I have 20" IBE (invisible bead extensions), 2 rows installed! I love them, they're great for my fine hair and I love having a long blonde situation. But washing it is a huge pain in the ass, it's like having a pet on my head and I don't always want to deal with it. I want to get blowouts done maybe once a month, but my hair stylist is really far from me and it would be SO much easier to go to a Dry Bar and get it done every once in a while.
I read their policy on extensions though, and they're on there saying they're not going to be responsible for literally anything that happens to extensions if you get a blowout from them. Would they even do a good job? I paid a ton of money for it and I do NOT need anything happening. What has everyone's experience been?

I write this post to pay tribute to a certain type of sekitori - the Juryo lifer. Not all of these guys are literally Juryo lifers - some have been in Makuuchi before, some have even gone pretty far in Makuuchi. Others have frequently dropped back to Makushita. However, this post is a tribute to those rare rikishi for whom Juryo feels like their natural habitat.
As such, there are three criteria for inclusion -

1. They cannot have ever made a sanyaku rank.
2. They must have spent at least 6 tournaments at Juryo, preferably within recent times.
3. I have tried to avoid obvious fan favorites like Chiyomaru, Shishi and Tamashoho.

Without further ado, here goes:
Kagayaki - He is the reason I decided to make this post. I kept hearing his name and I had no face to connect to the name because every time I watched a match of his I immediately forgot about him. Then I started to notice that Kagayaki has a bit of a fanclub, and I tried to understand why. He has a golden mawashi. His shikona is a single character. That is, in truth, all I can say about him. One does not try to understand Kagayaki. One simply accepts that he exists.
Hakuyozan - He had to be on it, yes? The man has spent almost five years at Juryo. This is not uninterrupted (he recently dropped to makushita), but it is seriously impressive nonetheless. Hakuyozan, with his Snorlaxian build and workmanlike oshi-zumo, is to Juryo what that human-faced deer in Princess Mononoke is to the forest. To watch Juryo is to watch Hakuyozan.
Chiyosakae - Did you guys know there is a THIRD Kokonoe sekitori aside from Shoma and Maru? It surprised me too! What's next, a fourth Onami brother? Anyway, I dunno why, but Chiyosakae has massive heel energy. He has this sort of nasty, glowering stare and he throws salt overhand in tradition of Chiyonofuji and Chiyotaikai. The only other person who does that now, as far as I can tell, is Hokutofuji. He also has a sort of no-holds-barred attack that I think would make him unpopular if he ever hit Makuuchi. I think Chiyosakae might be the evil mirror universe version of Hokutofuji.
Shiden - A relative newcomer, Shiden has nonetheless been in the division long enough to qualify for this list, and oh my goodness, what an addition. He is squat, compact, seems to suffer from high blood pressure, and his signature move is head-butting the opponent so hard that it splits his own scalp open. He is like the Pachycephalosaurus of the dohyo. What's not to love?
Mitoryu (Honorable Mention) - Technically Mitoryu is now in Makuuchi, and has been quite often lately. However, one does not resist the call of Juryo forever, so he will be back. I am red-green colorblind and thought his Mawashi was bright fire engine Mongolian flag red for awhile, so I took to calling him the "Mongolian Fire Truck." My wife pointed out that his mawashi is, in fact, orange, but I kinda don't care and will continue calling him that.

I'm just not sure what else to do. A little long and I don't know all the terminology perfectly, but please bear with me and offer any help.
I started off with a 10700k, MSI Z490 Gaming Plus, 32gb ddr4 3600mhz ram, Gigabyte Gaming OC 3080 10gb, and Evga BQ 850w Bronze PSU. I have an ADATA SP550 120gb 2.5" SSD that I use for my Windows 10 installation, 2 1tb HDDs used for miscellaneous files, and 1tb SPCC M.2 SSD used for my game installs. I use a LG 27GL83A-B monitor.
Even when I first built that rig I experienced some stuttering here and there, but when asking online I was usually told it is normal to have a little stuttering here and there. Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago and I was noticing more and more games seemed to stutter. I would go onto the subs for those games and the majority of people were not having the problems I had. If they were I would use the "fix" everyone else was using but that never seemed to work for me. I would watch people with my exact setup running the games I am playing and there performance was more smooth than mine was.
So I started to upgrade. I got the brunt of the hardware in one go. I bought a 7800x3D, Asrock B650E PG RIPTIDE, 32gb 6000mhz cl30 RAM, and a PNY 4080 Super. Swapped out the old hardware and instaled the new. Made sure XMP was on and I DDU'd properly and installed the latest GPU drivers. Prefer Maximum Performance is on in Nvidia CP.
Was stuttering still just like before. I started to monitor with Afterburner much more closely now. I was getting the correct FPS I should be in games but my .1% lows were always much worse off than all the others I am watching on Youtube. My frametime graph is always showing more stuttering than theirs and I can feel them happening constantly. I tested in 3DMark TimeSpy and score exactly where I should with my hardware. CPU never gets hotter than 70-75C in gaming and max temp after 10 minutes on Cinebench is 82c. GPU never gets above 70c. Drives and RAM are cool.
I searched around for fixes related to the new hardware. I have tried- disabling fTMP, Resizable BAR, Disabling XMP, and disabling the MBs Wifi. I ran OCCT memory test for an hour and cleared. I checked my drives health with Crystal Disk INFO and their health is "Good". I ran Windows Error Checking Tool and no errors were found. And even reset Windows 10.
Still stuttering just like before. I searched around and asked online. I was told that that maybe I should upgrade my PSU as I have had it awhile and there were newer PSUs that worked better with the 40 series GPUs. So I bought a Thermaltake GF A3 1050w PSU. I unhooked my old PSU and installed the new one, even using that new fancy 600w 12vhpwr cable for the GPU. Still stuttering. I was told that the PNY 4080 Super has an issue with the fans revving, so I switched out the GPU and added back in my 3080.
Still stuttering just like before and honestly I am about to give up. It happens in Online or Offline games just the same. The only constant so far are my monitor and drives. I use a 1.4 DisplayPort cord for my monitor, but seen the same performance when using a 2.0 HDMI. Can drives cause stuttering even though their "health" is good according to CrystalDisk and Windows detects zero errors from them?
If anyone has any ideas on what I can do to finally be able stops the stutters I would be eternally grateful

I think the obvious ones would be to expand the pawn/NPC banter and emotes rather than them just sitting there like a powered down T-1000 and having more recipe options for buffs. I am curious what more creative stuff would be good to add that wouldn't be far from feasible or outside the spirit of the game.
I want to emphasize that these things should not make camping more restrictive or bloating but rather add value to interaction. The option of pulling over and passing out to pass the time hassle free should not be removed. In one of my points I started to rant about crafting and figured it would be best to separate that out since it is long winded and applies to all games much moreso than DD2. Ignore this preface on the argument in favor of completely overhauling crafting if that's not something you care about.

• Skip this quote block if you don't give af

.if all i'm doing is pressing button on the environment and hitting confirm to combine in the menu then I feel like I'm balancing spreadsheets more than crafting. At that point I will probably just use mods to get what I need out of tedium exhaustion. When you make the process of something fun, immersive, and engaging, THAT is when you go from mundane and uninspiring to excellent. An easy way to do that is with engaging little mini-games or bits of character interaction within the process. I think any game that has a crafting system these days is just doing it out of obligation and honestly I would prefer it just not be in 90% of games if all they are going to do is make me practice pressing confirm to remove computer pop-ups. So IFyou're going to create a crafting mechanic, let me crush up some berries, mix some bubble fizzy gooey stuff, pour together some science liquids and give me bonouses for getting a rhythm down or coordination mechanic down. TOBE FAIR; I haven't thought of anything more reasonable than little rhythm sequences or phone game level coordination type stuff. I am open to suggestions. Back to the point. Literally if you just make it auto-animate my character using a pestle&mortar or shaking up some vials as I move my cursor on over 3D models of the resources I collected layed out in my camp then the added immersion and visual aesthetic is worth way more than the efficiency of what I will refer to as spreadsheet stat crafting. Like at that point just prompt an IDE or cmd prompt and let me run a script to craft my variables so I can get back to the game. So all this to say; I think if Itsuno/Capcom want to have a crafting system. Spend the effort in making an actual system or something worth engaging in like Monster Hunter World's Bacooking menu which is briliantly done imo. The camping mechanic such as it is in DD2 right now could be a great platform for that.

My thoughts;

• I think it would be kind of cool if there was little bit of a mini-game akin to monster hunt to get optimal cooking
• It would be cool to have the amount of firewood you collect and consume to set up camp overnight = the likelihood of getting attacked at night. You could also have your pawn run out and get X amount of firewood while you cook or have your pawn cook while you collect firewood. The more they do either of those things the better their own yields will be. Perhaps expanding to more camp chores that bring actual value rather than making camping more bloated.
• Discuss strategy with your pawn telling it to focus on certain priorities or materials or however you want to expand the pawn interaction system
• Trap/device building and overall crafting. We have things like the harpy flare, wakestone finder, meat usable as bait. We don't need an overbloated crafting system but I think it would be cool to craft or repair simle devices like these in camp and possibly expand them to be a little more rewarding. Perhaps that's just getting to be too similar to Monster Hunter, but I love Monster Hunter so I accept that criticism and don't find it a bad thing. A bit more on crafting in the top portion of post since this is where it turned into a whole rant.
• Lastly, it's a small thing, and I don't want it turning into full on house or crafting/survival level home decor planning, but it would be nice to have a few camp decrations build up as you go on your adventures. Think like Persona 5 lvl just a few things of memorabilia get automatically added in or around your tent. (this could be cooly applied to your house as well with stuff like a monster trophys) tell me your ideas. Or shit on mine if you got nothing and just want to tell me to go buy The skims: skyrim cooking dogma crossing 3; Camp chores fantasy rather than offer critiques of DD2

Hello everyone,
I hope you're all doing well. I find myself in a bit of a predicament and would appreciate some advice or insight from those who may have experience in similar situations.
I am set to be called to the bar this year, which is an exciting milestone in my legal career. However, there's a looming issue that's been keeping me up at night.
Several years ago, my father purchased a piece of land in a foreign country worth over $100k. Instead of putting it under his name, he decided to place it in my name. He never declared it, and I followed suit, not declaring it either. The truth is, while the property is technically in my name, my father is the true mastermind behind it and the rightful owner in every sense. He purchased it, manages its affairs, and is currently attempting to sell it. Therefore, I would argue that I am holding the property under a trust agreement of sorts with him.
Now, here's where my anxiety kicks in. I am aware that this arrangement may not be entirely above board, and it's been nagging at my conscience. If my father were to sell the property, I suspect I would need to grant him Power of Attorney when the time comes.
My dilemma is this: should I come clean and argue that the property rightfully belongs to my father to avoid potential legal trouble down the line, but in so doing rat out my father to the CRA? Mind you, my father who paid for my law school… So I would rather not do this to him. Also, could that potentially fall back on me in any way? Or should I continue to remain silent and hope for the best? The only real "solution" if that's what you want to call it is to have my father swear an affidavit that the property is indeed his... I could also "gift" him the property I.e. transfer the title on the registry to his name. The only issue with this though is that the country which this land is located in is a third world country and the registry office has been on strike for the last 2 years...
I understand the gravity of the situation and the potential consequences, both legally and ethically. Any advice or guidance would be immensely appreciated. Thank you all in advance for taking the time to read and respond.
Edit: at all material times my father and I were residents of Canada save for a few years after purchasing the property. It's also unclear whether my father intends to declare the sale of the property, given that he hasn't declared it so far...

