Free skeleton cut out
Things Cut in Half
2013.07.09 23:05 smartypantsgc9 Things Cut in Half
For your cut in half needs.
2012.10.07 22:27 Caffeine free since...
A subreddit for people who are dependent or addicted to caffeine and are trying to quit or cut down. We have "caffeine-free" day counters.
2012.06.21 18:09 BasementCat666 Don't worry, it grows back.
For those redditors who cut their own hair or are interested in learning how.
2024.04.29 00:05 HughEhhoule Bait Dog
“Get the fuck out of my house with this ‘ old country’ shit Sylvia, I’m serious. “ I hear my dad say from the kitchen downstairs.
“I give children and idiots three warnings. That’s your first. “ It takes me a second to recognize my aunt’s voice. I’ve only met her a handful of times, and it’s nearly 2am.
“Syl, he’s right, this is crazy. I’m Roma, I’m proud, but your part of the family, and mine are two separate things. “ My mom interjects. Her voice is calm and level.
I woke up about half way through whatever is going on, and I’m fuzzy on the details, but everyone involved is three kinds of pissed.
“So you say, but just because you ignore the other side, doesn’t mean the other side ignores you. “ Aunt Syl replies, I could never quite place her accent, but it makes her statement all the more sinister.
“Might as well make that the family motto.
Syl, there are a couple dozen other kids Nikolas’ age in the family. Half of which are already hip deep in whatever is going on nowadays, you don’t need him. “ Mom isn’t pleading, but I can hear she’s worried.
“Why are we trying to reason with your crazy aunt? Time to go Syl. “ My dad isn’t worried, he’s angry.
“That’s two. “ Aunt Sylvia replies.
I hear a chair squeak then fall to the floor.
“That’s three. “ Sylvia says, her voice is cold, and I swear I could almost hear an echo.
I can hear my dad start to quietly cough, he sounds like he’s trying to talk but can’t. My heart starts to race, I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know it’s bad.
“Syl! Jesus Christ, that’s my husband. “ Mom sounds more offended than scared now. I wish I could say the same.
I stand next to my cracked door, fear beginning to take hold.
I can hear my dad start to take long wheezing breaths, I have no idea if this is a good or bad thing.
“Happy?
Now that any hope of doing this quietly is over, Nikolas and I have a long drive ahead of us. He’s 16, he has a license, yes? “ I hear Sylvia say, sudden footsteps walking up the stairs.
“No, he’s not interested in driving. You can’t take him Syl. “ my mom sounds frantic, Sylvia’s steps are measured and heavy.
“Not interested? You sure we are related? You raise soft children. “ Sylvia ends this with a dismissive laugh.
The few minutes that followed were kind of a blur, with my mom trying to convince me that I was just going to visit family, as if I didn’t just hear everything.
It's a couple hours into a long drive in a small car when my brain finally catches up to the fact that I’m awake, and going 30 miles an hour over the speed limit.
Aunt Syl sits in the driver’s seat, she’s 40 something, olive skinned with pitch-colored hair. Her style, it’s, something.
Her outfit was the middle of a Venn diagram of hippie, punk rock and carpenter. Bracelets, flannel, paisley, and enough piercings I lost count.
“Any chance of putting both hands on the wheel? “ I say, I’m mad, but I don’t even really know why.
She holds up her left arm, and I’m shocked. It’s an ancient looking blued steel prosthetic. She flexes, the clawed, almost mitten-like hand.
“Go through too many steering wheels that way. “ She says with a smirk.
“What’s going on? “ I ask, after an agonizing fifteen minutes of silence.
“You’re a big boy, so if you want the truth, I’ll give it to you. There’s a job that needs to be done, a dangerous job. And I want you to do it.
Now, I want you, not because you’re strong, or smart, or special. We have many strong, smart, special boys.
You, I want, because you’re unknown, and, little one, disposable. “ Sylvia lets this comment hang like rotten fruit.
The next hour goes in silence, at no point do I even entertain the notion this is some kind of joke. Something about this woman’s energy, about the way she carries herself, it scares the shit out of me.
We board a plane, somehow she had all of my travel documents. Even stranger is that we get escorted past the security checkpoints, into first class.
The next words I say to Sylvia are, “You have to put that out! “ as she lights up a short, yellow, hand-rolled cigarette.
She grins, taking a long drag, it smells horrible, the cheapest roughest tobacco odor I’ve encountered.
She relaxes, a cloud of thick, grey smoke forming.
I’m stunned, not a single person says anything. At first I think maybe she’s some kind of, I don’t know, mobster or something.
But that isn’t quite right. No one is looking at her in fear, no one is telling anyone else not to say anything. It’s like no one notices what she’s doing.
“How does she do this? The little boy wonders.
I don’t come offering you a thankless task Nik. I come with an opportunity. “ Sylvia says before crushing the cigarette on the arm of a chair and tossing it into the isle.
I had questions, and between the fear and the confusion I asked every one of them.
The only response she gave me was, “You’ll see when we get there. “.
She was right.
The flight lands, and after an hour or so of driving the world’s oldest pickup through the English countryside, we wind up at an old farm house, in the middle of nowhere outside of Hammersmith.
The sign outside says “ Gritt Auctions” the letters are old, bronze and tarnished, the grounds are littered with car parts, statues, and errata of every type.
Dozens, maybe even a hundred people mill about each stopping for a moment to give a suspicious look at the interloper in their midst.
Sylvia seems amused at my nervousness. I try and give the rough looking folks around me as much space as I can.
“They’re family, mostly, by blood or marriage, with a handful of lost souls and hangers on. “ She explains.
I probably should have guessed, seeing my mom’s family name on the sign, but my brain is basically nothing more than fear, anxiety and jet lag at this point.
“When do I get to know what’s going on? “ I say, waving at a cousin of some form and receive a uniquely English rude gesture in return.
My ear is ringing, and I stumble , the left side of my face burning. I’d say Syl slapped me, but it was more of a polite punch.
“Don’t whine. You’ve been stolen from your mother, treated like a dog, and judging by Robert’s attitude, rejected by your family.
I don’t want to hear whining, you angry, soft boy? “ Sylvia stops and turns toward me. I notice the people around us stop their tasks, interested in our conversation.
“No… “ I begin, not wanting to piss her off.
I don’t even see the next slap, but it puts me on my ass.
“Next one’s with the left hand.
Are you angry Nikolas? “ Sylvia looms over me like a raven.
I feel something before I get to my feet, a hot, quick flash of hatred. A context free rage at the fucked up situation I’m in.
“Answer is still no. Because to be angry, I’d have to know a God-Damned thing about what’s going on.
But my lunatic aunt just picked me up and now I’m standing in the middle of whatever the English equivalent to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family is.
For all I know, I’m your new King. So no, I’m not angry, I’m annoyed, and maybe a bit worried my gene pool really needs some chlorine. “ I’m shocked at what I’m saying, but I see some smiles, hear a few laughs.
Sylvia’s face seems to soften slightly.
“There’s the Gritt in you. “ She says, starting to walk to an old barn.
I catch up to her as I attempt in vain to dust myself off.
Sylvia opens a small, strangely modern looking door, inside a row of lights automatically flip on.
In contrast to the rotten wood exterior, the inside of the barn looks modern, design wise it’s half way between a hospital and a car repair shop. Equipment of unknown purpose, gurneys and cages of all sizes and types surround me.
Sylvia walks to a door at the back, then pauses.
“Before I open this door, you need to understand something.
There is no fortune telling, or reading of cards here. The cloak of the traveller, the bangles of the gypsy, these are all ways of navigating the world to us. Ways to exist on the fringes of society.
The Gritt family, we trade in the unknown. We find, we collect, and we sell. And ours is no petty collection of trinkets and tools not meant for the hands of man.
Our grift, is livestock. “
The woman opens the door, and what I see, sitting, chained in one corner of the industrial cement walled cell shakes everything I thought I knew about reality.
He's six and a half feet tall, his skin a waxy yellow, and every spare inch is festooned with black stitching, rusted pieces of metal or small splinters of bone.
His face is noseless and asymmetrical, almost as if repaired or modified over and over. One eye is a small, sinister looking orb with a red pupil, the other a massive, almost reptilian thing, wildly twitching about.
He wears no shirt, but a long, grey hide Trenchcoat hangs down to his knees. I start to shake as I see it’s made from layers of stitched human skin.
He sneers at us, long, conical teeth catch the harsh halogen light.
The thing strains against the chains, but they bind him tightly enough to the wall he can barely move.
“You’re not lasting more than 4 seconds kid. Just turn the fuck around. I’ll have you slitting your wrists in the corner by nightfall. “ The thing says, it’s voice is foul, almost a physical force. Grating, rage filled, and with a lunatic edge to it that makes me question exactly how much those chains can take.
“ 3/10, Augustus, who do you think you are scaring with that limp dick of a threat? “ Sylvia says, confidently walking up to the creature.
It snaps it’s jaws with a sound like a rifle shot. No where near Sylvia, but enough to make me jump on the other side of the room.
“If I could stop being threatened and hearing my aunt talk about dicks, I’d be a huge fan. “ I say, something deep within me, pushing past the fear and lack of sleep, “And if anything feels like just telling me what’s going on instead of being vague and creepy, even better. “
The chained thing looks to me, curious. Sylvia smirks.
“Augustus is going to be forced to fight others like him until eventually he gets what’s coming to him for years of evil.
You, are going to stand next to him while he does it. “ Sylvia begins to walk away from the thing, ignoring vile threats of both the violent and carnal variety.
I try to follow her out the door and she blocks me.
“If your still sane and alive in the morning, I was right. Good luck soft boy. “ She says before closing the heavy metal door.
Without her, I feel tiny, that spark of rage is snuffed out and replaced with a cold sense of dread.
“You’re going to have to turn around sometime kid. “ The chained creature says.
I turn, slowly, resolving to make eye contact with the thing. I manage a second or two before looking away, the creature cackles, mocking me.
“Holy shit, they sent me an honest to God pussy. Whole family full of void fucked apes and they send me you?
The best part is, you don’t even get it. I can see what you’re thinking kid, I can see that tiny collection of hormones and goo you vainly call a brain going into overdrive trying to figure this out… “ Augustus starts.
The creature kept going, I don’t have an exact count but it was at least twelve hours.
I can only describe it as a verbal assault. Augustus drew from some dark wells, how it knew half of the things it did scared me as much as it’s clawed hands or, piranha-like teeth.
I lost something that night. The fears that thing drug up, the insecurities it played on, the secrets it knew, it crushed any childlike notions of safety or understanding the world I had.
Don’t take that the wrong way, I don’t mean it toughened me up. It broke any sense of confidence I had, took away any feeling of safety. That God Damned thing in the trenchcoat, changed me.
I’ve lost track of how long it’s been since I’ve slept, but I’m brought a tin plate heaped with eggs, sausage and for some twisted reason, brown beans. And realize it’s been at least a day since I’ve eaten.
I sit around an abused, graffiti carved picnic table with an eclectic combination of family I’ve never met. Syl sips a tea I can smell from ten feet away and looks at me like I’m a used car.
“I’m always right soft boy. Remember that. “ She says.
It takes a half dozen guys built like construction workers, with Sylvia following behind whispering things that wilt vegetation, to wrangle the creature into the back of an old, reinforced horse trailer.
The inside is covered in totems, runes, and other spooky looking errata. The entity becomes sluggish and disoriented as the heavy wooden doors close, and get sealed with a massive brass lock.
My mind begins to wander on the three hour trip through the back country of the UK. The sun sets, and my brain screams for sleep. That scream is silenced by the sense of mounting dread as we get closer to our destination.
We pull up to an abandoned theme restaurant, the parking lot is full, the windows are boarded, and the walls covered in graffiti. The place is huge, more the size of a small stadium than a diner.
The parking lot is full, the sputtering, sparking neon sign flashes “Faron’s Funhouse. “
It’s a few minutes outside of a town I forgot to catch the name of. We can see lights on the horizon, but there’s a feeling of wrong surrounding the building that makes them seem a million miles away.
A half dozen ‘cousins’ of mine move Augustus into a strange, almost coffin-like box made of wood, steel and glass, covered in trinkets and symbols. The thing sneers groggily from within, it’s mismatched eyes rolling in it’s skull.
I don’t hear Sylvia approach, I notice her as she smacks me in the back of the head hard enough to make my ears ring. The old, cruel woman is walking toward the doors of this meeting place.
“Eyes forward, sneer on your face, and walk like you know where you’re going. “ Are her only instructions.
For once, they’re clear and simple. What I see inside easily keeps my attention, and I’m equal parts scared and pissed off, so looking edgy and miserable is my default state.
At one point, this place was exactly what you’d think. I know you’re all expecting it to be a run down, rat infested haunted house now, but it was, stranger than that.
The place was well kept on the inside, but everything was either in use or repurposed to house the couple hundred eclectic customers milling around. In the centre, is a massive Lucite Cube, crystal clear and housing a ball pit, jungle gym and what looks to be a functional canteen, complete with a deep fryer and popcorn machine. It’s a couple hundred meters a side, and shaped like a flawed rectangle.
Smoke hangs in the air, my aunt greets old friends in a handful of different languages, I smile and nod, still trying to understand what the hell this place is.
We see Augustus being wheeled to the Lucite box, Sylvia cuts a laughing Cyrillic conversation short, and her and I make our way to the box that barely restrains the hatred and death inside.
At the other end of the Lucite Cube I see a few people dressed in blue and maroon uniforms ( if I were to guess vintage, from when this place served shitty food instead of violence.), they surround a massive, hulking, lanky thing. It’s obscured by smoke, and poor lighting, but it’s nine foot frame, and unnatural gait are clear.
The box holding Augustus sits about ten feet away from me, inside the massive cage. The front opens, my instinct is to step backward, get as much distance between me and the thing inside as possible, but instead, I’m shoved, before I can catch my balance, a workbook clad foot is in front of me.
I fall and stumble into the cage, I turn around to try and get out as fast as I can, I’m standing inches away from the creature, but I see Sylvia closing the clear, impermeable door.
It hits me then. For the first time since this ordeal started, I realize how grim things are.
Just like everyone else here, I’ve been raised on spooky shit packaged to be marketable. Little monsters, The Adams Family, Harry potter, hell let’s throw Pokemon and the like in there as it’s basically just dog fighting with a cute hat on.
And I thought what was happening to me, was somewhere on the Venn diagram of those things.
But as I see the impassive look on the face of a woman I’ve known since I was a child, ( at a distance or no.) as I’m locked in here with God knows what, I get it. I really get it.
His laughter is like an ice pick, I turn to face him, Augustus brushes himself off, casually looking around the massive arena.
“Just hit ya didn’t it, bud? “ He says, walking over to me, his steps impossibly quick, almost insect-like, “You’re not my trainer, or my wrangler, you certainly aren’t my fucking partner. “, the entity grabs my chin between two clawed fingers, “ You’re a bait dog. Something for me and that new blooded walking pun to fight over. “
My blood runs down his thumb, his grin cracks his face like a rotten melon, the monster pulls down, throwing me to the floor.
A buzzer sounds, and a three minute timer, projected in transparent red appears on the walls of the Lucite arena.
“If I’ve got to hunt you down in this shit-hole, things are going to be a lot worse for you. Stay put, bud. “ The trenchcoat clad thing says, casually walking toward the creature on the opposite side of the arena.
Closer now, I see it clearly. Inside of a pristine uniform, is a twisted attempt at the human form. The torso is lumpen, asymmetrical, but lean. It's arms nearly drag on the floor, yellow, infected looking flesh, weeping pus like a snail’s foot.
It's eyes are black caves, with just the hint of something deep within. It’s face is blank, a torn, haggard looking grey tongue runs over rotting green teeth.
The kid beside it looks around my age, he’s big though, just as confused and afraid as I am. He wears a similar uniform to the creature, but his looks, abused, torn, blood stained. Like it's been handed down from one unlucky owner to the next.
As the buzzer rings, the lanky, disgusting creature moves in a flash, tearing off the kid’s right arm and beginning to chew it.
The blood didn’t set me off, as terrible as it was. It was the three seconds between the act, and the poor kid realizing what happened that pushed me over the edge.
He started to scream, a horrible trapped animal kind of noise. He backs away from the monster beside him, gripping the crushed and torn remains of his forearm.
Augustus laughs, his trenchcoat drags on the floor, leaving a streak of blood as he walks.
“Man after my own heart.
So, I say, we split these sides of beef for two minutes then talk shop for a bit. Fuck these pretentious apes and their show. “ Augustus looks up to the massive thing. It remains impassive, gnawing on the hand.
“Don’t be like that. We both know two halves are better than one whole . Win-win for both of us“ Augustus gets a noise that sounds like an angry sewer pipe, and a dismissive wave of a long snake-like arm in response.
The thing in the trenchcoat shrugs, turning around and stalking toward me.
“You have no luck at all kid, I was going to let you go last.
But the pinworm back there wants to be a dick about things, so looks like things are getting started early. “ Augustus grins, his mouth opening shark like.
I stare down certain death, Augustus radiating fear, seeming to become more demonic with each step toward me.
From behind him, a noise.
I would have just assumed it was some part of the worm-like, filth ridden thing eating. Augustus clears up that misconception.
He turns, shaking, body language that of a wild animal.
“Was that a fucking snicker? A giggle? Are you fucking laughing at me, you literal fucking worm. “ He’s panting, hands twitching like dying insects.
He stands, inches from the other creature, dwarfed by it, teeth grinding, muscles straining.
The worm thing casually tosses the flesh bare hand toward Augustus. As it touches his coat, the arena erupts into a kind of wild, senseless, limitless violence.
It doesn’t feel like watching a fight, it’s more like a car wreck, or natural disaster. Pieces of jungle gym turn into lethal shrapnel as the blurred, filth spewing scrum destroys them.
I see the timer, 2:15. My mind starts to catch up, and I see the other kid, pale, whimpering, and trying in vain to staunch the blood spurting from his arm.
I’m running, low and likely poorly, pulling my belt from my pants, and thanking myself for actually listening when I was forced to take a first aid course for a summer job last year.
The kid is scared, he tries pushing me away, but I’m determined, and not down a couple pints of blood. I pull the belt with two hands, pull it through again and twist, it’s ugly, it’s not perfect, but the flow of blood begins to slow, then stop.
We crawl behind a prize counter, decades old candy and stuffed animals surround us as we cower. A liquid filled roar loud enough to crack the cheap glass cases fills the room.
The kid is looking rough, blood still trickling from the torn stump of his forearm. I see some plastic bags and get an idea.
I lean over to get them, and feel something strange, at first I think I pulled a muscle.
Then there is a deep, burning pain, instinctively I pull away, and turn around.
The kid is on his knees, sanity has left his eyes, a cheap hunting knife in his remaining hand he has a look of panic and determination on his face.
“We have to win. “ he says, lunging at me with the blade.
He’s slow, and I avoid it, but not by as much as I’d like. Blood runs down my back, for a moment I wonder how bad I’m hurt, but it doesn’t really matter right now.
I retreat, but the only thing keeping us from being torn apart by the whirlwind of shrapnel caused by the creatures is the counter, I can’t escape.
It's a stalemate, I’m no athlete, and the kid is built like a rugby player, but he’s missing a hand, and delirious from blood loss. I plead, I try and reason, and I dodge crazed strikes by increasingly narrow margins.
Something large, either thrown or knocked loose destroys the counter behind me. Suddenly all is chaos. I’m thrown into the kid in the uniform, plaster dust surrounds us in a grey cloud.
By the time the air clears the kid is on top of me. I have his wrist in one hand, keeping the split tip of the blade inches from my face.
The angle is too awkward, I can’t get any leverage. It’s not a stalemate, it’s a war of attrition that I’m losing.
I catch a glimpse of the two creatures. The worm thing is striking at Augustus, who stands still, limbs moving in arcing blurs deflecting the blows and tearing off chunks of foul, tainted flesh.
The tip of the knife begins to dig into my cheek. A drop of blood hits my eye.
I grab the makeshift tourniquet with a free hand and roughly yank forward. The kid on top of me screams, bloods begins to pour. Torn flesh and a gore soaked belt hit the ground.
For a moment the weight on me eases up, and I push the knife forward. But the kid, he’s too stupid or far gone to just back off. As I feel is strength start to fade, he presses himself harder.
I expect him to back off as I begin to drive the roughly sharpened back edge of the knife into his neck. But he doubles down, leaning forward, trying to press the knife toward me.
For a moment, every other fucked up thing going on around me doesn’t matter. The world is small, silent, and consists of nothing more than the image of the knife ripping away a fist sized strip from the kids neck.
He backs off when he realizes the extent of the damage. Staring at me shocked, as if just not realizing the consequences of his actions.
He dies slowly, poorly, and within inches of me. I feel no victory, no sense of being a winner, just a dark pit in the back of my mind. The loss of something that comes with taking someone’s life.
I stand, shell shocked, staring at the corpse. My safety the last thing on my mind.
The worm thing is hurt, and attempts to dive into the ball pit, but somehow, defying physics, Augustus grabs it, holding the half ton monster out with one hand.
He arcs the thing, slamming it into the floor behind him, the spray of gore and viscera rivals pyrotechnics, the force leaves a blood filled crater in the floor.
Without missing a beat Augustus starts to walk toward me, making a token effort of flicking pieces of bone and organ from himself.
I’m frozen, I know nothing I can do could stop whatever he has planned.
The creature picks up a jagged piece of lumber, and looks at the clock, “We’ve got 45 seconds of fun left kid. “ he says with a sneer.
But as he passes the counter, and sees the corpse the look of imminent violence turns into amusement.
“How’s it feel to be a child killer, bud? “, Augustus laughs, “Not that I can’t tell from the look on your face.
Fuck me, that knocked some gears loose didn’t it? “
The thing walks forward, looking me over like a collectable.
“I can’t let that go to waste, now can I? “ he slaps me lightly, “It’s going to be a fucking blast watching you break down kid, wonder what drives you nuts first, this kid being in your dreams, or the fact that, at some point I’m going to get bored and start giving you all the pain you feel you deserve? “
Of course, I made it out alive. It’d be kind of hard to have posted this if I didn’t.
But now, I sit in a dingy room in a farm house half way across the world from home. Surrounded by family and monsters, all of which seem out to get me. Being forced to risk my life in some kind of blood sport.
Maybe I’ll be back, maybe I’ll be dead by the next time I get a chance to post anything. If anyone has any help, please, post it in the comments. I’m in a dark place here and no one else seems to be on my side.
submitted by HughEhhoule to nosleep [link] [comments]
“I give children and idiots three warnings. That’s your first. “ It takes me a second to recognize my aunt’s voice. I’ve only met her a handful of times, and it’s nearly 2am.
“Syl, he’s right, this is crazy. I’m Roma, I’m proud, but your part of the family, and mine are two separate things. “ My mom interjects. Her voice is calm and level.
I woke up about half way through whatever is going on, and I’m fuzzy on the details, but everyone involved is three kinds of pissed.
“So you say, but just because you ignore the other side, doesn’t mean the other side ignores you. “ Aunt Syl replies, I could never quite place her accent, but it makes her statement all the more sinister.
“Might as well make that the family motto.
Syl, there are a couple dozen other kids Nikolas’ age in the family. Half of which are already hip deep in whatever is going on nowadays, you don’t need him. “ Mom isn’t pleading, but I can hear she’s worried.
“Why are we trying to reason with your crazy aunt? Time to go Syl. “ My dad isn’t worried, he’s angry.
“That’s two. “ Aunt Sylvia replies.
I hear a chair squeak then fall to the floor.
“That’s three. “ Sylvia says, her voice is cold, and I swear I could almost hear an echo.
I can hear my dad start to quietly cough, he sounds like he’s trying to talk but can’t. My heart starts to race, I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know it’s bad.
“Syl! Jesus Christ, that’s my husband. “ Mom sounds more offended than scared now. I wish I could say the same.
I stand next to my cracked door, fear beginning to take hold.
I can hear my dad start to take long wheezing breaths, I have no idea if this is a good or bad thing.
“Happy?
Now that any hope of doing this quietly is over, Nikolas and I have a long drive ahead of us. He’s 16, he has a license, yes? “ I hear Sylvia say, sudden footsteps walking up the stairs.
“No, he’s not interested in driving. You can’t take him Syl. “ my mom sounds frantic, Sylvia’s steps are measured and heavy.
“Not interested? You sure we are related? You raise soft children. “ Sylvia ends this with a dismissive laugh.
The few minutes that followed were kind of a blur, with my mom trying to convince me that I was just going to visit family, as if I didn’t just hear everything.
It's a couple hours into a long drive in a small car when my brain finally catches up to the fact that I’m awake, and going 30 miles an hour over the speed limit.
Aunt Syl sits in the driver’s seat, she’s 40 something, olive skinned with pitch-colored hair. Her style, it’s, something.
Her outfit was the middle of a Venn diagram of hippie, punk rock and carpenter. Bracelets, flannel, paisley, and enough piercings I lost count.
“Any chance of putting both hands on the wheel? “ I say, I’m mad, but I don’t even really know why.
She holds up her left arm, and I’m shocked. It’s an ancient looking blued steel prosthetic. She flexes, the clawed, almost mitten-like hand.
“Go through too many steering wheels that way. “ She says with a smirk.
“What’s going on? “ I ask, after an agonizing fifteen minutes of silence.
“You’re a big boy, so if you want the truth, I’ll give it to you. There’s a job that needs to be done, a dangerous job. And I want you to do it.
Now, I want you, not because you’re strong, or smart, or special. We have many strong, smart, special boys.
You, I want, because you’re unknown, and, little one, disposable. “ Sylvia lets this comment hang like rotten fruit.
The next hour goes in silence, at no point do I even entertain the notion this is some kind of joke. Something about this woman’s energy, about the way she carries herself, it scares the shit out of me.
We board a plane, somehow she had all of my travel documents. Even stranger is that we get escorted past the security checkpoints, into first class.
The next words I say to Sylvia are, “You have to put that out! “ as she lights up a short, yellow, hand-rolled cigarette.
She grins, taking a long drag, it smells horrible, the cheapest roughest tobacco odor I’ve encountered.
She relaxes, a cloud of thick, grey smoke forming.
I’m stunned, not a single person says anything. At first I think maybe she’s some kind of, I don’t know, mobster or something.
But that isn’t quite right. No one is looking at her in fear, no one is telling anyone else not to say anything. It’s like no one notices what she’s doing.
“How does she do this? The little boy wonders.
I don’t come offering you a thankless task Nik. I come with an opportunity. “ Sylvia says before crushing the cigarette on the arm of a chair and tossing it into the isle.
I had questions, and between the fear and the confusion I asked every one of them.
The only response she gave me was, “You’ll see when we get there. “.
She was right.
The flight lands, and after an hour or so of driving the world’s oldest pickup through the English countryside, we wind up at an old farm house, in the middle of nowhere outside of Hammersmith.
The sign outside says “ Gritt Auctions” the letters are old, bronze and tarnished, the grounds are littered with car parts, statues, and errata of every type.
Dozens, maybe even a hundred people mill about each stopping for a moment to give a suspicious look at the interloper in their midst.
Sylvia seems amused at my nervousness. I try and give the rough looking folks around me as much space as I can.
“They’re family, mostly, by blood or marriage, with a handful of lost souls and hangers on. “ She explains.
I probably should have guessed, seeing my mom’s family name on the sign, but my brain is basically nothing more than fear, anxiety and jet lag at this point.
“When do I get to know what’s going on? “ I say, waving at a cousin of some form and receive a uniquely English rude gesture in return.
My ear is ringing, and I stumble , the left side of my face burning. I’d say Syl slapped me, but it was more of a polite punch.
“Don’t whine. You’ve been stolen from your mother, treated like a dog, and judging by Robert’s attitude, rejected by your family.
I don’t want to hear whining, you angry, soft boy? “ Sylvia stops and turns toward me. I notice the people around us stop their tasks, interested in our conversation.
“No… “ I begin, not wanting to piss her off.
I don’t even see the next slap, but it puts me on my ass.
“Next one’s with the left hand.
Are you angry Nikolas? “ Sylvia looms over me like a raven.
I feel something before I get to my feet, a hot, quick flash of hatred. A context free rage at the fucked up situation I’m in.
“Answer is still no. Because to be angry, I’d have to know a God-Damned thing about what’s going on.
But my lunatic aunt just picked me up and now I’m standing in the middle of whatever the English equivalent to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family is.
For all I know, I’m your new King. So no, I’m not angry, I’m annoyed, and maybe a bit worried my gene pool really needs some chlorine. “ I’m shocked at what I’m saying, but I see some smiles, hear a few laughs.
Sylvia’s face seems to soften slightly.
“There’s the Gritt in you. “ She says, starting to walk to an old barn.
I catch up to her as I attempt in vain to dust myself off.
Sylvia opens a small, strangely modern looking door, inside a row of lights automatically flip on.
In contrast to the rotten wood exterior, the inside of the barn looks modern, design wise it’s half way between a hospital and a car repair shop. Equipment of unknown purpose, gurneys and cages of all sizes and types surround me.
Sylvia walks to a door at the back, then pauses.
“Before I open this door, you need to understand something.
There is no fortune telling, or reading of cards here. The cloak of the traveller, the bangles of the gypsy, these are all ways of navigating the world to us. Ways to exist on the fringes of society.
The Gritt family, we trade in the unknown. We find, we collect, and we sell. And ours is no petty collection of trinkets and tools not meant for the hands of man.
Our grift, is livestock. “
The woman opens the door, and what I see, sitting, chained in one corner of the industrial cement walled cell shakes everything I thought I knew about reality.
He's six and a half feet tall, his skin a waxy yellow, and every spare inch is festooned with black stitching, rusted pieces of metal or small splinters of bone.
His face is noseless and asymmetrical, almost as if repaired or modified over and over. One eye is a small, sinister looking orb with a red pupil, the other a massive, almost reptilian thing, wildly twitching about.
He wears no shirt, but a long, grey hide Trenchcoat hangs down to his knees. I start to shake as I see it’s made from layers of stitched human skin.
He sneers at us, long, conical teeth catch the harsh halogen light.
The thing strains against the chains, but they bind him tightly enough to the wall he can barely move.
“You’re not lasting more than 4 seconds kid. Just turn the fuck around. I’ll have you slitting your wrists in the corner by nightfall. “ The thing says, it’s voice is foul, almost a physical force. Grating, rage filled, and with a lunatic edge to it that makes me question exactly how much those chains can take.
“ 3/10, Augustus, who do you think you are scaring with that limp dick of a threat? “ Sylvia says, confidently walking up to the creature.
It snaps it’s jaws with a sound like a rifle shot. No where near Sylvia, but enough to make me jump on the other side of the room.
“If I could stop being threatened and hearing my aunt talk about dicks, I’d be a huge fan. “ I say, something deep within me, pushing past the fear and lack of sleep, “And if anything feels like just telling me what’s going on instead of being vague and creepy, even better. “
The chained thing looks to me, curious. Sylvia smirks.
“Augustus is going to be forced to fight others like him until eventually he gets what’s coming to him for years of evil.
You, are going to stand next to him while he does it. “ Sylvia begins to walk away from the thing, ignoring vile threats of both the violent and carnal variety.
I try to follow her out the door and she blocks me.
“If your still sane and alive in the morning, I was right. Good luck soft boy. “ She says before closing the heavy metal door.
Without her, I feel tiny, that spark of rage is snuffed out and replaced with a cold sense of dread.
“You’re going to have to turn around sometime kid. “ The chained creature says.
I turn, slowly, resolving to make eye contact with the thing. I manage a second or two before looking away, the creature cackles, mocking me.
“Holy shit, they sent me an honest to God pussy. Whole family full of void fucked apes and they send me you?
The best part is, you don’t even get it. I can see what you’re thinking kid, I can see that tiny collection of hormones and goo you vainly call a brain going into overdrive trying to figure this out… “ Augustus starts.
The creature kept going, I don’t have an exact count but it was at least twelve hours.
I can only describe it as a verbal assault. Augustus drew from some dark wells, how it knew half of the things it did scared me as much as it’s clawed hands or, piranha-like teeth.
I lost something that night. The fears that thing drug up, the insecurities it played on, the secrets it knew, it crushed any childlike notions of safety or understanding the world I had.
Don’t take that the wrong way, I don’t mean it toughened me up. It broke any sense of confidence I had, took away any feeling of safety. That God Damned thing in the trenchcoat, changed me.
I’ve lost track of how long it’s been since I’ve slept, but I’m brought a tin plate heaped with eggs, sausage and for some twisted reason, brown beans. And realize it’s been at least a day since I’ve eaten.
I sit around an abused, graffiti carved picnic table with an eclectic combination of family I’ve never met. Syl sips a tea I can smell from ten feet away and looks at me like I’m a used car.
