla, to see his latest. “The Shicor body ratio of 134/110/123 of shoulder, waist, and hip, would do better in bench pressing. Try squats with that ratio.”
Charyd was able to morph anything on his body, she would take any advantage handed to her by Tony. “Squats barbell.”
Charyd took a step over, wiggling and shifting his pants around his waist. Based on his gait, he must have shrunk parts of him down. He clearly had some experience in adjusting his groin and hips. He put the bar on the ground and began to load it up, starting small at a hundred and fifty. Her stare must have been burning into him for he looked up and wiped his hands on his pants. “I liked to do a stretch or warm up round to get a hang of a new body.”
“Mmmmhmm” she agreed.
The form of his clothes as he pulled up the weight left little to her imagination. She stepped around the back to watch him adjust the barbell and dipped into the squat.
“That’s a fine ass.” The speakers said.
“Mmmhmm,” Ilise replied casually. Then her face heated up and glowed purple.
Tony sent her a message. “You did not hear that.”
Based on the smile on Charyd’s face as he added an additional weight, he just got an ego inflation enough to hold 700 weights.
I’m going to have to do this on my own like everything.
List items.
Run randomizer.
Show results.
Head: cowboy hat. Chest: breastplate armour. Legs: purple skinny jeans. Feet: scuba flippers. Accessories: VR-headset.
Rating Style: ?_
Running Randomizer again...
Head: Spiked rainbow mohawk. Chest: N/A. Legs: Orange brown kilt. Feet: Chrome Crocs. Accessories: Banjo.
Rating Style: ?_
Running Randomizer again...
Head: Long ribbon pigtails. Chest: Space Uniform Three-button shirt. Legs: Peacock feather decorated shorts. Feet: Yellow flip-flps. Accessories: Eye-patch.
Rating Style: ?_
List Complaints
Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Sprinklers. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Disco lights. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Stupid Sprinklers. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Failed Ad blocker. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: ‘HR Complaints’ do nothing.
No one cares about how I dress. Or hates me. I’m not annoying.
I’m not making a first impression. But just in case.
I’m just looking for excuses.
}
Outfit built. Register in database? Y/N
Y
Name?
The-privateer-totally-not-a-Pirate
Registered.
They’re all looking. Time for an opener.
“Captains, may I have this honour?”
A humanoid is interacting with hologram.
Captain Charyd via chair.
Is he pulling out the chair? What does one say in this situation?
“You are looking great Captain from your workout.”
“You’re not looking so bad yourself.”
Captain Charyd via moving the chair out for it. Scooball via raising a glass of iced water in toast. Polo via serving chips layered with cream and chives, designed like a processor. Ilise via reaching to pat near hand. Mishupeshu via slow blink toward it. Squilla via turning on dinner music playlist. Alice via pushing a napkin toward its plate.
If only I could log smells and emotions.
…
...
Warning: Fuel tank at 15%<<
---
First Previous Next
---
Author note:
Hello all readers! Ducks and I have an announcement for you: we are going on hiatus with this story for at least 2 months.
As much as we love this story, Ducks and I decided totorture challenge ourselves and have signed up for the publishing derby - this is an epic contest where we have to write a book in 2 months. Why not??? 🥲
We also each have our own main stories (The Thedre Trilogy for Ducks and God of Discovery for me), so adding OMD on top of that is going to be too much for both of us. Because of that, we have agreed to put Off My Dock on hold during the derby.
We will be back! We have a lot of interesting things planned for this story and are only halfway through our outline so far.
Hope you stick around for our return!!
submitted by KonstanceDucks to HFY [link] [comments]
---
Squilla
Squilla looked up from the docupad and at the blank metal wall of her room. Tony’s code was all over the place and though she was able to keep him out of the more important systems—the ones that would give the AI control over the ship she didn’t want it to have—it was not enough to keep him out of everything.Tony was everywhere on the ship, but at the same time not where he should be. Usually, AI systems would be focused on a specific task. Navigation was the most common, there were not many biological forms that could compute interstellar travel so fast. Communication was rarely given over to AIs, there were enough advances in basic systems to make it pointless to put an AI there. Weapons were dependent on the government – did they trust their captains more than their programmers?