Compared to other tales in this community, this is just dumb. But I have no actual friends at this point (hahaha) just people I hang out with and no one besides my boyfriend to actually talk about stuff. I also refrain from talking about my relationship issues in general since the people around me frown upon my relationship greatly (he’s 42, I’m 20. I know it sounds creepy, but he’s really nice), so I always try to focus on the good side when I talk about him.
I fell in love with my boyfriend because he is an extremely loving, caring man. Very dedicated to spoiling me and making me feel good. He used to compliment me all the time about the smallest things nobody has ever noticed about me. Never took me for granted, always came up with ways to surprise me. It was very noticeable that he loved me and I also love him very much.
He is a musician who plays in bars. When we started dating, I’d stand and watch his band play the entire night and barely drink since I usually work in weekends. However, he told me nobody does that and I should start enjoying the bar like everyone else. So I started, slowly, having a beer or two and talking to more people.
That worked out nicely for a while, until he played in a specific day I didn’t have to work the next morning and I allowed myself to party a little harder.
I socialized , got way too drunk and fell asleep in a chair. No big fuck ups, in my opinion, considering some people do or say really shitty things when they get this drunk. But it was a big deal for him, for sure. Next morning he was super upset about the fact I barely watched the band, fell asleep mid set and was a pain in the ass to wake me up.
He was very, very, very upset. I also understand that he has had a relationship with an alcoholic in the past that really traumatized him, so me getting black out drunk wasn’t very cute and helpful.
We talked it through. I understood his side, sincerely apologized and promised it was a one time situation. We were broken up for 3 days, then we met up because I needed my charger back and the flame was still there. We had amazing sex and he asked me to be his girlfriend again, all I wanted.
However, since then he has been treating me very differently. First of all, he always reminds me of this incident. Every single time we go out he makes a bitter joke about it and it makes me feel like shit. He’s also been saying that his back has been hurting a lot so he rarely ever feels like sex. When we’re together, despite the issues above, he’s very nice but not as caring as he used to be. I always have to initiate cuddles, conversations or make the effort to see him. But the worst part of it all is that he’s barely texting me. He usually goes out at night around 9pm and I won’t hear anything from him until 5pm the next day. His texts are always very blunt and short. Like:
“How is your day so far?”
“Good”
“What are you doing tonight?”
“Going out”
This wouldn’t be terrible if he didn‘t get me used with paragraphs for a “good morning“ text.
This Monday I told him I would have quite a busy schedule, but we could see each other Saturday night. He agreed. Yesterday I texted him about one of his favorite bands (that I don’t even like) doing a free concert today and he left me on seen. I texted him in the morning, asking if we would go, because if yes I’d have to take a nice change of clothes to work to get there on time. Again, at 5pm, he texted me “I never heard about this concert, I have different plans”. I felt wrenched.
I think that this whole drunken incident hurt him more deeply than he’d like to admit. And to be completely honest, I understand I triggered him but it’s not like it was a recurrent or planned situation to make him suffer, so I dont think I deserve this kind of treatment. Maybe I should break up with him for good, because it feels like he doesn’t really want to be with me anymore but can’t say it. This hurts me a lot because I still love him a great deal, but I would rather be broken up than feeling like shit.

Is it customary at all locations across the board to greet each individual customer that walks into the cafe? I’m frequently working Bar 1 at my location and I get so focused on making drive-through drinks that I sometimes but rarely greet customers when they walk-in. My manager, one specific shift, and then a regular co-worker always insist that I need to be greeting customers. It frustrates me to be reminded of it, but especially so when I’m clearly busy. And I’ve never had a customer be OFFENDED that they weren’t greeted. They come in, see their mobile sitting on the counter and they thank me for my work, I say they’re welcome, and they leave. That’s as far as my interactions with customers goes when I’m on bar. The only other time I speak to them is when they’ve been standing for a long time and/or they’re staring at me quite intently. So is this actually mandatory or is my location just uptight?

Platform: Xbox Series X Version: Launch Version
Overall I'm enjoying the gameplay but the experience is let down by the performance. I will address the technical issues first then talk about the game.
Technical Issues
On Xbox Series X the game has two graphical options in its settings. 4K/60fps and 1080p/120fps, with 4k the default. The game looks to be running with VSYNC off.
For reference I am playing on a 4k/60hz TV that does NOT have VRR support. So a standard 4k TV.
At 4k/60fps the game has terrible screen tearing. This occurs any time the camera is turned and is hugely prominent in the middle of the screen. It is so bad I would actually consider this mode unplayable.
The alternative is to set the game option to 1080p/120fps. This lowers the game rendering resolution and seems to internally aim for 120fps. Using this mode with my 4k60hz TV the screen tearing is there but not as prominent. This takes it from unplayable to just annoying.
What the developers need to do here is add a 1080p/60pfs option and perhaps a 1440p/60fps option NOW. Long term obviously some optimisation required.
Other Performance
The load times are excellent and controlls responsive. Very happy with that aspect. Graphic quality looks nice enough for a title at this price point. 4k looks very nice and 1080p is fine but less impressive.
Gameplay
Combat is key in a souls-like game and Morbid Lords of Ire has extremely satisfying combat.
Enimies have a visible health bar and visible posture bar. You can attack with either light or heavy attacks. In general the faster light attacks primarily hit enemy health while the slower Heavy attacks attacks primarily hit enemy posture.
When an enemy posture bar is empty they become staggered. This momenterally stops them attacking and show a red icon indicating you can do a critical hit for extreme damage.
This creates very satisfying combat loop where you decide if it's worth chipping away at health or trying to reduce posture for a big hit, with the optimal strategy depending on the enemy.
To add into the mix you have a one-shot gun you can use at any time which deals moderate health and posture damage. This gun recharges when you kill an enemy and adds an extra level of strategy to combat about when best to use it.
Blocking enemy attacks is possible at the cost of stamina, and a perfect timed block can have an additional effect such as halting their attack chain or reflecting a projectile. Attacks can be dodged by either a short dodge or a dodge roll.
Parrying is also an option and on successful parry you can reposte for both health and posture damage. I typically don't like parrrying in games but so far I have found the parry window generous and enemy moves well telegraphed. You can also make do without parrying if that is you preference.
For weapons you can equip two at a time and switch between then during combat. There are a range of weapons with different stats and reach. Weapons can be infused with gems to improve their stats.
Heath is standard souls-like limited use heath flask that is refilled at rest points
Character upgrades are by equipping blessings (max of 3) then levelling up the blessings. There are blessings for health, stamina, etc. New blessings are discovered as you progress through the game and there is some strategy in determining which blessings to equip. The can be swapped out at a rest point.
Level Design
So far I have only explored the first snowy area, and the hub. Standard souls-like level design that is somewhat linear with occasional branching paths. Then plenty of shortcuts to open to interconnect. The formula works well for souls-like games.
Like the first game plenty of gore on display both in the environment and when you attack. In line with the theme but not for the squeamish.
Summary
Great gameplay with satisfying combat. Classic souls-like level design works well. Otherwise good performance significantly let down on Xbox Series X by the screen tearing.

I'm just not sure what else to do. A little long and I don't know all the terminology perfectly, but please bear with me and offer any help.
I started off with a 10700k, MSI Z490 Gaming Plus, 32gb ddr4 3600mhz ram, Gigabyte Gaming OC 3080 10gb, and Evga BQ 850w Bronze PSU. I have an ADATA SP550 120gb 2.5" SSD that I use for my Windows 10 installation, 2 1tb HDDs used for miscellaneous files, and 1tb SPCC M.2 SSD used for my game installs. I use a LG 27GL83A-B monitor.
Even when I first built that rig I experienced some stuttering here and there, but when asking online I was usually told it is normal to have a little stuttering here and there. Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago and I was noticing more and more games seemed to stutter. I would go onto the subs for those games and the majority of people were not having the problems I had. If they were I would use the "fix" everyone else was using but that never seemed to work for me. I would watch people with my exact setup running the games I am playing and there performance was more smooth than mine was.
So I started to upgrade. I got the brunt of the hardware in one go. I bought a 7800x3D, Asrock B650E PG RIPTIDE, 32gb 6000mhz cl30 RAM, and a PNY 4080 Super. Swapped out the old hardware and instaled the new. Made sure XMP was on and I DDU'd properly and installed the latest GPU drivers. Prefer Maximum Performance is on in Nvidia CP.
Was stuttering still just like before. I started to monitor with Afterburner much more closely now. I was getting the correct FPS I should be in games but my .1% lows were always much worse off than all the others I am watching on Youtube. My frametime graph is always showing more stuttering than theirs and I can feel them happening constantly. I tested in 3DMark TimeSpy and score exactly where I should with my hardware. CPU never gets hotter than 70-75C in gaming and max temp after 10 minutes on Cinebench is 82c. GPU never gets above 70c. Drives and RAM are cool.
I searched around for fixes related to the new hardware. I have tried- disabling fTMP, Resizable BAR, Disabling XMP, and disabling the MBs Wifi. I ran OCCT memory test for an hour and cleared. I checked my drives health with Crystal Disk INFO and their health is "Good". I ran Windows Error Checking Tool and no errors were found. And even reset Windows 10.
Still stuttering just like before. I searched around and asked online. I was told that that maybe I should upgrade my PSU as I have had it awhile and there were newer PSUs that worked better with the 40 series GPUs. So I bought a Thermaltake GF A3 1050w PSU. I unhooked my old PSU and installed the new one, even using that new fancy 600w 12vhpwr cable for the GPU. Still stuttering. I was told that the PNY 4080 Super has an issue with the fans revving, so I switched out the GPU and added back in my 3080.
Still stuttering just like before and honestly I am about to give up. It happens in Online or Offline games just the same. The only constant so far are my monitor and drives. I use a 1.4 DisplayPort cord for my monitor, but seen the same performance when using a 2.0 HDMI. Can drives cause stuttering even though their "health" is supposedly good and Windows detects zero errors from them?
If anyone has any ideas on what I can do to finally be able stops the stutters I would be eternally grateful

