I recently took in my younger autistic brother. I am struggling as it is. If I didn't take him he would have gone to foster care. The home I am currently staying in doesn't have working water due to the pipes freezing and I don't currently have the funds to fix them. A family friend bought a house unseen in auction to help me out because I've been struggling with housing insecurity. He would rent it to me extremely cheap with the expectation I will buy it eventually but because it was site unseen he doesn't know what problems it would have so that was up to me other than the roof. I have cleaned it because it was basically a hoarder house and filled with mice. I filled all mouse holes, painted, fixed a hole in the ceiling, fixed the yard (the city had showed up and I begged them for a few more days), and the mouse poop was hazardous I probably shampooed the carpet 20x. What I still need are more hot water pipes, a grounding wire, a stove, a lawnmower, a hot water heater, a new toilet, more paint, etc. I had been here about three weeks when I got the call from my mom. My brother has autism, adhd, and oppositional defiance disorder. My mom called said he wasn't welcome there my step dad was on his way to the hospital because my brother had hit him. My brother is 6'5 350 lbs. Last time my step dad had to have eye surgery luckily this time it was just a concussion but he's over 55. I told my mom I didn't have water she said I don't care if you don't come get him I'm giving him to cps. I have somewhere we have been going to shower, go to the bathroom and can haul water from but it's just not sustainable.
https://gofund.me/06ab253f

So for context I got gas like 10 minutes ago and had some stuff on the passenger seat then I went home and I used my blinker and it’s not doing the clicking sound and I swear it always had and then it kept beeping I have no seat belt on and I thought it was the other seat so I buckled it and threw the stuff onto the carpet rebuckled myself but still it still was beeping I had no seatbelt on and it doesn’t click on signals anyone know what it could be? A wire or something??

Hello, I'm looking to buy a house and I got the below from the inspection company that my realtor is reocmmending. This is the second home I've bought and the first home it was much more straight forward as it was a slightly newer build and was a townhouse. Which of the below options make sense given the house details below:
Home Details:
Located in Albany, OR

Type & style

• Home type: Single Family
• Property subType: Single Family Residence

Bedrooms & bathrooms

• Bedrooms: 3
• Bathrooms: 2
• Full bathrooms: 2
• Main level bathrooms: 2

Material information

• Construction materials: Composite, Lap Siding
• Foundation: Continuous
• Roof: Composition

Condition

• New construction: No
• Year built: 1979

Flooring

• Flooring: Carpet

Heating

• Heating features: Natural Gas, Forced Air

Cooling

• Cooling features: Central Air

Other construction

• Warranty included: Yes

"Well-maintained with new roof & triple-paned windows. Tastefully updated with LVP flooring in kitchen, dining, hall and bath, new carpets in bedrooms, new kitchen lighting, new appliances, dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave and water heater."
\***Seller did disclose owner prior to them had electrical fire damage**\**
The house is very well maintained and looks like whoever has been living there the last 10 years has taken a lot of effort to ensure the place is practically spotless for a house built in 1979
BELOW ARE THE OPTIONS FROM THE INSPECTION COMPANY
The Premium Package
The Premium Package is our most popular choice, the most thorough inspection, and the best value for your dollar. This inspection includes a checklist that will encompass the entire home inspection process (i.e. structure and foundation; a representative sample of windows, doors, lights, and receptacles; moisture detection; attic and crawlspace areas; roof, gutters, and drainage; walls, floors, and ceilings; porches and decks; plumbing systems and fixtures in kitchens, baths, and laundries; electrical sytems and breaker panels; HVAC; built-in appliances; and a general check for wood destroying organisms*). Everything is compiled for you on-site so that when we are done, you have all the information provided in a printed report which is computer-generated with color photos and presented to you in a professional binder. Inside the binder, you will find a seasonal maintenance checklist, a cost guide for remodeling and repairs, and a filing system to keep track of receipts. Since Pillar To Post is the largest home inspection company in North America, we have alliances with many vendors on services you may need as a homeowner. In addition, we use infrared technology that allows us to check the electrical system to detect overheating circuit wires and breakers and for any hidden water leaks that would not normally be seen by the naked eye. Also included is a Rodent Inspection, Visual Summary with Measured Floor Plans, and a Centriq Report.
Infrared Scan - Using the most technologically advanced tools available allows us to detect moisture in wet areas of the home (i.e. kitchens and bathrooms and around windows and doors) that is invisible to the human eye. The use of these tools also enables us to locate areas throughout the home or structure that have overheating or malfunctioning electrical components (i.e. breakers and electrical panels). This work can make a critical difference during the home inspection process.
Centriq Report - During your inspection, we will capture the information of up to five major home appliances and provide you with a computerized report on any safety recalls for those appliances using the Centriq app. Centriq is a home inventory and maintenance platform designed to monitor for appliance recalls and track user manuals, parts, and support videos for your home. During the inspection, the inspector will add appliances and systems from the home into the Centriq app, and you will receive a Centriq recall report via e-mail within 48 hours. You will also have the option of adding items to the app in the future.
Rodent Inspection - In addition to our high quality, comprehensive home inspection which will highlight past or present infestation, we will also investigate and report on conditions in the home that are conducive to rodent activity so that you may be pre-emptive in the containment and control of these potential issues before a problem occurs. This includes checking for points of entry and signs of nesting, especially in the crawlspace of the home.
PTP360 - During our inspection, we will construct an interactive virtual tour that will provide you with 360° visuals of your future home. It will include thumbnails with comments and photos from your inspection report in relation to their location within the home. This feature also includes measured floor plans to aid you in any future projects or home planning.
Lifetime Maintenance Advisory Service - Following our inspection, and your purchase of the home, we will provide advice and answer your questions on home maintenance, the inspection report, and other home-related topics for as long as you own the home. Feel free to give us a call anytime! We are happy to continue our service to you.
Enhanced Customer Service Commitment - Our aim is to provide you with quality reporting and excellent customer care. Our office staff are available to direct your questions and concerns should the occasion arise, and our inspectors have a wealth of knowledge and expertise to assist you with all of your inspection needs. If you are not satisfied with our service, we will pay another inspection company of your choice to inspect your home again up to the value of your investment with our company.
*During each of our inspections, we do a general check for Wood Destroying Organisms (i.e. carpenter ants, termites, and wood-boring beetles) as well as evidence of dry rot. We do not, however, list the specific insects observed without the purchase of a WDO report. This is due to Oregon's home inspection laws regarding the reporting of Pest & Dry Rot information, sometimes required by lenders. If you do not need your report to specifically state which insects are or are not observed at the time of inspection, you may not need to add the WDO report to your inspection package. Please check with your loan officer before considering this add-on option and let us know if we can provide you with any further clarification.
The cost of this package is $ 742.35 You will also receive a 15% discount on any Added Service options.

The Prestige Package
This package provides you with additional peace of mind. It includes everything that comes with the Premium Package, as well as an air-mold anaylsis and a screen of the home for common allergens (i.e. cat, dog, cockroach, and dust mites), benefiting those who suffer from allergies, asthma, or immune deficiencies. It uses the most up-to-date technology to determine potential health risks in those areas and recommendations for further action.
Healthy Home Package - Houses safeguard the lives of the people who live in them. Increasingly so, it is known that poor air quality, including allergens, can pose potential health risks if not detected and addressed. Indeed, if someone in your home suffers from allergies, asthma, chronic sinus issues, or other breathing disorders, poor air quality becomes critical to their love and enjoyment of the home. In addition, mold can eventually cause structural damage to your home.
The Pillar To Post Healthy Home Package provides: -An air quality sampling to test for molds and allergens that may be present in the home, identified and verified through a certified third-party laboratory analysis. -An easy-to-read report that helps you understand what was found and a recommended course of action to follow. -The knowledge of what you need to do to protect your investment and, at the same time, make your home a healthier place for you and your family to live.
Please keep in mind that the results of the mold and allergen tests take 5-7 business days to get back to us. We will provide you with those reports as soon as they are available.
The cost of the healthy home package is $ 1388.75 You would also get a 30% discount of any Added Service options.

The Plus Package
This package is our third offering and the most basic whole house inspection we provide. It is just like the Premium inspection but without the extras(Infrared Technology, Rodent Inspection, Visual Summary with Measured Floor Plans, and Centriq Report).
Selecting this package does not provide any discounts on various Added Service options. The cost of this package is $ 505.00

Recommended Added Service options for your inspection:
Sewer Scoping : $195.00
Radon Testing : $195.00
Wood Destroying Organisms : $80.00

For example I see that my current home is valued at 122,151 by the assessor even though it's sale price 3 years ago was 425k. And the tax rate is at 7.740954%
Now let's say we are looking for a home that is at 500k price. This is a new construction and it has a slew of upgrades you can get inside like better flooring and carpets, nicer sinks, faucets, security set up, wiring for whatever you need. And it will inflate the price for example to 550k. I am also told that the taxes on that property will be 2.7% or 2.4% as primary homestead (which it will be). So I'm not sure where the 7.74 and 2.7% meet. But either way, any chance i can argue for example that the property tax should be based only on 500k and not the 550k price?
Thank you in advance.

