Tea bag tiles
Tea
2008.12.19 12:10 Tea
Tea! This subreddit is for discussion of beverages made from soaking camellia sinensis leaves (or twigs) in water, and, to a lesser extent, herbal infusions, yerba mate, and other tisanes.
2016.04.02 01:04 reddit oncyexabiretDrfiaiinavlybarlelblyPctgosanormraalalnDecteZosaw2loborure44Gopiklveer1334icosLAgiys
continuation of /lookathecinnamon and /goh13
2008.08.04 16:11 The Reddit Book Club
Welcome to bookclub! Current schedules can be found on the sidebar, in the top tabs, and pinned on the front page of the sub. We read and post about several books each month that are suggested by members and selected by popular vote. There's no requirement for joining, so pick up your book(s) and come read with us!
2024.06.02 08:22 KateAinLA Mariage Freres Marco Polo taste
Hello!
I bought the Marco Polo tea bags from Amazon US. I've had it a few times and find it incredibly tasteless. Very subtle hints but overall the aroma I'm getting is mostly from the scent. I'm not sure if I bought a "counterfeit" or if its just old and it's lost its flavor. As someone who's never had it, can someone let me know if MP is really very subtle tasting tea or did I sold a bad box of tea! What stinks is that was in Paris and stayed in Le Marais and stopped in at the shop, yet I didn't even buy or taste anything from them. I didn't think of buying tea until I was already back in the states, hence, the purchase from Amazon. Now, I''m thinking of ordering MP directly from the website for authenticity but want to make sure it'll actually have a stronger taste than what I'm getting from my Amazon purchase.
Thanks
submitted by KateAinLA to tea [link] [comments]
I bought the Marco Polo tea bags from Amazon US. I've had it a few times and find it incredibly tasteless. Very subtle hints but overall the aroma I'm getting is mostly from the scent. I'm not sure if I bought a "counterfeit" or if its just old and it's lost its flavor. As someone who's never had it, can someone let me know if MP is really very subtle tasting tea or did I sold a bad box of tea! What stinks is that was in Paris and stayed in Le Marais and stopped in at the shop, yet I didn't even buy or taste anything from them. I didn't think of buying tea until I was already back in the states, hence, the purchase from Amazon. Now, I''m thinking of ordering MP directly from the website for authenticity but want to make sure it'll actually have a stronger taste than what I'm getting from my Amazon purchase.
Thanks
2024.06.02 07:41 smileysunflower_ Birthday freebie
Lots of people ask about birthday freebies all the time ( even I have asked once) so here’s the list you can use instead of asking. ( btw you will have up sign up for the app/ website for most of them) also if I’m missing any feel free to add them
submitted by smileysunflower_ to Winnipeg [link] [comments]
- Starbucks- drink
- Tim Hortons - select drink or sandwich
- Sephora - mini gift 4.subway -cookie
- Perogy planet - 1 dozen perogy’s
- Cobbs bread - cinnamon bun
- Chatime - drink 8.booster juice - drink
- Canadian brewhouse- nachos
- sweet impressions - cupcake 11.smittys - $18 meal for free
- Denny’s - grand slam
- IHOP - pancakes
- David’s tea - 5 points 15 giant tiger - bag of chocolate
- Wendy’s - small frosty
2024.06.02 07:31 deniss_1996 $15.50 /w S&S: Stash Tea Double Bergamot Earl Grey Black Tea, Box of 100 Tea Bags
submitted by deniss_1996 to amzndeals [link] [comments]
2024.06.02 07:09 TheAbsoluteBread Project Octopath Traveler 3: Oukirii the Hunter, Chapter 2
Hey Everyone! I came to realize pretty quickly that I did not have as much of this chapter planned out as I thought I did. Which explains why it took a little long to come out, but in the end I managed to create something that I was satisfied with. You may notice one key change, being that Oukirii’s Companion no longer has a defined name! You’re free to name it whatever you wish.
(Completed Chapter 2s: Thearnt, Taland, Pascal, Harmony, Crowson, Asherah, Oukirii)
Next Chapter 2: Orlando the Starseer
Oukirii the Hunter, Chapter 2: Recommended Level 26
——————
(The Journey So Far…)
Events along Oukirii’s first hunt created damage in her family.
Her father came to realize that she had no intention of become a strong hunter on her own.
Even if she knew that, Oukirii couldn’t answer the question “Then what do you want to be?”
One evening, she had a dream of world’s destruction. A prophet came by the following day and told her of the beasts she saw that night.
Oukirii volunteered to hunt the beasts down, in hopes that this journey would reveal her true purpose to her…
Oukirii and Her Companion set foot in Evercold. The first thing Oukirii notes is the cold air of the snowy region. “You alright boy?” She crouches down and pets her companion on the head. It makes a joyful cry. “Hansel should be around here right?” Oukirii continues “He probably knows where we should go to look for Snow Gem!”
She takes a few steps forward, “This town is— very different from Oakbright…” Oukirii looks down. “Alright, Let’s go find Hansel!”
You’d be prompted to look for Hansel
(Blanche’s Dialogue will change depending on if you’ve visited the ranch prior. “You look familiar”/”Who’re you? A hunter?”)
Blanche would go on to explain that she’s here to pick up supplies. She notices Oukirii’s companion and hands her a bag of food before grabbing onto the wagon again. Suzie would give Oukirii a nod as they leave.
As Oukirii puts away the bag, She notices Hansel standing near the path that Blanche and Suzie went along. Oukirii runs over to Hansel and tells him that she’s ready to take on Snow Gem.
Hansel is glad to hear it. He would tell Oukirii that this beast has been terrorizing the citizens of Evercold for a long time. “Hunting Snow Gem is not only important for our own sun-saving mission. It’s for the relief of all these people right here.”
“Well I’ll have to do my best then!”
“I believe in you Oukirii. I really do.”
Oukirii would walk away from Hansel and you’d head further into town. Oukirii suddenly hears the sound of someone shouting “No, Not again!” Her companion points his nose in the direction of the shouting and a curious Oukirii runs over to find a girl standing outside of her home. She asks if something’s wrong and the girl tells her that she lost a book she borrowed from the town’s library.
Oukirii volunteers to help look, the girl just laughs loudly “It’s nowhere I can find, best of luck to you kid!”
“Hey!” Oukirii shouts. “I’ll find that book… Just you wait…”
Before leaving, she asks for the girl’s name. She answers “Valerie, why do you need to know?” Oukirii says that it’s just in case she wrote her name in the book. “Suppose I– Fair point?” Valerie responds.
You’d Entreat Valerie’s Book from a customer by Evercold’s Night Market.
Oukirii’s companion lies down on the floor. Valerie apologizes for acting like she did, and Oukirii forgives her immediately. She notices some tools on the wall and asks what those are for. Valerie says those are for her toolsmithing job. However, she wonders if that job is something even worth continuing. “Just doesn’t feel like my ‘right thing’.”
Oukirii gets to thinking. Being so young, she doesn’t fully understand what Valerie is saying. But she gets a better understanding by connecting it to finding her own purpose. It's hard to tell if she did the “right thing” by fleeing to complete this mission…
A Flashback occurs, A young Oukirii sits waiting in the living room while her mother and father try to make her look her best. The door opens, and somebody walks inside. Antànor Solana, Oukirii’s Grandfather. Dimitrius happily greets him, Antànor doesn’t say anything, But does the same to his son. He shakes Catalina’s hand and pats Oukirii on the head while facing away from her. He and Dimitrius walk forward, chatting about their hunts. Oukirii tries to shout something to her grandfather, but he doesn’t hear her…
After she and Valerie finish talking, Oukirii says that she’s off to hunt a beast. She describes Snow Gem to Valerie, who says “I’ve never heard of anything like that before…” Valerie tells Oukirii to wait up and grabs a hatchet from the wall, she says that she’ll be coming to hunt this thing too. She won’t let someone like her fight a beast unsupervised.
As Oukirii and Valerie walk, The ground begins to shake. They stop and stand still, Valerie asks “Did you feel that?” Oukirii wonders if the rumbling came from Snow Gem. Suddenly, the ground cracks underneath them. Sending Oukirii and her companion falling underground.
Oukirii is lying on the ground in a patch of snow. Her companion tries to wake her, Oukirii jolts up and looks around. “Thank the sun! Where’s Valerie?” Oukirii stands up after petting her companion. “This… Snow Gem… It must be…” She shakes her head.
Deepshiver Cave, Danger Level 27
“Stand back Valerie!” Oukirii and her companion step up, ready to confront the beast. “This is what I was made for… I won’t let you bring destruction to this world! Come on Snow Gem– It’s all over now!!”
BOSS: Snowradillo
(Boost Dialogue: “Here goes nothing!”)
Valerie dashes in and finishes off the beast with a large chop. It creates a strong wind as it fades away into nothing… “We did it!” Oukirii quietly says “That’s one down…” Valerie asks if Oukirii is alright, She says that she doesn’t know and explains that “I… I wish I could have known more about it. They say a hunter is supposed to read the hearts of all creatures they hunt. But I… Is there something wrong… with me as a hunter…?”
“Read the heart of it or not, you hunted that thing like a champion! Maybe you’re not looking in the right place kid, you helped this town out! You could consider the idea of being a traveling hunter…”
“A traveling hunter?” Oukirii asks. She gives it some thought, before her companion reminds them that they need to head back to the Evercold.
“It doesn’t work that way Oukirii…” Hansel replies “Destruction could still spell even if only one was still around… Our mission was to take down all three. The next target will be Red Spirit, I’ve found this creature to be in Redwater.”
Oukirii accepts to continue the mission and keep seeking her purpose. She and her companion excitedly leave town towards the next adventure.
Hansel and Valerie watch as they leave. Valerie says “I hope she finds her purpose out there. But there’s something I don’t quite understand. She seems like she doesn’t want to be strong. But then, why accept a mission that requires her to fight powerful monsters?”
“She wants to prove herself capable, and it’s a job only she can do. I’m grateful that she did accept, Otherwise the fate of the world might still be uncertain…”
(Ending Text)
Oukirii succeeds in her hunting of the first beast. Snowradillo of Evercold.
Two monsters remain as a threat to the world.
She keeps her heart optimistic, yet still finds herself troubled. With no definite answer to the question of her purpose…
With the guidance of the sun, Oukirii sets out to Redwater.
And prepares for a confrontation with Red Spirit…
——————
Oukirii the Hunter: Chapter 2, End.
submitted by TheAbsoluteBread to octopathtraveler [link] [comments]
(Completed Chapter 2s: Thearnt, Taland, Pascal, Harmony, Crowson, Asherah, Oukirii)
Next Chapter 2: Orlando the Starseer
Oukirii the Hunter, Chapter 2: Recommended Level 26
——————
(The Journey So Far…)
Events along Oukirii’s first hunt created damage in her family.
Her father came to realize that she had no intention of become a strong hunter on her own.
Even if she knew that, Oukirii couldn’t answer the question “Then what do you want to be?”
One evening, she had a dream of world’s destruction. A prophet came by the following day and told her of the beasts she saw that night.
Oukirii volunteered to hunt the beasts down, in hopes that this journey would reveal her true purpose to her…
Oukirii and Her Companion set foot in Evercold. The first thing Oukirii notes is the cold air of the snowy region. “You alright boy?” She crouches down and pets her companion on the head. It makes a joyful cry. “Hansel should be around here right?” Oukirii continues “He probably knows where we should go to look for Snow Gem!”
She takes a few steps forward, “This town is— very different from Oakbright…” Oukirii looks down. “Alright, Let’s go find Hansel!”
You’d be prompted to look for Hansel
- Travel Banter: My Nickname (Oukirii and Orlando) “Hey Kirie.” Orlando tries to get her attention. Oukirii freaks out and Orlando apologizes. Oukirii goes on to explain that her dad always called her Kirie. “That Dimitrius man, right?” Orlando asks. Oukirii tells Orlando a bit more about her father, before finally saying to him “You can call me Kirie if you want to.” Orlando makes sure that’s alright with her, and Oukirii says that it’s perfectly fine.
- Travel Banter: A Roaring Sword (Oukirii and Crowson) Oukirii notices Crowson and asks “What are you doing Mr. Crowson!?” He tells her that he’s just giving his sword a polish. Oukirii says “It’s shinier now, you did a good job!” Crowson goes quiet. “I’ve heard it roar through the air when you swing it!” Oukirii continues. He replies “It does do that. Now let us proceed.” Oukirii wonders what the hurry is for, Crowson tries to come up with an excuse, and settles on using the cold weather.
(Blanche’s Dialogue will change depending on if you’ve visited the ranch prior. “You look familiar”/”Who’re you? A hunter?”)
Blanche would go on to explain that she’s here to pick up supplies. She notices Oukirii’s companion and hands her a bag of food before grabbing onto the wagon again. Suzie would give Oukirii a nod as they leave.
As Oukirii puts away the bag, She notices Hansel standing near the path that Blanche and Suzie went along. Oukirii runs over to Hansel and tells him that she’s ready to take on Snow Gem.
Hansel is glad to hear it. He would tell Oukirii that this beast has been terrorizing the citizens of Evercold for a long time. “Hunting Snow Gem is not only important for our own sun-saving mission. It’s for the relief of all these people right here.”
“Well I’ll have to do my best then!”
“I believe in you Oukirii. I really do.”
Oukirii would walk away from Hansel and you’d head further into town. Oukirii suddenly hears the sound of someone shouting “No, Not again!” Her companion points his nose in the direction of the shouting and a curious Oukirii runs over to find a girl standing outside of her home. She asks if something’s wrong and the girl tells her that she lost a book she borrowed from the town’s library.
Oukirii volunteers to help look, the girl just laughs loudly “It’s nowhere I can find, best of luck to you kid!”
“Hey!” Oukirii shouts. “I’ll find that book… Just you wait…”
Before leaving, she asks for the girl’s name. She answers “Valerie, why do you need to know?” Oukirii says that it’s just in case she wrote her name in the book. “Suppose I– Fair point?” Valerie responds.
You’d Entreat Valerie’s Book from a customer by Evercold’s Night Market.
- Travel Banter: Valerie’s Missing Book (Oukirii and Asherah) Asherah remarks that Valerie must be extremely forgetful. But it’s hard not to feel bad for her. Oukirii says that it’s a good thing they showed up when they did, “Right, Helping people.” Asherah says. “Let’s just hope this pays off somehow.” Oukirii tells her that it will pay off in some way, Asherah asks “Do you believe in that sort of thing?” Oukirii says “Of course I do! Well— not if you don’t believe enough with me!”
Oukirii’s companion lies down on the floor. Valerie apologizes for acting like she did, and Oukirii forgives her immediately. She notices some tools on the wall and asks what those are for. Valerie says those are for her toolsmithing job. However, she wonders if that job is something even worth continuing. “Just doesn’t feel like my ‘right thing’.”
Oukirii gets to thinking. Being so young, she doesn’t fully understand what Valerie is saying. But she gets a better understanding by connecting it to finding her own purpose. It's hard to tell if she did the “right thing” by fleeing to complete this mission…
A Flashback occurs, A young Oukirii sits waiting in the living room while her mother and father try to make her look her best. The door opens, and somebody walks inside. Antànor Solana, Oukirii’s Grandfather. Dimitrius happily greets him, Antànor doesn’t say anything, But does the same to his son. He shakes Catalina’s hand and pats Oukirii on the head while facing away from her. He and Dimitrius walk forward, chatting about their hunts. Oukirii tries to shout something to her grandfather, but he doesn’t hear her…
After she and Valerie finish talking, Oukirii says that she’s off to hunt a beast. She describes Snow Gem to Valerie, who says “I’ve never heard of anything like that before…” Valerie tells Oukirii to wait up and grabs a hatchet from the wall, she says that she’ll be coming to hunt this thing too. She won’t let someone like her fight a beast unsupervised.
