It’s a long one but it’s a must read ..
I want to say this all started beginning of this year. Let’s get right into it. I’m going to give a backstory of the house I live in for context. I live in a very spacious home in CT with my boyfriend and his family. I’ve been there for 3 years. My boyfriend and I live in the basement which is fully finished, basically our own apartment. The house was built in 2000.
One of the first things that was weird about this property to me was the fact that it comes up on maps as a church cemetery. When you google that cemetery though, it is set about a mile or so down the road on the other end. Weird little coincidence I think. Anyways, I started noticing out of the corner of my eye a grayish/white shadow in my kitchen area at night. I chalked it up to seeing something only because I had drank that night and I let it go. Well I kept seeing this figure a few times a week and when no drinks were involved, I started to think it was weird. The figure was tall but I couldn’t really see any facial features, it was more so a side profile and then it would disappear.
*Now it’s March and I see a post on Facebook from my boyfriend’s mother. She and I work at hospitals and she had asked if anyone else in healthcare had brought a spirit home. She felt like she was being “watched”. I ran to my messages to let her know about that figure I saw in the basement. This was on March 6th of this year. I believe she saged the house after I told her this. Honestly, everything was good for about a month. I wasn’t seeing the shadow and life resumed.
*Here comes April 24 2024, my boyfriend’s mother made another post saying that she needed a house cleansing, and that things were good for a little bit and then started up again. Hearing knocking and the dogs going crazy at weird hours. And once again I tell her about my experience I had before she even made her post. I was getting up in the night to pee, I swing my legs over and as soon as my feet touch the floor, my printer in the corner of the room near my kitchen completely illuminates and I can see every inch of the basement. It creeped me out but I did my thing and went back to bed.
*A week later I am in bed again and my boyfriend is asleep and I have been having trouble sleeping so I was barely asleep. All of the sudden I’m woken up from the feeling of the edge of my bed being hit and I feel the hair near my face move. That one definitely scared me. I just pulled the covers up to my head and went back to bed.
*May 10th 2024, she posted that she saw a dark black/grey mass floating in the house. That specific night my boyfriend and I were in Maine for the weekend and came home the following day. I had not seen her post until two days later after my experience on Mother’s Day
*May 12th 2024. On this day, it was the one year anniversary of having my baby removed after a second trimester miscarriage. It was also Mother’s Day. I was enjoying the day with my boyfriend’s family and I went in the house to get food. As I’m standing at the island I see something move, it was a black floating shadow somewhat low to the ground not tall at all. I looked at it as it moved down the hallway that is right in front of my basement door. When I asked my MIL about her experience and where she saw the shadow, she said it was in the EXACT spot I just saw it. As we stand there talking about it, the smoke alarms go off. I want to say that so far, my boyfriend’s mother, his sister and I have all seen and experienced things in the past months. My boyfriend and his father have not seen/heard anything. I am terrified to be in the house alone, I just get this awful feeling when I’m there alone.
**A woman at my work is a paranormal investigator and I was telling her my story when she interrupted me and asked “do you light candles?” I said yes but not recently. She said “ I have something telling me, “Go ahead, light that candle” so please do not light any candles” We just found out that there was a previous house on the property, which had burnt down. I am beyond freaked out.

My wife’s best friend who I will call Sarah moved in with us about 1 month ago after her husband had her arrested for getting physical with him and scratching his face. I have been a mutual friend with both Sarah and her husband that I will John. Our kids are friends and we would often get the families together. We have been put in the middle of the feud. John has a restraining order out on Sarah and the only way she gets to see the kids is supervised visitation. John listed my wife as the person that has to be present while her kids visit in 3 hour time blocks. I thought it was weird that John only listed my wife on there considering I am the only one (between my wife and I) that directly communicates with him (text and calls). John and my wife were always cordial to one another but between all 4 of us, they are the only two that had no real friendship. My wife is prettier than Sarah, and I have caught John staring at my wife’s chest and ass in the past. It never bothered me. During one of John and Sarah’s last fights, he said that Sarah’s face looked much older than my wife’s (both are very into skincare and anti-aging, so this really pissed Sarah off). John is an incredibly controlling husband that treated Sarah very poorly and my wife has always said that he is such an asshole and that she can’t stand him.
This is where things began to get weird…
After Sarah moved in, John continued to call me to discuss his wife. My wife told me that I was being too kind to him after the way he has treated her so poorly over the years, and having her arrested. My wife told me that it was time to choose a side (Sarah’s) and to stop talking with John. She told me I was two faced for continuing to speak with him. She called him Satan because he was already running around with a few different women and their kids, all while taunting her in various ways and trying to destroy her life. Suddenly John starts reaching out to my wife to schedule visitations with their kids based on my wife’s schedule. He could’ve listed both of us on the supervision list but he only put my wife. I suspect that he felt like it would lead to an open line of communication between the two of them(previously my wife didn’t even have his number in her phone) My wife acted very annoyed that she was put in that position because he never asked beforehand.. basically if Sarah wanted to see her kids, my wife would need to be involved. Here is where things got weird…
We had a birthday party for one of our daughters and we invited his kids to her party. He brought the kids and oddly stayed in the area with his youngest and waited around, but didn’t join the party. Later that day I sent him a text thanking him for the gifts they got. The next morning(Mother’s Day), one of the first things my wife does is send him a thank you text that I felt was a “gushing” thank you. It was weird to me that he was not only the first thank you text that she sent, but she only sent 3 out of the 8-9 parents that were there.
Is this thank you a bit much?
“We had the gifts mixed up but Sarah later clarified the gifts with the flower wrapping paper were from y'all! But as you can see, she loved them. Thank you very much for going out of your way to get them and for bringing the kids out to celebrate with Tara(our daughter) and waiting so patiently with jane(his youngest daughter). It meant so much to us!”
Here was my thank you the night before …
“Thanks a lot for all the stuff for Tara. She loved it all. You got much more than you should’ve”
John’s reply to my wife’s thank you text and then wishing her happy Mother’s Day.
“You are so welcome, a bit sad we were not able to be there as a complete family. Praying next year is different.”
“Happy Mothers Day, the kids and Dave are so blessed to have you.” (Clearly a compliment to her and a dig at his wife)
My wife’s reply…
Sunday 1:56 PM Thank you! I am sorry for leaving you hanging about today. Would you like to plan for around 430-730? We are getting a slow start and I just hoped to go to the beach for a little bit.
(She just says thank you? I would’ve thought she would’ve also said that their kids are blessed to have her best friend as a mom as well)
-John’s reply- That sounds perfect. See you then. Sunday 2:58 PM
(Sarah then sent a screenshot of the family app that they are legally allowed to communicate on. She told him that he was intruding on my wife’s Mother’s Day, and it was stressing my wife out, which was true. After seeing what Sarah told John, my wife felt compelled to reach back out to John with the following…
“Hey John. I'm not stressed. It just took forever to get the kids ready and out”
Keep in mind that he has repeatedly verbally abused her friend, has been hanging out with other woman, kicked her out of her house without her belongings, reported her to the state licensing board for her “arrest” and caused her license to be suspended, told her that he hope she died during an upcoming surgery she was supposed to have, and insulted her by implying that she was a harm to her kids and her best friend needed supervision during the time she spent with her kids… I was called “two faced” and told I was betraying Sarah, simply because I would answer John’s calls and texts.
We get home and John brings his kids over with a Mother’s Day plant and card (same ones, for my wife and Sarah). I thought this was weird and another way of slighting at Sarah, putting the two of them on the same level. The next day, my wife (who doesn’t garden) was watering the plants and walking around with the plants looking for a place to plant them. (I mentioned to Sarah that my wife watered the plants and she seems very surprised and upset that she did that, considering it was intended to be a slight to her.). I was very surprised considering our 9-year-old got her a plant from Lowe’s a year or two ago and she simply let it dry out and die on the counter (never watering it) which really hurt our daughters feelings….
Two days later I looked at my wife’s messages with John and was very surprised. My wife knew I had looked at her phone and sent me a nasty text to stay off of it. I told her that I was surprised that she was being so chummy with John considering how he has been treating Sarah, and had previously called me “two faced” for continuing to talk to John. I told her that her thank you to John was “gushing” and clearly made him feel good as he gave her a compliment about how blessed we were to have her immediately after that. I told her I was also surprised that she didn’t just have me tell him thank you considering she knows we talk and are friends. My wife got really mad and said she did nothing wrong and called me a jealous psycho. She said she would show the thread to Sarah because she had nothing to hide and did nothing wrong. I told her that I would strongly advise against it because I think it would hurt Sarah’s feelings and cause her to be upset with my wife. My wife continued to call me a lot of mean names and told me I needed professional mental help. She then changed the password on her phone. She then told Sarah that it would prob be best for her and John to coordinate through the app because I was acting very bothered by her talking to John (implying jealousy).
My wife and I began talking about the situation again yesterday and I told her that I wasn’t dwelling on it but wish she would acknowledge the inappropriateness of the conversation, considering the circumstances. She refused and again began calling me a psycho that is destroying her life. I told her that if she felt like it was a completely appropriate conversation, then she should show Sarah. She refused. She then sends me the following :
“I deleted his thread and his contact information. Accidentally called his number while I was trying to figure out how and immediately hung up. I’m sure you’ll say I called him on purpose. I have a screenshot of the thread so you won’t accuse me of trying to get rid of evidence.”
As it turned out, she didn’t have a screenshot of the thread. I found it very odd that she deleted the conversation (she did it during this last argument we were having about the appropriateness of it and telling her to show Sarah..
The other things that bothered me was that I wrote a kind Mother’s Day message on her Facebook, which she saw but never acknowledged on Facebook or said anything to me, and she completely ignored my happy birthday post to our daughter on Facebook. She was so quick to acknowledge the person she called “Satan” but not to her husband. I am considering the possibility that I am overly sensitive these days. My wife just went through a real bad case of postpartum rage where she was verbally abusive toward me and I genuinely felt like she hated me. It has left me with what she believes to be ptsd and says she feels very badly about it. It was the worst thing I have ever experienced and it nearly ended our family. Am I over-reacting or was my wife out of line?
Why did she delete the thread when I pressed her to show Sarah?
Was her thank you “gushing” and a bit much, considering the circumstances?
Is my wife really the one that’s two faced?
What should I make of John’s actions with my wife? Should it rub me the wrong way!?
Was telling my wife that we were so lucky to have her flirtatious and should she have replied that they were blessed to have Sarah!?
Would Sarah be hurt by my wife’s conversation with her husband?
Why did my wife feel so anxious to be the one to thank him for the gifts directly and praise him for coming and telling him it meant so much that he brought the kids and waited around?
Thanks in advance

My grandparents bought a house in the 1950s that is in poor condition at this point, but in land value alone is worth over 3 million dollars. As trustee of the family estate I'm responsible for dealing with it, but I live 1000 miles away in another state.
I hired a company to do multiple estate sales at the property selling my grandparent's belongings which drew the attention at least a dozens of real estate agents who were able to find my contact info and contact me. Most claiming they had clients who were interested in making offers.
It's a VERY hot neighborhood. House itself, was appraised for 3.2, but because of the location it's been the target of many investors/builders who would likely tear it down and build something much larger to sell for much more. Two on that very street re-built and sold over 7-8 mil.
I had two very real investors wanting to make an offer at 3.6 mil with all contingencies waived. One of which was also a licensed agent and was going to cover all closing expenses meaning I'd pay nothing in agent fees.
I briefly explored going down that route of selling off market and hiring a real estate attorney at a flat fee to help with the documentation, but I had multiple people in my life I was consulting with who were strongly advising I just hire an agent and list it on market. The thinking is, if the property already had that much interest off market, it would be behoove me to list it properly, advertised it to a much larger audience, and try to generate some kind of bidding war - even if ultimately I end up taking home less by selling it for 3.6 and paying out commissions.

• "Standard" 6% commission on a 3.6 mil house would be $216,000. Meaning, I'd have to sell it for over 3.8 to make this exercise worthwhile.

I personally know real estate agents (the friend I use where I live, family members in different states, etc) who had been giving me advice, but none do business in that State. I put out a blanket ask to see if they could refer me to any agents in that area. I flew out there and met with 5 different agents, but basically narrowed it down to two.

• Option 1 (Mark): This is a weird one. My agent local agent (Paul) referred me to a lady (Sally) who does business in both states. When I met with Sally, she had brought in a "partner" (Mark) who happens to be a huge real estate big wig in that particular neighborhood. Like, every transaction Mark does is a multi-million dollar deal. Has been involved in 10 of the last 12 sales on that street. Knows all the builders and agents who had reached out to me. I thought nothing of Sally, but got a great impression of Mark. Clearly Mark knows his shit and opened my eyes to a lot of things I need to be careful about. He had a plan of action that made a lot of sense. I ended up calling Mark directly and asking him to explain how his referral situation worked if he was technically a referral of a referral and he explained that he was actually going to be giving up 40% of his commission to Sally and Paul. I asked how I could be sure I was getting the "Full Mark" if he was giving up so much of his commission, but he assured me he'd give it 100% effort...
• Option 2 (Jeff): Referred to me by a friend of mine (not an agent) who lives out there and had hired this guy when he bought a condo. I'll call the agent Jeff. Jeff showed up with his partner Melissa. Again, I got a great impression from them. They haven't done nearly the level of business as Mark, but have done similar sized deals in the general area. They clearly knew their stuff, though and had very similar advice as Mark. On some level, I saw them as the underdogs and believed they'd be hungrier to put in a higher level of effort on my behalf.

Commission Negotiation: Initially I was being told 6% was standard with buyer and seller agent splitting. After some back and forth, Mark told me he'd do 5% (2.5/2.5) but as low as 4% if he was also representing the buyer (side note, it was hard to say if his deep relationships with the builders/investors in the area was a good or bad thing as I know it's common for agents to take minimal commission on the initial transaction with the promise that they represent them after the rebuild and get a full commission on much larger sale). Jeff and his partner told me they had no problem matching that commission structure.
Ultimately, I was leaning towards going with Mark, because of his experience/knowledge/connections, but also because my local agent friend, who have a really strong relationship with, was going to be getting a referral fee. I communicated this to Jeff that it was a really hard choice and he quickly came back saying, they'd be happy to pay out a referral fee to "whoever you want" if it made a difference.
I talked to Jeff and his partner on the phone and explained the situation. I explained that Mark was actually planning on paying out 40% of his total commission to my agent (Paul) and the middle man (Sally) and that while I didn't have much reason to care about Sally, I did think that if any referral fee was going to paid out, it should go to Paul and a cousin of mine as both had been a sounding board for months giving me advice throughout the process. I understood that asking them to pay out 40% of their commission was unreasonable, but asked what they'd normally pay out in this situation and I was told "standard referral is 25%"... That made sense to me and seemed to be what I found online as "standard" referral %. I explained if I went with them, I'd actually have them split that referral fee between Paul and my cousin and they said that would be no problem at all.
For Reference:

• On a 3.6 mil sale with listing agent taking 2.5% ($90,000), paying out 40% of that commission as a referral would have had Mark taking home $54,000 (60%) while my agent Paul/Sally split the $36,000 referral (each taking $18,000). To be honestly, I didn't love the idea of Sally taking home $18,000 for basically doing nothing other than introduce me to Mark.
  
• On a 3.6 mil sale with listing agent taking 2.5% ($90,000) paying out 25% of that commission as a referral would have had Jeff taking home $67,500 while local agent Paul and my cousin (also an out of state agent) split a $22,500 referral (each taking home $11,250).
  

I gave the decision a couple more weeks of thought. At some point, Mark sent me a written proposal with an even lower commission structure than previously discussed. Now he was saying 4% total commission (2% selle2% buyer) or 3% total commission if he represented the buyer. Again, Jeff and his partner said they had no problem matching that.
For Reference:

• On a 3.6 mil sale with listing agent taking 2% ($72,000), paying out 40% of that commission as a referral would have had Mark taking home $43,200 (60%) while my agent Paul/Sally split the $28,800 referral (each taking $14,400). Again, I didn't love the idea of Sally taking home $14,400 for basically doing nothing other than introduce me to Mark.
  
• On a 3.6 mil sale with listing agent taking 2% ($72,000) paying out 25% of that commission as a referral would have had Jeff taking home $54,000 while local agent Paul and my cousin (also an out of state agent) split a $18,000 referral (each taking home $9000).
  

It sounded like Mark already had a builder client who was interested. I gave it a lot of thought and honestly part of me kind of liked that Jeff and his partner didn't have all the same buildeinvestor connections that Mark had as it made me think their focus would entirely be on representing me and negotiating with my best interest in mind. I also worried that Mark giving up such a sizeable part of his commission on a deal that was much smaller than he was accustomed to doing might not get his full effort.
Given that Jeff and his partner were agreeing to match everything Mark was offering and that I genuinely had a great impression from them, I ultimately made the touch decision of going with them.
I did want to make sure the referral portion they promised was part of the process, but given this is sort of unusual, none of the listing agreement documents mention that aspect. I had asked Jeff about how I'd go about making sure Paul and my cousin got paid and I was told they'd need to contact Jeff with their information. No problem. I signed the exclusive listing agreement and told both Paul and my cousin to contact Jeff as they'd each be sharing 25% of Jeff's commission as a referral fee (12.5% each).
Oops.
Although "25% is a standard referral" was communicated to me over the phone, I never got that in writing.
As soon as Paul and my cousin reached out to Jeff with their info asking for the shared split of 25%, Jeff contacted me saying, "oh actually... normally we offer a 20% referral at 6% total commission. In this case we are able to provide 10% total referral as a courtesy to you and your relationships seeing as how we didn’t receive this as a referral."
This was the first time I was seeing "10%" communicated to me. I reminded them they told me 25% over the phone. They reiterated they were able to pay out 10% of their commission as a referral "as a courtesy" to me. They suggested that if we moved the commission structure back up to 5% total instead of 4%, they'd be fine with paying out 25%.
For reference:

• On a 3.6 mil sale with listing agent taking 2% ($72,000), paying out 10% of that commission as a referral would have had Jeff taking home $64,800 (90%) while my agent Paul/my cousin split the $7200 referral (each taking $3600).

Obviously, this gets into a broader discussion about how much commission agents actually deserve on a transaction like this, how much my agent and my cousin really deserve given neither of them actually referred me to this agent, etc, but suddenly telling me their referral is 10% when they previously told me 25% over the phone very much feels like a "gotcha" moment that's soured me on things before the property has even officially been listed. It also puts me in a very embarrassing situation of having to go back to Paul and my cousin and saying "oh yeah... uh... actually... you know how I told you guys you were splitting 25% of the commission... uh... my bad... it's actually 10%".
Just looking for some thoughts/advice before I respond to Jeff about it. At this point, I have an exclusive listing agreement with Jeff and his partner. It's possible some of this was just basic miscommunication and they had never intended to pay out 25%. Granted, they had told me 25% back when the commission structure was higher so on some level I get why they'd want to compensate for agreeing to a lower fee structure, but this surprise has me questioning what else they might surprise me with as we get further along.

Hey everyone,
I recently moved to Spruce Grove and I wanted to share my story. I am a single late 20's male who is starting a new life here without any friends. All three I knew are gone and never got to meet.
Some years ago, I struck up a conversation with a woman near this area who became a close friend during a tough time when I was facing racism in another town. She was incredibly kind and genuinely interested in learning about my culture. Unfortunately, we lost touch. A few years ago, when I reached out to her again, she responded briefly before disappearing. Later, I found out on the news she passed away in a car accident due to a drunk driver.
Last year, I formed a strong bond with a girl online from this area, but she ghosted me a few months ago when my anxiety about career rejections was at its peak. She was getting overwhelmed supporting me. It was a difficult time, feeling like a failure after being turned down by numerous job opportunities. Then, I connected with another woman from this area. We called and got close as she asked me to make a trip. Then later she stopped responding. Two weeks later, I received a message from her ex-husband informing me of her passing due to an overdose.
I've applied to nearly 30 jobs across Alberta in my field, and this area is the only place that invited me for a job interview. Now, I am excited to start a new job, but it's frustrating because I never got to meet any of these women in person, and I carry a lot of guilt and shame about not being able to mend things with the girl who ghosted me. If only we had the chance to reconcile, we could still be friends. I hope I don't freak her out and make her feel uncomfortable if I ever run into her. I believe Spruce Grove is small enough.
Despite these challenges, I feel a sense of obligation to be kind to everyone and make a positive difference in the community. I wonder if the next person I meet will be relatable to any of the woman I've known. I feel isolated and alone in navigating these emotions as the coincidence is nearly unbelievable. I feel suffocated internally with shame, guilt and grief, yet outside I want to go above and beyond for my new community.
Thanks for listening):

I am a 23 year old guy living in Bangalore but born in Siliguri in West Bengal in India and planning to go for a trip to Pondicherry next week for 3-4 days. I heard there are foreigners there especially in Auroville. So if I go there, would it be fine if I tried to talk with a foreign woman there? Would I be able to find ones in their 20s (closer to my age)? There are foreign expats in Bangalore too especially in posh areas because of the IT here. I tried initiating conversation with 2 foreign women who were white blonde Europeans in this really posh area of Bangalore but one of them was wearing earphones and other one didn't look at me when I said her excuse me. I am a well educated guy pursuing his MBA degree now and just want genuine conversation and make it into a connection one day and just ask their Instagram because it's way less personal than asking their number. I did talk with a French woman near my University 2 months ago but the conversation was brief and I never met her again. I would like to talk with foreign women in Pondicherry especially around Auroville but I am also worried whether I will get into trouble because of it.

