So I've gotten a lot of support and helpful advice along with questions I thought I should clarify before I proceed with the update. Some asked why I'd be 'hiding' things from Alex regarding going out and who I'm meeting with. I don't, and I have nothing to hide. However when he begins to then double check everything I tell him with the other people there right down to each person I talked to and what I said. Did I send any text msgs, did I order food, how much did I eat, that's when it started to feel like I was slowly being pushed into a corner. It didn't start that bad, but gradually grew worse overtime.
All of the Reddit subs my in-law's families are part of are related gardening and diy so I highly doubt they'll see this, if so by the time they do, I'll hopefully be gone. I talked to my job and explained things to my manager. And they promised to look into openings in other states to see if they could get me into one. They'll have an update on that in three days. I trust that my bank account us secured, considering he's tried to get into it before and failed. I found one camera in the kitchen, another in the living room and one in our bedroom. As such, I've left them in place for now and done all other planning, either in the bathroom pretending I'm taking a bath.
I'm honestly staying away from the domestic violence services as my sister-in-law is unfortunately higher up in those considering she volunteers there and I have a feeling if I did show up there, they would know in a heartbeat. I can't look for apartments until I get the update from my work, but either or i'm still gonna be leaving the state. The day before I do I will be changing my number carrier and wiping my laptop and all of his electronics before I do.
I've met with 2 lawyers so far and had them look over the paperwork. My husband had prepared and both said that it did it have some clauses in it. That could have caused me some trouble down the line. What alarmed all of us close the fact that several of those clauses dealt with future children, and not as a hypothetical. Like several hair suggested I have a feeling he fully intended on getting me pregnant to keep me trapped and tied to him.
There are 3 other locations. My job could send me to and I have. As a precaution Begun looking into all 3 cities and housing in the areas. Just in case one of those, this is the one they send me to. Even if they don't have an opening that they can push me into then I will just have to quit, move and figure things out on my own. I have enough money to live and survive for a few months until I can pick up another job.
Unfortunately all of our friends are mutuals and would likely be unaware of the consequences of saying or sharing anything I do or say with my husband. I don't have any surviving close family and obviously my in laws are not a good resource to rely on. I am on my own unfortunately, other than the wonderful bonds, i've begun to make here. I will update again if I get more information or something else happens. Otherwise all update when my work gets back to me. I do plan on leaving before he returns, though. Just to make sure that i'm not anywhere near here at that time.

Hello everyone!
I have renewed vigor to publish my novel after the recent police violence, since, despite being a bystander, I experienced it first-hand and it is literally the focus of my novel.
I have queried around 20 agents as of now, receiving a few personalized rejections, but no partial or full requests. I would greatly appreciate your feedback on my query so that I can improve it.
Namely, how effective is the pitch? Are the plot, stakes, and details clear and not vague? Should I detail the events more? I am especially wary of the first sentence of the 2^nd paragraph and the last sentence of the 3^rd paragraph, if you could confirm those sentences are clear. Is my bio effective or should I leave out the details from university or the bio altogether?
Dear AGENT,
When all of modern technology is disabled during a war, principled Nicola Dalton faces the anarchy of a global famine. Driven by an idealistic sense of justice, Nicola seeks to restore stability by protecting those in his neighborhood.
Struggling to stem the violence by himself, Nicola founds the Protectors to bring order to his hometown. Through heavy-handed decisions and ruthless judgement, Nicola develops the organization into a republic that brings peace through well-intended yet overbearing justice. Nicola forcibly spreads the safety, leading to war abroad while strengthening the power of the police. Blinded by ideals, Nicola deepens the severity of criminal punishment, inadvertently exacting the same injustices he tried to stop.
With the arrival of Lijktbeter, Nicola’s devilishly scheming older brother, Nicola begins to fear for his country while struggling with his own sense of justice. Steadfast, he continues to exercise his morality in warfare while butting heads with an ever-more corrupt justice system. As Nicola comes to terms with the injustice that lies within justice, he fights against his own system and brother as they spur on the demise of democracy.
Complete at 106,000 words, Our Sinister Peace is a standalone speculative fiction novel with series potential. It combines elements of the decline into authoritarianism from The Plot Against America and the virtuous, idealistic protagonist in An Ishmael of Syria. It also has influence from real-world events and experiences from my background such as the coups in COUNTRY1 and COUNTRY2 police violence.
(Personalization for why I am querying, should I place this at the beginning?)
(Optional Bio depending on agent’s instructions) I am an COUNTRY2 who has published 7 scientific non-fiction articles in several university magazines such as MAGAZINE1 and MAGAZINE2. In the former, I served as Writer Chair and in the latter, I am currently Senior Editor. This will be my first work of fiction, but I have drafted 3 other standalone novels loosely in the same world. I can speak LANGUAGE1 and LANGUAGE2, having been born to a COUNTRY1 and COUNTRY3 family, while I am currently learning LANGUAGE3 to further expand my horizons.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

(I have included my first 300 words below. I am wondering if I should combine the first 3 paragraphs so that it jumps into the story faster. I must also ask, is it clearly conveying that technology is disabled?)
The missiles flew in complete silence over the entire planet. The world shimmered beneath their trajectories but was silenced by their blasts. Tension had risen like the sun and resulted in war. I was awake, yet it all still felt like a dream. Huge, distant electromagnetic pulses gently echoed against the peaceful morning, and then a sudden, faint wave passed over my house. The waves passed over the entire world, heralding in a new age. Sparks blew out of the outlets and lightbulbs popped in bright flashes. My alarm clock smoked, and my phone splintered. Even the smooth aluminum of my computer crumpled up, no match for the electromagnetic reverberations. I watched as our technology, our unity, our life disintegrated. I held the ruined devices and examined them in my fingers. The last echoes of detonations rang and then all was quiet. All strangely silent. All but my heartbeat and dripping tears.
All but a plane falling out of the sky. With technology disabled, it fell out of the sky yet, in the silence, it screamed. No more was the hum of distant car tires whirring on pavement. No more was the buzz of lawnmowers and refrigerators. The house, the world, was silent and broken. Our lives were broken. Shattered as the accumulated knowledge of all history was thrown away. Technology was no more. It had begun.
I took a pause, closing my eyes and listening to the quiet world. Embracing the last moment of peace. If only this moment could last forever. I thought. But finally, I took a deep breath and nodded to myself. My family. Above all else, my family. I sighed, clenched my fists, and paced out of my room.
(Once again, thank you very much for your feedback!)

Yup, just as the title reads, I've been reading the endless infidelity stories on these subs for years. My turn finally came. Yet somehow, I still fell for all the classic cheater lies, and made all the wrong moves. Here's my story.
I 30 M met my now ex-GF 27 F on Hinge in early August of 2022. After our third date, we decided to date exclusively. She told me that if we crossed the intimacy line, that I could no longer see other people. While I didn't like the idea at first, I decided to go ahead with it because I really liked her and wanted to see where things could go. I had no interest in other people at the time. We became official after about 6 weeks of dating.
Truthfully, the beginning was rocky. She insisted on seeing me once a week. Eventually we could progress to twice a week according to her. This also resulted in sex once a week, which I found strange for a new relationship. But I kept an open mind. People are different. We also didn't text much. Hours and hours between our messages. Slowly though, with much resistance, the communication and time together did increase, and we began a normal relationship. Meeting friends, going on adventures, and dreaming of our future together.
D-Day came on November 6th, 2022. She had stepped out to a thrift store for about an hour for a clothing exchange. I waited for her to come back at her apartment. As I was texting her, her iPad kept ringing in her bedroom. I went to silence her iPad so I could work on my laptop in peace. As I picked up the iPad, I saw my messages, amongst other notifications. Then I saw a notification from Google Voice. It read: "It's been great. Just made it to Rio. I get home Thursday. Xo" The alarms went off immediately at the "XO." I thought it was very strange. The number wasn't saved. She had never mentioned Google Voice. At the time, I didn't know what Google voice even was. I began to dread that this message could be what I thought it was. As a long time lurker on these subs, I remembered not to ever reveal what you know to catch a cheater, until you have undeniable proof. So I googled the number. It belonged to a charity with 2 owners. One lived in California (other side of the country); a bank CEO. The other was a 62 year old professor at a university 10 minutes away.
I sat on this information and kept silent. Acted totally normal when she came home. The next day, we went to go pick up her new dining table she ordered. It was a 30 minute drive. I decided to confront her just as we left for home, so that she would be forced to face me. Me: "So since we've started dating, have any other guys been hitting on you?" Her: "Not really, why?"Me: "You're so attractive. I find that hard to believe." Her: "Guys don't really talk to me that often." Me: "So you're sure that you're not talking to anyone else right now? No conversations that you wouldn't want me to know about?" "Not at all." As I looked at her, she was so calm. So sure that I had no idea what was going on. It scared me. It was the first time I saw a glimpse of who she really was, and how cold she could really be. Me: "So who the fuck is Kirk then?" Immediately, she looked at me with panic. Her faced turned white. Her voice was shaking so hard that she couldn't get her words out properly. She began to apologize immediately. She knew she was caught. She gave me her phone and showed me all the messages. I was sick to my stomach as I read the messages. She was prostituting herself to this man for money.
As I scoured thorugh her messages, she dropped another bomb. There was a second guy. Her most recent doctor ex she had told me about. Turns out they were still in contact. She said she was helping him with errands but they had stopped sleeping together by the time she and I started dating. She didn't want to tell me that she was still in contact with him because she knew I would suspect something. She showed me those messages too. As I looked through the messages, I didn't have 100% proof of something going while we were together. While he was out of town, she was watering his plants, every week and taking care of his airbnb. They went to dinner once (but she came to see me right after). It seemed like he was using her for free labor. A little too many favors from someone who is just a friend. But my main red flag was that she was trying to get him to go on a trip with her in the next 3 months, while dating me. That was all the proof I needed.
I crossed-checked the dates. I had finally figured out where she had been while taking forever to text me back. While seeing me once a week. It was my biggest fear. Another man. In this case, more than one. I was hit by a Tsunami of emotions and endlesss questions. How could she do this to me? After all the love I gave her? After I told her about being cheated on by my other 2 ex girlfriends and how badly it hurt me? After I turned down a job in DC for her? After I told her my friends we're concerned and think she's a cheater, she'd still cheat? After I told her about this sub and how I believed in exposing cheaters to everyone? Did she not care about risking giving me STDs? Did she care about me at all? Is she just pure evil and playing me for a fool? Why throw our relationship away to sell your body to an old man? Am I not worth more than $500? More than dinner, shoes, makeup, and a vacuum? Did he know about me? Did you guys laugh at me and how stupid I was? Did you laugh with your ex too? Are you in love with your ex still? Are there others? Have you always been a prostitute? How did I get myself into this situation again? Why can't I make better decisions? Why can't I find a good partner? What's wrong with me?
Out of all those questions, all I could ask her was "Why do this? Her answer: "I don't know."
Anyone who has been in this situation knows how big of a slap in the face this is. It's a classic line for the backstabbing cheater. Of course she knew. She carefully crafted lies for months to get away with it. She was greedy. Wanted the best of both worlds. To eat her cake and have it. She didn't care how much she damaged me in the process. She didn't care how many lies and backstabbing it took to get what she wanted.
I broke up with her immediately. But I gave her a chance to prove that she was sorry. And she did. She was what exactly what you'd want someone to be if they were truly sorry. She did everything I asked from her. For the next 2 months, with nothing promised in return. She got to me. I decided to give it another go.
D-Day #2 was May 30th, 2022. I found an old phone of hers in some stuff hidden in her room while I was helping her clean. I waited till she went to bed. I powered up the phone, and snooped through her messages. Nothing too crazy, but her most recent ex was on there. I wanted to see what their relationship was really like, because I didn't trust her to tell me everything. I uncovered 2 more lies she'd been telling me. First, they didn't break things off in February, 6 months before meeting me. They last had sex (from what I could tell) about 1 week before our first date. Also means that she lied about being celibate for 6 months before meeting me. I was furious, and decided to really dig through her phone to see what else i could find.
I found another name in her phone that I had never heard of. I read their messages, and he was a clearly a former lover. But not just any lover. A 67 year old partner at a law firm. My heart sank. Another sugar daddy. This was clearly a pattern, and not something she's never done as she insisted for the past year.
Now this was before she had met me, but rolled into while we were initially dating. but she told him she had decided to stop seeing him because she had met a guy she really liked at the time. This was right around our 5th date, so it could have been me. She also started sleeping with the professor right around this time, so this could have been her switch to a new sugar daddy. I became furious. She had told me about a guy before, but I realized she was just changing small details about this guy. Instead of being 40, he was 67. He wasn't white, he was Arab. It's true that he was a lawyer though. It's true that she went to Miami with him too. It's not true that she had never dated an older guy before the professor like she told me. It was not true that she had never had a sugar daddy before. (Small side note, she had been denying that the other gentleman was her sugar daddy. She insisted that she just preferred older men and didn't want to tell me). We were in therapy at this point, so I didn't attack her. I decided to take a peaceful and non-judgmental route. I asked her if she had any other men that she was talking to while dating me that she didn't mention. She denied it. I told her his name. She kicked me out and dumped me. i didn't explode. I explained my side to her, and gave her the space to explain hers to me. We went to therapy and talked it out. She said she hid it out of shame. More lies and no remorse from this woman.
So what did I do? Give her another go after a month of therapy. 6 months later, she dumped me out of the blue for good.
This final part is my opinion of infidelity. I want my story to be an example for people to read and learn from. Don't take them back. If you even have the chance to. It's never worth it. The relationship will never be the same. The "trickle truth" is very real. I got nothing but trickling for the rest of our relationship. She was going to lie until she died, unless I caught her red-handed. I spent the rest of the relationship in a state of permanent distrust. My mind was consumed with so many unanswered questions, daily. I could not enjoy anything we did together because I would always question if she was playing an angle. I hated myself for not being strong enough to stand up to her and leave her. I was embarrassed to tell friends and family that I was still with her. I was embarrassed to tell my therapist that I was still with her, after finding out she lied to both of us during therapy. I lost a lot of money that I could have saved for myself, that I spent on countless dates. I felt defrauded, violated, heartbroken, and ashamed after our break up. Literal physical pains in my chest for days. I was in a deep depression for two weeks after we split. I'm better now, but still recovering. I'm trying not to be jaded, but it's hard not to become cynical after a year and a half of my life being spent like this. Don't do it!

Ok so story time! I work on a cardiac PCU currently with 4-5:1 ratios. Yesterday we had a CVICU nurse get floated to us, and the condescending attitude she brought to the floor was palpable. I could hear the report for one of her patients, a 89 year old dementia patient (who sundown's bad) here for a ground level fall, and let me tell you, she GRILLED this day shift nurse! Every part of the report had a pointed follow up question; "he is on 3L NC and O2 sat is 95%?" Rolls eyes, "well have you tried weaning him down yet?" "He has a stage one on his coccyx? You put a mepilex on him right??? No???" Roll eyes, "ok well you're helping me put one on him right now!" All this time she is actively scrolling thru the chart to verify everything she's being told. "I see here potassium is 3.8, why hasn't that been replaced???" "He's V-paced on the monitor? Well what type of pacemaker is it???" It went on and on like this. Just seemed like she was trying her best to make the poor RN giving report (who was juggling 5 patients that day) to feel as dumb as possible. The nurse seemed really put down on her way off the floor.
So given that this ICU RN is floating to our floor, she is only given 3 patients while everyone else had 4 or 5. Shift starts at 7pm. At 8:30pm she is clearly looking frazzled trying to manage 3 patients (that patient load, btw, was the aforementioned GLF man with dementia, a diabetic foot ulcer with IV ABX who needed a dressing change, and a guy with A-fib on a heparin gtt scheduled for an ablation the next day). How do I know so much about her patients you may ask? Weeeell, that GLF guy who she was giving the other nurse hell about... guess who didn't put his bed alarm on?! Walked past the room to see the man screaming for help with his head on the floor and legs stuck in the bed rails! He gave himself a good black eye but thankfully the head CT was negative. Keep in mind this is about 2 hours into the shift. By hour 3 she had had enough. She got the change nurse and said she was sick, she needed to go home. She gave all of those patients to the charge and fucking bailed. "Oh but before I go, the H&H just came back for 79 and he needs a transfusion" 😑 and out the door she went. In the end me and 2 other nurses took an extra patient rather than let the charge have a full assignment on top of everything else she had to do, and we got thru the night fine.
Now I'm not trying to throw shade at ICU nurses. Y'all are amazing for the most part and the ones like the one I just talked about are the exception not the rule. But for the ones that are like her? Why the condescending attitude? Are you trying to make yourself feel smart or nurses that work on a less acute level dumb? It can get a little frustrating getting made to feel like you're too good to float to PCU or (God forbid) Med Surg, while also taking 2 less patients than me. Again, this is not something the majority of ICU nurses do and I think most of y'all are amazing and extremely smart, but I'd be lying if I said this was an isolated incident. Anyway, sorry for the vent-post, have a good one y'all!