- Travel Banter: Dance Lessons (Oukirii and Harmony) Oukirii is lost in thought, Harmony gets her attention and offers to let her try out something new, Dancing! Wondering if it will help her find something to be passionate about. Oukirii doesn’t know what to think, Harmony talks with her about what it would be like to be a dancer. Oukirii says that stardom doesn’t sound like something she wants to strive for, but thanks Harmony for talking to her about her purpose in an uplifting way.
As Oukirii and Valerie walk, The ground begins to shake. They stop and stand still, Valerie asks “Did you feel that?” Oukirii wonders if the rumbling came from Snow Gem. Suddenly, the ground cracks underneath them. Sending Oukirii and her companion falling underground.
Oukirii is lying on the ground in a patch of snow. Her companion tries to wake her, Oukirii jolts up and looks around. “Thank the sun! Where’s Valerie?” Oukirii stands up after petting her companion. “This… Snow Gem… It must be…” She shakes her head.
Deepshiver Cave, Danger Level 27
- Travel Banter: Rough Landing! (Oukirii and Taland) “Agh…” Taland sounds in pain. Oukirii asks if he’s hurt. He replies “Who, Me? Not at all. It was like landing on a pillow! I did pull a muscle, but I’m more worried about you little sis.” Oukirii wonders “Huh? I’m not hurt.” Taland is ready to accept the answer until he points out her shivering. “You must have snow on ya still.” He teaches Oukirii to shake the snow out. Before they’re both ready to continue on.
“Stand back Valerie!” Oukirii and her companion step up, ready to confront the beast. “This is what I was made for… I won’t let you bring destruction to this world! Come on Snow Gem– It’s all over now!!”
BOSS: Snowradillo
(Boost Dialogue: “Here goes nothing!”)
Valerie dashes in and finishes off the beast with a large chop. It creates a strong wind as it fades away into nothing… “We did it!” Oukirii quietly says “That’s one down…” Valerie asks if Oukirii is alright, She says that she doesn’t know and explains that “I… I wish I could have known more about it. They say a hunter is supposed to read the hearts of all creatures they hunt. But I… Is there something wrong… with me as a hunter…?”
“Read the heart of it or not, you hunted that thing like a champion! Maybe you’re not looking in the right place kid, you helped this town out! You could consider the idea of being a traveling hunter…”
“A traveling hunter?” Oukirii asks. She gives it some thought, before her companion reminds them that they need to head back to the Evercold.
- Travel Banter: Church of the Sacred Sun (Oukirii and Thearnt) Oukirii asks Thearnt how different the Sacred Flame religion is compared to her own. Thearnt says that she was wondering the same thing. The two of them would have a long discussion about differences in their beliefs and customs. Draefendi being a god in one and a legendary hunter in the other, The Sun is believed as a spiritual concept while Aelfric is believed as an actual being, and how both religions have different things the followers shall and shall not do.
- Travel Banter: My Bedtime (Oukirii and Pascal) Oukirii is proud of her victory against the beast. “You did great.” Pascal congratulates her. Oukirii excitedly asks him if she can stay up later than usual now. Pascal tells her that he isn’t the one in the position to decide that, “Most of the time you’re knocked out early anyway.” He says, followed by silently thinking ”That’s when we usually go drink…” Oukirii pleads that she can stay up longer if she tries. Pascal tells her that he can talk about removing her suggested bedtime.
“It doesn’t work that way Oukirii…” Hansel replies “Destruction could still spell even if only one was still around… Our mission was to take down all three. The next target will be Red Spirit, I’ve found this creature to be in Redwater.”
Oukirii accepts to continue the mission and keep seeking her purpose. She and her companion excitedly leave town towards the next adventure.
Hansel and Valerie watch as they leave. Valerie says “I hope she finds her purpose out there. But there’s something I don’t quite understand. She seems like she doesn’t want to be strong. But then, why accept a mission that requires her to fight powerful monsters?”
“She wants to prove herself capable, and it’s a job only she can do. I’m grateful that she did accept, Otherwise the fate of the world might still be uncertain…”
(Ending Text)
Oukirii succeeds in her hunting of the first beast. Snowradillo of Evercold.
Two monsters remain as a threat to the world.
She keeps her heart optimistic, yet still finds herself troubled. With no definite answer to the question of her purpose…
With the guidance of the sun, Oukirii sets out to Redwater.
And prepares for a confrontation with Red Spirit…
——————
Oukirii the Hunter: Chapter 2, End.
2024.06.02 07:01 Comedian-Desperate Some food philosophy
TLDR: I have nuts(raw), fresh fruit and tea for breakfast every day because I can.
I got depressed recently and ate some junk food even though eating healthy is something I love... So I took a look at my diet and realized two things... 1. We(husband and I) were having all our fruit in smoothie form, recently having mango+berries+plant milk every day. 2. We were having all our nuts in nut bar form. There's some healthy ones that contain nothing but nuts+dry fruit.
If this sounds a bit rich, it is. I care about our health, it was a good investment, but when I got depressed making a smoothie became too much work and nut bars didn't appeal to me because I got so used to expect food to be super enjoyable and everything tasted bland. Now that food wasn't making me happy I found myself eating junk that didn't even do anything for me.
Nuts, fruit and tea are all foods I struggle to eat on their own. Eating an apple alone can make my stomach hurt. Eating nuts alone makes me get this disagreeable sensation of choking on powder from chewing them. Tea is something I can't remember to make or to drink once I made it.
So... I decided to train myself to eat them anyway, because how awesome is it when you need a snack to be able to get it in the fruit isle? It's like cheat codes irl. I had some apples at home which I was going to wait until they looked like hell before throwing them away, now they were just a bit off. I took an apple and a handful of the first nuts I found, almonds. Normally I would create a mix of nuts if I felt brave enough to serve us something so... plain, but now I thought "that's extra work", and extra work can turn into an excuse, or will be too much when I'm depressed. For a few days I had apples, almonds and tea every morning. In combination they actually taste great, so I practice eating them in isolation too so I don't end up relying too much on the flavor. Some days my breakfast will taste like whatever and that's ok, because that's exactly what will allow me to master and own this thing.
A-and.... it works. I used to buy a bag of apples and have it around for a month, thinking I should find the time to cook them or make them into ice cream because eating them was not appealing enough. Now I don't rely on food being appealing. If a fruit tastes bad I'll throw it away but it usually tastes ok or good. I stopped expecting food to taste great all the time and life got easier.
I was so tired of trying to build a life where everything is so chaotic around me and there's so little I can control so I asked myself "what's something I could I do that I could make into a part of me, something nothing and nobody can take away?". I was hoping to come up with more ideas, but this way of relating to food stood out because it truly does give me stability. I will always be able to find 1 type of fruit, 1 type of nuts and 1 type of tea available. If I end up dirt poor, I can still eat that way. Right now tomatoes (95% water) here are about 3* the price of wallnuts (5% water), so nuts are incredibly affordable and incredibly nutritious. And if a war starts I can still eat that way. If there's a food shortage, ok, I have 1 year supply of nuts (10kg/22lbs) and tea (18 boxes*20bags). If I can't access those 3 ingredients it means something truly terrible has happened in the world and it doesn't matter how healthy I eat anymore anyway.
It's even easier to tell people "this is what I eat every single morning, no exception" compared to "I usually eat a healthy breakfast". I've had people with good intentions offer me stuff they considered good enough and had to say so many times "I don't eat x because" when I was living with family or they assumed I was so healthy I deserved a "treat".
submitted by Comedian-Desperate to minimalism [link] [comments]
I got depressed recently and ate some junk food even though eating healthy is something I love... So I took a look at my diet and realized two things... 1. We(husband and I) were having all our fruit in smoothie form, recently having mango+berries+plant milk every day. 2. We were having all our nuts in nut bar form. There's some healthy ones that contain nothing but nuts+dry fruit.
If this sounds a bit rich, it is. I care about our health, it was a good investment, but when I got depressed making a smoothie became too much work and nut bars didn't appeal to me because I got so used to expect food to be super enjoyable and everything tasted bland. Now that food wasn't making me happy I found myself eating junk that didn't even do anything for me.
Nuts, fruit and tea are all foods I struggle to eat on their own. Eating an apple alone can make my stomach hurt. Eating nuts alone makes me get this disagreeable sensation of choking on powder from chewing them. Tea is something I can't remember to make or to drink once I made it.
So... I decided to train myself to eat them anyway, because how awesome is it when you need a snack to be able to get it in the fruit isle? It's like cheat codes irl. I had some apples at home which I was going to wait until they looked like hell before throwing them away, now they were just a bit off. I took an apple and a handful of the first nuts I found, almonds. Normally I would create a mix of nuts if I felt brave enough to serve us something so... plain, but now I thought "that's extra work", and extra work can turn into an excuse, or will be too much when I'm depressed. For a few days I had apples, almonds and tea every morning. In combination they actually taste great, so I practice eating them in isolation too so I don't end up relying too much on the flavor. Some days my breakfast will taste like whatever and that's ok, because that's exactly what will allow me to master and own this thing.
A-and.... it works. I used to buy a bag of apples and have it around for a month, thinking I should find the time to cook them or make them into ice cream because eating them was not appealing enough. Now I don't rely on food being appealing. If a fruit tastes bad I'll throw it away but it usually tastes ok or good. I stopped expecting food to taste great all the time and life got easier.
I was so tired of trying to build a life where everything is so chaotic around me and there's so little I can control so I asked myself "what's something I could I do that I could make into a part of me, something nothing and nobody can take away?". I was hoping to come up with more ideas, but this way of relating to food stood out because it truly does give me stability. I will always be able to find 1 type of fruit, 1 type of nuts and 1 type of tea available. If I end up dirt poor, I can still eat that way. Right now tomatoes (95% water) here are about 3* the price of wallnuts (5% water), so nuts are incredibly affordable and incredibly nutritious. And if a war starts I can still eat that way. If there's a food shortage, ok, I have 1 year supply of nuts (10kg/22lbs) and tea (18 boxes*20bags). If I can't access those 3 ingredients it means something truly terrible has happened in the world and it doesn't matter how healthy I eat anymore anyway.
It's even easier to tell people "this is what I eat every single morning, no exception" compared to "I usually eat a healthy breakfast". I've had people with good intentions offer me stuff they considered good enough and had to say so many times "I don't eat x because" when I was living with family or they assumed I was so healthy I deserved a "treat".
2024.06.02 03:32 Apprehensive-Suit715 Their extreme, entrenched selfishness is killing my mentally and physically.
I really thought that this would be the only place that might understand this post. I can barely keep myself going right now. I appreciate anyone who gets all the way through this, I’m only scratching the surface. I’m so tired of taking care of them. They think they’re self sufficient, but they’re far from it. Long story short I’ve been taking care of them since I could competently do chores, around 12-13 years old. I’m 30 now and doing everything from home repairs, to chauffeuring and cooking most meals . They’re in their mid 70s. Most of this is my asshat father. My mother is screwed up because of health issues , but I genuinely dislike her because everyone else’s happiness has always come before mine. Have away my stuff, snooped though my diary, volunteered me to help other people for free. I always took a back seat to her “make myself look good” social work. My feelings are lukewarm to say the least.
I had a brief two years of freedom when I was at grad school and then my mother had mini strokes and my father went into kidney failure shortly after. So, I had to move back and start forcing a downsize. It’s been a battle every inch of the way. My father has always been selfish and completely fixated on himself. We always had money for his things, but the moment I wanted something, it was suddenly out of reach. He makes more from his pension than I do at my full time job (I make 78K, he makes 185k before any of his).
In order to fix their McMansion, which I had barely been able to keep up with when I was living there before, it needed about 60k in repairs and updates. All the bathrooms had/have cracked tiles, leaking windows, one leaking ceiling, a million other tiny fixes, and most of the rooms needed paint because he was too lazy and or cheap to paint. I had previously (poorly painted) a few rooms when I was 15, but anyways. Back to my point of him wasting money. As of 2022 they had a low mileage practically brand new top of the line ford escape, but no, my father had to have a new Audi after his lease ended. So he went out and wasted 75k on a car. I had tried to reason with him that it wasn’t necessary and would really slow down all the repairs because of the suddenly outflow of money but Nooooope. I will digress, but he then managed to scrape the front number twice in less than a year on the garage in exactly the same place. AND guess who had to make sure it got fixed….ME! It’s always me fixing everything.
My entire childhood was spent doing yard work and working on finishing the basement which never was done. WHy dON’t yOu havE ANY FrENds?! Because I had no car, no time to myself, and so many other things. Bring someone over, so you can be quiet and not annnoy your father.
As a child I was diagnosed as lactose intolerant and a severe weight issue. They refused to make any alterations to their lives to help me avoid milk or even buy me stuff I could eat without getting sick. I had debilitating diarrhea every day I can remember until 17 when I basically starved myself and only drank tea. Not a great idea, but it was the first time I actually felt okay. When I lost the weight they said I looked better fat and refused to buy new clothes for me.
I kept it off for years, but since I loved back I gained a ton of weight because it’s constant shit food all the time. It’s a constant battle to get them to even eat leftovers and I end of stress eating. I can’t even get a good night’s sleep because my father refuses to go to bed at a reasonable time. Okay, stomp upstairs at 3AM, yeah, now I can’t get back to bed because your taking a sh** and flushing a million times right next to my room.
The “compromise” solution to their declining health was to build a house . Basically a huge screw you to me. My father promised me (after I had been killing myself with everything) that he’d help with a down payment on a house. Now they’re spending 1.1 million on a one story house, there’s nothing left for me. You’ll get it when we die. Yeah, when all that’s left of me is a neurotic quivering mess with intimacy issues, and severe depression.
I work a very stressful job, and it requires me to sit more since I started about a year ago (great people and work, but stressful). That combined with me carrying and lifting heavy things rather severely damaged my back. It’s a combination of the weight gain from stress eating, stress, lack of sleep and near no actually rest. My father as you can guess doesn’t give a shit.
Now I’m in constant pain, constantly angry, and with no way out.
What drove me up the wall today and motivated me to vent was a confluence of things. I have to get rid of a ton of furniture and a family friend really needed a bookcase because he was retiring from a local college and has a ton of books. I arranged to show up with my bookcase and I combined the trip with picking up a new vanity from Lowe’s. My father refused to have it delivered because it might get broken. Okay, that means I had to rent a truck and lift the monstrosity (actually two of them, this is the second one). After doing that I had to fight with him about helping. He can barely lift a gas pump, let alone a vanity and he kept getting in the way and I tripped over him. I had asked him several times to go inside and sit down because he tripped me the last time. So, there’s that.
Then on the way to drop the bookcase off because we were a bit early I offered to drive him by the house to see the progress. HUGE mistake. A couple of randos were looking at the house because they liked the alterations he made, but this gave him the opportunity to gab. I tapped him on the back several times and said Julie’s waiting on us, it’s rude to keep her waiting. HE f-inf ignored me every time and the wondered why I was mad. This made us so late that I got a call asking what was taking so long (no rude at all, just checking that’s all). This is just more proof he doesn’t respect me.
Now, I did not start doing this because of money. I’ve hardly ever seen a penny outside of some assistance with college. Half the time I have to get reimbursed because I’ve spent so much of my own money getting stuff done.