Hi guys, (M21, 64.5kg)
Been having some lower right abdominal pain for a few weeks now that has moved around my abdomen to different spots but is now near my right hip. The pain isn’t severe probably a 1-3 sort of pain and it’s mostly dull and has sometimes come and gone, I’ve been working the whole time, I can run, walk, jump and move without it causing pain In The area. Also have been a bit constipated moving stools less regularly compared to usual
I have anxiety that has turned more health focused over the last few months so I’ve also poked and felt around the area pretty often over the last probably 2 weeks as I’m pretty anxious. And that too hasn’t caused pain or rebound pain like most people say it does.
I’ve been to the Doctors a few times in the last couple weeks as I’ve been getting sick very regularly and had a Blood test, Chest xray, Ultrasound and Urine test. According to both docs Everything on the Blood test was fine, Chest Xray was fine also, Ultrasound was ok too all organs were supposedly fine only thing they found I had scarring on left kidney. Urine test was ordered after that finding still awaiting results.
I asked one of the doctors about it being appendicitis but he said I wasn’t having pain the right place (pain was lower down just above groin area when he said that) and it wasn’t mentioned of being a concern on the ultrasound. The pain hasn’t really gone away since I got sick and I’m just unsure what to do as it’s kinda stressing me out. I get a bit down when I go get things checked out and then nothing be wrong and then realise it was probably just my anxiety playing on my mind.
Thought I’d just ask this sub and see what is said as I still can’t relax about it. Thanks guys :)

He waited to call me, he literally thought about my sleep and that he’d called to wake me up a couple times already this past week so he thought no I’ll let her sleep and call at a more normal time. Is he not the most thoughtful thing? My baby. He woke me right out of a dream, it was an odd one which I cbf going into, but I was making a friend in it, I don’t know who but the dream was partly me trying to be friends with this other girl. Maybe it’s a sign I’ll find a new friend soon :) Anyway so he called and we chatted while he finished making up his keyboard. It sounds so good, like sooooo good. Like creamy marbley rain drop goodness. It’s funny because I thought his last keyboard sounded delicious, but in comparison to the new one the old one makes me envision large spiders tip tapping along a corrugated iron roof. Whereas the new one sounds like sitting by a fire with a hot chocolate with marshmallows and being read a story while the rain pitter patters outside. I wonder if this new one will sound like spiders whenever he makes a newer one? I’m truly such a fickle thing. They all sound good though, obviously. He said how when we live together he’ll make one for me! Or rather he’ll guide me through the process, because I need to pick the sounds and colours and feelings out. I’m not sure what I’d like it to be like, I’ll have to start thinking. I flip between wanting something cute, like a pink one with strawberries and hearts and glitter and then a sleek, profesh looking one. A light one? Or a dark one? And I have no idea about the sounds, but he’ll help me. And then we can make it up together! It sounds so fun, I really can’t wait. Anyway so he called and it’s still my favourite way to wake up.
Then we hung up and I was laying in bed debating whether I should get up or doze and I ended up having dirty lil thoughts about him… twice. I can be so boring with my lil fantasies now, I can’t entirely remember now what I thought about but it was just us two. I think he thinks I think about someone else involved more than I do, I definitely do but nowhere near as often as just him. I sound like a total creepy perve but I’ve even thought about just him… but I’ll be dead and buried before I ever tell him that. And that saying something because I think I’d like to be cremated… TBD on that. But so anyway, thinking about just me and him is always my favourite and works the fastest every single time. My honey baby handsome man.
I truly have a life full of first world problems, it makes me feel so guilty sometimes. I say sometimes because I only think about how lucky I am sometimes, which makes me feel even more guilty. There are SO many horrible awful things happening in the world to people who absolutely do not deserve a hair on their heads touched.. and here I am lambasting my cuticles for being in good condition after I bought some products to tidy them up. I just caught myself out before, I was looking at my cuticles and was negatively thinking about how clean they look lately - I’m not surprised I found a way to be negative about something good. They definitely need some nourishment and cuticle oil and things, but they’re so clean and neat? Why? I haven’t done anything? Anyway I caught myself looking at them thinking ffs why do they look nice I need to fix them - firstly that makes no sense and secondly it hit me a second later how terrible it was. And then the guilt washed over me and there are children dying across the world for no reason and here I am critiquing my cuticles. I truly don’t think I deserve the air I breathe sometimes. More than sometimes. I know I’m not a person that adds anything to this world, if anything I just take from it by worsening the health of the planet with the plastic, travel etc etc I do. I do my best to save bees who look sickly? That’s about it. I don’t bring joy to anyone else - I mean I make Andy miserable, I probably stress and worry my parents… I think the only one I bring any semblance of joy to is pups because I play with him and take him for walks and cuddle him and I won’t move an inch if he’s comfy and I’m not. Other than that… I offer nothing. So like I said, I am drenched in guilt. I wonder how I can change it? Or how I can offer more? I just feel like I have nothing to actually offer, even if I gave everything up. I guess physical labour…? But even then, I’m not strong and my hand skin is so sensitive so I can only really do so much before it hurts and gets bad. But I guess if I wasn’t being selfish I would ignore my skin, wouldn’t I? I would really like to volunteer. I used to a bit here and there, before I really got bad with my mental health. Not a lot but sometimes. I’d like to make it more of a regular thing - it’s something I’ve talked about in therapy about it being a part of the life I’m working towards. I’m thinking once every three weeks or so, so still nothing impactful but it’s something? I think I’d like to volunteer at an animal shelter, I wouldn’t mind even cleaning up their little areas and things, idk why but I don’t find animal stuff gross whereas I do people stuff. Then again I’ve only had to clean up after an animal I love with my whole heart so maybe it would be different for other ones, I could do it though. Or I’d like to volunteer at a retirement home, or visiting elderly people at their own homes. Just spend time with them, it makes my heart hurt to think of how lonely some of them can be and coming from someone who feels extremely lonely I would want to lessen that - especially in their final years. They’re the main places I’d like to volunteer. I’ve done time in “soup kitchens” here and in the UK, which I enjoyed, I only worked in the kitchen though helping prepare things and cleaning up - every time I wasn’t allowed out the front to serve, which is weird because I have LOTS of experience with that sort of thing? The way they implied it was that I was a young woman, but still? I guess 99% of those visiting there would be fine but maybe 1% wouldn’t be? Still though. Anyway I’d like to volunteer more. I need to learn to be comfy leaving the house first, maybe get my social anxiety under control a little more but I don’t need to be perfect because doing these things will help my issues. What else could I do? I donate to charities and have for years, sometimes I’ve had monthly deductions, sometimes I just donate on a whim. Like that fresh water one, I can’t remember the name off the top of my head but every few months I impulsively donate $100 or so. It’s not enough though, I should be better. I just get suss of the charities themselves and I don’t know how much actually goes to the cause, like I know they need to fund admin costs which makes sense but anyway. I just don’t have any skills, so other than vague stuff there’s not any real impact I can offer. Andy for example, he’s so talented and clever and creative, I bet he would have ways to make an impact. Like if he was to visit elderly people it would be SUCH a success as he’s so chatty and personable and kind and lovely and everything that’s good, so he would keep them entertained and ask the right questions. Whereas I’m not a talker so I would be awkward and quiet and they would have to lead the conversation and they likely don’t want that, unless I asked to be paired with chatty kathys of course. My nana was like that, you ask one question and she won’t stop talking for an hour. At least from memory, I don’t remember so well as I was littler. Hm. Anyway. I just feel like I’m a big time detractor of the world. That’s kind of a good villain name, The Detractor. Another way I can offer more is to be better, for example if I’m better then I don’t make Andy miserable which means he would feel more encouraged to live his life happily which would therefore positively affect everyone who comes into contact with him, which I know happens now anyway but maybe if he has a supportive loving girlfriend it will be even more so? Like I can be a lil battery for him, because I don’t really like interacting with others too much, or I do but I don’t like to be an active member, I like to listen and observe and chime in every now and then. None of this makes sense. But if I’m better then that has a positive effect on people around me. That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m always polite though, like if I take the bus I always say thank you when I hop off, I always say thank you when a waiter refills my drink or puts down my cutlery or whatever else. Even when I don’t want to talk at all and an Uber driver clearly does I will chat away even though my social battery is running on fumes because I don’t want them to feel rejected and maybe they need to chat, even if it’s about nothing. I always put supermarket trollies back into their homes. I never litter. I hold doors open for people, but only when it means they won’t have to do an awkward run for it because that’s not polite that’s annoying. So I think I’m polite, but a polite person does not make a good person - and I am not a good person. Or a worthwhile one.
So far this morning I have chatted to Andy, got up and made a strawbs smoothie, did a lil kitchen clean/tidy up, went back to lay on my bed but not IN bed and I read for a little bit, I journaled the bit up there and now I’m watching some YT. I’m really trying to stretch out my read time of this book, I’m excited to get into HP after this one but I also don’t want to let go of this world and these characters yet, even though it’s a reread. I’d like to have a productive day but I’m also going to let myself do whatever I fancy… I hope I fancy being productive.
I wound up reading/watching about those body and face types again, because a YT video came up as suggested. Anyway, so apparently you can be more yin or yang and I’m a definite yin. Yang is more angular, sharp and blunt whereas yin is soft, rounded and curved. I also feel like I’m a yin person, I was reading about that recently, I think I need to actively work to have more yang in my life in order to be more balanced? I mean these descriptors? Negative, passive, feminine, dark, cool, soft, reflective, still, calm, nurture, quiet, introspective, prefers solitude, cautious etc. Hellllllllllllo. Whereas yang is more embodied by words like active, light, warm, outgoing/sociable, masculine, direct, expressive, loud, restless, productive, growth, passion etc. Things that don’t really describe me. So I think maybe in that sense I’m imbalanced. It seems I’m imbalanced in everything, so that’s great. Excellent, even. I feel like Andy is 100% the yang to my yin. Maybe that’s a factor in why we work well? We balance each other? I think he has a mix of both though, he’s much more balanced. I was about to write “he’s perfect” but I am also a biased, love sick girl soooo… but I think we balance each other well, no? Anyway I’m reading more about yin vs yang and I definitely need more Yang in me because these are all yin:
Signs of “excess” in yin: * Oversleeping * Overthinking * Slow thinking * Sluggishness * Laziness * Compulsive behaviour * Lack of motivation * Apathy * Overeating :(
Versus yang that lists things like anger, restlessness, violence, frustration, inability to relax & let go, insomnia, addictions, need for constant stimulation, regular headaches etc.
And “personality traits” in yin: * imagination * peacefulness * wisdom (not for meee) * relaxation * satisfaction (?) * persistence (only with some things) * introversion
Versus yang that lists things like action, ambition, courage, adventurousness, extroversion, getting things done etc.
And “activities” for yin: * yoga * tai chi * slow walking * golf * qi gong * weight lifting * stretching
Versus yang that lists things like cardio, running, fast dancing, wrestling, hiking, swimming, biking etc.
Anyway I know this is all just one of those things, but also it makes total sense. But this reminds me of the therapy lesson where I learned I like these sorts of things, similar to the Myers Briggs thing etc, because I don’t really know who I am and so I find being grouped into a category really affirming and makes me feel less… outsidey. Which is a thing for me as I don’t easily click with people, I can get along fine with more or less anyone but I don’t genuinely enjoy the company of just anyone and I find it very difficult to be myself with just anyone, I have some form of a wall up with everyone bar a couple of people like my parents, Andy, M and K to an extent. But it also depends, if I don’t spend time with someone for awhile my walls go back up. It’s a huge reason why I don’t really enjoy social things, if it’s a one on one thing I can but in a group? Even with the girls from work who I know well, but I can’t relax and I don’t enjoy myself at all. I try to but I just feel like I’m outside of the bubble. But so anyway all that is why I gravitate towards these groupings of personality, even looks like the fact I was watching a video about face/body types which is why I started this paragraph. I like being able to see examples and do a quiz and find out I’m whatever and then seeing similarities in others who are in the group. It makes me feel included and less alone. It basically all comes down to the fact I always feel like I’m on the outside, of everything. I don’t feel included in anything really. Which comes back to my self esteem/self worth… or lack thereof. I’m wondering when I’m meant to be getting more of that btw, like WHEN? It’s the root of all my issues. Mostly.
I’ve been wondering if I should consider lightening my eyebrows… that sounds kinda crazy, well crazy in the land of eyebrow stuff, but idk. I have warm brown hair… but basically black eyebrows? It’s weird and I’ve always hated it. I know eyebrows always lean cooler than the hair on your head, so that’s natural, but idk, it’s just my hair is so warm and my brows so cool - it’s always irked me. I’ve never quite realised it was that though, I just always thought something was off, but I’m now starting to wonder if my brows should be ever so lightened. I never even thought of it as a potential solution til I saw some girl doing it and it gave her a much softer look. I know they also need to be darker by a shade or two, well they don’t NEED to be but that’s generally the natural look and I only want a natural result. So a deep brown? Because right now they’re damn near black. And I find the black jarring against my fair skin too, I like having dark brows - I would hate to have light/fair brows, and dark brows are supposedly wanted because they make the person with them appear younger, or rather fair brows can age a face. So I like that mine are dark… I just want them MAYBE a fraction lighter. But the idea scares me! Because if you bleach them then anything you add on top will likely lean super warm and idk. So idk how I’d even go about it. The woman I watched doing it on YT just used an at home bleach kit or something and she used it several times so I guess it won’t do much but still… I’m scared :(
I set up my new monitor!!!!!!!!!!! By myself!!!!!!! I know how tiny it is but I’m still so pleased with myself. I felt so embarrassed telling Andy, or less embarrassed and more silly/stupid I guess. Like it’s such a nothing thing but idk, I was nervous and I wrote out a step by step list to work through so I wouldn’t get overwhelmed and things while doing it. And when I say step by step I literally mean:

1. Unwrap the boxes and take each item out
2. Make sure to keep them in their own little areas and don’t mix them up
3. Clear my desk of everything
4. Clean my desk
5. Set up the new monitor with the stand
6. Place both monitors on the desk
7. Plug both monitors into power source
8. Put laptop on the desk
9. Put the HDMI connector usb into the laptop
10. Put one monitor HDMI cable into the laptop, as normal
11. Put the other monitor HDMI cable into the connecter
12. Connector should be connected to laptop with only one external HDMI a cable inside
13. Turn on my laptop and see if they all connect up - don’t stress if they don’t
14. Play around/google/ask Andy if any issues
15. Arrange my new desk! Try use the cable tidy things and make it nice.

So I mean, an absolute step by step. It didn’t cover all the steps as I forgot about the mouse parts and things. But anyway I did itttttt. I need to move the stuff around though because they’re too far apart but I’ll do that tomorrow. I also need to work out how to add an extra plug so I can charge my laptop too as there’s not enough plugs.
I asked him if he wanted to watch Bridg erton and I wish I hadn’t because he feels weird about it. I only asked because idk, wishful thinking? I want to watch it with him :( From season one, obviously. Idk I know he doesn’t want to so I won’t push it, but I want to show him shows I love too. I just like regency era stuff like this and idk. I shouldn’t have asked, now he thinks I want to watch with someone else? Like… who? I guess mum or M. But why get suss about that. Anyway. I guess I’ll watch it by myself, like I expected. I can’t wait for the music. And the costumes!!!!!!!! My favourite. Anyway idk. I just want to share things I love with him the way he does with me.. but maybe I just don’t like anything he’ll like?
I want the Laura Mercier strawberry blush a lot :( But I’m really trying to not buy makeup I don’t need and I already have 30-odd blushes which I don’t get enough use out of, including LM ones. But it’s such a pretty colour!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I had a trillion dollars so I could have all the colours and formulas my little heart desired. But also in saying that I love the idea of being one of those women who have one makeup bag and everything fits inside, and they have maybe one or two shades or blush/lip colour and the rest is just one. It seems so easy and simple and I would really like to be like that but I am definitely not like that at all. I’m slowly learning to be more like that with skincare because that’s how it should be, but makeup…? Even though I don’t wear a lot I just love having it and looking at it. Like I just swiped some highlighter on my hand the other day to look at how shimmery it was, I didn’t apply it to my face, I just had a tiny swipe on my hand and I’d just look at it now and then. I only do that with highlighter though obviously and I love shimmery glittery sparkly things. Mum has always called me a magpie for a reason.
He’s asleep. I miss him. I can’t wait til we live together and when he’s asleep and I’m not and I miss him I can just go snuggle in next to him for a while. But not too close, as he gets too hot. I also don’t want to wake him. The idea of him doing the same with me makes me feel like floating on a cloud. And the time he said he’d still cuddle me to sleep even when he was on a different sleep cycle to me??????? Still obsessed. I wonder if that was a turning point in when my feelings were developing? I know I already fancied the hell out of him, I did from the beginning and I fell so hard and so fast for him. But I wonder if when he said that it was one of those moments that cemented him as the kind of man he is? Or rather the kind of partner he’d be? Because I’ve always wanted someone that cares about what makes me happy and I mean let’s not beat around the bush, I’ve not had a relationship where that’s been a priority to them. So the fact he knows I love being held and cuddled and I would sometimes miss it when he slept differently but if I wanted it he’d come to bed and stay with me til I fell asleep or close enough. And the fact he didn’t see it as anything special, it was just a normal thought to him?! It’s such a minor thing in comparison to everything else he has done for me and everything he has been to me and everything he’s helped me through, but it’s just a little thing that means everything. Anyway.
I watched wish with M tonight, it wasn’t good. I just can’t get on board with the latest movies of theirs lately, they’re just so bleh. The music isn’t right - there’s nothing magical about it and I wonder if it’s because they seem to hire pop music people not composers and things now? And the animation is never 2D anymore, which tbh I understand and that’s purely nostalgia of mine than anything bad but the animation doesn’t feel magical either anymore. Apart from some of the scenes were beautiful. Anyway.
I think I’ll stop now. It’s 9:30 so it’s too late for to start BT so I think I’ll read for a lil bit then go to sleep soon. Night night

For many couples, the journey to parenthood can be a challenging one, filled with emotional and physical hurdles. In recent years, holistic approaches to enhancing fertility have gained popularity, with yoga emerging as a powerful tool. Fertility yoga, designed specifically to support conception, offers numerous benefits by reducing stress, balancing hormones, and improving reproductive health. This article explores how yoga can assist in the journey to pregnancy and provides guidance on incorporating this practice into your life.

The Benefits of Yoga for Fertility

1. Stress Reduction: Stress is a significant factor that can negatively impact fertility. Yoga to get pregnant encourages relaxation through deep breathing, meditation, and gentle movements, helping to lower cortisol levels and create a calm, supportive environment for conception.
2. Hormonal Balance: Certain yoga poses stimulate the endocrine system, which is responsible for hormone production and regulation. By practicing these poses, you can help balance hormones critical for ovulation and conception.
3. Improved Blood Circulation: Yoga enhances blood flow to the reproductive organs, ensuring they receive adequate oxygen and nutrients. This improved circulation can support the overall health of the reproductive system.
4. Strengthening the Body: Yoga builds strength and flexibility, particularly in the pelvic region. Stronger pelvic muscles can support reproductive organs and contribute to a healthier pregnancy.
5. Emotional Well-being: The emotional toll of trying to conceive can be overwhelming. Yoga fosters a positive mindset, helps manage anxiety, and promotes emotional resilience, which is beneficial during this time.

Essential Yoga Poses for Fertility

Incorporating specific yoga poses into your routine can target the reproductive organs and create a conducive environment for conception. Here are some recommended poses:

1. Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose):
   • Benefits: Opens the hips, increases blood flow to the pelvic region, and promotes relaxation.
   • How to Do It: Lie on your back, bring the soles of your feet together, and let your knees fall open to the sides. Support your knees with cushions if needed and relax in this position for several minutes.
2. Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose):
   • Benefits: Strengthens the pelvic floor, stimulates the reproductive organs, and enhances circulation.
   • How to Do It: Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips towards the ceiling, clasp your hands beneath you, and hold the pose, focusing on your breath.
3. Viparita Karani (Legs Up the Wall Pose):
   • Benefits: Promotes relaxation, improves circulation, and helps relieve lower back pain.
   • How to Do It: Sit close to a wall, lie on your back, and extend your legs up the wall. Rest in this position, with your arms relaxed by your sides.
4. Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend):
   • Benefits: Stretches the lower back and hamstrings, reduces stress, and calms the mind.
   • How to Do It: Sit with your legs extended in front of you, hinge at your hips, and reach forward to grasp your feet or shins. Maintain a gentle stretch without straining.
5. Balasana (Child’s Pose):
   • Benefits: Provides gentle stretching for the back and hips, promotes relaxation, and reduces stress.
   • How to Do It: Kneel on the floor, sit back on your heels, and fold forward, extending your arms in front or alongside your body. Rest your forehead on the mat and breathe deeply.

Integrating Yoga into Your Daily Routine

To maximize the benefits of yoga for fertility, consistency is key. Aim to practice these poses and other relaxation techniques daily. Here are some tips for incorporating yoga into your routine:

1. Create a Calm Space: Designate a quiet, comfortable area for your practice. Use cushions, mats, and props to support your body in the poses.
2. Set a Regular Schedule: Choose a time of day that works best for you, whether it’s in the morning to start your day peacefully or in the evening to unwind.
3. Combine with Other Healthy Habits: Complement your yoga practice with a balanced diet, adequate hydration, and sufficient sleep to support overall fertility health.
4. Stay Patient and Positive: Remember that the journey to conception can take time. Maintain a positive attitude and trust in the process, knowing that you are taking proactive steps to enhance your fertility.

Conclusion

Yoga for pregnancy planning offers a holistic and nurturing approach to support fertility and prepare the body and mind for pregnancy. By integrating specific poses that promote relaxation, hormonal balance, and reproductive health, you can create an optimal environment for conception. Embrace yoga as a part of your daily routine and enjoy the physical and emotional benefits it brings as you embark on your journey to parenthood.