“I’m always right soft boy. Remember that. “ She says.
It takes a half dozen guys built like construction workers, with Sylvia following behind whispering things that wilt vegetation, to wrangle the creature into the back of an old, reinforced horse trailer.
The inside is covered in totems, runes, and other spooky looking errata. The entity becomes sluggish and disoriented as the heavy wooden doors close, and get sealed with a massive brass lock.
My mind begins to wander on the three hour trip through the back country of the UK. The sun sets, and my brain screams for sleep. That scream is silenced by the sense of mounting dread as we get closer to our destination.
We pull up to an abandoned theme restaurant, the parking lot is full, the windows are boarded, and the walls covered in graffiti. The place is huge, more the size of a small stadium than a diner.
The parking lot is full, the sputtering, sparking neon sign flashes “Faron’s Funhouse. “
It’s a few minutes outside of a town I forgot to catch the name of. We can see lights on the horizon, but there’s a feeling of wrong surrounding the building that makes them seem a million miles away.
A half dozen ‘cousins’ of mine move Augustus into a strange, almost coffin-like box made of wood, steel and glass, covered in trinkets and symbols. The thing sneers groggily from within, it’s mismatched eyes rolling in it’s skull.
I don’t hear Sylvia approach, I notice her as she smacks me in the back of the head hard enough to make my ears ring. The old, cruel woman is walking toward the doors of this meeting place.
“Eyes forward, sneer on your face, and walk like you know where you’re going. “ Are her only instructions.
For once, they’re clear and simple. What I see inside easily keeps my attention, and I’m equal parts scared and pissed off, so looking edgy and miserable is my default state.
At one point, this place was exactly what you’d think. I know you’re all expecting it to be a run down, rat infested haunted house now, but it was, stranger than that.
The place was well kept on the inside, but everything was either in use or repurposed to house the couple hundred eclectic customers milling around. In the centre, is a massive Lucite Cube, crystal clear and housing a ball pit, jungle gym and what looks to be a functional canteen, complete with a deep fryer and popcorn machine. It’s a couple hundred meters a side, and shaped like a flawed rectangle.
Smoke hangs in the air, my aunt greets old friends in a handful of different languages, I smile and nod, still trying to understand what the hell this place is.
We see Augustus being wheeled to the Lucite box, Sylvia cuts a laughing Cyrillic conversation short, and her and I make our way to the box that barely restrains the hatred and death inside.
At the other end of the Lucite Cube I see a few people dressed in blue and maroon uniforms ( if I were to guess vintage, from when this place served shitty food instead of violence.), they surround a massive, hulking, lanky thing. It’s obscured by smoke, and poor lighting, but it’s nine foot frame, and unnatural gait are clear.
The box holding Augustus sits about ten feet away from me, inside the massive cage. The front opens, my instinct is to step backward, get as much distance between me and the thing inside as possible, but instead, I’m shoved, before I can catch my balance, a workbook clad foot is in front of me.
I fall and stumble into the cage, I turn around to try and get out as fast as I can, I’m standing inches away from the creature, but I see Sylvia closing the clear, impermeable door.
It hits me then. For the first time since this ordeal started, I realize how grim things are.
Just like everyone else here, I’ve been raised on spooky shit packaged to be marketable. Little monsters, The Adams Family, Harry potter, hell let’s throw Pokemon and the like in there as it’s basically just dog fighting with a cute hat on.
And I thought what was happening to me, was somewhere on the Venn diagram of those things.
But as I see the impassive look on the face of a woman I’ve known since I was a child, ( at a distance or no.) as I’m locked in here with God knows what, I get it. I really get it.
His laughter is like an ice pick, I turn to face him, Augustus brushes himself off, casually looking around the massive arena.
“Just hit ya didn’t it, bud? “ He says, walking over to me, his steps impossibly quick, almost insect-like, “You’re not my trainer, or my wrangler, you certainly aren’t my fucking partner. “, the entity grabs my chin between two clawed fingers, “ You’re a bait dog. Something for me and that new blooded walking pun to fight over. “
My blood runs down his thumb, his grin cracks his face like a rotten melon, the monster pulls down, throwing me to the floor.
A buzzer sounds, and a three minute timer, projected in transparent red appears on the walls of the Lucite arena.
“If I’ve got to hunt you down in this shit-hole, things are going to be a lot worse for you. Stay put, bud. “ The trenchcoat clad thing says, casually walking toward the creature on the opposite side of the arena.
Closer now, I see it clearly. Inside of a pristine uniform, is a twisted attempt at the human form. The torso is lumpen, asymmetrical, but lean. It's arms nearly drag on the floor, yellow, infected looking flesh, weeping pus like a snail’s foot.
It's eyes are black caves, with just the hint of something deep within. It’s face is blank, a torn, haggard looking grey tongue runs over rotting green teeth.
The kid beside it looks around my age, he’s big though, just as confused and afraid as I am. He wears a similar uniform to the creature, but his looks, abused, torn, blood stained. Like it's been handed down from one unlucky owner to the next.
As the buzzer rings, the lanky, disgusting creature moves in a flash, tearing off the kid’s right arm and beginning to chew it.
The blood didn’t set me off, as terrible as it was. It was the three seconds between the act, and the poor kid realizing what happened that pushed me over the edge.
He started to scream, a horrible trapped animal kind of noise. He backs away from the monster beside him, gripping the crushed and torn remains of his forearm.
Augustus laughs, his trenchcoat drags on the floor, leaving a streak of blood as he walks.
“Man after my own heart.
So, I say, we split these sides of beef for two minutes then talk shop for a bit. Fuck these pretentious apes and their show. “ Augustus looks up to the massive thing. It remains impassive, gnawing on the hand.
“Don’t be like that. We both know two halves are better than one whole . Win-win for both of us“ Augustus gets a noise that sounds like an angry sewer pipe, and a dismissive wave of a long snake-like arm in response.
The thing in the trenchcoat shrugs, turning around and stalking toward me.
“You have no luck at all kid, I was going to let you go last.
But the pinworm back there wants to be a dick about things, so looks like things are getting started early. “ Augustus grins, his mouth opening shark like.
I stare down certain death, Augustus radiating fear, seeming to become more demonic with each step toward me.
From behind him, a noise.
I would have just assumed it was some part of the worm-like, filth ridden thing eating. Augustus clears up that misconception.
He turns, shaking, body language that of a wild animal.
“Was that a fucking snicker? A giggle? Are you fucking laughing at me, you literal fucking worm. “ He’s panting, hands twitching like dying insects.
He stands, inches from the other creature, dwarfed by it, teeth grinding, muscles straining.
The worm thing casually tosses the flesh bare hand toward Augustus. As it touches his coat, the arena erupts into a kind of wild, senseless, limitless violence.
It doesn’t feel like watching a fight, it’s more like a car wreck, or natural disaster. Pieces of jungle gym turn into lethal shrapnel as the blurred, filth spewing scrum destroys them.
I see the timer, 2:15. My mind starts to catch up, and I see the other kid, pale, whimpering, and trying in vain to staunch the blood spurting from his arm.
I’m running, low and likely poorly, pulling my belt from my pants, and thanking myself for actually listening when I was forced to take a first aid course for a summer job last year.
The kid is scared, he tries pushing me away, but I’m determined, and not down a couple pints of blood. I pull the belt with two hands, pull it through again and twist, it’s ugly, it’s not perfect, but the flow of blood begins to slow, then stop.
We crawl behind a prize counter, decades old candy and stuffed animals surround us as we cower. A liquid filled roar loud enough to crack the cheap glass cases fills the room.
The kid is looking rough, blood still trickling from the torn stump of his forearm. I see some plastic bags and get an idea.
I lean over to get them, and feel something strange, at first I think I pulled a muscle.
Then there is a deep, burning pain, instinctively I pull away, and turn around.
The kid is on his knees, sanity has left his eyes, a cheap hunting knife in his remaining hand he has a look of panic and determination on his face.
“We have to win. “ he says, lunging at me with the blade.
He’s slow, and I avoid it, but not by as much as I’d like. Blood runs down my back, for a moment I wonder how bad I’m hurt, but it doesn’t really matter right now.
I retreat, but the only thing keeping us from being torn apart by the whirlwind of shrapnel caused by the creatures is the counter, I can’t escape.
It's a stalemate, I’m no athlete, and the kid is built like a rugby player, but he’s missing a hand, and delirious from blood loss. I plead, I try and reason, and I dodge crazed strikes by increasingly narrow margins.
Something large, either thrown or knocked loose destroys the counter behind me. Suddenly all is chaos. I’m thrown into the kid in the uniform, plaster dust surrounds us in a grey cloud.
By the time the air clears the kid is on top of me. I have his wrist in one hand, keeping the split tip of the blade inches from my face.
The angle is too awkward, I can’t get any leverage. It’s not a stalemate, it’s a war of attrition that I’m losing.
I catch a glimpse of the two creatures. The worm thing is striking at Augustus, who stands still, limbs moving in arcing blurs deflecting the blows and tearing off chunks of foul, tainted flesh.
The tip of the knife begins to dig into my cheek. A drop of blood hits my eye.
I grab the makeshift tourniquet with a free hand and roughly yank forward. The kid on top of me screams, bloods begins to pour. Torn flesh and a gore soaked belt hit the ground.
For a moment the weight on me eases up, and I push the knife forward. But the kid, he’s too stupid or far gone to just back off. As I feel is strength start to fade, he presses himself harder.
I expect him to back off as I begin to drive the roughly sharpened back edge of the knife into his neck. But he doubles down, leaning forward, trying to press the knife toward me.
For a moment, every other fucked up thing going on around me doesn’t matter. The world is small, silent, and consists of nothing more than the image of the knife ripping away a fist sized strip from the kids neck.
He backs off when he realizes the extent of the damage. Staring at me shocked, as if just not realizing the consequences of his actions.
He dies slowly, poorly, and within inches of me. I feel no victory, no sense of being a winner, just a dark pit in the back of my mind. The loss of something that comes with taking someone’s life.
I stand, shell shocked, staring at the corpse. My safety the last thing on my mind.
The worm thing is hurt, and attempts to dive into the ball pit, but somehow, defying physics, Augustus grabs it, holding the half ton monster out with one hand.
He arcs the thing, slamming it into the floor behind him, the spray of gore and viscera rivals pyrotechnics, the force leaves a blood filled crater in the floor.
Without missing a beat Augustus starts to walk toward me, making a token effort of flicking pieces of bone and organ from himself.
I’m frozen, I know nothing I can do could stop whatever he has planned.
The creature picks up a jagged piece of lumber, and looks at the clock, “We’ve got 45 seconds of fun left kid. “ he says with a sneer.
But as he passes the counter, and sees the corpse the look of imminent violence turns into amusement.
“How’s it feel to be a child killer, bud? “, Augustus laughs, “Not that I can’t tell from the look on your face.
Fuck me, that knocked some gears loose didn’t it? “
The thing walks forward, looking me over like a collectable.
“I can’t let that go to waste, now can I? “ he slaps me lightly, “It’s going to be a fucking blast watching you break down kid, wonder what drives you nuts first, this kid being in your dreams, or the fact that, at some point I’m going to get bored and start giving you all the pain you feel you deserve? “
Of course, I made it out alive. It’d be kind of hard to have posted this if I didn’t.
But now, I sit in a dingy room in a farm house half way across the world from home. Surrounded by family and monsters, all of which seem out to get me. Being forced to risk my life in some kind of blood sport.
Maybe I’ll be back, maybe I’ll be dead by the next time I get a chance to post anything. If anyone has any help, please, post it in the comments. I’m in a dark place here and no one else seems to be on my side.
2024.04.29 00:04 HughEhhoule Bait Dog
“Get the fuck out of my house with this ‘ old country’ shit Sylvia, I’m serious. “ I hear my dad say from the kitchen downstairs.
“I give children and idiots three warnings. That’s your first. “ It takes me a second to recognize my aunt’s voice. I’ve only met her a handful of times, and it’s nearly 2am.
“Syl, he’s right, this is crazy. I’m Roma, I’m proud, but your part of the family, and mine are two separate things. “ My mom interjects. Her voice is calm and level.
I woke up about half way through whatever is going on, and I’m fuzzy on the details, but everyone involved is three kinds of pissed.
“So you say, but just because you ignore the other side, doesn’t mean the other side ignores you. “ Aunt Syl replies, I could never quite place her accent, but it makes her statement all the more sinister.
“Might as well make that the family motto.
Syl, there are a couple dozen other kids Nikolas’ age in the family. Half of which are already hip deep in whatever is going on nowadays, you don’t need him. “ Mom isn’t pleading, but I can hear she’s worried.
“Why are we trying to reason with your crazy aunt? Time to go Syl. “ My dad isn’t worried, he’s angry.
“That’s two. “ Aunt Sylvia replies.
I hear a chair squeak then fall to the floor.
“That’s three. “ Sylvia says, her voice is cold, and I swear I could almost hear an echo.
I can hear my dad start to quietly cough, he sounds like he’s trying to talk but can’t. My heart starts to race, I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know it’s bad.
“Syl! Jesus Christ, that’s my husband. “ Mom sounds more offended than scared now. I wish I could say the same.
I stand next to my cracked door, fear beginning to take hold.
I can hear my dad start to take long wheezing breaths, I have no idea if this is a good or bad thing.
“Happy?
Now that any hope of doing this quietly is over, Nikolas and I have a long drive ahead of us. He’s 16, he has a license, yes? “ I hear Sylvia say, sudden footsteps walking up the stairs.
“No, he’s not interested in driving. You can’t take him Syl. “ my mom sounds frantic, Sylvia’s steps are measured and heavy.
“Not interested? You sure we are related? You raise soft children. “ Sylvia ends this with a dismissive laugh.
The few minutes that followed were kind of a blur, with my mom trying to convince me that I was just going to visit family, as if I didn’t just hear everything.
It's a couple hours into a long drive in a small car when my brain finally catches up to the fact that I’m awake, and going 30 miles an hour over the speed limit.
Aunt Syl sits in the driver’s seat, she’s 40 something, olive skinned with pitch-colored hair. Her style, it’s, something.
Her outfit was the middle of a Venn diagram of hippie, punk rock and carpenter. Bracelets, flannel, paisley, and enough piercings I lost count.
“Any chance of putting both hands on the wheel? “ I say, I’m mad, but I don’t even really know why.
She holds up her left arm, and I’m shocked. It’s an ancient looking blued steel prosthetic. She flexes, the clawed, almost mitten-like hand.
“Go through too many steering wheels that way. “ She says with a smirk.
“What’s going on? “ I ask, after an agonizing fifteen minutes of silence.
“You’re a big boy, so if you want the truth, I’ll give it to you. There’s a job that needs to be done, a dangerous job. And I want you to do it.
Now, I want you, not because you’re strong, or smart, or special. We have many strong, smart, special boys.
You, I want, because you’re unknown, and, little one, disposable. “ Sylvia lets this comment hang like rotten fruit.
The next hour goes in silence, at no point do I even entertain the notion this is some kind of joke. Something about this woman’s energy, about the way she carries herself, it scares the shit out of me.
We board a plane, somehow she had all of my travel documents. Even stranger is that we get escorted past the security checkpoints, into first class.
The next words I say to Sylvia are, “You have to put that out! “ as she lights up a short, yellow, hand-rolled cigarette.
She grins, taking a long drag, it smells horrible, the cheapest roughest tobacco odor I’ve encountered.
She relaxes, a cloud of thick, grey smoke forming.
I’m stunned, not a single person says anything. At first I think maybe she’s some kind of, I don’t know, mobster or something.
But that isn’t quite right. No one is looking at her in fear, no one is telling anyone else not to say anything. It’s like no one notices what she’s doing.
“How does she do this? The little boy wonders.
I don’t come offering you a thankless task Nik. I come with an opportunity. “ Sylvia says before crushing the cigarette on the arm of a chair and tossing it into the isle.
I had questions, and between the fear and the confusion I asked every one of them.
The only response she gave me was, “You’ll see when we get there. “.
She was right.
The flight lands, and after an hour or so of driving the world’s oldest pickup through the English countryside, we wind up at an old farm house, in the middle of nowhere outside of Hammersmith.
The sign outside says “ Gritt Auctions” the letters are old, bronze and tarnished, the grounds are littered with car parts, statues, and errata of every type.
Dozens, maybe even a hundred people mill about each stopping for a moment to give a suspicious look at the interloper in their midst.
Sylvia seems amused at my nervousness. I try and give the rough looking folks around me as much space as I can.
“They’re family, mostly, by blood or marriage, with a handful of lost souls and hangers on. “ She explains.
I probably should have guessed, seeing my mom’s family name on the sign, but my brain is basically nothing more than fear, anxiety and jet lag at this point.
“When do I get to know what’s going on? “ I say, waving at a cousin of some form and receive a uniquely English rude gesture in return.
My ear is ringing, and I stumble , the left side of my face burning. I’d say Syl slapped me, but it was more of a polite punch.
“Don’t whine. You’ve been stolen from your mother, treated like a dog, and judging by Robert’s attitude, rejected by your family.
I don’t want to hear whining, you angry, soft boy? “ Sylvia stops and turns toward me. I notice the people around us stop their tasks, interested in our conversation.
“No… “ I begin, not wanting to piss her off.
I don’t even see the next slap, but it puts me on my ass.
“Next one’s with the left hand.
Are you angry Nikolas? “ Sylvia looms over me like a raven.
I feel something before I get to my feet, a hot, quick flash of hatred. A context free rage at the fucked up situation I’m in.
“Answer is still no. Because to be angry, I’d have to know a God-Damned thing about what’s going on.
But my lunatic aunt just picked me up and now I’m standing in the middle of whatever the English equivalent to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family is.
For all I know, I’m your new King. So no, I’m not angry, I’m annoyed, and maybe a bit worried my gene pool really needs some chlorine. “ I’m shocked at what I’m saying, but I see some smiles, hear a few laughs.
Sylvia’s face seems to soften slightly.
“There’s the Gritt in you. “ She says, starting to walk to an old barn.
I catch up to her as I attempt in vain to dust myself off.
Sylvia opens a small, strangely modern looking door, inside a row of lights automatically flip on.
In contrast to the rotten wood exterior, the inside of the barn looks modern, design wise it’s half way between a hospital and a car repair shop. Equipment of unknown purpose, gurneys and cages of all sizes and types surround me.
Sylvia walks to a door at the back, then pauses.
“Before I open this door, you need to understand something.
There is no fortune telling, or reading of cards here. The cloak of the traveller, the bangles of the gypsy, these are all ways of navigating the world to us. Ways to exist on the fringes of society.
The Gritt family, we trade in the unknown. We find, we collect, and we sell. And ours is no petty collection of trinkets and tools not meant for the hands of man.
Our grift, is livestock. “
The woman opens the door, and what I see, sitting, chained in one corner of the industrial cement walled cell shakes everything I thought I knew about reality.
He's six and a half feet tall, his skin a waxy yellow, and every spare inch is festooned with black stitching, rusted pieces of metal or small splinters of bone.
His face is noseless and asymmetrical, almost as if repaired or modified over and over. One eye is a small, sinister looking orb with a red pupil, the other a massive, almost reptilian thing, wildly twitching about.
He wears no shirt, but a long, grey hide Trenchcoat hangs down to his knees. I start to shake as I see it’s made from layers of stitched human skin.
He sneers at us, long, conical teeth catch the harsh halogen light.
The thing strains against the chains, but they bind him tightly enough to the wall he can barely move.
“You’re not lasting more than 4 seconds kid. Just turn the fuck around. I’ll have you slitting your wrists in the corner by nightfall. “ The thing says, it’s voice is foul, almost a physical force. Grating, rage filled, and with a lunatic edge to it that makes me question exactly how much those chains can take.
“ 3/10, Augustus, who do you think you are scaring with that limp dick of a threat? “ Sylvia says, confidently walking up to the creature.
It snaps it’s jaws with a sound like a rifle shot. No where near Sylvia, but enough to make me jump on the other side of the room.
“If I could stop being threatened and hearing my aunt talk about dicks, I’d be a huge fan. “ I say, something deep within me, pushing past the fear and lack of sleep, “And if anything feels like just telling me what’s going on instead of being vague and creepy, even better. “
The chained thing looks to me, curious. Sylvia smirks.
“Augustus is going to be forced to fight others like him until eventually he gets what’s coming to him for years of evil.
You, are going to stand next to him while he does it. “ Sylvia begins to walk away from the thing, ignoring vile threats of both the violent and carnal variety.
I try to follow her out the door and she blocks me.
“If your still sane and alive in the morning, I was right. Good luck soft boy. “ She says before closing the heavy metal door.
Without her, I feel tiny, that spark of rage is snuffed out and replaced with a cold sense of dread.
“You’re going to have to turn around sometime kid. “ The chained creature says.
I turn, slowly, resolving to make eye contact with the thing. I manage a second or two before looking away, the creature cackles, mocking me.
“Holy shit, they sent me an honest to God pussy. Whole family full of void fucked apes and they send me you?
The best part is, you don’t even get it. I can see what you’re thinking kid, I can see that tiny collection of hormones and goo you vainly call a brain going into overdrive trying to figure this out… “ Augustus starts.
The creature kept going, I don’t have an exact count but it was at least twelve hours.
I can only describe it as a verbal assault. Augustus drew from some dark wells, how it knew half of the things it did scared me as much as it’s clawed hands or, piranha-like teeth.
I lost something that night. The fears that thing drug up, the insecurities it played on, the secrets it knew, it crushed any childlike notions of safety or understanding the world I had.
Don’t take that the wrong way, I don’t mean it toughened me up. It broke any sense of confidence I had, took away any feeling of safety. That God Damned thing in the trenchcoat, changed me.
I’ve lost track of how long it’s been since I’ve slept, but I’m brought a tin plate heaped with eggs, sausage and for some twisted reason, brown beans. And realize it’s been at least a day since I’ve eaten.
I sit around an abused, graffiti carved picnic table with an eclectic combination of family I’ve never met. Syl sips a tea I can smell from ten feet away and looks at me like I’m a used car.
“I’m always right soft boy. Remember that. “ She says.
It takes a half dozen guys built like construction workers, with Sylvia following behind whispering things that wilt vegetation, to wrangle the creature into the back of an old, reinforced horse trailer.
The inside is covered in totems, runes, and other spooky looking errata. The entity becomes sluggish and disoriented as the heavy wooden doors close, and get sealed with a massive brass lock.
My mind begins to wander on the three hour trip through the back country of the UK. The sun sets, and my brain screams for sleep. That scream is silenced by the sense of mounting dread as we get closer to our destination.
We pull up to an abandoned theme restaurant, the parking lot is full, the windows are boarded, and the walls covered in graffiti. The place is huge, more the size of a small stadium than a diner.
The parking lot is full, the sputtering, sparking neon sign flashes “Faron’s Funhouse. “
It’s a few minutes outside of a town I forgot to catch the name of. We can see lights on the horizon, but there’s a feeling of wrong surrounding the building that makes them seem a million miles away.
A half dozen ‘cousins’ of mine move Augustus into a strange, almost coffin-like box made of wood, steel and glass, covered in trinkets and symbols. The thing sneers groggily from within, it’s mismatched eyes rolling in it’s skull.
I don’t hear Sylvia approach, I notice her as she smacks me in the back of the head hard enough to make my ears ring. The old, cruel woman is walking toward the doors of this meeting place.
“Eyes forward, sneer on your face, and walk like you know where you’re going. “ Are her only instructions.
For once, they’re clear and simple. What I see inside easily keeps my attention, and I’m equal parts scared and pissed off, so looking edgy and miserable is my default state.
At one point, this place was exactly what you’d think. I know you’re all expecting it to be a run down, rat infested haunted house now, but it was, stranger than that.
The place was well kept on the inside, but everything was either in use or repurposed to house the couple hundred eclectic customers milling around. In the centre, is a massive Lucite Cube, crystal clear and housing a ball pit, jungle gym and what looks to be a functional canteen, complete with a deep fryer and popcorn machine. It’s a couple hundred meters a side, and shaped like a flawed rectangle.
Smoke hangs in the air, my aunt greets old friends in a handful of different languages, I smile and nod, still trying to understand what the hell this place is.
We see Augustus being wheeled to the Lucite box, Sylvia cuts a laughing Cyrillic conversation short, and her and I make our way to the box that barely restrains the hatred and death inside.
At the other end of the Lucite Cube I see a few people dressed in blue and maroon uniforms ( if I were to guess vintage, from when this place served shitty food instead of violence.), they surround a massive, hulking, lanky thing. It’s obscured by smoke, and poor lighting, but it’s nine foot frame, and unnatural gait are clear.
The box holding Augustus sits about ten feet away from me, inside the massive cage. The front opens, my instinct is to step backward, get as much distance between me and the thing inside as possible, but instead, I’m shoved, before I can catch my balance, a workbook clad foot is in front of me.
I fall and stumble into the cage, I turn around to try and get out as fast as I can, I’m standing inches away from the creature, but I see Sylvia closing the clear, impermeable door.
It hits me then. For the first time since this ordeal started, I realize how grim things are.
Just like everyone else here, I’ve been raised on spooky shit packaged to be marketable. Little monsters, The Adams Family, Harry potter, hell let’s throw Pokemon and the like in there as it’s basically just dog fighting with a cute hat on.
And I thought what was happening to me, was somewhere on the Venn diagram of those things.
But as I see the impassive look on the face of a woman I’ve known since I was a child, ( at a distance or no.) as I’m locked in here with God knows what, I get it. I really get it.
His laughter is like an ice pick, I turn to face him, Augustus brushes himself off, casually looking around the massive arena.
“Just hit ya didn’t it, bud? “ He says, walking over to me, his steps impossibly quick, almost insect-like, “You’re not my trainer, or my wrangler, you certainly aren’t my fucking partner. “, the entity grabs my chin between two clawed fingers, “ You’re a bait dog. Something for me and that new blooded walking pun to fight over. “
My blood runs down his thumb, his grin cracks his face like a rotten melon, the monster pulls down, throwing me to the floor.
A buzzer sounds, and a three minute timer, projected in transparent red appears on the walls of the Lucite arena.
“If I’ve got to hunt you down in this shit-hole, things are going to be a lot worse for you. Stay put, bud. “ The trenchcoat clad thing says, casually walking toward the creature on the opposite side of the arena.
Closer now, I see it clearly. Inside of a pristine uniform, is a twisted attempt at the human form. The torso is lumpen, asymmetrical, but lean. It's arms nearly drag on the floor, yellow, infected looking flesh, weeping pus like a snail’s foot.
It's eyes are black caves, with just the hint of something deep within. It’s face is blank, a torn, haggard looking grey tongue runs over rotting green teeth.
The kid beside it looks around my age, he’s big though, just as confused and afraid as I am. He wears a similar uniform to the creature, but his looks, abused, torn, blood stained. Like it's been handed down from one unlucky owner to the next.
As the buzzer rings, the lanky, disgusting creature moves in a flash, tearing off the kid’s right arm and beginning to chew it.
The blood didn’t set me off, as terrible as it was. It was the three seconds between the act, and the poor kid realizing what happened that pushed me over the edge.
He started to scream, a horrible trapped animal kind of noise. He backs away from the monster beside him, gripping the crushed and torn remains of his forearm.
Augustus laughs, his trenchcoat drags on the floor, leaving a streak of blood as he walks.
“Man after my own heart.
So, I say, we split these sides of beef for two minutes then talk shop for a bit. Fuck these pretentious apes and their show. “ Augustus looks up to the massive thing. It remains impassive, gnawing on the hand.
“Don’t be like that. We both know two halves are better than one whole . Win-win for both of us“ Augustus gets a noise that sounds like an angry sewer pipe, and a dismissive wave of a long snake-like arm in response.
The thing in the trenchcoat shrugs, turning around and stalking toward me.
“You have no luck at all kid, I was going to let you go last.
But the pinworm back there wants to be a dick about things, so looks like things are getting started early. “ Augustus grins, his mouth opening shark like.
I stare down certain death, Augustus radiating fear, seeming to become more demonic with each step toward me.
From behind him, a noise.
I would have just assumed it was some part of the worm-like, filth ridden thing eating. Augustus clears up that misconception.
He turns, shaking, body language that of a wild animal.
“Was that a fucking snicker? A giggle? Are you fucking laughing at me, you literal fucking worm. “ He’s panting, hands twitching like dying insects.
He stands, inches from the other creature, dwarfed by it, teeth grinding, muscles straining.
The worm thing casually tosses the flesh bare hand toward Augustus. As it touches his coat, the arena erupts into a kind of wild, senseless, limitless violence.
It doesn’t feel like watching a fight, it’s more like a car wreck, or natural disaster. Pieces of jungle gym turn into lethal shrapnel as the blurred, filth spewing scrum destroys them.
I see the timer, 2:15. My mind starts to catch up, and I see the other kid, pale, whimpering, and trying in vain to staunch the blood spurting from his arm.
I’m running, low and likely poorly, pulling my belt from my pants, and thanking myself for actually listening when I was forced to take a first aid course for a summer job last year.
The kid is scared, he tries pushing me away, but I’m determined, and not down a couple pints of blood. I pull the belt with two hands, pull it through again and twist, it’s ugly, it’s not perfect, but the flow of blood begins to slow, then stop.
We crawl behind a prize counter, decades old candy and stuffed animals surround us as we cower. A liquid filled roar loud enough to crack the cheap glass cases fills the room.
The kid is looking rough, blood still trickling from the torn stump of his forearm. I see some plastic bags and get an idea.
I lean over to get them, and feel something strange, at first I think I pulled a muscle.
Then there is a deep, burning pain, instinctively I pull away, and turn around.
The kid is on his knees, sanity has left his eyes, a cheap hunting knife in his remaining hand he has a look of panic and determination on his face.
“We have to win. “ he says, lunging at me with the blade.
He’s slow, and I avoid it, but not by as much as I’d like. Blood runs down my back, for a moment I wonder how bad I’m hurt, but it doesn’t really matter right now.
I retreat, but the only thing keeping us from being torn apart by the whirlwind of shrapnel caused by the creatures is the counter, I can’t escape.
It's a stalemate, I’m no athlete, and the kid is built like a rugby player, but he’s missing a hand, and delirious from blood loss. I plead, I try and reason, and I dodge crazed strikes by increasingly narrow margins.
Something large, either thrown or knocked loose destroys the counter behind me. Suddenly all is chaos. I’m thrown into the kid in the uniform, plaster dust surrounds us in a grey cloud.
By the time the air clears the kid is on top of me. I have his wrist in one hand, keeping the split tip of the blade inches from my face.
The angle is too awkward, I can’t get any leverage. It’s not a stalemate, it’s a war of attrition that I’m losing.
I catch a glimpse of the two creatures. The worm thing is striking at Augustus, who stands still, limbs moving in arcing blurs deflecting the blows and tearing off chunks of foul, tainted flesh.
The tip of the knife begins to dig into my cheek. A drop of blood hits my eye.
I grab the makeshift tourniquet with a free hand and roughly yank forward. The kid on top of me screams, bloods begins to pour. Torn flesh and a gore soaked belt hit the ground.
For a moment the weight on me eases up, and I push the knife forward. But the kid, he’s too stupid or far gone to just back off. As I feel is strength start to fade, he presses himself harder.
I expect him to back off as I begin to drive the roughly sharpened back edge of the knife into his neck. But he doubles down, leaning forward, trying to press the knife toward me.
For a moment, every other fucked up thing going on around me doesn’t matter. The world is small, silent, and consists of nothing more than the image of the knife ripping away a fist sized strip from the kids neck.
He backs off when he realizes the extent of the damage. Staring at me shocked, as if just not realizing the consequences of his actions.
He dies slowly, poorly, and within inches of me. I feel no victory, no sense of being a winner, just a dark pit in the back of my mind. The loss of something that comes with taking someone’s life.
I stand, shell shocked, staring at the corpse. My safety the last thing on my mind.
The worm thing is hurt, and attempts to dive into the ball pit, but somehow, defying physics, Augustus grabs it, holding the half ton monster out with one hand.
He arcs the thing, slamming it into the floor behind him, the spray of gore and viscera rivals pyrotechnics, the force leaves a blood filled crater in the floor.
Without missing a beat Augustus starts to walk toward me, making a token effort of flicking pieces of bone and organ from himself.
I’m frozen, I know nothing I can do could stop whatever he has planned.
The creature picks up a jagged piece of lumber, and looks at the clock, “We’ve got 45 seconds of fun left kid. “ he says with a sneer.
But as he passes the counter, and sees the corpse the look of imminent violence turns into amusement.
“How’s it feel to be a child killer, bud? “, Augustus laughs, “Not that I can’t tell from the look on your face.
Fuck me, that knocked some gears loose didn’t it? “
The thing walks forward, looking me over like a collectable.
