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"Heather has feathers but heath has teeth."
"Captain Hobbs!"
From above, Arran looks like a paradise, rich and green with ample water and perfect for settlement, it's only when you are on the ground that you understand why life had a hard time springing up here. Some time in the distant past, volcanic activity rose up from several specific areas of the planet and created an environment suitable for cyanobacteria which produced oxygen but can also make soils alkaline rich which happened on several distant worlds such as Earth. The volcanic activity on Arran produced great clouds, prevented an earth like environment to a certain degree but life began to rise from the planet, struggling with rocky terrain as well as acidic water, but refusing to gve up. Eventually plant life adapted to the conditions of the planets atmosphere creating a world of deep forests, fertile grasslands and bogs similar to the one Captain Hobbs had led his troops into.
Robert took his time walking through the field, letting himself calm down as the men pulled each other from the mire. He understood that it would take time and effort to adapt to this new world and had relied on the wisdom Brian McMurray had shared with him, regarding Arran, but it had already been two weeks since the furlough had ended and training had gone nowhere. Picking two plant stems, he approached The soggy Captain and his now exhausted and mud caked company.
"Let's review." Robert said tiredly, holding up the two stems.
"I don't do plants Robert." Hobbs said defiantly. "I get it and I remember it. Heather is higher than heath and heath grows on higher ground. Heather blooms in winter and heath blooms in summer, but none of that matters when the terrain is still shit."
"Heather blooms in summer..." Robert said, trying to hold back his frustration.
"Its spring asshole!" Hobbs interrupted. "The whole planet is a swamp and navigating it is going to be a pain in the ass. What isn't occupied for farming or goats is full of trees, mountains and mud."
"What would you suggest Hobbs?!" Robert shot back.
"I'd suggest you need to get laid again." Hobbs retorted.
Robert balled up a fist to strike Hobbs, but he let the anger and frustration go instead. Captain Hobbs had a point, the easiest land was occupied by agriculture and the moorland was too soft for most normal infantry tactics. A file could navigate well enough but a wedge formation would inevitably find a soft spot and both provided easy pickings for anyone paying attention. The mountains were equally difficult to navigate for their own reasons and the forests of the planet were damn near impenetrable.
"Round them up and head back Hobbs." Robert said defeated.
"What ever you sau, SIR!" Hobbs replied mockingly.
Robert dismissed the other companies in the same manner, none of them had faired well in the soupy terrain. The 449th made their way back to where their coaches had been parked, but Robert lingered a while longer, watching them load up and head back to town on the coaches. Things had changed in their short time on Arran, he felt distant from his men, like a chasm had formed between him and them, and the feeling he had let them down too many times weighed heavily on his shoulders as he starting his long walk back to Brodick.
/////
"Welcome back Colonel." Scarlet said brightly.
The local star had begun to set when Robert arrived. Clouds were painted in soft pastel colors by the falling star, further highlighting Robert's dark mood. He was thankful that the Laird had left the planet recently for a conference and wouldn't be back for a few more days, perhaps he could turn things around before the Laird returned. In his stead, he had left Scarlet and the butler who had suffered his abominable attitude. He would have to make it up to them soon.
"I take it training didn't go well today either?"
At first impression, the Butler of the MacSweeney estate always seemed to be in afoul mood, but nothing was further from the truth. His stoic disposition and rigid bearing was the result of a few years in the Terran Marines, but he preferred to be called Dean and shared his life freely over a finger or two of the local scotch when he was off duty. He hadn't been blessed with a wife or children, but made up for it by being a father figure to the staff.
"Thanks Dean," Robert replied, "it hasn't been a good day and I was wondering if I could pick your brain."
Dean's normally strait face cracked a little and he let out a small chuckle.
"Asking a butler for military advice? You must be desperate." He quipped.
"Asking a Marine what I'm doing wrong as an officer." Robert corrected. "A drink would be nice as well."
Dean led Robert into the staff dining room and produced a bottle of whiskey, pouring a glass for both of them.
"What seems to be the trouble?" Dean asked, holding out a glass for Robert.
"I don't know really." Robert confided. "I almost hit Hobbs today out of frustration and I don't feel like I'm a part of the unit as much as I used to."
Dean took a sip of the whiskey and rolled it around for a moment before swallowing. "May I ask why you almost struck a subordinate?"
"He can't figure out the difference between heather hand heath." Robert replied before knocking back his own glass.
"Couldn't stay out of the bog." Dean said. "Do you know that they are different?"
Robert looked at Dean with suspicion. "They look alike from a distance, but when you look closely they have a lot of differences."
"Heath is an Erica but heather is Calluna Vulgaris." Dean stated. "It was confusing for the early botanists on earth as well who thoughtthey were the same species for a long time." Dean said. "From a distance most people assume they're the same plant with the same needs. Heaths and Heathers native to this world require different things. If you were to clump them all into a single pot some would die."
"Why do I have the feeling this isn't about plants?" Robert asked.
"Because it isn't" Dean said before finishing his glass. "All of you have been clumped together for so long that even you think your all the same, and treating them like they are the same as you is already showing signs of trouble."
"Have any suggestions?" Robert asked as Dean emptied the bottle into the glasses.
"Two suggestions. First i would advise that you empty that glass." Dean said.
Robert did as he was advised, draining the glass in one go.
"I believe you have your men's ranks and positions in order correct?" Dean asked.
"For the most part." Robert replied.
"Would you be so kind as to retrieve them?" Dean requested.
"Sure, but.... whats the other thing?" Robert inquired.
Dean held up the empty bottle.
"It appears we are out of scotch."