I’m 35 with two littles, 4 and 2 years old. Before kids I was such a career woman, climbing the corporate ladder and applying to get my MBA. After I had my first kid, my world shifted and all I wanted to do was focus on being a mom. After working it out with my husband, I was able to become a SAHM for 2/2.5 years. It was a big shift transitioning from career woman into a SAHM, but I loved it. Being a SAHM is hard work, but I loved the quality time with my son. I didn’t want to lose my work skills, so I started a part time side business.
After my 2nd was born, expenses grew and I knew I needed to go back to full time work to help financially support my family. I was worried the gap in career would set me back, but I was luckily and gratefully able to find a project manager role at a big company, hybrid work, office is near our home, and much higher pay than before.
I’ve been working full time for 1 year now, and I’m feeling incredibly burnt out. I realize I’m good at my job, and have been getting recognized with spotlight awards for my projects. But the workload and stress is so much to stay on top of it. I still have my side business too. It’s bothering me so much that I don’t have nearly as much time with my kids anymore or myself. I constantly feel behind. I’ve been wanting to quit or find a lower stress part time job that’s not as front facing.
I feel like I should be more grateful but it’s been so hard to find that work/life balance that all I want to do is quit and find a different role.
My husband is incredibly supportive and proud of what I do, but doesn’t like that I’m working so much and not taking care of my self. I don’t like it either but I’m so burnt out/maybe depressed that I can’t find a motivation to change.
Not sure what advice I’m looking for maybe just needing to vent

Hey, so you ever get a birthday present that's so not your style, but you really can't return it because it'd be really awkward? Normally it's like, I dunno. Shoes, or shirts or something like that, right?
For me it was four fire-breathing horses.
Okay, so I should clarify. My dad didn't really give me four fire-breathing ponies to keep. It was more of a test for him to treat me like his son again.
See, I just recently got out of a Styx oath that would have led me to eternal damnation if I didn't fulfill it. It's a long story, but to keep it short: I swore an oath on the Styx to be a brave hero by my eighteenth birthday when I really should have just pinkie promised. But yeah. My dad, God of War and dad of the year took it well. …In that he pretty much said that I was a waste of space, disowned me and he'd personally hand me over to the Styx for eternal damnation.
Nice guy. Really should get into motivational speeches.
The night before, after riding the high of not having the threat of being sent to Super Hell I had a pretty bad dream. I mean, it wasn’t the normal David nightmare. It wasn't me killing endless hordes of monsters while my dad laughed at how pathetic I was.
Well, half of that. It was just my dad. To be honest, rather I’d take the monsters.
He was laughing at me, with that smug face of his, in that all-leather biker outfit with the shades that made him look even more like an asshole, as if that's hard to believe.
Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to cuss. Anyways yeah. Me and my dad. Not the best relationship, even by demigod standards.
He gave me a toothy grin, like a shark’s as he circled around me. I instinctively stood up straight, at attention. As much as I hate my dad, ticking off a god is a pretty dumb thing to do. Plus, I was pretty dumbfounded to see him here in my dream of all things.
“Well, color me surprised. To be honest, boy, I thought I'd end up taking care of this myself. So, congratulations on that front. But, sorry to burst your bubble, it might be good enough for ol’ Styxy but…it’s not good enough for me. But, you know, I'm a generous guy! Prove me you're a warrior. Do that, and I'll welcome you back in the family with open arms. I even got the perfect way for you to prove yourself.”
Without warning, he tossed me a set of keys with a miniature boar-headed keychain and a really big switchblade on the end of it. I fumbled with it before slipping it into my pocket.
“An oldie but a goodie. Used to let my sons prove themselves to me all the time with this one. Now, I'm sure once you see what I got planned you'll know the rules, considering you're a fuckin’ nerd. But in case you forget…”
He lowered his shades, revealing balls of fire as he glared right at me.
“Sundown. My temple. Don't be late or I'll toss you in the Styx myself. Well! Have fun, yeah? I'm looking forward to watching you fail this one, like your last quest. Now, get up. Clock’s ticking after all…”
“Gaah!”
I snapped my eyes open, falling out of my bed and onto the hard floor under me. As soon as I hit the floor, I could hear one of my many siblings start to stir from their sleep. Immediately, my sister Tiffany started to sigh as she shot up from her bed. I could see her pastel pink sleep mask perched on her head as she glared into the darkness of the early morning. She groaned in frustration, her words cutting through the quiet of the dawn.
"What the hell are you idiots doing?"
To be fair, I could see why she’d think that. Most of my siblings were fond of pranking each other every now and then. The chaos of the Ares cabin was unmatched from most cabins, except maybe Hermes. But, when you cut off her beauty sleep, the threat of an angry Tiff was usually was enough to make nighttime a truce. Usually.
My sister rubbed her eyes and looked down at me. I sheepishly gave a smile as I rubbed my head, still sore from when it hit the floor.
"Seriously, David?"
Tiffany got out of bed and silently made her way to me. She wordlessly held out a hand and I grasped at it as she pulled me up.
"Thanks Tiff. I had this dream, where Dad called me a nerd and was talking to me about testing me now that my Styx Oath is..."
I felt something hard and metallic poke against my leg, from my sweats pocket. I pulled out the unfamiliar object and to my surprise, there were the same keys from my dream. My eyes widened as I realized that my dream was a little bit more than usual demigod stuff.
"Oh. That...wasn't a dream."
She raised an eyebrow as she looked at the keys that sat in my hand. I played with the accessories, absentmindedly feeling the boar head and the switchblade knife. She leaned in, peering at the keys as the dawn started to rise.
"What the hell are those for?"
She looked to the keys, then back at my face, and then the keys again. She looked at me as if I just said that Kronos was about to come back and throw an ice cream party courtesy of the Titans.
"You're telling me Dad gave those to you or something? You're joking. Have to be."
I shook my head, but I could see why she thought so. I was pretty sure I was near the bottom, if not at the bottom of his list of favorite kids. If I was being honest, I was pretty sure he wanted me dead more than a few times.
"Tiff, you know that I'm not exactly Dad's favorite by a long shot. Why would I say something like that and risk him getting even mad more mad at me because of my lying? Dad disowned me, remember? He mentioned something along the line in my dream that if I pass his test I'd be treated as one of his sons again but he didn't mention what it..."
The gears started turning as I looked at the keys in my hands.
”A test…keys…sundown…oh no. Oh, no.”
I immediately pocketed up my keys and started putting on my shoes. No time for pants, sweats would do just fine, I just had to make sure to take my wallet with me, considering I was going to New York now. I had to be quick or this test was over before it even started.
"No. I...I think I know what it is. But if I'm right, then shoot I gotta get going then! Before our brothers take it."
In hindsight, I probably should have told Tiff a bit about my thoughts. But, the more I delayed the more issues that could have cropped up. I just had to make sure it was safe.
"Take what? Where the hell are you going?!"
I burst out of the cabin, staring at what was in front of our cabin. I felt a bit of nervousness bubble up as my thoughts were proven true. Tiffany was close behind me as she walked outside our cabin. I looked at her face and caught an expression of wonder as whatever she was going to ask me was forgotten. Parked in front of the cabin was a red and gold Harley. The seat was white leather and gave a sorta…humany vibe to it that I did not wanna think about. Only one thing came to mind, something I knew instinctively from the moment I saw it. Dad's War Chariot.
Or as the god of war would call it, his chariot.
"I...I think dad wants me to take his ride for a spin."
I ran my hand over the cold metal, and I realized what Dad meant about the “oldie but a goodie.” A while back, before the Second Titan war ended, and all of the children of the gods had to be claimed, there was a ritual all sons of Ares went through. It was something all my brothers did at fifteen. Drive around his Chariot and return it before sundown. It wasn't easy, my Godly siblings, Phobos and Deimos both loved to mess with whoever was in charge of the chariot at the time. And you had to deal with monsters too, but overall when it came to demigod stuff it wasn’t the most dangerous around. I dunno if that says a lot about how dangerous this life can get though.
But, shortly after the then-counselor Clarisse La Rue became the first girl to do it, Dad pulled the plug. I dunno if it was good ol’ sexism, someone totaling it, or dad not wanting to let all of his kids drive his ride, either way it wasn't super common nowadays. It wasn't like he stopped, but it was something given, not a right. Dad letting me do this was him at least giving me a chance to prove myself to be one of his kids, which was more than I expected to be honest.
I took a breath as I looked at Dad’s ride, feeling a pit of unease in my stomach as I started to climb in. If it wouldn't end up with me being tormented for the rest of my short life, I'd tell him no and go back to sleep. But, telling a god no, especially my dad is a neat way to be turned into a rodent. Or a fine red paste. Or a rodent that would be turned into said paste.
Tiffany's brows furrowed as she processed my words, a layer of disbelief on her face as she chewed over it.
You? He wants you to drive it? I...that...what the hell?"
I fought off a wince as she looked at me, then the ride, then back at me again. I could tell she was a bit annoyed. I mean, yeah from her perspective I was singled out by dad to do something she probably wanted to do for a while. I felt a pit of guilt in my stomach, it wasn't fair, really. But at the same time I had to do this.
"I mean, seriously? He must be out-"
She cut herself off. Calling my dad crazy was another way to get turned into a rat that would then be turned into a fine paste. Actually a lot of things carried the threat, my dad is kinda a jerk. I sighed, figuring I might as well tell her about why Dad was doing this. I didn't wanna hide it, but it's not like I like to talk about the fact that I've been disowned for two years. She knew, most of us did. But it's not something I like bringing up, because yeah. It sucks.
"I read a bit about previous Ares campers. He used to do this more often, at first only his sons did, but later his daughters could. I dunno why he stopped but, this isn't really like he's doing it because he's proud of me. I'm sorta disowned, remember? He said if I can drive the chariot, he'll take me back as one of you guys again. It's...more of a test to earn myself back into his good graces, I think.”
Tiffany listened to my explanation, not saying anything for a bit She looked a bit bothered about the fact that I was chosen to drive the Chariot, which again, not surprising.
"Ugh, I guess that makes sense."
I could hear the frustration in her voice as she crossed her arms. I winced again, preparing for her to resent or hate me. But to my surprise, I heard her add more in a softer voice.
"Well, don't get yourself killed trying to pass this stupid test, I don't want to have to explain to everyone why you're not coming back."
Her icy tone defrosted as she looked back at me with a bit of concern in her eyes. She seemed less annoyed and more worried about me, which was sweet. Not that I'd let her hear that. I hoped that maybe, dad would let her give it for a spin later down the road. If anyone deserved it, it would be her. I gave a nervous laugh as I took the keys out of my pocket.
"Of course, I passed my Styx Oath, didn't I? It'd be really dumb of me to die right after barely avoiding that, right? Oh, yeah. If Ellie asks for me, tell her about dad's little test he has for me. Hopefully it won't be too long but you know how it is with godly stuff. I should be back in time for us to hang out for the rest of my birthday once I do this for dad. I'll bring back something cool!”
I felt my trepidation fade away as I prepared to drive. Lots of my siblings dreamed of piloting the chariot. It wouldn't be right to reject the opportunity when it was given to me. And, who knows? Getting back in Dad's good graces (or as much as one can get in them) might help me out. At least I would have one less target on my back. As I sat down in the white leather seat, I put the keys in the ignition and instantly it began to morph.
OOC:Read this while listening to whats coming up
The front split apart into one steel horse that slowly split into two, and then four cream-colored horses that looked around with a cruel intelligence. The seat dipped, and warped before it became a horse-drawn chariot I was now standing in. The chariot was gold and blood red, adorned with the lovely images of people dying gruesome deaths, because Dad's taste in decor is somewhere between military surplus and serial killer, apparently.
“Okay…so, I need to get to Dad's temple before sundown. I don't know New York highways though, so how can I…oh hey! A gps!”
My fingers brushed against a touch screen set up on the chariot and punched The Intrepid into the coordinates. I gave one last wave to my sister before I lashed the horses and they immediately took off. I led them out of camp easily enough, but as we reached the highway they sped up to an impossible speed for a chariot. Their speed was even faster than any cars on the highway, rivaling the time that Aphrodite camper drove us to the beach once. I pulled back on the reins, trying to get them to slow down. Instead, they gave a rebellious snort and went even faster.
I would like to say that I embraced my inner Ares kid and relished the challenge. But I'm not going to lie, when you end up going past 80 MPH in a chariot, you tend to think you're going to die, fun fact. I screamed for most of the way, yanking and pulling at their reins so we could bob and weave through traffic.
It's a bit of a drive from Camp Half-Blood to New York City, I know it well, it’s a pretty common place for me to go for some monster slaying. But, up until now, I've been in the passenger seat while Argus drives. The speed of the horses really made the time go by faster. As we entered the city, the horses started to slow down and I felt a ray of hope as I started to steer them through the city. I gave a triumphant laugh as I looked down at my ETA. It was surprisingly quick, considering how congested New York can get. And I didn't see hide or hair of either one of my godly brothers, so I felt pretty good, all things considered.
“Huh. That's weird. There's not many cars today…my luck must be turning around!”
“Traffic update: Incoming Monsters. Rerouting. Cannot reroute.”
“Huh?”
Immediately, a massive boar the size of a garbage truck burst from a nearby alley way behind me. Behind the massive pig, two armored bank cars recklessly merged into traffic. One leaned out, revealing a gray-skinned human in body armor brandishing a shotgun.
“Of course! I had to open my big mouth! Is there anything that I’m going to have to deal with?”
“You are on the fastest route!”
“Well that’s just GREAT! Now I can be on the quickest way to the underworld!”
”Rerouting to: D.O.A. Records, Los Angeles.”
“Woah, woah, woah, no! Keep me on The Intrepid! The Intrepid!”
Seeing all these enemies together though, I started to put a thought in my head. They all had something in common, now that I saw them all in front of me. A boar was sacred to Ares, Spartoi too came from a dragon sacred to him. I put the pieces together as I saw the monsters come out of the woodwork and all to me. Now things made sense. The lack of Phobos and Deimos, the sacred beings to Ares, the lack of mortals on the street.
I didn't see my siblings because Dad wanted to mess with me personally.
Even now, I don't know if he wanted to test me in a Spartan way, or if he just wanted to get rid of me without kinslaying. Either way, I couldn't back down now. Not when I was so close. I snapped on the reins and the rebellious horses continued on their path, bickering and weaving left and right as they snorted and whinnied.
I heard the wiz of something traveling through the air and quickly moved out of the way. A metal feather hit the chariot, bouncing off the hull and onto the ground. I looked up and saw a few birds. They were black and crow-like, but their feathers had a metallic sheen, like iron. Their wings flapped and I heard the sound of metal on metal as they soared above me.
“Dad called in feather-shooters too? Come on!”
I steered left and right as I evaded the metal feathers shooting at me. The newcomers behind me quickly gained as I bobbed and weaved. I had to figure a way out of this, and fast. Problem was, I was quickly outnumbered and outmatched. I wasn't the best at archery, and my sword could shoot a blast of force, courtesy of the then Forgemaster. Main issue was it took a bit to charge, and I couldn't take them on so high up.
I couldn't run. I needed to fight out of this. But even if I could fight the two Spartoi and the big pig, the problem was the birds. I didn't have a ranged option…or did I? I looked to the horses, breathing embers as they huffed and pulled the chariot further on. Ares kids couldn't talk to horses, but these were godly horses. They seemed smarter than your average horse. Maybe I could talk them into behaving, the same way I got some of my siblings to listen to the plan during Capture the Flag.
“Hey guys, are you bored? I'm sure Dad and my brothers take all the good fights, huh? You know, if you guys continue fighting each other, I might lose this and you guys will miss out on a good fight.”
At first, I thought it fell on deaf ears. But then, they stopped their jostling and started to take a more unified path as we raced along the streets. Like I thought, they enjoyed a good fight as much as their owner did.
“That's what I like to see. Look, we're pretty surrounded right now. What do you say we rampage a bit before I take you guys home?”
An evil-sounding whinny came from the horses. I couldn’t really speak horse, but I took that as an okay and pointed at the birds above us. Did I feel stupid? Kinda. But as long as it worked, I couldn’t complain.
“See them? All yours. I'll cover you guys from the ground forces, and in exchange, you guys fall in line. Alright?”
A burst of fire came from one of the horses in response and I heard a loud squawk as it engulfed one of the feather-shooters. I breathed a sigh in relief as the rest of the birds started to scatter. They veered left and right in an attempt to avoid the flaming streams that were now sporadically being fired in their direction.
“Alright! Good job, I'll leave it to you!”
I gave a smile as I turned behind to my land-based foes, quickly gaining on me. I could hear the occasional woosh of fire as the horses fought the birds. One of the armored trucks caught up to my right and one of the spartoi leaned out of the vehicle. They aimed down the sights and pointed their shotgun at me.
“Sudden traffic in your area. You will be delayed by…five minutes. You are still on the fastest route!”
“Woah, that’s not fair! Come on Dad! A gun? Really!?”
I felt a tug in my stomach. It wasn’t something I could do a lot in a row without being exhausted, but I had some sorta pull when it came to weapons. When I gave a command, they were able to fall right out of their owner’s hands.
“Alright, let’s even the playerfield shall we?”
I held out my hand and they dropped it, the gun fell onto the ground, crushed by the wheels of the car. The second caught up to my left and once again, a spartoi leaned out of their car, weapon in hand.
“Another one!? Come on! How am I going to…”
I was jerked to the side as the horses suddenly veered right. At first, I thought it was the horses misbehaving again, but then a monstrous squeal came from behind me, rushing forwards.
Crash
I heard the sound of steel groaning as the boar rushed past the truck, pushing their truck out of the way as they aggressively charged forward. It was a good thing I managed to get out of the way, or else I would have been in trouble. I could see the spartoi shaking their fist as they spun out, their car massively dented with a massive gash in the armor. Now that I had to deal with two enemies, I decided to use the boar’s momentum to my advantage. I pulled back on the reins and the boar kept barreling on, too fast to stop as I made the chariot suddenly stop and then take a sudden turn away from the temple. The boar ran straight into a brick wall, seemingly dazed but otherwise okay.
”Rerouting...”
That temporarily took care of two of my enemies. Now that I had one to worry about, and my horses were pretty steady, I could start this fight in earnest. I kept one hand on the reins as I grabbed my Miku keychain. I unclipped it, and the keychain turned into a katana, with said keychain still on the bottom. It was my sword, Anime (I want to clarify, my friend Jules named it, not me). One of the Spartoi readied a spear and lunged at me. I parried it with my blade, and stabbed at their chest. I felt my blade plunge into their body. I pulled away at it, slashing at it again to tear it apart. To my disappointment though, the monster quickly reformed.
I don't know what I expected, to be honest. They wouldn't be much of an immortal soldier if they died after the first hit. But it bought me valuable time as we pushed forward. Almost as soon as its bones knit back together, it struck at me. I guarded once again, my sword starting to glow brighter and brighter with each strike. Our blades clashed and separated again and again for, I don’t know how long to be honest. I was putting up a good fight, but I just couldn’t gain the upperhand in that fight. For starters, if it was a monster or even a demigod it’d be ten ways to Tartarus at the moment. But, no matter how I sliced or diced it, the immortal soldier kept on coming back. Also, I just wasn't used to multitasking like that, I held on as tightly as I could, but the brief times I practiced Chariot combat with my friends Jules and Cel, I was either driving or fighting. Both at the same time was hard, and I was lucky that the horses were so cooperative.
I heard the whinny of one of the horses ahead as I looked back to the front. No sign of the birds meant that there was a few extra-crispy feather-shooters along the road somewhere, which was good news. But then, I looked out in front and realized that there was a big problem. One of the trucks we left behind somehow got in front of us, blocking the road with their car. Five spartoi were standing outside of the car, swords and spears drawn as they headed the chariot off.
At this moment, I knew I was screwed. I was too fast to just stop. And, even if I did stop, I’d have to deal with all the angry skeleton men chasing me down. I just winced, bracing for impact. But then, I heard a neigh as the horses pulling my chariot started to turn into steel and combined once more. The chariot started to shift, the creak of metal folding and turning. I quickly sheathed my sword as the reins turned into chrome handlebars which I gripped like my life depended on it. The chariot continued to morph until once again it was a motorcycle with flame patterns. I veered as left as I could, narrowly avoiding hitting the side of a nearby building as I sped past the skeletal blockade. I braked, motorcycle now turning back into the chariot form as I turned back and watched as the car that was chasing me slammed straight into the other.
The now pissed spartoi stumbled out of the wreckage and started to scream undead obscenities to each other. I couldn’t speak ghost, but whatever they said seemed to be pretty rude, because both sides started to unsheath their swords and get into an all-out brawl. One of the spartoi sliced the other in two, and they didn’t reform this time as their essence slid into their black sword.
Huh. Well, that was one way to deal with them.
“Whew! Good horses.”
I turned, ready to snap the reins once again, but I stopped as I saw what was waiting for me at the other end of the road. The boar, still very much on my trail stood in front of me. It pawed at the ground in front of it, and my horses started to do the same. I stared at the boar, unsheathing Anime once again as we stared off.
“Keep straight for…500 feet.”
The thing about boars is that they can be pretty deadly. They’re brutish and aggressive, and they go down fighting. You know the crossguard that’s near the pointy end of a spear? That’s so the animal doesn’t run up the spear to take you out with it. You don’t think them being that dangerous, but there’s a reason that dad’s symbol is a boar.
I had to make this quick, and efficient or I’d end up maimed, or worse. I snapped the reins one more time, and the horses started to dash down the street. The boar squealed as it barreled to me. I could see it get closer and closer. I grit my teeth, holding my blade in my right hand as it started to shine more and more brightly. My hand held onto the grip tightly, bracing for my next action.
I’d have one shot at this.
I miss, I’m dead.
I hesitate, I’m dead.
I don’t hit the vitals, I’m dead.
Time started to slow around me as I watched the boar rush at the chariot, enraged as it reached the point where there was no stopping it now. I could see the powerful muscles push and pull, the beast using all its power in an attempt to off me for good. I felt heat coming from the front as all four horses breathed a stream of flames at the swine. The boar kept on charging forwards, through the fire as the flames engulfed it. An angry squeal erupted from the inferno as it lept up from the sea of flames, still on fire as it used its strong legs to clear the horses and go straight for me.
Breathe in
I felt a sense of calm wash over me as I pulled my sword hand back. My blade shined brilliantly, even in the May sun. I watched it fall ever closer to me, the flames still eating away at the flesh. I stared into its ever-angry eyes, burning brighter than the flames surrounding it. I don’t falter. I’ve faced monsters that have crushed my bones. I don’t feel fear. I’ve fought creatures that could have killed me in five seconds. This is it. I need it to be perfect.
Breathe out.
SHING
I swung my blade and a rush of air followed it, making an arc that flew to the boar. I don’t doubt my skills. I simply watch, confident that this will end the monster once and for all. The blast, charged from my fight flew unimpeded. The beast’s chuffs turned into surprised squeal as it sliced the boar cleanly in two, bisecting it from the snout down. I sheathed my sword and put both hands back on the reins, eyes on the road as I barely watched what came next. The flaming boar started to fade into dust, still falling through the air until only a tusk was left. I held out my arm and caught it with my right hand.
“Oh hot, hot!”
I juggled it a bit with one hand before placing it down on the chariot floor. I grinned triumphantly as I realized what happened. Dad tried to test me, to see if I was “worthy” or he genuinely tried to kill me. Either way, I beat him this time, proving to him that I was more. That he underestimated me when we first met, that I was a brave warrior all along. In the end, I proved to him that I could fulfill my Styx oath even past what was expected of me. I laughed as I sped up, I felt pretty good about my victory. I wondered how his face would look, or if I could read his expression past his dumb sunglasses.
But as I rounded the corner, a terrifying sight came to my face as my glee turned to sorrow. I watched with horror as I realized Dad’s influence on the fight kept a more dangerous foe than any before at bay. Now that the fight was over, he had no reason to keep it around, and for once, I wasn’t sure if I could get through this unscathed. I gulped as I put my hands on the reins, not ready to face the impossible challenge alone. I hoped it wouldn’t break me as I prepared what little I had to fight this foe.
”There is an unusual amount of traffic in your area today.”
“Now you tell me…”
None other, than New York traffic.
I’d like to say that I did something else. Like I defeated an army of drakons on my way, or managed to fight off crazed demigods sent by my dad…but no. It was pretty much just traffic the rest of the way there. It was long and arduous, but I managed to make my way over to The Intrepid. After that traffic,I had to say, the amount of crazy drivers was almost San Francisco bad. I’d have taken as many spartoi and boars as dad could throw at me, if it meant I wasn’t drowning in the sea of cars. I drove down Pier 86, feeling a sense of relief as I got closer and closer to the aircraft carrier turned museum. As I got within eyeshot, I realized that dad said to take it to the temple, but not where to drop it off at.
It would be really stupid to end up failing just because I wasn’t sure where to leave dad’s ride. I got off the chariot, and was eyeing the prices of a ticket.
“Adults are thirty-six, Seniors and College Students…thirty four… Oh hey! Children of Ares get in free! Now, how do I wheel dad’s chariot through the front…”
Suddenly the side gate opened, lights flashing and clanging as it automatically retracted. The person standing in the booth waved me over and I hopped back onto the chariot, driving it by cautiously. They were dressed like a security guard, shades covering their eyes as they looked down onto their phone that they were absentmindedly playing with. Eyebrow piercings peeked out from behind the shades. They were tall, looked about early twenties, and seemed like your average bored museum guard, if not for that sorta godly aura I got from them.
“Take the chariot this way, Lord Ares will be at the end of Pier 86. Can’t miss him.”
I eyed the godling suspiciously. They seemed like one of those myriad younger and minor gods I saw when I was on Olympus. Not anyone I’d know, but if they wanted to stop me, it’d be annoying to get past them. They didn’t seem to be that dangerous, at least right now. But when you were a demigod, you learned to be wary of free handouts.
“Uh…look man, I’m going to be honest. I just got through some hellish traffic to get through here. So if like, you’re leading me into a trap or if my godly brothers are going to show up to try and take this, can you just start the fight and save me the trouble? It’s been a long morning, and I just wanna get this over with.”
I stared back at my reflection through their mirrored shades. Growing up, I always thought of myself as gangly and awkward. I could see my messed up hair, tousled from the wind. I stood tall, and although I wasn’t the buffest Ares kid around, you couldn’t call me skinny anymore. I looked almost heroic as I held the reins atop the chariot. Was that how I looked now? The godling shook their head as they chuckled, putting down their phone as they looked at me in the eyes.
“Kid, even for a god like Ares who likes conflict, you don’t do something like that in a temple. You can’t just attack his kid on his own grounds. Plus, it's part of the rules of war to respect neutralized zones. Trust me, you’re home free.”
“Oh. Um, thank you.”
He nodded and went back on his phone. I snapped on the reins and the chariot trotted along, even fire-breathing horses had to follow traffic laws apparently. I was on guard, not taking the godling’s words at face value. Mortals in a daze parted around the chariot, a few snapping pictures at me. I freaked out for a split second before I heard the tourists being in awe at what I heard to be a “vintage bomber”. Dumbfounded, I stopped for a brief second. It didn’t even have wings! But, I could see the mist shimmer around me and for a brief moment, see the silhouette of the plane around the chariot. It was an old fighter, a single propellor with flaming horse art on the nose.
“P-40B Warhawk? Alright, guess we’re working with that.”
I frowned a bit, trying to think if I knew that before this, from a school project or if it was more demigod shenanigans. I was never into fighter jets, but when you’re a demigod sometimes your parent’s godly influence shoves itself into your head and it’s always confusing when it does.
I drove the “plane” to the end of the pier, where I could see my dad sitting down on a barricade, blocking off a massive plane above him. It wasn’t used for war apparently, because I had no clue what type of plane it was. Looked cool though, it was really narrow around the nose end and the wings were all near the back end. He had a big wicked-looking combat knife in his hand that he used to clean his nails. He looked up at me, disinterestedly, before going back down to the knife.
“You’re alive.”
I couldn’t tell from his tone if that was a good or bad thing. It seemed… neutral. Like he was stating the sky was blue. But, overall I’d take that as a good thing, considering our last meeting. I spoke a bit warily, not sure if he was in a good or bad mood considering my victory.
“Uh, so Father. I’m finished with what you-”
“No. You’re not.”
“I’m not!? Do I need to do anything or-”
A moment of panic snuck up into my chest. For a brief moment I was afraid he was going to pull a twelve labors on me, but then he whistled and held out his hand.
“Not until you give me the keys kid, then it’s done.”
I hopped out of the chariot, the reins in my hand turning into keys as the horses went back into their motorcycle form. I somewhat clumsily tossed it to my dad, who grabbed it. He pushed himself off his perch, first making sure his motorcycle was unharmed. Then, he turned to me, eying me up and down as he circled around where I stood. I stood still, at attention as I felt my heart racing in my chest. I felt like a deer, cornered by a wolf just waiting to strike. Yet, the first pang of anxiety soon settled down. If he wanted to take care of me, he would have done so already. Or sent something more dangerous like a Drakon at me when I was driving. I felt my heart leap up into my throat as he clapped a big hand on my shoulder. The gesture wasn’t hostile, if anything, the motion seemed friendly. But his grip was anything but. His hand, like the claws of a tiger dug into my shoulder as he grinned at me.
“I have to say, I thought you were a lost cause, but look at you kid. Took you long enough, but I guess you have enough of me in you after all. Well, a late bloomer is better than being completely useless, but man! You were one of my most pathetic kids when you took that oath. I don’t think I had a kid as wimpy as you in a long time. Well, I’m glad my little nudge helped you keep that oath up after all. It would have been a waste of a perfectly good warrior if you didn’t shape up.”
I looked at him, dumbfounded. He helped me? He didn’t do anything! I wasn’t stupid enough to point it out, but I guess he knew what I was thinking as I felt his grip tighten as he growled.
“Come on, don’t give me that look, kid. Oh, don’t look so surprised. Tip of advice: don’t dip your toes into cards. You have a horrible poker face. Your mom was the same way. But, yes. I helped. Not that kids these days would understand. Parents these days are too soft, including most of us gods. Back in Sparta, we’d leave our kids to fend for themselves. Just give them barely enough food and let them hunt or steal the rest. If they end up dying in the hunt or starved, well that’s fine. They were too weak to do anything of note anyway. You should consider yourself lucky I was generous enough to just turn my back on you.”
He chuckled low, and my blood ran cold as he shook me. I shook my head, fighting off a wave of dizziness as he threatened to take off my arm.
“Oh, but that’s in the past! You passed your agōgē period, all by yourself. Now that is true strength.”
His evil grin widened as he gave me the closest thing to an approved look he’d ever given me. I furrowed my brow as I shook my head. This credit, it wasn’t mine to take, was it? Before I could think, I spoke what was on my mind.
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t do this by myself. Everywhere I went, I had someone to help me out. If it wasn’t for the help from my friends, I don’t think I would be standing here. I didn’t-”
My dad’s good mood instantly soured as his grin warped into a snarl. His grip, although somewhat friendly now seemed dangerously tight as he frustratingly interrupted me.
“Oh for the love of! I’m complimenting you, kid. Look. I don’t care about those other twerps one way or another. Allies are fine enough in war, as long as you don’t make them do all the work. Kid, you’ve gotten strong all on your own, like a true son of mine. Don’t deny you and me the kleos you rightfully deserve ever again. Shut up and just take the honor.”
“I…uh…yes, Dad.”
I was surprised that all it accounted to was a mild scolding. My dad, too seemed to calm down after I agreed with his words, as he went back to a smile. He put his hand back into his pocket as he started to walk up to his chariot. He ran his finger across the chrome finish, taking out a cloth and cleaning off my fingerprints from the metal.
“About your joyride. Not bad, not bad at all. It took you a bit to embrace your birthright, but you ended up not even scratching my ride. Nice. Nice. Saves me the trouble of buffing it out. Now, if you could only stop complaining at everything that opposed you. You’re a man, aren’t you David? Start acting like it. If you think a bag of bones and a pig are hard, just wait until your future. The stronger a warrior gets, the stronger their foes get. Make sure you’re strong enough to stand up against them before you end up a stain on the pavement.”
I heard the engine rev as he got into the seat. He threw a bag at me that I clumsily fumbled with before I fully caught it. I opened it, and a few golden drachmas shined back at me.
“Since your agōgē finished up, consider yourself un-cut off. Even I’m not heartless enough to leave a son of mine stranded in New York. Keep the rest. Feel free to hang around my temple, and help yourself to the gift shop if you want, it’s on the house, happy birthday and all that. Just don’t go overboard.”
He turned the motorcycle, wheeling it around so he could leave the pier. He turned around, giving me a few more parting words he shouted over the roar of the engine.
“Don’t think you’re done yet, David. You got a lot more to grow. Especially now that you can receive my blessings again. What, did you think that taking a good hit was all you can do? You’ll see sooner or later. See ya kid! Don’t disappoint me.”
He revved his engine one more time and took off, leaving me behind on the pier. As I watched my dad leave, I realized that with that resolved, the last of what made my Styx Oath so suffocating was finally finished. A part of me felt that I’d always keep the consequences of it with me. Either dad would continue to disown me, or I’d be horribly injured from my jobs. But, to my surprise, everything worked out alright. I worked as hard as I could, and now everything was over, truly over. I…wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I mean, like obviously I didn’t wanna have them with me for the rest of my life. But, for all of my oath’s lifespan I had the deadline looming overhead, and my expectation was that something would happen to me as a result. I was glad to have it over with, but I never felt that I could relax until now. The feeling of not having the anxiety of my imminent demise was something I wasn’t familiar with, and to be honest I still have trouble relaxing. As he disappeared into the afternoon traffic, I realized that, so too did my previous life.
Maybe…maybe I could afford to enjoy my life now after all.
OOC: And there we have it! The final David storymode relevant to this storyline! I meant to have this yesterday but I didn't see the modmail that gave me the okay until literally an hour ago oop. Which means that yes, the Chariot and Ares both are approved from the mods.
Big thank you to Tiffany's writer, angelspoint for helping me with her parts, I had a blast working with them! Hope you enjoyed David's Victory lap!

