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Jack's Biches
2012.03.29 02:04 Kevinmeowertons Jack's Biches
A subreddit dedicated to the well known YouTuber, Jack Douglass! Post almost anything you want, as long as it's related to Jack!
2020.04.21 20:33 666DS999 JennMorelAss
Jenn Morel’s beautiful body shown for research purposes
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2024.05.14 16:30 Corruptfun As If It Were Kismet Prologue & Chapters 1-5
As If It Were Kismet: Prologue
Matt tore through the brush, blind in the dark. He didn’t care where he was going. He only knew he needed to be elsewhere. Far from here.
Behind him a creature howled that shocked his mind. It’s form was cruel and dangerous, though female. Nothing like the young woman she had once been. Nothing but a girl, a small and slight female.
It’s guttural growls and howls only grew closer as Matt tried to pick between seeing where he was going and getting away. The few times he looked he caught sight of the creature behind him. Hopping through the air with a speed that told him he was being toyed with. As if he were a mouse being played with by a cat.
But the reflex in him to run kept him going. His adrenaline going as hard as it could. The tightness and burning in his core tensing and locking up as his legs felt like there were being burned from within while taking on more of a heaviness.
His lungs were starting to betray him as he tried to gulp big breaths of air but only rapid and shallow breaths were all that he could manage. His brain was starting to burn….and then he was falling.
Falling down the side of a hill he saw the creature dart in a spring towards him, imperceivably fast almost. Catching him in mid air it seemed.
Managing to wrap its body around him and cushion his impact against the ground as they rolled. His mind barely took in what was happening during the roll. Only starting to understand what was happening once they were still.
The creature's triple D-cup breasts were unmistakably pressed hard against his back as he laid facing up at the night sky.
For a few seconds the world stilled and the needle light pain hitting the center of his brain took over for the cooking heat his brain had felt. His whole body felt heavy and reluctant to move.
Even if he could have really moved, a dull ache came over his limbs making them feel stilled and trapped as if by immeasurable amounts of sand that had engulfed him.
Slowly the arms holding him started to move. Moving so the creature's hands could start exploring him. Causing Matt to unstoppably let out a pathetic moan that made him go cold inside as hands lifted up his shirt and started to touch his exposed stomach and then his chest.
He would have whimpered so pathetically had he not still been in the depths of terror.
As its hands felt and groped his pecs he tried to situp as if to get away. For his efforts, his reward was a hand around his throat and a collection snarls and growls against his ear. A beastly, guttural voice spat words at him while somehow holding a feminine tone.
“Don’t move….I don’t know if I can calm down…”
Her words were not helped by her moans in his ear and the subsequent kissing of his ear. The flesh of his ear going between her lips as she moaned and seemed to pant. Releasing it and licking the side of his face with a moist warmth. He could feel its spittle, viscous and coating his flesh where the tongue touched. He could smell something in his saliva. Something that subtly entranced him.
Matt went stock still with fear and the confusion of mixed arousal. He barely perceived her right hand traveling lower on his body. A surprised moan and shudder echoed in the night from Matt’s lips as she took ahold of him. Her hand above his pants but still….stimulating him.
A light squeezing and almost probing of her digits kept him aroused and confused within her grasp. Resigning himself to the strange fate, Matt looked up at the stars as his mind tried not to shatter under the strange maelstrom of events and sensation that had started mere minutes ago.
His mind was only more confused as a slight figure, feminine in build, how it seemed to thunk the ground audibly as she landed on her feet out nowhere. Her knees barely bending under the pressure of the landing. Yet dirt was kicked up anyways and some of it onto Matt. Feeling it pepper his shirt and pants as it fell.
The figure, lit only faintly by moonlight, roared some dark tone Matt could only perceive as a demon as her eyes went bright with a crimson light. A light in the darkness that should not have been. “Let him go you bitch.” Was its words following the roar. Spittle escaping its mouth with faint droplets hit Matt's face.
The creature holding him by his throat and crotch seemed to tighten the grasp of both hands as it roared back. “HE IS MINE!”
The figure paused with a moment's hesitation. He was also her quarry. She had felt his fear without him knowing. His confused arousal. His fear. His terror.
And now he laid at the center of a struggle between two monsters. Unsure of who he wanted to win.
As If It Was Kismet Ch. 1
Matthew Berkshire hadn’t seen his mom in two years. Not that he had seen her much over the last six years.
A messy divorce between messy people and mom’s chaotic want for a life in Alaska had been one of the most…upsetting times in life. Setting him up for so much of what had defined his life thus far but then that had really started two years before he ever turned.
His ear buds were basic and simple. A part of cheap five pack, common for his life as he was known to lose little things. Small things. They had a mix of metal and hard rock playing in them. Some classics, some alternative. Whatever made him feel something, anything. Even if it was hate. Anger. Rage. It was better than feeling numb. Not belonging.
The escalator down to his lone bag to go with his lone carry on showed his mom waiting for him. His had a type, that’s for damn sure. Not that it helped him in the genetics department as he was stuck at 5’9” to go along with his mother’s five foot even as his dad stood six foot. Forever leaving him to feel small, to pale, under his dad’s shadow. Did he ever stand a chance?
The guy next to her with the unkempt former seventies porn stache was “Dave.” He’d met him twice when his mother came and visited him in Florida. To his credit the guy didn’t look annoyed. Kind of concerned kind of which made Matthew want to break his frozen look but he was well practiced. Having removed any note of sadness from his face through much…tribulation.
His mother’s look on her face betrayed a hint of worry as the bruises on his face lightly showed up close. Saying his name was his like a distant echo that belonged to someone else.
Dave cut in and pulled out his right headphone. “What the hell bud, they knock you hard enough to hurt hearing? Your mom’s asking how you are doing.”
Matthew pulled out the other bud and grunted an empty “sorry.”
“You still have bruises after two week? What did they do to you?” His mom’s voice was full of worry. Something he hadn’t heard in….too long. Too long to make him feel anything. To ever make him believe there was any sincerity to her words. To not think her voice and mannerisms were an act. An act by someone who…wasn’t really there.
“It’s only fair. I took a nose. Fractured a couple orbital bones. Left one with having to get his jaw wired shut. And one will never walk right again for what I did to his knee cap.” Matthew said it all with a bored and disinterested tone. Perhaps well rehearsed.
“My man, handing out ass kickings, not bothering to take names.” Dave was quick to be the typical man’s man about it. Matthew wasn’t quite done yet. Lifting up his shirt to expose the right side near his kidney. Revealing a nasty scar from a six inch blade. “Luckily they gave me this first so they could rule it all in self-defense. The fuck didn’t get it in more than inch before I ruined his knee cap and then I took the nose of one of the fucks holding me.” Now he chose to smile keeping the well practiced dead look in his eyes.
No retorts. No questions. Just horrified looks on their faces. As he liked. As he preferred. They could hate him. They could be disgusted by him. But by God they would fear him.
“Well the doc did a good job sewing you up.” Dave commented uncomfortably. “Dissolving sutures. Ain’t they grand.” He smiled again and let it abruptly fall off his face and started walking to the carousel for the baggage claim.
Waiting and making small talk with Dave as his mother stood in silence. He was not the little boy she abandoned. The little boy she left with an angry man. While never hitting him. Left him in constant fear till he turned twelve and just didn’t care anymore. Something snapped. Broke. And he didn’t care if he died. Didn’t care if he stole. Didn’t even care if he killed. He just knew not to get caught. Something left over from his grandfather’s wisdom which came to make more and more sense with each passing year of life since that thing inside him broke.
Finally his bag came around and Dave went to try first to grab it but Dave practically leapt ahead of him. “Is that your grandfather’s rucksack bag?” his mother asked in a perplexed voice.
“Figured it’s been around since Viet Nam. So it’d serve me better than any of the worthless stuff they called luggage.” Dave commented after Matthew’s words. “Well hell yeah I still got mine from Desert Storm. You know the first one.” Dave laughed and Matthew eyed him oddly. Be it in the south or whether it was Alaska, country boys are country boys he guessed.
The car ride to the two people’s house, as Matthew thought of them. Was uneventful and full of vistas he imagined metropolitan types wetting themselves over. At most they meant isolation to him. Furtherness from the world as there were no mountains in Florida. And what mountains he had last seen in another state had been when he was eight. Another life, to Matthew it felt like. A life alien to him.
As If It Was Kismet Ch 2
Dave and his mom’s place was some two story type tucked into a tree line far up an elevated point. It was by no means the highest point in the mountain but it certainly felt up there.
Rocks were where the driveway should have been Matthew thought. Grabbing his backpack and rucksack from Dave’s jeep was no hard thing for him. Matthew was in formidable shape for someone his age, maybe even five years older. He had gotten a mix of fairly big shoulders and arms along with the chest to go for it when compared to most kids his age. A side effect of working out at least twice a day. First thing in the morning, some time in the evening, and the school’s gym when had had a good semester in school before he had to leave Florida.
Dave tried to come up and help him but Matthew walked past him towards the house. His mom was not sure what to make of his demeanor. Matthew was not the sweet kind boy he had once been. But she had been gone from his life essentially for a long time.
Ushering him into the house she cracked some joke he did not hear. He was too busy looking about and seeing a mix of old outdated decorating mixed with the strange and odd flair of his mother. Color contrasting against drab and dated. Like brightly painting over an old home that was falling apart he thought.
“Your room is this way Mattie.” His mom brightly intoned.
Without expressing any interest he followed his mother. Still faced and nonplussed. Just going along with the current. Pushed and pulled with its roll like a piece of driftwood.
The room was simple. A single small bed. A set of rubber weights with a curl bar and barbells. “Your dad said you were into weight lifting so we got you a bunch of stuff. Dave says it looks like his department’s gym almost. The woman’s smile felt very alien to him.
“Thank you. I appreciate it. I’ve got most of my stuff from home.” Matthew starting unpacking his rucksack and pulled out cables of repetitive and mixed colors. A single plastic barbell handle. The ruck sack could be filled with water bottles for added weight during pushups he figured. Remembering a Michael Keaton movie he watched with his dad post-Batman movies where he played a convicted killer using plastic bags filled with water for weights.
Matthew caught movement outside his lone fairly large window that could let him step out onto the roof of the house given its layout.
He saw a number of people running together through what he guessed was the backyard of the property, not that it had any fences to mark boundaries
They wore clothes that looked similar yet different from each other at the same time.”Oh those are the Johnston’s. Really nice bunch of people. Been on the mountain for a long time Dave tells me.”
Matthew looked at the group of people running and noticed the lack of resemblance. “They are related?” Matthew quizzically asked. Seeing a black and possibly a hispanic person amongst the bland looking white people.
“Oh well they are all adopted but for one or two of them…besides the parents of course. The family has a long tradition of taking in orphans they say. Real nice of them to do that don’t you think.”
Matthew looked at his mother and the hosier accent made no sense to him as he arched his left eye brow. Her and his dad were both from Florida. Born and raised. Sure her parents were from New York city but…
Matthew shook his lightly without turning to look at his mother as his vision was grabbed by one of the runners in particular. A girl of moderate height. Soft brunette. A plain beauty he figured with a slim build….and lack of remarkable breasts and rear to make any note of but….girls in general were his type at his age.
She was pretty enough. He couldn’t deny that but he found himself transfixed by her visage.
But the way she turned and looked at him, especially at that distance felt very disconcerting to him. Even if she was smiling like…she was a taste of a bright shiny day. Somehow.
Matthew’s mom noticed the exchange and smiled to herself with closed lips. “Oh that’s Vicky. She’s your age I think. Very sweet girl, who does the charity functions. You know bake sales, blood drives, car washes and the like. I think you should get to know her. Might be good for you.”
A truck horn sounded a couple of beeps in rather succession. “Oh that must be Mack, he said he might come by later this evening but he seems early.”
Matthew’s mother turned and left his room. Leaving Matthew to exchange a few looks with the alluring Vicky as she turned her head away from him to talk to the others in her group and look back at him.
Still Matthew’s left eyebrow was arched. In a way that reminded him of Spock from Star Trek that he and his grandpa used to watch on some streaming service or another.
As he heard ambient chatter elsewhere outside the house he figured to check it out as the alluring sight of Vicky would be around he figured. It was dull to stare at artwork. He was a boy who preferred jet skis and the like. Something he could ride and enjoy immensely. Even if at times it got him stabbed.
As If It Was Kismet Ch 3
Matthew sauntered out of the house and down the rockway that stood in for a driveway.
A few new people had come over from what he could first surmise of the situation. As he got closer it was obvious they were indigenous people. A couple of grown men…and a girl?
She was mousey. Maybe five foot. Hiding behind glasses and a big camo jacket that was far too big for her. It looked made for a grown man and the backwards trucker hat on her head kept her long black a beautiful mess of sorts.
She was cute in a way. A little androgynous but she had a cute energy to her. She reminded him of the more tomboyish Puerto Rican girls he had gotten into back in Florida. Given the deer corpses in the back of the truck….probably more dangerous to play with given the men in her family.
Small chatter passed between the adults when the girl noticed but turned away, trying to hide the tiny hint of a smile.
“Oh Mattie, this is Mack. He works with Dave at the sheriff’s department and John, he’s with fish and wildlife.” Matthew nodded at his mom’s words with some blankness as he looked at the deer the in the back of the pickup truck.
“Gale tells us you hunted with your dad some in Florida and Georgia.” Mack offered with a light hearted laugh camouflaged by his big simple and cheery but husky way he spoke.
Looking in the back of the truck he spoke. “We used lever action thirty-thirties and Mosin Nagants in seven-six-two-fifty-four-rimmed.” Mack and John whistled in an exaggerated fashion. Leaving Matthew to wonder if they were mocking him.
Mack spoke. “Well we just used thirty-odd-six in a custom gussied Garand.” That caught Matthew’s attention. “You have a Garand…” Matthew finally demonstrated interest in anything. “My dad has an SVT-40 and a Hakim 8mm but he always wanted a Garand but was too cheap to buy one.”
Gale, his mother, chimed in loudly. “Oh his Dad loved his guns but was such an odd duck about how he bought or why he bought them. Never made sense to me how he wasn’t a collector but he didn’t get the latest and greatest.” Gale laughed uncomfortably. At least it seemed that way to Matthew.
Matthew pointed to the girl with an underhanded pointing hand. “And who is this? A cute little mute mouse or does she have a name?” Dave and the other men laughed.
Mack again spoke. “Well you people call her Rebecca, she’s my adopted daughter.” Matthew was taken aback by what he heard. “You people?”
Rebecca kindly spoke with a soft but almost melodic voice as she struggled to maintain eye contact. “White people or rather not members of our tribe. It’s just easier to appease the colonizer kind of thing. Borrowed from when the Jesuit missionaries chased us up here.”
Mack stepped in. “It’s just easier to have white people names than have them try to say our tribal names. And we don’t want them shortening or Anglicising our names kind of thing.” Rebecca stepped back into the conversation cutting off her adopted father. “It’s an insult to our history basically.”
Matthew cocked his head sideways raising his eyebrows shortly before letting them drop. “Well as soon as I’m eighteen I’m out of here and back to Florida so I’m a sort of involuntary colonizer of sorts. So I won’t be taking any of your land from you. The Seminoles on the other hand are still shit out of luck.”
Rebecca’s smile caused Matthew to reflexively smile. Mack made the moment more awkward. “See Becca, I told you someone off the reservation would like you some. You just have to be creative.” Mack laughed in a chiding manner…Matthew presumed. He sensed that he was the butt of some kind of cultural joke. Like marrying a white guy was some sort of insult or mark of shame. That kind of thing.
Rebecca turning away from him was not something he had been expecting. Her then getting in the truck in a huff left the group in a silence for a moment.
Dave spoke to break the awkward silence. “Well just bring the truck to work on Monday and leave it for me to grab up.” Mack acknowledged Dave and they started to get off as Rebecca looked at Matthew for another instance. Matthew couldn’t look away for some reason as the two seemed to lock eyes for an instance.
Till Vicky and family seemed to come jogging down the road. While Matthew’s eyes diverted from Rebecca’s. Hers did not till she realized he was looking elsewhere. And her vision found Vicky and what had been a hint of smile on her face turned glum and disappointed.
Matthew did not look away from the vision of Vicky but instead of a starry eyed fool looking longingly. It was a baffled look. Well baffled for him, with his eyes drawn narrow and night with a focus.
There was something about her…he couldn’t quite put a name too. The way she appeared to him. One second brunette. The next second blonde or blonde like. As if the color appeared in her air and disappeared in fractions of seconds. Much the same way her body almost seemed to…shift…very subtly…smoothly. A nicer bum. Larger breasts. And then back to a simple and plain form. Feminine no doubt. Attractive. But not so…remarkable.
As If It Was Kismet Ch 4
The next two days passed without incident. Nothing of any real substance or challenge to note.
Matthew got settled somewhat and started working out almost immediately. Exploring around the woods but Dave told him not to go far. Especially without a hunting rifle. Dave had left a simple semi-auto Winchester out for him. His bear gun as Dave referred to it with its four round magazine. But Matt figured till he got some practice with the rifle to leave it alone. He made a hiking stick like his grandpa taught him and treated it over a low fire. He would take some electrical tape for the end his hand would grip around. Plenty enough to ward off anything smaller than a bear he figured.
The ride to school was a pain in the neck but simple enough. Dave would let him use a clunker pickup truck he had laying around. It wasn’t pretty but it would get him to and from. Even if it was from the eighties and still backfired on occasion. But for now Dave and his mom took him on their way to the sheriff’s department.
It wasn’t much of a school. It wanted to be modern but its fifties original construction was very obvious. It serviced the pipeline families and familys’ of fisherman who worked the seasons in between their time at the pipeline.
Matt was to report to the principal for some reason Dave and his mom wouldn’t share. Which annoyed him but he figured it was to read him the law of land. Small towns with their big views of the outside world and like.
Dressed in jeans, a grey sweatshirt under a light jacket with steel toed boots set him more apart then he expected. His buzzed head didn’t help matters. Already he was feeling like a stranger in a strange land but he was quite strange after all. And he liked it that way. Normal people were so pathetically disappointing to him.
A secretary or assistant or some such led him to the principal’s office. Where it reeked of real wood that was old and fabric and upholstery that needed to be updated for the last twenty years, Matt figured.
“This is Matthew Berkshire, Principal Andrews.” The man was turned with his back to the door and he was quick to wave her off as he turned her around.
He was an older man. Fat and large. Tall with a body built like he had once been fit and a demeanour of annoyed and irate already as he fixed Matt with a scowl and look of disgust. Another worthless government whore. Matt thought to himself. His father and his grandfather had bestowed unto him a natural disrespect for government workers and the figures that wore unjustified authority as a shield but pretended the weight of the state was not at their back ready to crush all who resisted. Little figures of valor pretending to be mighty and alone but acting with the tyranny of the state and all the backing.
“Mr. Berkshire, please sit down.” His tone wasn’t unusually hostile, just gruff. As if he had better things to do.
Matt complied and took a seat in the chair while maintaining a friendly facade. Not everyone was an enemy. And not everyone needed to be an enemy. Even if anybody could be any enemy. There was no reason to make enemies you didn’t have to. Another of his grandfather’s bastardised wisdoms.
“Well I looked over you file and you have quite the history Mr. Berkshire.” Matt resisted qiuping back a joke. Instead he waited for Principal Andrews to continue as he remained nonplussed and looking as if he felt no need to respond. A simple head tilt with dead eyes looking back at the principle as if he was not even there would suffice.
Matt’s reaction or lack of a reaction rather made Principal Andrews only narrow his eyes with examination. He was not used to a kid not responding to him. Especially with his gruff and hard act going on.
“Well by all accounts you moved here after some problems at your last school. A fight broke out and you did some real harm to your fellow students it appears.” Of course, he would take the side of the perpetrators. School administrators always did. Especially when they weren’t white. Just a fact of the times. Cowardice and pathetic mediocrity was the way they leaned, like good government workers sucking the dick of Big Daddy government. Worthless whores.
Matt chose to reply. “Oh you mean the criminals that stabbed me. Got arrested at the hospital and then pled to felonies. Yeah Florida, with the American counties are good like that.” Principal Andrews went real still. No shame. No fear. No penitence. He didn’t like that.
“Well be it as it may Mr. Berkshire we don’t tolerate that kind of behaviour here…” Matt cut him off responding with a deadpan tone. “You mean self-defense meant to save one’s own life while the cowardly and pathetic school workers look on with zero interest but to keep their money rolling in and will allow known gang members with records of violent acts and crimes that should have them expelled many times over, where in certain Democrat counties such cowardice and idiocy empowered a couple school shooters?”
Principal Andrews looked at the Matt with a note of disgust. “Look here Mr. Berkshire, your beliefs matter not one bit here. This isn’t Florida. We don’t like our way of life being disrupted by outside agitators who have problems with authority.”
Matt did his best not to roll his eyes and let the older fat man drone own as he dead-stared him. Lifeless and without emotion.
The man came to a finish and Matt spoke up without having listened to him or paid him any attention. “Great now that’s taken care of. Can I please get to class and finish my sentence of two years at your wonderful school?”
Principal Andrews huffed and snorted before calling in Vicky. Vicky stood in the corner after entering with a quiet and seamless presence. Matt felt disturbed and tried not betray his feelings as the young Vicky was perceived and not perceived to be moving.
Principal Andrews made the introductions and Matt nodded back. She was to be his chaperone for the day. They had the same classes and she was to show him the ropes so to speak. The ins and outs of the school. The locations of their classes.
He recognized her. It was hard not to. The way her appearance seemed to shift fluidly almost. The petite and skinny brunette ever so lightly had a big bust and blonde hair with curves added when she seemed to shift before his eyes. Like watching a film but each frame had a different person.
Matt didn’t say anything about it. Even if he did he would only be acknowledging his crazed state, if he had one. If.
Unlike an obedient puppy dog he got up in a slow and awkward fashion and followed behind her as his oddly disproportionate frame allowed. Causing her a note of concern for some reason. As if she was seeing something she shouldn’t have been….Or he was just weird. And Matt could admit to himself he was just weird. Part of his charm, he would jest about it at times. Not that he had many people to jest to now.
As If It Were Kismet Ch. 5
Following Vicky into the hall off to their first class was simple. She exchanged small talk and he slightly smiled as if to obviously suggest he was just being polite.
Inside his head, Matt was trying to figure out if he was having a psychotic break. The way Vicky looked kept changing and he looked at the other people around him and they stayed the same.
He was searching his mind as they were walking. And thus he wasn’t paying attention to where he was looking and so fell to his face forward over his feet seemingly out of nowhere.
A series of laughs erupted as it sunk in that he was obviously tripped. Like in prison this was a challenge to his superiority. If he let this pass he would be mocked and sneered at by this same group of boys. He wouldn’t walk to them like he was going to do nothing like a little bitch.
In a rage he turned and punched the stomach of the first face he saw. Some typical blonde haired wannabe jock. He knew from experience not to aim for the ribs. Instead he needed to aim for where he thought the belly button was.
Yells and screams blindly echoed around him as his after the punch he followed up his elbow of the opposite arm slamming into the face of the jock. Harder than a fist, the elbow struck the jock’s jaw and seemingly dropped him against a locker. Just in time to catch an errant and soft punch to the nose that sure enough hurt but did little to slow him down as his dad had taught him to fight through the pain. Blood and scars happened. They were a natural consequence of life to a man.
Taking the punch and falling further into his red state Matt headbutted the punch thrower before another guy arm bared his throat from behind. Which he managed to get his grip on the arm over a letterman jacked and jerk the unprepared boy to the side with him still latched on.
A few feet away from the lockers Matt knew his only chance was to jump and push off the lockers and knock the boy to the ground and so he did. He heard a thunk of the boy’s skull bouncing off the ground and he turned to pull out of the grapple.
The beatings he had taken from his father, the grapples, being choked unconscious. Had prepared him for fighting little bitches who didn’t know what a fight was. It wasn’t gay porn with rabbit punch fists flying.
Blood was running down his face and the pain started to hit him as the threats had been eliminated. Only then did he remember to breathe. Taking breathes as Vicky came up to him with tissues and took a hold of his nose.
“Owww owww owww what the fuck my nose could be broken.” He said to Vicky as she pulled his head up and back.
“It’s ok Carl. It’s done.” Matt tried to look to see who Vicky was talking to. It was a boy taller than his 5’9” by more than a small margin. The boy eyed him bored and annoyed before speaking. “What happened here?” An unoriginal line but one Matt couldn’t be a smart aleck about. “Well you see there was an outbreak of tripping and we all tripped over my dick. It happens.” Matt was about to laugh when Vicky seemed to pull up while still gripping his nose causing Matt no small amount of pain which he audibly evidenced.
Vicky spoke in a tone he wasn’t expecting. As if she was accustomed to issuing orders. “Keep Iris away from the hall till we sanitize the site. We have blood from at least three people contaminating the site. And have Jake bring me a spare jacket and shirt for this moron.”
Carl seemed to acknowledge her orders and seemed to blink away. Maybe the punch hit harder than he expected. He had no time to wonder as Vick took her hand away from his and pushed him against the lockers. With ease he had not been expecting from her form and stature.
Before he could respond Vicky licked his blood covered chin and then his lips and spoke to him. “Focus on me you little blood bag.” Her tone had an annoyed yet feminine sneer.
“Look into my eyes. Look at me. You belong to me. You are just another food source in a collection of food sources.” Her eyes were a beautiful hazel Matt thought. Almost green. Pretty like jewels in some old treasure collections. The eyes he could get lost in before kissing her. Finally Vicky was just a slight and petite brunette and he thought she was beautiful.
She would make a hell of a girlfriend. Some cute thing he could see laying on the beach in Florida on their sides laughing and smiling before trading light kisses while hands wandered innocently. Before his mind could drift further he felt her lips on his. It took him a second to mentally grasp the kiss but his arms were around her back as her hands were at his sides. His eyes reflexively closed as he saw hers close.
It was ineffable to Matt. Beyond words, what was happening. The kiss, the moments beforehand. The way his brain tickled with electricity and gentle warmth. He had never had a kiss like this and he had traded more than a few kisses with at least a few girls.
The kiss was like a warm bath with his consciousness slipping beneath the surface. Their lips only parted to try new angles and approaches as Matt struggled to take in breath. It was a moment he could have stayed trapped in for….he didn’t know. But a curt throat clearing by another girl pulled them out of the moment.
The girl was taller than Vicky. Blonde. With slight curves. Vicky addressed her bewildered and gobsmacked, and perhaps a bit embarrassed. “Tina?”
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Matt tore through the brush, blind in the dark. He didn’t care where he was going. He only knew he needed to be elsewhere. Far from here.
Behind him a creature howled that shocked his mind. It’s form was cruel and dangerous, though female. Nothing like the young woman she had once been. Nothing but a girl, a small and slight female.
It’s guttural growls and howls only grew closer as Matt tried to pick between seeing where he was going and getting away. The few times he looked he caught sight of the creature behind him. Hopping through the air with a speed that told him he was being toyed with. As if he were a mouse being played with by a cat.
But the reflex in him to run kept him going. His adrenaline going as hard as it could. The tightness and burning in his core tensing and locking up as his legs felt like there were being burned from within while taking on more of a heaviness.
His lungs were starting to betray him as he tried to gulp big breaths of air but only rapid and shallow breaths were all that he could manage. His brain was starting to burn….and then he was falling.
Falling down the side of a hill he saw the creature dart in a spring towards him, imperceivably fast almost. Catching him in mid air it seemed.
Managing to wrap its body around him and cushion his impact against the ground as they rolled. His mind barely took in what was happening during the roll. Only starting to understand what was happening once they were still.
The creature's triple D-cup breasts were unmistakably pressed hard against his back as he laid facing up at the night sky.
For a few seconds the world stilled and the needle light pain hitting the center of his brain took over for the cooking heat his brain had felt. His whole body felt heavy and reluctant to move.
Even if he could have really moved, a dull ache came over his limbs making them feel stilled and trapped as if by immeasurable amounts of sand that had engulfed him.
Slowly the arms holding him started to move. Moving so the creature's hands could start exploring him. Causing Matt to unstoppably let out a pathetic moan that made him go cold inside as hands lifted up his shirt and started to touch his exposed stomach and then his chest.
He would have whimpered so pathetically had he not still been in the depths of terror.
As its hands felt and groped his pecs he tried to situp as if to get away. For his efforts, his reward was a hand around his throat and a collection snarls and growls against his ear. A beastly, guttural voice spat words at him while somehow holding a feminine tone.
“Don’t move….I don’t know if I can calm down…”
Her words were not helped by her moans in his ear and the subsequent kissing of his ear. The flesh of his ear going between her lips as she moaned and seemed to pant. Releasing it and licking the side of his face with a moist warmth. He could feel its spittle, viscous and coating his flesh where the tongue touched. He could smell something in his saliva. Something that subtly entranced him.
Matt went stock still with fear and the confusion of mixed arousal. He barely perceived her right hand traveling lower on his body. A surprised moan and shudder echoed in the night from Matt’s lips as she took ahold of him. Her hand above his pants but still….stimulating him.
A light squeezing and almost probing of her digits kept him aroused and confused within her grasp. Resigning himself to the strange fate, Matt looked up at the stars as his mind tried not to shatter under the strange maelstrom of events and sensation that had started mere minutes ago.
His mind was only more confused as a slight figure, feminine in build, how it seemed to thunk the ground audibly as she landed on her feet out nowhere. Her knees barely bending under the pressure of the landing. Yet dirt was kicked up anyways and some of it onto Matt. Feeling it pepper his shirt and pants as it fell.
The figure, lit only faintly by moonlight, roared some dark tone Matt could only perceive as a demon as her eyes went bright with a crimson light. A light in the darkness that should not have been. “Let him go you bitch.” Was its words following the roar. Spittle escaping its mouth with faint droplets hit Matt's face.
The creature holding him by his throat and crotch seemed to tighten the grasp of both hands as it roared back. “HE IS MINE!”
The figure paused with a moment's hesitation. He was also her quarry. She had felt his fear without him knowing. His confused arousal. His fear. His terror.
And now he laid at the center of a struggle between two monsters. Unsure of who he wanted to win.
As If It Was Kismet Ch. 1
Matthew Berkshire hadn’t seen his mom in two years. Not that he had seen her much over the last six years.
A messy divorce between messy people and mom’s chaotic want for a life in Alaska had been one of the most…upsetting times in life. Setting him up for so much of what had defined his life thus far but then that had really started two years before he ever turned.
His ear buds were basic and simple. A part of cheap five pack, common for his life as he was known to lose little things. Small things. They had a mix of metal and hard rock playing in them. Some classics, some alternative. Whatever made him feel something, anything. Even if it was hate. Anger. Rage. It was better than feeling numb. Not belonging.