This is the second half of my list for Oklahoma's execution roster. As mentioned in the first part, I broke it in half to comply with reddit's character limitations. For the link to part 1, please click here.
The currently executed 124 offenders, cases 63-124:
63. Robert Knighton (~1960s-2003, lethal injection): In 1973, after being released from a 1968 armed robbery conviction, Knighton went on his first major crime spree. He stabbed and strangled several men and women during many robberies and home invasions. The only victim that was killed, 32 year old Coffier Day, was shot dead while Knighton was arguing with him in his home. Coffier's father, 53 year old Claude, was also injured in the shooting. Knighton's first crime spree ended when he kidnapped a married couple and their 6 year old daughter. They escaped when the wife and mother of the family attacked Knighton with a knife to protect her husband and daughter. The family then notified the police of their abduction. Knighton managed to secure a 30 year manslaughter conviction and a 10 year armed robbery conviction with a plea deal, and was released to a halfway house in 1989. There, he began dating a female addict and befriended a teenage boy. The trio embarked on a nationwide robbery spree together. In Missouri, they shot and killed 59 year old Frank Merrifield and his 40 year old stepson Roy Donahue while robbing their home, and stole guns and money from them. In Oklahoma, the trio fatally shot a couple, 64 year old Virginia and 62 year old Richard Denney, while carjacking them. Their rampage ended when a woman in Texas grow suspicious of them circling a neighborhood. Knighton had a long history of theft convictions dating back to his childhood, and joined the Aryan Brotherhood in prison. Behind bars, he frequently attacked black and Native American inmates out of racial hatred for them.
64. Kenneth Charm (1993-2003, lethal injection): Charm and his teenage cousin lured a family friend, 14 year old Brandy Hill, into their car. They raped Hill and tried strangling her with a towel. When that failed, the cousins bludgeoned her to death with a sledgehammer.
65. Lewis Gilbert II (1994-2003, lethal injection): Gilbert and his teenage accomplice committed at least 4 robbery murders in Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma, but he was executed for the killing of 37 year old Roxanne Ruddell. They ambushed and kidnapped Ruddell while she was fishing alone. She was robbed of $3 and her truck, tied to a tree, and shot to death. The pair also fatally shot Ruth Loader, a 79 year old Ohioan woman, while abducting her from her residence, and gunned down a Missouri couple, 86 year old William and 76 year old Flossie Brewer, in their home. Gilbert was also sentenced to death for the Brewer murders by the state of Missouri, but was incarcerated in Oklahoma State Penitentiary’s death row.
66. Robert Duckett (~1980s-2003, lethal injection): After breaking out of prison, Duckett was picked up hitchhiking by John Howard, a 53 year old store owner. Howard agreed to let Duckett stay with him until he could find a job. The pair soon had a failing out, and Duckett was evicted by his host. He retaliated by tying Howard up with wire and then beating him to death with a fireplace poker. Duckett made off with his car after he switched the license plates, and took several bank bags from his store. He had a long violent criminal history, which included several incidents of assault and robbery. One of the incidents involved the beating of an 83 year old man. Allegedly, Duckett was previously gang-raped by other inmates, and suffered from PTSD from the incident. His attorneys claimed that Howard’s sexual advances trigged those memories, and he was killed as a result of Duckett lashing out at them. However, the prosecution shot the argument down, citing that the murder happened after Duckett was evicted from the apartment.
67. Bryan Toles (1993-2003, lethal injection): Toles and his two accomplices forced themselves into the home of the Franceschi family, and shot and killed the family patriarch, 39 year old Juan, in a struggle. Juan's son, 15 year old Lonnie, was also murdered "execution style" out of fear that he could identify Toles and his accomplices. The only survivor of the attack was Norma, Juan's wife and Lonnie's mother, who escaped by hiding in her older daughter's bedroom.
68. Jackie Willingham (1994-2003, lethal injection): Willingham was a door to door salesman selling perfume in an office building. One women, 62 year old Jayne Van Wey, he tried to solicit rejected him despite his repeated offers. Angered by her "rude behavior", Willingham attacked Van Wey when they had a chance encounter near the building's restroom. He dragged Van Wey out of a stall after following her inside, slammed her head against the bathroom wall several times, and kicked her head. Reportedly, Van Wey choked to death on her own blood.
69. Harold McElmurry III (1999-2003, lethal injection): While under the influence of meth, McElmurry and his wife Vicki broke into a home that a WW2 veteran, 80 year old Robert Pendley, shared with his wife, 75 year old Rosa. Robert and Rosa were both quickly subdued and physically restrained by the couple. McElmurry clubbed Robert to death with a pipe in front of Rosa, who was forced to watch by Vicki. Vicki then held Rosa down as McElmurry stabbed her several times with scissors. After killing the Pendleys, the McElmurrys fled with $70 in cash, a pair of guns, and the victims' car. A few days after the murders, they were captured by border agents while trying to cross into Mexico.
70. Tyrone Darks (~1990s-2004, lethal injection): Darks rammed his ex wife, 26 year old Sherry Goodlow, off the road as she was driving with their 2 year old son. After Goodlow crashed, Darks pulled their son out of the wreckage, shot her to death, and then drove away with him. Just before she succumbed to her injuries, Goodlow managed to call and notify the police about her son’s abduction. The police confronted and arrested Darks at his home, and they found the boy unharmed in their search. Darks and Goodlow’s former marriage was marred with violence, and he was arrested on numerous occasions for assaulting her. On death row, Darks was involved in a scheme to defraud a foundation for 9/11 survivors.
71. Norman Cleary (~1980s-2004, lethal injection): While burglarizing an upper class home with an accomplice, Cleary shot and killed a housekeeper, 44 year old Wanda Neafus, and took her purse and a cane that her employers purchased from the Smithsonian Institution. Cleary had a long criminal history and was previously convicted of beating an 87 year old woman in her home.
72. David Brown (~1983-2004, lethal injection): For several years, Brown violently harassed his ex wife and her family. In one incident, Brown abducted his ex wife and 11 of her customers from a beauty saloon she owned, and held them hostage until he surrendered to police. He was able to leave custody on bond and went into hiding. A few years after the hostage crisis incident, Brown broke into his ex wife's family home and gunned down her father, 47 year old Eldon McGuire.
73. Hung Thanh Le (1992-2004, lethal injection): Le crept into the apartment of another Vietnamese refugee, 34 year old Hai Nguyen, and found him watching TV on the couch. He struck Nguyen from behind with a weightlifting bar, and continued stabbing him with a meat cleaver when he screamed his wife for help. Nguyen's wife phoned the police, and Le fled with the couple's safety deposit box that contained $36,000 and their wedding ring.
74. Robert Bryan (1993-2004, lethal injection): Bryan shot and killed his estranged aunt, 69 year old Mildred, dumped her body on his parents' property, and forged a $1,800 check to himself under her name.
75. Windel Workman (~1980s(?)-2004, lethal injection): Workman beat his girlfriend's daughter, 2 year old Amanda Holman, to death while babysitting her in their home. His ex wives reported that he had a history of child abuse and often violently spanked their children during their marriages.
76. Jimmie Slaughter (1991-2005, lethal injection): Fearing that she was going to tell his wife of their affair, Slaughter stabbed and shot his ex girlfriend, 29 year old Melody Wuertz, and their daughter, 1 year old Jessica. According to court documents, Slaughter mutilated both of their bodies, and he carved an "R" on Melody's stomach. He tried pinning the murders on a black man, but the investigators and the courts dismissed his allegations.
77. George Miller Jr. (1994-2005, lethal injection): During the robbery of a hotel, Miller attacked the auditor, 25 year old Kent Dodd, with a hedge shear and paint cans, and took $122 from the register. Dodd was severely beaten, had muriatic acid shoved down his throat, and was left to die. Just before he died of his injuries, Dodd gave a description of his attacker to the police that matched Miller. A massive amount of circumstantial evidence, such as wearing shoes that resembled the bloodstained footprints next to Dodd's body, a microscopic drop of blood found on his shoes that was tentatively linked to Dodd, his wife's testimony of his unaccounted absence from their home during the murder, and what appeared to be Dodd writing Miller's alias that he knew him by in his own blood, convicted him. Miller’s friends also reported that he was broke and begging them for money a day before the murder, and his wife mentioned him giving her the same amount of money that was stolen from the robbery a day after it happened.
78. Michael Pennington (1991-2005, lethal injection): Pennington shot and killed a clerk, 20 year old Bradley Grooms, while trying to rob a 7-eleven grocery store. He left empty handed when the register failed to open.
79. Kenneth Turrentine (1994-2005, lethal injection): Under the belief that they were stealing money from him for drugs, Turrentine shot and killed his sister, 48 year old Avon Stevenson, and his girlfriend, 39 year old Anita Richardson, during confrontations in their homes. He also gunned down Anita's two children, 22 year old Tina Pennington and 13 year old Martise.
80. Richard Thornburg Jr. (1996-2006, lethal injection): A month after he was shot by an unknown assailant, Thornburg and his accomplices sought revenge by abducting 5 men that he thought was responsible from a trailer. Three of the hostages, 51 year old James Poteet, 39 year old Tery Sheppard, and 24 year old Kieth Smith, were gunned down on the spot, and Thornberg forced the fourth to shoot the fifth with the threat of killing him if he didn’t comply. They then burned down the trailer with the wounded fifth victim still trapped inside, but he managed to escape with his life. Despite being forced to put all the blame on himself in exchange for being spared, the fourth hostage still went forward to the police.
81. John Boltz (1984-2006, lethal injection): To spite his estranged wife following an argument, Boltz attacked her son, 23 year old Doug Kirby, with a knife. Kirby was stabbed a total of 11 times, and he received several fatal wounds to his chest, stomach, and neck.
82. Eric Patton (1994-2006, lethal injection): Patton forced his way into the home of 56 year old Charlene Kauer after she refused his pleading for money. After dragging her around the house as he searched for valuables, Patton stabbed Kauer several times with many different blades objects at hand such as scissors, barbecue forks, and kitchen knifes. Although he confessed to the murder, Patton blamed it on alleged demonic possession and his cocaine addiction.
83. James Malicoat (1997-2006, lethal injection): Malicoat slammed Tessa Leadford, his 13 month old daughter, against a dresser. After she died from the beating, he tucked her into bed, and waited until his daughter's mother returned from work to take her to the hospital. The doctors found that Leadford had been dead for several hours at the time of her arrival, and discovered several injuries such as broken ribs, bite marks, abdominal bleeding, and facial bruising on her body. By his own account, he had abused Leadford on a daily basis. For her role in enabling her boyfriend's treatment of their daughter, Leadford's mother was convicted of first degree murder and given a life sentence.
84. Corey Hamilton (1992-2007, lethal injection): During the robbery of a restaurant, Hamilton shot and killed 4 employees, 26 year old Sandy Lara, 24 year old Stephen Williams, 19 year old Ted Kindley, and 17 year old Joseph Gooch, and made off with $2,000.
85. Jimmy Bland (~1975-2007, lethal injection): Bland shot his boss, 62 year old Doyle Rains, in the head over an argument regarding a borrowed car and dumped the body in a creek. He was previously convicted of killing a soldier, Raymond Prentice (age unknown), and abducting the man's wife and son at the age of 19. Bland served a 20 out of 60 year sentence, and murdered Rains a year after he was released.
86. Frank Welch (~1987-2008, lethal injection): In 1987, Welch attacked 28 year old Jo Cooper, who was 4 months pregnant with her second child, in her home. She was tied up with leather straps, raped and violated with plastic toys, and strangled to death. Cooper’s body was found laying near her infant son by her husband. Another woman, 32 year old Debra Stevens, was also bound, raped, and strangled to death in her home in a near identical fashion a few months later. Although both murders went unsolved for several years, Welch abducted and raped a woman in 1994, and he received a 45 year sentence for it. His DNA samples was collected and filed after his abduction conviction, and linked to both Cooper and Stevens’ murders in a 1997 test.
87. Terry Short (1995-2008, lethal injection): In an attempt to kill his ex girlfriend, Short blew up her apartment complex with a firebomb. She and her family managed to escape, but the blast killed Ken Yamamoto, a 22 year old Japanese exchange student. Yamamoto had no connections to the targeted ex girlfriend's family beyond him having the misfortune of residing in the same apartment.
88. Jessie Cummings Jr. (1991-2009, lethal injection): Cummings was a polygamist that had married and lived with two wives. Under his orders, Cummings’ wives shot and killed his estranged half sister, 46 year old Judy Mayo, and kidnapped her daughter, 11 year old Melissa. He bound his niece to his bed with handcuffs to be raped, and stabbed her to death.
89. Darwin Brown (1995-2009, lethal injection): While robbing a grocery store with three accomplices (including Billy Alverson and Michael Wilson), Brown tied up the clerk, 30 year old Richard Yost, with handcuffs, and then bludgeoned him death with a metal baseball bat. The killing was caught by security cameras, and the footage was used by the prosecution to secure the convictions of Brown and his accomplices.
90. Donald Gilson (1995-2009, lethal injection): Gilson routinely physically abused his live in girlfriend's 5 children (who were all between the ages of 8 and 12 years old). The youngest, 8 year old Shane Coffman, was beaten to death with a board for defecating on the living room carpet. He and his girlfriend then hid the body by stuffing it in a freezer. The body was kept inside it for 6 months until it was discovered by a sheriff's deputy investigating the family's abuse allegations. Gilson's girlfriend was spared the death penalty with a plea deal, and given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for her part in her son's abuse and murder.
91. Michael DeLozier (1995-2009, lethal injection): While camping with his friends, DeLozier ambushed another pair of campers, 60 year old Orville Bullard and 54 year old Paul Morgan, and shot them to death. They stole Morgan and Bullard's generator, pick up truck, and other camping gear. To cover up their tracks, DeLozier and his friends set their victims' campsite on fire, and severely burned the bodies.
92. Julius Young (1993-2010, lethal injection): For breaking off their relationship, Young beat his ex girlfriend, 20 year old Joyland Morgan and her 6 year old son Kewan, to death with a baseball bat in their apartment.
93. Donald Wackerly II (1996-2010, lethal injection): Wackerly and his wife ambushed and gunned down Pan Sayakhoummane, a 51 year old Laotian immigrant, while he was fishing in the Arkansas River. After he placed Sayakhoummane's body in the man’s own truck, he pushed into a river, and stole his fishing gear. A few months after the murder, Wackerly’s wife turned him in to the police.
94. John Duty (~1970s-2010, lethal injection): Duty was given a life sentence for abducting, raping, and non fatally shooting a female store clerk during a robbery. While incarcerated, he tricked a fellow inmate, 22 year old Curtis Wise Jr. into allowing himself to be tied up as a part of a hostage ruse, and then strangled him to death with shoelaces. At the time of his murder, Wise was serving a conviction for burglary and contributing to the delinquency of minors. Duty's execution caused some controversy for the use of pentobarbital, a drug more commonly utilized by veterinarians to euthanize pets.
95. Billy Alverson (1995-2011, lethal injection): Alverson assisted the above mentioned Darwin Brown and Micheal Wilson in the beating death of Richard Yost while robbing a convenience store.
96. Jeffrey Matthews (1994-2011, lethal injection): Matthews and his accomplice shot and killed his great uncle, 77 year old Otis Short, while robbing the man's home. In the robbery, they stole Short's truck, his .32 calibre pistol, and $500. The pair also slit the throat of Short's wife, but she survived her injuries.
97. Gary Welch (~1993-2011, lethal injection): During a fight over a drug shipment, Welch and his partner stabbed another dealer, 32 year old Robert Hardcastle, to death with broken glass bottles. He was previously convicted of battery with a deadly weapon, and was off on probation at the time of Hardcastle's murder.
98. Timothy Stemple (1996-2012, lethal injection): Stemple conspired with his girlfriend to murder his wife, 30 year old Trisha, for her life insurance policy. With the help of his girlfriend's 16 year old nephew or cousin [sources vary], Stemple beat Trisha with a baseball bat, and rammed her to death with his truck.
99. Michael Selsor (~1975-2012, lethal injection): Selsor and his accomplice went on a crime spree and robbed several convenience stores. During their robberies, the pair shot and killed two clerks, 55 year old Clayton Chandler and 20 year old Ina Morris, and injured two others in shooting and stabbing attacks.
100. Michael Hooper (~1992-2012, lethal injection): Hooper kidnapped his ex girlfriend, 23 year old Cynthia Jarman, and her children, 5 year old Timothy and 3 year old Tonya, from her boyfriend's residence. He shot all three of them dead, and buried the bodies in a rancher's field. According to court documents, Hooper was hyper-violent towards Cynthia in their year long relationship.
101. Garry Allen (1986-2012, lethal injection): Allen shot and killed his fiancee, 24 year old Lawanna Titsworth, during an argument at a day care she worked at. He fought with the responding officers trying to arrest him in an attempt to provoke a "suicide by cop" outcome. Despite the officers' best efforts to avoid harming him, Allen lost his eye from an accidental discharge. Due to claims of him having schizophrenia, Allen's execution was a source of controversy.
102. George Ochoa (~1993-2012, lethal injection): A Southside Locos gang member, Ochoa and another hoodlum shot and killed a couple, 38 year old Francisco Morales and 35 year old Maria Yanez, while burglarizing their home. The murders were witnessed by the couple's 14 year old and 10 year old children and stepchildren, who then phoned the police after the shooters' departure.
103. Steven Thacker (~1980s-2012, lethal injection): Thacker kidnapped 25 year old Laci Hill during a botched robbery of her home, and took her to a remote cabin to be raped. She was then strangled and stabbed to death. He fled to Missouri, fatally stabbed 24 year old Forrest Boyd while carjacking him, and used his car to hide out in Tennessee. After the stolen car broke down, Thacker called a tow truck to pick him up. When the driver, 52 year old Ray Patterson, found that he was using a stolen credit card, Thacker stabbed him to death as well. As a teenager, Thacker committed several acts of auto thefts and burglaries. He also engaged in inappropriate relationships with underaged girls, and was released from a Florida prison after serving time for a bad check conviction months before his murders.
104. James DeRosa (2000-2013, lethal injection): DeRosa and his accomplice tricked a couple, 73 year old Curtis and 70 year old Gloria Plummer, that he worked for on their ranch, into letting them inside their house. After they stabbed the Plummers and slit their throats, DeRosa and his accomplice stole $73 and drove away with their truck.
105. Brian Davis (2001-2013, lethal injection): Davis went searching for his girlfriend and their daughter when he found them missing from their home, and called his girlfriend's mother, 56 year old Josephine Sanford, about their whereabouts. Sanford dropped by the couple's residence after failing to find her daughter and granddaughter. At her arrival, she was raped, beaten, and stabbed to death by Davis. He then left the body in the house, drove off with Sanford’s van, and injured himself in a car accident. As Davis was high while driving, he was arrested for being under the influence. The detaining officers weren’t aware of the murder until Davis’ girlfriend returned to the home later that night, and called 911 after finding her mother’s corpse.
106. Anthony Banks (~1978-2013, lethal injection): In 1978, while robbing a grocery store, Banks shot and killed a clerk, 22 year old David Fremin. A year later, he abducted Sun Travis, a 24 year old South Korean immigrant, from a parking lot. He then sexually assaulted Travis in his car and shot her in the head. Although he was captured and convicted for Fremin's murder, Travis' killing went unsolved until a 1997 DNA test. Banks was originally sentenced to death for Fremin's murder, but it was lifted in favor of a life sentence. He was condemned for a second time after his conviction for Travis' murder.
107. Ronald Lott (~1980s-2013, lethal injection): A sexual predator of elderly women, Lott broke into the homes of 93 year old Zelma Cutler and 83 year old Anna Fowler after cutting off their power. They were tied up with cloth, anally penetrated, beaten, and suffocated to death with pillowcases. The case attracted controversy when another man was erroneously condemned for the murders, and he spent 11 years on death row until a 1997 DNA test linked the murders to Lott. At the time of the discovery, Lott was serving time for two rape convictions.
108. Johnny Black (~1984-2013, lethal injection): Black, two of his brothers, and two other men went looking for a man they feuded with for a fight. While they were crusing on the road, the group encountered a rancher, 54 year old Bill Pogue, and mistook him for their target due to them driving similar vehicles. They forced Poque off the road, pulled him out of his car, and stabbed him a total of 10 times. Pogue's son in law was also dragged out and attacked, but he managed to escape with his life. Black was previously convicted of manslaughter for shooting 49 year old Cecil Martin dead in an argument.
109. Michael Wilson (1995-2014, lethal injection): Wilson was the third participant in the above mentioned beating death of Richard Yost to be executed.
110. Kenneth Hogan (1988-2014, lethal injection): Hogan stabbed 21 year old Lisa Stanley to death while she was babysitting his children. According to autopsy reports, she was stabbed at least 25 times. Stanley had previously accused him of sexual misconduct, and prosecutors believed that she was killed during an argument over the allegations.
111. Clayton Lockett (~1992-2014, lethal injection): Lockett, his cousin, and another accomplice kidnapped 23 year old Bobby Bornt, 18 year old Summer Hair, and Bornt's 9 month son after burglarizing a home. After tying them up with duct tape, they forced their captives to lure a friend, 19 year old Stephanie Neiman, with a phone call. Neiman was also bound and initially survived getting shot multiple times. Out of frustration, Lockett buried her alive, and she succumbed to a combination of suffocation and her injuries. Lockett and his accomplices also gang-raped Hair and beat Bornt, but spared them on the forced condition of their silence. His execution was controversial, as Lockett convulsed for 45 minutes after being injected, and then died from a heart attack. He also had a long criminal history, and was first arrested for burglary as a teenager.
112. Charles Warner (1997-2015, lethal injection): Warner raped his girlfriend's daughter, 11 month old Adriana Waller, and shook her to death. His execution sparked outcry, as the wrong fatal drug was administered by mistake, and Warner complained of "burning pain" as he was being injected. With the botched executions of Lockett and Warner back to back, the state of Oklahoma delayed further executions until 2021.
113. John Grant (~1970s-2021, lethal injection): While serving a 130 year sentence for armed robbery, Grant stabbed a prison cafeteria worker, 58 year old Gay Carter, to death. He had a long criminal history dating back to the ag e of 11, had several previous convictions of theft and armed robbery, and frequently fought with and assaulted other inmates behind bars. Due to reports of "adverse reactions" to the lethal drugs, Grant's execution was scrutinized by a number of national media outlets.
114. Bigler Stouffer II (1985-2021, lethal injection): Stouffer shot and killed his ex girlfriend, 35 year old Linda Reaves, in her boyfriend's home for breaking up with him. Reaves' boyfriend was also seriously injured in the shooting.
115. Donald Grant (2001-2022, lethal injection): During a robbery of a hotel, Grant fatally shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned two employees, 43 year old Felicia Smith and 29 year old Brenda McElyea, and ran off with $1,500. He spent $200 of the stolen on paying for his girlfriend's bail.
116. Gilbert Postelle (~1998-2022, lethal injection): Postelle’s father was badly injured in a motorcycle accident, and they suspected that 57 year old James Anderson, 56 year old Terry Smith, 49 year old Donnie Swindler, and 26 year old Amy Wright were deliberately involved. Out a desire for vengeance, he recruited Postelle, his other son, and another man to kill them. All four victims were fatally gunned down in what was described as a “blitz attack” on their trailer. He was an addict and had several arrests for drug possession and manufacturing dating back to the age of 12.
117. James Coddington (1997-2022, lethal injection): After robbing a grocery store, Coddington went to the home of a friend and co worker, 73 year old Albert Hale, to ask for money. When Hale turned him down, Coddington retaliated by beating him with a claw hammer. Coddington stole $525 and went on to rob 5 more grocery stores. Hale was left alone with his injures for nearly an entire day until he was discovered by his son, and died in the hospital a day later.
118. Benjamin Cole Sr. (2002-2022, lethal injection): Out of anger that her crying interrupted his Nintendo game, Cole beat his daughter from his second wife, 9 month old Brianna, to death. He was previously convicted of abusing his son from a different marriage in California.
119. Richard Fairchild (1996-2023, lethal injection): Fairchild got into a fight with his girlfriend’s 17 year old daughter after making drunken sexual passes at her, and was enraged that she left with a cab driver. He took his anger out on the girl’s younger brother, 3 year old Adam Broomhall, and scalded him with a wall heater. He then repeatedly hit the boy, threw him against a table, and fatally hemorrhaged his head. Bromhall received over 26 blows during the beating.
120. Scott Eizember (2003-2023, lethal injection): Eizember snuck into his ex girlfriend's house to lie in wait for her. However, her roommates, 76 year old A.J. Cantrell and his 70 year old wife Patsy, arrived home earlier then she did. He shot and beat them both to death and then fled the scene.
121. Jemaine Cannon (1995-2023, lethal injection): Cannon was put in prison for assaulting an unidentified woman. He managed to escape and stabbed his girlfriend, 20 year old Sharonda Clark, to death in her apartment.
122. Anthony Sanchez (1996-2023, lethal injection): Sanchez kidnapped 21 year old Jewell Busken from her apartment complex, and then raped and shot her to death. He amassed a following from the anti death penalty movement for claiming that his father was responsible, but such notions were debunked following a 2023 DNA test that concluded Sanchez’s guilt.
123. Phillip Hancock (~1982-2023, lethal injection): In 1982, Hancock shot a drug dealer, 27 year old Charles Warren, dead in a dispute over stolen jewelry and was given a manslaughter conviction for it. He was released after serving a 2 year term. About 17 years later, he shot and killed 58 year old James Lynch III and 37 year old Robert Jett Jr. in a drug house. Despite an eyewitness account describing Lynch and Jett begging for their lives, the case attracted scrutiny when Hancock's attorneys claimed that the shootings were done in self defense.
124. Michael Smith (~2002-2024, lethal injection): A member of the Oak Grove Posse gang, Smith was responsible for two separate fatal shootings on the same day. In one of his murders, he killed Sharath Pulluru, a 24 year old Indian immigrant that worked as a clerk, while robbing a gas station. The other murder occurred when he tried to confront a gang member that he thought was a police informant in his apartment, and gunned down the target’s mother, 40 year old Janet Miller-Moore, when she refused to give away her son’s location. Smith was also given a life sentence for delivering a gun to a shooter that carried out another gang killing.