“I can’t let that go to waste, now can I? “ he slaps me lightly, “It’s going to be a fucking blast watching you break down kid, wonder what drives you nuts first, this kid being in your dreams, or the fact that, at some point I’m going to get bored and start giving you all the pain you feel you deserve? “
Of course, I made it out alive. It’d be kind of hard to have posted this if I didn’t.
But now, I sit in a dingy room in a farm house half way across the world from home. Surrounded by family and monsters, all of which seem out to get me. Being forced to risk my life in some kind of blood sport.
Maybe I’ll be back, maybe I’ll be dead by the next time I get a chance to post anything. If anyone has any help, please, post it in the comments. I’m in a dark place here and no one else seems to be on my side.
submitted by HughEhhoule to Pituniverse [link] [comments]
“I give children and idiots three warnings. That’s your first. “ It takes me a second to recognize my aunt’s voice. I’ve only met her a handful of times, and it’s nearly 2am.
“Syl, he’s right, this is crazy. I’m Roma, I’m proud, but your part of the family, and mine are two separate things. “ My mom interjects. Her voice is calm and level.
I woke up about half way through whatever is going on, and I’m fuzzy on the details, but everyone involved is three kinds of pissed.
“So you say, but just because you ignore the other side, doesn’t mean the other side ignores you. “ Aunt Syl replies, I could never quite place her accent, but it makes her statement all the more sinister.
“Might as well make that the family motto.
Syl, there are a couple dozen other kids Nikolas’ age in the family. Half of which are already hip deep in whatever is going on nowadays, you don’t need him. “ Mom isn’t pleading, but I can hear she’s worried.
“Why are we trying to reason with your crazy aunt? Time to go Syl. “ My dad isn’t worried, he’s angry.
“That’s two. “ Aunt Sylvia replies.
I hear a chair squeak then fall to the floor.
“That’s three. “ Sylvia says, her voice is cold, and I swear I could almost hear an echo.
I can hear my dad start to quietly cough, he sounds like he’s trying to talk but can’t. My heart starts to race, I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know it’s bad.
“Syl! Jesus Christ, that’s my husband. “ Mom sounds more offended than scared now. I wish I could say the same.
I stand next to my cracked door, fear beginning to take hold.
I can hear my dad start to take long wheezing breaths, I have no idea if this is a good or bad thing.
“Happy?
Now that any hope of doing this quietly is over, Nikolas and I have a long drive ahead of us. He’s 16, he has a license, yes? “ I hear Sylvia say, sudden footsteps walking up the stairs.
“No, he’s not interested in driving. You can’t take him Syl. “ my mom sounds frantic, Sylvia’s steps are measured and heavy.
“Not interested? You sure we are related? You raise soft children. “ Sylvia ends this with a dismissive laugh.
The few minutes that followed were kind of a blur, with my mom trying to convince me that I was just going to visit family, as if I didn’t just hear everything.
It's a couple hours into a long drive in a small car when my brain finally catches up to the fact that I’m awake, and going 30 miles an hour over the speed limit.
Aunt Syl sits in the driver’s seat, she’s 40 something, olive skinned with pitch-colored hair. Her style, it’s, something.
Her outfit was the middle of a Venn diagram of hippie, punk rock and carpenter. Bracelets, flannel, paisley, and enough piercings I lost count.
“Any chance of putting both hands on the wheel? “ I say, I’m mad, but I don’t even really know why.
She holds up her left arm, and I’m shocked. It’s an ancient looking blued steel prosthetic. She flexes, the clawed, almost mitten-like hand.
“Go through too many steering wheels that way. “ She says with a smirk.
“What’s going on? “ I ask, after an agonizing fifteen minutes of silence.
“You’re a big boy, so if you want the truth, I’ll give it to you. There’s a job that needs to be done, a dangerous job. And I want you to do it.
Now, I want you, not because you’re strong, or smart, or special. We have many strong, smart, special boys.
You, I want, because you’re unknown, and, little one, disposable. “ Sylvia lets this comment hang like rotten fruit.
The next hour goes in silence, at no point do I even entertain the notion this is some kind of joke. Something about this woman’s energy, about the way she carries herself, it scares the shit out of me.
We board a plane, somehow she had all of my travel documents. Even stranger is that we get escorted past the security checkpoints, into first class.
The next words I say to Sylvia are, “You have to put that out! “ as she lights up a short, yellow, hand-rolled cigarette.
She grins, taking a long drag, it smells horrible, the cheapest roughest tobacco odor I’ve encountered.
She relaxes, a cloud of thick, grey smoke forming.
I’m stunned, not a single person says anything. At first I think maybe she’s some kind of, I don’t know, mobster or something.
But that isn’t quite right. No one is looking at her in fear, no one is telling anyone else not to say anything. It’s like no one notices what she’s doing.
“How does she do this? The little boy wonders.
I don’t come offering you a thankless task Nik. I come with an opportunity. “ Sylvia says before crushing the cigarette on the arm of a chair and tossing it into the isle.
I had questions, and between the fear and the confusion I asked every one of them.
The only response she gave me was, “You’ll see when we get there. “.
She was right.
The flight lands, and after an hour or so of driving the world’s oldest pickup through the English countryside, we wind up at an old farm house, in the middle of nowhere outside of Hammersmith.
The sign outside says “ Gritt Auctions” the letters are old, bronze and tarnished, the grounds are littered with car parts, statues, and errata of every type.
Dozens, maybe even a hundred people mill about each stopping for a moment to give a suspicious look at the interloper in their midst.
Sylvia seems amused at my nervousness. I try and give the rough looking folks around me as much space as I can.
“They’re family, mostly, by blood or marriage, with a handful of lost souls and hangers on. “ She explains.
I probably should have guessed, seeing my mom’s family name on the sign, but my brain is basically nothing more than fear, anxiety and jet lag at this point.
“When do I get to know what’s going on? “ I say, waving at a cousin of some form and receive a uniquely English rude gesture in return.
My ear is ringing, and I stumble , the left side of my face burning. I’d say Syl slapped me, but it was more of a polite punch.
“Don’t whine. You’ve been stolen from your mother, treated like a dog, and judging by Robert’s attitude, rejected by your family.
I don’t want to hear whining, you angry, soft boy? “ Sylvia stops and turns toward me. I notice the people around us stop their tasks, interested in our conversation.
“No… “ I begin, not wanting to piss her off.
I don’t even see the next slap, but it puts me on my ass.
“Next one’s with the left hand.
Are you angry Nikolas? “ Sylvia looms over me like a raven.
I feel something before I get to my feet, a hot, quick flash of hatred. A context free rage at the fucked up situation I’m in.
“Answer is still no. Because to be angry, I’d have to know a God-Damned thing about what’s going on.
But my lunatic aunt just picked me up and now I’m standing in the middle of whatever the English equivalent to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family is.
For all I know, I’m your new King. So no, I’m not angry, I’m annoyed, and maybe a bit worried my gene pool really needs some chlorine. “ I’m shocked at what I’m saying, but I see some smiles, hear a few laughs.
Sylvia’s face seems to soften slightly.
“There’s the Gritt in you. “ She says, starting to walk to an old barn.
I catch up to her as I attempt in vain to dust myself off.
Sylvia opens a small, strangely modern looking door, inside a row of lights automatically flip on.
In contrast to the rotten wood exterior, the inside of the barn looks modern, design wise it’s half way between a hospital and a car repair shop. Equipment of unknown purpose, gurneys and cages of all sizes and types surround me.
Sylvia walks to a door at the back, then pauses.
“Before I open this door, you need to understand something.
There is no fortune telling, or reading of cards here. The cloak of the traveller, the bangles of the gypsy, these are all ways of navigating the world to us. Ways to exist on the fringes of society.
The Gritt family, we trade in the unknown. We find, we collect, and we sell. And ours is no petty collection of trinkets and tools not meant for the hands of man.
Our grift, is livestock. “
The woman opens the door, and what I see, sitting, chained in one corner of the industrial cement walled cell shakes everything I thought I knew about reality.
He's six and a half feet tall, his skin a waxy yellow, and every spare inch is festooned with black stitching, rusted pieces of metal or small splinters of bone.
His face is noseless and asymmetrical, almost as if repaired or modified over and over. One eye is a small, sinister looking orb with a red pupil, the other a massive, almost reptilian thing, wildly twitching about.
He wears no shirt, but a long, grey hide Trenchcoat hangs down to his knees. I start to shake as I see it’s made from layers of stitched human skin.
He sneers at us, long, conical teeth catch the harsh halogen light.
The thing strains against the chains, but they bind him tightly enough to the wall he can barely move.
“You’re not lasting more than 4 seconds kid. Just turn the fuck around. I’ll have you slitting your wrists in the corner by nightfall. “ The thing says, it’s voice is foul, almost a physical force. Grating, rage filled, and with a lunatic edge to it that makes me question exactly how much those chains can take.
“ 3/10, Augustus, who do you think you are scaring with that limp dick of a threat? “ Sylvia says, confidently walking up to the creature.
It snaps it’s jaws with a sound like a rifle shot. No where near Sylvia, but enough to make me jump on the other side of the room.
“If I could stop being threatened and hearing my aunt talk about dicks, I’d be a huge fan. “ I say, something deep within me, pushing past the fear and lack of sleep, “And if anything feels like just telling me what’s going on instead of being vague and creepy, even better. “
The chained thing looks to me, curious. Sylvia smirks.
“Augustus is going to be forced to fight others like him until eventually he gets what’s coming to him for years of evil.
You, are going to stand next to him while he does it. “ Sylvia begins to walk away from the thing, ignoring vile threats of both the violent and carnal variety.
I try to follow her out the door and she blocks me.
“If your still sane and alive in the morning, I was right. Good luck soft boy. “ She says before closing the heavy metal door.
Without her, I feel tiny, that spark of rage is snuffed out and replaced with a cold sense of dread.
“You’re going to have to turn around sometime kid. “ The chained creature says.
I turn, slowly, resolving to make eye contact with the thing. I manage a second or two before looking away, the creature cackles, mocking me.
“Holy shit, they sent me an honest to God pussy. Whole family full of void fucked apes and they send me you?
The best part is, you don’t even get it. I can see what you’re thinking kid, I can see that tiny collection of hormones and goo you vainly call a brain going into overdrive trying to figure this out… “ Augustus starts.
The creature kept going, I don’t have an exact count but it was at least twelve hours.
I can only describe it as a verbal assault. Augustus drew from some dark wells, how it knew half of the things it did scared me as much as it’s clawed hands or, piranha-like teeth.
I lost something that night. The fears that thing drug up, the insecurities it played on, the secrets it knew, it crushed any childlike notions of safety or understanding the world I had.
Don’t take that the wrong way, I don’t mean it toughened me up. It broke any sense of confidence I had, took away any feeling of safety. That God Damned thing in the trenchcoat, changed me.
I’ve lost track of how long it’s been since I’ve slept, but I’m brought a tin plate heaped with eggs, sausage and for some twisted reason, brown beans. And realize it’s been at least a day since I’ve eaten.
I sit around an abused, graffiti carved picnic table with an eclectic combination of family I’ve never met. Syl sips a tea I can smell from ten feet away and looks at me like I’m a used car.
“I’m always right soft boy. Remember that. “ She says.
It takes a half dozen guys built like construction workers, with Sylvia following behind whispering things that wilt vegetation, to wrangle the creature into the back of an old, reinforced horse trailer.
The inside is covered in totems, runes, and other spooky looking errata. The entity becomes sluggish and disoriented as the heavy wooden doors close, and get sealed with a massive brass lock.
My mind begins to wander on the three hour trip through the back country of the UK. The sun sets, and my brain screams for sleep. That scream is silenced by the sense of mounting dread as we get closer to our destination.
We pull up to an abandoned theme restaurant, the parking lot is full, the windows are boarded, and the walls covered in graffiti. The place is huge, more the size of a small stadium than a diner.
The parking lot is full, the sputtering, sparking neon sign flashes “Faron’s Funhouse. “
It’s a few minutes outside of a town I forgot to catch the name of. We can see lights on the horizon, but there’s a feeling of wrong surrounding the building that makes them seem a million miles away.
A half dozen ‘cousins’ of mine move Augustus into a strange, almost coffin-like box made of wood, steel and glass, covered in trinkets and symbols. The thing sneers groggily from within, it’s mismatched eyes rolling in it’s skull.
I don’t hear Sylvia approach, I notice her as she smacks me in the back of the head hard enough to make my ears ring. The old, cruel woman is walking toward the doors of this meeting place.
“Eyes forward, sneer on your face, and walk like you know where you’re going. “ Are her only instructions.
For once, they’re clear and simple. What I see inside easily keeps my attention, and I’m equal parts scared and pissed off, so looking edgy and miserable is my default state.
At one point, this place was exactly what you’d think. I know you’re all expecting it to be a run down, rat infested haunted house now, but it was, stranger than that.
The place was well kept on the inside, but everything was either in use or repurposed to house the couple hundred eclectic customers milling around. In the centre, is a massive Lucite Cube, crystal clear and housing a ball pit, jungle gym and what looks to be a functional canteen, complete with a deep fryer and popcorn machine. It’s a couple hundred meters a side, and shaped like a flawed rectangle.
Smoke hangs in the air, my aunt greets old friends in a handful of different languages, I smile and nod, still trying to understand what the hell this place is.
We see Augustus being wheeled to the Lucite box, Sylvia cuts a laughing Cyrillic conversation short, and her and I make our way to the box that barely restrains the hatred and death inside.
At the other end of the Lucite Cube I see a few people dressed in blue and maroon uniforms ( if I were to guess vintage, from when this place served shitty food instead of violence.), they surround a massive, hulking, lanky thing. It’s obscured by smoke, and poor lighting, but it’s nine foot frame, and unnatural gait are clear.
The box holding Augustus sits about ten feet away from me, inside the massive cage. The front opens, my instinct is to step backward, get as much distance between me and the thing inside as possible, but instead, I’m shoved, before I can catch my balance, a workbook clad foot is in front of me.
I fall and stumble into the cage, I turn around to try and get out as fast as I can, I’m standing inches away from the creature, but I see Sylvia closing the clear, impermeable door.
It hits me then. For the first time since this ordeal started, I realize how grim things are.
Just like everyone else here, I’ve been raised on spooky shit packaged to be marketable. Little monsters, The Adams Family, Harry potter, hell let’s throw Pokemon and the like in there as it’s basically just dog fighting with a cute hat on.
And I thought what was happening to me, was somewhere on the Venn diagram of those things.
But as I see the impassive look on the face of a woman I’ve known since I was a child, ( at a distance or no.) as I’m locked in here with God knows what, I get it. I really get it.
His laughter is like an ice pick, I turn to face him, Augustus brushes himself off, casually looking around the massive arena.
“Just hit ya didn’t it, bud? “ He says, walking over to me, his steps impossibly quick, almost insect-like, “You’re not my trainer, or my wrangler, you certainly aren’t my fucking partner. “, the entity grabs my chin between two clawed fingers, “ You’re a bait dog. Something for me and that new blooded walking pun to fight over. “
My blood runs down his thumb, his grin cracks his face like a rotten melon, the monster pulls down, throwing me to the floor.
A buzzer sounds, and a three minute timer, projected in transparent red appears on the walls of the Lucite arena.
“If I’ve got to hunt you down in this shit-hole, things are going to be a lot worse for you. Stay put, bud. “ The trenchcoat clad thing says, casually walking toward the creature on the opposite side of the arena.
Closer now, I see it clearly. Inside of a pristine uniform, is a twisted attempt at the human form. The torso is lumpen, asymmetrical, but lean. It's arms nearly drag on the floor, yellow, infected looking flesh, weeping pus like a snail’s foot.
It's eyes are black caves, with just the hint of something deep within. It’s face is blank, a torn, haggard looking grey tongue runs over rotting green teeth.
The kid beside it looks around my age, he’s big though, just as confused and afraid as I am. He wears a similar uniform to the creature, but his looks, abused, torn, blood stained. Like it's been handed down from one unlucky owner to the next.
As the buzzer rings, the lanky, disgusting creature moves in a flash, tearing off the kid’s right arm and beginning to chew it.
The blood didn’t set me off, as terrible as it was. It was the three seconds between the act, and the poor kid realizing what happened that pushed me over the edge.
He started to scream, a horrible trapped animal kind of noise. He backs away from the monster beside him, gripping the crushed and torn remains of his forearm.
Augustus laughs, his trenchcoat drags on the floor, leaving a streak of blood as he walks.
“Man after my own heart.
So, I say, we split these sides of beef for two minutes then talk shop for a bit. Fuck these pretentious apes and their show. “ Augustus looks up to the massive thing. It remains impassive, gnawing on the hand.
“Don’t be like that. We both know two halves are better than one whole . Win-win for both of us“ Augustus gets a noise that sounds like an angry sewer pipe, and a dismissive wave of a long snake-like arm in response.
The thing in the trenchcoat shrugs, turning around and stalking toward me.
“You have no luck at all kid, I was going to let you go last.
But the pinworm back there wants to be a dick about things, so looks like things are getting started early. “ Augustus grins, his mouth opening shark like.
I stare down certain death, Augustus radiating fear, seeming to become more demonic with each step toward me.
From behind him, a noise.
I would have just assumed it was some part of the worm-like, filth ridden thing eating. Augustus clears up that misconception.
He turns, shaking, body language that of a wild animal.
“Was that a fucking snicker? A giggle? Are you fucking laughing at me, you literal fucking worm. “ He’s panting, hands twitching like dying insects.
He stands, inches from the other creature, dwarfed by it, teeth grinding, muscles straining.
The worm thing casually tosses the flesh bare hand toward Augustus. As it touches his coat, the arena erupts into a kind of wild, senseless, limitless violence.
It doesn’t feel like watching a fight, it’s more like a car wreck, or natural disaster. Pieces of jungle gym turn into lethal shrapnel as the blurred, filth spewing scrum destroys them.
I see the timer, 2:15. My mind starts to catch up, and I see the other kid, pale, whimpering, and trying in vain to staunch the blood spurting from his arm.
I’m running, low and likely poorly, pulling my belt from my pants, and thanking myself for actually listening when I was forced to take a first aid course for a summer job last year.
The kid is scared, he tries pushing me away, but I’m determined, and not down a couple pints of blood. I pull the belt with two hands, pull it through again and twist, it’s ugly, it’s not perfect, but the flow of blood begins to slow, then stop.
We crawl behind a prize counter, decades old candy and stuffed animals surround us as we cower. A liquid filled roar loud enough to crack the cheap glass cases fills the room.
The kid is looking rough, blood still trickling from the torn stump of his forearm. I see some plastic bags and get an idea.
I lean over to get them, and feel something strange, at first I think I pulled a muscle.
Then there is a deep, burning pain, instinctively I pull away, and turn around.
The kid is on his knees, sanity has left his eyes, a cheap hunting knife in his remaining hand he has a look of panic and determination on his face.
“We have to win. “ he says, lunging at me with the blade.
He’s slow, and I avoid it, but not by as much as I’d like. Blood runs down my back, for a moment I wonder how bad I’m hurt, but it doesn’t really matter right now.
I retreat, but the only thing keeping us from being torn apart by the whirlwind of shrapnel caused by the creatures is the counter, I can’t escape.
It's a stalemate, I’m no athlete, and the kid is built like a rugby player, but he’s missing a hand, and delirious from blood loss. I plead, I try and reason, and I dodge crazed strikes by increasingly narrow margins.
Something large, either thrown or knocked loose destroys the counter behind me. Suddenly all is chaos. I’m thrown into the kid in the uniform, plaster dust surrounds us in a grey cloud.
By the time the air clears the kid is on top of me. I have his wrist in one hand, keeping the split tip of the blade inches from my face.
The angle is too awkward, I can’t get any leverage. It’s not a stalemate, it’s a war of attrition that I’m losing.
I catch a glimpse of the two creatures. The worm thing is striking at Augustus, who stands still, limbs moving in arcing blurs deflecting the blows and tearing off chunks of foul, tainted flesh.
The tip of the knife begins to dig into my cheek. A drop of blood hits my eye.
I grab the makeshift tourniquet with a free hand and roughly yank forward. The kid on top of me screams, bloods begins to pour. Torn flesh and a gore soaked belt hit the ground.
For a moment the weight on me eases up, and I push the knife forward. But the kid, he’s too stupid or far gone to just back off. As I feel is strength start to fade, he presses himself harder.
I expect him to back off as I begin to drive the roughly sharpened back edge of the knife into his neck. But he doubles down, leaning forward, trying to press the knife toward me.
For a moment, every other fucked up thing going on around me doesn’t matter. The world is small, silent, and consists of nothing more than the image of the knife ripping away a fist sized strip from the kids neck.
He backs off when he realizes the extent of the damage. Staring at me shocked, as if just not realizing the consequences of his actions.
He dies slowly, poorly, and within inches of me. I feel no victory, no sense of being a winner, just a dark pit in the back of my mind. The loss of something that comes with taking someone’s life.
I stand, shell shocked, staring at the corpse. My safety the last thing on my mind.
The worm thing is hurt, and attempts to dive into the ball pit, but somehow, defying physics, Augustus grabs it, holding the half ton monster out with one hand.
He arcs the thing, slamming it into the floor behind him, the spray of gore and viscera rivals pyrotechnics, the force leaves a blood filled crater in the floor.
Without missing a beat Augustus starts to walk toward me, making a token effort of flicking pieces of bone and organ from himself.
I’m frozen, I know nothing I can do could stop whatever he has planned.
The creature picks up a jagged piece of lumber, and looks at the clock, “We’ve got 45 seconds of fun left kid. “ he says with a sneer.
But as he passes the counter, and sees the corpse the look of imminent violence turns into amusement.
“How’s it feel to be a child killer, bud? “, Augustus laughs, “Not that I can’t tell from the look on your face.
Fuck me, that knocked some gears loose didn’t it? “
The thing walks forward, looking me over like a collectable.
“I can’t let that go to waste, now can I? “ he slaps me lightly, “It’s going to be a fucking blast watching you break down kid, wonder what drives you nuts first, this kid being in your dreams, or the fact that, at some point I’m going to get bored and start giving you all the pain you feel you deserve? “
Of course, I made it out alive. It’d be kind of hard to have posted this if I didn’t.
But now, I sit in a dingy room in a farm house half way across the world from home. Surrounded by family and monsters, all of which seem out to get me. Being forced to risk my life in some kind of blood sport.
Maybe I’ll be back, maybe I’ll be dead by the next time I get a chance to post anything. If anyone has any help, please, post it in the comments. I’m in a dark place here and no one else seems to be on my side.
2024.04.29 00:04 Status-Fix-8284 Fixing the Major Order’s Coordination between Reddit/Discord and the Game’s Playerbase
So, I was thinking about what a shame it is that the people who love the game enough to be discussing where to go for the Major Order on the Discord or Reddit are ultimately wasting their time because the bulk of the playerbase ends up interacting with the game’s galactic war exclusively through the war table. People go where they want, or they go to the first planet they see with a lot of other people on it, ignoring things that the Reddit/Discord community considers such as cutting off supply lines and liberation gambits that are broadcasted to us through these additional channels outside of the game.
What if we ran a poll on which planet the Reddit/discord community thinks should be the main focus, with the winning planet being given an additional 5% increase to requisition slips, an extra medal per mission completed, or some reward of that kind until the target planet is completed.
People who only play to enjoy the game might simply not know or care enough about supply lines/other factors, so they go where the bulk of people are. People also might simply refuse to spend their one hour of free time on a planet with effects/enemy types they don’t like and instead opt for a planet they view more favorably for whatever reason.
This solves both issues. It gives people clarity on the game’s liberation mechanic without them having to understand/consider all the factors the more dedicated playerbase considers, and it incentivizes those who would otherwise not see /any/ reason to play outside of their comfort planet/faction with a SLIGHTLY, almost negligible boost to the game’s progression system.
Obviously this would only apply to larger Major Orders, and would likely need to be implemented sparingly. So what about waves? Let’s say we have 6 days to liberate 10 planets, one planet gets a boost on the first day. Two days later, a separate poll is run and a new planet gets a boost. On the last day, a final poll is run and one planet gets a boost. This reduces the amount of polls/planets getting a boost to once every couple days only during story moments when a huge Major Order is being run. So 3 planets out of 10 get a boost, the playerbase still gets time to liberate however they’d like with no punishment, and we might even hit higher player counts on days where there is a planet giving a “boost to liberation”.
Just an idea, let me know what you guys think
submitted by Status-Fix-8284 to Helldivers [link] [comments]
What if we ran a poll on which planet the Reddit/discord community thinks should be the main focus, with the winning planet being given an additional 5% increase to requisition slips, an extra medal per mission completed, or some reward of that kind until the target planet is completed.
People who only play to enjoy the game might simply not know or care enough about supply lines/other factors, so they go where the bulk of people are. People also might simply refuse to spend their one hour of free time on a planet with effects/enemy types they don’t like and instead opt for a planet they view more favorably for whatever reason.
This solves both issues. It gives people clarity on the game’s liberation mechanic without them having to understand/consider all the factors the more dedicated playerbase considers, and it incentivizes those who would otherwise not see /any/ reason to play outside of their comfort planet/faction with a SLIGHTLY, almost negligible boost to the game’s progression system.
Obviously this would only apply to larger Major Orders, and would likely need to be implemented sparingly. So what about waves? Let’s say we have 6 days to liberate 10 planets, one planet gets a boost on the first day. Two days later, a separate poll is run and a new planet gets a boost. On the last day, a final poll is run and one planet gets a boost. This reduces the amount of polls/planets getting a boost to once every couple days only during story moments when a huge Major Order is being run. So 3 planets out of 10 get a boost, the playerbase still gets time to liberate however they’d like with no punishment, and we might even hit higher player counts on days where there is a planet giving a “boost to liberation”.
Just an idea, let me know what you guys think
2024.04.29 00:00 Shimmering-Sky [Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Episode 9 Discussion
Episode 9 - I'd Never Allow That to Happen
← Previous Episode Index Next Episode →Show Information:
MAL AniList ANN Kitsu AniDB(First-timers might want to stay out of show information, though.)
Legal Streams:
Crunchyroll Hulu(RIP Funimation.)
A Reminder to Rewatchers:
Rewatchers, please please please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. [Spoiler warning specifically for you guys]Please be aware that as part of the above strict spoiler rules, this means absolutely no memes/jokes/references/subtle words about {the usual suspects} before the relevant episodes. Please do not spoil the first-timers by trying to be smart about it, it's not as subtle as you think.Make sure you use spoiler tags if there’s ever something from future events you just have to comment on. And don’t be the idiot who quotes a specific part of a first-timer’s comment, then comments something under a spoiler tag in direct response to it! You might as well have spoiled them by implying there’s something super important about that specific part of their comment.
And a Reminder to First-Timers too:
As previously noted, first-timers wanting to avoid spoilers are strongly recommended to use either the desktop version of the site or the iOS app (which appears to be unaffected), lest you chance running into this bug regarding replying to a post or comment that has spoiler tags in it.Daily Community Participation!
Visuals of the Day:Episode 8 album
Theory of the Day:
Today's Theory of the Day goes to u/_Pyxyty for going into fully unhinged crack theory territory and unintentionally reinventing a common fan theory from when this show was airing as a result:
Screw it, let's get straight to the theory: Homura is Madoka from a different timeline. I'm going full crazy conspiracy theorist on this one. If Madoka turns into some wildly powerful being that can do things even Kyubey can't do, like revert magical girls back to normal, I assume she'd also be able to manipulate time and space, jump between timelines, and alter her look.Analysis of the Day:
I just genuinely can't think of who Homura might be though, if not Madoka herself. I thought it might be her mother, but given Kyubey only seems to target young girls, that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe Hitomi? If it was her though, I'd be shocked but also a tiny bit disappointed. I can't imagine it'd be some other character that we just haven't met in this timeline yet. Who could Homura be other than Madoka herself that would make sense narratively and physically speaking?
Even if it was some magical girl we havent met before, time magic seems really powerful, and that ability kind of seems like it'd be unattainable unless you had the potential Madoka has, right?
For Analysis of the Day, we have a winner and an honorable mention. Let's start with the winner, consisting of u/Specs64z's thoughts on the train scene:
In a work with so much visual and musical flair, the train scene stands out a lot in Madoka Magica.And for the honorable mention, that would be u/Hattakiri's note about English dubs:
There’s no color in the scene, everything is painted in shadow. No music plays. The only sound we hear is the ambient noise of the train: the engine roaring, the wheels clicking, the straps clanking. That, and the conversation between the 2 men.
Hey… is this world even worth protecting?And what a wretched conversation it is. Their words are full of self-importance and contempt for others, it’s corrosive to the soul even to listen to. Inhuman. Sayaka confronts them, nothing left to lose, as darkness seeps forth from her soul gem. We know this is no mere visual trick as the men react fearfully to the haunting visage.
C’mon, tell me. Or else.The black and white visuals on the train harken back to the witch's labyrinth from earlier. This world is not as it should be… so what must be done to make it right? And who will do it?
If there are people out there who’re worse than witches, then I’m gonna fight ‘em.Color has returned to the world as we cut to a shot of a branching railway; the “labyrinth” is no more. The train barrels into frame and down one of the paths, its destination pre-determined and its course irreversible.
I’ve always thought Sayaka killed them.
"You are Sailor Moon and you must fight evil when it confronts you!" - a lucky choice by Sailor Moon's old DiC writers for Luna's first appearance. These words nailed the plot point perfectly, and due to the writing and performance they had to become an iconic signature phrase of the old Sailor Moon dub, despite maybe interpreting the Japanese original "rather freely".Wallpaper of the Day:
The one phrase whose "loss" due to the new ViZ interpretation actually was "bemoaned" by some lol
Often dubs lead to debates and controversies due to the "free interpretation" of the translators. But sometimes the translators manage to create something iconic.
But DiC's Sailor Moon was rather from the funny category. Sayaka's "I was stupid, so stupid!" is from the serious category and it marks one of the signature plot twists of PMMM.
Kyouko Sakura and Sayaka Miki
Check out Shimmering-Sky's main comment for her bonus Wallpaper Corner containing works from previous years!
Songs of the Day:
Symposium magarum
Bonus song - and I'm home
Check out u/Nazenn’s comment from the 2019 rewatch for an in-depth analysis of these two songs, as well as timestamps for what songs played when in today's episode!
Venari Strigas
Umbra Nigra
Incertus
Terror Adhaerens
Also check out Tarhalindur's Kajiura Corner from the 2023 rewatch for even more analysis on music this episode!
and I'm home Cover of the Day:
/anime Sings and I'm home
(We would just link the YouTube release here instead of rehosting it on Catbox, but the YouTube release is only a teaser because of copyright. Also, fun fact, u/Shimmering-Sky is the one who provided the "I was stupid... So stupid..." at the beginning. )
Question(s) of the Day:
1) Thoughts on our BD additional special ED for this episode, and I'm home?
2) Now that Kyubey has given us his reasons for why the magical girl system exists, what do you think of them and of him?
3) First-Timers: Did you think for a moment that Kyouko had a chance of actually rescuing Sayaka?
4) First-Timers: So… now what?
5) [Rewatchers] Ready to do the time loop again?
2024.04.28 23:52 Recent-Cheesecake628 Family problems/Am I in the wrong???