The escalator down to his lone bag to go with his lone carry on showed his mom waiting for him. His had a type, that’s for damn sure. Not that it helped him in the genetics department as he was stuck at 5’9” to go along with his mother’s five foot even as his dad stood six foot. Forever leaving him to feel small, to pale, under his dad’s shadow. Did he ever stand a chance?
The guy next to her with the unkempt former seventies porn stache was “Dave.” He’d met him twice when his mother came and visited him in Florida. To his credit the guy didn’t look annoyed. Kind of concerned kind of which made Matthew want to break his frozen look but he was well practiced. Having removed any note of sadness from his face through much…tribulation.
His mother’s look on her face betrayed a hint of worry as the bruises on his face lightly showed up close. Saying his name was his like a distant echo that belonged to someone else.
Dave cut in and pulled out his right headphone. “What the hell bud, they knock you hard enough to hurt hearing? Your mom’s asking how you are doing.”
Matthew pulled out the other bud and grunted an empty “sorry.”
“You still have bruises after two week? What did they do to you?” His mom’s voice was full of worry. Something he hadn’t heard in….too long. Too long to make him feel anything. To ever make him believe there was any sincerity to her words. To not think her voice and mannerisms were an act. An act by someone who…wasn’t really there.
“It’s only fair. I took a nose. Fractured a couple orbital bones. Left one with having to get his jaw wired shut. And one will never walk right again for what I did to his knee cap.” Matthew said it all with a bored and disinterested tone. Perhaps well rehearsed.
“My man, handing out ass kickings, not bothering to take names.” Dave was quick to be the typical man’s man about it. Matthew wasn’t quite done yet. Lifting up his shirt to expose the right side near his kidney. Revealing a nasty scar from a six inch blade. “Luckily they gave me this first so they could rule it all in self-defense. The fuck didn’t get it in more than inch before I ruined his knee cap and then I took the nose of one of the fucks holding me.” Now he chose to smile keeping the well practiced dead look in his eyes.
No retorts. No questions. Just horrified looks on their faces. As he liked. As he preferred. They could hate him. They could be disgusted by him. But by God they would fear him.
“Well the doc did a good job sewing you up.” Dave commented uncomfortably. “Dissolving sutures. Ain’t they grand.” He smiled again and let it abruptly fall off his face and started walking to the carousel for the baggage claim.
Waiting and making small talk with Dave as his mother stood in silence. He was not the little boy she abandoned. The little boy she left with an angry man. While never hitting him. Left him in constant fear till he turned twelve and just didn’t care anymore. Something snapped. Broke. And he didn’t care if he died. Didn’t care if he stole. Didn’t even care if he killed. He just knew not to get caught. Something left over from his grandfather’s wisdom which came to make more and more sense with each passing year of life since that thing inside him broke.
Finally his bag came around and Dave went to try first to grab it but Dave practically leapt ahead of him. “Is that your grandfather’s rucksack bag?” his mother asked in a perplexed voice.
“Figured it’s been around since Viet Nam. So it’d serve me better than any of the worthless stuff they called luggage.” Dave commented after Matthew’s words. “Well hell yeah I still got mine from Desert Storm. You know the first one.” Dave laughed and Matthew eyed him oddly. Be it in the south or whether it was Alaska, country boys are country boys he guessed.
The car ride to the two people’s house, as Matthew thought of them. Was uneventful and full of vistas he imagined metropolitan types wetting themselves over. At most they meant isolation to him. Furtherness from the world as there were no mountains in Florida. And what mountains he had last seen in another state had been when he was eight. Another life, to Matthew it felt like. A life alien to him.
As If It Was Kismet Ch 2
Dave and his mom’s place was some two story type tucked into a tree line far up an elevated point. It was by no means the highest point in the mountain but it certainly felt up there.
Rocks were where the driveway should have been Matthew thought. Grabbing his backpack and rucksack from Dave’s jeep was no hard thing for him. Matthew was in formidable shape for someone his age, maybe even five years older. He had gotten a mix of fairly big shoulders and arms along with the chest to go for it when compared to most kids his age. A side effect of working out at least twice a day. First thing in the morning, some time in the evening, and the school’s gym when had had a good semester in school before he had to leave Florida.
Dave tried to come up and help him but Matthew walked past him towards the house. His mom was not sure what to make of his demeanor. Matthew was not the sweet kind boy he had once been. But she had been gone from his life essentially for a long time.
Ushering him into the house she cracked some joke he did not hear. He was too busy looking about and seeing a mix of old outdated decorating mixed with the strange and odd flair of his mother. Color contrasting against drab and dated. Like brightly painting over an old home that was falling apart he thought.
“Your room is this way Mattie.” His mom brightly intoned.
Without expressing any interest he followed his mother. Still faced and nonplussed. Just going along with the current. Pushed and pulled with its roll like a piece of driftwood.
The room was simple. A single small bed. A set of rubber weights with a curl bar and barbells. “Your dad said you were into weight lifting so we got you a bunch of stuff. Dave says it looks like his department’s gym almost. The woman’s smile felt very alien to him.
“Thank you. I appreciate it. I’ve got most of my stuff from home.” Matthew starting unpacking his rucksack and pulled out cables of repetitive and mixed colors. A single plastic barbell handle. The ruck sack could be filled with water bottles for added weight during pushups he figured. Remembering a Michael Keaton movie he watched with his dad post-Batman movies where he played a convicted killer using plastic bags filled with water for weights.
Matthew caught movement outside his lone fairly large window that could let him step out onto the roof of the house given its layout.
He saw a number of people running together through what he guessed was the backyard of the property, not that it had any fences to mark boundaries
They wore clothes that looked similar yet different from each other at the same time.”Oh those are the Johnston’s. Really nice bunch of people. Been on the mountain for a long time Dave tells me.”
Matthew looked at the group of people running and noticed the lack of resemblance. “They are related?” Matthew quizzically asked. Seeing a black and possibly a hispanic person amongst the bland looking white people.
“Oh well they are all adopted but for one or two of them…besides the parents of course. The family has a long tradition of taking in orphans they say. Real nice of them to do that don’t you think.”
Matthew looked at his mother and the hosier accent made no sense to him as he arched his left eye brow. Her and his dad were both from Florida. Born and raised. Sure her parents were from New York city but…
Matthew shook his lightly without turning to look at his mother as his vision was grabbed by one of the runners in particular. A girl of moderate height. Soft brunette. A plain beauty he figured with a slim build….and lack of remarkable breasts and rear to make any note of but….girls in general were his type at his age.
She was pretty enough. He couldn’t deny that but he found himself transfixed by her visage.
But the way she turned and looked at him, especially at that distance felt very disconcerting to him. Even if she was smiling like…she was a taste of a bright shiny day. Somehow.
Matthew’s mom noticed the exchange and smiled to herself with closed lips. “Oh that’s Vicky. She’s your age I think. Very sweet girl, who does the charity functions. You know bake sales, blood drives, car washes and the like. I think you should get to know her. Might be good for you.”
A truck horn sounded a couple of beeps in rather succession. “Oh that must be Mack, he said he might come by later this evening but he seems early.”
Matthew’s mother turned and left his room. Leaving Matthew to exchange a few looks with the alluring Vicky as she turned her head away from him to talk to the others in her group and look back at him.
Still Matthew’s left eyebrow was arched. In a way that reminded him of Spock from Star Trek that he and his grandpa used to watch on some streaming service or another.
As he heard ambient chatter elsewhere outside the house he figured to check it out as the alluring sight of Vicky would be around he figured. It was dull to stare at artwork. He was a boy who preferred jet skis and the like. Something he could ride and enjoy immensely. Even if at times it got him stabbed.
As If It Was Kismet Ch 3
Matthew sauntered out of the house and down the rockway that stood in for a driveway.
A few new people had come over from what he could first surmise of the situation. As he got closer it was obvious they were indigenous people. A couple of grown men…and a girl?
She was mousey. Maybe five foot. Hiding behind glasses and a big camo jacket that was far too big for her. It looked made for a grown man and the backwards trucker hat on her head kept her long black a beautiful mess of sorts.
She was cute in a way. A little androgynous but she had a cute energy to her. She reminded him of the more tomboyish Puerto Rican girls he had gotten into back in Florida. Given the deer corpses in the back of the truck….probably more dangerous to play with given the men in her family.
Small chatter passed between the adults when the girl noticed but turned away, trying to hide the tiny hint of a smile.
“Oh Mattie, this is Mack. He works with Dave at the sheriff’s department and John, he’s with fish and wildlife.” Matthew nodded at his mom’s words with some blankness as he looked at the deer the in the back of the pickup truck.
“Gale tells us you hunted with your dad some in Florida and Georgia.” Mack offered with a light hearted laugh camouflaged by his big simple and cheery but husky way he spoke.
Looking in the back of the truck he spoke. “We used lever action thirty-thirties and Mosin Nagants in seven-six-two-fifty-four-rimmed.” Mack and John whistled in an exaggerated fashion. Leaving Matthew to wonder if they were mocking him.
Mack spoke. “Well we just used thirty-odd-six in a custom gussied Garand.” That caught Matthew’s attention. “You have a Garand…” Matthew finally demonstrated interest in anything. “My dad has an SVT-40 and a Hakim 8mm but he always wanted a Garand but was too cheap to buy one.”
Gale, his mother, chimed in loudly. “Oh his Dad loved his guns but was such an odd duck about how he bought or why he bought them. Never made sense to me how he wasn’t a collector but he didn’t get the latest and greatest.” Gale laughed uncomfortably. At least it seemed that way to Matthew.
Matthew pointed to the girl with an underhanded pointing hand. “And who is this? A cute little mute mouse or does she have a name?” Dave and the other men laughed.
Mack again spoke. “Well you people call her Rebecca, she’s my adopted daughter.” Matthew was taken aback by what he heard. “You people?”
Rebecca kindly spoke with a soft but almost melodic voice as she struggled to maintain eye contact. “White people or rather not members of our tribe. It’s just easier to appease the colonizer kind of thing. Borrowed from when the Jesuit missionaries chased us up here.”
Mack stepped in. “It’s just easier to have white people names than have them try to say our tribal names. And we don’t want them shortening or Anglicising our names kind of thing.” Rebecca stepped back into the conversation cutting off her adopted father. “It’s an insult to our history basically.”
Matthew cocked his head sideways raising his eyebrows shortly before letting them drop. “Well as soon as I’m eighteen I’m out of here and back to Florida so I’m a sort of involuntary colonizer of sorts. So I won’t be taking any of your land from you. The Seminoles on the other hand are still shit out of luck.”
Rebecca’s smile caused Matthew to reflexively smile. Mack made the moment more awkward. “See Becca, I told you someone off the reservation would like you some. You just have to be creative.” Mack laughed in a chiding manner…Matthew presumed. He sensed that he was the butt of some kind of cultural joke. Like marrying a white guy was some sort of insult or mark of shame. That kind of thing.
Rebecca turning away from him was not something he had been expecting. Her then getting in the truck in a huff left the group in a silence for a moment.
Dave spoke to break the awkward silence. “Well just bring the truck to work on Monday and leave it for me to grab up.” Mack acknowledged Dave and they started to get off as Rebecca looked at Matthew for another instance. Matthew couldn’t look away for some reason as the two seemed to lock eyes for an instance.
Till Vicky and family seemed to come jogging down the road. While Matthew’s eyes diverted from Rebecca’s. Hers did not till she realized he was looking elsewhere. And her vision found Vicky and what had been a hint of smile on her face turned glum and disappointed.
Matthew did not look away from the vision of Vicky but instead of a starry eyed fool looking longingly. It was a baffled look. Well baffled for him, with his eyes drawn narrow and night with a focus.
There was something about her…he couldn’t quite put a name too. The way she appeared to him. One second brunette. The next second blonde or blonde like. As if the color appeared in her air and disappeared in fractions of seconds. Much the same way her body almost seemed to…shift…very subtly…smoothly. A nicer bum. Larger breasts. And then back to a simple and plain form. Feminine no doubt. Attractive. But not so…remarkable.
As If It Was Kismet Ch 4
The next two days passed without incident. Nothing of any real substance or challenge to note.
Matthew got settled somewhat and started working out almost immediately. Exploring around the woods but Dave told him not to go far. Especially without a hunting rifle. Dave had left a simple semi-auto Winchester out for him. His bear gun as Dave referred to it with its four round magazine. But Matt figured till he got some practice with the rifle to leave it alone. He made a hiking stick like his grandpa taught him and treated it over a low fire. He would take some electrical tape for the end his hand would grip around. Plenty enough to ward off anything smaller than a bear he figured.
The ride to school was a pain in the neck but simple enough. Dave would let him use a clunker pickup truck he had laying around. It wasn’t pretty but it would get him to and from. Even if it was from the eighties and still backfired on occasion. But for now Dave and his mom took him on their way to the sheriff’s department.
It wasn’t much of a school. It wanted to be modern but its fifties original construction was very obvious. It serviced the pipeline families and familys’ of fisherman who worked the seasons in between their time at the pipeline.
Matt was to report to the principal for some reason Dave and his mom wouldn’t share. Which annoyed him but he figured it was to read him the law of land. Small towns with their big views of the outside world and like.
Dressed in jeans, a grey sweatshirt under a light jacket with steel toed boots set him more apart then he expected. His buzzed head didn’t help matters. Already he was feeling like a stranger in a strange land but he was quite strange after all. And he liked it that way. Normal people were so pathetically disappointing to him.
A secretary or assistant or some such led him to the principal’s office. Where it reeked of real wood that was old and fabric and upholstery that needed to be updated for the last twenty years, Matt figured.
“This is Matthew Berkshire, Principal Andrews.” The man was turned with his back to the door and he was quick to wave her off as he turned her around.
He was an older man. Fat and large. Tall with a body built like he had once been fit and a demeanour of annoyed and irate already as he fixed Matt with a scowl and look of disgust. Another worthless government whore. Matt thought to himself. His father and his grandfather had bestowed unto him a natural disrespect for government workers and the figures that wore unjustified authority as a shield but pretended the weight of the state was not at their back ready to crush all who resisted. Little figures of valor pretending to be mighty and alone but acting with the tyranny of the state and all the backing.
“Mr. Berkshire, please sit down.” His tone wasn’t unusually hostile, just gruff. As if he had better things to do.
Matt complied and took a seat in the chair while maintaining a friendly facade. Not everyone was an enemy. And not everyone needed to be an enemy. Even if anybody could be any enemy. There was no reason to make enemies you didn’t have to. Another of his grandfather’s bastardised wisdoms.
“Well I looked over you file and you have quite the history Mr. Berkshire.” Matt resisted qiuping back a joke. Instead he waited for Principal Andrews to continue as he remained nonplussed and looking as if he felt no need to respond. A simple head tilt with dead eyes looking back at the principle as if he was not even there would suffice.
Matt’s reaction or lack of a reaction rather made Principal Andrews only narrow his eyes with examination. He was not used to a kid not responding to him. Especially with his gruff and hard act going on.
“Well by all accounts you moved here after some problems at your last school. A fight broke out and you did some real harm to your fellow students it appears.” Of course, he would take the side of the perpetrators. School administrators always did. Especially when they weren’t white. Just a fact of the times. Cowardice and pathetic mediocrity was the way they leaned, like good government workers sucking the dick of Big Daddy government. Worthless whores.
Matt chose to reply. “Oh you mean the criminals that stabbed me. Got arrested at the hospital and then pled to felonies. Yeah Florida, with the American counties are good like that.” Principal Andrews went real still. No shame. No fear. No penitence. He didn’t like that.
“Well be it as it may Mr. Berkshire we don’t tolerate that kind of behaviour here…” Matt cut him off responding with a deadpan tone. “You mean self-defense meant to save one’s own life while the cowardly and pathetic school workers look on with zero interest but to keep their money rolling in and will allow known gang members with records of violent acts and crimes that should have them expelled many times over, where in certain Democrat counties such cowardice and idiocy empowered a couple school shooters?”
Principal Andrews looked at the Matt with a note of disgust. “Look here Mr. Berkshire, your beliefs matter not one bit here. This isn’t Florida. We don’t like our way of life being disrupted by outside agitators who have problems with authority.”
Matt did his best not to roll his eyes and let the older fat man drone own as he dead-stared him. Lifeless and without emotion.
The man came to a finish and Matt spoke up without having listened to him or paid him any attention. “Great now that’s taken care of. Can I please get to class and finish my sentence of two years at your wonderful school?”
Principal Andrews huffed and snorted before calling in Vicky. Vicky stood in the corner after entering with a quiet and seamless presence. Matt felt disturbed and tried not betray his feelings as the young Vicky was perceived and not perceived to be moving.
Principal Andrews made the introductions and Matt nodded back. She was to be his chaperone for the day. They had the same classes and she was to show him the ropes so to speak. The ins and outs of the school. The locations of their classes.
He recognized her. It was hard not to. The way her appearance seemed to shift fluidly almost. The petite and skinny brunette ever so lightly had a big bust and blonde hair with curves added when she seemed to shift before his eyes. Like watching a film but each frame had a different person.
Matt didn’t say anything about it. Even if he did he would only be acknowledging his crazed state, if he had one. If.
Unlike an obedient puppy dog he got up in a slow and awkward fashion and followed behind her as his oddly disproportionate frame allowed. Causing her a note of concern for some reason. As if she was seeing something she shouldn’t have been….Or he was just weird. And Matt could admit to himself he was just weird. Part of his charm, he would jest about it at times. Not that he had many people to jest to now.
As If It Were Kismet Ch. 5
Following Vicky into the hall off to their first class was simple. She exchanged small talk and he slightly smiled as if to obviously suggest he was just being polite.
Inside his head, Matt was trying to figure out if he was having a psychotic break. The way Vicky looked kept changing and he looked at the other people around him and they stayed the same.
He was searching his mind as they were walking. And thus he wasn’t paying attention to where he was looking and so fell to his face forward over his feet seemingly out of nowhere.
A series of laughs erupted as it sunk in that he was obviously tripped. Like in prison this was a challenge to his superiority. If he let this pass he would be mocked and sneered at by this same group of boys. He wouldn’t walk to them like he was going to do nothing like a little bitch.
In a rage he turned and punched the stomach of the first face he saw. Some typical blonde haired wannabe jock. He knew from experience not to aim for the ribs. Instead he needed to aim for where he thought the belly button was.
Yells and screams blindly echoed around him as his after the punch he followed up his elbow of the opposite arm slamming into the face of the jock. Harder than a fist, the elbow struck the jock’s jaw and seemingly dropped him against a locker. Just in time to catch an errant and soft punch to the nose that sure enough hurt but did little to slow him down as his dad had taught him to fight through the pain. Blood and scars happened. They were a natural consequence of life to a man.
Taking the punch and falling further into his red state Matt headbutted the punch thrower before another guy arm bared his throat from behind. Which he managed to get his grip on the arm over a letterman jacked and jerk the unprepared boy to the side with him still latched on.
A few feet away from the lockers Matt knew his only chance was to jump and push off the lockers and knock the boy to the ground and so he did. He heard a thunk of the boy’s skull bouncing off the ground and he turned to pull out of the grapple.
The beatings he had taken from his father, the grapples, being choked unconscious. Had prepared him for fighting little bitches who didn’t know what a fight was. It wasn’t gay porn with rabbit punch fists flying.
Blood was running down his face and the pain started to hit him as the threats had been eliminated. Only then did he remember to breathe. Taking breathes as Vicky came up to him with tissues and took a hold of his nose.
“Owww owww owww what the fuck my nose could be broken.” He said to Vicky as she pulled his head up and back.
“It’s ok Carl. It’s done.” Matt tried to look to see who Vicky was talking to. It was a boy taller than his 5’9” by more than a small margin. The boy eyed him bored and annoyed before speaking. “What happened here?” An unoriginal line but one Matt couldn’t be a smart aleck about. “Well you see there was an outbreak of tripping and we all tripped over my dick. It happens.” Matt was about to laugh when Vicky seemed to pull up while still gripping his nose causing Matt no small amount of pain which he audibly evidenced.
Vicky spoke in a tone he wasn’t expecting. As if she was accustomed to issuing orders. “Keep Iris away from the hall till we sanitize the site. We have blood from at least three people contaminating the site. And have Jake bring me a spare jacket and shirt for this moron.”
Carl seemed to acknowledge her orders and seemed to blink away. Maybe the punch hit harder than he expected. He had no time to wonder as Vick took her hand away from his and pushed him against the lockers. With ease he had not been expecting from her form and stature.
Before he could respond Vicky licked his blood covered chin and then his lips and spoke to him. “Focus on me you little blood bag.” Her tone had an annoyed yet feminine sneer.
“Look into my eyes. Look at me. You belong to me. You are just another food source in a collection of food sources.” Her eyes were a beautiful hazel Matt thought. Almost green. Pretty like jewels in some old treasure collections. The eyes he could get lost in before kissing her. Finally Vicky was just a slight and petite brunette and he thought she was beautiful.
She would make a hell of a girlfriend. Some cute thing he could see laying on the beach in Florida on their sides laughing and smiling before trading light kisses while hands wandered innocently. Before his mind could drift further he felt her lips on his. It took him a second to mentally grasp the kiss but his arms were around her back as her hands were at his sides. His eyes reflexively closed as he saw hers close.
It was ineffable to Matt. Beyond words, what was happening. The kiss, the moments beforehand. The way his brain tickled with electricity and gentle warmth. He had never had a kiss like this and he had traded more than a few kisses with at least a few girls.
The kiss was like a warm bath with his consciousness slipping beneath the surface. Their lips only parted to try new angles and approaches as Matt struggled to take in breath. It was a moment he could have stayed trapped in for….he didn’t know. But a curt throat clearing by another girl pulled them out of the moment.
The girl was taller than Vicky. Blonde. With slight curves. Vicky addressed her bewildered and gobsmacked, and perhaps a bit embarrassed. “Tina?”
2024.04.29 17:23 bluelizardK The Unsolved Oregon Coast Killings
The expanse of rocky shores, pristine beaches, and stunning sapphire waters are a point of pride for Oregonians in every corner of the state. In summer, the coast is warm and inviting, a refuge from the sweltering heat of inland communities. The sunlight shimmers off of the indomitable Pacific's rolling waves, making the horizon sparkle like a gemstone. But the mighty ocean is merely slumbering. When autumn arrives, it awakens, sending gargantuan waves laden with detritus onto the once crowded shores. Thick fog hangs over every surface, and the rain falls in windswept torrents. Douglas firs sway overhead, sentinels that have stood watch over the land for decades if not centuries. The fury of nature is frequently on display, and it provides a different sort of breathtaking beauty.
The coast is inviting. Many an Oregonian goes, whether for a weekend getaway, a stay in a rental property, or a holiday camping trip. But such a wild and untamed jewel of nature hides mysteries, veiled within the Pacific fog. One of these has haunted investigators, locals, and three grieving families for the past three decades.
On October 13th, 1992, two sets of skeletal remains were discovered in an isolated, wooded location just off of U.S Highway 20 near Newport, Oregon. They would be identified as two missing girls who had disappeared earlier that year-- 19 year old Sheila Swanson and 17 year old Melissa Sanders. Though no specific cause of death was released, the medical examiner asserted that the two had met with foul play. Sheila and Melissa had gone missing while on a camping trip with the Sanders family that past May. They were both from Linn County, in Oregon's Willamette Valley, which was a several hour drive back up Highway 20. Though some authorities had considered the girls runaways, Sheila's mother insisted that such a thing was impossible. Sheila had epilepsy and hadn't taken her medication with her-- something she most assuredly would have done had she left of her own free will. The discovery of the remains were undeniable proof that something horrific had happened to them after they had briefly left their camping site at Beverly Beach State Park. Though authorities chased all sorts of possibilities, the case very quickly became cold with no witnesses, no suspects, and few appreciable clues as to the girls' activities that day.
In 1994, a police station in Newport was subject to an unusual sight-- namely a man carrying around a human skull. After he had set it down, the man explained that he'd found the skull near an abandoned car east of town, a car which had become a well known spot for local kids partying. Strangely enough, some kids who had been at the site just a few days before the skull was discovered denied seeing anything of the sort there. The lack of any reports regarding the lurid find at a spot known for congregation led the police to a peculiar revelation. Someone had dumped the carpet-wrapped skull at that location within a day of the man discovering it. Dental records revealed that the skull belonged to Kelly Disney, a 17 year old Newport girl who had disappeared in 1984. Kelly, after an argument with her boyfriend, had left his car and began walking along Highway 101-- and though spotted by several people including a sheriff's deputy, soon after disappeared completely. Though large scale searches were held, no trace of Kelly was found until her skull was dumped 10 years after she vanished.
16 year old friends Jennifer Esson and Kara Leas were walking home from a friend's house after a night out in January 1995. After heading towards Highway 101, the pair were never seen again. A logger, traveling down a densely wooded road near Newport, came across their bodies several weeks later. Someone had strangled them to death, dumped them in the woods, and covered the bodies with brush in a presumably half assed attempt to conceal the crime. It was a shocking case, that left the local community in shock and in grief. Much like the cases of Melissa, Sheila, and Kelly, it soon went cold with nary a lead or suspect in sight.
The Suspects
When these cases were reexamined in the mid to late 2000s by the Newport Police Department, there were suspicions that a single offender may have been responsible for all five murders. In fact, a compelling suspect came up. He had been in the area before, had a disturbing history of committing horrific acts, and had actually died in custody several years before at the OSP. He was a Texan born drifter by the name of Bobby Jack Fowler.
Fowler was an itinerant man, who went from city to city, working different odd jobs to make ends meet. He had been married, had fathered several children. But one of the few constants in his life seemed to be his incessant drive to commit crime, both petty and violent. In 1969, Fowler had killed a couple in Texas, but was only convicted of improper use of a firearm. He hopped from state to state, sometimes getting arrested but never spending too much time behind bars. He reportedly had a bad meth and speed habit, and was known to have committed a handful of violent crimes including sexual assault. 1974 was the year when a young woman named Colleen MacMillen had been found murdered on a logging road in central British Columbia. Fowler would later be tied to this murder and several others in the province through DNA. He had imprisoned and beaten a woman in Tennessee, but frustratingly received little to no actual punishment. In 1995, Newport Police responded to a woman who had fallen from a balcony. She was terrified, naked, bleeding, and has ropes tied around her ankle. She testified that the man in the apartment she had just escaped was responsible for abducting, sexually assaulting, and brutalizing her. That man was Bobby Jack Fowler, and finally he would be given a meaningful sentence that would ultimately put a permanent end to his reign of terror-- 16 years in the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Police were convinced that Fowler was their phantom serial killer-- and his history made the hypothesis far from unrealistic. But police would discover a new suspect-- specifically in the case of Sheila and Melissa.
From the 1960s until the 1990s, Oregon's stretch of U.S Highway 20 was stalked by a monstrous predator whose bloodlust and perversion knew no bounds. The Oregonian has an incredible piece on this man, titled Ghosts of Highway 20, but it's important that I briefly summarize who he was. The long cold case of Kaye Turner, a mother who was killed while jogging, had long been tied closely to a mechanic by the name of John Arthur Ackroyd. Ackroyd was tied to a sexual assault decades prior. He was the prime suspect in the disappearance of his daughter, Rachanda Pickle, whose body was never found. Vital to our mystery is that he hung around in the same circles, oddly enough, as Melissa and Sheila. The day after they had disappeared he had come into work bloody, claiming he had gutted a deer. He was supposedly aware of Melissa and Sheila's camping trip and even offered to let them party at a property he had near Newport. An item found near the skeletal remains was a tool frequently used by mechanics. Vitally, the girls were found in a wooded area off of Highway 20, which Ackroyd had centered his life around. He lived in towns like Sweet Home and Santiam Junction. Kaye Turner, who he was later convicted of killing, had been killed near Black Butte along the highway. Most disturbingly, Ackroyd was posthumously tied to the murders of a young couple found in a wooded area just off of the highway. There was a chance that he was a prolific and relentless serial killer. But tellingly, the district attorney in Newport was nearly about to charge Ackroyd with the double murder, citing circumstantial evidence and witness testimony about his behavior the day after. But he elected not to, as Ackroyd would be in prison for the rest of his natural life.
So if Bobby Jack Fowler potentially killed Jennifer and Kara, and John Arthur Ackroyd potentially killed Melissa and Sheila, then what of Kelly Disney?
Some assert that Robert Ellis, her older boyfriend, was the culprit. She has argued with him that night, and he was obviously in the area. He had, at least, a conceivable motive to commit the murder. But in my amateur opinion I don't quite buy it. Why would he dump the skull in a semi-public area a decade later? If he had committed the murders as a spur of the moment decision, then surely he wouldn't cause renewed attention to fall on the case years afterwards. Fowler is a reasonable suspect, but I frankly believe Fowler could be a suspect for dozens of unsolved crimes all over America in some fashion. Ackroyd could not have been involved, as he was serving a life sentence for the murder of Kaye Turner when Kelly's skull was dumped. Of course, it could be anyone. Some random itinerant killer like Fowler. A trucker who happened to be passing by in both 1984 and 1994. Or a local, who committed the crime and decided to relive it by discarding a morbid memento.
We can hope with advanced investigative techniques these days that one day each family will be able to find a sense of closure and comfort in at least knowing who took the lives of their daughters. Until that day, we can't let these cases fade into obscurity.
Additional Reading
https://projects.oregonlive.com/ghostsofhighway20/melissasheila/
https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=7103702&page=1
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/10/who-killed-kelly-disney-1984-cold-case-gets-new-life.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-highway-of-tears-murder-solved-with-improbable-dna-sample/
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/serial-killer-linked-to-ore-cold-case-murders/283-71727682
submitted by bluelizardK to UnresolvedMysteries [link] [comments]
The coast is inviting. Many an Oregonian goes, whether for a weekend getaway, a stay in a rental property, or a holiday camping trip. But such a wild and untamed jewel of nature hides mysteries, veiled within the Pacific fog. One of these has haunted investigators, locals, and three grieving families for the past three decades.
On October 13th, 1992, two sets of skeletal remains were discovered in an isolated, wooded location just off of U.S Highway 20 near Newport, Oregon. They would be identified as two missing girls who had disappeared earlier that year-- 19 year old Sheila Swanson and 17 year old Melissa Sanders. Though no specific cause of death was released, the medical examiner asserted that the two had met with foul play. Sheila and Melissa had gone missing while on a camping trip with the Sanders family that past May. They were both from Linn County, in Oregon's Willamette Valley, which was a several hour drive back up Highway 20. Though some authorities had considered the girls runaways, Sheila's mother insisted that such a thing was impossible. Sheila had epilepsy and hadn't taken her medication with her-- something she most assuredly would have done had she left of her own free will. The discovery of the remains were undeniable proof that something horrific had happened to them after they had briefly left their camping site at Beverly Beach State Park. Though authorities chased all sorts of possibilities, the case very quickly became cold with no witnesses, no suspects, and few appreciable clues as to the girls' activities that day.