For my birthday, here’s a thousand bucks when I’ve just spent 3k on fixing things or have had to do a ton more maintenance on my car because I have to drive 100+ miles a day to get to work. I’ve had people I’ve hardly known value my time and energy more than they have. I had to give up a part time job I loved to take care of them. I definitely would still be making more money even if I was still renting. My father wanted me to pay rent in addition to doing everything I’ve been doing. Until I pointed out the hypocrisy of being a live in chef, handyman, unwilling companion and other things. So deluded.
It just extreme self centeredness and lack of self awareness. Oh and get this they’ve asked me why I haven’t had kids yet. My mother suggested they could leave the house for an hr, so I could have someone over. Jesus, I mean they have no idea how much work a meaningful relationship is.
The biggest betrayal was the fact they said they’d never let this happen, that they’d willingly love into assisted living. This was when I spent my summers taking care of my grandparents (doesn’t my life sound grand?!) doing all the shit I’m doing for them.
The only time I get a brief break and feel like myself are the monthly or bi monthly trip to visit a friend (who I love, but nothings going to happen because it’s too long of a story, but I appreciate, cherish and just feel at home with her). She knows the shit I’m dealing with but I refuse to dump it on her because I’m there to spend time with her and enjoy things, no wallow. It’s been so bad lately that I cry thinking about the dichotomy of what love actually feels like with her, versus the horseshit guilt-love I’ve been peddled by my parents.
I don’t feel like ‘me’ anymore. Since I moved out of my apartment I can’t afford anything unless I want to be dumping my entire pay check into rent/utilities. I’m so burned out emotionally, physically, and mentally I just don’t have the energy to make the jump to another country (it’s an option, just too tired right now). To get away from this I really need a continent between me and my parents.
submitted by Apprehensive-Suit715 to AgingParents [link] [comments]
I had a brief two years of freedom when I was at grad school and then my mother had mini strokes and my father went into kidney failure shortly after. So, I had to move back and start forcing a downsize. It’s been a battle every inch of the way. My father has always been selfish and completely fixated on himself. We always had money for his things, but the moment I wanted something, it was suddenly out of reach. He makes more from his pension than I do at my full time job (I make 78K, he makes 185k before any of his).
In order to fix their McMansion, which I had barely been able to keep up with when I was living there before, it needed about 60k in repairs and updates. All the bathrooms had/have cracked tiles, leaking windows, one leaking ceiling, a million other tiny fixes, and most of the rooms needed paint because he was too lazy and or cheap to paint. I had previously (poorly painted) a few rooms when I was 15, but anyways. Back to my point of him wasting money. As of 2022 they had a low mileage practically brand new top of the line ford escape, but no, my father had to have a new Audi after his lease ended. So he went out and wasted 75k on a car. I had tried to reason with him that it wasn’t necessary and would really slow down all the repairs because of the suddenly outflow of money but Nooooope. I will digress, but he then managed to scrape the front number twice in less than a year on the garage in exactly the same place. AND guess who had to make sure it got fixed….ME! It’s always me fixing everything.
My entire childhood was spent doing yard work and working on finishing the basement which never was done. WHy dON’t yOu havE ANY FrENds?! Because I had no car, no time to myself, and so many other things. Bring someone over, so you can be quiet and not annnoy your father.
As a child I was diagnosed as lactose intolerant and a severe weight issue. They refused to make any alterations to their lives to help me avoid milk or even buy me stuff I could eat without getting sick. I had debilitating diarrhea every day I can remember until 17 when I basically starved myself and only drank tea. Not a great idea, but it was the first time I actually felt okay. When I lost the weight they said I looked better fat and refused to buy new clothes for me.
I kept it off for years, but since I loved back I gained a ton of weight because it’s constant shit food all the time. It’s a constant battle to get them to even eat leftovers and I end of stress eating. I can’t even get a good night’s sleep because my father refuses to go to bed at a reasonable time. Okay, stomp upstairs at 3AM, yeah, now I can’t get back to bed because your taking a sh** and flushing a million times right next to my room.
The “compromise” solution to their declining health was to build a house . Basically a huge screw you to me. My father promised me (after I had been killing myself with everything) that he’d help with a down payment on a house. Now they’re spending 1.1 million on a one story house, there’s nothing left for me. You’ll get it when we die. Yeah, when all that’s left of me is a neurotic quivering mess with intimacy issues, and severe depression.
I work a very stressful job, and it requires me to sit more since I started about a year ago (great people and work, but stressful). That combined with me carrying and lifting heavy things rather severely damaged my back. It’s a combination of the weight gain from stress eating, stress, lack of sleep and near no actually rest. My father as you can guess doesn’t give a shit.
Now I’m in constant pain, constantly angry, and with no way out.
What drove me up the wall today and motivated me to vent was a confluence of things. I have to get rid of a ton of furniture and a family friend really needed a bookcase because he was retiring from a local college and has a ton of books. I arranged to show up with my bookcase and I combined the trip with picking up a new vanity from Lowe’s. My father refused to have it delivered because it might get broken. Okay, that means I had to rent a truck and lift the monstrosity (actually two of them, this is the second one). After doing that I had to fight with him about helping. He can barely lift a gas pump, let alone a vanity and he kept getting in the way and I tripped over him. I had asked him several times to go inside and sit down because he tripped me the last time. So, there’s that.
Then on the way to drop the bookcase off because we were a bit early I offered to drive him by the house to see the progress. HUGE mistake. A couple of randos were looking at the house because they liked the alterations he made, but this gave him the opportunity to gab. I tapped him on the back several times and said Julie’s waiting on us, it’s rude to keep her waiting. HE f-inf ignored me every time and the wondered why I was mad. This made us so late that I got a call asking what was taking so long (no rude at all, just checking that’s all). This is just more proof he doesn’t respect me.
Now, I did not start doing this because of money. I’ve hardly ever seen a penny outside of some assistance with college. Half the time I have to get reimbursed because I’ve spent so much of my own money getting stuff done.
For my birthday, here’s a thousand bucks when I’ve just spent 3k on fixing things or have had to do a ton more maintenance on my car because I have to drive 100+ miles a day to get to work. I’ve had people I’ve hardly known value my time and energy more than they have. I had to give up a part time job I loved to take care of them. I definitely would still be making more money even if I was still renting. My father wanted me to pay rent in addition to doing everything I’ve been doing. Until I pointed out the hypocrisy of being a live in chef, handyman, unwilling companion and other things. So deluded.
It just extreme self centeredness and lack of self awareness. Oh and get this they’ve asked me why I haven’t had kids yet. My mother suggested they could leave the house for an hr, so I could have someone over. Jesus, I mean they have no idea how much work a meaningful relationship is.
The biggest betrayal was the fact they said they’d never let this happen, that they’d willingly love into assisted living. This was when I spent my summers taking care of my grandparents (doesn’t my life sound grand?!) doing all the shit I’m doing for them.
The only time I get a brief break and feel like myself are the monthly or bi monthly trip to visit a friend (who I love, but nothings going to happen because it’s too long of a story, but I appreciate, cherish and just feel at home with her). She knows the shit I’m dealing with but I refuse to dump it on her because I’m there to spend time with her and enjoy things, no wallow. It’s been so bad lately that I cry thinking about the dichotomy of what love actually feels like with her, versus the horseshit guilt-love I’ve been peddled by my parents.
I don’t feel like ‘me’ anymore. Since I moved out of my apartment I can’t afford anything unless I want to be dumping my entire pay check into rent/utilities. I’m so burned out emotionally, physically, and mentally I just don’t have the energy to make the jump to another country (it’s an option, just too tired right now). To get away from this I really need a continent between me and my parents.
2024.06.02 03:03 Montanasloane IBS panic attacks?
I live alone and this morning i woke up at 4am with stomach pain that quickly intensified when I tried to have a BM. I was sweating and hyperventilating with nobody to call but contemplated calling the hospital for someone to just stay on the line with me because my overbreathing was out of control.
The pain was awful. I knew I had to get off the toilet and help myself but I was hyperventilating so bad not knowing yet what hour of the day it was and sweating and scared of passing out. I was able to get the fridge and pour a bottle of water over my head to stop the hyperventilating. After that I felt calm enough to make a hot tea and heat up my wheat bag and lay in bed before falling back to sleep. It all helped - but I was amazed how fast the water over the head helped me to regulate my breathing instantly! I’ll remember that next time I’m having a panic attack.
I’ve had panic attacks before but ibs and panic attack I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Has anyone else had to do anything crazy like that during intense ibs pain?
submitted by Montanasloane to ibs [link] [comments]
The pain was awful. I knew I had to get off the toilet and help myself but I was hyperventilating so bad not knowing yet what hour of the day it was and sweating and scared of passing out. I was able to get the fridge and pour a bottle of water over my head to stop the hyperventilating. After that I felt calm enough to make a hot tea and heat up my wheat bag and lay in bed before falling back to sleep. It all helped - but I was amazed how fast the water over the head helped me to regulate my breathing instantly! I’ll remember that next time I’m having a panic attack.
I’ve had panic attacks before but ibs and panic attack I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Has anyone else had to do anything crazy like that during intense ibs pain?
2024.06.02 01:34 Obiwandkinobee The B E S T kind of revenge!
 | I played with the enemy team one match, but after the were all wiped and I was left alone - They plug in their mics and start using slurs. Eventually I match into a game against them. Oh I enjoyed the TeaBag immensely. submitted by Obiwandkinobee to RogueCompany [link] [comments] "REVENGEEEEEEEE" |
2024.06.02 01:29 NotAKidAnymore13 These followed me home from the Coach Store
 | Went in for an inexpensive (compared to what we ended up with) black Revel Bag 24 and ended up spending 4X as much. I was happy with the very cute Revel 24, but there really is no comparison to the Rogue Top Handle w/Tea Roses. Plus love the link chain strap. My husband talked me into it and as long as he was okay spending the money, who am I to be argumentative? submitted by NotAKidAnymore13 to Coach [link] [comments] |
2024.06.02 01:07 TheMoxFulder Dark Match [4 .3k] Wrestling Themed Horror Short
Cannibal had made up his mind a few moves ago: If this kid doesn't swing this chair, doesn't absolutely fuckin' nail me, then he's getting taxed, and big time.
The kid's name is Rob Small, and he's supposedly some hot-shot rookie fresh out of the local school. But Cannibal doesn't get it. Everything about the kid bugs him, right down to the name. The sport lost something when people stopped calling themselves ridiculous things, like 'The Big' this, or 'Ultimate' that.
And besides, it's a dirty trick. It's too easy, just like everything the new kids are doing. It's almost too real. And the audience doesn't want real. They only think they do. Cannibal knows this better than just about anyone.
Cannibal feels that he's been carrying them both since the bell. Again, it's this new, soft shit. Flipping, and posing, and nobody wants a single scratch on their pretty mugs. The word fake doesn't exist in this business, but as Rob winds up for another one of his little tricks, all flare, no impact, you can kind of see where people get that idea.
Cannibal takes a knee, then another, but wide, because that's how you take a real hit. Rob pulls the chair back.
"Don't fuck this up," Cannibal says.
The blade of the chair just grazes Cannibal's eyebrow, opening two inches of scar tissue, and perforation.
This is good. Unintentional, but good.
The crowd isn't theirs yet, but the stream of blood pulls a few people forward and gets them almost leaning into the next row down.
The blood is good, no doubt about it. But the sound of skull on steel would've lit them on fire, and that's just science.
Rob moves to the ropes, taking a squeaky-clean moment to acknowledge the crowd. He waves his arms around like he's leading a marching band or something, and it "earns" him a small pop of recognition.
Here's the problem- there's no story here. No tale of the tape. Just some rookie nobody cares about, and an aging prick that people care even less about. This is when every move is supposed to count. Not just every move, but every transition, every facial expression too. The kid's athletic, sure. But so is everybody. He doesn't have the rhythm yet, and his nose is too straight. And Cannibal is tired of carrying this match.
Cannibal starts back on his feet, quickly, counter-intuitively, like a jump scare. The kid's finally connecting with the crowd now, lifting the chair like some intramural trophy. But it's too little, too late, and Cannibal sees his opportunity.
First Cannibal snatches the chair, up, and behind Rob, then steadies his giant, calloused fingers with a well-timed exhale. He whirls Rob around, ready or not, and drives the lip of the chair into the liver side of his waist, which folds him directly in two. The crowd chatters a bit, but he isn't finished.
Cannibal throws the chair less than a foot away, then sets up the move that's going to win the crowd.
He didn't invent the move, not even close. It's not even particularly uncommon. But he made his name off this move. Here's some wisdom from the old school: There are precious few people who make money from this business by looking good. And if you can't look good, you need to look vicious.
Cannibal hooks his arms under Rob's armpits, then wrenches both arms so violently that the triceps almost touch. Operating on pure panic, and instinct, Rob's legs unwind, independently searching for a better position, but never finding it.
"Hey, easy up there," Rob says from somewhere near Cannibal's midsection, but he may as well be speaking to the mat now.
Cannibal wrenches Rob's arms again, but this time the triceps touch for one moment of searing pain. He does this half for show, and half as a warning to keep quiet during his finisher. He looks out at the crowd, and their features form for the first time since he entered the arena. Before then, they were nothing, just a wallpaper pattern of merch, and facial hair. There's a difference between the individual faces in the first row, and the voice that fills the venue, and guides your match.
A single fan can be wrong, but a crowd never is.
But Cannibal takes some of that power back now, and he's staring at the crowd, the entity, right in the face, starting with the first row.
The first few faces that he locks eyes with are rabid, their eyes wild with anticipation. They're gesticulating wildly, like they can't believe, or can't wait for what's coming next. The next face is a little boy who shies away and looks at his dad for help. He scans about a seating section and a half, screaming spittle-seasoned insults along the way.
Mid-taunt, before anybody can count it off, Cannibal hits his finisher, The Flesh Eater.
Cannibal pushes off the toes of his boots, about a foot into the air, bringing Rob's craned arms with him. That's why you really need to wrench. With Rob feeling real pain at each arm's socket, he has no choice but to sell. At the height of his jump, Cannibal shoots his legs straight out in a wide V, unclenching his ass for a nice, cushioned landing.
Rob's face hits the chair a microsecond before Cannibal's legs, and underside absorb the remainder of the blow. It's enough to make the aluminum ring out into the high warehouse ceiling and put a pretty little face-sized dent in the seat.
The crowd reacts with screams, with horror, with finally, some fucking emotion.
Cannibal climbs to his feet, while the lights flick on-and-off, on-and-off in Rob's eyes. Rob props himself on his palms, and knees, finding the floor he wasn't even looking for.
But he loses it again with a big, booted punt to the ribs. The crowd boos now from every direction.
This is good. It means that right now, they hate Cannibal. It means that when they go home, they'll remember how much they hated him. It means that he did his job.
Cannibal takes a victory lap around the ring while Rob writhes in presumably authentic agony. Cannibal leans over the top rope, pointing at the front row again, dissolving the boundary between them. He's screaming at a fan. He may even be screaming at one hundred fans when he notices a face that shouldn't be in attendance.
Was it section B? He looks over but can't find the face anymore.
He darts his eyes wildly, unfocusing them so that the crowd transforms into nothing but eyebrows, and merch, approval, and disgust.
He glances back toward Section B, right around where he thinks he saw the face, right as Rob crawls from behind, hooks his leg, and rolls him into a three count.
Both men roll onto their backs; Rob, because the pain from his neck, down to his waist puts him there. Cannibal, because he's defeated and confused.