This is going to be a long one but please let me know what you think. I (14, F) met my brothers current best friend (18, M) in early December, my brother (17, M) met him around the same time. For the sake of privacy I’ll call my brothers best friend Kane. So around early December my brother introduced me to Kane and he seemed nice. Kane was born in Thailand and moved to America when he was 15. He lives with his older brother and grandfather, his parents stayed back in Thailand.
I had a small crush on him for about two weeks upon a meeting him but it quickly went away. I had never flirted with Kane or given him any reason to think I had any sort of romantic feelings towards him. Around 2-3 weeks before Valentine’s Day, Kane started acting weird.
For example my brother was driving me, my mom, and Kane somewhere, not sure where. My mom was in the passenger seat and my brother was driving so I had to sit in the back with Kane which had never happened previously. I’d been in the same car with him many times but I was always in the passenger seat. My older brother drives me to and from school while Kane often tags along after school and comes to our house. I sat close to my door in the car and he sat in the middle which is abnormal for most people but nothing alarming, just strange. The part that bothers me is that despite there being a ton of space in the back seat and Kane not being large at all (5’6 on the average to slim side), his arm was touching mine. It sounds ridiculous but I was basically up against my door so there wasn’t much I could do and I tried to chalk it up to an accident. The car drive was about 30 minutes so the discomfort can be imagined especially since I don’t like physical affection/touch from even close family and most friends.
Another example is that when my brother had after school clubs I would walk home because I would get home faster than waiting, Kane now started joining me. More specifically he messaged me telling me to stay where is as and popped up right in front of me within thirty seconds, I was at least a 7 minute walk from the school which meant he’d already planned on walking with me prior to telling me anything. I also tried to think nothing of it. He started more conversations with me and asked me more questions. He also started getting me little drinks and snacks, giving them to me when he walked to my home or in school. He would also find ways to touch me in little ways, lingering touched if you will. Nothing sexual, but noticeable. Me and my younger brother fought and I got a scrape/cut, there was Kane going to check on it. Touch lingering in my arm for a bit to long considering there was no reason for it to have been there in the first place considering it wasn’t anything big. I had a lot of suspicions by this point but tried to lean towards the fact that he was several years older than me and I was only 14 so it couldn’t be possible. I know I sound paranoid here but believe me I wish I was.
A week before Valentine’s Day I’d planned to make glitter roses for close family and friends. Kane had essentially become family to everyone else by this point considering he was over the house at least 5 days a week for multiple hours. I made them for around 6-7 people. One for my older brother, my younger brother, Kane, a few friends from school, and a bouquet for my mom. The color of the rose depended on the persons favorite color which I asked in advance.
Mind you no one had asked me anything similar so I wasn’t expecting anything of the sort. However when I gave it to Kane on Valentine’s Day he also had something for me. Two handmade bookmarks made of my favorite color, pressed flowers, and my name on the back using a little code I often used for fun. He’d asked me if I liked it and I did. I said yes and I heard him mumble “alright, then it was worth it.” I like to read and often use random things as bookmarks because I never seem to have one on me, I never complain about it so you would’ve had to pay attention to me.
Later that night after Kane had gone home my mother asked me if I thought it was weird that Kane had given me that. I did find it weird but said no, I tried to make a joke of it with my sister and mom which is when my sister spilled about when I had a crush on Kane. This provoked my mom to tell me that Kane did have a crush on me later on that night with my older brother, younger sister, and grandma in the same room. Everyone saw it as normal, everyone except me. My brother even made a joke about how I should marry Kane when I’m older if he’s successful. I’d made it very clear in the past that I hated age gaps like that in high school and that if the grades didn’t touch neither would I for my high school dating motto.
I tried to shove down the uncomfortableness that I felt. I also found out that Kane had told my brother about his crush a week prior and my brother had even helped get the items needed to make Kanes valentines gift for me. I absolutely hated that, I stayed quiet though and laughed about it. I didn’t want to ‘overreact’. My mom said it was okay because Kane is a nice kid. I didn’t want to stir issues in my brothers friendship so I stayed silent about how I felt. But as more time grew I felt worse.
Kane got me more snacks and drinks, talked to me even more, stayed at our house while my brother was at work to see me, and began staring at me in a lovey type of way often. My brother would often tell me that Kane didn’t just have a crush on me, that he was in love with me. I hated the situation but refused to talk to my friends who it it because I thought I was being dramatic. I later asked a friends dad what he would do in the situation if he were my brother and he had a similar opinion to mine. This made me feel like I wasn’t crazy and lifted a wait off my shoulders.
I’m not normally one to hide her opinions especially no on these types of matter however I have a weird soft spot for my older brother. A sort of fantasy that I’ve had since I’ve as a toddler, that my big brother would protect me. Despite proving that he wouldn’t time and time again I can’t seem to get rid of that belief which is why I was so silent in this situation. My mind was essentially saying that if it was wrong, my brother would say something. My heart and guy knew otherwise. I then began asking my friends about the situation and I found out very quickly that it was not an okay situation. Granted I hadn’t told my family about the odd behavior prior to Valentine’s Day yet. I decided that I would ask my brother to tell Kane to stop with the gifts and stuff because I was uncomfortable. I wasn’t meant to know about Kanes feelings so I suggested that my brother say something about me being a kid and how it was because I was his sister. I texted him about this while we were already talking so I knew he’d seen it, he ignored it.
I have a bad history mental health and poor coping mechanisms so that combined with my childish fantasy threw me back into a horrible state of mind. I reverted back to things I had worked extremely hard to dig myself out of. Mind you, my brother had talked to me in person about other things after that but didn’t mention the text at all.
I followed the tell a trusted adult advice the next day, my mother. She only asked if Kane had touched me and implied that I shouldn’t be uncomfortable if he hadn’t. He hadn’t touched done sexually so I said no. I’m quite sure that’s what she meant when asking it anyways. I finally spoke in person with my brother and mother about it about two days later which is when my brother got upset saying he wouldn’t talk to Kane for at least two weeks cause his mom was now in town. His mother was not there when I’d asked originally. He also called my issue insignificant, he was dealing with college and scholarship issues. My mother told me I stress him out too much after he left before leaving herself.
I eventually told my brother that I would do his hair until he talked to Kane. Me and my older brother both have curly hair (3A-3B) and I style his hair weekly. I’d tried to get him to learn many times in the past but he always refused. We had just gone on spring break and his hair was newly styled so he didn’t take it into account all that much. After about a week and a half I sat my brother down to explain why I was so uncomfortable with Kanes actions in detail while concealing selective parts because I didn’t want to cause damage to their friendship. I excluded the car thing and the lingering touches.
I also told him about my fear of men which is my biggest fear. To be more specific I have an irrational fear of being sexually assaulted by an older man be it a year or 50 older. It’s not rational nor is it something I can explain. It’s not selective, I feel in for everyone older than me including my brother. Some people I fear less than others but I always have that fear, constantly. I explained that and also how it included family.
My brother seemed understanding and said he would take care of it. We were on good terms again now as he said he would talk to Kane that Saturday which turned into that Sunday which turned into a week later. My brother also made my fear a family dinner discussion in front my my younger brother, younger sister, and mother. This led to my mother lecturing me for two hours about how I need help. I broke into tears the moment he said it. I told him that I would never touch his hair again and he laughed at me saying I couldn’t do that, he was my brother. I later on found out that he also told his current girlfriend about my fear without asking me to letting me know at all. I found out through conversation with her. He’s known her for maybe a year probably less, unsure.
I’ve ignored him since which included walking to and from school. I didn’t want to owe him anything. I know myself and I knew that if I sat in a car with him twice a day five days of the week, I’d forgive him quickly. As I said, I have a soft spot for him which is why his betrayal hurt all the more. I would have never done that to him.
I tried talking to him while setting some boundaries after two weeks of ignoring him and he quickly got mad with them and told me not to talk to him until I actually wan to. My boundaries were that I wouldn’t let him drive me to and from school, i would still walk. I gave him two reasons, I didn’t want to be in a car with Kane again and it gets me the steps I need so I don’t have to walk after school to exercise.
I also told him that I would not be anywhere Kane was. If he was bringing Kane somewhere, that’s great, but I won’t be there. He was upset that Kane felt awkward coming around the house now, upset with me for it. He wanted me to be around Kane all the time again.
You have to understand that I was blaming myself for this entire situation because of how bad my mental state has gotten. I keep thinking, maybe if I’d worn baggier clothes or spent less time with the my brother then he wouldn’t have liked me. Maybe if I hadn’t been as nice he wouldn’t have liked me. Maybe it’s my fault. While I know it isn’t, I know that I should have to worry about that especially considering I don’t wear super revealing clothes and I shouldn’t have to avoid my brother, but it’s what my mind resorts to and I can’t help it. What made me so angry with my brother was the fact that because he didn’t want to hurt his best friends feelings he destroyed all the progress I’d made with my mental health and that had the guts to be angry with me afterwards. I know that this was really long but I really do need to know AITAH and what I should do moving forward.