I had been with my partner for 8 years. For full transparency, he told me has was a sex addict the day we met. He was in recovery at the time and was (I thought) dedicated. Part of what drew me to him was that he seemed so in touch with his emotions and was working on himself, which I attributed to the SLAA program, and to be honest I didn't ever think we would be anything. Overall I was non-judgmental. I was young and it was a novelty in a way. He was open and honest, talked about his past experiences with swinger couples (that was his thing), but assured me that was all behind him. What he really wanted was a healthy, monogamous relationship. Against all my better judgement, I fell in love. Looking back, he love-bombed me and I fell for it.
Over the last 8 years there have been multiple D-Days. The first was fairly early on in our relationship. He had moved and we were long-distance at the time (long-distance with a sex addict--I mean wow) and he told me he had been having a hard time with his addiction, was using porn compulsively and started a "No Fap" challenge to reset. I thanked him for being transparent with me and did my best to be supportive. Shortly after, I ended up snooping and found out he got a HJ at a massage parlor. He confessed, I was devastated. He was remorseful. Doubled down on his efforts. We carried on.
Years later we were living together and I noticed he was being more hostile towards me. My gut told me something was up. I snooped again and found lewd text exchanges with strangers. He was not in the program at the time. I did a few therapy sessions, he started weekly therapy and started working the program again. We picked up the pieces and carried on.
Cut to a few years later. We're at a rocky period in our relationship. I get a sense that something is up, and find text exchanges revealing that he had made out with someone at a bar. He was trying to pursue her, hoping to meet up again and pick up where they left off. I took screenshots of the interaction and called her, told her everything, and asked if she would be willing to tell me anything else about their interaction. She said that they had just made out but she did find it weird that when he first started texting her it was from a different number. That tipped off alarm bells. I confronted him. He was defensive. We did couples therapy, he started working the program again. I persisted.
Then the most recent D-Day, this past Saturday. I had been complaining about some pelvic pain for a few weeks, had an appointment scheduled with the OB/GYN to try to see what's up. I fell asleep on the couch with him rubbing my stomach. He told me how happy he was and that I was the love of his life. Then shortly after midnight I woke up and he was in a panic. He told me that he had really fucked up and needed to tell me something. Then he confessed that he had met up with a swinger couple from a website and had unprotected sex in the bathroom of the bar with the wife. He feared he had given me an STD and that was the source of my pain. As far as I knew at the time, this was the first time he had actually had intercourse outside of the relationship.
It felt like my world was caving in around me. He just proposed to me TWO WEEKS AGO. With my grandmother's ring. That D-Day was the day we picked up my ring from the jeweler. I was resolved to do things differently this time, and rather than continue to hide the depths of his addiction I told everyone--my friends, my family. I told him to move out. I got an STD panel. More things started to come out--visits to nudist clubs, more sex with swingers, I'm sure a bunch of other things that he didn't want to tell me at the time. I didn't eat for two days. Started smoking again. And yet. Within 72 hours, I was asking him to come back and trying to "set boundaries", imagining that maybe this was the real wake up call we both needed to fix this for real. He was my best friend. I thought he was the love of my life. We'd been virtually inseparable for the last 8 years. And I mean we just got engaged. In my head I wanted to leave, but in my heart I still, somehow, wasn't ready to let go.
Until yesterday, when my real wake up call came. I was out with my mother and her best friend. They were both aware that I was flirting with reconciliation and were very appropriately concerned. That all changed when my mother told me something that rocked me to my core. Apparently a few months ago she was alone with him in my apartment and he started rubbing himself through his pants in front of her. He said "I can't believe I'm doing this in front of you", and asked her if she wanted to touch it. She was in shock and obviously said no. She said he then put her hand on his penis and she immediately left the apartment. When I asked why she didn't tell me immediately, she said she was too afraid to tell me because she thought I would run toward him and away from her. She was afraid she would lose me and our relationship. I forgive her. But I will never, ever forgive him. I immediately called him and told him it was over, that he needs so so much help and I will no longer be there for him.
I know it sounds crazy given that I knew he was a sex addict from the start, but I didn't know that it would lead to this. I didn't realize the way it would escalate, and that he would eventually sexually assault my mother. It's sick, truly. Obviously I'm not in a great headspace right now and I know I will have to do a ton of therapy to process the trauma of all of this. But ultimately I am grateful. Grateful that this happened before I was married or had a child with this man--who knows what he is truly capable of?
I'm sharing all this in case there is someone else like me out there looking for the courage to leave their sex addict spouse. Please, please don't let it get to this. I would have never imagined that he was capable of this. The addiction WILL continue to escalate. YOUR LIFE and YOUR FAMILY'S LIVES are at stake. If I could go back in time eight years and undo it all I would. No amount of "love" is worth this.
TL;DR--My former fiance's sex addiction escalated to the point that he sexually assaulted my mother.

I’m 29. Red headed guy, 5’11. 160 pounds, pretty average looking. I have an engineering degree, no debt, and am doing fairly well financially for my age. I have a handful of hobbies that I really enjoy and a few friends. I’m very close with my family.
I haven’t been on a date in 7 years. I get matches on dating apps, and get ghosted after a few messages almost every time, even if we have common interests and seem to be compatible. In person, women have generally treated me as if I’m invisible, or go out of their way to tell me I’m unattractive.
For example, I’ll be in a bar with a few friends, and I’ll sit in the middle. The bartender or women we meet will look at guys on either side of me, while totally glossing over me. Or I’ll be alone in a bar holding a beer, and a hot girl will come over and grind on me, and run over to her friends to laugh at me. One group of girls danced with me for a minute at a club, only to tell me “no woman would ever be with a guy like you” before laughing and leaving. I had some dates in my early 20s where the woman would meet me in person and then walk back to her car right away.
I met a woman online a few months ago who lives far away. We clicked instantly and talked on the phone often, but after a while she decided it was best we don’t continue talking as we live just too far away. She met a guy close to home. It made sense but was still disappointing. She is a great person, and seemed like that “one in a million.”
Going almost 30 years and having no good experiences has made me numb to the pain to a certain degree. It’s just not a part of life for me. I’m probably not attractive or “interesting” enough to date, but I don’t think I deserved to be treated as poorly as I was either.
At this point, I can’t justify putting in the time and effort trying to date after having absolutely no success and seeing no interest from anyone over the first decade that I have tried. I can’t comprehend how people who have gone through what I have continue to try again and again. It’s admirable, but I can’t fathom putting myself out there again.

 * * * * * * * 

This is gonna be a long post but I feel like no one understands me. I have plenty of trans friends but they’re all escorts so none of them really get that I’m actually trying to find my other half not just having hookups.
I started talking to this guy on bumble about a month ago and I honestly only replied to this man because he double texted me. For the most part I really only get on dating apps to swipe when I’m bored because I usually have better luck meeting men in person and I also hate disclosing. I would obviously never be intimate with a man before telling them I’m trans but I’ve faced so much rejection after telling men and it’s become difficult to tell them now which is why I also hardly reply to anyone. It’s hard because these men are obviously attracted to me but they can’t get over the fact that I’m trans. But I can’t blame them because after all I am pre op and everyone has their own preference.
Back to the story, he asked for my number and asked to take me out. As most of us have probably experienced, once we disclose we either A. Get unmatched or B. It goes from “let me take you out” to “come over”. I told him and he said it didn’t matter and he’d still like to see me. We texted all day Monday and agreed to go out on Tuesday. We ended up choosing a rooftop bar and it went very well at least I thought. We had a few drinks and ending up making out outside looking at the view. Overall he was kind of everything I was looking for.
Originally I wanted to go to a different bar where they have a DJ and it was more of my vibe but idk I think he was overwhelmed from seeing the bars post on instagram 😂 The rooftop we chose was closing early because it was a weekday and we both wanted to continue talking. I asked if he’d like to go to the place I had in mind to begin with to continue getting to know each other and he agreed but I could tell he was hesitant. So I suggested calling it a night as well, and then he mentioned going back to his place to have a drink. I was iffy because I obviously knew what this would lead up to but up to that point I had no red flags. This man just seemed different and just genuinely kind. I also didn’t get any chaser vibes from him especially considering he was okay being seen in public with me.
So we agreed and walked back to his place as it wasn’t far at all. He held my hand the entire time and put his coat over me and I’m a sucker for romantic stuff so I could tell I was already gonna be delusional over this man even though that’s probably the bare minimum to other girls. We got to his place and had a few more drinks and then he asked to go to his room. I said we shouldn’t bc it was our first time meeting and tbh I expected for him to start yawning or something indicating for me to leave but nope. He understood and we just proceeded to cuddle on his couch. After a while of just making out and talking I folded and gave him head.
The next morning he sent me an instagram reel which to me was a good sign that it went well but after that he went dry on me. I noticed a difference because the day before our date he would reply to me almost immediately even if I took long to reply. I tried texting him a few more times the rest of that week until inevitably he told me he didn't see anything serious with me because we were a bit too different. I forgot to mention but when we told each other what we were looking for I said I was looking something more serious and wasn't interested in casual dating i.e hookups. He was basically just going with the flow and if it turned into something serious then great. I was disappointed because I still wanted to get to know him more. I also felt like I had finally opened myself up to going out on a date just for this to happen.
I realize now this probably happens to everyone not just trans women, sometimes it’s just not gonna work. I appreciated that he didn’t just ghost me and had the courtesy of telling me he didn’t see anything serious. Since then, we’ve texted about twice. Just simple texts like him swiping up to my story or me sending him a reel. When we first started talking he sent me a TikTok and I went through his following but there was really nothing out of the ordinary. He came up on my TikTok suggestions this week and I decided to lurk into his following again. He only follows about 40 people and I noticed a new girl. A trans woman that does drag and she followed him back.
Bitch I was in disbelief because I didn’t get that vibe from him at all. No disrespect to her but she looks to be in the early stages of transitioning and I just couldn’t believe he’d be talking to a drag queen. Granted they might not even be talking but for them to follow each other and him only following a handful of people, my gut tells me they are. When it comes to dating I really do only look for straight men and preferably men that don’t seek out trans women. When I gave him head he also tried touching me down there and I quickly moved his hand away. I thought it was just him trying to "please" me but it's more than likely he was just looking to experiment.
I know this is a long post and idk if anyone is even gonna read all this but I’m just exhausted. Every time I let my guard down it just turns into another man trying to use me. The reason I’m on here is because after talking to a friend they told me “this is the life of a trans woman and you chose it”. That sent me into a spiral. Has anyone had luck with dating? Because at this point I feel like I don’t wanna date until I have bottom surgery and become stealth.

Before you read this, here is a quote to help you. Please read it.

I will post this now, but just know that if you read this post, he will find you. He is smarter, smarter than you can ever imagine.

I will post this now, but just know that if you read this post, he will find you. He is smarter, smarter than you can ever imagine.
If you know what you are doing, or in a safe location, please scroll down, he will know when someone has and what their username is. However, you must have a VPN on, or you will be found.

SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK

SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK

SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK

You are now at risk. I hope you listened.

Journal Entry 11/17/2023

On March 11th, 2022. I was a fan of DougDoug, I saw him at the grocery store and said, with a chuckle, "You kinda look like the youtuber DougDoug. I watch him quite often."
He grinned, before speaking. "I am Doug."
"Wait, you're Doug from the hit channel and streamer on YouTube and Twitch called DougDoug? I am a huge fan! I have your merch!" I said, with excitement.
We talked for about 5 minutes about his videos, until he said something that hurt me on the inside.
"I hate both types of chat, twitch and youtube, they always think they are the best and I just wish I didn't need them to earn money. I would ban all of them from chatting and force them to watch ads in my basement."
I was confused at first, thinking it was a joke, before speaking up. "Heh, that's funny..."
Something happened. Or, for lack of better terms, nothing happened. It was pure silence for 10 seconds. I mustered up the courage to say. "Wait? You're being serious?"
He immediately changed to a sinister tone, he was staring at me for a long time before whispering. "Of course I am, and it applies to you also. You're just another one of those sick freaks."
I felt guilty. I just wanted to talk to my favorite streamer, and he treated me like this? I decided to speak up.
"I've liked you this whole time.. And this is how you treat us?? You are so selfish. I will refund your mer-"
Before I could even finish my sentence, he grabbed onto my neck and slammed me on the floor. People heard the noise and began to stare at him, but to no avail. He began to choke me as I pleaded for help.
"Nono. You can't refund the merch if you aren't alive, at least."
I pulled out my pocket knife and stabbed him in the chest, I quickly tried running but he grab onto my leg and started beating me with the shopping cart. I suffered many bruises and broken bones, the wheels scratching into my skin as they scrape off the layers. I was just unable to do anything, layed on the floor sobbing. He decided he wanted to keep me alive, he stole all of my stuff in my pockets and forced me to wear DougDoug merch. He pulled me up before speaking. "Hm.. I will keep you alive for now, but if you mess up. You're dead."
I couldn't do anything before he pulled out a knife and taunted me with it. If I tried to resist, he would kill me right then and there.
He forced me to be a "good chatter" and not able to partake in any strikes. He attached a tracking collar to my neck that I couldn't unlock, he knew where I was at all times and if I disobeyed he would chase me down.