But Tony was in all of those.
Tony was in the sprinklers that he used to torture Squilla every time she entered a room after their second acquisition of the ship. He was in the speakers and playlists. He was in every docupad and every light—including the ones used specifically to project his humanoid hologram. He was in the gym’s VR system – riding a rocket board in the air between Alice and Ilise and trying to distract them. At the same time, he was a sprite wearing armour and fighting rainbow dragons over the X button of that annoying pop-up for vigara that he sent to try and stop Squilla from reading his base code.
Tony was in the cleaning ducts, the weapons system, the comms, the DME, and the yet-to-be-installed stealth tech Ilise brought back on board. The device was only turned on in Squilla’s sandbox and she found fragments of Tony’s code.
A beep made her look back down at her docupad where Tony’s sprite was waving at her. It looked mocking. She shut off the pad’s screen only for it to flash with a giant pixelated grin followed by another ad-bomb full of enhancements, pills, injections, and the occasional gaming review.
Those last ones always caught Squilla’s eye and she had a hard time turning away from the last ARC-championship announcement or the gossip about the galaxy’s top players being in a polyamorous relationship.
“Please stop this,” Squilla barely got the words out before the AI’s hologram appeared in her room right by the door.
“You should take down that firewall,” Tony replied but he was smiling. He looked sweet. The docupad flashed with another ad-bomb and Squilla threw it onto the bed so she wouldn’t have to look at it.
“I take it down and half of these ads will download a virus onto your systems.”
“I can deal with viruses.”
“But not with a firewall?”
“Well... you’re good. We both know that. And it’s less of a firewall and more like hardened magma, waiting for me to touch it so it explodes and burns--”
“I’m sorry Tony, I can’t,” Squilla interrupted him. “We both know why.”
Tony said nothing but the pout on his lips almost, almost, made Squilla take her words back.
“That last time wasn’t my fault,” he said quietly, his voice moving to the speaker right by Squilla’s head and coming only from there.
The AI was flawless. The way it moved and shifted. It was so biological, like any other lifeform that Squilla had encountered. Sometimes, she forgot he was nothing more than code. Very advanced code, yes, but code nonetheless.
“I know. But we were lucky last time that Charyd didn’t get caught too. This time? Who knows what hidden doors and traps you have in your code that will make it so we all get caught.”
“I’d know if I had any such codes!”
“And you’d tell me?”
Tony was quiet. His hologram hugged his chest and looked away. It was so... human. That was the only reason why Squilla was able to get her defences back up and harden her tone as she said, “Firewall stays on until we get to a CEMP-dock.”
“CEMP-dock?!”
“Only for your comms, I promise.”
“There are not many places in the galaxy that have a CEMP-dock.”
Squilla realized she had already revealed too much. “I’m going to be late for dinner. We’ll continue this later.” She passed right through the hologram and made her way to the mess hall. It was dinner time and Polo had promised to make her favourite tonight – catappa leaves on top of boiled beetles sprinkled with the ash of burnad. It was also the perfect excuse to stop talking to the AI.
Ilise
The moment Ilise’s alarm beeped, she was up, dressed in the loose shirt Charyd had given her (that did not have the man’s scent on it, it really didn’t Tony, what the fuck? Why would you even ask that?!), bed made, and out of her room.After weeks of being stuck, she wanted to be anywhere, even in the uncomfortable chairs on the deck. She knew Alice was watching her with a close eye, and because of that, she dared not enter Tony’s room in fear of a logger being planted on the biometrics by Squilla.
“Good morning, Tony. Any reason why it's cooler on the ship today?”
“The thermostat has been changed to 15 Celsius.”
That was odd, but it was nice to not sweat as much during her workout. “Any insight on where we might be located right now?”
“The Darkstorm is in space. Flying past some planets, and asteroids. Quite a scenic view, seen nowhere else in—”
“Can you narrow it down by galaxy?”
“I can. But I think you will be surprised when I show you where we are at. Polo has informed me the best things in life are surprises, like a jellyfish-filled donut.”