In 1994, a police station in Newport was subject to an unusual sight-- namely a man carrying around a human skull. After he had set it down, the man explained that he'd found the skull near an abandoned car east of town, a car which had become a well known spot for local kids partying. Strangely enough, some kids who had been at the site just a few days before the skull was discovered denied seeing anything of the sort there. The lack of any reports regarding the lurid find at a spot known for congregation led the police to a peculiar revelation. Someone had dumped the carpet-wrapped skull at that location within a day of the man discovering it. Dental records revealed that the skull belonged to Kelly Disney, a 17 year old Newport girl who had disappeared in 1984. Kelly, after an argument with her boyfriend, had left his car and began walking along Highway 101-- and though spotted by several people including a sheriff's deputy, soon after disappeared completely. Though large scale searches were held, no trace of Kelly was found until her skull was dumped 10 years after she vanished.
16 year old friends Jennifer Esson and Kara Leas were walking home from a friend's house after a night out in January 1995. After heading towards Highway 101, the pair were never seen again. A logger, traveling down a densely wooded road near Newport, came across their bodies several weeks later. Someone had strangled them to death, dumped them in the woods, and covered the bodies with brush in a presumably half assed attempt to conceal the crime. It was a shocking case, that left the local community in shock and in grief. Much like the cases of Melissa, Sheila, and Kelly, it soon went cold with nary a lead or suspect in sight.
The Suspects
When these cases were reexamined in the mid to late 2000s by the Newport Police Department, there were suspicions that a single offender may have been responsible for all five murders. In fact, a compelling suspect came up. He had been in the area before, had a disturbing history of committing horrific acts, and had actually died in custody several years before at the OSP. He was a Texan born drifter by the name of Bobby Jack Fowler.
Fowler was an itinerant man, who went from city to city, working different odd jobs to make ends meet. He had been married, had fathered several children. But one of the few constants in his life seemed to be his incessant drive to commit crime, both petty and violent. In 1969, Fowler had killed a couple in Texas, but was only convicted of improper use of a firearm. He hopped from state to state, sometimes getting arrested but never spending too much time behind bars. He reportedly had a bad meth and speed habit, and was known to have committed a handful of violent crimes including sexual assault. 1974 was the year when a young woman named Colleen MacMillen had been found murdered on a logging road in central British Columbia. Fowler would later be tied to this murder and several others in the province through DNA. He had imprisoned and beaten a woman in Tennessee, but frustratingly received little to no actual punishment. In 1995, Newport Police responded to a woman who had fallen from a balcony. She was terrified, naked, bleeding, and has ropes tied around her ankle. She testified that the man in the apartment she had just escaped was responsible for abducting, sexually assaulting, and brutalizing her. That man was Bobby Jack Fowler, and finally he would be given a meaningful sentence that would ultimately put a permanent end to his reign of terror-- 16 years in the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Police were convinced that Fowler was their phantom serial killer-- and his history made the hypothesis far from unrealistic. But police would discover a new suspect-- specifically in the case of Sheila and Melissa.
From the 1960s until the 1990s, Oregon's stretch of U.S Highway 20 was stalked by a monstrous predator whose bloodlust and perversion knew no bounds. The Oregonian has an incredible piece on this man, titled Ghosts of Highway 20, but it's important that I briefly summarize who he was. The long cold case of Kaye Turner, a mother who was killed while jogging, had long been tied closely to a mechanic by the name of John Arthur Ackroyd. Ackroyd was tied to a sexual assault decades prior. He was the prime suspect in the disappearance of his daughter, Rachanda Pickle, whose body was never found. Vital to our mystery is that he hung around in the same circles, oddly enough, as Melissa and Sheila. The day after they had disappeared he had come into work bloody, claiming he had gutted a deer. He was supposedly aware of Melissa and Sheila's camping trip and even offered to let them party at a property he had near Newport. An item found near the skeletal remains was a tool frequently used by mechanics. Vitally, the girls were found in a wooded area off of Highway 20, which Ackroyd had centered his life around. He lived in towns like Sweet Home and Santiam Junction. Kaye Turner, who he was later convicted of killing, had been killed near Black Butte along the highway. Most disturbingly, Ackroyd was posthumously tied to the murders of a young couple found in a wooded area just off of the highway. There was a chance that he was a prolific and relentless serial killer. But tellingly, the district attorney in Newport was nearly about to charge Ackroyd with the double murder, citing circumstantial evidence and witness testimony about his behavior the day after. But he elected not to, as Ackroyd would be in prison for the rest of his natural life.
So if Bobby Jack Fowler potentially killed Jennifer and Kara, and John Arthur Ackroyd potentially killed Melissa and Sheila, then what of Kelly Disney?
Some assert that Robert Ellis, her older boyfriend, was the culprit. She has argued with him that night, and he was obviously in the area. He had, at least, a conceivable motive to commit the murder. But in my amateur opinion I don't quite buy it. Why would he dump the skull in a semi-public area a decade later? If he had committed the murders as a spur of the moment decision, then surely he wouldn't cause renewed attention to fall on the case years afterwards. Fowler is a reasonable suspect, but I frankly believe Fowler could be a suspect for dozens of unsolved crimes all over America in some fashion. Ackroyd could not have been involved, as he was serving a life sentence for the murder of Kaye Turner when Kelly's skull was dumped. Of course, it could be anyone. Some random itinerant killer like Fowler. A trucker who happened to be passing by in both 1984 and 1994. Or a local, who committed the crime and decided to relive it by discarding a morbid memento.
We can hope with advanced investigative techniques these days that one day each family will be able to find a sense of closure and comfort in at least knowing who took the lives of their daughters. Until that day, we can't let these cases fade into obscurity.
Additional Reading
https://projects.oregonlive.com/ghostsofhighway20/melissasheila/
https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=7103702&page=1
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/10/who-killed-kelly-disney-1984-cold-case-gets-new-life.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-highway-of-tears-murder-solved-with-improbable-dna-sample/
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/serial-killer-linked-to-ore-cold-case-murders/283-71727682
2024.04.29 14:06 Andre3000RPI Yahoo Morning Briefing
Why I don't like this earnings season — and you might not either
Today's Takeaway is by Brian Sozzi, Executive Editor.
I have really disliked this earnings season, and it has just begun.
There have been a few bright spots, no doubt.
PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Ramon Laguarta told me it will be a spring and summer of innovation. Think more power-packed Gatorade powders and tablets for workout freaks like yours truly. Let's do this!
Speaking of workouts, Chipotle (CMG) CFO Jack Hartung told Yahoo Financethat he's OK with the chain being the go-to post fat-burning sessions. He was responding to a new WSJ article that suggested workout buffs are supporting the chain's higher prices.
Then Snowflake's (SNOW) new CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy, squeezed in an AI product drop ahead of its earnings. He promised that the cloud computing company would be picking up the pace on artificial intelligence innovations this year, aiming to satisfy the Street's appetite for newness.
Ramaswamy also called Yahoo Finance "iconic."
We appreciate that, Sridhar — and we certainly agree!
But so far, there hasn't been much to like.
Why? Because of all the bad news that is piling up and catching investors off guard.
Surprises have been all over the place.
For instance, one of the early themes this season is higher-than-expected costs for businesses. And it’s not just UPS (UPS) calling out rising gas prices and the return of fuel surcharges or PepsiCo saying inflation is still in their pipeline.
It’s Chipotle seeing higher tech costs to support new restaurant software. Investments like this (and wage increases) held back profits in the first quarter.
It’s Meta (META) materially lifting its full-year capital expenditures guidanceand hinting at even bigger spending in 2025 — all because of unknown AI projects. This surprised shareholders and Mark Zuckerberg fans alike.
It’s Ford (F) losing lots of money on EVs because of higher-than-expected costs.
Then there is the weakness emanating from forward-looking sectors such as truckers and railroads.
Trucker J.B. Hunt (JBHT) had this to say on the economic backdrop: "We continue to face inflationary cost pressures despite also facing deflationary pricing pressure." Brutal acknowledgment. The stock was hammered.
Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) stated that the last two years have "felt" like the 2009 recession.
Norfolk Southern (NSC) had this to say this week: "We expect continued mixed impacts from higher international empty shipments as geopolitical tensions remain elevated, but a weak truck market continues to drive stubbornly low truck rates, which will dampen domestic non-premium Intermodal pricing."
Meanwhile, IBM (IBM) CFO Jim Kavanaugh struck a more cautious note when I asked him about soft sales at its lucrative consulting business.
"We still see very good demand out in the marketplace around large transformational deals, digital transformation," Kavanaugh said. "We had our largest first quarter in consulting signings in many years. So the demand profile is out there. Our AI bookings for consulting in the first quarter doubled all of 2023."
"But what we're seeing, just given the uncertain macroeconomic environment, is ... a tightening of discretionary spending, no different than Accenture and all the other consulting companies that are impacting the short-term revenue realization.”
Markets have responded in kind to the dose of badness.
"I really think this is actually a dip buying opportunity. It's never fun to live through it, but these are normal pullbacks," Freedom Capital Markets chief global strategist Jay Woods told me on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast.
Thought I would leave you on a happy note.
submitted by Andre3000RPI to DeercreekvolsBlog [link] [comments]
Today's Takeaway is by Brian Sozzi, Executive Editor.
I have really disliked this earnings season, and it has just begun.
There have been a few bright spots, no doubt.
PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Ramon Laguarta told me it will be a spring and summer of innovation. Think more power-packed Gatorade powders and tablets for workout freaks like yours truly. Let's do this!
Speaking of workouts, Chipotle (CMG) CFO Jack Hartung told Yahoo Financethat he's OK with the chain being the go-to post fat-burning sessions. He was responding to a new WSJ article that suggested workout buffs are supporting the chain's higher prices.
Then Snowflake's (SNOW) new CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy, squeezed in an AI product drop ahead of its earnings. He promised that the cloud computing company would be picking up the pace on artificial intelligence innovations this year, aiming to satisfy the Street's appetite for newness.
Ramaswamy also called Yahoo Finance "iconic."
We appreciate that, Sridhar — and we certainly agree!
But so far, there hasn't been much to like.
Why? Because of all the bad news that is piling up and catching investors off guard.
Surprises have been all over the place.
For instance, one of the early themes this season is higher-than-expected costs for businesses. And it’s not just UPS (UPS) calling out rising gas prices and the return of fuel surcharges or PepsiCo saying inflation is still in their pipeline.
It’s Chipotle seeing higher tech costs to support new restaurant software. Investments like this (and wage increases) held back profits in the first quarter.
It’s Meta (META) materially lifting its full-year capital expenditures guidanceand hinting at even bigger spending in 2025 — all because of unknown AI projects. This surprised shareholders and Mark Zuckerberg fans alike.
It’s Ford (F) losing lots of money on EVs because of higher-than-expected costs.
Then there is the weakness emanating from forward-looking sectors such as truckers and railroads.
Trucker J.B. Hunt (JBHT) had this to say on the economic backdrop: "We continue to face inflationary cost pressures despite also facing deflationary pricing pressure." Brutal acknowledgment. The stock was hammered.
Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) stated that the last two years have "felt" like the 2009 recession.
Norfolk Southern (NSC) had this to say this week: "We expect continued mixed impacts from higher international empty shipments as geopolitical tensions remain elevated, but a weak truck market continues to drive stubbornly low truck rates, which will dampen domestic non-premium Intermodal pricing."
Meanwhile, IBM (IBM) CFO Jim Kavanaugh struck a more cautious note when I asked him about soft sales at its lucrative consulting business.
"We still see very good demand out in the marketplace around large transformational deals, digital transformation," Kavanaugh said. "We had our largest first quarter in consulting signings in many years. So the demand profile is out there. Our AI bookings for consulting in the first quarter doubled all of 2023."
"But what we're seeing, just given the uncertain macroeconomic environment, is ... a tightening of discretionary spending, no different than Accenture and all the other consulting companies that are impacting the short-term revenue realization.”
Markets have responded in kind to the dose of badness.
"I really think this is actually a dip buying opportunity. It's never fun to live through it, but these are normal pullbacks," Freedom Capital Markets chief global strategist Jay Woods told me on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast.
Thought I would leave you on a happy note.
2024.04.14 21:26 NovaBomb1234 Ranking *EVERY* Episode of Regular Show from *WORST* to *BEST*
Posted for a third time due to formatting issues, hopefully it works now.
Now, this is a big post, and I'm sorry in advance but for those of you who are interested, we (me and my brother) ranked EVERY Episode of the show from worst to best. We started this project long before the LS Mark video released, but after that video came out we were only more incensed to make our videos on it. But, here's the preamble.
By every episode I do mean EVERY Episode, that means all 245 episodes, with each of the Terror Tales (and the Christmas anthology) being split into each segment, which are then ranked separately. We also separated each part of A Regular Epic Final Battle. And we also included the movie in our rankings. We ranked each episode separately by the season, and then combined our rankings to get the final one. After finishing the entire series on rewatch for this project, we then ranked the entire series. We used PubMeeple's ranking system to figure out our rankings. I'll only be posting the final rankings, and if you're interested in more detail, we're working on a script for the first video in a series that is both a retrospective and deep dive into the first season followed by our ranking of the episodes. And obviously, these are all opinions and I'd love to hear yours!!
So, let's get into it starting from the worst episode of the show and moving to the best.
WE CAN'T STAND THESE EPISODES - this section is the worst of the worst, these are episodes/segments we routinely skip on following rewatches.
10 - A Regular Epic Final Battle (Part 1)
9 - Guy's Night 2
8 - Skips' Story
7 - Brilliant Century Duck Crisis Special
6 - Thomas Fights Back
5 - Regular Show: The Movie
4 - Prankless - My brother and I consider this a perfect episode
3 - The Real Thomas
2 - A Regular Epic Final Battle (Part 2)
1 - A Regular Epic Final Battle (Part 3)
submitted by NovaBomb1234 to regularshow [link] [comments]
Now, this is a big post, and I'm sorry in advance but for those of you who are interested, we (me and my brother) ranked EVERY Episode of the show from worst to best. We started this project long before the LS Mark video released, but after that video came out we were only more incensed to make our videos on it. But, here's the preamble.
By every episode I do mean EVERY Episode, that means all 245 episodes, with each of the Terror Tales (and the Christmas anthology) being split into each segment, which are then ranked separately. We also separated each part of A Regular Epic Final Battle. And we also included the movie in our rankings. We ranked each episode separately by the season, and then combined our rankings to get the final one. After finishing the entire series on rewatch for this project, we then ranked the entire series. We used PubMeeple's ranking system to figure out our rankings. I'll only be posting the final rankings, and if you're interested in more detail, we're working on a script for the first video in a series that is both a retrospective and deep dive into the first season followed by our ranking of the episodes. And obviously, these are all opinions and I'd love to hear yours!!
So, let's get into it starting from the worst episode of the show and moving to the best.
WE CAN'T STAND THESE EPISODES - this section is the worst of the worst, these are episodes/segments we routinely skip on following rewatches.
- Think Positive - See my seperate post about this
- Werepops (Terror Tales 5)
- The Unicorns Have Got to Go
- The Best Burger in the World
- Lift With Your Back
- Wall Buddy
- Sad Sax
- Muscle Mentor
- Do Me a Solid
- Death Metal Crash Pit (Terror Tales 1)
- Not Great Double Date
- Go Viral
- 1000th Chopper Flight Party
- Cruisin'
- Dizzy
- Wallpaper Man (Terror Tales 2)
- Gold Watch
- Caveman
- Local News Legend
- Rocker Caroler (Christmas in Space)
- Laundry Woes
- My Mom
- Video 101
- The Longest Weekend
- Replaced
- Every Meat Burritos
- Blind Trust
- Paint Job
- Skunked
- Jinx
- Gut Model
- Bald Spot
- Ace Balthazar Lives
- Favorite Shirt
- Mordeby and Rigbecai
- Party Bus (Terror Tales 2)
- Sleep Cycle
- Cool Cubed
- Caffinated Coffee Tickets
- Tent Trouble
- Family BBQ
- Appreciation Day
- Killer Bed (Terror Tales 3)
- Unfinished Business (Terror Tales 4)
- The Previous Owner (Terror Tales 3)
- More Smarter
- Ugly Moons - This episode was such a disappointment.
- Scary Movie Night (Terror Tales 4)
- Survival Skills
- House Rules
- Catch the Wave
- Operation: Hear No Evil
- The Space Race
- Benson's Car
- Snow Planet (Christmas in Space)
- Krampus (Christmas in Space)
- Daddy Issues
- Sleep Fighter
- Stuck in an Elevator
- Merry Christmas, Mordecai
- Rigby in the Sky with Burrito
- Deez Keys
- Alien Roommate (Terror Tales 6)
- Struck by Lightning
- Power Tower
- It's Time
- Rigby's Body
- White Elephant Gift Exchange - This episode eludes us, we failed to rank it TWICE
- Mordecai and Rigby Down Under
- Trash Boat
- One Pull Up
- Space Creds
- Dumped at the Altar - Save for the ending, this episode isn't terrible
- Journey to the Bottom of the Crash Pit
- Party Pete
- Meat Your Maker
- Bet to be Blonde
- Lunch Break
- Do or Diaper
- Big Winner
- See You There
- Donut Factory Holiday
- The Best VHS In The World
- Fear Planet (Terror Tales 6)
- TGI Tuesday
- Muscle Woman
- The End of Muscle Man
- Dodge This
- Men in Uniform
- The Hole (Terror Tales 4)
- Stick Hockey
- Gymblonski
- Maellard's Package
- Fortune Cookie
- Creepy Doll (Terror Tales 1)
- Garage Door
- Just Friends
- Going Up (Terror Tales 5)
- Lost and Found
- Meteor Moves
- Cat Videos
- Saving Time
- Dumptown U.S.A.
- Win that Prize
- Prank Callers
- Peeps
- Sugar Rush
- Rage Against the TV
- The Parkie Awards
- New Years Kiss
- The Return of Party Horse
- Married and Broke
- Country Club
- Skips Stress
- Yes Dude Yes
- King Sized Candy Bars (Terror Tales 6)
- Ello Gov'nor
- Slam Dunk
- Kill 'Em With Kindness
- Picking up Margaret
- The Dream Warrior
- Death Bear
- Skips in the Saddle
- New Bro on Campus
- Welcome to Space
- Take the Cake
- Snow Tubing
- I Like You Hi
- Return of Mordecai and the Rigbys
- Butt Dial
- Gamers Never Say Die
- Free Cake
- Just Set Up the Chairs
- The Ice Tape
- Carter and Biggs
- Weekend at Benson's
- The Night Owl
- Marvolo the Wizard
- Payback (Terror Tales 2)
- Can You Ear Me Now?
- The Key to the Universe
- The Button
- Chocolatude (Terror Tales 5)
- Brain Eraser
- Access Denied
- Last Meal
- Firework Run
- 150 Piece Kit
- The Heart of a Stuntmen
- World's Best Boss
- Benson Be Gone
- Video Game Wizards
- Guy's Night
- I See Turtles
- Busted Cart
- Party Re-Pete
- Birthday Gift
- Death Punchies
- That's My Television
- Tants
- Jacked up Jack O'Lantern's (Terror Tales 3)
- Theoretical Mall (Christmas in Space)
- Trucker Hall of Fame
- Out of Commision
- Party Horse - WOOO PARTY HORSE!! I know you guys love this one
- Portable Toilet
- Cool Bikes
- Benson's Pig
- Cube Bros
- Cool Bro Bots
- One Space Day at a Time
- K.I.L.I.T. Radio
- Mr. Boss Man (Terror Tales 5)
- First Day
- Fool Me Twice
- Pie Contest
- Benson's Suit
- Bad Portrait
- Pops' Favorite Planet
- Over the Top
- Camping Can Be Cool
- Expert or Liar
- Karaoke Video
- On The House (Terror Tales 1)
- Grilled Cheese Deluxe
- Starter Pack
- No Train No Gain
- Park Manager's Lunch
- Temp Check
- Space Escape
- The Dome Experiment Special
- Alpha Dome
- But I Have A Reciept
- The Lunch Club
- Rigby Goes to the Prom - NICE
- Trailer Trashed
- Chili Cook Off
- Fists of Justice
- New Beds
- VIP Members Only
- Sandwich of Death
- This is My Jam
- The Power
- Fries Night
- Grave Sight
- Spacey McSpaceTree - Controversial Pick, I'm sure
- California King
- Happy Birthday Song Contest
- Bad Kiss
- Diary
- Lame Lockdown
- Bachelor Party! ZINGO!
- Bank Shot
- Mordecai and the Rigbys
- Eggscellent
- Under the Hood
- Skips Strikes
- Fancy Resturant
- Really Real Wrestling
- The Eileen Plan
- Play Date
- Don
- Fuzzy Dice
- Crazy Fake Plan
- Guitar of Rock
- Silver Dude
- The Brain of Evil
- Real Date
- Format Wars II
- Quips
- Skips vs. Technology
- The Last LaserDisc Player
- A Skips in Time
- Rigby's Graduation Day Special
- Hello China
- Steak Me Amadeus
- A Bunch of Full Grown Geese
- Eileen Flat Screen
- Exit 9B
- Pam I Am
- Meet the Seer
- The Thanksgiving Special
- The Christmas Special
- Rap It Up - My personal favorite episode
- The Postcard
- A Bunch of Baby Ducks
- Maxin' and Relaxin'
- Death Kwon Do-Livery
- High Score
- Dead at Eight
- Gary's Synthezier
- Limousine Lunchtime
- Cheer Up Pops
10 - A Regular Epic Final Battle (Part 1)
9 - Guy's Night 2
8 - Skips' Story
7 - Brilliant Century Duck Crisis Special
6 - Thomas Fights Back
5 - Regular Show: The Movie
4 - Prankless - My brother and I consider this a perfect episode
3 - The Real Thomas
2 - A Regular Epic Final Battle (Part 2)
1 - A Regular Epic Final Battle (Part 3)
2024.04.05 04:10 DarkTower7899 DarkTower7899's List of games that will run on the GTX950, GTX1050, rx560, or faster. Over 3000 games!
Dark Age of Camelot
Heli Heroes
America's Army
Live for Speed
Medieval: Total War
Paradise Cracked
Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra
Crimsonland
One Must Fall: Battlegrounds
Premier Manager 2002/2003 Season
Line of Sight: Vietnam
MapleStory
Enter the Matrix
Pure Pinball
Colin McRae Rally 3
MotoGP 2
Midnight Club II
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight
Republic: The Revolution
AquaNox 2: Revelation
Kreed
No Man's Land
Homeworld 2
Conflict: Desert Storm II
Gun Metal
Halo: Combat Evolved
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
MTV Celebrity Deathmatch
Bionicle: The Game
Battle Engine Aquila
Dead to Rights
Need for Speed: Underground
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance
Hot Wheels World Race
Premier Manager 2003-04
Armed and Dangerous
Beyond Good & Evil
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Airborne Troops: Countdown to D-Day
Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
Kill Switch
Bad Boys: Miami Takedown
Battlefield Vietnam
Breed
Colin McRae Rally 04
Painkiller
Crusader Kings
I-Ninja
CSI: Miami
Beyond Divinity
Perimeter
Pac-Man World 2
Alias
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
Codename: Panzers - Phase One
Asterix & Obelix XXL
Ground Control II: Operation Exodus
Mabinogi
Kreed: Battle for Savitar
Puyo Puyo Fever
Chaos League
Mashed
John Deere: American Farmer
Army Men: Sarge's War
Catwoman
Chessmaster 10th Edition
Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand
18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal
Conflict: Vietnam
Chris Sawyer's Locomotion
Full Spectrum Warrior
Kohan II: Kings of War
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Evil Genius
Myst IV: Revelation
Aladdin Chess Adventures
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
Counter-Strike: Source
Club Football 2005
LMA Professional Manager 2005
Ford Racing 3
Men of Valor
Axis & Allies (2004)
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
FlatOut
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
Children of the Nile
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Project Freedom
Pool Shark 2
Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge
MTX: Mototrax
Half-Life 2
Half-Life: Source
Fire Department 2
Jets'n'Guns
PC Fútbol 2005
Armies of Exigo
JBMod
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Bad Mojo Redux
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Battlestrike: The Road to Berlin
Garry's Mod
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure
Bratz: Rock Angelz
Garfield's It's All About Thinking Skills
John Deere: North American Farmer
Living World Racing
Playboy: The Mansion
Country Justice: Revenge of the Rednecks
Constantine
Project Snowblind
MVP Baseball 2005
Darwinia
GTR - FIA GT Racing Game
Act of War: Direct Action
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Driv3r
Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich
Close Quarters Conflict
CT Special Forces: Fire for Effect
Elite Warriors: Vietnam
Hellforces
Cold Fear
Dynasty Warriors 4: Hyper
Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
Psychonauts
Guild Wars
Dungeon Lords
Maniac Mansion Mania
7 Sins
Daemonica
Imperial Glory
Delta Force: Xtreme
Boiling Point: Road to Hell
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Cross Racing Championship 2005
Earth 2160
Area 51 (2005)
Pathologic
Juiced
Battlefield 2
Lula 3D
Fantastic 4
Midnight Outlaw: 6 Hours to SunUp
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
Codename: Panzers - Phase Two
Narcissu
Battle of Europe
Dead to Rights II
Dungeon Siege II
Night Watch
Neuro Hunter
JetFighter 2015
Conflict: Global Terror
Evil Dead: Regeneration
Fahrenheit
Fable: The Lost Chapters
Myst V: End of Ages
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard
Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport
Day of Defeat: Source
Asterix & Obelix XXL 2
Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures
Garfield: Saving Arlene
Blitzkrieg 2
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
Battlestrike: The Siege
Black & White 2
Rag Doll Kung Fu
GT Legends
Age of Empires III
F.E.A.R.
Adrenalin: Extreme Show
Call of Duty 2
Namco Museum 50th
Chaos League: Sudden Death
Ankh
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Gun
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Peter Jackson's King Kong
Peter Jackson's King Kong Gamer's Edition
Operation: Matriarchy
Combat Wings
Knights of the Temple II
Gene Troopers
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Hard Truck Apocalypse
Onimusha 3
Pac-Man World 3
Hammer & Sickle
Liquidator 2: Welcome to Hell
Catz
DMZ: North Korea
Dogz
John Deere: American Builder Deluxe
John Deere: American Farmer Deluxe
Kabus 22
Rat Hunter
MX vs. ATV Unleashed
25 to Life
Curious George
L.A. Rush
Bode Miller Alpine Skiing
Classic British Motor Racing
Jacked
Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
Crashday
Dungeons & Dragons Online
PSI: Syberian Conflict
Empires
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45
Commandos: Strike Force
Act of War: High Treason
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Blazing Angels
Fire Department 3
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Dreamfall
Desperados 2
Over the Hedge
Evolution GT
Heroes of Might and Magic V
Darkstar One
Hitman: Blood Money
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Cars
NFL Head Coach
Micro Machines V4
OutRun 2006
Devil May Cry 3
FlatOut 2
Outlaw Chopper
CivCity: Rome
Pac-Man World Rally
GTI Racing
Reservoir Dogs
Call of Juarez
Faces of War
Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Alaskan Adventure
Caesar IV
Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales
Company of Heroes
Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition
ParaWorld
Combat Wings: Battle of Britain
Ford Street Racing
Jaws Unleashed
LMA Manager 2007
El Matador
Mage Knight: Apocalypse
GTR 2 - FIA GT Racing Game
Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle
Heroes of Annihilated Empires
Death to Spies
Battlefield 2142
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Ankh: Heart of Osiris
Anno 1701
Neverwinter Nights 2
Dynasty Warriors Online Z
Paris Chase
Alarm for Cobra 11
Planet Alcatraz
Deal or No Deal
Made Man
Left Behind: Eternal Forces
D.I.R.T.: Origin of the Species
Arma: Armed Assault
Medieval II: Total War
Bionicle Heroes
Eragon
Happy Feet
Bass Pro Shops: Trophy Hunter
RACE - The WTCC Game
Harley-Davidson: Race to the Rally
L.A. Street Racing
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Alpha Prime
3D Instructor
Cinema Empire
Limbo of the Lost
Petz Horsez 2
Mr. Robot
Arthur and the Invisibles
Europa Universalis III
Ascension to the Throne
Battlestations: Midway
Chess Titans
Purble Place
Little Britain: The Video Game
Maelstrom: The Battle for Earth Begins
Redneck Kentucky and the Next Generation Chickens
Myst Online: Uru Live
Marine Sharpshooter 3
Infernal
Jade Empire: Special Edition
Resident Evil 4
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
Bus Driver
Brian Lara International Cricket 2007
Left Behind: Tribulation Forces
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Ancient Wars: Sparta
Cellfactor: Revolution
Day Watch
Halo 2
Adrenalin 2: Rush Hour
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Helldorado
Bet on Soldier: Black-out Saigon
Hospital Tycoon
Colin McRae: DiRT
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Driver: Parallel Lines
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Overlord
Ratatouille
Dead Reefs
Nitro Stunt Racing
A Tale of Two Kingdoms
Mountain of Faith
Need for Speed: Carbon
BioShock
7.62 High Calibre
Exodus from the Earth
Knytt Stories
Fantasy Wars
Blackwell Unbound
Medal of Honor: Airborne
ObsCure II
BMW M3 Challenge
Fortress Forever
Osu!
Ducati World Championship
Everlight: Of Magic & Power
Diabolik: The Original Sin
Portal
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
RACE 07 - Official WTCC Game
Rail Simulator
Hard to Be a God
Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition
Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge
Bee Movie Game
Clive Barker's Jericho
Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy
Escape from Paradise City
Cars Mater-National Championship
Avencast
Painkiller (all)
Hellgate: London
Empire Earth III
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
Gears of War
Dusk 12
BlackSite: Area 51
Beowulf
Crysis 1, 2, 3
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
Need for Speed: ProStreet
Petz Catz 2
A Farewell to Dragons
Hot Wheels: Beat That!