It is the day, where military force of Valerie here, finally goes into offensive. Jakan and I travel along with one of the heroes of the riven war, Kyrem, who is leading the cavalry archer battalion we are to be his eyes and ears of enemy movement. As we ride our horses, I wondered the source of Jakan happiness.
This time, it is different, this must have something to do with Jakan and one of the five heroes of riven war, Lankensy. They pressed their upper arms perpendicularly against each other, they chuckled to each other, then separated to get to their duties. I chose to not ask as it isn't important but, doesn't stop my curiosity.
We have reached our deployment position, I look at Kyrem, he nods to us. Commence reconnaissance, Jakan and I separate from the cavalry archer battalion to scout in peace. It took us a while to actually find undead formations within the area, but, even Jakan let out a coughing sigh from the sight of the numbers we are seeing.
'Winter's roar... If there is even one more formation like that... The cavalry battalions have a tough time... Something I should have expected but, mostly considered unlikely...' Jakan states mildly alarmed by the number of undead in the rectangular formation.
'Fyregeld would need to take part very early... Which is most likely going to be disadvantageous later?' Ask for a confirmation of what I suspect Jakan is thinking.
'Yes... Fyregeld most certainly will be needed in the fight...' Jakan replies still mildly astounded how large the formation is. We move on to continue scouting, but, this is bad news, I guessing both of us are suspecting that this formation's purpose is to alarm the town that they are going to be attacked very soon.
Unfortunately for us, there is a second formation that is just as large as the first one more to the south of south west of the town, while this one is to the south west of it. 'Great, just, bloody fantastic... I will have some choice words for the Valerian scouts, these are probably twice or even thrice the number of undead compared to what they reported...' Jakan says upset about the situation.
'And, these two are part of the three we are supposed to lure into attacking the cavalry... The Valerians are most certainly going to have a bad day...' Reply quietly to try to ease Jakan's mood. It does work...
'Right, let's go look for the third... Hopefully it won't be as big as this and the previous...' Jakan states calmly, remembering that we aren't supposed to take part in the fight against these, but, reports are almost certainly going to be ugly.
Third formation, behind the first formation we scouted is still big but, probably by a third smaller, still a risky fight but, not unwinnable. Jakan told me that best way to beat this one with the forces nearby, would be, that cavalry archers would jog past it while firing arrows into the formation from the rear and front, as the formation is fairly tight and there aren't enough shields.
The undead casualties would be high, the cavalry archers would only stay as long as to bait the enemy to charge them, which leaves them open to be charged by the Valerian cavalry battalion, under the command of Tyrelia, one of the heroes of riven war. It's going to be a nasty melee but, one that would be the most effective on completely destroying this formation.
Follow up maneuvers would be that the cavalry archers, once they are being pursued, will regroup to attack the large south western formation, while once the cavalry battalion has routed or utterly destroyed this small formation will attack the rear of the southern undead formation, to goad them to pursue them.
Once the cavalry archer battalion has begun the fall back, the cavalry battalion will follow. From there, it is following the plan. The plan discussed yesterday still can be done but, it is going to be a lot more uglier in terms of results than expected. We scouted little bit longer to make sure there aren't other formations nearby.
There is fourth, which we suspect to be a reserve formation for the assault, it is about as big as the third. There is a mistake with it's location however, that is good news for the cavalry archer battalion. They are too far away to assist the large south western formation. Jakan sighed from mild relief. 'Well, at least some kind of good news... Although, once the pursuit is initiated, they most likely will join the battle.' Jakan says to me.
'I agree, thankfully we aren't supposed to give battle assistance in these fights... We would both be sore from the exhaustion later today, or worse, grievously wounded.' Reply to Jakan, he nodded in agreement. Jakan then motioned to me with his head that, this is enough, time to report to battalions. Nodding in agreement we head back.We arrive as Kyrem and Tyrelia are talking with the squadron commanders. 'What are your reports?' Kyrem hails us as we approach.
'Relatively far away from the best news, unfortunately but, there is some good too.' Jakan states calmly knowing that what we have seen, is going bring up mixed feelings. Jakan debriefs all on scene, on what we have discovered.
Kyrem displayed some worry but, when we told about the secondary reserve formation's positional mistake. He began to think about the situation more intensily. Tyrelia also looked worried, she and the battalion under her command, have a work cut out for them...
All squadron commanders deemed the plan still doable but, they all agreed on the fact that, this is going to be a seriously tough skirmish. Now, they need to be quick, Tyrelia gave Jakan a flag pole and a flag for the second part of this operation. 'Anything you would like to say before we begin?' One of the cavalry squadron commanders ask from us.
'For life, for the people, for Valerie.' Jakan states in hardened tone, we must begin and see our parts done in this operation.
'For life, for the people, for Valerie. I agree.' Tyrelia say with high spirit.
'Time to do our duty, all of you ready?' Kyrem asks from all of us.'Yes, sir.' Jakan and I reply without hesitation nor fear. We departed to head towards the north west of the castle. Behind us, pace of the hooves of more than hundred horses began to jog. We will not see them for a while now.
As soon as we arrived to the area we should scout out for any possible formations that might try to take positions north west or west of the castle where the supposed surprise pitched battle is to happen. We begin scouting, for a while, all the way to the past mid day, we do not find any undead formations, they must have combined formations for the assault on the town.
Unfortunately for them, it was done way too early... And now, there is a massive gap in the area control, gap which armed forces of Valerie are now beginning to exploit. We don't know whether the cavalry battalions have made good on their promises at the moment but, unfortunately for the infantry battalions the gap is going to be closed soon.
And there will be a battle that is a hard one for the one Lankensy is leading. These undead formations we are seeing, two of them, are about same size and number as the reserve formations to the south and south west of the town. We will need to improvise, one of those reserve size formations would have been bad enough. As we were heading back.
We see smoke, quite thick and seems to be from the direction where Fyregeld was to be signaled to ignite a forest, which undead infantry would use to try catch up with the formation moving cavalry. Unfortunately for us, we do not know how much damage this has caused and, we, Lankensy and his infantry battalion have a big endeavor ahead of us.
Jakan is still staring at the formations, probably staring at the distance between them. 'We can take them.' Jakan states calmly, which baffled me so much so that I let out an audible what. 'We can take them, We will be outnumbered three to one but, I have a plan.' Jakan adds and shakes his two handed sword slightly.
'I don't think it is enough.' Reply to Jakan in unsure tone as, such numerical advantage is enough for every attacking force to destroy a defending force.
'We will improvise, I will tell you once we reach sir Lanksensy.' Jakan states confidently.
'Okay...' I say slightly shakily, unsure whether it is warrior heart of Jakan making him act stupidly, or soldier's mind that whatever is the adversity, we handle it together... We head to where we agreed to meet Lanksensy and the infantry battalion he is leading in this battle.
Jakan prepared the flag and the flag pole, attaches the flag on the pole, then began to wave it, as the undead formations came into an open ground. Both of soon heard roar from the sky, we looked to the direction and see Fyregeld diving to harass the rear of the second formation of undead behind us.
We continue riding our steeds to the rally point. We reach it in good time, Lankensy was waiting for us with Seirialia. 'Bad news, we will receive undead formation that outnumbers us three to one.' Jakan states immediately before dismounting, I follow him.Lankensy at first seemed quite eager to fight but, such odds sobered his expression. 'We can take them, Fyregeld is already harrassing the formation behind the first one from the rear, so there will be chaos which buys us time.' Jakan says, Lankensy frowns while Seirialia looked grim.
'Tell me you have a plan.' Lankensy says, sounding surprisingly content and a smirk appeared on his lips.
'Yes sir. I will use the runes on my blade to create walls to hide the true number of our forces and act as a small choke point for the infantry to hold, you divide your battalion to three detachments. The center will hold the choke point with all they have, while southern and northern detachments make sure we won't get flanked around the stone walls.
When they begin their attempt to flank, the south and north detachments will begin fighting advance to box in our opponents. Seirialia, your arcane mastery is required, take a high ground and, rain hell on the enemy masses that engage the infantry detachments.' Jakan explains the plan.
Jakan draws his plan on to the dirt with his mace as he speaks. The terrain we are at, most certainly favors us... From that high ground, to the north east, is a perfect place to begin. Lankensy motions the infantry commanders to approach. He briefs them on the plan Jakan has proposed.
'Jakan, this is going to get ugly, but, with this plan... The glory will be quite gorgeous.' Lankensy states as the infantry commanders nod that they will follow this plan.
'This will be an ugly battle but, we will win it. Volarie, I need you to provide me more arcane, if the battle does get bad, with your assistance I will break the ground beneath our foes, so they have to fight from a disadvantageous position.' Jakan says without a hint of worry in his voice.
'Would it be better that I would provide you the assistance Jakan?' Seirialia asks alarmed by proposal from Jakan to me.
'No, we need your skill in magic to disrupt undead and to make sure that they have will have difficult time on concentrating their forces to put pressure on any of the three infantry detachments. Volarie already knows how to do it, and we have done this couple times before.' Jakan replies in calm tone.
I do remember, they were small in scale but, with right amount of concentration, we can do even bigger one. I am still worried though... Seirialia has the better mastery of arcane, I do not have as much skill or energy as her and Jakan's own capacity for arcane is rather limited. The plan is good though...
'Alright, I am ready.' Say finally without hesitation, although, I have some in my heart...
'I will hold the center, Volarie, move with the northern detachment to the position, Jakan you do the same, but with the south. Seirialia, I think you should get into position.' Lankensy says calmly.
'Yes sir.' Jakan and I say.
'Alright, I will trust your judgment.' Seirialia says to Jakan.
'Lady, I will get it done.' Jakan states with serious tone and ready to do everything in his power to win this battle. She nods to Jakan trusting him and I to do our part.
Jakan used the runes on his blade to create the walls, while I went into the position. We began to wait, waiting, the most nerve wrecking part of his plan... Soon, undead were sighted and they immediately rush to engage the choke point, slightly dispersing to begin also go around the stone walls. North infantry detachment began to jog to close the flanks, I go with them.
The plan is so far working, undead began engaging all three points without concentrating to break out through one. Now, we wait again, I listen to the battle raging before me, every now and then look around to see if we are getting flanked. Then I saw big chunks of ice raining into the center of the open left side box, infantry have formed. Second reserve force has now entered the battle.
They also charged right in, this is the moment where Jakan and I, head to the rear of the undead, and break the ground they stand in. As we had practiced, I place my hand on Jakan's left shoulder and begin channeling my arcane energy into him, just as he began to grasp the earth with his hands and began casting an earth rupture spell.
I allowed Jakan to take the lead and just follow him. Spell is complete, and Jakan made a two handed fist, then brought it down onto the dirt in front of him. Like water that got hit by massive weight on it's surface earth ruptured upwards at the center of the box, flinging countless amount of undead into the air.
Soil and stone rained upon the mass of undead, causing further losses of undead infantry. We gaze upon what we caused, both of us spent in terms of arcane. 'It is not enough, the battle still favors them...' Jakan says angrily and looks like he wants to charge in.
'That is a suicide.' Say to him in serious tone. Jakan calms down and thinks.
'Now, we just have to fight hard... Fight your way through to the northern detachment, while I fight to the south. Kills as many as you can cause as much as chaos as possible, when you reach allies, tell them to begin pushing forward with all their might. Because this is it, either they or us, break first.' Jakan says clearly frustrated that it has come to this but, no other options.
We collide our swords and wish fortune to each other, we separated and begin skirmishing. After fighting a while, I reach Valerian infantry northern detachment. 'Push! Push! It is either us or them!' Shout as loud as possible. Their commander heard me, a moment of consideration flashes in his expression, it soon hardens into seriousness.
'Fight, fight, fight with all your might!' He roars and joins the battle. Northern detachment slowly, orderly, but, surely, began taking ground from the undead. I join the commander, who would have distrusted me but, here, in this moment, we are not enemies.
Soon, to the last skeleton, walking dead and fallen's end. The undead were slain, soldiers began collapsing from exhaustion. I hear horses running towards us, turning to look, it is Tyrelia's cavalry battalion, then I look opposite of me, spot Jakan on his knees and relying on his sword, looks more like he is just trying to catch his breath and relax. To my left, I see Lankensy at the center detachment, he also looks quite exhausted
.'Hail hero of the riven war... It is done...' Say with stamina that I still have as Tyrelia approaches us on her steed.
'By the light... How many have you slain?' Tyrelia says as she looks at the ground before the resting soldiers of northern detachment. I think a while...
'Twenty three...' Say still exhausted and look around, Seirialia has reached Lankensy, they embrace each other. Ground quaked a little as Fyregeld landed, he is completely fine, but, his expression tells of bewilderment.
'Fyregeld, we will need to screen for more undead that might head towards here. They need rest not another battle.' Tyrelia states looking at all of the Valerian soldiers who have taken part in this battle.
'I agree wholeheartedly lady Tyrelia. I would like to hear what happened here to have caused a battle of this scale.' Fyregeld says, still quite baffled by the amount of undead that has been slain.
After resting almost to the beginning of dusk. We begin moving back into the castle from the northern entrance. I join Jakan's company who is now feeling a lot better, still exhausted but, at least enough rested that we begin walking our steeds back into the castle. Seeing it better to not ruin the current atmosphere of victorious but, exhausted Valerian soldiers.
I have the intention on breaking the silence between Jakan and I but, then I heard somebody approaching us on a horse and some jogging. We turn to look, and they are Tyrelia, Lankensy and Seirialia. As Lankensy opened his mouth to say something, ground quaked a little and we were joined by Fyregeld.
'What are the reports of commanders Gonzil, Salgi and Tynzio?' Lankensy asks from Tyrelia.
'Only three out of twenty have suffered wounds, by the looks of your battalion, I estimate yours had it worse than them combined.' Tyrelia says in praising tone.
'We ended up having to fight two reserve formations of undead... Thanks to Jakan's plan... It probably would have ended up a whole lot worse.' Lankensy states in humble tone.
'Negative sir...' Jakan sighs out, unwilling to receive praise, not out of that it offends him. 'Real heroes of this battle are the soldiers marching behind us.' Jakan adds mildly worried he might have offended.
'True but, you do deserve some praise draconian... Thanks to your quick thinking, that probably would have turned out to be a victory as bad as defeat.' Lankensy says, mildly amused by Jakan behavior and smiles warmly.
'I would have charged into the center of the undead, if Volarie wouldn't have calmed me down...' Jakan replies keeping composure but, wanting to avoid praise. Curse you Jakan... Don't shove into the spot of light in a cave...
'I only told him, what I believed was on his mind, is a suicide.' Say the truth of the matter.
'Could you both, just stop avoiding our gratitude?' Tyrelia asks teasing us, probably figured out, why we are behaving in this manner.
'With all respect, lady Tyrelia... We are just trying to avoid taking too much praise. We fear that the soldiers wouldn't take it idly.' Jakan replies steadily.
'While I do understand reasoning, you shouldn't downplay your part in this, I believe the commanders would also make it clear to their men, that this was achieved with effort from everybody.' Fyregeld reasons, Jakan just exhales in begrudging manner, probably because what Fyregeld said, is true.
Even I can not find a way to weasel a way out from receiving gratitude from Valerians... 'Alright then...' Jakan replies in slightly defeated tone, declaring his intention to cease avoiding receiving gratitude.
'You are correct lord Fyregeld.' State in slightly defeated tone. Our intention is to maintain as high as possible morale among the Valerian soldiers, we can handle the influence of dark arcane in the air without issues, it is the effect on the soldiers we are most concerned about.
'How bad did it look? Lady Seirialia.' Jakan asks, it makes sense why he asked that. He only had the battle level awareness, while Seirialia had better awareness of the battle situation from the high ground.
'It looked quite bad, after your earth rupture, the battle still was in the favor of the undead, from my position, I could only do so little when I had cast spells that I could.' Seirialia replies smiles warmly, Jaka scoffs in tone telling of his discomfort, knowing that he was correct in his battle assessment in that moment.
'Can you explain the chain of events?' Fyregeld asks from me and Jakan. Jakan looked at me, asking that should we be truthful, I look at him in a manner saying yes. Jakan closes his eyes slowly and rolls his eyes. He explains what transpired in more detail. Tyrelia and Fyregeld listen carefully.
I am more eager to hear their angle on what happened...

It is the day, where military force of Valerie here, finally goes into offensive. Jakan and I travel along with one of the heroes of the riven war, Kyrem, who is leading the cavalry archer battalion we are to be his eyes and ears of enemy movement. As we ride our horses, I wondered the source of Jakan happiness.
This time, it is different, this must have something to do with Jakan and one of the five heroes of riven war, Lankensy. They pressed their upper arms perpendicularly against each other, they chuckled to each other, then separated to get to their duties. I chose to not ask as it isn't important but, doesn't stop my curiosity.
We have reached our deployment position, I look at Kyrem, he nods to us. Commence reconnaissance, Jakan and I separate from the cavalry archer battalion to scout in peace. It took us a while to actually find undead formations within the area, but, even Jakan let out a coughing sigh from the sight of the numbers we are seeing.
'Winter's roar... If there is even one more formation like that... The cavalry battalions have a tough time... Something I should have expected but, mostly considered unlikely...' Jakan states mildly alarmed by the number of undead in the rectangular formation.
'Fyregeld would need to take part very early... Which is most likely going to be disadvantageous later?' Ask for a confirmation of what I suspect Jakan is thinking.
'Yes... Fyregeld most certainly will be needed in the fight...' Jakan replies still mildly astounded how large the formation is. We move on to continue scouting, but, this is bad news, I guessing both of us are suspecting that this formation's purpose is to alarm the town that they are going to be attacked very soon.
Unfortunately for us, there is a second formation that is just as large as the first one more to the south of south west of the town, while this one is to the south west of it. 'Great, just, bloody fantastic... I will have some choice words for the Valerian scouts, these are probably twice or even thrice the number of undead compared to what they reported...' Jakan says upset about the situation.
'And, these two are part of the three we are supposed to lure into attacking the cavalry... The Valerians are most certainly going to have a bad day...' Reply quietly to try to ease Jakan's mood. It does work...
'Right, let's go look for the third... Hopefully it won't be as big as this and the previous...' Jakan states calmly, remembering that we aren't supposed to take part in the fight against these, but, reports are almost certainly going to be ugly.
Third formation, behind the first formation we scouted is still big but, probably by a third smaller, still a risky fight but, not unwinnable. Jakan told me that best way to beat this one with the forces nearby, would be, that cavalry archers would jog past it while firing arrows into the formation from the rear and front, as the formation is fairly tight and there aren't enough shields.
The undead casualties would be high, the cavalry archers would only stay as long as to bait the enemy to charge them, which leaves them open to be charged by the Valerian cavalry battalion, under the command of Tyrelia, one of the heroes of riven war. It's going to be a nasty melee but, one that would be the most effective on completely destroying this formation.
Follow up maneuvers would be that the cavalry archers, once they are being pursued, will regroup to attack the large south western formation, while once the cavalry battalion has routed or utterly destroyed this small formation will attack the rear of the southern undead formation, to goad them to pursue them.
Once the cavalry archer battalion has begun the fall back, the cavalry battalion will follow. From there, it is following the plan. The plan discussed yesterday still can be done but, it is going to be a lot more uglier in terms of results than expected. We scouted little bit longer to make sure there aren't other formations nearby.
There is fourth, which we suspect to be a reserve formation for the assault, it is about as big as the third. There is a mistake with it's location however, that is good news for the cavalry archer battalion. They are too far away to assist the large south western formation. Jakan sighed from mild relief. 'Well, at least some kind of good news... Although, once the pursuit is initiated, they most likely will join the battle.' Jakan says to me.
'I agree, thankfully we aren't supposed to give battle assistance in these fights... We would both be sore from the exhaustion later today, or worse, grievously wounded.' Reply to Jakan, he nodded in agreement. Jakan then motioned to me with his head that, this is enough, time to report to battalions. Nodding in agreement we head back.We arrive as Kyrem and Tyrelia are talking with the squadron commanders. 'What are your reports?' Kyrem hails us as we approach.
'Relatively far away from the best news, unfortunately but, there is some good too.' Jakan states calmly knowing that what we have seen, is going bring up mixed feelings. Jakan debriefs all on scene, on what we have discovered.
Kyrem displayed some worry but, when we told about the secondary reserve formation's positional mistake. He began to think about the situation more intensily. Tyrelia also looked worried, she and the battalion under her command, have a work cut out for them...
All squadron commanders deemed the plan still doable but, they all agreed on the fact that, this is going to be a seriously tough skirmish. Now, they need to be quick, Tyrelia gave Jakan a flag pole and a flag for the second part of this operation. 'Anything you would like to say before we begin?' One of the cavalry squadron commanders ask from us.
'For life, for the people, for Valerie.' Jakan states in hardened tone, we must begin and see our parts done in this operation.
'For life, for the people, for Valerie. I agree.' Tyrelia say with high spirit.
'Time to do our duty, all of you ready?' Kyrem asks from all of us.'Yes, sir.' Jakan and I reply without hesitation nor fear. We departed to head towards the north west of the castle. Behind us, pace of the hooves of more than hundred horses began to jog. We will not see them for a while now.
As soon as we arrived to the area we should scout out for any possible formations that might try to take positions north west or west of the castle where the supposed surprise pitched battle is to happen. We begin scouting, for a while, all the way to the past mid day, we do not find any undead formations, they must have combined formations for the assault on the town.
Unfortunately for them, it was done way too early... And now, there is a massive gap in the area control, gap which armed forces of Valerie are now beginning to exploit. We don't know whether the cavalry battalions have made good on their promises at the moment but, unfortunately for the infantry battalions the gap is going to be closed soon.
And there will be a battle that is a hard one for the one Lankensy is leading. These undead formations we are seeing, two of them, are about same size and number as the reserve formations to the south and south west of the town. We will need to improvise, one of those reserve size formations would have been bad enough. As we were heading back.
We see smoke, quite thick and seems to be from the direction where Fyregeld was to be signaled to ignite a forest, which undead infantry would use to try catch up with the formation moving cavalry. Unfortunately for us, we do not know how much damage this has caused and, we, Lankensy and his infantry battalion have a big endeavor ahead of us.
Jakan is still staring at the formations, probably staring at the distance between them. 'We can take them.' Jakan states calmly, which baffled me so much so that I let out an audible what. 'We can take them, We will be outnumbered three to one but, I have a plan.' Jakan adds and shakes his two handed sword slightly.
'I don't think it is enough.' Reply to Jakan in unsure tone as, such numerical advantage is enough for every attacking force to destroy a defending force.
'We will improvise, I will tell you once we reach sir Lanksensy.' Jakan states confidently.
'Okay...' I say slightly shakily, unsure whether it is warrior heart of Jakan making him act stupidly, or soldier's mind that whatever is the adversity, we handle it together... We head to where we agreed to meet Lanksensy and the infantry battalion he is leading in this battle.
Jakan prepared the flag and the flag pole, attaches the flag on the pole, then began to wave it, as the undead formations came into an open ground. Both of soon heard roar from the sky, we looked to the direction and see Fyregeld diving to harass the rear of the second formation of undead behind us.
We continue riding our steeds to the rally point. We reach it in good time, Lankensy was waiting for us with Seirialia. 'Bad news, we will receive undead formation that outnumbers us three to one.' Jakan states immediately before dismounting, I follow him.Lankensy at first seemed quite eager to fight but, such odds sobered his expression. 'We can take them, Fyregeld is already harrassing the formation behind the first one from the rear, so there will be chaos which buys us time.' Jakan says, Lankensy frowns while Seirialia looked grim.
'Tell me you have a plan.' Lankensy says, sounding surprisingly content and a smirk appeared on his lips.
'Yes sir. I will use the runes on my blade to create walls to hide the true number of our forces and act as a small choke point for the infantry to hold, you divide your battalion to three detachments. The center will hold the choke point with all they have, while southern and northern detachments make sure we won't get flanked around the stone walls.
When they begin their attempt to flank, the south and north detachments will begin fighting advance to box in our opponents. Seirialia, your arcane mastery is required, take a high ground and, rain hell on the enemy masses that engage the infantry detachments.' Jakan explains the plan.
Jakan draws his plan on to the dirt with his mace as he speaks. The terrain we are at, most certainly favors us... From that high ground, to the north east, is a perfect place to begin. Lankensy motions the infantry commanders to approach. He briefs them on the plan Jakan has proposed.
'Jakan, this is going to get ugly, but, with this plan... The glory will be quite gorgeous.' Lankensy states as the infantry commanders nod that they will follow this plan.
'This will be an ugly battle but, we will win it. Volarie, I need you to provide me more arcane, if the battle does get bad, with your assistance I will break the ground beneath our foes, so they have to fight from a disadvantageous position.' Jakan says without a hint of worry in his voice.
'Would it be better that I would provide you the assistance Jakan?' Seirialia asks alarmed by proposal from Jakan to me.
'No, we need your skill in magic to disrupt undead and to make sure that they have will have difficult time on concentrating their forces to put pressure on any of the three infantry detachments. Volarie already knows how to do it, and we have done this couple times before.' Jakan replies in calm tone.
I do remember, they were small in scale but, with right amount of concentration, we can do even bigger one. I am still worried though... Seirialia has the better mastery of arcane, I do not have as much skill or energy as her and Jakan's own capacity for arcane is rather limited. The plan is good though...
'Alright, I am ready.' Say finally without hesitation, although, I have some in my heart...
'I will hold the center, Volarie, move with the northern detachment to the position, Jakan you do the same, but with the south. Seirialia, I think you should get into position.' Lankensy says calmly.
'Yes sir.' Jakan and I say.
'Alright, I will trust your judgment.' Seirialia says to Jakan.
'Lady, I will get it done.' Jakan states with serious tone and ready to do everything in his power to win this battle. She nods to Jakan trusting him and I to do our part.
Jakan used the runes on his blade to create the walls, while I went into the position. We began to wait, waiting, the most nerve wrecking part of his plan... Soon, undead were sighted and they immediately rush to engage the choke point, slightly dispersing to begin also go around the stone walls. North infantry detachment began to jog to close the flanks, I go with them.
The plan is so far working, undead began engaging all three points without concentrating to break out through one. Now, we wait again, I listen to the battle raging before me, every now and then look around to see if we are getting flanked. Then I saw big chunks of ice raining into the center of the open left side box, infantry have formed. Second reserve force has now entered the battle.
They also charged right in, this is the moment where Jakan and I, head to the rear of the undead, and break the ground they stand in. As we had practiced, I place my hand on Jakan's left shoulder and begin channeling my arcane energy into him, just as he began to grasp the earth with his hands and began casting an earth rupture spell.
I allowed Jakan to take the lead and just follow him. Spell is complete, and Jakan made a two handed fist, then brought it down onto the dirt in front of him. Like water that got hit by massive weight on it's surface earth ruptured upwards at the center of the box, flinging countless amount of undead into the air.
Soil and stone rained upon the mass of undead, causing further losses of undead infantry. We gaze upon what we caused, both of us spent in terms of arcane. 'It is not enough, the battle still favors them...' Jakan says angrily and looks like he wants to charge in.
'That is a suicide.' Say to him in serious tone. Jakan calms down and thinks.
'Now, we just have to fight hard... Fight your way through to the northern detachment, while I fight to the south. Kills as many as you can cause as much as chaos as possible, when you reach allies, tell them to begin pushing forward with all their might. Because this is it, either they or us, break first.' Jakan says clearly frustrated that it has come to this but, no other options.
We collide our swords and wish fortune to each other, we separated and begin skirmishing. After fighting a while, I reach Valerian infantry northern detachment. 'Push! Push! It is either us or them!' Shout as loud as possible. Their commander heard me, a moment of consideration flashes in his expression, it soon hardens into seriousness.
'Fight, fight, fight with all your might!' He roars and joins the battle. Northern detachment slowly, orderly, but, surely, began taking ground from the undead. I join the commander, who would have distrusted me but, here, in this moment, we are not enemies.
Soon, to the last skeleton, walking dead and fallen's end. The undead were slain, soldiers began collapsing from exhaustion. I hear horses running towards us, turning to look, it is Tyrelia's cavalry battalion, then I look opposite of me, spot Jakan on his knees and relying on his sword, looks more like he is just trying to catch his breath and relax. To my left, I see Lankensy at the center detachment, he also looks quite exhausted
.'Hail hero of the riven war... It is done...' Say with stamina that I still have as Tyrelia approaches us on her steed.
'By the light... How many have you slain?' Tyrelia says as she looks at the ground before the resting soldiers of northern detachment. I think a while...
'Twenty three...' Say still exhausted and look around, Seirialia has reached Lankensy, they embrace each other. Ground quaked a little as Fyregeld landed, he is completely fine, but, his expression tells of bewilderment.
'Fyregeld, we will need to screen for more undead that might head towards here. They need rest not another battle.' Tyrelia states looking at all of the Valerian soldiers who have taken part in this battle.
'I agree wholeheartedly lady Tyrelia. I would like to hear what happened here to have caused a battle of this scale.' Fyregeld says, still quite baffled by the amount of undead that has been slain.
After resting almost to the beginning of dusk. We begin moving back into the castle from the northern entrance. I join Jakan's company who is now feeling a lot better, still exhausted but, at least enough rested that we begin walking our steeds back into the castle. Seeing it better to not ruin the current atmosphere of victorious but, exhausted Valerian soldiers.
I have the intention on breaking the silence between Jakan and I but, then I heard somebody approaching us on a horse and some jogging. We turn to look, and they are Tyrelia, Lankensy and Seirialia. As Lankensy opened his mouth to say something, ground quaked a little and we were joined by Fyregeld.
'What are the reports of commanders Gonzil, Salgi and Tynzio?' Lankensy asks from Tyrelia.
'Only three out of twenty have suffered wounds, by the looks of your battalion, I estimate yours had it worse than them combined.' Tyrelia says in praising tone.
'We ended up having to fight two reserve formations of undead... Thanks to Jakan's plan... It probably would have ended up a whole lot worse.' Lankensy states in humble tone.
'Negative sir...' Jakan sighs out, unwilling to receive praise, not out of that it offends him. 'Real heroes of this battle are the soldiers marching behind us.' Jakan adds mildly worried he might have offended.
'True but, you do deserve some praise draconian... Thanks to your quick thinking, that probably would have turned out to be a victory as bad as defeat.' Lankensy says, mildly amused by Jakan behavior and smiles warmly.
'I would have charged into the center of the undead, if Volarie wouldn't have calmed me down...' Jakan replies keeping composure but, wanting to avoid praise. Curse you Jakan... Don't shove into the spot of light in a cave...
'I only told him, what I believed was on his mind, is a suicide.' Say the truth of the matter.
'Could you both, just stop avoiding our gratitude?' Tyrelia asks teasing us, probably figured out, why we are behaving in this manner.
'With all respect, lady Tyrelia... We are just trying to avoid taking too much praise. We fear that the soldiers wouldn't take it idly.' Jakan replies steadily.
'While I do understand reasoning, you shouldn't downplay your part in this, I believe the commanders would also make it clear to their men, that this was achieved with effort from everybody.' Fyregeld reasons, Jakan just exhales in begrudging manner, probably because what Fyregeld said, is true.
Even I can not find a way to weasel a way out from receiving gratitude from Valerians... 'Alright then...' Jakan replies in slightly defeated tone, declaring his intention to cease avoiding receiving gratitude.
'You are correct lord Fyregeld.' State in slightly defeated tone. Our intention is to maintain as high as possible morale among the Valerian soldiers, we can handle the influence of dark arcane in the air without issues, it is the effect on the soldiers we are most concerned about.
'How bad did it look? Lady Seirialia.' Jakan asks, it makes sense why he asked that. He only had the battle level awareness, while Seirialia had better awareness of the battle situation from the high ground.
'It looked quite bad, after your earth rupture, the battle still was in the favor of the undead, from my position, I could only do so little when I had cast spells that I could.' Seirialia replies smiles warmly, Jaka scoffs in tone telling of his discomfort, knowing that he was correct in his battle assessment in that moment.
'Can you explain the chain of events?' Fyregeld asks from me and Jakan. Jakan looked at me, asking that should we be truthful, I look at him in a manner saying yes. Jakan closes his eyes slowly and rolls his eyes. He explains what transpired in more detail. Tyrelia and Fyregeld listen carefully.
I am more eager to hear their angle on what happened...

