Furry yiff stories

It is a man, old and scraggy. He wears a jacket that lays over the red plaid button shirt and blue jeans. He wears an old baseball cap and a pair of glasses. He yelled something to Dad, holding his hands up like he was pleading, although we couldn’t hear it over the truck engine. They talked, but we couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Hey, what are they saying”, I asked, while petting Matt’s hair, calming him. The old man then put his hands down and came close to Dad in a cautious way. They seem to start having some kind of conversation.
“I don’t really know, hopefully, something good”, Mom answered. They talked for a little while, with daylight beginning to disappear, giving us a sense of dread, and making me more worried about what weird creature was going to show up. Eventually, the old man turned and pointed toward what I think is the northeast. They then shook hands and walked back to their respective vehicles. “What’s going on”, Mom asked as Dad got into the truck.
“Well, our new friend here invited us to dinner at his farm”, Dad replied.
“Does he have supplies?”
“Well, he says has supplies for us to make the journey.”
“Should we even trust him? We just met h-”
“Relax, he’s just an old man, living alone at his farm, feeding his cows. What could go wrong”, Dad countered. The old man then entered the truck that was running and drove slowly, expecting us to follow him.
“Alrighty then, but we have to be cautious”, Mom said, with her suspicions of the old man. We then followed the old truck along the dark, frozen road. It just feels like something is going to show up along the road, but nothing happened. Matt did eventually stop crying, but he is still upset about the Joe escape thing.
“Where are we going”, Matt lamented, with the prior series of events in mind.
“I guess somebody is offering us dinner”, I answered.
“Why can’t we just go home?”
“It’s only going to be a stop, like a hotel. After that, we go to our new home, I guess”, I said, taking another look at Matt and cradling to comfort him. “It’s going to be okay.” I stared out into the darkness. I looked to the sky from the window and I faintly saw something in the clear, dark sky, lit up by the waning moon. They were brilliant, green auroras that defy the bright moon, dancing across the sky like ribbons in the wind. The truck eventually took a right-hand turn into another road, with us following suit. I can see a bright, orange light emerging from a patch of tree. When we passed by, it seemed it was a house, at a farm, burning in a massive flame.
“I guess those people aren’t so, uh, lucky”, Dad said, taking a quick look at it before looking at the road. Passing by, we went on and continued to follow the old man’s truck. We passed onto another intersection until he turned into a driveway to what I believe to be his farm. Going into the driveway, I can see an old house, along with a dilapidated farm further away, barely visible by the headlights. The old man parked by the house, where there were a few other trucks there. We parked alongside the truck and we got out into the cold, near-silent night.
“Welcome to sanctuary, where all are welcome”, the old man bellowed. This is the first time I’ve heard his voice. Matt was the last to get out of the truck, slowly and clumsily climbing out of the truck.
“What’s your name”, my Mom politely asked the old man.
“Oh, I guess your husband didn’t tell ya. My name is Steven, but you can call me Steve”, the old man said, with some crackling in his voice. “I am very proud to host a dinner for you and your family”, he continued. “What’s your name, ma’am?”
“Oh, my name is Janice”, Mom replied, quite pleased at his politeness.
“Hello, Janice, and what are their names”, Steven asked, pointing to me and Matt.
“That’s my daughter Kate and my son Matt”, Dad said to Mom.
“Oh, what wonderful names for a couple of beautiful children you have”, Steve grinned. “Come, it is dangerous out here.” We followed him to the house, which looked like it had seen better days. He entered through the double-set door, the first a solid door and a screen door behind. Entering the house, it smelled like what you’d expect, old man. Looking onto the floor is made of glossy wood and walls with cracks, likely caused by the earthquake. It is dark in there, lit by candlelight from many candles, yet it’s fairly warm here. I don’t know why we went into the house, but Dad was right, Steve is just a lonely, old man. Matter of fact, there seems to be nothing wrong here, other than the cracks in the walls. “Sorry, the power went out. Had to resort to the candles. I knew my wife would come in handy”, Steve explained as he took his coat off. “Oh, supper will be ready right away. Had to use the fireplace to cook. Also, can you take your boots off?” We took our boots and set them aside. We went into what seemed to be a living room, with dusty old-style furniture.
“So, where do we sit”, Mom asked.
“Oh, well, follow me”, Steve commanded, leading us to the dining room, with a long, wooden table and six wooden chairs, along with their corresponding old-fashioned plates, glasses and cutlery, lit up in the candlelight. We noticed that everything on the table was covered in a thin veil of dust. “My apologies, the recent shocks dropped a bit of dust on the table”, he explained as he noticed us looking at the plates and moved into another room nearby. “Take your seats if you like.” We all settled onto the chairs, and blew off our plates of the dust settled there.
“When will we eat”, Matt impatiently said.
“Once Steve comes out with the food”, Mom answered. Matt sat there with a tired look on his face. Dad seemed to be in a better mood than before and it looked like he wanted to start a conversation.
“Hey, should we talk about something”, Dad asked. I then see Steve with a bowl and a silver plate.
“Here we go, may not be much, but at least it’ll fulfil the soul”, Steve said, smiling when he served us mashed potatoes and meatloaf. “So, shall we pray?” That came unexpectedly, as we are not too religious, but we were in his house and gave us shelter and food.
“Sure, we can do that”, Mom said and we all bowed our heads and put our hands together. Steve cleared his throat
“Thank you, Lord, for this good food to feed the soul in these hard times. I shall pray, in the name of the Lord and Jesus Christ, that these hard times shall be over, so we can get on with our lives. Amen.” We raised our heads and grabbed whatever food there was onto our plates. “Oh, there’s no gravy, so we have to deal with bare potaters and meatloaf.”
“Oh, not to worry. Thank you for the food”, Dad thanked Steve. We began to eat the food once we got it sorted.
“So, what brings you here”, Steve asked.
“Well, there is an evacuation order in effect for this area, so we had to go to Regina”, Dad explained, with Steve taking in every word. “So, we came from Strasbourg, we tried going south towards Regina, but we hit an obstacle in the way and we had to take another route, leading us here.”
“And we encountered a few odd things along the way”, Mom added.
“Huh, interesting. What do you guys think is going on”, Steve inquired.
“By the things we saw, we have no idea. Dinosaurs, devil dogs, hell pigs, the whole deal. I shouldn’t forget the earthquake. They told us a pipeline leak caused by the earthquake”, Dad clarified to Steve.
“Hmm… is that so”, Steve wondered. “Wonder what I think is happening? The Rapture is happening. Do you know how the Bible tells us of the end times? Good people sent to be with God and his kingdom, the rest here to suffer the Hell unleashed by Satan.” By this point, he was beginning to rant, but we couldn't stop it as we all began to feel tired and powerless. “So, the Devil will send his demons in the form of these illusions so that they can torment the sinners. It is happening, it is-” Steve manically continued as I drew towards blackness and his voice becoming less coherent. My vision is now all black.
I saw those same lights, but more rapidly than before. I then emerged onto the same clear sky, but something felt different. I can smell something in the air. I can smell what seems to be chemicals in the air. Looking down, I was terrified. Dark, grey rock in the shape of ropes and folds, similar to those I saw of lava flows on a volcano in pictures. This went on as far as the eye could see. I can see no tree this time, just the cooled lava everywhere. I then walked, feeling every bump and crag. I thought I walked forever until I heard a rumbling sound and woke up.
I am in total darkness. It is cold and it smells like cow manure. I tried to move my hand, but it seemed to be bonded behind my back by a rope. I tried to move my feet, but they were also bound by rope to the legs I tried to speak, only to realise my mouth was agape by a cloth in my mouth. I heard shuffling nearby but I could not see. It was then shone in light when Steve entered the door, holding a candle, revealing all of us in the same situation. I then can see what we are in. We are in that same wooden dilapidated barn we saw earlier and seems to be more damaged than the house, wood creaking can be heard.
“These sedatives are more effective than I thought. Maybe I should use them more often”, Steve smoothly explained, like he’s some kind of agent and began pacing. “Wonder why you are here? Well, I wondered the same thing to myself, why didn’t God take me to his heaven? When I first heard of the government telling us of those evacuation plans, I thought it was that, a leaking pipe. I began to notice things I couldn’t believe myself, at least at first. Earthquakes, weird creatures showing up, people disappearing, the whole spiel. I connected the dots. The Rapture is happening, for sure, but why me? Why was I the one left here on this Earth”, Steve calmly ranted, pacing around the barn, but it seemed to sound crazier and angrier the more he paced. “I thought I had lost my way. I’ve been unfaithful to God and his son. But, I realised that God always has a plan and he left me on this Earth to serve a purpose. I wondered what my purpose was until I had a moment.” He then stopped in place and calmed down. He turned to look at Mom with accusing yet crazed eyes.
“I’m supposed to keep the sinners here in line, to earn a place in God’s kingdom, or suffer in Hell. I know you are a sweet woman, Janice, but your treachery with Satan is over and I am going to do what’s right.” Mom then looked at all of us, with assuring eyes like that of an innocent yet caring mother we all know knew. I began crying and trying to speak through the cloth, but I was helpless to watch by. “Forgive me, Father, for what I am going to do.” He then pulled a knife from his pocket and plunged it into Mom’s neck with no mercy. I looked away once he did that, trembling, with tears pouring out and my vision glazed and I fell limp. I could see my brother tearing up, but he did not look away. I can hear Dad behind me, with his screams of agony and anger covered by the cloth. It felt like I was in slow motion, taking in every moment.
I then heard the chair, screeching as Steve dragged the chair containing Mom’s lifeless body towards the door, leaving behind a trail of blood. I couldn’t bear to see my mother like this. I shut my eyes very hard and hoped it would go away. The door then shut, leaving us alone with a candle, fearing what would come next. I stared at the candle, seeing it dance in the flames like a woman dancing in the darkness. Is this how it’ll end, I thought. End up dying to this sick man? My Mom was killed in front of me. I sobbed with that thought, then I began to think about the inevitable death of me. I hope there’s something after I die. Maybe I’ll see Mom again.
It was silent for a while, nearly no sound other than our moans. Dad seems to be fidgeting at the back of his chair, rocking it slowly. Looking past him, I shuddered at the glistening pool of blood, where Mom was last alive, could be my fate. I then see Dad release his arms from the back of the chair and remove the cloth from his mouth. He silently stood up and bent down to untie his legs from the chair legs. He then went to me and removed my cloth.
“H-h-how did you do that”, I silently wept, fearing that Steve would show up at the door and kill us all.
“My binding is loose. The old man probably took a liking to me”, Dad whispered. “I should remove your binds.” He untied them, releasing me, doing the same for Matt. “Now, we need to be quiet.” We then walked, quietly, along the painfully creaking wood in the near dark, following the blood trail, glistening in the candlelight. We cringed and dreaded each sound we made and watched the door in case it began to creak open. A few silent steps later, we made it to the door and we slowly opened it so as not to make any noise. What was revealed to us is nothing new, other than the blood trail continuing in the snow directing towards the back of the barn. “Okay, Kate, Matt, you guys run to the truck.”
“What about you”, I sobbed.
“Don’t worry about me”, Dad responded, giving me his keys and forcing them into my hand. “If I’m not back in a few minutes, leave. Don’t look back, take care of your brother, okay? I love you, no matter what happens.” He then kissed me on the head and ran to follow the blood trail. We quickly walked towards the black truck, stranded there for maybe hours. Getting closer, freedom is getting closer. When we got to a fair distance to the truck, I heard footsteps behind me and, the next thing I knew, I was knocked over to the ground into the hard snow on my face. A hand turned me over to give me a glimpse of a crazed Steve, his eyes wilder than before.
“Oh, yes, trying to escape”, he bragged. I looked at him, frozen in fear, like a deer in headlights and he caressed my face with his bloodied blade. “You do have a pretty face, but I’m afraid you are just one of Satan's creations, made to pull me to lust.” He then raised his knife in the air when a familiar side emerged, out of the blue.
