Is hcg drops sold in stores
Sanrio
2010.03.30 02:26 Sanrio
Sanrio Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company that designs, licenses and produces products focusing on the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts and accessories that are sold worldwide and at specialty brand retail stores in Japan! This subreddit is ran by fans, for fans!
2008.06.12 18:22 r/deals: Make your wallet happy!
deals — Making your wallet happy since 2008.
2012.03.02 18:51 Frugal Female Fashion
A community to help you stay stylish without wearing out your wallet!
2024.05.14 21:50 jtreddit702 AIW for refusing to help my friend after we argued?
Last night, my friend was working late and asked if I could help her with a big favor. She said she wouldn't have time to do her grocery shopping and asked me to do it. I agree and she sends me a list. While at the grocery store, she sends me a photo of a black shirt and ask if I can stop by our local Target to buy it for her. She doesn't give me much more detail such as name brand or size.
"What size do you need? Do you want a particular brand?" I text.
"Medium." she says a few minutes later.
"Ok but what brand?" She doesn't respond. I finish the grocery shopping and head to Target. I try finding this shirt in the sea of women's clothing but can't find anything that looks exactly like the one she sent me. I ask an employee if they recognize it and they can't. I find 3 shirts that looks like it and text pictures of them to her.
"Are any of these good?" I ask.
"They don't have the one I sent you?" she replies a minute later.
"Well what brand is it? Maybe I can find it better if I can narrow down the brand name."
"I sent you a picture already."
"Yeah but I can't see the tag on the shirt."
"I don't have time for all your questions right now. I'm at work right now and you keep bugging me about this shirt."
"You asked me for help but didn't give me all the proper information. Rather than buy something you don't want, I'd rather show you what they have and what your opinions are. I'm not texting you to annoy you, I have honest questions and your directions are unclear."
"Just forget it. I'll do it myself later or you'll fuck it up."
"You asked for my help. I already helped you by getting groceries for you. How am I causing issues now?"
"Cause you don't agree to help someone then start giving them shit for it."
I decide not to respond to her after that. I leave Target and drop off her groceries at her house (her roommate let me in) and go home.
Two hours later, she texts me one of the photos I sent her.
"I won't have time to go tonight. Can you buy this shirt for me instead and bring it to my house? I'll pay for you for everything then." She texted.
"After the way you talked to me, you think I'm willing to help you again? Do it yourself." I reply.
She doesn't reply for a few hours. Just before bed, she finally answers.
"Thanks for getting groceries but too bad I won't have time to prep meals now cause I had to run to Target after a long day at work to get a shirt that you didn't want to help get for me." she texted.
I go on to tell her that this isn't my fault and I won't feel bad for not helping her. I politely ask her to send me $80 for the groceries from earlier and she says she will after I apologize for my attitude. I haven't responded since. Am I wrong for agreeing to help, then arguing?
submitted by jtreddit702 to amiwrong [link] [comments]
"What size do you need? Do you want a particular brand?" I text.
"Medium." she says a few minutes later.
"Ok but what brand?" She doesn't respond. I finish the grocery shopping and head to Target. I try finding this shirt in the sea of women's clothing but can't find anything that looks exactly like the one she sent me. I ask an employee if they recognize it and they can't. I find 3 shirts that looks like it and text pictures of them to her.
"Are any of these good?" I ask.
"They don't have the one I sent you?" she replies a minute later.
"Well what brand is it? Maybe I can find it better if I can narrow down the brand name."
"I sent you a picture already."
"Yeah but I can't see the tag on the shirt."
"I don't have time for all your questions right now. I'm at work right now and you keep bugging me about this shirt."
"You asked me for help but didn't give me all the proper information. Rather than buy something you don't want, I'd rather show you what they have and what your opinions are. I'm not texting you to annoy you, I have honest questions and your directions are unclear."
"Just forget it. I'll do it myself later or you'll fuck it up."
"You asked for my help. I already helped you by getting groceries for you. How am I causing issues now?"
"Cause you don't agree to help someone then start giving them shit for it."
I decide not to respond to her after that. I leave Target and drop off her groceries at her house (her roommate let me in) and go home.
Two hours later, she texts me one of the photos I sent her.
"I won't have time to go tonight. Can you buy this shirt for me instead and bring it to my house? I'll pay for you for everything then." She texted.
"After the way you talked to me, you think I'm willing to help you again? Do it yourself." I reply.
She doesn't reply for a few hours. Just before bed, she finally answers.
"Thanks for getting groceries but too bad I won't have time to prep meals now cause I had to run to Target after a long day at work to get a shirt that you didn't want to help get for me." she texted.
I go on to tell her that this isn't my fault and I won't feel bad for not helping her. I politely ask her to send me $80 for the groceries from earlier and she says she will after I apologize for my attitude. I haven't responded since. Am I wrong for agreeing to help, then arguing?
2024.05.14 21:37 Bongoisnthere Some interesting bits about the current runup:
This morning in premarket, some interesting things happened. The market open was interesting too but for now let’s focus on premarket.
During premarket, we gapped up to $80. Including January ‘21, this is the most volatile this stock has ever been in a single day.
For some of us it’s easier to think in terms of presplit numbers. When the market closed on Friday last week, it was at $18.31 or $73.24 pre split. In two trading days, it made a 436% gain up to $80 or $320 presplit. This is more gain in a shorter time span than any day in Jan 21, the previous most upward movement. This is the equivalent of a $246 gain in two days.
Daily drops are remarkable too. After it peaked at $80, it dropped as low as 37. This is a 53.6% drop. Previously March 10th saw a drop from a daily high of 87.13 down to 43. This was a daily drop of 49.4.
This is the largest ever daily gain by percentage, and the largest ever daily dip by percentage.
Another fun fact: by market cap, adjusted for the dilution that happened in June of 2021 in which GameStop sold 5 million shares, got itself out of any debt and had about 1 billion leftover in cap raise, this 80 price would have put us at right about $346 a share which is what GameStop capped at in March of 2021 and again in June before being violently knocked down.
I donno what to make of any of that, but it’s fun to look at th colorful charts and eat some crayons.
Edit: volume is also interesting. In March 10 of ‘21 was our previous most volatile day with a daily volume of 286 million. It’ll be interesting to see where we end up today on the volume chart, but as of writing this with 10 minutes to close, we’re at 184 million.
Incredible.
Edit: now I’m going to settle down and watch the battle of $180.
submitted by Bongoisnthere to Superstonk [link] [comments]
During premarket, we gapped up to $80. Including January ‘21, this is the most volatile this stock has ever been in a single day.
For some of us it’s easier to think in terms of presplit numbers. When the market closed on Friday last week, it was at $18.31 or $73.24 pre split. In two trading days, it made a 436% gain up to $80 or $320 presplit. This is more gain in a shorter time span than any day in Jan 21, the previous most upward movement. This is the equivalent of a $246 gain in two days.
Daily drops are remarkable too. After it peaked at $80, it dropped as low as 37. This is a 53.6% drop. Previously March 10th saw a drop from a daily high of 87.13 down to 43. This was a daily drop of 49.4.
This is the largest ever daily gain by percentage, and the largest ever daily dip by percentage.
Another fun fact: by market cap, adjusted for the dilution that happened in June of 2021 in which GameStop sold 5 million shares, got itself out of any debt and had about 1 billion leftover in cap raise, this 80 price would have put us at right about $346 a share which is what GameStop capped at in March of 2021 and again in June before being violently knocked down.
I donno what to make of any of that, but it’s fun to look at th colorful charts and eat some crayons.
Edit: volume is also interesting. In March 10 of ‘21 was our previous most volatile day with a daily volume of 286 million. It’ll be interesting to see where we end up today on the volume chart, but as of writing this with 10 minutes to close, we’re at 184 million.
Incredible.
Edit: now I’m going to settle down and watch the battle of $180.
2024.05.14 21:34 dbwilso1 LG C3 42” + LG 32GS95UE
 | I’ve seen so many reviews about the 32GS95UE and here are some of my opinions. submitted by dbwilso1 to OLED_Gaming [link] [comments] Backstory…when I first started using gaming monitors, I originally bought the Samsung Neo’s g7 & g8 and returned them immediately. I bought the gigabyte 32m32u and returned that too. When I came to a final setup it included the ultragears 32gq850-b/950-b…the 950 being my primary for FPS with 4k 120 hz on PS5 & I loved that monitor. I moved states and made one room a dedicated office/studio/gaming room & the 32” monitors just seemed small for my space. Plus I was trying to transition to OLED, so I sold both and got an LG C3. That TV is amazing for gaming and is going nowhere. The only downside is when I play call of duty, I felt that I was limited on what I could see. Needing to turn my face to look at the mini map caused me quite a few deaths that I could’ve avoided. So I decided to hunt for a 32” oled. LG has never failed me so I chose this monitor despite all the “the matte looks like shit” comments. I preordered it & the MSI MPG. Almost had my hands on the MSI but the store who I ordered it from called me 30 minutes before I was going to pick it up to tell me there was a customer service issue and they had to pull it off the shelf…AKA they sold it to someone else. My LG came 2 Saturdays ago & ive Been playing on it for a week now and side by side to my C3…it’s clearer, the colors are just as vibrant, and unless the lights are on, I can’t tell that one is matte and the other is gloss. I have a 1in-2out switch that lets me go back and forth between both immediately and I did many times just to see if I could see a true noticeable difference. Yes my C3 is brighter on max settings, but on max it’s too bright and it causes strain on my eyes in a dark room, so I don’t consider that a valuable plus. The size is the only thing that it has over this monitor, other than it’s a smart TV. The 32” is absolutely a monster and will be my primary again for COD. The reviews on YouTube talk about how the matte coating isn’t a noticeable factor, but in the comments all I see is people shitting on it when it’s not even noticeable. Like not even a little. Plus the pixel sound is amazing for when I don’t feel like using my headset if I have people over. Try it yourself. Don’t listen to the hate. I love this monitor and will recommend it 10/10. & yes I’m watching family guy while playing COD |
2024.05.14 21:31 Jolly_System_1539 Please film yourself at check stops
If the stories on this sub are true it seems like they’re treating it like a breathalyser and randomly testing everyone for cannabis. The 2018 federal law states that they don’t need reasonable suspicion to breathalyze drivers. It does not say they can do this for cannabis.
If a cop tells you they are doing random cannabis testing and someone catches that on video, it’s going to give a lot of credit to the stories all over social media of people saying they got their cars taken when they were sober. You shouldn’t shove a camera in a cops face because they tend to be bullies and will get aggressive if you make them feel like they’re on the spot. So just put your phone on the dash and let the microphone record.
They will probably just say we smell weed and you’ll have to do the test anyways, but someone needs to get it on the record that they are randomly testing drivers for cannabis.
Edit: there appears to be another cop or someone very sympathetic to their thin blue line in this sub so I’ll just drop my reply here because I think it’s important:
I was using it as an example and I even got that wrong. Saskatoon is bigger than I thought. But it’s still an absurd number. Over 2000% increase. Come on now. You know damn well the amount of people smoking and then driving high didn’t increase by 2000%. The amount of people who started smoking in the 3 years between 2020 and 2023 didn’t increase by 2000% otherwise the cannabis stores would be rolling in dough (they’re not, the market is flooded and a lot of them are on the brink of closure) and there would be a corresponding increase in cannabis caused crashes. Show me a single study proving there was an uptick in crashes after cannabis legalization and then I’ll believe that the amount of people driving high increase twenty fold. Have a critical thought for once man. The police (you) are criminalizing cannabis when people are getting stabbed on the transit and in the streets of the city you are supposed to protect. Do better. Your entire department. Do better. Nobody ever hates the firemen.
submitted by Jolly_System_1539 to saskatoon [link] [comments]
If a cop tells you they are doing random cannabis testing and someone catches that on video, it’s going to give a lot of credit to the stories all over social media of people saying they got their cars taken when they were sober. You shouldn’t shove a camera in a cops face because they tend to be bullies and will get aggressive if you make them feel like they’re on the spot. So just put your phone on the dash and let the microphone record.
They will probably just say we smell weed and you’ll have to do the test anyways, but someone needs to get it on the record that they are randomly testing drivers for cannabis.
Edit: there appears to be another cop or someone very sympathetic to their thin blue line in this sub so I’ll just drop my reply here because I think it’s important:
I was using it as an example and I even got that wrong. Saskatoon is bigger than I thought. But it’s still an absurd number. Over 2000% increase. Come on now. You know damn well the amount of people smoking and then driving high didn’t increase by 2000%. The amount of people who started smoking in the 3 years between 2020 and 2023 didn’t increase by 2000% otherwise the cannabis stores would be rolling in dough (they’re not, the market is flooded and a lot of them are on the brink of closure) and there would be a corresponding increase in cannabis caused crashes. Show me a single study proving there was an uptick in crashes after cannabis legalization and then I’ll believe that the amount of people driving high increase twenty fold. Have a critical thought for once man. The police (you) are criminalizing cannabis when people are getting stabbed on the transit and in the streets of the city you are supposed to protect. Do better. Your entire department. Do better. Nobody ever hates the firemen.
2024.05.14 21:30 squishyliquid Crack along the side of a Les Paul Body
 | I few years ago I was given my dad’s 70’s LP. It was a few years later when I noticed this crack. Goes from right around the strap button to about the midpoint of the body. submitted by squishyliquid to Luthier [link] [comments] Is this common? He doesn’t remember dropping it and it doesn’t strike me as consistent with trauma. It hasn’t seen any while under my care. I’m more inclined to believe it could happen from 50 years of temp/humidity changes. Speaking of, during the most humid parts of the year, the crack becomes almost invisible. Is it repairable? Is it something worth worrying about? He’s rather upset about it but it’s not like it’s ever getting sold so I’m more concerned about its effect on the guitars longevity. Thanks in advance for any insight. |
2024.05.14 21:28 PhunkmasterD Improving the "Dungeon Exploration" Elements of the Game
A lot of discussion has been recently had about the "core gameplay" of Dark and Darker, and how that core gameplay feels like it has been lost from the game. Dark and Darker, as intended by the devs and enjoyed by the player base, is a PvPvE dungeon crawler extraction game. However, recently it feels that the gameplay has become more of a PvP fantasy battle royale, where players rush to find fights and PvE is more of a nuisance than a core mechanic. So, what could ironmace do to bring back the PvE dungeon crawler half of the game?
I think a lot of these ideas are better with the removal of swarm, and create systems that encourage players to move through the dungeon looking for points of interest instead of rushing the location of already known high quality loot areas or constantly chasing the circle.
Dynamic Modules
A recent post made a strong case for dynamic modules, meaning a system where instead of static layouts modules instead work like puzzle pieces that get jumbled up for every lobby. In my opinion, this should also include a fog of war effect on the minimap that obscures adjacent modules until they are explored. We already have a low level of randomization in enemy/chest spawns, but I think dynamic modules could also step this up with more randomization of enemy spawns. Personally, I think this dynamic modules alone would fix a lot of issues in the game and would keep runs fresh and exciting.
Mini-Modules/Secret Rooms
As part of the dynamic module system, I think adding more secret rooms to the dungeon would be beneficial. These would be a pool of randomized, small rooms that attach to existing modules and would provide high quality loot (lions head/golden/marvelous chest, gem/weapon spawns). These already exist, but the lack of randomization means players already know all the locations and how to access them. Adding mini-puzzles to access these rooms would be great, such as hidden levers and illusory walls.
Improving Special Keys
Skull, golden, and previously rusty keys have always been used as a store of value instead of a dungeon exploration tool. In my opinion, instead of being something you bring into the dungeon, special keys should instead be items that commonly drop from mini-bosses which are used to access loot rooms from the dungeon you are currently in. Extracting with keys would cause them to crumble to dust. With dynamic modules, this could add an exciting layer of exploration where players either find a key and have to search for the loot room, or find a loot room and go after mini-bosses for the keys.
Wandering Merchants
I think this is a no brainer, basically the dungeon should have merchants with a chance to spawn (possibly in special rooms) that can give you some kind of benefit in the dungeon. You could use collected treasure and gold to purchase things like high rarity weapons, surgical kits, campfires, and restock on potions, bandages, and arrows. The goblin merchant could be used to send items back to your stash mid-raid.
Better Quests
Better quests could utilize the wandering merchants to make them more engaging and tie them into the dungeon better. Instead of kill x and fetch quests, a quest might be triggered when you find the leathersmith that causes the miniboss which has captured his daughter to spawn, which then needs to be tracked down and killed for the reward upon returning to the tavern. I think having a big pool of randomized quests that occur in the dungeon, each of which provides affinity, would be more engaging than our current system. Instead of being a checklist you grind, quests would be based on exploring the dungeon. I'd be concerned about RNG in this system, but perhaps one way to mitigate would be displaying which merchants are in each dungeon during each rotation.
Exploration/Mapping Tools
With randomized dungeon and randomized PoI's/merchants in the game, new items to help with exploration and navigation could be added. A dungeon map would be a supplied item that lets you view the explored dungeon, and on defeating another player you would be able to fill out your map with the locations they've found. This could also be tied into the AP system, with AP provided for each module that is filled on your map and a large AP boost for completely exploring the map. Treasure maps could be found in chests/on mobs which would indicate the general location of a high value treasure. Compasses could be used to track down static exits and portals. Locator stones could be put in that help you find the location of the wandering merchants.
submitted by PhunkmasterD to DarkAndDarker [link] [comments]
I think a lot of these ideas are better with the removal of swarm, and create systems that encourage players to move through the dungeon looking for points of interest instead of rushing the location of already known high quality loot areas or constantly chasing the circle.
Dynamic Modules
A recent post made a strong case for dynamic modules, meaning a system where instead of static layouts modules instead work like puzzle pieces that get jumbled up for every lobby. In my opinion, this should also include a fog of war effect on the minimap that obscures adjacent modules until they are explored. We already have a low level of randomization in enemy/chest spawns, but I think dynamic modules could also step this up with more randomization of enemy spawns. Personally, I think this dynamic modules alone would fix a lot of issues in the game and would keep runs fresh and exciting.
Mini-Modules/Secret Rooms
As part of the dynamic module system, I think adding more secret rooms to the dungeon would be beneficial. These would be a pool of randomized, small rooms that attach to existing modules and would provide high quality loot (lions head/golden/marvelous chest, gem/weapon spawns). These already exist, but the lack of randomization means players already know all the locations and how to access them. Adding mini-puzzles to access these rooms would be great, such as hidden levers and illusory walls.
Improving Special Keys
Skull, golden, and previously rusty keys have always been used as a store of value instead of a dungeon exploration tool. In my opinion, instead of being something you bring into the dungeon, special keys should instead be items that commonly drop from mini-bosses which are used to access loot rooms from the dungeon you are currently in. Extracting with keys would cause them to crumble to dust. With dynamic modules, this could add an exciting layer of exploration where players either find a key and have to search for the loot room, or find a loot room and go after mini-bosses for the keys.
Wandering Merchants
I think this is a no brainer, basically the dungeon should have merchants with a chance to spawn (possibly in special rooms) that can give you some kind of benefit in the dungeon. You could use collected treasure and gold to purchase things like high rarity weapons, surgical kits, campfires, and restock on potions, bandages, and arrows. The goblin merchant could be used to send items back to your stash mid-raid.
Better Quests
Better quests could utilize the wandering merchants to make them more engaging and tie them into the dungeon better. Instead of kill x and fetch quests, a quest might be triggered when you find the leathersmith that causes the miniboss which has captured his daughter to spawn, which then needs to be tracked down and killed for the reward upon returning to the tavern. I think having a big pool of randomized quests that occur in the dungeon, each of which provides affinity, would be more engaging than our current system. Instead of being a checklist you grind, quests would be based on exploring the dungeon. I'd be concerned about RNG in this system, but perhaps one way to mitigate would be displaying which merchants are in each dungeon during each rotation.
Exploration/Mapping Tools
With randomized dungeon and randomized PoI's/merchants in the game, new items to help with exploration and navigation could be added. A dungeon map would be a supplied item that lets you view the explored dungeon, and on defeating another player you would be able to fill out your map with the locations they've found. This could also be tied into the AP system, with AP provided for each module that is filled on your map and a large AP boost for completely exploring the map. Treasure maps could be found in chests/on mobs which would indicate the general location of a high value treasure. Compasses could be used to track down static exits and portals. Locator stones could be put in that help you find the location of the wandering merchants.