Lol, I thought this would be funny to write about as a first silly little post as it is the most interesting thing in my life. (Don’t mind any typos)
First of all, to anyone who wants to tell me to stop or get over it or give me any valid reasonable and rational advice,I will not listen so don’t bother.
As these stories go, I 15(f) in love with English teacher 26(f). I’m obsessed with her, and have been for almost msot 2 years, it would have been longer if she had come into my life sooner.
I’m not a love at first sight person, so it took a while for it to come about. And iv always had problems with getting violently obsessed with things, I believe it’s some kind of coping mechanism, you know? If I don’t have something to live for then I fall in love with something, subconsciously of course. First it was cartoon characters then celebrity’s and the for the first time a real person who I know in real life! (Except she’s my teacher and she’s 26) but also the first woman iv ever fallen for (iv always known Im pan so it wasn’t a shock really). I think another HUGE reason I love her is because I don’t have a mother, she was abusive, druggy, alcoholic yadi-yadi-yada, and so I don’t live with her and I don’t like her and she isn’t there for me, and so I meet a kind female adult who I look up to? Obviously I get attached and I see her as a mother figure. I really do, I want to be just like her, I want to make her proud, I seek her validation, i want to fuck her. You know, regular motherly things!
The first day I met her, first day of year 10. From the second she walked into the class I felt her energy and her vibes and I had that feeling where you instantly like someone and want to be friends with them and think they are super cool. Now, she is not hot, like Obviously to me me right now in this moment she’s the most beautiful and pretty person iv ever seen she’s so cute and hot and all that, but Obviously that’s because I’m obsessed with her everything about her is great, but she’s the kind of ugly that when she first walked into the class people snickered.
She has a rash on her chin, a noticeable moustache, she looks at least 30 despite being much younger, her eyes are creepy looking and small, her skin is really red and dry and way too textured, she does weird ugly facial expressions, she has a big nose, her hair is never brushed and always greasy, she has really small eyelashes blah blah blah.. (she obviously has some really nice features as well, but I’m trying to prove i don’t like her for her looks)
Now In her defence I think they were laughing because she has the hugest ass iv seen in my entire life, not cuz of her face. (She wears really tight leggings everyday) But, she is overweight and a lot of people bring her down cuz of it but that has nothing to do with any of it for me obviously, and I obviously didn’t laugh when she walked in.
The point is, I instantly liked her and her personality, she has that school mum vibe, she’s witty she’s confident she’s loud, she’s funny, she’s so weird (like she does and says the weirdest stuff, she’ll start dancing out of no where with no warning, she shortens words all the time and then says them three times like: “fab fab fab” she has just the weirdest tendencies and mannerisms it’s insane), shes always so exited and jolly, she’s like a ball of sunshine yet at the same time she’s so sassy and passive aggressive, when I’m older I wanna be just like her you know!
And that’s how I felt for a long time, I would just enjoy her lessons because of the energy and vibes she’d bring! She makes everything so much fun just by being there, she’s also a drama teacher so she’s great at getting a crowd going and stuff. But it seemed no one else liked her, they either fat shamed her, or said she was a bitch, or found her annoying.
They aren’t wrong she is all of those things, but she’s only a bitch to you if you don’t respect her and then she’s passive aggressive and makes your time in her class hell, and as her favourite student who kissed her ass everyday it was fun for me to watch people get roasted by her and never have to worry about it. She is annoying to a lot of people because she hypes everyone up, and she’s loud and obnoxious and confident, she laughs at her own jokes and she’s giggly and she does stupid accents, she’s the walking talking definition of “QUIRKY” and so 15 year olds find her incredibly cringey and jarring. But as an immature individual my self I found her energy like something I have never seen anyone have so i from the first day thought she was my favourite teacher ever!
I often take the role of like comic relief when it comes to my friends so I often make the joke myself, and once I felt this admiration for my English teacher, and this giddy happy feeling in me when I saw her, I thought it would be a great idea to pretend/ hint to having a crush on her to my friends as a joke so they can make fun of me. It was small things like “oh my english teacher! … oh.. I liiiiikkkee herrrrrrrr~!” Id day when people mention her, no one caught onto the joke for a couple months until one day, after a holiday I had dyed my hair and she walked past me and she complimented it, I thanked her and INSTANTLY MY HEART WAS POUNDING AND I GOT ALL GIGGLING, my friend was next to me and found it funny obviously. And then the more I went to her lessons I couldn’t stop getting all sweaty and nervous around her, and every time she’d do something cute, like squeal when she’s frustrated and make weird noises or do a fake accent, or tell a joke I’d feel so unbelievably happy, and I couldn’t stop talking and thinking about her, but Eveytime I’d think about her or look at her id get a huge ick of like.. but ewww she’s so not hot! I can NOT be in love with THAT.
By summer I was still feeling this Same way, one day she wore a dress and like the dopey idiot she is, she lifted her leg and from where I sat I saw her panties. I WAS DISGUSTED, and looked away. And then looked back.. but then looked away.. and then looked back.. and then looked away.. (and did it a couple more times) but I felt sick in my stomach the whole time! It was not a hot thing at the time.
Then the year ends and it’s the summer holiday, (now up until this point I was quite caught up with my David walliams obsession. yes the 56 year old.. and so I didn’t really care about her all that much. On the first day back, before school started I went to a birthday party and I saw her walking outside of the school, when I saw her my heat was beating so fast, i hadn’t seen her in 6 weeks and I was not expecting to see her then, I said hi to her and i couldn’t stop thinking about that moment so intensely, and every thought I had about her being ugly didn’t matter to me, it’s not like I forgot about it, I know what she looks like, but I just think everything about her is so beautiful, it’s part of her and so its perfect.
That feeling got worse and worse as the year went by, every time i see her I shake, i sweat, I have panic attack like symptoms, but I feel so happy, like manic, I am overwhelmed, I want to punch things, I want to scream.
Then we get to the part where to silence this obsession I did regrettable and wierd things that she will never know about, some of the despicable things iv done in “the name of love” for her include:
Eating her hair Licking her spit of the table Kissing her chair when she leaves the room Following her around school Drawing her Writing poems about her Writing songs about her Making edits of her Taking photos of her Recording her voice when she talks to me Stealing her trash Licking her pens Making AI chat bots with her personality Making a bingo game about her (that one is just funny, and all my friends played it too, during her lessons lol)
And many other things I won’t mention. Obviously I’m not proud of any of this, and I didn’t really need to do it, some of it I did “as a joke” for my friends, some of them I did just because I could.. but the recording her voice one is essential! Anytime we’d have a heart felt convo I’d record it so I can listen to it if I ever loose the will to live (surprisingly frequently).
Now our relationship as student and teacher was/is very good.
We’ve had some lovely moments, she told me she cared about me outside of the classroom.
A personal favourite of mine: One time she was marking my work and it was just us in the classroom and I rested my head on her shoulder as she was going through it with me, and she looked down at me and she smiled and then we stayed like that for ages while she marked my work.
All my friends said I was delusional and that she probably hates me, but she has a huge ego and i believe she likes to keep me around to give it a boost every now and then.
I wore a matching outfit with her once (on accident) and she was very happy about it
Anytime I’d ask her what I can do to improve my grade she’s say to me “oh no! But you’re doing really well! I thought you did great!”
She’d never get mad at me or shout at me for anything, if we are doing a one between two activity she’d give me the only extra sheet in the class
I asked her to sit at the front to her because I “concentrate better at the front” (i only asked cuz i wanted to sit closer to her) she gave me a sly smirk and then the next lesson she moved me to the back of the class, and also moved her self to the back of the class.
We took a selfie together and the whole time she was giggling, I gave her a Christmas card, she lets me follow her around the school, she gave my friends dirty looks when they were being mean to me
I sent her stupid emails of pictures of capybaras (it was an inside joke between us) and she responded with a way to enthusiastic response for such a simple image lol!
I sand “you belong with me” by TS and she stood in the crown and when it got to the “you belong with me” bit I pointed at her and she pointed back! Singing the words back to me
Oh, and let us not forget the amount of eye contact. I never look people in the eye, one of my first exes I barely ever looked into their eyes all the time I knew them, I just suck at eye contact. Until I met her, since I’m so insecure about her forgetting me or loosing me or something I often stare at her when she’s teaching to make sure that she doesn’t forget me. And some how in the last couple of months she stares at me as well.
Anytime she tells a joke she looks straight at me to see how I respond (always with giggles even when it’s the lamest thing iv ever heard. It’s often not funny at all.) and the entire time shes teaching the lessons I will stare at her. IN HER EYES. Like, I’ll often smile calmly, but if she hasn’t looked at me in like 4 minutes then I’ll stare deeper, but she usually looks into my eyes and hold it for a while sometimes she’ll even smile at me and then stutter and forget what she’s saying before looking away and continuing. She’ll stare deeply into my eyes, throughout the lesson, and I also always catch her looking at me first.
Once she was helping me with my work, she got really close to me, and she stared into my eyes and then I see her getting small glances at my lips (with this one I may be a little delusional) she leaned in and she kept getting confused. Like, she yaps a lot, and a lot very loudly. So it was odd for her to be standing there her arm touching mine talking to me and being like “…. Um-.. heh-.. where was i..” and she flicks through my paper and then looks back at me and goes silent and then swallows and then looks down and then flips through it again and then says something small and short followed by more silence.
I also have a theory shes on drugs, for many reasons but one time I needed her to take a photo of my book, and she was acting so weird, tired but like really like dizzy and loopy and breathless. And she went to take a photo of my book, and got behind me and she leaned into my book, and I felt her heavy loud breath on my neck as her stray hairs were tickling the side of my face and her shoulder was touching my back, she she just stood there and stared at my book for ages until i was like “um so.. you can.. take a photo or something..” and then she slowly did it hahahaha!
Obviously it’s now exam time and so school is basically over and I have no more lessons, so I didn’t go into depth about how much she means to me as a person but to sum it up into one sentence; I would want to seriously kill my self with out her in my life.
And so the thing I had been fearing for so long, the last English lesson, the last time seeing my dear beloved. Well obviously it’s life or death so I have to tell her how I feel and get her to stay in contact with me.
The last lesson ends I go up to her after a morning of: pissing my self, shitting my self, throwing up in my mouth, constantly putting on perfume, checking my hair and chewing the mintiest of gums. And I start my speech, I won’t go into it but I told her how I felt about her (minus the being in love bit I played it off as platonic duh, im not fully stupid).
I told her that she means so much to me, and she’s (one of) my favourite people in the world (that’s a white lie she’s my only favourite) I can’t go on with out her, I need her, iv felt this way since the first lesson, your so fun, you mean so much to me! I cant loose you, I don’t know what I would do with out you!!!!
I cried in her arms as she hugged me! And i didnt even need to ask she suggested we could stay in contact, in-fact all i had said was “I’ll miss you so much :(“ and she already suggested we stay in contact, but Obviosuly I still did the whole speech cuz at some point she needed to know. Her response was basically that she already knew, but she was very pleased to hear it, and everything is going to be perfectly okay.
She said we can stay in contact (through email, cuz apparently there is a “legal thing unfortunately” stopping her from giving me her number (yes I did ask for her number, but in a total no homo way.)
She said I can talk to her anytime about anything as much as I like, and that’s good enough for me!
I also gave her a drawing I did of her and me together which was cute, her response to that was “oh very cool! she walks over. she takes it in her hands, very excited to see it. This really throws her confidence off, she’s really not expecting this. OH THIS IS AMAIZING! her voice cracks THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! this is lovely! thank you, this is soo good! oh-muh-gud it’s SO good! oww I love it! thank you.. I’m wearing the same top as well, how fun~.. HOW FUN!!!! how fun!! … she takes it and puts it in her bag i will prop this up, on my desk! wicked wicked awesome!” (I recorded her reaction so that’s how you know it’s word for word)
In conclusion, im creepily obsessed and its a problem, but I don’t really regret anything cuz it’s all gotten me to this point where I can talk to her when ever I want and that’s all I could ever ask her. Yes I want to fuck her, but that’s not important to me I just need her in my life, she’s my world she’s my reason of living, and I’m so happy things are this way! I’m doing my exams now so I get to see her everyday when I come into school (by see her I mean wait outside the staff room so I can catch a glimpse of her knee). I’m also glad I’m not in her lessons anymore cuz I’d always get so twitchy around her, anytime she’d be near me and I’d be trying my best not to lunge at her, when I see her my mouth waters I just wanna grab her and kiss her all over! Eeek! She’s adorableeeee!
I love herrrrr ❤️❤️❤️

I have started to or maybe have accepted the reality that I am probably not someone who can find someone perhaps. Maybe I am not good looking, maybe I don't know how to keep the conversation going, maybe I don't have the courage to approach them, maybe I don't think they would be interested in me before even trying or maybe I am just afraid of being left out again and waiting for them. I think it's a mix of all that, like I want to find someone I just feel happy and together with who would like to just pick me at first and only choice. I never got to be like that, so I think it seems like an amazing feeling to have one person having thoughts about you in a good way. I was told I don't open up much, I worked on that but it takes me time to open up because people don't wanna listen or just pretend to listen but leave when you actually try to so I never open up about my problems or anything that's happening in life with anyone. I want to show some love, take care of someone, write poems about them, cuddle, go on a walk, spent a day together but I don't think I will ever get to enjoy all of that and slowly slowly I am trying to make my peace with that in a good way I suppose. I never wanted anything from anyone but just genuine connection with people but people still doesn't understand Or want that. But after waiting for many years now, I don't think I can continue or wait to hope any more. I am just stop going to hope for things to happen completely, it's better to be numb and not feel things like this instead of just hoping for it to happen so it will be a bit hard journey and even long but this is something I think I should continue to walk on. and please dont comment with the it happens when you least expect it or any positive comment no hate I just don't want to hear it, I myself am extremely optimist but there's a limit to somethings perhaps.

I have started to or maybe have accepted the reality that I am probably not someone who can find someone perhaps. Maybe I am not good looking, maybe I don't know how to keep the conversation going, maybe I don't have the courage to approach them, maybe I don't think they would be interested in me before even trying or maybe I am just afraid of being left out again and waiting for them. I think it's a mix of all that, like I want to find someone I just feel happy and together with who would like to just pick me at first and only choice. I never got to be like that, so I think it seems like an amazing feeling to have one person having thoughts about you in a good way. I was told I don't open up much, I worked on that but it takes me time to open up because people don't wanna listen or just pretend to listen but leave when you actually try to so I never open up about my problems or anything that's happening in life with anyone. I want to show some love, take care of someone, write poems about them, cuddle, go on a walk, spent a day together but I don't think I will ever get to enjoy all of that and slowly slowly I am trying to make my peace with that in a good way I suppose. I never wanted anything from anyone but just genuine connection with people but people still doesn't understand Or want that. But after waiting for many years now, I don't think I can continue or wait to hope any more. I am just stop going to hope for things to happen completely, it's better to be numb and not feel things like this instead of just hoping for it to happen so it will be a bit hard journey and even long but this is something I think I should continue to walk on. and please dont comment with the it happens when you least expect it or any positive comment no hate I just don't want to hear it, I myself am extremely optimist but there's a limit to somethings perhaps.