Joe came and bit him in the arm that was holding the knife. Steve screamed in agony the moment he realised what happened. He shook Joe off and stood up to stand his ground. I stood up as Joe hissed and walked around the crazed being he wounded, not in fear but in aggressiveness. “Is this one of your pets, demon”, Steve screamed as Joe came in for another attack, but Steve countered that with a slash to the snout. Joe then ran away, whining, into the darkness. This sequence of events gave me the chance to enter the truck on the driver’s side. I had some trouble starting it, besides this is my first time driving a truck.
Steve menacelily walked towards the when Dad came barreling and tackled him to the ground. Dad was on top when he went limp. I finally put the keys in the engine turned it on and backed out, with memory serving me the instructions on such a vehicle. Steve pushed Dad’s body and stood up, but by that time, we left the farm.
“Turn back, we have to get Dad”, Matt cried, but I was very emotional, accepting what happened. I felt that, without my parents, I feel… useless.
“Dad’s dead”, I screamed at Matt and he began gagging uncontrollably in tears. I began to feel sorry for him. “Sorry, I, I don’t know.”
“It’s okay”, Matt sniffled. “I guess Mom and Dad are dead anyways.” It was silence for a few more minutes, tears welling in our eyes.
“Hey, our parents are in a better place”, I said, trying to make the situation positive.
“But we are stuck here, without them? Don’t we deserve to go to a better place?”
“Don’t say that”, I huffed and I paused for a bit. “I know we are in the, uh, right place now. Let me tell you something, once we get to Regina, I will take care of you, no matter what life throws at us.”
“What about Joe”, Matt asked.
“He’ll be fine. He probably found his girlfriend already.”
“Hey, don’t you have a boyfriend?”
“I, uh, I don’t have one. That I know of”, I spoke, bringing me back to Sam, remembering that she’s the only friend that I ever knew, and I left her. Without her, I felt alone, no one would ever relate. I began to tear up. “I don’t have any friends. I am alone,” I sobbed.
“What do you mean? I’m your brother!” I looked at Matt, and smiled, happy that he acknowledged that we were in this together.
“Thank you”, I thanked him. I slowly stopped on the road, just to hug Matt hard, crying my eyes out. We then heard what sounded like an elephant in front of us. We looked up to see a walking snow-covered brown fur wall with four pillar-like legs in front of us. Its curved tusks gleaned in the light and the eyes reflected in the light. The furry trunk waved around like a searching snake from a tree. We both knew what it was.
“Hey, look at that, a woolly mammoth”, Matt said, excitement running through him. At this point, we weren’t surprised.
“Yep, that is a woolly mammoth”, I added. The mammoth turned to us on the road, seemingly confused about where it was. It looked at our truck and seemed to growl, like an elephant. We are starting to realise this thing is becoming aggressive.
“Uh, should we move”, Matt asked. I remembered hearing something about standing your ground in case of an encounter with an elephant. I hoped it would work for a bigger, furrier version of one.
“No, we have to stand our ground.”
“But, it’ll attack u-”
“Trust me!” I then honked my horn and it backed up. It then rushed, then stopped, a mock charge. Eventually, it moved out of the road, disappearing into the darkness. We sighed in relief.
“That was close”, Matt sighed. I then continued to drive in the night, headlights leading the way. The road is bumpy, as noticed by every ditch and peak we hit, but surprisingly, Matt was fast asleep. I began to get comfortable driving and used to the road by that point. It was silent for a while until we hit a smaller intersection. That is when the truck shut down, completely and stopped. I tried the gas many times but with no effect. There is no light, nothing. It is near-darkness here, shone only by the moonlight.
“Shit”, I yelled, desperate to turn the truck on without much success. Matt woke up, confused.
“What happened”, he yawned.
“The truck turned itself off. I can’t get it back on”, I fretted and at that moment, Matt was just as panicked as I am.
“Why?”
“I-I don’t know. One moment, we were driving, another it just-”, I quavered, when I heard something rustle in the distance. We stood still, hoping whatever it was didn’t find us. I looked around, hoping to see something in the moonlight. I then see a long, walking animal. It looked like some sort of alligator at first, except for a dinosaur-like head. Once I strained my eyes to the darkness, my fear levels rose as I could see it walk on its hind limbs, with its forelimbs dangling nearly touching the ground.
It was wandering around on the road when I heard a near-crocodilian growl at Matt’s side of the truck. Another of those creatures appeared, seemingly looking into the window like a hungry bear, giving us a chance to see its scaly head. Its exposed alligator teeth gleaned in the light like knives, but more terrifying was the eye. Its serpentine pupil shone brilliantly in the light like eyes in the dark. It then ducked down, gave a hiss, and moved towards the other one. A few more showed up and formed a group.
“What should we do”, Matt asked. “Should we stay?” I looked around, hoping for another way to escape them without them noticing. I further strained my eyes and mentally mapped out the area. There is a cemetery on my right-hand side, a grain bin storage yard on my left and a series of trailers on the other side of the highway, which is ahead of us, from the storage area. There, I see a series of white, storage buildings, something we can go to and wait it out inside.
“Okay, so slowly open the door”, I instructed Matt. The click of the doors opening cringed us. We looked at the group, but there was no response from them. We then, as slowly as we could, opened the door and stepped out. Still no response. Matt then quietly ran to the other side, towards me. “Okay, we are going into the storage yard and go to the other entrance”, I said, pointing to the other right-hand corner. I wanted to get as far away from these things as possible before making a safe crossing. “Then, we cross the highway on the other side, run into the buildings and stay there for the night. Are you ready?”
“I guess”, he whispered, looking at me in fearful doubt.
“We are going to do this”, I whispered back. We then silently ran over, having to rely on our night-adapted eyes, to the corner, walking past the bins. We made it and nothing behind us so far. “We’re good so far.” We then crossed the road and noticed nothing. We noticed a tanker truck, leaking some sort of fluid across the road. I easily recognized it as fuel, based on its distinctive, sickly smell. I wouldn’t be worried about it if it weren’t for a collapsed light pole that is somehow still flickering with electricity near the area where the fuel would be flowing. We quickly avoided the fluid when I froze to see the group of the walking alligators, running towards us. “Run!” Matt tried to run, but one of those things appeared and clamped its jaws at the back of his neck. He yelped in pain and it took him down to the ground. “Matt”, I yelled, helplessly watching as the creature tore into him.
Matt reached out his arm before the others came to him, then a flash of fire came. At this point, I knew what happened, but I couldn’t even think before it exploded. It blew me towards the building, far away. I was knocked out for a few seconds before I regained consciousness, groaning in pain on the ice. I noticed something especially painful just below my chest. I reached towards the area with my hand. I pressed on it, more painful than ever and raised my hand, only to see blood, brightened by the fire. I realised I was wounded, maybe by shrapnel made by the explosion.
I looked toward where the truck was and all I saw was a blaze. Those things weren’t there, at least. I also noticed something else, too, there’s no Matt. I tried to look around for something, some sort of sign of my brother within the fire, but I saw none. I then wept, realising I had failed. I have failed to keep him safe. I have failed to give him a better life. I failed him as a sister. I could’ve done better. The thoughts poured in as tears glazed my eyes. At that moment, I failed to look around me.
I noticed a dark thing beside the blaze. I thought it was Matt, preparing to greet him back, even though I knew he couldn’t survive the explosion. The image became clearer and clearer as I noticed it was one of the walking crocs that, glazed by the fire, was coming towards me.
“Just kill me”, I screamed, preparing to painfully die to meet my maker. The creature was about to attack me when something large, silent as the wind, came charging and clamped down its massive jaws, filled with conical teeth on the hapless creature and raised it. The crocodile struggled before going limp with a crunch within its strong jaws. The big, dark and scaly monster that it is towered over me and is as long as a bus, possibly longer. Its large legs are a contradiction to its small arms that hide beneath its scarred, bulky body.
It turned to look at me with an oddly bird-like expression, revealing in the firelight numerous scars from battles I could never know and looked at me with its beady bird-like eyes, breathing out wisps from its nostrils like a dragon in the cool air. I recognized it as a creature I know too well, a T. Rex. I breathed heavily and sickly, looking at the thing, nearly expecting me to drop the body and go after me. Instead, it simply walked away, carrying its bloody prize with it, and steadily retreated into the darkness.
I then lay down in agonizing exhaustion on my back, thinking of the next step of action like I'm on a suicide mission I would never come back from. I looked in the direction of the graveyard and had one thought. I guess I am dying. a graveyard will do. I struggled to stand up, noticing my blood-soaked clothes and felt a broken left leg. I grasped my wound, limping step by step and enduring the sharp pain while shaking in the cold. Every step I took, I remembered all the memories, good or bad, that I had with my parents. My brother. My friends. My family. I eventually reached the cemetery and slouched at a tree.
“Guess I’m joining you, guys”, I said, speaking to the snow-covered gravestones, only to hear something. A familiar sound of chirping emerged and, lit by the blaze, it was a sight I can hope for. “Joe, what are you doing here”, I depressingly cheered as Joe went to me and curled up in my lap as if he were a cat. I noticed the new-found scar he had on his little snout, but I paid no mind as I petted him. “I guess you came back. Thank you so much for what you did”, I thanked him, not expecting such a loyal creature would be with me, comforting me, to the end, like what my mother used to do when I was a newborn. I heard another noise, this time a deep rumble.
I thought it was another earthquake coming, but it got louder the closer it got to me, becoming more animalistic only felt small vibrations I barely felt. Joe stayed put, oddly enough, as T. Rex, different from the first one, came. It walked towards us until it stopped short of us. It began to produce a low-pitched, bird-like purring, attracting Joe. I realised something, that this T. Rex is Joe’s parent. He joined the rest like him, whom they showed up and all chirped around.
The grown Rex then brought its snout closer to me, not to kill me, but to look at me. It did not reveal its teeth and was still purring. I put my hand out and its nose came close to it. It rubbed it against my hand and started to pet its cold, scaly skin as it breathed through its nose and put it on my chest. I rested my head on it before it pulled away. It gave out a hiss, but I knew it wasn’t that of a threat, but more of a thank you for bringing its small, sometimes immature, child home.
That gave me relief, as it felt like I at least did something for once. They walked away, along with Joe, towards the darkness amongst the gravestones in the cemetery. I glimpsed one last desperate look at Joe before walking beside his parent. I looked up at the sky and I could see all the stars, twinkling, and the dancing green auroras. I began to feel limp and felt the cold embrace of death coming over me, tears pouring out of my eyes. The sky then grew brighter and brighter, the stars faded into the light and I could see my family welcoming me to a new home. It then slowly went black, darker than a cave.
You would think this is the end of me. It wasn’t, or else I wouldn’t be writing this right now. I eventually woke up in a hospital in Regina. I was told I was rescued by a team that transported me while I was in a coma. The doctors said I was very lucky to be alive, as the shrapnel narrowly avoided my vital organs. After that, I was adopted into a new family, but I was only with them for a couple of years before finding a new job and moving out.
As for Sam, I don’t know what happened to her. I would like to think she is safe, somewhere else. As for my family, I think of them all the time. I was in a depressive period right after that. Eventually, over the years, I accepted that they were gone and went to a better place. For Joe, I would like to think he is all grown up, like his parents, and becoming the king of the jungle. I hope we meet again.
As for the evacuated area, it wasn’t some pipeline rupture that caused an evaluation, but an anomaly, with the exact reason not known. There are excuses for the claims of weird stuff going on in there, from disease to chemicals, to eventually a previously unknown geological event, but I saw through it all.
You may ask how, it's because I've been there. Take it or leave it, this is the story I have. As the decade came by, cover-ups were made to hide it, even walls were put around it. Since the incident, the exclusion zone grew from a mere 80 kilometers in diameter to 460 kilometers in diameter, emptying entire cities of the likes of Regina and Saskatoon. I had to move to North Battleford, by the recommendation from the same government covering it up, making me think that time will tell before the floodgates of truth open.
The anomaly didn’t have a name initially, however, over the years, everyone agreed on one name in particular: The Saskatchewan Anomaly.