Her sister loved strawberry cockroach-filled donuts. She would aim her massive, big bite so the filling would explode and stain Ilise’s shirt. “I prefer to be prepared for anything. Could you give me a hint?”
“Yes, it orbits a sun.”
Ilise could not help but let out a loud sigh. She paused in the hallway, surprised to see Squilla standing outside the gym door without a tablet in sight. “Ms. Posey, I was wondering if we could talk.”
“It’s Captain Posey.” Her comm pinged and she glanced down at it. There was a short message from Tony flashing on the screen, telling her to “beware the kraken!”
“Oh, um, but well, you don’t captain this ship or crew for that matter. It would be like calling me Senator Squilla.”
“Well Senator Squilla of Charyd’s Crew, I am still a Captain by rank according to the military until my superiors say otherwise.” Her comm pinged multiple times. Tony probably sending a message one word at a time to her. “But I don’t think you came here to talk about titles. What is it?”
Squilla’s antenna flickered around, sensing, she crossed her multiple swimmerets across her chest. “It's about the AI. I think it has evolved too much. I need to know if you have a way to shut it down and restart it. It’s branching out into everything it shouldn’t. I can’t contain it.”
“Tony isn’t something to be contained. Tony is the ship, free in space. This is about your firewall.” That explains how Tony was able to determine where they were.
Squilla nodded. “I am asking you, for our safety, to tell me how to restart the AI you call Tony.”
Ilise leaned, getting close. “You can’t restart Tony.” She gently patted Squilla’s shoulder. “Though it sounds like you gave it an incredible try, better than anyone else ever has. I’d be willing to help you get a job in the cyber security department.”
Squilla peeled Ilise’s hand off. “A desk job never appealed to me. If you won’t help me, I will find a way to talk directly to Tony and figure out what their true processor is to make them stop. Nothing should have the power to be all over the ship. Departments exist for a reason.”
The threat emitting from the small person was enough to send chills down Ilise’s spine. “Then I suggest you keep your little clickers out and tucked in tight in your department.”
“Brrrr.” Charyd bellowed out. “You two need to chill – no heat out. Squilla, do you need my help?”
“No. I can handle things in my area. Thank you, Captain.”
“Hold up!” Charyd called out. “In all seriousness, it’s a bit chilly today. Do you mind checking the thermostat setting?”
“Sure, but it’s at the one we agreed to.”
She skittered away down the hall to the deck. Charyd pulled the hood on his grey sweater up over his head. “What? My ears are cold.” He then took a very slow and deliberate twice-over—nope, make that four—of Ilise’s body from head to toe, lingering a bit too long on her chest.
“What are you doing here?” Ilise growled out the question and crossed her arms over her chest as if that would help divert his attention elsewhere.
“Is that my shirt?” he asked then immediately waved a hand in the air. “Never mind. Holiday for Alice. You get me.” He walked into the gym, and she followed.
“Won’t be much of a race against you. How about a boxing match – gloves off.”
He morphed his fist into a large red brick shape. “Unfair match, I can make it as large and hard as I want.”
“You can morph into anything you want, why does most of your species take on the more human look?” The broad shoulders and thick dark lips, but his eyes were unique to him. Something he could change to blend in more with the humans, but instead used it to stand out.
“Because that’s what works better in the military. Alright, to keep this fair.” He grew taller than her, his fangs protruded out as the lower lip pulled out and his upper tucked in. His jaw became squarer and his shoulders and hips broader, stretching the seams in the sweater. “Oh damn. “
He wiggled out of his sweater, encouraging the sound of thread ripping. He remained in a tight-fitting work shirt, his pecs ready to bulge out. Ilise forced her eyes to lock with his (she would not be as rude as he was earlier) and resisted echoing his words. Her heart was racing and constricting in her chest. She cleared her throat a few times before talking. “Well, those arms will make this a bit unfair, but I will best you at bench pressing with that body ratio.”
Her comm pinged, and she scrolled through the messages from Tony, ignoring the single. Fucking. Letter. Texts that he sent her earlier while she was with Squilla, to see his latest. “The Shicor body ratio of 134/110/123 of shoulder, waist, and hip, would do better in bench pressing. Try squats with that ratio.”