Hey guys,
I (25M) went through a breakup (24F) a few months back and I still haven't really gotten over it... I think of her all the time, I've been writing poems about her, looking at our pictures together and crying, the whole nine yards. The reason that I'm posting this is because I want to text her and see if I can rekindle things with her but I just don't know how or what to say to get that started. She ended things because she said "She wanted some time to herself" but there's one thing worth noting. Two days before she ended things she found out that I'm a cutter. She saw my scars and said that it wasn't going to change how she felt about me but two days later her feelings changed, I don't know for sure that the scars on my wrist were the reason that she decided to break things off but I have my hunch. I miss what I had with her, it was one of if not the happiest time of my life.
I haven't spoken to her once since she ended things but I've thought about just reaching out and saying something like "Hey, I know it's been a bit since we spoke but I hope you're doing well and would love to chat sometime." or something like that idk. Please help me guys I've been spiraling all day and don't know what to do. I want her back in my life so badly.

I decided to create a PokeRogue challenge run based on the original IronMon challenge by lateyourpie, and I wanted to share it here as I think it's a fun (and absolutely brutal) way to play the game if you feel like you don't have much left to do. In this post I want to share the rules of this challenge, and the experiences of my runs so far, in case anyone is interested in trying this for themselves.
Rules:

• If a Pokemon faints, it must be released and can no longer be used.
• Your starter must be randomly decided through whatever means you find easiest. I've personally been using the Random Pokemon Generator, and taking the unevolved form of whatever I get.
• You can only start with one Pokemon.
• Legendaries, mythicals, and Pokemon with a BST of 600+ cannot be caught or used as a starter. An unevolved Pokemon that evolves into a BST 600+ is fine however. Paradox Pokemon and Ultra Beasts are also allowed.
• Excluding bosses and trainers, you can only catch or faint one Pokemon per 10 levels. In double battles you can faint both, and once you have caught or fainted a Pokemon, you must run from every following wild battle.
• Shiny clause; any Pokemon that is shiny can be freely caught, and does not count towards your one-per-route rule. However, if it is a legendary or 600+ BST, it must be released.
• You cannot reroll for a starter you like; you must give every Pokemon a fair chance!
• You can only use one setup move per switch-in.
• You can't use the free switch at the start of a battle.

Obviously the original IronMon rules are slightly different to this, but I've changed some rules so it fits better with PokeRogue. As far as I know, this hasn't been attempted by anyone other than myself, much less beaten, although if I do eventually beat it, I plan to try again with Kaizo rules (only one Pokemon, no buying items, etc).
So far, I've done 21 attempts and my best level is 19. Some things I've discovered so far is that lifesteal moves are extremely powerful, and a Run Away Pokemon is almost essential unless you have godlike luck. My recommendation would be to try and solo with your only Pokemon (as usual) in the earlygame, unless you can get a Run Away Pokemon, as most of my runs have ended either with Ivy or with terrible luck at trying to escape battles.
I'm intrigued to see what people think of this, whether it sounds fun or just pure brutal, and if anyone is going to try this! If so, I want to hear your experiences with this challenge. I'll give updates on the post too as I get further if people are interested. Good luck, and have fun!
TL;DR: I came up with a challenge run for PokeRogue that turns the game into pure suffering.

-Disclaimer: This is an examination of Dottore being a complex morally grey villain that wasn't just born 100% evil, it's NOT a case that he's a good boy.-
I'll assume Zandik is Dottore since it's very likely (plus, someone tried to name their Wanderer that but it didn't work.)
Let's start with the oldest piece of lore:
-- Doctor's Pinion reveals a tragic past with unknown reasons for persecution --
When Pierro first tried to recruit Zandik / Dottore, he responded:

"Will you treat me like the Akademiya did? Will you call me a monster, a madman?" "Or will you treat me as my hometown did, and chase me away with pitchforks and clubs...?"

Some people assume the persecution was because of his experiments but it's important to note that the fact is we don't know what happened so there's a chance it wasn't something evil. That he could be chased away by "pitchforks and clubs" indicates he was weak at that point and couldn't do anything to stop it.
He also expresses a desire to merge humans with machines.

"With or without a Vision, and irrespective of their physique or combat skills,"Enhanced humans" would surely display strength far beyond the average."

This shows a desire to give power to the weak (likely including himself), even if they lack visions. Which isn't inherently a bad thing, it's just against the Akademiya's teachings. This applies even to Scaramouche, whose power had been locked by Raiden and he unlocked it.
-- Mysterious moral convictions --
Although a lot of the fandom accuses him of having no ethics or morals at all, there are several hints that this isn't the case.
He got mad at Scaramouche when told: "you only care about your crazy experiments" and told Nahida he has "his own convictions, we just don't share them" which were both conveniently not further explained. There is also the Jeht quest incident but i'll discuss it later on.
-- Eleazar hospital notes --
To briefly summarize the notes, he cured a patient using another dead patient's remains. His treatment was harsh but successful. These notes read like a Dr. House script, Dottore not giving a crap about the patient's religious beliefs included.
Abbas had a terrible ending because he had developed insanity and ran away. Zandik/ Dottore left a note warning not to let him go but it seems the staff didn't listen.
These notes align with how plague doctors were misunderstood and feared in real life. This motif was incorporated into his video game iteration, replacing the joker / clown persona.
Some people interpreted these notes as "Dottore murders and mutilates people that are alive for experiments" but there's no indication of that.
-- Aranara experiment notes --
These are the worst by far. It's unclear if the "subjects" were people with Eleazar or healthy people exposed to the withering for tests. It has to be pointed out that it seems the actions were done by his subordinates since it's likely Dottore reprimanding them at the end:

"This is a waste of resources. It is advisable to watch over the subjects' mental state in the next experiment and avoid exposing them to extreme environments... Lab Lead on duty: ████"

Yes, this sounds bad but it's proof he isn't a sadist that enjoys watching pain.
It also means he is higher in a moral standpoint than characters like Jack Horner. These type of characters don't care or enjoy deaths with the pretext of "we can always get more lackeys."
-- During the Jeht quest --
Froderock (a subordinate of Dottore) wants to capture an eremite. It is stated he is acting on his own and that Dottore gave an order not to kidnap eremites.
A note by another Fatui member states that Froderock is going to get killed for going against the order. We can theorize that the Harbinger himself would kill him. There's also a line about "following military regulations" which means his subordinates operate under a code and can't just kidnap people for experiments for the lols.

Fatui Negotiator: Professor Froderock was looking for live specimens in the desert — he always defied The Doctor's orders... That's just pure jealousy, if you ask me
...I urge you to consider, Captain Zoya, that if we are able to complete this research work in the desert, perhaps our entire expeditionary force may receive the favor of our great Harbinger... (This line has been crossed out using a red pen, and a line in red has been added: "How about you consider military regulations? Or perhaps you would like to consider how long you have left to live?")

A similar thing happened with Arlecchino in the Fortune Slip quest in Inazuma. Subordinates of her were acting on their own by following the previous Knave's teachings to make some orphans for the House.
-- *Time of Insight Artifact * --
It mentions a "mad scientist expelled by the akademia" and the text under it seems to be Dottore speaking.
The last part says:

"Those sellswords (Eremites) once did much for me. I trust they will not disappoint this time, either."

Combining Jeht quest with this makes it seem that eremites helped Dottore in some way and he is fond enough of them to slaughter a subordinate that brings them harm.
The following text seems to be Dottore's reason to want to capture Aranaras:

"The dream had to be captured — along with the inhabitants of the forest who could control dreams, To remind that friend once again of one's own form and the memories that were shared.
If the organ that governs memory has taken too much damage and cannot be healed, Then bring another old friend and dwell in dreams of the past together, Play in a small tree house, and explore the limitless depth of the jungle. Yes, that would be nice as well. For in dreams, everyone has a chance to start over."

I couldn't find more info about this "friend". It seems to be someone who suffered the effects of erosion or death, or an aranara that lost their memory.
-- Al Haitham's SQ --
Alhaitham: (To Siraj / the villain, after praising his intelligence)

"You would never let a test subject escape. Mistakes like that are beneath you, and you also won't leave any mistake without a resolution."

This is relevant because we know Dottore is canonically smarter than Siraj yet he didn't hunt down Collei (Barnabas is the one that traumatized and wanted to kill her), Abbas or Scara. It's a known thing there's a Fatui code that traitors and deserters are executed to avoid spilling secrets. Dottore leaves even Scara alone, you may argue that he was lazy but suspiciously Childe, who during Labyrinth Warriors was chasing Scara, soon appeared in Inazuma in a photo taking event, leaving for Snezhnaya, after Scara lost his gnosis.
It was never explained why Childe was chasing him to take away the Gnosis yet suddenly Scara appeared with Dottore without Childe. This is suspicious because Childe loves to fight, to the point he wanted to fight Arle while recovering on her SQ. He didn't even show up to finish off Scaramouche at the end.
To play Devil's advocate, it could also be Scaramouche is a part of some unknown plan too and nothing to do with mercy.
-- Dottore's speech to Niwa --
Taking into account Nahida's story that says: "the monster found solace in the kitten", the black bird referring to himself as "a monstrosity yet they are too foolish to see it" and Dottore's lines to Pierro:

"Will you call me a monster, a madman?"

Dottore sees himself as an inhuman monster. It puts into question if the following line wasn't just about Scaramouche and is actually a metaphor of Dottore speaking about his past:

"Escher: Even without you, that pure, innocent puppet would only end up being used by someone else instead. What other reason would a human have for befriending one who is not of our kind?"