I am (24F), about to graduate from college, and I've been helping my mom with caregiving for my dad (61M) who was diagnosed with vascular dementia last year after having a minor stroke. Prior to that, he was not managing his diabetes, he mismanaging all of his medications, including his elliquis, most likely the cause of the stroke, and he was not following up with his doctors about his health. Eventually, because of how fast he declined, he had to leave his job and has stay at home full-time now. The road has been arduous and frustrating. It was really hard in the beginning, trying to adjust to things and having to give myself a crash course on dementia care, but eventually we managed to find a routine that works. However, now that I'm close to graduating, I've been feeling a lot more anger and resentment towards him. I can't go out and seek full-time work anymore, I can't go out and have a life of my own or live independently anymore––I have to be his caregiver now. My mom has become the breadwinner of the family and we can't afford to hire people to come and help or send him to an assisted living facility. I can't afford to move out. I'm trying to work on becoming a freelance graphic designer now to at least make some money and pay off his student loans, but trying to manage his temperamental moods, illogical behaviors, his health, etc., has been exhausting.
We do everything for him: make all of his meals, do most of the chores; entertain him with books, television, and movies; help him exercise and take him out to do activities; I manage his medications and take him to doctors appointments, try and help with hygiene, but he never seems to appreciate that at all. He's not completely far gone, so we try and get him to help around the house some and do some light chores, but almost every time he acts sullen and complains about doing it, saying things like how much he hates living here and acts helpless when we have seen that he is still capable of doing things normally.
He's made 3 escape attempts in the past year, one of which he ended up in the hospital after collapsing on the side of the road because of his low blood pressure issues. We tried to strategize with a case worker, but they told us that essentially there was nothing they could do for us because we couldn't afford it, so now we have to constantly monitor what he's doing and keep cameras and alarms in the house.
I can't imagine what's going on in his mind, but it's been heartbreaking to watch his decline since his diagnosis. He was very depressed and expressed suicidal ideation to anyone who came near him. Now he's mostly kept those feelings to himself, but I can tell he resents us too, how much freedom he's lost. It's just a terrible situation.
I'm so burnt out at this point. I get so angry at him sometimes, I yell at him in frustration and call him incompetent and sometimes insult him. I feel like I have to talk down to him and hate when I have to repeat things. I don't like this person I've become. I feel so guilty about how bitter and downright mean I can get. I try everyday to control myself and reign in these dark emotions, these angry thoughts, and most of the time I can, but sometimes it gets so bad that I can't help it.
I never thought I would get to the point where I would ever hold so much contempt for my dad and what he is now. I know it's not his fault, I know he can't help it, but it's so hard to reconcile that with the resentment I have for how he put us in this situation. Not taking care of himself and his health, previously being terrible with managing money, not investing in his retirement or getting a better position at his job, not supporting my mom at home when she was raising my brother and I, etc.
When I was younger, I never hated my dad. I never talked to him the way I do now, having to patronize him and hold his hand or act authoritative so he understands what he needs to do. He was a smart, capable medical technologist at one of the best hospitals in the country, but now he's a sullen, feeble, comorbity-stricken man acting older than he is with the temperament of a toddler. I hate it so much. I wish we could get more help. I wish I wasn't so angry with him. I wish I still had the kindness and patience I had at the beginning of all of this, but now it seems like it's worn away and I've become a worse person for it. I can't forgive myself because it still keeps happening.

I know this is third world country in many regards, but with so many laws and regulations targeting citizens instead of corporations and institutions, you'd think that like any civilized country I've travelled to there's a limit to the car sound that can be blasted in front of residence, tired people working during the week, babies, people with sensitive hearing or cognition.
And especially since, once again, there's no regulation when it comes to corporation or developers building shit houses, the fact that some of some cars blasting music make alarms go off and the wall vibrates, that would be illegal like anywhere else. So how TF come that this is not illegal in NYC?

Hello, I own a LENOVO L340-15IRH Gaming Laptop (ideapad) - Type 81LK, running on Windows 11.
I currently have issues with the booting of my computer, for some reason I cannot normally turn it on, it shows the classical Lenovo boot process, and then the screen turns black and nothing happens (the only thing I can do is turn on/off the numeric keypad). It happened for no apparent reason (the only possibility I see is maybe an auto update causing this)
HOWEVER when I try to turn on the computer with a second monitor plugged via a HDMI cable, everything works and my laptop is totally fine.
Does anyone knows how to fix this ?
Before noticing that I could launch I with dual monitor, I formatted hard drive and reinstalled windows. I tried everything I thought of, doing all windows updates, graphic driver update, drivers and software update using Lenovo tools, according to them, everything is fine.
I would be glad if someone has an idea how to fix this, Thank you !

This story was removed because apparently it's focused too much on pedophilia, which is curious, considering the fact that one of the most popular stories on this sub called "Penpal" is all about an adult being obsessed with a child.
Unlike "Penpal", my story actually has the moral which is - never trust anyone, not even your closest family, because they're the most likely ones to hurt you.
My sister vanished 50 years ago. I wish I had died ignorant of her fate.
April 19, 1974 was the day when our family's world shattered into pieces, forever changing our lives. Prior to this day, we were merely an ordinary, happy family. We've never been rich, but we loved each other very much. My parents, my younger sister Valerie and me - we had an inseparable bond. Siblings often don't get along too well, but that wasn't the case with us. I was 4 years older than Valerie, but I loved spending time with her and taking care of her. She was such a happy, bubbly girl. She was very smart, too. She learned how to read when she was just 4 years old, and she loved nature. Quite often, we used to visit our uncle Rainer on his huge, beautiful farm. While we were there, playing and exploring, Valerie used to search for various plants and bugs and then look them up in the thick botany and entomology books that our uncle kept in his impressive home library. We all held the conviction that she would become a biologist once she grew up. In the countryside, both us kids and our parents found joy, not just for its charm but also as a refuge from our less safe neighborhood. Rumors circulated among other kids about shady characters and ex-cons, but our parents' strictness kept Valerie and me out of trouble.
Until that fateful day came and changed everything. In 1974, I was 12 and Valerie was 8. Due to her charming personality, it was unsurprising that she made numerous friends while attending primary school. Each morning, she greeted the new day early with a burst of energy, unlike me, who liked to sleep in. However, on that Friday morning, it wasn't the sound of my alarm that woke me up. It was the sudden, piercing scream of panic—my mother's voice shattering the calm, jolting me awake. That morning, Valerie didn't emerge from her room for longer than usual. Concerned, my mom went to check on her, only to find her room empty, the window open, and her bed vacant.
I can barely recall any more details from that day and the following weeks. Fear and despair consumed us. The police were involved right away, and we held onto hope, praying for Valerie's safe return. But she never came back. I couldn't wrap my head around how one day my little sister was there with us, everything was normal, and then she simply vanished, leaving no trace, as if she never existed. It felt like we had all been living in a beautiful dream, only to abruptly awaken to a harsh reality. From that moment on, our lives became empty shells, devoid of our previous happiness and carelessness. My parents changed. They appeared tired, pale, and thin, a stark contrast to their former selves. They didn't speak much to me about the ongoing search and investigation. Instead, they just told me to pray for Valerie every night and to be brave. Eventually, after a few months, they began saying that Valerie was now an angel in heaven, watching over our family. Initially, I couldn't bring myself to accept it. I didn't want her to be an angel; I wanted her to be there with us, just like before. It felt incredibly unfair. Why did it have to be her? Why did it happen to our family, out of all families?
But time kept passing by. As the old saying goes, "you can get used to hanging if you hang long enough." And that's exactly what we did. Life went on. My parents continued to do their best to look after me, but it was a struggle for them. A few weeks after Valerie disappeared, they both turned to drinking, and they never really stopped. I don't blame them for it, not anymore. As I grew older and had children of my own, I couldn't even bear to imagine what I would do if anything happened to them. It would destroy me. So I never turned my back on my parents; I cared for them until the very end. As you can imagine, their health suffered after years of drinking and misery. They both passed away a couple of years ago. As for Valerie, when I was around 20, I finally mustered the courage to ask my parents for more details. Unfortunately, they didn't have much to share. There were no foreign fingerprints found in her room, and no blood or bodily fluids that, with today's forensic technology, could aid in DNA identification of a perpetrator. The only evidence the police uncovered were a few muddy footprints, left behind by men's boots, size 12. All men from our neighborhood with a criminal past were examined by the police, and search warrants were issued for a couple of houses. But still, there were no traces of my sister. Despite pursuing several leads, the authorities were unable to make any significant breakthroughs in the case. After that conversation, we never talked about Valerie again. I wasn't a child anymore, and I was aware of the cruel realities of the world. I couldn't bear to dwell on what might have happened to my dear little sister. The possibilities were simply too terrible.
It's been 50 years now, though I couldn't tell you where all that time has gone. I've lived a fulfilling life and am now a grandmother, surrounded by loved ones in a different state. However, recent events called me back to Maine to handle family affairs. My uncle Rainer passed away at the age of 90, leaving me as the sole beneficiary in his will, as he was never married and had no kids. I inherited his farm, which once served as a big playground for my sister and me. Now, it lay abandoned and neglected, in need of attention. I've made plans to visit my late uncle's home, sort through his belongings, and prepare the property for sale, keeping only a few mementos of his. While we weren't particularly close once I became an adult, he was still family. With the house in disarray, I've scheduled a two-week stay to clean up and set things right.
I decided to begin with his bedroom, which appeared to be the least cluttered of all the rooms. The first thing that caught my eye were two large, red boxes tucked beside his bed. They looked old and were filled with letters. Tons and tons of letters. It got me curious. My uncle was a mysterious man; come to think of it, he must've been quite lonely on his big farm in the middle of nowhere, with no family and not so many friends. Yet, perhaps he had shared a deep connection with someone, who deserved to know of his passing. So I picked up a couple of the letters from the nearest box and was surprised to conclude that all of them were written by him and appeared to never have been sent. They weren't dated, and they all started with "my dearest wife." As I said, my uncle was never married, so I was rather puzzled. I had heard whispers of his extensive travels before settling on the farm, leading me to speculate that he may have married abroad and kept it a secret. With him no longer among us, I reasoned that delving into his private correspondences wouldn't be overly intrusive. What can I say? I'm an older lady and I love me a good, old romantic tale. So I started to read.
The letters were filled with declarations of my uncle's undying love for his unnamed wife and descriptions of his daily work on the farm. They were all similar. Nothing suggested who the woman was. With a tinge of disappointment, I opened the second box and picked up a letter from the top of the pile. Judging from its appearance, it has been written pretty recently. As I read it, a creeping sense of realization and dread enveloped me, causing the blood to drain from my face. You probably already suspected where this story is headed, right? To you, it was probably obvious from the beginning. But believe me, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to uncover. I desperately wish I had remained in the dark. Without further delay, here is what my uncle penned in what would turn out to be his final letter:
My dearest wife,
My time has finally come. I can feel it deep within my weary bones. I am but a shadow of the young, strong, and handsome man you once knew. My life has stretched long, yet it has been a lonely journey since you left me. But we will meet again soon, and it makes me so incredibly happy. Thoughts of you have filled my every waking moment for decades. From the very first moment we spoke, I was captivated by your beauty, your extraordinary maturity, and intellect. You were the epitome of perfection, as if tailor-made for me. I had to have you.
You know, I've never stopped celebrating our wedding anniversary. Every April 19th was a sacred day for me. Do you remember? I do. When I close my eyes, I can relive the day when you finally entered my house as my bride. I've been waiting for it for so long. I remember the beautiful white dress I put on you and the flower crown I placed on your head, as a symbol of your innocence. I remember our first night together. Light of my life, fire of my loins. It's such a shame that our love had to remain hidden. Most people are narrow-minded and judgmental, and they wouldn't accept us. That's why we had to live in the shadows, my love. I know it wasn't perfect. You complained quite a lot, darling, but I didn't mind. That's what women do all the time. You didn't like your room; you said it was too dark and too cold. But all I did was for your own good, so that we could've been happy together.
We had only 4 beautiful years. Then it happened. It was so painful to lose our first child right after it was born. And you got so sick; there was so much blood. But I couldn't take you to the hospital; you knew that. Yet, your accusatory stare pierced me like a dagger. I had no choice but to let you go. A part of me died when I saw the light leave your eyes. But fate is relentless, indifferent to our pleas. I had to forge ahead alone, carrying within my heart your cherished memory.
There's one thing I deeply regret, and that is that I couldn't give you a proper burial. Our love had to remain concealed, even after you were gone. So believe me when I say that I cried my heart out when I watched the pigs consume the vessel that once held your radiant spirit. For that, I am terribly sorry. I hope that when we finally meet in heaven, you'll be able to forgive me, and we'll spend the rest of eternity together.
Until then, my beloved.
Your Rainer