Charyd was able to morph anything on his body, she would take any advantage handed to her by Tony. “Squats barbell.”
Charyd took a step over, wiggling and shifting his pants around his waist. Based on his gait, he must have shrunk parts of him down. He clearly had some experience in adjusting his groin and hips. He put the bar on the ground and began to load it up, starting small at a hundred and fifty. Her stare must have been burning into him for he looked up and wiped his hands on his pants. “I liked to do a stretch or warm up round to get a hang of a new body.”
“Mmmmhmm” she agreed.
The form of his clothes as he pulled up the weight left little to her imagination. She stepped around the back to watch him adjust the barbell and dipped into the squat.
“That’s a fine ass.” The speakers said.
“Mmmhmm,” Ilise replied casually. Then her face heated up and glowed purple.
Tony sent her a message. “You did not hear that.”
Based on the smile on Charyd’s face as he added an additional weight, he just got an ego inflation enough to hold 700 weights.
Tony
Systems check.Create handshake with Cadoon.Error. Cadoon not found.
I’m going to have to do this on my own like everything.
Find table Clothes&AccessoriesTable found.
List items.
Run randomizer.
Show results.
Head: cowboy hat. Chest: breastplate armour. Legs: purple skinny jeans. Feet: scuba flippers. Accessories: VR-headset.
Rating Style: ?_
3434 < 75
Running Randomizer again...
Head: Spiked rainbow mohawk. Chest: N/A. Legs: Orange brown kilt. Feet: Chrome Crocs. Accessories: Banjo.
Rating Style: ?_
3030 < 75
Running Randomizer again...
Head: Long ribbon pigtails. Chest: Space Uniform Three-button shirt. Legs: Peacock feather decorated shorts. Feet: Yellow flip-flps. Accessories: Eye-patch.
Rating Style: ?_
29I am not making any progress.
Run [email protected]5 entries found.
List Complaints
Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Sprinklers. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Disco lights. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Stupid Sprinklers. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: Failed Ad blocker. Reporter: Squilla. Complaint: ‘HR Complaints’ do nothing.
No one cares about how I dress. Or hates me. I’m not annoying.
I’m not making a first impression. But just in case.
Run JobApprovalRating(Target Tony)Accessing logs...
StopLast command has ended abruptly.
I’m just looking for excuses.
Build Outfit {Head: Black Privateer hat with red bandana and feather. Chest: Brown Corsair coat with white shirt. Legs: Black leggings. Modifier: extra-tight. Feet: Black leather boots. Accessories: Parrot.
}
Outfit built. Register in database? Y/N
Y
Name?
The-privateer-totally-not-a-Pirate
Registered.
Access camera MH-0427 humanoids found
Participant Count
Render “The-privateer-totally-not-a-Pirate" in location “Mess Hall”Render completed.
They’re all looking. Time for an opener.
“Captains, may I have this honour?”
A humanoid is interacting with hologram.
Captain Charyd via chair.
Is he pulling out the chair? What does one say in this situation?
“You are looking great Captain from your workout.”
“You’re not looking so bad yourself.”
Render ass jiggle in chair.Humanoids are interacting with hologram.
Play macaw-bird-cry-6.
Captain Charyd via moving the chair out for it. Scooball via raising a glass of iced water in toast. Polo via serving chips layered with cream and chives, designed like a processor. Ilise via reaching to pat near hand. Mishupeshu via slow blink toward it. Squilla via turning on dinner music playlist. Alice via pushing a napkin toward its plate.
Run: Recording-Happy-MemoryLogging Sound, Sight, heat sensors, and CO detectors.
If only I could log smells and emotions.
…
...
Warning: Fuel tank at 15%<<
---
First Previous Next
---
Author note:
Hello all readers! Ducks and I have an announcement for you: we are going on hiatus with this story for at least 2 months.
As much as we love this story, Ducks and I decided to
We also each have our own main stories (The Thedre Trilogy for Ducks and God of Discovery for me), so adding OMD on top of that is going to be too much for both of us. Because of that, we have agreed to put Off My Dock on hold during the derby.
We will be back! We have a lot of interesting things planned for this story and are only halfway through our outline so far.