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
Ankh: Battle of the Gods
Deal or No Deal: Secret Vault Games
Flying Red Barrel: The Diary of a Little Aviator
Černaja Metka
Oval Office: Commander in Chief
FSR: French Street Racing
Conflict: Denied Ops
Kiss Before Midnight
John Deere: Drive Green
Audiosurf
Hour of Victory
Harvest: Massive Encounter
Operation Thunderstorm
Ninja Reflex
Lexus ISF Track Time
Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon
Assassin's Creed
Facewound
Europa Universalis: Rome
Citroën C4 Robot
Dream Pinball 3D
King's Bounty: The Legend
Project Torque
Elements of Destruction
Iron Man
Dracula: Origin
Ascension to the Throne: Valkyrie
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition
Mass Effect
Outcry
Nikita: The Mystery of the Hidden Treasure
Race Driver: Grid
Kung Fu Panda
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout
Insecticide
Petz Horsez 2 (2008)
Alone in the Dark (2008)
Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm
Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
Beijing 2008
Devil May Cry 4
Dynasty Warriors 6
Marine Sharpshooter 4: Locked and Loaded
American McGee's Grimm
Drakensang: The Dark Eye
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
Euro Truck Simulator
Bionic Commando Rearmed
Premier Manager 09
Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy Island
Enemy Engaged 2: Desert Operations
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals
Mount & Blade
Crysis Warhead
Ford Racing: Off Road
Lego Batman: The Videogame
Collapse
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Dead Space
Bully: Scholarship Edition
NHL 09
MorphX
Fallout 3
MySims
Petz Horse Club
007: Quantum of Solace
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance
Madagascar
Petz Sports
Call of Duty: World at War
Evil Resistance
Left 4 Dead
Bolt
Legendary
Need for Speed: Undercover
Neopets: Puzzle Adventure
Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
Crash Time 2
A Vampyre Story
Grand Ages: Rome
Grand Theft Auto 4 & 5
Prince of Persia
DYSNOMIA
Bundeskanzler
Cooking Academy 2: World Cuisine
Mirror's Edge
District Wars
Burnout Paradise
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
Art of Murder - Hunt for the Puppeteer
Art of Murder - Cards of Destiny
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
Armed Forces Corp.
Ceville
Cryostasis
NecroVisioN
Empire: Total War
Codename: Panzers - Cold War
Men of War
Command & Conquer (all)
Hidden Target
Faerie Solitaire
Dark Sector
Monsters vs. Aliens
Ferrari Virtual Race
Elven Legacy
Hannah Montana: The Movie
Braid
King's Bounty: Armored Princess
Cogs
Demigod
Close Combat: The Longest Day
Mozart: The Conspirators of Prague
Death Track: Resurrection
Age of Pirates 2
Battlestations: Pacific
Killing Floor 1 & 2
Damnation
Restaurant Empire II
AI War: Fleet Command
Clutch
Delta Force: Xtreme 2
Light of Altair
Prototype
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
America's Army 3
Arma 2
Anno 1404
Overlord II
Battlefield Heroes
Droplitz
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Kodu Game Lab
Fuel
Battlestrike: Shadow of Stalingrad
G-Force
Divinity II: Developer's Cut
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Bionic Commando (2009)
East India Company
Ashes Cricket 2009
Death to Spies: Moment of Truth
Hearts of Iron III
100% Orange Juice!
Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
Code of Honor 3: Desperate Measures
Nation Red
Champions Online: Free For All
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
Drawn: The Painted Tower
Dawn of Magic 2
Pirate Hunter
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Mini Ninjas
Need for Speed: Shift
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Madballs in Babo: Invasion
Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Resident Evil 5
Kitty Play
18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker
Black Mirror 2
Premier Manager 10
Pat & Mat
Lucidity
NBA 2K10
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Machinarium
CSI: Deadly Intent
Borderlands
Barbie and the Three Musketeers
League of Legends
Painkiller: Resurrection
Ninja Blade
Men of War: Red Tide
Manhunt 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 & 2
GM Rally
Dark Fall 3: Lost Souls
Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
Gyromancer
Left 4 Dead 2
King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame
Crash Time 3
Metal Slug Collection PC
Musou Orochi Z
James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
Chronicles of Mystery - The Tree of Life
Greed: Black Border
Disciples III: Renaissance
Armored Hunter Gunhound
MechWarrior: Living Legends
Lethal Crisis
Combat Zone: Special Forces
Phase Shift
Pixeline: Jungleskatten
German Truck Simulator
Dark Void
Bob Came in Pieces
Mass Effect 2
Cursed Mountain
BioShock 2
Aliens vs. Predator (2010)
NecroVisioN: Lost Company
Arsenal of Democracy: A Hearts of Iron Game
Napoleon: Total War
City Car Driving
Disco Tycoon
Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell's Adventure
Alice in Wonderland
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Assassin's Creed II
Double Spoiler
Metro 2033
Mount & Blade: Warband
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West
Dark Void Zero
Fortix
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Beat Hazard
Pac-Man Pizza Parlor
Eschalon: Book II
Collapse: The Rage
Blur
Alpha Protocol
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage
Puzzler World
Altered Beast (Genesis)
Ecco the Dolphin (2010)
Hotel Collectors Edition
Alien Breed: Impact
Jolly Rover
Nehrim: At Fate's Edge
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Puzzle Dimension
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
APB Reloaded
Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent
Moonbase Alpha
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge
Mytheon
Blacklight: Tango Down
Alien Swarm
Need for Speed: World
Rabbids Go Home
RefRain - Prism Memories
Croixleur
Fairy Wars
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Black Sails - The Ghost Ship
Mafia II
Chime
Ferrari Virtual Academy
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Patrician IV: Conquest by Trade
Alien Breed 2: Assault
Darksiders
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard
Lost Horizon
Dead Rising 2
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Final Fantasy XIV Online (2010)
Axel & Pixel
Front Mission Evolved
Agricultural Simulator 2011
Arcania: Gothic 4
Lost Planet 2
Medal of Honor (2010)
Fallout: New Vegas
DeathSpank
Lego Universe
Octodad
Bit.Trip Beat
James Bond 007: Blood Stone
Emergency 2012
Gray Matter
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Alien Breed 3: Descent
Poker Night at the Inventory
Perpetuum
MX vs. ATV Reflex
DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue
Nail'd
Disciples III: Resurrection
Bejeweled 3
IREM Arcade Hits
Greed Corp
Back to the Future: The Game
Clickr
Crash Time 4: The Syndicate
Pet Hotel Tycoon
18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker 2
Crimzon Clover
Kaptain Brawe: A Brawe New World
Monday Night Combat
Dead Space 2
Luxor 5th Passage
Magicka
Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm
Bird Assassin
Bulletstorm
Gemini Rue
Men of War: Assault Squad
Painkiller: Redemption
Bit.Trip Runner
Crazy Taxi (2011)
Dragon Age 1 & 2
Battle: Los Angeles
Cloning Clyde
Homefront
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Infinity Danger
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
MIA (Mission in Asia)
Planet Stronghold
Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game
Dino D-Day
Anomaly Warzone Earth
Black Mirror 3
Portal 2
Cargo! The Quest for Gravity
Operation Flashpoint: Red River
Hector: Badge of Carnage!
Capsized
Fortix 2
Faery: Legends of Avalon
Hydrophobia: Prophecy
Battle vs. Chess
Fable III
DiRT 3
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Red Faction: Armageddon
Dracula: Love Kills
Duke Nukem Forever
Alice: Madness Returns
Dungeon Siege III
F.E.A.R. 3
Fruit Ninja
Puzzle Agent 2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Breath of Death VII: The Beginning
Cthulhu Saves the World
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover
Game Stock Car
E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy
Limbo
Pirates of Black Cove
Drakensang Online
Edge
Acceleration of SUGURI 2
Ether Vapor Remaster
Age of Empires Online
Bastion
From Dust
El Rock de tu Vida
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD
Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes
Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek
Driver: San Francisco
Dead Island
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Men of War: Vietnam
Hard Reset
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
Nuclear Dawn
Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~
Fotonica
Blackwell Deception
MDK 2 HD
Orcs Must Die!
Costume Quest
Dungeon Defenders
Payday: The Heist
Airline Tycoon 2
Arcania: Fall of Setarrif
Disney Universe
No More Room in Hell
NCIS
L.A. Noire
CastleMiner Z
Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Nitronic Rush
Jurassic Park: The Game
Anno 2070
Moto Racer 15th Anniversary
Batman: Arkham City
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome
Postal III
Afterfall: InSanity
Agricultural Simulator 2012
English Country Tune
Autobahn
Fractal: Make Blooms Not War
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
City Racing
FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
Final Combat
7554: Glorious Memories Revived
Q.U.B.E.
Lethal Crisis ProtoSphere
Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code
Doom & Destiny
Haunted Memories
Bridge Constructor
Metal Dead
Insane 2
Oil Rush
Deponia
King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame
Law & Order: Legacies
Analogue: A Hate Story
Gotham City Impostors
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Jagged Alliance: Back in Action
Crusader Kings II
Dear Esther
Alan Wake
Auditorium
Painkiller: Recurring Evil
Mass Effect 3
Mutant Storm: Reloaded
Lone Survivor
3SwitcheD
Rayman Origins
Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle
Blacklight: Retribution
Legend of Grimrock
Men of War: Condemned Heroes
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Disciples III: Reincarnation
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
Blades of Time
A Valley Without Wind
Binary Domain
Nexuiz (2012)
Gas Guzzlers: Combat Carnage
Port Royale 3: Pirates & Merchants
Odysseus: Long Way Home
Diablo III
Game of Thrones
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Agricultural Simulator: Historical Farming
Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure
Mad Riders
Home (2012)
Max Payne 3
AFL Live
Brave: The Video Game
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Resonance
Beware Planet Earth
Ice Age: Continental Drift - Arctic Games
Blade & Soul
Endless Space
1953 - KGB Unleashed
La-Mulana
Howlville: The Dark Past
Anna - Extended Edition
Prototype 2
Cut the Rope
Orcs Must Die! 2
A Virus Named TOM
Awesomenauts
BANZAI PECAN: The Last Hope for the Young Century
Darksiders II
Final Fantasy VII (2012)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
Jagged Alliance: Crossfire
I Am Alive
Intrusion 2
Borderlands 2
F1 2012
Jet Set Radio
Dogfight 1942
Castle Crashers
Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy
Little Racers Street
Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Dishonored
Retro City Rampage
Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition
Of Orcs and Men
R.A.W. Realms of Ancient War
submitted by DarkTower7899 to Craptopgamingadvice [link] [comments]
Dark Age of Camelot
Heli Heroes
America's Army
Live for Speed
Medieval: Total War
Paradise Cracked
Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra
Crimsonland
One Must Fall: Battlegrounds
Premier Manager 2002/2003 Season
Line of Sight: Vietnam
MapleStory
Enter the Matrix
Pure Pinball
Colin McRae Rally 3
MotoGP 2
Midnight Club II
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight
Republic: The Revolution
AquaNox 2: Revelation
Kreed
No Man's Land
Homeworld 2
Conflict: Desert Storm II
Gun Metal
Halo: Combat Evolved
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
MTV Celebrity Deathmatch
Bionicle: The Game
Battle Engine Aquila
Dead to Rights
Need for Speed: Underground
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance
Hot Wheels World Race
Premier Manager 2003-04
Armed and Dangerous
Beyond Good & Evil
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Airborne Troops: Countdown to D-Day
Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
Kill Switch
Bad Boys: Miami Takedown
Battlefield Vietnam
Breed
Colin McRae Rally 04
Painkiller
Crusader Kings
I-Ninja
CSI: Miami
Beyond Divinity
Perimeter
Pac-Man World 2
Alias
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
Codename: Panzers - Phase One
Asterix & Obelix XXL
Ground Control II: Operation Exodus
Mabinogi
Kreed: Battle for Savitar
Puyo Puyo Fever
Chaos League
Mashed
John Deere: American Farmer
Army Men: Sarge's War
Catwoman
Chessmaster 10th Edition
Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand
18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal
Conflict: Vietnam
Chris Sawyer's Locomotion
Full Spectrum Warrior
Kohan II: Kings of War
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Evil Genius
Myst IV: Revelation
Aladdin Chess Adventures
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
Counter-Strike: Source
Club Football 2005
LMA Professional Manager 2005
Ford Racing 3
Men of Valor
Axis & Allies (2004)
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
FlatOut
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
Children of the Nile
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Project Freedom
Pool Shark 2
Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge
MTX: Mototrax
Half-Life 2
Half-Life: Source
Fire Department 2
Jets'n'Guns
PC Fútbol 2005
Armies of Exigo
JBMod
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Bad Mojo Redux
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Battlestrike: The Road to Berlin
Garry's Mod
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure
Bratz: Rock Angelz
Garfield's It's All About Thinking Skills
John Deere: North American Farmer
Living World Racing
Playboy: The Mansion
Country Justice: Revenge of the Rednecks
Constantine
Project Snowblind
MVP Baseball 2005
Darwinia
GTR - FIA GT Racing Game
Act of War: Direct Action
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Driv3r
Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich
Close Quarters Conflict
CT Special Forces: Fire for Effect
Elite Warriors: Vietnam
Hellforces
Cold Fear
Dynasty Warriors 4: Hyper
Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
Psychonauts
Guild Wars
Dungeon Lords
Maniac Mansion Mania
7 Sins
Daemonica
Imperial Glory
Delta Force: Xtreme
Boiling Point: Road to Hell
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Cross Racing Championship 2005
Earth 2160
Area 51 (2005)
Pathologic
Juiced
Battlefield 2
Lula 3D
Fantastic 4
Midnight Outlaw: 6 Hours to SunUp
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
Codename: Panzers - Phase Two
Narcissu
Battle of Europe
Dead to Rights II
Dungeon Siege II
Night Watch
Neuro Hunter
JetFighter 2015
Conflict: Global Terror
Evil Dead: Regeneration
Fahrenheit
Fable: The Lost Chapters
Myst V: End of Ages
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard
Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport
Day of Defeat: Source
Asterix & Obelix XXL 2
Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures
Garfield: Saving Arlene
Blitzkrieg 2
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
Battlestrike: The Siege
Black & White 2
Rag Doll Kung Fu
GT Legends
Age of Empires III
F.E.A.R.
Adrenalin: Extreme Show
Call of Duty 2
Namco Museum 50th
Chaos League: Sudden Death
Ankh
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Gun
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Peter Jackson's King Kong
Peter Jackson's King Kong Gamer's Edition
Operation: Matriarchy
Combat Wings
Knights of the Temple II
Gene Troopers
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Hard Truck Apocalypse
Onimusha 3
Pac-Man World 3
Hammer & Sickle
Liquidator 2: Welcome to Hell
Catz
DMZ: North Korea
Dogz
John Deere: American Builder Deluxe
John Deere: American Farmer Deluxe
Kabus 22
Rat Hunter
MX vs. ATV Unleashed
25 to Life
Curious George
L.A. Rush
Bode Miller Alpine Skiing
Classic British Motor Racing
Jacked
Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
Crashday
Dungeons & Dragons Online
PSI: Syberian Conflict
Empires
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45
Commandos: Strike Force
Act of War: High Treason
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Blazing Angels
Fire Department 3
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Dreamfall
Desperados 2
Over the Hedge
Evolution GT
Heroes of Might and Magic V
Darkstar One
Hitman: Blood Money
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Cars
NFL Head Coach
Micro Machines V4
OutRun 2006
Devil May Cry 3
FlatOut 2
Outlaw Chopper
CivCity: Rome
Pac-Man World Rally
GTI Racing
Reservoir Dogs
Call of Juarez
Faces of War
Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Alaskan Adventure
Caesar IV
Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales
Company of Heroes
Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition
ParaWorld
Combat Wings: Battle of Britain
Ford Street Racing
Jaws Unleashed
LMA Manager 2007
El Matador
Mage Knight: Apocalypse
GTR 2 - FIA GT Racing Game
Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle
Heroes of Annihilated Empires
Death to Spies
Battlefield 2142
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Ankh: Heart of Osiris
Anno 1701
Neverwinter Nights 2
Dynasty Warriors Online Z
Paris Chase
Alarm for Cobra 11
Planet Alcatraz
Deal or No Deal
Made Man
Left Behind: Eternal Forces
D.I.R.T.: Origin of the Species
Arma: Armed Assault
Medieval II: Total War
Bionicle Heroes
Eragon
Happy Feet
Bass Pro Shops: Trophy Hunter
RACE - The WTCC Game
Harley-Davidson: Race to the Rally
L.A. Street Racing
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Alpha Prime
3D Instructor
Cinema Empire
Limbo of the Lost
Petz Horsez 2
Mr. Robot
Arthur and the Invisibles
Europa Universalis III
Ascension to the Throne
Battlestations: Midway
Chess Titans
Purble Place
Little Britain: The Video Game
Maelstrom: The Battle for Earth Begins
Redneck Kentucky and the Next Generation Chickens
Myst Online: Uru Live
Marine Sharpshooter 3
Infernal
Jade Empire: Special Edition
Resident Evil 4
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
Bus Driver
Brian Lara International Cricket 2007
Left Behind: Tribulation Forces
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Ancient Wars: Sparta
Cellfactor: Revolution
Day Watch
Halo 2
Adrenalin 2: Rush Hour
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Helldorado
Bet on Soldier: Black-out Saigon
Hospital Tycoon
Colin McRae: DiRT
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Driver: Parallel Lines
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Overlord
Ratatouille
Dead Reefs
Nitro Stunt Racing
A Tale of Two Kingdoms
Mountain of Faith
Need for Speed: Carbon
BioShock
7.62 High Calibre
Exodus from the Earth
Knytt Stories
Fantasy Wars
Blackwell Unbound
Medal of Honor: Airborne
ObsCure II
BMW M3 Challenge
Fortress Forever
Osu!
Ducati World Championship
Everlight: Of Magic & Power
Diabolik: The Original Sin
Portal
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
RACE 07 - Official WTCC Game
Rail Simulator
Hard to Be a God
Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition
Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge
Bee Movie Game
Clive Barker's Jericho
Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy
Escape from Paradise City
Cars Mater-National Championship
Avencast
Painkiller (all)
Hellgate: London
Empire Earth III
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
Gears of War
Dusk 12
BlackSite: Area 51
Beowulf
Crysis 1, 2, 3
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
Need for Speed: ProStreet
Petz Catz 2
A Farewell to Dragons
Hot Wheels: Beat That!
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
Ankh: Battle of the Gods
Deal or No Deal: Secret Vault Games
Flying Red Barrel: The Diary of a Little Aviator
Černaja Metka
Oval Office: Commander in Chief
FSR: French Street Racing
Conflict: Denied Ops
Kiss Before Midnight
John Deere: Drive Green
Audiosurf
Hour of Victory
Harvest: Massive Encounter
Operation Thunderstorm
Ninja Reflex
Lexus ISF Track Time
Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon
Assassin's Creed
Facewound
Europa Universalis: Rome
Citroën C4 Robot
Dream Pinball 3D
King's Bounty: The Legend
Project Torque
Elements of Destruction
Iron Man
Dracula: Origin
Ascension to the Throne: Valkyrie
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition
Mass Effect
Outcry
Nikita: The Mystery of the Hidden Treasure
Race Driver: Grid
Kung Fu Panda
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout
Insecticide
Petz Horsez 2 (2008)
Alone in the Dark (2008)
Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm
Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
Beijing 2008
Devil May Cry 4
Dynasty Warriors 6
Marine Sharpshooter 4: Locked and Loaded
American McGee's Grimm
Drakensang: The Dark Eye
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
Euro Truck Simulator
Bionic Commando Rearmed
Premier Manager 09
Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy Island
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Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals
Mount & Blade
Crysis Warhead
Ford Racing: Off Road
Lego Batman: The Videogame
Collapse
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Dead Space
Bully: Scholarship Edition
NHL 09
MorphX
Fallout 3
MySims
Petz Horse Club
007: Quantum of Solace
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance
Madagascar
Petz Sports
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Left 4 Dead
Bolt
Legendary
Need for Speed: Undercover
Neopets: Puzzle Adventure
Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
Crash Time 2
A Vampyre Story
Grand Ages: Rome
Grand Theft Auto 4 & 5
Prince of Persia
DYSNOMIA
Bundeskanzler
Cooking Academy 2: World Cuisine
Mirror's Edge
District Wars
Burnout Paradise
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
Art of Murder - Hunt for the Puppeteer
Art of Murder - Cards of Destiny
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Armed Forces Corp.
Ceville
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NecroVisioN
Empire: Total War
Codename: Panzers - Cold War
Men of War
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Hidden Target
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Dark Sector
Monsters vs. Aliens
Ferrari Virtual Race
Elven Legacy
Hannah Montana: The Movie
Braid
King's Bounty: Armored Princess
Cogs
Demigod
Close Combat: The Longest Day
Mozart: The Conspirators of Prague
Death Track: Resurrection
Age of Pirates 2
Battlestations: Pacific
Killing Floor 1 & 2
Damnation
Restaurant Empire II
AI War: Fleet Command
Clutch
Delta Force: Xtreme 2
Light of Altair
Prototype
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
America's Army 3
Arma 2
Anno 1404
Overlord II
Battlefield Heroes
Droplitz
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Kodu Game Lab
Fuel
Battlestrike: Shadow of Stalingrad
G-Force
Divinity II: Developer's Cut
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Bionic Commando (2009)
East India Company
Ashes Cricket 2009
Death to Spies: Moment of Truth
Hearts of Iron III
100% Orange Juice!
Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
Code of Honor 3: Desperate Measures
Nation Red
Champions Online: Free For All
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
Drawn: The Painted Tower
Dawn of Magic 2
Pirate Hunter
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Mini Ninjas
Need for Speed: Shift
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Madballs in Babo: Invasion
Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Resident Evil 5
Kitty Play
18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker
Black Mirror 2
Premier Manager 10
Pat & Mat
Lucidity
NBA 2K10
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Machinarium
CSI: Deadly Intent
Borderlands
Barbie and the Three Musketeers
League of Legends
Painkiller: Resurrection
Ninja Blade
Men of War: Red Tide
Manhunt 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 & 2
GM Rally
Dark Fall 3: Lost Souls
Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
Gyromancer
Left 4 Dead 2
King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame
Crash Time 3
Metal Slug Collection PC
Musou Orochi Z
James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
Chronicles of Mystery - The Tree of Life
Greed: Black Border
Disciples III: Renaissance
Armored Hunter Gunhound
MechWarrior: Living Legends
Lethal Crisis
Combat Zone: Special Forces
Phase Shift
Pixeline: Jungleskatten
German Truck Simulator
Dark Void
Bob Came in Pieces
Mass Effect 2
Cursed Mountain
BioShock 2
Aliens vs. Predator (2010)
NecroVisioN: Lost Company
Arsenal of Democracy: A Hearts of Iron Game
Napoleon: Total War
City Car Driving
Disco Tycoon
Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell's Adventure
Alice in Wonderland
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Assassin's Creed II
Double Spoiler
Metro 2033
Mount & Blade: Warband
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West
Dark Void Zero
Fortix
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Beat Hazard
Pac-Man Pizza Parlor
Eschalon: Book II
Collapse: The Rage
Blur
Alpha Protocol
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage
Puzzler World
Altered Beast (Genesis)
Ecco the Dolphin (2010)
Hotel Collectors Edition
Alien Breed: Impact
Jolly Rover
Nehrim: At Fate's Edge
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Puzzle Dimension
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
APB Reloaded
Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent
Moonbase Alpha
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge
Mytheon
Blacklight: Tango Down
Alien Swarm
Need for Speed: World
Rabbids Go Home
RefRain - Prism Memories
Croixleur
Fairy Wars
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Black Sails - The Ghost Ship
Mafia II
Chime
Ferrari Virtual Academy
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Patrician IV: Conquest by Trade
Alien Breed 2: Assault
Darksiders
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard
Lost Horizon
Dead Rising 2
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Final Fantasy XIV Online (2010)
Axel & Pixel
Front Mission Evolved
Agricultural Simulator 2011
Arcania: Gothic 4
Lost Planet 2
Medal of Honor (2010)
Fallout: New Vegas
DeathSpank
Lego Universe
Octodad
Bit.Trip Beat
James Bond 007: Blood Stone
Emergency 2012
Gray Matter
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Alien Breed 3: Descent
Poker Night at the Inventory
Perpetuum
MX vs. ATV Reflex
DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue
Nail'd
Disciples III: Resurrection
Bejeweled 3
IREM Arcade Hits
Greed Corp
Back to the Future: The Game
Clickr
Crash Time 4: The Syndicate
Pet Hotel Tycoon
18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker 2
Crimzon Clover
Kaptain Brawe: A Brawe New World
Monday Night Combat
Dead Space 2
Luxor 5th Passage
Magicka
Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm
Bird Assassin
Bulletstorm
Gemini Rue
Men of War: Assault Squad
Painkiller: Redemption
Bit.Trip Runner
Crazy Taxi (2011)
Dragon Age 1 & 2
Battle: Los Angeles
Cloning Clyde
Homefront
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Infinity Danger
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
MIA (Mission in Asia)
Planet Stronghold
Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game
Dino D-Day
Anomaly Warzone Earth
Black Mirror 3
Portal 2
Cargo! The Quest for Gravity
Operation Flashpoint: Red River
Hector: Badge of Carnage!
Capsized
Fortix 2
Faery: Legends of Avalon
Hydrophobia: Prophecy
Battle vs. Chess
Fable III
DiRT 3
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Red Faction: Armageddon
Dracula: Love Kills
Duke Nukem Forever
Alice: Madness Returns
Dungeon Siege III
F.E.A.R. 3
Fruit Ninja
Puzzle Agent 2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Breath of Death VII: The Beginning
Cthulhu Saves the World
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover
Game Stock Car
E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy
Limbo
Pirates of Black Cove
Drakensang Online
Edge
Acceleration of SUGURI 2
Ether Vapor Remaster
Age of Empires Online
Bastion
From Dust
El Rock de tu Vida
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD
Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes
Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek
Driver: San Francisco
Dead Island
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Men of War: Vietnam
Hard Reset
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
Nuclear Dawn
Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~
Fotonica
Blackwell Deception
MDK 2 HD
Orcs Must Die!
Costume Quest
Dungeon Defenders
Payday: The Heist
Airline Tycoon 2
Arcania: Fall of Setarrif
Disney Universe
No More Room in Hell
NCIS
L.A. Noire
CastleMiner Z
Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Nitronic Rush
Jurassic Park: The Game
Anno 2070
Moto Racer 15th Anniversary
Batman: Arkham City
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome
Postal III
Afterfall: InSanity
Agricultural Simulator 2012
English Country Tune
Autobahn
Fractal: Make Blooms Not War
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
City Racing
FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
Final Combat
7554: Glorious Memories Revived
Q.U.B.E.
Lethal Crisis ProtoSphere
Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code
Doom & Destiny
Haunted Memories
Bridge Constructor
Metal Dead
Insane 2
Oil Rush
Deponia
King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame
Law & Order: Legacies
Analogue: A Hate Story
Gotham City Impostors
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Jagged Alliance: Back in Action
Crusader Kings II
Dear Esther
Alan Wake
Auditorium
Painkiller: Recurring Evil
Mass Effect 3
Mutant Storm: Reloaded
Lone Survivor
3SwitcheD
Rayman Origins
Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle
Blacklight: Retribution
Legend of Grimrock
Men of War: Condemned Heroes
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Disciples III: Reincarnation
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
Blades of Time
A Valley Without Wind
Binary Domain
Nexuiz (2012)
Gas Guzzlers: Combat Carnage
Port Royale 3: Pirates & Merchants
Odysseus: Long Way Home
Diablo III
Game of Thrones
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Agricultural Simulator: Historical Farming
Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure
Mad Riders
Home (2012)
Max Payne 3
AFL Live
Brave: The Video Game
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Resonance
Beware Planet Earth
Ice Age: Continental Drift - Arctic Games
Blade & Soul
Endless Space
1953 - KGB Unleashed
La-Mulana
Howlville: The Dark Past
Anna - Extended Edition
Prototype 2
Cut the Rope
Orcs Must Die! 2
A Virus Named TOM
Awesomenauts
BANZAI PECAN: The Last Hope for the Young Century
Darksiders II
Final Fantasy VII (2012)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
Jagged Alliance: Crossfire
I Am Alive
Intrusion 2
Borderlands 2
F1 2012
Jet Set Radio
Dogfight 1942
Castle Crashers
Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy
Little Racers Street
Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Dishonored
Retro City Rampage
Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition
Of Orcs and Men
R.A.W. Realms of Ancient War
2024.03.25 04:49 euphoriclimbo The real questions we all want answered.
- Yo-Yo Mendez and Cross-Eyed Billy. Who would win in a fight ?
- Fran Felstein sang to Tony. Anyone think she blew out his candles ?
- Are Pokemon Cards still "Hard-Edge" ?
- Who spilled to Phil regarding Vito's whereabouts ?
- Was that Furio Giunta on the church scaffold in "Cold Stones" ?
- Who were the children that laughingly entered the Inn at the Oaks ?
- Could Tracee The Dancer have been Tony Blundetto's daughter Kelly ?
- What happened to the "Sessa" employees after they abandoned their truck in the Pine Barrens ?
- Does Phil Leotardo's having grandchildren without having children qualify him as a Magic Man ?
- Is Carmela still spiritually thirsty ?
- Will Kennedy and Heidi choose Law ? (like Meadow)
- Why did machines always attack Uncle Junior ? (Blender, garbage disposal, television boom microphone etc.)
- When the opening piano riff to that Journey song began, why didn't everyone at Holsten's hit the deck ?
- What was Bob Dylan's take on his song being used in the furtherance an exploding SUV ?
- When Rusty Millio died, was the Lollipop Guild present to welcome him to MunchkinLand ?
- Did Rusty Irish receive an Emmy nod yet ?
- Was Matush finally brought to task for his sins ?
- Who was funnier, Brainless The Second or The Witless Nephew ?
- "The Second Coming" Versus "The Art Of War". Which one should I buy ? (Amazon won't tell me.)
- Why "Kevin Finnerty" as an alter ego when we could've had Anthony Soprano as an Amish Roadside Tomato King ?
- Please opine your thoughts as I love a TV series that included a talking fish, a one-legged housekeeper, Madame Butterfly, The Valachi Papers, Mrs. Humphrey Bogart, a college roommate who never sleeps, Toblerone and multiple Phils/Fills (Phil Leotardo, Philly Cheesesteak, a filling station, "get my fill", Father Phil RinTin-InTola, an empty dream box that needs filling and the unseen Family from Philadelphia.)
- Did Carmela's madcap sister from Florida secretly replace her ?
- Did the Ladies' Movie Club ever figure out what "Rosebud" meant ?
- Was Vito Spatafore Junior allowed to write home from camp ?
- Anyone think it would've been funny if Coco had gone to Dr. Finn DiTrollio to get his teeth fixed ?
- Holsten's had two cooks, yet Tony could only get one basket of onion rings. Why ?
- Do you think that Tony's meeting with Agent Harris was a take on "Stopping by the Airport on a Snowy Evening" ?
- Did Willie Overall play it smart by staying dead ?
- What was the monthly Soprano cable bill ? (assuming they paid for it.)
- The Soprano kitchen had a package of Uncle Ben's Microwave Minute Rice. Why ?
- What do you think tipped Butchy off that he wound up in Chinatown ?
- When David Chase vacationed in France, did he feel the Terrible Call of the Beacon, too ?
- Why does the grey-jacketed man in Holsten's refuse to sit the fuqq down ?
- What ever happened to Adrianna's affectionate tennis teacher ?
- Could all this have been avoided if Tony Soprano had rejected Satan and all his works ?
- Were any of you like me in that you watched the first 15 minutes of "John From Cincinnatti" in the mistaken belief that it was Episode #87 of the Sopranos ?