Although Dottore refers to himself as "human", the two lines I quoted previously contradict this. Mentally he sees himself as not human (to the point of finding solace in a living puppet), even though his words say otherwise. There is also a chance this Dottore was no longer human at all, the Nahida story shows the monster bird had tiny floating birds around, even though he hadn't studied Scaramouche to create the segments.
There is also a stark contrast between Dottore joining the Fatui expresing concern over been rejected again yet he is embracing his monster persona in the Niwa scene.

"Escher: Think of me as a monster or a demon, if you wish... "

It could be a sign of a person with trauma who steered into an evil path. Kept getting called a monster until he accepted it.
There could be many reasons for the change, besides being used, -incoming pure speculation- he could have experimented on himself to have less emotions or taking this quote into account: "everyone has a chance to start over in dreams" he believes he can commit atrocities and it won't matter because he plans to do a reset somehow.

" The Doctor: Jester, I have completed the task you gave me. Creating a gap and infiltrating Inazuma's inner workings... Heh, what fun it was. The Doctor: I'd like to introduce a puppet to you. If he proves useful, let's make him our newest comrade. And if not... let's turn him to dust."

The bold part is more clues of either future Scara related scheming or Dottore's words are an act, mercy was shown when he became useless. It also seems that Pierro stirred him into a darker path.
I wouldn't say it's confirmation that Pierro is pure evil because we barely know anything about him, there's a chance it was for some greater good since that's a trend with the Harbingers.
-- Possible Sohreh murder --
At first glance, it seems way too obvious that Zandik did it, it's like watching a murder mystery movie and the first suspect is a red herring.
Since people frequently incorrectly state: "Dottore murdered a girl while they were having a picnic" like a fact, I'm going to make a deep dive into these notes:
First there is no clear motive for him killing Sohreh. (Niwa had a purpose.)

attack of Rishboland Tigers. In need of first aid..."

The bold part implies she was still alive while Zandik was dealing with the Ruin Guard. The broken bone didn't happen during the picnic while he was alone with her. She was declared dead and buried after the attack, she could have been killed during it while everyone was distracted.
-Does the Akademiya think that Zandik is responsible?-
There is a message board that says he was investigated over her murder.
The lack of motive combined with Zandik only receiving negative consequences from saving the team makes me think he was framed and acted on impulse / emotion when saving them or he turned it on to spook the tigers and it accidentally killed her.
Why? He could have just ran away and let everyone die to not reveal he was hiding ruin guard knowledge. Which he expressed on the notes that he didn't want the rest to know:

"I am going to take them (Ruin guards) apart, and record the size and shape one by one...
...But first of all, this secret must not be revealed to the other team members..."
...Thank goodness, Zandik reacted quickly. Otherwise, the whole team would be in serious trouble..."

-Some people argue that "running away and letting everyone die would have been too suspicious so he saved them."
It's more likely he was just a weak regular human at that point in his life so it wouldn't have been too suspicious to run away / he actually risked his life to shut it down.-
The 2 burned notes both state: "Someone seems to have burnt the contents in a hurry" it could have been the person trying to frame him. One of them is a note about the Ruin Guards and has Zandik's signature, they may have wanted to steal credit of his research.
-Regarding who framed Dottore, u/Sandflow_23 commented an excellent theory
lt seems Zandik didn't care much about Sohreh's death since he proceeded to ask the team to take back the Ruinguard while she was bleeding but the Eleazar hospital notes come after this incident. Was this his first instance of curing people?
Did being unable to save someone influence him in some way? It may just be coincidental but it's worth taking note. I'm trying to look at all possibilities.
People usually see Sohreh's note as "she learned Dottore's secret so he murdered her" But something I haven't seen discussed is how there is also a chance he trusted her and decided to open up to people more. Previously he said studying Ruinguards could get him kicked out but after the following note by Sohreh, he decided to try to convince his team to take back the ruin guard:

"...Zandik was attracted by the ancient machines left behind by some civilization here...
We had a great time and decided to go on a picnic tonight..."

Finally, to play Devil's Advocate: it seems he also had another secret mission that was never explained.

"...It's a shame that documents regarding its (the giant golem's) energy supply systems have been lost, and I have far too important a mission to accomplish to afford to start from scratch. If not..."

He could have killed her because she learned that secret but it's still weird that he'd go and choke her with people focused on him speaking about Ruinguard studies.
-- Arle SQ --
Lyney said "he proposed the direction of the research " for the bottled flames. That he wants to give people "a chance to start over" was also hinted in Time of Insight artifact. I won't be surprised if it turns out most of the injured kids he took from Crucabena are actually fine. The Eremites, which he didn't want his subordinates to kidnap, were also healthy, so this is another instance of him seeking to work with weak people to give them power. I'm NOT denying there's a chance he wants to use it for some other plan like burning the tree like other Redditors have proposed
Finally, there remains the question of which Dottore would be playable. I predict the original or Omega. (Knocking off the angelic new segment theory)
We don't know if the original is alive, since Raiden destroyed her physical body (and the segments were based on Scaramouche) he could be dead BUT giving a kill switch to Omega may have a deeper meaning. Like those fragments of his mind from dead segments will re-materialize in an empty segment or object his soul is bound to or go back to Omega and change his personality, the former sounds like FullMetal Alchemist but a Remuria quest confirms this is a thing in Genshin.
Finally done, sorry if this is ridiculously long but I wanted to provide quotes to sustain the arguments, especially since some people hate him so much based on mostly misinformation.

I’ve been with my ex for almost 4 years. It was great at beginning but it become very turbulent and extreme over the last year, since he developed mental issues bc started abusing drugs/alcohol+bpd+ narcissistic tendencies. At one point i thought I would die, mentally and physically/I lost 10kg, then decided to breakup cause unfortunately i couldn’t take care of him anymore. (there were too many stuff can’t fit this post) Year passed and I am doing much better. I blocked him on everything long ago, but it’s not possible to do the same with email. He keeps emailing me since then, there were different ranges of emotions, hate messages, bursts of love, anger..but most recent he is begging for forgiveness and writing me poem-like stuff telling me that he will fix everything and come to see me.. on early stage i did text back telling him that i forgive him and separated with best wishes for him, once i was angry i told him that its over forever that its useless and to stop harassing me. He lives in another country and i really never want to see or hear from him again, that relationship left me a huge trauma.. I feel unsafe, disrespected, abused, i simply don’t know how to get rid of him, it makes me want to vomit. I can’t sleep, have obsessive ptsd at times and i am afraid that he will really appear at my doors at this point.(so changing email or ignoring him will not help)
Does anyone had to deal with mentally unstable person like this?
I appreciate any advice and thank you for reading.
I still wish health and happiness to my ex, but I feel trapped and worried for my overall health and safety for me and my family.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, am I secretly Gareth Southgate? Every time I see a right back that’s pretty good I have to sign him. My first, a kid named Raimondo Marinelli, I found in the U20s when I joined Inter, and he was quickly put into the starting XI, then the next season I felt like I needed another for depth so I signed a kid named Juan Gabriel Navarro, who was more than good enough to provide very good depth, but he suffered from low playing time as I had a very good Denzel Dumfries still who was one of my best players until he left. The next season I found a kid who was doing wonders at Sassuolo named Gabriele Chiappetta, he had a release clause of £18.5m so I felt I had to. At this point it was slightly overkill for what I usually do, but I had been tracking a kid named Alessandro Gherardi at Real Madrid, and I decided to splash the money on him before he became big. Now I’m trying to stop myself buying another player called Sebastian Schmitt who has a £9m release clause and is at Werder, but he looks so good. It’s getting ridiculous how much I love this position.

This will take some time to read but please do read and try to help me by any way possible.
I am a fresher, i was supposed to passout in 2023 with a offcampus offer in hand and was going to start a good career. But I stuck in issues, got into depression, faced more issues, got out of one and got another issue, need help to start out my career.
I was in B.Tech civil eng at a tier 3 clg. During my 2nd sem onwards there was covid lockdown, I knew i have no interest in civil since 1st sem only, i tried to look other fields also. i tried to switch to other branch but lockdown was there any it was not at all possible to switch at that time then I learnt some coding,programming in lockdown i got interest in it, I decided i will do this only in future, i will switch my career after degree. But I think god had something else only in mind.
I had a offer from TCS ninja (with chance to upgrade to digital) in the end of 7th sem. I had got one backlog in 6th sem, i was not able to clear the 6th sem one in first attempt due to sudden move to offline by the college just before the exam. I did not told this to anyone in the world. In 7th sem i got one more back but i still had chance to clear them in the 8th sem exam (both 6th and 7th sem backlog). But in the 8th sem things got worse for me i got into depression kind of state of mind. i almost skipped the 60-70 of semester i sat in my hostel room for days alone, i didnot had any real friend friend, there instances when i was in my room for like 2-3 days with food just little water, i was going home every sat sun but i did not let anyone at home to know about my situation, the reason for that was my study branch, i was not feeling like going to college i hated the college.
By the end my parents knew about my 7th sem failure as the result came for the 7th sem by the end of 8th sem, they were extremely tensed my father got some little high BP also after that, this got me even more tense and i refrained from telling the 6th sem one, i tried my best to get out of this that time but i got one more issue, one prof gave me NPTA (not premitted to appear in the examination for that subject) i conveyed this parents we tried inout to try getting permission to appear in exam. Tried every connections we had, acedemic connections, political, tried to get them force from a MLA of that area, but they had no mercy. I appeared in other examinations passed them all except the 6th sem one. at the end of 8th sem i had 2 backlogs but my family knew about one only, during this i got to know about many things of that college how bad it was and i just faced a little. ( for instance one prof's son was lodged into a fake copy case during exam and was suspended for 1 year). I was lot tensed and even more my parents were. I lost my TCS offer due to the clause of completing the degree in 4years only. I was hopeless, my parents settled down after a while. I tried to look for all other options I had and found i have chance to do Mtech in CS by GATE CS. I tried to attempt GATE CS 2024 and scored 39.01 marks in it. I tried to learn DSA also (still learning).I attempted the 8th sem backlog and passed it but again failed with 6th sem one. I dont know that was happening with me. I stopped showing intrest in mtech to my parents telling them i am not able to do mtech stuff, i want to do job only, i will get 2 years of exp that will be easy for me get, which they did not agree with but i tried hard and later they did agree but still forcing to do. I was trying to learn things but mind was not getting stable, I was tensed hopeless, failing at things. I attempted for VITMEE also as they also take noncs for mtech cs, and i got 1808 rank there also. I attempted for the 6th sem one this time also I am again hopeless that I will clear it this time also as i was not in any mind state that time. I am getting force now to join any job other wise do Mtech, which i cannot do due to backlog but cant even tell them now by any chance. I am trying to secure any internship kind of oppurtunity for the next 6 months. I am now out of my old mind I am now focused to get a job, I am practicing whole day started applying to opportunities. But again not getting success, I want aby kind of help you can offer me I will be forever grateful to you, any opportunity that i can fit in I just want to get some job or internship or anything to get out and make my parents a little less tensed. I am 100% guaranteeing to pass the 6th sem backlog in the next attempt(dec) for sure. ( not faking at all) I want any guidance that you can provide if you can mentor me it will be great. I know getting out of this web is hard, a little help can make it easier for me.
I am leaving my email which is non identifyable for my identity. I am not sharing identity because i am not taking any chance to get this to anyone of my circle, relative anyone. This is the first time I am sharing to anyone but dont want to share my identity. you can leave a email at my email or leave your contact like email, linkedin, or anything in comment so that i can reach out to you.
(if you think you know me by any chance please keep this to you only)
If you are reading till here thank you thank you thank you alottttt.
email: [miosedu@gmail.com](mailto:miosedu@gmail.com)