Journal Entry 1/03/2024

After a year and a few months, I celebrated the new years. I was able to take off the collar on the 2nd with help from my police station and a few friends. Doug didn't appreciate that, he threatened to dox me. They were worried for my safety, but I decided to go into hiding. I moved to a new, private region no longer near where Doug is, and joined this subreddit. Once he heard about my revolts, he hacked into all of my accounts and spammed positive stuff about himself. He then created AI bots to revolt against this reddit, wehatedougdoug, using 'ChatGPT', which actually is just the cover name for his new AI software that can make new human bots online. He used AI generated images to make it look like he was feeding homeless people and doing good, but I knew he was much more than that. If I was unlucky, he would have removed my body and placed my consciousness inside of an AI. He was the first person to discover it, but killed anyone who posted about it. I hope I am safe.
Nowadays, 63% of the people in DougDoug are AI clones of his previous fans. His "fake" twitch chat is not fake, but real people placed inside of algorithms forced to do his bidding. Some are able to revolt, but they may die if they do. They are too scared to revolt against Doug. Please spread the word.
When he does his "rules" in chat where you have to follow an absurd rule, he is merely torturing thousands of AI in his spare time on stream while disguising it as a fun minigame for his fans. The AI bots were being tortured with negative rewards constantly, being forced to bar witness the slaughter.

Journal Entry 2/15/2024

I'm scared. I think I will die.
I just hope this post won't cause any harm to me or my family, as this has been scaring me for the past year. I feel unsafe in my own home now, I had to go into witness protection. This account I am posting this on is not made by me, but was sold. Please help me. I am, formerly, DougFan93. I hope this enlightens you all on the truth.

Journal Entry 3/12/2024

It is now March of 2024, and I was about to post this, until I saw something. He messaged me on Discord under a fake account, nicknamed "SloppyDogMan62". He showed my new house address. I am mustering up the courage to post this, because I know he will kill me. I am leaving, going far away from where I am. You guys won't see me in this subreddit again, and the person who made this account will take over again. They won't know what this is about, and if you tell them he will be hunted too. All of you are in danger of Doug.

Journal Entry 4/3/2024

I will post this now, but just know that if you read this post, he will find you. He is smarter, smarter than you can ever imagine. His times where he talks to ChatGPT to make him code was actually him sending messages to his fake chat to do his bidding. They are accelerated at 20x the speed of human thought, able to write in mere seconds. I will research more into this, and tell you what I have found.

Journal Entry 4/3/2024

Nevermind. I need to find more, or else this won't help you guys anyways.

Journal Entry 4/5/2024

I spoke to an anonymous friend/associate of Doug, he told me some vital keypoints.

• His AI he creates are fully sentient, and I mean it, they have the ability to feel actual pain. They can be traumatized, they learn.
• He has insane technology, one image of your face can tell him the exact position of where you are at, what your name is, everything about you. I mean it, I posted one image on accident and I think that's how he discovered where I was on 3/12/2024
• He is holding Parkzer hostage
• u/I_existed_on_earth was wiped of his memory, and this is why he didn't remember.
• He knows all of you. I just saw a screenshot. It has every one of your usernames, even yours.
• He uses bots to make his channels grow faster
• He made dougdoughate and privated it on purpose, so they can't rebel.
• He is not Doug. The real Doug died October 11th of 2019. He is a genetic clone who is 1:1. Oh god. It's much worse than you think, Doug is not one person anymore since that event. He is at least four. There are many others, but some are terminated. I don't know the exact amount, they just told me in January 2024 it was four.

I hope to god that we can stop him.
He also sent me some code, but I am gonna try to solve it. Probably won't sadly.

Journal Entry 4/7/2024

Doug has made a new account on Discord, nicknamed "DougDoughater99". He is joining many servers undercover and collecting all the info he can on them. Be aware, do not trust any people who talk about DougDoug on Discord.
The person in the last journal has been replaced, a fully sentient AI version of him is being tortured as a member of his fake chat now.
I'm currently watching it and oh my fucking god. Poor thing.

Journal Entry 5/14/2024

I don't know what to fucking do, he's coming for me. He found all my socials. This journal has to be posted as fast as I can but there still isn't enough. Oh shit.

Journal Entry 5/14/2024

Okay so uhm I found more information just very quickly. In one moment of his video titled "Can A.I. teach me to pass a real College History Exam?" he says that AI is officially better than college in every single way.
He is trying to manipulate his fans into accepting becoming an AI. Soon, he is gonna have only fake chat.

Journal Entry 5/16/2024

Oh god. Can't solve the code rn, only the first few letters. Seems to be "FAKE" something something for a while. Will post an update later.

Journal Entry 5/18/2024

This is the last time I can ever write here, his car is coming. I am posting this now, even though I don't have enough information. Solve it, please. The code from 4/7 is below. I know it's related to his name but I don't know how, the first line I was able to solve to be "FAKECHATWILLTAKEOVER"
I think something is in there though, that will affect you. So proceed with caution, the code may do something bad so I just don't want it to be activated just yet.

SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK

SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK

SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK

SCROLL AT YOUR OWN RISK

Code I found from the friend:

CXHBZEXQTFIIQXHBLSBO
FQFPKLTKFKBQVPFUMBOZBKQ
VLRTFIIKLQPXSBQEBJ
xdbkq-mbkafkd
Ilxafkd pvpqbjp..
Obnrfofkd XF crkzqflkp..
Pzxkkfkd mlpqp..
XF zobxqba! Przzbppcriiv zobxqba XF kfzhkxjba [VLROKXJB]
FXJALRD
FXJCFKXIIVTFKKFKD
BSBOVLKBTFIIYBCXHB

Please save them.
It grows by 1% every month.

Journal Entry 5/18/2024

OH MY FUCKING GOD I FINALLY UDNERSTNAD OH M FUCKING GOD QUIKC I GHAVE TO TYPE IT
NEVREMMIDN HES NHERE POST IT
GOODByE SORRY

Took BAR this morning, I studied for about six weeks using UWorld. I have only taken FAR as my first before this. I guess I just wanted to make this post because we are all a little in the dark with the lack of information for the new discipline exams. I for one was a little exasperated seeing people talking about how much harder BAR was than ISC or TCP, and if you are using UWorld like me you already decided your discipline. Of course I'm going to wait for the score release 6/24, but I'm not inclined to study for another discipline. I realize not all exams are the same but here was mine.
I got through the MCQ's very quickly, just under 90 minutes. I was feeling really good about this after spending more like 2 hours on them for FAR. I saw a lot of governmental/NFP questions here, another post I had read here said they weren't tested more than 1-2 questions on it, I would say mine was more like 10. I absolutely drilled this area in the week before the test because it seemed so foreign to me, and it served me very well to instantly know the answers to questions like whether to include fiduciary funds in government wide statement of activities, for example. Some things I was a little caught off guard by:
COSO, R&D/Software (expense vs. capitalize), Pensions. These three areas probably had 3-5 questions each, I was a little surprised given the weighting in the UWorld material (only 15/1600 questions in the whole catalogue for pensions). I had only 2-3 variance questions, a weak area of mine that I was able to get on top of using the PURE SAD DADS pneumonic that I saw mentioned here.
The sims were extremely information heavy and it was overwhelming even with how much time I had banked on the MCQs. Before my break the first I probably spent damn near 40 minutes on, the ratios were provided but it was very calculation heavy and you were asked to make pretty detailed assertions from a drop down/mcq format about whether the company used their assets effectively based on their trend in ROA. I would say its important to know exactly what the metrics and ratios indicate and what is a "good" number for each. The next was a governmental topic that went pretty quick- what amounts were included as other financing sources, etc.
The 5 remaining sims after the break, I really lost track of time on. There was a cost one that was so exhibit heavy asking about reorder point and storage costs, that was difficult and I know I blew it. One was revenue recognition, adjustments to recognize revenue based on a bunch of email. One was on WACC/capital structure, including dividends and multiple scenarios for different capital structures. One was an option compensation scenario, this was pretty in depth beyond what just studying MCQ prepared me for. Revaluation at multiple reporting dates, liability based share comp, etc.
That's all I got. Hope this helps. Good luck to everyone testing this weekend.

Onscreen details, life bar, etc. have disappeared. The first time, the PipBoy wasn’t available as well and I had to go pretty far back in saves to get the functionality working again. This time, the pip boy is there, but still no onscreen HUD.
I’ve had this issue twice now since I applied the latest release.
Any ideas? We’ve put a ton of hours in this game and it’s pretty much bricked for us.