He hoi me noi my buds. It is your baker man Pirate here. With Human Trauma book two coming to a close in the next week, I wanted to shre with you all the next planned novel I am working on. This time around we will have a stuborn human mercanary, a lizard princess, and one goal---escape Heavalun Mass city. all thats in thier way is corrupt cops, gangsters, the general populace and thier willingness to tolarate one another.
Lets get this Bread.
-----
Shooting up from the blankets, Conor grabbed hold of the neck of whoever was jostling him awake, his cybernetic arm whirring while activating. Suddenly touching someone asleep was a stupid idea to do to anyone from Heavalun. Any sentient from this city was on edge most of the time and was usually particularly ornery when waking up.
He was especially prickly after years of contract killing and near-nonstop battles. While most people from Heavalun Mass City were used to fighting or having to keep an eye over their shoulder, watching for gangers, junkies, pickpockets, or the local police, his experience working and living here made him like a rubber band, ready to snap. Be that a neck, arm, leg, or whatever the poor sod he was fighting had.
“Who the fuck do you think you are,” Conor snarled, his natural and cybernetic eye narrowing and focusing in the wan light of his drab bedroom.
In an action built into him like an instinct, he willed his cybernetic eye to switch to see in infrared thermal sight, letting him get a good look at whoever this was while his natural eye adjusted to the lighting.
In bright orange, reds, and whites, Jurilra's face came into focus. She was a Jurintik, a werewolf like species; while he was human through and through. She had dull brown fur, long, dirty blonde hair, and a gaunt face and frame. The Jurintik was an alien species widespread throughout the galaxy, be it in the GU(galactic Union), Freespace, or here deep in the COS (concord of systems); you can’t swing a pipe without hitting at least two of them.
“Conor—let—-go,” Julitra gagged, clutching at Conor’s cybernetic forearm, her claws scratching roughly at the overlapping metal plates. “It’s me.”
Realizing who it was, Conor let her neck go, and she fell to the ground. He had only lifted her several centimeters off the floor, but doing that when half your torso, including your shoulders, one arm, and most of your organs were non-organic, or at least cybernetically enhanced, was a simple task, and he had done so out of sheer reflex.
“What were you thinking waking me up like that? You’re lucky I didn’t just dust you with my hand cannon,” Conor said, gesturing to the massive handgun sitting on the bedside table. “What in the stars are you doing here anyway?”
Taking a moment to rub at her neck and gag for a moment, Conor pieced together what likely happened. Considering that Julitra was naked, save for a thong, he must have hired her last night to blow off some steam—it wouldn’t be the first time he had done that when drunk.
“You didn’t pay me for last night,” Julitra said, standing up and nervously scratching her furry forearms and looking deeper into the shithole of an apartment toward the room where Conor stored all his weapons, money, and other precious items for barter or fencing purposes.
Conor sighed and scratched behind his still intact ear, the other having been halfway taken off by a frag grenade a few local years ago. After taking a moment to swing his legs out of bed, flexing his sore muscles, and rubbing his palms on his thighs, he looked up at her, having deactivated the thermal vision in his eye. “Fine; in the room top drawer on the right, you will find some bags of Murt and Syntrit. Take one of each.”
“Alright,” Julitra said, turning around and sashaying in that direction, clearly doing her best to move suavely and gracefully.
But Conor knew that was a load of Kret shit; She was little more than a strung-out junkie who just managed to keep herself on another fix fast enough by either guy like himself paying her for a quick lay or by managing not to get taken advantage of by one of the dealers on a street corner.
At least if she was selling herself for the night, she wasn’t going to end up in some slave market in the lower sections of the city or crammed into a skiff bound for a star on the far side of the galaxy. Julitra did have some kids to take care of, after all.
Not that it mattered to Conor if she went missing; there would be another skag he could bring in here. He just preferred her because she never tried to steal from him nor kill him in his sleep—finding another girl that he could trust would not be easy, especially in this shithole of a mass city. That well over a billion sentients were nestled in it did not matter; finding another piece of ass would be a pain.
“And only take one. I know how much product I have,” Conor grumbled, standing and heading toward the kitchenette. The dirty, blood-stained carpet was uncomfortable under bare feet.
God he hated going around with bare feet. It paid to have good boots to keep your feet safe from glass, nails, and other debris. That was especially important when operating in urban areas.
When he was out in the countryside or the house, he would forgo wearing them, and switch to sneekers, but being bare foot still sucked.
“I know,” Julitra replied from the room, “can I use your shower?”
“Whatever,” Conor replied flippantly, pulling down dried stulk leaves and tossing a pot of water on the stove.
So long as she didn't cause any issues with him getting started for the day, he honestly could not care less. All he needed to start the day was a pipping hot cup of stulk, and his stims. On that subject, the datapad built into his artificial arm chimed and reminded him of just that.
He frowned while retrieving the volatile cocktail of stimulants from the cupboard. He was almost out and only had enough for three days. Inside were six small autoinjectors about 20 centimeters long, marked with several warnings indicating that they should only be used in dire combat situations. But he was a particularly unique case and needed them just to survive.
After having a solid forty percent of his body replaced with cybernetics, from a metallic jaw, fake eye, a few replaced organs, torso, numerous enhanced joints, and even a few bits of wire running through his brain, the stims kept him working.
Without his friend Stich’s unique stimulant blend twice a day, Conor would start to fall apart. First would come the tremors, then body lockup, followed by seizures and eventually death. He had never made it that far in relapse; it was just easier to keep his organic parts cranked up to keep pace with his enhanced parts, and the video Stich showed him of sentients who relapsed was a good dissuasion.
Those poor sods were mangled wrecks, limbs at unnatural angles, blood, hydraulic fluid, and bone everywhere. And they were at most twenty percent wired up—what he could end up like was something he would rather not learn.
Dutifully and like clockwork, Conor ripped the cap off an auto-injector and shoved it into his thigh; a dull hiss sounded out as the brackish fluid flowed into his muscles. Just as he tossed the now empty injector into the trashcan, the sounds of Julitra starting the shower and humming flowed into the joint living and bedroom.
While Julitra was showering, Conor's friend and coworker Brakul sent him a message.
Brakul: Hey, conor, what are you doing tonight? I think I might have a contract for us to pick up.
Conor: No plans at this point. I just gotta get Julitra out of my safe house.
Brakul: Are you still fucking that scag? You know that won’t end well.
Conor: Yeah, gotta get my dick wet somehow. Besides, aren’t you still plowing that Kurilta we worked with a few months back—the one with the red hair?
Brakul: Yeah, I am. I like the crazy little woman. Plus, she is only a meter tall and makes me feel massive. But are you in or not?
Conor: Yeah, I'm in. When, where, and who is the client?
Brakul: Perfect, meet me at Zyntle’s around 2100. If all goes well, we got a contract for some new upstart to the north out of town. He is looking to hire some muscle for a few months. Don't worry about the contract's legitimacy; Norla sent this man my way to arrange half a dozen bodies. I just want you there in case something goes down.
Conor: So, bring a few extra solutions?
Brakul: if you would, and keep ‘em quiet, no shotguns. We will be in Zynie's place and need to keep things civil.
Conor: Afirm, see you then.
After switching off the arm-mounted datapad, Julitra stepped back into the room, redressed in her clothes from the previous night. They weren't anything fancy by any stretch of the imagination. Just a simple lowcut dress, showing off a shallow valley of furry cleavage, and cut to give ample view up her thighs and see the thong barely covering her womanhood.
For a hooker, it was good enough.
“Want to have some stulk?” Conor questioned, pouring himself a glass.
“Sure,” Julitra replied, going and lounging at the dingy table in the corner of the room.
They were quiet while eating their meager breakfast; neither had much in common or to talk about as is. The only things Julitra knew about Conor were: he killed people for money, sold stolen goods, and could give her a mean dick down. Whereas Conor knew damn near everything about her, acquired through basic profiling of her actions, attire, and mannerisms or from some of the intelligence brokers he dealt with regularly.
Some friends called him paranoid for keeping such tight tabs on anyone he dealt with; at least Brakul and Stich did. But Conor knew that knowledge was power and was needed if you wanted to always end up with your opponent dusted and not you. Conor knew better than anyone that you don’t survive like he has without a bit of paranoia. Hell, he was more persistent than a Hureclian beetle seeking water.
Once they had finished scarfing down crackers, canned meat, and the bitter, brackish brew, Julitra quickly took her leave, with Conor locking the door behind her. First, the deadbolts, then the chain, followed by a biometric scanner, and lastly, he kicked a metal wedge underneath the door—it would take a whole breaching team from the local government a solid hour to breach that reinforced metal monstrosity, and that was just how Conor liked it.
Unless you were invited into his home, it would behoove you to stay out and not try to get in.
Now that he was alone again, Conor trundled into the room Julitra had gotten her payment from and opened up one of the massive ceiling-high safes lining the walls. Inside was some of his equipment. This specific one contained most of his low-visibility equipment: body armor, weapons, knives, toolkits, and anything else he might need for more subtle operations.
In the other safes were other tools he might want, but those kits were built for more specific jobs: sniping, heavy assaults, aerial and maritime operations, along with anything else he could use in a warzone, but most of that was overkill for tonight.
So Conor pulled out a few items he thought could be useful and started his preparations in such meticulous detail that it would take him the rest of the day.
—-
The area outside of Zyntle’s nightclub was insanely crowded, even for Heavalun standards. Up and down the street, as far as the eye could see, were nightclubs, bars, and restaurants, catering to whatever vice once could possibly want.
Unlike some of the out portions of the city, areas in the inner and lower regions like here, you could not see the sky. Instead, if one looked up, they would be met with obnoxious neon signs and more buildings arching overhead, choking out any star or sunlight that might be visible.
Aiding in the choking and oppressive atmosphere, Aliens of all shapes and sizes bumped into one another with little grace, care, or concern. Most were decked out head to toe in bright neon colors that melded together in a caleidoscope of shifting brilliance.
At least that gave the usual drab greys, rust reds, and browns of the cityscape some color, even if Conor usually found it more annoying than not. Thankfully, neither Conor, Brakul, nor their strange contact could not hear the crowd outside from the second-floor window. Instead, they were being bombarded by something as if not more grating.
The happy tones and idle conversations of the crowd on the dancefloor below them, along with repetitive keyboards, synthetic snapping basslines, and ethereal vocals, filled the air to a near-deafening level. If not for the three of them having wired up to a local chatterbox that Conor brought along, they would not be able to hear one another.
The chatterbox was not fancy; it was just a tiny device Conor had whipped up. That lets them speak normally into microphones on their collars and be heard in earpieces. He had devised the idea for it after a few skiff airborne operations, where unless you were jacked into the aircraft comms, you could not talk without screaming.
Now, the chatterbox just doubled as the perfect tool for having conversations you would rather not have others around listen into. Hell, unless you were inches from them, you would not be able to hear them at all.
Brakul and whomever this Farun’se was, a two-meter tall feline-like alien, had been going over the finer details of the contract for the last half hour. Conor had been listening just enough to keep in the loop, but his focus was elsewhere. Namely in the crowds around them, watching for anything he did not want to see: other contractors, a gang war about to erupt, or anything else that caught his eye. People-watching was one of the things Conor enjoyed about setting up jobs; it gave him plenty of time to keep tabs on the ever-shifting city.
He had not spotted anything yet, in regular vision, Thermal, or through tracking, but something was off—he could feel it in his hackles. As such, One of Conor's hands was in his somewhat oversized brown leather jacket, wrapped tightly around the grip of his suppressed handgun. Neither Brakul nor the Client commented on him keeping watch; they both knew he was just filling the role of an enforcer and was backup for them.
“So, what do you think about the contract?” The Farun’se man questioned before taking a sip from his drink.
Whatever that glowing drink was, it was not ethanol-based; the smell was far too sweet. Conor could tell that much even through the skull-like mask covering his face. Not that the flat black ballistic bask he wore to cover his metallic jaw and mangled face covered scents much. It was built much like the other equipment he wore to enhance his senses, not diminish them.
“I think it is perfectly acceptable. But are you certain you only want a ten-man team to provide escort and transport for your client while within the city?” Brakul asked, flipping a palm up. “I am certain I can get more, considering your daily generous payment offer.”
Generous was one way to put it. The politician the Farun’se represented offered a whopping 15 thousand crit a day for well-experienced mercs. It was enough to get Conor's tail wagging; Most jobs barely pay that out, and this contract was supposed to be ten days long. You could almost buy a house outside the city for that kind of crit. If they were actually paid it out and not betrayed by their employer, at the end of the day, Conor likely would do just that; then, he would have a place to live without the threat of death around every corner.
Each of his jobs over the last few years was a means to that end—escaping this shithole. But getting out of the city was difficult, even for guys like him with opportunities to leave and a reasonably regular income.
“Well, we can work that out via messaging, but for now, I am just offering what I am allowed to,” The client said. “Anything more than that, and I won't be able to pay you half upfront.”
At least they are offering half the credits upfront. Conor must have missed that part during their long-winded discussion about what type of experience each mercenary needed, what weapons they would be allowed, and the specifics of the contract.
All they would have to do was finalize details of the team when Brakul had assembled another eight bodies, but they could do that in a few weeks.
“If that’s the case, then I think we should be good for now,” Brakul said, standing and extending a hand for the client.
“Perfect, expect to hear from me in a few days. Please have your team prepared by the end of the week,” The client replied, shaking Brakul’s hand.
After removing his earpiece and microphone, the client nodded to Conor and disappeared into the crowd looming around the stairs leading to the ground floor.
“So you like the sounds of that?” Brakul asked, sitting back down and sipping at his drink.
Keeping his sight on the crowd below, Conor tracked the client as he struggled to weave through the jostling dancers. The Feline was clearly out of his element in the crowds of the mass city. Based on how quickly he was recoiling from each touch by the intoxicated patrons, he was uncomfortable with all the physical contact forced onto him.
The sight was almost comedic, but Conor was used to dealing with people like the client's representative. If you had enough crit to hire ten mercs, you came from one of two walks of life: you were an influential underground leader who could afford the extra muscle, or you were a sheltered individual with no real business in Heavalun Mass City but decided you wanted to make some friends in low places and needed locals who would be loyal to the almighty crit.
But all of that was neither here nor there for the time being; Brakul would handle any issues with the contract. He was far better at being a politician than Conor was.
“So, any issues with what he wants?” Brakul smirked, knowing that it had been several months since Conor's last contract and that he needed the money.
Conor passively waved at his friend; he did not need to comment. Conor would take any contract that came his way so long as the pay was solid enough. In the past, he had taken contracts Brakul refused for moral reasons.
This contract of defending some high-born trader was in no way out of the ordinary and was relatively tame by Conor’s standards. His last contract was far more low-brow enough that he had almost said no. But for the low, low cost of 100 thousand crits and the fancy nanotech armor he was wearing under his tank top, he was more than willing to blow up the wing of a hospital with a firebomb—insurance paid to fix the building and burry anyone caught up when he killed a lowborn noble or some distant planet.
“I’m more interested in what's going on down below,” Conor said, pointing to a group gathering near the club's back entrance.
Below, barely visible through the flashing strobe lights and low haze of fog machines, seven Kyrail lingered at the back doors. One of the amphibian-like bipeds was giving instructions to the others. It was a shame the music was so loud; if not, Conor and Brakul could easily hear them, but even without sound, it was easy to see what they were doing. They were scouting a mark.
“What do you think, Voodals gang?” Conor posed, scanning the crowd for whomever the lead croaker was trying to target.
Voodal is a leader of one of the area's crime families and merc groups. They had been competitors of Conor and Brakul and their usual hiring groups for a long time. While Brakul and Conor did not have beef with them, one of their usual employers, the Farklut clan, had generations of bad blood.
That rivalry was nasty, to the point anyone who was a direct member of either family would dust the other on sight. Both had been caught up in that rivalry several times and had a negative opinion of the Voodal family and any of their ilk.
“Likely. This is part of a contested city, after all,” Brakul replied, sipping his drink.
“I wonder what they are doing here?” Conor said, still not having located whatever it was they were doing, but he had seen them pull out a particularly nasty drug, giving him an idea of precisely what they planned on doing—abduction.
The gaggle’s leader had passed out plastic bags with what looked like Visage clinging to the bags. That drug might as well be chloroform on the strongest combat stim out there. It would put you in a trance and make you forget the next several days until the effects wore off. The perfect drug for slave traffickers and abductors.
The only reason Conor could tell was that he had used the tactic several times to capture targets alive. It was great; you could fish information from them freely, and they wouldn't remember anything beyond where they had been picked up and whenever the drug wore off.
“I see their target,” Brakul muttered, “switch to IR. I will laze her for yah.”
As his friend and partner told him, Conor switched his false eye to IR and watched, and Brakul’s pistols laser pierced the crowd and danced on the back of a red scalled Kurlatra, dancing happily with some other repltilians of her species. All were woefully ignorant of the Kyrail weaving through the crowd toward them, hands tucked into jackets, likely clutching knives, pistols, and bags of drugs.
“Hmmm, odd, not a lot of Kurlatra on this side of the GU borders,” Conor commented.
“For sure,” Brakul agreed.
Kurlatra were a noble-esc species in the GU and tended to stay in the GU, as opposed ot the COS; most here only cared about their nobility for the sake of making money on ransom after all.
The GU was safe but was overbearing compared to the COS. It had far more laws, restrictions, and limitations on carving out a living. Conor’s chosen profession of being a Mercenary was outlawed in the GU unless you were on the Union congress's payroll, But he was not on that list, despite trying a few times.
“Wanna toss a wrench in their plans?” Brakul questioned.
“How so?” Conor replied, keeping a keen eye on the crimson scalled in the center.
Compared to those around her, she was different. Unlike the others who wore simple clothes, she wore a very revealing yellow dress that was low cut in the back and front, showing offer cleavage, but that's not what made her so different. It was all the glistening jewelry that made her smell of crit.
All those stones and precious metals were likely worth a few hundred thousand crits on their own. That was before you sold her pert ass to some slaver.
“We can go down, nab her after the entourage is dealt with, and be big damn heroes. Then we get an award from that payday of a ruby. If she is not feeling up to it, we could ransom her off to the Voodal; they want her for some reason,” Brakul explained, using his keen eye for diplomacy and deals to guide Conor’s mind to the potential payout.
Conor took a moment to take stock of the situation; he had enough ammo to carve through the Voodal family present and could carry such a Kurlatra if needed. Should this shit go sideways and end up in a firefight, they could just use the crowd and vanish.
“What about the contract we just took,” Conor posed
“We haven't taken one yet,” Brakul reminded, “that rep needs to get back to us with upfront payment. Until then, we are freelance.”
Conor could not deny he was right; no crit had changed hands yet, they were still unemployed, and this bitch might be worth some cash. Before Conor had a chance even to comment one way or the other, Brakul pressed on a nerve he knew would get Conor to act.
“Come on. I got fifty crit that says you can't extract that Kurlatra before the Voodal drug her,” the fellow Jurintik mocked.
The bastard knew how to get to Conor for sure. He was competitive and hated to have his abilities brought into question. Just out of professional pride, Conor could not let that lay.
“Two hundred,” Conor countered.
“One hundred,” Brakul retorted, “oh, look, they already nabbed one of the entourage.”
He was right. One of the Kurlatra heading toward the bathrooms near the back entrance just had a bag of Visage slammed into their mouth and had already gone glassy-eyed. Now, there were only five Kurlatra left, including the clear HVT(High-Value Target)
“One fifty,” Conor snapped, eager to have his friend stop messing with him.
“Deal, I will cover and feed you intel from her. Open channel one,” Brakul sneered.
Without missing a beat, Conor shot up from the table and descended the stairs into the crowd, drawing his suppressed pistol and activating his target tracker to keep sight of the HVT.
Conor did not know it yet, but that little bet, one that was not even worth as much ammo as he was about to expend, would send his life on a journey that would change him forever.
----- So what did you all think? was it a good time? a fun start at bare min? next chapter we will have connor dealing with the voodal, follwed by us meeting the little princess. It should be fun.
Please dont forget to updoot and comment. I will see you all in the comments.
Your Humble baker
-Pirate
-----
Next