2024.05.14 21:26 Sweet-Count2557 Best Things to Do in Tannersville Pa
 | Best Things to Do in Tannersville Pa Are you ready for the ultimate adventure in Tannersville, PA? We've got the inside scoop on the best things to do in this charming town.Get ready to experience heart-pumping water slides, unbeatable shopping deals, and thrilling mountain adventures. And that's just the beginning!With breathtaking views, winter sports galore, and plenty of entertainment options, Tannersville has something for everyone.Join us as we uncover the hidden gems and unforgettable experiences that await you in this picturesque paradise.Let's make memories together in Tannersville, PA.Key TakeawaysCamelbeach Mountain Waterpark is the largest outdoor waterpark in Pennsylvania, offering thrilling slides and a lazy river for relaxation.The Crossings Premium Outlets is a great place for shopping, with over 100 designer and name-brand outlet shops and savings of up to 65% every day.Camelback Mountain Adventures offers a selection of obstacles and zipline courses, with stunning views of Camelback Mountain. It is suitable for outdoor enthusiasts of all ages.Big Pocono State Park, located at the summit of Camelback Mountain, offers amazing scenic views of surrounding trees and forests, making it perfect for a romantic picnic and sunset viewing.Outdoor Water ActivitiesWhen it comes to outdoor water activities in Tannersville, Pa, we can't resist the thrill of Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark. As the largest outdoor waterpark in Pennsylvania, it offers an array of exciting attractions for all ages. One of the highlights of the park are the best water slides you'll ever experience. From the heart-pounding adrenaline rush of the Triple Venom to the twists and turns of the Titan, these slides will leave you breathless and craving for more.But Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark isn't just about extreme slides. It's also a family-friendly waterpark, perfect for a summer outing with kids. The park features a lazy river, where you can relax and float along while enjoying the beautiful surroundings. There are also smaller slides and play areas specifically designed for younger children, ensuring that everyone in the family can have a fantastic time.The park's vibrant atmosphere and lively energy make it a haven for those seeking freedom and excitement. Whether you're plunging down a thrilling water slide or lounging by the pool, Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark offers the perfect escape from the mundane. The park's dedication to safety and cleanliness ensures a worry-free experience, allowing you to focus solely on having fun and creating lasting memories with your loved ones.ShoppingWhen it comes to shopping in Tannersville, we've got you covered with some top-notch outlet shops.The Crossings Premium Outlets is a must-visit, offering over 100 designer and name-brand shops where you can find savings of up to 65% every day.Whether you're looking for a rainy day activity or just want to indulge in some retail therapy, these outlets have something for everyone.Top Outlet ShopsIf you're a shopaholic looking for the best deals, Tannersville is the place to be. The Crossings Premium Outlets is a shopaholic's paradise, offering over 100 designer and name-brand outlet shops. Here, you can find savings of up to 65% every day, making it the perfect destination for those looking to score great deals on their favorite brands.From clothing and accessories to home goods and electronics, The Crossings has it all. So grab your shopping bags and get ready to indulge in a day of retail therapy at Tannersville's top outlet shops.Rainy Day ActivitiesLet's head indoors and explore the shopping options in Tannersville, PA on a rainy day.When the weather isn't cooperating, there are plenty of indoor attractions to keep you entertained.One of the top choices is The Crossings Premium Outlets. With over 100 designer and name-brand outlet shops, you'll find savings of up to 65% every day. It's the perfect place to score some great deals on clothing, accessories, and more.Plus, the outlets are family-friendly, offering a variety of stores for all ages. Whether you're searching for a new outfit or just want to browse through the stores, The Crossings Premium Outlets is a fantastic option for a rainy day activity in Tannersville.Adventure ActivitiesOne of the best adventure activities in Tannersville, PA is exploring the selection of obstacles and zipline courses offered at Camelback Mountain Adventures. This thrilling experience allows you to soar through the treetops and conquer challenging courses while enjoying stunning views of Camelback Mountain.Here are four reasons why you should add this activity to your itinerary:Zipline Courses: Feel the rush of adrenaline as you zip across the sky on the exhilarating zipline courses. Fly through the air, feeling the wind in your hair and the freedom beneath your feet. It's an experience that will make you feel alive and leave you wanting more.TreeTop Adventure Courses: Challenge yourself with the TreeTop Adventure Courses, where you can navigate through a series of obstacles high up in the trees. Test your balance, strength, and agility as you climb, swing, and jump your way through the course. It's a thrilling adventure that will push you to your limits.Stunning Views: As you participate in these adventure activities, you'll be treated to breathtaking views of Camelback Mountain. Take in the beauty of the surrounding landscape as you conquer each obstacle or soar through the air. It's an experience that combines adventure with natural beauty.Suitable for All Ages: Whether you're a seasoned outdoor enthusiast or someone looking to try something new, Camelback Mountain Adventures offers activities for all ages and skill levels. From kids to adults, everyone can join in on the fun and excitement. So gather your friends and family and embark on an unforgettable adventure.Embarking on these adventure activities in Tannersville, PA will provide you with a sense of freedom and exhilaration. So don't miss out on the opportunity to explore the obstacles and zipline courses at Camelback Mountain Adventures. Get ready to soar through the treetops and create memories that will last a lifetime.Scenic Nature ExperiencesGet ready to be amazed by the scenic beauty of Tannersville, Pennsylvania. With breathtaking mountain views, romantic picnic spots, and rugged terrain waiting to be explored, there's something for everyone to enjoy in this nature lover's paradise.Whether you're seeking a peaceful escape or an adventurous hike, Tannersville offers a variety of scenic nature experiences that will leave you in awe of its natural wonders.Breathtaking Mountain ViewsWe can immerse ourselves in breathtaking mountain views at Big Pocono State Park, located at the summit of Camelback Mountain. Here are four reasons why this scenic nature experience is a must-visit:Mountain Hiking: Lace up your hiking boots and explore the park's 1,306 acres of rugged terrain. From well-marked trails to more challenging routes, there's something for every level of hiker.Photography Spots: Grab your camera and capture the stunning views of the surrounding trees and forests. Whether you're an amateur or a professional, you'll find plenty of picture-perfect moments.Panoramic Overlooks: Stand in awe as you take in the panoramic views of the Pocono Mountains. The vastness of the landscape will leave you feeling inspired and connected to nature.Sunset Viewing: End your day with a romantic picnic and watch the sunset paint the sky in vibrant hues. The tranquil atmosphere and breathtaking backdrop make this the perfect spot for a memorable evening.Now that we've enjoyed the breathtaking mountain views, let's explore the next section: 'Romantic Picnic Spots'.Romantic Picnic SpotsLet's find the perfect spot for a romantic picnic amidst the scenic nature of Tannersville, Pa.Tannersville is blessed with stunning natural landscapes that provide the ideal backdrop for a romantic outing.One of the best picnic spots in the area is Big Pocono State Park. With its 1,306 acres of rugged terrain and breathtaking views, it offers the perfect setting for a romantic picnic and sunset viewing.Imagine spreading out a blanket on the lush green grass, surrounded by towering trees and the sounds of nature.It's the perfect opportunity to enjoy some quality time with your loved one, indulging in delicious food and creating lasting memories.Rugged Terrain ExplorationWe can explore the rugged terrain of Tannersville, Pa and immerse ourselves in scenic nature experiences. Here are four activities that allow us to truly appreciate the beauty of this area:Hiking Trails: Tannersville offers a variety of hiking trails that wind through its rugged terrain. From easy, leisurely strolls to challenging treks, there's something for everyone. Lace up your boots, grab your water bottle, and embark on an adventure surrounded by breathtaking landscapes.Outdoor Photography: With its stunning natural beauty, Tannersville is a paradise for outdoor photographers. Capture the vibrant colors of the changing seasons, the majestic mountains, and the hidden gems that can be found along the trails. Let your creativity soar as you snap pictures of the picturesque landscapes.Nature Walks: Take a leisurely stroll through Tannersville's scenic nature areas and immerse yourself in the tranquility of the surroundings. Listen to the sounds of birds chirping, breathe in the fresh air, and allow yourself to be completely present in the moment. These nature walks offer a peaceful escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.Wildlife Spotting: Keep an eye out for the diverse wildlife that calls Tannersville home. From deer grazing in meadows to squirrels bounding through the trees, there are plenty of opportunities to observe and appreciate the natural inhabitants of this rugged terrain.Skiing and SnowboardingWhile visiting Tannersville, Pa, one of the best things to do is to go skiing and snowboarding at Camelback Mountain Ski Resort. This ski resort offers a range of amenities to ensure an unforgettable experience on the slopes. From well-groomed trails to state-of-the-art equipment rentals, Camelback has everything you need for a thrilling day on the mountain.To give you a better idea of what to expect, here is a table outlining some of the ski resort amenities:Ski Resort AmenitiesDescriptionWell-groomed TrailsEnjoy smooth and carefully maintained slopesEquipment RentalsRent top-of-the-line skis, snowboards, and bootsSki LessonsLearn from experienced instructorsTerrain ParksTest your skills on jumps, rails, and featuresSnow TubingHave a blast sliding down snow-filled lanesMountain DiningRefuel with delicious food and drinksOn-site Lodging OptionsStay just steps away from the slopesIn addition to these amenities, Camelback Mountain Ski Resort is a great place to learn and improve your snowboarding techniques. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced rider, the resort offers lessons for all skill levels. You can learn basic techniques, master advanced maneuvers, or even try your hand at freestyle tricks in the terrain parks. With a variety of slopes and features, there's something for everyone at Camelback.Recreational ParkMountain View Park in Tannersville, PA offers a wide selection of recreational activities for outdoor enthusiasts of all ages. Here are some of the highlights:Mountain Biking: Get your adrenaline pumping as you navigate the thrilling mountain biking trails at Mountain View Park. With varying levels of difficulty, these trails cater to both beginners and experienced riders. Feel the rush as you speed down the slopes and conquer the challenging terrain. It's an exhilarating adventure that will leave you wanting more.Playgrounds: Bring your kids to the playgrounds at Mountain View Park for hours of fun and laughter. The park features multiple playgrounds with swings, slides, climbing structures, and more. Watch as your little ones explore and interact with other children, fostering their creativity and social skills. It's a great way for the whole family to bond and enjoy quality time together.Softball, Soccer, Tennis, and Basketball Courts: Sports enthusiasts will love the variety of recreational facilities available at Mountain View Park. Whether you prefer a game of softball, soccer, tennis, or basketball, you'll find well-maintained courts and fields for you to showcase your skills. Gather your friends or join a local team for some friendly competition and enjoy the freedom of playing your favorite sport in a beautiful outdoor setting.Tree House and Nature Walking Trails: Immerse yourself in nature at Mountain View Park's tree house and nature walking trails. The tree house provides a unique vantage point to appreciate the park's natural beauty, while the walking trails offer a peaceful escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Take a leisurely stroll, breathe in the fresh air, and spot local wildlife along the way. It's a rejuvenating experience that allows you to connect with the freedom of the great outdoors.Mountain View Park in Tannersville, PA is a recreational paradise, offering something for everyone. Whether you're an avid mountain biker, a parent looking for a fun playground, a sports enthusiast, or simply seeking tranquility in nature, this park has it all. So grab your gear, gather your loved ones, and head to Mountain View Park for a day of adventure, laughter, and freedom.Brewery and EntertainmentLet's check out Barley Creek Brewing Company, the first microbrewery in the Pocono Mountains since Prohibition, for some delicious eats, good brews, live entertainment, and a lively crowd. This brewery and entertainment hotspot is the perfect place to unwind and have a great time with friends and family.Barley Creek Brewing Company is known for its wide selection of craft beers. From hoppy IPAs to smooth and refreshing lagers, there's a beer for every taste. The skilled brewers at Barley Creek take pride in their craft, using only the finest ingredients to create unique and flavorful brews. Whether you're a beer connoisseur or just looking to try something new, you won't be disappointed with the quality and variety of beers available.But Barley Creek isn't just about the beer. They also offer an exciting lineup of live music to keep you entertained while you sip on your favorite brew. From local bands to well-known artists, the live music at Barley Creek is sure to get you grooving. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the sounds of talented musicians while you enjoy your pint.The atmosphere at Barley Creek is lively and vibrant, making it the perfect place to socialize and meet new people. Whether you're sitting at the bar, chatting with the friendly staff, or dancing to the live music, you'll feel right at home in this welcoming and energetic environment.In addition to their delicious eats, good brews, live music, and lively crowd, Barley Creek Brewing Company also offers a range of events and activities throughout the year. From beer tastings and trivia nights to themed parties and special promotions, there's always something exciting happening at Barley Creek.Frequently Asked QuestionsAre There Any Age Restrictions for the Slides at Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark?Age restrictions for the slides at Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark vary for safety reasons. Safety measures are in place to ensure a fun and secure experience for all guests.Specific height and age requirements are posted at each slide entrance to ensure that riders meet the necessary criteria. These restrictions are implemented to prevent any potential accidents or injuries.The waterpark prioritizes the well-being of its visitors and strives to provide a safe environment for everyone to enjoy.What Are Some Popular Designer Brands Available at the Crossings Premium Outlets?At the Crossings Premium Outlets, you'll find a treasure trove of popular designer brands. With over 100 name-brand shops, you can score amazing savings of up to 65% every day.From high-end fashion to trendy accessories, there's something for everyone's style. Whether it's a rainy day or you simply love shopping, this is one of the best spots in Tannersville, PA.Get ready to shop 'til you drop and fill your wardrobe with fabulous finds.Can Beginners Participate in the Treetop Adventure Courses at Camelback Mountain Adventures?Treetop adventure courses at Camelback Mountain Adventures are suitable for beginners. Here are some tips for beginners in treetop adventure courses:Start with the easier courses.Take your time to familiarize yourself with the obstacles.Listen to the instructions provided by the staff.These courses offer a thrilling experience while enjoying stunning views of Camelback Mountain.Is There an Entrance Fee for Big Pocono State Park?There is no entrance fee for Big Pocono State Park, making it a great option for those seeking outdoor adventures without breaking the bank.The park offers breathtaking views of the surrounding trees and forests, making it the perfect spot for a romantic picnic or sunset viewing.The best time to visit is during the warmer months, when you can explore the park's 1,306 acres of rugged terrain and enjoy the beauty of nature.Does Camelback Mountain Ski Resort Offer Ski Lessons for Beginners?Yes, Camelback Mountain Ski Resort does offer ski lessons for beginners.Whether you're new to skiing or just want to brush up on the basics, their experienced instructors will guide you through the process.You'll learn essential skills such as proper stance, turning techniques, and how to control your speed.With their patient and supportive approach, you'll gain confidence on the slopes in no time.Skiing at Camelback Mountain is a fantastic way to embrace the freedom of winter sports.ConclusionIn conclusion, whether you're seeking outdoor water fun, thrilling adventures, scenic beauty, or simply a great meal with entertainment, Tannersville, PA has it all.From the exciting slides of Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark, to the designer shops at The Crossings Premium Outlets, to the breathtaking views at Big Pocono State Park, there's something for everyone to enjoy.So come and experience the best that Tannersville has to offer and create unforgettable memories in this charming town. submitted by Sweet-Count2557 to worldkidstravel [link] [comments] |
2024.05.14 21:24 Technical-Pie-5775 Trip Report: 10 nights from the UK (very long)
For context: we have two kids age 8 and 5.
Just back from 10 nights at POFQ, our first ever Disney trip. Overall really liked the hotel, it's a shame they had a pipe burst in their swimming pool and it was being repaired for most of our stay, but it was still a really nice place. Swimming pool at Riverside was only a 10 min walk away.
I had a good outline of our itinerary for the whole stay written up before we left with plenty of ADRs , however what we actually did was quite different.
Wrote up as much as I could remember, the exact order of events in particular is a bit muddy but I did my best.
Day 1: Arrive in the early evening, went to the pool, had inner in the food hall, went to bed.
Day 2: Genie + at Magic Kingdom. Totally screwed up EE that day because the park opened at 8am that day which caught me off guard, but aside from not rope-dropping Seven Dwarves as planned, we still got SO much done that day.
Arrived at 8am park opening.
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain x 2
Pirates of the Carribbean
Ariel
Barnstormer x 2
Dumbo
Genie + Peter Pan
Laugh Floor
Genie + Buzz Lightyear
Peoplemover
Genie + Space Mountain/Speedway (in two parts since my youngest didn't go on it, I took both my kids to speedway while my husband had his turn)
Big Thunder again
Small World (but son needed toilet in queue so we left and husband and daughter stayed)
Then we went back into Smallworld while daughter and husband did Barnstormer again.
Genie + Winnie the Pooh.
Dinner at Skipper Canteen - so good!
We also watched the parade that day but it was sooo hot, we opted for a poorer view from a main street shop in the shade. Was not worth sticking out the heat for the length of time you would need to get an optimal view. I think trying to go our very first day was a mistake because we weren't acclimatised at all yet.
The longest queue we had that day was probably for Smallworld. Everything moved really quickly! Was also happy with Genie+.
Day 2: Animal Kingdom
Had entry issues and needed cards re-assigned at entry so kinda messed up FOP EE rope drop but husband and daughter persevered anyway. Son and I did Na'vi River and explored Pandora and stared Wilderness Explorers. Spent a LOT of time in Pandora gift shop.
Gorilla Trek
Wildlife Express and Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Festival of the Lion King (so good!)
It's Tough to be a Bug
Triceratops Spin
Had really nice homey feeling cookie and gigantic ice cream in Dinoland
Dinosaur (3 of us loved this ride, my son thought it was a bit too scary also it seemed like they should increase the height requirement because he could barely reach the bar to brace himself. I know it's being discontinued though.)
Safari
Dinner at hotel.
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Successful EE rope drop for Rise of the Resistance
Smuggler's Run
Met Donald Duck
Met Goofy and Max
Star Tours
Runaway Railway (queue was brutal in the sun but it was a great ride)
Indiana Jones Show
Star Tours again
Muppets 3d
Race Academy - did not know what to expect coming in. If we had known we would not have trekked all the way across the park in the heat for that. My son DID like it, but it really didn't feel like it was the same quality as any of the other shows or rides.
Went back to Galaxy's edge for Blue and Green milk + puffbread. All really good. We possibly did Star Tour again, I don't remember haha.
The wait times for everything else being very long + the heat had us going back to the hotel early.
Dinner at hotel.
Day 4: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tried to EE rope drop 7 dwarves but it was down and we decided not to wait it out (rookie mistake)
Teacups
Thunder Mountain x 2
Split up and did Haunted Mansion/ Smallworld (and got stuck on Smallworld for like 15 minutes)
Haunted mansion crew did Carousel while waiting for us, then we did Carousel after.
Took Daughter to meet Pooh and Tigger while the others did Speedway + People Mover
Back to hotel early for dinner.
Day 5: Genie + Epcot.
Failed to get Guardians Boarding at 7am.
EE Test Track
Mission Space (Green)
Genie + Remy
Genie + Soarin
Moana water walkthrough
Genie + Living with the Land
Got boarding for guardians for about 6pm. Cancelled ADR because of it.
Spaceship Earth
Met Moana
Genie + Nemo
Genie + Figment
Met Figment
Met Joy
Nemo again
Quick Dinner in Mexico
Gran Fiesta Tour (honestly had no idea this was here, really cool building, kids liked the boat ride)
Finally boarding group for guardians called at nearly 7pm.
Really great day! I seemed to be able to book really quickly back to back for Genie +. Kids really liked all the chill dark rides .
Wanted to do Frozen that day but the Genie+ was sold out even before lunch.
At this point we are really just trying to get things we missed
Day 6: Magic Kingdom Day 3
Successful EE rope drop of Seven Dwarves. Said 75 min wait when we entered but it really wasn't too bad, maybe 30-45. This ride had amazing theming, but was lacking as a coaster.
Teacups
Split up and 2 of us did astral orbiter that had a wait time of 25 minutes, and the other 2 did space mountain with a wait time of 35 minutes. Space mountain finished first!
Carousel
Swiss Family Treehouse
Enchanted Tiki Room
Magic Carpet - this seemed to be my son's favourite of this style ride. He's been talking about magic carpets evey day since.
We actually had a boarding time for Tron but the kids got fed up of the heat so we gave up and cancelled or place in the virtual queue.
Took the train back to the entrance. Very pleasant.
Dinner at hotel
Day 7
Epcot Day 2
We really wanted to do Cosmic Rewind again and do Frozen since we missed it the other day.
We failed to get a 7am boarding so bought an ILL for 11:30
EE rope drop at Frozen, which was down and they tried to get us to go elsewhere but it was open by about 8:45.
Gran Fiesta Tour
Met Asha
We were going to go do Soarin but we got distracted by a giant Joffrey's donut and a squirrel that was fun to watch, and then there was a minor child meltdown so we had a long break before heading to our ILL for Cosmic Rewind. Totally worth the cost.
I tried one last time to see if the kids would explore the World Showcase but they voted to go to the waterpark instead.
We went back to the hotel, then off to Typhoon Lagoon where 3/4 of us got minor scrapes in the wave pool, but kids loved it and would have gone back a second day.
Went back to Disney Springs and got dinner at Chicken Guy. Probably the best fast food I have ever had.
Day 8
Animal Kingdom Day 2
This was a lot of running around chasing short queues. Genie + would have been really good for us at this park.
EE rope drop Everest x 2. Was really good but going backwards made my stomach a bit iffy.
Na'vi River
Safari (finally saw an elephant!)
Nemo Show
Lion King Show again
Met Dug (first character my son was actually excited to meet)
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Back to Disney Springs for Dinner. Went to Pizza Ponte so we could all choose a different topping of pizza. Also walked around and heard live music before we left.
Took daughter to Happily Ever After fireworks that night. Stood above the railway station for a quick escape at the end.
Day 9
Last day :(
Genie + Hollywood Studios
Genie + didn't seem to work as well at this park, it seemed at Epcot I could always book after entering a ride and we used it a lot but at HS it seemed strictly 2 hours apart. Maybe I am just not seeing it clearly.
On reflection , next time I would probably do Slinky Dog at EE followed by Runaway Railway and buy an ILL for Rise and skip Genie + if I was looking to save some money. I would de-prioritise Toy Story Mania next time, but our first day we missed all of the Toy Story area.
EE rope drop Rise of the Resistance. Pretty sure we were on the ride before EE even officially started.
Smuggler's Run
Met The Mandalorian and Grogu (probably the best meet!)
Star Tours
Alien Flying Saucers
Droid Depot
Genie + Slinky dog
Beauty and the Beast show
Met Chewbacca
Met Pluto
Genie + Runaway Railway
Star Tours again
Genie + Toy Story Mania. Ride broke down while in queue. Waited for ages before the put us on the other side, almost missed our next booking.
Oga's Canteen. Tried 4 different non-alcoholic drinks and they were all good. It was super cool. Only downside is we had a high table (standing only) and my son couldn't see the top of the table/anything and he was pretty unimpressed by the whole situation. Flying Saucers Mama Melrose for dinner. Muppets 3d Fantasmic. I read 15 min early "at least" aimed for 30 minutes early, and the place was well more than half full by then. Took a really long time to leave. If there is a next time I would go much earlier and bring snacks just to make getting out easier. Overall I was hugely impressed with the level of detail in everything, and all the cast members were amazing. It was a really cool experience, and it's hard to imagine never going back. If there is a next time I really want to explore the world showcase and do more sit-down meals. We had a lot planned but the kids didn't have the stamina for being in the park all day so we cancelled almost all of them. We also ended up doing parks in a somewhat different order than I initially planned. Kids got really tired of travelling on buses, which is also why we didn't break in the middle of the day and then going back to the parks. Would look at skyliner options next time. Things we didn't get to do:
Try dole whip (never noticed a place to buy it, ice cream was often an urgent necessity so didn't seek it out specifically) Tron (too hot to wait for boarding group when it was already day 3 at magic Kingdom and basically felt done.) Explore World Showcase (too much walking for few rides, from kids' perspective) Eat for fun more (we ate more out of necessity but found fun snacks when convenient) Tower of Terror (queues too long and genie + bookings too late) Frozen Singalong (timing never seemed to work out) Luminous (son had no interest in late night shows so we only did a couple things at night.) Take ride on skyliner. Something that surprised me: queues for popular rides stayed long even at 9pm. Couldn't see a viable alternative to EE rope drop + genie plus to get all the big rides "done" except perhaps if you had extended evening hours, but that would not have worked with our kids. Number of beignets consumed during our stay: 12
submitted by Technical-Pie-5775 to WaltDisneyWorld [link] [comments]
Just back from 10 nights at POFQ, our first ever Disney trip. Overall really liked the hotel, it's a shame they had a pipe burst in their swimming pool and it was being repaired for most of our stay, but it was still a really nice place. Swimming pool at Riverside was only a 10 min walk away.
I had a good outline of our itinerary for the whole stay written up before we left with plenty of ADRs , however what we actually did was quite different.
Wrote up as much as I could remember, the exact order of events in particular is a bit muddy but I did my best.
Day 1: Arrive in the early evening, went to the pool, had inner in the food hall, went to bed.
Day 2: Genie + at Magic Kingdom. Totally screwed up EE that day because the park opened at 8am that day which caught me off guard, but aside from not rope-dropping Seven Dwarves as planned, we still got SO much done that day.
Arrived at 8am park opening.
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain x 2
Pirates of the Carribbean
Ariel
Barnstormer x 2
Dumbo
Genie + Peter Pan
Laugh Floor
Genie + Buzz Lightyear
Peoplemover
Genie + Space Mountain/Speedway (in two parts since my youngest didn't go on it, I took both my kids to speedway while my husband had his turn)
Big Thunder again
Small World (but son needed toilet in queue so we left and husband and daughter stayed)
Then we went back into Smallworld while daughter and husband did Barnstormer again.
Genie + Winnie the Pooh.
Dinner at Skipper Canteen - so good!
We also watched the parade that day but it was sooo hot, we opted for a poorer view from a main street shop in the shade. Was not worth sticking out the heat for the length of time you would need to get an optimal view. I think trying to go our very first day was a mistake because we weren't acclimatised at all yet.
The longest queue we had that day was probably for Smallworld. Everything moved really quickly! Was also happy with Genie+.
Day 2: Animal Kingdom
Had entry issues and needed cards re-assigned at entry so kinda messed up FOP EE rope drop but husband and daughter persevered anyway. Son and I did Na'vi River and explored Pandora and stared Wilderness Explorers. Spent a LOT of time in Pandora gift shop.
Gorilla Trek
Wildlife Express and Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Festival of the Lion King (so good!)
It's Tough to be a Bug
Triceratops Spin
Had really nice homey feeling cookie and gigantic ice cream in Dinoland
Dinosaur (3 of us loved this ride, my son thought it was a bit too scary also it seemed like they should increase the height requirement because he could barely reach the bar to brace himself. I know it's being discontinued though.)
Safari
Dinner at hotel.
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Successful EE rope drop for Rise of the Resistance
Smuggler's Run
Met Donald Duck
Met Goofy and Max
Star Tours
Runaway Railway (queue was brutal in the sun but it was a great ride)
Indiana Jones Show
Star Tours again
Muppets 3d
Race Academy - did not know what to expect coming in. If we had known we would not have trekked all the way across the park in the heat for that. My son DID like it, but it really didn't feel like it was the same quality as any of the other shows or rides.
Went back to Galaxy's edge for Blue and Green milk + puffbread. All really good. We possibly did Star Tour again, I don't remember haha.
The wait times for everything else being very long + the heat had us going back to the hotel early.
Dinner at hotel.
Day 4: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tried to EE rope drop 7 dwarves but it was down and we decided not to wait it out (rookie mistake)
Teacups
Thunder Mountain x 2
Split up and did Haunted Mansion/ Smallworld (and got stuck on Smallworld for like 15 minutes)
Haunted mansion crew did Carousel while waiting for us, then we did Carousel after.
Took Daughter to meet Pooh and Tigger while the others did Speedway + People Mover
Back to hotel early for dinner.
Day 5: Genie + Epcot.
Failed to get Guardians Boarding at 7am.
EE Test Track
Mission Space (Green)
Genie + Remy
Genie + Soarin
Moana water walkthrough
Genie + Living with the Land
Got boarding for guardians for about 6pm. Cancelled ADR because of it.
Spaceship Earth
Met Moana
Genie + Nemo
Genie + Figment
Met Figment
Met Joy
Nemo again
Quick Dinner in Mexico
Gran Fiesta Tour (honestly had no idea this was here, really cool building, kids liked the boat ride)
Finally boarding group for guardians called at nearly 7pm.
Really great day! I seemed to be able to book really quickly back to back for Genie +. Kids really liked all the chill dark rides .
Wanted to do Frozen that day but the Genie+ was sold out even before lunch.
At this point we are really just trying to get things we missed
Day 6: Magic Kingdom Day 3
Successful EE rope drop of Seven Dwarves. Said 75 min wait when we entered but it really wasn't too bad, maybe 30-45. This ride had amazing theming, but was lacking as a coaster.
Teacups
Split up and 2 of us did astral orbiter that had a wait time of 25 minutes, and the other 2 did space mountain with a wait time of 35 minutes. Space mountain finished first!
Carousel
Swiss Family Treehouse
Enchanted Tiki Room
Magic Carpet - this seemed to be my son's favourite of this style ride. He's been talking about magic carpets evey day since.
We actually had a boarding time for Tron but the kids got fed up of the heat so we gave up and cancelled or place in the virtual queue.
Took the train back to the entrance. Very pleasant.
Dinner at hotel
Day 7
Epcot Day 2
We really wanted to do Cosmic Rewind again and do Frozen since we missed it the other day.
We failed to get a 7am boarding so bought an ILL for 11:30
EE rope drop at Frozen, which was down and they tried to get us to go elsewhere but it was open by about 8:45.
Gran Fiesta Tour
Met Asha
We were going to go do Soarin but we got distracted by a giant Joffrey's donut and a squirrel that was fun to watch, and then there was a minor child meltdown so we had a long break before heading to our ILL for Cosmic Rewind. Totally worth the cost.
I tried one last time to see if the kids would explore the World Showcase but they voted to go to the waterpark instead.
We went back to the hotel, then off to Typhoon Lagoon where 3/4 of us got minor scrapes in the wave pool, but kids loved it and would have gone back a second day.
Went back to Disney Springs and got dinner at Chicken Guy. Probably the best fast food I have ever had.
Day 8
Animal Kingdom Day 2
This was a lot of running around chasing short queues. Genie + would have been really good for us at this park.
EE rope drop Everest x 2. Was really good but going backwards made my stomach a bit iffy.
Na'vi River
Safari (finally saw an elephant!)
Nemo Show
Lion King Show again
Met Dug (first character my son was actually excited to meet)
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Back to Disney Springs for Dinner. Went to Pizza Ponte so we could all choose a different topping of pizza. Also walked around and heard live music before we left.
Took daughter to Happily Ever After fireworks that night. Stood above the railway station for a quick escape at the end.
Day 9
Last day :(
Genie + Hollywood Studios
Genie + didn't seem to work as well at this park, it seemed at Epcot I could always book after entering a ride and we used it a lot but at HS it seemed strictly 2 hours apart. Maybe I am just not seeing it clearly.
On reflection , next time I would probably do Slinky Dog at EE followed by Runaway Railway and buy an ILL for Rise and skip Genie + if I was looking to save some money. I would de-prioritise Toy Story Mania next time, but our first day we missed all of the Toy Story area.
EE rope drop Rise of the Resistance. Pretty sure we were on the ride before EE even officially started.
Smuggler's Run
Met The Mandalorian and Grogu (probably the best meet!)
Star Tours
Alien Flying Saucers
Droid Depot
Genie + Slinky dog
Beauty and the Beast show
Met Chewbacca
Met Pluto
Genie + Runaway Railway
Star Tours again
Genie + Toy Story Mania. Ride broke down while in queue. Waited for ages before the put us on the other side, almost missed our next booking.