My wife (technically fiancé, but in my eyes we are already married), has lived an absolute life of the utmost hell at the hands of all those she should have been able to trust most and suffered unimaginable abuse and cruelty so all she ever wanted was a child which she was always told would very likely never happen, so as you as well as I can imagine she was likely very excited to find out she was pregnant (I say it that way because I know about as much as you guys aside from the stuff she's told me about her story), this being said she lost the child due to a medical emergency unrelated to the pregnancy and because the hospital made a mistake regarding that medical emergency she was rehospitalized and lost the baby early and she couldn't have been through an even greater hell because she nearly lost her life as well and the father of the child (not me) was not present for the situation. We have been together for what will be 2 years this October, she has a dog (now our dog) and is a wonderful fur momma because she rescued the dog as a puppy and raised it and all when she was just starting to find herself and the dog later returned the favor for her and saved her life as well, which to me was something that dog learned from the way she raised it. What better an example of a good mother than to teach a child even if it was a furry one that. Anyway none of that is why I'm here. And I'm being rather vague but want to give you guys as much information as I can without disrespecting her privacy even though she tells me all the time she wants to get her full story out there she just isn't sure how. What I'm trying to do however is give her the best mother's day present I can which I've already been working on already, and money or material gifts have never meant much to either of us so I'm making her something special and want include this post in some way in the video project I'm creating for her. So if you guys could just help me show her she's not alone in her loss and offer words of support and encouragement that she "Is" a mother even though her baby is a true "angel baby" and left this world as soon as he arrived in it. I tell her all the time to ignore those who have told her she is not a true mother because she "is" and not just because of the child she lost but also because of the maternal love and lessons she taught her dog. I love her very much but she needs to feel the support and love of others because of all she's been through and unfortunately she doesn't feel like she has a lot of friends and while my friends would happily be there for her I understand why she feels like that's not the same as making some of her own. I am thinking of making an interactive link to this post in the video that will force her into making a reddit account of her own because she's told me she wants one but is always too busy to create it and wants my help making one so this is my way of helping her make an account and what a surprise it will be after I finish the video and she goes back clicks the link to this post and it leads her into the creation of her account only to find this post and see all these wonderful words of support and love from those who have been through similar situations as soon as she logs in. I hope this post is properly placed here and fulfills the purpose of this forum or as it's called here in Reddit and doesn't go against any rules here on this reddit I may have overlooked while reading them on the main page. Thank you all so much and Bless each and everyone on here and I hope you all had the best possible mother's day you could've this year. Much love and appreciation for all of you on this page and I hope you guys can help me make this the best possible mother's day for the love of my life and a wonderful mother who just hasn't been able to see how much so she is.

Hello! My name is Nycro and I've been a roleplayer for roughly 13 years now! I'm primarily an original story writer, preferring to build a story from the ground up. I love world building and character building. In my extensive history I've written most genres and continue to find enjoyment in exploring and sometimes trying new ones. I'm looking for someone to build a story with me with original characters and an original story. I'm a huge sucker for romance and prefer to have it involved in my roleplays as well.
I'm a multi-paragraph writer, tending to put in 3-5+ paragraphs for my writing, though I'm open to writing more depending how much I get back, but for a simple matter I refuse to write with anyone unable to give atleast two paragraphs, and would strongly prefer someone who can match or beat me in length to push me to writing more.
It is a requirement that you are capable of paragraph writing and able to produce atleast 2-3 paragraphs per emote. I'm not interested in single sentences.
It is also a requirement that you are 18+ I'm uncomfortable writing with anyone younger then that.
A little more about me! I use they/them pronouns I write in the third person, though I've dabbled in first person. Definitely prefer third.
I'm a caretaker irl, and things can be very hectic and busy with both my health and well-being, so I'm not always available but I'll always try to be open about it.
I'm a dog and cat owner, lover of the small critters, always happy to share pictures of my animals.
I enjoy making playlists, and have recently started making reference boards.
I'm open to writing all pairings, I honestly prefer finding a story that fits more then worrying about the pairing, so I'm open to everything.
I'm also open to furry/anthro! I'm happy to include or work them into the story some way if that's something that would interest you.
For Genres I prefer, though not limited to, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Post- Apocalyptic, Adventure, Slice Of Life, Romance, Drama, Tragedy, Medieval (non-fantasy), Historic, Western.
I'm open to some fandoms, though I'm not interested in playing canon characters
Harry PotteHogwarts Legacy. Recently picked up the game and I've had a strong pull to do something in the wizarding world.
Homestuck. Not ashamed to admit I'm still a fan and interested in coming up with plots for it!
Doctor who. A fun science fiction series, has been a bit of an inspiration and I love creating wild stories to go in the setting. One of my favorites.
My Hero Academia. I haven't done a roleplay in this setting in a while, and I'm a little hesitant to pick it back up, but I'm open to trying depending on the story we come up with!
Titanfall 2. This is a bit out there but it's one of my favorite games in general and I've had such a strong calling to get into it and write a pilot/mech dynamic duo as characters and think it could be a fun setting!
Halo. In general another one of my favorites, I'm not exactly sure what kind of story I'd like to write in it, but I'm open to any and all suggestions!
Monster Hunter. I'm a big fan of the games and am open to writing in any setting though I have a leaning preference toward new world plots. I'm happy to go back into older game settings, or creating our own though!

Hi. I’m getting to the end of the school year and I don’t really have any friends aside from 2 people. I wouldn’t even really consider them to be my friends since the only times they ever talk to me is to embarrass me. This has happened a lot throughout the school year but something specific happened today that rubbed me the wrong way and I’m not sure if I’m overreacting and if it’s just something that friends do as a joke with each other. I was in class minding my own business trying to get my work done and my ‘friends’ were up at the teachers desk talking with our teacher. Everyone was with their partners for a group project we were doing in that class (I didn’t have anyone to group with so I was doing it alone). All of the sudden I hear the teacher start saying “you’re just mean…” and so on. I had a feeling it was about me since I was always the bud of the joke to my friends. This was confirmed when I heard my friend say “she’s my friend!” As if that’s a valid excuse to say mean or embarrassing things about me to other people. I looked at them and there was like half the class looking at me. I’m not a social person so I just rolled my eyes and turned back around hoping they would leave me alone. They never really understand or pick up on how much them embarrassing me is affecting me. Especially since I’m the only one they make fun of, it sort of feels like I’m being targeted. The story doesn’t end there though. People who never talk to me started saying my name. I turn around again and see a bunch of people looking at me with smiles on their faces. I thought they were getting told by my friends something embarrasing to say to me since it’s happened a few times before. Instead, they started asking me questions like if Im a furry or not. I was shocked and looked right over to my friend but she was looking in a different direction. I was so embarrassed and angry. I said no and ignored them. A few minutes later a guy came up to me and asked me one on one if I was a furry and was basically saying there’s nothing wrong with that but it was clear he was joking around.(This guy is actually pretty cool and I’ve tried to talk to him casually and become friends with him but my friends always ruin it by asking stuff like “are you guys dating?” Which just makes it really uncomfortable and awkward). I asked him what my friend was saying that made him come up to me and ask that because no, I am not a furry. He pulled a note off of my back that said “I am a furry!”. I felt like I could cry right then and there but I just looked at my friend and sighed. She was laughing and saying that it wasn’t her and someone else did it. That same someone a few minutes later asked me for my phone charger and I said no because she put that note on my back and she looked at my friend and laughed. My friend then told me that it actually was her that did it and I just started zoning out to stop myself from flipping out on her. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been bullied by them. My friend used to say and ask me embarrassing stuff out loud to try and humiliate me in front of the class. She’d raise her voice and ask things like “Are you pregnant?” And a few other things. She’s also sent over people who I’m not friends with and make them say stuff to embarrass me while they would sit, watch, and laugh. Am I overreacting or is this a totally normal reaction?

https://youtu.be/331rhOPcN8k
Learning objectives: develop skills in understanding vocabulary in context, reading for specific information, making inferences, and giving a personal reaction to a reading.
Do you believe pets reflect the personalities of their owners, or do they develop their own unique traits?
What's the most unexpected or amusing behavior your pet has ever exhibited?"
If your pet could suddenly talk for one day, what's the first question you'd ask them?
Before reading the passage, reflect on your own experiences with pets or animals. Consider the role they play in your life and the emotions they evoke. Share a brief anecdote or memory about a pet or animal that has had a significant impact on you.
What's the funniest thing your pet has ever done?
What do you think are some of the biggest joys and challenges of having pets?
Are there any specific pet breeds or species that you've always been fascinated by or curious about? Why?
The Unbreakable Bond
A Reflection on the Furry Family
In the ethereal backdrop of time, in a home saturated with affection and an unbreakable union, your loyal four-legged companion has traversed a journey brimming with moments that will never fade. Together, you've shared adventures that defy oblivion, laughter that resonates through eternity, and a bond that transcends all adversities. With each walk, with each playful moment, with every instance of care, the connection between you has strengthened, weaving a tapestry of love and loyalty.
Yet now, as he faces the challenges of health fragility, yearning for human warmth and support like never before, the harsh reality looms. Will the affection you shared be replaced by the coldness of a cage? Will the care and dedication be relegated to the solitude of imprisonment?
Don't let the mere word "hospitalization" obscure the truth inherent in abandonment and desolation. Don't let financial greed or automated indifference dictate your choices. Your pet is more than just a mere pet; he is a beloved member of your family, an intrinsic part of your existence. He deserves all the love and affection, especially in the most arduous times.
Love him tirelessly. Stand by his side, offering the comfort and security he longs for. Don't let the prison (disguised as 'hospitalization') overshadow the freedom and warmth of the home he has always known. Honor the bond you've built together and let love be the foundation that sustains you, even in the darkest of times.
May this story lead us to reflect on the importance of cherishing the presence of our furry friends, granting them the love and dedication they so abundantly deserve. May it inspire us to reject the idea of abandonment, opting instead for the path of empathy and solicitude. After all, true love knows no bounds and transcends beyond time and circumstances.
P.S. This story serves as a poignant reminder to readers to remain vigilant against the unchecked greed of veterinary clinics that prioritize profit over the well-being of our beloved companions during their moments of fragility, agony, and pain. Let us advocate for ethical and compassionate care for all animals, ensuring that they receive the love and support they deserve in their time of need.
VOCABULARY
Ethereal Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world.
Defy To resist or challenge the concept of forgetting or being overlooked.
Oblivion The state of being forgotten or ignored.
Harsh Severe or unkind, often referring to a difficult reality or circumstance.
Looms To appear imminent or threatening, often in a large or overwhelming manner.
Greed Excessive desire for wealth or possessions, particularly when prioritized over the well-being of others.
Fragility The quality of being delicate or easily broken.
Adversities Difficulties or misfortune.
Unbridled Not controlled or restrained.
Solitude The state or situation of being alone.
Desolation A state of complete emptiness or destruction.
Abundantly In large quantities; plentifully.
Solicitude Care or concern for someone's well-being.
A Answer the following questions.