I use to live in Riverside, CA. My mom, grandma, and myself lived in a blue house that was located in a fairly low income neighborhood that was surrounded by dirt roads, ranches, and tightly condensed homes (just to try and paint a picture). In my room upon entering from my door, to your immediate left would be my bed against the wall vertically touching that corner of the room. My room had all carpet flooring and every other night around 11pm-2am, I would hear someone begin to walk from my door, along side my bed, and end to where my head was. They would never pick up their feet so it would sound as if someone was dragging their feet across the carpet the entire way through where every time I would move, the dragging would immediately stop and begin back from my door and make its way towards me in the same path/manner.
Some nights, the air from my setted stationary fan (one of those normal, circular ones that did have the capability to rotate) would abruptly stop as if someone was standing in front blocking it. I would never be able to rationally come to the conclusion as to how that would even be possible considering the fan was stationary and the air had been hitting me just fine prior to it being blocked for approx. 8 seconds at a time. I finally told my grandmother and mom what I had been experiencing a few years after the fact and they confessed to me that one night when I had been sleeping over my uncle's and it was just the two of them, they had been eating dinner in the kitchen when they both heard someone opening and shutting my drawers from top to bottom. They both thought someone had broken in through my window and was one by one going through my drawers trying to gather as much as they could.
When they finally had the courage to get up and check, they opened my door and found everything in tact. No intruder, no mess, no drawers left open, nothing. They admitted they didn't want to tell me out of fear of scaring me which at that point, they didn't know I had been woken up by hearing someone drag their feet across my carpet every other night at 1 in the morning. My grandmother also came forward and told me that while my mother was at work and I was at school, one day she had gone to the kitchen to get some fruit when she looked down the hallway and saw a tall, solid, black figure walk right into my mom's room. She said this was the darkest black she had ever seen and that figure was so tall that it had to duck its head under the door frame to comfortably walk in. She said she immediately rushed to her room, locked the door behind her, and waited anxiously for us to get home. She even waited to use the restroom she was so terrified of walking out of her room.
The last thing we all experienced different times throughout our time staying there was the door bell randomly going off every few months. The problem was that the door bell did not work as the button was non existent with the wiring coming out from the hole where the button should be which is a cliche out of a horror movie. This is the only one where I can possibly think a more rational explanation can be thought of but given the context of what went on in this house, it's difficult to chalk up possible faulty wiring.
I understand there are skeptics and people reading this may not believe me which is understandable. I am someone who has always thought things through rationally i.e. a footstep on the hardwood floor can be the wood expanding through the varying temperature, etc... But there are genuinely somethings that I can not explain nor can I be able to sit there and think of a reasonable explanation as to why this or that happened and that small, blue house in Riverside is a testament to this. I haven't thought about this in years and the only reason why it came back flooding my memories was because my 2 year old son had began screaming bloody murder as I held him while brushing his teeth. He had been staring at something in the corner of the ceiling of my bathroom that wasn't there but I can tell something was there staring back at him just by the way he was frozen looking up at that corner.

Having seen more than a few DCM-caused, engine-off battery drain issues on Reddit, I wanted to make a step-by-step guide with photos to rerouting the DCM (data control module) through an accessory-switched fuse in Gen 5 Outbacks.
The short backstory to this problem is that the DCM is essentially always looking for a now-defunct cell service, even when the car is off. As a result, the battery gets drawn down until the car can’t start, sometimes as fast as overnight. You could just permanently pull the fuse, but unfortunately it is on the same circuit as the microphone for phone calls, and the front speakers.
This modification allows power to flow to the DCM only when the car is switched on in any capacity.
If you’re newer to this sort of thing it might take 2 hours, but in my opinion it isn’t outside the realm of most people willing to give it a try. You can do it! But read through the instructions fully first.
Disclaimer: This was done on a 2018 3.6r. I believe all Gen 5 models are the same in the relevant aspects, but double check!
Tools:

• Wire strippers capable of stripping 14 gauge stranded wire
  
• Wire crimper (if your stripper doesn’t have one), or a good heavy pair of pliers (for example linesman pliers)
  
• Flathead screwdriver, the thicker & wider the better
  

Materials:

• 14 gauge primary wire
  
  • If you're obsessive, the recommended color would be brown to match Subaru’s wiring coloring for the DCM, but it doesn’t matter. I used white.
  • 17 feet and up should be more than enough slack to work with (it’s cheap).
• 2x fuse taps, mini/low-profile style
  
  • Take note that there are different fuse types! Outback uses low profile mini fuses.
  • If you’re totally new to this you can get a multi-pack and practice crimping one. Here’s a great short video showing that in action (not me)
• Technically optional but highly suggested: zip ties, preferably UL Listed/intended for electrical wire.
  

Instructions:

1. Turn the car off, open the hood, remove the engine fuse box lid (just a couple tabs on the side)
2. The engine fuse box comes with fuse pliers. Use them to remove the #9 fuse (7.5 amp, brown). Set this fuse aside for later in your pocket or inside the cabin.
3. Install a 10 amp (or higher) fuse in the “tap-off” port of one fuse tap. Leave the other (lower) port empty.
4. Install the tap with the 10+ amp fuse as shown previously, with the tapped wire coming off toward the REAR of the vehicle. The fuse’s electrical contact toward the front of the vehicle is the one connected to the DCM, so we need to electrically connect to that one.
5. Open the fuse box door in the cabin and remove fuse #17 (7.5 amp). This fuse goes to the power side mirrors which only work when the power is switched on.
6. Install the 7.5 amp fuse you just removed into one slot of the fuse tap, and the 7.5 amp fuse you set aside earlier into the other slot. They’re both the same value so it doesn’t matter which goes where, and orientation also doesn’t matter.
7. Install the fuse tap into the port with the wire coming off to the LEFT. It will still work if the wire comes off to the right, but the electricity will be flowing through the “bottom” fuse before flowing through the “tap-off” fuse. But that means if for some reason the mirror’s fuse blows, you’ll also lose the front speakers and microphone along with the DCM.
8. Now “simply” route the wire between the fuse taps. You can technically do this a few ways, but I used the pass-through for the rear windshield washer fluid in the passenger footwell. You could theoretically pass it through with the main wiring harness on the driver’s side but it’s rather inaccessible on the engine side of the firewall. (Pro-tip: use the floor mats to kneel on!)
   1. Unclip the driver footwell panel. It won’t come fully off because of the OBD II plug (you can detatch this if you want, I did when I did this)
   2. Unclip the passenger footwell panel and set it aside.
   3. Feed your wire up and over the steering column and through the space behind/under the head unit. You have to fish a little but you can get it through.
   4. Unscrew the plastic screw(s) holding down the passenger carpet. They turn for a long time but they do eventually come fully out! You only have to remove the one shown, but there’s a second on the other side of the footwell to get some more access.
   5. Pull the carpet back just enough to expose the washer fluid tube passing through the firewall. Push wire between the plastic grommet and the tube (push through a few feet of wire).
   6. In the engine bay, locate where the wire’s coming out (closer view) and feed it up and around similar to mine to keep it out of the way of any moving parts. (I suggest loosely zip-tying as you go, to keep it in place. My zip tie tails are already cut so they’re a little hard to see)
   7. Route all the way to the engine bay fuse tap, trim and strip the wire and crimp it into the tap. Do the same on the other side in the cabin. Give it a little tug to make sure it's good.
   8. Tighten down your zip ties and trim off the tails.