Had he really seen that face? He knows he hadn't. One, because that would make no sense. And two, because, and he only saw it for a second, but the face was significantly younger than it should have been. About 20 years younger. Which would put it right around a time that he doesn't think, or speak about. Cannibal decides that he didn't see the face after all. He doesn't believe in ghosts. Especially not ghosts that haven't even died.
***
Cannibal collects his pay, and the doc plugs up his gash, in that order. He's got a show in a bigger market tomorrow, so the butterfly stitches just need to hold until then.
He unlaces his boots in the parking lot, then trades them for some once-white Adidas from the back seat of his gray Toyota Camry. Then he thinks about the ghost again. The one that he didn't see, the one that isn't even dead as far as he knows.
He stands still in his untied sneakers and thumbs a few reps through his social pages. If he had died, the news would have picked it up by now. An old friend would have even messaged,
"Here if you need to talk." Or, "It's not your fault"
Something like that, anyway. But Cannibal doesn't see anything, no messages, neither of their names gracing, or disgracing any headlines. And besides, that doesn't exactly solve the issue at hand. Maybe the kids are right, he thinks. I've officially taken too many blows to the skull.
For twenty years, Cannibal has always driven to the next city, or the next stop on the road, the night prior. Tonight, he checks into the nearest hotel/rest stop that connects to the main road. It's only about a four-hour drive, three if he can avoid traffic, and the need to piss. He doesn't even need to check into the venue until 5 pm. That's ample time, he decides for the first time in his career.
"I just need a bed and a shower", Cannibal tells the night clerk, a pimply boy who has deepened his voice since the exchange intensified.
He's the only employee, except for a few maids pushing yellow baskets around the parking lot, and a few unofficially affiliated girls prowling around from the local skin bar.
The boy wants to avoid a hassle. He knows that the nearest signs of life are the old warehouse a few exits down, and the sheriff's office even further.
"I'm sorry sir," he begins, and he's really using diaphragm now, speaking to the back of the house, "But all's we got left tonight is the honeymoon suite."
"So it's $30 extra for a dirty mirror on the ceiling, and a vase full of plastic fuckin' roses?"
The clerk winces at the swear, then gleams over Cannibal's right shoulder into the mostly empty parking lot. Cannibal gives the kid his best mean mug, the same one that he'd shoot toward a new opponent or a crowd that hates his guts. The quiet moment lingers, and then, wouldn't you guess it, just like that, thirty dollars gets shaved off the tab.
Cannibal tosses his duffel onto the frilly red sheets, then rolls off his sneakers as his reflections oblige in both the ceiling and wall-length mirrors. He sits on the bed, then wiggles his toes a bit generating a sound like gravel crunching in a driveway. He wants to get up and shower off some of the dried blood that's clotted his hair to his face, but the world rocks, and spins, and he lays down and falls asleep without even killing the bedside lamp.
He can't remember the ramp, the fans, or the bell. He can't remember the promos, or what angle he's supposed to be taking. But judging from the dark cherry splatted canvas, and the ringing in ears, it's been a fuckin' barn-burner so far. He looks directly ahead, at the high, pipe-laden ceiling, and realizes he's on his back. A boot lands next to his head, then another. Maybe it's the high-intensity discharge lights that are stinging his eyes, maybe he's still rattled from whatever move put him on his ass, but as his opponent steps over him, he can't seem at all to make out their face.
Whoever his opponent is, he begins to pick him up by the hair, and that's when Cannibal notices that the abstract art on the mat has mostly come from the back of his head. Drops of blood race down his opponents wrists, and pool near his elbows. Cannibal is bent over looking down at the mat, at his opponent's standard-issue black boots, and at the fresh coat of bright red, which will soon dry darker.
His opponent cranks his arms clumsily but with intensity. He can feel his blood greasing his opponent's grip, not allowing for any real traction. Then his opponent's knees square up, then bend, and Cannibal realizes. "Hey, that's my fucking move!" he says, or tries to say, but his opponent's airborne, and then so is he.
Usually, there's a nice thud when you hit the mat, but not this time. This time it sounds more like a series of wet pops, like cracking your knuckles underwater. Cannibal tries to roll over and assess the situation. Then he tries to roll over again.
Oh. Shit.
He's face down on the mat, and he intuits, rather than feels his opponent hurry off him, and in that same foggy way, he can feel the crowd. The beast with one thousand eyes is silent, but it isn't bored. It's murmuring, but with a sort of upward inflection, like it's asking him a question can't answer. Now a referee rolls him over. Cannibal awakens in a panic and tries to jump out of bed, away from the red sheets, but his body is uncooperative. His head lolls at an unnatural angle toward the mirrored wall. He can move his eyes, but nothing else.
He wants to scream for the pimply-faced boy or one of the night girls, but nothing comes out of his mouth. He can see his reflection, the collapsed muscles in his face, and the pool of spit that's collected on the pillow by his ear. The parts of the bed directly under him appear a darker red than the rest of the sheets. His eyes roll wildly and take in different parts of the same wall that he's frozen on. He can barely feel his breathing, but he knows that it's sporadic and shallow. He keeps rolling his eyes, searching for a modicum of control over his own body. And that's when he sees him again.
The ceiling mirror casts its reflection into its wall counterpart, and with the furthest strain of his eyeball muscles, Cannibal can just barely recognize him. He's a little older than he looked in the crowd earlier, but it's unmistakable this time. Fucking ghosts. Ghosts who aren't even dead yet. From somewhere behind his eyes Cannibal feels the onset of rage.
His eyes blink involuntarily, and a well of tears are pushed, and guided down into the spit-soaked pillow. He imagines himself rocking forward and tries to send this signal to a part of his body that doesn't exist. He imagines it again. He tries to kick a leg, throw an elbow, he'll settle for anything. He sends that signal in random intervals like he's trying to surprise his own faculties. He "throws" another elbow.
Except this time his arm releases from his side and soars out in front of him. His body follows, and he feels a vile concoction of fear, and relief as he falls off the bed, with arms and legs too weak to break his fall. He narrowly avoids contact with the corner of the nightstand and lands with a thud on the carpeted floor. He wiggles his toes, and the sound of tires on gravel rings out into nothing. ***
After regaining some strength, Cannibal uses his recently renewed limb strength to tear through every creak, and crack of the hotel room. He finds nobody in the room, nobody in the mirrors, just himself and his aching fucking cranium. Exhausted, but no longer tired, Cannibal grabs his duffel and checks out of the hotel room by tossing his key in the general direction of the unsuspecting clerk. He tears his car door open, then drives off with only half a plan in mind.
The morning sun breaks as Cannibal pulls up to a red light, and re-reads his early morning text to the promoter, 'Can't make it tonight. I'll make it up to you somehow.'
He's never backed out of a show before, and he knows that he'll have to confront that fact soon, but right now, it doesn't seem to matter. He needs to see him. He cobbles his route out of headlines and news stories that he manages to search up between red lights and stop signs.
Where are they now? 6 Wrestlers Whose Careers Ended In Tragedy The Real Story of Ernie "The Eagle" Samson Former World Champion Contender in Hospice After 20-Year Battle
Cannibals mind races as single sentences fire out at him like shrapnel. He scrolls past his own names, both gimmick and government a few times over. He feels the rage, and tears form behind his eyes again.
You weren't the only one that lost your legacy that day, you prick.
After twenty years he knows these roads well. Well enough to cruise over to the hospice unassisted by a map, or GPS. He acknowledges his thoughts as his motions become routine.
Ernie Samson was poised to be the next big thing back before all the wrestling territories got swallowed up by the Big Guy in the corporate machine. He was a handsome bastard, and a city man with the strength of a farm boy. He could talk fear into the crowd without raising his voice, and he pulled women who didn't know and didn't care what he did for a nightly living. Cannibal hated him, but in a brotherly way that was steeped in admiration. Even in those times, Cannibal was more brutish and uglier than everyone in the locker room. It was a stroke of momentary genius when some otherwise dipshit promoter first suggested that they pair up. Some sort of beauty and brawn type gimmick. The monster and his mouthpiece.
And you know what? It worked. People ate that shit right up. Cannibal chewed through his opponents with ferocity, while Ernie dazzled the crowd with his mixture of strong style, flips, and tricks. They melted the imaginary territory perimeters and became shooting stars in every market they played. Men paid off their tabs at the bar, and Ernie was gracious enough to send some trim Cannibal's way every now and again. It was a nice system, comfortable even.
Then that dipshit promoter had another bright idea. The team was ready to break up.
The way he described it, they'd take all that heat they had amassed together, and cover double the ground. This storyline was a natural, mostly because it was real. What the promoter was saying, in his dickhead way, was that Cannibal had served his purpose. He'd put the real star in place for his meteoric rise. Cannibal looked at where his career was, and how far it had come, and he agreed. They'd go out in one final bloodbath of a match, and defeat their current rivals, The Maniacs. Then Cannibal would attack Ernie, severing their ties, and launching their individual careers. Cut, dry.
Right up until the end, that match stands in Cannibal's memory as his finest work. If he'd been vicious before, he was rabid in this match. The hits were real, the emotions were high, and the crowd invested in every last pectoral twitch. After nearly half an hour of slogging and bruising, Cannibal hit his finisher and covered his opponent to the tune of twenty-something-thousand screaming fans. As the three-count fell, the crowd hit a decibel that he'd never heard before. They were screaming so loud, that it almost dampened in volume, and became a whisper in his ears.
The Maniacs had done their jobs well, bloodying and bruising Cannibal and Ernie for a gruesome glamor shot that would make the following day's paper. That image, of Ernie raising Cannibal's arm before the inevitable turn, would haunt almost every article written about either of them from that day forward.
Soaked in the moment, and each other's blood, Ernie hoisted Cannibal's arm, and they spun the ring, facing every single fan in attendance. Normally you'd wait for a break in the volume before the next big moment, but this crowd had no intention of quieting down. They faced each other, and Ernie mouthed the words.
"You ready?"
To this day Cannibal doesn't exactly know what went wrong. First, he felt sadness. Then he felt anger. He realized that the cheers wouldn't end for Ernie, but there was a very real possibility that this was his own last big pop. He went ahead as planned. First with an absolutely brutal kick to the midsection, which softened Ernie's abs into dough. Ernie let out a real, dry cough as the crowd's cheers morphed into shock and confusion. Then he cranked his arms, clumsily, but with intensity. Ernie's arms were slick with blood, and Cannibal couldn't sink in his hooks correctly. His legs shot out gracelessly, and rather than hearing the cushioned thud of his own ass, all he heard was a sick, wet pop.
Cannibal notes that he is about one exit from the hospice, and shakes his head vigorously as if to erase his thoughts. The exit approaches, and he cuts in deftly. He is immediately greeted by a green, bustling town, in a decent Midwestern neighborhood.
He cruises toward the hospice, passing a few young couples, and their church-clothed children. Bells chime nearby, and a dog emits a medium-sized bark from a nearby public park.
Cannibal glances in his rear-view as he changes lanes. Ernie is seated behind the middle console, smirking, but with no joy in his eyes. Cannibal tries to scream, but can't.
With the wheel slightly angled for his turn, Cannibal cruises subtly across lanes, onto the sidewalk, then into the park.
The first few couples dive out of the way with synchronized, but inharmonious shrieks. A young man pushes his wife and child to the ground, and the driver's side front wheel crunches, and shatters his ankle. The next few people aren't so lucky.
A group of friends sprawled across a picnic blanket snap around toward the source of the commotion just in time to greet the Toyota Camry's fender. Cannibal's eyes dart between his windshield and the rearview where Ernie sits smirking. He sees a young woman snatched from his sight line and hears a gunshot of a pop as the back of her skull smacks against some concrete. Tears roll down Cannibal's face as he wills his arms, legs, or fucking anything to move. The litter of bodies test the car's shocks, as the wheels find their way over strange terrains of bone and flesh. Then, a street lamp.
Cannibal's forehead smacks against his wheel a millisecond before the airbags deploy. He flinches, and his arms twitch as the bag chafes his nose and brow. He has regained control of his movement, if only slightly. He kicks open the door but does not face the trail of mayhem that succumbed to his vehicle. Instead, he realizes that he is just one block away from the hospice. With the remaining screams a comfortable distance behind him, he half runs, half stumbles to the reception desk.
People react to Cannibal's arrival with appropriate confusion and terror. The butterfly stitches have ceased to hold, and a rigid pattern of blood trails him as he staggers across the linoleum tile.
"Sir, do you need help?"
"Samson. I need Ernie fucking Samson."
He peers over the desk and sees a directory of sorts, like a cheat sheet of hospice patients, and their assigned rooms. He leaks blood from his brow over the counter, and onto the sheet, and the seated receptionist recoils with disgust as he snatches and reads it.
Ernie Samson 211
Cannibal marches now on sturdy feet to the nearest stairwell. A small security guard attempts to stand in his way, but Cannibal dwarfs his face with his gigantic palm, and smashes it into the drywall behind him, eliciting a collective gasp from the lobby waiting room. He kicks open the stairwell door and drags himself up the single flight of stairs onto the landing. Then he kicks open the second door.
Nurses gasp and take a step back as he emerges from the stairwell, ferocity emblazoned across his face and written in his scar tissue. He observes the direction in which the numbered rooms flow and stomps toward Room 211.
Half a dozen people are stood outside the room, with hospital staff accounting for only two of them.
"Bradley?" an older woman asks, as Cannibal tears past her, and into the room.
Inside the room is a white sheet spread over a series of lumps on a lightly inclined bed. A young man is seated near the side of the bed where the railing has been temporarily removed. His eyes are bloodshot, and his cheeks are damp.
"Brad, what the fuck is-" he begins to say.
Cannibal lifts his leg and boots the man right off the green cushioned chair. Then he turns to the white lumps and tears the blanket off.
Ernie's face appears as it did in his back seat but without the rigid smirk. The muscles in his face are weak and sag as if they'd collapsed several years before his death. His dull eyes are still open, still staring at Cannibal.
"Ernie, you fucking prick," Cannibal starts, "You fucking prick, you get back here right now! You gonna fuck with me? You gonna fuck with me, Ernie? I fucking made you Ernie! We both fucking died that day!"
A small militia of security guards pour into the room, and it takes every last one of them to restrain Cannibal. He fights, and squirms as the fattest guard sits on the wide of his back, and pulls his arms. Cannibal thrashes and screams like an animal as he is restrained. He bashes his face into the tiled floor, leaving increasingly large spots of blood at the sight of impact. The fat guard applies some pressure to his hold, as small, wet pop emits from Cannibal's back.
There's no story here. No tale of the tape. Just a has-been wrestler in tomorrow's headlines, and a family mourning a loss that begun two decades prior. The crowd of mourners gasp and scream as all the fight leaves Cannibal's body at once. Then a woman breaks into sobs. She used to know Bradley Hughes. The real Cannibal. But nobody wants real.
They only think they do.
submitted by TheMoxFulder to WritersGroup [link] [comments]
The kid's name is Rob Small, and he's supposedly some hot-shot rookie fresh out of the local school. But Cannibal doesn't get it. Everything about the kid bugs him, right down to the name. The sport lost something when people stopped calling themselves ridiculous things, like 'The Big' this, or 'Ultimate' that.
And besides, it's a dirty trick. It's too easy, just like everything the new kids are doing. It's almost too real. And the audience doesn't want real. They only think they do. Cannibal knows this better than just about anyone.
Cannibal feels that he's been carrying them both since the bell. Again, it's this new, soft shit. Flipping, and posing, and nobody wants a single scratch on their pretty mugs. The word fake doesn't exist in this business, but as Rob winds up for another one of his little tricks, all flare, no impact, you can kind of see where people get that idea.
Cannibal takes a knee, then another, but wide, because that's how you take a real hit. Rob pulls the chair back.