1. What kind of connection does the passage emphasize between the pet and its owner?

A) A connection based on fear and control.
B) A bond of love and loyalty that strengthens over time.
C) A relationship marked by indifference and neglect.

1. Why does the passage caution against the word "hospitalization"?

A) Because it suggests the pet needs medical attention.
B) Because it may lead to financial strain.
C) Because it may mask the reality of abandonment and isolation.

1. What is the main message conveyed in the passage?

A) Pets should be kept in cages for their safety.
B) Owners should prioritize their pet's well-being and not let greed dictate their decisions.
C) Pets are disposable and can be replaced easily.
B Check ✅ True or False. The passage suggests that pets should be treated as disposable and easily replaceable.

1. ⬜ True ⬜ FalseThe author encourages readers to prioritize their pet's well-being over financial considerations.
2. ⬜ True ⬜ False According to the passage, the word "hospitalization" may hide the truth of abandonment and isolation.
3. ⬜ True ⬜ False The passage implies that pets are solely responsible for their own well-being and do not require human care and affection.
4. ⬜ True ⬜ False The main message conveyed in the passage is that financial greed should dictate decisions regarding a pet's care.

{Shared early on Patreon}
~~~
There’s a poster I saw once, back on Earth, that had a silhouette of a bear with deer antlers, and it was labeled “Beer.” I had forgotten about it completely until I met our newest client, who by that logic was definitely a beer.
I’d already done my part of the interaction by carrying out one of the heavier boxes, so while the captain went over the delivery fees with her, I was free to stare politely and decide which other Earth animals she resembled. (Fur coloring more like a red fox, and semi-upright posture that was less bear and more extinct giant ground sloth.)
I was so focused on watching the client handle the datapad with her giant paws that I completely missed it when the hovercar behind her sprung a fuel leak.
Paint saw it, though. “Oh! Your car!” she yelped, pointing. “I’ll get Mimi!” She was off in a flash of orange scales, back into the ship in search of our mechanic.
The client growled a swear word that didn’t translate, shoved the datapad back at Captain Sunlight, then galloped over to her car. While I expected her to throw open the hood in search of the part that was leaking, she instead made a beeline for the back seat.
When she threw open that door, I saw why.
“Kids! Out of the car! It’s not safe!”
A half dozen bundles of spotted yellow fur tumbled out, making distressed noises that didn’t need translating. They had tiny little antler buds and very big eyes.
Captain Sunlight was busy talking to someone through her communicator, probably Mimi. I stood there uselessly by the packages. What did I know about fuel leaks? Nothing helpful. I knew the puddle was growing by the second, and was probably flammable, but that was about it. And this backwater spaceport barely had an information booth, much less a local response team.
The client ushered her cubs over to where we stood just as Mimi and Paint returned. Blip and Blop followed with a big toolbox carried between them. Mimi was already taking charge and waving tentacles about, talking to the captain about the lack of reliable repair shops this far in the boonies, telling Blip and Blop how best to use their muscles in opening up the engine, and reassuring the customer that this was fine, actually, that model hovercar had a known issue with the fuel lines.
When the client dithered over minding her cubs and being present for the repairs, Captain Sunlight pointed a scaly yellow hand at me. “Our human can keep your little ones entertained. Bring them over here.”
“Uh,” I said.
Captain Sunlight looked up at me, still talking to the client. “She has extensive experience in tending to small furry creatures.”
I wanted to say that veterinarian training and childcare were two very different things, but I wasn’t about to make the captain look bad. And knowing Mimi, this would be quick.
The client said, “Thank you. Kids, you need to stay over here, okay? Next to these boxes, but don’t touch. Listen to the tall one. I’ll be right there helping fix the car.”
The tiny-voiced replies were recognizable words in the most common trade language, though their pronunciation made me clock them at around three or four years old in human years. They were very cute.
And they were suddenly my responsibility, all looking up at me like spotted teddy bears while the rest of the adults fretted about the car.
The questions were immediate.
“What are you?”
“Where’s your fur?”
“Did you lose it because you ate the wrong thing? Mommy says we have to eat our vi’mins so our fur doesn’t fall out.”
“Is this instead of fur?”
I freed the tiny paws tugging at my pants. “I’m not supposed to have fur. I’m a human. And yes, I wear clothes to keep me warm instead.”
“It looks funny.”
“Do you have to brush it?”
“Do you know any games?”
I brightened at that. “Games! Sure, I know some games.” I wracked my brain for something that would keep them entertained without causing new problems. “What kind of games do you like to play?”
They all answered at once in an avalanche of words, bouncing around in excitement, with a couple grabbing each other’s fur to keep from falling over. I couldn’t make out a thing they were saying. But I had the beginning of an idea.
“Do you like dancing in a circle?” I asked.
They had no idea what I was talking about, and possibly no understanding of basic shapes yet. Three of them spun in place while the others waved their arms.
“First you stand in a circle, like this,” I said, sketching out the shape in midair. “Here. You stand here, then you there…” With some gentle nudging — they were so soft — I soon had them arranged in something like a circle. “Now hold hands with the person next to you.”
I was a little concerned that their paws weren’t suited to this, since they had long blunt claws already and didn’t look very dexterous, but they managed. With lots of giggling and hopping in place.
“Now everybody step to the side, in this direction.” I ushered them into a clockwise rotation, nice and slow (and giggling), with no risk of any little fluffy heads bonking onto the spaceship landing pad. It took them a second, then they got the rhythm without tripping over their own feet.
Then they unanimously spun faster, hopping and laughing with squeals and barks that were probably making more than one adult turn to stare. I don’t know; I kept my eyes on the littles. My arms were out and ready in case somebody stumbled and brought the whole circle crashing down.
But no one did. The half dozen youngsters wheeled and spun, bouncing with glee and showing no sign of stopping.
“That’s new,” rumbled a voice behind me. I tried not to flinch when I looked up at the mama bear. Beer. Whatever. She asked, “Is that an activity from your planet?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Pretty basic, and it seemed good for kids.”
The antlered head nodded. “Looks like valuable practice at coordination, as well as teamwork. There are a few adults I know who could benefit from that.”
Images flashed through my head of huge antlered bear aliens doing ring-around-the-rosie as a corporate teambuilding exercise. And professional athletes trying to improve their footwork. “Yeah, they probably could. And it’s a fun bit of community bonding time.”
Mama Bear nodded. “Okay children, the car is fixed,” she announced. “Time to go home.”
The cubs made the exact same disappointed noises as human kids. Even when their mother waded in and picked them up one by one to urge them towards the car, they didn’t want to stop playing. They grabbed hands in pairs and spun off that way, even faster than before. I did have to catch one fuzzy little teddy toddler, who just laughed about it and hopped around some more.
Peripheral vision told me the rest of the crew was helping move the packages into the hovercar’s storage space and mop up the last of the fuel. Overheard conversation told me that the good captain had tactfully gotten us a bonus payment for the mechanical assistance. I couldn’t tell if childcare was part of that, and I didn’t ask. I just focused on herding the excitable youngsters back to their car, where thankfully they all knew how to get into the safety harnesses without help.
Mama Bear closed the door. “Thank you for everything,” she said, directing that at me as well as Captain Sunlight. “I will recommend your services highly to anyone who asks. And we will probably need more deliveries soon, once we get the new house set up, so perhaps we will see you again!”
Captain Sunlight nodded. “Perhaps so. It was a pleasure doing business with you.”
I waved goodbye to the kids, who had found the button to open the window and were just as excitable as ever. “See you later! Maybe next time I can teach you the Hokey Pokey. That’s big on my planet.”
~~~
Shared early on Patreon
Cross-posted to Tumblr and HumansAreSpaceOrcs
The book that takes place after the short stories is here
The sequel is in progress (and will include characters from the stories)

{Shared early on Patreon}
~~~
There’s a poster I saw once, back on Earth, that had a silhouette of a bear with deer antlers, and it was labeled “Beer.” I had forgotten about it completely until I met our newest client, who by that logic was definitely a beer.
I’d already done my part of the interaction by carrying out one of the heavier boxes, so while the captain went over the delivery fees with her, I was free to stare politely and decide which other Earth animals she resembled. (Fur coloring more like a red fox, and semi-upright posture that was less bear and more extinct giant ground sloth.)
I was so focused on watching the client handle the datapad with her giant paws that I completely missed it when the hovercar behind her sprung a fuel leak.
Paint saw it, though. “Oh! Your car!” she yelped, pointing. “I’ll get Mimi!” She was off in a flash of orange scales, back into the ship in search of our mechanic.
The client growled a swear word that didn’t translate, shoved the datapad back at Captain Sunlight, then galloped over to her car. While I expected her to throw open the hood in search of the part that was leaking, she instead made a beeline for the back seat.
When she threw open that door, I saw why.
“Kids! Out of the car! It’s not safe!”
A half dozen bundles of spotted yellow fur tumbled out, making distressed noises that didn’t need translating. They had tiny little antler buds and very big eyes.
Captain Sunlight was busy talking to someone through her communicator, probably Mimi. I stood there uselessly by the packages. What did I know about fuel leaks? Nothing helpful. I knew the puddle was growing by the second, and was probably flammable, but that was about it. And this backwater spaceport barely had an information booth, much less a local response team.
The client ushered her cubs over to where we stood just as Mimi and Paint returned. Blip and Blop followed with a big toolbox carried between them. Mimi was already taking charge and waving tentacles about, talking to the captain about the lack of reliable repair shops this far in the boonies, telling Blip and Blop how best to use their muscles in opening up the engine, and reassuring the customer that this was fine, actually, that model hovercar had a known issue with the fuel lines.
When the client dithered over minding her cubs and being present for the repairs, Captain Sunlight pointed a scaly yellow hand at me. “Our human can keep your little ones entertained. Bring them over here.”
“Uh,” I said.
Captain Sunlight looked up at me, still talking to the client. “She has extensive experience in tending to small furry creatures.”
I wanted to say that veterinarian training and childcare were two very different things, but I wasn’t about to make the captain look bad. And knowing Mimi, this would be quick.
The client said, “Thank you. Kids, you need to stay over here, okay? Next to these boxes, but don’t touch. Listen to the tall one. I’ll be right there helping fix the car.”
The tiny-voiced replies were recognizable words in the most common trade language, though their pronunciation made me clock them at around three or four years old in human years. They were very cute.
And they were suddenly my responsibility, all looking up at me like spotted teddy bears while the rest of the adults fretted about the car.
The questions were immediate.
“What are you?”
“Where’s your fur?”
“Did you lose it because you ate the wrong thing? Mommy says we have to eat our vi’mins so our fur doesn’t fall out.”
“Is this instead of fur?”
I freed the tiny paws tugging at my pants. “I’m not supposed to have fur. I’m a human. And yes, I wear clothes to keep me warm instead.”
“It looks funny.”
“Do you have to brush it?”
“Do you know any games?”
I brightened at that. “Games! Sure, I know some games.” I wracked my brain for something that would keep them entertained without causing new problems. “What kind of games do you like to play?”
They all answered at once in an avalanche of words, bouncing around in excitement, with a couple grabbing each other’s fur to keep from falling over. I couldn’t make out a thing they were saying. But I had the beginning of an idea.
“Do you like dancing in a circle?” I asked.
They had no idea what I was talking about, and possibly no understanding of basic shapes yet. Three of them spun in place while the others waved their arms.
“First you stand in a circle, like this,” I said, sketching out the shape in midair. “Here. You stand here, then you there…” With some gentle nudging — they were so soft — I soon had them arranged in something like a circle. “Now hold hands with the person next to you.”
I was a little concerned that their paws weren’t suited to this, since they had long blunt claws already and didn’t look very dexterous, but they managed. With lots of giggling and hopping in place.
“Now everybody step to the side, in this direction.” I ushered them into a clockwise rotation, nice and slow (and giggling), with no risk of any little fluffy heads bonking onto the spaceship landing pad. It took them a second, then they got the rhythm without tripping over their own feet.
Then they unanimously spun faster, hopping and laughing with squeals and barks that were probably making more than one adult turn to stare. I don’t know; I kept my eyes on the littles. My arms were out and ready in case somebody stumbled and brought the whole circle crashing down.
But no one did. The half dozen youngsters wheeled and spun, bouncing with glee and showing no sign of stopping.
“That’s new,” rumbled a voice behind me. I tried not to flinch when I looked up at the mama bear. Beer. Whatever. She asked, “Is that an activity from your planet?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Pretty basic, and it seemed good for kids.”
The antlered head nodded. “Looks like valuable practice at coordination, as well as teamwork. There are a few adults I know who could benefit from that.”
Images flashed through my head of huge antlered bear aliens doing ring-around-the-rosie as a corporate teambuilding exercise. And professional athletes trying to improve their footwork. “Yeah, they probably could. And it’s a fun bit of community bonding time.”
Mama Bear nodded. “Okay children, the car is fixed,” she announced. “Time to go home.”
The cubs made the exact same disappointed noises as human kids. Even when their mother waded in and picked them up one by one to urge them towards the car, they didn’t want to stop playing. They grabbed hands in pairs and spun off that way, even faster than before. I did have to catch one fuzzy little teddy toddler, who just laughed about it and hopped around some more.
Peripheral vision told me the rest of the crew was helping move the packages into the hovercar’s storage space and mop up the last of the fuel. Overheard conversation told me that the good captain had tactfully gotten us a bonus payment for the mechanical assistance. I couldn’t tell if childcare was part of that, and I didn’t ask. I just focused on herding the excitable youngsters back to their car, where thankfully they all knew how to get into the safety harnesses without help.
Mama Bear closed the door. “Thank you for everything,” she said, directing that at me as well as Captain Sunlight. “I will recommend your services highly to anyone who asks. And we will probably need more deliveries soon, once we get the new house set up, so perhaps we will see you again!”
Captain Sunlight nodded. “Perhaps so. It was a pleasure doing business with you.”
I waved goodbye to the kids, who had found the button to open the window and were just as excitable as ever. “See you later! Maybe next time I can teach you the Hokey Pokey. That’s big on my planet.”
~~~
Shared early on Patreon
Cross-posted to Tumblr and HFY
The book that takes place after the short stories is here
The sequel is in progress (and will include characters from the stories)