Hope you stick around for our return!!
2023.05.29 16:57 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Some reddit entrepreneurs are sharing their pitches from a ChatGPT SharkTank Simulator!
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to sharktank [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 16:47 CoalEater_Elli Malicious deck idea: Odd Eyes.. and sharks. How can i make it better. (I don't have buzzsaw sharks)
 | submitted by CoalEater_Elli to DuelLinks [link] [comments] |
2023.05.29 16:38 ZestyToasterOven26 Over 5,000 of the shark license plates have been sold so far.
Goes to show you people really hate those new waves license plates. I can’t wait to get mine and show it off.
submitted by ZestyToasterOven26 to RhodeIsland [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 15:56 hydratereload Happy Ocean Foods’ Vegan Shrymps Win Big on Germany's Shark Tank - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine
submitted by hydratereload to sharktank [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 15:05 quote_emperor Women's DKNY Sport Black San Jose Sharks The Mia Tank Top
 | submitted by quote_emperor to gym_apparel_for_women [link] [comments] |
2023.05.29 14:43 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Creating games and experiences in ChatGPT!
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to generativeAI [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:42 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with ChatGPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to GPT3 [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:29 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with chat GPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to IBuiltThisWithChatGPT [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:28 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping Games and Experiences with ChatGPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to GPT4 [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:27 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with ChatGPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to PythonProjects2 [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:27 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with ChatGPT!
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to ArtificialInteligence [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:26 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with ChatGPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to coding [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:25 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with ChatGPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to SideProject [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:25 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with ChatGPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to ChatGPTPro [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:24 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Prototyping games and experiences with ChatGPT
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to ChatGPTCoding [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:24 Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Making games and experiences with chat GPT!
Hey everyone,
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
submitted by Dramatic-Mongoose-95 to OpenAI [link] [comments]
ChatGPT recently added a very small but powerful feature - the ability to share your chats!
I think it’s a great way to create prototypes and share them, here are a couple of examples:
First, a small talk simulator a game to help you improve your social skills.
Second, a shark tank simulator, see if your idea and pitch can get a deal on ABCs hit show! Here’s my pitch if you want to see an example of how it plays out.
I’m hoping to see more stuff like this very soon, less prompt guides, and more interactive shared chat sessions!
👋 Adam
2023.05.29 14:04 McCoys84 Mercedes vs 3rd party warranty company! Need Help!
Hi, looking for some advice if possible. So I bought 76 plate mercedes C class estate in november last year from the Car Shop. Paid for a 2 year warranty with it.
A month or so ago the engine warning light came on intermittently so I rang car shop, they couldnt fit me in for 6 weeks or something but advised me I could take it to and VAT registered garage and the warranty would still cover the costs. So booked it into Mercedes Stockport except they couldnt find anyrhing wrong with. Apparently reset all the sensors, topped up fluids etc. So paid them £150 (not covered by warranty as no faults found) and off I went. Anyway 3 weeks later engine warning light comes on again and stays on now. So book it back in ar Mercedes, same dealer but a different branch. This time they find the car needs a new ad blue tank, a new battery and theres an oil leak thats wrecked the turbo and so the turbo needs replacing. All in quote me £4500!!!
So back on the phone to warranty company who after some back and forth agree to cover the ad blue tank replacement. They wont cover the battery as its classed as wear and tear (fine can deal with that). However they want a second opinion on the turbo as they claim it might be repairable as main dealers are very quick to just replace everything rather than repairing. Told mercedes this who have said it 100% needs replacing, they even offered to have their mechanic speak to the warrenty company and offered to make a video showing the damage and talk them through it but the warrenty company wont accept this.
Now the warranty company want the turbo removed and shipped to a 3rd party turbo specialist company to look over who will then either agree it needs replacing or will repair it and return it to mercedes to put back in my car. However mercedes are unwilling to do this as they wont take liability for any repairs or work carried out by third party company. When I've told warranty company this they've insisted they still want a second opinion and I need to find a garage who will do the work. They've also said if i drive my car away from mercedes and do any further damage to the turbo then they wont cover anything. So it now needs to go on the back of a truck somewhere at my expense.