"Don't fuck this up," Cannibal says.
The blade of the chair just grazes Cannibal's eyebrow, opening two inches of scar tissue, and perforation.
This is good. Unintentional, but good.
The crowd isn't theirs yet, but the stream of blood pulls a few people forward and gets them almost leaning into the next row down.
The blood is good, no doubt about it. But the sound of skull on steel would've lit them on fire, and that's just science.
Rob moves to the ropes, taking a squeaky-clean moment to acknowledge the crowd. He waves his arms around like he's leading a marching band or something, and it "earns" him a small pop of recognition.
Here's the problem- there's no story here. No tale of the tape. Just some rookie nobody cares about, and an aging prick that people care even less about. This is when every move is supposed to count. Not just every move, but every transition, every facial expression too. The kid's athletic, sure. But so is everybody. He doesn't have the rhythm yet, and his nose is too straight. And Cannibal is tired of carrying this match.
Cannibal starts back on his feet, quickly, counter-intuitively, like a jump scare. The kid's finally connecting with the crowd now, lifting the chair like some intramural trophy. But it's too little, too late, and Cannibal sees his opportunity.
First Cannibal snatches the chair, up, and behind Rob, then steadies his giant, calloused fingers with a well-timed exhale. He whirls Rob around, ready or not, and drives the lip of the chair into the liver side of his waist, which folds him directly in two. The crowd chatters a bit, but he isn't finished.
Cannibal throws the chair less than a foot away, then sets up the move that's going to win the crowd.
He didn't invent the move, not even close. It's not even particularly uncommon. But he made his name off this move. Here's some wisdom from the old school: There are precious few people who make money from this business by looking good. And if you can't look good, you need to look vicious.
Cannibal hooks his arms under Rob's armpits, then wrenches both arms so violently that the triceps almost touch. Operating on pure panic, and instinct, Rob's legs unwind, independently searching for a better position, but never finding it.
"Hey, easy up there," Rob says from somewhere near Cannibal's midsection, but he may as well be speaking to the mat now.
Cannibal wrenches Rob's arms again, but this time the triceps touch for one moment of searing pain. He does this half for show, and half as a warning to keep quiet during his finisher. He looks out at the crowd, and their features form for the first time since he entered the arena. Before then, they were nothing, just a wallpaper pattern of merch, and facial hair. There's a difference between the individual faces in the first row, and the voice that fills the venue, and guides your match.
A single fan can be wrong, but a crowd never is.
But Cannibal takes some of that power back now, and he's staring at the crowd, the entity, right in the face, starting with the first row.
The first few faces that he locks eyes with are rabid, their eyes wild with anticipation. They're gesticulating wildly, like they can't believe, or can't wait for what's coming next. The next face is a little boy who shies away and looks at his dad for help. He scans about a seating section and a half, screaming spittle-seasoned insults along the way.
Mid-taunt, before anybody can count it off, Cannibal hits his finisher, The Flesh Eater.
Cannibal pushes off the toes of his boots, about a foot into the air, bringing Rob's craned arms with him. That's why you really need to wrench. With Rob feeling real pain at each arm's socket, he has no choice but to sell. At the height of his jump, Cannibal shoots his legs straight out in a wide V, unclenching his ass for a nice, cushioned landing.
Rob's face hits the chair a microsecond before Cannibal's legs, and underside absorb the remainder of the blow. It's enough to make the aluminum ring out into the high warehouse ceiling and put a pretty little face-sized dent in the seat.
The crowd reacts with screams, with horror, with finally, some fucking emotion.
Cannibal climbs to his feet, while the lights flick on-and-off, on-and-off in Rob's eyes. Rob props himself on his palms, and knees, finding the floor he wasn't even looking for.
But he loses it again with a big, booted punt to the ribs. The crowd boos now from every direction.
This is good. It means that right now, they hate Cannibal. It means that when they go home, they'll remember how much they hated him. It means that he did his job.
Cannibal takes a victory lap around the ring while Rob writhes in presumably authentic agony. Cannibal leans over the top rope, pointing at the front row again, dissolving the boundary between them. He's screaming at a fan. He may even be screaming at one hundred fans when he notices a face that shouldn't be in attendance.
Was it section B? He looks over but can't find the face anymore.
He darts his eyes wildly, unfocusing them so that the crowd transforms into nothing but eyebrows, and merch, approval, and disgust.
He glances back toward Section B, right around where he thinks he saw the face, right as Rob crawls from behind, hooks his leg, and rolls him into a three count.
Both men roll onto their backs; Rob, because the pain from his neck, down to his waist puts him there. Cannibal, because he's defeated and confused.
Had he really seen that face? He knows he hadn't. One, because that would make no sense. And two, because, and he only saw it for a second, but the face was significantly younger than it should have been. About 20 years younger. Which would put it right around a time that he doesn't think, or speak about. Cannibal decides that he didn't see the face after all. He doesn't believe in ghosts. Especially not ghosts that haven't even died.
***
Cannibal collects his pay, and the doc plugs up his gash, in that order. He's got a show in a bigger market tomorrow, so the butterfly stitches just need to hold until then.
He unlaces his boots in the parking lot, then trades them for some once-white Adidas from the back seat of his gray Toyota Camry. Then he thinks about the ghost again. The one that he didn't see, the one that isn't even dead as far as he knows.
He stands still in his untied sneakers and thumbs a few reps through his social pages. If he had died, the news would have picked it up by now. An old friend would have even messaged,
"Here if you need to talk." Or, "It's not your fault"
Something like that, anyway. But Cannibal doesn't see anything, no messages, neither of their names gracing, or disgracing any headlines. And besides, that doesn't exactly solve the issue at hand. Maybe the kids are right, he thinks. I've officially taken too many blows to the skull.
For twenty years, Cannibal has always driven to the next city, or the next stop on the road, the night prior. Tonight, he checks into the nearest hotel/rest stop that connects to the main road. It's only about a four-hour drive, three if he can avoid traffic, and the need to piss. He doesn't even need to check into the venue until 5 pm. That's ample time, he decides for the first time in his career.
"I just need a bed and a shower", Cannibal tells the night clerk, a pimply boy who has deepened his voice since the exchange intensified.
He's the only employee, except for a few maids pushing yellow baskets around the parking lot, and a few unofficially affiliated girls prowling around from the local skin bar.
The boy wants to avoid a hassle. He knows that the nearest signs of life are the old warehouse a few exits down, and the sheriff's office even further.
"I'm sorry sir," he begins, and he's really using diaphragm now, speaking to the back of the house, "But all's we got left tonight is the honeymoon suite."
"So it's $30 extra for a dirty mirror on the ceiling, and a vase full of plastic fuckin' roses?"
The clerk winces at the swear, then gleams over Cannibal's right shoulder into the mostly empty parking lot. Cannibal gives the kid his best mean mug, the same one that he'd shoot toward a new opponent or a crowd that hates his guts. The quiet moment lingers, and then, wouldn't you guess it, just like that, thirty dollars gets shaved off the tab.
Cannibal tosses his duffel onto the frilly red sheets, then rolls off his sneakers as his reflections oblige in both the ceiling and wall-length mirrors. He sits on the bed, then wiggles his toes a bit generating a sound like gravel crunching in a driveway. He wants to get up and shower off some of the dried blood that's clotted his hair to his face, but the world rocks, and spins, and he lays down and falls asleep without even killing the bedside lamp.
He can't remember the ramp, the fans, or the bell. He can't remember the promos, or what angle he's supposed to be taking. But judging from the dark cherry splatted canvas, and the ringing in ears, it's been a fuckin' barn-burner so far. He looks directly ahead, at the high, pipe-laden ceiling, and realizes he's on his back. A boot lands next to his head, then another. Maybe it's the high-intensity discharge lights that are stinging his eyes, maybe he's still rattled from whatever move put him on his ass, but as his opponent steps over him, he can't seem at all to make out their face.
Whoever his opponent is, he begins to pick him up by the hair, and that's when Cannibal notices that the abstract art on the mat has mostly come from the back of his head. Drops of blood race down his opponents wrists, and pool near his elbows. Cannibal is bent over looking down at the mat, at his opponent's standard-issue black boots, and at the fresh coat of bright red, which will soon dry darker.
His opponent cranks his arms clumsily but with intensity. He can feel his blood greasing his opponent's grip, not allowing for any real traction. Then his opponent's knees square up, then bend, and Cannibal realizes. "Hey, that's my fucking move!" he says, or tries to say, but his opponent's airborne, and then so is he.
Usually, there's a nice thud when you hit the mat, but not this time. This time it sounds more like a series of wet pops, like cracking your knuckles underwater. Cannibal tries to roll over and assess the situation. Then he tries to roll over again.
Oh. Shit.
He's face down on the mat, and he intuits, rather than feels his opponent hurry off him, and in that same foggy way, he can feel the crowd. The beast with one thousand eyes is silent, but it isn't bored. It's murmuring, but with a sort of upward inflection, like it's asking him a question can't answer. Now a referee rolls him over. Cannibal awakens in a panic and tries to jump out of bed, away from the red sheets, but his body is uncooperative. His head lolls at an unnatural angle toward the mirrored wall. He can move his eyes, but nothing else.
He wants to scream for the pimply-faced boy or one of the night girls, but nothing comes out of his mouth. He can see his reflection, the collapsed muscles in his face, and the pool of spit that's collected on the pillow by his ear. The parts of the bed directly under him appear a darker red than the rest of the sheets. His eyes roll wildly and take in different parts of the same wall that he's frozen on. He can barely feel his breathing, but he knows that it's sporadic and shallow. He keeps rolling his eyes, searching for a modicum of control over his own body. And that's when he sees him again.
The ceiling mirror casts its reflection into its wall counterpart, and with the furthest strain of his eyeball muscles, Cannibal can just barely recognize him. He's a little older than he looked in the crowd earlier, but it's unmistakable this time. Fucking ghosts. Ghosts who aren't even dead yet. From somewhere behind his eyes Cannibal feels the onset of rage.
His eyes blink involuntarily, and a well of tears are pushed, and guided down into the spit-soaked pillow. He imagines himself rocking forward and tries to send this signal to a part of his body that doesn't exist. He imagines it again. He tries to kick a leg, throw an elbow, he'll settle for anything. He sends that signal in random intervals like he's trying to surprise his own faculties. He "throws" another elbow.
Except this time his arm releases from his side and soars out in front of him. His body follows, and he feels a vile concoction of fear, and relief as he falls off the bed, with arms and legs too weak to break his fall. He narrowly avoids contact with the corner of the nightstand and lands with a thud on the carpeted floor. He wiggles his toes, and the sound of tires on gravel rings out into nothing. ***
After regaining some strength, Cannibal uses his recently renewed limb strength to tear through every creak, and crack of the hotel room. He finds nobody in the room, nobody in the mirrors, just himself and his aching fucking cranium. Exhausted, but no longer tired, Cannibal grabs his duffel and checks out of the hotel room by tossing his key in the general direction of the unsuspecting clerk. He tears his car door open, then drives off with only half a plan in mind.
The morning sun breaks as Cannibal pulls up to a red light, and re-reads his early morning text to the promoter, 'Can't make it tonight. I'll make it up to you somehow.'
He's never backed out of a show before, and he knows that he'll have to confront that fact soon, but right now, it doesn't seem to matter. He needs to see him. He cobbles his route out of headlines and news stories that he manages to search up between red lights and stop signs.
Where are they now? 6 Wrestlers Whose Careers Ended In Tragedy The Real Story of Ernie "The Eagle" Samson Former World Champion Contender in Hospice After 20-Year Battle
Cannibals mind races as single sentences fire out at him like shrapnel. He scrolls past his own names, both gimmick and government a few times over. He feels the rage, and tears form behind his eyes again.
You weren't the only one that lost your legacy that day, you prick.
After twenty years he knows these roads well. Well enough to cruise over to the hospice unassisted by a map, or GPS. He acknowledges his thoughts as his motions become routine.
Ernie Samson was poised to be the next big thing back before all the wrestling territories got swallowed up by the Big Guy in the corporate machine. He was a handsome bastard, and a city man with the strength of a farm boy. He could talk fear into the crowd without raising his voice, and he pulled women who didn't know and didn't care what he did for a nightly living. Cannibal hated him, but in a brotherly way that was steeped in admiration. Even in those times, Cannibal was more brutish and uglier than everyone in the locker room. It was a stroke of momentary genius when some otherwise dipshit promoter first suggested that they pair up. Some sort of beauty and brawn type gimmick. The monster and his mouthpiece.
And you know what? It worked. People ate that shit right up. Cannibal chewed through his opponents with ferocity, while Ernie dazzled the crowd with his mixture of strong style, flips, and tricks. They melted the imaginary territory perimeters and became shooting stars in every market they played. Men paid off their tabs at the bar, and Ernie was gracious enough to send some trim Cannibal's way every now and again. It was a nice system, comfortable even.
Then that dipshit promoter had another bright idea. The team was ready to break up.
The way he described it, they'd take all that heat they had amassed together, and cover double the ground. This storyline was a natural, mostly because it was real. What the promoter was saying, in his dickhead way, was that Cannibal had served his purpose. He'd put the real star in place for his meteoric rise. Cannibal looked at where his career was, and how far it had come, and he agreed. They'd go out in one final bloodbath of a match, and defeat their current rivals, The Maniacs. Then Cannibal would attack Ernie, severing their ties, and launching their individual careers. Cut, dry.
Right up until the end, that match stands in Cannibal's memory as his finest work. If he'd been vicious before, he was rabid in this match. The hits were real, the emotions were high, and the crowd invested in every last pectoral twitch. After nearly half an hour of slogging and bruising, Cannibal hit his finisher and covered his opponent to the tune of twenty-something-thousand screaming fans. As the three-count fell, the crowd hit a decibel that he'd never heard before. They were screaming so loud, that it almost dampened in volume, and became a whisper in his ears.
The Maniacs had done their jobs well, bloodying and bruising Cannibal and Ernie for a gruesome glamor shot that would make the following day's paper. That image, of Ernie raising Cannibal's arm before the inevitable turn, would haunt almost every article written about either of them from that day forward.
Soaked in the moment, and each other's blood, Ernie hoisted Cannibal's arm, and they spun the ring, facing every single fan in attendance. Normally you'd wait for a break in the volume before the next big moment, but this crowd had no intention of quieting down. They faced each other, and Ernie mouthed the words.
"You ready?"
To this day Cannibal doesn't exactly know what went wrong. First, he felt sadness. Then he felt anger. He realized that the cheers wouldn't end for Ernie, but there was a very real possibility that this was his own last big pop. He went ahead as planned. First with an absolutely brutal kick to the midsection, which softened Ernie's abs into dough. Ernie let out a real, dry cough as the crowd's cheers morphed into shock and confusion. Then he cranked his arms, clumsily, but with intensity. Ernie's arms were slick with blood, and Cannibal couldn't sink in his hooks correctly. His legs shot out gracelessly, and rather than hearing the cushioned thud of his own ass, all he heard was a sick, wet pop.
Cannibal notes that he is about one exit from the hospice, and shakes his head vigorously as if to erase his thoughts. The exit approaches, and he cuts in deftly. He is immediately greeted by a green, bustling town, in a decent Midwestern neighborhood.
He cruises toward the hospice, passing a few young couples, and their church-clothed children. Bells chime nearby, and a dog emits a medium-sized bark from a nearby public park.
Cannibal glances in his rear-view as he changes lanes. Ernie is seated behind the middle console, smirking, but with no joy in his eyes. Cannibal tries to scream, but can't.