And finally here are the relevant schematic bits you’re working with: cabin fuses and engine bay fuses.
Make sure to turn the car on and test you can still make a phone call, hear the front speakers, and move the mirrors around.

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Memory transcription subject: Jakiv, arxur scientist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
I woke up on the couch swaddled in a soft blanket. The light filtering through the windows illuminated and highlighted the red in Nuri’s fur. She was sleeping soundly on a pillow on the carpet. We were up late last night watching more movies and just talking about anything and everything.
For once I wasn’t feeling held down by sleep as I stood up from the couch. The yotul barely stirred. I went to the kitchen to make some coffee and eat breakfast. She’d ordered some food last night that I finished quickly because the time was 10 am and I was late for work.
I hastily swept up the folder with my report in it and headed for the door, my claws loudly clicking on the floor.
As I gripped the door handle, I heard Nuri call out, “Jaki?”
I turned around to see the yotul, draped in her blanket and smiling warmly. She approached and hugged me, “Have a good day at work,” she patted my back.
“Thank you, Nuri. I’ll see you later, okay?”
She nodded and waved as I stepped out into the warm sunlight. Today was going to be a good day.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Daniel Stat, human virologist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
Jakiv should’ve been in by now. I figured it didn’t matter too much, today we were going to be testing the vaccine and seeing how it interacted with the venlil body. He’d have loved to take notes, but a man like him would have a reason to call out of work, so I didn’t bother dwelling on it.
I stayed by Silvon’s side as we worked. I knew she still wasn’t feeling great after the email, and I was pretty on edge at the thought of Humanity First tracking us down. I promised her nonstop last night that I’d keep her safe.
“Danny?” she spoke softly.
“What’s up?”
“Can you pass me that sample there?” I handed her a vial of spliced cells and watched her drip them onto a slide with a myriad of other venlil cells. Various tissue cells, brain cells, and a couple of miscellaneous things like bone marrow and a tuft of fur. “Thanks, hon,” she smiled.
I felt giddy watching the cells harmlessly coexist. Then, she dripped a sample of the rhinovirus. Immediately the spliced cells got to work destroying the virus and protecting the other samples in the dish. “That’s looking really promising,” I observed.
She nodded, “I think it’s ready for the real test.”
“Got it. I’ll run these to the infirmary then. Be back in a sec, hon,” I promised, blowing a kiss since I was still suited in PPE.
I went through the decontamination cycle feeling like I was on cloud nine. Today was going to be a good day! As I started for the infirmary, sounds right out of my worst nightmares echoed down the corridor. Gunshots and screaming.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Aaron Clemont, Humanity First rallier
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
Today was going to be a good day. Jatsen Labs was almost completely unguarded. The UN only sent two armed guards to stand outside the door, which were dispatched so easily, that they might as well have sent nobody at all.
While the peacekeepers were staining the sidewalk outside, I entered the building flanked by Landen and Vernon. We were immediately met with a pencil pushing yotul manning the front desk. Before she could even look up, a bullet blasted through her skull from my rifle. Landen and Vernon only had handguns, unfortunately. The local HF branch was rather poor. But they made do by squeezing off rounds into the panicked scientists who desperately ran down the halls to escape us.
Sprays of green soaked the walls and floors. I reloaded my rifle after eviscerating a Xeno and motioned forward. There was a map of the building on the wall that I scanned. We were pretty close to the virus lab, just a few short turns and Stat was at our mercy.
As I finished registering the info, the lights overhead dimmed and flashed red. “Good mood lighting,” I mused. As a trio we moved down the hall, leaving no survivors in our wake. We got to the door labeled ‘virus lab’ and used a keycard ripped from a corpse to unlock it.
“Let’s fucking do this,” I growled.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Daniel Stat, human virologist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
The gunshots were growing louder outside as the decontamination cycle came to an end. I threw myself inside the lab. Silvon looked panicked and was pressed against the far wall. Those plexiglass windows wouldn’t survive a bullet, and my love wasn’t making herself less of a target.
“Silvvy,” I spat hastily, “C’mere!” she hustled toward me as I threw open a cabinet beneath the lab and moved aside enough equipment for her to squeeze inside. “Get in here. Don’t even think of coming out. Whatever you hear, whatever you see, keep quiet,” I breathed.
“Danny-?”
“Now!” I roared.
“I love you,” she said. I could see her goggles fogging.
“I love you too,” I said, closing the cabinet door. I ducked beneath the wall under the plexiglass. The other yotul seemed to have run out. I was thankful Tinasi wasn’t at work today. I heard the sound of the decontamination cycle going on and steeled myself for the worst.
The door swished open slowly. The barrel of a rifle extended through the doorway first, followed by 3 humans. The one with the rifle scanned the room, finding me immediately. “Dr. Stat,” he smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person.” I stood, ready to fight for me and Silvon’s life. Then, for whatever reason, the man set down his rifle. “Where’s your Xeno, Danny?” he growled.
“Her name is Silvon,” I spat, “And she’s far, far away from her.”
I cracked my knuckles. “Y’know Doc, you’re pretty infamous among Humanity First. Killing one of our own, undermining all our efforts at every turn, fucking the locals, it’s awful,” his voice was suave and matter-of-fact, but filled with the kind of vitriol only a terrorist could muster.
“Is that so?” He asked, then chuckled. “Guess she won’t know she’s a widow for a while.”
I raised my fists, and one of the other humans chimed in, “Aaron, what are you doing?”
“Quiet!” he barked, reaching into his pocket and procuring a switchblade. “I’m doing good on Stephan’s name.”
He clicked the blade and lunged toward me. I quickly grabbed his wrist and tried to wrestle the blade from his hand. He slammed his fist into my face and I lost my grip on him. He fell to his knees on my chest, putting his full weight on my ribcage, and tried to slam the knife down on me. I took both his wrists in my hands, desperately pushing him back as the blade got nearer and nearer to my throat.
I simultaneously released on hand and moved my head aside, the knife clattered next to my ear as I punched him in the stomach and pushed him off of me.
“Do you need help?” The other human called.
“No!” He barked as I crushed his nose with my fist. “Watch the fuckin’ doors!”
He grabbed the knife and slammed it into my arm. I howled in pain as blood spurted from the wound. He laughed maniacally, his crushed nose seeping crimson. He ripped the knife from my arm and swung again, cutting me up further. I got a grasp on his wrist again, continuing to pummel him. We rolled over, he was once again on top, each punch made me see stars.
“It’s the end of the fucking line, Stat,” he coughed. Aaron punched full force into my throat, and I struggled to breathe. He got up, towering over me with a sadistic grin.
“DANNY!” a shrill voice screeched. There was a flash of auburn fur and a scream as Silvon jammed a partially shattered test tube deep into Aaron’s back. He whipped around, catching the venlil across the snout. Under the PPE I could see blood.
“Silvon,” I gasped, “What- are… you- doing?”
Aaron stamped down on my hand as I reached for her, the bones snapped beneath his heavy footfall and I cried out.
“I knew she wouldn’t be far,” the human growled.
“No-” I wheezed as he ripped the mask off Silvon’s face. We locked eyes. “I’m sorry, Danny,” she whispered.
“Boys,” Aaron chuckled heartily. “Grab me one of the samples.”
One of the humans by the door reached into a handheld cooler, withdrawing a small orange vial I knew all too well. “NO!” I screamed as Aaron knelt by Silvon. I tried to stand. One of the humans by the door swiftly raised his handgun and fired into my leg. The hot lead seared my flesh and my pantleg grew warm and wet.
“Sweet dreams, Xeno,” he laughed, forcing open her mouth and forcing the sample’s contents down her throat. He threw her aside while she tried fruitlessly to cough out the blood, then returned to me.
“There’s no way out for any of us now, Stat,” the knife gleamed, covered in my blood. He held it to my throat, I could feel the blade cutting in, then-
“HOLY SHIT!” The other Humanity First members screamed in unison. The plexiglass shattered, there was a blurry gray mass that landed with a heavy thud. The human who shot me turned his gun on the imposing figure of the arxur and popped off several shots.
Jakiv staggered, clutching his chest, but no blood pooled around the holes in his hoodie. “Stupid human,” he growled, slashing his throat in one smooth motion. He turned to the other terrorist, shakily holding his handgun out. He fired, striking Jakiv on the arm, but the arxur literally shrugged it off, clawing the human’s face.
Aaron was pale and stood, knife in hand, to face the arxur. “B-back off, gray!” he spat. He dove for his rifle, but Jakiv was faster, grabbing the gun and chucking it through the broken window. He stomped Aaron’s hand, his claws impaling the appendage. The terrorist groaned in pain as the arxur slowly bent over and slammed his jaws shut around Aaron’s windpipe. The human’s movements halted with the sickening crunch of bone.
I caught my breath, and leaned against the wall, pain shooting through every limb. “Silvon,” I reached my non-broken hand toward the venlil, who ran over to me.
“Danny, oh stars,” she examined the wounds on my leg and arm.
“Are you two okay?” Jakiv asked, catching his breath and wiping the blood from his lips. He approached slowly, I could tell he was worried about scaring Silvon, but she ran to him and threw her arms around him.
“Thank you,” she sobbed, “Thank you, Jakiv.”
He awkwardly patted her back, “You’re welcome?”
She broke away, getting back to me, “Help me lift him, we need to get out of here.”
“On the count of 3,” the arxur said. “1, 2, 3!”
“Aaaugh! God!” I cried out as they helped me up.
“We’re getting you out of here, Danny. You’re gonna be just fine,” the venlil said half pleading. The edges of my vision began to blur and distort as my legs threatened to give out. Jakiv steadied me with his tail as we began walking toward the decontamination hall.
“Silvon,” I groaned, suddenly remembering the sample. “Silvon,” I tugged her arm.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“You’re sick,” I wheezed, stumbling slightly. “You need the- the-” I pointed frantically toward the container full of the vaccine I was supposed to run to the infirmary.
Silvon left my side only long enough to secure the case. “We need to leave now, Danny,” she told me.
I pressed myself against the wall as the decontamination cycle completed, then Jakiv helped me down the main hall. My legs were getting weaker with each step, and I could no longer feel my injuries. I felt lightheaded, and put more and more of my weight on the arxur, who eventually just threw me over his shoulders.
I heard voices up ahead, but the world around faded to black before I could see their sources. My last conscious thoughts were Silvon.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Jakiv, arxur scientist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
Dr. Silvon was great at keeping pace as we raced down the bloody corridors. At the entrance, there were several yotul police officers and zurulian doctors filing in.
“HELP!” I screamed at them, rushing toward one of the stretchers.
“Stand down, gray!” An officer barked, pointing his gun at me.
“Help me, please, get these two to safety. The venlil is infected with the flu, the human is critically injured. Please,” I urged.
The yotul eyed me suspiciously, I figured it was 50/50 whether or not he’d pull the trigger. “Listen to him officer,” Silvon begged, “He saved our lives.”
Two zurulians rushed over, I carefully lowered Dr. Stat into a stretcher. My claws and hoodie were soaked in blood, hardly any of it mine. “Please help him,” I begged. The zurulians exchanged nervous glances before hurriedly hauling the human off.
“You say you were… saved by this arxur?” The officer asked Silvon as another pair of medics rushed to her aid.
She coughed a bit, “Yes sir. He’s a hero…” she trailed off, noticeably growing weaker. “Where’s… my husband?” she groaned, falling into the stretcher and knocking out cold. Poor venlil overexerted herself running. Before they could wheel her off, I stopped one of the zurulians.
“Please, take this,” I said, handing the doctor the case we recovered. “It’s for the flu,” I explained as the zurulian took the vaccines and escorted Stat and Silvon through the lab doors. I registered my burning lungs at last, and leaned up against a wall for support, suddenly feeling weak in the legs.
I sighed heavily and let myself slip down to the floor where I could more easily catch my breath. The six shots to my chest stung badly, but a quick glance over told me they didn’t break the skin. Suddenly, the door swung open, and someone far off shouted “You can’t be here!”
In a flash of red fur, Nuri was at my side. “Jaki?!” she cried, her voice wrought with concern.
“Hey, Nuri,” I waved a claw, “What’re you doing-?” She wordlessly began running her paws along my chest, unzipping my hoodie and feeling the dents in my scales. “Nuri?” she looked up at me, there was fear in her eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked frantically.
“Yeah, I’m just fine,” I answered. She threw her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug that almost hurt. I didn’t know how to react besides returning the gesture, leaning into the marsupial.
“I thought-” Nuri’s voice broke, “I thought I-”
“Hey, hey,” I cooed, “Everything’s fine, I’m okay, Nuri,” I reassured the yotul. She sniffled, but said nothing, just pulled me tighter. We stayed like that for a while before she finally broke away. She sat down next to me and leaned her head against my arm.
“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you,” she confessed.
“Oh please, have some faith,” I smiled. “I’m a big strong arxur, I can handle a little tussle.”
The marsupial perked up slightly at my words. “You know you’re a hero now, right?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I dismissed.
“You saved a bunch of people today,” Nuri said. “What about that isn’t heroic?”
“I guess that’s true. Fuck,” I chuckled, “I need a drink.”
Nuri stood and extended a paw to help me up. “Let’s get outta here, Jaki,” she smiled.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Daniel Stat, human virologist
Date [Standardized human time]: September 1st, 2148
[Day 25]
My head spun as I came to. I was in a hospital bed, hooked up to all those wires, with a cast on my shattered hand and nose. Directly across from me was Silvon, typing away on her holopad. The second she saw I was awake, a smile crossed her features.
“Good morning, Danny,” she greeted.
“Hey,” I groaned. Speaking hurt. I rubbed my eyes, and yawned, then instantly snapped up, “Holy shit, Silvon,” I cried, “Aaron he- you’re sick!”
Silvon seemed unbothered, I couldn’t keep the confusion off my face. “I was,” she smiled.
“What?”
“I was sick, Danny. But they administered the vaccine, and it worked,” she explained.
“It did?!” I laughed in disbelief, clutching my sides as the pain hit, but smiled regardless. “Oh thank god,” I cried. “I was so scared,” I breathed.
“You’re not losing me that easily,” Silvon giggled.
“Good,” I sighed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. “Good,” I muttered. A tear rolled down my cheek that I hastily wiped away.
“Danny?” My breathing hastened, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. “Danny, are you okay?”
Silvon’s words echoed, drowned out by the beeping heart monitor. I failed to hide the torrent of sobs that escaped me as I buried my face in my hands. “I thought it was over for us-” I choked out, “I don’t want to lose you.”
A paw found its way around my neck. I ran my fingers through Silvon’s soft fur. “You won’t,” she promised.
“I’ve been having so many nightmares,” I sobbed, “I’m so afraid,” I confessed. She sat on the edge of the bed next to me and wiped the tears from my eyes.
“Nothing can tear us apart,” she said, “Nothing.”
“I-” I gesticulated, every emotion possible swirled in my chest.
“Shhh,” she cooed, “You don’t have to speak.” Silvon hugged me, and planted a kiss on my cheek.