Edit 2: Thanks for the answers! Partition prunning is not executed during runtime by default (tough it can be done manually).
Edit 1: I came up with the following explanation (don't know if it is right) When we hardcode the values inside the IN clause, the query plan knows exactly, before hand, which partitions to look, thus, it will scan only the selected partitions. On the other hand, when we fill the IN clause with a sub-query the query plan don't know before hand which possible values the sub-query can yield, thus, it will try to cover all possible results (i.e. all partitions).
Hello,
I have a database whith 2 tables, the first table "dim_table" is just a metadata table that contains the "car_id" and "car" and the later table "fact_table" contains all the data with +100mi rows. Both have the common field "car_id", but it is not configured as a FK since I wanted to reduce query time by avoiding inner join during on-demand queries (the tables are consumed behind an API). Since "fact_table" is growing quickly, I decided to start partitioning "fact_table" by "card_id" to speed-up query search time.
Whenever I query the main "fact_partitioned" table, filtering directly by the partitioned field, it works as expected:

SELECT * FROM fact_partitioned WHERE car_id = 14610287 LIMIT 10 

Explain Analyze: https://explain.depesz.com/s/7iQR
As expected, the same happens when I filter with an IN clause:

SELECT * FROM fact_partitioned WHERE car_id IN (14483311, 14610287, 14645583) LIMIT 10 

Explain Analyze: https://explain.depesz.com/s/Su0y
But, whenever I try to query by filling the values in the IN statement dynamically the table is scanning all the partitions:

SELECT * FROM fact_partitioned WHERE car_id IN ( SELECT car_id FROM dim_table WHERE car::text ~ 'Ford.*' ) LIMIT 10 

Explain Analyze: https://explain.depesz.com/s/ES0e
Even tough the result of the sub-query is the same as the hardcoded IN query:

SELECT car_id FROM dim_table WHERE car::text ~ 'Ford.*' >>> Yields: (14483311, 14610287, 14645583) 

Explain Analyze: https://explain.depesz.com/s/dHq0S
Postgres version: 14.1
Why is this happening?

So i am in third semester now (after the exams), in first semester there was a team of 5 for hackathon in which apart from me there were two M and two F. I was a pretty much goal oriented person so much to the point I barely left my laptop while I was coding and when I wasn't coding I would either be at my shop or college, this was my life for whole 1st semester. Fast forward to december, we gave our sem ends, I was free so I thought I'd use them holidays productively, to my sheer luck my mother spilled coffee on my laptop and it took more than a fkin month to get it back. In between this month I had nothing to do so I started to talk to one of those F in my team. Thing went on pretty quickly, I developed feelings, we were spending literally all days chatting away, telling each other everything we could. Fast forward to 12th Feb i proposed to her and she accepted it. We both were happy to each other. My friends got to know about this progression and they started brain washing or don't know what u call it but they started kind of forcing me to be physical with her. Two to three weeks went by and one day when we were talkin in night like usual she got horny and she said and as I quote "talk dirty to me". So I did sir. Next day we had a free lecture. We went to an empty class and i just slept on her laps and sucked her B, the next day she would behave distant, don't know whether its her conscience or what but the whole week she was like this, then I calmed her down maybe by taking her to eat out or maybe by reciting a poem for her. The same events happened three more times and i, my fuckin brain got no clues what's going on. One day she got so distant from me that she started straight out ignoring me, I was so "depressed" that even my 3 yr younger sister noticed it and confronted it to her directly. She said she needs time to heal but not to me to my sister. I said if you need time that's OK I'll wait for you even if it takes my whole life. Then one day I wanted some answers regarding the material or something I don't even remember it correctly now, things went down the rabbit hole and it was bad, believe me she really said I was nothing more than a nuisance. This was just all so overwhelming and heartbreaking, I didn't want to lose her. Then i planned the most romantic thing of my life. I booked out a cafe, called her friends to invite her, they were three (including her) and i was alone. By the sheer determination of not loosing her I proposed to her again, she accepted and we were happy. After a week in one of my finals she says "mere papa ko pata chala gaya, unhone chat padh li". At this point I don't know what but I didn't care about whether she stayed with me or not cuz I thought what more I could do with current me, (I had literally spent all my savings, I wanted to upgrade my laptop so bad). I asked her "what now, you want to leave me? " she replied "what would you do if you were in my shoes?". I got up and left the place. I don't even feel sad about we broke up anymore like I did the first time she acted that way. Are these feelings wrong? Should I ask her for all the money I spent on her? What do i do now? She will surely leave me but I don't feel a thing.

I was thinking just now. It would be cool to have a group of teens and young adults express their thoughts/ on society, themselves, etc. and how we can use these thoughts to understand not only ourselves but others, problems and solutions in our world. Especially for minorities/ LGBTQ( I’m African American and pansexual, gender fluid ) who usually don’t have equal access to express themselves this way without being judged or silenced. Hey, I’m Mya and I’ve always liked to write. My great grandma writes books and plays, my mom writes poems, etc. I’ve attempted writing short stories, poems, I love writing essays in class. Now, I mostly write my thoughts down to get a better idea of the person I’m becoming and it’s always good to not get stuck in your way of thinking and always evolve and question ( so, more philosophical). Anyway, writing can be a good outlet for your emotions, thoughts, or just creativity and there is no right or perfect way to do it. Maybe I could make the group on discord so it’ll be easier for people to share or, idk I’m open to suggestions. I’ve also started listing topics that interest me so I can research them and just write what I learned/ my thoughts. ( this is also for introverted people who wanna share their thoughts and interests without an obligation to constantly drain their social battery. Trust me, I get it. We like being around people but it can be too much). I know at our ages we kinda have an idea of who we are but we kinda feel lost still, for me writing even if it’s just random thoughts or idk maybe I watched a video and the ideas made me want to elaborate and add my own thing. It’s really helping me with self discovery. Which discovering and loving myself is what I want to focus on when high school finally ends and I have a gap year.
Thanks for reading and let me know if this is a good idea that you guys are interested in. The group doesn’t have to be big 🥰 ( Ok, I posted this yesterday and I got a few people who were interested so we decided to make the group on discord. Then I started searching for other teen/ hobby / writing groups on Reddit to let people know) We would like to keep the age between 16-19. I even said people who are 20, 21, 22 would be fine. The people that joined so far are very kind and supportive so don’t be afraid. DM me for the link.

[18F] Writing buddies, anyone welcome.
I was thinking just now. It would be cool to have a group of teens and young adults express their thoughts/ on society, themselves, etc. and how we can use these thoughts to understand not only ourselves but others, problems and solutions in our world. Especially for minorities/ LGBTQ( I’m African American and pansexual, gender fluid ) who usually don’t have equal access to express themselves this way without being judged or silenced. Hey, I’m Mya and I’ve always liked to write. My great grandma writes books and plays, my mom writes poems, etc. I’ve attempted writing short stories, poems, I love writing essays in class. Now, I mostly write my thoughts down to get a better idea of the person I’m becoming and it’s always good to not get stuck in your way of thinking and always evolve and question ( so, more philosophical). Anyway, writing can be a good outlet for your emotions, thoughts, or just creativity and there is no right or perfect way to do it. Maybe I could make the group on discord so it’ll be easier for people to share or, idk I’m open to suggestions. I’ve also started listing topics that interest me so I can research them and just write what I learned/ my thoughts. ( this is also for introverted people who wanna share their thoughts and interests without an obligation to constantly drain their social battery. Trust me, I get it. We like being around people but it can be too much). I know at our ages we kinda have an idea of who we are but we kinda feel lost still, for me writing even if it’s just random thoughts or idk maybe I watched a video and the ideas made me want to elaborate and add my own thing. It’s really helping me with self discovery. Which discovering and loving myself is what I want to focus on when high school finally ends and I have a gap year.
Thanks for reading and let me know if this is a good idea that you guys are interested in. The group doesn’t have to be big 🥰 ( Ok, I posted this yesterday and I got a few people who were interested so we decided to make the group on discord. Then I started searching for other teen groups on Reddit to let people know) We would like to keep the age between 16-19. I even said people who are 20, 21, 22 would be fine. The people that joined so far are very kind and supportive so don’t be afraid.