- Did you feel sorry for Uncle Junior because Angie Dickinson never visited or even called him at the State Hospital ?
- Why do the personnel at Holsten's give "Members Only Guy" a spoon to stir his coffee with and the Soprano Clan has to resort to using their hands to feed upon Onion Rings ?
- Should deep thought be given to the inclusion of a scene where the Statue of Saint Elzear comes to life and stalks Paulie Walnuts unto Impending Doom ?
- I thought these things came in Threes. Why does The Chase Machine insist upon mocking me at Holsten's ? ( 2 chefs, 2 waitresses, 2 football player paintings, 2 unidentified black males, 2 coffee drinkers, 2 Mini-jukebox songs heard, 2 Tonys and 2 women [Carmela and Look-A-Like Janice] )
- When Vito Spatafore shot Jackie Aprile Junior near the Boonton Houses, who drove the getaway car ?
- What were the odds that Sal Vitro dropped dead after seeing Chrissie's used-to-be-a front lawn ?
- Meadow threw bread at Uncle Junior's head as he sang in the Vesuvio II. (The Army of One). How come Dream Meadow didn't throw a dream jukebox at Dream Vin Makezian's/Mr. DiTrollio's head when he insisted upon singing "3 Times a Lady" to infinity ? (after Vin's version, you will swear off the Commodores forever.)
- Tony Soprano shotgunned Tony Blundetto at Uncle Pat's Farm. Phil Leotardo arrived later and verified it. Why didn't Tony Soprano stick around Uncle Pat's Farm, kill Leotardo and sprinkle shotguns all around ?
- What ever happened to Angie Bompiensero, Perry Annunziata, Valentina LaPaz, Catherine Romano, Senator Zellman and Agent Robyn Sanseverino ?
- When we last saw the Buccos at the Vesuvio II, wasn't that the Mona Lisa sitting at another table ?
- Richie Aprile was the Lou Reed of the Sopranos, Yes ?
- Were there any more Johnson Brothers than the two skeletal siblings we saw in Season Five ? (like Johnson + Johnson, Masters + Johnson, The Brothers Johnson, Jack Johnson, Jeremiah Johnson or LBJ)
- Why were Super Dave Philip and Shea allowed to play football inside of Holsten's ?
- When you go to Hell, how come you get new clothes but are stuck with the same bad teeth ? (Lee/Livia and Man/Tony Blundetto)
- Would Baccia-Galupe (The sweet kitty) be considered an associate at this point ?
- Why didn't Carmela take the Sopranos Holy Hand Grenade with her when she went to Holsten's ? ( If there was a spot of bother, Carm could've taken care of Members Only Guy, USA Guy Trucker, the Black Males, Janice Look-A-Like, The Man In The Diner Who Refuses To Sit The Fuqq Down and Tony Soprano's Doppelganger.)
- Hesh's girlfriend Renata wore a sleeping mask. Did she double as Catwoman, The Scourge of North Caldwell ?
- Now who's going to keep Ginny Sack in Devil Dogs and Butter Brickle ?
- Was Fran Felstein a Ghost ? (She only spoke to Tony and the waiter during the entire "In Camelot" episode.)
- How come Paulie Walnuts and Uncle Junior never spoke to each other (not even once) during the entire 86 episode arc of the Sopranos ?
- If Chris had chosen Peyote over the SmackFuqq Lifestyle, would he still be here or playing Poker at the Piper ?
- If Cullen the Psychic dropped into the Bada Bing and saw the entire Soprano family at once, would his powers save him from the onrush of the Chain of Ghouls led by Sonny Pagano and ringleader Mikey Palmice ?
- If Paulie Walnuts was a Knight in White Satin Armor, would his name be Sir Doosh of Bag ?
- Had Lorraine Collazzo Fulfilled her promise to the people at the bar that day, would there have been a "Next Time" ?
- If Chris had chosen Peyote over the SmackFuqq Lifestyle, would he still be alive or stuck playing Poker at the Piper ?
- If Cullen the Psychic dropped into the Bada Bing and saw the entire Soprano family at once, would his powers save him from the onrush of the Chain of Ghouls led by Sonny Pagano and ringleader Mikey Palmice ?
- If Paulie Walnuts was a Knight in White Satin Armor, would his name be Sir Doosh of Bag ?
- If Lorraine Calluzzo had fulfilled her promise to Phil, Bill Leotardo, Joey Peeps and the bartender, would there have been a "Next Time" ?
- Would it be a fair comparison for Tony to tell Melfi that he was Sir Walter Raleigh in a Stone Canoe ?
- Did Phil Leotardo (20 year man) have a sperm smuggler in regards to his unseen Child, who birthed miracle twins at the Oyster Bay Station of Gas ? (Either this or Patty Leotardo was doing the horizontal bop with the family tailor.)
- Could Patsy Parisi have stunned Tony by getting up to use the pool as a bathroom again ?
- Did Kennedy and/or Heidi ever get their drivers' licenses ?
- Phil Leotardo was in the closet. Fat Dominick Gamiello, Vito Spatafore and Gerry Torciano were in the room. Two beds took up the rest of the place. How did they fit a pool table in there ?
- What was the final fate of Angie Bompiensero ?
- Is the Holsten's booth where Tony ate his last meal now a shrine ?
- Did Ralph Cifaretto's Bowling League ever make any inquiries as to his whereabouts ?
- Did the fake news station on the show ever do a follow up on the Class of 1984 ? (TonyB and Angelo Garepe are missing; Phil Leotardo has a smashed skull; Feech LaManna sent back to the can; Johnny Sack well into Stage Six and Carmine Lupertazzi as a Ghost at the Plaza Hotel.)
2024.03.21 02:27 MechaSnacks there's no rules in louisville if you guys need a rust belt getaway
after breonna taylor, our police force went on strike and has garnered a reputation that is so marred, they are offering people nearly $10,000 just for getting hired because they're short 300 officers. There are roughly two police officers for traffic enforcement in a city of about 600,000, and they police very specific sections of road in the east end where you'll only get pulled over if you're doing 35 miles an hour over the speed limit on the interstate. The rest of the city is a legitimate free for all, where license plates are not required and there is zero enforcement on vehicle condition as every single car in the county has some form of body damage.we have completely dysfunctional bridges that have been ignored for a hundred years, or one new heavily tolled bridge which drives traffic over the old bridges, culminating in a semi truck flying off the bridge and hanging over the Ohio River by a thread. There are zero designated heavy truck routes in the city, so I will find full sized semi trucks driving down my residential street as a short cut. I drove on expired tags for three years, no problem.
Just yesterday, the city subreddit was alerted by a trucker to a burned out car that has been sitting in the middle of the city for four years now.(https://maps.app.goo.gl/FnS8A9ajofoZeVSKA) Just this morning, there was a fentanyl man standing in the middle of a major road blocking traffic, screaming and swinging at vehicles all the while in front of a very nice private all boys catholic school. Half a mile down the road we saw six fucking fat wild turkeys on the side of the road, I think both were omens for something. They only clean up the trash in the city during derby so its an absolute trash heap 10 months out of the year, you can use this to negotiate prices. you can find anything you want here for the most part and and pawn shops are full of shit you wouldn't believe. only way you're gonna get in trouble is if you kill someone, and even then we let jack harlow's DJ get away with it.
submitted by MechaSnacks to redscarepod [link] [comments]
Just yesterday, the city subreddit was alerted by a trucker to a burned out car that has been sitting in the middle of the city for four years now.(https://maps.app.goo.gl/FnS8A9ajofoZeVSKA) Just this morning, there was a fentanyl man standing in the middle of a major road blocking traffic, screaming and swinging at vehicles all the while in front of a very nice private all boys catholic school. Half a mile down the road we saw six fucking fat wild turkeys on the side of the road, I think both were omens for something. They only clean up the trash in the city during derby so its an absolute trash heap 10 months out of the year, you can use this to negotiate prices. you can find anything you want here for the most part and and pawn shops are full of shit you wouldn't believe. only way you're gonna get in trouble is if you kill someone, and even then we let jack harlow's DJ get away with it.
2024.02.18 10:17 kevinallennumbers new board new me
 | New board for the first time in a long time. I had this old Certificate of Appreciation I got from the cops back in high school thanking me for editing a safety/instructional video for truckers and shit, and I’m glad I finally found a use for it. submitted by kevinallennumbers to guitarpedals [link] [comments] Really paired down my board but stoked on how it came out. I play indie rock and punk, and really this selection of pedals covers all most all my needs for those genres and the music I write/play live. The ojai power supply is probably the best I’ve ever had. Two jacks have 9, 12 and 18 volt options, which is a cool feature and the unit is great for clean power. The tuner is a korg pitchblack mini which is a great small tuner. Display is super bright, and the tracking is fast and responsive. I found that for most of my light gain overdrive needs, the Analogman modded BD2 was just the crème de la crop for me. It’s the closest thing I’ve heard to a “transparent” overdrive and honestly maxing out the gain knobs makes for a great fuzzy od. The Analogman Orange Squeezer is my Swiss Army knife pedal that I can use in a lot of different situations. Jazzmaster not sounding beefy enough, especially for single note instrumental parts? Switch it on. If I need a thicker distortion sound to fit in a live mix better, switch it on. I also enjoy using it to go from a compressed distorted tone to an uncompressed one, adds dynamics to my playing. It’s a really great little tool! My main distortion is an old Japanese DS1 that has grown on me a lot. I’m a Rat man through and through, but I love how almost shitty (but in a good way?) the ds1 distortion sounds. It can sound a little too tinny at times, especially with my jazzmaster, but the juicer remedies that for me. Lastly my delay is a good old RE20 space echo. The delay options and sounds in this box are a ton of fun and sound fantastic, not as good as my DMM Nano tbh but still fine. The reverb is… not for me and I actually tend to keep it off most of the time. Something I really love about this pedal is how it affects my sound when turned on. It kinda smooths out the top end of my signal which is a godsend for some of my brighter single coil guitars. Yeah, stoked on it. It’s nice not having so many options, but the one I may add on the side is a volume pedal to be able to boost or lower myself if need be. Funny enough you can kinda do that with the RE20 and its odd input volume knob, but I’ll have to train my toes to do that. |
2024.02.13 18:34 nightwriter27 [HM] Development Hell
Development Hell: A Short Story
It was 2004, the Age of Jack Bauer and proper terrorists. A teenage boy filming an action movie by chasing friends who ran around with black spray-painted water guns in Manhattan wasn’t that unusual. To be clear, this was in Manhattan, Kansas-- aka “The Little Apple.” Sometimes the pimple-faced director, Nick, had run-ins with the police, such as when staging a convenience store robbery while the Chug 'n Go was still open on a Friday afternoon or when a production had a shootout along Kimball Avenue. Each time, the police would approach, ask a couple “what’s going on?” questions, see the miniDV camcorder, issue a casual warning, then leave.
Despite the pesky police state interference, Nick became known in the community as “the next Spielberg.” As it turned out, the neighbors’ predictions were not far off. Nick's short films, which often involved blasting Commies, played well with teenagers and adults alike. Screening a short film became a staple of basement parties, eventually working their ways up to the living room, then high school auditoriums. In the nascent days of YouTube, Nick became the preeminent digital storyteller. By 2008, Nick was globally famous, at least online. By 2010, Nick had write-ups in all of the major trades in Hollywood. VARIETY called him, “a Kubrickian, Tarantino-esque conductor of emotions.”
Sometime during the Obama administration, video essayists of all caliber and follower-count began to re-evaluate Nick's work. To a vlogger, it was said what used to be Progressive had now become Conservative. What used to be challenging had now become limiting. Some time towards the end of the Obama Administration, when Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton was perhaps at its zenith, Nick found his work increasingly mocked for its lackadaisical predictability, lack of ambition, and its general air of perfunctory completion. They were clockwork productions of mid-tier quality, i.e. the worst quality.
In early 2024, Nick talked on the phone with his manager and was about to get dropped as a client.
“Yeah, I know I wasn’t nominated for a People’s Choice Award, but can I at least be a seat filler?”
“That’s not what I do,” explained the manager. “Especially after what happened at the gun range birthday party.”
Nick could feel the acidity in his blood growing as he recalled all the ways he’d be wronged and robbed of his birthright to get everything he ever wanted. Nick ended the cell phone call while his manager gave a profanity-laced directive to a film school intern.
Unaware of the hurt feelings he had created, Nick began his daily commute to Dank Bar, the nearest dive that served hard alcohol at 6 am. Dank Bar didn’t do morning specials, or even Happy Hour, but the bartenders prided themselves on “pouring heavy,” so long as the drink ordered had no more than two ingredients.
Nick was nearly at this Mecca of the downtrodden and off-duty cops, when he got stopped by Capp, a lanky young man with a messenger bag.
“Are you Nick Adams?” the obvious fan breathlessly asked.
“Autographs are twenty bucks. Cash only.”
“I was a big fan of your early stuff. Before everything got super focused on the Moon not being real and explicitly anti-Italian. Anyhow, you’ve been served.”
It took a moment for Nick to realize he did not lose a dance battle, but rather he was now holding paper regarding yet another paternity suit. Yet another woman hitting Nick up for money just because he had abandoned her entirely.
“This kid doesn’t look anything like me,” Nick shouted at Capp, who had already gone into Dank Bar. Nick considered joining Capp for an early morning Johnny Walker, because maybe they would have a laugh together and the paternity suit would go away for some reason. Nick’s optimism evaporated quickly as he then realized he was supposed to be at the editing bay in Culver City.
Rachel was a film editor for 15 years before she met Nick, but now she was pissed, pregnant, and waiting for him to arrive and explain himself. Her pregnancy had been relatively smooth, except for the toll it took on her cocaine habit. She didn’t like how her dealers always muttered misgivings and prayed for her under their breath when selling her 8-balls. In any case, Rachel was confused by--and therefore angry at-- Nick’s re-cut of their most recent collaboration.
“I don’t get it,” she said as soon as Nick entered the editing suite.
“I don’t want the audience ‘to get’ this movie and I don’t want them to like it. That’s what makes it art.”
“It’ll make people leave their seats.”
“Fuck the audience. Anybody trying to make anything that won’t change the world is a coward.”
Rachel realized she was getting nowhere with Nick on the issue and she was definitely coming down from her high, so she decided to barrel into the next issue with all the grace of a drunken trucker at the strip club just outside of Junction City, Kansas.
“You need to take responsibility for this baby, too.”
Two (alleged!) mothers hassling Nick in one day? Granted, the odds of that happening any given day was about 40%, but still, it was enough for Nick to move on from the movie stalling in post-production.
“And you need to get rid of it before it grows into some kind of Democrat.” Nick wasn’t sure if the kid was his or not, but he was convinced there are too many babies in the world. He once signed a petition trying to get a measure on a midterm ballot that would make abortion legal up until the kid is 18 years old, but Nick failed to actually vote later that year and was unsure if the measure passed.
“You can’t be a deadbeat father in Los Angeles and expect to get away with it.”
“I’m not the father. And a guy can’t be sued for child support for kids that probably aren’t even his by two women at the same time. Or three or four or however many women are suing--- Look, a woman can’t get pregnant in the kitchen anyway. Because of the microwaves.”
“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer. He has his own billboards.”
Rachel stormed out and Nick sat in silence for a few moments, really hoping that Rachel would have a sudden change of heart and bring him coffee. Maybe she would have some ideas on how to make his latest movie better. And she’d let him take the credit for the ideas.
After a few minutes, Nick felt a cold shiver go up his spine. A truth was beginning to settle in. The only way out of his problem is to make a deal with the Devil. Fortunately, because Nick was an American, it was easy enough to find the Devil, this time at the parking lot of the DMV after-hours. The Devil was practicing his skateboarding skills, specifically kick-flips. Every skater already worshiped the Devil, so it figured to be a natural move for the Prince of Darkness to pick up at least some ability. Satan figured if he could at least constantly land a kickflip without looking like he was trying too hard, he’d go back to the skateparks. He had just landed the first one of the day when Nick approached, which helped explain why The Evil One himself was in good spirits, ready to make more favorable deals.
“Why’d’ja stop makin’ movies,” asked Lucifer, the fallen angel and Ruler of Hell.
“I didn’t. People just go bad at watching them,” Nick grumbled. “So, can you help me make the world’s greatest movie?”
“I supposed. Let’s talk about financing.”
“I got ten million dollars, minus student loans, so eight million.”
“Hm, yeah,” smirked Beelzebub, the Adversary. “I have a different way of financing projects. For something like this, I’m going to need… woof... at least your soul.”
Nick considered this carefully, which was an unusual act for him before making any decisions. He agreed.
“Great,” exclaimed Old Nick (which is another nickname for The Devil, though its origins are a debate among scholars with too much time on their hands), “I’ll see you at the premiere.”
And what a premiere it was! The movie was immediately hailed as Nick’s comeback film. The more people who saw it, the more its praise grew and grew. Finding adjectives to describe the masterpiece befuddled critics everywhere. When the banks of the English language dried up with praise, reviewers tried praising it in Japanese.
It had a 112% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
That following March, it won every Academy Award, including a few more retroactivity.
Werner Herzog, warmed by the beauty of Nick’s film, retired.
Months later, Nick sat alone in the editing bay, examining a Bill Pullman action figure, still in the packaging, from the 1996 classic “Independence Day.” Nick started to form the foundation of a scam to trick Mr. Pullman into signing the toy for maximum resale value when Rachel, the editosingle mother, entered.
Nick was initially confused why Rachel was in the very place she had worked in for years, then Nick became concerned she was here to collect money he definitely did not owe her.
“I’m not here for that, Nick. Your latest movie showed me who you really are and that’s okay. I understand you now. I think I understand all people and it’s given me the gift of serenity.
“So we're cool?” Nick offered a fist-bump to seal the deal. Rachel smiled simply at the gesture, like someone might respond when given a macaroni-decorated card from a neighbor’s ugly child.
“I’m getting out of the entertainment industry so that I can work for an animal shelter that specializes in finding homes for three-legged dogs and cats. I understand you’ll never be a part of our child’s life, but you have made the world a better place for her. Good-bye, Nick.” And with that, Rachel walked out of the room, out of Nick’s life, and into the slow-opening automatic door in the lobby.
Rachel was neither the only person to run into those stupid doors nor the only person to make significant life changes after seeing Nick’s masterpiece. The movie’s themes stuck with people like an STD for the mind-- but a good one. Everyone became more sympathetic, patient, and understanding toward one another and the greater world around them. The exploitation of workers, and other crimes, plummeted as a new era of peace and humanism blossomed.
But one day, while working at his laptop in Starbucks and blasting Imagine Dragons from his computer, the Devil received a notification from his most creative demon/accountant, Belial.
“What the hell,” roared Lord Satan. “My numbers in Hell are way down! That can’t be right. Where are the crooks, murderers, and slow drivers?”
Indeed, fewer and fewer souls were being harvested over the last several weeks, down significantly from his peak numbers 2017. Though the Devil had many faults, jumping to rash conclusions was not among them. He looked ahead and saw a vulnerable wallet. With a wave of his hand, the wallet fell to the ground. The now-wallet-less coffee patron continued on his way, none the wiser.
“And here comes Sandra,” observed the Devil. “She never goes to church and hasn’t cleaned the dishes herself since the last Olympics.”
But to the Devil’s chagrin and horror, Sandra picked up the wallet, noticed the Drivers License photo and went after the waller-dropper.
Goddammit, thought the Devil. God damn her good act. This was a disaster of “John Carter” magnitude. Sandra cheerfully returned the wallet to the thankful dropper, then returned to the Starbucks, where the Devil vanished from his seat in a poof of smoke to reappear fifteen away, in front of Sandra.
“Why did you do that disgusting good deed?!” The Devil practically spit at her.
“I saw Nick’s latest film,” Sandra offered. “I used to be one of those people that looked at my phone while listening to other people talk, but after seeing Nick’s movie, I’ve become a good person. The movie really changed me. Have you not seen it?”
Jesus Anti-Christ, thought the Devil. I’m losing souls from this Godforsaken deal!
Fortunately, it was easy enough for The Evil One to find Nick at a Paint ’n Sip class in Santa Monica the next Tuesday night.
Ever so subtly, the Devil saddled up next to Nick and, after the prerequisite small talk, he made the offer that they erase their previous deal from existence. The Devil made sure to laugh a bit at the beginning of the offer as to frame it like a joke, unless Nick was interested, like how someone might approach the idea of a three-way with a yoga instructor (ie. “Haha, it’d be totally crazy, right? Like, can you imagine? Completely ridiculous, but maybe, like, hey, shit happens, right? YOLO?”).
Nick didn’t bite on the hypothetical, yet very real, offer. The Devil tried a more aggressive approach, like a timeshare salesman’s supervisor (i.e. “I heard your concern, so there’s absolutely no pressure. But, just for my own notes and training purposes, what is the main source of your hesitation?”).
Again, Nick held firm. And again, he used too much paint on one stroke of his brush, causing some of it to run down in a streak.
“Maybe there’s a new deal to be made here,” suggested the Devil, seemingly going through one of the stages of grief.
“Listen carefully,” retorted Nick, “and hear me in all meanings when I say: Hell no.”
One thing the Devil wasn’t going to stomach was cleverness. He didn’t abide it from Doctor Faust and he would not abide it from Nick.
“And you listen carefully,” began Lucifer, summoning energy around them, darkening the room, “The decision before you isn’t whether you will do this or not, it’s a matter of when. When will you realize the truth? Where will you be when you finally yield?”
Smoke rose up around Nick, embracing him in an ethereal trap. In a second, he could see nothing, and in another second, Nick was dropped into an endless desert. The Devil towered over Nick.
“You will come to fear—ow!” Nick used two years of middle school-age Tae Kwon Do to land a front kick at the Devil’s tree trunk-sized leg. The Devil rubbed his shin, more annoyed than injured.
“Fuck you, Devil,” grumbled Nick.
The nightmarish demon, truly evil incarnate, shot flames from his eyes, fingertips, and butthole.
In a flash, Nick and the Devil were atomized, then reconstructed at the peak of a nameless, dissolute, snowy mountain. The Devil grew ever larger.
“Look around,” roared the Devil. “I control everything. I will drop mountains on you. I will rip out your intestines and string them like Christmas lights. I will staple your dick to your belly button and carry you around like a grocery bag. I will make you read your own worst screenplays for all eternity.”
Nick launched himself at Lucifer, with all the fury of a frat boy who just got called “a bitch.”
And so Nick and the colossus fought. The battle became a war and the war became an epic. It was a clash of indestructible, immortal gladiators. The man and the Beast careened through the vastness of space and time, forming constellations in the night sky, becoming the myth of societies past, present, and future.
In the first eon, the Devil’s own fury kept him ignorant.
In the second eon, the Devil recognized his own growing sense of confusion.
During the third eon, the Devil became concerned, then distressed. For the Devil wasn’t fighting Nick. He was fighting himself and losing to the power of a deal. Despite all his ability, supremacy, and fury, the Evil One found himself bound by his own power of an adamantine covenant. A deal was a deal and the Devil would have to deal.
In the parking lot of a Dave & Buster’s, the Devil fell to his knees.
“Tell me,” asked the Devil, refusing to look Nick in the eyes, “will you make another movie?”
“No, movie making is over. Any architect not trying to build the world’s tallest building is a coward. And I did it. I did the best ever and the best that will ever be. That’s why I’m so goddamn happy.”
“But what worlds do you mean to conquer next? Surely, you can’t retire so easily.”
“If I’m not making movies, I’ll just focus on fighting Communists online.”
The Devil nodded, understanding Nick entirely.
For some time, the Devil sat alone in his thoughts, his own personal hell— which was Heavenly to him in that way. He considered how he had been bested by a filmmaker and then found himself confronting a new feeling. It was a very pointed anger, or perhaps a kernel of sadness or— no. It was neither of those things; it was jealousy. And with the jealousy came ideas. Motivation. Machinations.
The Devil produced business cards out of thin air and bought a gallon of hair gel because he was now going to become a movie producer.
He first rented an office space, then registered a couple of website domains. He wasn’t sure what his studio would eventually be called, so he went with several names, such as: Devil May Film, See All Evil, A 20 Gore, Scream Works, HellMark Productions, etc.
Then it was a matter of finding a feature film script. Satan obviously had no qualms about taking advantage of the desperate and naive, so he posted the “no pay” “opportunity” to work with “an award-winning studio” on Craigslist. The Devil made few to include all of the normal enticing details, such as promising that if he found a writer who was a good fit for this project, there would be plenty of more work in the future. He received 70 responses in 24 hours.
Satan was no normal film producer, though; he was looking for elevated concepts that could appeal to international audiences and have a budget of under five million dollars. Like all evil geniuses, Satan also wanted the story to be a contained-thriller with smart social commentary.
He started by optioning a script about warriors from different time periods being put into a futuristic battle royale. The script barely contained any of the elements Satan said he wanted, but the screenwriter was willing to sign over all rights for an indefinite time period for $1, plus 1% of net profits— as calculated by the Devil’s most creative demon/accountant, Belial.
The Devil wasted no time in hiring another writer, under similar terms, to rewrite the script, understanding that the second writer was “good with character.” This insulted the original writer, but it was only the beginning.
A third writer was brought in to punch up the dialogue, which incensed the second writer.
Then the hiring flood gates really opened and Tinsel Town was hit by a deluge of opportunity.
Satan hired a bilingual assistant for $15/hour, who could also do social media management and help with SEO tracking or whatever. The Devil needed her to do personal errands, too, because he didn’t trust services such as UberEats. He shamed the assistant for not being available 24/7 and reminded her to be a “rock star” who “goes above and beyond” at work.
The Devil held an open casting call, but only brought in actors who had at least 100,000 followers across all social media platforms. That method proved successful in generating early buzz online, so he did the same for his crew. He let the director do her own pass at the script, infuriating the previous writers, then had his own nephew/demon, Randle, do a rewrite to piss off the director.
When the Devil grew tired of people asking about payment and the start of production, he began reaching out to distributors, promised foreign pre-sales, and started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise the last $80,000. The Devil felt kind of awkward asking friends and family for money, but he loved seeing his cast and crew ask their loved ones for donations. Fortunately, several dentists were interested in financing the movie and that put the campaign over the edge with three days to spare.
And then came the production delays. First, it was the unseasonable warmth in September — the “second summer” that hit Los Angeles every year, surprising everyone every year. In October, the Devil wanted to focus on putting together pitch decks for the American Film Market. Later, the Devil assured his team that no one would really want to work November through December, on account of the holidays. At the start of the new year, the Devil had to go away for the Sundance Film Festival, so production stalled a few more weeks. February wasn’t a good month either because it’s a time to reflect on the contributions of Black Americans in history; also, several parents were taking their kids on ski trips. By March, the Devil realized his taxes “were a total mess” from the previous year, so that needed to get sorted before any movie could start filming.
If it wasn’t clear, the truth was the Devil found that having a movie in endless pre-production was a good way to torture people.
“Welcome to Hell-ywood,” he would shout as another artist left the office in a huff. People really hated that pun, but the Devil’s place in the industry was undeniable. Indeed, finding what you love is more important than any end result and the Devil very much loved the process of his work— final film be damned.
Meanwhile, Nick found that people merely annoyed him in new ways and old ways-- particularly the women who kept insisting their child, born and unborn, was the result of unprotected sex. Only a few agreed with Nick’s point about the impossibility of fertilization, even a close enough proximity to microwaves.
So on April 12th, which was one of the few days of the year most of the film industry was working, Nick went to the Devil’s production office. It was in one of those corporate buildings on the westside, near Wilshire and San Vicente. Nick sat patiently across from the secretary for twelve minutes, with unread issues of VARIETY impeccably fanned out on the coffee table.
“Oh, Nick! Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.” The Devil led Nick into his corner office and sat down behind an impressive desk. “It’s been a while,” continued the Devil, in sincerely good spirits for an earnestly evil entity.
For the first time since meeting him, Nick was suspicious of the Devil. How could anyone, including the Devil, be happy spinning his wheels indefinitely on a project with no end in sight? Satan had no intention of making the worst movie ever or the most evil movie. Lucifer was content with just the act, the process, of being a pretend movie producer. But there were other things the Devil liked, for he was not a one-track malevolent being.
“A deal,” Nick proposed. “Get rid of all the paternity suits against me and I’ll let you reset the world to be like before we met at that parking lot.”
“You, Nick, would destroy and erase the greatest movie ever made-- or will ever be made-- just so that you don’t have to deal with the pressures of fatherhood?”
“Yep.”
“Holy God.”
“Yep.”
Now it was the Devil’s turn to be suspicious of Nick.
“There's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, uh, you can't get fooled again.”
“What?”
“You never heard that, Nick?”
Nick shook his head and the Devil began to feel his opportunity slip away. He agreed to Nick’s new deal and in a flash sent the world back to how it was almost 4000 words ago.
Nick woke up in his home office. Freed from the burdens of having to care about anyone else, Nick considered his next story. He considered what it might be like to have control from beginning to end. To have no responsibilities to others.
He decided to write a short story.
submitted by nightwriter27 to shortstories [link] [comments]
It was 2004, the Age of Jack Bauer and proper terrorists. A teenage boy filming an action movie by chasing friends who ran around with black spray-painted water guns in Manhattan wasn’t that unusual. To be clear, this was in Manhattan, Kansas-- aka “The Little Apple.” Sometimes the pimple-faced director, Nick, had run-ins with the police, such as when staging a convenience store robbery while the Chug 'n Go was still open on a Friday afternoon or when a production had a shootout along Kimball Avenue. Each time, the police would approach, ask a couple “what’s going on?” questions, see the miniDV camcorder, issue a casual warning, then leave.
Despite the pesky police state interference, Nick became known in the community as “the next Spielberg.” As it turned out, the neighbors’ predictions were not far off. Nick's short films, which often involved blasting Commies, played well with teenagers and adults alike. Screening a short film became a staple of basement parties, eventually working their ways up to the living room, then high school auditoriums. In the nascent days of YouTube, Nick became the preeminent digital storyteller. By 2008, Nick was globally famous, at least online. By 2010, Nick had write-ups in all of the major trades in Hollywood. VARIETY called him, “a Kubrickian, Tarantino-esque conductor of emotions.”
Sometime during the Obama administration, video essayists of all caliber and follower-count began to re-evaluate Nick's work. To a vlogger, it was said what used to be Progressive had now become Conservative. What used to be challenging had now become limiting. Some time towards the end of the Obama Administration, when Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton was perhaps at its zenith, Nick found his work increasingly mocked for its lackadaisical predictability, lack of ambition, and its general air of perfunctory completion. They were clockwork productions of mid-tier quality, i.e. the worst quality.
In early 2024, Nick talked on the phone with his manager and was about to get dropped as a client.
“Yeah, I know I wasn’t nominated for a People’s Choice Award, but can I at least be a seat filler?”