It's been hard to find time to write this past week, but I'm chugging along, however sluggish. I also want to give a huge thanks to u/icallshogun for telling me how to use new-old reddit, because it's already saved me a bunch of time posting this single chapter.
I have a bad habit of last minute editing before I post chapters. I'll usually go over once or twice and switch up a few things. I didn't this time. Why am I telling you this? No idea. Enjoy.
A little PSA: if the next chapter button is missing, it's most likely in the comments (either that, or the next chapter isn't out yet), because sometimes reddit likes to say posts are more than 40k even when they aren't, making them impossible to edit. I just had this problem adding the link to chapter 12.
Many thanks to u/SpacePaladin for making NoP!
Prev -First- Next
------------------------------
Chapter 13: A million miles away
- Memory Transcription Subject: Arlene Brandy, Human Refugee
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 20th, 2136
The refugee center crested the horizon, with UN banners draped from the second story, and signs marking some of the nearby buildings as temporary housing. I wondered how exactly they convinced people to hand over entire buildings for use. One of them wasn’t even an apartment building, it was offices.
There were more humans around, of course, with the venlil population extremely sparse, only a few brave enough to be anywhere near the ‘den’. I grabbed the door, and opened it, revealing the main lobby, which to my utter surprise, had a venlil at the desk along with a human.
It feels so weird to point out when people are human or not, but that’s just how it is now. I ambled towards the pair, keeping my movements slow and calculated, not to scare the guy. He noticed, and let out a chuckle.
“No need to worry about me ma’am. I’m quite used to humans by now.”
I relaxed, blushing a little. “That makes sense.”
“What do you need?” The venlil asked.
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to get one of those datapads. I have family at home I need to get in touch with.”
“And you are?”
“Arlene Brandy.”
“Uh huh.” He clicked at the computer for a moment. “Well, you’re a little late to the party. We just got five hundred or so new residents, so we’re out of new pads, but I’m sure you can find someone willing to let you borrow theirs.”
“Shit.”
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience. You’re staying at Golden Ridge apartment 113, correct?”
“Yes, why?”
“I’ll have one sent to your door when we get a new shipment.”
“Thank you.” I turned to leave.
“Wait, we wont get more for a few paws yet. Why don’t you try asking to use someone else’s?”
I turned back around to the desk. “Can I use yours?”
"Sorry, mine doesn’t connect to the Earth networks.”
“Shit.”
“Please try not to swear so much, there are children around.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
The guy at the desk was so comfortable around me that it started making me uncomfortable. While the human at the desk didn’t even register me. I bet he was playing solitaire.
I entered the common room. People ambled, walked, teetered, and even ran around, from door to door and table to table. Seating was plentiful, but there weren’t any free spots, because the place was so packed. There really were a lot of them. Refugees, I mean. This was only a tiny fraction too.
How many more? Is there an end to it?
I searched for someone to approach, but found nothing. Everyone was grieving. I didn’t want to interrupt. I didn’t want to see it, I didn’t want to know it was there. My stomach turned in a horrible spiral, and I soon found myself bent over a toilet, ejecting breakfast. I was drooling over the bowl like a rabid dog, eyes watering and legs quaking. My diaphragm expelled one last gust of air, in a horrible coughing fit that lasted uncomfortably long.
I don’t know how I found the bathroom without help, it wasn’t marked very well. I’ve always been good at that sort of thing I guess, whatever ‘that sort of thing’ is.
On my way out, I washed my hands twice, not that it made a difference. The common room was still full of chatter and sobbing, quiet and boisterous both in their own right.
A man in a dress shirt sat alone at a table with his head in his hands. A mother cradled a baby in her arms, rocking him to sleep. In the corner of the room sat a group of people sitting on the ground playing monopoly. A boy ate a droopy sandwich next to a parent, munching listlessly. They all looked so tired. So tired that it could suck the breath right back out of you.
At one of the tables was a man with burns on his arms, and another bandaging him up. He winced when the bandages touched the splotches where blisters used to be, dry and scabbed. There was a good chance the burns were inflicted on purpose, by them. Monsters.
He locked eyes with me, his empty like all the rest. My head jerked away, embarrassment on my face like dye, the mask doing little to hide my frenzied posture. I power walked to another part of the room, behind a group of people conversing. I took off my coat so I wouldn’t overheat in the stuffy room… and also to blend into the crowd.
Staring at burn victims? What is wrong with you?
I looked down at myself. My boots were brown, my pants were black, and my shirt was as well, with a picture of an album cover on the front. My hands were twitchy, and my arm was still bandaged. I could’ve, should’ve lost the dressings by then, but I hadn’t got around to it. I put my coat back on
Since I wasn’t getting anywhere, I decided to take a trip down the hallways, into the dorms, where it was less crowded.
Down the halls, past a few turns, was an open door, with warm light spilling out, and cheerful discussion taking place inside. Taking a peek, I saw a group of 3 people, one of whom was a venlil, playing cards. The funny thing, is it was one of those grungy decks with pictures of naked ladies on them. Well, I don’t know if it was funny, but it stuck with me.
“Hello?” Spoke the venlil.
The other heads turned in my direction. I was discovered. A pang of cold crawled through my spine.
“O-oh, hi.” I tried and failed to act like I hadn’t been watching them for several seconds.
“Hey there, are you one of the new arrivals?” Asked the girl sitting next to the venlil.
“Uh, no, I’ve just been living in a different spot.”
“No wonder you look like shit.” Spoke a middle aged guy with scars. There was an ankle monitor on his leg, though I certainly wasn’t going to question him about it.
“Ben! Don’t be rude.” The girl replied.
“I’m not being rude. We all look like shit. Some of us are shit right now.” Ben mumbled.
“Well you don’t have to be so nihilistic about it.” She turned back to me. “Wanna join us? We could use a fourth.”
“No thanks. I’m trying to get in touch with my family.”
"Well if they’re here, I can find them. I know everyone here.” Said the girl, with a big grin.
"They’re on Earth. I just need to use someone’s datapad. The guy at the desk said we were out of new ones.”
“Did you break yours?”
A nervous laugh escaped me. It felt so weird to have a normal conversation. The last time I talked to a human was only a few days ago, but it felt much longer. Years maybe… or not. My shoulders felt tight, probably from the extra weight. I swallowed a lump that had been growing in my throat since leaving Earth, and my stomach got heavier as a result.
What did she lose?
I cleared my throat. “N-no, I never got one in the first place.”
“Well, no worries. You can use mine if you want. I’m Taylor by the way.” She smiled.
I didn’t smile back. The mask would’ve hidden it anyway. “Thanks. I’m Arlene.”
She handed me the weird alien phone, which I soon realized I didn’t know how to use.
The venlil piped up. “Want me to do it for you?” He stood up.
“Yes please.” I handed him the datapad.
He started tapping away at the device. “These things are super outdated. The interface is really clunky, especially the UN comms.”
I loomed over his shoulder, watching him type in a bunch of stuff into text boxes. “You have to login to make calls?”
“No, this is just the path the call will be taking. Where are you calling?”
“Wisconsin.”
“Where is that?”
“North America.”
*“*Okay, there we go.” He handed the datapad back to me. “Just type in the phone number and you’re good to go.”
“Thanks.” I started punching in the number.
“No problem. I’ve had to do it for Taylor a million times by now.” He chuckled.
“Hey, I know how to do it now!” She replied.
“Then why didn’t you show her how?”
Taylor snorted. “Because then you wouldn’t be useful anymore, and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“Whatever you say.” He flicked his tail.
“Hey, enough with the snarky tail language.” She crossed her arms.
“What did he say?” Ben asked.
“He said I was a goober.”
I looked up from the datapad. “You have a tail sign for ‘goober’?”
“Of course we do, why wouldn’t we?” He shrugged.
Ben raised his eyebrows, and Taylor laughed. I was still wearing the mask.
"Hey, do you mind if I uh… you know.” I pointed to my face.
“Oh please, you couldn’t possibly be uglier than Taylor.”
“You better be careful Talnek. You’d get a beating if you insulted a lady where I come from.” Ben stated.
Taylor punched Ben in the shoulder. “He’s just messing!”
I removed the mask, and set it down on a table. “Is it alright if I make the call outside?”
“Sure, as long as you don’t manage to brick the thing.” Talnek said, sitting back down at his cards with a snicker.
Taylor shot him a dirty look.
“Thanks again Taylor.”
She grinned like a little kid. “No prob bob!”
I stepped into the hallway, holding the datapad up to my face, and pressed the call button.
It rang.
And rang.
And rang…
Until the display lit up with the face of my dad. My lips curled up in a smile.
“Hey dad.”
“Ope!” He flinched, then grinned. “Hey there sweetie. Havin’ fun up in space?”
“Nevermind that! Are you guys okay? Did Luke make it back alright?”
“Oh we’re doing fine yet. Luke got discharged because of injuries. He got pretty banged up in a crash, but he’s alright.”
“Is mom around?”
"Sorry kiddo, she’s out of town getting gas for the generators.”
My eyes widened. “Generators? Is the power out? Have you been able to get dialysis?”
He rolled his eyes. “Oh don’t worry yourself. We’ve got diesel running the place.”
My hands left marks of sweat on the device. “You are getting your blood cleaned, right?”
“Yes, I am. Even if I wasn’t, your pa’s still got some fight left in ‘em.” He patted his bicep.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Jesus dad, you had me worried for a second there.”
He chuckled. “Don’t be. Try to have fun up there. No use worrying about somewhere you’re not.”
A sigh escaped me. “I’ll try.”
“That’s my girl! How are the aliens treating ya?”
I frowned. “Well, if I’m being honest, most of them are assholes.”
“That so?”
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve met a few that don’t mind me, but I can count them on one hand.”
“Well that’s better than nothing, ain’t it?” He raised an eyebrow in a joking manner.
I smiled a little. “I guess so.”
“So, tell me about these nice aliens then.”
“Sure- Hold on, is Luke there?”
“He’s sleeping right now. Doctor’s got him on the good stuff.”
“Is it that bad?”
He shouldn’t have enlisted. Asshole. He’s such an idiot. He could have died! “I wanna meet aliens” my ass.
*“*The doc says he’ll be up and at em in a few days, but the pain is still kicking him.”
*“*Is he alright? Like, is he shellshocked?”
Dad frowned. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.” He looked past the camera. “He’s pretty bitter about the whole thing.”
My blood ran cold. I knew what it sounded like when he was downplaying something. “Dad. Is he gonna be okay?”
His expression softened. “Luke’s a strong boy. He’ll be okay.”
“He better. I’ll kill him if he’s not. You be sure to tell him that.”
Dad laughed. “Sure, sure. Back to the aliens, if you will.”
“My bad.” Warmth filled my face. “So there’s this guy who lives in my apartment building, right? I come back home after a day of trying, and failing, to get my hands on any materials, craft materials are super expensive here for some reason, by the way, and he’s coming home at the same time, so I say hi to him, and he jumps me!”
Maybe things would get better.
“Their claws are sharp! He scratched me up pretty bad, look.” I raised my arm to the camera, and my dad gasped in response.
"Whoa, that’s a lot of bandages.”
“Yeah, right? I may have put too much actually. Anyway, he charges me, and so I put him in a headlock, and I yell at him to calm down. It might have been a misplay on my part, I have to admit. What, with the venlil thinking we want to eat them and all that jazz.”
Dad nodded, eyes full of stars. This was nice.
“Well, he starts crying, and now I felt like an ass, so I try to calm him down, but he’s not having any of it. So I hand him a doll I made, but that didn’t do much either, so I ended up just having to leave him there. Would you believe it if I told you he came knocking on my door the next day? He wanted to learn felting!”
He burst into laughter, having to wiping a tear from his eye. “I have to say, you have the strangest way of making friends.”
Maybe I was worrying over nothing.
“Oh, I forgot to mention, so, I was trying to get wool, right? But there’s obviously no sheep here on venlil prime.”
“Oh, don’t tell me.”
“So I went around offering free haircuts.”
Dad started wheezing like he had sand in his lungs. He struggled to point a finger at me. “S-so…” He burst into another fit of laughter. “You went around with shears, offering haircuts to the fluffy aliens who think you want to eat them?”
“Yes, that’s exactly right. I give damn good cuts too.” I grinned, face full of mischief.
“So this friend of yours took you up on the offer? What’s his name?”
“Meba. And yes, I sheared him.”
“Okay, Meeh Baah? Are you pulling my leg?”
“Nope, that’s his real name. It means ‘little person’ in venlil, apparently.”
“You’re kidding! That is priceless! What happened then?”
“I sheared him, and then we went inside, and I taught him how to felt, and he got all flabbergasted when he saw me eat vegetables. He did this,” I held up a pointer finger, closing my eyes. “and then he said ‘You can’t eat vegetables, you’re a predator.’”
“Uh huh.”
“So after that, to skip to the good part, he has me follow him to work to *‘*protect him from humans’, and on the way back, just as we’re getting back to the apartments, he collapses in the hallway, hyperventilating and shaking.”
Maybe I could finally calm down.
“Oh no, was he okay?”
“Yeah, I brought him inside and calmed him down, but then the exterminators barged in! He stuffed me into a closet to hide me.”
Dad’s face swelled with disgust. “Ah yes, I’ve heard of them.”
“Well, they mess up the whole apartment, and they only leave because Meba is friends with their boss.”
“He’s buddy buddy with those folks?”
“Well, I don’t really know, but he used his connections to protect me, so I don’t mind. I was scared shitless the whole time. I barely kept myself still.”
“But you’re okay, right? They didn’t hurt you?”
"No, I was fine. I kind of blew up at him though. We made up though, and now he’s even comfortable around me with the mask off!”
“Mask?”
“The UN makes everyone wear masks in public so we don’t scare people.”
“I didn’t know it was that bad.”
“Yeah… it’s kinda scary sometimes.”
Home was still there.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure the rest of em will fall for your charm soon enough.”
“Yeah. After all, who could hate such an enchanting young lady?” I made a not so dignified face.
Dad shot a silly look right back, making us both laugh at our shared stupidity.
“So, since everything’s intact, when should I come home? I should be able to pretty soon.”
He smiled. “Hey, don’t worry about that. You should stay up there until the power comes back in… oh I don’t know, it should be on in a week or two. No reason to come back when the town is still out of whack.”
“What? But I can help out. Isn’t there work to be done?”
His eyes were warm. “Arlene, just have fun. We’ll be fine. Come home when it’s more comfortable.”
What?
“But I miss you guys.”
“I know, I miss you too.” He glanced off to the side for a moment. “But just wait a little longer. I want to roll the red carpet out for you. We’re not going anywhere.”
“Fine, but I expect a royal welcome.”
“Of course.” He grinned. “I better let you go, I have to make dinner.”
“Oh.. okay. I was hoping you’d be able to tell me about what’s going on in town.”
“Nothing crazy, just the usual but with flashlights instead of street lamps. Say hi to Meba for me.”
“Okay. Bye dad.”
“Bye kiddo. Try not to worry yourself so much.”
“I’ll try. I love you,”
“I love you too.”
He hung up the call, and home was gone again.
I popped back into the room to give Taylor her datapad back.
“How’d it go?” She asked.
“Good. I think.” I grabbed my mask, and handed her the device.
She smiled. “I’m glad. Want to stay for a bit? Today is pizza day.”
“I’m good. I should probably head out. Thanks though.”
“Wait a second, here.” Taylor handed me a card.
I turned it over in my fingers. It was off white with gold lettering. A business card. Very… eccentric.
“What’s this?”
“My info, so you can get in touch with me when you get a datapad. I’m kinda the self appointed caretaker of this place. If you need anything, anything at all, I’m your gal.”
I took another look at the card. “Thanks. It means a lot.”
“You’re welcome! See you later.”
“See you.”
---
I sat on the bench by the office, legs crossed, working on a mini venlil, my third one actually. Yes, I was building an army. An army of little venlil that I would use for… something. Each one measured no more than four inches tall, with floppy yarn tails, and bits of blue yarn affixed for eyes.
They say the one who folds a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish. What do you get for one thousand woolen venlil?
“Arlene?” Meba was walking towards me. His eyes were unfocused, and his tail was motionless, like a doll’s. He dragged his feet on the ground, and his bag weighed on him like a heap of iron. To put it bluntly, he looked like shit.
“Oh hey there. Done with work?”
“Yeah. What are you making?” His voice was monotone.
“More mini venlil.”
He leaned over. “It looks like me.”
“It is made out of your wool. It would be worrying if it didn’t resemble you.”
“I guess. Does this one have a name too?”
“Not yet. Do you have any ideas?”
He thought for a moment, ears swiveling like satellite dishes. “Mulek.”
“Mulek it is. Is that a common name?”
“It was my father’s name.” He didn’t elaborate.
“Oh, speaking of which, my dad says ‘hi’.”
“He’s the… rancher, right?”
“Yeah.” I got up off the bench. “He’s not as scary as he sounds. If you met him, you’d realize his head is just full of muscles and fart jokes. Ready to go?”
He flicked an ear, and we started walking. The sheer complexity of venlil body language never failed to impress me. Not the ear flicks, those were easy, but the tail signals were insane.
“Hey, Meba?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s your job?”
“I’m a computer scientist. Why do you ask?”
“You look really tired. Six hours, sorry, I mean a claw and a half. It’s a long shift for venlil right?”
“Yes, but my job isn’t very physically demanding.”
“It isn’t taking a toll on you?”
“No.” He lied. I mean fuck, did he think I was stupid? I wasn’t, I think. If it wasn’t his job, it was something else.
“Really?”
“Yes, I just didn’t sleep well.” His eyes were drooping in real time.
Fine, be like that. If you won’t open up, I’ll just help another way.
“Do you want me to carry you?”
Meba stopped in his tracks. “C-carry me?”
“You aren’t very heavy. I could give you a piggyback ride the rest of the way.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“C’mon, I could use the exercise.” I crouched down, beckoning him over with my hands.
"Arlene, I can walk on my own.” He sounded offended.
"At least let me carry your bag.”
Meba sighed. “Fine.”
I stood up and grabbed his bag. “And away we go!”
We arrived at the station, just in time to catch the tube. Meba yanked his bag out of my arms to swipe his card through the terminal. This particular transport was packed to the brim with people, more than a few of them human. Meba visibly stiffened. He sat down, I remained standing.
“You okay?”
“Y-yeah. It’s just a-a lot.” He most definitely wasn’t, he was trembling like a leaf.
I stood between him and the crowd. “Better?”
“A l-little… thanks.”
“Hey, why don’t you work on the scarf, take your mind of things?”
“S-sure.” He grabbed the yarn ball from his bag, along with the crochet hook. Slowly, he removed the clip that was stopping it from unraveling, and stuck the hook through, starting right where he left off. He was definitely getting faster.
The tube rattled.
Outside, the city still breathed.
Kids coming home form school, people like us, coming home from work.
Same old same old.
In my mind, I pictured a fleet, swooping through star systems, making daring maneuvers, shooting down other vessels. So many lights. I imagined the metal stretching, and the hull creaking as it moved. I imagined the little people inside, scurrying around like ants, each wholly insignificant, but still, moving that massive shape.
I turned around to check on Meba.
He was still shaking, like a wet dog in the snow.
God, I miss Milo. Too bad they don’t let dogs on venlil prime.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you gonna be alright?”
He looked up at me, with his funny little eyes. They were full of anger.
“Yes. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He let out a breath, clenching his jaw. “It’s so s-stupid it makes me sick.”
“Sorry?”
“There’s no t-threat. I shouldn’t be scared.”
I gave him a gentle shake. “Hey, it’s no big deal. You’re doing well.”
“I’m doing h-horrible. I hate these stupid instincts.” He growled. “H-how is this supposed to be an evolutionary advantage? I can b-barely think straight.”
“Take a deep breath.”
“B-brahk this.” He muttered. “You k-know, we’re famous for being w-weak. The b-best in the whole brahking f-federation.”
I frowned. “Don’t say that.”
“We c-can’t run, and w-we can’t fight.”
“That’s not true and you know it.”
“I can’t even c-control myself. I h-hate it.” He let the scarf slide back into his bag.
“Meba, you’re the bravest venlil I’ve met.”
“What d-does that say about us? That I’m one of t-the ‘brave ones’? It’s brahking p-pathetic.”
“Don’t say that about yourself.”
“Brahk! What else am I supposed to say?” He hissed, head finding its way into his paws. “It’s horrible. Horrible, horrible, h-horrible.”
I sat down next to him, and put my arm around his shoulder.
“This is s-so stupid.” He muttered.
“Tell me what happened?”
“No.”
A sigh escaped me. This was exhausting. “Okay.” I pulled him close.
He removed his paws from his face to look at me. “How am I gonna t-talk to Gram’s friend like this? I can’t even h-handle being around a few random humans. How am I going to deal with him e-eating in front of me?”
“You saw me eating, didn’t you?”
“That’s… d-different.”
“We don’t have to go if it makes you uncomfortable. I’m sure they’ll understand.”
“N-no. I need to d-do this. I can’t keep b-being scared all the t-time.” He clutched at his fur.
I bent over to grab the work-in-progress scarf from his bag, and offered him the half finished garment.
Meba received the scarf, with eyes full of ash. “Thanks…” He continued weaving.
But before he could get into a groove, the brakes forced us to brace ourselves. We were home.
The ground still rumbled as we left the station, even with the rubbery pavement dampening the vibrations. The scent of rain was in the air, carrying with it a special tint from the alien soil. Wind was billowing now, whipping my hair and pushing against my thick greatcoat. Meba was somehow unbothered by this, thanks to his wool I assume. There weren’t clouds overhead, but that would change. My hands hid in their pockets.
‘Twas too cold madam!’ Said lefty.
‘Not for I! It’s simply more comfortable in here.’ Said righty.
We passed the yard, heading up to the second floor, and my apartment. I shivered.
*“*I think it’s gonna rain soon.”
*“*Huh? Why do you say that?”
*“*It smells like rain.”
He tilted his head, ears flopping along with it. “I thought human noses weren’t very strong?”
*“*Well, not for most things, but we can smell when it rains from quite a ways away.” I opened the door, and stepped inside, yanking my feet out of their shells. “Come on in.”
Meba followed with no hesitation, even when I deposited the mask on the coffee table. He plopped down on the couch, deflating for a few seconds before digging around in his bag for the scarf. I grabbed some snacks from the kitchen, and brought them to the couch. I plopped down beside him, and flipped the TV to a random channel. Hopefully lazing about would help both of us.
After a few minutes of zoning out to The Exterminators of all things, I managed to doze off somehow. Sights and sounds melded into goop, as my brain ceased exact function. Facts became obscured, no concrete understanding remaining. Static resonating with time stretching like putty, everything subjective, only in the moment.
A tower, in the desert, numbly stalking around crumbling balconies, arms like swarms, legs like chicken wire. No need to blink. Down below is something terrible, but it doesn’t matter. It is safe here. But snow falls, the sky tearing like an old t-shirt, is it? The weave becoming tighter, it stretches along the north, through to the south, a taut little line of cotton. Now I’m tearing too. The tower isn’t crumbling, but folding. ‘Here’s the sun’, I think, mind reeling back to wakefulness, a snout by my face. Milo?
“Who?”
“Huh?” I tried to sit up, bringing a hand to the kink in my neck. My mouth was dry with viscus saliva, the aftermath of a nap. When I made it about half way up, my skull collided with Meba’s freakishly solid face.
I fell back, gripping my forehead with a groan.
Meba jumped back, startled. “A-are you okay?”
"Ugh…” I curled up into a ball to further cradle the lump growing on my head. “Owwie…”
He started hyperventilating, almost jogging in place.
I grabbed him by the arm. “I’m fine. That just hurt like hell. What is it?”
The squirming stopped. “Sorry for waking you up. I just wanted to know if you think this is long enough.” He held up the scarf to my face, which was still partially covered by my other hand.
Jeez, more than enough. That thing must be at least 80 inches. How long have I been out?
“Yeah, need me to help you finish it off?”
“Yes please.”