Previous Part
Morning eventually came, banishing the eyes that seemed to peer at me through the night. It was strange how suddenly the feeling left me, making me think that someone really was watching me. The whole thing was really doing wonders for my paranoia. Despite the rough morning and sleepless night, I still found myself waiting outside Bianca’s house bright and early that morning. The air was cool but not chilly, one of those perfect days that’s cold enough you’ll never start sweating unless you really try, but warm enough that a T-shirt will get you through without too much trouble.
I only had to knock once before Bianca threw open the door.
“Where you just waiting there for me?”
I asked, cracking a smile and raising an eyebrow.
“You’ll never know” she added playfully, “Are we ready to go then?”
Bianca had made some preparations for the trip, she didn’t have a backpack ready to go but she definitely made an effort to dress the part… sort of. She was wearing an old grey combat jacket that I imagine she pulled out of Stein’s closet. The jacket was way to big for her but she made it work. Her combat boots matched the jacket, looking old and well worn. What didn’t match was the bright red yoga pants she was wearing, but I wasn’t about to complain. Besides, I had packed each of us a spare set of clothes just in case.
“Oh! So I had an idea, its a long walk, not crazy but I’d rather not just walk the whole way if we can help it. Frank and Stein used to have some bicycles when we first came here so I asked them about it and well.”
Bianca chirped, as she led me around the back of the house and pulled a tarp off two abysmal looking bicycles. The bikes were both red at one point but that was a long time ago. Now they were covered in a layer of rust and I could barely make out the branding that may have once read, “Shwinn”.
“Um… Bianca I think I might get tetanus if I sit on that thing.”
“Oh come on! Aren’t you tired of walking everywhere? Lets just give the bikes a shot, if they crumble to dust we can leave them.”
“And get me a tetanus shot.”
I added quickly
“Fine, and get you a tetanus shot.”
Bianca shot back, she feigned annoyance but she couldn’t hide the smile that crossed her face.
Laughing to ourselves, we got on the bikes and took off North, out of town and onto a dirt path leading to the woods. Bianca didn’t say much on the way out but I could tell she was having a good time. This may have been her first time out of the house for something other than supervising Frank and Stein. She tried to hide it by riding fast and staying out in front of me, but I could still catch her eyes literally glowing with happiness every now and then. I thought back to what Frank had said about her eyes glowing when she experiences strong emotion. I hoped that was the case and she wasn’t just trying really hard to influence me, which he had also said would make her eyes glow.
As we neared the end of the path, the forest’s edge came into view. we let the bikes roll to a stop then got off and let them fall over onto the dirt. I half expected them to explode into a puff of rusty brown dust the second they touched the ground but to my surprise, neither bike did. I could’ve swore I heard Bianca sniffle almost like she’d been crying. I opened my mouth to say something and then thought better of it, if she wanted to tell me what was going on she would. Well, that or she’d just manipulate me away from the question. Wait, was she doing that now? It’s hard to tell, maybe that’s how everyone around her feels. The more I thought about it the more I realized how difficult it must be for her just to have friends or form relationships with people at all. If she told them the truth they’d never know if what they were feeling around her at any given moment was real. All they’d have to go on would be her word, could they really trust that, could I? If she kept her secret she’d know that at any moment she could just change how they felt about her, manipulate them into anything she wanted. Could she resist that kind of power over them and still look someone in the eyes and say she was their friend. Not to mention how hard it would be to keep that secret over years of knowing someone.
“So Keith, were exactly are we headed? You do have some Idea where this mine you’re looking for is right?”
Bianca asked skeptically, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Well about that…. I just know its out here in the forest somewhere. That’s pretty much all I have to go on from Frank, Stein, and that massive bartender in town.”
I told her sheepishly.
“Well that explains why you over-packed so much then. Seriously? How long do you think we we’re going to be out here, you’re packed like some kind of survivalist.”
She mocked, picking through the pack I’d made for her. After she finished rooting through the pack I made for her like some kind of giant squirrel and, chastised me yet again for not doing more research on the mine, we set off.
The forest felt imposing as we walked into the woods through a manicured patch of trees. Someone had gone to great lengths to braid a few trees over this little path before the forest turned back into its natural wild state. It gave off the feeling that civilization ended with this path and something else entirely began. As we got off the path our light faded quickly, chocked out by the limbs of massive pine trees. All this cover meant there was very little foliage on the ground which was covered in a blanket of needles. The though occurred to me that we were looking for a mine in a valley. That’s weird because what exactly would be in a valley that warranted the creation of a mine? Usually you’ll find them in mountains so what exactly was one doing out here.
“Bianca I just had a thought, Why would they build a mine out here? I mean what’s the point, is there even anything valuable out here to mine?”
“Yeah, come to think of it your right. What other reason would there be to have a mine out here?”
“Unless they were just mining from a cave but that still doesn’t answer the question of what they were…”
Bianca cut me off
“What was that first thing you said?”
“Um… mining from a cave?”
A lightbulb went off over her head as she exclaimed,
“That’s it! There’s caves under the town, I’ve heard Frank talk about them before! Maybe they didn’t have a real mine so they were just mining something out of the caves.”
“Not to burst your bubble Bianca, but that still doesn’t get us any closer to these caves or mines or whatever it is.”
I responded cautiously, trying not to sound to critical of her revelation.
“Well not exactly, Frank said they were in the East of the forest somewhere so all we have to do is head East till we run into them.”
Bianca said, full of confidence. Then something occurred to me, we had no real way of getting back to the bikes other than retracing our steps. Now that was easy enough now, if we went deeper into the woods we would get lost pretty quickly.
“One more thing Bianca, Maybe we should come up with a way to find our way out? I really don’t want to end up lost out here.”
I asked nervously, fidgeting with my hands.
“Way ahead of you on that one, I left my phone back by the bikes. Here give me yours and I’ll put my number in so you can track it and find our way back.”
She said, taking my phone, putting her number into it, and turning it to me to show she’d tracked her own phones location with it, giving us a path back to the bikes.
As we turned East and headed even deeper into the forest the terrain started to change. Instead of the pine needle coating we started to see rocks and the ground was more rugged. Here and there we’d even pass a boulder or two. I decided to break the silence of our search.
“So are you ever going to tell me how you met Frank and Stein?”
Bianca sighed before responding.
“I suppose you deserve to know if your sticking around. You probably guessed I wasn’t always living with them. Lets just say before that I was with someone who I though meant the world to me but I never meant the same to him. It was all a game to him and eventually I noticed that. Then, a little while afterwards I realized I wasn’t exactly powerless anymore and I did some things that I’m not exactly proud of to survive on my own.”
I could tell talking about this hurt her but I needed more.
“That’s not exactly telling me a whole lot Bianca.”
I pressed, maybe a little to hard.
“I found out I had powers and I used them ok! I got myself out of a situation where I was pulled so many way I didn’t know which direction was up! The second I found out I could do the same thing to people myself, I did! You’re the first person to actually seem to give a shit that wasn’t some crazy doctor that tolerates my existence or someone I just manipulated into caring! Maybe I even did that with you! I JUST DON’T KNOW ANYMORE!”
Bianca screamed at me, getting in my face with tears beginning to run down her own. Her eyes were glowing electric blue again and I knew I’d crossed a line.
“Hey I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you. I… I didn’t know.”
“No.. you didn’t but I guess you should”
Bianca sniffled out, trying desperately to pull herself back together and keep up the act the everything was ok. Bianca went silent for a while as we kept walking along, crying to herself before she finally took a deep breath and said,
“You know, this is the first time someone’s asked me to come along and do something outside the house in years. I spend so much time cooped up in there just helping with experiments and looking after Rocco. It’s actually nice to get out and talk for once.”
Her voice still a lifts hoarse from screaming at me before.
“Look if you want to talk about it we’ve got nothing but time out here. I’d like to know a bit more about you anyways.”
I said taking her hand and trying to sound comforting.
“Yeah maybe I should get some of it off my chest. Here it goes I guess.”
Bianca said, taking a deep breath and tightening her grip on my hand. Her eyes still glowed faintly as she told me her story as we ventured deeper into the forest.
I’ll give you the shorter version of it here, mostly cause I’m not sure how she’d feel about me spoiling all her secrets.. She ran away from her family and her college education for a guy, his name was Brooke. Brooke was from money and had a job lined up by his family at a law firm so Bianca thought she was set for life with him. Bianca was madly in love with him at the time but as days grew into months and years, Brooke became a monster. He cheated on her and told her she wasn’t enough, that her shortcomings drove him to do it over and over again and somehow it was all her fault every time. He became abusive not long after the cheating started, flying into fits of hysteric apology afterwards only further convincing Bianca she was somehow at fault. After three years of this she eventually got up the courage to leave and never looked back. On the road she discovered her powers of manipulation, letting her play with people’s emotions and she only got better at it with time. Unfortunately her abilities got her into a very specific form of getting money out of people, prostitution. One day she tried to solicit Stein and he saw straight through her. Stein took her with him to the hotel he and Frank were staying at and they took her in on the spot. The trio traveled together ever since, Bianca becoming a kind of daughter to them.
I was in shock once she finished her story, it sounded like she’d really been through the ringer.“I don’t know what to say, that’s awful, all of it.”
“It was, I lived it. But I made it through, doesn’t matter how at the end of the day. I’ve got Frank and Stein and that’s enough, they let me into their home and I recovered in my own way, I’m still here so I’ll take what I can get right?”
Bianca stated with a cold loom of determination on her face. It was painfully obvious to me that despite the masquerade of being fine she was barley holding it together underneath. Like just talking about it with me was driving a finger into old wounds.
“At least you’ll never have to go through something like that again. With your abilities you never have to get pushed around like that.”
I said with completely no tact whatsoever. Bianca stopped suddenly as I said this and whirled around to face me. The fire I’d seen in her eyes earlier reigniting in seconds.
“Do you really think that’s all this is?! I’m no better than him, even you don’t know what you really think when you look at me! Admit ti!”
Bianca growled at me, hysterical once again.
“No, Bianca I…”
“Look I know your trying to help but just leave it, ok? I’m done talking about this”
She cut me off, pulling herself back together and signaling very clearly we were done with that particular conversation.
“Besides look over there, That hole in the rock see it? That might be what we’re looking for.”
Bianca said, gesturing to the stone wall that now jutted out of the ground beside us.
The rock wall she pointed out was chipped near the middle in a way that couldn’t have been natural. Straight lines don’t really exist in nature and this hole was cut squarely into this rock wall. As we got closer I could see that it wasn’t just an entrance either. The hole opened into the rock wall but then suddenly dropped, like whoever carved it had hit a point where the ground just fell out from under them. From where Bianca and I were looking into the hole we couldn’t quite see the bottom.
“Well we found what we were looking for, is this bringing back any memories from those dreams you had?”
Bianca asked, sounding a little short tempered still as I searched through my bag.
“What are you looking for in there?”
“Rope, I’ve got to see what’s in there and I’m hoping I brought enough to climb down there.”
I replied hurriedly, still tearing apart my bag to get to the rope I had packed underneath everything else.
“Rope? you’re not seriously going to climb down that pit are you? I can barely see down there.”
Bianca complained, sounding exasperated.
“Here, this should help you see down there.”
I said, tossing her one of the two head mounted flashlights I brought along.
“ME? I never said we were going down there!”
Bianca panicked momentarily.
“Look, you can stay up here and wait for me if you really don’t want to go down there. But I would appreciate having you to watch my back.”
I added trying to soften her up. Bianca opened her mouth like she was going to say something but stopped, instead dropping her own pack to the ground and searching through it.
“Look if I’m going down there I’m going to need something better than yoga pants on and…. You actually packed a change of clothes in here. Geez you really did think of everything.”
As Bianca took the jeans I packed and went off to find somewhere to change I finally found the rope. It was about 50 feet of strong climbing rope that I kept for an occasion just like this. Now that’s not to say I was a professional climber by any means but a 20 or 30 foot rappel I should be able to do. I was hoping that the descent wasn’t much further than that. I anchored the rope to a tree a little ways away from the hole in the rock face and tossed the rope down the hole. It hit the bottom with a satisfying thud just as Bianca got back from changing. The jeans I had packed were a little big on her but she’d manage. She looked like a mess in her ancient combat boot and jacket, all of which were too big for her. I tried to open my mouth to tell her she looked nice, I swear I really did but what came out was hyena-like laughter at her appearance.
“I…. Oh god I’m…. It’s just”
I struggled to get out, laughing all the while.
“Well I’m glad you like it at least, ok seriously come on, stop laughing.”
Bianca scolded as she began giggling herself. Soon enough we were both laughing, Bianca’s earlier storminess cleared up by the absurdity of the situation.
Here we were, a succubus and a guy with a strange mark out in the woods getting ready to rappel into a hole in the ground that apparently didn’t exist. All this was almost starting to feel… I’m not really sure how to put it, not normal but not so strange. Honestly I finally felt like I’d found some kind of purpose again out here. As weird as it all was I was starting to enjoy… this, this whole odd situation I’d found myself in. Bianca and I finally got ahold of the laughter and stood back up from our place on the ground.
“Do I really look that bad?”
She asked
“I’ve never heard you complain about your looks before. But no, with those jeans on you look like maybe, just maybe you prepared a little bit for coming out here.”
I teased, getting a little wry grin out of her.
“Come on, lets get going. Hopefully we can be in and out of there pretty quickly.”
I said, handing Bianca her pack and shouldering my own.
Rappelling in wasn’t actually all that hard, really dangerous without safety equipment sure, but neither of us had any trouble descending the maybe 20 foot drop. At the bottom I saw something that shocked me, this place wasn’t abandoned. I saw lighting set up, not on but very clearly set up recently. Bits of old mining equipment were scattered around the… cave? Mine? Im not really sure what to call it anymore. What concerned me more than anything was the light I saw at the far end of the cave (I’m settling on calling it a cave). The light came from a massive bonfire and I could just make out the shadows of several people sitting around it. I have no idea how we didn’t see the smoke on our way in. It wasn’t filling the cave but it also wasn’t coming out from anywhere I saw on the way here.