File Sequence: <Beginning> -First Contact[10]- -Conclusion- <Legends>
_______________________________
Secret Files: <CoS[1]> -Cos[2]-
Note: Figured it would be "lore-flexible'' to divide the "Tree" into 3 branches; Legends(WP/Side stories that might not be canon), Archives(Main safe route), and Secret Files(Major Spoilers). Also, no intro quotes this time, sorry, i decided to make them only for "serious" chapters.(Besides, i wrote like 20 already.) Also, Lazarus is not around due to internet issues, so, *tsk* im doing it all alone, again...
Oh yeah, I also must congratulate myself with my last chapter. Forget about not receiving any help requests, we managed to remain on 0 comments and -1(if i remove mine) upvotes. And more than 6k people saw the post. Unbelievable... Thats the record! Of lowest score ever possible. You can't repeat it on HFY subreddit, or probably ANY subreddit with at least 2000 followers for that matter. Even if you tried to do so on purpose... Should i drop the writing for real this time? I think im cursed...
...
...
...

Return Of Vanquished

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
/Connected.
/Mellator Matrix Mind.
/SubUnit: AVA-9252002
/Memory Transmission Subject: Woorrrl, emperor of Bloboid empire. Former Grand Admiral of First Blockade of Intergalactic Alliance. Current Chancellor of Intergalactic Senate.
/Time-space: 9 rotations from Black Battle.
/Location: On the way to Gh'urrl.
/Sequence Code: .- .-- ..- -- .- -- -.- --.. -- -... .-
/Transmission in 3...2...1...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We were quiet.
All of us.
Yes, just like that monsters, "Shaders"...
Entire fleet crew was traveling back home, without dropping a word to one another. Of course, as there was really nothing to talk about to begin with. We just blankly looked at our screens and panels, or even freezing our minds at times, looking into one spot.
Around 80 percent of our "first strike" and observation fleet was destroyed. Their remains, or "corpses", as our warrior race likes to name them, was drifting back there, way on the edge of the dead space quadrants. And we probably won't be able to retrieve any of them at all, like we tend to do with broken down or dismantled equipment...
Our remaining ships wasn't in their "blooming" stage either. Some had broken wings, not fully functioning FTL drives and gears, unstable shields that consumed more energy while trying to stabilize themselves and ultimately failing by simply popping due to unbalanced particle voltage, missing few components here and there, and also had empty pockets of hatches, where our "life-probe's" supposed to be stored. Well, thats due to the fact that some of them were deactivated in that skirmish or used to rescue our crew.
Now we were flying across the expanse of space, back to square one(both literally and figuratively), where it all started. Most of our dining and rest rooms were now overcrowded. Since the most of our Escorting Fleets were obliterated, their helmsmen and crew now was aboard the Mothership, cleaning the deck from all this mess or fixing and repairing systems. And oh holy pores, there was things to repair...
The "Scout Fist" alone had 90 percent of it's weapons broken down and melted. It's main turrets were burnt and smoked with fifty or so shades of gray, showing the complete combat incapacity. Mothership's main shield generator occasionally short-wired, making it look like a giant broken lightbulb, or billboard with electricity problems. Only thing that kept us alive is the hull itself, that, thankfully, was only scratched and "drawn" over with that constant laser beams. I really wonder how big of a repairment fees the Alliance will have to pay for all of this...
As for me? I just stood, (well, not really as these black snipers somehow managed to disable most of our gravitational panels as well so we been half walking-half hovering from now on) on the main deck, surrounded with my fellow generals as well as unused engineers on standby. We have to admit, going straight to the enemy was not the wisest idea, and it will cost us. A lot. I doubted that there could be a possible way to confront them. In fact, after seeing how these "Dark Warriors" fought, any direct assault would end up in their favor, leaving us at their mercy. I didn't know what are we going to do now. Just didn't...
The signal light on the panel blinked, indicating the incoming call. I tiredly waved my manipulator and one of the Ewwlian workers, that was not even supposed to be on this ship, nodded and patched it through.
After a longer than usual static, the main screen finally lit up, revealing the all known war hero, Mikik (despite his firm stance, it was a little awkward to loot at as two Tamlite spiders, one Crickzuk praying mantis, and one Shuulma octopus in their suits with "Q" symbol on their uniform tried to fix one of the gravity panels, blowtorching the floor behind his back).
"Greetings, Your Highness..." He tiredly hissed.
"Likewise, Fleetmaster." I replied.
"I'm rather glad to notify that most of our FTL drives have been stabilised and we can increase our speeds at 40 percent."
"Good" i sighed, rubbing my cuirasses below my metal suit "Reroute energy in main engines and increase the collider particles acceleration."
"Yes, Your Highness..." He nodded then turned to his(and not) crew " Activate FTL drives!" With echoes of "Aye aye sir!" and feet (or appendages for some) stamping, the crew trotted to the engines to activate them to their max. With buzzing of hundreds remaining engines, ships are now flew with their "normal" sub-light speeds, cutting the fabric of space even more than before.
We all just took our seats (or fixated the exoskeleton to the floor in my case). Mikik took a sip from his favorite drink and exhaled:
"Finally... I wonder, what we do now?"
"So do i..." i answered. "What i can say for sure however, is that R'ikitiks lost their status of "Strongest warriors in the galaxy", no offence [gentlemen]..."
"None taken." General lizards waved back and gritted their teeth, realizing the full weight of shame in that statement.
"True, true..." Fleetmaster Mikik sighed. "I can't even imagine that walk of shame when we will tell the senate that our 'Scout Fist' failed. Oh, and the panic of society, it's going to be a nightmare..."
"Yeah, but we can't help but tell them." I growled "Everyone must know how much of a danger these "Shaders" possess. We must unite like never before, if we want our people to be safe." I raised my manipulators in determination.
**********
Attention to all personnel. We will arrive in Lura Twins system in half a suuta. Get ready.
**********
Suddenly was announced from main intercom by the tech team.
"Oh well, here we go..." I replied.
When we finally entered the system, i entered the observatory room and opened the main telescope to see one of these twins. What i saw however shocked me to my cores. There wasn't two tropical worlds with all their sands and beach water that most of xenos so liked to swim in. What there was instead is two black spheres with red outlines. The oceans was not even visible. Entire landscape was complete darkness. The center of the planet looked like a red eye, rings of glowing lights surrounded the sides. It looked like that rings you see on the stump of the tree, or cırcles of streets in the center of megapolis. It looked like some eldrich abomination consumed and terraformed it...
Once i shakingly shifted my visors from it, i saw even more horrifying picture; Hundreds, no, thousands of darker than black ellipsoids with different sizes were rotating around it, constructing the rings with their bodies.
Suddenly, few dozen of them flew directly to "Scout Fist". They ignored any fire from the support fleets, their ability to dodge every shot made them look twice as menacing. When they reached the Mothership, they have formed the the ring on semi-perpendicular diagonal from its axes around it, spinning in that slow and scary manner. It did not took long enough as all of our systems roared with alarms from incoming laser rain. We were doomed. For sure this time.
Now the atmosphere depressure alarms joined the party as the giant hole was blown straight in the middle of the main deck, sucking in all of ship's crew members. I felt that my exoskeleton too, was losing its posture and slowly started to slide to that breach.
Oh no...
I quickly grabbed one of the panel slabs and tried my best to hold on it. Unfrotunately, the grounding plates that it was installed on, slowly started to come off of its pocket. Just a few more [seconds] and it will be all gone. One last loud metal gritting and i flew base forward in that breach along with that slab i was holding on, spinning like a propeller in the void of open space.
This. Cannot. BE!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
/[Dream] class memory sequence ended.
/Returning to original sequence.
/Transmission in 3...2...1...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I woke up cold like the side of a freezer. With nearly a roar i jumped from my socket, making a flip, and ended up upside down on the ceiling, clinging to the dim spotlight like a [tick].
"Are you okay?" I heard one of the General R'ikitiks asked as the rest of them looked at me from their rest bunks, woken from all the noise i made.
"I'm fine. It was just a nightmare, sorry..." i guiltily exhaled, looking at the dents on the metal i made with my manipulators. Then i jolted from abrupt and yet so familiar intercom announcment:
************
Attention to all personnel. We will arrive in Lura Twins system in half a suuta. Get ready.
************
"Okay, maybe not!" I exclaimed and quickly hovered(Yes, gravity panels was still an issue) from the cabin.
While i could not believe that this is possible, i still wanted to make sure it was just a stupid dream and not some sort of "forecast". I tried my best to move in this zero gravity and swimmed in the corridors like a [jellyfish] retracting my appendages on the walls and propulsing forward. When i managed to get to the main observation compartment, i rushed to the main telescope, pushing aside the navigation specialist before he even could say "Your Highness?!". When i looked trough it, for real this time, i saw that familiar sand-planet, with all it's glory of that cloud clusters, some craters and that famous river on the equator.
What a relief.
"S-sir?"
I looked at the source of meowling, and saw one of the most recognizable Ewwlians in my fleet, Captain Moor. He stood(as much as one could with gravi-panels working only with 20% output) among the navigation team members, with ears slightly folded on the back of his head. One would think that he supposed to be on one of that drone-carrier frigates, but guess what? Yes, it was abandoned and blew up in the dead space as well. In fact two thirds of Mothership itself was disconnected and left behind as it was broken down and became a dead weight on our engines and energy routes. We were only hanging on the remaining disc of one third of it's former glory, crowding it from the toilets to rest rooms.
"Im fine." i camly replied "Well, not completely but everything is better than it could be..."
The concerns slowly faded away from his muzzle and ears flip back up. Then he asked me once again, flicking his tail:
" E-excuse me sir, shouldn't we start to prepare for the landing?"
"Oh, oh right!" i snapped, remebering all of the duties i have to perform on this now one-wreck-of-a-ship. "Tell everyone to gather on main deck, we need to contact the Lyra-1."
He saluted me with firm tail swing and trotted back in the corridors.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
/Time-skip: {20 human minutes}
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was actually painfully long to properly enter the orbit of this planet. Thats due to the fact that our non-FTL thrusters was kinda in "shambles" as well. So here were are, nearly drifting to this choke-point. And, as all strategically important things, it was well defended. Why it's been pointed out? Thats because entire armada came to meet the remains of our expedition.
When these ships swarmed us, we got an immediate signal, hailing us. With my manipulator wave, it was patched through. On the screen was an wery familiar member of molluscoid species:
"What is the meaning of this?! The 'Scout Fist' wasn't supposed to return! Why more than the half of it is GONE?!" the octopus on the other side of the screen exclaimed. " Also my radars only scans like twenty destroyers, where are the remaining, like, five hundred of them?!"
"Calm down Bluufo..." i tiredly responded. " It's gonna be a wery, WERY, long story..."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
/Memory transmission ended.
/Sequence Code: .. --.. -- ..- .-- --.. -- .--. --.- .-.. .-.. -- ...-
/Disconnection...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hello, folks. Grab yourself a cookie and some hot chocolate, and prepare yourself for pure stupidity (& entitlement.)
Two weeks ago, on the second floor in a beautiful room, around 11pm a pipe burst. Destroyed the entire bathroom. Flooded one hall on the second and first floor. Absolute chaos. Only a few guests were moved, except for a very special high shiny elite member (third tier in the schmarriot leveling system) who decide to STAY. Mind you, this guest who henceforth shall be known as "Mr. Stay." did as he name suggests, and stayed in his room which was right across from the room where the pipe burst.
He refused to move. Okay, fine.
This happened on a Friday, I returned on Monday and he came down bright and early to complain.

• The smell is horrible. As you know, I'm the only one up there. Can you do something about it?
  
• (me, literally just getting into work and just finding out what had happened) I apologize,I just got in and wasn't informed until recently. I can have them spray air freshener.
  
• Well, yeah you need to. Because the smell is horrible and I'm the only one up there.
  
• yes, of course sir. I'll have housekeeping spray to keep away the smell. Thank you.
  

The next day, he comes down minutes after I arrive to complain yet again.

• THE SMELL IS BAD. didn't they spray??!
  
• Yes, sir. They did, I apologize the smell is bad-
  
• you know, anytime there's inconvenience I'm usually awarded. Because this is a problem. I'm the only one up there dealing with this stuff. And the alarms have been going off.
  

Now, when I tell you I am dumbfounded. He chose to stay. He literally refused to move.

• I understand, I'll see what I can do.
  
• well,yes. Because this is big inconvenience and I'm usually awarded. I've stayed with scmarriot for 16 years. I usually get awarded.
  

I inform him yet again I'll see what I can do and he takes off for work.
My GM & FOM settle with 5,000 points. Insert eye roll.
Now, a week has passed. The rooms and halls have been fixed, the smell is gone. He comes down the other day to bitch again.

• have the points be awarded?
  
• I'm not too sure, sir. You'll have to check your-
  
• well, I'm asking because they haven't. If they were they'd be in my account right. I was told I'd get awarded,yet never did.
  