So I (17f) have been having family problems since as long as I can remember I'll try to sum up my background as to get to my new problem it's all just my sister and mom
My mother: Abused me (mentally sometimes physically until the age of 14) When we argue she changes the fight basically by making her look like the bad mother for example the last fight we had she said "oh so youre telling me that I'm a useless mother and that I couldnt protect you" She's a single mother that worries a shit load about money and whenever me and my siblings ask for something simple she says we have no money but is constantly looking online for dress,shoes, jewelry, etc anything that she would want Constantly drinks and smokes while me and my little siblings are around (she's a terrible driver and has crashed the car with us in it several times) She told us one time when she was high that she would kill us all and then herself so that we would be together in heaven (thankfully this was 5 years ago and she has since dropped that mindset) When my mom found out I was cutting she pulled me into her room asked me why I was doing it and then proceeded to say "if you wanted pain you should of told me and I would have beaten your ass till it bleed" While in a fight I told her that I was being sexually assaulted by my cousins starting at the age of 9 through 15 and she spun the conversation around basically asking what I did to deserve that and if I was saying that she was a bad mother for letting that happen When I was little 5-11 my mom would pull me into the shower after she had yelled and hit me and she would turn on the shower to cold ass water and once opened the window we had in the bathroom during December, I caught a bad cold and had to stay home for about 3 day because I couldn't stop throwing up Honestly that's all I remember right now mostly because I blocked the rest of it out
My sister: Diagnosed with bipolar Yells at everyone (yes including my mom) until she gets her way Hits me and my siblings if she feels like we are giving her attitude or are 'fighting' with her Once she called me a usless bitch and caused me to have a panic attack and mental breakdown in the bathroom Overall she's okay at times but most time out of the day she has spent it yelling at either me or my siblings and has caused me to break down crying although I never let her see it
Now for the problem/question that I have
I am a part of the class of 2024 and I have no money saved up, I only know the basics of driving and am planning to get a summer job to be able to save up enough money in order to be able to move out and go to college
I do not want to stay in my mother's home with her or my sister for another year, I want to leave start my own life and be able to explore myself, I am terrified of relationships and cannot handle being in pictures with them (idk why)
What do I do?? How do I save up enough money in order to move out and gain independence, I just want to know any advice on how I can get out sooner and basically be free
submitted by Recent-Cheesecake628 to amiwrong [link] [comments]
My mother: Abused me (mentally sometimes physically until the age of 14) When we argue she changes the fight basically by making her look like the bad mother for example the last fight we had she said "oh so youre telling me that I'm a useless mother and that I couldnt protect you" She's a single mother that worries a shit load about money and whenever me and my siblings ask for something simple she says we have no money but is constantly looking online for dress,shoes, jewelry, etc anything that she would want Constantly drinks and smokes while me and my little siblings are around (she's a terrible driver and has crashed the car with us in it several times) She told us one time when she was high that she would kill us all and then herself so that we would be together in heaven (thankfully this was 5 years ago and she has since dropped that mindset) When my mom found out I was cutting she pulled me into her room asked me why I was doing it and then proceeded to say "if you wanted pain you should of told me and I would have beaten your ass till it bleed" While in a fight I told her that I was being sexually assaulted by my cousins starting at the age of 9 through 15 and she spun the conversation around basically asking what I did to deserve that and if I was saying that she was a bad mother for letting that happen When I was little 5-11 my mom would pull me into the shower after she had yelled and hit me and she would turn on the shower to cold ass water and once opened the window we had in the bathroom during December, I caught a bad cold and had to stay home for about 3 day because I couldn't stop throwing up Honestly that's all I remember right now mostly because I blocked the rest of it out
My sister: Diagnosed with bipolar Yells at everyone (yes including my mom) until she gets her way Hits me and my siblings if she feels like we are giving her attitude or are 'fighting' with her Once she called me a usless bitch and caused me to have a panic attack and mental breakdown in the bathroom Overall she's okay at times but most time out of the day she has spent it yelling at either me or my siblings and has caused me to break down crying although I never let her see it
Now for the problem/question that I have
I am a part of the class of 2024 and I have no money saved up, I only know the basics of driving and am planning to get a summer job to be able to save up enough money in order to be able to move out and go to college
I do not want to stay in my mother's home with her or my sister for another year, I want to leave start my own life and be able to explore myself, I am terrified of relationships and cannot handle being in pictures with them (idk why)
What do I do?? How do I save up enough money in order to move out and gain independence, I just want to know any advice on how I can get out sooner and basically be free
2024.04.28 23:48 Disastrous_Amount_75 Left my wife for the girl I was having an affair with, wife turned into an alcoholic, girl who I left my wife for left the country.
Yup - this sounds like it has potential to be a netflix TV show and believe me if I went into every single detail it would, but I don't think I can on this sub Reddit there isn't a nsfw button. There is so many twists to this story that I will go into if people really want to know, but I've been carrything this shit on my shoulders for way to long.
But to cut a long story as short as possible, met my now ex wife in 2018, hit it off straight away and before we knew it we were engaged. Now id always wanted children and I was 25 at the time of meeting her, she was everything I was looking for in a future wife, she was a doctor, great family, kind had nice friends wasn't too much of a party girl but liked a drink once in a while to let her hair down. The sex wasn't great, she was very vanilla and hadn't had much experience, I wasn't too worried at the time as in my mind, I was going to marry this girl and I was certain it would improve.
Unfortunately it didn't, we had planned to get married abroad, Santorini of all places. Shit didn't go to plan as our old friend COVID reared it's head and ruined all our plans, so I spent lockdown living with her. The summer of 2020 was just us and to be honest day to day living was good, no drama no problems, but just the sex was bad. It wasn't bad enough for me to warrant leaving her as I still thought she would be perfect to raise my future kids with! But in the back of my mind I was struggling the first tell tell signs there could be trouble in paradise.
During that summer i had started a new job which was remote, that's where I met Andrea, she happened to start on the same day as me. We hit it off, we quickly became friendly and from then the sexting would begin once my fiance was asleep. As soon as the lockdown restrictions were lifted I went home to London whilst she stayed up north, Andrea lived in London.... We met up regularly, we would have the best times and then id go back to fiance Jennifer as if nothing happened. Andrea knew I had plans to get married and at the time as it was a bit of fun neither of us were bothered.
But ladies I'll give you a heads up, if the sex goes dry completely dont be surprised if your man is cheating on you, chances are he is. Me and Andrea started seeing eachother more and more and feelings started to grow, just at the wrong damn time. I was too much of coward to call off the rescheduled wedding date, so yup I got married, a small covid wedding, I even remembered messaging Andrea on my wedding day, wild when I think back to it.
I tried to forget Andrea and make it work with my now wife but I couldn't, going to sleep with someone every night who you are now not attracted too because you are attracted to someone else is something I cannot fathom. Waiting for her to go sleep so I could have chats with Andrea without looking over my shoulder, this happened on our honeymoon, holidays, it happened everyday. But after a few months I realised I'd made a mistake in getting married, it took me nearly two years to make the decision to ask for a divorce only after a crazy turn of events.
Me and Andrea whilst I was married had been on countless "work trips" abroad, we had spoke about starting a life together, living together, children the whole works. I was buying it, it felt right and my mind was made up to actually ask my wife for a divorce. In the lead up to this, I'd noticed my wife had been coming home from work slurring her words on occasions, bumping into things, acting incoherent, which I raised to her numerous times and i was met with I'm fine I'm fine. I feel like I could go into so much detail but I won't right now, but she ended up crashing her car twice whilst intoxicated, both times calling me and me getting a taxi to where she was to sort out her mess. Luckily no one was ever injured physically anyway, but I was starting to get worried about this behaviour. I never knew if this was down to me even to this day but during our marriage the drinking gradually increased, she would drink and hide the fact she was drinking which all came to light after we got divorced.
Whilst this was happening I was already planning a life with Andrea, me and Jennifer agreed to divorce last year. First thing I did was go see Andrea, i was happy she was happy, we could do all the things we had spoken about. One thing about Andrea, she was super impulsive and in someway was a free spirit. Anyway we headed to Dubai later than month, had a great holiday, talked about our plans. Everything was moving in the right direction, until I came to see her on a Friday evening, had dinner, she sat on my laps after dinner and hit me with the fact that she had just accepted a role in Australia and would be moving in two months. She asked me to come but I had family commitments that stopped me from leaving them behind.
She now lives abroad, my ex wife is now living happily ever after (I hope), I'm here thinking where it all went wrong. In the back of my mind I hope i wasn't to blame for my ex wifi having a drinking problem. I'm now 33, back at square one, no one will ever know about Andrea, they all think me and Jen broke up because my ex had a drinking problem, which isn't actually far from the truth. Life is one crazy ride put it that way. Guys if you're not feeling it leave your woman, women if you know something is up and you're lacking the affection you once received, best believe something is up.
Fyi I know I was wrong for cheating amongst other things and there is no way to defend what Ive done. What can I say, If there was a rulebook on how to be a perfect human being, maybe id read it but there isn't so everyone gotta figure their own shit out themselves! Peace
submitted by Disastrous_Amount_75 to confessions [link] [comments]
But to cut a long story as short as possible, met my now ex wife in 2018, hit it off straight away and before we knew it we were engaged. Now id always wanted children and I was 25 at the time of meeting her, she was everything I was looking for in a future wife, she was a doctor, great family, kind had nice friends wasn't too much of a party girl but liked a drink once in a while to let her hair down. The sex wasn't great, she was very vanilla and hadn't had much experience, I wasn't too worried at the time as in my mind, I was going to marry this girl and I was certain it would improve.
Unfortunately it didn't, we had planned to get married abroad, Santorini of all places. Shit didn't go to plan as our old friend COVID reared it's head and ruined all our plans, so I spent lockdown living with her. The summer of 2020 was just us and to be honest day to day living was good, no drama no problems, but just the sex was bad. It wasn't bad enough for me to warrant leaving her as I still thought she would be perfect to raise my future kids with! But in the back of my mind I was struggling the first tell tell signs there could be trouble in paradise.
During that summer i had started a new job which was remote, that's where I met Andrea, she happened to start on the same day as me. We hit it off, we quickly became friendly and from then the sexting would begin once my fiance was asleep. As soon as the lockdown restrictions were lifted I went home to London whilst she stayed up north, Andrea lived in London.... We met up regularly, we would have the best times and then id go back to fiance Jennifer as if nothing happened. Andrea knew I had plans to get married and at the time as it was a bit of fun neither of us were bothered.
But ladies I'll give you a heads up, if the sex goes dry completely dont be surprised if your man is cheating on you, chances are he is. Me and Andrea started seeing eachother more and more and feelings started to grow, just at the wrong damn time. I was too much of coward to call off the rescheduled wedding date, so yup I got married, a small covid wedding, I even remembered messaging Andrea on my wedding day, wild when I think back to it.
I tried to forget Andrea and make it work with my now wife but I couldn't, going to sleep with someone every night who you are now not attracted too because you are attracted to someone else is something I cannot fathom. Waiting for her to go sleep so I could have chats with Andrea without looking over my shoulder, this happened on our honeymoon, holidays, it happened everyday. But after a few months I realised I'd made a mistake in getting married, it took me nearly two years to make the decision to ask for a divorce only after a crazy turn of events.
Me and Andrea whilst I was married had been on countless "work trips" abroad, we had spoke about starting a life together, living together, children the whole works. I was buying it, it felt right and my mind was made up to actually ask my wife for a divorce. In the lead up to this, I'd noticed my wife had been coming home from work slurring her words on occasions, bumping into things, acting incoherent, which I raised to her numerous times and i was met with I'm fine I'm fine. I feel like I could go into so much detail but I won't right now, but she ended up crashing her car twice whilst intoxicated, both times calling me and me getting a taxi to where she was to sort out her mess. Luckily no one was ever injured physically anyway, but I was starting to get worried about this behaviour. I never knew if this was down to me even to this day but during our marriage the drinking gradually increased, she would drink and hide the fact she was drinking which all came to light after we got divorced.
Whilst this was happening I was already planning a life with Andrea, me and Jennifer agreed to divorce last year. First thing I did was go see Andrea, i was happy she was happy, we could do all the things we had spoken about. One thing about Andrea, she was super impulsive and in someway was a free spirit. Anyway we headed to Dubai later than month, had a great holiday, talked about our plans. Everything was moving in the right direction, until I came to see her on a Friday evening, had dinner, she sat on my laps after dinner and hit me with the fact that she had just accepted a role in Australia and would be moving in two months. She asked me to come but I had family commitments that stopped me from leaving them behind.
She now lives abroad, my ex wife is now living happily ever after (I hope), I'm here thinking where it all went wrong. In the back of my mind I hope i wasn't to blame for my ex wifi having a drinking problem. I'm now 33, back at square one, no one will ever know about Andrea, they all think me and Jen broke up because my ex had a drinking problem, which isn't actually far from the truth. Life is one crazy ride put it that way. Guys if you're not feeling it leave your woman, women if you know something is up and you're lacking the affection you once received, best believe something is up.
Fyi I know I was wrong for cheating amongst other things and there is no way to defend what Ive done. What can I say, If there was a rulebook on how to be a perfect human being, maybe id read it but there isn't so everyone gotta figure their own shit out themselves! Peace
2024.04.28 23:47 Disastrous_Amount_75 Left my wife for the girl I was having an affair with, wife turned into an alcoholic, girl who I left my wife for left the country.
Yup - this sounds like it has potential to be a netflix TV show and believe me if I went into every single detail it would, but I don't think I can on this sub Reddit there isn't a nsfw button. There is so many twists to this story that I will go into if people really want to know, but I've been carrything this shit on my shoulders for way to long.
But to cut a long story as short as possible, met my now ex wife in 2018, hit it off straight away and before we knew it we were engaged. Now id always wanted children and I was 25 at the time of meeting her, she was everything I was looking for in a future wife, she was a doctor, great family, kind had nice friends wasn't too much of a party girl but liked a drink once in a while to let her hair down. The sex wasn't great, she was very vanilla and hadn't had much experience, I wasn't too worried at the time as in my mind, I was going to marry this girl and I was certain it would improve.
Unfortunately it didn't, we had planned to get married abroad, Santorini of all places. Shit didn't go to plan as our old friend COVID reared it's head and ruined all our plans, so I spent lockdown living with her. The summer of 2020 was just us and to be honest day to day living was good, no drama no problems, but just the sex was bad. It wasn't bad enough for me to warrant leaving her as I still thought she would be perfect to raise my future kids with! But in the back of my mind I was struggling the first tell tell signs there could be trouble in paradise.
During that summer i had started a new job which was remote, that's where I met Andrea, she happened to start on the same day as me. We hit it off, we quickly became friendly and from then the sexting would begin once my fiance was asleep. As soon as the lockdown restrictions were lifted I went home to London whilst she stayed up north, Andrea lived in London.... We met up regularly, we would have the best times and then id go back to fiance Jennifer as if nothing happened. Andrea knew I had plans to get married and at the time as it was a bit of fun neither of us were bothered.
But ladies I'll give you a heads up, if the sex goes dry completely dont be surprised if your man is cheating on you, chances are he is. Me and Andrea started seeing eachother more and more and feelings started to grow, just at the wrong damn time. I was too much of coward to call off the rescheduled wedding date, so yup I got married, a small covid wedding, I even remembered messaging Andrea on my wedding day, wild when I think back to it.
I tried to forget Andrea and make it work with my now wife but I couldn't, going to sleep with someone every night who you are now not attracted too because you are attracted to someone else is something I cannot fathom. Waiting for her to go sleep so I could have chats with Andrea without looking over my shoulder, this happened on our honeymoon, holidays, it happened everyday. But after a few months I realised I'd made a mistake in getting married, it took me nearly two years to make the decision to ask for a divorce only after a crazy turn of events.
Me and Andrea whilst I was married had been on countless "work trips" abroad, we had spoke about starting a life together, living together, children the whole works. I was buying it, it felt right and my mind was made up to actually ask my wife for a divorce. In the lead up to this, I'd noticed my wife had been coming home from work slurring her words on occasions, bumping into things, acting incoherent, which I raised to her numerous times and i was met with I'm fine I'm fine. I feel like I could go into so much detail but I won't right now, but she ended up crashing her car twice whilst intoxicated, both times calling me and me getting a taxi to where she was to sort out her mess. Luckily no one was ever injured physically anyway, but I was starting to get worried about this behaviour. I never knew if this was down to me even to this day but during our marriage the drinking gradually increased, she would drink and hide the fact she was drinking which all came to light after we got divorced.
Whilst this was happening I was already planning a life with Andrea, me and Jennifer agreed to divorce last year. First thing I did was go see Andrea, i was happy she was happy, we could do all the things we had spoken about. One thing about Andrea, she was super impulsive and in someway was a free spirit. Anyway we headed to Dubai later than month, had a great holiday, talked about our plans. Everything was moving in the right direction, until I came to see her on a Friday evening, had dinner, she sat on my laps after dinner and hit me with the fact that she had just accepted a role in Australia and would be moving in two months. She asked me to come but I had family commitments that stopped me from leaving them behind.
She now lives abroad, my ex wife is now living happily ever after (I hope), I'm here thinking where it all went wrong. In the back of my mind I hope i wasn't to blame for my ex wifi having a drinking problem. I'm now 33, back at square one, no one will ever know about Andrea, they all think me and Jen broke up because my ex had a drinking problem, which isn't actually far from the truth. Life is one crazy ride put it that way. Guys if you're not feeling it leave your woman, women if you know something is up and you're lacking the affection you once received, best believe something is up.
Fyi I know I was wrong for cheating amongst other things and there is no way to defend what Ive done. What can I say, If there was a rulebook on how to be a perfect human being, maybe id read it but there isn't so everyone gotta figure their own shit out themselves! Peace
submitted by Disastrous_Amount_75 to offmychest [link] [comments]
But to cut a long story as short as possible, met my now ex wife in 2018, hit it off straight away and before we knew it we were engaged. Now id always wanted children and I was 25 at the time of meeting her, she was everything I was looking for in a future wife, she was a doctor, great family, kind had nice friends wasn't too much of a party girl but liked a drink once in a while to let her hair down. The sex wasn't great, she was very vanilla and hadn't had much experience, I wasn't too worried at the time as in my mind, I was going to marry this girl and I was certain it would improve.
Unfortunately it didn't, we had planned to get married abroad, Santorini of all places. Shit didn't go to plan as our old friend COVID reared it's head and ruined all our plans, so I spent lockdown living with her. The summer of 2020 was just us and to be honest day to day living was good, no drama no problems, but just the sex was bad. It wasn't bad enough for me to warrant leaving her as I still thought she would be perfect to raise my future kids with! But in the back of my mind I was struggling the first tell tell signs there could be trouble in paradise.
During that summer i had started a new job which was remote, that's where I met Andrea, she happened to start on the same day as me. We hit it off, we quickly became friendly and from then the sexting would begin once my fiance was asleep. As soon as the lockdown restrictions were lifted I went home to London whilst she stayed up north, Andrea lived in London.... We met up regularly, we would have the best times and then id go back to fiance Jennifer as if nothing happened. Andrea knew I had plans to get married and at the time as it was a bit of fun neither of us were bothered.
But ladies I'll give you a heads up, if the sex goes dry completely dont be surprised if your man is cheating on you, chances are he is. Me and Andrea started seeing eachother more and more and feelings started to grow, just at the wrong damn time. I was too much of coward to call off the rescheduled wedding date, so yup I got married, a small covid wedding, I even remembered messaging Andrea on my wedding day, wild when I think back to it.
I tried to forget Andrea and make it work with my now wife but I couldn't, going to sleep with someone every night who you are now not attracted too because you are attracted to someone else is something I cannot fathom. Waiting for her to go sleep so I could have chats with Andrea without looking over my shoulder, this happened on our honeymoon, holidays, it happened everyday. But after a few months I realised I'd made a mistake in getting married, it took me nearly two years to make the decision to ask for a divorce only after a crazy turn of events.
Me and Andrea whilst I was married had been on countless "work trips" abroad, we had spoke about starting a life together, living together, children the whole works. I was buying it, it felt right and my mind was made up to actually ask my wife for a divorce. In the lead up to this, I'd noticed my wife had been coming home from work slurring her words on occasions, bumping into things, acting incoherent, which I raised to her numerous times and i was met with I'm fine I'm fine. I feel like I could go into so much detail but I won't right now, but she ended up crashing her car twice whilst intoxicated, both times calling me and me getting a taxi to where she was to sort out her mess. Luckily no one was ever injured physically anyway, but I was starting to get worried about this behaviour. I never knew if this was down to me even to this day but during our marriage the drinking gradually increased, she would drink and hide the fact she was drinking which all came to light after we got divorced.
Whilst this was happening I was already planning a life with Andrea, me and Jennifer agreed to divorce last year. First thing I did was go see Andrea, i was happy she was happy, we could do all the things we had spoken about. One thing about Andrea, she was super impulsive and in someway was a free spirit. Anyway we headed to Dubai later than month, had a great holiday, talked about our plans. Everything was moving in the right direction, until I came to see her on a Friday evening, had dinner, she sat on my laps after dinner and hit me with the fact that she had just accepted a role in Australia and would be moving in two months. She asked me to come but I had family commitments that stopped me from leaving them behind.
She now lives abroad, my ex wife is now living happily ever after (I hope), I'm here thinking where it all went wrong. In the back of my mind I hope i wasn't to blame for my ex wifi having a drinking problem. I'm now 33, back at square one, no one will ever know about Andrea, they all think me and Jen broke up because my ex had a drinking problem, which isn't actually far from the truth. Life is one crazy ride put it that way. Guys if you're not feeling it leave your woman, women if you know something is up and you're lacking the affection you once received, best believe something is up.
Fyi I know I was wrong for cheating amongst other things and there is no way to defend what Ive done. What can I say, If there was a rulebook on how to be a perfect human being, maybe id read it but there isn't so everyone gotta figure their own shit out themselves! Peace
2024.04.28 23:45 Imaginary_Oil6697 Improved Follower Dialogue - Lydia crashing to desktop
getting constant crashing trying to enter lydia's farm house during her personal quest
ive gone throught sse edit and looked to see if theres any interference and ive disabled a bunch of different mods that could maybe even slightly cause this issue i cannot figure this out and would like someones outside perspective on this to hopefully fix it cuz i was able to play this mission just fine in version 3.6.6 and now in 4.0.5 i cant enter this building without crashing on this new playthrough
heres my crash log
heres my load order: in ascending order ( READ FROM BOTTOM TO TOP)
# This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer.
+nemesis output
-SSE Edit Cache Lydia 3.6.6
+SSE Edit cache
+SKSE
+BodySlide
-nemesis_separator
+Face Discoloration Fix
+Lydia IFD texture overwrite
-Improved Follower Dialogue - Lydia 3.6.6
+Improved Follower Dialogue - Lydia
+Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - Update and MCM
+RDO - CRF and USSEP Patches Final
+Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO SE
+UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul SE
+Nether's Follower Framework
+Visions NPCs - Cured Serana Patch
+Rosa Round-Bottom ---ADULT Follower Mod--- SSE
+Daedric Bitchs SE
+ColdSun's Visions - NPCs AIO
+ColdSun's Visions - Asset Pack
-NPCs_separator
+[immyneedscake] Shinobu Katana
+Scoped Bows SE 1.3.1
-weapons_separator
+SN Dark Disciple Replacer 3BA
+(YS) Artoria Pendragon - SMP BHUNP - CBBE-3BA-3BBB-TBD
+Wayward Knight Set
+[immyneedscake] 2B Re[in]carnation Remastered
+[immyneedscake] BDO Dark Knight Class Armor - Rosa Cassius CBBE SSE (Cloth SMP)
+[Cloud] Shinobu Lingerie - 3BA
+[immyneedscake] RyanReos Bladedancer Mercenary
+[immyneedscake] RyanReos Primrose Egypt
+Dragon Plate Brazen Renewal Ver SSE
+Dark Elf Blader - CBBE 3BA
+Hellraiser Outfit - CBBE 3BA - BHUNP
+Ebonscale CBBE 3BA
+Ebonscale
+BD's Armor and clothes replacer CBBE 3BA - V1.42 Update file
+BDs Armor and Clothes Replacer CBBE 3BA
+DX Necromancer Robes - HDT-SMP Physics and 3BBB Bodyslides
+DX Necromancer Robes - SSE CBBE BodySlide
+DX Necromancer Robes - UNP
+[immyneedscake] RyanReos Elf Paladin
+Deze Armor BS - 3BBB
+Deze
-armor_separator
+ADXP I MCO elden rim moveset collection (SCAR)
+Armor Rating Redux SE
+Resistances and Weaknesses - Armor Plugin
+Resistances and Weaknesses
+Post-Hit Killmove and Execution (Unsupported)
+Killmove Paralysis Prevention
+VioLens - A Killmove Mod SE
+No Saving in Combat SE
+Stagger Direction Fix - SSE
+Stagger On Hit SKSE
+Vanguard - Bash Behaviors Overhaul
+Elden Parry
+Elden Counter
-Shield Of Stamina - Blocking Redux
+TK dodge firstperson 8 ways dodge
+TK Dodge RE
+TK Dodge SE
+Frost Stamina Damage Nullifier
+Elden Sprint
+Fenix Stamina Overhaul -- Mern's preset
+Fenix Stamina Overhaul
+Valhalla Combat
+Skyrim Souls RE - Updated
+Better Third Person Selection - BTPS
+SmoothCam
+zxlice BackStab and Parry SSE - Script Free
+Mortal Enemies SE
+True Directional Movement - Modernized Third Person Gameplay
+Precision
+Enhanced Enemy AI SE
+SCAR - Skyrim Combos AI Revolution
+Disable Recoil
+Attack MCO-DXP
+Keyword Item Distributor
+MergeMapper
+Payload Interpreter
+IFrame Generator RE
+SSE Engine Fixes (skse64 plugin)
+JContainers SE
+Skyrim Platform 2.8.0 (Special Edition)
+Nemesis Creatures BEHAVIOUR compatibility
+Animation Motion Revolution
+Dynamic Animation Replacer
-animations_separator
+Modular SMP Hairstyles
+Umbrael Character Preset
+CO 61 Converus Bugfix
+Community Overlay 3 (51- 70) Bodypaints Warpaints and Tattoos
+(2) Community Overlays 2 - Main - CBBE
+Skin Feature Overlays SE - Freckles Scars Birthmarks Stretch Marks Moles and More for Face and Body RaceMenu Overlays
+KS Hairdos - HDT SMP (Physics)
+KS Hairdos SSE
+Northborn Scars
+Racemenu_ED_Horns_SSE
+ED Horns SSE
+FacePartMod
+Cherry's Eyes
+Hvergelmir's Aesthetics - Brows
+Pubes Forever SSE
+EFM SE - Racemenu plugin
+Expressive Facegen Morphs SE
+High Poly Head SE
+RaceMenu High Heels (Height Fixes)
+RaceMenu
+Umbrael's Umbrage - 3BA Bodyslide Preset
+The Pure - CBBE
+CBBE 3BA
+Faster HDT-SMP
+CBPC 3-Bone Breast Body
+CBPC - Physics with Collisions
+Feminine Argonian Textures (Chameleon and Lizard) [CBBE]
+Feminine Khajiit Textures (Grey Cat and Leopard) [CBBE]
+Caliente's Beautiful Bodies Enhancer -CBBE-
-body mods_separator
+PhotoMode
+AddItemMenu - Ultimate Mod Explorer
+MCM Helper
+XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended
+Auto Input Switch
+ImGui Icons
+Project New Reign - Nemesis Unlimited Behavior Engine
+BodySlide and Outfit Studio
+Spell Perk Item Distributor
+Fuz Ro D-oh - Silent Voice
+ConsoleUtilSSE
+UIExtensions
+powerofthree's Tweaks
+PapyrusUtil SE - Modders Scripting Utility Functions
+Address Library for SKSE Plugins
+Crash Logger SSE AE VR - PDB support
+SSE Display Tweaks
-misc_separator
+TrueHUD - HUD Additions
+LeanWolf's Better-Shaped Weapons - All in One Installer
+A Quality World Map - Clear Map Skies
+A Quality World Map
+Vivid Weathers - Definitive Edition
+Lightning During Storms Sse (Minty lightning)
+Enhanced Lights and FX
+Realistic Water Two SE
+Skyrim Flora Overhaul SE
+Whiterun Tower fix
+Underground - a dungeon texture overhaul
+Skyland - A Landscape Texture Overhaul
+Static Mesh Improvement Mod
+Dialogue Interface ReShaped
+Paarthurnax - Quest Expansion
+Alternate Start - Live Another Life
+SkyUI
+Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
-USSEP and World Visuals_separator
*Unmanaged: ccBGSSSE001-Fish
*Creation Club: ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS
*Creation Club: ccBGSSSE037-Curios
*Creation Club: ccQDRSSE001-SurvivalMode
*DLC: Dawnguard
*DLC: Dragonborn
*DLC: HearthFires
submitted by Imaginary_Oil6697 to skyrimmods [link] [comments]
ive gone throught sse edit and looked to see if theres any interference and ive disabled a bunch of different mods that could maybe even slightly cause this issue i cannot figure this out and would like someones outside perspective on this to hopefully fix it cuz i was able to play this mission just fine in version 3.6.6 and now in 4.0.5 i cant enter this building without crashing on this new playthrough
heres my crash log
heres my load order: in ascending order ( READ FROM BOTTOM TO TOP)