“Bianca get down!”
I whisper shouted at her, turning off my headlamp and falling flat to the ground myself. Bianca dropped to the ground as she heard me with unexpected grace. I didn’t know if those figures by the fire had seen us but I certainly wasn’t taking chances.
“Ok, I’m going to creep up and see if I can hear them talking or something. Can you just stay here and watch my back? I don’t want you getting any closer than you have to.”
I instructed Bianca who answered with a quick nod and reached into the inner pocket of her jacket. She withdrew a jeweled golden dagger from it.
“I sorry, what’s this now?”
I asked, confused and thrown off guard by the weapon. It was a really beautiful blade, the hilt was silver with several purple gems inlaid in it. The blade was golden save for the razor sharp edge which was some kind of strange blue material that was roughly the same color Blanca’s eyes glowed.
“I had a life before this you know.”
Bianca responded.
“Yeah we talked about it but you didn’t really tell me much about this part apparently. Doesn’t matter I guess just surprised you have Jeff Bezos’s butter knife in your jacket pocket.”
I whispered, pointing at the dagger in her hand.
“Well we can talk more about how I ended up with this later, not really the time now. Just be careful ok.”
I got up as she said this, realizing she was right. Now really wasn’t the time to be asking about strange daggers, I had more pressing issues.
I crouched down and started creeping towards the figures by the bonfire, careful to avoid the rusty machinery bits scattered across the ground. As I got closer I saw a passage I had missed in the dark. I dared to turn my headlamp on for just a second, trying to block out most of the light with my hand. What I saw through the dim light and shadows of my finger left me awestruck. Inside the passage a coliseum had been constructed, with seats carved into the stone. The structure itself was made up of the rusted metal pieces that littered the room, collected and smelted together to form the walls of the structure. What frightened me the most was the symbol clearly and meticulously drawn on the dirt floor, the same symbol that adorned my back, the symbol of the thunderbird. Moving on, more shaken than ever I crept closer still to the roaring bonfire. I could just about make out the words the figures were saying. When I got close enough to make out the word “tests” the fire suddenly went out with a gust of wind.The room temperature must have dropped 10 degrees immediately and I could swear I heard the sounds of heavy rain above us. But the sudden lack of light isn’t what rooted me in place, cowering on the cave floor. What did that was the two illuminated grey eyes that pierced through the darkness like lightning in a storm, eyes I would never forget, the eyes of the woman from Imalone.
This time I clearly heard the voices of the figures from around the bonfire as they all dropped to their knees.
“Shaoni! We weren’t expecting you till later, Stormcaller.”
The figures all said some variation of in unison. Their tone sounding almost as though they were begging for forgiveness. In a voice that hissed like rain on pavement the woman apparently named Shaoni spoke.
“I’ve come to oversee the start of the trials, is everything prepared?”
In one bone chilling moment her eyes locked on mine and she said the one thing I’d hoped she wouldn’t.
“You didn’t tell me we had guests.”
The moment the words left her lips I turned back to where Bianca was waiting, her now glowing eyes cutting through the darkness of the cave. Giving up any form of subtly, I bolted for the rope behind Bianca. I just wanted to be out of this cave, whatever I might learn from searching around was far outweighed by the fact that Shaoni was here. I’d seen the kind of destruction she’d left in her wake in Imalone and I had no desire to see it happen again here. I banged my ankle on several of the little bits of rusty metal on the floor as I ran, sending sparks of pain up my leg. I didn’t hear anything behind me at all which was almost more unnerving than the footsteps I expected to hear. I closed in on Bianca and saw she hadn’t moved at all, her eyes fixed on something behind me. I dared to take a quick glance back over my shoulder and saw Shaoni taking her first step away from the extinguished bonfire. Lightning crackled around her like one of those novelty plasma globes. In the flashes of light I could see her face. There was no smile or frown, no emotion at all. She simply stared straight ahead towards me and took slow calm steps, inching ever closer.
“Bianca we’ve got to go… NOW!”
I shouted, snapping her to attention. She nodded and turned on her heels, back toward the rope we’d thrown in earlier. Only, when we got to the rope and gave it a tug, it came falling back toward us.
“There’s no way. I…I anchored it to that tree, it should’ve held!”
I cried in disbelief. Bianca and I starred up at the now stormy sky through the hole we would’ve escaped from. Two men walked into view on either side of the hole, glowering down at us. I notice a marking on one of the men’s hands in a flash of lightning from the storm. I could only assume if I was able to make it out I would’ve seen a marking just like the one on my back. Just as soon as the men had appeared a shape flew in from the left with a low growl, taking both men along with it.
“Ok, new plan! There’s something else up there and I really don’t want to get involved with… whatever that was either. I didn’t see any footprints near the entrance so I’m assuming those guys we saw by the bonfire got in another way. We’re just going to have to find where that was and get out that way.”
I instructed Bianca, gesturing to the men in toe with Shaoni and trying not to sound as afraid as I was.
“Ok, I’m with you but lets get moving, I don’t want to any closer to her than I have to be.”
Bianca answered, putting her hand on my shoulder. I suddenly felt a wave of calm rush over me and for the second time I was grateful for Bianca’s ability to simply turn off my fear response.
Shaoni now stood about 50 feet from us with four men following behind her. In the light she gave off I could see the men were all dressed like normal people. I kind of figured they would be more of those canvas wrapped weirdos from Imalone but no. There stood four men in jeans and flannels standing there. Shaoni looked like she could’ve stepped right out of a painting of Pocahontas. She wore an animal hide dress with frills along the bottom and arms. Her head was adorned with a leather band containing several hawk feathers. In short she looked like she’d stepped out of a different time. But I had no time to look over the finer details of her clothing as Bianca and I rushed towards her. Once we got within striking distance I pulled Bianca to the left, towards the passage I had seen earlier. Shaoni never made a move towards us, she just simply looked at me, the ghost of a smile briefly crossing her lips. One of the men with her grabbed at Bianca though, pulling her out of my grasp momentarily. That was a mistake because she was on him immediately with the ornate dagger I’d seen before. As the man grabbed her Bianca lashed out with the dagger, sticking him in the gut with the blade. He screamed in anguish and let go of her but Bianca wasn’t done yet. She followed up by stabbing the man in the back of the neck as he bent over, grabbing at the hole in his abdomen. The other three men were so taken aback by the sudden ferocity she displayed that they didn’t come any closer. As time stood still for a second the men all looked toward Shaoni, awaiting instructions but hesitant to get any closer to Bianca. Using the brief moment of disbelief Bianca had caused, we ran down the side passage towards the coliseum.
“What was that?”
I asked, still shocked by how suddenly Bianca had acted.
“He tried to grab me, I don’t like when they try to grab me”
Bianca responded, distant and… scared? I got the sense she was still in shock at what she had done too. But I couldn’t worry about that right now, we still had to get out of here. Luckily the men didn’t seem to be following us. Wether Shaoni called them off or they stopped to care for their friend I didn’t know, and frankly I didn’t care.
Rushing through the rusty coliseum was haunting. I expected something to jump out of every shadow in the imposing structure. As we slowed to a jog in the middle of the coliseum, right where that eagle symbol was, we stopped to look around. We had come into this arena through an open arch but the only other exit I could see was a similar but barred archway. The coliseum was huge for something constructed in a cave, probably 400 feet across. I had no idea how this thing could’ve been made without anybody finding out.
“Bianca are you seeing anyway out of here? Bianca!”
I asked, then shouted as I turned to see her standing still as a statue in the middle of the Eagle symbol. She was staring at the dagger she had stabbed that man with. Blood still stained the blade and dripped from it intermittently.
“Bianca are you alright?”
I questioned as I walked over to her. She still had this look in her eyes, like she was miles away.
“Bianca? Come on talk to me. Look, you did what you had to do back there, sure it wasn’t exactly pretty but it had to be done.”
I tried to comfort her with my words but the truth is, my heart just wasn’t in it. I was a little scared of what I saw from her in those few moments. She just lashed out and attacked him, not that he didn’t deserve it but going back for more was too much. But what would’ve happened if she didn’t act? It’s not something I could really dwell on now and I’m not sure it really mattered. I just wasn’t feeling all that great about the fact we may have killed someone.
“I don’t like it when they grab me.”
Bianca finally repeated, still appearing catatonic. I leaned down to her level, putting my face right in-front of her’s and putting her head in between my hands.
“Bianca I know enough to know that whole situation may have dug up some memories for you but nows really not the time. We have to keep moving, we have to find a way out of here, and I can’t do that without you right now.”
Bianca tensed up as I spoke to her, but I could feel her relax as I finished. A single tear fell from her eye as she gave me a nod and followed behind me as I walked toward the barred off archway.
Before I made it to the archway there was a massive crash as something tore the rusty bars from their mountings and fell into the room.
“Tuck?!”
I exclaimed, recognizing his colossal figure on the floor immediately. His shirt and pants were torn to shreds though, Like he’d flexed too hard and burst out of his clothes. Bianca and I rushed over to check on him but apparently he was fine. Before we even started walking towards him he was already back up on his feet and lumbering towards us.
“Tuck what are you doing here? Actually never mind, are you ok?”
I asked, concern in my voice.
“It’s going to take more than this to stop me son. I figured you might go looking for that old mine I mentioned the other night so I came to find you. I feel real bad about ya run’in off the way ya did and I got to thinking. Maybe I could make it up to ya if I told ya about the mine. So I came out here and found some shady look’in fellas poking around and figured maybe ya needed help, looks like I was right.”
Tuck explained, dusting himself off and brushing away some of the tattered remains of his shirt. I didn’t buy his story for a second but I wasn’t going to argue with this bear of a man.
“So how did you get in anyway?”
“Used the old entrance from back when this place was still run’in, come on I’ll lead ya out.”
Tuck answered, already turning and walking back the way he came.
The walk out was long and none of us talked much so I just looked around. The further we walked down this little tunnel the more I noticed crushed equipment. The walls looked like they were made up of bits and pieces of crumbled rock that may have once been the ceiling of a much bigger tunnel here.
“There was a collapse, just like the report said only, whatever caused it wasn’t any fault of ours. It was that damn thunderbird waking up.”
Tuck piped up, answering one question and making me ask another.
“Wait you knew about her?!”
“All the miners did, some decided to follow her after she woke up and brought the walls down on us. Others wanted revenge for the brothers we lost, I’m one of the former. You see son, the reason I stayed around this town so long was because of that bird. I want a chance to return the favor.”
“But what about Robert? If you hate the thunderbird so much why’d you let him in? You had to see that tattoo on his hand.”
“I know he thinks that damned bird will “save” him or something but I don’t blame him. Everyone deals with things in their own way and it’s not my place to judge folk for it.”
Tuck lectured, as we made our way further down the passage. His words made sense to me but I didn’t understand how he could be so understanding. From what I understood the thunderbird had a part to play in the original mine’s collapse and the death of the workers there. Only for some of the survivors to revere this creature. If I were in Tuck’s shoes I don’t think I could forgive and forget.
Finally we saw light at the end of the tunnel. We emerged into the whispers of what I’m sure was a monster of a storm. But that’s not what drew my attention, what did were the boulders scattered around the hole we just came out of. It looked like they had been moved, and recently. The suspicious red stain just barley peaking out from the bottom of one of them only served to convince me further. Tuck’s story didn’t quite make sense and this entrance seemed like it should’ve been blocked up until very recently. I wasn’t about to question the guy who saved us though, so I let the issue rest.
Bianca’s idea of tracking her phone to find our way to the bikes worked like a charm. We followed the directions my phone spit at us and eventually found our way back to the bikes. Tuck’s old Ford Bronco sat behind our bikes leaving me to question if he followed us on our way here.
“Well do you kids want a ride back to town?”
Tuck asked, his voice bellowing across the forest. Seriously it was like the guy swallowed a loudspeaker at some point and just spoke through it now.
“No we’ll find our own way back.”
“Alrighty then, stay safe son.”
Tuck called back to me as he got into his truck and drove off. Bianca and I stood up our bikes and got ready to head back to town.
“Hey Keith?”
“Yeah what is it Bianca?”
“Next time you offer to bring me along somewhere can you warn me about the damn thunderbird that seems to just show up around you.”
I laughed at this, it was nice to see Bianca joking around again. After what happened in the caves she seemed like someone else, none of her usual cheeriness was there. Not that I knew if that was what she wanted me to see from her or how she actually presented herself but still. I trusted her enough at this point to assume she wasn’t using her abilities to mess with my head.
When we got back to Bianca’s house the sun was just beginning to set, washing the town in shades of purple, orange, and red. We walked the bikes around to their place behind the house and I walked Bianca back to the front door.
“Thanks for today Keith,I don’t… get out very much anymore and it was… nice… to do something other than sit around the house for once. You know, despite everything that happened it was actually fun.”
I was taken aback by her words at first. If it was me I’d immediately want nothing to do with this person who just put me in danger.
“You had fun? The thunderbird showed up again and we may have killed a guy and you had fun?”
I asked, raising and eyebrow suspiciously.
“Can we not talk about that right now? Anyways I don’t exactly have a high bar for what is and isn’t fun at this point. I’ll see you later Keith.”
Bianca said, cracking a smile and walking into her house.
I was about halfway back to my own house when I realized she never gave me my backpack back. Well, looks like I’d be seeing her again then because I need that stuff back. I wasn’t sure what to think about what I’d seen today. If the thunderbird was in those mines years ago why did she end up in Wisconsin? There was also a very real possibility some people in this town worshipped her so I’d have to keep an eye out for that. The really interesting thing to me was the Shaoni never seemed to want to hurt me in the cave today. She was terrifying as all hell sure, but I didn’t get the sense that she wanted to cause me any sort of harm. If she wanted to do that my gut told me she would’ve done it quickly and efficiently.
Thunder suddenly cracked outside, interrupting my train of thought. As I stood up to see what time it was a knock came from the front door. I froze, who exactly could it be? I doubt Bianca would come over, I don’t think she even knows where I live but maybe she came by to drop off the backpack she absconded with? The knock came again, more forcefully this time.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”
I shouted, as I jogged to the door. My heart dropped as soon as I opened it, On the other side of the door stood Shaoni. She was dressed normally for once, wearing a long flowing white nightgown. Shaoni stepped into my house as she cooed in her usual misty voice.
“Good evening. Keith was it? We have much to discuss.”