“That’s not what I do,” explained the manager. “Especially after what happened at the gun range birthday party.”
Nick could feel the acidity in his blood growing as he recalled all the ways he’d be wronged and robbed of his birthright to get everything he ever wanted. Nick ended the cell phone call while his manager gave a profanity-laced directive to a film school intern.
Unaware of the hurt feelings he had created, Nick began his daily commute to Dank Bar, the nearest dive that served hard alcohol at 6 am. Dank Bar didn’t do morning specials, or even Happy Hour, but the bartenders prided themselves on “pouring heavy,” so long as the drink ordered had no more than two ingredients.
Nick was nearly at this Mecca of the downtrodden and off-duty cops, when he got stopped by Capp, a lanky young man with a messenger bag.
“Are you Nick Adams?” the obvious fan breathlessly asked.
“Autographs are twenty bucks. Cash only.”
“I was a big fan of your early stuff. Before everything got super focused on the Moon not being real and explicitly anti-Italian. Anyhow, you’ve been served.”
It took a moment for Nick to realize he did not lose a dance battle, but rather he was now holding paper regarding yet another paternity suit. Yet another woman hitting Nick up for money just because he had abandoned her entirely.
“This kid doesn’t look anything like me,” Nick shouted at Capp, who had already gone into Dank Bar. Nick considered joining Capp for an early morning Johnny Walker, because maybe they would have a laugh together and the paternity suit would go away for some reason. Nick’s optimism evaporated quickly as he then realized he was supposed to be at the editing bay in Culver City.
Rachel was a film editor for 15 years before she met Nick, but now she was pissed, pregnant, and waiting for him to arrive and explain himself. Her pregnancy had been relatively smooth, except for the toll it took on her cocaine habit. She didn’t like how her dealers always muttered misgivings and prayed for her under their breath when selling her 8-balls. In any case, Rachel was confused by--and therefore angry at-- Nick’s re-cut of their most recent collaboration.
“I don’t get it,” she said as soon as Nick entered the editing suite.
“I don’t want the audience ‘to get’ this movie and I don’t want them to like it. That’s what makes it art.”
“It’ll make people leave their seats.”
“Fuck the audience. Anybody trying to make anything that won’t change the world is a coward.”
Rachel realized she was getting nowhere with Nick on the issue and she was definitely coming down from her high, so she decided to barrel into the next issue with all the grace of a drunken trucker at the strip club just outside of Junction City, Kansas.
“You need to take responsibility for this baby, too.”
Two (alleged!) mothers hassling Nick in one day? Granted, the odds of that happening any given day was about 40%, but still, it was enough for Nick to move on from the movie stalling in post-production.
“And you need to get rid of it before it grows into some kind of Democrat.” Nick wasn’t sure if the kid was his or not, but he was convinced there are too many babies in the world. He once signed a petition trying to get a measure on a midterm ballot that would make abortion legal up until the kid is 18 years old, but Nick failed to actually vote later that year and was unsure if the measure passed.
“You can’t be a deadbeat father in Los Angeles and expect to get away with it.”
“I’m not the father. And a guy can’t be sued for child support for kids that probably aren’t even his by two women at the same time. Or three or four or however many women are suing--- Look, a woman can’t get pregnant in the kitchen anyway. Because of the microwaves.”
“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer. He has his own billboards.”
Rachel stormed out and Nick sat in silence for a few moments, really hoping that Rachel would have a sudden change of heart and bring him coffee. Maybe she would have some ideas on how to make his latest movie better. And she’d let him take the credit for the ideas.
After a few minutes, Nick felt a cold shiver go up his spine. A truth was beginning to settle in. The only way out of his problem is to make a deal with the Devil. Fortunately, because Nick was an American, it was easy enough to find the Devil, this time at the parking lot of the DMV after-hours. The Devil was practicing his skateboarding skills, specifically kick-flips. Every skater already worshiped the Devil, so it figured to be a natural move for the Prince of Darkness to pick up at least some ability. Satan figured if he could at least constantly land a kickflip without looking like he was trying too hard, he’d go back to the skateparks. He had just landed the first one of the day when Nick approached, which helped explain why The Evil One himself was in good spirits, ready to make more favorable deals.
“Why’d’ja stop makin’ movies,” asked Lucifer, the fallen angel and Ruler of Hell.
“I didn’t. People just go bad at watching them,” Nick grumbled. “So, can you help me make the world’s greatest movie?”
“I supposed. Let’s talk about financing.”
“I got ten million dollars, minus student loans, so eight million.”
“Hm, yeah,” smirked Beelzebub, the Adversary. “I have a different way of financing projects. For something like this, I’m going to need… woof... at least your soul.”
Nick considered this carefully, which was an unusual act for him before making any decisions. He agreed.
“Great,” exclaimed Old Nick (which is another nickname for The Devil, though its origins are a debate among scholars with too much time on their hands), “I’ll see you at the premiere.”
And what a premiere it was! The movie was immediately hailed as Nick’s comeback film. The more people who saw it, the more its praise grew and grew. Finding adjectives to describe the masterpiece befuddled critics everywhere. When the banks of the English language dried up with praise, reviewers tried praising it in Japanese.
It had a 112% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
That following March, it won every Academy Award, including a few more retroactivity.
Werner Herzog, warmed by the beauty of Nick’s film, retired.
Months later, Nick sat alone in the editing bay, examining a Bill Pullman action figure, still in the packaging, from the 1996 classic “Independence Day.” Nick started to form the foundation of a scam to trick Mr. Pullman into signing the toy for maximum resale value when Rachel, the editosingle mother, entered.
Nick was initially confused why Rachel was in the very place she had worked in for years, then Nick became concerned she was here to collect money he definitely did not owe her.
“I’m not here for that, Nick. Your latest movie showed me who you really are and that’s okay. I understand you now. I think I understand all people and it’s given me the gift of serenity.
“So we're cool?” Nick offered a fist-bump to seal the deal. Rachel smiled simply at the gesture, like someone might respond when given a macaroni-decorated card from a neighbor’s ugly child.
“I’m getting out of the entertainment industry so that I can work for an animal shelter that specializes in finding homes for three-legged dogs and cats. I understand you’ll never be a part of our child’s life, but you have made the world a better place for her. Good-bye, Nick.” And with that, Rachel walked out of the room, out of Nick’s life, and into the slow-opening automatic door in the lobby.
Rachel was neither the only person to run into those stupid doors nor the only person to make significant life changes after seeing Nick’s masterpiece. The movie’s themes stuck with people like an STD for the mind-- but a good one. Everyone became more sympathetic, patient, and understanding toward one another and the greater world around them. The exploitation of workers, and other crimes, plummeted as a new era of peace and humanism blossomed.
But one day, while working at his laptop in Starbucks and blasting Imagine Dragons from his computer, the Devil received a notification from his most creative demon/accountant, Belial.
“What the hell,” roared Lord Satan. “My numbers in Hell are way down! That can’t be right. Where are the crooks, murderers, and slow drivers?”
Indeed, fewer and fewer souls were being harvested over the last several weeks, down significantly from his peak numbers 2017. Though the Devil had many faults, jumping to rash conclusions was not among them. He looked ahead and saw a vulnerable wallet. With a wave of his hand, the wallet fell to the ground. The now-wallet-less coffee patron continued on his way, none the wiser.
“And here comes Sandra,” observed the Devil. “She never goes to church and hasn’t cleaned the dishes herself since the last Olympics.”
But to the Devil’s chagrin and horror, Sandra picked up the wallet, noticed the Drivers License photo and went after the waller-dropper.
Goddammit, thought the Devil. God damn her good act. This was a disaster of “John Carter” magnitude. Sandra cheerfully returned the wallet to the thankful dropper, then returned to the Starbucks, where the Devil vanished from his seat in a poof of smoke to reappear fifteen away, in front of Sandra.
“Why did you do that disgusting good deed?!” The Devil practically spit at her.
“I saw Nick’s latest film,” Sandra offered. “I used to be one of those people that looked at my phone while listening to other people talk, but after seeing Nick’s movie, I’ve become a good person. The movie really changed me. Have you not seen it?”
Jesus Anti-Christ, thought the Devil. I’m losing souls from this Godforsaken deal!
Fortunately, it was easy enough for The Evil One to find Nick at a Paint ’n Sip class in Santa Monica the next Tuesday night.
Ever so subtly, the Devil saddled up next to Nick and, after the prerequisite small talk, he made the offer that they erase their previous deal from existence. The Devil made sure to laugh a bit at the beginning of the offer as to frame it like a joke, unless Nick was interested, like how someone might approach the idea of a three-way with a yoga instructor (ie. “Haha, it’d be totally crazy, right? Like, can you imagine? Completely ridiculous, but maybe, like, hey, shit happens, right? YOLO?”).
Nick didn’t bite on the hypothetical, yet very real, offer. The Devil tried a more aggressive approach, like a timeshare salesman’s supervisor (i.e. “I heard your concern, so there’s absolutely no pressure. But, just for my own notes and training purposes, what is the main source of your hesitation?”).
Again, Nick held firm. And again, he used too much paint on one stroke of his brush, causing some of it to run down in a streak.
“Maybe there’s a new deal to be made here,” suggested the Devil, seemingly going through one of the stages of grief.
“Listen carefully,” retorted Nick, “and hear me in all meanings when I say: Hell no.”
One thing the Devil wasn’t going to stomach was cleverness. He didn’t abide it from Doctor Faust and he would not abide it from Nick.
“And you listen carefully,” began Lucifer, summoning energy around them, darkening the room, “The decision before you isn’t whether you will do this or not, it’s a matter of when. When will you realize the truth? Where will you be when you finally yield?”
Smoke rose up around Nick, embracing him in an ethereal trap. In a second, he could see nothing, and in another second, Nick was dropped into an endless desert. The Devil towered over Nick.
“You will come to fear—ow!” Nick used two years of middle school-age Tae Kwon Do to land a front kick at the Devil’s tree trunk-sized leg. The Devil rubbed his shin, more annoyed than injured.
“Fuck you, Devil,” grumbled Nick.
The nightmarish demon, truly evil incarnate, shot flames from his eyes, fingertips, and butthole.
In a flash, Nick and the Devil were atomized, then reconstructed at the peak of a nameless, dissolute, snowy mountain. The Devil grew ever larger.
“Look around,” roared the Devil. “I control everything. I will drop mountains on you. I will rip out your intestines and string them like Christmas lights. I will staple your dick to your belly button and carry you around like a grocery bag. I will make you read your own worst screenplays for all eternity.”
Nick launched himself at Lucifer, with all the fury of a frat boy who just got called “a bitch.”
And so Nick and the colossus fought. The battle became a war and the war became an epic. It was a clash of indestructible, immortal gladiators. The man and the Beast careened through the vastness of space and time, forming constellations in the night sky, becoming the myth of societies past, present, and future.
In the first eon, the Devil’s own fury kept him ignorant.
In the second eon, the Devil recognized his own growing sense of confusion.
During the third eon, the Devil became concerned, then distressed. For the Devil wasn’t fighting Nick. He was fighting himself and losing to the power of a deal. Despite all his ability, supremacy, and fury, the Evil One found himself bound by his own power of an adamantine covenant. A deal was a deal and the Devil would have to deal.
In the parking lot of a Dave & Buster’s, the Devil fell to his knees.
“Tell me,” asked the Devil, refusing to look Nick in the eyes, “will you make another movie?”
“No, movie making is over. Any architect not trying to build the world’s tallest building is a coward. And I did it. I did the best ever and the best that will ever be. That’s why I’m so goddamn happy.”
“But what worlds do you mean to conquer next? Surely, you can’t retire so easily.”
“If I’m not making movies, I’ll just focus on fighting Communists online.”
The Devil nodded, understanding Nick entirely.
For some time, the Devil sat alone in his thoughts, his own personal hell— which was Heavenly to him in that way. He considered how he had been bested by a filmmaker and then found himself confronting a new feeling. It was a very pointed anger, or perhaps a kernel of sadness or— no. It was neither of those things; it was jealousy. And with the jealousy came ideas. Motivation. Machinations.
The Devil produced business cards out of thin air and bought a gallon of hair gel because he was now going to become a movie producer.
He first rented an office space, then registered a couple of website domains. He wasn’t sure what his studio would eventually be called, so he went with several names, such as: Devil May Film, See All Evil, A 20 Gore, Scream Works, HellMark Productions, etc.
Then it was a matter of finding a feature film script. Satan obviously had no qualms about taking advantage of the desperate and naive, so he posted the “no pay” “opportunity” to work with “an award-winning studio” on Craigslist. The Devil made few to include all of the normal enticing details, such as promising that if he found a writer who was a good fit for this project, there would be plenty of more work in the future. He received 70 responses in 24 hours.
Satan was no normal film producer, though; he was looking for elevated concepts that could appeal to international audiences and have a budget of under five million dollars. Like all evil geniuses, Satan also wanted the story to be a contained-thriller with smart social commentary.
He started by optioning a script about warriors from different time periods being put into a futuristic battle royale. The script barely contained any of the elements Satan said he wanted, but the screenwriter was willing to sign over all rights for an indefinite time period for $1, plus 1% of net profits— as calculated by the Devil’s most creative demon/accountant, Belial.
The Devil wasted no time in hiring another writer, under similar terms, to rewrite the script, understanding that the second writer was “good with character.” This insulted the original writer, but it was only the beginning.
A third writer was brought in to punch up the dialogue, which incensed the second writer.
Then the hiring flood gates really opened and Tinsel Town was hit by a deluge of opportunity.
Satan hired a bilingual assistant for $15/hour, who could also do social media management and help with SEO tracking or whatever. The Devil needed her to do personal errands, too, because he didn’t trust services such as UberEats. He shamed the assistant for not being available 24/7 and reminded her to be a “rock star” who “goes above and beyond” at work.
The Devil held an open casting call, but only brought in actors who had at least 100,000 followers across all social media platforms. That method proved successful in generating early buzz online, so he did the same for his crew. He let the director do her own pass at the script, infuriating the previous writers, then had his own nephew/demon, Randle, do a rewrite to piss off the director.
When the Devil grew tired of people asking about payment and the start of production, he began reaching out to distributors, promised foreign pre-sales, and started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise the last $80,000. The Devil felt kind of awkward asking friends and family for money, but he loved seeing his cast and crew ask their loved ones for donations. Fortunately, several dentists were interested in financing the movie and that put the campaign over the edge with three days to spare.
And then came the production delays. First, it was the unseasonable warmth in September — the “second summer” that hit Los Angeles every year, surprising everyone every year. In October, the Devil wanted to focus on putting together pitch decks for the American Film Market. Later, the Devil assured his team that no one would really want to work November through December, on account of the holidays. At the start of the new year, the Devil had to go away for the Sundance Film Festival, so production stalled a few more weeks. February wasn’t a good month either because it’s a time to reflect on the contributions of Black Americans in history; also, several parents were taking their kids on ski trips. By March, the Devil realized his taxes “were a total mess” from the previous year, so that needed to get sorted before any movie could start filming.
If it wasn’t clear, the truth was the Devil found that having a movie in endless pre-production was a good way to torture people.
“Welcome to Hell-ywood,” he would shout as another artist left the office in a huff. People really hated that pun, but the Devil’s place in the industry was undeniable. Indeed, finding what you love is more important than any end result and the Devil very much loved the process of his work— final film be damned.
Meanwhile, Nick found that people merely annoyed him in new ways and old ways-- particularly the women who kept insisting their child, born and unborn, was the result of unprotected sex. Only a few agreed with Nick’s point about the impossibility of fertilization, even a close enough proximity to microwaves.
So on April 12th, which was one of the few days of the year most of the film industry was working, Nick went to the Devil’s production office. It was in one of those corporate buildings on the westside, near Wilshire and San Vicente. Nick sat patiently across from the secretary for twelve minutes, with unread issues of VARIETY impeccably fanned out on the coffee table.
“Oh, Nick! Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.” The Devil led Nick into his corner office and sat down behind an impressive desk. “It’s been a while,” continued the Devil, in sincerely good spirits for an earnestly evil entity.
For the first time since meeting him, Nick was suspicious of the Devil. How could anyone, including the Devil, be happy spinning his wheels indefinitely on a project with no end in sight? Satan had no intention of making the worst movie ever or the most evil movie. Lucifer was content with just the act, the process, of being a pretend movie producer. But there were other things the Devil liked, for he was not a one-track malevolent being.
“A deal,” Nick proposed. “Get rid of all the paternity suits against me and I’ll let you reset the world to be like before we met at that parking lot.”
“You, Nick, would destroy and erase the greatest movie ever made-- or will ever be made-- just so that you don’t have to deal with the pressures of fatherhood?”
“Yep.”
“Holy God.”
“Yep.”
Now it was the Devil’s turn to be suspicious of Nick.
“There's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, uh, you can't get fooled again.”
“What?”
“You never heard that, Nick?”
Nick shook his head and the Devil began to feel his opportunity slip away. He agreed to Nick’s new deal and in a flash sent the world back to how it was almost 4000 words ago.
Nick woke up in his home office. Freed from the burdens of having to care about anyone else, Nick considered his next story. He considered what it might be like to have control from beginning to end. To have no responsibilities to others.
He decided to write a short story.
2024.02.13 13:05 Thewhyofdownvotes I’m a game developer and I love Steam Next Fest. I played 30 demos this SNF- here’s a short writeup an each of them. What did you play?
I didn’t really have any methodology for picking demos- I just played whatever caught my eye. I included the time I played the demo and noted whenever I played a demo with other people. Let me know your thoughts or what I missed. I love talking about this stuff but tried to keep it brief since there are so many to discuss.
Synergy - 4.1 hours
I’ve been playing SimCity4 (2003) a lot lately and this game does a great job of changing that formula enough to be something wholly unique. Instead of managing a whole city you’re managing a smaller ‘colony’ on a hostile desert planet, where you need to practice sustainability and manage limited resources. I think this will be appealing to anyone who likes city builders.
Echo Point Nova - 106 minutes
- Played co-op with 2 friends
This may have been my favorite demo of the fest. The movement feels so good and the environment feels more like a playground than a “level.” There are also some great ‘oh shit’ moments (like the boss fight). Just straight-up uncomplicated fun.
Pacific Drive - 91 minutes
The environment and atmosphere is fantastic and intriguing (reminds me a lot of Half-Life 2 actually) and I’m really interested to learn more about the world. On the other hand, I’m pretty sick of crafting/survival games, but at least that element doesn’t seem to be super prominent. Definitely interested to see where this goes
Perennial Order - 82 minutes
- Played co-op with 1 friend
I was really surprised by this one. It’s kind of a 2D Soulslike boss rush game. The art is kind of cool but also relies heavily on spline-based animation which I personally don’t like that much. They did a great job of capturing that darkly ambiguous feel of a Fromsoft game. And most importantly, there are some really cool design choices (even your basic light/heavy attacks are implemented in a really interesting way), it plays pretty nice and the bosses are well designed.
Incursion: Red River - 61 minutes
- Played co-op with 2 friends
There’s something really good in here, but it’s probably a few years of development from being "there." This was probably the buggiest/jankiest demo I played this fest with invisible objects, clipping issues, floating objects, UI issues, and more. However, the core ‘offline tarkov’ loop is kind of neat and the gunplay actually feels really good. I think they're trying to get funding and I hope they do, because I think this could become a great game
Indika - 59 minutes
Loved this. It’s hard to explain, but it basically feels like playing an A24 movie. Just some really dope, bold, cinematic choices. Light on actual gameplay.
Abiotic Factor - 54 minutes
- Played co-op with 3 friends
Again, not that big on survival/crafting these days, but I did enjoy this. The crafting element is a little on the lighter side (but still pretty prominent) and the Half Life 1 aesthetic is charming and interesting.
Fragmented City - 44 minutes
Really reminiscent of games like Babbdi and Sludge Life, which is not a bad thing. I really like these games where it’s just a small and dense ‘open world’ with interesting characters and a ton of charm.
Dungeonborne - 42 minutes
- Played co-op with 2 friends
Literally indistinguishable from Dark and Darker.
Star Trucker - 42 minutes
A good amount of this play time was actually me just walking around my cabin while talking on the phone with a friend, so I didn’t get to really play this a huge amount. I’ve never really played a truck sim but this caught my eye. The environments are super cool.
Flock - 38 minutes
Very chill and simple ‘cozy’ game. There’s not a lot to say about this but I think it’d be a good one for kids or for anyone who wants a no-pressure relaxing game.
Moduwar - 35 minutes
This is a really cool RTS with some super innovative ideas. Unfortunately, it was also almost unplayably janky for me. I was constantly struggling against the pathing and the UI. I’m not sure how close to release this is. If it gets some more work it could be something really special.
Knights Within - 34 minutes
- Played co-op with 1 friend Pretty straightforward third-person roguelite shooter. It comes across as kind of an asset flip and there isn’t a lot to the gameplay, but the feedback and game feel is actually pretty good. I think this could be a good game to sort of turn off your mind and shoot stuff while you hang out with your friends.
#BLUD - 33 minutes
If you’re a big Cartoon Network fan (like I am) you will be blown away by the art in this game. The combat honestly feels pretty bad but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a huge part of the game. Most of my playtime was spent just walking around exploring the world and talking with people. It just feels like jumping straight into an early 2000s CN show and freely exploring its world
Crow Country - 31 minutes
PS1 aesthetic has been in for a minute and this game hits it better than just about any other. It legitimately feels like some lost PS1 gem that’s just now surfacing. It was really immersive for me and I’m definitely interested to play more
Helskate - 30 minutes
Pretty simple but I really enjoyed this one. It’s a skateboarding/demon-fighting roguelite. Dope
Children of the Sun - 30 minutes
The aesthetic and art in this is incredible. Like, really really cool. The gameplay is creative and interesting but honestly pretty simple, to the point where it’s a bit hard for me to see how the full game will keep it feeling fresh
Ultros - 29 minutes
Really beautiful art. Everything else feels like a pretty standard metroidvania without much to really say. But that art is really cool
Mouthwashing - 27 minutes
I’m pretty pumped for this one. The art-style, the atmosphere, the intriguing storyline and anti-capitalist themes- there’s just a lot to be excited for. I can’t wait for the full game. If you haven’t played their previous game, check out How Fish is Made (and be ready for something weird)
Mullet Mad Jack - 27 minutes
Basically feels like a reskin of Post Void. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I did enjoy playing the demo. The aesthetic is cool and the gameplay is frenetic and fun
Furnish Master - 27 minutes
I’m not sure if this is my kind of thing, but I can see this being really appealing to a certain niche of gamers. You basically just put furniture into rooms with very little goal or criteria. The graphics, music, etc. are really chill and contribute to the relaxing feel. There are some issues with the controls/UI and a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes
Fair and Square - 25 minutes
Pretty standard and simple classic RTS. I don’t have a huge amount to say about this one. I’m not a huge RTS guy. I enjoyed the demo but not necessarily anything to write home about
Pepper Grinder - 21 minutes
This one is hyper-polished and smooth. This is one of the most ‘finished’ demos I played this fest and it was pretty fun to play. I think fans of 2D puzzle-platformers should definitely check it out
Star Racer - 17 minutes
Almost indistinguishable from F-Zero, but honestly that’s not really a bad thing. It controls a lot better than the old F-Zero and overall seems pretty fun.
Technocide - 17 minutes
Pretty simple SHMUP, but it really nails the game feel. Shooting down enemies just feels good
Limbs - 14 minutes
Very much in the genre of games like QWOP/Getting Over It. You’re basically fighting against the silly/janky controls and that’s the appeal of it. I think this isn’t really my kind of thing, but I think they did a good job of it
Chasmal Fear - 13 minutes
First person horror-shooter. The atmosphere is pretty cool, but it feels really janky and unpolished in a lot of ways. The fisheye lens is also a cool idea but it’s a little intense for me.
Spilled - 11 minutes
This was a really short demo, and the game is super simple. I imagine it will be a pretty short game as well, but I did really enjoy it and will probably pick it up. Definitely in the ‘cozy’ genre, having no real risks, danger, or time limits.
The Unknown - 9 minutes
I was excited to try this because it looks a lot like Naissencee, which I love. The atmosphere and aesthetics are really cool, but I found the first puzzle kind of obnoxious and then I did something I wasn’t supposed to and it soft locked the game
Dystopika - 8 minutes
Pretty cool but more like an interactive screensaver than a game as far as I can tell
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Synergy - 4.1 hours
I’ve been playing SimCity4 (2003) a lot lately and this game does a great job of changing that formula enough to be something wholly unique. Instead of managing a whole city you’re managing a smaller ‘colony’ on a hostile desert planet, where you need to practice sustainability and manage limited resources. I think this will be appealing to anyone who likes city builders.
Echo Point Nova - 106 minutes
- Played co-op with 2 friends
This may have been my favorite demo of the fest. The movement feels so good and the environment feels more like a playground than a “level.” There are also some great ‘oh shit’ moments (like the boss fight). Just straight-up uncomplicated fun.
Pacific Drive - 91 minutes
The environment and atmosphere is fantastic and intriguing (reminds me a lot of Half-Life 2 actually) and I’m really interested to learn more about the world. On the other hand, I’m pretty sick of crafting/survival games, but at least that element doesn’t seem to be super prominent. Definitely interested to see where this goes
Perennial Order - 82 minutes
- Played co-op with 1 friend
I was really surprised by this one. It’s kind of a 2D Soulslike boss rush game. The art is kind of cool but also relies heavily on spline-based animation which I personally don’t like that much. They did a great job of capturing that darkly ambiguous feel of a Fromsoft game. And most importantly, there are some really cool design choices (even your basic light/heavy attacks are implemented in a really interesting way), it plays pretty nice and the bosses are well designed.
Incursion: Red River - 61 minutes
- Played co-op with 2 friends
There’s something really good in here, but it’s probably a few years of development from being "there." This was probably the buggiest/jankiest demo I played this fest with invisible objects, clipping issues, floating objects, UI issues, and more. However, the core ‘offline tarkov’ loop is kind of neat and the gunplay actually feels really good. I think they're trying to get funding and I hope they do, because I think this could become a great game
Indika - 59 minutes
Loved this. It’s hard to explain, but it basically feels like playing an A24 movie. Just some really dope, bold, cinematic choices. Light on actual gameplay.
Abiotic Factor - 54 minutes
- Played co-op with 3 friends
Again, not that big on survival/crafting these days, but I did enjoy this. The crafting element is a little on the lighter side (but still pretty prominent) and the Half Life 1 aesthetic is charming and interesting.
Fragmented City - 44 minutes
Really reminiscent of games like Babbdi and Sludge Life, which is not a bad thing. I really like these games where it’s just a small and dense ‘open world’ with interesting characters and a ton of charm.
Dungeonborne - 42 minutes
- Played co-op with 2 friends
Literally indistinguishable from Dark and Darker.
Star Trucker - 42 minutes
A good amount of this play time was actually me just walking around my cabin while talking on the phone with a friend, so I didn’t get to really play this a huge amount. I’ve never really played a truck sim but this caught my eye. The environments are super cool.
Flock - 38 minutes
Very chill and simple ‘cozy’ game. There’s not a lot to say about this but I think it’d be a good one for kids or for anyone who wants a no-pressure relaxing game.
Moduwar - 35 minutes
This is a really cool RTS with some super innovative ideas. Unfortunately, it was also almost unplayably janky for me. I was constantly struggling against the pathing and the UI. I’m not sure how close to release this is. If it gets some more work it could be something really special.
Knights Within - 34 minutes
- Played co-op with 1 friend Pretty straightforward third-person roguelite shooter. It comes across as kind of an asset flip and there isn’t a lot to the gameplay, but the feedback and game feel is actually pretty good. I think this could be a good game to sort of turn off your mind and shoot stuff while you hang out with your friends.
#BLUD - 33 minutes
If you’re a big Cartoon Network fan (like I am) you will be blown away by the art in this game. The combat honestly feels pretty bad but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a huge part of the game. Most of my playtime was spent just walking around exploring the world and talking with people. It just feels like jumping straight into an early 2000s CN show and freely exploring its world
Crow Country - 31 minutes
PS1 aesthetic has been in for a minute and this game hits it better than just about any other. It legitimately feels like some lost PS1 gem that’s just now surfacing. It was really immersive for me and I’m definitely interested to play more
Helskate - 30 minutes
Pretty simple but I really enjoyed this one. It’s a skateboarding/demon-fighting roguelite. Dope
Children of the Sun - 30 minutes
The aesthetic and art in this is incredible. Like, really really cool. The gameplay is creative and interesting but honestly pretty simple, to the point where it’s a bit hard for me to see how the full game will keep it feeling fresh
Ultros - 29 minutes
Really beautiful art. Everything else feels like a pretty standard metroidvania without much to really say. But that art is really cool
Mouthwashing - 27 minutes
I’m pretty pumped for this one. The art-style, the atmosphere, the intriguing storyline and anti-capitalist themes- there’s just a lot to be excited for. I can’t wait for the full game. If you haven’t played their previous game, check out How Fish is Made (and be ready for something weird)
Mullet Mad Jack - 27 minutes
Basically feels like a reskin of Post Void. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I did enjoy playing the demo. The aesthetic is cool and the gameplay is frenetic and fun
Furnish Master - 27 minutes
I’m not sure if this is my kind of thing, but I can see this being really appealing to a certain niche of gamers. You basically just put furniture into rooms with very little goal or criteria. The graphics, music, etc. are really chill and contribute to the relaxing feel. There are some issues with the controls/UI and a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes
Fair and Square - 25 minutes
Pretty standard and simple classic RTS. I don’t have a huge amount to say about this one. I’m not a huge RTS guy. I enjoyed the demo but not necessarily anything to write home about
Pepper Grinder - 21 minutes
This one is hyper-polished and smooth. This is one of the most ‘finished’ demos I played this fest and it was pretty fun to play. I think fans of 2D puzzle-platformers should definitely check it out
Star Racer - 17 minutes
Almost indistinguishable from F-Zero, but honestly that’s not really a bad thing. It controls a lot better than the old F-Zero and overall seems pretty fun.
Technocide - 17 minutes
Pretty simple SHMUP, but it really nails the game feel. Shooting down enemies just feels good
Limbs - 14 minutes
Very much in the genre of games like QWOP/Getting Over It. You’re basically fighting against the silly/janky controls and that’s the appeal of it. I think this isn’t really my kind of thing, but I think they did a good job of it
Chasmal Fear - 13 minutes
First person horror-shooter. The atmosphere is pretty cool, but it feels really janky and unpolished in a lot of ways. The fisheye lens is also a cool idea but it’s a little intense for me.
Spilled - 11 minutes
This was a really short demo, and the game is super simple. I imagine it will be a pretty short game as well, but I did really enjoy it and will probably pick it up. Definitely in the ‘cozy’ genre, having no real risks, danger, or time limits.