[Previous] [First] [Patreon]
Upon the tallest silo of Fleapit's foundries, a duel was about to break out that would determine the fate of the entire Underkingdom.
Marcus often recalled tales of such duels in the books he loved to peruse as a child – fanciful stories of men and women going off to conquer fantastical realms and slaying dragons or witch covens after proclaiming the inherent purity of the human spirit.
Such tales rouse the hearts of young men. They become the same young men who run off to wars thinking that mass combat will afford them the same kind of moral superiority.
For Marcus - a man trapped in an ugly rendition of one such world - such superiority was a luxury he would never have. Heroes are supposed to bandy words with demons. They are supposed to show their valor in righteous battle.
But the battle that unfolded atop Fleapit's highest point was not honorable. It was not righteous.
Instead, one armored rat brought his vicious halberd to bear against two humanoid snake-hybrids, and the strikes they made were to kill, not to entertain their spectator.
First, the youngling threw Marcus aside and leaped directly for Festicus. The ratman anticipated the attack, shifting his weight to his right to sidestep and cleave the snake-woman from belly to breast. The attack was one of pure, raw strength, but it was one burdened by the heaviness of the creature's weapon. In the moment of impact the young Yokun twirled and slashed at the ratman's exposed neck, her blade coming away with his crimson blood gleaming along its edge.
He staggered, dropping to his knees just in time for the Matron to came at him with her mercy strike.
A strike that he met with his bare teeth.
His head jerked up. His mouth opened in a snarl, and Marcus saw his fangs clamp down on the blade as it entered its throat. The Matron's eyes narrowed as she tried to free the blade, watching the ratman's gums fill with gushing blood as the Wakizashi's edge nicked his tongue. Then, in her moment of pure confusion, his halberd swept the Yokun elder's feet.
"Sister!"
Festicus smirked as he felt movement behind him – the youngling spinning in a deadly pirouette that struck for his armored spine. The blessings of He-Who-Festers was with the ratman on this day, for the Yokun's blade merely pierced the outer layer of his armored hide and ripped the metal pieces away, letting them fall in a hail of iron that rained down on the spectators watching the small snippets of the battle they could see below.
The ratman thrust the pole of his weapon back to knock against the ribs of the youngling and push her almost straight off the silo's precarious platform to join the bloody mess that was her sister below.
"MMMHMMM!" Marcus wheezed from his position, still gagged. He couldn't help it. This fight was showing him just how skilled the Marrow rat truly was. And it was telling him that his spirit was still loyal to his Shai-Alud after all.
As Festicus turned to hack away at the thin leathers of young Yeeva's chest, the Matron regained her footing. She sent a flurry of blows angled down at the ratman's armpit joints that struck faster than Marcus's eyes could follow. All he saw, when he blinked, was that Festicus was reeling back, his mouth, elbows, and arms all bleeding profusely, coating the dark metal of the silo in his life fluids.
The Matron brought her youngblood back up to her knees, and both of them angled their blades at the mauled rat before them.
"Sire..Marcus," Festicus groaned, drawing his eyes towards the human huddled at the edge of the bloody platform.
With a single twist of his claws he ripped through Marcus's gag and the human heaved a wail of release.
"Festicus," he said, trying to maintain his commanding tone. "Stand. Down."
"I would listen to your monkey friend," the Matron spat through her smiling lips. "You face two Sisters of the House of Whispers, little cretin. We have slain more of your kind than you can count."
Festicus rose steadily, using his halberd to push up from the floor of the platform as the two Yokun circled, both picking their target that would end the miserable ratman's life.
"Clan Marrow…" he wheezed. "Never…back…down."
He turned to Marcus abruptly after coughing a torrent of dark crimson.
"I will be living…to see…those cannons," he sputtered as he brought his halberd back up, holding it across his chest straight backed and regal, like some Arabian prince's honor guard. "In the name of Clan and King…I will be living…to see…our victory!"
Both women's blades flashed through the air, trailing arcs of brilliant light as they curved to bring death upon the beleaguered ratman.
And the eyes of the rat flew to Marcus's as he swept up his halberd to meet the Matron's strike at his right flank.
The Wakizashi of the youngling flew to cleave through his ribcage to the left, and it would have done so if she had merely followed through.
Instead, Marcus watched as her arm writhed like it had a will of its own. She dropped her weapon and it slid across the platform while she screamed in agony – an animal scream that pierced not only the air, but the ears of her Sister who was taken off balance by the sudden change in her companion's demeanor.
And that opening was all Festicus needed cut right into her waist.
She opened her mouth in a gasp, arms flying to dislodge the blade while the ratman that held it grit his teeth and pushed through her scaled skin with all the force left in his hulking frame.
"SHAAAAAA-HAH!"
Marcus watched awestruck as the Matron's torso was cleaved clean through. Her legs flopped beneath the purple-soaked blade of Festicus's halberd while the rest of her body spun in the air, crumbled, and fell back to the platform in a heap of twitching limbs.
"SISTER!" Yeeva screamed, her arms still gyrating with a life of their own as Festicus collapsed to one knee, seeing the ghostly form of someone familiar appear just over the lip of the platform's north face.
"By…the Unclean…" he wheezed. "Could you not be coming…a little…more early?"
The hooded rat man that had his eyes trained on the twitching Yokun before him twisted his face into a smile.
"A Gloomrava of Glumrot isssss coming exxxxxactly when he issssss needing to."
"Look out!"
The shout came from Marcus as his eyes flew to the still spasming Yokun Matron's body. In a macabre display of pure, uncanny willpower, her fingers wrapped round her blade and sent it spinning towards the tiny legs of the newly arrived priest, drawing a cry of agony from him that sounded more like the shrill wailing of the undead than the pained voice of a rat.
Festicus watched his Brother go down and made to rise again to finish off the last female, but this time the Yokun youngling was faster – spurned on by the death of her senior.
She met Festicus' sweeping strike with such fury that the ratman was sent staggering back, and, holding the blade of her Matron in her hand, got the other around the ratman's throat and held him down, her nails penetrating deep into his neck and drawing tiny trickles of blood that traveled through her scaled veins.
"Miserable, scaleless swine!" she railed, pushing her Wakizashi closer and closer to the ratman's face, watching the life in his eyes and strength in his arms gradually fade away to nothing. "Vlitark take the Matriarch! You all die here and now!"
Festicus's arms began to give way. The power to even bite back at the vengeance-filled face of the snake was going – it was draining away like the rest of his blood. It seemed he would have to be satisfied with slaying one of them. An honor most of his Clan would still respect him for, even if it had to be in death…
But before he closed his eyes he saw the Yokra's go wide. He saw the passionate fires of fury die away on her scaled features and then felt the wet spew of her blood that had just spurted from beneath her chest. Both ratman and Yokun looked down to see where her discarded Wakizashi had just penetrated her lower abdomen and, as the blade was twisted, Yeeva finally fell to the side.
And revealed the human standing above her who had just stabbed her in the back.
Festicus wanted to laugh then more than any other time in his life. But, try as he might, all he could manage was a slight smile.
"You truly…are…having the soul…of a rat," he wheezed.
And as Marcus bent down to check the vitals of the ratman, discovering, too late, that there was nothing more to be done, Festicus of Clan Marrow closed his eyes and left the world of the Underkingdom behind.
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Ok so this is awkward... but, I'm Korean. I used to HATE K-dramas, the same way millenials hate Days of Our Lives and Pretty Little Liars because of their parents' obsession.
Anyway, I watched Tale of the Ninetailed and I am ashamed of how hooked I got.... then I watched Alchemy of Souls... and My Demon... and so on...
I am looking for fantasy/supernatural shows (obviously with romance) about magic, cute monsters, shapeshifters/lycanthropes, vampires, etc. I am, also shamefully, a furry. I crave werewolves and witchcraft (no, not like that). I also love Pokemon and D&D, so anything in those realms is awesome. Preferably with more than 1 season, but not required. There are too many options out there and I am STRUGGLING with my ADHD and dyslexia to pick one.
I thrive on lists, so type away! A little blurb next to each one on what they general story is about is also appreciated, but not required.