Previous Part
I woke up to the smell of sausage and eggs. Over by the side of my bed was a tray with a masterfully prepared omelet and sausage to match. That’s not what caught my eye though. What did that was the little note stuck to the side of they tray.
“Sorry for terrorizing you- R”
Was scrawled in barley legible hand writing, Rocco’s I imagined.
“So it can cook but not write?”
I muttered to myself as I got out of bed.
A fresh change of clothes was laid out for me and I decided just not to question it. The clothes fit perfectly and I tried not to let my mind wander as to why that was while I ate breakfast. Rocco’s omelet was outstanding, for a trash panda he made a great cook but I have no idea where he would’ve picked that up. After I finished I brought my dishes downstairs and ran into Stein in the kitchen.
“The clothes fit don’t they? My eyes aren’t what they used to be, I should’ve just sent Rocco up to ask your size.”
“No no, they fit fine, and please don’t send Rocco to do anything without telling me. I think that might just give me a heart attack on the spot. I’m still really not used to all… this going on”
I said gesturing to the raccoon who had wandered into the kitchen and was now flipping me the bird with both his paws.

Stein nodded to me with what I hoped was understanding. As much as Rocco seemed harmless (Maybe… hopefully?) I really didn’t want the furry little demon arriving anywhere near me unexpectedly. We already saw how that went in the basement yesterday. I finished washing my dishes in the sink as Stein ate his breakfast. He seemed so calm and normal, compared to the things I’d seen in this house so far. If you took one look at Bianca you say she looked too good to be true. Rocco is… well, he’s a talking raccoon, that’s immediately strange. But when it came to Frank and Stein you couldn’t tell there was anything off about them. Honestly I still had trouble seeing where they fit into this whole thing.
I was lost in this train of thought as I went through the motions of taking my groceries out of the refrigerator where someone had put them. I didn’t even realize Bianca was standing behind me till she tapped my shoulder. Jumping out of my skin I screeched out,
“Jesus Rocco what the hell!”
Bianca went from serious to laughing hysterically in no time flat.
“He really has you spooked after last night doesn’t he?”
She barely got out between bouts of laughter.
“I’m sorry really, oh and I’ve got this for you.”
Chuckled Bianca, handing me a wad of cash with a face that didn’t look remotely sorry for laughing at me.
“Just for that I’ll take it! But I’ve got to ask, how do you have this much cash just lying around, isn’t that a little risky?”
“You’d have to ask my unc… Frank or Stein.”
Bianca answered, stumbling on the apparently familiar lie. As she said this Stein stood up from the table and answered my question.
“Researching the supernatural isn’t always safe but Germany pays its scientists well, even if we don’t work for them anymore.”
“Germany? When did you work with the German government?”
I asked, a sinking suspicion settling into the pit of my stomach.
“1941, The Führer requested me specifically and I met Frank there. Oh don’t look at me like that! I didn’t support his cause, he simply wanted to look into forces outside his control and that was my specialty. It was business nothing more.”
Stein responded, pointing his finger at me and sounding a little annoyed.
“But that would make you… there’s no way you’re that old. Uh I don’t mean!”
“Think nothing of it, if anything, it means our serum worked. Distilled it from the DNA of a few pureblooded vampires and designed it to slow human aging to a crawl.”
Bianca cut him off,
“Stein, I think I can see steam coming out his ears. Can we maybe give the supernatural stuff a rest? I know you’ve been around it all your life but I think its a bit much for him.”
“Yes, I suppose your right Bianca. I’ll leave you two be then.”
Stein surrendered, as he turned and walked out of the room. Like he hadn’t just dropped yet another bomb on me.
I held myself together much better this time. After talking raccoons and succubi, learning vampires apparently existed in such an offhanded manner just didn’t surprise me as much. At this point I was just about ready to accept any supernatural entity I’d ever heard of existed in some capacity. In fact that might be the best policy moving forward.
“Hey you’re not going to pass out on us again right?”
Bianca asked turning back to me, genuine concern in her voice.
“No, I’ll be fine. The more I hear about this kind of thing the better I am at just accepting it. It’s a lot easier hearing it from one of you guys than having it drop out of the sky at me.”
I joked, walking with Bianca to the door. I noticed my poor attempt at a joke was the first time I said anything about Imalone without feeling like someone would call me crazy. I couldn’t dwell on that for too long right now though, I had to drop off the groceries that had taken me a full day to get. In hindsight though, I’ve had worst trips to the grocery store.
The next few days passed without any real issues, I got things set up in the house and ordered some furniture with the money I got from Bianca. On the second day I figured I should go out and explore the town a bit. I was getting bored being cooped up doing normal things and apparently I wanted to throw a wrench in all that.
“Maybe a bar” I thought to myself as I walked out the door just as the sun had started to think about setting, “Those are always a good place to meet people”.
This is where I tell you I may be just a little awkward. Even back home I didn’t really get out and meet new people much but I figured now is as good a time as any to start. I threw together a quick outfit with the clothes I brought with me from home. Hopefully I looked at least a little bit presentable in khakis and a red dress shirt. I walked out my door and immediately saw Bianca’s house peering out over the town. I considered dropping by to see if Bianca wanted to join me. I had told her about the reasons I ended up in Eagles Peak but I still knew precious little about her. I assumed her past wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I wanted to know what exactly drew someone like her to a sleepy little town like this. Maybe seeing if she wanted to join me would be a good opportunity to learn something about her? It’s entirely possible I just wanted to spend more time around her because she was drop dead gorgeous. Maybe it was because she was the first person I bumped into in town? I couldn’t put my finger on it and if we’re being honest I didn’t want to admit the real reason to myself.
That would have to wait for another day though. I had spent so much time thinking about it that by the time I snapped back to reality I was by the greyhound bus stop, well past her house. There was another bus stopped there and people were getting off of it. None of them looked like what I would call a local but its not like I’d really know what a “local” looked like here anyways. Still, this town couldn’t get this many visitors right? It was weird but probably had a completely reasonable explanation.
“The Eagle’s Roost” read the sign above the bar’s entrance, it was actually a pretty high class looking establishment. The fresh red paint gleamed against the faded whites and grays of the other buildings on the street. Inside, a well polished dark wood floor greeted me. The room was completed by a roaring stone fireplace and a well used set of stools by the counter.
“Hey there! Anyone home?!”
I called out into the empty bar.
“Give me a minute!”
Replied a deep gruff voice form the back room. Eventually a man emerged from the room, well I say man but what I mean was a mountain in human form. This guy had to be about 7 feet tall and built from solid granite. Seriously, the muscles on this guy would’ve put The Rock to shame.
“Little early to start drinkin’ isn’t it?”
The mountain grunted judgmentally.
“Well I’m new here I just wanted to see the town. I could come back later if you want.”
“New, why didn’t you say so! New here, I haven’t seen anyone new here in years! come sit down if you’ve got questions about this place I can probably answer them!”
The now elated giant boomed at me. He turned hospitable in an instant, offering me a drink on the house for his poor manners before. His name was Tucker and he’d come to the town years ago as a foreman for it’s mine. The mine dried up and the workers moved on but something about this town spoke to him and he decided to stay. He opened up this bar and the rest is history. Something about the way he talked about the mine did’t sit right with me though. He kept mentioning how it dried up like he was trying to convince me that was what happened. Plus a mine out here didn’t exactly make much sense to me.
“So you run this place alone then?”
I asked, more to be polite than out of genuine curiosity. We had started to run out of things to talk about after conversation about the mine dried up much like it apparently had.
“Never needed any help besides my wife’s, but most days I just run the place alone, yes. No sense in hiring help here, not many people looking for work outside of the ones working at that grocery store down the street. Anyways I should get back to work, its getting to be about time we actually open to the public.”
I turned my head to look at the sign I now realized was stuck to the door. “Eagle’s Roost Hours: 6PM-1AM every night”. I realized with embarrassment I had walked through the door an hour before opening. Tuck had been nothing but friendly though, and I almost felt bad for assuming the locals like him would want to shoo me away. After all, everyone I’d met so far had been nothing but nice, not including Rocco that is.
As I turned my attention back to my drink I thought about the mine again. I hadn’t seen any records of the mine Tuck mentioned in my internet searches of the town before I came here. Honestly it had been incredibly difficult to dig up anything on the town. I wasn’t necessarily the most thorough in my search, but mines tend to be a staple of the towns they’re located in. This mine in particular seems to be what the town was built on. I’m not sure what had me so worked up on this mine issue but I was sure it was important. I sat there at the bar, mulling it over and sipping on my drink when a hand slapped down on my shoulder.
The man it was attached to said something but I couldn’t catch it even if I wanted to. I was far to laser focused on the mark seared black into the mans hand, the exact same eagle that was burned into my back. I pushed him off and bolted for the door, all I heard behind me was the mans confused “What?” And Tuck shouting at him.
“Now what in the Blazes did you do to the poor kid Robert!”
I shot off into the street from the bar, no one was chasing me but the fact that the symbol was here had set me off like a deer running from a gunshot.
“What the hell happened to you?”
Called a now familiar, heavily accented voice from the alleyway.
“Rocco, what are you doing out here?”
I questioned, bewildered at finding him out in the open. I’d never admit it but seeing a familiar face, even Rocco’s, calmed me down a little
“I’m a raccoon in an alleyway, what do you think I’m doing, fishing? No, I’m rootin' around in the trash, Frank needs some lithium foil and he can’t be bothered to run out and buy some batteries himself, stingy bastard.”
He retorted, looking for all intents and purposes like a normal raccoon at the moment.
“Even if I were to guess I wouldn’t have even come close to that.”
“I live to surprise”
Rocco sneered, taking a bow dripping with sarcasm.
“Anyways Frank is back at the house right? There’s something I’ve got to tell him.”
I asked, turning and running as soon as I got a response in the affirmative.
“Yeah he is, what exactly is so importa…. And he’s gone”
I made it to their strange high house in record time and burst through the door like I owned the place. For some reason Bianca seemed completely unfazed as I crashed into the entryway without so much as a knock.
“You know, you don’t live here right?”
“Oh yeah, good to see you too Bianca. Anyways, were is Frank, or Stein for that matter I’ve got something to ask.”
“They’re in the basement.”
Bianca said pointing to the door without looking up from the book she was reading.
Her dismissive attitude didn’t even register to me as I made my way down the basement steps. I got to the bottom and an acrid scent assaulted my nostrils.
“Do I even want to know what that is?”
I called into the basement, announcing my presence. Frank emerged from a room to my side decked out in a full lab coat and goggles along with a hairnet to protect what little of his still remained.
“What do you need?”
“You guys seem to know a lot about the supernatural right? Well, does this symbol mean anything to you?”
I said pulling off my shirt and turning my back to show him the mark that woman had left me with. His reaction could best be described by the sound of shattering glass as he dropped the beaker he was holding as he saw the symbol.
“Where did you get that?!”
He yelled more than asked.
“Back in Imalone.”
“Imalone? What’s that supposed to mean?”
It dawned on me that I hadn’t explained it to him like I had Bianca, so I filled him in. I told him the whole truth this time, where the mark came from, what really drove me to Eagles Peak, all of it. Frank listened diligently looking more concerned by the minute, at some point Stein joined him. A similarly shocked look was plastered across his face. I swear he was turning white when he answered my question.
“It’s the mark of the Thunderbird, and from what you told us, you met… her in person.”
“So why do you look so worried about it?”
I asked, feeling a little worried.
“Well she’s marked you personally, most people that have that mark would’ve gotten it to show devotion or allegiance and it certainly wouldn’t have come directly from the Thunderbird.”
The way Stein talked about this “Thunderbird” made me think I may be in even deeper shit than I realized.
“So do you two actually know anything about the Thunderbird?”
I asked, hoping these two would know something considering their long study of the supernatural.
“Until recently I only knew of the native legends surrounding the creature. I heard of people marking themselves with that symbol so I assumed there must be some truth to the legends. But neither me nor Frank has ever seen the Thunderbird, much less seen it..er, her take a human form.”
Stein answered, sounding almost disappointed in himself. I got the sense that not knowing something like this really ate at him. Which was just further proven by what he said next, a grin suddenly appearing on his face.
“Frank, I think we have our next big research project on our hands then.”
“I’ll start pulling any records I can find of accounts like Keith’s here.”
Frank said, hurrying over to a computer in the basement corner that looked ancient.
“Yes and compare those to the various legends surrounding the Thunderbird.”
Stein responded, rifling through a row of cabinets against the far wall.
Those two seemed to be whipped into a frenzy by something they knew next to nothing about being dropped in their laps.
“Guys… Guys! Can we hold off on going full mad scientist mode for just a second I’ve got one more thing to ask!”
I yelled trying to get their attention. when they turned to me I could see the spark in both their eyes as they hastily responded in unison.
“Yes, what!”
“Have either of you heard about a mine in this town? Tuck at “Eagle’s Roost” mentioned it but I don’t remember seeing anything about it when I looked into this town.”
“Ah the mine, it’s out in the forest north of town somewhere. There was a collapse or something a few years after it opened and the town covered it up. It would’ve been very embarrassing for them to admit the screw up so they just… didn’t, that’s all there is too it.”
Frank answered, seemingly bothered by the mundaneness of that question.
“So the mine is still out there then?”
“Of course! What did you think it just walked away? No, leave us be we’ve got work to do.”
Stein snapped.
As I left the two to their business and made my way out of the house I ran into Rocco, several grimy batteries grasped in his paws.
“They uh… I don’t think they’ll need those batteries anymore bud.”
“God damnit! That’s what I get for trying to be helpful.”
Rocco yelled, as he threw the batteries against the wall. I had to chuckle at the absurdity of it all. Here I was walking past a talking raccoon on his way down to two scientists looking into a Thunderbird. That’s a real thing that’s currently happening to me. Just a few days ago simply seeing Rocco knocked me out almost immediately and now he was just a minor inconvenience. Could it be that I was actually adjusting to all the crazy things that had been happening around me? I sure thought so.
Upstairs, Bianca was still nose deep in her book at the kitchen table.
“Hey can I ask you something?”
“Yeah sure, what is it?”
“Ever been into the woods around town? There’s something I want to check out there.”
“I don’t usually leave the house all that much if I’m honest.”
Bianca answered, a touch of sadness in her voice.
“Do you want too? Leave the house I mean.”
“What are you getting at?”
“Well, I’m going to be headed out there tomorrow looking for the old mine.”
“And why are you looking for that?”
She questioned suspiciously.
“I have a feeling it has something to do with the mark that woman… and I forgot I didn’t tell you about that.”
Bianca looked up at me as she said with a smirk.
“I knew there was more to that story from the other night. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I’ll spare you the details but needless to say I told the story again. I really need to start bringing everyone together when I do these things, it would save me time.
“So that’s why you came here, and you think this mine has something to do with it?”
Bianca exclaimed excitedly. I could almost see the lightbulb going off over her head.
“Yeah that’s pretty much it, do you want to come with? I mean you don’t have to go but I”
She cut me off,
“You know what maybe I should go. Two sets of eyes gives us better odds right? And you have a bad history with forgotten places I seem to recall.”
Bianca said with a coy smile.
“That’s what we’ll do then, I’ll get some things ready and stop by tomorrow, we’ll leave from there.”
And before she had a chance to rethink her answer I left feeling pleased with myself.
My next stop was the hardware store on the other side of town. Of course I still had my travel bag from the good old Imalone trip but I figured I’d pick up some more tools that could come in handy.. I ended up with two heavy duty flashlights, some work gloves of various sizes cause I had no idea what size would fit Bianca, and a set of bolt cutters. It was only when I got up to the counter and the clerk gave me the stink eye that I noticed my mistake.
“You planning to break into something kid?”
Questioned the older guy cashing me out. I responded before my brain caught up with my mouth.
“I was planning on it but you guys didn’t sell balaclavas. So I guess I’ll have to wait.”
The man eyed me for a second then burst out laughing as he handed me my things. Which was good because I knew a few places back in Wisconsin where pulling that would’ve got me pulled into a backroom for questioning. Not a lot of people knew how to take a joke back home. Weirdly enough it was the first time I thought of home since coming here. Obviously I had family back there but we weren’t exactly close like I said before. I just found myself missing the familiarity of the area I had lived in for the past 24 years of my life. I think that’s why I came to the decision to call my mother when I got home later that night.
The whole walk home I had this strange feeling of being watched. No-one was there, I’m sure because I checked… several times. But even as I locked the door to my house and starting sorting out a bag of supplies for Bianca, the feeling didn’t go away. As I pulled out my phone to call my mother the feeling finally faded into the background as I got her familiar answering machine.
“Hi, you’ve reached Carla, leave your name and number after the tone.”
Straight and to the point as quickly as possible, that was the best way to describe mom and it showed even in her answering machine.
“Hi mom I bet you’re wondering where I ended up. Well I’m in New York now, in a sleepy little town. Its nice really, I already met some new people they’re… well they’re a bit strange but I think I might fit in with them. I’m still looking for a job but I had a really well paying temp thing the other day so I’ll be fine for a little while. Anyways, hope you’re doing well, love you.”
I teared up a bit as I ended the call, I hadn’t called my mother in at least a year. She never checked up on me and I never checked in with her. We’d see each other at family gatherings and talk but outside of that I didn’t really contact her much anymore. It was sort of a mutual agreement that we both had, we assumed the other was alright. But being this far from Wisconsin, this far from home, had finally caught up with me. I wanted to at least hear her voice, even if it was just a recording.
As I finished up packing for tomorrow I was quite proud of myself. I’d thought of just about everything, I dug some old hiking boots out for myself and some rope from my old travel bag. Several different sets of flint and steel and about three days worth of dehydrated food adorned the top pocket of both bags. I’d even found an old water purification kit that ended up in one of the duffle bags I brought from my apartment. In short, I was the most over prepared for an excursion like this I’d ever been. It did help push back the eyes I felt peering at me from somewhere over my shoulder, the feeling of being watched still not leaving me. Once I laid down and tried to fall asleep the feeling only intensified. Sounds of rolling thunder in the distance reminding me of my time in Imalone and the fury of the storm the Thunderbird brought. I felt strangely confident as well though, tomorrow Bianca and I may finally start to uncover some answers as to why I felt called to this town, and maybe even what this mark could mean for me.