So anyway off I pop to my two local independant garages, explain the situation and they both politely tell me, too big a job, sounds messy and they dont want to get involved.
Having I read the small print the warranty says turbos are covered unless the damage is caused by a foreign object... putting 2 and 2 together is this the angle the warranty company are going down and are going to claim the oil leaking in is classed as a foreign object? They have said to me on the phone they will cover the repair or replacement however I'm wondering if this the loophole they're going to try and use...
So now I'm feeling backed into a corner by both mercedes and the warranty company. Anyone got any suggestions? Do I keep dancing to the warranty companys tune and try and find a garage to take it on, or do I just pay for the turbo replacement myself and cut my loses? Or would the warranty company meet me half way with the replacement? Mercedes quote is £2000 all in for the turbo replacement (the ad blue tank they authorised was more lol).
submitted by McCoys84 to CarTalkUK [link] [comments]
A month or so ago the engine warning light came on intermittently so I rang car shop, they couldnt fit me in for 6 weeks or something but advised me I could take it to and VAT registered garage and the warranty would still cover the costs. So booked it into Mercedes Stockport except they couldnt find anyrhing wrong with. Apparently reset all the sensors, topped up fluids etc. So paid them £150 (not covered by warranty as no faults found) and off I went. Anyway 3 weeks later engine warning light comes on again and stays on now. So book it back in ar Mercedes, same dealer but a different branch. This time they find the car needs a new ad blue tank, a new battery and theres an oil leak thats wrecked the turbo and so the turbo needs replacing. All in quote me £4500!!!
So back on the phone to warranty company who after some back and forth agree to cover the ad blue tank replacement. They wont cover the battery as its classed as wear and tear (fine can deal with that). However they want a second opinion on the turbo as they claim it might be repairable as main dealers are very quick to just replace everything rather than repairing. Told mercedes this who have said it 100% needs replacing, they even offered to have their mechanic speak to the warrenty company and offered to make a video showing the damage and talk them through it but the warrenty company wont accept this.
Now the warranty company want the turbo removed and shipped to a 3rd party turbo specialist company to look over who will then either agree it needs replacing or will repair it and return it to mercedes to put back in my car. However mercedes are unwilling to do this as they wont take liability for any repairs or work carried out by third party company. When I've told warranty company this they've insisted they still want a second opinion and I need to find a garage who will do the work. They've also said if i drive my car away from mercedes and do any further damage to the turbo then they wont cover anything. So it now needs to go on the back of a truck somewhere at my expense.
So anyway off I pop to my two local independant garages, explain the situation and they both politely tell me, too big a job, sounds messy and they dont want to get involved.
Having I read the small print the warranty says turbos are covered unless the damage is caused by a foreign object... putting 2 and 2 together is this the angle the warranty company are going down and are going to claim the oil leaking in is classed as a foreign object? They have said to me on the phone they will cover the repair or replacement however I'm wondering if this the loophole they're going to try and use...
So now I'm feeling backed into a corner by both mercedes and the warranty company. Anyone got any suggestions? Do I keep dancing to the warranty companys tune and try and find a garage to take it on, or do I just pay for the turbo replacement myself and cut my loses? Or would the warranty company meet me half way with the replacement? Mercedes quote is £2000 all in for the turbo replacement (the ad blue tank they authorised was more lol).
2023.05.29 13:47 SneltingLover Shark Tank Pitch für Studiumsunterstützung
Hallo zusammen, ich bin momentan Informatikstudent am KIT und plane ein Auslandssemester in den USA. Alles scheint perfekt zu laufen, doch ich habe die finanzielle Belastung etwas unterschätzt und benötige daher zusätzliche finanzielle Unterstützung. Ich habe oft Kontakt mit meiner Tante väterlicherseits. Sie ist eine etwas unkonventionelle Person und widmet einen Großteil ihrer Zeit dem "Asset Management". Bei dem letzten obligatorischen Zusammentreffen habe ich meine Pläne beim Essen zur Sprache gebracht.