# This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer.
+nemesis output
-SSE Edit Cache Lydia 3.6.6
+SSE Edit cache
+SKSE
+BodySlide
-nemesis_separator
+Face Discoloration Fix
+Lydia IFD texture overwrite
-Improved Follower Dialogue - Lydia 3.6.6
+Improved Follower Dialogue - Lydia
+Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - Update and MCM
+RDO - CRF and USSEP Patches Final
+Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO SE
+UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul SE
+Nether's Follower Framework
+Visions NPCs - Cured Serana Patch
+Rosa Round-Bottom ---ADULT Follower Mod--- SSE
+Daedric Bitchs SE
+ColdSun's Visions - NPCs AIO
+ColdSun's Visions - Asset Pack
-NPCs_separator
+[immyneedscake] Shinobu Katana
+Scoped Bows SE 1.3.1
-weapons_separator
+SN Dark Disciple Replacer 3BA
+(YS) Artoria Pendragon - SMP BHUNP - CBBE-3BA-3BBB-TBD
+Wayward Knight Set
+[immyneedscake] 2B Re[in]carnation Remastered
+[immyneedscake] BDO Dark Knight Class Armor - Rosa Cassius CBBE SSE (Cloth SMP)
+[Cloud] Shinobu Lingerie - 3BA
+[immyneedscake] RyanReos Bladedancer Mercenary
+[immyneedscake] RyanReos Primrose Egypt
+Dragon Plate Brazen Renewal Ver SSE
+Dark Elf Blader - CBBE 3BA
+Hellraiser Outfit - CBBE 3BA - BHUNP
+Ebonscale CBBE 3BA
+Ebonscale
+BD's Armor and clothes replacer CBBE 3BA - V1.42 Update file
+BDs Armor and Clothes Replacer CBBE 3BA
+DX Necromancer Robes - HDT-SMP Physics and 3BBB Bodyslides
+DX Necromancer Robes - SSE CBBE BodySlide
+DX Necromancer Robes - UNP
+[immyneedscake] RyanReos Elf Paladin
+Deze Armor BS - 3BBB
+Deze
-armor_separator
+ADXP I MCO elden rim moveset collection (SCAR)
+Armor Rating Redux SE
+Resistances and Weaknesses - Armor Plugin
+Resistances and Weaknesses
+Post-Hit Killmove and Execution (Unsupported)
+Killmove Paralysis Prevention
+VioLens - A Killmove Mod SE
+No Saving in Combat SE
+Stagger Direction Fix - SSE
+Stagger On Hit SKSE
+Vanguard - Bash Behaviors Overhaul
+Elden Parry
+Elden Counter
-Shield Of Stamina - Blocking Redux
+TK dodge firstperson 8 ways dodge
+TK Dodge RE
+TK Dodge SE
+Frost Stamina Damage Nullifier
+Elden Sprint
+Fenix Stamina Overhaul -- Mern's preset
+Fenix Stamina Overhaul
+Valhalla Combat
+Skyrim Souls RE - Updated
+Better Third Person Selection - BTPS
+SmoothCam
+zxlice BackStab and Parry SSE - Script Free
+Mortal Enemies SE
+True Directional Movement - Modernized Third Person Gameplay
+Precision
+Enhanced Enemy AI SE
+SCAR - Skyrim Combos AI Revolution
+Disable Recoil
+Attack MCO-DXP
+Keyword Item Distributor
+MergeMapper
+Payload Interpreter
+IFrame Generator RE
+SSE Engine Fixes (skse64 plugin)
+JContainers SE
+Skyrim Platform 2.8.0 (Special Edition)
+Nemesis Creatures BEHAVIOUR compatibility
+Animation Motion Revolution
+Dynamic Animation Replacer
-animations_separator
+Modular SMP Hairstyles
+Umbrael Character Preset
+CO 61 Converus Bugfix
+Community Overlay 3 (51- 70) Bodypaints Warpaints and Tattoos
+(2) Community Overlays 2 - Main - CBBE
+Skin Feature Overlays SE - Freckles Scars Birthmarks Stretch Marks Moles and More for Face and Body RaceMenu Overlays
+KS Hairdos - HDT SMP (Physics)
+KS Hairdos SSE
+Northborn Scars
+Racemenu_ED_Horns_SSE
+ED Horns SSE
+FacePartMod
+Cherry's Eyes
+Hvergelmir's Aesthetics - Brows
+Pubes Forever SSE
+EFM SE - Racemenu plugin
+Expressive Facegen Morphs SE
+High Poly Head SE
+RaceMenu High Heels (Height Fixes)
+RaceMenu
+Umbrael's Umbrage - 3BA Bodyslide Preset
+The Pure - CBBE
+CBBE 3BA
+Faster HDT-SMP
+CBPC 3-Bone Breast Body
+CBPC - Physics with Collisions
+Feminine Argonian Textures (Chameleon and Lizard) [CBBE]
+Feminine Khajiit Textures (Grey Cat and Leopard) [CBBE]
+Caliente's Beautiful Bodies Enhancer -CBBE-
-body mods_separator
+PhotoMode
+AddItemMenu - Ultimate Mod Explorer
+MCM Helper
+XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended
+Auto Input Switch
+ImGui Icons
+Project New Reign - Nemesis Unlimited Behavior Engine
+BodySlide and Outfit Studio
+Spell Perk Item Distributor
+Fuz Ro D-oh - Silent Voice
+ConsoleUtilSSE
+UIExtensions
+powerofthree's Tweaks
+PapyrusUtil SE - Modders Scripting Utility Functions
+Address Library for SKSE Plugins
+Crash Logger SSE AE VR - PDB support
+SSE Display Tweaks
-misc_separator
+TrueHUD - HUD Additions
+LeanWolf's Better-Shaped Weapons - All in One Installer
+A Quality World Map - Clear Map Skies
+A Quality World Map
+Vivid Weathers - Definitive Edition
+Lightning During Storms Sse (Minty lightning)
+Enhanced Lights and FX
+Realistic Water Two SE
+Skyrim Flora Overhaul SE
+Whiterun Tower fix
+Underground - a dungeon texture overhaul
+Skyland - A Landscape Texture Overhaul
+Static Mesh Improvement Mod
+Dialogue Interface ReShaped
+Paarthurnax - Quest Expansion
+Alternate Start - Live Another Life
+SkyUI
+Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
-USSEP and World Visuals_separator
*Unmanaged: ccBGSSSE001-Fish
*Creation Club: ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS
*Creation Club: ccBGSSSE037-Curios
*Creation Club: ccQDRSSE001-SurvivalMode
*DLC: Dawnguard
*DLC: Dragonborn
*DLC: HearthFires
2024.04.28 23:44 SpecialistExchange28 Wheelchair Ramps 101 - DIY down and dirty edition 2024
 | Thanks for deciding to read my post today. This is not the definitive or complete explanation of wheelchair ramp design. Before I start let's get the technical potentially legal stuff out of the way first. submitted by SpecialistExchange28 to u/SpecialistExchange28 [link] [comments] Ramps that are indoors or in a fenced in area like a back yard (THE FENCED AREA MAY BE DIFFERENT IF IT IS ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC). Ramps not used by the public = Food delivery, mailperson, utility meter reader, Jahova's Witnesses, etc. These Ramps do not need to Meer ADA requirements. But should still be functional and safe to use. You'd be surprised at what people do. But if it works, then it works. Backyards that are fenced in and not accessible to the public MIGHT be excluded. FOR ANY RAMP OR ACCESSIBLE FEATURE ADDED TO OITDOOR SPACES THAT THE PUBLIC CAN ACCESS WILL 100% NEED A TOWN OR CITY PERMIT. THIS IS WITHOUT EXCEPTION. Here is where it gets real. If you decide to ignore this and say someone trips, slips pr otherwise gets injured by your accessibility fearure. YOU and only YOU are at fault. Even if it is 100% ADA compliant, the feature was not properly registered with the town or city so it can be noted when and where it is installed and on what property. Next the town or city will fine you a set amount per day it was in place without a permit. For example a permit for my handcycle shed cost $100 that might seem unfair and costly. But if I had just built my shed without permit they could fine me $1,000 per day it was up from the time it was built. Getting a permit and making things 100% or better than ADA complaint, yes it is easy to surpass what the ADA asks for. ADA is the bare minimum expected. This doesn't mean someone trying to con you won't try and sue you. But, if you have things in order such as getting a permit. Making things at least ADA compliant will support your side in a legal issue. Yup that is the borish stuff for the most part. Forget about it and life will likely get very annoying. For those who are interested and want a live community to chillax in to talk about most anything really, listen to music and make requests for Fave songs or topics you would like to discuss. I broadcast live typically in the cold months M-F from around when my pain allows me to get up varies 9am to after noon and I go until my sweetheart arrives home. About 5PM to 6PM I have been broadcasting live 16 years. Quite literally I am just repeating here what I will talk about live also. TikTok until the ban kicks in. Then it's back to Twitch. AbiliTV or AbiliTV Live. If you Google the name do not pay attention to the website I don't have one. And the owner of that sight well let's say I don't endorse him. I am on YouTube, FB, IG,,Twitch, account still there but not used since it went to X (Twitter), Kick - although I don't like the vibe on Kick. Of course I am here getting started here on Reddit in a more text based community. I am in the Wheelchair and Disabilities communities where I am learning about all sorts of amazing people. OK, I always hate posting I am a live content creator. I hate it so much I have hardly any community live. Ramps. What makes a crappy, good, or excellent ramp? For me it is the little details that really make the differences. I will use images to try and explain the bare basics. 1st image: Most people see this and think: My prayers have been answered. No they have not. You will notice the direction the person is using the ramp. Manufacturers do this to play into your desperate need for a ramp solution. They want you imagining how easy there ramp is to use. So they stage images showing that. Much how homes are staged. To make it easier for people to fall victim to slick sales tricks. What if the door were closed and rhe person was approaching the door? Look at the ramp. How does one say open s screen door or storm door that swings out? Most dwellings will have one. Now imagine it's raining really hard and that nice metal surface isn't as grippy? And you have a bag or two of groceries on your lap. Now open the storm door and then before it closes as they are typically on a door closer of some design. As you fight the storm door, are annoyed by the driving rain, and fumbling for your keys. Even on an ideally perfect day without snow or rain this ramp will work 100% against you. Also it isn't wide enough to allow you to move over out of the way ofcthe storm door. Meaning you need to back up and get the door perched against your wheelchair frame to now roll foward to open the entry door. Sadly using the wheelchair brakes just make things all that much more frustrating. 2nd Image: 3 ft ramp $219. This seems decent right? It isn't. You have to account for the pitch or slope. If you have a threshold that is 10 inches higher than the surface you need to reach, this means you need not just a ten foot long ramp but a raised area that meets the threshold that the ramp attaches to closest to the surface you're trying to reach. What happens if you decide to use a short ramp and have a steeper slope? The worst will be to flip backwards going up. Next worst you don't have the upper body strength to make it. The next will be you deciding never to use it except to exit with. It is a little less scary going down. Although you need really good hand strength and dexterity to maintain control at higher speeds. ADDING INFO AS A SAFETY REMINDER: Most manual wheelchairs have what are called brakes. ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ These are NOT brakes like those of a car, or bicycle. Injury or worse can happen when they are used as friction brakes. DANGER: You risk not only destroying your tire and wheelchair but also injuries from catastrophic failures of the tire and possibly the rims of the wheels. These levers no matter if they are push or pull to lock or scissor styled brakes are only meant and made to hold you in place AFTER you use your hands to stop with. OR FEET for those able to do that. The reason these are not brakes in the typical sense is because of how they work. They bite into the tire material and can blow out air filled tires by ripping through the rubber tire. On solid tires they can tear the tire causing it to fail and possibly fall off the rim. If the rim is left exposed and you are moving the metal or composite rim will slide on the surface. The biggest excuses I hear for using these levers as brakes are: They are called brakes. YouTube wheelchair brake basics how to use and not use them. I don't want people ending more disabled than they already are. My hands are to weak to stop me. I understand that. So my best suggestion is rubber coated work gooves. Leather gloves or some form of glove that you like to use. I personally don't like wearing gloves, but when I go on 16 mile strolls I wear a pair. They provide additional traction and that grip means less hand strength is needed to stop overall. It is not recommended to grab the tire for additional friction at any time while moving down hill. If tire use us needed make sure you have a pair of heavy duty leather gloves on. Welding gloves short gauntlet works. Warning: This method destroys gloves rapidly. These is due to the sandpaper like friction the tire creates with its texture and tread design. Extreme heat can build up and burn your hands. So pay attention and release grip changing hand positions to reduce this. Ramps have to be designed to work with the fact wheels like to roll. And steep ramps are what prompted my warning about brake use. I am considering designing a brake system to work like a bicycle that could be added by most people. I will look into this concept at some point. So a stubby short ramp might be low cost but isn't the answer it appears in most manufacturers images. Lots of information that needs to be shared because so many people will fall into the thinking what they have is a good solution and it's harming them and the equipment they use. Good news here: Most towns and cities do not charge or keep the charge very low for ramp and other disability access devices in public spaces. What the permit does is show you the bare minimum of what is required to make your project ADA compliant. Also it resistors your ramp or lift with the town or city and at what property. This way should a nosy neighbor want to whine about your project looking horrible the town or city can reassure that negative rube that you are in full compliance with all the ordinances and ADA requirements. So they can mind their own beeswax. Also the permit is a must if a property owner or landlord are to allow the access in the first place. This has to do with liability and property insurance. Speaking of that crap it would be wise to invest in renters insurance in the event someone claimsxto have been injured by your device. Do not depend only on the landlord or property owner's word that its covered. You could also ask your town or city how that works also to get a straight answer. If the landlord or property owner does claim you are covered always get that in writing. 3rd image shows the lack of what is called a staging area. This is exactly what a porch does. Notice the porch is flat and provides room to move out of the way of any storm door? This is a super important and all to easy to miss feature that makes a ramp go from frustrating to awesome. I even made that mistake with my ramp I built for my garage. I did change it so it has a 6ft deep 4ft wide same as the ramp staging area that once I installed a screen door I use daily. 4th image: Now it gets colorful. Nothing attaches to the porch or the building in my design. This is to respect the property. And save you on extra costs to restore things later. The support for the flat area of the porch: Measure uo to the front top edge of the threshold. Say this is 6 inches or so... Using 4X4 cut to the same width of the porch. These are rated for outdoor ground contact. Next using decking wood this should be equal to the top front edge of the threshold. In effect the timbers are the support they are orange and just on top of the porch. They go across to provide full support. How to determine how many. For the porch shown in your image would likely use three. One right under the threshold, one in the middle, and one right along the front edge of the porch. Decking would go left to right and for the parts with out full support use scrap pieces of 4X4 to position under those rows. An alternative way to set the supports are: under the threshold is left to right full width of porch. Then instead of the others being left to right. Place one on the left going vertical or not left to right. One on the right side going perpendicular to fhe horizontal one. Then you will cut one 4 inches short for the center also placed parallel to the left and right. The front porch edge piece cut to fit the width between the left and right support. That would allow you to place decking horizontally left to right with out worry of adding support for some of the deck strips. The front edge of porch part I feel should be left to right mainly to insure there is no possible way for a ramp to flext or bow in this area. But you are welcome to Google methods on building something like this also. The ramp for the porch will be the longest most likely based on the photos you shared. They are also referenced later in my post. Only around the porch and the outside of the caster wheel guides on each side or the blue color in my image needs a railing, as well as down that first ramp. The other ramps are little more than the plywood laying there. You wouldn't even really need the blue guides on the but they add additional stiffness from bouncing and bending. Again Google is very good for finding examples of how you can design a capable railing. It doesn't need to be fancy, just meet the requirements the ADA sets. To avoid annoying splinters I strongly suggest using iron pipe or proper outdoor rated round railingbars. Benefit of the metal pipe is it is very low cost. Con is in the sun it can get hot. To overcome thar railing grip tape can he used to cancle out the hot part and make it easier to grasp. Grip tape is not required. Thankfully all of this is pretty easy to do if you have some some basic tools or have access to them like narrowing them. If you lack the skill or ability to do this. Trust me when I say buying lunch each day for the hard worker(s) often is payment enough. And Thank You is the perfect payment. Our reward is seeing you enjoying the work put into the project. Last there is an green outline of a 2x4 on each side of the porch staging area. Put one on the far side as well and this should keep the staging area from shifting leftcand right. Surfaces endure a lot more force than we realize. 5th image I used my garage ramp before I corrected the flat staging area issue. So this isn't how my indoor ramp now looks. It has no railings as it is not required and the flat area towards the garage side has a 4 inch tall wheel guard wall to keep me from accidentally rolling off front casters or rear wheels. But, this is roughly how your front porch would look like. All designed to keep everyone safe who uses it. By connecting the ramp to the flat staging areas makes it much harder for it to shift around. In the case of this if you owned the property you would use a contractors grade waterproof glue and 4 8 inch long lag bolts to secure the 4x4 or wood support right next to and under the threshold and bolt it and glue it to the location. Silicone sealant works also as it is mainly to keep insects from making the area home. But since the property needs to be returned to original state, I find that making a saddle staging area works wonders. Sadlle in that it is,like a horse saddle. It isn't bolted to the horse but does use the shape of the horse as the stabilizer. And is easy to remove when needed. Image 6: Sorry about the messy drawing. This is your photo. The green is the railing around the porch and the first longest ramp. The light kind of red horizontal strips are stair tread grip tape. Using wood screws shorter than the thickness of the plywood allows you to have a 2 method way to keep these strips in place. For how much they cost you will thank me. One screw near each corner and two one top one bottom in the center. This insures they are secure. The gue or adhesive isn't likely going to stick in every case. You want full left to right coverage with 2 to 3 inch spacing between each horizontal strip. Yes you can just apply them centered and hope no one slips of they walk closer to the railing. Plus it makes insurance companies feel better also with more safety in mind. In the event someone slips or falls when pictures are taken of l the scene it will look better for you to have provided more safety than not. Also more screws can be used if desired. The only thing to make sure of is all screw heads are flat to the surface. The two method way also known as redundant measures to make sure things don't fail to the point of a catastrophe. The ADA will likely have other suggestions different than I mention. Either will work, I find much of my ideas go beyond ADA requirements. The ramps since they are so minor in slope may even be able to lay strips of 2x4 or even 1x1 that you screw to the underside of ramp. I almost think you could make what would look like a continuous ramp. One step won't really need all 8 ft of plywood however keeping them full length means you could likely add smaller pieces where one ramp ends to meet with the highest point so you can connect them so this keeps them from shifting and moving as they will. The little green marks along the sides of the blue for the length of the ramp represent side supports that are rounded into the ground and screwed to the sides. As you use a ramp that is not secured it will move a little in the opposite direction of your direction of travel. Also it will shift left or right when you first roll onto it. And since the ground shown is easy to return to its original condition once this is removed lowers cost at that time. The blue dots represent horizontal srips placed where needed these are screwed in place as yes they will slide and move into new positions that don't support the ramp. The goal is no bouncing, bending, flexing, warping ramps. As long as all wood is rated for ground contact otherwise it will rot away pretty quickly otherwise. The blue kind of bloody areas are flat sections filled in with plywood. So once you enter this ramp ot remains a plywood surface until the porch area. Where it's decking. 7th image: An example of how your ramp could be designed. In this image since the ramp os longer and rises up higher I definitely would include ratings on each side. But - it may not require them so that is OK also. The redish area is a flat area at least 5 ft deep and 4ft wide. This would allow a person the chance to turn around also. The circled spots denote support placement. Now your steps for me would not need a ramp as I can strong arm my way up short steps or curbs like those. Tha porch would be the only area I would build if this were my place. 8th image: Immediately after moving in I built this and prior to finding the original screen door that the price owners removed and I reinstalled. It was no fun using this ramp when I had to open the door. I typically had one of the kiddos now all grown up open it first for me. The lack of a staging or flat area is a huge mistake. This is ground contact outdoor rated plywood nearly 1 inch thick. Plywood keeps the construction simpler, and removal easier also later. 9th image: Shows the outdoor ramp. Notice the grip tape on this. This is the typical arrangement. I suggest side to side full width strips so able people can walk anyplace and be assured solid footing. The spacing I prefer also assures wheelchair tires have solid grip. The steeper the ramp I say 3 inches between horizontal strips. The shallower ramps for your lower or step ramps can be 4 to five inches between them. If they are wide strips works better. Image 10: This is the ADA recommendation: 36 inches wide. Trust me especially for entry doors you want some space to move over to the side to get out of the way of a screen or storm door. And a place to put down groceries or a package or anything else so you can access the door. 48 inches just happens to be a pretty decent and better than ADA requirements that allows you more room for any purposes. Image 11: Shows your porch. From what I see this should be pretty easy to cover with the staging area over the porch and ramp going down. You want to measure from the front edge ofcthe threshold to the ground in front of the porch the walkway leading to it. This will give you a total height that needs to be accounted for. Say it is a total of 10 inches tall. Your ramp will be 1 foot out per one inch in height. So 10 feet long. Now say you have the room and used 2 8 foot long plywood sheets end to end that is 16 ft. That means your slope will be less overall and easy to roll up. 10 ft will be usable but will be a little harder to roll up. Funny thing is you use the same energy to roll up 10ft or 16ft. You just exert less energy over a longer distance that still equals the amount it takes to go up a 10 foot length. Slope is something only you know what works for you. So if you need a little longer of a ramp if room allows it then that is fine. Oh I forgot skip over the smaller step when making your measurements. That isn't where a ramp will end at to rest. Image 12: The walkway. These little steps are easily rolled up by some wheelchair users. However of you can not. That is fine. The over all length of these looks decently long enough. You in effect are just governing them as I hope I explained. To keep the ramps from moving side spikes can be placed as mentioned 2 at the sides and top, two in the middle sides. And 2 and the bottom sides. They get rounded into the ground next to each area of the Ramos they will be screwed to. You might even be able to lay a plywood sheet down and see if that is enough to raise you up enough. That the plywood could just lay on the walkway. Now most likely that option will not fully work. Offered as an alternative. The very end where ramp ends or starts at the lowest point you can get an aluminum door threshold commercial grade one. It means a little bump up onto the ramp and or down it. I will photograph the one I have as it works like a charm. Also the rest of my garage ramp. The deck to ramp can be connected using lag bolts from underneath into the 2 4x4 support. Using 6 or preferred 7 or 8 inch long lag bolts 3 of them to secure the ramp to the staging deck area. Trust me when I say this, this is a mere drop in the bucket of information on how to design a ramp system. Last little note: Always get a permit prior making anything. The permit should cost nothing or very little since it is an accessibility ♿️ need. The information the permit comes with will also be of huge help in DIY or other options. Sadly there is no way to construct something like this for no cost. However, church groups, friends, local elected officials, and others can be great resources. From fundraising, to helping you locate a foundation or charity to help cover some or all of it. Do not feel bad for asking for help like this and when needed. Being a renter doesn't mean you should not have accessibility. Like I mentioned if I was your fellow disabled neighbor I would help construct this. Tools needed: Tape measure x 2 I always end up needing 2 of them at times. 4 ft level. Carpenter square. Torpedo level. This is a 1 foot long smaller level like the larger 4ft one. Carpenter or construction style pencil ✏️ they are flat and don't roll away when sat down. Wood/deck screws 3 or 4in long. Cordless drill and 2 batteries allows rotation of them when charging. They typically will last 2 or hours each. So when one runs out charge it while using the other. Leather work gloves. Socket wrench set for lag bolts. Screw driver set. Mainly a number 2 Phillips and flathead. These come in handy. Circular saw - they come corded or cordless either works. Hand saw for those cuts to awkward for a power tool. Drill bits for pre drilling holes. Liquid nails to glue some things together. Short wood screws not longer than the plywood is thick. For the grip tape strips. Safety glasses get a few pair. Hearing protection. Cutting wood can be really loud. Same with drilling it and all. Things that could help: Something stable to place wood to be cut on. Saw horses or milk crates the sturdy plastic ones. If they get cut into no big deal. They cut be cut safely on the ground without risk of damaging tools or injuring you. Since we are all in the same boat 🚢 in many respects, I find it sp satisfying helping people by helping them learn how they can also help themselves. It's how I was raised. Knowing you have some information and know where to locate more is my payment. Back to me talking about my live content. A lot like this post and my others, it is insanely boring stuff. 😴 However, I ask what other content creator is willing to discuss and cover this type of stuff? Really go look on Twitch live, YouTube live, TikTok Live, Kick,Instagram Live or any other site allowing live content. How many do you find that can answer questions or get you aimed in the correct direction for the information you need? 16 years now this is what I do for free. I will not and do not monetize my content. I removed myself from Twitch affiliate orogram, I have asked TikTok to allow offboarding and the option to not monetize. I prefer to lead by example. Please consider getting to know this strange goofball of a weirdo on my social media channels. It's not a big community but any means and is well sp unique that most people fail to realize all the nerdy disability related bits of knowledge I have to share. Plus I love light sabers and anime to make me extra geeky. AbiliTV and AbiliTV Live on the main social media platforms. On TikTok my actual username is AbiliTV and my screen or showing name is DJ Wheelchairbeats. If you visit tell me your from Reddit and I will in a very socially awkward way greet you. Well I hope with practice this gets less awkward in time. :) I am not seeking a relationship. Or any side quests. I am at level 54 in my life and to old to give a fart for drama. Making cool new friends, now that's what it's about. Time to get some photos of my garage ramp. |
2024.04.28 23:41 Ford9863 Horrors of the Asteria - Part 37
< [Skip to Part 38>]()
Thomas followed Layna through the halls leading away from the bridge, trying his best not to let his pain slow him down. Despite his best efforts, he could tell she was holding herself back. His adrenaline could only push him so hard. The throbbing pain in his rib, a rising soreness in his legs—and now the darkening bruise beneath his eye from Mark’s blow. It was all weighing on him.
Their path to the security nexus was fairly straight-forward; with the internal power to the Asteria restored, parts of the lockdown had been lifted. Fewer doors were locked than before. That didn’t mean they weren’t aware of threats lurking around every corner, though. The crew still roamed. Still hunted.
“Which way do you think he went?” Thomas asked as they came to their first fork. They were in yet another block of nondescript rooms, each labeled with a letter and a number.
Layna shook her head. “Whichever way is shorter, I’d imagine,” she answered. “He knows this ship better than us.”
Thomas gritted his teeth. Having to pause and get their bearings filled him with anxiety, knowing any time they wasted only put them closer to being stranded if Mark succeeded in getting to Neyland first. Some small part of him, however, was grateful for the momentary rest.
Before they chose a path, they heard a sharp metal clanging echo through the corridor. They stared at one another with bated breath, trying to decipher which hall the noise had bounced through. They didn’t need to speak to know neither had any idea.
“We’re above the mall, right?” Thomas whispered, trying to get his bearings. It was well-lit now—unlike the last time they’d traveled through this part of the ship. Everything appeared to be in order; no debris spread across the floor, no bloodstains on the walls. Just plain white walls and a dull red carpet at their feet.
“Yeah,” Layna agreed, “Maybe that came from below.”
Thomas nodded hopefully, though they both knew better. “Stick to the right?”
She shrugged. “Sure. Move slow, stay quiet. Maybe we can get through without anyone noticing.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Thomas said, resting a hand on his rib. His mind convinced him he could feel a steady throbbing just beneath his skin.
If they were following the same path as Mark, there was a decent chance they wouldn’t encounter any of the infected crew. Either Mark would have taken them out on the way or they would have given chase. Or so Thomas hoped. He had to tell himself things like this to convince himself to keep going. As it was, he wasn’t sure how much he had left in him.
Without the ability to drown out his thoughts with idle chatter, his mind drifted to things he couldn’t push away. He thought of the spotted rash on Mark’s chest. Of the list of symptoms he rattled off. If Mark knew he was infected for so much of their time together, why hadn’t he said anything? Had he remembered more about Neyland from the start and simply wanted to use Thomas and Layna to get to him?
Another itch grew on Thomas’s neck. Again, he resisted the urge to scratch it. If he was infected, he didn’t want to know. Not yet. Not until he helped Layna get to the captain’s shuttle.
Because if he was infected, he knew he wouldn’t have the drive to keep going.
You’re quitting on us, like you always have, he thought. The words filled his head, though his mind couldn’t conjure up the face of the person who’d spoken them. Perhaps the doctors of the Asteria had tried to wipe the more unpleasant pasts from its crew during the cloning process—or perhaps he just forgot all on his own. Somehow, being unable to remember their face made it worse.
He glanced up at Layna, trying to find something else for his mind to focus on. She’d said before that she knew the captain. She wasn’t very forthcoming with details, but after what he’d seen on the hologram—he couldn’t help but wonder.
“You said you knew the captain, right?” he asked, trying to keep his voice low. He regretted the words as soon as he spoke them—this was neither the time nor the place, but he couldn’t stand to linger on himself any longer. His past was torturous and his future was bleak. He needed to fill the time with something else.
Layna glanced back with an annoyed look, then let out a sigh. “I met her a few times back on Earth. She convinced me to join the mission. That’s it.”
“So you didn’t—”
“No,” she said sternly, “I didn’t. I don’t know what happened in the centuries since then that put a version of me on that bridge next to her. But—”
She paused, staring down the hall at nothing in particular.
Thomas lifted his brow, staring.
With a quick shake of her head, she continued walking. “I can’t say I’m surprised I pursued it,” she said.
Thomas nodded, understanding.
They neared the end of the offices, approaching the stairwell at the opposite end of the mall. A door to their right just before the curving staircase showed a way to the level above, along with a couple additional symbols indicating what lied on the higher deck.
“I think the nexus is one up,” Layna said, trying the door handle. It moved freely. “Probably faster than moving back through medical, right?”
Thomas nodded. As much as he’d like to grab a painkiller or two, he knew they didn’t have time for something like that. As it was, Mark was probably reaching the Nexus. They needed to move.
Layna pushed the door open and stepped inside. Before Thomas crossed the threshold, she jumped awkwardly, turning and falling as she gasped.
Thomas saw it immediately—a bloody, thin set of fingers wrapped around her ankle. Whoever the fingers belonged to lied on the ground behind the door, making a low, sickly-wet growl.
Layna kicked with her free leg as Thomas slipped through the narrow opening. As the door shut, he saw a young man on the floor in a puddle of smeared blood. His legs were twisted in several places, bone protruding through his pants on one side. Cuts lined his face as he tried to pull himself closer to Layna, swiping half-heartedly with his only functioning arm.
The man turned his head toward Thomas while still reaching for Layna. One of his eyes was swollen shut, the other shining red. For a long moment, Thomas couldn’t help but stare. The noises coming from the man were both angry and painful, each gasp filled with desperation. Was there a man behind the infection? Did any part of the human remain, or was Thomas staring at something driven only by anger and instinct?
Thomas took a harder stance, pulling back his right leg in preparation to kick the man’s face. But something stopped him. Despite the gruesome sight, he found his will lacking. The man continued to slither forward, continued to hiss, to growl. If Thomas gave him the chance, the man would tear into him. And yet the idea of inflicting any more pain on the man still gave him pause.
Layna wasn’t so reserved. She kicked the man with her heel, causing his head to twist awkwardly. Then she jumped to her feet and lifted her boot, bringing it down hard on the back of his head. The first hit forced his head into the hard floor with a soft, wet thump. The second caused a loud crack. The third put an end to his writhing.
She turned her gaze to Thomas, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her stare said more than enough.
“Sorry,” Thomas muttered, unsure of what else to say. It probably would have been better to say nothing, but he couldn’t stand the sudden silence. He looked down at the man’s now-misshapen head and stepped away from the blood crawling toward his shoe.
“Come on,” Layna said. “We need to keep moving.”
Thomas followed her up the stairwell, trying to push the image from his head. His stomach churned as the crunch echoed in his mind. He considered himself lucky he had nothing in his stomach to risk vomiting back up.
As they reached the top of the stairwell and exited into another long, wide hall, they heard three quick, loud pops. Each cracked through the hall like a hammer on steel, the noise too loud to be far, but not close enough to be painful. Somewhere ahead, Mark had fired his gun.
Layna paused for a moment and exchanged a glance with Thomas. Was this the end of it? Would they reach the security nexus to find Mark standing over Neyland, their hopes for escape finally extinguished?
Two more shots followed, and they broke out into a sprint. Every other step sent a bolt of white-hot pain through Thomas’s side, but he managed to push through it. He winced with each flash of pain, causing another burst of heat across his cheek.
In less than a minute, they reached the first sign directing them toward the security nexus. No more guess work. Thomas was surprised to find himself disappointed; he realized some small part of him was hoping they’d get lost. That they’d never reach their destination and therefor never have to face what waited.
But he couldn’t run from everything.
The final corridor opened into a large space. A room with it’s own dropped ceiling sat in the center of the domed room. Signs hung on either side of the steel door warning against unauthorized entry. A narrow hall extended around the left and right of the room itself, each with a thin, silver arch lined with blinking red lights.
Between them and the door to the nexus, Thomas counted five bodies. Blood dripped from the ceiling above one and ran down the walls near the others. One of them had been shot in the neck, the body still twitching erratically as it refused to let go of whatever life it had left.
“Do you think he’s in there?” Layna said, surveying the space.
Thomas eyed the hand scanner to the right of the security door. It remained intact, a solid red light glowing at the top of its screen.
“No way Neyland was opening that door for him,” he said. “If he made it in, it wasn’t through the front door.”
Layna’s eyes lifted to the ceiling, then bounced from one corner to the next. Her gaze settled on a camera directly above the door.
“We’re here,” she said, speaking to the black lens. “If you’re still alive in there, you need to let us in.”
She stepped closer to the door, lifting her leg high over one of the bodies in her path.
A chill crept up Thomas’s back. Something about this wasn’t right. Neyland was safe as long as he remained locked behind that door; Mark would have known that. So either he had another way in, or—
“Layna, don’t—” he began, but was too late.
Another shot rang out. The sound pierced Thomas’s ears and forced his eyes closed, despite his efforts otherwise. It was only a moment, but it was enough for Mark to get the drop on them. When Thomas opened his eyes, he saw Layna stumbling backward toward the wall on his left. Mark stood beneath the flashing red archway on the right, his gun held tightly with both hands, still pointed in Layna’s direction.
Thomas ran to Layna’s side. She held her right shoulder with her left arm, cursing as blood spread across the fabric of her jumpsuit.
“Fucking hell,” she spat through clenched teeth.
Thomas looked toward Mark. “You son of a bitch! What the fuck are you doing?”
Mark stepped closer, keeping enough distance to prevent Thomas’s ability to lunge at him while ensuring he was in full view of the camera.
“Okay, Royce,” he called out. “It’s time to open up.”
Thomas shook his head. “Why the fuck would he open the door for you now?”
“Because if he doesn’t let me in, I’m putting you both down. And then he’ll never get off this ship.”
“That’s your plan?” Thomas scoffed. “Neyland doesn’t need us. He only needed someone to clear the infected out of here and you’ve already done that for him!”
A slight smile curled at the edges of Mark’s mouth. It gave him an ominous, crazed look. Redness had begun to creep into the corners of his eyes, the rash now visible just above his shirt collar.
Thomas thought back to the look in the eye of the man in the stairwell. Mark wasn’t far off.
“Oh, he needed more than that,” Mark said. “Isn’t that right, Royce? The secret’s out. Cap gave it away in that little video she made, whether she meant to or not. Layna here is the only way onto that shuttle.”
“What?” Thomas furrowed his brow, looking toward Layna. Her breaths were too rapid for her to speak, but the look on her face was enough to convey she didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, either.
“I want answers, Royce,” Mark said. He took one hand off of the gun and tapped at his temple with a shaky palm. “Still got some holes in my memory that need filling. Maybe I’ll let you live. Maybe you’ll still get off this ship. But if that door stays shut, you’re dying here no matter what.”
Thomas took a step closer, stopping when Mark turned the gun his direction.
“Til the count of three, Royce,” Mark called out. “One.”
“You’ve fucking lost it, Mark,” Thomas said, lifting his palms to the air.
“Two.”
Thomas’s hands curled into fists. He considered how close he could get if he lunged—he’s surely be shot before he could reach Mark, but if he had enough momentum, he might be able to knock him down in the process. At least that would buy Layna time to make a move.
He glanced down at her. She rocked left and right, clearly overcome by the pain in her shoulder. Blood covered her hand, dripping from her knuckles onto the floor. He doubted she’d even have it in her to fight back.
“Three.” Mark took a step forward, his arm visibly tensing as he turned the gun back toward Layna. But in the instant before he pulled the trigger, a noise sounded behind him.
With a loud, pressurized hiss, the door slid open.
[Part 38>]()
submitted by Ford9863 to HFY [link] [comments]
Their path to the security nexus was fairly straight-forward; with the internal power to the Asteria restored, parts of the lockdown had been lifted. Fewer doors were locked than before. That didn’t mean they weren’t aware of threats lurking around every corner, though. The crew still roamed. Still hunted.
“Which way do you think he went?” Thomas asked as they came to their first fork. They were in yet another block of nondescript rooms, each labeled with a letter and a number.
Layna shook her head. “Whichever way is shorter, I’d imagine,” she answered. “He knows this ship better than us.”
Thomas gritted his teeth. Having to pause and get their bearings filled him with anxiety, knowing any time they wasted only put them closer to being stranded if Mark succeeded in getting to Neyland first. Some small part of him, however, was grateful for the momentary rest.