Oga's Canteen. Tried 4 different non-alcoholic drinks and they were all good. It was super cool. Only downside is we had a high table (standing only) and my son couldn't see the top of the table/anything and he was pretty unimpressed by the whole situation. Flying Saucers Mama Melrose for dinner. Muppets 3d Fantasmic. I read 15 min early "at least" aimed for 30 minutes early, and the place was well more than half full by then. Took a really long time to leave. If there is a next time I would go much earlier and bring snacks just to make getting out easier. Overall I was hugely impressed with the level of detail in everything, and all the cast members were amazing. It was a really cool experience, and it's hard to imagine never going back. If there is a next time I really want to explore the world showcase and do more sit-down meals. We had a lot planned but the kids didn't have the stamina for being in the park all day so we cancelled almost all of them. We also ended up doing parks in a somewhat different order than I initially planned. Kids got really tired of travelling on buses, which is also why we didn't break in the middle of the day and then going back to the parks. Would look at skyliner options next time. Things we didn't get to do:
Try dole whip (never noticed a place to buy it, ice cream was often an urgent necessity so didn't seek it out specifically) Tron (too hot to wait for boarding group when it was already day 3 at magic Kingdom and basically felt done.) Explore World Showcase (too much walking for few rides, from kids' perspective) Eat for fun more (we ate more out of necessity but found fun snacks when convenient) Tower of Terror (queues too long and genie + bookings too late) Frozen Singalong (timing never seemed to work out) Luminous (son had no interest in late night shows so we only did a couple things at night.) Take ride on skyliner. Something that surprised me: queues for popular rides stayed long even at 9pm. Couldn't see a viable alternative to EE rope drop + genie plus to get all the big rides "done" except perhaps if you had extended evening hours, but that would not have worked with our kids. Number of beignets consumed during our stay: 12
2024.05.14 21:23 aerovistae Switched from League to Dota after 3 years, felt like writing up a comparison between the two
After playing League for ~3 years I decided to stop and learn a new game and now have been playing Dota for about 8 months. As I've been learning I've been comparing and contrasting them, and I felt like writing up my thoughts.
I'm not a high ranked player; I was emerald in League and I don't really played ranked in dota. It doesn't matter, since this post isn't about tactics/strategy or how to win-- I'm just talking about the differences between the mechanics of the two games and their clients.
Disclaimer, this is all about Soloqueue. Pro play is a different environment and many things are different. I'm just talking about the average player's experience.
In League's favor:
In Dota's Favor:
Conclusions
On the whole I'd say there's more things to like about Dota than about League just in sheer quantity of bullet points, but regardless I love both games and think they're both really fun. If Dota improved their lore, their animations, and their tab screen and League improved their cosmetics store and had a more interesting and dynamic map, plus neutral items and agh's shard & scepter, I wouldn't really have any major complaints about either of them.
I think anyone who loves one game could potentially love the other one too and it's totally worth learning whichever one you don't already know, if you have the time. Obviously these games take a ton of time and most people barely have time for one let alone two. But if you're young especially, they're both really fun.
It's pretty hard for me to see eye-to-eye with the people who love one game and ferociously hate on the other - it seems childish and kind of empty. To not find one as fun as the other, sure, that's one thing, but to expend energy hating it and constantly shitting on it, that just confuses me. You can have a favorite while still acknowledging the other as a comparably enjoyable game.
One final note - one of the things I found most interesting about comparing them is seeing which mechanics are normal in one game that would be overpowered in the other game.
In Dota there is a hero named Nature's Prophet whose W is TF ult minus the vision. It has a one minute cooldown, going down to eventually 0 cooldown late game, and he can access it from level one if he chooses to. Nature's prophet would likely have a >90% wr in League.
But then in League we have Zilean and his stupid ult on a one minute cooldown, while in Dota that only exists as a one-time use item (like GA) that you are rewarded with when you defeat their version of Baron, and it is basically the strongest item in the game. Zilean would likely have a >90% wr in dota.
submitted by aerovistae to leagueoflegends [link] [comments]
I'm not a high ranked player; I was emerald in League and I don't really played ranked in dota. It doesn't matter, since this post isn't about tactics/strategy or how to win-- I'm just talking about the differences between the mechanics of the two games and their clients.
Disclaimer, this is all about Soloqueue. Pro play is a different environment and many things are different. I'm just talking about the average player's experience.
- Better lore. It's not a contest really. League's champions all have names and stories that are placed front and center, whereas Dota heroes are more like archetypes than individuals with distinct identities. Instead they're known by a description of what they are, while their "real names" are kind of buried in half-assed bio summaries and infrequently referenced. There's a dude called "Anti-Mage." There's a dude on a bat and his name is Batrider. There's nothing in Dota to compare with the hype lore media Riot produces, like the fiddlesticks rework video or the 10 min yone/yasuo video. Champion lore just gets way more money put into it in League.
- League has WAYYYYY better champion animations and ability visual designs. This is for me where League blows Dota out of the water. There's really just nothing in Dota that feels like Jhin, or Ekko, or Aphelios, or Senna, or so many others. With rare exception, almost all the champions in league have aspects that FEEL amazing - great sound design / animations / feedback delays that are incredibly rewarding. Dota's heros are really fun to play and I'm having a great time, but if you put them side by side with like 90% of League's cast, the animations of their abilities and movements just feel kinda flat by comparison. One of the easiest side-by-sides is Darius vs Dota's hero "Axe" -- he has the same ult as darius, completely identical except for darius ult's interaction with passive. But all Axe does for his ult visually is a little hop and swing of the axe. It's really lame. Compare that to the awesome sound of a Darius ult kill, with the fear, especially on the God-King skin, and it makes Dota look 20 years old.
- Skillshots! In Dota most abilities are just unit targeted, so they can't miss. There are skillshots too, but they're far fewer. In league skillshots are kind of the norm, and aiming them and dodging them is a big part of the game and it's fun to do so and makes you feel cool when you land them or dodge them. Having nearly everything be unit targeted isn't bad, it's just different, but it is something I enjoy a lot in League.
- Cooler duels in league, and more of them. Dueling is a big part of league and it doesn't seem to be such a big part of Dota except maybe a bit in mid. Everyone in Dota has teleport (instead of recall), and it only has like a 1 minute cooldown. So whenever a fight starts, people teleport in and it becomes a teamfight. There's only one 1v1 lane (mid), the other two are 2v2 lanes. So there's much less of the 1v1 culture of League where people get to solo each other and take pride in the results. The lack of skillshots in dota plays into this too, since landing or dodging skillshots can definitively contribute to the outcome of a duel. With that mechanic less prominent, statchecking is a bit more common.
- Very little 1v9 potential in Dota by comparison. Dota has FARRRRRR more CC than league, it's not even close. League feels like it has no CC compared to dota. In dota there is an item anyone can buy that silences a point-and-click target for 5 seconds, and another that polymorphs for 3 seconds, and so on. Many such items. There's a support who can root you for 4 seconds AND polymorph you for 3, and a carry who can silence you for FIFTEEN SECONDS with his ult. In such an environment, no one person can solo carry a game most of the time. You HAVE to work with your team. So if you love 1v9ing, League wins hard on that. But at the same time this can be a negative for league - it means there's more ego and less teamwork. People in dota are by default much more inclined to work together, because in the face of such powerful tools they HAVE to.
- Recalling isn't a thing in Dota, which means the game is kind of constantly pedal-to-the-metal. It can be kind of nice to take a breather in League for a few seconds and stretch your arms while walking back to lane, given how intense the game can be.
- In dota, holding tab doesn't show you what items people have built, nor their CS, and it's super frustrating. You have to click champion portraits individually to see their items, and you can't see their CS at all aside from your own. Probably hard-core dota loyalists will say this is part of the skill of the game, but honestly it's just annoying/bad UI design that they sort of got used to and became convinced was "part of the game" imo. It's really stupid and annoying.
- In League you can buy as many wards as you want, whereas in Dota there's only ever a finite number available in the store which is SHARED among your team and then goes out of stock until it replenishes on a timer. I hate having to share wards with the team in dota, and the store being out of them. I understand it's part of the game and managing that is part of the skill of dota, but I find it tedious and don't really enjoy it as a mechanic. Additionally, wards take up an inventory slot in dota the same way control wards do in league, and it's just annoying.
- Better champion skins, frankly. Some of League's skins are just amazing, as we all know. I would say there is very little cosmetic content in Dota that can compare to High Noon Senna or God-King Darius or [insert your favorite skin here.] There are cool skins, but it's just not the same. In Dota you can buy individual things, like updating a sword or a hat or a belt or a single ability's effect, all purchaseable separately. They have some full-kit skins, but that's not emphasized as much as in League where it's the standard and the only option, and they're just not as visually impressive.
- All heroes are free from the start. It's great for trying them out and learning the game.
- The game is less punishing to learn than league, for a multitude of reasons. Don't get me wrong, it still has an enormous barrier to entry and a steep learning curve, but it's just less painful. Everyone who ever learned League remembers what it was like in those first couple months being alone in lane against people who have been playing for years - especially in top lane or mid lane - and just getting fucking demolished 1v1 and not even being able to play. That doesn't happen as much in dota. First of all two lanes are ostensibly 2v2 and only one is 1v1, although there's a lot more roaming by the supports. There's also no jungler role, a role in league which often leads to that player being blamed for everything that goes wrong in a game. And then there's WAY more sustain - in Dota you don't recall to buy items, you have couriers ferry them out to you. So you can just kinda constantly have Dota's equivalent of health pots brought out to you, and only TP to fountain rarely when you're super low. This means there's a lot less crying under turret while zoned off CS unable to play.
- Much better tools for learning. The tutorial is better. You're able to click other heroes to see their abilities in-game. There's a guide system full of user-contributed content where you can pick one in-game and it tells you what to buy and how to use that item on this hero, as well as how to use your abilities by just adding little user-written snippets to the tooltips when you hover them. League does have recommended items and recommended order for ability-levelling, but the fact that you can choose between different guides for different roles in dota is huge, and the text telling you when/why to use specific items for a hero is also majorly helpful. Imagine if you could pick a different guide in game for Senna support vs Senna adc, etc, that recommended specific choices based on the role and neatly fitted those recommendations into the UI.
- Dota has way, way, way more interesting items. There are so many active items in Dota, and they feel much more impactful. By comparison nearly every item in league is just a statstick that gives one form or another of more damage or more tank. In Dota there are items that silence for 5s, that disarm (teemo blind) for 3s, that root an aoe for 2s, that polymorph for 3s, that reset ALL your cooldowns including ult (this one has a 5 min cooldown, the rest are <20sec.) Dota's version of Thornmail has an active that hugely amplifies the reflected damage for 5second, so the item feels great to use and has more skill expression - you time the active correctly when someone is focusing you and it makes a big difference. Given that most effects last 3-5 seconds, it's not about super-precise timing like in League so much as it is about broader strategic choices of using it early or late in a fight, etc. The only items in league that feel as strong as Dota items are Zhonyas, GA, and Locket, with honorary mention for the perennially overpowered botrk.
- Dota has a way more beautiful map. It's not even close. Dota's map has so much going on. There are far more jungle camps, there's trees everywhere (which many hero abilities interact with in different ways!), there's high ground and low ground. There's so many different places and different entities and landforms, and it's just beautiful. League's map feels empty and stale by comparison. It's much smaller than dota's map, the jungle camps have fixed contents that never change (dota's camps rotate and change during the game). Not even to mention that Dota's map is divided in half and each team's side looks completely different from the other half. As opposed to league where they're identical but just rotated.
- Aghanim's shard and scepter. These are the my favorite things in Dota that league doesn't have. What are they? They're two items you can buy that each have a different effect on every single individual hero in the game. On a case by case basis, they either UNLOCK ENTIRE NEW ABILTIES (literally the UI expands to add a new slot when you buy them) or they upgrade one or more of your existing abilities to have entirely new effects. This is just so cool and I was shocked when I learned about them. It's just so fun being able to gain new abilities even late in the game.
- The talent tree, which is like an ability customization tree you progress through over the game and which is specific to the hero you're playing. In Dota the max level is 30, and every 5 levels in the game from level 10 onwards, you can unlock a "talent", at which point you pick one of two options to upgrade your hero. It might add 1s to your Q's stun. It might decrease the mana cost of your W. It might give you +250 base health, or +50 AD. It might add entirely new effects to your abilities, like making what was previously just a rooting projectile also start silencing. By level 30 you will have gotten to unlock everything in the tree (you don't typically reach level 30 very often in ranked games). Imagine if like at level 25 you could add "Mundo Q grounds for 0.5s" or "Irelia E +200 range". It's stuff like that and it's so fun.
- Dota is more team-oriented. Due to the prevalence of long-lasting debuffs/cc from both items and hero abilities, no one person can really just solo carry to the same extent as in League. In my experience you only very rarely see someone 1v9 in Dota, and usually it's because the enemy team is just making stupid choices. This makes the game a bit more tolerable on average, although you encounter the same toxicity as in league just the same.
- Dota has built-in voice chat. This actually does come in handy a lot. Hate not having it in league. It's typically effective and you can mute people in voice just the same as in chat so it's rarely been problematic in my personal experience so far.
- Dota has "turbo mode." This mode is just great. Wish league had it. It's basically norms, but with aram-level gold income so all players get to full build in like 20-30 min without even powerfarming. It's really fun and great for learning, experimenting, and playing casually with less commitment.
- In dota you don't recall. This means more time spent out on the map playing. Instead all players have the equivalent of the teleport summoner spell constantly available, which lets you take part in more plays. You also don't back to buy items, instead they get ferried out to you by little minions, which is great. Having items shipped out to you constantly instead of having to spend time retrieving them is awesome.
- Better demo tool by far. League's practice tool is notoriously shitty. Being able to open the demo tool while you're waiting in queue in Dota is amazing. Can't do that in league.
- Dota has 3 additional inactive item slots called the backpack. Love being able to hold 3 additional items that you can swap in or out (they're not usable from the backpack and you don't gain their effects, but you have them on your person to swap into from main inventory if you want). Just gives you nice flexibility when holding consumables and building stuff.
- Neutral items. This just doesn't exist in league and I wish it did because these are really fun and cool. When you kill neutral jungle camps in dota they drop items, and the power level of the items scales over the course of the game, from weak ruby crystal type stuff to things that are as strong as rabadons. And they don't take up a normal inventory slot, so you effectively get an actual 7th item in dota.
- The system for checking out customization and skins. Dota's system is pretty different, where instead of buying holistic skins that change everything, you can customize individual parts of a heroe's appearance, like their hat or their sword or their belt or gloves. There's WAYYYYY more options than in League, and you can try them all out in the client to see how they look.
- Cosmetics for things other than the heroes/champions themselves. In League you can only buy champion skins. In Dota you can buy cosmetics for the ancient (nexus), the towers, the creeps, the map, etc. None of that exists in League. We fucking WISH we could buy that kind of stuff. Riot are you listening?
On the whole I'd say there's more things to like about Dota than about League just in sheer quantity of bullet points, but regardless I love both games and think they're both really fun. If Dota improved their lore, their animations, and their tab screen and League improved their cosmetics store and had a more interesting and dynamic map, plus neutral items and agh's shard & scepter, I wouldn't really have any major complaints about either of them.
I think anyone who loves one game could potentially love the other one too and it's totally worth learning whichever one you don't already know, if you have the time. Obviously these games take a ton of time and most people barely have time for one let alone two. But if you're young especially, they're both really fun.
It's pretty hard for me to see eye-to-eye with the people who love one game and ferociously hate on the other - it seems childish and kind of empty. To not find one as fun as the other, sure, that's one thing, but to expend energy hating it and constantly shitting on it, that just confuses me. You can have a favorite while still acknowledging the other as a comparably enjoyable game.
One final note - one of the things I found most interesting about comparing them is seeing which mechanics are normal in one game that would be overpowered in the other game.
In Dota there is a hero named Nature's Prophet whose W is TF ult minus the vision. It has a one minute cooldown, going down to eventually 0 cooldown late game, and he can access it from level one if he chooses to. Nature's prophet would likely have a >90% wr in League.
But then in League we have Zilean and his stupid ult on a one minute cooldown, while in Dota that only exists as a one-time use item (like GA) that you are rewarded with when you defeat their version of Baron, and it is basically the strongest item in the game. Zilean would likely have a >90% wr in dota.
2024.05.14 21:23 Gambit-Accepted Wehr Battlegroup And DLC Ideas
 | Continuing this series on Battlegroup ideas, today is Wehr. Here are my DAK Ideas. To reiterate, I wanted to make these ideas thematic, different from existing battlegroups, unique and mostly historically accurate. Here I use the units that are already in the game files and propose how they could be implemented in an interesting way. Relic seem to have developed several bunker types which they intend to use, so when designing my battlegroups, I did it in a way where these bunker types were used but didn’t make the battlegroup Italian Coastal 2.0, rather fed into a larger idea. I introduce and expand a number of mechanics I have discussed in my other threads: submitted by Gambit-Accepted to CompanyOfHeroes [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/5pxs8daqzf0d1.png?width=1281&format=png&auto=webp&s=62517c6b48c79fe9ea3cdf8a8794e81cb8fd7ecb Central Idea: All in prevention, counter attack. Your opponent would have a hard time overwhelming you in one all in push. The left side of the tree consists of mostly callins and quick dispatch units for handling flanks quickly, the right side is more logistics themed with multiple reactionary abilities. BMW R75: Not a lot to say here, similar to the DAK bike except with an MG 42. It could be made to have no reverse, like the Coh1 bike, that was a fun mechanic. 4-Man Pios: Again, self-explanatory. Sd. Kfz. 251 Variants: This gives you access to other 251 variants, either by upgrading the 251 directly or by calling them in. I’ve chosen these 2 versions that I feel open up a lot more strategies, Mortar HT and Luft tier would be quite good, that tier lacks indirect. Pakwagen Panzer Gren tier would also be strong, as that tier lacks mobile AT. The ATHT would have the same AT performance as the Marder, but would have less HP and no lockdown ability. Panzer III H: As a unit to add to Wehr’s roster, this makes a lot of sense on many levels. In terms of performance, this would be closer to the Crusader medium tank. In terms of the timing, it would arrive at the same time as the Stug and the Wirbel, but unlike both of those specialists, this would be a generalist for that timing. Temporary Armour Assignment: This is exactly like the mechanic I described in my DAK designs. How it works is that this munitions only ability is used and a Stug, P4 pair arrive from off map. Neither unit requires fuel, manpower, upkeep or population. They benefit from all the upgrades that affect the normal version, ie vet and armoured skirts. You have direct control over them but after a set period of time, they will turn to AI control and leave. This makes them really good as a reactionary ability (your opponent is doing an all in) or as your own all-in, especially if you’re already maxed out on population. You’re especially incentivised to make risky plays with them as armour preservation is not so important. The number of use cases for this ability are so numerous that I won’t explain it anymore, it should be obvious how strong this is. I think to balance this out, it needs a heavy munitions cost and a long recharge timer. AI Temporary Elephant Assignment: One of the questions I’ve been asking myself since Coh3 came out is how do you add heavy tanks to the game in such a way that it’s not frustrating to play against and doesn’t break it. Given that the game is set so much earlier in the war and a number of the factions don’t have ready access to tank destroyers like the SU-85 and the Jackson, you can’t simply throw in the Elephant and hope for the best. To be completely explicit, I don’t see how the US with their current roster are expected to deal with a Coh2 style heavy tank destroyer. However, in Halo Wars 2 Blitz game mode, how it works is that you can call in a Scarab and its an incredibly strong unit but after a certain period of time, it spontaneously explodes and the game returns to normal. Why wouldn’t something similar work for Coh3? The risk reward calculus of using it would be; can you get enough damage done in the period available to justify the expenditure? There are a few ways that this could be implemented, you could, for instance, give the player direct control over the Elephant but I’m in favour of doing this slightly differently. Like the Infantry Assault ability for the US Advanced Infantry Doc, I think this should be AI controlled, should be on attack move and should be targeted on a position. After the timer, the unit would drive off map. This way you get the power fantasy of using a heavy tank without the game breaking potential of a heavy tank camping for the entire game between 2 VPs and zoning out all tanks. The reason I prefer this method of implementation is 2 fold; the first is that counterplay is much simpler, you just avoid the area and wait for it to time out. The second is that it has that appeal of being somewhat like a mini campaign mission within the game, you have to defend the tank with your forces as it advances. Your opponent would be easily able to flank it if its on it’s own, but when you support it yourself its more potent. The one exception to this AI control that perhaps should be considered is allowing the player to control the tageting directly, You wouldn’t want the Elephant to shoot at some random infantry while your opponent moves double Archers into position. In terms of relative strength of the abilty, I think if it was implemented in this fashion, the Elephant ability wouldn’t be that strong. I feel direct control over a P4 and a Stug is much stronger than an AI controlled Elephant. To me this is the best way of getting heavy tanks into the game. Logistics Field Officer: The right side of the tree very much has a logistics theme to it, starting with the officer. The Resource Priority ability works well with a variety of units, one could see this being handy in a situation where you want to increase the ROF of an MG, Mortar or Pak being extremely useful. Situations where you want to increase the ROF on a tank to help it win the engagement would also be strong. Speeding up the recharge on a Nebelwerfer would also be a common use. Source Replacements I could also see being a heavily used ability, either on the field or in base. Finally, given this battlegroup is munitions intensive, the Supervise Resource Extraction ability will allow you to increase your income like a cache does. You could even have some rush strat builds involving the officer, but unlike caches and trucks, the unit can be repurposed to do other things afterwards. Panzerschreck Trailer: This is another type of trailer unit. I’ve talked about trailer units a few times in my other posts, but here is the rundown: My thinking with this is that its a brand new unit type, which loosely can be defined as a support weapon. How it works is that infantry squads can crew it, push it around, vehicles can tow it, etc. When in a position, it provides an aura which in this case recharges nearby snares faster. However, the unit shouldn't require pop cap and moreover, you can actually manually decrew it and it will still provide you the benefits. So for example, let's say it spawns in your base and you want to setup a strong point, you can crew it with a squad, wheel it over to a house near the frontline and then decrew it. Units within its vicinity would still be benefiting from the aura. When you want to move it, recrew it again, or tow it, to a new location. The beauty of this dynamic is that your opponents can steal these units from you like an ATG, so while they don't take up popcap and would be relatively cheap (say 100 to 150 manpower), you're still incentivised to protect them. You can also attack move them with AT guns etc, would be interesting to play around it. I think it would make for a fun dynamic, but would need to be coded from scratch. It also indirectly makes tow yet more useful. With this trailer specifically, it’s aura will recharge nearby snares faster, however squads can also collect a Panzerschrek from the trailer for a munitions cost. This Panzerschrek is timed, so after a duration the squad will drop it. This is going to really strong in situations where your opponent is doing an all in dive with light vehicles and/or tanks and you need to bolster your AT immediately to hold on. Picking up these Panzerschreks is not cheap, but it makes it much harder for your opponent to dive you and also allows you to go for low AT builds with this trailer as the backup. The way I see this until being used is wheeling it behind a hedge or building near your cutoff and running over to grab a Panzerschrek if its needed. Let’s say your opponent does a double M8 dive, your 2 Grens and a Panzergren pick up 3 schreks between them and your opponent is basically able to do nothing but wait for them to time out. This could buy you enough time to reach T4 or whatever else you were doing. It’s a tool that adds a lot of flexibility to your composition, but remember if you get forced off, your opponent can just steal it and then its your problem! Weapon Stores: This gives your pios the ability to build Riegel mines but also Weapon Supply Bunkers. Now, the bunker has a straight forward aura that increases ROF of infantry and their grenade recharge times, but it also has another more expansive mechanic of temporary weapon upgrades. I’ve talked about this mechanic at great length in my Luftwaffe Field Division faction design, where the faction essentially revolves around that mechanic, but here I use a simplified version for a Wehr battlegroup. The TLDR is that infantry squads can pick up weapon packages from the bunker to either augment their current DPS or completely change the role of the squad for a short period. For instance, Jagers can pick up Beretta 38s to transform the squad from a mostly mid range unit, to a short range one. Grens can pick up G43s to improve their mid to long range performance and Pios can pick up an MG34. All the options are avialable to you. However, the upgrades are not timed, but depletable. This means that if the squad is not in combat, the upgrade duration doesn’t tick. You have to be in combat to expend the upgrade. The situations where something like this would come in useful are numerous, but to name a few; giving all your grens weapons at any point in the game, augmenting your jagers with MG34s, giving Stosstruppen Berettas so they become a close range powerhouse, or even double MGs. Relative to normal weapon upgrades, these upgrades are inefficient, but for rush strats they can be strong, as well as augmenting your units in the lategame with the extra munitions you have in the bank. HE Shell Delivery: Improves the splash and anti infantry power of all your vehicles at the cost of penetration. This could be somewhat tricky to use, as your opponent will become aware of its activation immediately and will come in with their vehicles. But situations where your opponent has dug in with ATGs and AT infantry, this ability will be devastating. https://preview.redd.it/n3ou7kaxzf0d1.png?width=1208&format=png&auto=webp&s=5bc267deaae4b64ba1bb97c294b92a5056835443 Central Idea: Team weapon play, heavy fire power and artillery. Good for just battering your opponents head on. SD-2 Line Drop: This is similar to the equivalent ability in Coh1, however the big difference is that you can customise the area where the mines will fall. For instance, you could do a relatively small field on a VP for 50 munitions, or you could do a large line of mines to completely block off a flank with mines. This flexibility allows you to employ the ability in a number of situations and adds some nuance to its employment. It terms of how this would work in game, I feel click and drag would be sufficient, the munitions cost being visible on the cursor. In the context of this battlegroup, it can block off the flanks of your team weapons. Pre-Sighted Terrain: This feeds into that team weapon focused gameplay, having extra range on your Paks and MGs in an area is going to be really strong. You could even use it with Mortars and Nebels for an extra long range barrage. 