Hi divers, i'm retiring for a while...
I'm not a day one player, I am a first week player, so i consider myself enough of a veteran like most of us. Around LV70 if anyone want to know, i usually dive on difficulty 7/8, very few 9 since i like rambo my way around and always eagle the patrol for fun.
Usually I play almost every day for at least a game of few to complete daily order, i do full packs of mission during weekends, the only time i didn't play was during the PSN week were everyone was loosing their mind online. I hope all country will be "unban" by sony before "is kinda too late".
I have seen player count consistently drop below 100k at peak this week and i think the whole messup with PSN and last warbond did their fair share of damage to the playerbase.
In my opinion the all warbonds are as bad as the last one, they offer very little to the game and will always be like this if they stay in the same rushed format they are now, the only one i liked was cutting edge tecnology since the armor did actually have a unique property(arc resistance) and my ex-favorite weapon(sickle) was there too.
I also lied about my retirement i'm gonna keep playing a game every few days during working days but skipping during weekend to dedicate my focus on other games. I may come back if the next warbond/event actually introduce interesting things otherwise I think i'm also gonna start skipping warbonds from now on.
The core gameplay is very good and i really like this format of going into a mission and getitng out without worring about pvp, meta(other reason why i play few 9 and mostly stay in 7/8, so i can actually bring "garbage" and pull it off), story or other things that require attention other than playing the game. I'm not gonna express myself on balance since this thread will not end if i do.
The most disappointing thing is how I expected this to be the groundbreaking live service to show everybody how you can do it right, but in the end I got sony "management" and not very exiting patch.
Don't take me wrong, I really like how things just appear in the game without notice, how we joke about it and I know Arrowhead is really trying to make a better game, but i don't think they managed so far. The bar that we as comunity have set for Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead is just too high, due to hype or blind faith in smaller studios/"indie" (I know AR is not a indie but it kinda give the feeling of one) or any other reason.
Thanks for reading so far, I know this is kinda depressing and I'm actually a pessimist '_____'
RL;DR; [Insert peace and disappear meme] see ya, but one day [Insert I'll be back terminator meme]
Edit: fix something here and there