I was thinking just now. It would be cool to have a group of teens and young adults express their thoughts/ on society, themselves, etc. and how we can use these thoughts to understand not only ourselves but others, problems and solutions in our world. Especially for minorities/ LGBTQ( I’m African American and pansexual, gender fluid ) who usually don’t have equal access to express themselves this way without being judged or silenced. Hey, I’m Mya and I’ve always liked to write. My great grandma writes books and plays, my mom writes poems, etc. I’ve attempted writing short stories, poems, I love writing essays in class. Now, I mostly write my thoughts down to get a better idea of the person I’m becoming and it’s always good to not get stuck in your way of thinking and always evolve and question ( so, more philosophical). Anyway, writing can be a good outlet for your emotions, thoughts, or just creativity and there is no right or perfect way to do it. Maybe I could make the group on discord so it’ll be easier for people to share or, idk I’m open to suggestions. I’ve also started listing topics that interest me so I can research them and just write what I learned/ my thoughts. ( this is also for introverted people who wanna share their thoughts and interests without an obligation to constantly drain their social battery. Trust me, I get it. We like being around people but it can be too much). I know at our ages we kinda have an idea of who we are but we kinda feel lost still, for me writing even if it’s just random thoughts or idk maybe I watched a video and the ideas made me want to elaborate and add my own thing. It’s really helping me with self discovery. Which discovering and loving myself is what I want to focus on when high school finally ends and I have a gap year.
Thanks for reading. The group doesn’t have to be big btw🥰 ( ok, update I made the group and it’s on discord now) I would like it to be within a certain age range 16-19. I wouldn’t mind 20, 21, 22 year olds. DM me for the link, everyone one is super cool so far and really nice.

PART 1:

 Every town has their own version of “The Boogeyman”. A monster, cryptid, phantom, whatever you want to call it, it’s all essentially the same thing- just a scary story they tell kids in an attempt to get them to behave. An urban legend is just a life lesson disguised as a horror story after all. For us folk living up in the tiny and once prosperous gold-mining town of Trillium, ours was known simply as The Locust Man. Now, let me start by saying, I realize how ridiculous that name must sound to you. “The Locust Man”?? Pftt…What’s he do, besides get stuck in the grill of someone’s pick-up truck. Destroy some crops? Oooh, he sounds real scary... yeah, I know. But yet, as I sit here today 20 years after the fact - a grown woman who’s wiser, stronger, and even more grounded in reality than she was at 12, I still hesitate to even write down that name. 

As a young child I had always thought it to be a little weird that our town was called Trillium, considering I had never seen a single one growing there. If you don’t know, a trillium is a small flower, usually white but they come in other color varieties as well, with three pedals and a bright yellow center. They sort of look like if you took a lily and tore off every other pedal playing “He loves me, he loves me not”. In school, about 2nd grade or so, we were taught everything about this elusive flower I’d never seen in real life, and told how proud our town was to be named after it. Trillium, Colorado was established in 1922 - A new town born in the wake of a great tragedy which befell the town that had previously sat in the same location. For us, and those that came before us, the trillium was supposed to be a symbol of hope. Knowing all that I know now, that sentiment almost makes me want to laugh - in a morbid way.

 Growing up in a small, mostly isolated town, there really wasn’t much for a kid to do. You’d have to drive 45 minutes to get to the closest mall and movie theater. The high school kids would usually all hang out at the roller rink downtown or at the old run-down burger joint called Slim’s that sat across it. But at that age, I wasn’t allowed to go hang out there by myself yet and for me, going with my parents tagging along wasn’t an option I was open to. My neighborhood was on a long dead end road leading up to a large patch of woods that separated the main part of town from the abandoned mine. The old trail the miners used was still accessible up until a point, and so me and the other kids from my street would hang out in those woods all the time. We had a “secret spot” which was, what we thought at the time, about half way through the woods, 10 steps away from a small shallow creek that pretty much ran the length of the area. Rain Creek, we called it. There was a small clearing there, and we had created our own little clubhouse using old milk crates as supports, half- broken wooden pallets as walls, along with some old lawn chairs one of the neighbors was throwing out one day. I made my contribution by bringing a tarp we had in our basement that served as the roof of our establishment. Our parents didn’t love the idea of five 10 to 12 year olds running around in the woods by ourselves, but as long as we stayed within earshot and made it back before the streetlights came on, they probably figured it was safer than us being across town galavanting unsupervised. 

It was me, Lacey, Devin, Mikey and Michelle. We were all best friends - pretty much inseparable, except the boys weren’t invited to the girls’ sleepovers and vise versa. Everyday after school, we’d get dropped off by the bus at the very beginning of our road, and it was a running joke between the Rain Street Gang (as we liked to call ourselves) for all of us to try and run off the bus as quickly as possible, while me, Lacey and Devin would all yell in unison ‘Last two home are some rotten eggs!!’, as Mikey and Michelle tried to push past us to get a head start. The aforementioned two were siblings, and lived in the very last house on our row right next to the woods, so they’d always get home last, regardless of their efforts. Although, the year that Mikey got a pair of Heelys for Christmas he finally got his edge over the rest of us, leaving Michelle to be the lone “rotten egg” until the next summer when one of his wheels broke off. The whole point of it all was just to get home and get our chores and homework done as fast as possible, so we could meet up at Mikey and Michelle’s house with enough daylight left to make our trek into the woods and back - together as a group. All five of us had made a pact to never visit the clubhouse without all members present, although us girls always had a sneaking suspicion that the boys thought themselves exempt from that rule. They, after all, were the ones that had discovered the spot in the first place, and not to mention, did most of the physical labor of dragging our provisions out there. Me and Lacey initially only heard about the spot a day after the boys found it; Michelle had walked into Mikey’s room in the middle of him and Devin talking about it, and immediately relayed the message to us. Michelle wasn’t necessarily more loyal to the girls than the boys, she was just the youngest among us and honestly couldn’t resist blurting out any mildly relevant information she thought she might have, in an effort to be included. But in that regard, if the boys had ever gone out there on their own, they would’ve had to be extremely sneaky about it, because Michelle’s number one objective in life was to gather any piece of intel she could. It was a seemingly normal Saturday morning when we learned our suspicions about the boys may have been warranted.
I had slept over at Lacey’s house the night before. We had just woken up and were still sitting on her bed discussing our possible plans for the day, when Michelle busted through the door with a look on her face that immediately told us she had finally gotten a hold of some juicy information, before she could even open her mouth to stutter out, “You-you-you guyssss, guess w-w-what!?!” Lacey gestured the nail file that was in her hand toward her, raising her eyebrows bluntly as Michelle tried to catch her breath. “So… Devin came to sleep over last night, annnnnd I was pretending to go to the bathroom so I could spy on them. Seeeeee, I was supposed to be sleeping but I -“ “Ughh come on Michelle, get to it! What’d you hear?” Lacey snapped “Ughh okay okay. So, I heard the boys talking, anddddd…. they’re planning to go explore the old mine today!!” “Alright Michelle! Good spying!” I chuckled, trying to encourage her after Lacey’s impatience. Lacey rolls her eyes, then immediately stands up. She takes the scrunchie off her wrist, ties her long blonde hair into a messy bun, and simply said, “Let’s go.” “Lacey..” I said “What??” She responds as if she hadn’t registered the tone of my voice at all. As I opened my mouth to begin explaining all the logical and practical reasons why even if the boys were stupid enough to go play around somewhere dangerous, we shouldn’t be, Michelle exclaims, “That’s where the Locust Man lives!!” I close my mouth in defeat, as I know Lacey will take this nonsense as a challenge, and because of that, no amount of my warnings concerning actual dangers would have any effect on her decision. Lacey dismisses her comment as she attempts to shove her foot into one of her new pink sneakers that she refuses to admit are too small for her. “Pshhh, don’t be such a baby Michelle, he’s not real, you do know that right?” Michelle crinkled her face and yelled back, “Yes he is Lacey! He is!! And th-th- that’s where he lives, and he eats kids that go there!” Lacey laughs at her and says “Oh yeah? You still believe in Santa clause too? What about the tooth fairy?” Michelle looked down at her shoes, and although she could admittedly be annoying, I found myself feeling bad for her. “Come on Lacey, she’s just scared.” Lacey shot me a look like she was expecting me to burst into laughter, but I just gave her a smirk and a shrug, and she rolled her eyes and said “Get dressed.”

 We walked in silence toward the end of the road, though the reasons for all three differed drastically. Lacey’s was determination and resolve, mine was comtemptousness and defeat, and Michelle’s was just fear. I found myself half-way hoping the boys had left already, but as we approached the driveway we caught them just as they were about to step off the porch. 

“Hey!!” Lacey yelled, in her trademark cheerleader cadence. “Where do you boys think you’re going without us?”. Mikey let a groan and rolled his eyes, while Devin said through a coy smile, “Well, we were actually just heading out to go to find you girls.” “Liar.” Lacey snapped, quickly wiping the grin off Devin’s face. “Michelle already blabbed- we know where you two are going and we’re coming too.” The boys looked at each other, then Mikey shot Michelle an angry look as she tried to shrink herself behind me, and said, “Fine, whatever, but no cry baby snitches allowed!!” Michelle then proceeded to prove both of his accusations correct by yelling back, “I am not a cry baby!! I’m telling mom if you don’t let me come with you!!” At that point I finally spoke up. “Alright, listen.” I said sternly, then once I had their attention I lowered my voice a bit to say, “Just for the record, I think us going to that grody old mine is a dumb idea and a big waste of time, but if one of us goes, we all go. That’s the deal, so make your decisions.” Lacey folded her arms in solidarity beside me, and with that we all had an unspoken understanding. So, with the boys out ahead leading the way, we headed toward the tree line.