7.5cm Flak 264/3(i) AA/AT: The Flak 264/3 is an Italian medium AA piece that fits into what I will refer to as the ‘premium anti tank gun’ category. Similar to how the MG42 and DSKH were premium MGs, this ATG will be better than your standard ATG, at a higher price point. On the scale of ATGs, this will lie between the Pak 40 and the Flak 36 in terms of raw firepower. The damage should be exactly as the Pak 40, however it should also benefit from 10 more range and also the ability to shoot down air. The drawback however is that it should be relatively slow to move, like a Pak 40 in camoflage mode. For small adjustments, this should be fine, but to move it across the map, it would be easier with a tow vehicle. This means there are tradeoffs with this option relative to the Pak 40, the situations where the Flak 264/3 would be better is when you don’t want to invest in a wirbel but still want AA on demand when you need it (2 of these should take down planes pretty quickly), or situations where you’re camping 2 VPs and don’t expect to have to move around much, allowing you to utilise the greater range. Paks are going to be better when you need to move around a lot and expect your opponent to invest in indirect fire. Flakvierling 38: This gun is exactly as on the Wirbelwind, except it’s a team weapon. Relative to the Flak 30, this would have the advantage of suppression and probably better anti infantry performance. Perhaps starting with the same stats as the DAK Flak halftrack and going from there would be a good place to start. 28cm K5(E) Barrage: Heavy railway barrage, not much to say here. 7.5 cm IG 37: This is essentially work like the LeIG for DAK, it’s a later version of the same concept. Wehr don’t have anything like the Heavy Mortar equivalent and this would be it. This would be handy if you wanted to go Luft tier or tier 4 without having to tech to get Nebels. Springer Remote Controlled Bombs: Conceptually, this is identical to the Goliath remote controlled bombs, except these bombs are twice the size and are significantly more dangerous as a result. For me, one distinction that could be made would be dialling up their effectiveness against your opponent’s base structures. One thing I feel Coh lacks are tools for crippling your opponent’s tech. Kane’s wrath has a plethora of units and abilities for exactly this purpose and their employment is great to use and even more exciting to watch. So the Spinger should be able to knock out 75% of the health of a base tier structure. So conceivably, you could get a 251, drive it over to or into the base, deploy a Springer and blow it up next to T4, finish it off with Paks or Stugs. This will reinforce that whole dimension of the game, camping on 2 VPs will be much easier to punish. Sd.Ah. 57 Munitions Trailer: Another style of trailer, as discussed above. Here it would be used directly with team weapons to increase their ROF. It can also be used with indirect, so Rocket artillery would recharge faster. I feel the situations where this would be useful are fairly obvious but one extra way of making it interesting would be if it had an AOE explosion on death. So your opponent would be incentivised to move in with vehicles and target it down. They could also just steal it for themselves. Wurfrahmen 40 UE (f): Standard rocket artillery. One question I would expect a Wehraboo to ask is ‘why this and not the Panzerwerfer?’. The way I see it, this only has 4 rockets, so its damage per barrage is less. This leaves scope to make the barrage recharge time shorter, meaning you need to micro it more, but also, its less of a wipe machine or do nothing unit. You can also give it a lower price and require less population. Looking at the Walking Stuka in Coh2, that unit either killed everything or missed and was largely a waste of resources and popcap. If you can have the same unit, but with less alpha damage, at a cheaper price and popcap, it should be more consistent over the course of a match. It would also be easier to fit into your composition and would see greater use as a result. This essentially is why I picked this unit. That and because its new and different. AI Double Wespe Temp. Assignment: Like the Elephant assignment above, this is where double Wespe artillery pieces come onto the field and are controlled by the AI. They attack move to the target, shelling your opponent’s units within range. This ability should be much easier to employ, as they barrage from long range, but also they should be easier to counter (you can just dive them). Since we’re not using new vehicle models, it should be cheaper to develop and its different from the existing off-maps. https://preview.redd.it/ioj0msg40g0d1.png?width=1651&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0dad1a46e5e618833d25a2381033f0a0a9d10a6 Central Idea: Long range engagements. MGZ34 MG42 Scopes Upgrade: Simple upgrade, improves range and sight of MGs once they upgrade themselves for munitions. AI Double Sniper Temp. Assignment: This is most similar to the Wespe ability I just described, except with 2 snipers. What this ability would be strong aganst would be team weapon camp and entrenched infantry, as well as guarding VPs in the lategame. What this ability would be pretty bad against would be an opponent with several light vehicles and tanks which can drive up and elminate the snipers in 5 seconds. Its not like the AI will dodge. This ability is augmented by the numerous sight abilities and units in this battlegroup. Panzerbeobachtungswagen III: This is most similar to the 254 artillery observer for DAK, except where the abilities are largely air based. The unit has an MG, so it can be used to attack troops early on, but its mostly used for the focus sight ability in conjunction with tank destroyers and team weapons. The SD-2 Ground Burst drop I see being more like the M83 Cluster Mine drop from Coh2. The Ju-88 P-4 Heavy AT Strafe, is actually a 50mm cannon, so different from the JU-87 we have now by having more alpha damage. Fritz X Guided Bomb Strike: This is probably most similar to the Stuka Dive Bomb in Coh2, however, the big difference is that you can manually guide it to the target. The inspiration for this are the Predator missiles from MW2, however in Coh3, the easiest way of implementing this to my mind is that the player has to keep the cursor where they want the bomb to land. However, if they don’t want to do this, as it prevents other micro, you double click and it will go to where it was last targeted. So the situations where you’d want to perform this micro are quite niche, basically when nothing else is happening for 5 seconds. I think a sensible decision should be to cut off direct control from the player 2 seconds before it hits the target, so its still possible to dodge but harder. Nashorn Tank Destroyer: Not much to say here, its basically the Archer. Grenadier K98k Scopes Upgrade: Not a lot to say here, range and sight augmentation for grens. Ranged Bunker Options: Here we use some of the bunkers Relic has already invented. The mortar bunker is simple enough, but the Observation bunker is a bit more interesting. This emplacement should have a long line of sight, but it should be restricted to a narrow arc which can be refaced. This encourages active micro of the emplacement. It would be strong in matches where this is placed behind team weapons and artillery for spotting targets but would not detect flanks. Somewhat reminds me of the child’s game ‘Spotlight’. Fusiliers: These are another unit that Grens can be swapped out for. Unlike Jagers and Panzergrens, this unit is purely focused on long range DPS. You could use Gebirgsjager here instead, I use Fusiliers as one of my other designs uses Gebirgsjager. Range Adjustment: This unit ability increases the squad’s accuracy after each model drop to a maximum of 30%, 5% per model. I could imagine in most situations, this would be a simple DPS boost, but there would be situations where fighting low health squads where this would be especially strong. The same kind of logic applies to the ATG and Tank Destroyer ability, where everytime they land a shot while the ability is active, it increases their accuracy and ROF. Focused Gunnery: A global sight and range buff for vehicles, at the cost of speed. This blends well with the other abilities in the battlegroup. https://preview.redd.it/i3wsbhz50g0d1.png?width=1520&format=png&auto=webp&s=84fee451b9cebfbd3b19a7800e36450932f17bbe Central Idea: Area denial. Grenadier & Pio Field Defences: Gives access to a number of build options. Panzer-Stabmine 43 AT Mines are a variation on normal mines, where the emphasis is placed on the heavy engine critical rather than the damage of the mine. So these mines would be relatively spammable, specialised against vehicles and would cause a heavy engine damage critical. The focus here is leaving your opponet’s vehicle stricken and being able to move in with your own vehicles to take it out. However, unlike say Riegel mines, it doesn’t do that much damage, so your opponent will have a much easier time of quickly repairing off the damage. It’s a variation on mines with its own drawbacks and strengths. However, the main structure you get access to is the Luftwaffe Relay Point. This emplacement can call in strafing runs within its vicinity, the AT strafe would be particularly strong if combined with the Stab mine as it would be far harder to dodge. The relay point though can also call in a variety of crate drops with different infantry buffs. Ammunition crates increase ROF, which is simple enough, but the Explosives Crate doubles the squads grenade ability the next time its used. For instance, Grens would throw 2 stick grenades for the price of 1 with a 0.5 second delay between each throw. Naturally, this is pretty strong and also munitions efficient, at the cost of extra micro. The mechanic could also be made to give squads that don’t normally have a grenade, a grenade. For example, it would be cool if Jagers/Pios got stick grenades after picking up one of these crates. I’m not sure what you would do with Stosstruppen, a bundle grenade assault? Sounds overpowered and incredibly fun. Double frangible sounds fine. Camouflage Crates give your squad moving camo for 60 seconds, so you could conceivably pick up this crate on the way to your opponent’s side of the map and use it to ambush or do all manner of things. One question that would need answering is whether or not is should be possible to stack these crate bonues, I could foresee camoed Panzergrenadiers with double bundle grenades being very very good. Perhaps the best way of soft nerfing this combination is to have a shared cooldown timer of 90 seconds on the crates, this should severely limit the number of times a player can get explosives and camo at the same time. 251/17 Halftrack: Exactly like Coh2. Cannone Da 105/28 Howitzer Emplacement: A general howitzer emplacement, you could use the LeFH but this emplacement already exists. Panzerturm IV: A mixed AT and anti infantry emplacement. This emplacement absolutely should take up pop cap but also have prioritise vehicles. Bf109 WerferGranate 21 Rocket Strike: This would fire 4 rockets in unison, have fairly high alpha damage and flame dot damage. You would most use it against team weapons and infantry, especially in denying point caps, but potentially you could use it against vehicles, particularly if they hit a panzer stab mine, to cause them health damage and prevent them from being repaired. Sd.kfz. 251/16 Flame Halftrack: Similar to the unit in Coh2, except you can also upgrade it with MGs. As a general comment, I feel this unit and flame weapons more generally should have bonus damage against base tech structures. Sneaking flame tanks into the base and burning down your opponent’s tech is so much fun in Kane’s wrath and I feel Coh3 would do well to capture some of that magic. So being able to burn down a tech structure in 30-45 seconds in would give this unit extra utility, currently it fees like the flame units lack flexibility relative to their autocannon equivalents. Infantry Gestreckte Ladung: This ability is on infantry and it essentially is a grenade that sits between the Bundle Grenade and a Satchel charge on the spectrum. It would have the same damage as a bundle, but a longer fuse and shorter range. However, the charge would have bonus damage against emplacements, buildings and field defenses. The ideal use case would be against units behind sandbags and wire, as it would destroy them completely. Its much more likely to land than satchels, with its shorter fuse time, but is not as a good as bundle grenades which do the same damage with an even shorter fuse. So the bonus against field defences is the main advantage of the grenade. It goes without saying that this ability benefits from the Explosives crate from the other side of the tree. Decima Squad Infiltration: This squad is most comparable to Stormtroopers in Coh2. You would largely use the squad to charge cutoffs and plant explosives on points, its going to be strong in VP wars. This squad has no camo out of the box but you can get that from the other side of the tree. Communication Breakdown: This is activated in a circle zone and no off-maps can be used in it for the duration, nor do any global abilities like Designate Assault Position work there. There are many situations where something like this would be useful, for example, preventing someone from calling an off-map in during your assault, preventing an off-map being called in on a crucial VP in a close match. The main use I could see people using this is with their emplacements on the other side of the tree, preventing say bombing runs, etc. In Deckung!: This abilly mixes well with a variety of the other abilities in the battlegroup. Getting cheaper grenades will allow you to spam them during the duration of the ability, if you combine that with the Explosives crates, it will be yet more efficient. 15 munitions Panzer Stab mines will be strong. The crucial thing with this ability is timing, as you need to use grenades and mines en masse to justify the initial munitions cost. Other Unit DLC As I discussed before, I think it would be a mistake for Relic not to include the substitute units feature. In terms of what units should be substitutable, this is what I feel makes sense: https://preview.redd.it/dw9pq3w70g0d1.png?width=1121&format=png&auto=webp&s=e416e3e5bb9b982b1da5d5bd6177cd6f2ef87c71 Finally, as a general change, I feel we need to talk about the Pak 43. The Pak 43 is already in the game files and is presumably lined up for a battlegroup. I feel this unit should just be added to T4 so that stock Wehr has an answer to heavy tank spam (thinking about Matildas and Grants here). Wehr doesn’t have a great answer for dealing with heavy tanks, short of building 3 paks or several marders, neither of which are great from a faction design perspective. They come quite early, relatively, so improving their performance messes with the flow of the game and makes T4 less attractive, why bother going T4 if all the AT you need is in T2/T3? A Pak 43 in T4 has a pleasing symmetry between DAK, Brits and Wehr. If US got he M5 ATG (which they should), all factions would have this common tool. A number of players have been calling out for the Panther to be added to T4, I don’t think that’s the play here, as it would dominate so many other options. The situations where you would build a Pak 43 over a Panther are quite niche (look at Coh2), so having the more attractive unit in stock over the less attractive solution in a battlegroup, to me makes little sense. The Panther would also crowd out Flak 36 Emplacment play. However, the Pak 43 is easier to counter for your opponent, using indirect etc, while also giving you a reason to go for a battlegroup with Panther as the main attraction. Essentially what I’m getting at is that the Panther is too dominant of a unit to be in T4 and the Pak 43 should be there in its place. https://preview.redd.it/jrapt7y80g0d1.png?width=452&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d4c8bae94945e100777c1b9d53278bfb3f7bfb2 |
2024.05.14 21:20 Danissl Gladiator NXT Upgrade/replacement parts options
Hey everyone. I had been debating between VKB and Virpil for a bit... and stumbled across this at the thrift store today when I decided to drop by. Fairly great condition and they stated they tested (whatever that actually means)...
I was wondering if it will be possible to get the c1 hat upgrade to install, or the accessories/tools and springs that came with it originally? I looked on the site and didn't see then but I am also on mobile so perhaps I overlooked? Is it even possible to swap? Assuming this does in fact work, I plan on buying a left hand angled one to pair.
Anything else I should look at? I plan to tear it apart and check electronics and clean at the very least. Uploaded photo to possibly assist answering. Thanks in advance!
submitted by Danissl to VKB [link] [comments]
I was wondering if it will be possible to get the c1 hat upgrade to install, or the accessories/tools and springs that came with it originally? I looked on the site and didn't see then but I am also on mobile so perhaps I overlooked? Is it even possible to swap? Assuming this does in fact work, I plan on buying a left hand angled one to pair.
Anything else I should look at? I plan to tear it apart and check electronics and clean at the very least. Uploaded photo to possibly assist answering. Thanks in advance!
2024.05.14 21:16 MyPensKnowMySecrets Sold Out Mechanical Keyboard Score!!
I swear this Goodwill by my apartment is amazing. Last week found a beautiful electric typewriter, this week found a pink mechanical keyboard that doesn't make my ears beled. Turns out it's sold out, originally retails for 29.00 or so, and I got it for 6. The things people just donate!!!
There's nothing more fun to me than getting something I really love at the thrift store only to later find out it was a super good deal. That was how I got a lovely dress in my size for 20 bucks that originally retails for 300. It's nice having nice things, especially with good savings on top!!
submitted by MyPensKnowMySecrets to thrifting [link] [comments]
There's nothing more fun to me than getting something I really love at the thrift store only to later find out it was a super good deal. That was how I got a lovely dress in my size for 20 bucks that originally retails for 300. It's nice having nice things, especially with good savings on top!!
2024.05.14 21:14 Joshh170 Valheim Releases New Ashlands Update
 | Valheim has finally released the eagerly awaited Ashlands update, one of the biggest content expansions the survival game has received until now. This new Valheim update adds a new biome for endgame players, new weapons, building options, and more. submitted by Joshh170 to GameGeeks [link] [comments] Valheim was originally released in early access in 2021, quickly becoming a huge hit. Created by Iron Gate Studio, the Norse-inspired survival game sold over 12 million copies on Steam. In 2023, Valheim was added to Xbox Game Pass, reaching even more players. Since its initial launch, the title has released regular updates as it moves towards a yet unannounced 1.0 release. Now, Iron Gate Studio has officially released the new Ashlands update, bringing a new endgame biome to Valheim. This update comes on the heels of Valheim’s public test build which was unveiled last week. According to the patch notes, the new update works as a big content expansion, as it adds over 30 weapons, three armor sets, two capes, over 70 buildable items, over 30 crafting materials, new music, events, mechanics, and more. The update also fixes several small issues, standardizes texts through the game, and solves problems with Mead materials. The highlight of the free expansion is clearly Valheim’s new Ashlands biome. Set in the southern parts of the game’s map, the new biome is a hellscape area filled with lava, huge fortresses, and dangerous undead creatures known as the Charred. As expected, the new area comes with a variety of enemies, such as the Fallen Valkyrie, four varieties of Charred enemies, Morgen, Askvin Calf, Lava Blob, and others, including a new boss called Fader. Valheim’s new content also includes a few new mechanics tied to the new region, including two new Siege Machines, new plantable Ashvines, and the ability to combine Flametal weapons with gems to gain upgrades. Other interesting changes include the introduction of boiling hot waters near the Ashlands, which may require a sturdy ship to cross, and cinder rain while traveling in the new biome. Gamers who like to create amazing bases in Valheim will not be disappointed with the Ashlands update due to the introduction of several new building pieces and furniture, which will greatly expand the base-building options they previously had. The update also includes more new materials such as the Askvin Hide, Vulture Eggs, Bell Shards, Charred Skulls, Jade, Bloodstone, and new weapons like the Dyrnwyn sword, the Brutal Slayer, or the Flametal Mace. Valheim's Ashlands Update Official Patch Notes New Mechanics
|
2024.05.14 21:14 YouExcellent1831 I just walked out on my first ever sous chef position. Contemplating leaving industry.
Context:
I am 25. I grew up in a family who owned and operated pizzerias in NY. I had started working on the register when I was 13 and started summer jobs as a Bussehost when I was 14. The restaurants I worked FOH were 4star high end (worked for 3). I have also always had a serious passion for cooking. When I was 18 I moved out of my home and began working for a dairy farm, then transitioned to a smoothie/salad/vegan gluten free oriented places (19-21). I was a manager making specials like gf desserts, ready to eat salads, and also worked on their equivalent of a “line”. It was not refined whatsoever, clean, simple food. Did that for 2 years. Then quit during Covid after having tremendous stress, after helping reorient the entire business to be more grocery focused as we had a store front with organic, superfood tonics, meats, plant based stuff, etc. I had issues with the kitchen manager as she treated me differently than the other staff. I immediately applied for a junior sous position at a restaurant that was upscale dining, and after a trial day they were willing to train me on garde manger. I worked their and trained under two very capable chefs who were willing to teach me everything. One 36m another 29m who was actually head chef. I moved my way up to hotline after a yr and a half and was enjoying the job, environment, coworkers, and we would do about 200 covers a night in the summer. I carried on with the company for another year even after my head chef gave a months notice and took a much better more cdc job for a larger more high end company. I took on more responsibilities and and finally decided I had reached my ceiling of learning from that restaurant and I wanted to move overseas to broaden my skillset and resume but felt like I picked the wrong country/restaurants as the food was not on par even with the smoothie salad place I started at. I moved home a year later (2024) and was offered by my now cdc chef, same one who trained me and really vouched for me. I executed a 7 course tasting for the first time ever, dishes ranging from quiche, to pork chop, sole(which I had never cooked before), chicken pot pie, croquettes, salad, basque cheesecake, I made my own stock even, and I had a day of prep and the following day to plate. I landed the job over 4 other people. It was for a “family oriented” but upscale bistro as it was on main street in a very affluent town in NY. We have investors, had a full reno as the spot had been a local favorite for 30 years a recently sold. We lost a lot of time we were supposed to be in the kitchen and the prospective opening day was for May 3rd. It got pushed back to the 10th, friends and family 7th and 8th, training of staff was 5th and 6th, while simultaneously doing recipe testing with chefs that had been brought in from other existing locations. Unbeknownst to my cdc, the investor, and restaurant owner, they hired a head chef from nyc that made good food, but could not complete 95% of tasks that were crucial to opening a restaurant, onboarding employees, understanding the kind of volume our town does in summer, actually cooking volume, properly executing recipes, having any recipes of his own that weren’t fresh off google, said he spoke Spanish and then couldn’t communicate to our staff which were all Hispanic spare 1 line cook I hired and use to work with at my first job, the wastage was off the charts, he couldn’t do inventory properly, and spent half of the time speaking constantly and ignoring everyone thinking he’s “working hard”. I took it upon myself to try and execute recipes I had 3 days to learn, make stocks, train employees and learn how to schedule, organize a kitchen from the top down, clean kitchen after a full Reno, and my cdc and the business owner kept assuring me it was not my fault that things were going sideways and that the head chef was completely incompetent and they were actively looking for a replacement. I couldn’t keep up with the prep as hard as I tried, the walk in was a disaster. Felt like every time I organized it my head chef would receive an order and do things like put raw chicken on top of produce. I found cheeses on shelves and raw ground beef in dry storage left out overnight bc of him. He would just constantly talk and talk and talk about everything and nothing, call me in the off hours to talk about a tart mold that he wanted to make in house for 2 hours. Mention things I could do to loose weight, and it was just constant stimulation leading up to the actual opening and during. All the while he would delegate every single one of the the more complex recipe tasks to our untrained employees (sauce work, chopping herbs for garnish, cutting salmon, tuna for line and for Tartares) and I felt obligated to try and pick up as much of his slack. And if I’m being realistic, I as much as the owner and former cdc who hired me believed in me, I still had a lot of refinement to do in my skillset. I have very shakey hands by nature so my knife skills leave a lot to be desired. Also I can’t just bang out a beurre blanc or mornay without thinking about it. I still have to watch and follow a recipe a few time to get the hang of it even though I understand the principles well. I anticipated a balance between my head chef and I and direction. And the worst part is, he would agree to certain tasks and I was the only one trying to organize our flow of prep, made a detailed prep list because his made absolutely no sense, and we would split tasks, I’d execute mine, and he would spend 4 hours chopping mushrooms and par cooking them even though the pick up was raw as per the owner and cdc. It was absolutely maddening. I started having break downs everyday after work NEVER on site; even when to a psychiatrist in between one of our friends and family days to get the non narcotic equivalent of Xanax. I ended up walking out yesterday (13th). More like called and said I wasn’t coming back after my first day off in a week of straight 14 hour days constantly trying to pick up the pieces my head left behind. I have never walked out a job. But now after all of this, I am questioning whether I will ever be able to have a management position in the kitchen. Asking myself, did I progress too quickly? Am I just not capable? Have I completely exhausted myself in the kitchen? Also, I am sober spare nicotene which I consume like an absolute fiend right now. Any insight is appreciated. Please feel free to ask for more context as this is quite the ramble. Also have photos for reference of the food I’ve cooked over the years .
submitted by YouExcellent1831 to Chefit [link] [comments]
I am 25. I grew up in a family who owned and operated pizzerias in NY. I had started working on the register when I was 13 and started summer jobs as a Bussehost when I was 14. The restaurants I worked FOH were 4star high end (worked for 3). I have also always had a serious passion for cooking. When I was 18 I moved out of my home and began working for a dairy farm, then transitioned to a smoothie/salad/vegan gluten free oriented places (19-21). I was a manager making specials like gf desserts, ready to eat salads, and also worked on their equivalent of a “line”. It was not refined whatsoever, clean, simple food. Did that for 2 years. Then quit during Covid after having tremendous stress, after helping reorient the entire business to be more grocery focused as we had a store front with organic, superfood tonics, meats, plant based stuff, etc. I had issues with the kitchen manager as she treated me differently than the other staff. I immediately applied for a junior sous position at a restaurant that was upscale dining, and after a trial day they were willing to train me on garde manger. I worked their and trained under two very capable chefs who were willing to teach me everything. One 36m another 29m who was actually head chef. I moved my way up to hotline after a yr and a half and was enjoying the job, environment, coworkers, and we would do about 200 covers a night in the summer. I carried on with the company for another year even after my head chef gave a months notice and took a much better more cdc job for a larger more high end company. I took on more responsibilities and and finally decided I had reached my ceiling of learning from that restaurant and I wanted to move overseas to broaden my skillset and resume but felt like I picked the wrong country/restaurants as the food was not on par even with the smoothie salad place I started at. I moved home a year later (2024) and was offered by my now cdc chef, same one who trained me and really vouched for me. I executed a 7 course tasting for the first time ever, dishes ranging from quiche, to pork chop, sole(which I had never cooked before), chicken pot pie, croquettes, salad, basque cheesecake, I made my own stock even, and I had a day of prep and the following day to plate. I landed the job over 4 other people. It was for a “family oriented” but upscale bistro as it was on main street in a very affluent town in NY. We have investors, had a full reno as the spot had been a local favorite for 30 years a recently sold. We lost a lot of time we were supposed to be in the kitchen and the prospective opening day was for May 3rd. It got pushed back to the 10th, friends and family 7th and 8th, training of staff was 5th and 6th, while simultaneously doing recipe testing with chefs that had been brought in from other existing locations. Unbeknownst to my cdc, the investor, and restaurant owner, they hired a head chef from nyc that made good food, but could not complete 95% of tasks that were crucial to opening a restaurant, onboarding employees, understanding the kind of volume our town does in summer, actually cooking volume, properly executing recipes, having any recipes of his own that weren’t fresh off google, said he spoke Spanish and then couldn’t communicate to our staff which were all Hispanic spare 1 line cook I hired and use to work with at my first job, the wastage was off the charts, he couldn’t do inventory properly, and spent half of the time speaking constantly and ignoring everyone thinking he’s “working hard”. I took it upon myself to try and execute recipes I had 3 days to learn, make stocks, train employees and learn how to schedule, organize a kitchen from the top down, clean kitchen after a full Reno, and my cdc and the business owner kept assuring me it was not my fault that things were going sideways and that the head chef was completely incompetent and they were actively looking for a replacement. I couldn’t keep up with the prep as hard as I tried, the walk in was a disaster. Felt like every time I organized it my head chef would receive an order and do things like put raw chicken on top of produce. I found cheeses on shelves and raw ground beef in dry storage left out overnight bc of him. He would just constantly talk and talk and talk about everything and nothing, call me in the off hours to talk about a tart mold that he wanted to make in house for 2 hours. Mention things I could do to loose weight, and it was just constant stimulation leading up to the actual opening and during. All the while he would delegate every single one of the the more complex recipe tasks to our untrained employees (sauce work, chopping herbs for garnish, cutting salmon, tuna for line and for Tartares) and I felt obligated to try and pick up as much of his slack. And if I’m being realistic, I as much as the owner and former cdc who hired me believed in me, I still had a lot of refinement to do in my skillset. I have very shakey hands by nature so my knife skills leave a lot to be desired. Also I can’t just bang out a beurre blanc or mornay without thinking about it. I still have to watch and follow a recipe a few time to get the hang of it even though I understand the principles well. I anticipated a balance between my head chef and I and direction. And the worst part is, he would agree to certain tasks and I was the only one trying to organize our flow of prep, made a detailed prep list because his made absolutely no sense, and we would split tasks, I’d execute mine, and he would spend 4 hours chopping mushrooms and par cooking them even though the pick up was raw as per the owner and cdc. It was absolutely maddening. I started having break downs everyday after work NEVER on site; even when to a psychiatrist in between one of our friends and family days to get the non narcotic equivalent of Xanax. I ended up walking out yesterday (13th). More like called and said I wasn’t coming back after my first day off in a week of straight 14 hour days constantly trying to pick up the pieces my head left behind. I have never walked out a job. But now after all of this, I am questioning whether I will ever be able to have a management position in the kitchen. Asking myself, did I progress too quickly? Am I just not capable? Have I completely exhausted myself in the kitchen? Also, I am sober spare nicotene which I consume like an absolute fiend right now. Any insight is appreciated. Please feel free to ask for more context as this is quite the ramble. Also have photos for reference of the food I’ve cooked over the years .