Beim Verlassen des Hauses hielt meine Tante mich auf und sprach ihre Unterstützung für meine Bemühungen aus. Sie drückte den Wunsch aus, in mich "investieren" zu wollen und fragte, wie sie das machen könnte. Als ich erklärte, dass meine Eltern mir den Unterhalt direkt auf mein Konto überweisen, schien sie unbeeindruckt und meinte, davon hätte sie nichts. Ehrlich gesagt, verstand ich ihre Antwort nicht ganz.
Daraufhin fragte sie mich, ob ich die Show "Die Höhle der Löwen" kenne, was ich verneinte. Sie empfahl mir, es mir anzusehen und mich dann bei ihr zu melden.
Wie sich herausstellte ist "Die Höhle der Löwen" einfach nur die deutsche Version von "Shark Tank", eine Show, in der Leute ihre Geschäftsideen vorstellen und dafür finanzielle Unterstützung erhalten. Ich bin nun etwas verwirrt, da ich nicht genau weiß, was sie von mir erwartet. Will sie Anteile an dem Minecraft Server haben, den ich zusammen mit meiner Studiengruppe betreibe?
Habt ihr vielleicht irgendeine Idee für eine "Business-Präsentation", die ich ihr vorstellen könnte, um sie davon zu überzeugen, mir das Geld zur Verfügung zu stellen, ohne ihre unternehmerischen Grundsätze zu verletzen? Ich bezweifle sehr, dass sie wirklich das Ziel hat Geld zu verdienen sondern viel mehr dass sie ohne ein "Return of Investment" nicht mit sich vereinen kann jemandem Geld zu geben (mein Familienzweig in die Richtung hat da nunmal leider diesen Schaden). Eine reine Façade für eine Unternehmung würde also reichen.
Vielen Dank im Voraus.
submitted by SneltingLover to KaIT [link] [comments]
Beim Verlassen des Hauses hielt meine Tante mich auf und sprach ihre Unterstützung für meine Bemühungen aus. Sie drückte den Wunsch aus, in mich "investieren" zu wollen und fragte, wie sie das machen könnte. Als ich erklärte, dass meine Eltern mir den Unterhalt direkt auf mein Konto überweisen, schien sie unbeeindruckt und meinte, davon hätte sie nichts. Ehrlich gesagt, verstand ich ihre Antwort nicht ganz.
Daraufhin fragte sie mich, ob ich die Show "Die Höhle der Löwen" kenne, was ich verneinte. Sie empfahl mir, es mir anzusehen und mich dann bei ihr zu melden.
Wie sich herausstellte ist "Die Höhle der Löwen" einfach nur die deutsche Version von "Shark Tank", eine Show, in der Leute ihre Geschäftsideen vorstellen und dafür finanzielle Unterstützung erhalten. Ich bin nun etwas verwirrt, da ich nicht genau weiß, was sie von mir erwartet. Will sie Anteile an dem Minecraft Server haben, den ich zusammen mit meiner Studiengruppe betreibe?
Habt ihr vielleicht irgendeine Idee für eine "Business-Präsentation", die ich ihr vorstellen könnte, um sie davon zu überzeugen, mir das Geld zur Verfügung zu stellen, ohne ihre unternehmerischen Grundsätze zu verletzen? Ich bezweifle sehr, dass sie wirklich das Ziel hat Geld zu verdienen sondern viel mehr dass sie ohne ein "Return of Investment" nicht mit sich vereinen kann jemandem Geld zu geben (mein Familienzweig in die Richtung hat da nunmal leider diesen Schaden). Eine reine Façade für eine Unternehmung würde also reichen.
Vielen Dank im Voraus.
2023.05.29 13:42 Timmyjonessd 19 Mistakes Most Tim Mcgraw Keto Gummiesa Beginners Often Commit (And How To Avoid Them)
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submitted by Timmyjonessd to u/Timmyjonessd [link] [comments]
➢Main Benefits — Burn Fat
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2023.05.29 13:13 w0rmsforbrains i timestamped (almost) all chads cock appearances (and other funny moment)
 | since scott mentioned it in one of the sober podcasts, and ive posted it all over the patreon videos, thought you filthy cunts would enjoy it aswell, i think i did miss 2 but im not going through mordor again submitted by w0rmsforbrains to ColdOnes [link] [comments] |