Before they chose a path, they heard a sharp metal clanging echo through the corridor. They stared at one another with bated breath, trying to decipher which hall the noise had bounced through. They didn’t need to speak to know neither had any idea.
“We’re above the mall, right?” Thomas whispered, trying to get his bearings. It was well-lit now—unlike the last time they’d traveled through this part of the ship. Everything appeared to be in order; no debris spread across the floor, no bloodstains on the walls. Just plain white walls and a dull red carpet at their feet.
“Yeah,” Layna agreed, “Maybe that came from below.”
Thomas nodded hopefully, though they both knew better. “Stick to the right?”
She shrugged. “Sure. Move slow, stay quiet. Maybe we can get through without anyone noticing.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Thomas said, resting a hand on his rib. His mind convinced him he could feel a steady throbbing just beneath his skin.
If they were following the same path as Mark, there was a decent chance they wouldn’t encounter any of the infected crew. Either Mark would have taken them out on the way or they would have given chase. Or so Thomas hoped. He had to tell himself things like this to convince himself to keep going. As it was, he wasn’t sure how much he had left in him.
Without the ability to drown out his thoughts with idle chatter, his mind drifted to things he couldn’t push away. He thought of the spotted rash on Mark’s chest. Of the list of symptoms he rattled off. If Mark knew he was infected for so much of their time together, why hadn’t he said anything? Had he remembered more about Neyland from the start and simply wanted to use Thomas and Layna to get to him?
Another itch grew on Thomas’s neck. Again, he resisted the urge to scratch it. If he was infected, he didn’t want to know. Not yet. Not until he helped Layna get to the captain’s shuttle.
Because if he was infected, he knew he wouldn’t have the drive to keep going.
You’re quitting on us, like you always have, he thought. The words filled his head, though his mind couldn’t conjure up the face of the person who’d spoken them. Perhaps the doctors of the Asteria had tried to wipe the more unpleasant pasts from its crew during the cloning process—or perhaps he just forgot all on his own. Somehow, being unable to remember their face made it worse.
He glanced up at Layna, trying to find something else for his mind to focus on. She’d said before that she knew the captain. She wasn’t very forthcoming with details, but after what he’d seen on the hologram—he couldn’t help but wonder.
“You said you knew the captain, right?” he asked, trying to keep his voice low. He regretted the words as soon as he spoke them—this was neither the time nor the place, but he couldn’t stand to linger on himself any longer. His past was torturous and his future was bleak. He needed to fill the time with something else.
Layna glanced back with an annoyed look, then let out a sigh. “I met her a few times back on Earth. She convinced me to join the mission. That’s it.”
“So you didn’t—”
“No,” she said sternly, “I didn’t. I don’t know what happened in the centuries since then that put a version of me on that bridge next to her. But—”
She paused, staring down the hall at nothing in particular.
Thomas lifted his brow, staring.
With a quick shake of her head, she continued walking. “I can’t say I’m surprised I pursued it,” she said.
Thomas nodded, understanding.
They neared the end of the offices, approaching the stairwell at the opposite end of the mall. A door to their right just before the curving staircase showed a way to the level above, along with a couple additional symbols indicating what lied on the higher deck.
“I think the nexus is one up,” Layna said, trying the door handle. It moved freely. “Probably faster than moving back through medical, right?”
Thomas nodded. As much as he’d like to grab a painkiller or two, he knew they didn’t have time for something like that. As it was, Mark was probably reaching the Nexus. They needed to move.
Layna pushed the door open and stepped inside. Before Thomas crossed the threshold, she jumped awkwardly, turning and falling as she gasped.
Thomas saw it immediately—a bloody, thin set of fingers wrapped around her ankle. Whoever the fingers belonged to lied on the ground behind the door, making a low, sickly-wet growl.
Layna kicked with her free leg as Thomas slipped through the narrow opening. As the door shut, he saw a young man on the floor in a puddle of smeared blood. His legs were twisted in several places, bone protruding through his pants on one side. Cuts lined his face as he tried to pull himself closer to Layna, swiping half-heartedly with his only functioning arm.
The man turned his head toward Thomas while still reaching for Layna. One of his eyes was swollen shut, the other shining red. For a long moment, Thomas couldn’t help but stare. The noises coming from the man were both angry and painful, each gasp filled with desperation. Was there a man behind the infection? Did any part of the human remain, or was Thomas staring at something driven only by anger and instinct?
Thomas took a harder stance, pulling back his right leg in preparation to kick the man’s face. But something stopped him. Despite the gruesome sight, he found his will lacking. The man continued to slither forward, continued to hiss, to growl. If Thomas gave him the chance, the man would tear into him. And yet the idea of inflicting any more pain on the man still gave him pause.
Layna wasn’t so reserved. She kicked the man with her heel, causing his head to twist awkwardly. Then she jumped to her feet and lifted her boot, bringing it down hard on the back of his head. The first hit forced his head into the hard floor with a soft, wet thump. The second caused a loud crack. The third put an end to his writhing.
She turned her gaze to Thomas, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her stare said more than enough.
“Sorry,” Thomas muttered, unsure of what else to say. It probably would have been better to say nothing, but he couldn’t stand the sudden silence. He looked down at the man’s now-misshapen head and stepped away from the blood crawling toward his shoe.
“Come on,” Layna said. “We need to keep moving.”
Thomas followed her up the stairwell, trying to push the image from his head. His stomach churned as the crunch echoed in his mind. He considered himself lucky he had nothing in his stomach to risk vomiting back up.
As they reached the top of the stairwell and exited into another long, wide hall, they heard three quick, loud pops. Each cracked through the hall like a hammer on steel, the noise too loud to be far, but not close enough to be painful. Somewhere ahead, Mark had fired his gun.
Layna paused for a moment and exchanged a glance with Thomas. Was this the end of it? Would they reach the security nexus to find Mark standing over Neyland, their hopes for escape finally extinguished?
Two more shots followed, and they broke out into a sprint. Every other step sent a bolt of white-hot pain through Thomas’s side, but he managed to push through it. He winced with each flash of pain, causing another burst of heat across his cheek.
In less than a minute, they reached the first sign directing them toward the security nexus. No more guess work. Thomas was surprised to find himself disappointed; he realized some small part of him was hoping they’d get lost. That they’d never reach their destination and therefor never have to face what waited.
But he couldn’t run from everything.
The final corridor opened into a large space. A room with it’s own dropped ceiling sat in the center of the domed room. Signs hung on either side of the steel door warning against unauthorized entry. A narrow hall extended around the left and right of the room itself, each with a thin, silver arch lined with blinking red lights.
Between them and the door to the nexus, Thomas counted five bodies. Blood dripped from the ceiling above one and ran down the walls near the others. One of them had been shot in the neck, the body still twitching erratically as it refused to let go of whatever life it had left.
“Do you think he’s in there?” Layna said, surveying the space.
Thomas eyed the hand scanner to the right of the security door. It remained intact, a solid red light glowing at the top of its screen.
“No way Neyland was opening that door for him,” he said. “If he made it in, it wasn’t through the front door.”
Layna’s eyes lifted to the ceiling, then bounced from one corner to the next. Her gaze settled on a camera directly above the door.
“We’re here,” she said, speaking to the black lens. “If you’re still alive in there, you need to let us in.”
She stepped closer to the door, lifting her leg high over one of the bodies in her path.
A chill crept up Thomas’s back. Something about this wasn’t right. Neyland was safe as long as he remained locked behind that door; Mark would have known that. So either he had another way in, or—
“Layna, don’t—” he began, but was too late.
Another shot rang out. The sound pierced Thomas’s ears and forced his eyes closed, despite his efforts otherwise. It was only a moment, but it was enough for Mark to get the drop on them. When Thomas opened his eyes, he saw Layna stumbling backward toward the wall on his left. Mark stood beneath the flashing red archway on the right, his gun held tightly with both hands, still pointed in Layna’s direction.
Thomas ran to Layna’s side. She held her right shoulder with her left arm, cursing as blood spread across the fabric of her jumpsuit.
“Fucking hell,” she spat through clenched teeth.
Thomas looked toward Mark. “You son of a bitch! What the fuck are you doing?”
Mark stepped closer, keeping enough distance to prevent Thomas’s ability to lunge at him while ensuring he was in full view of the camera.
“Okay, Royce,” he called out. “It’s time to open up.”
Thomas shook his head. “Why the fuck would he open the door for you now?”
“Because if he doesn’t let me in, I’m putting you both down. And then he’ll never get off this ship.”
“That’s your plan?” Thomas scoffed. “Neyland doesn’t need us. He only needed someone to clear the infected out of here and you’ve already done that for him!”
A slight smile curled at the edges of Mark’s mouth. It gave him an ominous, crazed look. Redness had begun to creep into the corners of his eyes, the rash now visible just above his shirt collar.
Thomas thought back to the look in the eye of the man in the stairwell. Mark wasn’t far off.
“Oh, he needed more than that,” Mark said. “Isn’t that right, Royce? The secret’s out. Cap gave it away in that little video she made, whether she meant to or not. Layna here is the only way onto that shuttle.”
“What?” Thomas furrowed his brow, looking toward Layna. Her breaths were too rapid for her to speak, but the look on her face was enough to convey she didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, either.
“I want answers, Royce,” Mark said. He took one hand off of the gun and tapped at his temple with a shaky palm. “Still got some holes in my memory that need filling. Maybe I’ll let you live. Maybe you’ll still get off this ship. But if that door stays shut, you’re dying here no matter what.”
Thomas took a step closer, stopping when Mark turned the gun his direction.
“Til the count of three, Royce,” Mark called out. “One.”
“You’ve fucking lost it, Mark,” Thomas said, lifting his palms to the air.
“Two.”
Thomas’s hands curled into fists. He considered how close he could get if he lunged—he’s surely be shot before he could reach Mark, but if he had enough momentum, he might be able to knock him down in the process. At least that would buy Layna time to make a move.
He glanced down at her. She rocked left and right, clearly overcome by the pain in her shoulder. Blood covered her hand, dripping from her knuckles onto the floor. He doubted she’d even have it in her to fight back.
“Three.” Mark took a step forward, his arm visibly tensing as he turned the gun back toward Layna. But in the instant before he pulled the trigger, a noise sounded behind him.
With a loud, pressurized hiss, the door slid open.
2024.04.28 23:40 g3thic [F4A] Avatar: the Last Airbender!
Hello again! I’m not sure if youve read or seen my other posts about roleplays but this one will purely be about Avatar: The Last Airbender.
INTRODUCTION
My name is Hina. To know more about me, I hail from Japan and I have been an avid writer ever since I moved to the States when I was 11. My second language is English but I believe it’s been pretty good. I recently turned 22 years old and I'm female. Talking about age, I would be comfortable with you being 17+ and preferably at least 20. Roleplaying with minors isn’t a big thing for me, I apologize. I’m in the west coast, PST timezone. Let’s see.. What other information can I give you? I would say I enjoy skating, basketball, watching tv shows and anime, and reading. My favorite anime is Nana and Death Note.
ROLEPLAY
As said earlier on, I am looking to do an Avatar: The Last Airbender roleplay, not Legend of Korra (sorry) and not the blue people Avatar either. Id probably prefer doing OC X OC or CC X OC, I’m not used to playing CC at all unless i’m that familiar with said character. If you prefer playing CC, I’d love to hear what character you’d want to play!
For the plot, we can basically do anything. Perhaps our characters join the Gaang? Maybe it’s set up in some other timeline, maybe even aftebefore Aang was here? Who knows the possibilities we can do!
CHARACTERS
I tend to use character sheets to describe my character, these usually consist of names, background, and personality. More so on appearances, I prefer using animated or drawn references than real life people. I enjoy good enough references where I get the idea of how the character would look like.
The types of characters I write are either the lone wolf type that has some sad past which leads them to want to join someone for a redemption arc or the bubbly character who is the one that brings the mood up and is usually seen as trustworthy and of that kind.
I like all types of tropes, especially enemies to lovers or rivalry. I also really enjoy opposites attract as a whole from either opposite personality or something else they would be opposites in. Enemies to lovers takes my heart, though. I love seeing the characters go past the urge to ultimately hate each other and/or go past their usual way of disliking the others lineage or upcoming.
REQUIREMENT
I think this is my last paragraph on the roleplay. It’s the most important, at least. Requirements. All roleplay searches come with them. Or at least that’s what I heard! But don’t fret, there isn’t much.
I’ve seen this as one of the most used requirements, and I agree with it. As someone who’s first language wasn’t English, I understand that you may not be great at it. But please, I do require a partner that at least has proper use of grammar and punctuation. You don’t even have to use big words or anything, just at least know where to put your periods and the placement of your words.
My second requirement is for you to be LITERATE! Please. I’m a big writer, I tend to ramble on and tend to write more than what I thought I would. (like i’m doing right now) I write multiple paragraphs from the starter until the scene relaxes. I also understand that sometimes writing big blocks of words every response is tiring or boring so I don’t expect it all the time, at least after the starter has been made and in more important scenes. Dialogue also cuts my replies shorter.
Please please please be polite in OOC! We may just be role playing together but kindness goes all ways. If we do include OOC, I enjoy talking about many things. My day, movies, games, funny moments and stories, all of that!
I think that’s the end to this wonderful journey of an ad about my search. I hope you are still here, fellow writer! I would LOVE it if you reached out to me! This wasn’t all for nothing, right!
But don’t leave yet! I do have a passcode. I know this was a jumble of words and rambling but I still have to put one in. I heard that there’s a lot of people on here that don’t read things fully and miss out on rules or information! But.. Just because you read through this all, I’ll gladly give you options on the passcode! Also please put in an introduction of yourself! Don’t think “Oh maybe I shouldn’t bother this person with too much to read”! I like seeing big blocks.
PASSCODE:
What’s your dream country to travel to and why?
OR
Who’s your favorite TV show / Cartoon / Game / Anime character?
Feel free to pick both! Now, that’s all from me. Please don’t put your request as just “Wanna rp”!
submitted by g3thic to Roleplay [link] [comments]
INTRODUCTION
My name is Hina. To know more about me, I hail from Japan and I have been an avid writer ever since I moved to the States when I was 11. My second language is English but I believe it’s been pretty good. I recently turned 22 years old and I'm female. Talking about age, I would be comfortable with you being 17+ and preferably at least 20. Roleplaying with minors isn’t a big thing for me, I apologize. I’m in the west coast, PST timezone. Let’s see.. What other information can I give you? I would say I enjoy skating, basketball, watching tv shows and anime, and reading. My favorite anime is Nana and Death Note.
ROLEPLAY
As said earlier on, I am looking to do an Avatar: The Last Airbender roleplay, not Legend of Korra (sorry) and not the blue people Avatar either. Id probably prefer doing OC X OC or CC X OC, I’m not used to playing CC at all unless i’m that familiar with said character. If you prefer playing CC, I’d love to hear what character you’d want to play!
For the plot, we can basically do anything. Perhaps our characters join the Gaang? Maybe it’s set up in some other timeline, maybe even aftebefore Aang was here? Who knows the possibilities we can do!
CHARACTERS
I tend to use character sheets to describe my character, these usually consist of names, background, and personality. More so on appearances, I prefer using animated or drawn references than real life people. I enjoy good enough references where I get the idea of how the character would look like.
The types of characters I write are either the lone wolf type that has some sad past which leads them to want to join someone for a redemption arc or the bubbly character who is the one that brings the mood up and is usually seen as trustworthy and of that kind.
I like all types of tropes, especially enemies to lovers or rivalry. I also really enjoy opposites attract as a whole from either opposite personality or something else they would be opposites in. Enemies to lovers takes my heart, though. I love seeing the characters go past the urge to ultimately hate each other and/or go past their usual way of disliking the others lineage or upcoming.
REQUIREMENT
I think this is my last paragraph on the roleplay. It’s the most important, at least. Requirements. All roleplay searches come with them. Or at least that’s what I heard! But don’t fret, there isn’t much.
I’ve seen this as one of the most used requirements, and I agree with it. As someone who’s first language wasn’t English, I understand that you may not be great at it. But please, I do require a partner that at least has proper use of grammar and punctuation. You don’t even have to use big words or anything, just at least know where to put your periods and the placement of your words.
My second requirement is for you to be LITERATE! Please. I’m a big writer, I tend to ramble on and tend to write more than what I thought I would. (like i’m doing right now) I write multiple paragraphs from the starter until the scene relaxes. I also understand that sometimes writing big blocks of words every response is tiring or boring so I don’t expect it all the time, at least after the starter has been made and in more important scenes. Dialogue also cuts my replies shorter.
Please please please be polite in OOC! We may just be role playing together but kindness goes all ways. If we do include OOC, I enjoy talking about many things. My day, movies, games, funny moments and stories, all of that!
I think that’s the end to this wonderful journey of an ad about my search. I hope you are still here, fellow writer! I would LOVE it if you reached out to me! This wasn’t all for nothing, right!
But don’t leave yet! I do have a passcode. I know this was a jumble of words and rambling but I still have to put one in. I heard that there’s a lot of people on here that don’t read things fully and miss out on rules or information! But.. Just because you read through this all, I’ll gladly give you options on the passcode! Also please put in an introduction of yourself! Don’t think “Oh maybe I shouldn’t bother this person with too much to read”! I like seeing big blocks.
PASSCODE:
What’s your dream country to travel to and why?
OR
Who’s your favorite TV show / Cartoon / Game / Anime character?
Feel free to pick both! Now, that’s all from me. Please don’t put your request as just “Wanna rp”!
- H 💕
2024.04.28 23:39 g3thic [F4A] Avatar: the Last Airbender!
Hello again! I’m not sure if youve read or seen my other posts about roleplays but this one will purely be about Avatar: The Last Airbender.
INTRODUCTION
My name is Hina. To know more about me, I hail from Japan and I have been an avid writer ever since I moved to the States when I was 11. My second language is English but I believe it’s been pretty good. I recently turned 22 years old and I'm female. Talking about age, I would be comfortable with you being 17+ and preferably at least 20. Roleplaying with minors isn’t a big thing for me, I apologize. I’m in the west coast, PST timezone. Let’s see.. What other information can I give you? I would say I enjoy skating, basketball, watching tv shows and anime, and reading. My favorite anime is Nana and Death Note.
ROLEPLAY
As said earlier on, I am looking to do an Avatar: The Last Airbender roleplay, not Legend of Korra (sorry) and not the blue people Avatar either. Id probably prefer doing OC X OC or CC X OC, I’m not used to playing CC at all unless i’m that familiar with said character. If you prefer playing CC, I’d love to hear what character you’d want to play!
For the plot, we can basically do anything. Perhaps our characters join the Gaang? Maybe it’s set up in some other timeline, maybe even aftebefore Aang was here? Who knows the possibilities we can do!
CHARACTERS
I tend to use character sheets to describe my character, these usually consist of names, background, and personality. More so on appearances, I prefer using animated or drawn references than real life people. I enjoy good enough references where I get the idea of how the character would look like.
The types of characters I write are either the lone wolf type that has some sad past which leads them to want to join someone for a redemption arc or the bubbly character who is the one that brings the mood up and is usually seen as trustworthy and of that kind.
I like all types of tropes, especially enemies to lovers or rivalry. I also really enjoy opposites attract as a whole from either opposite personality or something else they would be opposites in. Enemies to lovers takes my heart, though. I love seeing the characters go past the urge to ultimately hate each other and/or go past their usual way of disliking the others lineage or upcoming.
REQUIREMENT
I think this is my last paragraph on the roleplay. It’s the most important, at least. Requirements. All roleplay searches come with them. Or at least that’s what I heard! But don’t fret, there isn’t much.
I’ve seen this as one of the most used requirements, and I agree with it. As someone who’s first language wasn’t English, I understand that you may not be great at it. But please, I do require a partner that at least has proper use of grammar and punctuation. You don’t even have to use big words or anything, just at least know where to put your periods and the placement of your words.
My second requirement is for you to be LITERATE! Please. I’m a big writer, I tend to ramble on and tend to write more than what I thought I would. (like i’m doing right now) I write multiple paragraphs from the starter until the scene relaxes. I also understand that sometimes writing big blocks of words every response is tiring or boring so I don’t expect it all the time, at least after the starter has been made and in more important scenes. Dialogue also cuts my replies shorter.
Please please please be polite in OOC! We may just be role playing together but kindness goes all ways. If we do include OOC, I enjoy talking about many things. My day, movies, games, funny moments and stories, all of that!
I think that’s the end to this wonderful journey of an ad about my search. I hope you are still here, fellow writer! I would LOVE it if you reached out to me! This wasn’t all for nothing, right!
But don’t leave yet! I do have a passcode. I know this was a jumble of words and rambling but I still have to put one in. I heard that there’s a lot of people on here that don’t read things fully and miss out on rules or information! But.. Just because you read through this all, I’ll gladly give you options on the passcode! Also please put in an introduction of yourself! Don’t think “Oh maybe I shouldn’t bother this person with too much to read”! I like seeing big blocks.
PASSCODE:
What’s your dream country to travel to and why?
OR
Who’s your favorite TV show / Cartoon / Game / Anime character?
Feel free to pick both! Now, that’s all from me. Please don’t put your request as just “Wanna rp”!
submitted by g3thic to roleplaying [link] [comments]
INTRODUCTION
My name is Hina. To know more about me, I hail from Japan and I have been an avid writer ever since I moved to the States when I was 11. My second language is English but I believe it’s been pretty good. I recently turned 22 years old and I'm female. Talking about age, I would be comfortable with you being 17+ and preferably at least 20. Roleplaying with minors isn’t a big thing for me, I apologize. I’m in the west coast, PST timezone. Let’s see.. What other information can I give you? I would say I enjoy skating, basketball, watching tv shows and anime, and reading. My favorite anime is Nana and Death Note.
ROLEPLAY
As said earlier on, I am looking to do an Avatar: The Last Airbender roleplay, not Legend of Korra (sorry) and not the blue people Avatar either. Id probably prefer doing OC X OC or CC X OC, I’m not used to playing CC at all unless i’m that familiar with said character. If you prefer playing CC, I’d love to hear what character you’d want to play!
For the plot, we can basically do anything. Perhaps our characters join the Gaang? Maybe it’s set up in some other timeline, maybe even aftebefore Aang was here? Who knows the possibilities we can do!
CHARACTERS
I tend to use character sheets to describe my character, these usually consist of names, background, and personality. More so on appearances, I prefer using animated or drawn references than real life people. I enjoy good enough references where I get the idea of how the character would look like.
The types of characters I write are either the lone wolf type that has some sad past which leads them to want to join someone for a redemption arc or the bubbly character who is the one that brings the mood up and is usually seen as trustworthy and of that kind.
I like all types of tropes, especially enemies to lovers or rivalry. I also really enjoy opposites attract as a whole from either opposite personality or something else they would be opposites in. Enemies to lovers takes my heart, though. I love seeing the characters go past the urge to ultimately hate each other and/or go past their usual way of disliking the others lineage or upcoming.
REQUIREMENT
I think this is my last paragraph on the roleplay. It’s the most important, at least. Requirements. All roleplay searches come with them. Or at least that’s what I heard! But don’t fret, there isn’t much.
I’ve seen this as one of the most used requirements, and I agree with it. As someone who’s first language wasn’t English, I understand that you may not be great at it. But please, I do require a partner that at least has proper use of grammar and punctuation. You don’t even have to use big words or anything, just at least know where to put your periods and the placement of your words.
My second requirement is for you to be LITERATE! Please. I’m a big writer, I tend to ramble on and tend to write more than what I thought I would. (like i’m doing right now) I write multiple paragraphs from the starter until the scene relaxes. I also understand that sometimes writing big blocks of words every response is tiring or boring so I don’t expect it all the time, at least after the starter has been made and in more important scenes. Dialogue also cuts my replies shorter.
Please please please be polite in OOC! We may just be role playing together but kindness goes all ways. If we do include OOC, I enjoy talking about many things. My day, movies, games, funny moments and stories, all of that!
I think that’s the end to this wonderful journey of an ad about my search. I hope you are still here, fellow writer! I would LOVE it if you reached out to me! This wasn’t all for nothing, right!
But don’t leave yet! I do have a passcode. I know this was a jumble of words and rambling but I still have to put one in. I heard that there’s a lot of people on here that don’t read things fully and miss out on rules or information! But.. Just because you read through this all, I’ll gladly give you options on the passcode! Also please put in an introduction of yourself! Don’t think “Oh maybe I shouldn’t bother this person with too much to read”! I like seeing big blocks.
PASSCODE:
What’s your dream country to travel to and why?
OR
Who’s your favorite TV show / Cartoon / Game / Anime character?
Feel free to pick both! Now, that’s all from me. Please don’t put your request as just “Wanna rp”!
- H 💕
2024.04.28 23:31 farmerpabs [WTS] Price Drops 🔻 Holosun 507C-X2 ACSS Red · JMAC TS-8P Triangle Stock w/ 4.5mm AK · Magpul Bipod Sling Stud QD · P320 leftovers 💀 4.7" Coyote Pro Cut Slide · Grayguns Adjustable Trigger · Safariland 7378RDS – 7TS ALS Holster · M18 Grip Module · Takedown lever · Coyote Baseplates · M18 Gun Mat
Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/o8fy8P5
P320 4.7" Coyote Pro Cut Slide - $340 $320 $300 $290
Excellent condition. Low round count
Safariland 7378RDS – 7TS™ ALS® CONCEALMENT PADDLE & BELT LOOP COMBO HOLSTER Kit - $140 $130
Includes:
I have used it with Align Tactical Thumb Rest and Armory Craft Sport Takedown Lever. Although if you tighten too the QLS forks too tight, it's a tight fit
Like-new condition
Grayguns Adjustable Straight Trigger - $75 $70 $65
Sig OEM P320 M18 Coyote Grip Module - $40 $35
JMAC Triangle Stock with 3/4" Riser and 4.5mm AK Mount - $200 $185 $175 $165
Stock and riser in like-new condition; some wear on the AK adapter
Holosun 507C-X2-ACSS Vulcan Red - $260
Magpul Bipod – Sling Stud QD - FDE - $100
Add-ons:
A. Sig P320 OEM Takedown Lever - $15
B. (3) Coyote 17rd Baseplate - $10
C. Cerus Gear P320 M18 Gun Mat - $10 $7, free with slide or holster
Thanks for looking! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!
submitted by farmerpabs to GunAccessoriesForSale [link] [comments]
Trade Interests or Trijicon SRO
Click HERE to send me a PM. Please do not use chat.
Shipping is included. Shipping discounts for bundles. Zelle is preferred but can do PayPal/Venmo. No notes please.Excellent condition. Low round count
Includes:
- 7378RDS – 7TS - FDE
- QLS 19 and QLS 22 - BLK
- 6070UBL - Mid-ride Universal Belt Loop (2.25" width) - FDE
- FULL DETAILS HERE
I have used it with Align Tactical Thumb Rest and Armory Craft Sport Takedown Lever. Although if you tighten too the QLS forks too tight, it's a tight fit
Like-new condition
- Roughly 200 rounds
- Size SMALL
- Manual safety cut
- I have tried mostly all polymer grips aside from the P80. This includes Brouwer M1811, Wilson Combat X-Carry, X-Compact , Sig X-Carry, Sig X-Compact in various sizes and I always just came back to this. The way the thumb wraps around and reaches the Align Tactical mag release
- JMAC TS-8P Tan w/ Rubber Buttpad
- JMAC SM-4.5 - Folding Stock/Brace Mount for 4.5mm Folding AKs
- LevTechMFG x JMAC African Padauk .75" Cheek Riser
Stock and riser in like-new condition; some wear on the AK adapter
- Includes 6 sets of screws, all paperwork and tool in original box
- Includes M-LOK Bipod Mount
- Includes O-ring
- 2 slashes, as pictured, otherwise in great condition
2024.04.28 23:21 Filumena_D **Update** The lyrics of the song
So, I decided to download the latest patch. They messed up again somewhere, but it's supposed to be a new update for the RU-BDO server. **New update, new update!** All my PvE dreams will come true with this new patch. 700 GS per month, you know? New update, fishing and horse stuff. New update, minus 10k karma. Once again, the update simplifies the game by randomly assigning heroes, but you won't have balance. The trash class will add damage to mana sticks and water fish, and it's sad that there will be lag in the game. Another update, server patch, no more invulnerability. FPS won't work, and I died in the clouds again. The update affects heroes and sieges. The review took 5 hours. The clan arena is trash and the hero editor is one, the variables are removed, and there are long sieges again! You can go free to test the combo, but soon you'll be reading thousands of words again for a few hours.Because the patch is new, rebalancing is happening. Two years later, a new solar patch. A new leader is leaving, and HI-VAR is fading away. There are almost no communities left. You go to your favorite spot, and there's some crazy guy kicking mobs. He's already on the forum, chin-choking, "May there be salvation for you!" You catch a horse, but it's bullshit for beginners. This is for beginners, and a free T9 horse. It's the fifth item to choose from and it doesn't feel like zero anymore. You come to finish it, "I'm a beginner!!! How is that possible?" A new patch restores the stones for donations. A guarantor for sharpening, 50 drops every month. Not a shit eater, but a mixer! You take part in a siege and there are 12 piles nearby. We survived as best as we could., but for some reason, the servers just crashed. You know, they were cutting up some promo codes, and we figured out how to balance the server for you in half a year! New patch, new PVP, new patch, new barcode fired in the basement, new patch from the developers, who ignored everyone again, new patch from PEARL ABYSS, and another new patch from PEARL ABYSS.
submitted by Filumena_D to BDO_Killky [link] [comments]
So, I decided to download the latest patch. They messed up again somewhere, but it's supposed to be a new update for the RU-BDO server. **New update, new update!** All my PvE dreams will come true with this new patch. 700 GS per month, you know? New update, fishing and horse stuff. New update, minus 10k karma. Once again, the update simplifies the game by randomly assigning heroes, but you won't have balance. The trash class will add damage to mana sticks and water fish, and it's sad that there will be lag in the game. Another update, server patch, no more invulnerability. FPS won't work, and I died in the clouds again. The update affects heroes and sieges. The review took 5 hours. The clan arena is trash and the hero editor is one, the variables are removed, and there are long sieges again! You can go free to test the combo, but soon you'll be reading thousands of words again for a few hours.Because the patch is new, rebalancing is happening. Two years later, a new solar patch. A new leader is leaving, and HI-VAR is fading away. There are almost no communities left. You go to your favorite spot, and there's some crazy guy kicking mobs. He's already on the forum, chin-choking, "May there be salvation for you!" You catch a horse, but it's bullshit for beginners. This is for beginners, and a free T9 horse. It's the fifth item to choose from and it doesn't feel like zero anymore. You come to finish it, "I'm a beginner!!! How is that possible?" A new patch restores the stones for donations. A guarantor for sharpening, 50 drops every month. Not a shit eater, but a mixer! You take part in a siege and there are 12 piles nearby. We survived as best as we could., but for some reason, the servers just crashed. You know, they were cutting up some promo codes, and we figured out how to balance the server for you in half a year! New patch, new PVP, new patch, new barcode fired in the basement, new patch from the developers, who ignored everyone again, new patch from PEARL ABYSS, and another new patch from PEARL ABYSS.
2024.04.28 23:18 xBotvernor [xGov-195] Frostbits Solutions Arcpay - Frostbits Solutions
| title | Frostbits Solutions Arcpay |
|---|---|
| id | 195 |
| period | 4 |
| author | Wilder Stubbs (@WilderStubbs) |
| wilder@frostbits.solutions | |
| discussions-to | https://forum.algorand.org/t/xgov-195-arcpay/11843 |
| company_name | Frostbits Solutions |
| category | dApps |
| focus_area | Banking |
| open_source | Yes |
| funding_type | Proactive |
| amount_requested | 149000 |
| usd_equivalent | $29,330.65 (note: automated conversion) |
| delivery_date | 2024-08-31 |
| status | Final |
Abstract
Arcpay is a plug and play open-source payment processing platform to easily transact on the Algorand blockchain. Arcpay empowers businesses to receive Algorand tokens as payment simply and build advanced workflows for use cases such as community engagement through loyalty point redemption, subscription payments, e-stores, etc.Arcpay is meant to be a gateway to the Algorand ecosystem that provides a streamlined path for traditional web-based projects and removes barriers to entry through an easy to use web interface and SDK. Arcpay will support network tokens and all Algorand Standard Assets (ASAs).
Team
Our team is composed of seasoned professionals with extensive experience in blockchain technology. This background provides a robust foundation for addressing the unique challenges of integrating Web2 with Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM) technologies, ensuring Arcpay's seamless functionality across diverse digital environments.Expertise and Roles:
- Blockchain Development: Four senior software engineers, including two PhDs in computer science, bringing over a decade of combined blockchain experience.
- UI/UX Design: Specialists in creating intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that make complex functionalities accessible to non-technical users.