With the wheel slightly angled for his turn, Cannibal cruises subtly across lanes, onto the sidewalk, then into the park.
The first few couples dive out of the way with synchronized, but inharmonious shrieks. A young man pushes his wife and child to the ground, and the driver's side front wheel crunches, and shatters his ankle. The next few people aren't so lucky.
A group of friends sprawled across a picnic blanket snap around toward the source of the commotion just in time to greet the Toyota Camry's fender. Cannibal's eyes dart between his windshield and the rearview where Ernie sits smirking. He sees a young woman snatched from his sight line and hears a gunshot of a pop as the back of her skull smacks against some concrete. Tears roll down Cannibal's face as he wills his arms, legs, or fucking anything to move. The litter of bodies test the car's shocks, as the wheels find their way over strange terrains of bone and flesh. Then, a street lamp.
Cannibal's forehead smacks against his wheel a millisecond before the airbags deploy. He flinches, and his arms twitch as the bag chafes his nose and brow. He has regained control of his movement, if only slightly. He kicks open the door but does not face the trail of mayhem that succumbed to his vehicle. Instead, he realizes that he is just one block away from the hospice. With the remaining screams a comfortable distance behind him, he half runs, half stumbles to the reception desk.
People react to Cannibal's arrival with appropriate confusion and terror. The butterfly stitches have ceased to hold, and a rigid pattern of blood trails him as he staggers across the linoleum tile.
"Sir, do you need help?"
"Samson. I need Ernie fucking Samson."
He peers over the desk and sees a directory of sorts, like a cheat sheet of hospice patients, and their assigned rooms. He leaks blood from his brow over the counter, and onto the sheet, and the seated receptionist recoils with disgust as he snatches and reads it.
Ernie Samson 211
Cannibal marches now on sturdy feet to the nearest stairwell. A small security guard attempts to stand in his way, but Cannibal dwarfs his face with his gigantic palm, and smashes it into the drywall behind him, eliciting a collective gasp from the lobby waiting room. He kicks open the stairwell door and drags himself up the single flight of stairs onto the landing. Then he kicks open the second door.
Nurses gasp and take a step back as he emerges from the stairwell, ferocity emblazoned across his face and written in his scar tissue. He observes the direction in which the numbered rooms flow and stomps toward Room 211.
Half a dozen people are stood outside the room, with hospital staff accounting for only two of them.
"Bradley?" an older woman asks, as Cannibal tears past her, and into the room.
Inside the room is a white sheet spread over a series of lumps on a lightly inclined bed. A young man is seated near the side of the bed where the railing has been temporarily removed. His eyes are bloodshot, and his cheeks are damp.
"Brad, what the fuck is-" he begins to say.
Cannibal lifts his leg and boots the man right off the green cushioned chair. Then he turns to the white lumps and tears the blanket off.
Ernie's face appears as it did in his back seat but without the rigid smirk. The muscles in his face are weak and sag as if they'd collapsed several years before his death. His dull eyes are still open, still staring at Cannibal.
"Ernie, you fucking prick," Cannibal starts, "You fucking prick, you get back here right now! You gonna fuck with me? You gonna fuck with me, Ernie? I fucking made you Ernie! We both fucking died that day!"
A small militia of security guards pour into the room, and it takes every last one of them to restrain Cannibal. He fights, and squirms as the fattest guard sits on the wide of his back, and pulls his arms. Cannibal thrashes and screams like an animal as he is restrained. He bashes his face into the tiled floor, leaving increasingly large spots of blood at the sight of impact. The fat guard applies some pressure to his hold, as small, wet pop emits from Cannibal's back.
There's no story here. No tale of the tape. Just a has-been wrestler in tomorrow's headlines, and a family mourning a loss that begun two decades prior. The crowd of mourners gasp and scream as all the fight leaves Cannibal's body at once. Then a woman breaks into sobs. She used to know Bradley Hughes. The real Cannibal. But nobody wants real.
They only think they do.
2024.06.02 01:04 TheJamesRussle Halo: Space Station Evolved Playtest Weekend (New server box 6:30pm CST today)
 | Hey there again it's the Halo:SSE host here dropping in after sometime to announce changes we're thrilled to introduce you to all this weekend! The main news for this posting is we will be testing out some new experimental combat changes after taking you're feedback and getting to work on it, hopefully these changes will makes certain factors of the play experience is more smooth and easier to get into for new players! And for those who are well versed in our server here a break down below as well, we hope to see you all come drop by and test out the new server box (less lag) and combat changes this weekend so you can give us feedback so we can improve the codebase so everyone can have fun and grow our community and have peeps always playing! Note: We are looking for wiki maintainers and general dev staff too! submitted by TheJamesRussle to SS13 [link] [comments] Experimental combat changes
HaloStation (Also known as Halo: Space Station Evolved, or projectunsc) is a medium-RP PVP oriented server that runs on Baystation code. It largely focuses on player-oriented combat as two or sometimes even three factions - consisting of the UNSC, the Covenant, and the Insurrection/URF - battle for supremacy in a variety of gamemodes to Immerse yourself in a world where Halo lore seamlessly blends with the chaotic gameplay of Space Station 13. From energy swords to Warthogs, every aspect has been tailored to bring the authenticity of Halo to the space station. Whether you're a fan of intense combat scenarios or prefer slower roleplay vibes with others, there's a role for every player and their playstyle! What gamemodes does Halo:SSE have?
Youtube Combat AD: https://youtu.be/BeMpyxah2l0 Wiki: https://projectunsc.org/wiki/index.php?title=HaloStation_Wiki Discord link: https://discord.com/invite/f8jpDfSdfr Event time 6/1-6/2 6:30 cst byond://ss13.projectunsc.org:2701 https://preview.redd.it/iofxzr62h14d1.png?width=939&format=png&auto=webp&s=347d59dc7bf07f91b7e66e08969a9d7681a1578b https://preview.redd.it/9yf2c0d8h14d1.png?width=581&format=png&auto=webp&s=c76c0321f333c6415236783563830cfaf91b2bbb https://preview.redd.it/s5yq7v9ah14d1.png?width=954&format=png&auto=webp&s=d0574840ab147b3bbbfc003feba1a699ddc0fcda https://preview.redd.it/64r90vzbh14d1.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c5a8a1635cebcd28b56a69f8344635caec78f75 https://preview.redd.it/639yc4pdh14d1.png?width=851&format=png&auto=webp&s=18dc33bdbde381ea6e865238cf579dd78235e178 https://preview.redd.it/igb4gbueh14d1.png?width=574&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab3bbb74d385c36dc6efbe9f37f0f3cb6dae62ca https://preview.redd.it/w9q26nqfh14d1.png?width=927&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7776017ce601a3f1d12c847160568c7ac3b40f1 https://preview.redd.it/hrhylv1hh14d1.png?width=480&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a4eb764956ebcc58497b22238dbb75bd2a6db41 https://preview.redd.it/wx3mchdkh14d1.png?width=463&format=png&auto=webp&s=81a170787bae7606b08dd418ffa9b0e91ace478a https://preview.redd.it/tn36q51oh14d1.png?width=498&format=png&auto=webp&s=a7e1e4ee50415ef030540b8fb8f29c7993fc5e17 https://preview.redd.it/epyoy6lph14d1.png?width=941&format=png&auto=webp&s=065c24158335d540e00fb100ccd482f6856bf9ee https://preview.redd.it/vt853azth14d1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=90674d13a3d7f7421341a7a46bd4434d5a790948 https://preview.redd.it/59jwtnqzh14d1.png?width=1008&format=png&auto=webp&s=63b665d1bd4c6ff3653ceec22d708193768f9d8c https://preview.redd.it/ezzyxkt0i14d1.png?width=306&format=png&auto=webp&s=7a8b37b6f5f5004585f46864d247f61203a3b35f https://preview.redd.it/d1mjayuci14d1.png?width=579&format=png&auto=webp&s=d8268ffc96e1ce6b23e5e02a801f4ab5e14cd1be https://preview.redd.it/gidxty1ei14d1.png?width=1410&format=png&auto=webp&s=92d2f92a2362921f7f03c006bfd596afe57ba0b3 |
2024.06.02 00:54 SodaCake2 I'm entering the world of tea. Are there samplers or affordable subscriptions available?
I've dabbled in teas off and on, but now I'd like to make it a regular drink for me. Long story short, I'm cutting out alcohol and I want to replace it with something I know is good for me.
So I was wondering if there was like a well known sampler box or subscription for teas I could check out to get myself familiar with the basics then branch out into different flavors.
...Also, how do you make it? lol. I've seen people use just premade bags, loose leaf in a cup, loose leaf in a tea pot, etc. and I don't know the proper way lol
submitted by SodaCake2 to tea [link] [comments]
So I was wondering if there was like a well known sampler box or subscription for teas I could check out to get myself familiar with the basics then branch out into different flavors.
...Also, how do you make it? lol. I've seen people use just premade bags, loose leaf in a cup, loose leaf in a tea pot, etc. and I don't know the proper way lol
2024.06.02 00:51 featherdance [Sell][US] Dior, Giorgio Armani, Kaja, Viseart, PMG, NARS, Becca & more!
Shipping:
Verification: https://imgur.com/a/oWWrQtH
Everything is from a clean, smoke-free home.
139 items sold in 46 separate successful transactions on Makeup Exchange so far!
Happy to answer any questions, thanks for browsing!
*BNIB means the item is brand new, never swatched, and the box is included. Other items may be brand new, never swatched, but no box.
submitted by featherdance to makeupexchange [link] [comments]
- $4.75 flat fee, US only.
- Shipped with USPS Priority Mail within 24 hours (except Sunday of course)
- Tracking number sent same day of payment
Verification: https://imgur.com/a/oWWrQtH
Everything is from a clean, smoke-free home.
139 items sold in 46 separate successful transactions on Makeup Exchange so far!
Happy to answer any questions, thanks for browsing!
*BNIB means the item is brand new, never swatched, and the box is included. Other items may be brand new, never swatched, but no box.
Individual Items (in album order):
>> Higher End <<- About Face Light Lock Lip Gloss in Payton $8
- Condition: BNIB
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Foundation in 270C $16
- Condition: Like new, pumped 2-3x
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Sugar $22
- Condition: New, each shade swatched once
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick in Poet $8
- Condition: New, Swatched once
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Loose Highlighter in So Hollywood $8
- Brand new, never opened - protective cover attached
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Prism Palette $26
- Condition: Each shade swatched once, overall color story rearranged
- Battington Monroe 3D Silk Lashes $12
- Condition: BNIB
- Becca First Light Priming Filter Deluxe $7
- Condition: Brand new, still sealed
- Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector, Deluxe $7
- Condition: Brand new, still sealed
- Becca Mineral Blush in Nightingale $12
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Dreamsicle $26
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Rose Gold, Deluxe $5
- Condition: Repressed, but never used
- Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Rose Gold $10
- Condition: Gently used (full size), though outer packaging is dirty
- Becca Ultimate Coverage 24hr Foundation in 1N3 Cashmere, Deluxe Size $4
- Condition: New, never opened
- Becca Ultimate Coverage 24hr Foundation in 3W2 Driftwood, Deluxe Size $4
- Condition: New, never opened
- Becca Ultimate Lipstick in Melon $12
- Condition: Brand new, never swatched
- Benefit Hoola Lite, Deluxe $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2-3x
- Bite Beauty Daycation Whipped Blush in Melon Mojito $14
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Bite Beauty Upswing Mascara, Deluxe $4
- Condition: Swatched a few times
- Bobbi Brown Crushed Liquid Lip in Big Apple, Deluxe $3
- Condition: New, never opened
- Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Bronze $10
- Condition: Gently used
- Buxom Full Force Lipstick in Hot Shot $10
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Charlotte Tilbury Eyeliner in Pillow Talk, Deluxe $14
- Condition: Swatched 1-2x
- Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Push-up Lashes Mascara $18
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Clinique Solar Pop Bronzer $18
- Brand new, never swatched
- CoverFX Enhance Click Blush Stick in Berry $6
- Condition: BNIB
- CoverFX Enhance Click Blush Stick in Blossom $6
- Condition: BNIB
- CoverFX Power Play Foundation in N20, Deluxe Size $4
- Condition: New, never opened
- Dior Backstage Rosy Glow Blush in 001 Pink $34
- Condition: BNIB
- Dose of Colors x Nyma Tang Matte Liquid Lip in Like to See It $12
- Condition: New, never swatched
- Dose of Colors x Nyma Tang Lip Gloss in E-Jen $12
- Condition: New, never swatched
- Dose of Colors Liquid Matte in Heartbreaker $9
- Condition: New, never used
- Freck Cheekslime Lip + Cheek Tint in Fever Dream $12
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Freck OG The Original Freckle $18
- Condition: Brand new, never opened
- Glossier Monochromes in Jute $16
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Giorgio Armani Eye Tint in 08: Flannel $20
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Giorgio Armani Lip Maestro Freeze in 410: Glacial Terra $26
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Gorgeous Cosmetics: Powder Perfect Pressed Powder in 04 PP $12
- Condition: Gently used (retails at $48)
- Huda Beauty Nude Medium Palette $18
- Condition: Like new, a few shades swatched once
- Huda Beauty Ruby Obsessions Palette $15
- Condition: New, never used
- Huda Beauty Sand Haze Palette $18
- Condition: Like new, a few shades swatched once
- Ilia Fullest Volumizing Mascara (2x) $8
- Condition: Brand new
- Jillian Dempsey Cheek Tint in Sunny $18
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Jillian Dempsey Lid Tint in Bronze $8
- Condition: Gently used
- Kaja Air Heart Lightweight Natural Finish Lipstick in Sprung $12
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2x
- Kaja Bento Trio in Buttercup Bubbly $10
- Condition: New, each shade swatched once
- Kaja Bento Trio in Sparkling Rose $10
- Condition: New, each shade swatched once
- Kaja Cheeky Stamp Blendable Blush in 03 Bossy $14
- Condition: Brand new, seal still attached
- Kosas Color & Light Cream Palette in Helios $22
- Condition: Brand new, never swatched
- Kosas Color & Light Creme in Tropic Equinox $6
- Condition: Moderately used
- Kosas Color & Light Creme in Velvet Melon $6
- Condition: Gently used
- Kosas Color & Light Creme in Velvet Melon High Intensity $6
- Condition: Gently used
- KVD Everlasting Liquid Lip Deluxe Size in Outlaw (2x) $5
- Brand new, never opened
- KVD Studded Kiss Creme Lipstick in Double Dare $10
- Like new, swatched once
- Kylie Cosmetics The Burgundy Palette $18
- Like new, each shade swatched 1-2x
- Lancome Clis Booster XL, Deluxe $4
- Brand new, never used
- Lancome Monseiur Big Mascara, Deluxe $5
- Condition: New, never used
- Lancome Monsieur Big Mascara, Deluxe $5
- Condition: New, never used
- Lashaholic Instaglam False Lashes $8
- Condition: BNIB
- Lorac Pro Party Ready Palette $5
- Condition: BNIB, never opened
- Lys Satin Matte Cream Blush in Kindness $12
- Condition: Like new, swatched 4x
- MAC Lustre Lipstick in Set to Sizzle $10