The Unknown - 9 minutes
I was excited to try this because it looks a lot like Naissencee, which I love. The atmosphere and aesthetics are really cool, but I found the first puzzle kind of obnoxious and then I did something I wasn’t supposed to and it soft locked the game
Dystopika - 8 minutes
Pretty cool but more like an interactive screensaver than a game as far as I can tell
2024.02.09 06:42 WriterHereWhatNow I let out the nothing... it was a mistake.
I swept my curtains to the side and… there it was.
My husband had gone off for his yearly business trip to Hong Kong, leaving this little ol’ lady completely alone in these hills. And I told him, probably for the last time, that I wasn’t going to stay here, that I had some cousins waiting for me in Sarasota. I really didn’t. I just didn’t need anyone in my way and I didn’t need any questions asked. He loved to ask questions. But he wouldn’t be able to handle knowing what I got up to while he was gone. Nope, not a murderer… not exactly. Oh god, I wish it were so simple.
It started in late 1994, the first trip my husband had ever been invited to, a great prospect for both of us. When he left that September, I had gotten into a lot of remodeling and had promised a new mantle for his accolades to stand on. So naturally, it became a project to distract me while he was gone. I hadn’t known the history of our place until I took the brick facade off the wall. There was a secret passage!? Oh, a whole new room for remodel and decoration, maybe a private study or a library? The thoughts in my mind were endless, as I poked my head through the dusty threshold and saw… nothing.
It was a blank space. I thought perhaps my eyes were deceiving me, or could no longer adjust. I took an old piece of the plaster that had chipped and tossed it through the hole. No clink, no clatter. No draft or wind, either. This was a fucking void behind the fireplace. My mind wouldn’t, or couldn’t, understand what my eyes were picking up. I stuck my hand into the hole and waved it around. Normal… until I tried to reach down and touch the wall that my ribcage was leaning on. It passed through and I was startled, there was no barrier there. My hand swung like a swing set in a winter breeze, with no children to sit within. An absence of wires? Even a juicy old wolf spider would have been more welcome to touch my hand at that moment.
It took another two years before I was ready to face the void again. I think my husband knew something was wrong, but he put it off to “woman” isolation and that’s when I told him about the fake cousins in Sarasota. I was never able to articulate for him why the mantle wasn’t actually completed. I told him there was just a bit of mold and I treated it, and didn't feel like messing with anything else around without the specialists. I guess that idea of mold wasn’t too far off, thinking back. It kicked his curiosity in the bud and that's all I really needed. But I didn’t expect the spread. No one would, right? You think you’re going off your fucking rocker, you don’t say jack shit, and that’s how it spreads! I didn’t know! Oh god, I did not know.
In April 1997, my husband had another surprise trip. I used this time as my first opportunity to go inside. That last year, I brought myself to aim a flashlight through a single brick I left loose. I didn’t want to fall into anything and break my legs. I would most likely die of dehydration if I didn’t just fall forever… no chances. And the light was absorbed like there was some aerosol vantablack inside that void. It was suffocating, in the same way a sickly summer humidity sucks the energy from your knees and your head. But there was no sound of summer to remind you that you were alive. It was so empty. I knew I had to go inside.
You might wonder, why? Why did this thing draw me? Why did I lie to my husband? The goddamned mystery. The fact we bought that home and I already had an off feeling about the seller, and he didn’t believe me then. My husband, I mean. Cash in hand, no questions asked, fix her up and be happy. No previous murders or sickness deaths, despite being an old cabin in the Catskills. A “too good to be true, but I don’t see any of the strings” situation. His grandaddy said the frame had another 80 years in her. The catch was just the distance from town. I couldn’t find anything about the history of this homestead, it falls into a weird limbo for the county library system. I tried contacting the previous seller, he moved off to Boston for more work, and never responded to my emails. Just a formula for this wicked need for self validation, nobody was going to believe me, I didn’t want this out to the press. I still enjoyed a peaceful life without the press trying to crawl down my chimney. But I think I would have gone crazy if I didn’t go inside.
I took the bricks out one by one, until there was a gap big enough for my body. I tied off a bit of hauling rope from the shed to my waist and attached it to the partially exposed beam. One leg over… I was sitting on the edge like I was hopping a fence. Two legs over… My feet hit something solid, like a moist floor. Like sopping old wood. I took a deep breath and lowered my torso through, not letting go of the actual rope, holding it like a gunslinger about to duel. It was still pitch black. I couldn’t see past my torso, my legs descending into what might as well have been a miasma of smoky nothing below me. I took a step forward and my mind began swimming with visions of faces stretching the dark fabric, screaming for release.
I fell to my knees and when I touched the “floor” I felt my lungs fill with the nothing. It crept into every bit of my lungs, searingly cold and drowning, filling my eyes and sinuses and my ear canals, evacuating the last bit of light from every one of my cells. I think the adrenaline kicked in and I started pulling at the rope, desperate to get myself up above the threshold of vision. I had a strong burst and could see the afternoon sun peeking into the jagged outline of the bricks. The burning in my eyes and ears ceased, I fought fresh air into my body, and lunged through the wall like a mad woman. My hands had blisters for a few weeks, I hadn’t worn gloves. And there was a nasty cough that I couldn’t shake. I could have swore some of the deeper coughs had the smallest puff of smoke, streaming itself outward like some remnant of a cigar ember left to burn. But it was black. I pushed it from my mind for the sake of sanity, but it probably wasn't a coincidence that I was wanting the bottle every evening after that.
Those next months, our pigs passed due to an unknown pneumonia type illness that the old vet couldn’t identify. He told us it was best for him to take them to get cremated, don't bury them, and don't let other wildlife get ahold of the poor beasts. So we let him, and that’s how I think it got to town. I could have contained it then, but maybe not. I wish I tried. No use now. It’s at the door.
Every bird or other little critter that made its way within 15 yards of the old pig pen would begin to cough. And I began to find them spread across the garden, then in the gutters. I told my husband that we might have some sort of a plague on our hands and we need to contact someone serious. He tried to contact the vet and we had no response… not even a voicemail. We thought he was on vacation, after an unfortunate summer of sickness, he made a bit off ours and the distant neighbors’ pigs. We tried calling state services and got an answer off the DEC after a few tries. A rather manic sounding young man answered the phone, off put immediately by my husband’s bluntness.
“Has there been reports of wildlife and other creatures coughing and then dropping dead on the spot later on?” My husband had a look of both confusion and denial, perhaps expecting both of us to just be affected by the mold. Until his eyes widened about as large as saucer plates when I heard the other man’s voice from the small speaker.
“Sir, we are swamped due to exact reports of the like! Please tell me you are not experiencing the same thing out there? We do not have any more people to get out there until next month.”
“We are… is it real bad? Our pigs went this summer. When did it start?”
“Well, I don’t necessarily have that information but the uppers told us that it probably started in the woods somewhere in the boonies, in spring. It festered over summer. People are getting sick, sir. I think the government is coming in, we have no manpower. We have trenches of animals, man. Trenches and more keep dying! My great gran ain't seen nothing like it!” The man was now about to cry, nearly heaving his words into the receiver, losing his professionality to raw grief. My husband and I began to grow more and more uncomfortable, knowing our pigs were one of the first our vet had seen with the cough. Now I know it was me. I brought it upon the world. Curiosity killed the cat but it killed the light too.
“What can we do now, son?” My husband, his sweet ability to problem solve on the spot and focus forward.
“Well, bury the ones you got dead. We can’t burn them. That smoke carries whatever it is, and we haven’t got contact with the vet from your county. Try to contain the bodies, even if you have to throw ‘em down under a concrete slab to stop things chewing on it.” The young man hitched a real sob and continued, “Sir, I think the vet is dead. He never missed our calls unless something bad happened and then he would still get back to us. It’s been three weeks. Have you been to town?”
“Uh, no. Neither me or my wife. We’re a bit far out for the most part. I have a trip soon to Birmingham.”
“Sir, I don't think you’ll be able to go down if this gets any worse. The goddamned government comes and we'll be stuck up here in New York like moths on fly paper. It aint a joke, this is nothing the century has seen and no chances will be taken once they see reports of the black smoke.”
My husband brought his hand to his forehead at that statement and replied, “The black smoke? Yeah, our animals and wildlife had some sort of gassy darkness wafting off them. That’s it? My wife and I didnt get sick, son.”
I wanted to scream. At this point, there was no doubt. My mind faded and honestly the rest of that night was rather blank. I was convinced. My husband had no idea, and I had passed this sickness, starting with our pigs. Nothing was infecting all. But it started with this burst, like spores on the ripe stem of a fall fungus, then it seemed to lay dormant. For a long time…
The vet had indeed passed. Although the coroner ruled natural causes, I knew deep down what he had found. The coroner himself attempted to retire a few years after and failed after a mysterious illness caused him to fall over like a sack of potatoes.
We eventually had high speed internet installed, my husband even acquired a brand new Man Cave off the garage with his own ham radio to talk to the few odd truckers that made it out so far. None of the guys on those jobs we hired ever mentioned anything like smoke or a void or any of the sort, either. One of them even ran the ethernet around the fireplace and didn't mention a thing. A few distant reports out of Toronto came over the radio about a minor new sickness akin to the plague. I don’t know why it started so slowly. Maybe it was biding time? Or was it just enjoying it’s goddamned sick creep? I guess I was even able to push it out of my mind, perhaps the illness faded for many. I think some rural communities were just… decimated. Not one to report the losses outside their villages. Or someone was damn good at covering up such a thing.
This last year, my husband’s trip was meant to cover a few extra days of travel because of so many layovers. Bad weather, really dark clouds. I felt the ominous bite of my deep intuition, but you know how humans have a silly knack to ignore those feelings. I should have ignored it first thing… but some lessons are only learned with time. I let him go, and now we are here tonight. I opened my curtain and there the nothing was, looming. As I wrote this down for any possible eyes to catch it, I think it has spread like a fog. I don’t know where this thing is going to spread to, but it’s lingering on the outside of my hallway.
I had to go check. I can see the tendrils whipping their way across the woodgrain, it’s almost here. I have not too much longer before it’s poking between the cracks of my door and the nothing takes me. I can’t see anything outside anymore beyond the window on the back side of my home. The nothing hasn’t consumed into the hollow just yet and I’m thinking of running. But I’m scared. I’m scared that if I open the window, the air pressure might suck it in. It's just fear, clearly the wind doesn’t affect it because I can see the stillness, somehow. The forsaken fog is alive, but not alive. I don’t know what it wants. Maybe me?
I felt the old springs of the window squeal and squeak as I raised it open. I grabbed my phone and the wifi reaches the crest of the hollow. I can see the nothing flowing into my front door… I can hear animal like breath rattling off the trees as it flows. Its… it’s growing smaller. I think it is returning to the hole in the mantle. I can’t check until it stops moving. Every once it a while it gives off a little eddie and i can smell it, like grease traps on a hot summer afternoon that haven’t been properly cleaned. My brain won’t let me think upon that further.
Turned off my phone, it’s been a few hours. The nothing has dissipated… it’s currently nighttime. My phone says 11:32 pm.
I walked to the door and opened it. Everything was in place but covered in this thin layer of sweaty resistance, like tacky moisture but gritty at the same time. The layer was thickest around the old hole in the mantle. I could see the last licks of the nothing tailing it’s way back to the void. It only seemed to flow toward the hole. I immediately tried to contact my husband after that and I got him to answer! He knew something had me shaken, but I told him that I was just extremely tired and missed the bus to Sarasota, leaving me completely whipped and defeated. I guess the truth couldn’t be more of the opposite… for now at least. The nothing had re-contained itself. My husband had been safe, so far away.
The fate of the north was not so lucky. I think that most of the bodies and by some curse, or miracle, the smoky sickness had only spread to the north. The nothing was making its way back to the void, after propagating in living bodies it makes the journey back to the home lair. Like a twisted version of a demonic salmon, or a haunted upside-down of the sea turtle, it returns back to home base not to propagate but to rest. To age. A lot of these stories were presented as flus, illnesses by pollutants, rapid cancers. I knew better. I saw it. I released it back in 1994. It took 30 years to make it’s way back, no telling how long it wafted it’s slow way here, growing like an effervescent tablet of darkness. If they didn’t know what they were seeing, I bet they felt the same I did, so fucking crazy that you decide it IS nothing.
But it was over. I know I learned my lesson. I hope you won’t need to learn it yourself.
submitted by WriterHereWhatNow to WritersOfHorror [link] [comments]
My husband had gone off for his yearly business trip to Hong Kong, leaving this little ol’ lady completely alone in these hills. And I told him, probably for the last time, that I wasn’t going to stay here, that I had some cousins waiting for me in Sarasota. I really didn’t. I just didn’t need anyone in my way and I didn’t need any questions asked. He loved to ask questions. But he wouldn’t be able to handle knowing what I got up to while he was gone. Nope, not a murderer… not exactly. Oh god, I wish it were so simple.
It started in late 1994, the first trip my husband had ever been invited to, a great prospect for both of us. When he left that September, I had gotten into a lot of remodeling and had promised a new mantle for his accolades to stand on. So naturally, it became a project to distract me while he was gone. I hadn’t known the history of our place until I took the brick facade off the wall. There was a secret passage!? Oh, a whole new room for remodel and decoration, maybe a private study or a library? The thoughts in my mind were endless, as I poked my head through the dusty threshold and saw… nothing.
It was a blank space. I thought perhaps my eyes were deceiving me, or could no longer adjust. I took an old piece of the plaster that had chipped and tossed it through the hole. No clink, no clatter. No draft or wind, either. This was a fucking void behind the fireplace. My mind wouldn’t, or couldn’t, understand what my eyes were picking up. I stuck my hand into the hole and waved it around. Normal… until I tried to reach down and touch the wall that my ribcage was leaning on. It passed through and I was startled, there was no barrier there. My hand swung like a swing set in a winter breeze, with no children to sit within. An absence of wires? Even a juicy old wolf spider would have been more welcome to touch my hand at that moment.
It took another two years before I was ready to face the void again. I think my husband knew something was wrong, but he put it off to “woman” isolation and that’s when I told him about the fake cousins in Sarasota. I was never able to articulate for him why the mantle wasn’t actually completed. I told him there was just a bit of mold and I treated it, and didn't feel like messing with anything else around without the specialists. I guess that idea of mold wasn’t too far off, thinking back. It kicked his curiosity in the bud and that's all I really needed. But I didn’t expect the spread. No one would, right? You think you’re going off your fucking rocker, you don’t say jack shit, and that’s how it spreads! I didn’t know! Oh god, I did not know.
In April 1997, my husband had another surprise trip. I used this time as my first opportunity to go inside. That last year, I brought myself to aim a flashlight through a single brick I left loose. I didn’t want to fall into anything and break my legs. I would most likely die of dehydration if I didn’t just fall forever… no chances. And the light was absorbed like there was some aerosol vantablack inside that void. It was suffocating, in the same way a sickly summer humidity sucks the energy from your knees and your head. But there was no sound of summer to remind you that you were alive. It was so empty. I knew I had to go inside.
You might wonder, why? Why did this thing draw me? Why did I lie to my husband? The goddamned mystery. The fact we bought that home and I already had an off feeling about the seller, and he didn’t believe me then. My husband, I mean. Cash in hand, no questions asked, fix her up and be happy. No previous murders or sickness deaths, despite being an old cabin in the Catskills. A “too good to be true, but I don’t see any of the strings” situation. His grandaddy said the frame had another 80 years in her. The catch was just the distance from town. I couldn’t find anything about the history of this homestead, it falls into a weird limbo for the county library system. I tried contacting the previous seller, he moved off to Boston for more work, and never responded to my emails. Just a formula for this wicked need for self validation, nobody was going to believe me, I didn’t want this out to the press. I still enjoyed a peaceful life without the press trying to crawl down my chimney. But I think I would have gone crazy if I didn’t go inside.
I took the bricks out one by one, until there was a gap big enough for my body. I tied off a bit of hauling rope from the shed to my waist and attached it to the partially exposed beam. One leg over… I was sitting on the edge like I was hopping a fence. Two legs over… My feet hit something solid, like a moist floor. Like sopping old wood. I took a deep breath and lowered my torso through, not letting go of the actual rope, holding it like a gunslinger about to duel. It was still pitch black. I couldn’t see past my torso, my legs descending into what might as well have been a miasma of smoky nothing below me. I took a step forward and my mind began swimming with visions of faces stretching the dark fabric, screaming for release.
I fell to my knees and when I touched the “floor” I felt my lungs fill with the nothing. It crept into every bit of my lungs, searingly cold and drowning, filling my eyes and sinuses and my ear canals, evacuating the last bit of light from every one of my cells. I think the adrenaline kicked in and I started pulling at the rope, desperate to get myself up above the threshold of vision. I had a strong burst and could see the afternoon sun peeking into the jagged outline of the bricks. The burning in my eyes and ears ceased, I fought fresh air into my body, and lunged through the wall like a mad woman. My hands had blisters for a few weeks, I hadn’t worn gloves. And there was a nasty cough that I couldn’t shake. I could have swore some of the deeper coughs had the smallest puff of smoke, streaming itself outward like some remnant of a cigar ember left to burn. But it was black. I pushed it from my mind for the sake of sanity, but it probably wasn't a coincidence that I was wanting the bottle every evening after that.
Those next months, our pigs passed due to an unknown pneumonia type illness that the old vet couldn’t identify. He told us it was best for him to take them to get cremated, don't bury them, and don't let other wildlife get ahold of the poor beasts. So we let him, and that’s how I think it got to town. I could have contained it then, but maybe not. I wish I tried. No use now. It’s at the door.
Every bird or other little critter that made its way within 15 yards of the old pig pen would begin to cough. And I began to find them spread across the garden, then in the gutters. I told my husband that we might have some sort of a plague on our hands and we need to contact someone serious. He tried to contact the vet and we had no response… not even a voicemail. We thought he was on vacation, after an unfortunate summer of sickness, he made a bit off ours and the distant neighbors’ pigs. We tried calling state services and got an answer off the DEC after a few tries. A rather manic sounding young man answered the phone, off put immediately by my husband’s bluntness.
“Has there been reports of wildlife and other creatures coughing and then dropping dead on the spot later on?” My husband had a look of both confusion and denial, perhaps expecting both of us to just be affected by the mold. Until his eyes widened about as large as saucer plates when I heard the other man’s voice from the small speaker.
“Sir, we are swamped due to exact reports of the like! Please tell me you are not experiencing the same thing out there? We do not have any more people to get out there until next month.”
“We are… is it real bad? Our pigs went this summer. When did it start?”
“Well, I don’t necessarily have that information but the uppers told us that it probably started in the woods somewhere in the boonies, in spring. It festered over summer. People are getting sick, sir. I think the government is coming in, we have no manpower. We have trenches of animals, man. Trenches and more keep dying! My great gran ain't seen nothing like it!” The man was now about to cry, nearly heaving his words into the receiver, losing his professionality to raw grief. My husband and I began to grow more and more uncomfortable, knowing our pigs were one of the first our vet had seen with the cough. Now I know it was me. I brought it upon the world. Curiosity killed the cat but it killed the light too.
“What can we do now, son?” My husband, his sweet ability to problem solve on the spot and focus forward.
“Well, bury the ones you got dead. We can’t burn them. That smoke carries whatever it is, and we haven’t got contact with the vet from your county. Try to contain the bodies, even if you have to throw ‘em down under a concrete slab to stop things chewing on it.” The young man hitched a real sob and continued, “Sir, I think the vet is dead. He never missed our calls unless something bad happened and then he would still get back to us. It’s been three weeks. Have you been to town?”
“Uh, no. Neither me or my wife. We’re a bit far out for the most part. I have a trip soon to Birmingham.”
“Sir, I don't think you’ll be able to go down if this gets any worse. The goddamned government comes and we'll be stuck up here in New York like moths on fly paper. It aint a joke, this is nothing the century has seen and no chances will be taken once they see reports of the black smoke.”
My husband brought his hand to his forehead at that statement and replied, “The black smoke? Yeah, our animals and wildlife had some sort of gassy darkness wafting off them. That’s it? My wife and I didnt get sick, son.”
I wanted to scream. At this point, there was no doubt. My mind faded and honestly the rest of that night was rather blank. I was convinced. My husband had no idea, and I had passed this sickness, starting with our pigs. Nothing was infecting all. But it started with this burst, like spores on the ripe stem of a fall fungus, then it seemed to lay dormant. For a long time…
The vet had indeed passed. Although the coroner ruled natural causes, I knew deep down what he had found. The coroner himself attempted to retire a few years after and failed after a mysterious illness caused him to fall over like a sack of potatoes.
We eventually had high speed internet installed, my husband even acquired a brand new Man Cave off the garage with his own ham radio to talk to the few odd truckers that made it out so far. None of the guys on those jobs we hired ever mentioned anything like smoke or a void or any of the sort, either. One of them even ran the ethernet around the fireplace and didn't mention a thing. A few distant reports out of Toronto came over the radio about a minor new sickness akin to the plague. I don’t know why it started so slowly. Maybe it was biding time? Or was it just enjoying it’s goddamned sick creep? I guess I was even able to push it out of my mind, perhaps the illness faded for many. I think some rural communities were just… decimated. Not one to report the losses outside their villages. Or someone was damn good at covering up such a thing.
This last year, my husband’s trip was meant to cover a few extra days of travel because of so many layovers. Bad weather, really dark clouds. I felt the ominous bite of my deep intuition, but you know how humans have a silly knack to ignore those feelings. I should have ignored it first thing… but some lessons are only learned with time. I let him go, and now we are here tonight. I opened my curtain and there the nothing was, looming. As I wrote this down for any possible eyes to catch it, I think it has spread like a fog. I don’t know where this thing is going to spread to, but it’s lingering on the outside of my hallway.
I had to go check. I can see the tendrils whipping their way across the woodgrain, it’s almost here. I have not too much longer before it’s poking between the cracks of my door and the nothing takes me. I can’t see anything outside anymore beyond the window on the back side of my home. The nothing hasn’t consumed into the hollow just yet and I’m thinking of running. But I’m scared. I’m scared that if I open the window, the air pressure might suck it in. It's just fear, clearly the wind doesn’t affect it because I can see the stillness, somehow. The forsaken fog is alive, but not alive. I don’t know what it wants. Maybe me?
I felt the old springs of the window squeal and squeak as I raised it open. I grabbed my phone and the wifi reaches the crest of the hollow. I can see the nothing flowing into my front door… I can hear animal like breath rattling off the trees as it flows. Its… it’s growing smaller. I think it is returning to the hole in the mantle. I can’t check until it stops moving. Every once it a while it gives off a little eddie and i can smell it, like grease traps on a hot summer afternoon that haven’t been properly cleaned. My brain won’t let me think upon that further.
Turned off my phone, it’s been a few hours. The nothing has dissipated… it’s currently nighttime. My phone says 11:32 pm.
I walked to the door and opened it. Everything was in place but covered in this thin layer of sweaty resistance, like tacky moisture but gritty at the same time. The layer was thickest around the old hole in the mantle. I could see the last licks of the nothing tailing it’s way back to the void. It only seemed to flow toward the hole. I immediately tried to contact my husband after that and I got him to answer! He knew something had me shaken, but I told him that I was just extremely tired and missed the bus to Sarasota, leaving me completely whipped and defeated. I guess the truth couldn’t be more of the opposite… for now at least. The nothing had re-contained itself. My husband had been safe, so far away.
The fate of the north was not so lucky. I think that most of the bodies and by some curse, or miracle, the smoky sickness had only spread to the north. The nothing was making its way back to the void, after propagating in living bodies it makes the journey back to the home lair. Like a twisted version of a demonic salmon, or a haunted upside-down of the sea turtle, it returns back to home base not to propagate but to rest. To age. A lot of these stories were presented as flus, illnesses by pollutants, rapid cancers. I knew better. I saw it. I released it back in 1994. It took 30 years to make it’s way back, no telling how long it wafted it’s slow way here, growing like an effervescent tablet of darkness. If they didn’t know what they were seeing, I bet they felt the same I did, so fucking crazy that you decide it IS nothing.
But it was over. I know I learned my lesson. I hope you won’t need to learn it yourself.
2024.02.04 07:26 Aarongorn87 My father was a truck driver, he told me about his otherworldly experience
My father used to be a truck driver before he took an early retirement, there was many times throughout my childhood where I was never able to see him since his job took him across the country but boy, did he have some stories to tell us. There was one particular night, My father, Jack Thompson, had a little to much to drink and he told me the reason why he quit the industry and swore by his life to forbid me from driving rigs like he did. He took a sip of his whiskey and the story went like this.
The sun had began to dip below the Georgia horizon and hid behind the pines, casting long shadows over the winding roads that crisscrossed the southern state. I was a seasoned truck driver and seen my fair share of strange things but as all of us truckers had odd stories, I navigated my rig through the fading light, the hum of the engine blending with the cicadas' evening chorus brought me at peace, I always use to love traveling this route. I had traveled this road countless times, but tonight was different – an unsettling stillness lingered in the air.
As I approached a desolate stretch of Highway 27, the tall pines lining the roadside seemed to close in on me, creating a tunnel of shadows. The sky turned shades of crimson and indigo, and the air took on a palpable heaviness. A flicker of uncertainty crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as fatigue since I had been driving for quite some time, I took a sip of my coffee and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
My heart almost came out of my chest when my radio crackled to life with the voice of another trucker, Larry, was on the same route.
"Hey, Jack, you feel that too? Something's off about this stretch of road tonight."
I chuckled nervously, attributing the unease to the late hour and the solitary nature of the highway.
"Probably just the quiet getting to us, Larry. These roads can play tricks on the mind."
But I noticed Larry's voice was tinged with a hint of genuine concern.
"Nah, Jack, I've been down this route more times than I can count, and it's never felt like this. Keep your eyes peeled."
As the miles ticked away, my unease deepened. The forest seemed to press against the road, the trees closing in like silent sentinels. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of my truck's tires against the pavement. I began glancing at my rearview mirror and noticed a pair of headlights in the distance, steadily gaining on me.
The radio buzzed with static as Larry's voice trembled, "Jack, that driver... there's no one in there. It's empty."
The approaching truck emerged from the shadows, an old, weather-beaten rig with faded paint laying on the horn, It bore the name "Renegade" on its front bumper, I squinted at the sight in disbelief. That truck had been decommissioned years ago after a fatal accident on these very roads.
A chill ran down my spine as I thought that It's impossible. It should be rusting away in a junkyard by now.
The truck drew closer, its headlights illuminating the road with an eerie glow. I could almost feel the weight of its history – the tragedy that had left it a ghostly relic. As it overtook me, I glimpsed at a shadowy figure in the driver's seat, its features obscured by darkness.
In the distance, the truck's taillights flickered, and it vanished into the night, leaving me stunned in silence. The air hung heavy with an unspoken understanding that something otherworldly had just passed through our lives.
As I continued down the stretch of road, a fog rolled in, obscuring the road ahead. My truck's headlights cut through the mist, revealing ghostly shapes that seemed to dance at the edge of visibility. Whispers echoed in the void, distant and indistinct. My heart raced as I pressed on, the fog thickening around me ready to take me at any given moment.
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life again, Larry's voice now laced with urgency. "Jack, you've got to get out of there! That fog, it's not natural. I'm seeing things, man, things I can't explain."
My breath became stuck in my throat as I caught a glimpse of shadowy figures moving within the fog. Desperation crept into his voice.
"Larry, I can't see a damn thing. What's happening?"
But before Larry could respond, the radio descended into a chorus of distorted voices, each one overlapping in a symphony of unsettling whispers. My heart pounded in my chest as I wrestled with the steering wheel, the fog closing in like an impenetrable wall.
The road twisted and turned, disorienting me in its haunting landscape I caught glimpses of things, ungodly things I had never seen I my most horrific nightmares, aberrations of long-forgotten travelers. The whispers grew louder, forming words that clawed at the edges of my sanity, I slammed the brakes on. From the fog, a woman dressed in white walked in front of my rig, my stomach turned upside down and I released the contents of my stomach. I knew I had hit that woman but looking in my rearview there she was, as she had passed right through the truck like she was part of the fog itself.
The radio crackled back to life, Larry's voice unrecognizable through distortion.
The woman and the aberrations vanished in the rearview mirror as I emerged from the fog, the whispering voices gradually fading. The road stretched ahead, returning to a semblance of normalcy. The moon cast an eerie glow on the asphalt, revealing the lingering traces of my otherworldly journey.
As I continued my drive, I knew I had witnessed something beyond the realm of the living. Renegade, the fog, the spectral figures – they lingered in my thoughts like a cancer.
The radio remained silent, Larry's voice lost in the static. The highway unfolded beneath my wheels, leading me away from the haunted stretch of road. The night pressed on, but the weight of the supernatural encounter clung to me. The road, once familiar and predictable, now held secrets that defied the logic of the living. And as I drove out of the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder, what happened to Larry or was he even real to begin with and what other mysteries lay hidden in the shadows of the southern highways.
submitted by Aarongorn87 to creepypastachannel [link] [comments]
The sun had began to dip below the Georgia horizon and hid behind the pines, casting long shadows over the winding roads that crisscrossed the southern state. I was a seasoned truck driver and seen my fair share of strange things but as all of us truckers had odd stories, I navigated my rig through the fading light, the hum of the engine blending with the cicadas' evening chorus brought me at peace, I always use to love traveling this route. I had traveled this road countless times, but tonight was different – an unsettling stillness lingered in the air.
As I approached a desolate stretch of Highway 27, the tall pines lining the roadside seemed to close in on me, creating a tunnel of shadows. The sky turned shades of crimson and indigo, and the air took on a palpable heaviness. A flicker of uncertainty crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as fatigue since I had been driving for quite some time, I took a sip of my coffee and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
My heart almost came out of my chest when my radio crackled to life with the voice of another trucker, Larry, was on the same route.
"Hey, Jack, you feel that too? Something's off about this stretch of road tonight."
I chuckled nervously, attributing the unease to the late hour and the solitary nature of the highway.
"Probably just the quiet getting to us, Larry. These roads can play tricks on the mind."
But I noticed Larry's voice was tinged with a hint of genuine concern.
"Nah, Jack, I've been down this route more times than I can count, and it's never felt like this. Keep your eyes peeled."
As the miles ticked away, my unease deepened. The forest seemed to press against the road, the trees closing in like silent sentinels. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of my truck's tires against the pavement. I began glancing at my rearview mirror and noticed a pair of headlights in the distance, steadily gaining on me.
The radio buzzed with static as Larry's voice trembled, "Jack, that driver... there's no one in there. It's empty."
The approaching truck emerged from the shadows, an old, weather-beaten rig with faded paint laying on the horn, It bore the name "Renegade" on its front bumper, I squinted at the sight in disbelief. That truck had been decommissioned years ago after a fatal accident on these very roads.
A chill ran down my spine as I thought that It's impossible. It should be rusting away in a junkyard by now.