2024.05.14 21:14 I_am_Trundle Is this any good?
We just got forced into this payplan with promises of how amazing it is. Only problem is that the extra 5% front and all of the back end is being taxed out the ass at the bonus tax rate rather than being taxed as commission. We're not a super high volume store at all ~40 cars/month for new and used combined. I never have problems selling over 10/month.
$31,200 base salary
15% front end (extra 5% if you get 2 survey returns per month with good scores)
Percentage of back end equal to the number of units sold, capped at 25 units/25%
At 10 units demo allowance of $400 is paid as bonus
10-14 cars pays bonus of 25 per car 15-19 cars pays bonus of 30 per car retro to first 20+ cars pays bonus of 40 per car retro to first
Yearly bonus of $10 per car from jan-nov paid in december
Mini is $200
submitted by I_am_Trundle to askcarsales [link] [comments]
$31,200 base salary
15% front end (extra 5% if you get 2 survey returns per month with good scores)
Percentage of back end equal to the number of units sold, capped at 25 units/25%
At 10 units demo allowance of $400 is paid as bonus
10-14 cars pays bonus of 25 per car 15-19 cars pays bonus of 30 per car retro to first 20+ cars pays bonus of 40 per car retro to first
Yearly bonus of $10 per car from jan-nov paid in december
Mini is $200
2024.05.14 21:10 Joshh170 Palworld Update Adds Balance Changes, Bug Fixes, and More
 | Palworld has released the patch notes for its v0.2.4.0 update, which is already out for PC, and will be released for Xbox soon. Since its early access release back in January, Palworld has been receiving regular updates, and this newest patch fixes bugs and applies some important balancing changes to the popular survival game. submitted by Joshh170 to GameGeeks [link] [comments] It’s no secret that Palworld is a huge hit, as it features among the top-grossing games released in the first quarter of 2024. The Pokemon-inspired game may have been released with several bugs, but it managed to reach over 25 million players on Steam and Game Pass, and its developer, Pocket Pair, is working hard to improve the experience as Palworld moves toward version 1.0. Now, Pocket Pair released the new v0.2.4.0 Palworld update for Steam players. This update fixes quite a few bugs, including unnecessary notifications popping up in multiplayer and synchronization issues. Apart from that, it also applies some balancing adjustments to the survival title. These balancing changes include increased HP for Alpha and Lucky Pals, breeding eggs having a minor chance of becoming Alpha Pals, reduced damage reduction for bosses, and more. At the moment, Xbox gamers still don’t have access to the update, which will be available “as soon as it’s ready.” Like previous Palworld updates, this is just a small patch that corrects a few issues and implements minor changes. However, Pocket Pair has some bigger changes in store for players. Last month, Pocket Pair teased a huge Palworld update that will add at least four new Pals to the game, as well as a new explorable island. While in-depth information about this new area has not been revealed yet as the update will only be out in the summer, the developers have already unveiled a short video in which it’s possible to see a few areas, including a Japan-inspired forest with cherry blossom trees, and a swamp-like area with several giant mushrooms. Apart from this major update, fans are eagerly awaiting the implementation of Palworld’s PvP Arena. The PvP Arena was promised as part of the initial Palworld roadmap soon after the game launched. However, it may take a while to be ready. The game’s creators originally hinted that the arena could be out by Summer 2024, but later retracted the date, confirming that the update will be out by the end of the year, but likely not in the next few months. Palworld Update v0.2.4.0 Patch Notes Steam version v0.2.4.0 has been released. Xbox version v0.2.4.0 will be released as soon as it is ready Balance Adjustment Increased the HP of all Alpha Pals (larger than normal Pals), including Lucky Pals, by 1.2 Breeding eggs now have a slight chance to produce an Alpha Pal Reduced the damage reduction rate of enemy bosses by 18%. (The HP adjustment above has been adjusted so that battles don't become too difficult.) Items and Pals dropped on death can now be picked up by anyone 24 hours after they are dropped Items and Pals dropped on death will now disappear 48 hours after they are dropped UI Fixed a bug that notified all players on the server when someone finished or failed a raid Bug Fixes Fixed a bug that caused synchronization issues when gates were opened Many other minor bug fixes |
2024.05.14 21:05 EbbInitial9717 Meade LXD75 SN-6 Drive motors problem
 | quick history of my issue goes like this: submitted by EbbInitial9717 to telescopes [link] [comments] I've been an astronomy nerd since the early 80's and have owned a few telescopes over the years, including a 3" Orion refractor, an Orion 4.5" newtonian reflector, and finally a Meade SN-6 Schmidt Newtonian reflector with the LXD75 mount. I have few gripes with the scope itself and have not upgraded anything outside of additional eyepieces from Parks optics, a laser collimation "eyepiece" for quick checks after transporting it to dark sky locations in the backseat of the car, and a wonderful green laser pointer that serves as my finder scope for targets residing near the the sky's zenith. I used to use the Autostar system with marginal success. I liked it for a while but about ten years ago the declination motor stopped working, so I removed it and found the circuit board had a very cooked diode if not more issues. Searches for replacement spares were dodgy.as the company no longer made the LXD series and sold the remaining parts to a 3rd party vendor. As recently as 2022 Meade was the losing defendant in a case filed by Orion that sadly spelled the end for Meade outright. As a result it has become even harder to source spare parts for the LXD75 mounts. Obviously I have to come up with another solution. I haven't used the scope for DSO observing since, but have repurposed the un-powered aspect of the scope for planetary use, via the nudge method. As a result, I am constantly reminded that I paid a lot more to have a powerd GO-TO German Equatorial mounted Schmidt Newtonian when I originally purchased it brand new from a camera store here in southern California. If I had known at the time that I would never fully get to make use of the GO-TO aspect due to a cheaply/poorly made circuitry, then I could have spent the same money on an 8' or 10' Dobsonian and at least felt some satisfaction from the old adage (as we say in motorcycling) "there's no replacement for displacement" or in this case, "aperature". Lately I have a renewed interest in DSO observing however, and the nudge method doesn't cut it. So, I removed the RA motor as well and now while looking through the eyepiece, I reach around with my hands, blindly hunting for the two brass gears (cog wheels) that used to connect to the drive motors. Once located, I can turn them by hand to fine tune the movement. Of course this really limits what I can do with a telescope that was according to Meade, designed as an entry level astrophotography/imaging scope. I still have both motors and the AS hand controller of course, just not attached to the mount anymore, their new home is a filing cabinet drawer in my garage unfortunately. I am at a crossroads as to what direction I should take that would best restore my scope's GO-TO capabilities. On one hand, I wonder if upgrading the drive system by replacing the motors and controller with a different brand (is this possible?) but keeping the SN-6 OTA and LDX75 tripod/Germ. eq mount is the easiest approach. If so, which systems are recommended? Alternatively, I've recently learned of the SkySafari system where the hand controller is replaced with a cell phone. Is this something that you recommend? Are there motors available that will fit my system, or is it strictly PUSH-TO? Is it precise? Lastly, I can't help but wonder if it might just be cheaper and easier to buy a used Dobsonian 8" or 10" with SynScan? I have seen 10" Dobs for $400 with SynScan, which sounds great but I have no experience with the software and don't feel like it's smart to trust the manufacturer's claims as the sole source of information on the product (they never talk about their shortcomings!). I should mention that I no longer entertain lofty pipe dreams of creating stunning, high-resolution DSO photographs to show all my friends, lol. Instead, I just want to enjoy the moment, and see as many objects in the NGC/Messier catalogs as possible on a given night. As for having proof to show people, well they can join me for an actual session and see it with their own eyes, or just take my word for it - I have a lot less to prove than I did 25 years ago, it's no longer a priority for me. Getting the most out of a viewing session IS however. Thank you in advance for sharing your collective expertise |
2024.05.14 21:01 Flagg1991 Children of the Night (Part 2)
The world was a boozy whirl of lights and sounds. Images, broken and fragmented, came and went. Voices, laughter, screaming. The ground pitched like the deck of a tempest-tossed ship, and he felt heavy, as though the ground were pulling him to it. C’mere, Dommy. He fell, lay on the pavement, and pushed himself up again, staggering like a drunk on his way home. His head spun, his body ached, and things seemed blurry, like half-formed images glimpsed underwater.
It was the light blue hour before dawn and Dom was…somewhere. He should have recognized the stores and street signs around him, but he didn’t. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a sense of confusion gripped him so strongly that he was beginning to panic. Where was he? What happened?
The world spun away again and the next thing he knew, he was lying in a heap of garbage bags, used needles, and rubbish. He came awake with a jerk and sat up so fast that a bolt of pain jammed into his skull. He winced and pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt hot, clammy.
Something was seriously wrong.
Somehow he got to his feet again and started walking. The sun was up now and the streets were filled with people. They all sneered in disgust as he passed, and he wrapped his arms around his chest like a baby comforting itself. He was getting cold. His muscles were sore. Tears streamed down his face and he wanted to cry.
Going on instinct alone, Dom made his way back home and climbed the steps to his apartment. Exhaustion swept over him and he sagged against the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. They shook in his hand and he had to focus really hard to get the key into the lock.
Inside, he collapsed onto the couch and his eyelids instantly drooped. He was so weary that he couldn’t lift his head, couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Dom felt himself starting to sink, and snapped his eyes open with a start. Something in his soul told him that if he slept, he would die.
He couldn’t help it, though. He was falling, tumbling, hands reaching up from hell to grab him. His eyes fluttered closed again and the world started to go dark, his heart slamming in fear. He tried to fight, but the pull of darkness was too strong, too alluring. Why was he fighting? Why not just…give up? Hadn’t he thought of killing himself before? Didn’t he hate his life and himself? What was there to fight for? A wife? Kids? A community that loved and respected him? Shit, affordable groceries?
No.
There was nothing.
He had nothing and was nothing.
A sense of peace blossomed from the darkness, and suddenly death didn’t seem so scary. In fact, it was warm…inviting.
It was life that was cold and hateful. Not death.
Death accepted you no matter who you were. It didn’t reject you…it didn’t ignore you. If you sought it, you would find it, and if you embraced it, it would embrace you.
With that thought in mind, Dom gave up.
And died.
***
Bruce Kenner, captain of the 5th Albany precinct, sat behind his desk on the morning of June 28 and lazily leafed through a stack of files as he sipped from a mug of coffee. A roughly built man with a dark goatee and graying blonde hair, he looked more like a small town southern sheriff than a low level public works functionary. In fact, he tended to act like it too. He liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer on his off time. Albany wasn’t a big city, but it was big enough that you never got a fucking break. Run here, run there, arrest this asshole, investigate that asshole. By the time Friday rolled around, he was so ready for the peace and tranquility of a fishing trip he could taste it.
Already this Monday morning, he was looking forward to another one.
Over the weekend, three kids went missing in the Pine Hills and Washington Park area, bringing the total for that summer up to eight. All were teenagers, all were troubled. Most were boys, but two were girls.
Troubled kids run away all the time. They might be gone a few days, sulking at a friend’s house over something their father or mother did, but they’d eventually come home. None of these kids had come back yet and from what he knew, a few of them weren’t the runaway types. They were shits at school and caused problems, but they had no reason to up and leave. Hell, Bruce himself raised hell as a kid, but he always found his way back home, even if he spent the previous night dying in a field from Mad Dogg 20/20 poisoning.
One or two kids going missing…okay, it happens. Eight? Over a span of four weeks?
Yeah, something was wrong here.
But what?
There was nothing on any of these kids. No one saw them, no one knew anything - one minute they were here, the next they weren’t. What could he or anyone else do with that?. The public broke cops’ balls all the time, but if you don’t have evidence, you don’t have evidence. What do you want? Door to door searches? Roadblocks? Dogs and helicopters? Yeah, then when you actually do it, they cry fascism. Guess I’ll just use my Spidey Senses.
Bruce wished he had spidey senses. He wanted to find these kids as much as anyone, and he was starting to get pissed off that he couldn’t. He took another sip from his mug and read on. The latest kids to go missing were three boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
They were all white, all thin (except for one). If there was a serial killer in town - and Bruce hoped to fuck there wasn’t - he had a type. What, black kids aren’t good enough to kill, cannibalize, and wear like a skin suit? They should charge him with a hate crime for discrimination.
That way he’d actually stay locked up.
The door opened and Vanessa Rodregiez, his deputy, came in. A tall, shapely Hispanic woman with dark eyes and a mouth poised always on the edge of a smile, she wore her black hair in a ponytail that would look stern and severe on anyone else, but on her, looked childlike. She was twenty-seven and had been on the force for three years, but you could be forgiven for thinking her much younger. “Bright and early, I see,” she said with a grin.
Bruce grumbled.
Vanessa held down the fort during the graveyard shift, acting to the night as he acted to the day. She was young and full of energy, which clashed with Bruce, who was old and just wanted to be left alone. Despite their differences, Bruce loved her like a kid sister…an annoying kid sister he wanted to throat punch sometimes.
“You missed all the fun last night,” she said and parked her butt on the edge of Bruce’s desk. He glared at her, but she ignored him.
“Good,” he said. Then: “What happened?”
“Big fight outside of Club Vlad,” she said. “It looked like a WorldStar video.”
For a moment, Bruce was lost. “Club what?”
“Club Vlad,” Vanessa said. “Where the Fuze Box used to be.”
Ah, right. The Fuze Box was an Albany landmark, a night club for punks…or goths…or someone. Certainly not for Bruce Kenner. It was small, dingy, and always had people in black waiting outside. On Friday and Saturday nights, it blasted strange music with lyrics about fighting The Man. Kids had been fighting the Man since before Bruce was even born and they hadn’t beaten him yet. Kudos to them for still trying.
Last year, The Fuze Box closed down and someone else bought it. It reopened last month and looked more or less the same: Posers, shitty music, and spiked hair. So much spiked hair. “Place is still a pain in the ass,” Bruce said.
“Yep,” Vanessa chirped. “It doesn’t know what it wants to be now. One minute they play nightcore, the next EDM. It’s all over the place.”
Bruce raised a quizzical brow.
“Not that I’ve ever been there in my free time,” Vanessa said in a tone that suggested she had,
Bruce gave a judgemental hum.
“Anyway,” Vanessa went on, “you see we have some new missing persons?”
Sighing, Bruce sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I did.”
“People are starting to ask questions,” Vanessa warned.
That brought a terse smile to Bruce’s weathered face. “Maybe they’ll solve it then.”
“Ha, fat chance,” Vanessa said. She got up and stretched. “Anyway, I’m bushed. Here’s my…” she trailed off and looked at her empty hands. “Damn, where’s my report? I just had it?” She turned in a confused circle as if she might be able to spot her report making a break for it. “Huh,” she said. She left the office and came back a moment later holding a folder. “Found it,” she grinned.
Bruce just looked at her.
“Um…here it is.”
He didn’t take it.
Her smile faltered. She carefully sat it on top of the files Bruce was looking at.
And his hands.
“I’ll just leave that right here.” She patted it for good measure.
“Thank you,” Bruce said.
“Okay. Night.”
“Goodnight,” Bruce said as she left through a shaft of morning sunlight. Alone, Bruce sat her report aside and went back to the missing kids. This case was giving him a headache and it wasn’t even nine. With a deep sigh, he slumped back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Was it Saturday yet?
He could really use a fishing trip.
***
Dom came awake in the cold purple twilight with a shocked gasp like a man coming up seconds before drowning. His eyes strained from his sweaty face and his mouth hung slack, twisted in a gruesome parody of The Scream. His mind was muddled, murky - he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he knew this,.
He couldn’t breathe.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but his lungs did not fill with air. A great, unseen weight seemed to bear down on his chest, and panic gripped him. He tried to move, but his arms refused to heed his brain’s command. The weight seemed heavier, all over, crushing him like a bug. Confusion filled him and he started to pant.
Without warning, his bowels and bladder loosened, and horrible wetness filled his pants. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. His chest rose and fell with the frantic labor of his breath, but his lungs remained inert. A cry of fear bubbled up inside of him, but escaped his mouth only as a breathy groan.
A bust of adrenaline shot through him and he tried to stand, but succeeded only in falling off the couch instead, landing face first against the cold tile floor. He felt his nose crunch, but the pain was muted.
Dom thought he lost consciousness after that, but wasn’t sure. His next memory was of shivering so violently that his teeth clacked together. A phantom chill - perhaps from the floor - had settled into his bones, and was colder than he had ever been in his life, colder even than the time he fell into a snowbank and got lost when he was two. Shudders racked his body, and though he tried to turn over, he was too fucking heavy. It was like every muscle in his body had turned to dead weight. Fragmented thoughts swirled in his head, faint colors in the dark, but he couldn’t put any of them together.
With great effort, he managed to push himself slightly up, but a wave of lightheadedness crashed over him and he lowered his head once more. He stopped trying and simply lay there. Shortly, his eyes began to burn and he realized that he wasn’t blinking. Jesus Christ, he wasn’t blinking.
For some strange reason, that brought a fresh bout of panic. He started to hyperventilate, but his lungs still wouldn’t work. He wasn’t blinking…he wasn’t breathing…what was happening to him?
A whimper burst from his throat and he started to cry.
He must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke sometime later to the most intense headache he’d ever had. It felt like something was eating his brain from the inside out. He was sore all over, and could feel his muscles twitching, as though a thousand living things were burrowing through his body. A cramp shot down his right leg, and the toes of his left foot curled involuntarily. Slowly, his jaw clenched closed, and the muscles in his neck began to strain…then to burn. His panic turned to terror, and Dom wiggled across the floor like a worm, his limbs screaming in red agony and his brain filling with heat. He somehow wound up on his right side, and his arms curled slowly up to his chest, crossing at the wrists like a mummy. He tried to pull them apart, but the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain cutting through his body. His knees began to draw up to his stomach, and his fingers clenched tightly.
Cramps and spasms attacked every muscle in his body. He screamed through his teeth and shook, resembling a man in the electric chair as 40,000 volts of justice coursed through him. The pain grew gradually, getting worse and worse as minutes ticked by like hours. Higher, higher, higher - he clenched his eyes closed and shrieked as it became unbearable. Disjointed thoughts flashed through his mind - prayers, threats, curses, Jesus fucking…FUCK.
What was happening? God, what was happening to him? Was it fentanyl? He’d seen videos of people high on fentanyl, and they leaned in weird positions. He didn’t do drugs but maybe he ingested it somehow.
His panic may have returned if all of his muscles hadn’t picked that moment to contract as one. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his jaw unclenched just enough for him to utter a high. Agonized scream that echoed through his empty apartment like thunder.
A human being can only take so much before giving out. When the pain reached a crescendo, and Dom mercifully sank into consciousness once more. The sun rose and cascaded through the apartment’s sole window, falling over his huddled form. Slowly, it tracked across the sky before setting again. As the last rays disappeared behind the horizon, Dom’s eyes opened. The pain of the night before was blessedly gone, replaced by a feeling of numbness - the cool ash after the hot fire. His thoughts were slow and thick like molasses, but he could actually think again. Nightmare memories flooded back to him, but he wasn’t sure they were real. He was lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his chest as if for warmth, and his teeth lightly chattered against the icy chill. He was so cold that he didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever. He needed help. He needed…
A shower.
Yeah, a hot shower. That would warm him up.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly sat up, ready for a burst of pain.
But none came.
He did, however, feel heavy. Getting to his feet, he stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself against the counter. His limbs had no feeling. It’s like they weren’t even there. Head hung, Dom tried to catch his breath, but it felt like he wasn’t breathing at all. His eyelids drooped closed and he felt like he was going to fall down. Summoning all the might he could, he shuffled into the bathroom with the stiff gait of an old man. He snapped the light on, and cold, white brilliance filled the space, blinding him.
Leaning heavily against the sink, he gripped the cold porcelain. Suddenly, he was afraid of looking into the mirror. He was sure that whatever reflection he saw, it would be of something else, something monstrous.
Dom lifted his head and faced the glass.
His heart shrank.
The man in the mirror was him but different. His skin was white as milk, lacking all color whatsoever save for the ugly purple patch on the left side. IResembling a giant bruise, it started at the temple and extended down to the slope of his neck, disappearing beneath his T-shirt. He gingerly lifted the shirt, and moaned when he saw that his entire left side was discolored, the purple edged with a puffy shade of pink. His sallow skin clung tight to his ribcage, and his hip bones stuck out so much it looked painful. Back in the mirror, his cheeks were sunken, hollow, and his eyes were a hazy, dishwater gray. His skull seemed bigger, his hair longer. Dom wanted to whip his head away from the phantom before him, to never see it again, but he was transfixed.
There was no way that thing was -
Dom looked away, cutting that thought off before it could finish.
A shower.
He needed a shower.
Slowly, stiffly, Dom undressed, peeling off his shirt and his soiled pants. He dropped them in a heap on the floor and stepped under the spray. He could feel the water pounding against him, but it provided no heat. It was neither hot nor cold. It was simply there.
Dom pressed his head to the slick shower wall and stood there for a long time. He was spent, tired, and fried - he had no more emotions left to give. He got out after a little while, dried off, and put on a clean pair of shorts. He settled into bed and lay there with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes open. They felt gritty, dry. His stomach felt bloated, gassy. He was drowsy now, the weight of the past two days (or was it two weeks?) coming down on him all at once. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He was still asleep - but aware - when the knocking on his door started the next morning. Time was funny in this state of being, fast and jerky but also slow and echoing. Keys rattled the knob turned. The landlord came in with a cop. They saw him on the bed, laid out like a corpse for a viewing, and the cop radioed in a code 35. Soon, cops were all around him, making noise and touching things. He had the vague sense of discomfort and embarrassment at the intrusion. A baling man in a suit stood over him, a cop who looked like a redneck beside him. “He didn’t die here,” the medical examiner said.
The cop looked at him questioningly. Dom caught the name KENNER on his name tag.
“See this?” the M.E. said and gestured to Dom’s face. “That’s livor mortis. When you die, your blood pools at the lowest point. If you’re on your left side, for example, it pools on the left.”
Kenner looked at Dom and then back to the M.E. “Someone moved him?”
“Looks like it,” the M.E. said.
“When did he die?”
The M.E. examined Dom as though he were nothing more than a side of beef. “At a glance? Three days. I won’t have a better answer until I open him up.”
Dom was still awake when they put him into a body bag and zipped it up. He felt a stirring of fear beneath the cold numbness, but he was too tired to worry about it now.
Later, he thought.
He would panic later.
For now, Dom slept.
submitted by Flagg1991 to LetsReadOfficial [link] [comments]
It was the light blue hour before dawn and Dom was…somewhere. He should have recognized the stores and street signs around him, but he didn’t. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a sense of confusion gripped him so strongly that he was beginning to panic. Where was he? What happened?
The world spun away again and the next thing he knew, he was lying in a heap of garbage bags, used needles, and rubbish. He came awake with a jerk and sat up so fast that a bolt of pain jammed into his skull. He winced and pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt hot, clammy.
Something was seriously wrong.
Somehow he got to his feet again and started walking. The sun was up now and the streets were filled with people. They all sneered in disgust as he passed, and he wrapped his arms around his chest like a baby comforting itself. He was getting cold. His muscles were sore. Tears streamed down his face and he wanted to cry.
Going on instinct alone, Dom made his way back home and climbed the steps to his apartment. Exhaustion swept over him and he sagged against the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. They shook in his hand and he had to focus really hard to get the key into the lock.
Inside, he collapsed onto the couch and his eyelids instantly drooped. He was so weary that he couldn’t lift his head, couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Dom felt himself starting to sink, and snapped his eyes open with a start. Something in his soul told him that if he slept, he would die.
He couldn’t help it, though. He was falling, tumbling, hands reaching up from hell to grab him. His eyes fluttered closed again and the world started to go dark, his heart slamming in fear. He tried to fight, but the pull of darkness was too strong, too alluring. Why was he fighting? Why not just…give up? Hadn’t he thought of killing himself before? Didn’t he hate his life and himself? What was there to fight for? A wife? Kids? A community that loved and respected him? Shit, affordable groceries?
No.
There was nothing.
He had nothing and was nothing.
A sense of peace blossomed from the darkness, and suddenly death didn’t seem so scary. In fact, it was warm…inviting.
It was life that was cold and hateful. Not death.
Death accepted you no matter who you were. It didn’t reject you…it didn’t ignore you. If you sought it, you would find it, and if you embraced it, it would embrace you.
With that thought in mind, Dom gave up.
And died.
***
Bruce Kenner, captain of the 5th Albany precinct, sat behind his desk on the morning of June 28 and lazily leafed through a stack of files as he sipped from a mug of coffee. A roughly built man with a dark goatee and graying blonde hair, he looked more like a small town southern sheriff than a low level public works functionary. In fact, he tended to act like it too. He liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer on his off time. Albany wasn’t a big city, but it was big enough that you never got a fucking break. Run here, run there, arrest this asshole, investigate that asshole. By the time Friday rolled around, he was so ready for the peace and tranquility of a fishing trip he could taste it.