The new gift-specific dialogue from the 1.6 update has me absolutely tickled pink! This one especially… I also haven’t practiced my creative writing in a while, and I decided it needed to happen sooner rather than later, so here, have a short story! Sorry if it's boring… I’m a little rusty!
“A Gift From The Void”
It was only yesterday… No one was quite sure where it had come from. There had been a sinister cackling noise ringing through the night air and Abigail had mentioned seeing an unidentifiable shape soaring through the sky during her walk home from the cemetery. The townsfolk gossiped and speculated about what it could have been that evening, but by the next morning they still hadn’t come to any reasonable explanation. It was only yesterday, and yet the entire village seemed to have already put it out of their minds and moved on. The scandal and chatter following the “Anchovy Soup Incident” at the Summer Luau several years back had lasted far longer than this… Even now Sam was still getting sideways glances whenever he got within a 20 foot radius of the soup cauldron, but this just blows over in less than a day? The priorities of small town people were strange.
Things had gone back to that same semblance of backwater, middle-of-nowhere kind of normal, and now the night had become just the same as any other Friday evening. Sebastian was playing a round of billiards with Sam, and while Sam was preoccupied with lining up the cue with his intended target ball, the farmer strolled into the saloon and up to the bar. Heads turned and raised to the newcomer for a moment before returning to whatever it was that had been previously holding their attention. Sebastian caught the sudden flourish of movement out of his periphery, but didn’t pay it much mind. The farmer ordered a coffee and a plate of the night’s special, and struck up a conversation with Gus about a peculiar egg that had materialized in their coop seemingly out of nowhere the night before. Apparently they’d decided to tuck it away into the incubator and wait to see what… if anything hatched from it.
Sebastian had never really been one to eavesdrop, but the wait for Sam to make his move was becoming boring, and sometimes the stories that passed around the saloon on Friday evenings got interesting depending on who all was involved. The story didn’t really go too far into detail. The farmer poked at their food until it had cooled enough to not scald the inside of their mouth, then they took a few bites before bringing up the events of the previous evening. What first started off as a funny story seemed to turn into some deep discussion with Gus about the mysteries of life. Eventually, Willy and Elliott were caught up in the mirth and it turned into a medley of strange tales from faraway lands and once-upon-a-times. Obviously exaggerated sightings of fearsome creatures on a midnight stormy sea, legends of colossal white whales, references to works written by masters of the mystery genre, as well as some from a trashy neo-noir novel or two that had probably been picked up from a bookstore clearance shelf.
Willy stroked his beard and mused about some daring battle between himself and a fish of questionable proportions that seemed to grow larger each time he told the story. Sebastian had heard this one before. The fight over the line had gone on for over an hour before the shadow of the fish rose near to the surface, and just before Willy could land the monster of a catch, it dove below again, taking the whole fishing rod overboard and nearly Willy himself with it.
Elliott gulped down the last few swigs of ale in his tankard, slapped the farmer firmly on the back, snorted and chuckled in an ungraceful yet jolly display that only ever crept out of him when he’d had a bit too much to drink.
“That fish becomes more miraculous each time he talks about it!” Elliott shook his head and smiled as he leaned almost a little too far forward. There was a slight sway to his posture and he tried to straighten his body back in line with the barstool. “To life, and her many little silly tricks of fate, my friends!” he declared. He raised the empty mug, and with his free hand, delicately tucked a few strands of stray hair behind his ear with the tips of his fingers. He rested his elbow back on the bar before he could lose his balance and sighed contently. Elliott’s cheeks were practically glowing red at this point and it was a wonder that he wasn’t slurring his words yet.
“Aye, you’ve all heard my fish story haven’t ye?” Willy chuckled. “How ‘bout the one about the Baba Yaga?” the farmer’s head tilted and they gazed curiously at the fisherman. Willy rested his foot on the crossbar of the barstool, lifted the rim of his hat out of his line of sight, and leaned into the counter. “Some know ‘er as the cannibal witch… others say she’s just a misunderstood haggard ol’ woman who lives alone out in woods or marshes. It’s said she lives a rickety old house that stands on chicken feet, and she likes to lure weary travelers into ‘er home, only to gobble ‘em up once they let their guard down. Apparently she’s especially fond of the taste of children…” He laughed in a hoarse tone and made strange spider-like gestures with his calloused hands as if he were telling campfire stories to a group of kids. The farmer’s nose wrinkled at the outlandish notion of some feral old woman devouring toddlers, and Willy laughed heartily at their reaction. “I think that last part the parents like to add into the story to frighten the little ones. It keeps ‘em from wondering into the forests and swamps alone at night.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes and glanced back to the pool table. He watched the cue ball clack into the twelve before the twelve bounced off the barriers in the corner of the table and rolled slowly to a stop on the felt surface without pocketing. Sam huffed and stood back upright.
“You really aren’t very good at this, are you?” Seb chimed as he returned his full attention to the game at hand. Sam grinned and laughed.
“Nope!”
“Watch and learn….” Sebastian took aim at the cue ball, and after a single firm strike, drove it into the tiny gap between the two and seven. The cue stopped hard, but the two and seven sped to the opposite corners of the foot of the table, each dropping into one of the corner pockets simultaneously. Sam scoffed and paced about the pool room, but looked back over his shoulder just in time to catch Sebastian with a triumphantly cheeky grin on his face. Sam clicked his tongue and lightly thumped the base of his cue stick into the floorboards.
“Show-off…” he mumbled.
Elliott lifted the rim of the empty vessel to his lips, then chuckled again as he noticed the absence of ale and gestured it in Gus’ direction.
“Good sir, my glass is empty and…. I’m a writer!”
“Maybe you should stop for tonight…” the farmer interjected. “You won’t be sober enough to start your next chapter in the morning!” Elliott rolled his eyes and leaned against the bar counter. He tried to give one of his best theatrically exasperated sighs, but when the exhale turned into a case of the hiccups, they knew he was down for the count. He smiled defiantly and tried his best to look dignified through the sudden spasms in his diaphragm and soused thousand yard stare.
“I-am fiiine… ne’re betta’…”
“…..Aaaand, there he goes…” Leah giggled from the end of the bar counter. “It’s like dropping a ton of bricks on a peach.”
“I oughtta’ help the ol’ scallywag home, I s’pose!” Willy groaned as he stood from the bar stool. He smiled as he hoisted one of Elliott’s arms over his shoulders and stood him up from the bar stool. “C’mon you menace… Let’s get ya home before you make a fool of yourself in front of all the lassies!” he chuckled. Sam took a moment to appreciate the situation at the bar counter. He shook his head and laughed, then took another shot at the 12 and missed horribly yet again.
“Easy does it there!” Emily cooed as she cleared away the empty tankard. “Try not to drop him too hard!” Elliott wobbled towards the door as Willy struggled to keep him upright, and just before they stepped out into the lukewarm summer evening, the farmer waved one last farewell and called out to the well marinated dandy-man as he staggered away.
“Nighty-night! Sleep tight, Rapunzel!” they chirped. Elliot responded to the joke by blowing an overly exaggerated kiss over his shoulder and daintily waiving his fingertips at the company in the saloon, then he nearly tripped over himself as he turned back to the path home. A couple of snorts, giggles and guffaws rose up over the music and chatter in the saloon and quickly melted back into the white noise once the moment passed.
Seb looked Sam in the eyes with a determined glare and smirked.
“Eight in the corner pocket….” Seb didn’t have a clear shot, but leaned over the table, reared back the stick and spiked it into the cue ball. It ricocheted from the bumper, side-swiped the eight, and put just enough force into the edge to cause it to spin sideways into the pocket he’d called. Sam laughed and scratched at the back of his head.
“Awwww, man…” he groaned. “You got me again!” Sam leaned against his cue stick and looked over the table before his eyes lit up in anticipation. “How about a best three out of five?” Abigail giggled at Sam’s request as she stretched and leaned back into the sofa.
“Give it up, blondie! He cooks your goose at this game EVERY single time…. You’re doomed.” She teased. “It’s getting late anyways…”
…
It had been almost a month since the odd shape had been spotted flying over town at this point. Seb and Abby had talked in depth about it, and though most of the other townsfolk had come to the conclusion that it had merely been some sort of exotic bird flying out toward the fern islands, Abby was positive she hadn’t been mistaken. In fact she was adamant that the form looked human. She hadn’t seen or heard any wings flapping and the “squawking” sounded more so like the laugh of an old woman than the cries of a bird. The figure seemed to levitate or hover effortlessly and without the use of any physical or mechanical assistance. It was slumped over as if it was curled up or sitting and just…. Floated away.
The long night spent coding and researching the relevant programing issues at the computer, had caused Sebastian to rise late. He was groggy, didn’t have much motivation to bother rolling out of bed, and it was almost noon at this point. He could hear the rain pattering against the roof of the house and the rumble of distant thunder. As lazy as he felt, a smoke sounded pretty good about now. The sound and sight of the ocean on rainy days also had a way of clearing his head and a little stroll would probably do him some good.
He didn’t pass anyone on the way out of the house. Robin was likely at her aerobics club, Maru, at work in the clinic, and who knew where Demetrius was… Out shoving dirt samples into test tubes, or measuring the volume and PH of the current rainfall? As long as he wasn’t dissecting frogs. Out of all of Sebastian’s childhood memories, that was the one that stuck in his head and haunted him. Back then, Maru had only just been born, and while Robin was busy keeping her entertained, fixing her bottle or changing diapers, Seb was wandering the house trying to find something to occupy his time. He’d wandered into his step-father’s study and there on the examination tray was a deceased frog pinned on it’s back, limbs splayed like Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” with it’s belly sliced open. Sebastian had cried and pouted over that for several days and had given Demetrius the silent treatment for even days longer intermixed with spells of arm crossing, head turning and the occasional stuck out tongue and blown raspberry. He cringed at the thought even now.
The hinges creaked as he pushed the front door open and paused. The summer was starting to give way to autumn and the parched ground soaked up the rain and turned loose the pungent, almost overpowering scent of petrichor.
Sebastian flipped the hood of his pull-over around his head and tightened up the drawstrings. He took a moment to smell the aroma of wet grass and earth that drifted through the air and held the fragrance in his lungs as he closed the door behind him.
He began his slow, steady march toward the beach and lost count of his steps after he’d passed the old Community Center. He’d barely noticed the changing of terrain under his feet as he moved almost subconsciously toward the ocean. The raw, muddy dirt paths of the mountain, the crunch of rough stones and shuffle of old, dead pine needles that carpeted the ground… They’d transitioned into the grass and cobblestone of the town plaza at some point, but they all seemed to blend together into “just steps” after a while. His inner thoughts distracted him to the point where he barely paid attention to his surroundings until he felt his footfalls sinking and shifting underneath him, and he knew he’d hit sand. He heaved a deep sigh of the salt air and looked over the horizon as he paced toward the docks.
When the sky was this gray and muted, the color of the sea seemed to take on it’s own jewel-like quality and without the blue sky to draw attention away from it, the eyes of each breaking wave became a splendor to watch. They erupted into columns of aquamarine, sapphire and sodalite laced with the bright, almost pearlescent white of the sea foam before curling over, crashing into the tides and giving way to the next one.
Sebastian came to a stop at the furthest reaching section of the wood panels and straightened up his posture as he groped into his pockets for the pack of cigarettes he’d brought with him. He selected one from the box, tucked it between his teeth and plunged his fingers back into the pocket for his lighter. He curled his left hand in front of his face, to protect the fire from the wind, flicked open the lid and thumbed the igniter. The flint sparked into a flame as it spun and lit up the end of the cigarette to a smoldering red glow. He pulled in a breath and held it for a moment before letting it out and watching the smoke dance away in the wind. It still wasn’t quite as satisfying as that first breath of rain when he’d stepped out of the house. Another sigh escaped Seb’s lips as he stared back at the oncoming crests of seawater and his mind started to drift again.
He imagined the city lights blazing somewhere across the ocean like stars, and thought about starting over somewhere far away. Disappearing, and reappearing somewhere else like a shadow moving through fragments of darkness and light, somewhere where no one knew him. Just vanishing and leaving everything behind. His parents, his sister, his friends… the thought excited him for a moment, before giving way to an intense feeling of regret and sadness. Maybe even a little shame. Having everyone was frustrating, but would having none of them be better or worse? He’d never known anything else. The same friends he’d grown up with, the same smell of the changing seasons in the mountain air, the same four walls of his bedroom, the sound of his sister’s laugh, or the taste of his mother’s cooking… even the way his stepfather overreacted to the littlest things was something he'd grown used to. He took another long breath.
The waves lapped and pounded at the underside of the dock so loudly he couldn’t hear the patter of oncoming footfalls against the wood and he was caught unaware when a sudden presence made itself known.
“Hey.” The start was enough to make him tense up, and he almost tripped over his own feet. Seb whirled around and when he found himself face to face with the farmer, he relaxed again.
“You scared the absolute crap out of me…..” He said as he rolled his eyes. He flicked his thumb against the filter of the cigarette to knock away the ashes and looked over the docks. They were alone.
“Sorry….” There was an awkward moment of silence between the two of them before Sebastian tried to force conversation.
“What are you up to out here?” He asked. He wasn’t really interested in the answer, but felt obligated to return the acknowledgement of his presence. The farmer held up the rod that was firmly clasped in their right hand and gestured to the ocean.
“Fishing!” Seb raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at the response.
“In the rain?” he asked. His tone was almost dismissive. The farmer nodded.
“Willy said that there’s a number of fish that only come out when it’s raining, so I wanted to see what bites.” They began. “Some fish just like it better this way I guess.” There was another long pause. “…and you?”
“Hanging out…” Seb shrugged and adjusted the collar of his hoodie.
“In the rain?” The irony of the retort wasn’t lost on either of them though only the farmer seemed to find it amusing.
“Some people just like it better this way too…” Seb declared as he shifted his posture and crossed his arms over his chest. “I like to come out here where it’s quiet and have some alone time with my own thoughts.” There was a brief moment of guilt when Sebastian realized that he hadn’t actually ever bothered to ask the farmer’s name, but his introverted nature snubbed it out pretty quickly.
“Well, if you’re out here for some alone time, I won’t keep bothering you. I’ll go find a spot to fish and leave you to it.” At least they could take a hint. The farmer turned to leave and Sebastian suddenly regretted the entire conversation. Maybe he came off as cold and bristly? Either way, they hadn’t meant any harm. Just engaging in basic pleasantries. He found himself compelled to say something else just so the conversation wouldn’t end on such a sour note, then the thought of the flying figure and the appearance of the strange egg in the farmer’s coop a while back suddenly popped into his head.
“Wait….” Sebastian flicked away the spent cigarette and stamped it out with the toe of his shoe before he continued. The farmer turned back in his direction. “I was just curious… do you remember what happened a couple of weeks ago? The night that… thing… flew over Pelican Town?” The farmer’s eyes narrowed and they nodded slowly. “That was the night that strange egg just showed up in your chicken coop, right?” The farmer looked bewildered. Seb chuckled soundlessly when he realized that, for at least a moment, he was acting like the epitome of some small town country boy who was nosing into someone else’s business. The farmer was likely confused because they hadn’t spoken to Sebastian about it directly. How could he know about that? They didn’t have to ask before he preemptively put the question to rest. “I was in the saloon playing pool with Sam the night after it happened. I overheard you talking about it with Gus, Willy and uh- …Rapunzel.” He explained. A tiny snort escaped the farmer’s nose as they stifled a laugh and they nodded again.
“Right… I still don’t know where it came from.” They rested the handle of the fishing pole on the dock like a staff or walking stick and looked up at the sky as if they were contemplating something. “I don’t know if the egg had anything to do with the flying figure, or if it was just a coincidence… they did both appear on the same night.”
“Everyone in town says that the flying thing was probably just some weird bird heading toward the islands…” Seb droned. He shoved his hands into his pockets to sooth the chill in his fingers. “If that IS where the egg came from, then maybe it was just a bird…” The farmer briskly shook their head before they answered.
“No, I don’t think so.” They rested a hand on their hip, fidgeted with the line strung through the fishing rod and seemed to gaze off into the distance towards the island in question. “That wouldn’t make sense considering what hatched.” Sebastian’s head snapped upright to meet their gaze. Now this was getting interesting.
“It actually hatched?!” He piped as his eyes widened inquisitively. “What was it?”
“A chicken…. And those can’t fly long distances.” The farmer chortled as they watched Sebastian’s face droop back to some semblance of apathy. He looked mildly disappointed.
“Aww…. Well that’s kind of anticlimactic.” He groaned.
“Yeah, sorry it’s not more exciting than that…” There was a sudden gust of wind and both of them had to brace against the pelting of raindrops that came with it. “It is a pretty peculiar looking chicken, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Really?... How so?” He gazed back at them expectantly and waited for them to go into detail.
“The feathers are jet black and the comb and wattles have a bit of an odd shape to them. The eyes are also bright red, like an animal with albinism and they’re almost reflective in the dark too… like a cat’s eyes.” They paused and rested their hand over the lower half of their face as if they were taking a moment to recall more of the specifics to memory. “And there’s just something about the way it clucks.” They added. “It doesn’t really cluck like a normal hen, but it sounds more like… an echo of a cluck, I suppose.”
“What?....” Sebastian laughed as his expression shifted again. The description of the noise sounded completely ridiculous. Not a cluck, but an echo of a cluck? They may as well have likened it to a phantom voice or the cry of a specter. Something that eluded the range of sounds that most humans would ever have the chance or perception to experience. The farmer lifted their eyes back to Sebastian’s as if they’d suddenly remembered something else.
“She started laying eggs a couple of days ago. They look just like the one that appeared in the coop that night…” They let the fishing pole drop from their hand to the wood planking of the dock and slipped their arm out of the left strap of their backpack. “I actually have one with me if you want to see it….” They slid the other strap off of their shoulder and swung the bag around their right side, letting it come to a rest in front of them as they knelt down. Seb took a few steps closer and stooped to get a better look as they dug through the contents.
They gingerly grasped what looked like a tiny bundle wrapped in a kerchief and began to slowly peel away the corners of the fabric, exposing what was probably the most bizarre looking egg he’d ever seen in his life. It was black and somewhat glossy, unlike the calcified matte shells of most chicken eggs, and the surface seemed to be covered in tiny indents or fissures that exposed flecks of a bright, almost luminescent red underneath. The farmer held the egg out to Sebastian as they stood up straight and nodded, silently offering to let him hold it for a closer look. He gently cupped the egg in his hands, tucked his arms in close to his body and cradled it in his palms like a cautious child trying to hold a hamster. It was heavier than he’d expected it to be, and surprisingly warm.
The color reminded him of magma or hot coals. Something like the intense heat glowing through crackling obsidian after a volcanic eruption or a dying fire. He leaned his head even closer to the egg as he examined the texture of the shell, and his nose wrinkled a bit when he caught the scent. It was sulphurous, and almost earthy smelling, but not overpoweringly so.
“It’s not rotten, is it?” he asked as he gently turned the egg over in his hands.
“See, that’s the strange thing about it. It can’t be…. That egg was just laid this morning.” They explained. “All of the eggs that hen lays have that… little whiff of something burning to them.” The rain was starting to slow up a bit. The farmer thought for a moment and giggled at the notion of what they said next. “I’m not inclined to say that they’re edible either… at least, not to people, and I wouldn’t be keen on being the first one to test that.” Sebastian winced at the thought…and smell, and stifled a laugh.
“Me neither…” He smiled softly when the red speckled pattern caught his attention again. “It does look really cool though!”
He really did have a nice smile. It was kind of a shame that he didn’t let people see it more often. His eyes brightened, and his face looked softer and more approachable, yet also, inquisitive and curious. It was a look of fascination and wonder. Like a kid who’d just discovered dinosaurs and outer space for the first time, or someone who’d just felt their first taste of freedom and didn’t quite know what to do with it. An imaginative or inspired sort of expression.
“Since you like it so much, why don’t you hang onto it?” the farmer beamed.
“Can I?” Sebastian’s eyes lit up again and he gazed back at the farmer with a delighted look on his face.
“Sure! Hens lay eggs every day or so. There’ll be more before long!” they chimed. Sebastian chuckled as he curled his fingers about the egg and sheltered it from the rain.
“Thank you!” He gazed at it for a few moments more as the farmer hefted the rucksack back onto their shoulders and pulled the fishing rod from it’s resting place on the dock. “Hey, this might sound kind of stupid….” He began as he gazed back and forth between the farmer and his new prize… “But, do you think it’ll hatch if I put it under my pillow?” he laughed awkwardly at his own question when he realized how foolish it must have sounded, but was pleasantly surprised when the farmer’s response was more optimistic than he had expected.
“Umm, I don’t know… Maybe! It’s worth a try anyway, and stranger things have happened.”
“Only one way to find out I guess!” Sebastian said smiling in anticipation.
“Good luck! You’ll have to let me know what happens!” They scanned out over the tides as if looking for something before turning back to Sebastian. “I should hurry and find a spot to fish before the rain stops again, but it was really nice talking to you!”
“Yeah, you too!” Seb agreed. “I’ll see you later!” He distracted himself for a moment, making sure the egg was tucked away safe and warm in his hoodie pocket, when he suddenly realized something. “Hey, wait!...” he quickly turned back to where the farmer had been standing just a minute before, but by the time he’d remembered what he’d needed to ask, they’d already trotted too far out of earshot to be able to hear him. “Aw, man… I forgot to catch their name again.” He lamented. “I’ll have to remember to ask them next time… Next time for sure.”