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- MAC Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Contemplative State $9
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2-3x
- Marc Jacobs Enamoured Hi-Shine Lipgloss in Call Me $18
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Major Volume Mascara, Deluxe $6
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Melt Molten Metal Lip Gloss in Deviant $6
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Mented Semi-Matte Lipstick in Foxy Brown $9
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Midas Cosmetics Soft Served Palette $16
- Condition: Like new, most shades swatched once
- Milk Makeup Kush Mascara, Deluxe $8
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Milk Makeup Kush Mascara, Deluxe $6
- Condition: Like new, but opened
- NARS Laguna Bronzer Deluxe $10
- Brand new, never swatched
- Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Verona $7
- Like new, swatched once
- Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Unzipped $5
- Condition: New, Swatched once
- Olio E Osso Balm in Currant $12
- Condition: Swatched 3-4x
- Origins Blooming Bold Lipstick in Tiger Lily $12
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Pat McGrath Dark Star Mascara $18
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Pat McGrath Dark Star Mascara, Deluxe $10
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Pat McGrath BlitzTrance Lipstick in Flesh 3 $12
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Pat McGrath LuxeTrance Lipstick in Lavish $28
- Condition: BNIB
- Pat McGrath MatteTrance Lipstick in 1995, Deluxe $6
- Condition: Like new, watched once
- Pat McGrath MatteTrance Lipstick in Divine Rose, Deluxe Size $6
- Condition: New, never opened
- Pat McGrath Skin Fetish Sublime Perfection Concealer in LM14 $18
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Persona 24hr Waterproof Eyeliner in Brown $10
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Phytosurgence Flash Florescence Shadow in Magnetic Maple $16
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- RMS Beauty Lip2Cheek in Smile $24
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Roen Shadow in Disco Eye $18
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2-3x, comes in felt sleeve
- Roen Shadow in Summer Disco $18
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2-3x
- Rose Inc. Lip & Cheek Color in Delphine $22
- Condition: Brand new, never touched
- Rose Inc Satin & Shimmer Duet Powder & Cream Shadow in Satin Copper / Copper Shimmer $18
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Smashbox Always On Cream to Matte Lipstick in Fresca $12
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2x
- Smashbox Always On Gel Liner in Fishnet, Deluxe $14
- Condition: Swatched 1-2x
- Smashbox Be Legendary Liquid Metal in Petal Metal $6
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Kisses, Deluxe Size $5
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Tarte Sex Kitten Eyeliner $2
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Tarte Tarteist Lash Paint Deluxe $4
- Condition: New, opened once but never swatched
- Tatcha Silk Lipstick in Peony Blossom $22
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- The Balm Anne T. Dote Concealer in 22 $8
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Too Faced Intense Color Coconut Butter Lipstick in Indecent Proposal $12
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Too Faced Melted Matte in Queen B $6
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Too Faced Natural Nudes in Nip Slip $12
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Too Faced Papa Don't Peach Blush $8
- Condition: Gently Used
- Urban Decay Vice Liquid Lipstick in Trivial $10
- Condition: New, Swatched once
- Viseart Golden Hour Eyeshadow Palette $22
- Condition: BNIB - protective covering over outer metal shell still on. Never swatched any shades. Note - When I received this from Sephora, two of the pans were loose. I glued them back, but was not careful and accidentally swapped the spots (middle row)
- YSL Rouge Pur Couture in Wildly Bordeaux $18
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- YSL Tatouage Couture in 01 Rouge Tatouage, Deluxe Size $8
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Adesse New York Hi Definition Lip in Haute Cocoa $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Ace Beaute Grandiose Palette $5
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Aurora 24h Lively Lip Stain in Soft Pink $2
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Bang Beauty Blush in Smoked Peach $3
- Condition: New, swatched 1-2x
- Bang Beauty Chocolate Gel Eyeliner $5
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Basie Beauty Bronzy AF Bronzer Palette in Snachural, Cinnamon, Bad and Bronzey $8
- Condition: BNIB
- The Beauty Crop Staycation Powder Bronzer in Tanneries $2
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Billion Dollar Brows Universal Brow Pencil $2
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Bodyography Eye Pencil Duo (Brown, Black) $8
- BNIB, never opened
- Burt’s Bees Matte Stick in Buttery Blush $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Butter London Glazen Eye Gloss in Icing $6
- Condition: New, swatched once (looks messy in the pot, but that is how it arrived new)
- Chella Divine Purpose Eyeshadow Palette $6
- Condition: BNIB
- Colourpop Animal Crossing Super Shock Eyeshadow in Balloon Pop $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Colourpop Eyeshadow Palette w/ 12 singles $12
- Condition: Like new magnetic palette (Element of Surprise), each single shadow swatched once
- Colourpop Eyeshadow Palette w/ 12 singles $12
- Condition: Like new magnetic mirrored palette (Boudoir Noir), each single shadow swatched once
- Colourpop Creme Shadow in Prickly Poppy $4
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Colourpop Lippie Stix in Faded $3
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2x
- Colourpop Lux Lipstick in C'mon Sis $6
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Colourpop Shadow Stix: Check Please, Citrus Squeeze, Cool Breeze, Style & Ease $6
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Colourpop Sol Palette $6
- Condition: New, 1-2 shades swatched once
- Colourpop Supershock Blush in Viole $5
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Colourpop Supershock Cheek in Teasecake $6
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Colourpop Supershock Eyeshadow in Tang $4
- Condition: Swatched 3-4x
- Colourpop Ultra Blotted Lip in Doozy $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Colourpop Ultra Blotted Lip in Zuma $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Colourpop Ultra Glossy Lip in Moon Child $4
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Colourpop Ultra Satin Lip in Dreamy $2
- Condition: Swatched a few times
- Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder in Translucent $4
- Condition: Like new, some powder dusted out 1-2x
- Doucce Punk Volumizing Mascara $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Elf Seriously Satin Lipstick in Nectar $2
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Elizabeth Mott Pop! Goes the Shadow in Mermaid Teal $2
- Condition: Swatched 1-2x
- Florence By Mills Like a Light Skin Tint in M080 Medium $10
- Condition: Like new, pumped 2x
- Hikari Shimmer BronzeBlush $2
- Condition: Like new, swatched twice
- House of Lashes Serene Lite Lashes $7
- Condition: BNIB
- INT Cosmetics Lip Oil $5
- Condition: BNIB, still shrink wrapped
- Ittse Van Ness Magnetic Eyeshadow Palette in Rose Gold $8
- Condition: New
- Includes a few miscellaneous single shadows for free if you want them!
- Jonteblu Eye Liner Pencil 912: Charcoal $2
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Juvia's Place The Saharan Palette $10
- Condition: Gently used
- Macqueen Airkiss Lipstick in 5: Rose $4
- Condition: Like new, arrived new with the tip slightly squished - cleaned this up
- Maybelline Master Chrome Highlight in Molten Gold $6
- Condition: Like new, swatched twice
- Milani Eyeshadow Palette in Basic Mattes $6
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Milani Eyeshadow Palette in Everyday Eyes $6
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Naming Fluffy Powder Blush in Toast $8
- Condition: Like New, swatched once
- Note Luminous Silk Compact, 05 Desert Rose $8
- Condition: BNIB
- Nyx Born to Glow Liquid Illuminator $4
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Nyx Matte Lipstick in MLS10 $4
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Nyx Velvet Matte Lipstick in Soft Femme $3
- Condition: Swatched 4-5x
- Pacifica Coconut Blush in Beaming & Tenderheart $4
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched twice
- Pacifica Rainbow Crystals Liquid Mineral Strobe in Unicorn $2
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Pacifica Vegan Care Balm Peach Shimmer + Jojoba $2
- Condition: Like new, swatched twice
- Peripera Ink Airy Stick in 05 Burnt Tangerine $8
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Pixi by Petra Blush Duo in Peach Honey $2
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Pony Effect Powdery Whisper Lipstick in Veiled $12
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- PUR Midnight Masquerade Palette $4
- Condition: Like new, 4 eyeshadow shades swatched once=
- Revlon Moon Drops Lipstick in 200 Frost $6
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Revlon So Fierce Prismatic Palette in That's a Dub $9
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once, second shade swatched 3-4x
- Rimmel London Stay Matte Liquid Lip Color in 100: Pink Bliss $3
- Condition: Gently Used
- Saemmul Smudge Lip Crayon in BE01 $6
- Condition: Like new, swatched 2-3x
- Sephora Cream Lip Stain Liquid Lipstick in Pink Tea, Deluxe $4
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Sephora Lipstories in Oui $6
- Condition: New, swatched once
- Sephora Lipstories in Spring Break $6
- Condition: New, swatched twice
- SheGlam Matte Allure Lipstick in Rendezvous $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Sleek Blush in Rose Gold $3
- Condition: Gently Used
- Space Case Cosmetics Highlighter in Seen From Space $2
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Ulta Beauty Matte Cream Eye Shadow in Game Over $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Undone Beauty 3-in-1 Eye Palette in Earthling $8
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Undone Beauty 3-in-1 Eye Palette in Royalty $8
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Undone Water Highlighter in Gold Lit $4
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Wander Beauty Dusk to Dawn Blush and Highlighter Palette $6
- Condition: Like new, each shade swatched once
- Aesthetica Pro Brush Series: Eyeliner Brush $3
- Condition: Gently Used
- Alamar Ojitos Brush $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Holographic Z-Palette $8
- Condition: New, never used
- Bread Beauty Hair Puff $4
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- BS Mall: Miscellaneous Brushes $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Dermapore Ultrasonic Pore Extractor & Serum Infuser $48
- Condition: Like new, used 2x and thoroughly cleaned (retails $99)
- FARAH Contour 218M $2
- Condition: New, never used
- FARAH Large Angled Contour Brush 30F $2
- Condition: New, never used
- FARAH Mini Tapered Blending 3 $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Gigi Gorgeous The Gorgeous Contour Brush $2
- Condition: New, never used
- ILNP Boutique Nail Lacquer in Pina Colada $8
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- ILNP Boutique Nail Lacquer in Secret Society $8
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- ILNP Boutique Nail Lacquer in Yes Please $8
- Condition: Like new, swatched once
- Luxie 121 Mini Tapered Brush $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Luxie 140 Detail Tapered Brush $4
- Condition: New, never used
- Luxie 201 Brow and Lash $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Luxie 237 Blending Brush $4
- Condition: New, never used
- Luxie 1010 Small Contour Brush $4
- Condition: New, never used
- MOTD Come Through Contour Brush $2
- Condition: New, never used
- MOTD Miss Shady Lady Brush $2
- Condition: New, never used
- MOTD Tapered Contour Crease Brush $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Olive & June Polish in BEB $6
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Olive & June "The Poppy" Universal Nail Polish Handle $6
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Olive & June "The Poppy" Universal Nail Polish Handle in LE Pink + Stars Print $6
- Condition: Brand new, never used
- Real Techniques Strobe and Blend Brush $4
- Condition: Gently Used
- SLMissglam L50: Lilac Sparkle Eye Blender $2
- Condition: New, never used
- Bamboo Handle brushes
- Butter Pin
- Colourpop Ultra Metallic Lip in Maneater
- Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Eye Mask
- Ipsy Makeup Drawstring Bag
- Jason Wu Pouch & Stickers
- Pat McGrath Mothership VIII Art Box
- Pat McGrath Mothership X Art Box
- Red-barreled brush
- Rose Inc Tortoiseshell Hair Clips
- Fragrance Sample Vials (1 per item in order)
- All Saint Leather Skies
- Ellis Brooklyn Bee
- Fenty Eau de Parfum
- Floral Street Wonderland Peony
- Giorgio Armani Si Eau de Parfum
- John Varvatos Eau de Toilette
- Lancome La Vie Est Belle
- Marc Jacobs Decadence
- Paco Rabanne 1 Million
- Paco Rabanne Eau de Toilette
- Prada Candy x2
- The Phluid Project Intention
- Valentino Donna Born in Roma
- Valentino Voce Viva Intensa
- Victor&Rolf Magic Salty Flower
2024.06.02 00:27 Slight-Appeal7297 My lavender powder clumps up and wont mix when I add it to my drinks, am I using it wrong, if so how should I be using it?
I was trying to find a lavender powder similar to Starbucks one to use in drinks at home and saw multiple people recommend the TeaZone lavender milk tea powder mix, so I bought it. It does infact taste very similar and I love it, but every time I add it to a drink it clumps up and does not dissolve, it just clumps up and stays on top, and if I shake it it mixes, but again with a ton of clumps. (Not sure how many people will understand what I mean by this but it’s almost like it is hydrophobic)
There is no information on the bag about how to properly use it, just how to store it. I have been unable to find anything online about it. I thought about getting empty tea bags and trying to flavor it that way using the powder, but I dont think that would even work since it is literally a powder.
I really just have no idea if I am using it wrong or what, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to use it. I have been putting it into cold drinks, so maybe it would work better at room temperature, but I don’t think it would make much of a difference, but I am definitely not an expert lol.
Also if anyone knows of a better place to post this please let me know, I couldn’t find a place to post this that is focused more on drinks that are not alcoholic.
submitted by Slight-Appeal7297 to Cooking [link] [comments]
There is no information on the bag about how to properly use it, just how to store it. I have been unable to find anything online about it. I thought about getting empty tea bags and trying to flavor it that way using the powder, but I dont think that would even work since it is literally a powder.
I really just have no idea if I am using it wrong or what, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to use it. I have been putting it into cold drinks, so maybe it would work better at room temperature, but I don’t think it would make much of a difference, but I am definitely not an expert lol.
Also if anyone knows of a better place to post this please let me know, I couldn’t find a place to post this that is focused more on drinks that are not alcoholic.