I'm a 29 year old mother in Alabama
Last night my husband with the help of our male pomsky caught a opossum trying to get in the dog door and scared her off, we thought that would be that ... Spoiler alert We were wrong
Well, today is Mother's day, a wonderful day for families to appreciate the hard work mothers do every day. It was a good day, my daughter got me a lawn gnome and a cute faux flower arrangement, while my husband got me flowers, and we had a BBQ with all the moms in my family. IT WAS A GOOD DAY... Till I got home
We got home a while ago and I got my girl to bed, my dogs on the couch and my husband is playing videogames (I enjoy gaming too) and I want to get a vase for my flowers. I opened my cabinet door and I see a small baby opossum ... Then 2 .... Then 3, apparently they made there way in via the dog door and has been exploring, and my darling dog just let it happen.
It's midnight now and I just spent the last 2 maybe 3 hours with my husband, catching baby opossums putting them in laundry baskets and storage totes, checking our back in case momma comes back from her mother's day spa trip. Each baby was different, 1 ran the thousand yard dash on sight till I got his tail, 1 just lumbered around but kept trying to get out of the basket so we had to turn it over, and 1 was ready to GO, little spitfire lunged at my husband a time or 2 and did not stop hissing at us. All this while praying my wild child doesn't wake up, so we don't have to explain that we CANNOT keep the babies
I think we got them all, idk, I can't see any more. I get only time will tell, but at least I have a story for later ... And pictures, have a good night
TL;DR. I enjoyed mother's day and a mother opossum left her babies in my house to babysit, and my dog just let it happen
Update:
It's currently 6 in the morning and another little guy made his way in and got in my dogs food bowl, apparently that is what was needed for my furry son to do his job, because he came in and got my husband up. With 1 more sweep he found 1 more, bringing the total to 5 ... Rather cute little marsupials with B&E charges, and momma hasn't been seen yet. He couldn't handle 2 at once so he had to get me up, so I came out of the bedroom to my husband holding the babies up, perched on his hand like some sorta redneck Disney princess, just to get my own little guy, and take him outside to join the others.
I will keep you updated if we find more.
Hopefully the last update
We have been keeping an ear out but I believe there was only 5, we just gave them all to the rehabber and as expected, consoled my daughter because she wanted to keep them (I think my husband low-key did too)
We know there can be up to 13 so we'll be on alert for the next few days and we'll let you know if we find more but as of now I think we're closing down our opossum daycare, thanks for all the comments and the assistance with how to take of the joeys

On paper, my life is a fucking disaster. But what I've been able to do with the resources that I have is actually pretty crazy. It's gonna be a long time until my life is anything that a person might consider normal, but I think that most people would be doing a lot worse if they had to deal with the same stuff.
I'm 30 years old, I live with my partner's parents, I graduated high school a year late, I've dropped out of college twice, I don't have any friends, and the closest thing I've had to a job is charging furries an absurd amount of money to write erotic short stories (as a side gig).
I entered high school with a 3rd grade education. I graduated a year late. That isn't a failure -- frankly, it's fucking astonishing that I graduated at all.
I made straight As for 2 years in college, double majoring in neuroscience and psychology. I was also writing 2,500-3,000 words of fiction per day. A literary editor said that the novel I was working on at the time was "groundbreaking" and personally excited them.
During this time, my bedroom was previously a walk in closet, in a basement that flooded twice per year and had mushrooms growing out of the carpet. I had a blanket nailed to my doorframe instead of a door. My parents and both of my brothers also actively rooted against me, and tried to gaslight me into believing that I was stupid and untalented.
It turns out that I have severe, combined type ADHD that was being medicated off label, by accident. So when the meds I was on stopped working, I wasn't able to perform in school (and also developed extreme depression and anxiety). But like... It's amazing that I was able to do all of this with the living conditions I had, and the extremely toxic support system!
I spent most of my child and teen years being systematically and intentionally isolated by my parents. I still manage to have a partner that I've been with for almost 4 years, a really good relationship with my sister, and just... A lot of people who care about me, and who I can rely on. How the fuck am I able to maintain healthy relationships at all? (I don't have my own friends, or family besides my sister, but my partner's friends and family actually like me and support me.).
Society at large doesn't value these accomplishments -- but they're still accomplishments. I've still done a lot with my life. It's weirdly nice that the more I progress in therapy, the more obvious this becomes.
Edit: my health is improving a lot thanks to EMDR therapy, and I'm hoping that I can go back to school next year. And start writing fiction again. I've got plenty of stuff that I want to do, and I don't wanna sound like I'm stuck or something when things are actually going really well.

Hello, good morning, or evening or afternoon or whatever time it is where you are. I’d like to first off say that this is going to be a longer post so please be warned of that. I’d also like to state that this is a somewhat controversial opinion and I can’t say for certain that I will not be banned for it. Either way I am willing to be banned from the subreddit if that’s what they decide. (I don’t want to be in a community that isn’t willing to allow people to express unpopular opinions. This is what I’d like to say, (Though it’s likely been said before) I think shipping is a very dangerous problem and it has caused a lot of issues in this community along with a good many others. Throughout its runtime the MHA community has gradually grown more and more toxic on the subject of shipping. There are some clear examples of near canon or just straight up canon. (Izuku and Ochako, Bakugo and Kirishima, Jiro and Kaminari.) but I think that the wider spectrum of shipping has gone to far. The anger and toxicity of some people I’ve seen is straight up alarming. And the cringe of some people with how defensive and hateful of others when they don’t agree with their ship is honestly sad. Shipping has brought this fanbase to a new low, and it’s reflecting on how people see the show before watching it. They see the cringe and toxic nature of the fans and automatically assume that the show must be similar. And I’m not saying everyone is like this, but as a community, it’s thrown in there with the likes of Undertale, TADC, Fnaf, PPP, K-Pop, Dream, and worst of all, Furries. That means that this incredible show with a great story and wonderful cast of characters is not getting as much attention as it honestly deserves, yes it’s popular and well known but it is also held back by it’s community in part due to shippers. I don’t think shipping in of itself is necessarily a bad thing, but it has gotten out of control with this community at large.

I'm sure most of you have seen Mutas most recent video on Keffals, and have wondered what "website X" is. Well, I'm hoping to shine a light on that because I think I might know what it is.
Website X is most likely a website known as "clay.party." It's still up currently, but its pretty dead.
To make a long story short, clay.party does in fact have ties to kiwifarms. The people on clay.party are former kiwifarms users who wanted to have a space where they could basically go further then kiwifarms: harassing lolcows instead of simply documenting them. The lolcows in question were usually trans people and furries. Basically, it's users would doxx potential lolcows and blackmail them to harm themselves on discord video calls.
If anyone knows who foodistzen is, that was basically his base of operations. Hes the guy who did massive troll campaigns on youtube when jacksepticeyes dad and technoblade died. I do have reasons to suspect that he played a role in the more brutal forms of harassment against keffals that muta mentioned in his video, but i don't hsve anything to back it up.
For anybody whos interested on the history of Foodistzen and clay.party, heres a kiwifarms post going into detail about it: https://kiwifarms.st/threads/foodists-foodistzen-malagasy-clay-eaters-clay-party-homophobe-army.136362/
I know SOG and his community are both passionate about documenting internet history so i thought sharing this information would be appreciated by the community here.
EDIT: Just want to mention that one of the admins of clay.party was the one who stalked keffals in ireland. Its definitely worth a read if you're interested in website x.

My name is Chance! My career is in public accounting where I'm currently a senior manager. Sadly as a result, my usual workday is all boring and spreadsheets and making sure people did their stuffs right (companies, not people). Nothing to do with taxes, all just normal boring accounting for every day business stuffs. I'm decent enough at the job and it pays well enough that I don't really see myself changing careers unless something external pops up and causes me to give it a second thought.
Physically - I'm white, 5'8", blue eyed, salt and pepper hair (been getting more gray since high school!), bearded currently, and have a bit of a belly that I'm working on losing. I'm a stockier built guy so I don't look as big as my weight makes me sound, but I could definitely use losing some weight!
Politically - I lean left. People are people regardless of their beliefs, what gender they were both with and/or identify with. People deserve for their government to have their backs if they're in need, society would be better if everyone were a tiny bit more kind. There's more to be said, but you get my general idea there. I am conservative in some ways, just usually more fiscal rather than social ones.
​
Hobbies:
- I'm an absolutely *avid* gamer and enjoyer of great stories. With regards to gaming, I usually hyper-focus on 1-2 games and then have a smattering of all different kinds of stuff in alongside whatever that main game might be. At the moment that means loads of GTA RP and a little bit of a whole lot else.
- With my partner - I love watching movies, playing random spooky games with scared people watching, dragging friends into spooky games, and just chatting and kind of existing in a call while we do our own things. If we game together then awesome, but just kind of *being together* while not actually being together is nice too.
- Genres for entertainment? Action, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Family, Adventure, Drama, Horror, more!- I honestly love all kinds of music (Metal, classical, orchestral, K-stuff, J-stuff, you name it). That said, I'm not a big rap/hiphop fan
- I'm a general animal lover. Dogs, cats, all things cute and furry. Cats are def something I've never had and always wanted though!
- Reading! You'll almost always find me with a book or three in progress. Currently reading Supreme Magus by Legion alongside some various other things.- I'm a fan of all things humor, be it dark, raunchy, normal, etc.
Relationship stuffs:
- I'm a big texter and love calls. I love being in contact with my s/o little bits throughout the day, sharing memes, laughing at jokes, checking in from time to time. I'll usually be the first to send a good morning and the one to say good night.
- In-person, I'm a physical touch and cuddles kind of guy. I love showing affection through touching, cuddling, holding hands, snuggling up on the couch for a movie, etc. Just being able to show affection this way is one of my favorite things.
- I'm a very loyal and empathetic person. Once I decide that I like someone, I'm solid in my commitment to them and to making sure that I can do everything in my power to make them feel the same way that they make me feel. I'm not one to wander, think of others, or focus on the things about my person that aren't perfect. I take the good and enjoy it as best I can.
- I absolutely value communication. I'm open with what I think and feel, and hope that my partner is the same way. I don't like to hide things from them, and typically expect the same in return. It may end up being a lot from me if things make me feel passionately about them, but I'd rather you know than wonder.
​
General Bits:
I've been in... not very many relationships, and never in a "normal" relationship. I was in a 4.5 year long Long-Distance relationship as a late teen early 20's that ended with her cheating on me and getting knocked up, and a 7-month long relationship with a friend with whom things didn’t work out. Otherwise? I'm just a generally friendly and laughing kinda guy. I try not to take myself too seriously and try to keep things fairly simple and straightforward to the best of my ability. I'm a smartass, I joke, I pick, I try to make everyone feel as welcome as I can without breaking myself in the process. I'm opinionated but more than happy to hear opposing views.
Anyway, if you're still here, I'd love for you to reach out with some of your own interests, hobbies, and more! Maybe we'll be friends, maybe we'll be more? Only time will tell! :)