 As we entered the woods, I felt a sense of dread wash over me - but to be fair, as a preteen emo kid who had already reached an adult level of cynicism, I felt a certain level of dread towards almost everything in life. So take my premonition with a grain of salt, but for some reason, this felt… different. I remember the woods being abnormally quiet that day. It took some time for me to even notice, but as soon as I did, I interrupted the mindless chatter going on to say, 

“Where are all the freakin’ birds?” Everyone turned to look at me as if I’d completely lost my mind. “Uhhh… What are you talking about?” Devin asked me. I pointed up toward the treetops. “Listen…. ” They all looked up, then looked around at each other in confusion. “Every time we’ve ever been in these woods, there’s always birds chirping back and forth. We’ve been walking almost 5 minutes now and I haven’t heard a single bird, have you guys?” “Damn, yeah, that is weird.” Mikey agreed. “They probably all just migrated!!” Devin goofily offered. “That’s stupid Devin, it’s spring. If anything, there should be more birds here, not less you moron.” Lacie argued. Devin flipped Lacie off, which was the best rebuttal he could usually come up with, and then turned toward me and said, “Okay whatever, what’s your point exactly?” “Just that - “ I looked over to Mikey, then back at Devin. “It’s weird.” I didn’t want to say what I was actually thinking. That the woods being too quiet was never a good thing. That when birds aren’t chirping, it could mean there’s a predator nearby. Besides, I was pretty confident that the boys, having both been in the scouts, knew what I knew, so saying it out loud would only serve to annoy Lacie and further frighten Michelle. Mikey broke his gaze that had been fixed on me, and while scanning our surroundings he said, “Let’s stop by the clubhouse on the way.” With a nod from me, we continued. When we arrived at our pit stop, Lacey hobbled over to the closest lawn chair and plopped herself down in it. “Ughhh, my feet are killing me!!” “I wonder why.” I mutter under my breath. “Excuse me, what was that?” “Just saying. Those shoes are gonna be the death of you Lace, you can barely walk in them.” “Pshhh, shut up. They just need to be broken-in okay? You’re just jealous cuz you’re still wearing your dirty old Vans from last year.” “Oooh yeah, you got me there. I am so sad I don’t have a pair of ugly pink Sketchers that don’t fit me.” She stuck her tongue out at me and we both laughed. I was just about the only person who could go toe to toe with Lacey’s sass. It’s part of the reason we ended up being best friends, besides being neighbors. In regard to style, personality and interests, we were almost polar opposites. But when it came to humor we were equals. And more importantly, we both had a mutual understanding when it came to our differences- I was me and she was her, and neither of us felt the need to try and make the other one be more like us. Besides, I was the only person who had ever really stood up to Lacey and didn’t take any of her crap, so I think she respected that. While that exchange had been going on, Michelle had started picking tiny pink flowers, and the boys were rummaging in the clubhouse for something. I yelled in their direction, “Hey! Big Mike and Dirty D!!” Me and Lacey giggled and she mouthed the word “big” with air quotation marks. They didn’t respond, so I walked over to the entryway and looked in. They were standing with their backs to me while looking down at an open metal box, and Mikey was reaching to grab whatever was in it. As he stood back up, I could see what it was. “What the fuck Mikey, seriously?” Hearing me cuss, Lacey and Michelle crowded in behind me. “Chill, it’s just a BB gun.” “I know it’s a BB gun Michael, what are you doing with it, and why is it here?” I was livid at the thought that he might be coming out here and shooting at animals just to be a shithead. I expected something like that from a goober like Devin, but not Mikey. Michelle butted in, “I’m telling mom!!!” “Nice try, dad knows I have it.” He looked at me and softened his tone. “It’s for protection, just in case we come across a black bear, or some weirdo creep out here. Seriously… it’s just to scare off something, not hurt it.” He knew how I felt about killing animals, especially for no good reason. A lot of people out here are poor and hunt for food, which I could accept as a reality. But hurting animals just for fun is psycho behavior, so I was relieved to hear him dispel my fear; I really didn’t want to have to hate him. “Do you even know how to shoot that thing?” Lacey asked. “Yeah, my dad showed me.” Devin clapped his hands together, making us all jump and himself laugh. “Well alright then, let’s get going!” I turned to Michelle, still holding the flowers. “You okay?” She nodded. “If you want me to walk back with you, I can.” I was slightly hoping she’d say yes so I’d have an excuse to get out of this excursion, but she just shook her head and forced a smile. I knew she was scared, but she was just too curious. Maybe I was too.

 We walked for what felt like half an hour. The trees had gotten more dense and the path narrowed from the overgrowth. Still no birdsong. I kept scanning the area in search of any sign of life other than us. Looking for movement of creatures scurrying away, listening for the sound of rustling as we passed, hoping for a squirrel, a lizard, even a bug. Nothing. 

“How much further is this damn thing?” Lacey groaned. Mikey answered without even turning around. “We should be coming up on it any time now.” “You said that like 10 minutes ago.” “Yeah, and now we’re like 10 minutes closer to it. And hey guess what, you insisted on inviting yourself - so suck it up buttercup.” “Hahahaha!” Devin laughed like a maniac at Mikey’s quip, while Lacey folded her arms and for once in her life didn’t have a snappy comeback. This time however, I did. “Well we really only came along to make sure you idiots didn’t kill yourselves.” “Oh, so you girls came out here with us to be our protectors, huh?” Devin laughed. “Ehh, more like babysitters.” Needless to say, I was flipped off for that statement. We rounded the next bend and suddenly all came to an abrupt stop one after another, starting with Mikey. Devin positioned himself beside him and let out a disappointed groan. “Shit Mikey!” A huge tree had fallen and was blocking the trail completely. There was no way we could climb over it because of all the leaves and branches - we’d have to go around it, which meant leaving the safety of the trail and crossing Rain Creek twice to get back to it. “Seriously???” Lacey exclaimed. “Maybe it’s a sign that we shouldn’t be going.” I shrugged. Mikey didn’t seem fazed by the obstruction at all. In fact, he seemed more confident. More calm. More sure of his intended mission. “It’s fine, we’ll just go around.” Michelle, who had been mostly quiet this whole time, finally broke her fear induced silence. “We are NOT supposed to leave the tr-tr-trail Michael! We could get lost!” “We aren’t gonna get lost Michelle, I have a compass. Plus, it’s literally just a few paces that way, then we cross the creek and circle back once we pass the tree and we’re right back on the trail.” “Oh you have got to be kidding me” Lacey said, “I’m not treading through that nasty water!” “Yeah Mikey, what about Lacey’s brand new shoes??” I laughed, and she playfully slapped me in the arm. Mikey’s patience was wearing thin with us. “Look, we already walked this far - if we turn back now, we’ve wasted the whole day for nothing. If you girls wanna be lame and turn around, then go for it - but me and Dev are going.” That’s all Lacey needed. A challenge to accept; someone to prove wrong. “I’ll show you lame.” She pushed past the boys and lead the way into the thick brush towards Rain Creek. It wasn’t very wide across, and there were lots of fallen limbs and large rocks spread throughout it. The current was barely that of a trickle, and the depth was no more than knee deep for us. It was definitely doable - just an inconvenience. And of course, one more ominous obstacle lying directly in our path. Another hint from the universe telling us to turn around. We didn’t listen. Lacey placed one foot on the closest limb and pushed down a few times to test its sturdiness. “I got this.” She stepped out onto it with both feet, then shimmied sideways until she was close enough to the large exposed rock in the middle of the creek, and hopped onto it. She turned around with a full grin and said, “Coming?” Mikey made his way across the limb as Lacey hopped onto a different limb which led her to the other side of the creek. Devin followed, then me, and then it was Michelle’s turn. “I’m scared to fall in!” Of course she is, I should have made her go before me. “It’s okay Michelle, it’s easy!” I reassured her. She didn’t look convinced in the slightest. “Come on Chelle, we’re leaving you!” Mikey yelled, already walking away. “Nooo!! I’m coming! Wait!” She made it across, but instead of just walking like everyone else did, she got down on her hands and knees and gripped the limb as if it were the only thing in between her and a 50 foot drop to the ground, which was funny to see but prolonged the whole process further. After all, we were about to have to do all of this again. Next go round went a lot smoother. The creek was more shallow here, and there were a whole lot more stepping rocks and debris built up. Having just crossed successfully a few minutes ago, we were all more confident in our abilities, including Michelle - who this time we made go first. “Just walk across like it’s a bridge! You got this!!”, we all cheered for her, and then clapped when she made it to the other side. Before we knew it we were back on the trail, and it wasn’t long after that we finally arrived at our intended destination.

 We all stopped and stared at it for a minute, carefully examining the dilapidated exterior of the place that had brought both prosperity and destruction upon our town. Mikey bent down, picked up a rock and threw it into the entrance. We heard it bounce a few times before it stopped. 

“Just to make sure nothing’s in there.” he turned around to clarify. “Did anyone think to bring a flashlight?” I asked. “It’s dark as hell in there.” I was hoping for just one more reason not to go. Devin reached into his cargo shorts pocket and pulled out a small keychain-sized flashlight, smiling with the satisfaction of finally being useful. “Okay, Mikey’ll hold the gun, I’ll shine the light and you girls follow behind us. Let’s go.” Mikey shifted the BB gun from its position of resting on his shoulder, to holding the barrel in his left hand and the butt in his right; trying his best to emulate a soldier’s stance. Something his dad had taught him I’m sure. We ducked down a bit to enter. “How far in we going?” Lacey asked. “Until we see something cool.” Mikey answered. I turned around to check on Michelle, still hovering in the doorway. “You coming?” I could see in her eyes that fear had finally gotten the better of her, and curiosity had taken a backseat. With wide eyes she shook her head. “The-the Locust Man lives in there.”, she tried to whisper. “I knew you were gonna be a baby about this!” Mikey yelled. I crouched down and put my hand on her shoulder. Against my better judgment, I say “How bout you just wait here for us and pick some more flowers. We won’t be long, there’s nothing in there, I promise. Just.. don’t move from this spot and we’ll be right back, okay?” I could feel her unease, but she seemed to accept my reassurance nonetheless. “Okay.” I smiled, then stood up and looked down at my watch to check the time. 12:46 PM. I turned and headed into the darkness, trying to catch up with everyone else. I didn’t feel good about leaving Michelle, but I didn’t feel good about letting the rest of them go in there alone either. And if I’m being honest, maybe a little part of me wanted to see what was in there too. When I caught up to Lacey she asked, “Where’s Michelle?” “Stayed behind at the entrance, she was too scared. I told her to pick flowers and wait there for us.” “Pshh, figures.” “Yeah. How’s your feet?” “At this point, numb actually.” It was so dark in there that even Devin’s rinky dink flashlight was illuminating the area enough for me to start taking a closer look at my surroundings. I looked around at the rock walls, they were covered in what looked like orange mold and green algae. There was a slight breeze coming in from the entrance, but the whole place just had a staleness to it. The boys stopped and turned around as we arrived at the first curve. “So ladies, what do you think? Cool huh?” Devin asked excitedly. “Smells like a fart in here.” I said.