• I'm sorry, unfortunately I don't have access to see that. If you were rewarded-
  
• well, I wasn't so what are you going to do?
  

At this point, I'm done with him. He's a dick and consistently rude.

• As stated earlier, I don't have access to that information. I apologize.
  
• well, who would? Your managers? What are their names?
  

I simply point at their business cards and tell him those names listed. He grabbed both and said something again about wanting points/not seeing them and how it's an issue because he's dealt with the problem. Even though he chose to STAY.
He left and called and talked to my GM later that day. She called him an asshole (not to him, of course) but still is awarding him 5,000 points.

Hello all,
I have my own story of being stellar at school, then abuse and rampant discrimination. I am 32, and have started my "big girl" job in devops/sre domain in 2017 with a BSc in MechE and couple of extra CS courses under my belt. I specifically left software engineering job for this domain, as my background in MechE fit this role and I really liked it.
Since then I relocated twice internationally and only have worked at Fortune 200 companies and well known startups. My resume glows with brand names, but like many of you I feel like I made a mistake and I do not fit into this industry. And after 7 years I think this is a good thing actually. I am proud of myself that I didn't become a nuclear waste, no thank you. If I wanted to work in military, police, ER, psychiatric ward or in any other field that being traumatised is part of the job, I would have gone in that direction.
Even though I have been recognised as a force wherever I went, and had received good/great feedback, I have never been promoted and I didn't leave my jobs because I wanted "more" or was offered something better, but because there was an incident and my sanity could not take it any longer.
## Story time, you can skip this.
I left my first job because a male coworker attacked me in daylight, in the middle of the full office and I ran for my life the last minute to avoid getting injured. He didn't even get a verbal warning. I was told off by my manager for reporting this incessantly. Right at this point pandemic started. Long story short, I worked there another year from home, which kind of helped until it didn't so I had to involve lawyers, and I quit that job on the spot one random monday morning. Never looked back. I reached out to my previous managers from internships and a small startup I worked for a short stint for references, and openly shared the situation I am in during interviews. So I decided to burn the bridges and never asked for a reference from that job, that is the first solid 2,5 years of my career. I left with panic disorder and severe social anxiety.
In my second job, I decided to relocate internationally in middle of the pandemic. I refused a job at another large corporation and chose a smallish company because I was genuinely convinced that I had to take a step back to chill. This job was a catastrophe at the beginning. Within 8 months I reached back to the other company and asked if the opening was still available. Luck be it, there was an additional opening so I got processed. This didn't went smoothly as HR messed up my offer and "corrected" it after signing it, via offering a much lower package than what I was already earning, so I had refused the same job the second time. At this point I had a new manager and a new product manager both ex FAANG, and thank the lords both of these men were incredible to work with. They restored my trust in people. I have learnt so much from them including that I am a good candidate for staff level positions at that point. It was an eye opening experience. Still, I didn't get promoted here either. My manager used the fact that I wanted the promotion as a leverage to return me back to the office. I would have, however, my husband couldn't find a new job where we lived and wanted out. Around this time, the other company and the hiring manager reached out again and apologised for what has happened during the second round, offered me a much larger package so I decided to accept that job in third attempt. I left with good wishes, stellar reference letters and couple of friends for the rest of my life.
## Current situation, you can skip this.
In my current, and third job, I was determined to do the bare minimum and prioritise my health. I gave up hope on growth, promotions or raises and simply wanted to rest and collect paycheques. I have kept my mouth shut during my first year and simply observed. This team was much older than me by age, so I was hopeful that people might be more mature.
To my horror I learnt that one of them had disciplinary records for verbally assaulting his previous coworkers, because he thought they were not working hard enough. He mentions them proudly for the jokes during team events.
The architect of the team, is an ex-employee turned contractor, and is notoriously known for his "personality". He is loud and rude, a text book misogynist; "limit the information flow, pick favourites, rotate them to make sure everybody feels insecure" type of a leader with limited technical acumen and ability. He also derives too much personal pleasure from being in leadership. In fact I noticed he reports "good work" for my performance reviews to sideline my manager, and wants to "manage me internally". Scrum master is also an ex-employee now employed via architect's company, and is a family friend of his. Add couple of more juniors hired via this contractor, he essentially built himself a parallel organisation.
Lastly, the product owner is very insecure and also has a seriously thick accent to the point that nobody really understands what on earth he is saying. He also doesn't write things down properly, leaving a lot of room for architect to operate however he likes.
In my first year, I have reported some of my observations to my manager. I discovered he agrees with me on all points. I also made sure I kept my relationships good but distant with everybody working for this contractor. So far so good.
During my first year, architect tried to paint me as incompetent, so I played along, or "followed his lead" to be precise. I stepped back when needed, just clocked my 8hours. Perfect, just as I wanted. I took whatever he says "literal" and resisted the urge to "please" him and "read minds", so I ended up stepping back a lot. He ended up with the dumb women he thought I was and became overloaded with work to do, things to figure out.
Then he unleashed the scrum master onto me. She kept advocating for him, that he is doing too much already; being a business owner, an architect and dealing with the incompetent PO was too much etc. So during my 1-1s with her I asked her what was the expectations from me, am I supposed to feel sorry for him or what is this plea for exactly; he doesn't produce any tickets to delegate his work nor asks me directly on what he needs from me. She remained silent and didn't push further.
At this point I thought I was handling this very well. Then a very sudden re-org happened. Everybody was blindsided. I think my manager intended for this as you will understand later.
This left my team without budget and a project. I didn't mind getting re-assigned since I am a fixed employee, but this meant architect will close the shop as a contractor, so he got really aggressive and somehow scratched the last coins to form a budget and made up a new product. Starting early this year, I found myself in a "scale up" that is looking for market fit. Architect formed an inner circle to operate fast. This left me hanging and confused because no one, including my manager, could inform me what was I supposed to do, what the product is, or whether my position is still a fit or not. Here is the reality after few months, there was no product as architect was swinging it until he landed on something. The insecure product owner completely vanished from the team, taking a long vacation during this key time. I noticed this could be a nice opportunity for me to transition to a product owner role. I talked with my manager and arranged some trainings. I reached out to the scrum master and asked her assistance to clean up backlog. She got very alarmed and told me that I needed to finish that by yesterday, everything is urgent and needs to be done asap, that I am losing time etc. I was surprised and told her I am looking forward to her cooperation because I still need some trainings and I cannot get things done that quickly but compared to the non-existing PO, I am still better than nothing.
SM didn't help me. After I started to clean up backlog, the "disciplinary record colleague" decided to reach out to me and told me to stop changing things in the backlog because they were agreed on now and cannot be changed. I said okay and stepped back. A week later, architect declared he is also going to become a PO now.
I was now clearly aware what is happening, how much effect I have on him. I still made sure I contributed as much as possible from my own domain (devops/sre) via setting development and test environments as soon as possible. Architect didn't push back on this early on, but later shut it down by force and when I reached out to him to discuss what is happening, whether the current project is still a good fit for me, are my skills needed for this project etc., and he declared that I have a problem with my expectations and need to read a book. I became so angry I started crying but didn't say anything to him and right after the meeting I took some time off.
When I returned back my manager called, and informed me that architect reported me saying "she doesn't want to work with us, she lost control". To note, during our 1.5 years together, architect and I have never had 1-1 meetings or messages. He only interacts with me during team meetings, or via proxies delivering his messages. This was our one and only 1-1.
I was shocked, my manager was shocked but he recommended de-escalation so I followed suit. However, I was alarmed. I started searching more actively for an internal position and improve my network but not only nothing came up but suddenly, towards end of Q1 architect declared that we are to build the platform in addition to the product so I was needed now. Every single idea I brought to team got ignored, only to be accepted when my senior colleague (my bestie) repeated it. I also noticed some questions I asked and ideas I brought were getting "stolen" to be used in higher up meetings instead of me getting involved. Things got to a point, where architect was bullying everybody that defended me in team meetings, pestering everybody to "help me" to get the ticket done faster (not possible due to blockers, not due to me being slow) and in one of the meetings he exploded with anger and yelled at me for something he did.
I was aware he was problematic, what I wasn't aware how volatile he was and how far he could loose it. Keeping my cool and playing it political no longer made sense. His last explosive anger episode did trigger me and made me revisit the incident at my first job. I wasn't sure how to proceed, whether to take time off or do what but I decided stay on track and keep searching for an opportunity without further incidents.
At this point my manager informed me that he awarded me a stock bonus to show how much company wanted me to stay and that he wants me to join in one of the newly found teams (remember the re-org?) as an architect. Since I already perform at the expected level, if I can keep it another year in the actually position it is going to be a automatic promotion. I still had some questions yet I was really humbled and happy. I made it not just working hard but also playing politically.
## The last event
Last week I worked on a ticket that didn't get finished. I was exhausted by the time friday arrived, and I couldn't power through so I left it unfinished for monday. Keep in mind that except that last minute time off that I needed for cooling my head down and bounce back, I couldn't plan a proper vacation due to this mess of a project and didn't really have a proper rest. I have been working longer and longer hours ever since, even my manager expressed his disapproval to how much pressure we were put under by the architect and encouraged me to stick to my hours only. Still yet, once stress visits my home, it tends to stay overnight.
Anyway, last week I spent a lot of time explaining to my bestie what I am doing and why, and he couldn't wrap his mind around one issue. Since I always have an "assigned partner" that policies my work or "helps me" I spend a lot of time managing people 1-1.
On monday I showed up to realize my bestie worked during the weekend to develop a hacky alternative solution to my design that only supports a single use case, and now he insists he solved the issue, can I implement it in my ticket too. I explained to him he solved something else, the issue is still open, so and so, and he kept insisting no, he tested it (with his alternative setup not my work) and it all should work now. I couldn't keep my cool anymore so I told him off, I told him "Please drag the jira ticket to done if you are sure". I was drenched in sweat and was shaking. The sequence of events and the pressure put on me triggered something in me. I took the week off immediately and called my husband crying. I informed him that I reached my limit, I cannot work at jobs that effect my health this way, I might resign today if necessary.
I knew at this moment a threshold has been crossed. I needed to leave immediately. So, I drafted a very long email detailing all these and asking for a re-assignment effective immediately. I also drafted and send an apology email to my bestie explaining why I need time off.
## Path forward
My manager recognised everything I reported and told me he knows because he worked with the architect for 3 years, and clearly situation has worsened rather than improved. He noted that the architect role he wanted me in was in partnership with my current architect, since he was also doing that work in addition to all the other things. I informed my manager I want to stay away from this man, and the architect role he wanted me in is no longer an option.
He planned a meeting for tomorrow to introduce me to two positions that I am interested in.
One for an IC position and one for a PO position. I want to shoot for the PO position since that one brings in a lot of visibility within the organisation as it is for an internal consultancy group not a singular product team. So I will have to manage numerous stakeholders (my SRE background prepared me well for this) and feed ideas into several teams. I am looking forward to develop better social skills. I am no longer interested in pair programming or any other paired work being utilised to micromanage me. I want a solo role. I want to hide in plain sight.
However I am pointed out that the IC role is in a really nice team with great environment and nice pace so I should also talk to them given my background fits their domain (K8s) perfectly. This is true and couple of months ago I would have run into their arms, but I want to keep my path to promotion diversified and not get pigeonholed into an IC role ever again.
So, am I making a big mistake?
TL;DR: I pulled an ultimatum and asked to be re-assigned within the organisation due to on-going and escalating conflict with team's architect. I have a meeting tomorrow for a IC role in another team and a PO role in some other team. I am leaning on the PO role, as I believe it will give me more room to operate. Am I making a mistake?

Zeynep Tufekci is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, the author of “Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest” and a New York Times Opinion columnist.
[The outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza among U.S. dairy cows, first reported on March 25, has now spread to at least 33 herds in eight states. On Wednesday, genetic evidence of the virus turned up in commercially available milk. Federal authorities say the milk supply is safe, but this latest development raises troubling questions about how widespread the outbreak really is.
So far, there is only one confirmed human case. Rick Bright, an expert on the H5N1 virus who served on President Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told me this is the crucial moment. “There’s a fine line between one person and 10 people with H5N1,” he said. “By the time we’ve detected 10, it’s probably too late” to contain.
That’s when I told him what I’d heard from Sid Miller, the Texas commissioner for agriculture. He said he strongly suspected that the outbreak dated back to at least February. The commissioner speculated that then as many as 40 percent of the herds in the Texas Panhandle might have been infected.
Dr. Bright fell silent, then asked a very reasonable question: “Doesn’t anyone keep tabs on this?”
The H5N1 outbreak, already a devastating crisis for cattle farmers and their herds, has the potential to turn into an enormous tragedy for the rest of us. But having spent the past two weeks trying to get answers from our nation’s public health authorities, I’m shocked by how little they seem to know about what’s going on and how little of what they do know is being shared in a timely manner.
How exactly is the infection transmitted between herds? The United States Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all say they are working to figure it out.
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According to many public health officials, the virus load in the infected cows’ milk is especially high, raising the possibility that the disease is being spread through milking machines or from aerosolized spray when the milking room floors are power washed. Another possible route is the cows’ feed, owing to the fairly revolting fact that the U.S. allows farmers to feed leftover poultry bedding material — feathers, excrement, spilled seeds — to dairy and beef cattle as a cheap source of additional protein.
Alarmingly, the U.S.D.A. told me that it has evidence that the virus has also spread from dairy farms back to poultry farms “through an unknown route.” Well, one thing that travels back and forth between cattle farms and chicken farms is human beings. They can also travel from cattle farms to pig farms, and pigs are the doomsday animals for human influenza pandemics. Because they are especially susceptible to both avian and human flu, they make for good petri dishes in which avian influenza can become an effective human virus. The damage could be vast.
The U.S.D.A. also told me it doesn’t know how many farmers have tested their cattle and doesn’t know how many of those tests came up positive; whatever testing is being done takes place at the state level or in private labs. Just Wednesday, the agency made it mandatory to report all positive results, a long overdue step that is still — without the negative results alongside them — insufficient to give us a full picture. Also on Wednesday, the U.S.D.A. made testing mandatory for dairy cattle that are being moved from one state to another. It says mandatory testing of other herds wouldn’t be “practical, feasible or necessarily informative” because of “several reasons, ranging from laboratory capacity to testing turnaround times.” The furthest the agency will go is to recommend voluntary testing for cattle that show symptoms of the illness — which not all that are infected do. Dr. Bright compares this to the Trump administration’s approach to Covid-19: If you don’t test, it doesn’t exist.
As for the F.D.A., it tells me it hasn’t completed specific tests to confirm that pasteurization would make milk from infected cows safe, though the agency considers it “very likely” based on extensive testing for other pathogens. (It is not yet clear whether the elements of the H5N1 virus that recently turned up in milk had been fully neutralized.) That testing should have been completed by now. In any case, unpasteurized milk remains legal in many states. Dr. Bright told me that “this is a major concern, especially given recent infections and deaths in cats that have consumed infected milk.”
Making matters worse, the U.S.D.A. failed to share the genomes from infected animals in a timely manner, and then when it shared the genomes did so in an unwieldy format and without any geographic information, causing scientists to tear their hair out in frustration.
All this makes catching potential human cases so urgent. Dr. Bright says that given a situation like this, and the fact that undocumented farmworkers may not have access to health care, the government should be using every sophisticated surveillance technique, including wastewater testing, and reporting the results publicly. That is not happening. The C.D.C. says it is monitoring data from emergency rooms for any signs of an outbreak. By the time enough people are sick enough to be noticed in emergency rooms, it is almost certainly too late to prevent one.
So far, the agency told me, it is aware of only 23 people who have been tested. That tiny number is deeply troubling. (Others may be getting tested through private providers, but if negative, the results do not have to be reported.)
On the ground, people are doing the best they can. Adeline Hambley, a public health officer in Ottawa, Mich., told me of a farm whose herd had tested positive. The farm owner voluntarily handed over the workers’ cellphone numbers, and the workers got texts asking them to report all potential symptoms. Lynn Sutfin, a public information officer in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told me that response rates to those texts and other forms of outreach can be as high as 90 percent. That’s heartening, but it’s too much to expect that a poor farmworker — afraid of stigma, legal troubles and economic loss — will always report even mild symptoms and stay home from work as instructed.
It’s entirely possible that we’ll get lucky with H5N1 and it will never manage to spread among humans. Spillovers from animals to humans are common, yet pandemics are rare because they require a chain of unlucky events to happen one after the other. But pandemics are a numbers game, and a widespread animal outbreak like this raises the risks. When dangerous novel pathogens emerge among humans, there is only a small window of time in which to stop them before they spiral out of control. Neither our animal farming practices nor our public health tools seem up to the task.
There is some good news: David Boucher, at the federal government’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, told me that this virus strain is a close match for some vaccines that have already been formulated and that America has the capacity to manufacture and potentially distribute many millions of doses, and fairly quickly, if it takes off in humans. That ability is a little like fire insurance — I’m glad it exists, but by the time it comes into play your house has already burned down.
I’m sure the employees of these agencies are working hard, but the message they are sending is, “Trust us — we are on this.” One troubling legacy of the coronavirus pandemic is that there was too much attention on telling the public how to feel — to panic or not panic — rather than sharing facts and inspiring confidence through transparency and competence. And four years later we have an added layer of polarization and distrust to work around.
In April 2020, the Trump administration ousted Dr. Bright from his position as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the agency responsible for fighting emerging pandemics. In a whistle-blower complaint, he alleged this happened after his early warnings against the coronavirus pandemic were ignored and as retaliation for his caution against unproven treatments favored by Donald Trump.
Dr. Bright told me that he would have expected things to be much different during the current administration, but “this is a live fire test,” he said, “and right now we are failing it.”]
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/opinion/bird-flu-cow-outbreak.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nk0.WeRo.Igp4uj_lGZo4&smid=url-share