Already this Monday morning, he was looking forward to another one.
Over the weekend, three kids went missing in the Pine Hills and Washington Park area, bringing the total for that summer up to eight. All were teenagers, all were troubled. Most were boys, but two were girls.
Troubled kids run away all the time. They might be gone a few days, sulking at a friend’s house over something their father or mother did, but they’d eventually come home. None of these kids had come back yet and from what he knew, a few of them weren’t the runaway types. They were shits at school and caused problems, but they had no reason to up and leave. Hell, Bruce himself raised hell as a kid, but he always found his way back home, even if he spent the previous night dying in a field from Mad Dogg 20/20 poisoning.
One or two kids going missing…okay, it happens. Eight? Over a span of four weeks?
Yeah, something was wrong here.
But what?
There was nothing on any of these kids. No one saw them, no one knew anything - one minute they were here, the next they weren’t. What could he or anyone else do with that?. The public broke cops’ balls all the time, but if you don’t have evidence, you don’t have evidence. What do you want? Door to door searches? Roadblocks? Dogs and helicopters? Yeah, then when you actually do it, they cry fascism. Guess I’ll just use my Spidey Senses.
Bruce wished he had spidey senses. He wanted to find these kids as much as anyone, and he was starting to get pissed off that he couldn’t. He took another sip from his mug and read on. The latest kids to go missing were three boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
They were all white, all thin (except for one). If there was a serial killer in town - and Bruce hoped to fuck there wasn’t - he had a type. What, black kids aren’t good enough to kill, cannibalize, and wear like a skin suit? They should charge him with a hate crime for discrimination.
That way he’d actually stay locked up.
The door opened and Vanessa Rodregiez, his deputy, came in. A tall, shapely Hispanic woman with dark eyes and a mouth poised always on the edge of a smile, she wore her black hair in a ponytail that would look stern and severe on anyone else, but on her, looked childlike. She was twenty-seven and had been on the force for three years, but you could be forgiven for thinking her much younger. “Bright and early, I see,” she said with a grin.
Bruce grumbled.
Vanessa held down the fort during the graveyard shift, acting to the night as he acted to the day. She was young and full of energy, which clashed with Bruce, who was old and just wanted to be left alone. Despite their differences, Bruce loved her like a kid sister…an annoying kid sister he wanted to throat punch sometimes.
“You missed all the fun last night,” she said and parked her butt on the edge of Bruce’s desk. He glared at her, but she ignored him.
“Good,” he said. Then: “What happened?”
“Big fight outside of Club Vlad,” she said. “It looked like a WorldStar video.”
For a moment, Bruce was lost. “Club what?”
“Club Vlad,” Vanessa said. “Where the Fuze Box used to be.”
Ah, right. The Fuze Box was an Albany landmark, a night club for punks…or goths…or someone. Certainly not for Bruce Kenner. It was small, dingy, and always had people in black waiting outside. On Friday and Saturday nights, it blasted strange music with lyrics about fighting The Man. Kids had been fighting the Man since before Bruce was even born and they hadn’t beaten him yet. Kudos to them for still trying.
Last year, The Fuze Box closed down and someone else bought it. It reopened last month and looked more or less the same: Posers, shitty music, and spiked hair. So much spiked hair. “Place is still a pain in the ass,” Bruce said.
“Yep,” Vanessa chirped. “It doesn’t know what it wants to be now. One minute they play nightcore, the next EDM. It’s all over the place.”
Bruce raised a quizzical brow.
“Not that I’ve ever been there in my free time,” Vanessa said in a tone that suggested she had,
Bruce gave a judgemental hum.
“Anyway,” Vanessa went on, “you see we have some new missing persons?”
Sighing, Bruce sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I did.”
“People are starting to ask questions,” Vanessa warned.
That brought a terse smile to Bruce’s weathered face. “Maybe they’ll solve it then.”
“Ha, fat chance,” Vanessa said. She got up and stretched. “Anyway, I’m bushed. Here’s my…” she trailed off and looked at her empty hands. “Damn, where’s my report? I just had it?” She turned in a confused circle as if she might be able to spot her report making a break for it. “Huh,” she said. She left the office and came back a moment later holding a folder. “Found it,” she grinned.
Bruce just looked at her.
“Um…here it is.”
He didn’t take it.
Her smile faltered. She carefully sat it on top of the files Bruce was looking at.
And his hands.
“I’ll just leave that right here.” She patted it for good measure.
“Thank you,” Bruce said.
“Okay. Night.”
“Goodnight,” Bruce said as she left through a shaft of morning sunlight. Alone, Bruce sat her report aside and went back to the missing kids. This case was giving him a headache and it wasn’t even nine. With a deep sigh, he slumped back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Was it Saturday yet?
He could really use a fishing trip.
***
Dom came awake in the cold purple twilight with a shocked gasp like a man coming up seconds before drowning. His eyes strained from his sweaty face and his mouth hung slack, twisted in a gruesome parody of The Scream. His mind was muddled, murky - he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he knew this,.
He couldn’t breathe.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but his lungs did not fill with air. A great, unseen weight seemed to bear down on his chest, and panic gripped him. He tried to move, but his arms refused to heed his brain’s command. The weight seemed heavier, all over, crushing him like a bug. Confusion filled him and he started to pant.
Without warning, his bowels and bladder loosened, and horrible wetness filled his pants. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. His chest rose and fell with the frantic labor of his breath, but his lungs remained inert. A cry of fear bubbled up inside of him, but escaped his mouth only as a breathy groan.
A bust of adrenaline shot through him and he tried to stand, but succeeded only in falling off the couch instead, landing face first against the cold tile floor. He felt his nose crunch, but the pain was muted.
Dom thought he lost consciousness after that, but wasn’t sure. His next memory was of shivering so violently that his teeth clacked together. A phantom chill - perhaps from the floor - had settled into his bones, and was colder than he had ever been in his life, colder even than the time he fell into a snowbank and got lost when he was two. Shudders racked his body, and though he tried to turn over, he was too fucking heavy. It was like every muscle in his body had turned to dead weight. Fragmented thoughts swirled in his head, faint colors in the dark, but he couldn’t put any of them together.
With great effort, he managed to push himself slightly up, but a wave of lightheadedness crashed over him and he lowered his head once more. He stopped trying and simply lay there. Shortly, his eyes began to burn and he realized that he wasn’t blinking. Jesus Christ, he wasn’t blinking.
For some strange reason, that brought a fresh bout of panic. He started to hyperventilate, but his lungs still wouldn’t work. He wasn’t blinking…he wasn’t breathing…what was happening to him?
A whimper burst from his throat and he started to cry.
He must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke sometime later to the most intense headache he’d ever had. It felt like something was eating his brain from the inside out. He was sore all over, and could feel his muscles twitching, as though a thousand living things were burrowing through his body. A cramp shot down his right leg, and the toes of his left foot curled involuntarily. Slowly, his jaw clenched closed, and the muscles in his neck began to strain…then to burn. His panic turned to terror, and Dom wiggled across the floor like a worm, his limbs screaming in red agony and his brain filling with heat. He somehow wound up on his right side, and his arms curled slowly up to his chest, crossing at the wrists like a mummy. He tried to pull them apart, but the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain cutting through his body. His knees began to draw up to his stomach, and his fingers clenched tightly.
Cramps and spasms attacked every muscle in his body. He screamed through his teeth and shook, resembling a man in the electric chair as 40,000 volts of justice coursed through him. The pain grew gradually, getting worse and worse as minutes ticked by like hours. Higher, higher, higher - he clenched his eyes closed and shrieked as it became unbearable. Disjointed thoughts flashed through his mind - prayers, threats, curses, Jesus fucking…FUCK.
What was happening? God, what was happening to him? Was it fentanyl? He’d seen videos of people high on fentanyl, and they leaned in weird positions. He didn’t do drugs but maybe he ingested it somehow.
His panic may have returned if all of his muscles hadn’t picked that moment to contract as one. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his jaw unclenched just enough for him to utter a high. Agonized scream that echoed through his empty apartment like thunder.
A human being can only take so much before giving out. When the pain reached a crescendo, and Dom mercifully sank into consciousness once more. The sun rose and cascaded through the apartment’s sole window, falling over his huddled form. Slowly, it tracked across the sky before setting again. As the last rays disappeared behind the horizon, Dom’s eyes opened. The pain of the night before was blessedly gone, replaced by a feeling of numbness - the cool ash after the hot fire. His thoughts were slow and thick like molasses, but he could actually think again. Nightmare memories flooded back to him, but he wasn’t sure they were real. He was lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his chest as if for warmth, and his teeth lightly chattered against the icy chill. He was so cold that he didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever. He needed help. He needed…
A shower.
Yeah, a hot shower. That would warm him up.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly sat up, ready for a burst of pain.
But none came.
He did, however, feel heavy. Getting to his feet, he stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself against the counter. His limbs had no feeling. It’s like they weren’t even there. Head hung, Dom tried to catch his breath, but it felt like he wasn’t breathing at all. His eyelids drooped closed and he felt like he was going to fall down. Summoning all the might he could, he shuffled into the bathroom with the stiff gait of an old man. He snapped the light on, and cold, white brilliance filled the space, blinding him.
Leaning heavily against the sink, he gripped the cold porcelain. Suddenly, he was afraid of looking into the mirror. He was sure that whatever reflection he saw, it would be of something else, something monstrous.
Dom lifted his head and faced the glass.
His heart shrank.
The man in the mirror was him but different. His skin was white as milk, lacking all color whatsoever save for the ugly purple patch on the left side. IResembling a giant bruise, it started at the temple and extended down to the slope of his neck, disappearing beneath his T-shirt. He gingerly lifted the shirt, and moaned when he saw that his entire left side was discolored, the purple edged with a puffy shade of pink. His sallow skin clung tight to his ribcage, and his hip bones stuck out so much it looked painful. Back in the mirror, his cheeks were sunken, hollow, and his eyes were a hazy, dishwater gray. His skull seemed bigger, his hair longer. Dom wanted to whip his head away from the phantom before him, to never see it again, but he was transfixed.
There was no way that thing was -
Dom looked away, cutting that thought off before it could finish.
A shower.
He needed a shower.
Slowly, stiffly, Dom undressed, peeling off his shirt and his soiled pants. He dropped them in a heap on the floor and stepped under the spray. He could feel the water pounding against him, but it provided no heat. It was neither hot nor cold. It was simply there.
Dom pressed his head to the slick shower wall and stood there for a long time. He was spent, tired, and fried - he had no more emotions left to give. He got out after a little while, dried off, and put on a clean pair of shorts. He settled into bed and lay there with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes open. They felt gritty, dry. His stomach felt bloated, gassy. He was drowsy now, the weight of the past two days (or was it two weeks?) coming down on him all at once. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He was still asleep - but aware - when the knocking on his door started the next morning. Time was funny in this state of being, fast and jerky but also slow and echoing. Keys rattled the knob turned. The landlord came in with a cop. They saw him on the bed, laid out like a corpse for a viewing, and the cop radioed in a code 35. Soon, cops were all around him, making noise and touching things. He had the vague sense of discomfort and embarrassment at the intrusion. A baling man in a suit stood over him, a cop who looked like a redneck beside him. “He didn’t die here,” the medical examiner said.
The cop looked at him questioningly. Dom caught the name KENNER on his name tag.
“See this?” the M.E. said and gestured to Dom’s face. “That’s livor mortis. When you die, your blood pools at the lowest point. If you’re on your left side, for example, it pools on the left.”
Kenner looked at Dom and then back to the M.E. “Someone moved him?”
“Looks like it,” the M.E. said.
“When did he die?”
The M.E. examined Dom as though he were nothing more than a side of beef. “At a glance? Three days. I won’t have a better answer until I open him up.”
Dom was still awake when they put him into a body bag and zipped it up. He felt a stirring of fear beneath the cold numbness, but he was too tired to worry about it now.
Later, he thought.
He would panic later.
For now, Dom slept.
2024.05.14 20:57 Flagg1991 Children of the Night (Part 2)
The world was a boozy whirl of lights and sounds. Images, broken and fragmented, came and went. Voices, laughter, screaming. The ground pitched like the deck of a tempest-tossed ship, and he felt heavy, as though the ground were pulling him to it. C’mere, Dommy. He fell, lay on the pavement, and pushed himself up again, staggering like a drunk on his way home. His head spun, his body ached, and things seemed blurry, like half-formed images glimpsed underwater.
It was the light blue hour before dawn and Dom was…somewhere. He should have recognized the stores and street signs around him, but he didn’t. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a sense of confusion gripped him so strongly that he was beginning to panic. Where was he? What happened?
The world spun away again and the next thing he knew, he was lying in a heap of garbage bags, used needles, and rubbish. He came awake with a jerk and sat up so fast that a bolt of pain jammed into his skull. He winced and pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt hot, clammy.
Something was seriously wrong.
Somehow he got to his feet again and started walking. The sun was up now and the streets were filled with people. They all sneered in disgust as he passed, and he wrapped his arms around his chest like a baby comforting itself. He was getting cold. His muscles were sore. Tears streamed down his face and he wanted to cry.
Going on instinct alone, Dom made his way back home and climbed the steps to his apartment. Exhaustion swept over him and he sagged against the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. They shook in his hand and he had to focus really hard to get the key into the lock.
Inside, he collapsed onto the couch and his eyelids instantly drooped. He was so weary that he couldn’t lift his head, couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Dom felt himself starting to sink, and snapped his eyes open with a start. Something in his soul told him that if he slept, he would die.
He couldn’t help it, though. He was falling, tumbling, hands reaching up from hell to grab him. His eyes fluttered closed again and the world started to go dark, his heart slamming in fear. He tried to fight, but the pull of darkness was too strong, too alluring. Why was he fighting? Why not just…give up? Hadn’t he thought of killing himself before? Didn’t he hate his life and himself? What was there to fight for? A wife? Kids? A community that loved and respected him? Shit, affordable groceries?
No.
There was nothing.
He had nothing and was nothing.
A sense of peace blossomed from the darkness, and suddenly death didn’t seem so scary. In fact, it was warm…inviting.
It was life that was cold and hateful. Not death.
Death accepted you no matter who you were. It didn’t reject you…it didn’t ignore you. If you sought it, you would find it, and if you embraced it, it would embrace you.
With that thought in mind, Dom gave up.
And died.
***
Bruce Kenner, captain of the 5th Albany precinct, sat behind his desk on the morning of June 28 and lazily leafed through a stack of files as he sipped from a mug of coffee. A roughly built man with a dark goatee and graying blonde hair, he looked more like a small town southern sheriff than a low level public works functionary. In fact, he tended to act like it too. He liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer on his off time. Albany wasn’t a big city, but it was big enough that you never got a fucking break. Run here, run there, arrest this asshole, investigate that asshole. By the time Friday rolled around, he was so ready for the peace and tranquility of a fishing trip he could taste it.
Already this Monday morning, he was looking forward to another one.
Over the weekend, three kids went missing in the Pine Hills and Washington Park area, bringing the total for that summer up to eight. All were teenagers, all were troubled. Most were boys, but two were girls.
Troubled kids run away all the time. They might be gone a few days, sulking at a friend’s house over something their father or mother did, but they’d eventually come home. None of these kids had come back yet and from what he knew, a few of them weren’t the runaway types. They were shits at school and caused problems, but they had no reason to up and leave. Hell, Bruce himself raised hell as a kid, but he always found his way back home, even if he spent the previous night dying in a field from Mad Dogg 20/20 poisoning.
One or two kids going missing…okay, it happens. Eight? Over a span of four weeks?
Yeah, something was wrong here.
But what?
There was nothing on any of these kids. No one saw them, no one knew anything - one minute they were here, the next they weren’t. What could he or anyone else do with that?. The public broke cops’ balls all the time, but if you don’t have evidence, you don’t have evidence. What do you want? Door to door searches? Roadblocks? Dogs and helicopters? Yeah, then when you actually do it, they cry fascism. Guess I’ll just use my Spidey Senses.
Bruce wished he had spidey senses. He wanted to find these kids as much as anyone, and he was starting to get pissed off that he couldn’t. He took another sip from his mug and read on. The latest kids to go missing were three boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
They were all white, all thin (except for one). If there was a serial killer in town - and Bruce hoped to fuck there wasn’t - he had a type. What, black kids aren’t good enough to kill, cannibalize, and wear like a skin suit? They should charge him with a hate crime for discrimination.
That way he’d actually stay locked up.
The door opened and Vanessa Rodregiez, his deputy, came in. A tall, shapely Hispanic woman with dark eyes and a mouth poised always on the edge of a smile, she wore her black hair in a ponytail that would look stern and severe on anyone else, but on her, looked childlike. She was twenty-seven and had been on the force for three years, but you could be forgiven for thinking her much younger. “Bright and early, I see,” she said with a grin.
Bruce grumbled.
Vanessa held down the fort during the graveyard shift, acting to the night as he acted to the day. She was young and full of energy, which clashed with Bruce, who was old and just wanted to be left alone. Despite their differences, Bruce loved her like a kid sister…an annoying kid sister he wanted to throat punch sometimes.
“You missed all the fun last night,” she said and parked her butt on the edge of Bruce’s desk. He glared at her, but she ignored him.
“Good,” he said. Then: “What happened?”
“Big fight outside of Club Vlad,” she said. “It looked like a WorldStar video.”
For a moment, Bruce was lost. “Club what?”
“Club Vlad,” Vanessa said. “Where the Fuze Box used to be.”
Ah, right. The Fuze Box was an Albany landmark, a night club for punks…or goths…or someone. Certainly not for Bruce Kenner. It was small, dingy, and always had people in black waiting outside. On Friday and Saturday nights, it blasted strange music with lyrics about fighting The Man. Kids had been fighting the Man since before Bruce was even born and they hadn’t beaten him yet. Kudos to them for still trying.
Last year, The Fuze Box closed down and someone else bought it. It reopened last month and looked more or less the same: Posers, shitty music, and spiked hair. So much spiked hair. “Place is still a pain in the ass,” Bruce said.
“Yep,” Vanessa chirped. “It doesn’t know what it wants to be now. One minute they play nightcore, the next EDM. It’s all over the place.”
Bruce raised a quizzical brow.
“Not that I’ve ever been there in my free time,” Vanessa said in a tone that suggested she had,
Bruce gave a judgemental hum.
“Anyway,” Vanessa went on, “you see we have some new missing persons?”
Sighing, Bruce sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I did.”
“People are starting to ask questions,” Vanessa warned.
That brought a terse smile to Bruce’s weathered face. “Maybe they’ll solve it then.”
“Ha, fat chance,” Vanessa said. She got up and stretched. “Anyway, I’m bushed. Here’s my…” she trailed off and looked at her empty hands. “Damn, where’s my report? I just had it?” She turned in a confused circle as if she might be able to spot her report making a break for it. “Huh,” she said. She left the office and came back a moment later holding a folder. “Found it,” she grinned.
Bruce just looked at her.
“Um…here it is.”
He didn’t take it.
Her smile faltered. She carefully sat it on top of the files Bruce was looking at.
And his hands.
“I’ll just leave that right here.” She patted it for good measure.
“Thank you,” Bruce said.
“Okay. Night.”
“Goodnight,” Bruce said as she left through a shaft of morning sunlight. Alone, Bruce sat her report aside and went back to the missing kids. This case was giving him a headache and it wasn’t even nine. With a deep sigh, he slumped back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Was it Saturday yet?
He could really use a fishing trip.
***
Dom came awake in the cold purple twilight with a shocked gasp like a man coming up seconds before drowning. His eyes strained from his sweaty face and his mouth hung slack, twisted in a gruesome parody of The Scream. His mind was muddled, murky - he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he knew this,.
He couldn’t breathe.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but his lungs did not fill with air. A great, unseen weight seemed to bear down on his chest, and panic gripped him. He tried to move, but his arms refused to heed his brain’s command. The weight seemed heavier, all over, crushing him like a bug. Confusion filled him and he started to pant.
Without warning, his bowels and bladder loosened, and horrible wetness filled his pants. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. His chest rose and fell with the frantic labor of his breath, but his lungs remained inert. A cry of fear bubbled up inside of him, but escaped his mouth only as a breathy groan.
A bust of adrenaline shot through him and he tried to stand, but succeeded only in falling off the couch instead, landing face first against the cold tile floor. He felt his nose crunch, but the pain was muted.
Dom thought he lost consciousness after that, but wasn’t sure. His next memory was of shivering so violently that his teeth clacked together. A phantom chill - perhaps from the floor - had settled into his bones, and was colder than he had ever been in his life, colder even than the time he fell into a snowbank and got lost when he was two. Shudders racked his body, and though he tried to turn over, he was too fucking heavy. It was like every muscle in his body had turned to dead weight. Fragmented thoughts swirled in his head, faint colors in the dark, but he couldn’t put any of them together.
With great effort, he managed to push himself slightly up, but a wave of lightheadedness crashed over him and he lowered his head once more. He stopped trying and simply lay there. Shortly, his eyes began to burn and he realized that he wasn’t blinking. Jesus Christ, he wasn’t blinking.
For some strange reason, that brought a fresh bout of panic. He started to hyperventilate, but his lungs still wouldn’t work. He wasn’t blinking…he wasn’t breathing…what was happening to him?
A whimper burst from his throat and he started to cry.
He must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke sometime later to the most intense headache he’d ever had. It felt like something was eating his brain from the inside out. He was sore all over, and could feel his muscles twitching, as though a thousand living things were burrowing through his body. A cramp shot down his right leg, and the toes of his left foot curled involuntarily. Slowly, his jaw clenched closed, and the muscles in his neck began to strain…then to burn. His panic turned to terror, and Dom wiggled across the floor like a worm, his limbs screaming in red agony and his brain filling with heat. He somehow wound up on his right side, and his arms curled slowly up to his chest, crossing at the wrists like a mummy. He tried to pull them apart, but the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain cutting through his body. His knees began to draw up to his stomach, and his fingers clenched tightly.
Cramps and spasms attacked every muscle in his body. He screamed through his teeth and shook, resembling a man in the electric chair as 40,000 volts of justice coursed through him. The pain grew gradually, getting worse and worse as minutes ticked by like hours. Higher, higher, higher - he clenched his eyes closed and shrieked as it became unbearable. Disjointed thoughts flashed through his mind - prayers, threats, curses, Jesus fucking…FUCK.
What was happening? God, what was happening to him? Was it fentanyl? He’d seen videos of people high on fentanyl, and they leaned in weird positions. He didn’t do drugs but maybe he ingested it somehow.
His panic may have returned if all of his muscles hadn’t picked that moment to contract as one. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his jaw unclenched just enough for him to utter a high. Agonized scream that echoed through his empty apartment like thunder.
A human being can only take so much before giving out. When the pain reached a crescendo, and Dom mercifully sank into consciousness once more. The sun rose and cascaded through the apartment’s sole window, falling over his huddled form. Slowly, it tracked across the sky before setting again. As the last rays disappeared behind the horizon, Dom’s eyes opened. The pain of the night before was blessedly gone, replaced by a feeling of numbness - the cool ash after the hot fire. His thoughts were slow and thick like molasses, but he could actually think again. Nightmare memories flooded back to him, but he wasn’t sure they were real. He was lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his chest as if for warmth, and his teeth lightly chattered against the icy chill. He was so cold that he didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever. He needed help. He needed…
A shower.
Yeah, a hot shower. That would warm him up.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly sat up, ready for a burst of pain.
But none came.
He did, however, feel heavy. Getting to his feet, he stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself against the counter. His limbs had no feeling. It’s like they weren’t even there. Head hung, Dom tried to catch his breath, but it felt like he wasn’t breathing at all. His eyelids drooped closed and he felt like he was going to fall down. Summoning all the might he could, he shuffled into the bathroom with the stiff gait of an old man. He snapped the light on, and cold, white brilliance filled the space, blinding him.
Leaning heavily against the sink, he gripped the cold porcelain. Suddenly, he was afraid of looking into the mirror. He was sure that whatever reflection he saw, it would be of something else, something monstrous.
Dom lifted his head and faced the glass.
His heart shrank.
The man in the mirror was him but different. His skin was white as milk, lacking all color whatsoever save for the ugly purple patch on the left side. IResembling a giant bruise, it started at the temple and extended down to the slope of his neck, disappearing beneath his T-shirt. He gingerly lifted the shirt, and moaned when he saw that his entire left side was discolored, the purple edged with a puffy shade of pink. His sallow skin clung tight to his ribcage, and his hip bones stuck out so much it looked painful. Back in the mirror, his cheeks were sunken, hollow, and his eyes were a hazy, dishwater gray. His skull seemed bigger, his hair longer. Dom wanted to whip his head away from the phantom before him, to never see it again, but he was transfixed.
There was no way that thing was -
Dom looked away, cutting that thought off before it could finish.
A shower.
He needed a shower.
Slowly, stiffly, Dom undressed, peeling off his shirt and his soiled pants. He dropped them in a heap on the floor and stepped under the spray. He could feel the water pounding against him, but it provided no heat. It was neither hot nor cold. It was simply there.
Dom pressed his head to the slick shower wall and stood there for a long time. He was spent, tired, and fried - he had no more emotions left to give. He got out after a little while, dried off, and put on a clean pair of shorts. He settled into bed and lay there with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes open. They felt gritty, dry. His stomach felt bloated, gassy. He was drowsy now, the weight of the past two days (or was it two weeks?) coming down on him all at once. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He was still asleep - but aware - when the knocking on his door started the next morning. Time was funny in this state of being, fast and jerky but also slow and echoing. Keys rattled the knob turned. The landlord came in with a cop. They saw him on the bed, laid out like a corpse for a viewing, and the cop radioed in a code 35. Soon, cops were all around him, making noise and touching things. He had the vague sense of discomfort and embarrassment at the intrusion. A baling man in a suit stood over him, a cop who looked like a redneck beside him. “He didn’t die here,” the medical examiner said.
The cop looked at him questioningly. Dom caught the name KENNER on his name tag.
“See this?” the M.E. said and gestured to Dom’s face. “That’s livor mortis. When you die, your blood pools at the lowest point. If you’re on your left side, for example, it pools on the left.”