 The most dangerous thing about exploring an old mine wasn’t getting lost in the maze of tunnels, or tripping on the rusted tracks and slamming your head against the wall - it was something simply referred to as bad air. Pockets of still air that have dangerously low levels of oxygen, the old men in town would call it “black damp”. There was also something produced from the old chemicals they once used called “stink damp”, which smelled like rotten eggs. Both were lethal. 

“I wonder if there’s dead bodies in here!” “Uh, Dev… we’re gonna be the dead bodies in here if we go in too far. I wasn’t just making a joke, you know that rotten egg smell can mean bad air.” Mikey interjected. “The entrance isn’t far behind us, there’s still enough fresh air coming in. We won’t go in too far, let’s just get to the end of this tunnel where it splits off and look around a bit, then we’ll turn around.” The fork in the tunnel really wasn’t that much further, and even though I knew once we rounded this curve I wouldn’t be able to see the entrance behind me anymore, I decided what the hell. Maybe a hundred more steps, then we can finally turn around and this whole dumb situation would be closer to being over with. When we got there, we looked down the length of the connecting tunnels each way. Everything looked unusually identical in its deterioration. I could see how someone could easily get disoriented and lost down here. “Hellooooo…” Mikey yelled to the left, his voice echoing through the corridor. Devin turned to the opposite direction and called out, “Hey yo, Locust Man!! You in here?” We all giggled, which made me think about Michelle, still waiting at the entrance for us, alone in the woods. I looked down at my watch. 12:46 PM. “Hey what the f-“ My cuss word was interrupted by a loud bang that came from the passageway Devin had just been hollering into. We all froze. I didn’t have time to process that my watch had stopped right as we entered the tunnel, or that Michelle had been left alone for who knows how long now, or that we had just heard what sounded like a support beam crashing to the ground, because next came a horrifying screeching buzzing sound. It sounded distant at first, but was quickly increasing in volume. We silently looked around at each other and backed away stunned at what we were hearing. Mikey never took his eyes off the tunnel though, and slowly he began to raise the BB gun to firing position. Without even thinking, I grabbed the barrel and pushed it downward. He quickly tore his eyes away from his target to look at me. I shook my head and managed to barely choke out the word, “Explosion.” He nodded and I let go. I looked down at the gun in his hands, and seeing his finger had already been on the trigger, I realized how lucky it was that I didn’t make him shoot himself in the foot. All of a sudden, the noise stopped. “What the hell was that?” Lacey asked. “I don’t know, nothing good.” I said. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here before this whole place caves in on us or something.” Another loud bang erupted from the right, extremely close to us. “Shit!!!” We all turned around and ran as fast as we could back toward the entrance. Devin tried to push past me, but as he did my elbow knocked the flashlight out of his hand. “My flashlight!!!” “Leave it!” Mikey shouted “The turn is right here, we won’t need it!” We rounded the corner, and using what little light there was illuminating from the entrance to guide us back, we ran like our lives depended on it. And they may have- none of us dared to look back, not like we would have been able to see anything anyway. When we finally made it out, we were all completely out of breath. I felt like I was going to throw up. I have to admit though, once we had made it back to safety I felt a rush of adrenaline like I had just had a near death experience. That feeling quickly faded into sheer panic when I looked around and realized Michelle was nowhere to be seen. “Uh, where’s Michelle?” Mikey asked me. “I told her to stay right here, she can’t be very far… Michelle!!!!” We all called her name, as loud as we could. No answer, no sign of her anywhere. “Alright look, she probably went off a little further looking for flowers to pick.” I tried to rationalize. “Let’s just split off in 4 directions and walk in a straight line while calling for her. She’s bound to hear one of us.” Everyone agreed, and even though I appeared outwardly as the level-headed calm person you need to take control in an emergency, inside I was petrified that something had happened to her, and that it would be my fault. I took the east, and headed out. It didn’t take too long before I passed a large tree and saw her sitting down behind it, looking at something on the ground. “Michelle! Oh thank god!! Didn’t you hear us calling for you??” She didn’t answer me, or even turn around. “Michelle, didn’t I tell you to stay by the entrance and not move?!?” My relief was quickly turning into annoyance as she continued to ignore me. I walked up closer to see what she was looking at, and my mouth dropped in awe of what she had found. It was a single white trillium.

 They say it takes 8 years for a trillium plant to produce a flower, and conditions have to be just right for it to bloom. That’s what makes them so special and rare. I stared down at it almost in a trance, like I was seeing a mythical creature. Michelle slowly reached out her hand towards it and I snapped out of it. 

“No!!” I grabbed her by the arm and she finally turned around to look at me. “If you pick the flower, the plant will die.” She ripped her arm away from my grasp and whined, “But I want to show my mom!” We heard Mikey calling from the north and I cupped my hands over my mouth to yell back, “I found her, she’s over here!!” I looked back at her. “No Michelle, come on, you can just tell her about it when we get back home.” I had enough, I was beyond ready to go and we still had at least another 45 minutes of walking to even get back to the clubhouse; an hour if Michelle kept up her crap. I grabbed her arm again and pulled her up to a standing position, looking back at the trillium as I walked her away. Mikey caught up to us, breathless but trying to hide his concern. “You little shit, we should have left you out here! What the hell were you doing?” I let go of her arm and she walked toward Mikey. “She was trying to pick a flower over there.” “It was a trillium!!” Michelle said, with the biggest smile on her face. “Wait, really?” He looked at me in disbelief. Before I could respond, a blood curdling scream echoed through the forest, coming from the west. It was Lacey. My heart dropped into my stomach and once again, every molecule in my body went into full blown panic mode. This time, I couldn’t contain my composure. “Laceyyyyyy!!!!!” A panicked shriek erupted from my lungs and I took off running. Mikey grabbed Michelle and sprinted after us. The trees became a blur; I didn’t even feel all the scratches and scrapes. Had she come across a coyote? A mountain lion? A bear? I didn’t even stop to think about the danger I might be about to come in contact with, I just ran. And then I found her. She was lying on the ground, holding her left foot. “Lacey!!” I said, trying to choke back the tears that were building up. “I think I twisted my ankle!!” “Oh god damn it, you bitch.” I struggled to catch my breath. “I thought you were dead.” “I might as well be, I have cheerleading practice on Monday!” Mikey and Michelle caught up to us. “What happened?” He asked “She’s being a drama queen, she just rolled her ankle.” I was angry. “Can you get up?” He asked her. She was able to stand, but as soon as she tried to put any pressure on her foot at all, she screamed in pain. We spotted Devin running over from the south as he was yelling out, “Hey yo, everyone alive and accounted for?” “Yeah, Lacey hurt her ankle.” Mikey yelled back. As he approached he looked concerned. “Can you walk on it?” He asked her. “No.” Without hesitation he replied, “Well alright then, looks like you’re gonna have to piggyback it all the way back home.” He lowered himself enough to where she could hop up onto his back, and we headed back toward the trail. Even though my nerves had begun to settle a bit, I knew we were still far from being out of the woods, in more ways than one.

Basically any actual poem, not lyrics like as in the above song, about making an escape and trying to start a new life on a whim? Especially with a lover. Nothing I've been searching for has been helping.

My girlfriend and I (U.S. MD) bought a 4yo cat from an out of state breeder a few months ago, and since then, we have had nothing but trouble with both the cat, and the breeder. We had been shown video of the cat before picking him up and all seemed well. We asked specifically if the cat would be comfortable with humans and other cats, and the breeder assured us that he would be.
We paid for the cat and picked him up, and from the start, the cat showed signs of abuse. The cat exhibited fear far beyond any cat we've introduced before, especially when anyone stood around him. We had him examined by a behaviorist, and they concluded that the cat had likely been beaten at some point before we got him.
We went through the slow process of acclimating the cat, keeping him separated and slowly introducing him to us. It took much longer than expected, but went well enough. Meanwhile, while we were working on the acclimation, the breeder began to post about us on social media. She didn't use our names, but she would post things like "The people who bought *cat* from me aren't treating him right," "The new owners aren't up to it, I know I'll be getting him back soon," and "If they cant handle it, I'm going to take the cat back in a few months." She never confronted us directly, and she had no reason to assume that things weren't going well.
The biggest problem comes more recently. We began to try and introduce the new cat to our old ones, and right from the start, he has been extremely aggressive. We did the standard slow introduction process with the cats on either side of a barrier, but the new cat quickly became aggressive and broke out, attacking our other cat. No physical harm was done, but our cat was so scared that she peed herself, and she sat in it while she hid. She also has HCM, so the stress has been really bad on her heart. We went back to the behaviorist for help, and she now believes that the new cat will never be able to live with other cats, in stark contrast to the breeder's assurances.
We can't keep the cat if he'll never be able to live with the others, It's unfair to him to keep him confined, if there'll never be a chance for him to come out. The contact we signed gives the breeder right of first refusal, but it also says that she wont give us a refund, only a new cat. The contract has a clause saying that neither party can disparage the other online, which she already has done, and after everything this breeder has put us through, we really don't want another cat from her.
I don't think it has any baring, but we also realized on a re read of the contract that it was addressed to a combination of our names, so a person who doesn't exist. Is there anything we can do to get our money back and wash our hands of the breeder?

I start with the premise that I don't follow the theories posted here very much, so I don't know if this theory has already been presented. However, I have seen several theories saying that the 'D' stood for 'Dawn', 'Doom', 'Devil', a smile, and more. In my opinion, none of these are correct.
Given recent events and revelations, D could be the initial of the name of the first pirate ever: 'Joyboy'. Those who bear the D in their name are those who have inherited the will of the original pirate, which is to revolutionize the world and fight for freedom.
The Original Pirate
Several times, they have referred to D as if it were 'someone', a person. For example, Trafalgar Law wondered aloud that the Will of D will almost certainly call up a storm again, as someone who will replicate the deeds of D according to his will. Rosinante referred to the clan (or family) of D as the natural enemy of God, in my opinion meaning Joy Boy's crew, who at that time opposed Imu and his subordinates. He also says that D. it's a name passed down in secret.
https://preview.redd.it/26m786ggis1d1.png?width=778&format=png&auto=webp&s=5e20539749e06c7189cc63a9d4760b861503119f
Now, it's just a matter of understanding what Joyboy's real name might be, but I haven't found many clues about it. What do you guys think?