Hi - have had a security system at residence (one of the well known wired DIY names w/ paid for monitoring). It's armed in particular mode every night when I go to bed. (armed sensors on doors/windows like most typical setups).
Two weeks ago I was awoken to the alarm blaring (it's loud) at 2AMish. I was in REM sleep but I flew out of bed immediately as it awoke me to grab a flashlight and put on some pants I have next to the night stand should such a thing happen. (I've mentally thought this through).
What I cannot describe is how even though I was up attempting to on some pants and grab the light per my pre-thought process... my heart was racing but my brain was not really working, I fumbled around looking for my phone with the objective of disabling the alarm as my first objective as it was so loud and nerve-wracking.
Once I did that I sort of looked at the bedroom door, turned on the light, got my clothes on then nervously (heart still racing) slowly/walked toward the bedroom door to carefully investigate. (this took about 1 minute from when I woke up).
I heard nothing in the house, dead quiet, my dog wasn't barking etc. I slowly walked through the house, popping the flashlight briefly as scanning, looking outside (through drapes), finally reviewing camera footage. Everything was secured no evidence of anything. I talked w/ the security company and let them know all was good and no emergency services needed.
What I ended up finding was a second floor window contact sensor had fell off......
The lesson I personally learned here was....well I'm not sure. In the one minute I was in this be-wildered state being abruptly awoken like that at 2AM, if there really was a home invader they could have easily further made the situation worse, with the strategic advantage and me being in a startled/nervous state. I felt at about 30-40% effectivity vs what I'd normally be at if not awoken at a such an hour.
I'm not sure how to better prepare one's self for such a thing. The only thing I can think of is more exposure to that scenario... however short of randomly having the alarm go off intentionally (without me knowing it will the night before), I don't know how to re-create that scenario + feeling easily or practically.
Secondly, what would be much more effective if there were some better "early warning system" tech or way to have a pre-alarm that wasn't so brutal to the senses. Something that wakes you up, but then stops making noise.... letting you go about some prep prior to the full alarm breach.
Any advice, or specific solution/tech recommendations much appreciated!!!!
(my first time on here, thanks for responding)

I (M29) have been with my girlfriend (28, who I'll call Lucy) for about 5 years now. Other than a few minor ups and downs, we've had a great relationship and I intend on proposing soon.
She has a corporate job that requires a fair amount of travel. It's annoying in the sense that it means I spend less time with her, but we earn a healthy income from it so can't really have too many complaints. When she goes on these trips, she's typically away for two days or so, so the packing is usually quite light.
She was preparing to go away for a trip the other day and while she was cooking downstairs, I put a few of her favorite chocolates into her bag as a treat (which I usually do). When I was doing this, I noticed something lacy and red amongst her clothes. When I opened the suitcase to have a look, I noticed she'd packed a lacy matching red bra and thong and then a black bra and thong. I'll preface this by saying this isn't something she usually wears. She typically wears plain cotton brief style underwear and even a plain thong is a once a year (if that) occasion. It immediately set alarm bells off in my head because she was going on a work trip and I didn't see why she would be packing this unless she intended to show it off to other people.
As I didn't want this hanging over me the two days she was away, I decided to confront her. I brought her upstairs with the lingerie in hand and asked why it was packed in her things. Before asking why I was going through her things (which I explained was to put the chocolates there) she said that it was a new set she bought and she was trying it out, that's all there is to it. I didn't buy it and straight up accused her of cheating.
She started to cry, then got angry and asked how I could accuse her of such a thing based on seeing underwear in a bag after 5 years. I started to feel bad but it just didn't feel right; why would someone who wears cotton briefs suddenly pack lingerie for a work trip? Within her hysterics, she told me that she just wanted to feel confident on the trip and if I'm so insecure about underwear, that's my concern. She then told me she was going early as couldn't believe I'd accused her of cheating.
As I wasn't in the mood, I let her go and we haven't had any correspondence since. It's been two days which is the longest we haven't spoken. Part of me feels I may have jumped the gun but then again, this has to be a good sign she's cheating because suddenly buying lingerie to "feel confident on a work trip", which isn't like something she's worn before, doesn't add up.
AITAH?

You guys are all jackasses lol. The amount of “of a certain ethnicity” and “they’re international students” (how do you discern citizenship visually??) that we see here in frankly fucking alarming.
Even in the toronto sub the post about the lcbo thief article mentions the thief being stopped by a “european Canadian” and the article posted about the food bank abuser had a subtitle “you don’t hate them enough”. Dogwhistles soaked rags that have no place in healthy discourse anywhere peddled by haters and spread by whiners
The amount of people here who are so woefully ignorant about the immigration process who talk about “pathways to PR” and LMIAs with absolutely 0 knowledge is fucking hilarious
90% of people I’ve met who complain about the job market in toronto are people who’ve never had to compete before in their lives, or people who’ve hedged against ever competing by listening to a dipshit guidance counsellor whose job market know-how comes from ask jeeves
If you’re looking for white-collar work and think that connestoga students from gujarat are the reason why you don’t have a job, perk your ear up for irish and british accents in and around the financial district. Lazy hiring managers have been hiring for race and culture fit for the past ten years and a working holiday candidate is an easier indicator for both than a local recent grad for ground floor roles like mailroom, customer service, and entry level sales
If you’re not able to find part time minimum wage work as a student it’s not some punjabi filling that seat either 8/10 times it’s the same decrepit 40 year old minimum wage lifer you’ve seen in service and retail since forever. You’re getting passed over because you’re a flight risk and they don’t wanna retrain a new guy for when you inevitably graduate or ask for time off for an exam
Liven up you miserable fuckers. Try going 3 days without blaming an indian for one of your life problems and welcome to the new world, it’s a rough place but it’s no one’s fault if you can’t keep up