im about to die of fear rn. i only noticed that he had a little bump for around a month now? it hasn’t grown or anything but i wasn’t as worried when I first saw it. im gonna take my cat to the vet soon since he has matt’s that need to be taken care of, but im worried sick about this. everything that comes up on google is about some tumor. the other results dont nesscarily apply cause he’s an indoor cat.
the bump is small and it feels like his nipples do. he’s a feisty cat so for these years that i’ve had him (since 2019) im always slowly being allowed areas to touch him. i only discovered his nipples like two years ago but i didn’t have a problem identifying that lmaoo. so im not sure if this bump has been here this whole time. i like to scratch his chin but the bump is lower, near his neck so i would never be able to feel it.
he won’t let me see the bump as hes not comfortable with me doing stuff with his neck when he’s fully awake so these are the only photos I could take. (ill post down below) i circled around where the small bump is.

Step by step I trecked deeper and higher into the mountains. Reprieving myself from the human world and embracing the cold, windy and slate ridden world that is the mountains. They were my home long ago, I feel almost at ease with the freezing wind gusting against my back and through my short-spiked hair. I say almost because slipping and cracking my head like an egg is a very real possibility I’d like to avoid. The summit was still a ways off, but I enjoy the climbing aspect best anyway. Finding the correct hand and foot holds, the strain on my muscles hauling my whole weight and my view of looking over the ranges of valleys, mountains and the far off wooded foothills and of course the fjords. It was truly freeing in a way I couldn’t describe. I’d equate it to looking up and watching the entirety of the night sky. Not just looking at one facet but embracing all indiscriminately and seeing it all in conjunction. It makes you feel insignificant and tiny to nature's machinations. Though that feeling doesn’t come close to reaching a peak. I was traveling through Jarlsburg, a Nordic province that was covered with ice, snow, and fjords. Herders and merchant men mostly occupied the area, farming was practically impossible with the constant cold fronts and not many cared for the job anyway. It was encroaching midday by the time I had nearly reached the summit, when an eagle the size of a leopard swooped at me. Its talons landed square in my back. I lost a foothold and slipped, though I recovered with the grace of a fat fingered invalid. I’m glad no one could see my near colossal fuck up. It circled around for a second attempt and missed me entirely, that’s when I realized it didn’t care for me at all. It was actually after a family of tiny mice hidden in a minute alcove, the entrance was hardly the size of my fist but would make a good foothold. The small rodents all had giant ears in comparison to the rest of their body and their fur seemed to be a yellow in colour. I decided to continue moving up so the eagle wouldn’t have a third attempt on my life. Once I got to a higher point I stole a moment or three to watch it soar. He was graceful, each flap of his wings pushed him further and further into his own realm of freedom. If I was stupid I’d think it a god of Asgard, descended to mingle with us mortals. He had bright brown feathers with black spots on his beak, it stuck out like a sore thumb with all of this snow. After a short time of climbing I finally reached the peak. I wasn't quite up with the clouds but they were significantly closer to me now than 5 hours ago. It’s like I could almost touch them but my reach was bound to my conquered rock, preventing my falling demise. I could see so much of the surrounding area. There were so many branching rivers leading into giant fjords, the land itself was almost entirely white with ice and snow, this solidified my belief that farming was impossible. The terrain was hilly and mountainous, a field couldn’t possibly take shape under its current conditions. Despite that I could see the two villages; Jarlsburg itself and Nautic Row, Jarlsburg was a village of merchants, business and debauchery. It was regularly abuzz, almost everyday new ships came and went. Whereas Nautic Row was smaller and held firm in fishing, herding and raiding other nearby villages. Many of the people kept to themselves unless it was to trade or gather at a Thing. Both villages were littered with vagrants if you ask me. The trees looked tiny in comparison to the villages, like little toothpicks with white appendages jutting from the ground. I tried to take in the scenery all as one. Almost like it was breathing, you don’t just take in the parts of air you need. You take it all indiscriminately and let it occupy a space within you. I breathed in as much as I could of the summits thin, crisp air. I listened to reverberations of the wind off stone, and tasted the tiny specs of snowflakes that finally began to fall. The sun had prepared to enter early evening before I decided to make my descent. The reflection of light on the snow was blinding but it was very reminiscent of the ocean, the way the light bounced towards me also reminded me of lizards skin in glistening sunlight. An ear to ear grin had slowly crept its way onto my face as I realized the perfection of what I was witnessing. A memory that would stay with me forever, something only I alone could cherish wholeheartedly. In this time I had made it back to the family of big eared mice. The eagle had snatched a few of the babies but the two larger ones looked over and fiercely protected the remaining younglings. I can attest as they tried to nip my boot on my way down. I passed them by though I was somewhat saddened and sympathetic to their loss of family, it can be difficult. It was difficult losing my own but we work and push ourselves further than where we were yesterday. Loss is a frequency in most people’s lives and if you don’t learn to adapt with it, it can take you down a dark and depressing spirality of despair and emotion. Those willing to change and evolve their principles or values survive, but many cling to the past and wallow too much on what they had. Not what they have. Me, I am content as a traveler, experiencing the human condition and learning for myself about all walks of life. Having nothing to my name can be bothersome at times but with a few days work anywhere, I can scrape together some coin to continue pressing forward. Shepherding flocks to new grazes is a nice way of working as I can read while I watch over them. Wood carving is another small job I enjoy, you can make some handy things with a chunk of wood lying around. But whatever I don’t buy or trade, I hunt. It’ll take some time for me to return to Nautic Row. I'll have to camp at the foot of the mountain to wait out the downpour of snow. I called back to a memory of a small cabin with smoke billowing out of its chimney. I’m sure the inhabitants will let me stay if I can hunt some food, hopefully an unfortunate rabbit will cross my path as I get lower down the mountain. Speaking of getting lower by this point I had reached the halfway point of the mountain and the sun was about to touch the horizon. I began my scout for game trails and tracks that lead into brush. Not having much luck I pressed forward, though I could still be too high. The cold was certainly starting to creep in now, snow began seeping into my boots and trousers. It could be a problem in a few hours but I think I’ll reach the base before then. After 2 hours of more or less skipping over rocks I had made my way to an inlet of trees where stone started to recede and squishy, muddy snow took its place. There was surely something still out and about looking for a morsel. The forest was thick with flora despite the time of year, the evergreen pine trees looked to be hundreds of feet tall. If I was gonna find a rabbit, here it would be. The looming canopy of leaves above made it all the more darker, hiding the moon's light from me and every other creature within the thicket. After spotting a dead game trail, I decided to give up on my search for wildlife and make way for the cabin. It had become too cold and even looking was a hearty task I struggled with greatly. Perhaps I can rent out my services of work in exchange for a night under some shelter. Even a meal if I’m lucky. In the distance, between the trees of the Black Forest I spotted a light. It was that of a campfire, I almost threw my caution to the wind desperately wanting to feel unrestricted warmth. But my better judgment kicked me upside the head and I decided to be sure if they were friend or foe before approaching.

CHAPTER 4: Fearbug Festival
Later, in the American Independence Festival.
The PPAIDF is filled with flying insects and monsters, known as Fearbugs, as Loki sees a basic, Incessant Fearbug, and immediately feels fear in his very mind, as he has an immediate flashback at the mere SIGHT of the Fearbugs and their monstrous transformations, as he is frozen with fear, surrounded by his enemies and comrades alike, especially Lamash-Tu.
BEGINNING FLASHBACK..
Loki and Thorr are fighting for brotherly supremacy, as Loki’s blades, Nidvallir and Ulheid, clash with Thorr’s two-handed Warhammer, Mjolnir, before Thorr finally bonks Loki on the head with Mjolnir, as Loki goes rolling towards the cliff of Asgard, almost OVER the cliff, as his daggers, Nidvallir and Ulheid, fall from his hands and tumble in their own ways, as Thorr slowly and menacingly walks towards Loki, as Thorr picks Loki up by the right horn of his helmet, and starts bantering.
THORR: It’s over for you.
LOKI: Now what?.. You know you want to get rid of me, come on, or maybe you can’t?
THORR: You are NOTHING, Loki, you are but a mere INSECT, if you survive this fall, I and few OTHER powers at hand will track you DOWN and FINISH you.
LOKI: I doubt you’ll be able to find me, my trickery almost KILLED one of the two Dwarves who made that good old lightning-flavoured bonkstick of yours, Thorr.
THORR: ENOUGH of this flyting, Loki.. Friggr, Thanatos, Amhuluk, I, and a few others have already been experimenting with ways to put you down, trickster.
LOKI: You won’t.
THORR: Oh, we will.. Goodbye, now.
With those final words, Thorr throws Loki and his Twin Daggers off of Asgard, as he falls down the World Tree, ALL the way to Midgardheim, ALSO known as Earth.
ENDING FLASHBACK..
Suddenly, Loki is being rushed at by a Fear-Killer Bug and it’s bladed arms, but Lamash-Tu gets in the way and uses her Hardlight Riot-Shields to block the attack, and she smashes the Fear-Killer Bug away, as it falls to the ground, and Lamash-Tu scorches it with the Flamethrowers of her Z-Knight Suit’s Gauntlets.
LOKI: Lamie?
LAMASH-TU: Loki? You’ve been standing still like a Gargoyle in the daylight for 3 minutes straight! What is UP with you?
KNIGHTOWL: Yeah, dude! Are you even mentally awake?
LOKI: Yeah, I was just having flashbacks, that’s why these Fearbugs seem familiar to me.
Loki uses his the flamethrowers of his Z-Knight Suit’s Gauntlets, and sprays flame around him, burning Fearbugs and other types of them, as Loki managaes to kill off a few Fear-Killer bugs, before a Fear Queen comes in, and its roar ECHOES throughout the skies.
Lamash-Tu, Loki, Rexob, and Meouna all take on the Fear Queen Bug, ALL at once, as Lamash-Tu freezes the Fear Queen with her Z-Knight Suit’s Ice Grenade, as she uses her Z-Knight Suit’s Rocket Boots, as Lamash-Tu jumps over the frozen Fear Queen, as Loki uses the Flamethrowers of his Z-Knight Suit’s Gauntlets and burns the frozen Fear Queen Bug, before using the Minigun Turrets on his shoulders, and completely shattering and annihilating the iced-out Fear Queen, before he jumps over the bug’s remains with his Z-Knight Suit’s Rocket Boots, and lands in-front of Lamash-Tu.
LOKI: Thanks for the help with that big bug, Mamitu.
Lamash-Tu mishears Loki, thinking he is talking about her Stepmother, Mamitu, the Babylonian Deitess of Sacrifice, Hope, and Fate.
LAMASH-TU: Loki, Mamitu was my Step-mom, HER name is where the “Tu” in MY name comes from.
Loki sees where his compliment fell off, and immediately politely corrects Lamash-Tu.
LOKI: Hehe, Lamie, I wasn’t talking about Mamitu, I called you “MOMMY-Tu” because, just look at you!
Lamash-Tu realizes that this joking compliment from Loki refers to her the way it does because of her physique and her bodily posture.
LAMASH-TU: Ohh! Okay, I get it now.
Lamash-Tu walks off to go slay more Fearbugs, whilst Zaviour looks at Loki angrily.
ZAVIOUR: Really? “MOMMY-Tu”?
LOKI: What? It’s normal!
Rexob comes in and continues the mission.
REXOB: Let’s just get back to ripping and tearing.
Later..
Rexob, Zaviour and Knightowl lead the charge, as they blast, burn and destroy Demons and Fearbugs alike, before suddenly, a gigantic demonic red portal opens up in front of the Assassins, as a new, and more DANGEROUS Demon comes out.
A Demon of IMMENSE physical power, carrying an ancient weapon of Protodite origin, a large, one-bladed greataxe, and he wears armor of Brimstone, with large horns like that of a moose.
This Demon destroyed 3 legions of the Royal Protodite Army, AND almost killed one of their greatest works, The Prosecutor.
THIS Demon, is named.. Vetroxis, the Destroyer.
With him, Vetroxis brings a horde of 6 Berserker Demons, also called Skraggs, which are 9-foot tall Demons whose mere physical strength and firepower ALMOST matches that of Vetroxis, and they come from Kur, the 2nd Underworld.
Vetroxis ALSO brings with him a small group of 9 of Cerberdogs, 3-headed hellhounds that are the demon-children of Cerberus, guard dog of Orcus, the ruler of Hades, the 6th Underworld.
Alongside the Cerberdogs, there are ALSO a troop of 12 Diabolicules, which are the Royal Guard of the Underworlds, that come in different forms depending on which of the 13 Underworlds they come from, as Vetroxis has brought 4 groups of 3 Diabolicules, he has brought 3 Inferno-Diabolicules from H, the 1st Underworld, 3 Micto-Diabolicules from Mictlan, the 4th Underworld, 3 Isazi-Diabolicules from Helheim, the 7th Underworld, and 3 Obutsu-Diabolicules from Yomi, the 10th Underworld.
Vetroxis has also brought out 3 Natokas, which are a species of Dragons that live and dwell in H, the 1st Underworld.
The Assassins see this intense threat, as Rexob responds by shouting gorilla noises and beating his upper torso with one hand.
REXOB: I know how to deal with this! OOH!! AHH!! OOH!! AHH!!
Zaviour sees this, and is not impressed.
ZAVIOUR: Yep, this is gonna get us killed.
REXOB: No its not, just roll with me, come on!
ZAVIOUR: Fine.
Zaviour and the rest of the Assassins comply with Rexob, as they all shout with him, and as it turns out, this “tactic”, if you could call it that, was learned by Rexob from studying the Warmongers, another Reptilian biped species living in the Andromeda’s Way Galaxy, who, as their name suggests, are extremely violent, and do nothing but wage bloody war and violence on each-other on a 24 to 7 to 365 basis.
ALL ASSASSINS: OOH!! AHH!! OOH!! AHH!!
Vetroxis sees this attempt at intimidation, as it was used by the Warmongers, who used it against each-other, and he taunts the Assassins.
VETROXIS: Puny Mortals, you think using a tribal scare tactic will fend off DEMONS? That is but nothing but bringing a protection crystal into the Underworld, and thinking it will WORK!!
Rexob comes back with a snide remark.
REXOB: Well then if THAT doesn’t work, we have weaponry, let’s go!
The Assassins begin what will eventually be a nearly 2 hour long fight with the armies of the Underworlds, before Loki throws a Fear Queen Bug at Vetroxis, knocking him on his back, but with nothing but a small bleeding wound, before Loki, THEN, remembers the “Thing” that him and Lamash-Tu had brought from the Assassins’ vehicles when they first entered the American Independence Festival, as Loki tells Lamash-Tu to bring it out RIGHT as he finishes off a Micto-Diabolicule, and throws its spear at a Skragg, impaling it, but not killing it, as Loki shouts to Lamash-Tu to bring out “The Thing”.
LOKI: Lamashie! I just remembered! Bring out the “Thing”!
LAMASH-TU: A-Are you sure, Loki? Don’t you think we should save it for when things get more DANGEROUS?
LOKI: Does this situation not look DEATHLY dangerous to you? Bring it out!!
LAMASH-TU: Uh, alright..
Lamash-Tu complies with Loki, as he goes and helps her bring out whatever contraption they’ve managed to sneak in and hide from the other Assassins.
Turns out, this “Thing”, is ACTUALLY a big metal minigun turret that also has a ROCKET LAUNCHER WITH HOMING MISSILES attached to it, as it unfolds, transforming from its cylindrical, mini-Time-Capsule shape, and into a ginormous gun capable of mass destruction.
Rexob looks over at the “Thing”, and is impressed that Loki and Lamash-Tu managed to sneak THAT into this sort of situation, flooded by dangerous bugs and demons.
REXOB: WHAT IS THAT!?
LAMASH-TU: THIS? THIS is just, the uhh, BULL-WHEEL LOADER!!
Lamash-Tu demonstrates the Bull-Wheel Loader’s power on the Demons and Fearbug monsters that flood the American Independence Day Festival, as it utterly SHREDS and DESSIPATES the forces of the Underworlds and their Fearbug Murder Mosquitoes, ONCE and for ALL, as Demons and Fearbugs lay dead on the grounds of the Point Pleasant American Independence Day Festival, as the Assassins have managed to fight them all off, but with the extra help of Lamash-Tu and Loki, leaving nothing but Vetroxis standing, as he is mortally wounded, but all of his body parts are intact, and he is still in one piece.
VETROXIS: This is NOT over, Mortals, we WILL be back.. but until then, have you NOTHING to say to your opponent, before you STRIKE him DOWN..?
Zaviour pushes Rexob out of the way, as he walks in-front of him.
ZAVIOUR: I’ll take him.
Zaviour walks towards Vetroxis, who is on his knees, and emitting his final dying breaths.
VETROXIS: ..You can’t kill me, Human, hehe..
ZAVIOUR: Oh, I’m anything BUT Human, I’m more than you can comprehend, buddy.
VETROXIS: Hmph, MORE than Human, oh won’t you wake up to reality? The only things that TRULY exist in this accursed reality are pain and suffering, even when you are the victor, the vanquished will still be there, it’s ALL a LIE, a SELFISH desire to protect PEACE, when ALL that does is create NOTHING but WARS, causing MORE pain and MORE suffering to go WITH it.
Rexob interrupts, and rushes Zaviour to finish this fight.
REXOB: BOOORING, SHUT UP, NERD!
ZAVIOUR: Shut your mouth, Lizard, and let the Demon talk.
VETROXIS: It’s ALL interruptions, it IS part of life, after all, and LIFE isn’t fair, IS it, now? While SOME are born to feast, sometimes on fortunes of their own or the lower ones in their surroundings, OTHERS spend their lives in the dark, BEGGING for the scraps of what’s left..
Zaviour stays silent, keeping himself from uttering EVEN a SINGLE word.
VETROXIS: The way I see it, you and I, are both EXACTLY the same, and whilst your society LOVES its heroes, which is what I am to MINE, the ONE thing they love MORE, is to see a hero FAIL, and fall, and DIE trying, but the only PROBLEM there, is that there IS no heroes, because there is no GOOD, NOR is there any EVIL, it is only POWER, and those too WEAK to SEEK it, but you are only as “GOOD” as the world ALLOWS you to be.. I will SHOW you.
At this point, Zaviour is not even blinking, OR breathing, as his eyes are LOCKED with Vetroxis’ eyes, and his lips sealed shut, tighter than a bank vault, as Vetroxis continues his motivating and poetic last words.
VETROXIS: When the plates and cloths are down, these “CIVILIZED” Mortals that you share a Planet with, will be JUST like the Warmongers of Saturn’s moon, Titan, they will ERADICATE each-other, as you can see, I am not a COMPLETE monster, I am, and YOU are too, just a mental state and a half HIGHER than your Mortal friends.
ZAVIOUR: …
VETROXIS: By eliminating ME, you deny ME my DESTINY, which is to CONQUER this Earth, it’s MORTALS, AND it’s environments, but instead of dying a hero, you’ve lived ALMOST long enough to watch your mind slowly turn towards the TRUTH, the TRUTH that EVERYONE in this dimension REFUSES to accept, the side they ALWAYS depict as “Evil”, the “Darkness”, the Darkness that I was BORN in, and MOLDED by, this “good” and “warming” light has done nothing but BLIND your comrades and everyone else AROUND you, after ALL, it DID work when The Evil One did it, by deceiving the world into thinking he NEVER, even, EXISTED, and if you introduce THAT with a little bit of ANARCHY, and you UPSET the established ORDER, then EVERYTHING becomes CHAOS, OF which, I am an AGENT of Khaos.
Zaviour continues his desolate, hopeless silence.
VETROXIS: And I KNOW you can’t LIVE with your own FAILURE, because you TRIED and DIDN’T SUCCEED to show up to SUCCESSFULLY evacuate the rest of the PITIFUL Mortals that were here before I was, and WHERE did that bring you?
Some of the intelligent male Assassins maintain verbal silence, due to their realization of how small they really are in reality, that being Rexob, Loki, Zaviour and Knightowl, whilst the rest of the male AND female Assassins are just at a loss of words, as Vetroxis continues his sentence.
VETROXIS: It brought you RIGHT to ME, and as LONG as there are those that remember what WAS, there will ALWAYS be those that are UNABLE to accept what CAN be, after ALL, me, the Others, and my Demons were here to HELP, by CLEANSING this Earth, HEALING it’s very SOUL, like Mount Shasta still DOES to this very DAY, THAT is why it has been UNTOUCHED for THIS long, EVEN by US, and you TORE us APART with your INFERNAL machinery and your technological DEBAUCHERY, THAT is why you CANNOT count on ANYONE in this world, in THESE WORLDS, ESPECIALLY those who you IDOLIZE, because whatever I did, I did to make this Earth BETTER, COME ON, TELL ME HOW PROUD YOU ARE, MOTHER EARTH!!
Suddenly, with Vetroxis’ shuddering words, the Earth ITSELF starts to shudder, and even TREMBLE, as large purple holes open between the clouds, in the skies over West Virginia, and other US States, as the ground quakes, and glowing evil green cracks begin to form in the concrete, as the Assassins flee back to their vehicles to leave the area, as does Vetroxis, as he flees back to whatever Underworld he came from, whereas Zaviour decides to stay a bit longer, with Rexob and Knightowl trying to rush him.
REXOB: Zav, we have to go!! This place is LITERALLY about to COLLAPSE!
KNIGHTOWL: Zaviour, come on!!
Zaviour reluctantly obliges, before he eventually leaves to his black and blue pick-up truck, the Rolling Thunder, as the other Assassins follow suit, as they leave the American Independence Day Festival, and go back home, to Assassins Cabin, which is protected by a Z-Barrier that Zaviour had created to protect Assassins Cabin from any sort of danger or even aerial attacks.