- Project Management: Agile and lean methodology experts ensuring that Arcpay development is responsive, on schedule, and aligned with governor expectations.
Experience with Algorand
The Frostbits Solutions team has been contributing to the Algorand ecosystem since 2021. Notably with Algogems, an Algorand platform known for its pioneering work in NFT creation and trading. We have a strong technical understanding of AVM technologies!Algogems NFT Marketplace
Present Proposal
Problem Description
Integration of Algorand technology into existing applications presents significant technical and operational challenges, hindering broader adoption and confining blockchain applications largely to niche markets. Common barriers include the need for specialized knowledge, security concerns, and integration complexities.Aligned with Algorand's vision of global decentralization, scalability, and security, Arcpay introduces a seamless gateway to the ecosystem and provides a streamlined path for businesses to transact on the blockchain. Use cases include B2B and B2C payments, loyalty point management and redemption, and removing intermediaries for improved operating margins. This will make Algorand an appealing and cost-effective choice for businesses entering the competitive Web3 ecosystem.
Solution Approach
Arcpay will bridge traditional applications and blockchain by providing:- Seamless Integration for Businesses: Comprehensive suite of APIs and a well-documented development kit for easy Algorand payment integration.
- Smart Contracts as a Service: Transparent, customizable, ready-to-deploy smart contracts for various transaction types.
- Dual Integration Modes: Magic link-based setup for non-technical users and advanced development kit integration for tailored user experiences.
Deliverable
Technical Approach
Arcpay is built on principles of flexibility and user-friendliness, with a commitment to open-source development and community collaboration. Security strategies include community-driven vulnerability assessments and periodic expert reviews if financially viable, ensuring a reliable and secure platform. The Algorand native solution will build upon and refine the Arcpay platform created for Voi Phase1 testnet.- Supports appropriate assets
- Sellable Assets
- RWAs
- No token standard, these are any goods that aren’t on chain. We provide payment processing and API integration.
- NFTs
- ASA
- ARC3
- ARC19
- ARC69
- SFTs
- ASA
- ARC3
- ARC19
- ARC69
- Buying Assets
- Tokens
- ALGO
- ASA
- Ability for user to connect their wallet
- Pera
- Defly
- Exodus
- Lute
- Views on the Arcpay Web Interface
- Sign In
- Network Switch
- Testnet
- Mainnet
- User dashboard
- Create a listing
- List of available assets
- Listing wizard
- Active listings
- List of active listings
- Manage listing (Edit, Cancel)
- Statistics
- Volume
- Revenue
- Fees
- User Settings
- Username
- Link address
- Social links
- Secondary market settings
- Fee rate
- API subscription page
- Free
- Paid
- Purchase
- Buy Now
- RWAs
- NFTs
- SFTs
- Bid
- NFTs
- SFTs
- Supported sale mechanisms facilitated by smart contracts.
- Fixed-price sale
- ALGO for RWAs
- ASA for RWAs
- ALGO for ASA
- ASA for ASA
- Auctions
- English
- ALGO for ASA
- ASA for ASA
- Dutch
- ALGO for ASA
- ASA for ASA
- Link to assets on the block explorer
- Allo
- Pera Explorer
- Deployed and working on
- Algorand
- Testnet
- Mainnet
Concerns & Risks
Concerns Mitigation Strategies---------------------------------
Technical Challenges Incremental Deployment: Roll out features in stages to manage complexity and allow for focused testing and optimization at each step.
Community Beta Testing: Prior to official release, conduct extensive beta testing with community members to ensure real-world applicability and robustness.
Bugs and Broken Features Ongoing Maintenance Post-Launch: Continue to address and rectify any issues that arise post-launch on the mainnet, ensuring the platform remains reliable and secure.
Adoption Rates Partnerships: Form strategic partnerships with key players within the Algorand ecosystem to leverage their networks and gain credibility.
Hosting Sustainability Revenue Model Implementation: Develop and implement a clear revenue model to support long-term hosting and operational costs.
Performance Monitoring: Regularly review performance metrics to ensure that hosting remains financially viable and adjust strategies as needed.
Documentation and Community Support Documentation: Develop comprehensive, easy-to-understand user and developer documentation.
Community Channels: Establish and maintain active community support channels, including forums, live chat support through Telegram, X, and Discord.
Feedback Loops: Implement structured feedback loops to continuously improve documentation and support based on user input.
Ongoing Maintenance A 4-week review and validation phase per milestone launch, followed by ongoing maintenance, ensures platform reliability.
Future Blueprint
Project Longevity
Designed for sustained growth, Arcpay will evolve with blockchain advancements and community feedback. Supported on both the Algorand testnet and mainnet, our platform aims for long-term operational sustainability through a clear revenue model. Our commitment extends to maintaining the platform for at least one year after final delivery, with intentions to continue as long as it remains economically feasible.Project Timeline
- Development Kickoff: Immediately after successful voting, targeted to start smart contract development by June 3rd.
- Milestone 1 - MVP Release: Core functionalities within four weeks.
- Milestone 2 - Enhanced Features: Introduction of auction systems by the sixth week.
- Milestone 3 - Final Delivery: Full deployment readiness by the eighth week.
Milestones
Milestone ETA Scope-----------------------
Milestone 1 - MVP 4 weeks - ASA to ASA sale contract
- End-to-end UI to create sale and interact with contract (Sign In, User dashboard to create, edit, and list NFTs and payment modal)
- Link to assets
- Secondary market sales listings and settings
- Integration through direct links
- Development kit to interact with the listings
- Documentation
Milestone 2 6 weeks - ALGO to ASA sale contract
- ASA to ASA English Auction contract
- ASA to ASA Dutch Auction contract
- ALGO to ASA English Auction contract
- ALGO to ASA Dutch Auction contract
- Secondary market auctions listings
- Updated UI for Auctions
- Updated Development kit for Auctions
- Updated documentation
Milestone 3 - Final Delivery 8 weeks - ALGO to RWAs sale contract
- ASA to RWAs sale contract
- User dashboard with statistics and settings
- API Subscription page
- Updated UI for RWAs sale
- Updated Development kit for RWAs sale
- Network switch
- Updated documentation
Benefits for the community
Expected Impact & Outcomes for the Algorand Community
- Ecosystem Growth: Simplifies integration for businesses, promoting Algorand ecosystem growth.
- Broadening Accessibility: Bridges traditional and decentralized economies, revolutionizing B2B and B2C transactions on Algorand.
- Analytics: Provides businesses sophisticated tools to refine strategies and align offerings with market demands.
- Strategic Partnerships: Enhances utility and liquidity of tokenized assets with major Algorand projects. This includes Cosmic Champs, Algo Leagues, Flipping Algos, and the list grows.
Define Success
Success for Arcpay will be defined by the adoption rate among businesses and P2P users, the volume of transactions processed through the smart contracts, and positive community feedback regarding its impact on the ease of integration.We envision Arcpay’s success playing out in two sequential stages:
- Adoption by top Algorand players such as top NFT projects, Wallets, and existing dapps.
- Expansion to traditional businesses and non-Algorand native Web3 projects.
Additional information
Contact Information
This proposal is supported by Frostbits Solutions, a Canadian company specialized in custom, cutting-edge software, that leverages decentralized networks to facilitate rapid, secure, and cost-effective exchanges of digital goods.Website: frostbits.solutions
Email: wilder@frostbits.solutions
Twitter: @WilderStubbs
Discord: Wilder
Github Links
Proposal on GithubConversation and changes can be found in the top comments.
2024.04.28 23:16 Mizzno [H] Games [W] art of rally, Games (Listed Below), Steam Gift Cards
N.B.: I'm mainly looking for the games listed in the title and at the bottom of the thread. Feel free to post other offers, but if I haven't responded to your comment(s) by my next posting, I likely wasn't able to find a trade that interested me.
For sale (for Steam Gift Cards or gifted Steam Wallet balance):
For trade:
*signifies that a game is tentatively up for trade, assuming I buy the bundle
WANT:
IGS Rep Page: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/ti26nz/mizznos_igs_rep_page/
submitted by Mizzno to indiegameswap [link] [comments]
For sale (for Steam Gift Cards or gifted Steam Wallet balance):
- Dark Souls™: Prepare To Die™ Edition (removed from Steam Store;
$350$400 or best offer) - Fall Guys (removed from Steam Store)
- Fall Guys - Dragon Hugger Pack (removed from Steam Store)
- Fall Guys - Icy Adventure Pack (removed from Steam Store)
Marvel's Avengers - The Definitive Edition (removed from Steam Store)Spec Ops: The Line (removed from Steam Store)
- Humble Hunie Sakura Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Australia Fire Relief Bundle or similar))
- Humble Sekai Project Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Stand with Ukraine Bundle or similar))
For trade:
*signifies that a game is tentatively up for trade, assuming I buy the bundle
- Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed
- Life is Strange: True Colors
- Scorn
- There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition
- Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace
- Blood Rage: Digital Edition
- Gloomhaven - Solo Scenarios: Mercenary Challenges
- Small World
- Small World - A Spider's Web
- Small World - Be not Afraid...
- Small World - Cursed!
- Small World - Grand Dames
- Small World - Royal Bonus
- Splendor
- Splendor - The Cities
- Splendor - The Strongholds
- Splendor - The Trading Posts
- Terraforming Mars
- A Short Hike(?)
- A Story Beside(?)
- Aces & Adventures(?)
- Arcade Spirits(?)
- Battlestar Galactica Deadlock(?)
- Beyond Blue(?)
- Cat Quest(?)
- Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!(?)
- EARTHLOCK(?)
- Harmony's Odyssey(?)
- Homeworld Remastered Collection(?)
- Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure(?)
- Minecraft: Java Edition - MCC Island Jingle Jam Rewards Pack(?)
- Monster Prom(?)
- Sifu Deluxe Cosmetic Pack(?)
- Spirit of the Island(?)
- SUPERHOT(?)
- Tinytopia(?)
- Toodee and Topdee(?)
- Train Valley 2(?)
- Turbo Golf Racing(?)
- Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story(?)
- Xenonauts(?)
- Back 4 Blood
- Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
- Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition
- Batman: Arkham Knight Premium Edition
- Batman™: Arkham Origins
- Injustice 2 Legendary Edition
- Mad Max
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
- Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Add-On Bundle
- Mortal Kombat XL
- Bionic Commando: Rearmed
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
- Lost Planet 3 - Complete
- Mega Man Legacy Collection
- STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®
- 112 Operator
- 911 Operator
- The Amazing American Circus
- Armello
- Backbone
- Calico
- Euro Truck Simulator 2
- Farming Simulator 17
- Ghostrunner
- Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
- Lust from Beyond: M Edition
- Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
- Orbital Racer
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition
- PAYDAY 2
- Pilgrims
- Soulblight
- Space Crew: Legendary Edition
- Starfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo key) and Starfinder Adventure: Junker's Delight (Paizo key)
- Strange Brigade
- Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
- System Shock 2
- System Shock: Enhanced Edition
- Ticket to Ride
- XCOM® 2
- X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest
- Day of the Tentacle Remastered
- Grim Fandango Remastered
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- STAR WARS®: Knights of the Old Republic™ II
- Highway Blossoms
- HunieCam Studio
- KARAKARA
- Sunrider Academy
- Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain's Edition
- The Elder Scrolls: Legends: 2 Card Packs (Skyrim) 1 Event Ticket 100 Gold 100 Souls
- ESO Vanity Pet: Bristlegut Piglet and 15 Days of ESO Plus
- Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal-
- KARAKARA
- Memory's Dogma CODE:01
- Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
- Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project - Season Pass
- A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met
- Sakura Angels
- Beach Bounce
- Beach Bounce - Soundtrack
- Blue Rose
- Lionessy Story
- My Personal Angel
- Natural - Beyond Nature -
- Postmen Of Horizon (removed from Steam Store)
- Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards]
- Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle
- Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle : School Girls Edition
- Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold'em
- Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire
- Guns of Icarus Alliance
- Guns of Icarus Online
- Impossible Creatures Steam Edition
- Lethal League
- Tempest: Pirate Action RPG
- Tempest - Treasure Lands
- Tempest - Original Soundtrack
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf
- Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
- Tenta Shooter
- Gun Gun Pixies
- DUSK
- For The King
- Book of Demons
- PlateUp!
- Kingdom Two Crowns
- White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
- Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
- Steel Rats™
- Hue
- Sifu Deluxe Edition Upgrade Bundle (Epic key)
- Gal*Gun: Double Peace
- The Invisible Hours
- Synergia
- ROCKETRON
- Project Nimbus: Complete Edition
- Dead Age
- Spirit Hunter: NG
- Slain: Back from Hell(?)
- Cook, Serve, Delicious!
- Tower of Time
- Danger Scavenger
- Survive the Nights
- Valfaris
- Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
- This War of Mine
- 112 Operator
- 911 Operator
- Book of Demons
- Broken Age
- Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
- Crying Suns
- Crying Suns
- Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
- Driftland: The Magic Revival
- Liberated (GOG key)
- Moon Hunters
- Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
- Wanderlust: Travel Stories (GOG key)
- WARSAW
- X-Morph: Defense + European Assault, Survival of the Fittest, and Last Bastion DLC (I believe this redeems as the linked Complete Pack, minus the soundtrack)
- ΔV: Rings of Saturn(?)
- Arcade Paradise
- Calico
- Say No! More
- Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
- Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
- Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
- Deliver Us The Moon
- Morkredd
- Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
- Spirit Hunter: NG
- Survivalist: Invisible Strain
- Warhammer: Vermintide 2
- ENDLESS™ Space 2
- Surviving the Aftermath
- The Long Dark
- Duck Game
- SCP: Secret Files
- WWE 2K23
- The Jackbox Party Pack
- Outward (redeems as the base game only, not the linked Definitive Edition)
- Outward - The Soroboreans
- Outward Soundtrack
- Blade Assault
- Founders' Fortune
- Hokko Life
- Monster Crown
- Othercide
- Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition
- ScourgeBringer
- Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
- HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED™
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
- Sonic CD (removed from Steam Store)
- LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 5-7
- STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®
- Bionic Commando
- Full Metal Furies
- Ultra Street Fighter® IV
- Starbound
- Mafia III: Sign of the Times
- BioShock 2
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
- Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
- The Mean Greens - Plastic Warfare
- Crusaders of the Lost Idols Legendary Starter Pack
- Project CARS (removed from Steam Store)
WANT:
- 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
- Astebreed: Definitive Edition
- Avernum: Escape from the Pit
- BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
- CrossCode
- Dead Rising 4
- Dungreed
- Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2
- Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
- Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition
- Myst (2021)
- NBA 2K23
- NECROPOLIS: BRUTAL EDITION
- Omensight: Definitive Edition
- OPUS: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition
- OPUS: Rocket of Whispers
- OPUS: The Day We Found Earth
- Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
- RAGE
- Resident Evil Village
- The Jackbox Party Pack 5
- The Jackbox Party Pack 6
- The Jackbox Party Pack 7
- Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
- Zombie Army 4: Dead War
- any extra copies of WWE 2K23
IGS Rep Page: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/ti26nz/mizznos_igs_rep_page/
2024.04.28 23:14 zolzeja Omnipresent - Call of Duty: Cheat + Spoofer
 | hello we are a new store that stock our private hack called Omnipresent we are glad to announce that we are open and we have some keys open for sale below is a description keys start from £ 4-20 create a discord ticket if u would like a trial key to test it out for an hour submitted by zolzeja to gamecheats [link] [comments] The most advanced external cheat for MW2 & MW3. With a built-in Spoofer, Smooth Skeleton ESP, Humanized Aimbot, Streamproof Everywhere, Controller Compatible, Rapid Fire, and much more 1. Spoof Our built-in spoofer ensures you can keep playing even if your HWID is banned and safeguard your real HWID. 2. Inject Our injection is compatible with all versions of Windows 10 and 11, and it operates without leaving any traces or running processes on your computer. 3. Customize Our cheat provides a comprehensive range of customizable features crafted to the highest standards. Controller Compatible ✅ Streamproof Everywhere✅ Anti-Screenshot✅ 2D Radar✅ Enemy Aim Warnings✅ We've got you covered with our super customizable features that adapt to your playstyle like a glove. You can tweak everything just the way you like it. Whether you want to go all-in or play it safe, you're in control! Turn on or off any feature you want, ensuring you have the perfect balance of risk and fun. No need to compromise—get ready to enjoy gaming exactly the way you want it! instant key delivery Via Email here are our discord and website link https://discord.com/invite/N9fJf8NQka https://emeraldsedge.sellsn.io if you have any issues fell free to create a ticket on our webpage or our discord and we will assist you https://preview.redd.it/pwcq81ucdaxc1.png?width=1208&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d35873700152aa885de8512c0a3110d0cc1f772 https://preview.redd.it/mpp3pk7edaxc1.png?width=1231&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d654d7b9983dbd6fe13f27cf3a05e8cad120564 https://preview.redd.it/iq9dfm8fdaxc1.png?width=1228&format=png&auto=webp&s=c66df383592d1aecf7826302ac7a36a5950427e6 https://preview.redd.it/28dlzh8hdaxc1.png?width=1226&format=png&auto=webp&s=0f73ccd6c6f14afa0f9d06519d08d2b44e98f713 https://preview.redd.it/rwmt6eshdaxc1.png?width=1178&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f9588478f11c56bbb88574cbe664517a2987d1c |
2024.04.28 23:10 aznpersuazion Is Online Tutoring Worth it? Reviewing Online Tutoring Websites
Hello fellow tutor aspirees, side hustlers, academic extraordinaires. I’m here to give you the scoop on the various tutoring platforms, how their services work, tutoring requirements, the types of students on each platform, and of course - how much you get paid for your time.
A little about me. I’ve tutored for a few months now on the following platforms: Varsity Tutors, Wyzant, and SuperProf. I’ve had a number of students on each platform, and it’s safe to say I’ve definitely realized the pros and cons of each one.
Wyzant
Money Info: You set your hourly rate. Wyzant takes 25% of it. If you set your rate to $20/hr you get paid $15/hr.
The Requirements: Each subject you tutor you have to take a 10–20 question multiple choice test on it. The test will be beginner to intermediate questions on the subject you’ve chosen. You only have one chance to pass the test.
The Pros:
Wyzant is an easy to use platform that takes a while to build a student base. You’ll have to apply and reach out to students a lot at first before you start getting more consistent jobs. This can take a few months, so consider this before you start. The 25% fee is high, but certainly not unreasonable compared to other platforms.
Varsity Tutors
Money Info: Unless you’re tutoring GRE or LSATs, the flat rate is $15/hr, regardless of the subject. GRE and LSAT tutors make $28/hr. Varsity Tutors charges their students $50 - $75/hr.
Requirements: Most subjects do not require a test, however you do need to send in a video interview of yourself, mostly to confirm that you can speak eloquently.
The Pros:
Varsity Tutors definitely has the lowest pay amongst all the platforms. $15/hr to teach is what you can make at some retail jobs in the US. The platform can be better if you need to start making money immediately, or if you live in a country where the cost of living is lower. The amount you are paid is better for people who are teaching subjects that aren’t too difficult.
SuperProf
Money Info: You set your own rate, SuperProf takes 10%. The caveat, SuperProf charges students $39 a month to use the platform.
Pros:
SuperProf is very similar to Wyzant in that students and tutors can openly communicate and set up time with each other. The 10% fee is lower than the other platforms. But because it’s already hard to get started as a new tutor, and there are less students on the platform, it’s one of the harder platforms to build a student base.
Additional Notes
While all these platforms have their pros and cons. You can always consider tutoring independently. You do not need any licenses or business registration for tutoring in most places. Once you get a student base through Wyzant or SuperProf, you can take them off-platform and teach independently. The best part? You keep the money you work hard for.
**If you found any of this helpful, consider checking out a referral link. You get additional sign up and welcome bonuses. Signing up and using Rakuten for cash back is free!*\*
submitted by aznpersuazion to sidehustlemoney [link] [comments]
A little about me. I’ve tutored for a few months now on the following platforms: Varsity Tutors, Wyzant, and SuperProf. I’ve had a number of students on each platform, and it’s safe to say I’ve definitely realized the pros and cons of each one.
Wyzant
Money Info: You set your hourly rate. Wyzant takes 25% of it. If you set your rate to $20/hr you get paid $15/hr.
The Requirements: Each subject you tutor you have to take a 10–20 question multiple choice test on it. The test will be beginner to intermediate questions on the subject you’ve chosen. You only have one chance to pass the test.
The Pros:
- You set your own rate
- Tutors and students can freely schedule meetings on their own, rather than have someone assign you
- The user interface is better(mobile app, messaging system, teaching platform, etc)
- Students can largely vary(this can be a con too). You will get a wider range of students, who can be adults with various full time jobs.
- You are charged 25% of your hourly rate
- It’s very hard to get started as a new tutor. There are tons of tutors with a lot of reviews already.
- There are scammers(be cautious of people asking you to communicate off the platform)
Wyzant is an easy to use platform that takes a while to build a student base. You’ll have to apply and reach out to students a lot at first before you start getting more consistent jobs. This can take a few months, so consider this before you start. The 25% fee is high, but certainly not unreasonable compared to other platforms.
Varsity Tutors
Money Info: Unless you’re tutoring GRE or LSATs, the flat rate is $15/hr, regardless of the subject. GRE and LSAT tutors make $28/hr. Varsity Tutors charges their students $50 - $75/hr.
Requirements: Most subjects do not require a test, however you do need to send in a video interview of yourself, mostly to confirm that you can speak eloquently.
The Pros:
- You are assigned students after declaring interest, so you can get started tutoring within a few days.
- Students are screened so you’ll mostly get students more prepared for lessons.
- A large amount of tutors will only make $15/hr, whereas they charge $50 - $75/hr per student. This can be a huge cut, and limit on pay, especially if you’re teaching harder subjects like programming, sciences, higher level math.
- The user interface is not as great. Basic functionality is there, but the overall platform is not aesthetic.
- You are legally not allowed to take students off the platform.
Varsity Tutors definitely has the lowest pay amongst all the platforms. $15/hr to teach is what you can make at some retail jobs in the US. The platform can be better if you need to start making money immediately, or if you live in a country where the cost of living is lower. The amount you are paid is better for people who are teaching subjects that aren’t too difficult.
SuperProf
Money Info: You set your own rate, SuperProf takes 10%. The caveat, SuperProf charges students $39 a month to use the platform.
Pros:
- For tutors, SuperProf takes the least amount from your pay compared to other platforms.
- Students are generally more prepared because they are paying $39 a month to use the platform.
- The user interface is also pretty good.
- You can set your own cancellation policies
- There are less students because of the monthly subscription fee.
- It’s very hard to get started as a new tutor. There are tons of tutors with a lot of reviews already.
- You have to teach your first two lessons free.
SuperProf is very similar to Wyzant in that students and tutors can openly communicate and set up time with each other. The 10% fee is lower than the other platforms. But because it’s already hard to get started as a new tutor, and there are less students on the platform, it’s one of the harder platforms to build a student base.
Additional Notes
While all these platforms have their pros and cons. You can always consider tutoring independently. You do not need any licenses or business registration for tutoring in most places. Once you get a student base through Wyzant or SuperProf, you can take them off-platform and teach independently. The best part? You keep the money you work hard for.
**If you found any of this helpful, consider checking out a referral link. You get additional sign up and welcome bonuses. Signing up and using Rakuten for cash back is free!*\*
- Rakuten is a reputable website/app with millions of users that gives you up 20% cash back on popular stores like Nike, Target, and Petsmart
- Here I explain my favorite side hustle, step by step.
- Credit Cards
- Amex: Gold: https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/PARRYC8P8N?XLINK=MYCP
- Amex Plat: https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/HUIQITJbcu?XLINK=MYCP
- Capital One Venture X: https://i.capitalone.com/J8Jn8yE0u
2024.04.28 23:09 zolzeja Omnipresent - Call of Duty: Cheat + Spoofer
 | hello we are a new store that stock our private hack called Omnipresent we are glad to announce that we are open and we have some keys open for sale below is a description keys start from £ 4-20 create a discord ticket if u would like a trial key to test it out for an hour submitted by zolzeja to gamehacks [link] [comments] The most advanced external cheat for MW2 & MW3. With a built-in Spoofer, Smooth Skeleton ESP, Humanized Aimbot, Streamproof Everywhere, Controller Compatible, Rapid Fire, and much more
Streamproof Everywhere✅ Anti-Screenshot✅ 2D Radar✅ Enemy Aim Warnings✅ We've got you covered with our super customizable features that adapt to your playstyle like a glove. You can tweak everything just the way you like it. Whether you want to go all-in or play it safe, you're in control! Turn on or off any feature you want, ensuring you have the perfect balance of risk and fun. No need to compromise—get ready to enjoy gaming exactly the way you want it! instant key delivery Via Email here are our discord and website link https://discord.com/invite/N9fJf8NQkahttps://emeraldsedge.sellsn.io if you have any issues fell free to create a ticket on our webpage or our discord and we will assist you https://preview.redd.it/q1ha50xbcaxc1.png?width=1320&format=png&auto=webp&s=eb772198443941535210cc06ce61c9f7b8030e4f https://preview.redd.it/c46fnwiecaxc1.png?width=1198&format=png&auto=webp&s=262103471ff7d9bb8e25f6b53c744ccf790f3ff2 https://preview.redd.it/wz22uo2gcaxc1.png?width=1209&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd0bfea3b9543d8b125067f9ac7ad51840669175 https://preview.redd.it/m18a83nhcaxc1.png?width=1236&format=png&auto=webp&s=bcbe8a35ef6338c5a81701e8a9d7e1c120a9c343 https://preview.redd.it/22z4miaicaxc1.png?width=1188&format=png&auto=webp&s=b99157003623a702e2332393026c7f52c8a5056d |
2024.04.28 23:09 ZERXESS96 Any advice would be helpful
 | Got this boat for free it's the 16ft 9inch fiberglass 1965 Larson lap-line. Got a before and (partial) after pic. I Sanded most of the floor down who ever owned this prior to me had rebuilt the flooring the ply is strong and in good health no soft spots, creeks or cracks when you walk on it. I'd like to continue sanding the deck so I can redo the fiberglass I want strength because me and all my friends are big dudes and I plan on being on the water A LOT and I feel I can do a better job than who ever had done before me. Anyways I'm posting this because given the materials I've bought below how should I do this so it will be strong and last? Should I cut out three sections and do a portion of the deck at a time overlapping and blending edges? Should I use both types of fiberglass one for each layer? I will be doing this on my own with no help so please keep that in mind. submitted by ZERXESS96 to boatbuilding [link] [comments] • I have ordered 10 yards of CSM and 10 yards of 1708 as well as three gallons of Poly resin with hardeners • I have the rollers to remove excess resin and air bubbles • I got a painters kit (with roller and tray) • 32OZ painters cups |
2024.04.28 22:50 marionas7 [Store] Low to High Tier Knives/Gloves
♦ Below is a list of items I have at the moment. I constantly trade, so the list might be outdated and I might have new items.
♦ Buyouts are in cash and they are a reference point to know how much I want for my items in a trade.
♦ Offers is the fastest way to contact me and get a response, but feel free to add me to friends.