I’ll start with the job posting, I guess. I spotted it on Indeed while making my daily check for anything and everything that would hire someone with my biology degree, and it seemed on the up and up. Their website looked decent, the guy on the phone sounded nice, and I was looking for anything even slightly related to working with wildlife. Being a nightshift guard at a zoo was fine, especially when I took the incredibly generous rate of $25/hr. into account. That’s eleven bucks more than my dad makes at the local grocer, and he’s been working there for thirteen years. Then again, from the P.S. on the posting, I thought there might be good reason for the rate.
It said at the end, almost as an afterthought, ‘Zoo is haunted.’
When it comes to ghosts, they’ve never made much sense to me. Considering how badly our brains function from just getting jostled around on a football field, I’m not sure how ghosts could exist without a brain at all. I’d be excited as the next person to find proof, but YouTube videos are always fishy and the people on TV are essentially actors who only focus on the entertainment factor for their ratings. So, since I’d never seen anything that vaguely resembled a ghost, I’d say binge-watching Supernatural on Netflix last year was the extent of my experience in that department.
It seemed that the zoo hadn’t been here for long since it wasn’t even on Google Maps yet. There was a bit of a commute, it was half an hour away, but since I’d worked local jobs while I attended college online for the past four years, I’d saved up the money to buy a car. It wasn’t anything fancy, just an old Nissan sedan that I’d bought from someone in the next town over, with faded red paint and a mismatched back right door painted blue. It accomplished the job of transportation, though, which let me search the job market further away, a good thing considering how small a town I lived in. I really didn’t want to leave home yet, so moving for a job in a city or another state wasn’t an appealing option.
The website said very little. It had yet to fill in drop down menus that would excitedly describe their attractions. So far it only had some small sections about conservation and education, though that was intriguing because it mentioned that all the animals they had were endangered. I read that notation and wondered what the animals were. Mammals were always favorites of mine, which I know is a bit of a cliché, loving the furry ones. But when it comes down to it, I’ll take any animal over a person.
The employee entrance to the zoo was a door in the large steel gate that surrounded the property, a few yards down from the sliding gate that presumably opened to let visitors in. I pressed the button on a panel beside it, glancing up at the camera, and I was buzzed in. There was a short path that led to the building near the front and I knocked politely before going inside.
The interviewer, a plain metal nameplate on his desk describing him as Director of Security for the zoo, welcomed me in and sat on the other side of his desk, lounging back in his desk chair. His name was Andrew Higgs, and he had a British accent, which I thought was cool. I sat in one of the two loveseats in front of the desk.
Andrew was dressed business casual, with a blue Polo shirt, a thin black jacket, and I saw he was wearing slacks when he stood up to shake my hand. He was black, with dreadlocks that stopped just short of his shoulders, and a closely trimmed mustache. There was a tattoo, an artistic rendition of a hippo, on the right side of his neck, which bode well in my opinion. So many places hiring these days were overly uptight about their employees’ appearance, but it seemed that wouldn’t be the case here.
We went over the basics before he picked up the piece of paper off his desk, my resume, which he’d printed out. “Well, I spoke to all three of your references,” Andrew noted. “They had some good things to say. You were a great employee on the farm you worked last summer, your boss said. Punctual, hard-working, took instructions well…”
That was nice to hear. I’d spent this past summer working at a dairy farm, mostly assigned to the goats and cows they kept for milk. Aside from the staggering muscle pain that tapered from agony to merely miserable by the end of the summer, it wasn’t a bad job. I did have an old shoulder injury that I always had to work around, but it was my left shoulder and I was a righty, so it wasn’t that difficult to manage.
If anything, the muscle pain in my back and legs from being on my feet all day distracted from the typical issue I dealt with. My standard exercising day-to-day was typically either riding my bike or yoga, although yoga is mind-numbingly boring, so I need to listen to a podcast to pass the time. So, in fact, through the job, I was sort of grateful that my brain was focusing on a different area of my body that was in pain. Yeah, chronic pain is weird.
“He also said you don’t work well with others,” Andrew added, glancing up to me. “You kept submitting complaints about incompetent coworkers?”
I pursed my lips and let out a long breath through my nose, considering the most delicate way I was capable of replying to that before saying, “I dislike stupid people.”
Andrew gave me a half-smile and sighed, replying, “Well, I must confess I’m not fond of them either.” He looked back down to the paper. “This job will be a great fit for you.”
The job interview seemed like a formality, and I don’t know why. I was twenty-three and the ink had barely dried on my degree from the online college I’d attended. I’d been applying to jobs for months and had been thrilled when I’d gotten a call for an interview for this one, but also surprised. Call me a cynic, but I expected more invasive questions about any past work I’d done for a job in security, since I was a woman.
It's not like I was petite. Actually, the most common word I’d heard to describe me is ‘built’, and I fall short of being labeled overweight only because of muscle mass. One comment I recall from high school was being teased for being shaped like a rectangle. Even so, there was no good reason to look a gift horse in the mouth, but of course, me being me, that meant I examined its teeth closely.
“So, you’re hiring me? Just like that? Why?”
Andrew, chuckled. “Look, you’ve got BA in wildlife biology, and specializing in animal behavior is just the cherry on the sundae. That tells me you know animals are not people, and even if you feel like you know them, they can still be unpredictable. They can hurt you. But also, it makes me know you care.”
I suppose that did make sense, and it was true, so I’m glad he knew that. Most of my job on the night shift would be watching cameras and then walking around the place to make sure all the animals were as they should be, but it was more than that. Working at a zoo meant knowing where the line was, and sometimes it wasn’t exactly at the fence, but sometimes just putting a single finger through that fence meant losing that finger. As a whole, humans are generally idiots. Looking at you, anyone who really, honestly thinks that a bobcat would sense your boundless love enough to let you pat it.
“The website didn’t have much about the animals,” I said. “I know this place is new, so you might not have info on them up on the site yet. Do you have a map for me?”
“Oh, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Andrew said with a wave of his hand. At that point, it had seemed to be a reasonable thing for him to say, but I will tell you, the reason was not what I thought. “Just to confirm, you’re not an early bird, Miss Mason? This schedule isn’t a concern?”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m pretty talented at sleeping in, actually. I never really got past that teenage talent of staying up until five and sleeping in until three. And you can just call me Ripley.”
That made him smile. “Good. Then I won’t worry about you falling asleep on the job, Ripley.”
“Oh, no way.”
“All right. So. You saw the note at the end of the job posting?”
He just stared at me and I was forced to answer, “That the zoo is haunted.”
“Right. What are your thoughts on that?”
There was no easy answer to that question, especially depending on how seriously he took it. “Do you know the best word the Brits gave to us?”
“What’s that?”
“Bollocks.”
Andrew slowly smiled and pointed at me with the end of the pen in his hand. “I think I’m going to like you,” he remarked. “Look…this is the part of the interview where we switch gears. If this was a regular zoo, you’d be a shoo-in for the job. But we’ve got other boxes to check. This outfit is…basically a preservation society. As you saw on the site, all the species are endangered, but what it didn’t say online is that the only people who came to visit are private parties.”
“So, that means…what?” I asked. “You bring in super-rich people who feel special when they get to see the animals you’re rehabilitating and taking care of? Then they donate oodles of money so they can brag to their rich friends about their charity contributions and having seen the animals here?”
Andrew raised his eyebrows. “Pretty much got it in one. It’s just more preservation and less rehabilitation. And a lot of our patrons really do care about the animals, or else they would just donate and not visit. You’ll see tourists a couple times a week, but we decided not to have anyone until we’re settled in here, and that means a person who’s on during the night shift that I can count on. And I don’t know if I can count on you yet.”
“Wait, I’ll see the tourists?” I asked. “They visit at night?”
“Everything we have is nocturnal,” he told me. That struck me as odd, but he continued before I could question it. “Listen up, and I’ll start with the basics. Have you ever seen anything weird? Possibly supernatural?”
“Nope,” I said with a shrug.
The fact is, I got along with my classmates, but I never did have any close friends. So, I thought maybe that’s why I missed out on all those reckless teen moments that started every horror movie. Maybe it left me without a bunch of exciting stories to tell. But hey, at least I didn’t break my leg falling through the floor of an abandoned building in eleventh grade.
Yes, that happened. It was a classmate of mine by the name of Brent. And yes, he’s just as much of a moron as you would imagine.
“If you see the ghost here,” he said, his tone emphatic, “will you freak out?”
I paused. “You’ve seen the ghost?”
“All the time,” Andrew told me. “It’s a young woman in a blue shirt and tan slacks, looks like she just walked out of a lake.”
“Do you have a picture?”
“No, and absolutely no photos or video are to be taken of her,” he said, his tone abruptly turning stern. “It’s cause for immediate dismissal. We have video cameras for security, but they all record off-site in a secure location, and Suzanne Cooper, the owner, manages it herself. Firstly, the ghost deserves privacy rather than exploitation, she’s not to be displayed like one of our animals, but secondly, people believe in ghosts. One leaked photo of her connecting it to us means we get overrun by ghost hunters, and if we trace it back to you, you’re done.”
Andrew seemed next-level serious about that, so I nodded. “Understood. That makes sense.”
The animals were the priority after all, I knew. I preferred them over people anyway, and that included dead people. Even if I could get a video of this ghost doing cartwheels back and forth through a wall, I would never post it and spread word of where I’d taken it. Andrew was right; the zoo would never get the paranormally-obsessed to stay away and would definitely have to relocate.
He continued, “If you’re curious, she’s never so much as tried to hurt anyone. But the zoo has moved before, and she moved with us.”
“She moved with you?” I asked, my eyebrows rising. “Is it like one of those stories where she’s attached to something in the zoo rather than a place?”
“More complicated than that,” he said. Then he grimaced. “She died because she was too ambitious with one of our animals. It never should have happened, but she… She was foolish, you’d say. Attempted to interact with one of the animals, got too close, and honestly, she should have known better. I thought she did.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “What killed her?”
He stared at his hands and shook his head. “It was before my time.”
It was clear Andrew was a true believer, but I still really wasn’t sure at that point. How was I supposed to react, though? Zoos have fences and tall barriers for a good reason. Not just to keep the animals away from us, but also the other way around, and ‘death by stupidity’ is not uncommon amongst humans. So, the story wasn’t outrageous, but still, I’d never so much as experienced something unexplainable. But if I saw a ghost, I suppose that’d be that.
“I just need to know, plain and simple, if you’re the kind of person who can handle things that are terrifying,” Andrew told me, splaying his hands. “Our last night shift bloke there was with us for years and years, but we spent months going through other employees. There were six we tried before we found him.”
“Six?” I exclaimed.
He snorted. “Yes, six. Let’s see…” Andrew counted off each one on his fingers. “The first two, the first night they saw the ghost, they lost it. One called me in a panic, babbling, and I had to get out of bed and drive to the zoo to send him home, and the second quit, although at least she made it to the next morning and didn’t drag me out here,” he said, his voice thoughtful. “They just thought I was blowing smoke up their bums with the whole thing.”
He shrugged. “Then, the third one was a bloke who was asleep when I got there in the morning, so I had to fire him. Then another ghost freak-out. The fifth bloke was someone who couldn’t deal with the animals, and then the sixth was so scared of the ghost that when I got here, he was already outside the zoo, pacing, waiting for my car. Apparently he’d said some stuff, rude or mean or whatnot, to try to get her to leave him alone and she had followed him back into the security room, so he fled. I need the opposite of those folks. Alright?”
At this point, I was starting to take it more seriously. Sure, this could just be Andrew’s thing, that he believed in ghosts and then made up these sightings to ensure I believed him. But if I saw her? What would I do?
Well, this would be my job, so I would have to take it seriously. Maybe that was why the pay was so good, to make employees think twice before ditching it. From Andrew’s perspective, if it really was haunted, he was the one who had to deal with applicant after applicant quitting as soon as they laid eyes on the guest who would never leave.
“So…honestly, I can’t say I won’t freak out, considering how next level this is,” I told him, feeling compelled to go with honesty, “but yeah. I think I can handle it, mostly because it’s important for someone to look after this place, look after the animals, so I’d do my best to work around anything that freaks me out. I mean, I have to say that I’ll believe it when I see it. But if ghosts really exist, as long as it isn’t some serial killer who stuck around to keep gutting people, I’ve always thought it’d be cool to find out we can exist after we die.”
The thing is, I think I did believe him. I thought there might really be a ghost there, because otherwise, why take it so seriously? It could’ve been that Andrew had only glimpsed her out of the corner of his eye a few times and could ascribe it to lack of sleep, but he was literally worried about word getting out. I thought that being halfway to believing him would give me the mental preparation I needed if I saw her. At least, I’d hoped so.
It turned out that most of my time would be spent at the security desk in the main building, near the entrance. Real-time footage played through thirty-five cameras around the zoo, all on a large screen that was five cameras across and seven cameras top to bottom. The cameras were impressive. I would mention the resolution, say something about them being 4K, but Andrew explained some stuff about how it’s actually the lens that is the biggest selling point. Looking at these cameras on the giant screen, I could see practically every corner of the place, and if I brought up one camera in particular to encompass 2/3 of the screen, I could zoom in so far that it felt like I could use it to check if one of the animals had fleas.
The zoo was well lit, not surprising considering nighttime was apparently the zoo’s business hours, and all of the tall lamps had red bulbs. For those of you who know why, A+ to you. For those who don’t, fun fact, it’s because red is closest to the dark and your eyes don’t need to strain to adjust to it. That meant I didn’t need my flashlight all that often, and even that was red, a solid name-brand one that had been on my desk when I arrived. I kept the white lights on back in the security room, though, because I didn’t want to make my brain think it was time to get tired.
When I headed out for my first sweep on that first night, I had the folded map in my pocket, but I already knew my way around. The layout of the zoo wasn’t that difficult to memorize, since there were only eleven expansive enclosures, and after the interview I walked around for half an hour to start training my memory. I’ll admit, working in a dark environment was creepier than I thought it would be.
I do want to mention the high quality of the zoo. The size of each enclosure was considerable, and the greenery was natural, hinting that they’d hired a pricey professional just to do landscaping toward the front of the enclosures after buying the land. The backs of the enclosures backed up into forestry, and from the estimate I got from Andrew, it seemed each of the animals had plenty of roaming space, including the small lake at the northwest corner and a manmade lake for one of the animals in particular. When I considered all of that, the thought passed through my head about how horrible it would be if word got out about the zoo having a ghost and needing to relocate, because it’d be devastatingly expensive.
My orders were to walk the zoo once every hour. This was my first security gig, so I’m not sure if that’s more or less than typical, but I had my comfy hiking boots on, the ones I’d saved up for and invested in a couple years earlier and were perfect for a job where I had to do laps around an area. This job was one that I didn’t have to worry about my shoulder pain worsening, since it was mostly about being on my feet. I take one or two Vicodin a day, depending on how bad my pain is. It came in handy in high school, actually. With a flexible ‘take as needed’ prescription, I occasionally sold pills for extra cash.
There wasn’t much to step in and there weren’t even any dips in the concrete sidewalks that I followed around in a route that easily led me back and forth until I made my way back to the office. The first three nights were actually boring. I would have thought Andrew had been pranking me about the ghost, but like I said, it hadn’t felt like that. And he hadn’t been specific about when she showed up for new people, or even for him.
To keep myself busy, I’d brought my e-reader with me, and I got into a cycle of looking over each of the cameras every time I hit the end of a chapter. I’m a pretty fast reader, so it was a good system. Also, every once in a while, I looked up if something moving caught my eye, like an owl flying close enough for the camera to catch it, but that’s about it.
Then, every hour on the hour, I did a walk through. The fourth night, I was passing by the small lake at the back left corner of the property when I saw her.
People say that you can tell if someone’s staring at you, that there’s some sixth sense humans have. It’s not true; they’ve done experiments. But the thing is, all those experiments were of someone human looking at them. After this last shift, I would guess that the sixth sense that sends goosebumps down your arms, the one that makes you feel an intangible pressure, that slides your body toward fight or flight mode, might be true of…other things.
Slowly coming to a stop at the disturbing feeling, I hesitantly looked around, through the trees. Then my heart skipped a beat and my breath hitched. It was startling because she wasn’t moving. Just standing among the trees, staring at me. I broke out in a cold sweat as I stared back at her, unsure what to do. I didn’t run. I didn’t try to talk to her. I just stood there. So, there’s my answer to Andrew: I didn’t freak out. I just froze.
The woman was Latina, her skin tone pallid from death, and was dressed as he’d described her, in slacks and a silky blue blouse. And she was soaked, as if she’d just walked out of the lake. Beyond that, her shirt was drenched in blood from what looked like claw marks across her abdomen. Her eyes were dark and penetrating, boring holes into me, as if she were able to get any and all knowledge that she wanted about me simply by glaring. The fabric of her shirtsleeves clung to her skin and was dripping, as was her long black hair. Speaking of her hair, it appeared to have seaweed woven into it, or maybe she also grew seaweed along with hair. Not my area of expertise.
The look on her face was indescribable. There was something deep in her eyes, behind her closed-off expression, that made my heart beat rapidly. Maybe I would’ve projected some emotion into her face if I’d had any idea of what she was capable of, whether she could move objects, or possess me, or if all she did was hang around. As things stood, I was left just projecting my fears, which gave me the impression that she was cross with me simply for being present. It felt like I was trespassing, even though I was a dozen feet back from the fence that encircled the enclosure. And also, this was my job so I was explicitly allowed to be here.
She was disturbingly close, and remained unnaturally still. If she had attacked me, I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done. Ran, probably, but considering ghosts probably don’t follow the laws of physics, maybe she could’ve chased me at Usain Bolt speed. For all I knew, she could teleport.
After an amount of time that felt awkwardly long, I finally spoke up.
“Hi,” I croaked.
The woman slowly tilted her head but didn’t otherwise move. I’d forgotten to ask Andrew for her name, I realized, but he had mentioned her death had been before his time, so maybe he didn’t know.
Swallowing hard, I tried to take a slow, deep breath, even though it felt like there was a cinder block on my chest. “So, I, uh…I work here now,” I said slowly. “I’m night shift security.” Pausing, I kept trying to gather information from her demeanor but failed. “Is that okay?”
At that, I saw a hint of curiosity flash across her face. “Why would it not be?” Her voice sounded completely normal, which was an off-putting contrast to her appearance.
Good question. Hell if I know the answer. “I don’t know. I mean…you were here first. I don’t know if you feel like I’m…intruding…or something.”
“You’re just doing your job,” she said, her tone softening a smidge.
I waited to see if she wanted to say anything else before saying, “Right.” Can I get you anything? A towel? Some bandages? “I’ll be going now.”
The woman made no movement to come after me as I gradually took one step, then another, keeping her in my sights as I walked off. I finally had to turn to face forward, unable or unwilling to be seen by her foolishly walking away backwards. Instead of continuing my sweep, I took the path that would lead me back to the security room. I kept looking behind me and felt her eyes on me all the way back, though I didn’t see her following me. At that point, even if she hadn’t moved an inch, my brain was on red alert when it came to self-preservation and figured I would continue to feel like a wet hand might grab me from behind at any moment.
Finally, I returned to the security room, swiping my card across the panel at the back door with a beep. Opening the door, darting inside, and slamming it behind me, I walked to the far side of the room and turned around, putting my back to the wall. Until I’d gotten back, I hadn’t noticed how fast I’d been walking, how quickly I’d been gasping for air. Leaning back against the wall, my legs turned to jelly and I slowly slid to the floor.
And that was it. My first sighting of the ghost. I’d thought that if I had seen her, there would be some part of me that was skeptical, that would reason my way out of it, convinced it was a prank. But I knew. She wasn’t a person. At least, not anymore.
​
/storiesbykaren