Kenner looked at Dom and then back to the M.E. “Someone moved him?”
“Looks like it,” the M.E. said.
“When did he die?”
The M.E. examined Dom as though he were nothing more than a side of beef. “At a glance? Three days. I won’t have a better answer until I open him up.”
Dom was still awake when they put him into a body bag and zipped it up. He felt a stirring of fear beneath the cold numbness, but he was too tired to worry about it now.
Later, he thought.
He would panic later.
For now, Dom slept.
submitted by Flagg1991 to LighthouseHorror [link] [comments]
It was the light blue hour before dawn and Dom was…somewhere. He should have recognized the stores and street signs around him, but he didn’t. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a sense of confusion gripped him so strongly that he was beginning to panic. Where was he? What happened?
The world spun away again and the next thing he knew, he was lying in a heap of garbage bags, used needles, and rubbish. He came awake with a jerk and sat up so fast that a bolt of pain jammed into his skull. He winced and pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt hot, clammy.
Something was seriously wrong.
Somehow he got to his feet again and started walking. The sun was up now and the streets were filled with people. They all sneered in disgust as he passed, and he wrapped his arms around his chest like a baby comforting itself. He was getting cold. His muscles were sore. Tears streamed down his face and he wanted to cry.
Going on instinct alone, Dom made his way back home and climbed the steps to his apartment. Exhaustion swept over him and he sagged against the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. They shook in his hand and he had to focus really hard to get the key into the lock.
Inside, he collapsed onto the couch and his eyelids instantly drooped. He was so weary that he couldn’t lift his head, couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Dom felt himself starting to sink, and snapped his eyes open with a start. Something in his soul told him that if he slept, he would die.
He couldn’t help it, though. He was falling, tumbling, hands reaching up from hell to grab him. His eyes fluttered closed again and the world started to go dark, his heart slamming in fear. He tried to fight, but the pull of darkness was too strong, too alluring. Why was he fighting? Why not just…give up? Hadn’t he thought of killing himself before? Didn’t he hate his life and himself? What was there to fight for? A wife? Kids? A community that loved and respected him? Shit, affordable groceries?
No.
There was nothing.
He had nothing and was nothing.
A sense of peace blossomed from the darkness, and suddenly death didn’t seem so scary. In fact, it was warm…inviting.
It was life that was cold and hateful. Not death.
Death accepted you no matter who you were. It didn’t reject you…it didn’t ignore you. If you sought it, you would find it, and if you embraced it, it would embrace you.
With that thought in mind, Dom gave up.
And died.
***
Bruce Kenner, captain of the 5th Albany precinct, sat behind his desk on the morning of June 28 and lazily leafed through a stack of files as he sipped from a mug of coffee. A roughly built man with a dark goatee and graying blonde hair, he looked more like a small town southern sheriff than a low level public works functionary. In fact, he tended to act like it too. He liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer on his off time. Albany wasn’t a big city, but it was big enough that you never got a fucking break. Run here, run there, arrest this asshole, investigate that asshole. By the time Friday rolled around, he was so ready for the peace and tranquility of a fishing trip he could taste it.
Already this Monday morning, he was looking forward to another one.
Over the weekend, three kids went missing in the Pine Hills and Washington Park area, bringing the total for that summer up to eight. All were teenagers, all were troubled. Most were boys, but two were girls.
Troubled kids run away all the time. They might be gone a few days, sulking at a friend’s house over something their father or mother did, but they’d eventually come home. None of these kids had come back yet and from what he knew, a few of them weren’t the runaway types. They were shits at school and caused problems, but they had no reason to up and leave. Hell, Bruce himself raised hell as a kid, but he always found his way back home, even if he spent the previous night dying in a field from Mad Dogg 20/20 poisoning.
One or two kids going missing…okay, it happens. Eight? Over a span of four weeks?
Yeah, something was wrong here.
But what?
There was nothing on any of these kids. No one saw them, no one knew anything - one minute they were here, the next they weren’t. What could he or anyone else do with that?. The public broke cops’ balls all the time, but if you don’t have evidence, you don’t have evidence. What do you want? Door to door searches? Roadblocks? Dogs and helicopters? Yeah, then when you actually do it, they cry fascism. Guess I’ll just use my Spidey Senses.
Bruce wished he had spidey senses. He wanted to find these kids as much as anyone, and he was starting to get pissed off that he couldn’t. He took another sip from his mug and read on. The latest kids to go missing were three boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
They were all white, all thin (except for one). If there was a serial killer in town - and Bruce hoped to fuck there wasn’t - he had a type. What, black kids aren’t good enough to kill, cannibalize, and wear like a skin suit? They should charge him with a hate crime for discrimination.
That way he’d actually stay locked up.
The door opened and Vanessa Rodregiez, his deputy, came in. A tall, shapely Hispanic woman with dark eyes and a mouth poised always on the edge of a smile, she wore her black hair in a ponytail that would look stern and severe on anyone else, but on her, looked childlike. She was twenty-seven and had been on the force for three years, but you could be forgiven for thinking her much younger. “Bright and early, I see,” she said with a grin.
Bruce grumbled.
Vanessa held down the fort during the graveyard shift, acting to the night as he acted to the day. She was young and full of energy, which clashed with Bruce, who was old and just wanted to be left alone. Despite their differences, Bruce loved her like a kid sister…an annoying kid sister he wanted to throat punch sometimes.
“You missed all the fun last night,” she said and parked her butt on the edge of Bruce’s desk. He glared at her, but she ignored him.
“Good,” he said. Then: “What happened?”
“Big fight outside of Club Vlad,” she said. “It looked like a WorldStar video.”
For a moment, Bruce was lost. “Club what?”
“Club Vlad,” Vanessa said. “Where the Fuze Box used to be.”
Ah, right. The Fuze Box was an Albany landmark, a night club for punks…or goths…or someone. Certainly not for Bruce Kenner. It was small, dingy, and always had people in black waiting outside. On Friday and Saturday nights, it blasted strange music with lyrics about fighting The Man. Kids had been fighting the Man since before Bruce was even born and they hadn’t beaten him yet. Kudos to them for still trying.
Last year, The Fuze Box closed down and someone else bought it. It reopened last month and looked more or less the same: Posers, shitty music, and spiked hair. So much spiked hair. “Place is still a pain in the ass,” Bruce said.
“Yep,” Vanessa chirped. “It doesn’t know what it wants to be now. One minute they play nightcore, the next EDM. It’s all over the place.”
Bruce raised a quizzical brow.
“Not that I’ve ever been there in my free time,” Vanessa said in a tone that suggested she had,
Bruce gave a judgemental hum.
“Anyway,” Vanessa went on, “you see we have some new missing persons?”
Sighing, Bruce sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I did.”
“People are starting to ask questions,” Vanessa warned.
That brought a terse smile to Bruce’s weathered face. “Maybe they’ll solve it then.”
“Ha, fat chance,” Vanessa said. She got up and stretched. “Anyway, I’m bushed. Here’s my…” she trailed off and looked at her empty hands. “Damn, where’s my report? I just had it?” She turned in a confused circle as if she might be able to spot her report making a break for it. “Huh,” she said. She left the office and came back a moment later holding a folder. “Found it,” she grinned.
Bruce just looked at her.
“Um…here it is.”
He didn’t take it.
Her smile faltered. She carefully sat it on top of the files Bruce was looking at.
And his hands.
“I’ll just leave that right here.” She patted it for good measure.
“Thank you,” Bruce said.
“Okay. Night.”
“Goodnight,” Bruce said as she left through a shaft of morning sunlight. Alone, Bruce sat her report aside and went back to the missing kids. This case was giving him a headache and it wasn’t even nine. With a deep sigh, he slumped back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Was it Saturday yet?
He could really use a fishing trip.
***
Dom came awake in the cold purple twilight with a shocked gasp like a man coming up seconds before drowning. His eyes strained from his sweaty face and his mouth hung slack, twisted in a gruesome parody of The Scream. His mind was muddled, murky - he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he knew this,.
He couldn’t breathe.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but his lungs did not fill with air. A great, unseen weight seemed to bear down on his chest, and panic gripped him. He tried to move, but his arms refused to heed his brain’s command. The weight seemed heavier, all over, crushing him like a bug. Confusion filled him and he started to pant.
Without warning, his bowels and bladder loosened, and horrible wetness filled his pants. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. His chest rose and fell with the frantic labor of his breath, but his lungs remained inert. A cry of fear bubbled up inside of him, but escaped his mouth only as a breathy groan.
A bust of adrenaline shot through him and he tried to stand, but succeeded only in falling off the couch instead, landing face first against the cold tile floor. He felt his nose crunch, but the pain was muted.
Dom thought he lost consciousness after that, but wasn’t sure. His next memory was of shivering so violently that his teeth clacked together. A phantom chill - perhaps from the floor - had settled into his bones, and was colder than he had ever been in his life, colder even than the time he fell into a snowbank and got lost when he was two. Shudders racked his body, and though he tried to turn over, he was too fucking heavy. It was like every muscle in his body had turned to dead weight. Fragmented thoughts swirled in his head, faint colors in the dark, but he couldn’t put any of them together.
With great effort, he managed to push himself slightly up, but a wave of lightheadedness crashed over him and he lowered his head once more. He stopped trying and simply lay there. Shortly, his eyes began to burn and he realized that he wasn’t blinking. Jesus Christ, he wasn’t blinking.
For some strange reason, that brought a fresh bout of panic. He started to hyperventilate, but his lungs still wouldn’t work. He wasn’t blinking…he wasn’t breathing…what was happening to him?
A whimper burst from his throat and he started to cry.
He must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke sometime later to the most intense headache he’d ever had. It felt like something was eating his brain from the inside out. He was sore all over, and could feel his muscles twitching, as though a thousand living things were burrowing through his body. A cramp shot down his right leg, and the toes of his left foot curled involuntarily. Slowly, his jaw clenched closed, and the muscles in his neck began to strain…then to burn. His panic turned to terror, and Dom wiggled across the floor like a worm, his limbs screaming in red agony and his brain filling with heat. He somehow wound up on his right side, and his arms curled slowly up to his chest, crossing at the wrists like a mummy. He tried to pull them apart, but the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain cutting through his body. His knees began to draw up to his stomach, and his fingers clenched tightly.
Cramps and spasms attacked every muscle in his body. He screamed through his teeth and shook, resembling a man in the electric chair as 40,000 volts of justice coursed through him. The pain grew gradually, getting worse and worse as minutes ticked by like hours. Higher, higher, higher - he clenched his eyes closed and shrieked as it became unbearable. Disjointed thoughts flashed through his mind - prayers, threats, curses, Jesus fucking…FUCK.
What was happening? God, what was happening to him? Was it fentanyl? He’d seen videos of people high on fentanyl, and they leaned in weird positions. He didn’t do drugs but maybe he ingested it somehow.
His panic may have returned if all of his muscles hadn’t picked that moment to contract as one. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his jaw unclenched just enough for him to utter a high. Agonized scream that echoed through his empty apartment like thunder.
A human being can only take so much before giving out. When the pain reached a crescendo, and Dom mercifully sank into consciousness once more. The sun rose and cascaded through the apartment’s sole window, falling over his huddled form. Slowly, it tracked across the sky before setting again. As the last rays disappeared behind the horizon, Dom’s eyes opened. The pain of the night before was blessedly gone, replaced by a feeling of numbness - the cool ash after the hot fire. His thoughts were slow and thick like molasses, but he could actually think again. Nightmare memories flooded back to him, but he wasn’t sure they were real. He was lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his chest as if for warmth, and his teeth lightly chattered against the icy chill. He was so cold that he didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever. He needed help. He needed…
A shower.
Yeah, a hot shower. That would warm him up.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly sat up, ready for a burst of pain.
But none came.
He did, however, feel heavy. Getting to his feet, he stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself against the counter. His limbs had no feeling. It’s like they weren’t even there. Head hung, Dom tried to catch his breath, but it felt like he wasn’t breathing at all. His eyelids drooped closed and he felt like he was going to fall down. Summoning all the might he could, he shuffled into the bathroom with the stiff gait of an old man. He snapped the light on, and cold, white brilliance filled the space, blinding him.
Leaning heavily against the sink, he gripped the cold porcelain. Suddenly, he was afraid of looking into the mirror. He was sure that whatever reflection he saw, it would be of something else, something monstrous.
Dom lifted his head and faced the glass.
His heart shrank.
The man in the mirror was him but different. His skin was white as milk, lacking all color whatsoever save for the ugly purple patch on the left side. IResembling a giant bruise, it started at the temple and extended down to the slope of his neck, disappearing beneath his T-shirt. He gingerly lifted the shirt, and moaned when he saw that his entire left side was discolored, the purple edged with a puffy shade of pink. His sallow skin clung tight to his ribcage, and his hip bones stuck out so much it looked painful. Back in the mirror, his cheeks were sunken, hollow, and his eyes were a hazy, dishwater gray. His skull seemed bigger, his hair longer. Dom wanted to whip his head away from the phantom before him, to never see it again, but he was transfixed.
There was no way that thing was -
Dom looked away, cutting that thought off before it could finish.
A shower.
He needed a shower.
Slowly, stiffly, Dom undressed, peeling off his shirt and his soiled pants. He dropped them in a heap on the floor and stepped under the spray. He could feel the water pounding against him, but it provided no heat. It was neither hot nor cold. It was simply there.
Dom pressed his head to the slick shower wall and stood there for a long time. He was spent, tired, and fried - he had no more emotions left to give. He got out after a little while, dried off, and put on a clean pair of shorts. He settled into bed and lay there with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes open. They felt gritty, dry. His stomach felt bloated, gassy. He was drowsy now, the weight of the past two days (or was it two weeks?) coming down on him all at once. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He was still asleep - but aware - when the knocking on his door started the next morning. Time was funny in this state of being, fast and jerky but also slow and echoing. Keys rattled the knob turned. The landlord came in with a cop. They saw him on the bed, laid out like a corpse for a viewing, and the cop radioed in a code 35. Soon, cops were all around him, making noise and touching things. He had the vague sense of discomfort and embarrassment at the intrusion. A baling man in a suit stood over him, a cop who looked like a redneck beside him. “He didn’t die here,” the medical examiner said.
The cop looked at him questioningly. Dom caught the name KENNER on his name tag.
“See this?” the M.E. said and gestured to Dom’s face. “That’s livor mortis. When you die, your blood pools at the lowest point. If you’re on your left side, for example, it pools on the left.”
Kenner looked at Dom and then back to the M.E. “Someone moved him?”
“Looks like it,” the M.E. said.
“When did he die?”
The M.E. examined Dom as though he were nothing more than a side of beef. “At a glance? Three days. I won’t have a better answer until I open him up.”
Dom was still awake when they put him into a body bag and zipped it up. He felt a stirring of fear beneath the cold numbness, but he was too tired to worry about it now.
Later, he thought.
He would panic later.
For now, Dom slept.
2024.05.14 20:56 Flagg1991 Children of the Night (Part 2)
The world was a boozy whirl of lights and sounds. Images, broken and fragmented, came and went. Voices, laughter, screaming. The ground pitched like the deck of a tempest-tossed ship, and he felt heavy, as though the ground were pulling him to it. C’mere, Dommy. He fell, lay on the pavement, and pushed himself up again, staggering like a drunk on his way home. His head spun, his body ached, and things seemed blurry, like half-formed images glimpsed underwater.
It was the light blue hour before dawn and Dom was…somewhere. He should have recognized the stores and street signs around him, but he didn’t. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a sense of confusion gripped him so strongly that he was beginning to panic. Where was he? What happened?
The world spun away again and the next thing he knew, he was lying in a heap of garbage bags, used needles, and rubbish. He came awake with a jerk and sat up so fast that a bolt of pain jammed into his skull. He winced and pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt hot, clammy.
Something was seriously wrong.
Somehow he got to his feet again and started walking. The sun was up now and the streets were filled with people. They all sneered in disgust as he passed, and he wrapped his arms around his chest like a baby comforting itself. He was getting cold. His muscles were sore. Tears streamed down his face and he wanted to cry.
Going on instinct alone, Dom made his way back home and climbed the steps to his apartment. Exhaustion swept over him and he sagged against the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. They shook in his hand and he had to focus really hard to get the key into the lock.
Inside, he collapsed onto the couch and his eyelids instantly drooped. He was so weary that he couldn’t lift his head, couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Dom felt himself starting to sink, and snapped his eyes open with a start. Something in his soul told him that if he slept, he would die.
He couldn’t help it, though. He was falling, tumbling, hands reaching up from hell to grab him. His eyes fluttered closed again and the world started to go dark, his heart slamming in fear. He tried to fight, but the pull of darkness was too strong, too alluring. Why was he fighting? Why not just…give up? Hadn’t he thought of killing himself before? Didn’t he hate his life and himself? What was there to fight for? A wife? Kids? A community that loved and respected him? Shit, affordable groceries?
No.
There was nothing.
He had nothing and was nothing.
A sense of peace blossomed from the darkness, and suddenly death didn’t seem so scary. In fact, it was warm…inviting.
It was life that was cold and hateful. Not death.
Death accepted you no matter who you were. It didn’t reject you…it didn’t ignore you. If you sought it, you would find it, and if you embraced it, it would embrace you.
With that thought in mind, Dom gave up.
And died.
***
Bruce Kenner, captain of the 5th Albany precinct, sat behind his desk on the morning of June 28 and lazily leafed through a stack of files as he sipped from a mug of coffee. A roughly built man with a dark goatee and graying blonde hair, he looked more like a small town southern sheriff than a low level public works functionary. In fact, he tended to act like it too. He liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer on his off time. Albany wasn’t a big city, but it was big enough that you never got a fucking break. Run here, run there, arrest this asshole, investigate that asshole. By the time Friday rolled around, he was so ready for the peace and tranquility of a fishing trip he could taste it.
Already this Monday morning, he was looking forward to another one.
Over the weekend, three kids went missing in the Pine Hills and Washington Park area, bringing the total for that summer up to eight. All were teenagers, all were troubled. Most were boys, but two were girls.
Troubled kids run away all the time. They might be gone a few days, sulking at a friend’s house over something their father or mother did, but they’d eventually come home. None of these kids had come back yet and from what he knew, a few of them weren’t the runaway types. They were shits at school and caused problems, but they had no reason to up and leave. Hell, Bruce himself raised hell as a kid, but he always found his way back home, even if he spent the previous night dying in a field from Mad Dogg 20/20 poisoning.
One or two kids going missing…okay, it happens. Eight? Over a span of four weeks?
Yeah, something was wrong here.
But what?
There was nothing on any of these kids. No one saw them, no one knew anything - one minute they were here, the next they weren’t. What could he or anyone else do with that?. The public broke cops’ balls all the time, but if you don’t have evidence, you don’t have evidence. What do you want? Door to door searches? Roadblocks? Dogs and helicopters? Yeah, then when you actually do it, they cry fascism. Guess I’ll just use my Spidey Senses.
Bruce wished he had spidey senses. He wanted to find these kids as much as anyone, and he was starting to get pissed off that he couldn’t. He took another sip from his mug and read on. The latest kids to go missing were three boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
They were all white, all thin (except for one). If there was a serial killer in town - and Bruce hoped to fuck there wasn’t - he had a type. What, black kids aren’t good enough to kill, cannibalize, and wear like a skin suit? They should charge him with a hate crime for discrimination.
That way he’d actually stay locked up.
The door opened and Vanessa Rodregiez, his deputy, came in. A tall, shapely Hispanic woman with dark eyes and a mouth poised always on the edge of a smile, she wore her black hair in a ponytail that would look stern and severe on anyone else, but on her, looked childlike. She was twenty-seven and had been on the force for three years, but you could be forgiven for thinking her much younger. “Bright and early, I see,” she said with a grin.
Bruce grumbled.
Vanessa held down the fort during the graveyard shift, acting to the night as he acted to the day. She was young and full of energy, which clashed with Bruce, who was old and just wanted to be left alone. Despite their differences, Bruce loved her like a kid sister…an annoying kid sister he wanted to throat punch sometimes.
“You missed all the fun last night,” she said and parked her butt on the edge of Bruce’s desk. He glared at her, but she ignored him.
“Good,” he said. Then: “What happened?”
“Big fight outside of Club Vlad,” she said. “It looked like a WorldStar video.”
For a moment, Bruce was lost. “Club what?”
“Club Vlad,” Vanessa said. “Where the Fuze Box used to be.”
Ah, right. The Fuze Box was an Albany landmark, a night club for punks…or goths…or someone. Certainly not for Bruce Kenner. It was small, dingy, and always had people in black waiting outside. On Friday and Saturday nights, it blasted strange music with lyrics about fighting The Man. Kids had been fighting the Man since before Bruce was even born and they hadn’t beaten him yet. Kudos to them for still trying.
Last year, The Fuze Box closed down and someone else bought it. It reopened last month and looked more or less the same: Posers, shitty music, and spiked hair. So much spiked hair. “Place is still a pain in the ass,” Bruce said.
“Yep,” Vanessa chirped. “It doesn’t know what it wants to be now. One minute they play nightcore, the next EDM. It’s all over the place.”
Bruce raised a quizzical brow.
“Not that I’ve ever been there in my free time,” Vanessa said in a tone that suggested she had,
Bruce gave a judgemental hum.
“Anyway,” Vanessa went on, “you see we have some new missing persons?”
Sighing, Bruce sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I did.”
“People are starting to ask questions,” Vanessa warned.
That brought a terse smile to Bruce’s weathered face. “Maybe they’ll solve it then.”
“Ha, fat chance,” Vanessa said. She got up and stretched. “Anyway, I’m bushed. Here’s my…” she trailed off and looked at her empty hands. “Damn, where’s my report? I just had it?” She turned in a confused circle as if she might be able to spot her report making a break for it. “Huh,” she said. She left the office and came back a moment later holding a folder. “Found it,” she grinned.
Bruce just looked at her.
“Um…here it is.”
He didn’t take it.
Her smile faltered. She carefully sat it on top of the files Bruce was looking at.
And his hands.
“I’ll just leave that right here.” She patted it for good measure.
“Thank you,” Bruce said.
“Okay. Night.”
“Goodnight,” Bruce said as she left through a shaft of morning sunlight. Alone, Bruce sat her report aside and went back to the missing kids. This case was giving him a headache and it wasn’t even nine. With a deep sigh, he slumped back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Was it Saturday yet?
He could really use a fishing trip.
***
Dom came awake in the cold purple twilight with a shocked gasp like a man coming up seconds before drowning. His eyes strained from his sweaty face and his mouth hung slack, twisted in a gruesome parody of The Scream. His mind was muddled, murky - he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he knew this,.
He couldn’t breathe.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but his lungs did not fill with air. A great, unseen weight seemed to bear down on his chest, and panic gripped him. He tried to move, but his arms refused to heed his brain’s command. The weight seemed heavier, all over, crushing him like a bug. Confusion filled him and he started to pant.
Without warning, his bowels and bladder loosened, and horrible wetness filled his pants. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. His chest rose and fell with the frantic labor of his breath, but his lungs remained inert. A cry of fear bubbled up inside of him, but escaped his mouth only as a breathy groan.
A bust of adrenaline shot through him and he tried to stand, but succeeded only in falling off the couch instead, landing face first against the cold tile floor. He felt his nose crunch, but the pain was muted.
Dom thought he lost consciousness after that, but wasn’t sure. His next memory was of shivering so violently that his teeth clacked together. A phantom chill - perhaps from the floor - had settled into his bones, and was colder than he had ever been in his life, colder even than the time he fell into a snowbank and got lost when he was two. Shudders racked his body, and though he tried to turn over, he was too fucking heavy. It was like every muscle in his body had turned to dead weight. Fragmented thoughts swirled in his head, faint colors in the dark, but he couldn’t put any of them together.
With great effort, he managed to push himself slightly up, but a wave of lightheadedness crashed over him and he lowered his head once more. He stopped trying and simply lay there. Shortly, his eyes began to burn and he realized that he wasn’t blinking. Jesus Christ, he wasn’t blinking.
For some strange reason, that brought a fresh bout of panic. He started to hyperventilate, but his lungs still wouldn’t work. He wasn’t blinking…he wasn’t breathing…what was happening to him?
A whimper burst from his throat and he started to cry.
He must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke sometime later to the most intense headache he’d ever had. It felt like something was eating his brain from the inside out. He was sore all over, and could feel his muscles twitching, as though a thousand living things were burrowing through his body. A cramp shot down his right leg, and the toes of his left foot curled involuntarily. Slowly, his jaw clenched closed, and the muscles in his neck began to strain…then to burn. His panic turned to terror, and Dom wiggled across the floor like a worm, his limbs screaming in red agony and his brain filling with heat. He somehow wound up on his right side, and his arms curled slowly up to his chest, crossing at the wrists like a mummy. He tried to pull them apart, but the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain cutting through his body. His knees began to draw up to his stomach, and his fingers clenched tightly.
Cramps and spasms attacked every muscle in his body. He screamed through his teeth and shook, resembling a man in the electric chair as 40,000 volts of justice coursed through him. The pain grew gradually, getting worse and worse as minutes ticked by like hours. Higher, higher, higher - he clenched his eyes closed and shrieked as it became unbearable. Disjointed thoughts flashed through his mind - prayers, threats, curses, Jesus fucking…FUCK.
What was happening? God, what was happening to him? Was it fentanyl? He’d seen videos of people high on fentanyl, and they leaned in weird positions. He didn’t do drugs but maybe he ingested it somehow.
His panic may have returned if all of his muscles hadn’t picked that moment to contract as one. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his jaw unclenched just enough for him to utter a high. Agonized scream that echoed through his empty apartment like thunder.
A human being can only take so much before giving out. When the pain reached a crescendo, and Dom mercifully sank into consciousness once more. The sun rose and cascaded through the apartment’s sole window, falling over his huddled form. Slowly, it tracked across the sky before setting again. As the last rays disappeared behind the horizon, Dom’s eyes opened. The pain of the night before was blessedly gone, replaced by a feeling of numbness - the cool ash after the hot fire. His thoughts were slow and thick like molasses, but he could actually think again. Nightmare memories flooded back to him, but he wasn’t sure they were real. He was lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his chest as if for warmth, and his teeth lightly chattered against the icy chill. He was so cold that he didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever. He needed help. He needed…
A shower.