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I (27F) have an older brother, 33M. We didn't get along very much as kids due to the age gap, not for my lack of trying. I never really understood why my brother didn't really like spending time with me, because he was one of my favorite people in the world, despite all his bullying.
For context, I'll give some examples of what my brother has done to me over the years with some vague age ranges of when they occurred.
When I was about 3, my brother convinced me that red was orange and orange was red because I was learning my colors in preschool. He also used to steal food like tater tots off my little high chair tray and would pretend he didn't do anything when my mom checked on why I was crying (I was NOT a fussy baby/toddler, so it set off alarm bells when I did.)
I think when I was 4 or 5, my brother came into my room after I had already been put to bed, and he woke me up. Thing is, he was hovering over me with a scary mask on, only the hallway light, and a butterknife. Not sure I really have to explain why that was traumatic. I'm still afraid of masks to this day.
When I was around 10-12, my brother kept drinking all the milk or kool aid that I would make and never replenish/remake it. I told him to stop, he wouldn't, of course. My mom was fostering other children and didn't have time for squabbles like this. So I very visibly spit on top of the kool aid pitcher and left the lid off so it was seen. What does my (reminder, 17-19) brother do? He wrenches the bowl of cereal I'm currently eating out of my hands, spits in it, and shoves it back at me hard enough that it spilled all over me. Now, I'm not an angry person. I'm not a violent person. But I was still a child and fed up with being bullied by someone who was/almost an adult. I never tried getting physical before because I was so much smaller, but I hit puberty kind of early. So I splashed the bowl back at him to see how he liked it. He threw me to the ground and hit me. My mom had to break us up and told us we were both to blame, so he didn't even get punished.
Several times, he would turn the lights off on me when I was on the other side of the room in the basement away from the switch, because I was afraid of the dark for a very long time.
We had Sonic Adventure 2 we shared. If we ever fought about something, or I reminded him it was my turn, he threatened to say goodbye forever to my chao. I am extremely soft hearted so that accomplished what he wanted.
Sometimes I would notice my things go missing. I had assumed maybe my mom put them away somewhere and forgot, but I'm pretty sure I know what happened to them. Especially gamecube games-- Those discs were tiny! He was pawning them for drug and booze money. One time he was drunk and admitted he had been selling his adderall for other drugs. That came to a head one terrible Christmas Eve. Brother was home for the holiday and I'm not very clear on what events led up to it, but my parents caught my brother in the bathroom with a baggie of various drugs that he was already doing. He insisted it was just weed, but my parents didn't believe that. I wouldn't know, I only briefly saw the bag, but it was full of both a large green ball of like leaves and lots of white powder. It was a vicious screaming match for a few hours. I hid out in my room on a different floor and played a video game as loud as I could so I didn't have to hear my family. The screams died down after a while, and I cautiously went out of my room. My brother had left the house for a while. I had a few holiday assignments and decided to just crank them out while my family cooled off, and I did it at the dining room table because that's where our Christmas tree was too and I desperately needed that good cheer magic. I was quietly writing, not saying anything, not making much noise, when my brother came back in the house. He stopped off at the kitchen for something and muttered something rude and belittling to me. At this point I'm a preeten-early teen and he had already ruined the day that had always been magical to me before, as my grandma used to stay over with us on Christmas Eve. She had died rather recently at the time. And I can't tell you exactly what I said. I think I've blocked out as much as I can. I made some snide remark, something like 'at least I don't do drugs' and in the next second I was yanked out of my chair. My brother picked me up by the neck and slammed me against the wall. I know I clawed and kicked against the wall as hard as I could. I blacked out, and I woke up on the floor with my parents absolutely screaming at him that he could have killed me. As a side note to the whole ordeal, he never apologized, and it's made my adult life a lot harder as weed becomes more and more commonplace. Just the thought of it used to send me in a panic attack, I could feel the hands choking me again. I've gotten better about dealing with it, but I still refuse to have it in any part of my life whatsoever. It's cost me a few relationships.
When I was in college, my brother had moved back in with me and my parents because his girlfriend dumped him for being a piece of shit that worked at walmart and did nothing but drink all day despite having a state paid scholarship, that he wasted, because he couldn't keep his GPA above 2.8. He was a music major. The classes he took were things like 'History of Jimi Hendrix' and 'The Beatles'. He just partied too much to even attend class. He took the dog they got with him, not at all prepared for her. The dog is a high energy breed that is difficult to train, and we had two small 5-10 pound dogs at home. At 1 year old, bro's dog was about 30 pounds. He often left for several hours during summers/breaks when I was home, without telling anyone, knowing that I would either hear the dog cry if he crated them and feel bad and let them out or that I wouldn't banish them to a crate if they were already in a room with me. The dog bullied our other dogs and bit at everyone. Dog was incredibly overly protective of my brother-- Trait of the breed. I was back at college for a few months and had spent a good month mourning the loss of a 5 year relationship. I never really heard anything from him. Then out of the blue, my brother asks me if I can let him and dog stay for the night (we live 2 hours from the college) because my mom had kicked him out. The dog had bit her and she snapped at my brother to control his f'ing dog and he responded by calling her, the woman who birthed him, payed for his other college costs, paid back loans he promised to pay to other family members, never charged him rent, and he called her a f'ing female dog. She snapped. While I agree that my mom was completely in the right to do that, I have too soft of a heart to just leave him with nowhere to go. He promised it was just a night so he could get in touch with some friends closer to home and figure shit out. I let him come to me.
I really regret that decision.
At the time I had a new roommate (she was very nice though, I liked her) and a sort of FWB who doted on me for a little while. I texted FWB and asked if he could bring some alcohol by-- I was still 19 at the time, underage to buy it, but FWB was old enough and agreed the man could probably do with a drink. We stayed out on our little porch area to make sure that we wouldn't be disturbing my roomie in any way while we socialized. My brother got really wasted. He told me terrible things about our deceased grandmother (who he knew I had really loved growing up, and had no idea about who she really was because she had always loved me). And he laughed. He laughed when he saw the discomfort on my face. My FWB was feeling pretty bad for me and suggested we go to bed because it was also like 3 in the morning and both of us had class in the morning, so we go inside. The apartment has a shared common room/living room, little kitchen area, and laundry closet. My bedroom is on one side and roomie's was on the other-- Both bathrooms are also ensuite to the bedroom. So I went in and changed out of my clothes into something comfier to sleep in and crawled into my bed, letting my brother do his own thing in the bathroom. I'm just trying to rest and suddenly my brother is pulling me out of my bed and dragging me out of my own room. He's yelling that he's taking my bed, did I really expect him to take the couch? And I'm not very confrontational. I'm flustered, tired, and honestly a little afraid after the neck choke incident. FWB steps in like a hero and tries to calmly explain that its my bed, and I will sleep in it, I have been kind enough to let him stay and he should not be so ungrateful. Brother fucking loses his mind. Starts screaming his head off about how selfish I am and how reliant I am on our parents and won't be able to do anything on my own as an adult (I was financially dependent on my parents at 19 while in college, shocker). He starts drunkenly trying to pick up his dog's toys and searching for his keys, and both FWB and I step in and tell him he can't go driving like this, after like half a bottle of fireball. He at least needs to sober up before he can drive. I stand in front of the front door, as my brother is still searching for his keys, and there is no way I'm letting him out of here right now. Brother has found his keys, and starts pulling at me and hurting me. Lucky for me, FWB had been a pretty good wrestler in highschool. He got my brother pinned down and I snatched the keys, hiding over by the sink in case I had to throw them in there. He's screaming his head off and my poor roommate comes out and asks what the hell is going on because she knows I'm very quiet and tend to keep visitors in my room. I'm like half sobbing trying to explain and the FWB, still pinning my brother, tells her that we're trying to keep him from drunk driving. My roommate does not play around with that. She was in nursing school, and had recently lost a friend to a drunk driver. I don't know how it worked, but she put on her stern nurse tone and told my brother that he was free to leave when he sobered up, or she herself would be calling the cops on him, and both me and FWB could press additional charges for assault. He reluctantly agreed to this condition and FWB let him off the floor, but sat in front of the front door just in case. When he was sobered up, he left, saying 'I hope you like mom and dad, because I'm not your family anymore'.
And that was devastating. I couldn't stop crying. My FWB went back to bed with me and laid me down in bed and let me cry until I passed out. He skipped his class that day to be there for me. I know I don't paint a good picture of my brother, but I did/do love him. I thought now that we were older that he'd mellowed out and we could be good friends like I always wanted. I mean, I made like 300 fake facebook accounts back in the day to vote for his band to be a headliner at a large concert. Just a few years prior when he was home on a break he introduced me to a TV show we binged and he let my lay on his shoulder. (I was/am very touch starved but paralyzed by fear that I'm annoying the other person, and all my friends were made later in life and are states away). When Pokemon Go came out we would take late night drives around quiet places of town while hunting pokemon together. We traded off the controller on online battlefield games and compared scores and the most ridiculous deaths. I really thought that he loved me too, finally, after years of resentment.
He didn't speak to me for 2 years. I didn't find out until later, but my parents lied for him on my behalf that he still loved me and was just annoyed, and gave me birthday/christmas presents that they told me had been from him, just that he was working. I really treasured those objects when I didn't know the truth about them. I got a really stupid mug with the first letter of my name on it in pink and zebra print (two things I don't really enjoy) but I used that thing every single day.
So, these are glimpses into my previous relationship with my brother. I don't really remember when he started speaking to me again, but I sure know he never apologized. He had finally hit rock bottom and asked my father to put in a good word for him at (insert facility with decent pay and good benefits but hard work), which he had previously rejected by telling my parents that it was a shit job. My brother's name got put closer to the top of the resumes. He got in. It wasn't easy work, or comfy sometimes, but it paid well enough to endure that, I guess. My brother used to be rather athletic.
Between the cut off point and then, my brother had worked at a (also generic job) a town or two over and hated the commute. He also happened to find a girlfriend with an apartment sort of close by. She didn't like having him over because of his dog, and almost never let him do any overnight. But now that my brother had a better paying job, she was willing to move in with him, of course. My brother bought a house in our home town and she came with it. She pays a ridiculously low amount of rent to my brother.
If she was home and brother wasn't, the dog stayed crated up because she didn't want to deal with it. Both of them worked, but her job isn't at all difficult. And yet somehow, sometimes pulling doubles, my brother ended up doing most of everything. My brother, who didn't learn to do his laundry until his 20s, ate pizza every single day, and had left used condoms on the floor of his bedroom in our parents house when he left. He did most of the cooking because she says she's bad at it. But will make pies for her mom. When the holidays came around, instead of discussing or rotating, they will always go to her family first. If my brother can come to ours at all. He often misses entire occassions (we don't go out big, but like, cmon. Hand your dad the gift card on his birthday at least, not 2 weeks later).
I also used to get to hangout or see my brother sometimes. Maybe once every few weeks, and it was fun! It was the friendship I had always dreamt of. Now I can't even get him to do anything online with me from the comfort of his own home. I don't have a single text from him this year past 1/27.
At first, we all understood. She was quirky. I was quirky. We share several similar traits and interests. I used to like that and be excited to have a family member like me, but now I dread the day she becomes family.
Let's start with the smoking car. Me and my parents were driving near his street so we could cut through to the highway, and out of nowhere, black smoke starts coming from the hood. My father tells me and my mom to get out and he'll get it to my brother's and out of the road to look at it and see what was going on. This was like.... early August. It was very hot outside. Since I've 'been in the house before' and 'know what it's like' I am 'allowed' to come into my brother's house to cool off. But GF refuses letting in either of them, referring to the messy state of the house. Which, okay, fair-- But its HER messes. My brother cleans up after her. I learned later that GF snapped at him about his family always coming over unannounced and how she has to hurry to put on a bra and everything is messy and we can't just drop in its rude! She says, as her mother and brother do the exact same thing, in a house she doesn't own. But my family let it be water under the bridge for now. My brother called me a f'in a'hole for telling my mom about the conversation. Because my mom was livid.
The next thing is my father. My dad's family has a pretty big history of strokes and heart attacks, and he's had one heart attack. My dad had been in pain all day and he finally gave up at about 3AM and woke my mom up to drive him to the hospital. I don't have a license at this point, so there's little that I can do. My mom says the surgery he probably needs isn't even done here and they're transferring him, my mom asked me to keep my brother in the loop. So I told him about this and about the time they would reach the hospital, because my mom dad gran and I share locations. I asked if he would take me up, I had a bag full of things that might make him more comfortable or less stressed. The hospital they're taking our dad to is a little over an hour away. Everyone is more or less frantic. My brother is talking to work for him, I'm making sure that for however many hours that our pets will be okay and talking to my mom's work. We drive there and nothing major happens, but it was so... Uncomfortable? Tense. The thing that's hurting my dad is a blocked or enlarged blood vessel that cuts off oxygen to the tissue around it, which, cells die, and you really need your colon, the area my dad has an issue with. The thing is, until they can do the surgery, it was like he was a ticking time bomb. My brother takes me home when visitor hours are over and I hold my dogs tight. The next day is filled with lots of pricks pokes and prods at my dad so we don't go that day. We do go the day after, Friday. My brother's GF is in the truck with him. I'm not really paying attention to much of anything because for all we know my dad could die before we got there. Brothers' GF goes to get some snacks from the long drive and the fact that she's not exactly family yet. My brother, mom and I rotate who is away in the cafe and eating with GF. I see GF and my brother whispering angrily at each other. She's tugging at his arm. I manage to pick up 'We're going to miss my mom's dinner!" And I am just stunned. Her mother has a small family dinner every single friday and makes meatloaf. His GF wanted us to head back from our critical father, because she didn't want to miss a weekly event. And I really have to hand it to my brother for not snapping right then and there. He waited until we were in his truck and out of the hospital parking lot and says "How in the f'ck do you say something to me like that? Like, for real, wtf!" GF starts crying and says its a family tradition and her mom is all she has left-- False. She has her mom, sister, and brother, at least. Her father died in a car incident that hospitalized her as a kid. So my brother snaps again like 'are you seriously telling me you value a f'ing loaf of meat over a life? we have no idea what will happen, my dad could die within the hour and i'm not there, he could die tomorrow, how long d-" And GF cuts him off wailing that her dad is dead. Which, yes, is a horrifyingly traumatic experience. But she does not get to play the 'my dad is dead' card ten years after the fact, to justify leaving our possibly dying father before visiting hours ended. She tried to emotionally blackmail my brother by apologizing to me through tears that this must be so hard for me but honestly I was doing my best to block it out, staring at pictures of dogs in hammocks. I shared my brother's sentiment.
But wait, there's more! Remember that car accident GF had years ago? You would think that, if nothing else, she would be empathetic for someone/their family in a car crash? You'd be wrong! I was rear ended at 60 mph right in front of my house after coming home from work (the ambulance took me straight back to work lmao). The physical damage to me was pretty minimal, bruises and a sprained ankle because my foot was pressed on the brake, waiting for an opportunity to cross into the driveway. This was late October 2020. Covid regulations were pretty strict. So I was alone in a room for a while and in pain. My parents had followed the ambulance. My dad had actually heard the crash and went 'huh she usually comes home now' and runs over after seeing the wreckage. My parents had the crash footage, grainy, but there thanks to the cameras set up outside our house. I hadn't realized it by that point but I had a pretty good concussion, and I was hurt, and scared. I was texting my mom constantly but my dad had left his phone at home in the rush to get my mom and she hadn't charged her phone, they'd been in the parking lot for like an hour and a half already. They promised me they'd be back soon, they'll just pop in and let my brother know since he lives nearby. My parents didn't even ask to like, stay and sit with them instead of a cold car. My mom asked to pee and to borrow a charging cable (they had one, GF has the same model phone) given the, you know, situation. My brother barely cracked the door to speak with them. He said no, because GF was uncomfortable, because they were waiting for their second negative test to come in. Read that again. They had tested negative. It's not like my mom would go near anyone to the bathroom either-- The back door that's used more often is literally inches away from the bathroom door. My brother didn't even try to argue with his GF about his own home and some empathy for someone else dealing with a car crash. It absolutely disgusted my parents. And later on brother told me he got another earful about our parents just dropping in without notice and its like? Excuse me? Its his house!
Unfortunately, a tire popped on my parents' car when we were nearby. It was like, 3 years since the first issue with the car. I went inside and asked my brother to let my mom in because its raining. GF did not like that, and didn't realize I could overhear her down the hall, arguing with my brother and his family again. I went over the next day to my brother and he was actively cleaning up GF's mess so it wouldn't be as 'embarassing' for her. I sat him down and talked to him as realistically as I could. I have depression, anxiety, emotional abuse trauma, agorophobia, and very few friends. But I'm okay. He started very quietly expressing his frustration towards GF. She doesn't do much around the house or contribute financially, lets her family over but not his, him doing most of the cooking despite regularly pulling 12s. I sat there calmly, because of course I knew this. This is what makes the situation somewhat even more sticky. I asked my brother, "Do you actually love someone like that? Or are you afraid to be alone?" He's been in one relationship or another for most of my life. Lately he had been confiding in me about how bad his mental health was falling and I was like 'that's not a slump, that's. that's depression.' So when I asked my brother the question, he hesitated. That spoke loudly enough in my opinion. But then I also saw my brother's face crumpling as he admitted he just didn't want to be alone. GF wants babies but my brother knows with her medical history and condition on top of being so lazy and bluntly told me she would not be a good mother and hopes to God that day doesn't come. He is so unhappy being with her. We both heard the rustling of a comforter and my brother lowered his panicky voice and asked me to leave so she doesn't see me here. That is incredibly messed up, especially since its his name on the house. I haven't seen my brother at his house since then, and that was over 2 years ago.
During COVID, GF started working from home, and it stayed that way. My brother still takes care of most things.
In the mean time, he's proposed to her. Yeah. I managed to save things when all our faces dropped at the Christmas dinner he announced their engagement at. My brother calls her by a nickname that was also the name of a beloved family dog that had passed away only one month ago. My dad and my reactions at that time were genuine confusion and sadness about him bringing up our passed pet. Everything was pretty quiet after that. When we got home, I texted my brother and told him that hearing our dog's name in conversation after losing her so recently shattered us, be we were, in fact, happy for his engagement.
I lied.
None of us want him to marry her. I dread the day that I get a wedding invitation or GF shows up pregnant. She would be a terrible mother. My brother is aware of the fact that my parents think she's a rude, inconsiderate brat that only thinks of herself, from that earlier conversation that I talked to my parents about. My mom snapped that they don't have to like her, all they were required to do was be civil, and we are, so shut up.
At larger family functions GF tends to gravitate around me. Like I said, we have similar interests and personalities. And I have never told her to get lost or had it in me to upfront tell her we don't like her. I am absolutely horrible at confrontation, but my patience is wearing thin.
Last year my parents set up brunch for Mother's Day. We were at the table when my brother called and said they were going to urgent care because GF had another one of her migraines that make her vomit. Which, she takes medicine and has injectable solutions. Some situation always comes up with her right before my brother would come to us.
My parents tried again with the Mother's Day brunch last week. On the day of, he said that he was too tired to come, can we try next week? Please insert the eyeroll of the century.
Because of our clear dislike, my brother doesn't often bring his GF around anymore on the offchance she lets him. It occurred to me that my parents planned the same brunch as last year, and I was dreading my question. "Is GF coming with us for brunch?" They don't know. All my brother did was confirm the time and place. The thought of having to deal with her in the morning and pretend that I don't see her for what she is, is already exhausting me. I can barely get my brother to even play online with me. I feel like this has been festering long enough that at some point, its all going to overflow at once. But I am absolutely disgusted by how she takes advantage of my brother's fear of being alone and how the world revolves around her.
I had a dream the other day, actually, it was a good dream. I was at their wedding, and the priest guy said the standard 'speak now or hold your peace' and I stood up and loudly shouted OBJECTION! Every single person in the room turned to look at me, one because I don't raise my voice like that, two my patience is vast, and three, to upset me to this level of shouldering my anxiety by making a spectacle of myself. I then explained every detail, especially how much she was charged for rent, that my brother admitted he wasn't happy, and I wanted better for him than to just be an ATM maid.
If I bring this up to my brother again, I may lose him forever. But if I don't, he may be miserable together. And on the third side-- Do I actually really want my brothers' friendship at this point? Like, I'm definitely fed up dealing with his GF like she is. Plus, I pointed out and reiterated to him before that he admitted he wasn't happy.
I am very, very quiet by default. Never got into much trouble. I was and still am a gentle soul at my core being. If things get to a point where I cross lines of polite manners and call someone out on their bs, people around know that someone did something almost unforgivable. I'm wondering if my brother would know that.
TLDR; Brother's fiancee is disliked for good reason. My brother has isolated. I miss him, but also never want to see him again. I want to remind him that this marriage isn't a good idea, but I don't want to antagonize him.