This is the main laptop I use and I don't want to go through the hassle of transferring off all my files and wiping the drive before sending it in to tech support for weeks. I have Best Buy Total coverage. Will they just give me a replacement laptop or partial refund?
Here's a writeup I did on HP Spectre x360 sub:
Probably the worst laptop I've ever owned, especially for the price. Haven't even had it for 2 years.
First thing to go bad was the touchpad. Mouse would just randomly spaz out and scroll everywhere and randomly close windows and so on. Best I was told is "the battery was swelling", which seemed insane to me, and not like I used the touchpad much, so I just disabled it. Of course, it randomly turns itself back on all the time, but whatever, just keep disabling it.
Anyway, mainly use a wireless mouse that needs a USB. Only one USB port. And sometimes I use wired headset since less issues on calls and don't have to worry about charging, etc.
So what do I do? Buy a USB C multiport. Fine. But oh one time the laptop slides off a surface and, nice, the USB C port is broken now. Thank goodness it wasn't the charging port.
Alright, let's use the USB port with a multiport. Have to buy another one. Fine until yesterday when the laptop slid onto some carpet about a foot. Nice. Another broken multiport and oh, it was a lever to pop off some of the bottom of the laptop. USB A port is completely wrecked.
So now using charging port with multiport. Days are numbered until this one gets damaged. Never seen such a fragile device.
And my wife has the same laptop. No broken ports, but 2+ years old and absolutely horrible performance. No idea how. Doesn't do anything but internet tasks on it.
Laptop is under warranty with Best Buy, but that means sending it off and being without a laptop for days. Going to just get another workhorse Lenovo Yoga laptop like I had before and I guess send this one off.
Has anyone had issues like I have had with these HP laptops?