As you know, I have a crazed, 18’ tall, horny homosexual Bigfoot that has followed me home and is staking out my house, looking to bone me against my will. I brought uncle Roy home with me from a family Thanksgiving gathering so he could help me slaughter the beast. Round one has come and gone, with the Sasquatch still alive (though there were 2 fatalities, but we will not dwell on them).
Roy saw the massive creature and thought that we may need some help. So he called a couple of folks he knows to round up some guns and come down. One of them is an Iraqi War vet with substantial skill and grit. His name is Skull Crusher. The other one is a nefarious loner known only as Johnny Murder. Once the reinforcements arrive, we will devise a plan for killing the tormenting monster.
At noon the next day the cavalry arrived. Skull Crusher (he asked to be referred to as “SC”) arrived in a surplus Hummer painted desert camo. Johnny Murder arrived on an old, straight-piped Harley Dyna. He asked to be called “Murder”. I have to say that both SC and Murder looked like a couple of bad hombres.
SC wore fatigue pants and a camo wife-beater top. He was covered in patriotic tats and obviously works out a lot given how huge he is. I made the mistake of commenting on his build, then asking about his workout routine. SC said “Hell, I got nothing else to do all day besides sitting there and waiting for my parole hearing.” I asked when he was released from prison. He said that his parole hearing is scheduled for next year, but that when Murder told him what was up with this Sasquatch, he had Murder arrange for an “early release”, then he laughed. Then SC said “Don’t worry, though. As far as the marshals know, I am heading up to Wisconsin to settle an old score with my ex-Wife. They got no idea that I am in Georgia.”
Then Murder walked up. He is tall and lean and wearing a long, black trench coat with the sign of Baphomet sewn into the back of his coat. He has long, black hair and his finger nails are painted black. I attempted to be cordial to my guest, saying “Hey, Murder, I want you to know that I appreciate you getting SC out of jail to help out on this job. Murder turned and looked at me, then paused for an awkwardly long moment. Finally, Murder said “I am Satan, and I am here to do the Devil’s work.” Then he continued unpacking the saddlebags on his bike.
I decided to have a word with Roy. I found him in my recliner, drinking some of my top shelf, 18 year old, single malt scotch straight from the bottle, and watching The Weather Channel on my TV. When Roy saw me he said “Boy, look at that thar hot blond weather bunny on the TV! Have you ever seen sech a hot piece of ass? I’d stick my cock so far up her pussy that it would come out her mouth! A simultaneous fuckin and a blow job in one!! Heh heh heh...”
I said “Roy, the guys are here. I met them. SC was in prison, and Murder busted him out to come here. Oh, and Murder thinks he is Satan.” Roy just kept watching the weather bunnies jiggle on TV and said “uh huh, yeah”.
The television cut to commercials and Roy directed his attention to me. He said, “Look Son, we all make mistakes, even you do. So what if Skull Crusher got into a little scrape-up in a dive bar? He’s a good guy, I knowed his pappy. They is good people. He sure as hell did not kill anyone, at least not there.”
I asked Roy what the story is on Johnny Murder. Roy casualty said “Old Johnny is a Satanist, through and through. He ain’t one of them faggot Anton Lavey, Church of Satan, Satanists either. He is the real deal. Hell, I once seen him conjure up old Lucifuge hisself right in his living room. It was some right wild shit.”
Flustered, I said “Roy ... what the fuck?!? These 2 guys are trainwrecks! An escaped convict and a weird Satanist?!? How in the hell are THEY going to help us kill Bigfoot?!?”
Roy appeared to be growing impatient with me. He glared at me. Then he raised his right hand and pointed at me as he said “Those boys are exactly what we need. They is exactly what YOU need right now. Those fellers are distributors fer the meth I cook up and sell fer a pretty penny. They is loyal to me and will do whatever I tell them to do!” I pays ‘em damn well and I take care of ‘em. Jest trust me, son. Trust that yer old uncle Roy knows what he’s a’doin’.”
I responded, “Ok, Roy. You know I trust you and your judgment. If you think we need these particular guys, then I am all in with ya.” Roy nodded curtly in approval, then told me to call the boys into the house for a sit-down meeting.
The four of us sat around my kitchen table. Roy did most of the talking. He started out by thanking Skull Crusher and Murder for coming. He said “Fellers, this here be my nephew. Like his old Uncle Roy, Bud likes to dabble in Bigfooting. During the course of said dabbling, Bud here inadvertently turned on a huge gay Bigfoot that is aching to rape him with a massive woody. Now, I dun seen this here critter’s pecker, mind ya. No man could survive a thumpin’ from this beast. His goddamn schlong is about 40” long when stiff, and big around as a paint can. So, ya see, if this fag foot gets hold of Bud, then old Bud is a goner.”
Skull Crusher spoke up. He asked “What happened to cause this animal to get so riled up? I spoke up and said “I made a mistake. I was gifting with a clan of Sasquatch and then, I just fucked up and provoked it.”
Roy interrupted and bluntly said, “Old Bud here decided to whip out his pecker and jerk off right in the middle of the goddamn woods, then he dropped his load right smack dab in the spot where the Bigfoots had been leaving gifts fer him.”
At hearing this, Skull Crusher did a facepalm and Mr. Murder looked down as he shook his head from side to side. I tried to explain myself, but Roy shut me down, saying “Look, son, the past is the past. You dun fucked up, and now that critter is a’comin fer ya.”
Roy continued, “Ya see, my wingnut nephew here has got a problem keeping his dick in his pants. Jest last night I seen him jacking off in this here kitchen, and then watched him putting the fuck-moves on his neighbor lady. Hell, Bud’s raging labido got that poor woman kilt last night!”
Again I interjected, “No, you shooting her in the head is what got her killed.” I looked around at the others and said “Roy shot Mrs. Jenkins in the head, TWICE!!”
Roy then unloaded his side of the story, and I told mine. At the conclusion it was clear that the others believed that I was totally at fault for the Sasquatch and both homicides. Murder said “Dude, you do not try to fuck a bitch while your uncle is outside with just a couple of pistols trying to kill a dangerous animal... an animal YOU brought here!” Skull Crusher chimes in, “Bud, old Roy saved your life. It’s unfortunate that this Jenkins woman had to die but, you know, hindsight is 20/20.” Roy then repeated the last part, saying “Hindsight is 20/20.”
Obviously, I was surrounded in my own house by mental patients. But what else could I do? I decided that I better listen to them. Seeing the need to move forward, Roy said “Ok, ok, we now all know that Bud is a degenerate sex freak. But that don’t mean I want to see my kin raped to death by a gorilla. We need to devise us up a plan to murder that Bigfoot, and fast! That thing will most likely be back tonight!”
Roy continued, “Ok, now listen up, this here’s the plan. That big old bastard ape likes to stand just off Bud’s back patio at night, jest outa the light, and jack it while he watches Bud through the window. Tonight, we is gonna triangulate on this Bigfoot. Johnny, you is gonna be on the roof with that .50 cal. Skull Crusher, you and me is gonna be in the trees out a bit from the patio with our fiddy cals and grenades.”
Alarmed, I spoke up. “Grenades?!? What the fuck?!? You’ll blow up my house!!!” Roy looked at me and made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “You got insurance”, Roy said. I protested, saying “It won’t cover jack-shit if I am throwing grenades around my house!!”
At this point Murder stood up and said “Fuck this pussy! Let that critter rape the ungrateful bastard. C’mon, Skull, let’s get out of here.” Both Murder and Skull Crusher stood up like they were walking out. Roy held up his hands and said, “Whoa now, boys. You ain’t goin nowhar. Sit yer sorry asses down.” They both complied. Then Roy turned his scorn on me.
Roy said, “Now, boy, I am jest going to say this once. I am in charge here. If’n you ain’t gonna be a team player in this here endeavor then the three of us can jest pack our shit and leave it to ya. Understand? This here house ain’t gonna do you any good if’n you dead.”
I nodded. Then Roy said “No more Bullshit! You do as I say. You hear?” I said “Yes Sir”. Roy responded “You Goddamn right, Yessir!!” Then he pulled off his hillbilly hat and hit me over the head with it.
Roy continued on with the plan. Murder, you is up on the roof top. Skull, you and I is high up in the trees with our rifles and grenades.
Skull Crusher asked how high up in the tree he had to be. Roy told him at least 30 feet up. Skull said “Goddamn, Roy! How big is this thing?” Roy told him that by his estimate this Bigfoot is around 18 feet tall. Murder and Skull looked at each other with wide eyes.
Then Skull said “Uh, Roy, we may have a problem.” Roy asked him what he meant. Skull looked a little uneasy and then sheepishly said “Uh, I’m scared of heights.” Roy paused then asked “What?”. Skull Crusher repeated that he is scared of heights.
Before our meeting I had brewed us some coffee. I had a cup. I gave Skull and Murder both cups of coffee, as well as a cup for Roy. Of course, Murder pulled out a flask of what I assumed to be liquor and spiked his and Skull’s coffee. They passed the flask to Roy. Old Roy just dumped all his coffee out on my kitchen floor and dumped the remainder of the flask in his coffee cup.
Uncle Roy seemed a bit perturbed at Skull Crusher and his revelation that he is scared of heights. As Roy started shaking his head and muttering “Goddamn it” under his breath, Skull said “It ain’t my fault, Roy. It’s a phobia.” That drove Roy over the edge.
Roy snatched his coffee cup and slung it at Skull Crusher. The cup shattered against Skull Crusher’s head. Then Roy stood up and flew into a rage. Skull grabbed his head in pain as blood rolled down his face. Roy started screaming at Skull Crusher, “You goddamn little faggot pussy!!! SCARED OF HEIGHTS?!?! You WILL be scared of heights when I put my boot up yer worthless ass. I’ll kick your ass right up that thar tree, you pathetic worm!!! NOW YOU IS GONNA MAN-UP AND SHIMMY RIGHT UP THAT GODDAMN TREE LIKE I AM OR I WILL RIP OFF THAT EMPTY HEAD OF YOURS AND SKULL FUCK YOU!!!! GOT IT?!?”
Skull Crusher sheepishly nodded yes. Roy said “Scared of heights... that’s the goddamn dumbest thang I ever dun did hear. What are you, a faggot?” Skull responded, “No sir.” Then Roy glared at Skull and called him a “cunt”.
Unfortunately, Roy was not yet done. He continued, “I’m glad I don’t pay no goddamn taxes. If’n I did then I would be right pissed to know that I wuz paying a sissy like you to go over there to Afghanistan to kick them Muslim rag-heads’ asses.”
Poor old Skull Crusher was obviously not used to being spoken to in such a manner. He then stupidly said to Roy “There ain’t no trees in Afghanistan.” Roy immediately grabbed my coffee cup to hurl at Skull Crusher. I grabbed Roy’s arm to stop him from hitting Skull again and then pleaded with Roy, “Roy! Don’t!! He said he would climb the tree. It’s ok, He’s going to do it!!”
Roy finally calmed down and composed himself. He then resumed with the plan. Roy said “OK. So Murder is on the roof, over the patio. Skull and me are in the trees, THIRTY FEET UP (Roy glared at Skull Crusher as he said this), and we are armed with our fiddy cals and throwin’ grenades.”
Roy then turned his attention to me. “Bud, you is gonna be the bait again, seein’ as how this here critter has got the hots fer ya. This here is what you is a’gonna do. You is gonna drag this here kitchen table over to those sliding winder doors so this Bigfoot will have a good view of ya. Then, you is a’gonna drop your drawers and bend over the table, with yer ass pointing to the window so the that horny Sasquatch will get hisself a ragin boner. Basically, you is gonna set yer self up like you is a wantin an ass-bangin.”
At this point I had no will to to object to anything Roy said. I just nodded yes. Roy saw my concern, but seemed to respect my compliance, so he said “Don’t worry now, son. We will be right outside.”
Roy explained that the horny Bigfoot will probably be agitated after last night’s encounter. But with my bare ass sticking up at the glass sliding doors, the creature will see it then get all distracted by its horniness, causing it to drop its guard and approach. The goal, Roy explained, was to lure it into the kill box so that the three of them on the outside of the house will each have close-range shots will their .50 cal rifles.
Roy said to me “Now, Bud, I want you wiggling that ass. Shake it. Slap it. Finger yer self. You got to get the animal turned on.” I heard snickering and looked up to see both Skull Crusher and Murder trying unsuccessfully to conceal their giggling.
Roy asked “Any questions?” We all said no. Then Roy said “One More thang. Bud, this here is fer you”, then he pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me. It was a tube of K-Y jelly, a lubricant. Both Skull Crusher and Murder started laughing hysterically. Roy said “Don’t mind these boys. If somethang goes wrong and that beast gets to ya, well, it will be best If’n you are lubed up really well.”
Night came. Roy and Skull Crusher climbed into position up their trees, and Murder was on the roof. At exactly 6:00 pm I was to enter the kitchen, do a strip tease, then assume the wanton position, bare assed and bent over the kitchen table. I figured I would lube myself up while in position, as sort of an erotic prelude used to attract the Sasquatch.
6:00 pm came and I assumed the position. I did everything Roy told me to do. I felt like a total fag, but I knew it was my job as bait. I applied the lube, seductively, shook my ass, and even did finger stuff. I felt ridiculous. I started wondering how long I would have to keep this up. It already started to feel like a fucking eternity. Frankly, it is rather uncomfortable to reach around to finger one’s own anus. But I kept at it. Wondering how long this could possibly go on, I glanced at the clock on my wall. It was 6:09 pm. Goddamn it!!
All four of us had Bluetooth headsets on so we could communicate. After a few more minutes Roy spoke to me over the head set, saying “Bud, I will tell you when I hear the Sasquatch approaching. When I give the word you start wiggling your ass and fangering yerself.” I replied, “Roy, I have already been doing it for the past 20 minutes, just like you said.” Roy said “Goddamn, Boy, you is one degenerate pervert, aren’t ya?” Then Murder chimed in and called me a “fag”.
Shortly afterward I heard from Roy again. “He’s here, approaching from the south, approaching my position from the rear. Get to the finger-fucking, Bud. Here he comes. Murder, Skull, you copy?” Murder and Skull checked in and were both locked and loaded.
But the beast did not approach. After several minutes Roy said “Somethang is wrong. That sumbitch took up position behind me. He is not approaching. I don’t think it can even see Bud in its position.” I asked Roy if he is sure it was our target. Roy replied, “Hell Yeah, I’m sure. I saw it’s silhouette and heard its footsteps. I can feel it’s footsteps up here in the tree, that thing is HUGE!”
For whatever reason, the animal was not approaching, and it was not even close to the kill box. Maybe it caught the boys’ scent, I am not sure.
Then Roy called me. He said, “Boy, I hate to do this, but you is gonna have to come outside. It caint see ya from its position. Turn on your porch light and come outside so it can see you. Oh, and chub up first. I want ya to come out to the patio and jack-off in the light. That will surely draw the monster into the kill box!”
I knew there was no point in objecting, so I did as Roy commanded. At this point in my life I can pretty much just will myself to produce an erection. I just hold my breath, squeeze my fists, and push. BAMMO!! There it is!!
I walked out onto the patio, which cock at full mast. I walked out into the light and put my left leg up on a chair in a kind of Captain Morgan pose, bare ass naked, and started stroking my prick. I heard Skull Crusher over my head-set say “Goddamn, Bud is hung like a horse!”
Then I decided to improvise. I started pumping my hips to thrust my wang through my hand and saying shit out loud like “Oh yeah, look at this big cock! I wish I had someone to help me handle this meat!” Roy spoke to me through my head set, saying “You is doing great Boy!! Let it all hang out!!”
I have a metal table sitting on my patio. I use it for holding my grill and smoker tools, and to set my shit on when I am sitting out there smoking cigars. I said “Look at this, big boy”, and started banging my dong on that metal table. It made a hell of a racket! If That Bigfoot had not noticed me yet, it had now. Then I started drumming the table with my boner. I was drumming the opening drum sequence from Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” with my cock when all of a sudden came this ungodly roar!
It was the Bigfoot!! The roar was deep and loud. I could feel it in my chest. It was like the roar from an African buck lion, but times 10. It was like the Sasquatch was standing right there on the patio with me, even though it was a good 100 or so yards away in the woods behind my house.
Then came the unmistakable sound of footsteps. They were fucking loud, and you could feel the earth trembling at the beast’s weight. It was coming. A voice came over my head-set. It was Roy telling me to get back in the house. I retreated into the house, sitting down in a chair in front of my glass sliding door, cock proudly standing at attention like a flagpole. My right hand was behind my back so the approaching beast could not see that I was holding my Ruger .480 revolver.
The bastard had a clear view of me as it walked toward my house, looking out through the window I began to see trees swaying. I surmised that the trees were being pushed to the side by the approaching giant. Even in the house I could hear, and feel, it’s footsteps. I heard “FOOF! FOOF! FOOF! FOOF!!”. It was getting closer and closer. I heard Roy say “Here it comes. Hold yer fire until it gits into the kill box. I’ll give the word.”
Then I saw it. It was HUGE!!! 18’ tall is conservative. It was as big around as a pickup truck. It’s eyes glowed a fiery red, and it’s hands were are big as a La-Z-Boy recliner! And, yes, it had a hard-on. It was just as big as Roy said. It was huge, throbbing, and glowing red. In fact, you could actually SEE the pulsating caused by every heartbeat of this animal.
The monstrous ape saw me sitting there, just inside the sliding glass door, naked and hard. It stopped, then gingerly moved forward. I am scared fucking senseless at this point, waiting for the shooting to start. The monster knelt down onto my patio so that it could gaze at me through the glass. It’s fucking head was as big as a VW Bug, and it’s eyes were solid black and the size of beach balls.
The thing was as hairy as a Mexican woman, and it smelled just as bad. As it knelt down to look at me, it seemed to exhibit a certain degree of intelligence and self-awareness. Though absolutely scared stiff, I was curious. What was this animal seeing? What was it thinking. And for the love of God, why wasn’t anyone shooting?!?
Staring at the Bigfoot, something unexpected happened. It smiled at me. It was not malevolent in any way. It was a kind smile. Dare I say, it was a loving smile. Maybe this was about more than rape. Maybe this thing really did have a crush on me!
The beast then slowly brought around its right hand and held out a rose bush that appears to have been pulled out of the ground. The Sasquatch was actually giving me roses!!! I could not believe it!!! This was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for old Bud! I could not help but smile. I was flattered! I looked up into those big black eyes and looked at them through my misty eyes. The communication was unspoken: I loved the flowers and was opening my heart to this big beast.
I still do not understand exactly what happened to me in that moment. Perhaps I was influenced by infrasound produced by the animal and it’s gigantic, throbbing fuck-stick. Or maybe I was genuinely smitten. I was not myself, I can tell you that for a fact. Suddenly, my gaze turned to the monsters throbbing Member.
Then all hell broke loose! BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!!! The hellish reports from those .50 BMGs were deafening!! The beast stood up immediately. It was so tall I could not really see what it was doing. I flipped the kitchen table on its side and took up a defensive position behind it, raising my pistol hand and readying for combat.
Something flies past the window and splatters onto my patio. It was Murder!! Given the amount of blood that spewed out of him he was dead. Then comes another thud. I call out for Roy on my head-set. “ROY!! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON OUT THERE?!?!” Roy Shot back “Murder is dead. So is Skull Crusher.”
Then Roy asked “You got that .480 on ya, boy?” I said I did. Roy said “Well, things ain’t going so well out here. You may want to just go ahead and bow out, son.” I asked, “What?!?”. Roy said, “Just eat a bullet, son. Trust me, it will be far better than how you will die If’n this here monster gits a’holda ya.” I then hear a volley of .50 BMG gunfire from outside. I said to myself “Fuck this!”, and storm outside.
Murder’s body is cut in half and splattered all over my patio. Blood and guts are everywhere. Skull Crusher’s lifeless body is hanging upside down from a high tree limb. His safety strap got tangled around his ankle, and that is what’s holding him up in the tree. Then I see Roy, standing up on a high tree limb, like a monkey, holding his .50 cal at his hip with one arm and feeding it ammo from a belt with the other arm. He is firing like Rambo! BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM!!!!!!
The Bigfoot is swatting at Roy, but cannot quite reach him. It wants to knock over the tree so it can get to Roy, but every time it tries Roy pops it with his .50 cal. This is making the monster very agitated.
I screamed at the monster as loud as I could. It turned and saw me standing there. As soon as I had its attention I turned and dropped to my knees, as if to say “come on in”. Well, that pushed the old gay ape over the edge. It dropped to its knees, looking at me. Roy saw what was going on and stopped firing.
Then the ape made its first mistake. It puckered up its lips, closed it’s eyes, and moved in toward me. Clearly, it wanted a kiss. “How fucking pathetic is THIS?”, I thought.
It got its face right up next to mine. Then I said “Hey, bitch, look at this.” When it opened it’s eyes, I could see my reflection in its left eye. It was me pointing my .480 at the monster. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!!! I unloaded the large bore revolver into the beast’s eye!
It recoiled in horror, crying out in pain. I heard Roy on my head-set say “Bud, grenades...”, so I leapt up and fled. But just then 2 explosions let loose, close together, BAM-BAM!!! The conclusion blew me off my feet. I went flying, but landed ok. I immediately heard, through the ringing in my ears, Roy’s .50 BMG rattling off more shots.
I turned around and saw that the big old Bigfoot was blown to pieces. Half of its fucking face was gone. Roy was pumping it full of lead, with each bullet causing an explosion of blood and bloody flesh every time they struck. Nonetheless, the behemoth fought on.
Then I caught a glimpse of something. It was Mr. Murder’s .50 BMG Barrett. I pick it up and check the mag, 10 shots in the mag. I thought to myself “WTF?!? Murder never even fired his weapon!!” But I would have to reflect on this later. I sprinted into action.
As the Sasquatch has all of its focus on Roy, I sneak up behind it, positioned the rifle’s muzzle right up the thing’s asshole and pulled the trigger 3 times in quick succession. BAM! BAM! BAM!! The animal grabbed its ass with both hands and went down to its knees. It was howling in pain.
I flanked the animal and got in front of it. It was in such pain it did not even notice me. Then I take aim on the Bigfoot’s balls. BAM!! They explode like an oversized watermelon. Then, just for the fuck of it, I took aim and blew off its dick. Blood spurted from the remaining stump like a fire hose!!
Now the animal was moaning and it’s eyes were rolling up in its head. I took aim and fired the remaining cartridges into the animals head. Clearly, the bullets penetrated the thick skull, as bloody brain matter was blasted out of its head every time I shot. The .50 cal absolutely shredded its brain. Then, with a loud thud, the beast fell over, deader than a Kennedy!
Roy climbed down the tree and came up running. “Goddamn it, boy!! You dun did it!!! You kilt that fuckin critter!!! I softened it up a might, but you stepped it up like a man and MURDERED that motherfucker!!! Damn, Son, that is the biggest damn Bigfoot critter I ever dun see!!” Clearly, Roy was excited.
Roy said, “Let’s git us a drank, boy! You earned it! Oh, and put on some goddamn clothes already.” As we are walking toward the house I catch sight of something. I tell Roy to go on ahead and pour me a drink, that I will be there in a moment. So he goes on ahead.
I walk over to the object I spied. As I thought, it was Skull Crusher’s BARRETT .50 BMG rifle. I released the magazine and took a look. 10 rounds were present. This means that, just like with Mr. Murder, Skull Crusher’s rifle was never fired. I carried the rifle to my back door, leaned it up against the door frame and entered my house.
I found Roy standing behind my bar in my living room, pouring drinks. He looks up with me with a smile. Then he asks “Damn, boy, you had a hard dick all this time? Jesus Christ!Cover that thang up!!”
I walked up to the bar, took my glass of scotch, and took a sip. Then I asked Roy what happened out there. Roy said, “Look, son, I ain’t gonna tell you again, go put on some pants and quit prancing around here like a faggot.” Roy had a point, so I went and got dressed.
When I returned, Roy was sitting by the fire sipping whiskey. He looked at me and smiled, all snaggle toothed. He said “There’s my boy!!” I picked up my scotch and sat down next to Roy.
I again asked him what happened out there. Roy said “What happent? What happent is that you dun went and killed a record Sasquatch!!” I said “NO. WHAT HAPPENED? I checked Murder’s and Skull’s rifles and no shots were fired. WHY DIDN’T YOU GIVE THE ORDER TO SHOOT?!?”
Roy takes out his pipe, stuffs it, tamps it, then lights it. I know what he is doing. First, he is collecting his thoughts as he prepares his pipe. Second, he is getting ready to tell me something. I decided to let him take his time telling me.
After a couple puffs on his pipe, Roy began. “Son, sometimes we do thangs in life fer many purposes. For example, when I seen how big this sumbitch Bigfoot was, I knew I needed my old fiddy-cal shootin iron. But I left it up in Sasquatch Hollar. So I needed someone to retrieve it fer me. So I called up old Johnny Murder.”
“Johnny sed he would, but he wuz a’busy bustin old Skull Crusher outa the pokey. I told him, hell, bring him along wit ya. Nobody will think to look fer him down here in Georgia.”
“Ya see, boy, old Skull Crusher got hisself inta sum trouble. I knowed that DA wuz a’gonna dangle reduced sentence deals in front of his dumb ass if he agreed to spill his guts about my liquor and meth operations. This put old Roy in a spot.”
“Now, I doubt Skull Crusher would have turned on me, but why take a chance? So I up and ordered Johnny Murder to bust him outa prison and bring him to me. That wuz right before Thanksgiving. Then all this drama with yer Bigfoot came up. I figured, why not kill 2 birds with one rifle?”
“I got them 2 sumbitches down here under the guise of hunting down and killing this critter. I needed my fiddy, mind you. But I needed those assholes here too. I had to tie up loose ends.”
So while we wuz on point, and those 2 boys were distracted by that thar Bigfoot, I shot old Skull Crusher in the head, then I shot Johnny Murder in the head cuz he wuz a witness.”
Old Roy was smiling as he told me this, like he was really happy with himself for what he did. I said “Goddamn, Roy, I was almost fucking killed and you were distracted by business.” Roy said “Yeah, but I wuz here fer ya, weren’t I? If’n I tweren’t Out thar blasting away at that critter then you never would have been able to move in and kill it!”
Roy had a point. I said, “You were here for me Roy, and I appreciate it. I really do.” Roy nodded. I said “Well, I guess we need to get rid of a couple more bodies. You want to gut and carve up the Bigfoot for meat?” Roy said, “Hell yeah!! I’ll eat off that big thang fer the winter.” He asked if I wanted some of the meat, and I said no.
I look over at Roy and say, “I love you, Uncle Roy.” Roy looked at me and replied, “Don’t be a fag, son.”