Frontiersman No. 0012: Duke Collins
Screaming, Demands, Orders. Those are the sorts of things you expect when you have a weapon pointed in your face, but out here, in the void of space, and with no contact with the one pointing this weapon, we simply stared at each other in silence. I slowly raised my hands to shoulder height, palms out, in an attempt to show that I meant no harm. In silence we waited, as the second being inside of the ship crawled out of the airlock. They seemed panicked, and once outside, they looked around, before also pointing their weapon in my direction. Then they began... to drift. I saw them panic for a moment, which made things worse, and they were soon tumbling backwords, albeit slowly, away from both vessels, still held in place by the mining drones. With a slow wave of my hand, I gestured to the first... Alien? Person? That their colleague was slowling escaping them. They glanced over their should and began to panic as well, but kept their weapon trained on me. With very slow movements, I brought one hand to my wrist and used the interface on my suit to task a drone to retrieve the distressed being, now flailing slightly as they floated away. Despite the gun still pointed my way, I couldn't help but chuckle a little. The ship had Point defense turrets for breaking up small debris, and I know Aerie wouldn't leave me hanging. Glancing over their shoulder, the first person, i'll stick with person, seemed to let go a sigh of relief as they saw the drone brining their companion back to us. With that, they tentatively lowered their weapon, giving me some sort of nod or bow, it was difficult to tell.
As the drone deposited the second person back near the airlock, they wheeled their weapon up at me once more, only to have the first one reach over and place their arm across theirs, lowering them. With that, I gestured towards my ship with the open airlock. "Hey Aerie," I asked, "Could you please tap into their comms, if possible? Try to decypher their language, and if you can, put something on the display in the ship to communicate the atmosphere contents inside? Something they may be able to understand."
"Understood, the graphs are displayed now, and their communications, at least in those suits, are laughably basic, I've been taking language samples since before they left the ship." Aerie replied, and with that, I began moving towards my airlock, and the two creatures followed, after seeming to discuss for a moment. Once inside the ship, I relaxed. I gestured to a display showing a simple numbers chart using dots, a periodic table, and lastly a graph referring to Oxygen and Nitrogen on the table, signifying percentages. I know for a fact I would never be able to pick this stuff up, but it seems that after review and discussing it for a bit, they seemed to understand, because the one that managed to not drift into space hesitantly reached up and began to remove their helmet.
As the helmet came off, to say I was shocked would be an understatement. I already assumed I was dealing with some sort of alien, or at least a long lost human colony, due to how similar the anatomy seemed within their suits, but what I was looking at was a real life alien! If human facial structure was anything to go by, then this one was female. She was tall, with a light green skin that seemed extremely smooth. They would look like a bad accident with powder paint if it wasn't for the lack of hair, which was instead replaced with rows of fins that traced around her head and ended down at her nape. She turned to me after her helmet was off, and seemed to realize something, as her head cocked to the side, and all of the fins, or frills, on her head raised at once, pointing straight out on the back of her head, and the ones on the top of her head angling slighty upwards, rather than laying flat. I describe all of this objectively, but it's not absurd to say that I found this woman absolutely stunning. A deep breath later, and she turned and said something in her language while gesturing to hear companion. Their tongue sounded like a mix of high pitched trilling combined with the standard throat and tongue sounds of typical human speech, almost like a bird was singing alongside someone speaking a foreign language.
If the first Alien was beautiful, words will not do justice to the second. As they removed their helmet, I was greeted by a second alien, with similar frills and soft looking skin, but theirs was a lighter green color, and they had eyes that were as blue as a clear summer sky. They burned with an intensity as she breathed deeply, and examined me still inside of my suit, her eyes seemed to crawl up and down my frame, examining every detail. She was smaller, with less sharp features on her face, but she was the first to smile at me after a moment, and give a bow.
I was completely dumbstruck. I had no idea what to do in the face of a situation like this. I ended up returning the bow as my head swam. Not because they were cute, you animals, but because of the situation. This was first contact! To my knowledge, humanity has not yet met another race, and here I am, 86 jumps from Terran space, face to face with two real life aliens!
"Uh.. Aerie? Any word on those translations?" I asked. I was given my answer when the previous display was wiped, and a graphic showing two people talking was shown. I gestured to the two, and pointed at the display. Even if they didn't understand what was intended, it at least got them speaking more, which I believe is what Aerie had wanted. They gesticulated at the display and talked amonst themselves while I watched. They were both still armed, and I wasn't keen on getting comfortable just yet.
After about 10 minutes of me observing them, I heard a ping in my helmet, followed by Aerie, "I am pretty sure I have enough samples to have dissected the language, please give it a try."
Clearing my throat, I called out, "Uhm.. hello? Can you guys understand me?" They both wheeled around to face me, shock on their faces, and as they spoke, I heard their words translated through my helmet.
The tall, larger one spoke first. "Hello, I am shocked, you seem to have translated our language extremely quickly. I am Yorlia," She said, giving a bow. "and this my Liege, Countess Varien of house Gostak."
At this, the smaller alien spoke up while giving a bow. "Thank you for coming to our rescue, please call me Varien. If I may ask, why do you still wear your armor, and of which race are you? Your features seem to elude to you also being a Filorian, yet we have never seen a ship of your make, nor of such power to dispatch our pursuers in a single shot."
"I still wear my armor because you are still armed." I replied. "And no, I am not uh... Filorian. I am Human. You are Humanity's first contact among the stars." At this, they both glanced at each other, seeming to be a little suprised. Slowly, they both placed their weapon on the floor.
"We apologize," Said Varien, "We have had a rough day. Once again, thank you for our rescue, and welcome to the stars. May we have the pleasure now of looking the being who has saved us in the eyes?"
Slowly, I unclasped the latched on my helmet, hearing the familiar hiss of air escaping at I slid the clunky thing off. After placing the helmet under one arm against my hip, both of the Filorians let out a slight gasp, and, too fast for her apparent bodyguard to stop her, Countess Varien strode past her and reached to touch my face. Unsure of how to respond, I ended up standing there as a glove was removed, and Varien was suddenly poking and prodding at my cheeks, and giving my disty brown hair a slight tug.
"Yor, Yor! They look just like us! Just like us but fuzzy! Do all of your kind have fur on your head? Are all of you so lightly colored? Why do you look like us? Do you also have a love for the water? Yor you must touch his fur, you must!" Varien was practically bouncing, and if not for the shock of first contact still running through my system, I'm sure I would have been laughing out loud.
I let out a breath I had been holding. "Let me at least get out of my armor. I can tell this will take awhile."
Without my helmet, my comment fell on deaf ears.

I was living in a lower class neighborhood on the outskirts of a small town in the U.S. My house was old, and the windows had been broken by rocks and left unattended for many years. At first, I was embarrassed by the strangers' good deeds, but somehow, the Chinese fixed the broken window of my house, and I was grateful for their kindness in providing me with hot food.
Of course, I wasn't in such a bad situation that I couldn't fix the window, but the first day the window was broken, there was a small riot in the neighborhood, and the police came, but they couldn't catch the culprit and give me a way to get compensation, and the riot was predicted in advance, but they didn't actively stop it, so the riot escalated, I asked the police to compensate me because it was the police's fault for not preventing the riot in advance, but the police also failed to provide a solution in the end, and I left the broken glass unrepaired because in the midst of various conflicts, if a riot broke out again in Dongdaemun, a clean window would be a target for the rioters. For these reasons, the broken windows were left unattended for a long time.
Nevertheless, when the Chinese people came out of nowhere to fix the window, I experienced an incredible act of goodwill, the first time I was able to receive help from someone in this town. When a woman named Li Li fixed my window and said to me, "We believe in helping each other," I felt so warm and grateful to the Chinese people.
She volunteered in the neighborhood every day, helping people in need, and I helped her, and eventually we got to know each other better and better.
Although I didn't have much, I was able to help others by cleaning up their yards and mowing their overgrown grass, and I mixed in with the group of Chinese people, including Lili, to do the same kind of volunteer work. Suddenly, a dozen or so Chinese people who had renovated and moved into the old houses in the village had completely changed the atmosphere of our village, and it was transformed from a lower-class democratic neighborhood to one of the most pleasant neighborhoods in the area.
One day, Lili invited me to go to a lecture with her. I had never been to a lecture or seminar before, and it was awkward for me to be invited to such an event, but I decided to follow her to the lecture. I didn't know what the lecture was about, but the content of the lecture was a little strange. There was a middle-aged American man in his 50s who came out and gave a speech, and he praised China and said, "You are starving, but China can help you."
And I found it strange, but somehow, because I was helped by Lili at first, and because I was very grateful for the sudden Chinese hospitality, I easily accepted those words.After the middle-aged white man in his 50s finished speaking, other speakers came up, one of whom said, "China is a country where you can have everything," and insisted that China should step in to help the poor in America. Some people cheered enthusiastically, as they had received great help from the Chinese, and were excited by the speakers' speeches, but Sarah and I, who were in the audience, exchanged glances and shared our discomfort, but Lili's presence prevented us from storming out of the room or rebutting the speakers' arguments.
After this incident, I knew I had to distance myself from Lili.My neighbor Sarah and I had discussed how we couldn't understand who the Chinese were and why they were doing this good deed, but the growing gap between the rich and poor in the United States and the stories of China's growth only increased our doubts that China had really become so great that it could help the underclass in the United States. Nonetheless, the unpleasantness of the lecture was indelible, and we could only tell them to keep their distance from the Chinese in the future.
One day, I heard that a distant relative was visiting in the area, so I went to the city for the first time in a long time. Just a 30-minute drive away, I found a completely different world from the one I had grown up in. There were many upscale restaurants, where families with normal economic activities and close-knit communities were welcomed, not lower-class people like me.
I walked into a fancy looking restaurant to have a meal with a distant relative I hadn't seen in a long time.Usually when relatives visit, they treat me to food and usually take me out to a fancy restaurant.I walked into a new Korean restaurant and I had the experience of eating a Korean soup-like dish called kukbap at the Korean restaurant.Not only did it warm my stomach, but I had the strange experience of feeling strong for days after eating it.
I told my neighbor Sarah about it, and Sarah and I decided to go to the Korean restaurant again to try the food. After that, Sarah and I fell in love with Korean food, and since we couldn't pay a lot of money for it every time, we would go to the Korean food store in the city to buy food ingredients and cook with Sarah, and we fell in love with the genre of Korean food.
When I started spreading the word to my neighbors and letting them know that Korean food was really good, I got on Lili's radar.Lili was wary of my interest in Korea and started talking about how China was much more advanced than Korea.When she saw me fall in love with Korean food, she said, "Korea is just our little brother in China," and emphasized the superiority of China.She even recommended Chinese food to me, and even came to my house to cook Chinese food. I couldn't help but put the food in my mouth, but all I could think of was the warm soup and neat food in Korea.The first time I tasted mainland Chinese food, the smell of strong spices was overpowering, and I had a hard time eating it.I was forced to eat it because of her attitude, but she praised me for eating well, and then she insisted on recommending Chinese food, saying, "This is the real taste."
One day, she offered me the opportunity to visit China for myself. I loved Korean food and had always wanted to visit Korea at least once in my life, but I couldn't afford it, so I accepted her offer of a free trip to China.
When I received this favor from Lili, I felt so grateful that I could only think of positive things about going to China, such as, "There must be many good things about going to China," and "China has grown so much that it can help the underprivileged people in the United States." I went to China with high expectations.
Upon arrival, I was shocked at how different China was from what I expected.I was overwhelmed by the air pollution and crowded streets.The streets were dirty, and I was forced to eat food that smelled of strong spices.Most Americans would not be able to eat such spicy food easily. I also felt that Chinese food was not a good match for me, unlike the warm and light Korean food of Korea, so I was always hungry throughout the trip, and had to go to convenience stores to buy snacks whenever I had the chance, even though even the sweets tasted weird, and I ended up only finding chocolate snacks.
And most of all, I was disturbed to see Chinese people living worse than the American underclass.Lili, who was on the trip with me, explained that "this is the real China," but in my eyes, it was a disappointing sight.But many Americans, including Lili, who came here as a favor to the Chinese, couldn't say anything right.
"We want to go to South Korea or the United States for a better life, Japan is good, everything is good, just not China," said one Chinese man on the street, and as I listened to him, I realized the reality of China even more clearly.I realized that the Chinese propaganda was a lie, and I knew I had to work hard to make other Americans aware of this truth. To do that, I needed evidence, I needed comparisons, and I started talking about South Korea, and I would say to the Americans I was traveling with, "Don't you think South Korea is a much better place to live than China?
When I started to realize the reality of China, and started to say the right things, she became aggressive towards me. When I said, "There are many things that are better in Korea than China," she became very angry and shouted, "You don't know anything." We had a big fight, and she even said to me in China, "I can't be friends with you anymore." I was uncomfortable the whole time I was in China. I was shocked to see that even Chinese people who had learned English as well as they could, were saying that they wanted to leave China, that they didn't want to live in China, that they didn't want to live in China, and that they were fascinated by the Chinese people who suddenly appeared, and that they were under the illusion that China was better than the surrounding countries. After I ended my relationship with Li Li, I became convinced that all of this was the work of the Chinese government, starting with the group of Chinese people who suddenly appeared in the village.I thought that China, which obviously had more money than in the past, had a big plan to gradually induce the American lower class to have friendly feelings towards China.
After returning from my trip to China, I decided to make more people aware of China's fake face and expose the real China.To create a comparison, I looked online for information about South Korea, which I found to be an incredibly developed country.Through online interactions with Koreans on Reddit, I gained a deeper understanding of Korean culture and realized that South Korea is a very advanced country, both economically and culturally. Global companies like Samsung, LG, and Hyundai were founded in Korea, and Hangul was considered the most scientific writing system in the world.The global influence of the Korean Wave, including K-pop, K-drama, and K-movies, was huge.The middle class in the U.S., who were comfortable with their lives and spending money on culture, all knew about Korea.Only the lower class in the U.S. didn't know much about Korea, and had no idea what Korean culture was or where to find Korean products.
China, on the other hand, had a lot of problems, contrary to what it was advertised as.The air pollution was bad, and many people were living in poverty.The Chinese government was using propaganda to hide these problems, but the reality was that many Chinese people were trying to smuggle themselves into the United States or other countries for a better life.I tried to make others aware of these facts.I was seen as a strange person by the Americans in this town who praised China, but I was determined to never give up.
I thought back to why I was interested in Korea in the first place: because of the Korean food, I was surprised to find out what it was, and eventually my neighbor Sarah also noticed that the Chinese were up to something strange, so I started making Korean food and distributing it to the people in the neighborhood, but I also had to learn the background so I could explain it to them. The more I looked, the more I realized that Korea's history and culture were very rich, and that Korean food was excellent in every way: delicious, healthy, and healthy.Korean food, such as kimchi, bulgogi, and bibimbap, was already recognized in other countries, including the U.S., and around the world.In order to make others aware of these facts, I tried to provide information along with delicious Korean food.
This attitude brought me into conflict with Lili, whom I thought I would never see again, and as my conflict with her deepened, I began to doubt her true intentions behind the words she yelled at me. I realized that Li Li was not just trying to help the village and me, but was trying to use me to further China's political goals. Once I felt this way, and learned that the rumors of China's overseas operations were true, I decided to end my relationship with Li Li once and for all, and saw her as someone I had to fight against.
The more I learned about Korea, the more I admired the sincerity and hard work of the Korean people and their passion for education. I also found that the Korean people were very sincere and had a strong sense of family and community.
These values aligned with my own, and I felt that it was the way to go for this town, not by bringing in Chinese values, but by bringing in Korean values.Eventually, I decided that I had to kick the Chinese out, and many of the residents, including Sarah, eventually joined me in my cause.
As I gained more supporters, and as more people listened to my story, I worked to expose the reality of the Chinese situation.After talking to many people, I began to get the sense that while the Chinese were very grateful for their goodwill, they had crossed a line.One villager brought me a scripted news article that said that the Chinese were trying to escape China in many ways, including smuggling themselves into the United States through Mexico. The article said that most of the smugglers were middle-class Chinese, who could afford to buy plane tickets out of the country, so their strategy was to enter Latin America and then smuggle themselves into the U.S. through Mexico.The fact that Chinese people who could travel abroad were trying to smuggle themselves into the U.S. proved that China was not a good place to live, even for middle-class Chinese.It was shocking to realize that even middle-class Chinese people were not living in their own country and were fleeing.
The conflict with Lili, who had already become my enemy, continued. Lili told me that I was not only refusing to recognize the reality of China, but also comparing China to Korea, saying that China had many shortcomings, and that it was the right way for the people of this village to instill Korean values rather than Chinese values, and for everyone.
But Lili fought back, saying that you don't know anything, just as she shouted at me in China, and now most of the people in this village, including Lili, have stopped listening to the Chinese and have started to ignore the Chinese.
The Chinese must have realized that their machinations in this village had failed, because suddenly, like the tide going out, they disappeared from the village overnight.
I don't even know if the woman named Li Li was her real name, and the dozen or so Chinese families who followed her, all came to this village with a purpose, but in the end, they realized that they had failed and left.
They probably went to another lower-class area, far away from here, and did favors for the people, giving them what they had and offering them a free trip to China.
But if they hadn't taken me to China instead, I don't know if I would be doing this now, because if you have eyes to see, you know that China is much worse off, and I don't understand why they still took me there.
And these cases have been going on for a very long time, and I've learned that there are quite a few Americans who have already been turned into China-friendly, to suit China's purposes.I sincerely hope that Lili will go somewhere else and meet people like me, and that her plans will fail.I'll end by saying that I wish Lili the best of luck in her endeavors, wherever she may be doing the same thing.You guys be careful, too.