Honestly so glad this sub exists, the puppy blues admissions really helped to read. But, also the happy end of puppy blues posts with happy updates! Our pup was admittedly quite tricky, I haven't had a puppy for 18 years so it was unexpectedly rough. From the day we got her at 11 weeks she pulled like a steam train, was really nervous around other dogs and being a gsd x mal was bitey bitey bitey, both of us looked like we'd shoved our arms in a blender and I wasn't sure if we were good enough.
Crate training lasted 3 of her first days (2 days downstairs but someone to fall asleep next to, 1 day in the bedroom) but after having to clean poop off the wires 3 times we gave in. She's slept next to us on the floor without complaint every night since & stays in a puppy proofed room if we have to go out.
Her final canine came out the other day and the teething is approaching the end, but just having no puppy teeth left and a good bite inhibition from consistent yelping and disengaging, as well as redirection, has improved life massively. I won't lie that the 5am wake ups are still hard but we are able to sleep through from 9:30pm-5am now & the 2am alarm is gone! If we've had a big evening walk then she will even chill until lunch the next day and we can go for a second sleep.
The potty training has gotten so much better, still the occasional accident if she's excited or we have misread her but we are not cleaning up pee & poop every single day out the carpet anymore!!!
It gets soso much better, I knew it would from having an adult dog but it did feel endless & some days I wanted to chuck her in the back of the car and go back to the breeder.
Shes gone through 3 puppy classes & some group socials in that time. We are still working on dog friendliness as her "leave me alone" is not to walk away but is to repeatedly bark in the other dogs faces, so she's no angel but she only pulls on her lead if she can see another dog that she wants to meet now & the days of my arm feeling partially dislocated are starting to space apart.
If you have a shepherd of any sort, malinois, german shepherd like her... you can do it!! We have gone through the force free route, both work full time(with some wfh days every week) and she walks nicely on both a harness & collar and will listen if you have ham haha. I am training her up in obedience work & future agility so she does outlets but mostly she is mostly just a happy puppo thats loving life!
(Teenager vibes are coming out in her recall and a bit of mardiness but I will enjoy this little happy phase while it lasts!!)

I was the one that found Jake dead, Tucked in the dark corner of the parking garage in his idling pest control truck that vibrated minutely.
The parking garage always had a humming from stainless metal fans to circulate the humid and hot Virgina air. Walking closer to the truck I saw his chemical box in the bed of the truck was open with the top flap sticking straight up.I thought nothing weird about the open box because it's not just us in the pest control company that live there and from time to time we steal from other trucks. For the summer the company buys out dozens of rooms for the employees to stay. Most employees are door to door salesmen who make a living selling pest control as a same day service. Where Jake and I, with a few others, come into play is after the sale. The ones who actually spray your house, the ones who interact with the customers and bring them down to reality after the salesmen fluff our feathers, or are they fluffing their own? We are the ones who click the rap trap mouths in place, with black jagged teeth…waiting, with the delicious neon blue food for the rats to nibble on and share with their newborns. We had 7 other trucks in the parking garage and from time to time chem went missing. Sometimes us technicians didn't want to wake up early and drive 30 minutes to the office to pick up materials, truckers were closer, much closer. I'd be lying to you if I didn't steal a de-weber every now and then off a truck, but I always made no trace of the thievery. I can't speak for everyone though. So when that lid was pointing up to the rusty pipes and concrete ceiling above, I wasn't surprised, hell I might have had a smirk on my face.
With the swing of my arm I slapped the box closed, a whiff of chemicals spewed out and hit my nose which gave me a feeling of a stinging sneeze that never comes. I gave the window a knock to see if he would turn around.. Silence. I got closer to see if he was glued to his phone and didn't hear me or didn’t bother looking. I put my hands up on the window and smushed my eyebrows against my index fingers to get a better look. I saw the seat was fully reclined back, him laying there…still as a morning lake. I knocked on the smaller back half door. Tap tap TAP. No movement. It was too dark to see so I dug my hand in my pocket to get my phone light out and put it flush to the back oval airplane shaped window. That's when I saw this face—— god his face—— skin a purplish hue and pulled taught by swelling, eyes adrift and red which were bulging out like they wanted to leave, jaw open with dark fluid sitting in his mouth, escaping on the sides. The streaks of dark liquid rolled down his purple face, curving down the back of his neck, and dribbling down the strands of hair meeting the head rest. My eyelids opened so wide they touched my eyebrows. His fingers curled limply around a chemical bottle, cap off and the liquid color matching that of the pool in his mouth…
“Jake” I whispered, my voice feels like it was stolen from me, my skin is tingling like an unknown channel on tv as heat takes over… I begin to fall, the last thing I notice are my fingers streaking down the window. I passed out.
4 months pass
I'm moving out of the building where it happened. I’ve wanted to get out of this building since it happened, but didn’t have the financial backing. Now I plan to stay in Virginia for the winter and move in with roommates from the pest control company. The salesmen call this time their “off season” due to them all leaving and going back home, most to Vegas. My other two roommates run the regular technician routes which consist of stopping at 14-15 designated houses a day, spraying chemicals and setting traps to take care of the contracts those grimey salesmen sell.
I used to share a room with jake. All of his things were taken out either by investigators or the maid service. The other roommates in the building told me to combine the abandoned twin bed with mine but I never touched it, I couldn't.
I’m making this entry due to finding something. Something I believe was very close to Jake.The last day of moving I had everything packed but my mattress and box spring. While moving my mattress lazily with the sheet still on I lost grip and it hit his mattress sliding it off the box spring and hitting the wall. I let go of my mattress automatically and wanted to fix his bed…. Preserve it. I wrapped my hands around his mattress when a wave of dizziness veiled over me. My hands became clammy and I didn't want to touch his mattress anymore, like a kid that doesn't want to touch an old person. I had to put it back! If I didn't it would haunt me forever my mind yelled at me. Just as I forced myself to slide the mattress back, my middle knuckle dropped into a slight groove, and I stopped in place. I pushed the mattress to the right and traced where my knuckle had been and found a slit in the box spring.I hesitated, staring at the unnatural slash in the cloth, Thinking about when Jake and I would make fun of our manager who always had a bone to pick with jake ever since the first day they met, the new manager 2 years younger than us yelling at jake to tuck his shirt in while his own untucked, covered his belt and belly. A smile slowly disappeared from my face as I was brought back with my whole forearm now in the slit of the box spring. My fingers clutched an object that had to be a book. I pulled My arm out of the box spring like pulling a calf out of its mother, now half expecting to see red viscous liquid and tiny wet legs, my eyes shut slowly like elevator doors closing.
But My hand appeared dry and my fingers clenched around a book of sorts. The outside of the book was void of color, almost like it absorbed it instead. I sat down on my thrown mattress and the empty apartment surrounded me. I flipped to the first page as the spine creaked at me, I saw Jake's name and it clicked in me that this wasn't a book. It was Jake's notebook! I flipped page after page reading Jacob’s writings about days of killing bugs and missing home till I got to the page. Sometimes I wish I wasn't lazy, I could have taken the sheet off the bed, this would have never happened, I would have never found the notebook. The apartment seemed to be silently closing in on me now like I was in the digestive tract of some huge monster. God the page—— in big dark letters he had written “THE LADY IN THE BASEMENT IS THE REASON WHY I AM GONE.” I was stuck reading the words again and again thinking I was seeing things. My heart was pumping so vigorously I could hear it agitate the fabric of my shirt little by little each beat. There was a dark arrow so dark that seemed to suck in light and pointed toward the right of the page wanting someone to flip it or something to flip it, so I did. For the next pages he wrote why…. And I clinging to every word …began to read.
2 months pass
The warm thick air has passed now, leaving a cold grey in the air. Virginia feels less claustrophobic with the heat gone. Winter is stinging its way into the picture more and more, breath starting to become visible almost every day.
My new apartment looks over the town of Arlington which is a nice view from the 13th floor. Whenever people ask where I live I tell them, “it’s 5 minutes from the pentagon,” I’ve said it so much it numbs me.
There are 3 guys in total that live in this apartment so the decor is minimal at best. Our tv stand is an upside down plastic bin, with our coffee table another bin, at least its a set. The floor is thick and worn carpet, light tan in color. The walls have the same yellowish void look. My favorite part of the apartment is the balcony that spans the whole side of the living room to which I can see a sliver of the Potomac river, an icy cold thing this time of year.
I've marinated in Jake's notebook for a while, I think I’m ready to share some of what is inside. Jake goes into extreme detail about these situations so I’ll just copy them down for you all to read, I think that is what’s best. After reading this I wasn’t the same, you are warned.
Thursday July 18th 2020 (7 months ago)

 -Jake’s notebook- 

Today I am changed. It was right after lunch when my work phone notified me a house was booked. Usually I disliked the salesmen but the one that booked me was just alright, tolerable. I pulled into the neighborhood as the sun dimmed from clouds rolling in, storm maybe. Multiple groups of six townhomes were placed throughout the neighborhood with tall trees and bush linking them. The small homes shared walls only separated by a slight offset in depth, looking like crooked teeth. Porches stuck out a measly foot from the homes which were more for decoration than enjoyment. The porches all had different faded color variations that staggered from each house, blue, red, orange, green, and back to blue. The peeling wood porches had the style of a western movie set which I thought interesting, but I knew the webs were going to be a bitch to get out. I rolled up to the address the app told me as the salesmen popped out of some trees to greet me, probably pissing. Wind whipped his hair, yes a storm. I rolled down the window and stopped the truck, wheels stopping the popping of gravel underneath. He gave me the rundown of the house while leaning on the windowsill of my truck, where the smell of sweat leaked in from him. He mentioned the old woman that lived in the townhome and said she was an oddball but kind. I thought nothing of it, just another job before getting off. As I parked the car, I asked the salesmen, “interior?” He replied, “yes.”
My shoe covers zipped on the asphalt as I walked toward the door, pump tank in my hand. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. The old woman opened the splintered door as I introduced myself and got all the signatures I needed to apply the pesticides, legal reasons. The first thing I noticed about the woman was her eyes, they looked worn, tired as if she stayed up all night… or something was keeping her up. I smiled as I slipped the signed papers in the back pocket of my jeans, she reciprocated the smile and pushed the door open wide as creaks escaped the henges. Right before I stepped in I saw the salesmen grab a deweber from my truck, he is an alright one this salesmen. I looked back and the old woman kept her eyes on my face, I smiled again to break the slight awkwardness. The smell of wet concrete hit my nose when I stepped in the home, it started to sprinkle behind me, it cut off as she closed the door behind me.
The old woman’s home was tight like lungs that never sucked air back in. The layout was like a strip of gum, the start was the door I walked through and The end was the living room which had a step down. She offered me water which I politely declined, I could see the kindness the salesmen were talking about. The home was filled with random knick knacks but not messy, organized chaos. I asked her the routine questions about bugs like where she was seeing them to which she replied almost everywhere, thank god this was a small home. I started to spray in the kitchen which was directly left of the door I walked through. Spray shot Around the sides of the refrigerator and the baseboards and the woman followed me almost attached to the hip or like an obedient dog. I didn't think it weird, she kept conversation and genuinely looked fascinated about where I sprayed while listening to my little tips I replayed from the back of my mind on how to keep bugs away. We rounded the kitchen and stepped down into the living room where carpet met my boot covers with peppered static zaps. I sprayed the sliding back door focusing on the bottom track where bug highways usually gravitated. Then I traced the baseboards around the living room, avoiding wires powering lamps and televisions.
I heard quick stomps coming down the stairs to which I gave a glance of curiosity toward the bottom of the staircase and temporarily lifted my hand off the spray trigger. A child rounded the corner and ran to the old woman yelling, “grandma!” Must have woken up from a nap or something. The child then looked up at me and asked who I was and she explained in young terms, “he is here to make the bugs go away.” I smiled at that to reaffirm the old woman's version of me she gave, I was a version who told the bugs to go away, not kill them by the thousands. I liked that version of myself.
I had finished treating the main floor and now followed the old woman and child up the stairs, her veiny hands scratching her grandson's head. I went through every room, closet, bathroom, and windowsill spraying with the old woman still following me everywhere I went, pointing out the hotspots, her close presence becoming normal, almost warming as she reminded me of my grandmother. The child seemed just as interested as his grandmother about how I spray and I thought it wholesome.
After this point things took a dark sinister turn.
My job was now finished I thought. We were all on the main floor now and I began to reach for the front door and tell her we would finish the outside service now when she for the first time broke her distance from me. This made me feel, for lack of better words, alone. She steadily glided toward the living room not looking back and she stepped down the dip heading for the couch. Did she forget I was still in the house? Did she imagine opening the door and letting me out? The kid then followed her and jumped off the small dip in childlike fashion into the living room and landed on the carpet, gracing his tumble. The old woman never sat down, and her back was facing me as she stood there…. Her Body was still. Why didn't she sit down? She broke the silence right as my fingers touched the front door knob, her voice was colder now, “won't you come here for a second?” The knob rang numbly for a split second as my hands slid off. I then took a step toward the living room patiently, waiting for.. what? The rain now beat on the old woman's back windowed door, with the flash of illumination, lightning struck close, then thought of the salesmen with the metal deweber pole, that combination like brushing teeth and orange juice. The thought was erased as the tip of my boots hung off the step to the living room. I looked at the woman's face and dropped down in the living room, her wiry hair now covering some of her face with a blank stare. The kid now hugging her legs hiding his whole body except the right side of his face, the eyeball piercing me. Her hair was delayed as she snapped her head at me, then the hair caught up and fell. Her face then shook like when a student tries to stay awake in class, she then looked around, lost and took a deep breath. She said, “sorry sometimes I get these headaches, they just take over me,” as she laughed it off dryly. I told her “it's fine, I get them too,” I get them too? Are you stupid jake? She then raised her old saggy arm pointing to a door. I knew what this door led to. Being in hundreds of townhomes with the same layout, they led to the basement. Pairing with my thought she forced out, “Dear please spray the basement too, will you?
Before I could answer the kid somewhat loudly asked, “wait grandma… he is going into the basement? Grandma! Why the basement?” My neck chilled to goosebumps. I stepped back up onto the wood and stopped at the tooth white door expecting the old lady to open it for me, she had done this the whole way through the house, opening cabinets, windows, doors, flipping on light switches for me but here I am with the old woman standing firm in the same spot and the kid saying the same question, starting to cry. I looked back at the door as she said, “yes that door, the light switch is on the left, close the door when going down… we don't go down in the basement.” My heart started to pump faster and my fingers and forearm twisted the knob, opening the door, my mind replaying, “we don't go down in the basement, we dont go down in the basement,” What the fuck does that mean! I took one last look at her and saw only a part of the woman, due to the kitchen wall, she sat down now and grabbed something off her neck and started sifting it through her hands. She then did something my ears will never forget, she started to pray in spanish… and I took my first step down.
I shut the door behind me as then I switched the light on. It was very dim, only giving me the bare minimum brightness to reach the bottom. The walls were different as I descended, the light didn't bounce off them, instead the walls seem to let the light in. The old woman's prayers and childs crying muffled the creaks the wooden staircase gave off. The prayers were getting louder. I dreadfully got on the floor of the basement now. To the left, a wall, to the right, a long hallway leading to complete and utter darkness. My body felt a shiver like flying to a cold part of the world and the airport doors exposing you to the weather for the first time. My head naturally looked down at my feet for some reason. There was a door to the right of me now which I saw coming down the stairs. I shifted toward it with my boot covers scraping the carpet tips, uneasily, I opened it. The boiler room was dark as the swing of the door brought a string to my vision. The light for this room of course is a fucking string light. I pulled on it hard and light struggled to do its job. The light reminded me of when my 7th grade science teacher, mr. Crutcher, told us what would happen if a light bulb traveled the speed of light in space, “you will see the light, yes! But it will reflect no light! Precisely! what is a light but more than a mere tool that reflects light off of other things!” The memory should have put a smile on my face. I then sprayed around the water heater and cotton candy pink insulation sticking out from the room’s walls. My heart pounding and a veil of sickness came over me. The cold got stronger. This place… was pure sickness itself. Holding my hand up I wrapped around the string but paused, something deep inside of me telling me not to shut the light off, I almost felt as if someone with a remote was controlling my movements, I was separated from myself. I let the string slither out of my hand as I walked out of the room. My head fell back down at my boots, as if something didn't want me to look up. What would I see if I looked up? The exposed insulation made the old woman's prayers fuzzed, but now I was back in the hallway and I could hear the extent of it. She was screaming now. I imagined her old neck veins popping like blue miniature rivers flowing up to her wrinkly face.
I faced the hallway now, the walls darkening the further they got from the top stairway light. My brain was yelling at me to hurry and go as fast as I could but my body did not listen, we were disconnected. I took my first step still looking at my feet seeing the dark entrance from the hallway get closer, another step I go, I get closer, step, closer, step. I now know the sick thing in this home is in the dark void I approach with every step… waiting. I finally reach the end of the hallway and my body stops. The old woman's screams reach a pinnacle. The kid crying and yelling accompanies it. I am all alone. Even my brain is alone. I can do nothing. The darkness is all around me. I twitch my head to the right, it reminds me of the old womans movements, and reach my hand out to feel for a light switch, nothing. When I do this I can see in the dark room slightly with my hat hiding me from most, not all. My head comes back down to the center. I feel like throwing up now, my sickness is terrible. My head is spinning and so is my stomach. All of my extremities are ice now. I twitch my head to the left, my hand grazing the sandpaper wall and I feel A switch! My heart relaxes from the touch. Finally I'm not alone! the light switch accompanies me! Click…my finger flips the switch. My stomach drops. Click.CLICK.CLICK. NOTHING. My breathing is like a car engine that just turned over. The only thing that was with me for even a second is gone. No light. I won't move. I can't move. My hat doesn't cover it all. The ceiling now shakes from the old woman screaming as my eyes… my god damn EYES…. glance into the darkness and see the lady in the basement…. everything goes black.