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Butterfly Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0508 | 99.5% Faded. | Click me | $3,900 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0491 | 94.8% Faded. | Click me | $3,140 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0240 | 84.0% Faded. | Click me | $2,830 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Butterfly Knife Doppler Phase 2 | Factory New | 0.0326 | - | Click me | $2,800 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0233 | - | Click me | $2,710 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Lore | Minimal Wear | 0.1439 | - | Click me | $2,060 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0098 | Red tip. | Click me | $2,050 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Doppler Phase 3 | Factory New | 0.0357 | - | Click me | $2,015 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Butterfly Knife | - | 0.3493 | - | Click me | $1,320 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic | Field-Tested | 0.2933 | - | Click me | $1,100 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel | Factory New | 0.0661 | - | Click me | $970 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Lore | Well-Worn | 0.4294 | - | Click me | $830 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel | Battle-Scarred | 0.4532 | - | Click me | $695 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Safari Mesh | Minimal Wear | 0.1280 | - | Click me | $555 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Boreal Forest | Battle-Scarred | 0.4883 | - | Click me | $470 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Scorched | Well-Worn | 0.3892 | - | Click me | $465 | Tradable |
| ★ Butterfly Knife Forest DDPAT | Battle-Scarred | 0.6546 | - | Click me | $460 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ M9 Bayonet Lore | Minimal Wear | 0.1247 | - | Click me | $1,890 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Fade | Factory New | 0.0294 | 83.5% Faded. | Click me | $1,650 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet Fade | Factory New | 0.0256 | 85.5% Faded. | Click me | $1,500 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0098 | - | Click me | $1,320 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0079 | - | Click me | $1,210 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0681 | - | Click me | $1,180 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Tiger Tooth | Factory New | 0.0316 | - | Click me | $890 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Crimson Web | Field-Tested | 0.1871 | - | Click me | $635 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Stained | Minimal Wear | 0.0854 | - | Click me | $500 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Damascus Steel | Field-Tested | 0.1825 | - | Click me | $490 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Bright Water | Minimal Wear | 0.1072 | - | Click me | $485 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Lore | Battle-Scarred | 0.6239 | - | Click me | $470 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand | Field-Tested | 0.1799 | - | Click me | $465 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Stained | Field-Tested | 0.3080 | - | Click me | $465 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Freehand | Field-Tested | 0.2039 | - | Click me | $460 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Ultraviolet | Field-Tested | 0.1813 | - | Click me | $435 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Ultraviolet | Field-Tested | 0.1902 | - | Click me | $430 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Stained | Battle-Scarred | 0.8002 | - | Click me | $420 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Ultraviolet | Well-Worn | 0.4475 | - | Click me | $430 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Scorched | Field-Tested | 0.2021 | - | Click me | $380 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Urban Masked | Field-Tested | 0.1638 | - | Click me | $330 | Tradable |
| ★ M9 Bayonet Safari Mesh | Field-Tested | 0.2889 | - | Click me | $310 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Karambit Fade | Factory New | 0.0543 | 98.2% Faded. | Click me | $2,835 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Fade | Factory New | 0.0222 | 95.9% Faded. | Click me | $2,625 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Doppler Phase 2 | Factory New | 0.0680 | - | Click me | $1,820 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0358 | #624. Fake Fire & Ice | Click me | $1,690 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0095 | - | Click me | $1,365 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0231 | - | Click me | $1,340 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Doppler Phase 3 | Factory New | 0.0094 | - | Click me | $1,220 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Tiger Tooth | Factory New | 0.0207 | - | Click me | $1,020 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Tiger Tooth | Minimal Wear | 0.0731 | - | Click me | $995 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Black Laminate | Minimal Wear | 0.0833 | - | Click me | $850 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Karambit Autotronic | Field-Tested | 0.3515 | - | Click me | $830 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Crimson Web | Field-Tested | 0.3657 | One big web on playside. | Click me | $680 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Crimson Web | Field-Tested | 0.3601 | One big web on playside. | Click me | $680 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Ultraviolet | Minimal Wear | 0.1014 | - | Click me | $670 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Freehand | Minimal Wear | 0.0914 | - | Click me | $650 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Freehand | Field-Tested | 0.1961 | - | Click me | $520 | Tradable |
| ★ Karambit Freehand | Field-Tested | 0.2707 | - | Click me | $510 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0350 | 99.7% Faded. | Click me | $1,830 | Tradable |
| ★ Skeleton Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0285 | 98.5% Faded. | Click me | $1,745 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Slaughter | Minimal Wear | 0.1381 | - | Click me | $745 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Slaughter | Field-Tested | 0.2527 | - | Click me | $670 | Tradable |
| ★ Skeleton Knife Crimson Web | Field-Tested | 0.3685 | - | Click me | $660 | Tradable |
| ★ Skeleton Knife Stained | Minimal Wear | 0.0865 | - | Click me | $385 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Stained | Minimal Wear | 0.1151 | - | Click me | $380 | Tradable |
| ★ Skeleton Knife Forest DDPAT | Field-Tested | 0.3612 | - | Click me | $185 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Bayonet Gamma Doppler Emerald | Factory New | 0.0338 | - | Click me | $3,875 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Doppler Sapphire | Factory New | 0.0613 | - | Click me | $3,420 | Tradable |
| ★ Bayonet Gamma Doppler Phase 2 | Factory New | 0.0248 | - | Click me | $1,000 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0328 | - | Click me | $620 | Tradable |
| ★ Bayonet Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0343 | - | Click me | $565 | Tradable |
| ★ Bayonet Doppler Phase 1 | Factory New | 0.0228 | - | Click me | $560 | Tradable |
| ★ Bayonet Doppler Phase 1 | Factory New | 0.0279 | - | Click me | $560 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Lore | Field-Tested | 0.1648 | - | Click me | $480 | Tradable |
| ★ Bayonet Lore | Field-Tested | 0.3210 | - | Click me | $440 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Blue Steel | Minimal Wear | 0.1332 | - | Click me | $330 | Tradable |
| ★ Bayonet Freehand | Field-Tested | 0.1501 | - | Click me | $275 | Tradable |
| ★ Bayonet Freehand | Field-Tested | 0.1520 | - | Click me | $275 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Talon Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0645 | 97.4% Faded. | Click me | $1,260 | Tradable |
| ★ Talon Knife Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0584 | - | Click me | $955 | Tradable |
| ★ Talon Knife Slaughter | Factory New | 0.0607 | - | Click me | $715 | Tradable |
| ★ Talon Knife Vanilla | - | 0.3508 | - | Click me | $420 | Tradable |
| ★ Talon Knife Vanilla | - | 0.3717 | - | Click me | $420 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Nomad Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0115 | 96.6% Faded. | Click me | $1,010 | Tradable |
| ★ Nomad Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0106 | 95.5% Faded. | Click me | $995 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Nomad Knife Vanilla | - | 0.7129 | - | Click me | $365 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Flip Knife Doppler Ruby | Factory New | 0.0521 | - | Click me | $2,725 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0105 | 81.6% Faded. | Click me | $685 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Lore | Factory New | 0.0699 | - | Click me | $475 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Doppler Phase 3 | Factory New | 0.0041 | - | Click me | $475 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Doppler Phase 1 | Factory New | 0.0327 | - | Click me | $450 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Doppler Phase 1 | Factory New | 0.0426 | - | Click me | $450 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0344 | - | Click me | $415 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Vanilla | - | 0.2843 | - | Click me | $335 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Autotronic | Field-Tested | 0.3359 | - | Click me | $265 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Autotronic | Well-Worn | 0.3820 | - | Click me | $255 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Freehand | Factory New | 0.0620 | - | Click me | $190 | Tradable |
| ★ Flip Knife Damascus Steel | Minimal Wear | 0.1320 | - | Click me | $185 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Stiletto Knife Doppler Sapphire | Factory New | 0.0239 | - | Click me | $2,800 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Stiletto Knife Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0348 | - | Click me | $560 | Tradable |
| ★ Stiletto Knife Doppler Phase 3 | Factory New | 0.0446 | - | Click me | $545 | Tradable |
| ★ Stiletto Knife Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0221 | - | Click me | $490 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Classic Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0340 | 99.0% Faded. | Click me | $730 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Classic Knife Crimson Web | Minimal Wear | 0.0776 | 4th best float in csgofloat database. | Click me | $700 | Tradable |
| ★ Classic Knife Crimson Web | Minimal Wear | 0.1328 | - | Click me | $345 | Tradable |
| ★ Classic Knife Slaughter | Minimal Wear | 0.1022 | - | Click me | $280 | Tradable |
| ★ Classic Knife Crimson Web | Field-Tested | 0.2710 | - | Click me | $215 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Ursus Knife Doppler Sapphire | Factory New | 0.0046 | - | Click me | $2,100 | Tradable |
| ★ Ursus Knife Doppler Sapphire | Factory New | 0.0088 | - | Click me | $2,055 | Tradable |
| ★ Ursus Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0345 | 91.6% Faded. | Click me | $550 | Tradable |
| ★ Ursus Knife Doppler Phase 2 | Factory New | 0.0335 | - | Click me | $480 | Tradable |
| ★ Ursus Knife Doppler Phase 2 | Factory New | 0.0337 | - | Click me | $480 | Tradable |
| ★ Ursus Knife Marble Fade | Factory New | 0.0505 | - | Click me | $340 | Tradable |
| ★ Ursus Knife Vanilla | - | 0.4994 | - | Click me | $270 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Huntsman Knife Gamma Doppler Phase 2 | Factory New | 0.0226 | - | Click me | $505 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Gamma Doppler Phase 2 | Factory New | 0.0649 | - | Click me | $490 | Tradable |
| ★ StatTrak™ Huntsman Knife Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0325 | - | Click me | $440 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Gamma Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0249 | - | Click me | $420 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0236 | 85.2% Faded. | Click me | $400 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Tiger Tooth | Factory New | 0.0542 | - | Click me | $235 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Lore | Minimal Wear | 0.0778 | - | Click me | $230 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Autotronic | Minimal Wear | 0.1175 | - | Click me | $230 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Vanilla | - | 0.1933 | - | Click me | $220 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Lore | Field-Tested | 0.2764 | - | Click me | $175 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Case Hardened | Well-Worn | 0.4344 | - | Click me | $175 | Tradable |
| ★ Huntsman Knife Autotronic | Field-Tested | 0.2764 | - | Click me | $170 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Paracord Knife Case Hardened | Field-Tested | 0.3420 | #447 Blue gem. | Click me | $860 | Tradable |
| ★ Paracord Knife Case Hardened | Battle-Scarred | 0.9608 | #294 Blue gem. | Click me | $560 | Tradable |
| ★ Paracord Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0157 | 91.2% Faded. | Click me | $475 | Tradable |
| ★ Paracord Knife Slaughter | Field-Tested | 0.1672 | - | Click me | $250 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Survival Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0146 | 94.8% Faded. | Click me | $415 | Tradable |
| ★ Survival Knife Vanilla | - | 0.3113 | - | Click me | $170 | Tradable |
| ★ Survival Knife Vanilla | - | 0.5112 | - | Click me | $170 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Falchion Knife Gamma Doppler Emerald | Factory New | 0.0262 | - | Click me | $1,085 | Tradable |
| ★ Falchion Knife Gamma Doppler Emerald | Minimal Wear | 0.0754 | - | Click me | $1,020 | Tradable |
| ★ Falchion Knife Gamma Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0002 | - | Click me | $460 | Tradable |
| ★ Falchion Knife Tiger Tooth | Factory New | 0.0279 | - | Click me | $200 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ StatTrak™ Shadow Daggers Doppler Sapphire | Factory New | 0.0117 | - | Click me | $690 | Tradable |
| ★ Shadow Daggers Doppler Black Pearl | Factory New | 0.0288 | - | Click me | $675 | Tradable |
| ★ Shadow Daggers Doppler Ruby | Factory New | 0.0094 | - | Click me | $590 | Tradable |
| ★ Shadow Daggers Fade | Factory New | 0.0128 | 99.1% Faded. | Click me | $290 | Tradable |
| ★ Shadow Daggers Doppler Phase 1 | Factory New | 0.0131 | - | Click me | $195 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Bowie Knife Doppler Ruby | Minimal Wear | 0.0779 | - | Click me | $985 | Tradable |
| ★ Bowie Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0324 | 96.6% Faded. | Click me | $420 | Tradable |
| ★ Bowie Knife Gamma Doppler Phase 4 | Factory New | 0.0212 | - | Click me | $360 | Tradable |
| ★ Bowie Knife Slaughter | Minimal Wear | 0.0719 | - | Click me | $255 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Gut Knife Fade | Factory New | 0.0010 | 83.2% Faded. | Click me | $215 | Tradable |
| ★ Gut Knife Doppler Phase 3 | Factory New | 0.0271 | - | Click me | $160 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Navaja Knife Doppler Sapphire | Factory New | 0.0321 | - | Click me | $500 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Sport Gloves Pandora's Box | Well-Worn | 0.3882 | - | Click me | $3,570 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Superconductor | Field-Tested | 0.1644 | - | Click me | $2,630 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Superconductor | Field-Tested | 0.1680 | - | Click me | $2,610 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Hedge Maze | Field-Tested | 0.3666 | - | Click me | $2,565 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Vice | Field-Tested | 0.1576 | - | Click me | $2,235 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Pandora's Box | Battle-Scarred | 0.7577 | - | Click me | $1,765 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Vice | Field-Tested | 0.1943 | - | Click me | $1,650 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Slingshot | Field-Tested | 0.2251 | - | Click me | $935 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Amphibious | Field-Tested | 0.2641 | - | Click me | $710 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Omega | Field-Tested | 0.1840 | - | Click me | $550 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Big Game | Minimal Wear | 0.0960 | - | Click me | $395 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Arid | Well-Worn | 0.3850 | - | Click me | $340 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Arid | Battle-Scarred | 0.4703 | - | Click me | $245 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Arid | Battle-Scarred | 0.7895 | - | Click me | $205 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Big Game | Field-Tested | 0.1894 | - | Click me | $200 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Big Game | Field-Tested | 0.2822 | - | Click me | $185 | Tradable |
| ★ Sport Gloves Big Game | Well-Worn | 0.3890 | - | Click me | $155 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Specialist Gloves Emerald Web | Minimal Wear | 0.1291 | - | Click me | $1,600 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike | Minimal Wear | 0.1285 | - | Click me | $930 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike | Field-Tested | 0.1562 | - | Click me | $575 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike | Field-Tested | 0.1619 | - | Click me | $565 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Tiger Strike | Field-Tested | 0.2330 | - | Click me | $425 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Fade | Field-Tested | 0.3640 | Clean "E". | Click me | $365 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Field Agent | Field-Tested | 0.1703 | - | Click me | $330 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Emerald Web | Battle-Scarred | 0.7553 | - | Click me | $315 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Foundation | Field-Tested | 0.2623 | - | Click me | $305 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Mogul | Minimal Wear | 0.1396 | - | Click me | $300 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Marble Fade | Field-Tested | 0.2256 | - | Click me | $300 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Marble Fade | Field-Tested | 0.2275 | - | Click me | $300 | Tradable |
| ★ Specialist Gloves Marble Fade | Field-Tested | 0.2366 | - | Click me | $290 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Moto Gloves Spearmint | Field-Tested | 0.2093 | - | Click me | $2,700 | Tradable |
| ★ Moto Gloves Spearmint | Field-Tested | 0.2607 | - | Click me | $1,630 | Tradable |
| ★ Moto Gloves POW! | Minimal Wear | 0.1267 | - | Click me | $540 | Tradable |
| ★ Moto Gloves Cool Mint | Field-Tested | 0.2843 | - | Click me | $310 | Tradable |
| ★ Moto Gloves Polygon | Minimal Wear | 0.1313 | - | Click me | $295 | Tradable |
| ★ Moto Gloves Smoke Out | Minimal Wear | 0.1381 | - | Click me | $290 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Driver Gloves Crimson Weave | Field-Tested | 0.1548 | - | Click me | $430 | Tradable |
| ★ Driver Gloves Imperial Plaid | Field-Tested | 0.1542 | - | Click me | $400 | Tradable |
| ★ Driver Gloves Imperial Plaid | Field-Tested | 0.3515 | - | Click me | $265 | Tradable |
| ★ Driver Gloves King Snake | Well-Worn | 0.3877 | - | Click me | $225 | Tradable |
| ★ Driver Gloves Rezan the Red | Minimal Wear | 0.1385 | - | Click me | $160 | Tradable |
| ★ Driver Gloves King Snake | Battle-Scarred | 0.5348 | - | Click me | $155 | Tradable |
| ★ Driver Gloves King Snake | Battle-Scarred | 0.5467 | - | Click me | $155 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! | Factory New | 0.0664 | - | Click me | $1,040 | Tradable |
| ★ Hand Wraps Cobalt Skulls | Battle-Scarred | 0.7535 | - | Click me | $215 | Tradable |
| ★ Hand Wraps Overprint | Field-Tested | 0.2455 | - | Click me | $185 | Tradable |
| ★ Hand Wraps Overprint | Field-Tested | 0.3501 | - | Click me | $180 | Tradable |
| ★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! | Field-Tested | 0.1519 | - | Click me | $200 | Tradable |
| ★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! | Field-Tested | 0.1842 | - | Click me | $190 | Tradable |
| ★ Hand Wraps Leather | Battle-Scarred | 0.1703 | - | Click me | $140 | Tradable |
| Name | Wear | Wear value | Additional info | Screenshots | B/O | Tradable After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Broken Fang Gloves Jade | Minimal Wear | 0.1459 | - | Click me | $170 | Tradable |
2024.04.28 22:42 Bakery-Casino-3079 AITA for trying to destroy a family quilt even though it’s technically mine?
Throwaway since I (21M) don’t want my family or anyone I know stumbling across this.
I honestly don’t know if I’m the asshole here.
So to start, when I was ten years old I was babysitting my little sister, we’ll call her Sarah, while my mom was out running errands. I was an idiot kid and got distracted by cartoons on the downstairs TV, leaving Sarah upstairs. I still feel so bad about it even though I know I was only ten at the time.
I’ll spare you the details, but Sarah ended up getting herself tangled up in a quilt and couldn’t free herself. She suffocated and her death has been on my mind every day since. My parents and I have both gone through a ton of therapy since it happened. They say they don’t blame me, and my therapist says I shouldn’t still be blaming myself, but I still think I do. I don’t know, in a way being hard on myself makes me feel better about it.
We still have the quilt. I didn’t know it at the time but it’s apparently been in our family for generations. My mom said she remembers her mother tucking her in at night with it. Both my parents couldn’t bear to bury my sister with it and I’m glad they didn’t. I hate the thought of Sarah being buried with the thing that smothered her.
Actually, the quilt is technically mine. I was the first kid my parents had so I guess I was the one to inherit it. It’s got a unique pattern of vines and pheasants sewn into it that used to make me really nostalgic, but I can’t bring myself to look at it anymore. It sits folded away in the hall closet of my parents house and I only ever glance at it from the corner of my eye if I ever have to grab a towel or a coat or something.
So here’s where I might be the asshole: for my 21st birthday I decided I was going to burn the quilt. My parents strongly objected but not only is the quilt technically mine, I feel it will give me a lot of closure. I thought that maybe if it were gone I could live my life without having to be so hard on myself all the time. It would be this little symbolic ritual just for me to sort of start my life over from the guilt that’s been weighing on me for over a decade.
A few days ago I paid my parents a visit and snuck the quilt out of the house while they were on the back porch. It felt so weird to actually touch it. I had forgotten how it smelled. I was instantly transported back to the bedroom Sarah and I used to share. I remember her crib disassembled and the pieces propped up against the wall by the door. I realized Mom might’ve been out shopping for a big girl bed for her the night she died.
The thought made me tear up, but luckily my parents weren’t around to see. I quickly stuffed the quilt into my backpack and left for my place.
I’m in college right now and share a house with three other guys. Two of them were visiting their families for Christmas but one, we’ll call him “Ben” stayed in town for the holidays since his family lives fairly close by like mine does. One thing you need to know about Ben is that he’s a prankster. All of us sort of are, but Ben is particularly good at it.
Anyway, that night I left my backpack on the floor by the door. I planned to burn the quilt in the early morning and set my alarm for 4am. I figured there was a lesser chance of anyone complaining about the smoke that way. Plus, I wanted to be alone when it went up in flames.
My alarm went off at 4am the next morning. I fumbled around my room a bit for my lighter that’s usually reserved for the house bong. Once I found it on the floor under my desk I swung open my bedroom door and nearly shat myself.
Ben was sitting on the couch facing me with the quilt draped over himself like a cartoon ghost. His lanky form wrapped in musty vines and birds. He nearly gave me a heart attack.
I was surprised that he didn’t start laughing when I yelled “FUCK” and jumped back, but if he wasn’t laughing yet that probably meant that there was more to the prank and we hadn’t reached the final punchline yet.
I was done, though. I wasn’t in the mood for pranks. I called him a piece of shit for going through my backpack. Maybe I’m an asshole for that too.
But Ben didn’t respond. He sat still for a few seconds while I glared at him. I thought maybe I had really hurt his feeling and started to apologize when he slowly lifted himself from the couch and starting walking toward the front door.
I turned the corner to follow him and saw that he had walked out the door and was moving swiftly over the front lawn toward the street. I sprinted out after him and yelled at him to give the quilt back.
Ben started gaining speed so that I could barely keep up. We looked like idiots playing an angry game of tag in the dark street at four in the morning but that was probably all part of Ben’s plan. He probably had someone close by filming the whole thing for TikTok.
I had no idea how he was outrunning me. He was wearing the oldest looking pair of leather shoes I’d ever seen, and I had no idea how he could even see where he was going.
Maybe I’m just monstrously out of shape. In any case, he was absolutely booking it down the dark freezing street, popping in and out of the beams of the street lamps.
I couldn’t keep running after him. The cold night air was tearing my lungs to shreds. I yelled one last “Fuck OFF, dude!” into the night before doubling over to catch my breath. After a minute or two I turned around and pathetically started walking back to the house. I could hear the wet slaps of those gross looking shoes on the pavement getting farther away.
I assumed Ben would turn up at the house shortly after I got back but he didn’t. I waited around for a few hours, checking social media periodically, but he hadn’t messaged me or posted any videos of me flailing after him in the dark.
Just then, I noticed that it was STILL dark. We always kept the curtains drawn but usually you could tell when the sun was up. I got up from the couch and pulled the curtains aside and saw nothing but black. I couldn’t even see the light from the street lamps. I closed the curtains again and flicked the light switch on to make sure the power hadn’t gone out. The harsh light from the one ceiling light that we never used flooded the room. For some reason it was only the street lamps that weren’t getting power.
Curious, I opened the front door and stepped into the freezing night air and immediately walked right into something soft.
I hastily turned on the porch light. I had walked right into the quilt. It had been draped over the low covering of the porch for me to stumble into. I gave it a tug to try and pul it down. I figured Ben had nailed it to the roof and it would probably tear, but that didn’t matter since it was going to burn anyway. After dealing with Ben’s dumb pranks all night I would enjoy seeing it go up in flames just a bit more.
It wouldn’t budge. I pulled as hard as I could and put all my weight into trying to tear it down but whatever was holding it to the roof wasn’t giving way. As I was clinging to it I realized that it seemed a lot bigger than I’d remembered. It actually draped around the whole front porch.
I was going to have to go under it. I lifted the heavy fabric above my head and walked carefully down the front steps.
And, I don’t understand this part at all, but there was just more quilt. I kept walking and the quilt kept going. I made it to the middle of our lawn, almost tripping over a tree root as I got farther away from the light of the front porch, still holding my hands above me supporting the wet musty fabric. It was as if someone had made a thousand ancient family quilts and sewed them all together, only to then drape the across the entire front yard of the house.
I turned back to the house. I could see the porch light still on but it was a faint glow bouncing off a sea of concave fabric. It was getting hard to breathe, probably because I was breathing a lot faster now. I made my way back to the porch light, walking my hands along the fabric above me as I went and trying not to break into a run. Running felt like the first step to panicking.
I got to the house and slammed the front door shut behind me. I drew back the curtains again, this time flicking on the living room light before I did. Pressed against the window was a maze of ruddy vines and ornate birds stitched into a sea of musty yellowing fabric. The birds stared at me with black beady eyes through my own terrified reflection.
I tore through the house. I ripped back the curtains on every window. Same thing. No view of the street outside or the trees in the backyard, just flat lifeless birds trapped in a tangle of vines.
I have a vague memory of being a kid and watching a movie where a house had to be fumigated for pests. The house had been draped in striped fabric like a circus tent. I had never seen that happen in real life and would occasionally wonder if it was a real thing. Anyway, I figured that was what my house must look like from the outside.
I was freaking out at this point. I checked all the windows and doors several more times and left all the curtains open so that I could prove to myself that this was really happening. That somehow the quilt that had strangled Sarah when we were kids had spread out like a giant amoeba and enveloped the shitty house with me inside.
The quilt’s edge had to be somewhere. The house had a large front yard but beyond it was a road.
I grabbed a bread knife from the kitchen and headed back out the front door. Leaving the porch light on I tucked the knife into my belt and started out again, walking my hands along the wet fabric as I went. I passed the tree root I had tripped over on my first excursion. I could only faintly see it as the porch light was growing farther away behind me. Soon it was swallowed up by quilt as I got closer to where I knew the road would be.
The quilt got heavier as I walked. It was soaked and I wondered if maybe it had been snowing. Where was the road? I really felt like I should’ve reached the curb by now.
I dug into my pocket for my phone. Still no messages from either my parents or the other residents of the house. I turned on the phone’s flashlight and then tucked it under my chin so that I could at least see where I was going. The quilt’s vines crisscrossed above me like a net.
The quilt soon got so heavy that I had to crawl on my hands and knees. I decided that I would go just a bit farther before I decided to say “fuck it” and just cut myself out. I held the phone with my left hand and inched myself along the ground with my right as the wet fabric slid across my back.
And then I felt it. Something was tugging at the quilt from all sides. It felt like the quilt was a fitted sheet that someone was trying to stretch over a mattress and I was trapped underneath. It was pressing me into the icy ground. Somehow I managed to flip myself over. I fumbled at my belt for the knife.
When I was a kid, before Sarah died, a commercial for Space Bags would play in between the cartoons we would watch on Saturday mornings. After we lost Sarah I became terrified of that commercial. My imagination turned against me and I would wonder what it would happen if you put a human in one before sucking out the air. The idea would sometimes strike me unexpectedly, and I would see visions of skin and muscle collapsing as quickly and effortlessly as a stack of soft bath towels. My dad would come into my room and comfort me, thinking I had a nightmare. I could never find the words to tell him that I hadn’t been asleep, just lying awake. Thinking.
Those visions snapped back into my mind as I felt the quilt begin to press me into the icy ground. I wrenched the knife free from my belt and flipped over onto my back.
I stabbed wildly above my face. It wasn’t easy. The quilt was so much thicker than I remembered and was rapidly closing in, but by stabbing and slashing downward I finally felt the knife break through to the other side and quickly shoved my head through the small opening.
I took a few huge gasps of fresh air before setting to work freeing the rest of my body. I stuck the blade toward the sky and sawed downward toward my feet until I had made a hole big enough that I could just squirm out of.
I sat panting with my knees to my chest. When I finally stood up I was shaky and tripped over something big and bulky. My hands flew out in front of me and found a smooth hard surface.
It felt like I had stumbled into a wall. Feeling around further, I found a light switch and turned it on.
I was back in the house. Back in the living room. In the middle of the room, in front of the couch was a huge gash in the carpet.
I had come up through the floor.
And I did so again. And again. Violent gashes in the floor now snake across the living room carpet. A few run across the ugly linoleum of the kitchen. A few even run up the walls. It’s getting so hard to breathe, and I don’t remember what air tastes like without the spice of mold and rot. The house lost power a few hours ago, and I can’t stop thinking about Sarah, and nets and trapped birds and Space Bags and how this knife is getting so dull and how I’m getting so cold.
So Reddit, I need your help.
AITA?
submitted by Bakery-Casino-3079 to nosleep [link] [comments]
I honestly don’t know if I’m the asshole here.
So to start, when I was ten years old I was babysitting my little sister, we’ll call her Sarah, while my mom was out running errands. I was an idiot kid and got distracted by cartoons on the downstairs TV, leaving Sarah upstairs. I still feel so bad about it even though I know I was only ten at the time.
I’ll spare you the details, but Sarah ended up getting herself tangled up in a quilt and couldn’t free herself. She suffocated and her death has been on my mind every day since. My parents and I have both gone through a ton of therapy since it happened. They say they don’t blame me, and my therapist says I shouldn’t still be blaming myself, but I still think I do. I don’t know, in a way being hard on myself makes me feel better about it.
We still have the quilt. I didn’t know it at the time but it’s apparently been in our family for generations. My mom said she remembers her mother tucking her in at night with it. Both my parents couldn’t bear to bury my sister with it and I’m glad they didn’t. I hate the thought of Sarah being buried with the thing that smothered her.
Actually, the quilt is technically mine. I was the first kid my parents had so I guess I was the one to inherit it. It’s got a unique pattern of vines and pheasants sewn into it that used to make me really nostalgic, but I can’t bring myself to look at it anymore. It sits folded away in the hall closet of my parents house and I only ever glance at it from the corner of my eye if I ever have to grab a towel or a coat or something.
So here’s where I might be the asshole: for my 21st birthday I decided I was going to burn the quilt. My parents strongly objected but not only is the quilt technically mine, I feel it will give me a lot of closure. I thought that maybe if it were gone I could live my life without having to be so hard on myself all the time. It would be this little symbolic ritual just for me to sort of start my life over from the guilt that’s been weighing on me for over a decade.
A few days ago I paid my parents a visit and snuck the quilt out of the house while they were on the back porch. It felt so weird to actually touch it. I had forgotten how it smelled. I was instantly transported back to the bedroom Sarah and I used to share. I remember her crib disassembled and the pieces propped up against the wall by the door. I realized Mom might’ve been out shopping for a big girl bed for her the night she died.
The thought made me tear up, but luckily my parents weren’t around to see. I quickly stuffed the quilt into my backpack and left for my place.
I’m in college right now and share a house with three other guys. Two of them were visiting their families for Christmas but one, we’ll call him “Ben” stayed in town for the holidays since his family lives fairly close by like mine does. One thing you need to know about Ben is that he’s a prankster. All of us sort of are, but Ben is particularly good at it.
Anyway, that night I left my backpack on the floor by the door. I planned to burn the quilt in the early morning and set my alarm for 4am. I figured there was a lesser chance of anyone complaining about the smoke that way. Plus, I wanted to be alone when it went up in flames.
My alarm went off at 4am the next morning. I fumbled around my room a bit for my lighter that’s usually reserved for the house bong. Once I found it on the floor under my desk I swung open my bedroom door and nearly shat myself.
Ben was sitting on the couch facing me with the quilt draped over himself like a cartoon ghost. His lanky form wrapped in musty vines and birds. He nearly gave me a heart attack.
I was surprised that he didn’t start laughing when I yelled “FUCK” and jumped back, but if he wasn’t laughing yet that probably meant that there was more to the prank and we hadn’t reached the final punchline yet.
I was done, though. I wasn’t in the mood for pranks. I called him a piece of shit for going through my backpack. Maybe I’m an asshole for that too.
But Ben didn’t respond. He sat still for a few seconds while I glared at him. I thought maybe I had really hurt his feeling and started to apologize when he slowly lifted himself from the couch and starting walking toward the front door.
I turned the corner to follow him and saw that he had walked out the door and was moving swiftly over the front lawn toward the street. I sprinted out after him and yelled at him to give the quilt back.
Ben started gaining speed so that I could barely keep up. We looked like idiots playing an angry game of tag in the dark street at four in the morning but that was probably all part of Ben’s plan. He probably had someone close by filming the whole thing for TikTok.
I had no idea how he was outrunning me. He was wearing the oldest looking pair of leather shoes I’d ever seen, and I had no idea how he could even see where he was going.
Maybe I’m just monstrously out of shape. In any case, he was absolutely booking it down the dark freezing street, popping in and out of the beams of the street lamps.
I couldn’t keep running after him. The cold night air was tearing my lungs to shreds. I yelled one last “Fuck OFF, dude!” into the night before doubling over to catch my breath. After a minute or two I turned around and pathetically started walking back to the house. I could hear the wet slaps of those gross looking shoes on the pavement getting farther away.
I assumed Ben would turn up at the house shortly after I got back but he didn’t. I waited around for a few hours, checking social media periodically, but he hadn’t messaged me or posted any videos of me flailing after him in the dark.
Just then, I noticed that it was STILL dark. We always kept the curtains drawn but usually you could tell when the sun was up. I got up from the couch and pulled the curtains aside and saw nothing but black. I couldn’t even see the light from the street lamps. I closed the curtains again and flicked the light switch on to make sure the power hadn’t gone out. The harsh light from the one ceiling light that we never used flooded the room. For some reason it was only the street lamps that weren’t getting power.
Curious, I opened the front door and stepped into the freezing night air and immediately walked right into something soft.
I hastily turned on the porch light. I had walked right into the quilt. It had been draped over the low covering of the porch for me to stumble into. I gave it a tug to try and pul it down. I figured Ben had nailed it to the roof and it would probably tear, but that didn’t matter since it was going to burn anyway. After dealing with Ben’s dumb pranks all night I would enjoy seeing it go up in flames just a bit more.
It wouldn’t budge. I pulled as hard as I could and put all my weight into trying to tear it down but whatever was holding it to the roof wasn’t giving way. As I was clinging to it I realized that it seemed a lot bigger than I’d remembered. It actually draped around the whole front porch.
I was going to have to go under it. I lifted the heavy fabric above my head and walked carefully down the front steps.
And, I don’t understand this part at all, but there was just more quilt. I kept walking and the quilt kept going. I made it to the middle of our lawn, almost tripping over a tree root as I got farther away from the light of the front porch, still holding my hands above me supporting the wet musty fabric. It was as if someone had made a thousand ancient family quilts and sewed them all together, only to then drape the across the entire front yard of the house.
I turned back to the house. I could see the porch light still on but it was a faint glow bouncing off a sea of concave fabric. It was getting hard to breathe, probably because I was breathing a lot faster now. I made my way back to the porch light, walking my hands along the fabric above me as I went and trying not to break into a run. Running felt like the first step to panicking.
I got to the house and slammed the front door shut behind me. I drew back the curtains again, this time flicking on the living room light before I did. Pressed against the window was a maze of ruddy vines and ornate birds stitched into a sea of musty yellowing fabric. The birds stared at me with black beady eyes through my own terrified reflection.
I tore through the house. I ripped back the curtains on every window. Same thing. No view of the street outside or the trees in the backyard, just flat lifeless birds trapped in a tangle of vines.
I have a vague memory of being a kid and watching a movie where a house had to be fumigated for pests. The house had been draped in striped fabric like a circus tent. I had never seen that happen in real life and would occasionally wonder if it was a real thing. Anyway, I figured that was what my house must look like from the outside.
I was freaking out at this point. I checked all the windows and doors several more times and left all the curtains open so that I could prove to myself that this was really happening. That somehow the quilt that had strangled Sarah when we were kids had spread out like a giant amoeba and enveloped the shitty house with me inside.
The quilt’s edge had to be somewhere. The house had a large front yard but beyond it was a road.
I grabbed a bread knife from the kitchen and headed back out the front door. Leaving the porch light on I tucked the knife into my belt and started out again, walking my hands along the wet fabric as I went. I passed the tree root I had tripped over on my first excursion. I could only faintly see it as the porch light was growing farther away behind me. Soon it was swallowed up by quilt as I got closer to where I knew the road would be.
The quilt got heavier as I walked. It was soaked and I wondered if maybe it had been snowing. Where was the road? I really felt like I should’ve reached the curb by now.
I dug into my pocket for my phone. Still no messages from either my parents or the other residents of the house. I turned on the phone’s flashlight and then tucked it under my chin so that I could at least see where I was going. The quilt’s vines crisscrossed above me like a net.
The quilt soon got so heavy that I had to crawl on my hands and knees. I decided that I would go just a bit farther before I decided to say “fuck it” and just cut myself out. I held the phone with my left hand and inched myself along the ground with my right as the wet fabric slid across my back.
And then I felt it. Something was tugging at the quilt from all sides. It felt like the quilt was a fitted sheet that someone was trying to stretch over a mattress and I was trapped underneath. It was pressing me into the icy ground. Somehow I managed to flip myself over. I fumbled at my belt for the knife.
When I was a kid, before Sarah died, a commercial for Space Bags would play in between the cartoons we would watch on Saturday mornings. After we lost Sarah I became terrified of that commercial. My imagination turned against me and I would wonder what it would happen if you put a human in one before sucking out the air. The idea would sometimes strike me unexpectedly, and I would see visions of skin and muscle collapsing as quickly and effortlessly as a stack of soft bath towels. My dad would come into my room and comfort me, thinking I had a nightmare. I could never find the words to tell him that I hadn’t been asleep, just lying awake. Thinking.
Those visions snapped back into my mind as I felt the quilt begin to press me into the icy ground. I wrenched the knife free from my belt and flipped over onto my back.
I stabbed wildly above my face. It wasn’t easy. The quilt was so much thicker than I remembered and was rapidly closing in, but by stabbing and slashing downward I finally felt the knife break through to the other side and quickly shoved my head through the small opening.
I took a few huge gasps of fresh air before setting to work freeing the rest of my body. I stuck the blade toward the sky and sawed downward toward my feet until I had made a hole big enough that I could just squirm out of.
I sat panting with my knees to my chest. When I finally stood up I was shaky and tripped over something big and bulky. My hands flew out in front of me and found a smooth hard surface.
It felt like I had stumbled into a wall. Feeling around further, I found a light switch and turned it on.
I was back in the house. Back in the living room. In the middle of the room, in front of the couch was a huge gash in the carpet.
I had come up through the floor.
And I did so again. And again. Violent gashes in the floor now snake across the living room carpet. A few run across the ugly linoleum of the kitchen. A few even run up the walls. It’s getting so hard to breathe, and I don’t remember what air tastes like without the spice of mold and rot. The house lost power a few hours ago, and I can’t stop thinking about Sarah, and nets and trapped birds and Space Bags and how this knife is getting so dull and how I’m getting so cold.
So Reddit, I need your help.
AITA?