Yeah, a hot shower. That would warm him up.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly sat up, ready for a burst of pain.
But none came.
He did, however, feel heavy. Getting to his feet, he stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself against the counter. His limbs had no feeling. It’s like they weren’t even there. Head hung, Dom tried to catch his breath, but it felt like he wasn’t breathing at all. His eyelids drooped closed and he felt like he was going to fall down. Summoning all the might he could, he shuffled into the bathroom with the stiff gait of an old man. He snapped the light on, and cold, white brilliance filled the space, blinding him.
Leaning heavily against the sink, he gripped the cold porcelain. Suddenly, he was afraid of looking into the mirror. He was sure that whatever reflection he saw, it would be of something else, something monstrous.
Dom lifted his head and faced the glass.
His heart shrank.
The man in the mirror was him but different. His skin was white as milk, lacking all color whatsoever save for the ugly purple patch on the left side. IResembling a giant bruise, it started at the temple and extended down to the slope of his neck, disappearing beneath his T-shirt. He gingerly lifted the shirt, and moaned when he saw that his entire left side was discolored, the purple edged with a puffy shade of pink. His sallow skin clung tight to his ribcage, and his hip bones stuck out so much it looked painful. Back in the mirror, his cheeks were sunken, hollow, and his eyes were a hazy, dishwater gray. His skull seemed bigger, his hair longer. Dom wanted to whip his head away from the phantom before him, to never see it again, but he was transfixed.
There was no way that thing was -
Dom looked away, cutting that thought off before it could finish.
A shower.
He needed a shower.
Slowly, stiffly, Dom undressed, peeling off his shirt and his soiled pants. He dropped them in a heap on the floor and stepped under the spray. He could feel the water pounding against him, but it provided no heat. It was neither hot nor cold. It was simply there.
Dom pressed his head to the slick shower wall and stood there for a long time. He was spent, tired, and fried - he had no more emotions left to give. He got out after a little while, dried off, and put on a clean pair of shorts. He settled into bed and lay there with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes open. They felt gritty, dry. His stomach felt bloated, gassy. He was drowsy now, the weight of the past two days (or was it two weeks?) coming down on him all at once. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He was still asleep - but aware - when the knocking on his door started the next morning. Time was funny in this state of being, fast and jerky but also slow and echoing. Keys rattled the knob turned. The landlord came in with a cop. They saw him on the bed, laid out like a corpse for a viewing, and the cop radioed in a code 35. Soon, cops were all around him, making noise and touching things. He had the vague sense of discomfort and embarrassment at the intrusion. A baling man in a suit stood over him, a cop who looked like a redneck beside him. “He didn’t die here,” the medical examiner said.
The cop looked at him questioningly. Dom caught the name KENNER on his name tag.
“See this?” the M.E. said and gestured to Dom’s face. “That’s livor mortis. When you die, your blood pools at the lowest point. If you’re on your left side, for example, it pools on the left.”
Kenner looked at Dom and then back to the M.E. “Someone moved him?”
“Looks like it,” the M.E. said.
“When did he die?”
The M.E. examined Dom as though he were nothing more than a side of beef. “At a glance? Three days. I won’t have a better answer until I open him up.”
Dom was still awake when they put him into a body bag and zipped it up. He felt a stirring of fear beneath the cold numbness, but he was too tired to worry about it now.
Later, he thought.
He would panic later.
For now, Dom slept.
submitted by Flagg1991 to MrCreepyPasta [link] [comments]
It was the light blue hour before dawn and Dom was…somewhere. He should have recognized the stores and street signs around him, but he didn’t. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a sense of confusion gripped him so strongly that he was beginning to panic. Where was he? What happened?
The world spun away again and the next thing he knew, he was lying in a heap of garbage bags, used needles, and rubbish. He came awake with a jerk and sat up so fast that a bolt of pain jammed into his skull. He winced and pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt hot, clammy.
Something was seriously wrong.
Somehow he got to his feet again and started walking. The sun was up now and the streets were filled with people. They all sneered in disgust as he passed, and he wrapped his arms around his chest like a baby comforting itself. He was getting cold. His muscles were sore. Tears streamed down his face and he wanted to cry.
Going on instinct alone, Dom made his way back home and climbed the steps to his apartment. Exhaustion swept over him and he sagged against the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. They shook in his hand and he had to focus really hard to get the key into the lock.
Inside, he collapsed onto the couch and his eyelids instantly drooped. He was so weary that he couldn’t lift his head, couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Dom felt himself starting to sink, and snapped his eyes open with a start. Something in his soul told him that if he slept, he would die.
He couldn’t help it, though. He was falling, tumbling, hands reaching up from hell to grab him. His eyes fluttered closed again and the world started to go dark, his heart slamming in fear. He tried to fight, but the pull of darkness was too strong, too alluring. Why was he fighting? Why not just…give up? Hadn’t he thought of killing himself before? Didn’t he hate his life and himself? What was there to fight for? A wife? Kids? A community that loved and respected him? Shit, affordable groceries?
No.
There was nothing.
He had nothing and was nothing.
A sense of peace blossomed from the darkness, and suddenly death didn’t seem so scary. In fact, it was warm…inviting.
It was life that was cold and hateful. Not death.
Death accepted you no matter who you were. It didn’t reject you…it didn’t ignore you. If you sought it, you would find it, and if you embraced it, it would embrace you.
With that thought in mind, Dom gave up.
And died.
***
Bruce Kenner, captain of the 5th Albany precinct, sat behind his desk on the morning of June 28 and lazily leafed through a stack of files as he sipped from a mug of coffee. A roughly built man with a dark goatee and graying blonde hair, he looked more like a small town southern sheriff than a low level public works functionary. In fact, he tended to act like it too. He liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer on his off time. Albany wasn’t a big city, but it was big enough that you never got a fucking break. Run here, run there, arrest this asshole, investigate that asshole. By the time Friday rolled around, he was so ready for the peace and tranquility of a fishing trip he could taste it.
Already this Monday morning, he was looking forward to another one.
Over the weekend, three kids went missing in the Pine Hills and Washington Park area, bringing the total for that summer up to eight. All were teenagers, all were troubled. Most were boys, but two were girls.
Troubled kids run away all the time. They might be gone a few days, sulking at a friend’s house over something their father or mother did, but they’d eventually come home. None of these kids had come back yet and from what he knew, a few of them weren’t the runaway types. They were shits at school and caused problems, but they had no reason to up and leave. Hell, Bruce himself raised hell as a kid, but he always found his way back home, even if he spent the previous night dying in a field from Mad Dogg 20/20 poisoning.
One or two kids going missing…okay, it happens. Eight? Over a span of four weeks?
Yeah, something was wrong here.
But what?
There was nothing on any of these kids. No one saw them, no one knew anything - one minute they were here, the next they weren’t. What could he or anyone else do with that?. The public broke cops’ balls all the time, but if you don’t have evidence, you don’t have evidence. What do you want? Door to door searches? Roadblocks? Dogs and helicopters? Yeah, then when you actually do it, they cry fascism. Guess I’ll just use my Spidey Senses.
Bruce wished he had spidey senses. He wanted to find these kids as much as anyone, and he was starting to get pissed off that he couldn’t. He took another sip from his mug and read on. The latest kids to go missing were three boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
They were all white, all thin (except for one). If there was a serial killer in town - and Bruce hoped to fuck there wasn’t - he had a type. What, black kids aren’t good enough to kill, cannibalize, and wear like a skin suit? They should charge him with a hate crime for discrimination.
That way he’d actually stay locked up.
The door opened and Vanessa Rodregiez, his deputy, came in. A tall, shapely Hispanic woman with dark eyes and a mouth poised always on the edge of a smile, she wore her black hair in a ponytail that would look stern and severe on anyone else, but on her, looked childlike. She was twenty-seven and had been on the force for three years, but you could be forgiven for thinking her much younger. “Bright and early, I see,” she said with a grin.
Bruce grumbled.
Vanessa held down the fort during the graveyard shift, acting to the night as he acted to the day. She was young and full of energy, which clashed with Bruce, who was old and just wanted to be left alone. Despite their differences, Bruce loved her like a kid sister…an annoying kid sister he wanted to throat punch sometimes.
“You missed all the fun last night,” she said and parked her butt on the edge of Bruce’s desk. He glared at her, but she ignored him.
“Good,” he said. Then: “What happened?”
“Big fight outside of Club Vlad,” she said. “It looked like a WorldStar video.”
For a moment, Bruce was lost. “Club what?”
“Club Vlad,” Vanessa said. “Where the Fuze Box used to be.”
Ah, right. The Fuze Box was an Albany landmark, a night club for punks…or goths…or someone. Certainly not for Bruce Kenner. It was small, dingy, and always had people in black waiting outside. On Friday and Saturday nights, it blasted strange music with lyrics about fighting The Man. Kids had been fighting the Man since before Bruce was even born and they hadn’t beaten him yet. Kudos to them for still trying.
Last year, The Fuze Box closed down and someone else bought it. It reopened last month and looked more or less the same: Posers, shitty music, and spiked hair. So much spiked hair. “Place is still a pain in the ass,” Bruce said.
“Yep,” Vanessa chirped. “It doesn’t know what it wants to be now. One minute they play nightcore, the next EDM. It’s all over the place.”
Bruce raised a quizzical brow.
“Not that I’ve ever been there in my free time,” Vanessa said in a tone that suggested she had,
Bruce gave a judgemental hum.
“Anyway,” Vanessa went on, “you see we have some new missing persons?”
Sighing, Bruce sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I did.”
“People are starting to ask questions,” Vanessa warned.
That brought a terse smile to Bruce’s weathered face. “Maybe they’ll solve it then.”
“Ha, fat chance,” Vanessa said. She got up and stretched. “Anyway, I’m bushed. Here’s my…” she trailed off and looked at her empty hands. “Damn, where’s my report? I just had it?” She turned in a confused circle as if she might be able to spot her report making a break for it. “Huh,” she said. She left the office and came back a moment later holding a folder. “Found it,” she grinned.
Bruce just looked at her.
“Um…here it is.”
He didn’t take it.
Her smile faltered. She carefully sat it on top of the files Bruce was looking at.
And his hands.
“I’ll just leave that right here.” She patted it for good measure.
“Thank you,” Bruce said.
“Okay. Night.”
“Goodnight,” Bruce said as she left through a shaft of morning sunlight. Alone, Bruce sat her report aside and went back to the missing kids. This case was giving him a headache and it wasn’t even nine. With a deep sigh, he slumped back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Was it Saturday yet?
He could really use a fishing trip.
***
Dom came awake in the cold purple twilight with a shocked gasp like a man coming up seconds before drowning. His eyes strained from his sweaty face and his mouth hung slack, twisted in a gruesome parody of The Scream. His mind was muddled, murky - he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he knew this,.
He couldn’t breathe.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but his lungs did not fill with air. A great, unseen weight seemed to bear down on his chest, and panic gripped him. He tried to move, but his arms refused to heed his brain’s command. The weight seemed heavier, all over, crushing him like a bug. Confusion filled him and he started to pant.
Without warning, his bowels and bladder loosened, and horrible wetness filled his pants. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. His chest rose and fell with the frantic labor of his breath, but his lungs remained inert. A cry of fear bubbled up inside of him, but escaped his mouth only as a breathy groan.
A bust of adrenaline shot through him and he tried to stand, but succeeded only in falling off the couch instead, landing face first against the cold tile floor. He felt his nose crunch, but the pain was muted.
Dom thought he lost consciousness after that, but wasn’t sure. His next memory was of shivering so violently that his teeth clacked together. A phantom chill - perhaps from the floor - had settled into his bones, and was colder than he had ever been in his life, colder even than the time he fell into a snowbank and got lost when he was two. Shudders racked his body, and though he tried to turn over, he was too fucking heavy. It was like every muscle in his body had turned to dead weight. Fragmented thoughts swirled in his head, faint colors in the dark, but he couldn’t put any of them together.
With great effort, he managed to push himself slightly up, but a wave of lightheadedness crashed over him and he lowered his head once more. He stopped trying and simply lay there. Shortly, his eyes began to burn and he realized that he wasn’t blinking. Jesus Christ, he wasn’t blinking.
For some strange reason, that brought a fresh bout of panic. He started to hyperventilate, but his lungs still wouldn’t work. He wasn’t blinking…he wasn’t breathing…what was happening to him?
A whimper burst from his throat and he started to cry.
He must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke sometime later to the most intense headache he’d ever had. It felt like something was eating his brain from the inside out. He was sore all over, and could feel his muscles twitching, as though a thousand living things were burrowing through his body. A cramp shot down his right leg, and the toes of his left foot curled involuntarily. Slowly, his jaw clenched closed, and the muscles in his neck began to strain…then to burn. His panic turned to terror, and Dom wiggled across the floor like a worm, his limbs screaming in red agony and his brain filling with heat. He somehow wound up on his right side, and his arms curled slowly up to his chest, crossing at the wrists like a mummy. He tried to pull them apart, but the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain cutting through his body. His knees began to draw up to his stomach, and his fingers clenched tightly.
Cramps and spasms attacked every muscle in his body. He screamed through his teeth and shook, resembling a man in the electric chair as 40,000 volts of justice coursed through him. The pain grew gradually, getting worse and worse as minutes ticked by like hours. Higher, higher, higher - he clenched his eyes closed and shrieked as it became unbearable. Disjointed thoughts flashed through his mind - prayers, threats, curses, Jesus fucking…FUCK.
What was happening? God, what was happening to him? Was it fentanyl? He’d seen videos of people high on fentanyl, and they leaned in weird positions. He didn’t do drugs but maybe he ingested it somehow.
His panic may have returned if all of his muscles hadn’t picked that moment to contract as one. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his jaw unclenched just enough for him to utter a high. Agonized scream that echoed through his empty apartment like thunder.
A human being can only take so much before giving out. When the pain reached a crescendo, and Dom mercifully sank into consciousness once more. The sun rose and cascaded through the apartment’s sole window, falling over his huddled form. Slowly, it tracked across the sky before setting again. As the last rays disappeared behind the horizon, Dom’s eyes opened. The pain of the night before was blessedly gone, replaced by a feeling of numbness - the cool ash after the hot fire. His thoughts were slow and thick like molasses, but he could actually think again. Nightmare memories flooded back to him, but he wasn’t sure they were real. He was lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his chest as if for warmth, and his teeth lightly chattered against the icy chill. He was so cold that he didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever. He needed help. He needed…
A shower.
Yeah, a hot shower. That would warm him up.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly sat up, ready for a burst of pain.
But none came.
He did, however, feel heavy. Getting to his feet, he stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself against the counter. His limbs had no feeling. It’s like they weren’t even there. Head hung, Dom tried to catch his breath, but it felt like he wasn’t breathing at all. His eyelids drooped closed and he felt like he was going to fall down. Summoning all the might he could, he shuffled into the bathroom with the stiff gait of an old man. He snapped the light on, and cold, white brilliance filled the space, blinding him.
Leaning heavily against the sink, he gripped the cold porcelain. Suddenly, he was afraid of looking into the mirror. He was sure that whatever reflection he saw, it would be of something else, something monstrous.
Dom lifted his head and faced the glass.
His heart shrank.
The man in the mirror was him but different. His skin was white as milk, lacking all color whatsoever save for the ugly purple patch on the left side. IResembling a giant bruise, it started at the temple and extended down to the slope of his neck, disappearing beneath his T-shirt. He gingerly lifted the shirt, and moaned when he saw that his entire left side was discolored, the purple edged with a puffy shade of pink. His sallow skin clung tight to his ribcage, and his hip bones stuck out so much it looked painful. Back in the mirror, his cheeks were sunken, hollow, and his eyes were a hazy, dishwater gray. His skull seemed bigger, his hair longer. Dom wanted to whip his head away from the phantom before him, to never see it again, but he was transfixed.
There was no way that thing was -
Dom looked away, cutting that thought off before it could finish.
A shower.
He needed a shower.
Slowly, stiffly, Dom undressed, peeling off his shirt and his soiled pants. He dropped them in a heap on the floor and stepped under the spray. He could feel the water pounding against him, but it provided no heat. It was neither hot nor cold. It was simply there.
Dom pressed his head to the slick shower wall and stood there for a long time. He was spent, tired, and fried - he had no more emotions left to give. He got out after a little while, dried off, and put on a clean pair of shorts. He settled into bed and lay there with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes open. They felt gritty, dry. His stomach felt bloated, gassy. He was drowsy now, the weight of the past two days (or was it two weeks?) coming down on him all at once. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He was still asleep - but aware - when the knocking on his door started the next morning. Time was funny in this state of being, fast and jerky but also slow and echoing. Keys rattled the knob turned. The landlord came in with a cop. They saw him on the bed, laid out like a corpse for a viewing, and the cop radioed in a code 35. Soon, cops were all around him, making noise and touching things. He had the vague sense of discomfort and embarrassment at the intrusion. A baling man in a suit stood over him, a cop who looked like a redneck beside him. “He didn’t die here,” the medical examiner said.
The cop looked at him questioningly. Dom caught the name KENNER on his name tag.
“See this?” the M.E. said and gestured to Dom’s face. “That’s livor mortis. When you die, your blood pools at the lowest point. If you’re on your left side, for example, it pools on the left.”
Kenner looked at Dom and then back to the M.E. “Someone moved him?”
“Looks like it,” the M.E. said.
“When did he die?”
The M.E. examined Dom as though he were nothing more than a side of beef. “At a glance? Three days. I won’t have a better answer until I open him up.”
Dom was still awake when they put him into a body bag and zipped it up. He felt a stirring of fear beneath the cold numbness, but he was too tired to worry about it now.
Later, he thought.
He would panic later.
For now, Dom slept.
2024.05.14 20:52 spoothead656 Any way to back up a device with a non-working screen?
I have a user who just bought an iPhone 15 and before she transferred data from her old iPhone 13 to it, she dropped it in a puddle and the screen stopped working. The old phone is on: when you press the power button you can briefly just barely make out the notification center and a force restart shows a very clear but discolored Apple logo.
The issue is she hasn’t backed her phone up in about 2 years. I tried using configurator but that won’t work because I can’t see the screen to tell the phone to trust my computer. Is there another way I could potentially get backups going on her old phone to save her data and save her a trip to the Apple Store? The closest one is an hour and a half away.
submitted by spoothead656 to macsysadmin [link] [comments]
The issue is she hasn’t backed her phone up in about 2 years. I tried using configurator but that won’t work because I can’t see the screen to tell the phone to trust my computer. Is there another way I could potentially get backups going on her old phone to save her data and save her a trip to the Apple Store? The closest one is an hour and a half away.
2024.05.14 20:45 TheHeavierSigh Can I complain about my parents for a minute?
I remember being 12 and looking up unclaimed bodies around my area because I called my dad for 2 years straight and he never picked up.
My mother used to tell me that I’m worthless anytime I did something that she didn’t agree with. It could be over the stupidest things too. She was always deliberately cruel.
Like when my job promoted me to another store, and I was bragging to her about my accomplishments, she said “they’re just doing that to get rid of you. Nobody likes you”.
I’m turning 24 soon and it just sort of hit me that I could never be like either of them. It’s hard to be a good parent, but it’s not that hard to just be an ok one.
I want to reconnect with them so bad, because what am I doing that’s so bad that I don’t deserve parents?? I never argued with them as a kid/teenager. I never drank/smoke/ snuck out or talked back to them. I got excellent grades in school. But it’s like I got dealt a shitty hand.
I got a job at 16 and i was apparently deemed good enough to parent myself. My mom stopped grocery shopping so I had to spend my paycheck to buy groceries/food and then when I got home she would yell at me for hours because I didn’t “get the right food” and I must hate her because I didn’t buy the organic stuff she wanted. But I was only working part-time at a restaurant for $9 an hour and couldn’t afford it. She also gave me $600 a month bill that was also my responsibility with the rest of my paycheck.
Or when I graduated high school and needed to go college, she wouldn’t fill my Fafsa out (she did the same thing to my brother and he had to drop out and go to community college) and kept pushing it back. I had to get a 2nd job to pay my tuition, so I was going to school full-time, and then had a full-time and part-time job.
She figured out the days I got paid, and would drive me to a check cashing place and take most of my money. I couldn’t keep that life up of working 12+ hour days every day and flunked out of my college. I reenrolled in my local community college, but I was just so lost that I ended up quitting.
She brought a new house when I was in college that had a run-down in law suite. She told me if I fixed it I could live in there and pay rent and have some more privacy. I worked extra hours and got a 3rd job, found a plumber and electrician, and would spend hours every week to fix the place, and wouldn’t you know it as soon as I was done she sold the property and took all the profit. She did the same thing to a broken down car that she had, I paid $4k to take it to a mechanic and when we got it back, she “never said that” and still drives that car to this day.
When we were moving (again) i decided to just get an apartment with my boyfriend because I was getting sick and tired of being used. She found out and hid the leasing information that I got from a complex, and guilt tripped me by saying she wouldn’t be able to afford things on just her paycheck and would starve. So I quit looking, just for her to scream at me a week later that I was a useless burden and that I was the one financially abusing her.
So I packed my bags, slept on the dirty floor of my boyfriend’s parents trailer for 2 weeks, got a round of the stimulus checks, and moved out to our own apartment. When I went back to her place to pack the last of my stuff she was snatching things out of my hand, threw my boyfriend’s laptop and tried to choke him/throw him out.I pushed her away from him and she told the family that we both were hitting her, so they don’t talk to me anymore. She was also insulting him for his family bring poor, and making fun of his dead grandmother.
And as I’m getting older and my prefrontal cortex is developing I just don’t understand them. I can understand hurtful things being said in the moment, but to continually be like that means you are making a conscious effort to be a terrible person.
But I miss them so much. I want a mom to talk to about my day and complain about my co-workers with. I want to watch movies at her place again and eat junk food. But she doesn’t deserve it, and I feel like I do. I don’t know what to do. There’s plenty of more terrible and down right weird things that she does. Like she used to beat me and my brothers with electric wires as a kid. Or recently, she was renting out one of our old homes and my partner and I moved in and we were paying MORE THAN market rent. And she forced us to move out after only 6 weeks because I said no to helping her on a side project because I was busy. But I “owed her” because she could’ve “charged me more”.
Which I should’ve known it would end this way honestly.
My parents are divorced and my father lives in a different city. He only calls me when he needs something and honestly I have stopped answering.
I’m not sure what to do. Advice?
submitted by TheHeavierSigh to raisedbynarcissists [link] [comments]
My mother used to tell me that I’m worthless anytime I did something that she didn’t agree with. It could be over the stupidest things too. She was always deliberately cruel.
Like when my job promoted me to another store, and I was bragging to her about my accomplishments, she said “they’re just doing that to get rid of you. Nobody likes you”.
I’m turning 24 soon and it just sort of hit me that I could never be like either of them. It’s hard to be a good parent, but it’s not that hard to just be an ok one.
I want to reconnect with them so bad, because what am I doing that’s so bad that I don’t deserve parents?? I never argued with them as a kid/teenager. I never drank/smoke/ snuck out or talked back to them. I got excellent grades in school. But it’s like I got dealt a shitty hand.
I got a job at 16 and i was apparently deemed good enough to parent myself. My mom stopped grocery shopping so I had to spend my paycheck to buy groceries/food and then when I got home she would yell at me for hours because I didn’t “get the right food” and I must hate her because I didn’t buy the organic stuff she wanted. But I was only working part-time at a restaurant for $9 an hour and couldn’t afford it. She also gave me $600 a month bill that was also my responsibility with the rest of my paycheck.
Or when I graduated high school and needed to go college, she wouldn’t fill my Fafsa out (she did the same thing to my brother and he had to drop out and go to community college) and kept pushing it back. I had to get a 2nd job to pay my tuition, so I was going to school full-time, and then had a full-time and part-time job.
She figured out the days I got paid, and would drive me to a check cashing place and take most of my money. I couldn’t keep that life up of working 12+ hour days every day and flunked out of my college. I reenrolled in my local community college, but I was just so lost that I ended up quitting.
She brought a new house when I was in college that had a run-down in law suite. She told me if I fixed it I could live in there and pay rent and have some more privacy. I worked extra hours and got a 3rd job, found a plumber and electrician, and would spend hours every week to fix the place, and wouldn’t you know it as soon as I was done she sold the property and took all the profit. She did the same thing to a broken down car that she had, I paid $4k to take it to a mechanic and when we got it back, she “never said that” and still drives that car to this day.
When we were moving (again) i decided to just get an apartment with my boyfriend because I was getting sick and tired of being used. She found out and hid the leasing information that I got from a complex, and guilt tripped me by saying she wouldn’t be able to afford things on just her paycheck and would starve. So I quit looking, just for her to scream at me a week later that I was a useless burden and that I was the one financially abusing her.
So I packed my bags, slept on the dirty floor of my boyfriend’s parents trailer for 2 weeks, got a round of the stimulus checks, and moved out to our own apartment. When I went back to her place to pack the last of my stuff she was snatching things out of my hand, threw my boyfriend’s laptop and tried to choke him/throw him out.I pushed her away from him and she told the family that we both were hitting her, so they don’t talk to me anymore. She was also insulting him for his family bring poor, and making fun of his dead grandmother.
And as I’m getting older and my prefrontal cortex is developing I just don’t understand them. I can understand hurtful things being said in the moment, but to continually be like that means you are making a conscious effort to be a terrible person.
But I miss them so much. I want a mom to talk to about my day and complain about my co-workers with. I want to watch movies at her place again and eat junk food. But she doesn’t deserve it, and I feel like I do. I don’t know what to do. There’s plenty of more terrible and down right weird things that she does. Like she used to beat me and my brothers with electric wires as a kid. Or recently, she was renting out one of our old homes and my partner and I moved in and we were paying MORE THAN market rent. And she forced us to move out after only 6 weeks because I said no to helping her on a side project because I was busy. But I “owed her” because she could’ve “charged me more”.
Which I should’ve known it would end this way honestly.
My parents are divorced and my father lives in a different city. He only calls me when he needs something and honestly I have stopped answering.
I’m not sure what to do. Advice?