2024.06.02 00:22 shilh Please help find substitute?
 | Got this from Japan when I went. Unfortunately, the shop has closed down, so I can no longer acquire this specific tea. submitted by shilh to tea [link] [comments] This is a blend tea of houjicha (roasted green tea), black soybean, coconut, and sweet potato (flavoring). https://preview.redd.it/vxz4tqf5c14d1.png?width=1440&format=png&auto=webp&s=2371b0601db5a13f9aa065a75513df210af1a0a2 |
2024.06.01 23:55 Xavy21 Stop and Shop Ad, Boston Daily Globe, June 1, 1950.
 | submitted by Xavy21 to boston [link] [comments] |
2024.06.01 23:15 SweDishMaid1 Selling these items!! and looking for
Skirt
submitted by SweDishMaid1 to RoyaleHighTrading [link] [comments]
- Gothicutie skirt
- Dear dollie skirt
- Sleigh it skirt x2
- Midnigt strike popstar skirt
- Ballroom entrance
- Royal stroll in the garden
- Sprakly paty tutu
- Miniskirt x2
- Real mermaid x2
- Cookie loafers (SOLD)
- Starfrost skates (SOLD)
- Huggly snuggly booties
- Glittering jelly platforms
- Carol of the elves booties
- Dear dollie bodice
- Sf bodice
- Cb bodice
- Sf sleeves
- Se sleeves
- Sl warmers
- Over the rainbow sleeves
- Sf veil
- Dear dollie gloves
- SS hat
- Dv puppy ears
- Easter egg top hat
- Bunny bonnet headband
- Bouquet of clovers
- Elf helper hat
- Lucky bow pin
- Spinning web boppers
- Don't pick me please
- Trip to the market hat
- Soft plush antlers
- Christmas celebration headband
- Four leaf clover ears
- Lucky headband
- Supernatural hoop earrings
- Bat earrings
- Bat tophat
- Baby star bear
- Floppy ears
- Christmas window shopping top hat
- Ghost head
- Pegeant diamond earrings
- Personal snow flurry
- Heiress tea party bow
- Mix matched striped socks
- Sweet bunny hair bows
- Nomnom frosted donut waist floatie
- Arachnofabulous
- Hip bag of coins
- Captain's hat
- Teacup tupil hat x2
- Polar cutie bear hat
- Woodland faun ears and antlers x2
- Strawberry picking basket
- Nine-tails
- Sweet bunny shoulder bag
- Magical enchantress
- Callmehbob ring
- Og parasol 2019
2024.06.01 22:45 ev30fka0s Do I keep it or return it for the black on black Rogue 25 with tea roses?
 | Help. I'm conflicted. I wanted a Rogue 25. I need the space but can't carry a bigger Rogue. I ordered this green but not sure if I should stick with it or get the black Tea Rose 25. My boyfriend said the tea roses make it look like an old lady bag 😂😂 Halp. I'm 53 so it's especially offensive 🤣 submitted by ev30fka0s to Coach [link] [comments] |
2024.06.01 22:14 uncreativeuser1234 What to do with very large leaves?
 | I bought this loose leaf white tea recently and a lot of the leaves are either too big to fit in my tea bags or, if, I don't make them smaller I can fit very many of them. submitted by uncreativeuser1234 to tea [link] [comments] I know that crushing is not recommended but what about just breaking them into smaller pieces? Or should I be using larger tea bags for something like this? I usually like to only Brew a small cup at a time which is why I have small ones |
2024.06.01 22:14 Alternative_Mess_964 Shout out to Rancho San Miguel Market at Stockton/Broadway
Just a shout-out to Rancho San Miguel Market. At long last a full-size supermarket in Oak Park, employee owned, deli with fried chicken and Mexican food, decent prices, some fun atypical brands. I go there around every two weeks now. Pick up a family meal of carnitas, herbal teas, the only dog food brand (Pedigree) the pupper will eat, Mexican candy, Mexican pastries. Churros flavor ice cream sandwiches. So.many.beans. Awesome employees. Divided checkstand bagging area so you don't feel pressured as you bag-your-own.
submitted by Alternative_Mess_964 to Sacramento [link] [comments]
2024.06.01 22:06 CanibalVegetarian Japanese imports at… Ocean State Job Lot???
 | If you live in the Eastern United States you’ve likely seen a Job Lot somewhere in your life. Picked these Milk Tea and Matcha up surprisingly today. Never thought I’d find the ones I’ve been looking for right under my nose. $5 for a 10pc bag of the matcha, and $5 for a 7pc bag for the milk tea. They also had orange flavored and strawberry. submitted by CanibalVegetarian to candy [link] [comments] |
2024.06.01 21:42 Any_Rooster_2781 New Scam? Dating Scam I experienced in Barcelona, Spain
I'm posting this to raise awareness and to see if anyone has experienced a similar scam. I've searched online and can't find anything similar. advice is also welcome.
TLDR: Went on a fake date and was duped into buying some overpriced sex toys from a fake/dissappeared store ran by the girl's friend/family.
Read on for the bizzare story.
I recently went on a date while on vacation in Barcelona, with a girl I met on Bumble. Her profile was verified and had several pictures. We chat and agree to meet for a drink around 9pm. Pretty standard - nothing seems suspicious and I even reverse-image searched her pictures to try to see if her pictures might have been stolen. Her profile says her name is Victoria, she's 22, and she's from Kyiv, Ukraine. No real red flags at this point for me. We both have our "Looking for" set as "Fun/casual dates", so it seems we both want to get a drink and potentially hook up.
She asks to meet at the "Indian Herbs" restaurant as that is near where she lives. We meet near there and go for a drink nearby. We order drinks and start chatting. She tells me how she's only lived there for a few days. She's from Kyiv, Ukraine and her father sent her there because the war is getting too dangerous. Also she doesn't speak English well so we're mostly using Google Translate to talk. Not ideal but not alarming either. She also looks like her main picture except she's dyed her hair from blonde to brown. Everything seems legit - she's a real woman and matches her photo-verified profile, and her story sounds valid and not like something someone would make up. She also mentioned that her parents are rich and made sure she's never had to work. I think "Ok she's a spoiled brat..." but I'm drinking, and she's fairly attractive, so I still want to hook up with her.
After a while of chatting she says she's been smoking weed and feels awkward because I seem to still be sober. I finish my beer and help her finish the glass of wine she ordered that she said was too sweet to drink. Next we agree to get some drinks from the supermarket and to go to her place. She says she's staying with a friend but her friend has gone away for a few days so we can hangout at her place. I should have insisted on going to my hotel, but I think from a woman's perspective she probably would feel safer going to her place, so it is fine for me. Still no red flags - I've been on first dates that went this way.
We get some drinks, snacks, and water from the store. We start walking and I continue to drink a beer as we walk. We're walking and she tells me "I'm feeling really hot. I want to be tied up with handcuffs. Can we go get some from a sex store?" Not really my cup of tea but I'm vacationing and think it could be fun to try. We keep walking and end up at an adult store. We go inside and there's a guy working at the counter - no customers. Everything seems fine as it's nearly 11pm so maybe it's a slow night? She starts asking me to get all kinds of adult toys (mostly bondage toys), which we grab and bring to the counter. The guy counts it up (about 12-13 items) and tells me it's 980€. Obviously shocked at the price, I say "No that's too much but we can get a couple things." She tried to convince me we should get more, insisting she really needs this and that thing, but I say no just three things is enough. Fairly drunk, feeling pressured, and wanting to just go because I feel a bit embarrassed by how she's acting in the store, I try to just tap my credit card to pay but it declines. The guy says I'll have to insert the card. He takes my card, inserts it, and passes it to me to enter my PIN. Now, I should have verified the amount first but I was getting 3 of like 12 items at this point, and I kept smaller items, so I expected it to be like 50€. My payment processes and we leave.
We get a few blocks away and the girl starts telling me she's really upset that I wouldn't buy all of what she wanted. She has a bit of a tantrum for a couple minutes then says "I don't want to do anything!" She then storms off and disappears into the back streets of the area. Standing there wondering wtf just happened, I realize I need to return these adult toys I no longer need. I look at the small receipt from the bag and see the amount was 179€! For three small items! I also see the store is called "Love Space". So, I retrace our steps looking for the store but it's nowhere to be found. I look on Google Maps- no store called Love Space in Barcelona. I walk around for a while then give up and decide they must have closed for the night. If you've been to Barcelona, you will be familiar with the hundreds (if not thousands) of little ground-level stores with metal shutters that cover the whole store front at night. When shuttered, these stores are nearly indistinguishable, especially in the dark and when you're not from the area.
The next day I go back to search for this store. After a couple hours with no luck, I go into an open adult store in the area and ask the guy working if he knows of a store in the area called Love Space. He asks why and I explain what happened the night before. He then tells me I'm the fourth man, all tourists from North America, in the past few weeks that has asked about an adult store in the area, claiming he went with a girl on a date and then the store disappeared and he couldn't return what he bought. At this moment, I clued it that I may have been scammed.
"Ukrainian girl?" He asked. I confirm, and he Google searched "Love Space Ukraine" on his phone. Up comes a real adult store called Love Space that exists only in Kyiv, Ukraine! This cannot simply be a coincidence. I determine I must have been the victim of a clever dating scam.
Once the payment processed on my credit card, I was able to use the transaction data to find the city block of where it was (08012 Barcelona, the backstreets near Indian Herbs on Carrer De Còrsega). I go back AGAIN to search the area. This store does NOT exist in Barcelona. I further confirm these was all a scam.
I tried messaging the girl on WhatsApp. She basically tells me to go fuck my self and that I have to pay up to get pretty girls like her. I think she blocked me after or is just ignoring my replies. I messaged the real Love Space store in Ukraine, using Google Translate, but they insisted they only operate in Ukraine and have no idea what I'm talking about.
So, this is how the scam goes: Girl meets tourist on dating app and goes for drinks. She gets him at least a bit drunk then suggests going back to her place to hook up, but first she wants to get some adult toys. She brings him to her friend/family's fake store in the area, where she pressures him to buy greatly overpriced sex toys. After leaving she ditches the guy and the store disappears, leaving the guy confused and with no way to return the items.
I went to the police but they refused to even let me file a report. They claim this is a "consumer issue" since nothing was stolen. From what I've read, the Barcelona police also like to surpress the reality of how much crime goes on there. In my mind this is obvious fraud or some similar type of crime. The police officer I spoke to said that since I paid and got the items there was no crime. I can sort of see her point, but was ignoring the context of this transaction occurring in what was clearly a scam operation.
I will try to get my credit card company to reverse the transaction but I doubt they will since I entered my PIN. I doubt they'll care that the guy set it up for PIN entry without showing me the amount first. I guess that's on me for not checking first.
I feel like a complete sucker. And while I despise these scumbags I have to respect their creativity and acting skills. What a clever scam/con. If I can't get the transaction reversed I guess I'll take this as a life lesson. Someone also told me I got off lucky - and I agree. I could have been robbed of my phone/credit card, attacked, kidnapped, or worse. I also could have lost a lot more money.
I hope this helps other men avoid falling into this trap. Do not go on a date with a Ukrainian girl in Barcelona named Victoria! And don't agree to go with her to an adult store if you do ... Be careful with dating ... and honestly, maybe just avoid meeting strangers from the internet.
If anyone has advice on anything I might be able to do about this I'd appreciate it.
submitted by Any_Rooster_2781 to Scams [link] [comments]
TLDR: Went on a fake date and was duped into buying some overpriced sex toys from a fake/dissappeared store ran by the girl's friend/family.
Read on for the bizzare story.
I recently went on a date while on vacation in Barcelona, with a girl I met on Bumble. Her profile was verified and had several pictures. We chat and agree to meet for a drink around 9pm. Pretty standard - nothing seems suspicious and I even reverse-image searched her pictures to try to see if her pictures might have been stolen. Her profile says her name is Victoria, she's 22, and she's from Kyiv, Ukraine. No real red flags at this point for me. We both have our "Looking for" set as "Fun/casual dates", so it seems we both want to get a drink and potentially hook up.
She asks to meet at the "Indian Herbs" restaurant as that is near where she lives. We meet near there and go for a drink nearby. We order drinks and start chatting. She tells me how she's only lived there for a few days. She's from Kyiv, Ukraine and her father sent her there because the war is getting too dangerous. Also she doesn't speak English well so we're mostly using Google Translate to talk. Not ideal but not alarming either. She also looks like her main picture except she's dyed her hair from blonde to brown. Everything seems legit - she's a real woman and matches her photo-verified profile, and her story sounds valid and not like something someone would make up. She also mentioned that her parents are rich and made sure she's never had to work. I think "Ok she's a spoiled brat..." but I'm drinking, and she's fairly attractive, so I still want to hook up with her.
After a while of chatting she says she's been smoking weed and feels awkward because I seem to still be sober. I finish my beer and help her finish the glass of wine she ordered that she said was too sweet to drink. Next we agree to get some drinks from the supermarket and to go to her place. She says she's staying with a friend but her friend has gone away for a few days so we can hangout at her place. I should have insisted on going to my hotel, but I think from a woman's perspective she probably would feel safer going to her place, so it is fine for me. Still no red flags - I've been on first dates that went this way.
We get some drinks, snacks, and water from the store. We start walking and I continue to drink a beer as we walk. We're walking and she tells me "I'm feeling really hot. I want to be tied up with handcuffs. Can we go get some from a sex store?" Not really my cup of tea but I'm vacationing and think it could be fun to try. We keep walking and end up at an adult store. We go inside and there's a guy working at the counter - no customers. Everything seems fine as it's nearly 11pm so maybe it's a slow night? She starts asking me to get all kinds of adult toys (mostly bondage toys), which we grab and bring to the counter. The guy counts it up (about 12-13 items) and tells me it's 980€. Obviously shocked at the price, I say "No that's too much but we can get a couple things." She tried to convince me we should get more, insisting she really needs this and that thing, but I say no just three things is enough. Fairly drunk, feeling pressured, and wanting to just go because I feel a bit embarrassed by how she's acting in the store, I try to just tap my credit card to pay but it declines. The guy says I'll have to insert the card. He takes my card, inserts it, and passes it to me to enter my PIN. Now, I should have verified the amount first but I was getting 3 of like 12 items at this point, and I kept smaller items, so I expected it to be like 50€. My payment processes and we leave.
We get a few blocks away and the girl starts telling me she's really upset that I wouldn't buy all of what she wanted. She has a bit of a tantrum for a couple minutes then says "I don't want to do anything!" She then storms off and disappears into the back streets of the area. Standing there wondering wtf just happened, I realize I need to return these adult toys I no longer need. I look at the small receipt from the bag and see the amount was 179€! For three small items! I also see the store is called "Love Space". So, I retrace our steps looking for the store but it's nowhere to be found. I look on Google Maps- no store called Love Space in Barcelona. I walk around for a while then give up and decide they must have closed for the night. If you've been to Barcelona, you will be familiar with the hundreds (if not thousands) of little ground-level stores with metal shutters that cover the whole store front at night. When shuttered, these stores are nearly indistinguishable, especially in the dark and when you're not from the area.
The next day I go back to search for this store. After a couple hours with no luck, I go into an open adult store in the area and ask the guy working if he knows of a store in the area called Love Space. He asks why and I explain what happened the night before. He then tells me I'm the fourth man, all tourists from North America, in the past few weeks that has asked about an adult store in the area, claiming he went with a girl on a date and then the store disappeared and he couldn't return what he bought. At this moment, I clued it that I may have been scammed.
"Ukrainian girl?" He asked. I confirm, and he Google searched "Love Space Ukraine" on his phone. Up comes a real adult store called Love Space that exists only in Kyiv, Ukraine! This cannot simply be a coincidence. I determine I must have been the victim of a clever dating scam.
Once the payment processed on my credit card, I was able to use the transaction data to find the city block of where it was (08012 Barcelona, the backstreets near Indian Herbs on Carrer De Còrsega). I go back AGAIN to search the area. This store does NOT exist in Barcelona. I further confirm these was all a scam.
I tried messaging the girl on WhatsApp. She basically tells me to go fuck my self and that I have to pay up to get pretty girls like her. I think she blocked me after or is just ignoring my replies. I messaged the real Love Space store in Ukraine, using Google Translate, but they insisted they only operate in Ukraine and have no idea what I'm talking about.
So, this is how the scam goes: Girl meets tourist on dating app and goes for drinks. She gets him at least a bit drunk then suggests going back to her place to hook up, but first she wants to get some adult toys. She brings him to her friend/family's fake store in the area, where she pressures him to buy greatly overpriced sex toys. After leaving she ditches the guy and the store disappears, leaving the guy confused and with no way to return the items.
I went to the police but they refused to even let me file a report. They claim this is a "consumer issue" since nothing was stolen. From what I've read, the Barcelona police also like to surpress the reality of how much crime goes on there. In my mind this is obvious fraud or some similar type of crime. The police officer I spoke to said that since I paid and got the items there was no crime. I can sort of see her point, but was ignoring the context of this transaction occurring in what was clearly a scam operation.
I will try to get my credit card company to reverse the transaction but I doubt they will since I entered my PIN. I doubt they'll care that the guy set it up for PIN entry without showing me the amount first. I guess that's on me for not checking first.
I feel like a complete sucker. And while I despise these scumbags I have to respect their creativity and acting skills. What a clever scam/con. If I can't get the transaction reversed I guess I'll take this as a life lesson. Someone also told me I got off lucky - and I agree. I could have been robbed of my phone/credit card, attacked, kidnapped, or worse. I also could have lost a lot more money.
I hope this helps other men avoid falling into this trap. Do not go on a date with a Ukrainian girl in Barcelona named Victoria! And don't agree to go with her to an adult store if you do ... Be careful with dating ... and honestly, maybe just avoid meeting strangers from the internet.
If anyone has advice on anything I might be able to do about this I'd appreciate it.