Probably the worst laptop I've ever owned, especially for the price. Haven't even had it for 2 years.
First thing to go bad was the touchpad. Mouse would just randomly spaz out and scroll everywhere and randomly close windows and so on. Best I was told is "the battery was swelling", which seemed insane to me, and not like I used the touchpad much, so I just disabled it. Of course, it randomly turns itself back on all the time, but whatever, just keep disabling it.
Anyway, mainly use a wireless mouse that needs a USB. Only one USB port. And sometimes I use wired headset since less issues on calls and don't have to worry about charging, etc.
So what do I do? Buy a USB C multiport. Fine. But oh one time the laptop slides off a surface and, nice, the USB C port is broken now. Thank goodness it wasn't the charging port.
Alright, let's use the USB port with a multiport. Have to buy another one. Fine until yesterday when the laptop slid onto some carpet about a foot. Nice. Another broken multiport and oh, it was a lever to pop off some of the bottom of the laptop. USB A port is completely wrecked.
So now using charging port with multiport. Days are numbered until this one gets damaged. Never seen such a fragile device.
And my wife has the same laptop. No broken ports, but 2+ years old and absolutely horrible performance. No idea how. Doesn't do anything but internet tasks on it.
Laptop is under warranty with Best Buy, but that means sending it off and being without a laptop for days. Going to just get another workhorse Lenovo Yoga laptop like I had before and I guess send this one off.
Has anyone had issues like I have had with these HP laptops?

Hello,
I am working on a renovation. Unfortunately there were a lot of hidden costs and I now need to re-finance. Thankfully we haven't yet removed any wires or pipes - most of the work was external. I am concerned that a mortgage surveyor may not approve with the house in the current condition. Does anyone have experience of this?
The house doesn't look great but is definitely liveable. The roof is in good condition with no leaks, the kitchen and bathrooms are working and have hot and cold water. Some carpets are up and there are 3 new windows which have not been decorated around yet - 2 holes where there were windows have now been bricked up but not plastered over. 3 rooms have ceilings removed so floorboards are visible from below. There are still 2 bedrooms there fully intact. Basically, someone could live there no problem if they didn't use certain rooms.
Also, the amount of mortgage needed is small - less than 30% of the value of the house which is not currently mortgaged.
Are things looking good or will I need to get specialist financing?

Species: Cat - Siamese, Age: unknown, at least 10, spayed female, 11 lbs, Texas area
My cat has been having an ongoing problem that has significantly increased in frequency and intensity this year. To preface: She has always had small and hard stools but never showed issues with passing her bowel movements so I didn't think to pay attention to it (and I had a second cat until recently, so it was sometimes hard to tell whose was whose). She gets wet food in the mornings and night and has a dry food bowl to graze on since overeating isn't an issue. She's also had at least 2 litters of kittens before we adopted her, so I've concluded she was at least 2 when we adopted her, and we've had her since March 2016. She's fully indoors, only pet (now), with only elevated balcony outdoor access. Currently only eats Royal Canin PD wet and dry (see more below).
On and off for the past two-three years, she will sometimes go into the litter box constantly scratching around, trying to go and nothing coming out, and would go in and out for a while. Usually she'd do this about 4 times, then vomit once or twice (from straining), and quit. This would occur maybe once every couple months. Then she's start to keep going into the box after vomiting, scratching around, in and out, for almost an hour (usually vomiting between 'rounds'). Since it only happened once in a while, we just through she was being quirky, or it was an issue with the litter box not being clean enough, the second cat's poop in the box, etc, so we tried to keep it cleaner for her. At the time we didn't make the connection between the pooping and vomit alternating.
But towards the second half of last year, the frequency had started to become every other month, then once a month, and she would do it for over an hour, and then began to poop on things outside the litterbox (the rug, paper, boxes, fabric/clothes on the floor etc). At one point it was going on for over an hour and she had vomited three times and showed no signs of stopping, so I took her to a vet right away (where she of course stopped doing anything). (This was also a different vet than her usual, it was the only way to get her seen that day). The vet said her colon felt empty so it wasn't a blockage so we couldn't imagine why she was continuing to strain herself to go when nothing was in there. When I brought her back it was like nothing had every happened. I would try to keep an eye on her movements and other than these episodes, she seemed to have no problem passing stool or urinating.
However, by the time the frequency had increased to monthly, she had started to do the pooping outside the litterbox issue more often. My other cat passed away around this time (october), and since the start of the year, this behavior has increased to every two weeks or less. I looked into all the foods I had fed her in the past before this started happening and couldn't find any ingredients in particular that could be a potential trigger to this. The other cat also had the opposite issue (really loose stool to diarrhea, but he was also hyper thyroid). I also tried to address her hard stools by increasing the water availability since she was adverse to drinking (previously it was only in the kitchen, but since she mostly hangs out in my bedroom, I put a bowl in there and another next to her food on her cat tower and now she has increased her water intake a lot and pees accordingly, but her stools are still small and hard). The only time I got her stool to soften up was when I gave her miralax by my vet's recommendation to address constipation. And then it kinda went more in the opposite direction, I can't think of why I completely discontinued use though (maybe to start from a control point with the stuff below).
Since this has become almost weekly, she strains so hard to go she looks like she's going to prolapse, and nothing is there. She strains until she is passing liquids, which she then drips around on everything and leaks onto stuff while sitting around, and keeps doing it until it's almost odorless, colorless liquid coming from her bum. When she does manage to get something out, it's plaps of diarrhea at that point, and now she is starting to poop on the carpet in my bedroom if I'm not home when it happens (this MOSTLY happens around 6-8 AM when I'm trying to sleep, but she does it during the day too. Curiously, it's never happened at night.)
The worst was when we went out of the house for the eclipse on the 8th and came back to two piles of diarrhea on the carpet, two piles of vomit on the tile, and poop essence on the couch, the rug, all my blankets where she had sat, her blanket, the newspaper in several decoy boxes I have set up in the apartment...I had to wash everything. She did this again while I was out of town most of the day last friday and I came back to more vomit and two much more difficult piles of diarrhea on the carpet, and I've since found out she also pooped on my camp chair that I didn't realize was on the floor, and my under bed storage which leaked onto several unwashable costumes, as well as vomit all under the bed that I somehow never noticed. I'm at the point where I don't feel like I can allow her to have bedroom access (her favorite spot) if I leave the house because she's slowly destroying my things. I'm so worried it's going to escalate to jumping onto book shelves and counters and pooping on books or my rock collection (my place is really small so there's stuff just everywhere, which is how I keep finding more and more soiled things long after the fact. As mentioned before, I have several decoy shoe boxes with newspaper for the times she gives up using the litter box and removed most everything else she'd be likely to poop on since then.)
I've been working with my regular vet since the beginning of the year on this. She also doesn't find any blockage or fullness when the behavior is happening, so she's concluded it seems to be constipation at the root which is then turning to a 'false alarm' to go which causes her to keep straining to go when nothing is really there anymore, and then vomiting from the strain. We switched her to royal canin prescription PD (hydrolyzed protein) wet and dry food, in hopes that it would normalize her poops and maybe she'd have a normal bowel movement for once, and that if it was a sensitivity, that the limited ingredients and simple protein will reduce this irritation she's experiencing in her bowels. She was on it since march 1st and didn't have an episode until the april 8th disaster, and since then she has had an episode on the 23rd, then the 3rd and again today (9th). Today she specifically did not vomit though, but did strain a lot and leaked a little onto the couch.
The vet has also given me a steroid (prednisolone) to give her to reduce the inflammation in the colon caused from her straining, but i found it impossible to give to her (the first time she spit the whole .4 ml dose up, and any time I tried after that I could barely give her .1 ml before she'd spit it up and run away and then start avoiding me. I can't mask any medicine in her food, she just refuses it and then won't eat, and I don't want to traumatize her trying to force the medicine on her.) Despite this problem, she has not lost any weight through this whole time. And though the situation has gotten worse and she now seems tired and upset while it's occurring, once it's over, she acts like nothing bad has ever happened in her life and demands wet food.
I'm just at my wits end, I don't know what to do anymore to help her feel better and put an end to this, and not be jolted awake every time she gets in the litter box while I'm asleep, and not have to worry about her pooping on all my things if i dare to step out. I don't think it's an anxiety thing since it's been happening for a while and usually occurs while me and my husband are both home asleep, but I wouldn't doubt that maybe it's making it worse? The vet says it'll take up to 3 months for the food to fully take effect, but if she keeps doing this every week as is I'm getting skeptical it'll get better. We haven't done any imaging or stool testing but I think that's the next step if nothing changes.
She pretty much just sits on her pillow all day sleeping besides play time and getting up to eat and go outside on the balcony for a bit, then tokyo drifting at night after using the litter box. I can't think of anything she could get into, and she's never been a wire muncher (or anything, really, she doesn't tend to mess with stuff). My previous cat was a major trash and plant muncher, so while my place is unkempt I always make sure there's never plastic or strings on the ground they could get a hold of. I make sure to not use anything with essential oils or teatree (including my own shampoo and detergent), I have no plants she has access to besides two cactus on the balcony, and she disliked the other cat so I'm not sure that his disappearance is affecting her (in fact she got pretty jealous when I played a video of him). Is there ANYTHING I should be looking out for or we're not considering? Has anyone else experienced this?? I just don't know what to do...it's getting hard to live this way.