It's not a difficult thing and it won't take too long to master. Figuring out what the universe is telling you is easy if you have the cheat codes.
A. First thing you want to do: take notes. Of the dream you had, of the spell you did, of the question you asked, of the shape and images you recieved as results. No interpretation here, just write as precise as you can.
B. Next: note how you feel in the first seconds contact with the result. After you wake up, after you take a look at the wax, bones, etc. That's a good indicator of you should interpret the results as positive or negative.
These are the two most important steps because they happen right in the moment you were done divinating and the results are set in stone.
After the first initial collection of thoughts, answer this next questions (for ease I'm gonna interpret for example a random image: a cat):

1. What is your personal experience with the sign?

Maybe you love cats. Maybe you hate them. Maybe you admire them for their nine lives. Maybe you enjoy watching their wilder siblings cause they're so majestic.

1. Why do you feel like that about the sign?

This is where you analyse your experience you got with cats: accidents, furry friends, random funny videos on thd Internet, the wish to get a cat as a pet, or maybe your childhood friend was a kitten. Or you are alergic to cats or one jumped on you and bit you so hard for whatever reason that you despise them.
At this point you should have figured out already why the cat showed up. If not, proceed to the next step or start over.

1. What is the internet saying about cats?

A 30 second search on 'what do cats mean spiritually' should give you enough insight on why cat of all the other signs. Note that as there are positive aspects, the opposite meaning should be considered too, especially if at the step B your emotional reactions were mostly negative.

1. How is cat symbol connected with the rest of the divination result?

Cats (and symbols in general) don't appear alone. There's always a story behind. You can take all the symbols and analyse them after this template and figure out what is the tale speaking about.
If you're reading for someone else, you can still use the template, but the questions should be addressed within the client's context. A&B are still relevant to analyse as your raw reaction to see beyond the client and get the bigger picture.
Also in instances as dreams, unless you went to bed with the quest to dream someone's else's dreams/ or the dream doesn't fit with anything in your current life and there are other known persons there in the dream/situations u know they fit in the narrative, then you may consider the dream as being a message fof someone else. Otherwise the message is yours and the characters/symbols are about and within you to find and mend, not coming from the other random characters in the dream.
Also C (that should come before anything else ) is to have a system you're divinating after. Like, let's take an egg cleanse for example: you gotta have a system on how to interpret random lines of bubbles. Borrowed or made from scratch. You won't get what thd Universe wants from you unless you give the Universe a common language to use with you.

I have many stories to choose from being an admin of a Westmarch server. I'll refer to it as V&V to keep things private. We had a typical "that guy" beligerant, antagonistic, and an extra edgy lover of V's and X's in his names. He was only on my server as long as he was due to a friend of his that is his polar opposite inviting him and giving him a chance to integrate and learn. At V&V we run a high magic and high fantasy world, we make a variety of magic items more available and rebalance some things and keep it posted on our discord so everyone is up to speed. "That guy" already had problems from the start trying to be the main character in every session he joined. Each of my GMs had noted his interrupting and bragging about his characters intelligence. They gave him a chance, this is usual new guy stuff we would think. But it didnt get better. His sense of superiority unfortunatley wasnt just for his characters, he took to the discord and began trying to rewrite our rules that we had built over the server and our prior servers lifetime. Some may not like the balance changes but it is agreed upon by everyone and i havent had a problem with them until him. He spent hours attwmpting to antagonize me in my server about the balance changes of a single spell disintegrate. We rebalabced disintegrate to make it a slightly better combat spell so it could do a small bit of damage on a fail. I dont think he personally had a problem with it and nor do my head GMs, he just wanted to antagonize. His argument spanmed hours without contributing any real feedback other than looping on himself to say it is stupid. I was ready to remove him then and there as i usually have to deal with people who join our server to troll over us being furry friendly but his friend is a good person and was working to be a GM herself. Then he showed his ass to his own friend. During her first game, a couple GMs sat in as players to help her if she needed it and to give positive or contructive feedback. "That guy" saw this game as his new novel to write about himself. The session didnt make it far but was still filled with him talking over other players and needing to be the main character until all hell broke loose when he moved out of range of an enemy and took an attack of opportunity. He. Lost. His. Shit. The sit in GMs had let "That guys"s friend know that he would be struck whwn he moved. Realizing that he would go down, he tried to twist the game rules and spent way too long arguing with everyone as to why he shouldnt take any damage. He didnt have any feats for it, no class features, he was down and baby wanted its bottle. After embarassing himself, his friend, and wasting another groups time I had to pull my GMs into a meeting to make sure friend of "that guy" was okay with me removing him (it was going to happen but she deserved to know) I dont typically kick people and feel happy. But that did put a smile on my face i admit.