The truck drew closer, its headlights illuminating the road with an eerie glow. I could almost feel the weight of its history – the tragedy that had left it a ghostly relic. As it overtook me, I glimpsed at a shadowy figure in the driver's seat, its features obscured by darkness.
In the distance, the truck's taillights flickered, and it vanished into the night, leaving me stunned in silence. The air hung heavy with an unspoken understanding that something otherworldly had just passed through our lives.
As I continued down the stretch of road, a fog rolled in, obscuring the road ahead. My truck's headlights cut through the mist, revealing ghostly shapes that seemed to dance at the edge of visibility. Whispers echoed in the void, distant and indistinct. My heart raced as I pressed on, the fog thickening around me ready to take me at any given moment.
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life again, Larry's voice now laced with urgency. "Jack, you've got to get out of there! That fog, it's not natural. I'm seeing things, man, things I can't explain."
My breath became stuck in my throat as I caught a glimpse of shadowy figures moving within the fog. Desperation crept into his voice.
"Larry, I can't see a damn thing. What's happening?"
But before Larry could respond, the radio descended into a chorus of distorted voices, each one overlapping in a symphony of unsettling whispers. My heart pounded in my chest as I wrestled with the steering wheel, the fog closing in like an impenetrable wall.
The road twisted and turned, disorienting me in its haunting landscape I caught glimpses of things, ungodly things I had never seen I my most horrific nightmares, aberrations of long-forgotten travelers. The whispers grew louder, forming words that clawed at the edges of my sanity, I slammed the brakes on. From the fog, a woman dressed in white walked in front of my rig, my stomach turned upside down and I released the contents of my stomach. I knew I had hit that woman but looking in my rearview there she was, as she had passed right through the truck like she was part of the fog itself.
The radio crackled back to life, Larry's voice unrecognizable through distortion.
The woman and the aberrations vanished in the rearview mirror as I emerged from the fog, the whispering voices gradually fading. The road stretched ahead, returning to a semblance of normalcy. The moon cast an eerie glow on the asphalt, revealing the lingering traces of my otherworldly journey.
As I continued my drive, I knew I had witnessed something beyond the realm of the living. Renegade, the fog, the spectral figures – they lingered in my thoughts like a cancer.
The radio remained silent, Larry's voice lost in the static. The highway unfolded beneath my wheels, leading me away from the haunted stretch of road. The night pressed on, but the weight of the supernatural encounter clung to me. The road, once familiar and predictable, now held secrets that defied the logic of the living. And as I drove out of the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder, what happened to Larry or was he even real to begin with and what other mysteries lay hidden in the shadows of the southern highways.
2024.02.04 07:24 Aarongorn87 My father was a truck driver, he told me his otherworldly experience
My father used to be a truck driver before he took an early retirement, there was many times throughout my childhood where I was never able to see him since his job took him across the country but boy, did he have some stories to tell us. There was one particular night, My father, Jack Thompson, had a little to much to drink and he told me the reason why he quit the industry and swore by his life to forbid me from driving rigs like he did. He took a sip of his whiskey and the story went like this.
The sun had began to dip below the Georgia horizon and hid behind the pines, casting long shadows over the winding roads that crisscrossed the southern state. I was a seasoned truck driver and seen my fair share of strange things but as all of us truckers had odd stories, I navigated my rig through the fading light, the hum of the engine blending with the cicadas' evening chorus brought me at peace, I always use to love traveling this route. I had traveled this road countless times, but tonight was different – an unsettling stillness lingered in the air.
As I approached a desolate stretch of Highway 27, the tall pines lining the roadside seemed to close in on me, creating a tunnel of shadows. The sky turned shades of crimson and indigo, and the air took on a palpable heaviness. A flicker of uncertainty crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as fatigue since I had been driving for quite some time, I took a sip of my coffee and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
My heart almost came out of my chest when my radio crackled to life with the voice of another trucker, Larry, was on the same route.
"Hey, Jack, you feel that too? Something's off about this stretch of road tonight."
I chuckled nervously, attributing the unease to the late hour and the solitary nature of the highway.
"Probably just the quiet getting to us, Larry. These roads can play tricks on the mind."
But I noticed Larry's voice was tinged with a hint of genuine concern.
"Nah, Jack, I've been down this route more times than I can count, and it's never felt like this. Keep your eyes peeled."
As the miles ticked away, my unease deepened. The forest seemed to press against the road, the trees closing in like silent sentinels. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of my truck's tires against the pavement. I began glancing at my rearview mirror and noticed a pair of headlights in the distance, steadily gaining on me.
The radio buzzed with static as Larry's voice trembled, "Jack, that driver... there's no one in there. It's empty."
The approaching truck emerged from the shadows, an old, weather-beaten rig with faded paint laying on the horn, It bore the name "Renegade" on its front bumper, I squinted at the sight in disbelief. That truck had been decommissioned years ago after a fatal accident on these very roads.
A chill ran down my spine as I thought that It's impossible. It should be rusting away in a junkyard by now.
The truck drew closer, its headlights illuminating the road with an eerie glow. I could almost feel the weight of its history – the tragedy that had left it a ghostly relic. As it overtook me, I glimpsed at a shadowy figure in the driver's seat, its features obscured by darkness.
In the distance, the truck's taillights flickered, and it vanished into the night, leaving me stunned in silence. The air hung heavy with an unspoken understanding that something otherworldly had just passed through our lives.
As I continued down the stretch of road, a fog rolled in, obscuring the road ahead. My truck's headlights cut through the mist, revealing ghostly shapes that seemed to dance at the edge of visibility. Whispers echoed in the void, distant and indistinct. My heart raced as I pressed on, the fog thickening around me ready to take me at any given moment.
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life again, Larry's voice now laced with urgency. "Jack, you've got to get out of there! That fog, it's not natural. I'm seeing things, man, things I can't explain."
My breath became stuck in my throat as I caught a glimpse of shadowy figures moving within the fog. Desperation crept into his voice.
"Larry, I can't see a damn thing. What's happening?"
But before Larry could respond, the radio descended into a chorus of distorted voices, each one overlapping in a symphony of unsettling whispers. My heart pounded in my chest as I wrestled with the steering wheel, the fog closing in like an impenetrable wall.
The road twisted and turned, disorienting me in its haunting landscape I caught glimpses of things, ungodly things I had never seen I my most horrific nightmares, aberrations of long-forgotten travelers. The whispers grew louder, forming words that clawed at the edges of my sanity, I slammed the brakes on. From the fog, a woman dressed in white walked in front of my rig, my stomach turned upside down and I released the contents of my stomach. I knew I had hit that woman but looking in my rearview there she was, as she had passed right through the truck like she was part of the fog itself.
The radio crackled back to life, Larry's voice unrecognizable through distortion.
The woman and the aberrations vanished in the rearview mirror as I emerged from the fog, the whispering voices gradually fading. The road stretched ahead, returning to a semblance of normalcy. The moon cast an eerie glow on the asphalt, revealing the lingering traces of my otherworldly journey.
As I continued my drive, I knew I had witnessed something beyond the realm of the living. Renegade, the fog, the spectral figures – they lingered in my thoughts like a cancer.
The radio remained silent, Larry's voice lost in the static. The highway unfolded beneath my wheels, leading me away from the haunted stretch of road. The night pressed on, but the weight of the supernatural encounter clung to me. The road, once familiar and predictable, now held secrets that defied the logic of the living. And as I drove out of the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder, what happened to Larry or was he even real to begin with and what other mysteries lay hidden in the shadows of the southern highways.
submitted by Aarongorn87 to booktopia [link] [comments]
The sun had began to dip below the Georgia horizon and hid behind the pines, casting long shadows over the winding roads that crisscrossed the southern state. I was a seasoned truck driver and seen my fair share of strange things but as all of us truckers had odd stories, I navigated my rig through the fading light, the hum of the engine blending with the cicadas' evening chorus brought me at peace, I always use to love traveling this route. I had traveled this road countless times, but tonight was different – an unsettling stillness lingered in the air.
As I approached a desolate stretch of Highway 27, the tall pines lining the roadside seemed to close in on me, creating a tunnel of shadows. The sky turned shades of crimson and indigo, and the air took on a palpable heaviness. A flicker of uncertainty crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as fatigue since I had been driving for quite some time, I took a sip of my coffee and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
My heart almost came out of my chest when my radio crackled to life with the voice of another trucker, Larry, was on the same route.
"Hey, Jack, you feel that too? Something's off about this stretch of road tonight."
I chuckled nervously, attributing the unease to the late hour and the solitary nature of the highway.
"Probably just the quiet getting to us, Larry. These roads can play tricks on the mind."
But I noticed Larry's voice was tinged with a hint of genuine concern.
"Nah, Jack, I've been down this route more times than I can count, and it's never felt like this. Keep your eyes peeled."
As the miles ticked away, my unease deepened. The forest seemed to press against the road, the trees closing in like silent sentinels. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of my truck's tires against the pavement. I began glancing at my rearview mirror and noticed a pair of headlights in the distance, steadily gaining on me.
The radio buzzed with static as Larry's voice trembled, "Jack, that driver... there's no one in there. It's empty."
The approaching truck emerged from the shadows, an old, weather-beaten rig with faded paint laying on the horn, It bore the name "Renegade" on its front bumper, I squinted at the sight in disbelief. That truck had been decommissioned years ago after a fatal accident on these very roads.
A chill ran down my spine as I thought that It's impossible. It should be rusting away in a junkyard by now.
The truck drew closer, its headlights illuminating the road with an eerie glow. I could almost feel the weight of its history – the tragedy that had left it a ghostly relic. As it overtook me, I glimpsed at a shadowy figure in the driver's seat, its features obscured by darkness.
In the distance, the truck's taillights flickered, and it vanished into the night, leaving me stunned in silence. The air hung heavy with an unspoken understanding that something otherworldly had just passed through our lives.
As I continued down the stretch of road, a fog rolled in, obscuring the road ahead. My truck's headlights cut through the mist, revealing ghostly shapes that seemed to dance at the edge of visibility. Whispers echoed in the void, distant and indistinct. My heart raced as I pressed on, the fog thickening around me ready to take me at any given moment.
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life again, Larry's voice now laced with urgency. "Jack, you've got to get out of there! That fog, it's not natural. I'm seeing things, man, things I can't explain."
My breath became stuck in my throat as I caught a glimpse of shadowy figures moving within the fog. Desperation crept into his voice.
"Larry, I can't see a damn thing. What's happening?"
But before Larry could respond, the radio descended into a chorus of distorted voices, each one overlapping in a symphony of unsettling whispers. My heart pounded in my chest as I wrestled with the steering wheel, the fog closing in like an impenetrable wall.
The road twisted and turned, disorienting me in its haunting landscape I caught glimpses of things, ungodly things I had never seen I my most horrific nightmares, aberrations of long-forgotten travelers. The whispers grew louder, forming words that clawed at the edges of my sanity, I slammed the brakes on. From the fog, a woman dressed in white walked in front of my rig, my stomach turned upside down and I released the contents of my stomach. I knew I had hit that woman but looking in my rearview there she was, as she had passed right through the truck like she was part of the fog itself.
The radio crackled back to life, Larry's voice unrecognizable through distortion.
The woman and the aberrations vanished in the rearview mirror as I emerged from the fog, the whispering voices gradually fading. The road stretched ahead, returning to a semblance of normalcy. The moon cast an eerie glow on the asphalt, revealing the lingering traces of my otherworldly journey.
As I continued my drive, I knew I had witnessed something beyond the realm of the living. Renegade, the fog, the spectral figures – they lingered in my thoughts like a cancer.
The radio remained silent, Larry's voice lost in the static. The highway unfolded beneath my wheels, leading me away from the haunted stretch of road. The night pressed on, but the weight of the supernatural encounter clung to me. The road, once familiar and predictable, now held secrets that defied the logic of the living. And as I drove out of the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder, what happened to Larry or was he even real to begin with and what other mysteries lay hidden in the shadows of the southern highways.
2024.02.04 07:20 Aarongorn87 My father was a truck driver, he told about his otherworldly experience
My father used to be a truck driver before he took an early retirement, there was many times throughout my childhood where I was never able to see him since his job took him across the southern states but boy, did he have some stories to tell us. There was one particular night, My father, Jack Thompson, had a little to much to drink and he told me the reason why he quit the industry and swore by his life to forbid me from driving rigs like he did. He took a sip of his whiskey and the story went like this.
The sun had began to dip below the Georgia horizon and hid behind the pines, casting long shadows over the winding roads that crisscrossed the southern state. I was a seasoned truck driver and seen my fair share of strange things but as all of us truckers had odd stories, I navigated my rig through the fading light, the hum of the engine blending with the cicadas' evening chorus brought me at peace, I always use to love traveling this route. I had traveled this road countless times, but tonight was different – an unsettling stillness lingered in the air.
As I approached a desolate stretch of Highway 27, the tall pines lining the roadside seemed to close in on me, creating a tunnel of shadows. The sky turned shades of crimson and indigo, and the air took on a palpable heaviness. A flicker of uncertainty crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as fatigue since I had been driving for quite some time, I took a sip of my coffee and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
My heart almost came out of my chest when my radio crackled to life with the voice of another trucker, Larry, was on the same route.
"Hey, Jack, you feel that too? Something's off about this stretch of road tonight."
I chuckled nervously, attributing the unease to the late hour and the solitary nature of the highway.
"Probably just the quiet getting to us, Larry. These roads can play tricks on the mind."
But I noticed Larry's voice was tinged with a hint of genuine concern.
"Nah, Jack, I've been down this route more times than I can count, and it's never felt like this. Keep your eyes peeled."
As the miles ticked away, my unease deepened. The forest seemed to press against the road, the trees closing in like silent sentinels. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of my truck's tires against the pavement. I began glancing at my rearview mirror and noticed a pair of headlights in the distance, steadily gaining on me.
The radio buzzed with static as Larry's voice trembled, "Jack, that driver... there's no one in there. It's empty."
The approaching truck emerged from the shadows, an old, weather-beaten rig with faded paint laying on the horn, It bore the name "Renegade" on its front bumper, I squinted at the sight in disbelief. That truck had been decommissioned years ago after a fatal accident on these very roads.
A chill ran down my spine as I thought that It's impossible. It should be rusting away in a junkyard by now.
The truck drew closer, its headlights illuminating the road with an eerie glow. I could almost feel the weight of its history – the tragedy that had left it a ghostly relic. As it overtook me, I glimpsed at a shadowy figure in the driver's seat, its features obscured by darkness.
In the distance, the truck's taillights flickered, and it vanished into the night, leaving me stunned in silence. The air hung heavy with an unspoken understanding that something otherworldly had just passed through our lives.
As I continued down the stretch of road, a fog rolled in, obscuring the road ahead. My truck's headlights cut through the mist, revealing ghostly shapes that seemed to dance at the edge of visibility. Whispers echoed in the void, distant and indistinct. My heart raced as I pressed on, the fog thickening around me ready to take me at any given moment.
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life again, Larry's voice now laced with urgency. "Jack, you've got to get out of there! That fog, it's not natural. I'm seeing things, man, things I can't explain."
My breath became stuck in my throat as I caught a glimpse of shadowy figures moving within the fog. Desperation crept into his voice.
"Larry, I can't see a damn thing. What's happening?"
But before Larry could respond, the radio descended into a chorus of distorted voices, each one overlapping in a symphony of unsettling whispers. My heart pounded in my chest as I wrestled with the steering wheel, the fog closing in like an impenetrable wall.
The road twisted and turned, disorienting me in its haunting landscape I caught glimpses of things, ungodly things I had never seen I my most horrific nightmares, aberrations of long-forgotten travelers. The whispers grew louder, forming words that clawed at the edges of my sanity, I slammed the brakes on. From the fog, a woman dressed in white walked in front of my rig, my stomach turned upside down and I released the contents of my stomach. I knew I had hit that woman but looking in my rearview there she was, as she had passed right through the truck like she was part of the fog itself.
The radio crackled back to life, Larry's voice unrecognizable through distortion.
The woman and the aberrations vanished in the rearview mirror as I emerged from the fog, the whispering voices gradually fading. The road stretched ahead, returning to a semblance of normalcy. The moon cast an eerie glow on the asphalt, revealing the lingering traces of my otherworldly journey.
As I continued my drive, I knew I had witnessed something beyond the realm of the living. Renegade, the fog, the spectral figures – they lingered in my thoughts like a cancer.
The radio remained silent, Larry's voice lost in the static. The highway unfolded beneath my wheels, leading me away from the haunted stretch of road. The night pressed on, but the weight of the supernatural encounter clung to me. The road, once familiar and predictable, now held secrets that defied the logic of the living. And as I drove out of the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder, what happened to Larry or was he even real to begin with and what other mysteries lay hidden in the shadows of the southern highways.
submitted by Aarongorn87 to nosleep [link] [comments]
The sun had began to dip below the Georgia horizon and hid behind the pines, casting long shadows over the winding roads that crisscrossed the southern state. I was a seasoned truck driver and seen my fair share of strange things but as all of us truckers had odd stories, I navigated my rig through the fading light, the hum of the engine blending with the cicadas' evening chorus brought me at peace, I always use to love traveling this route. I had traveled this road countless times, but tonight was different – an unsettling stillness lingered in the air.
As I approached a desolate stretch of Highway 27, the tall pines lining the roadside seemed to close in on me, creating a tunnel of shadows. The sky turned shades of crimson and indigo, and the air took on a palpable heaviness. A flicker of uncertainty crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as fatigue since I had been driving for quite some time, I took a sip of my coffee and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
My heart almost came out of my chest when my radio crackled to life with the voice of another trucker, Larry, was on the same route.
"Hey, Jack, you feel that too? Something's off about this stretch of road tonight."
I chuckled nervously, attributing the unease to the late hour and the solitary nature of the highway.
"Probably just the quiet getting to us, Larry. These roads can play tricks on the mind."
But I noticed Larry's voice was tinged with a hint of genuine concern.
"Nah, Jack, I've been down this route more times than I can count, and it's never felt like this. Keep your eyes peeled."
As the miles ticked away, my unease deepened. The forest seemed to press against the road, the trees closing in like silent sentinels. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of my truck's tires against the pavement. I began glancing at my rearview mirror and noticed a pair of headlights in the distance, steadily gaining on me.
The radio buzzed with static as Larry's voice trembled, "Jack, that driver... there's no one in there. It's empty."
The approaching truck emerged from the shadows, an old, weather-beaten rig with faded paint laying on the horn, It bore the name "Renegade" on its front bumper, I squinted at the sight in disbelief. That truck had been decommissioned years ago after a fatal accident on these very roads.
A chill ran down my spine as I thought that It's impossible. It should be rusting away in a junkyard by now.
The truck drew closer, its headlights illuminating the road with an eerie glow. I could almost feel the weight of its history – the tragedy that had left it a ghostly relic. As it overtook me, I glimpsed at a shadowy figure in the driver's seat, its features obscured by darkness.
In the distance, the truck's taillights flickered, and it vanished into the night, leaving me stunned in silence. The air hung heavy with an unspoken understanding that something otherworldly had just passed through our lives.
As I continued down the stretch of road, a fog rolled in, obscuring the road ahead. My truck's headlights cut through the mist, revealing ghostly shapes that seemed to dance at the edge of visibility. Whispers echoed in the void, distant and indistinct. My heart raced as I pressed on, the fog thickening around me ready to take me at any given moment.
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life again, Larry's voice now laced with urgency. "Jack, you've got to get out of there! That fog, it's not natural. I'm seeing things, man, things I can't explain."
My breath became stuck in my throat as I caught a glimpse of shadowy figures moving within the fog. Desperation crept into his voice.
"Larry, I can't see a damn thing. What's happening?"
But before Larry could respond, the radio descended into a chorus of distorted voices, each one overlapping in a symphony of unsettling whispers. My heart pounded in my chest as I wrestled with the steering wheel, the fog closing in like an impenetrable wall.
The road twisted and turned, disorienting me in its haunting landscape I caught glimpses of things, ungodly things I had never seen I my most horrific nightmares, aberrations of long-forgotten travelers. The whispers grew louder, forming words that clawed at the edges of my sanity, I slammed the brakes on. From the fog, a woman dressed in white walked in front of my rig, my stomach turned upside down and I released the contents of my stomach. I knew I had hit that woman but looking in my rearview there she was, as she had passed right through the truck like she was part of the fog itself.
The radio crackled back to life, Larry's voice unrecognizable through distortion.
The woman and the aberrations vanished in the rearview mirror as I emerged from the fog, the whispering voices gradually fading. The road stretched ahead, returning to a semblance of normalcy. The moon cast an eerie glow on the asphalt, revealing the lingering traces of my otherworldly journey.
As I continued my drive, I knew I had witnessed something beyond the realm of the living. Renegade, the fog, the spectral figures – they lingered in my thoughts like a cancer.
The radio remained silent, Larry's voice lost in the static. The highway unfolded beneath my wheels, leading me away from the haunted stretch of road. The night pressed on, but the weight of the supernatural encounter clung to me. The road, once familiar and predictable, now held secrets that defied the logic of the living. And as I drove out of the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder, what happened to Larry or was he even real to begin with and what other mysteries lay hidden in the shadows of the southern highways.
2024.01.21 23:32 Designer-Blood4049 AITA for telling my husband that his son isn't welcome in my house anymore until he gets his incontinence under control?
My husband moved in with me 3 years and we married shortly after. I have a step son "James" who is 7. Unfortunately James went through some extreme bullying in his Kindergarten year and has since started soiling his pants versus use the bathroom (the bullying took place in the bathroom). Getting him to go to the bathroom to to no. 2 is impossible. (To the bullying: they had a "buddy system" and didn't allow Kindergarten students to use the bathroom without someone going with them but they were understaffed and sent the kids with other students, who were 2nd and 3rd graders. His "buddy" was Joseph, a 3rd grader, who repeatedly hit my step son, threw him to the ground on several occasions and at least threw times kicked him in the groin. We told the school and they said they would handle it but we found out a week later that they didn't do jack shit and kept sending him to the bathroom with Joseph. This was AFTER they decided to give my step son detention because a teacher walked in and found him on the floor and chalked it up to him goofing off, despite him telling this low life teacher that Joseph just kicked him in the nuts. We tried pressing charges and the court threw it out saying there was no evidence. We removed him from the school but the long term affects persist, despite him being in fairly extensive therapy).
Now, on the off chance that I'm able to get him to use the bathroom, he runs out before wiping himself. He's terrified of the bathroom. I've taken the advice of the therapist and had him leave the door open, tried standing beside the door and telling him I'm right here and won't let anything happen to him, tried reminding him every hour that he needs to go to the bathroom, etc. Nothing works. He still pees and showers normal. It's only number 2 that he has an issue. It's been almost 2 years and there's been no improvement. The therapist has diagnosed him with PTSD. In these 2 years all of my furniture has been destroyed with shit stains. My house always smells like human poop. I can't have my family or guests over because it's embarrassing. He refuses to wear pull ups because he's not a baby. He's been seen by doctors, who are now saying he has bowel blockage caused by holding it and it's getting to a point where every time he farts, he is shitting himself. I'm always having to clean up after him. My husband is a trucker and works long hours (16 hr days, sometimes not coming home for 3 days). His mother is a nurse and also works long hours. I have told my husband that his son needs to start staying somewhere else (his grandmother's house) until the incontinence issue is under control. I'm beyond touched out with having been cleaning up literal shit or shit clothes 5+ times a day for the better part of 2 years. I know it's not his fault but I can't do this anymore. I need a break and considering I have James 80% of the time, they (him and James mother) need to figure this out. My husband says I'm an AH because this is going to cause James to go backwards because he is most comfortable with me but I truly cannot do this anymore.
ETA: I have James more than both his bio parents combined. I have begged my husband to stop working so much so he can be here to at least take care of this 50% of the time and he won't. I've told James mother that her son needs him and asked her to figure this out and she won't cut back on her hours either. Both are stating they can't afford to miss work (James mom has 3 other kids but as for my husband, we make more than enough money). I have begged for help and I get dismissed. I have James at least 20 out of the 30 days a month, by myself and have zero help with anything. I have spoken to my husband several times before it got to this point and nothing is ever accomplished because "he's your son now too" or "I can't just leave work". Like, yes, you fucking can actually because your child needs you more than we need money. I'm not listened to at all.
submitted by Designer-Blood4049 to AITAH [link] [comments]
Now, on the off chance that I'm able to get him to use the bathroom, he runs out before wiping himself. He's terrified of the bathroom. I've taken the advice of the therapist and had him leave the door open, tried standing beside the door and telling him I'm right here and won't let anything happen to him, tried reminding him every hour that he needs to go to the bathroom, etc. Nothing works. He still pees and showers normal. It's only number 2 that he has an issue. It's been almost 2 years and there's been no improvement. The therapist has diagnosed him with PTSD. In these 2 years all of my furniture has been destroyed with shit stains. My house always smells like human poop. I can't have my family or guests over because it's embarrassing. He refuses to wear pull ups because he's not a baby. He's been seen by doctors, who are now saying he has bowel blockage caused by holding it and it's getting to a point where every time he farts, he is shitting himself. I'm always having to clean up after him. My husband is a trucker and works long hours (16 hr days, sometimes not coming home for 3 days). His mother is a nurse and also works long hours. I have told my husband that his son needs to start staying somewhere else (his grandmother's house) until the incontinence issue is under control. I'm beyond touched out with having been cleaning up literal shit or shit clothes 5+ times a day for the better part of 2 years. I know it's not his fault but I can't do this anymore. I need a break and considering I have James 80% of the time, they (him and James mother) need to figure this out. My husband says I'm an AH because this is going to cause James to go backwards because he is most comfortable with me but I truly cannot do this anymore.
ETA: I have James more than both his bio parents combined. I have begged my husband to stop working so much so he can be here to at least take care of this 50% of the time and he won't. I've told James mother that her son needs him and asked her to figure this out and she won't cut back on her hours either. Both are stating they can't afford to miss work (James mom has 3 other kids but as for my husband, we make more than enough money). I have begged for help and I get dismissed. I have James at least 20 out of the 30 days a month, by myself and have zero help with anything. I have spoken to my husband several times before it got to this point and nothing is ever accomplished because "he's your son now too" or "I can't just leave work". Like, yes, you fucking can actually because your child needs you more than we need money. I'm not listened to at all.
2024.01.19 00:39 jimmythecollector [FS] [USA] New Items! - Lem@Ire Dispatch Jacket i795, Arc't3ryx Beanies, Bl0nded & IG0R Tees, Arc’t3ryx Veilance Jacket, Chr0me Heart$ Pendants/Rings/Bracelets, Rayb@Ns/0ff-White/Pa1m Angels/Ba1enciaga Sunglasses, Repre$Ent, K1th , F0G Essenti@Ls Suit & Shorts, N1ke X 0FF-White Dunks, & More! 🏷️💲
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Pa1m Angels Sunglasses Black - (QTY: 3) - One Size - Brand new and few pairs remaining. Solid pair of shades, my brother wears these in his rotation in sunny Cali weather.
0ff-White Cady Cut-Out Rectangle Sunglasses Black - One Size - Brand new and few pairs remaining. Solid pair of shades, my brother wears these in his rotation in sunny Cali weather.
Er1c Emannue1 Shorts Green/Red - Small - Best batch out from Angelking. Worn and washed a good amount of times, still in amazing condition.
Chr0me Hearts x CDG Beanie - One Size - Brand new with tags.
47’ Trucker x4 Hat Bundle - Adjustable Band - Each lightly worn, each costs on average 15 a piece. Take for a steal! Breathable and light for working out or active usage.
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Bl0nded Shirt White/Pink - Medium (Fitted) - Worn a few times and in amazing condition. Fits a perfect medium, really accentuates your chest and arms due to fit. Bottom of shirt inside tag says small, but sure fits like a fitted medium.
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K1th “New Goals” Soccer Tee - Fits Medium - Only tried on, high quality batch but Deadlink. Selling cause I have too many black tees but has amazing print/blank.
Retail Vintage N1ke 3M SilveRed/White Windbreaker - TTS Large - Lightly worn. In amazing condition and repels water really well.
Ray Allen Seattle Sonics Mitche11 & N3ss Jersey - Fits Small-Medium - Never used and best batch from Terry.
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Chr0me H3arts Cross Pendant - (QTY: 3) - One Size - Has been lead tested. Really nice weight to it and I’ve been wearing my personal one for a few months now and has held up on par with my SurvivalSource batch which is the best seller out. I’ve personally used it in water without tarnish/discoloration but as precaution I would avoid water still as it’s only been a few months.
Chr0me H3arts Tiny-E Cross Bracelet - (QTY: 1) - 8.5 Inches - Has been lead tested and comes with a drawstring bag. Really nice weight to it. Posted photos compared to my SS batch, seems to be a bit larger and weight is slightly lighter but other than that it’s pretty on point. Added video to show how it is disconnected from clasp, you need to push down on top part of clasp to release it.
Chr0me H3arts Link Chain Bracelet - (QTY: 2) - 8.25 Inches - Has been lead tested and comes with a drawstring bag. Really nice weight to it.Added video to show how it is disconnected from clasp, you need to push down on top part of clasp to release it.
Double “LA” Brown Trucker Hat - San1Juan - Adjustable Snapback - Used a few times, light stain from storage but should come out with wash. Retail was 60 so take for a steal.
Chr0me H3arts Dagger Pendant -(QTY: 3) - One Size - Has been lead tested and comes with a drawstring bag. Really nice weight to it and I’ve been wearing my personal one for a few months now and has held up on par with my SurvivalSource batch which is the best seller out. I’ve personally used it in water without tarnish/discoloration but as precaution I would avoid water still as it’s only been a few months.
R@yban Clubmaster Matte Black - One Size - Brand new with stickers. Has UV protection but can’t confirm polarization.
Ultraboost$ Oreo 3.0 - 10 Mens (Fits 9-9.5 Mens) - Best batch out from Lin. Used quite a bit but flash really accentuates flaws, they look solid IRL.
N1ke Dunk High Spartan Green - Fits 8.5 Mens - Like New Condition and H12 batch which is batch out at the moment.
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Ra1ph Laur3n Blue Cable-Knit Wool Sweater - Fits Small (Length: 62cm/ Chest: 55cm ) - Brand new and never tried on. Fits like a true small and extremely high quality rep, I personally have a few mediums in different colors.
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Arc’t3ryx Veilance Demlo Grey Jacket - Medium (Fits Slightly Oversized) - Worn once and washedm in amazing condition. Great layering piece over a jacket/hoodie for some rain protection, repels water decently.
Ultraboosts Reign1ng Champs 3.0 Grey - 10 Mens (Fits 9-9.5 Mens) - Best batch out from Lin, now deadlink. Worn for a few weeks, in amazing condition.
Chr0me Hearts Arrow Tip Small Pendant JewelryJ@ck - OOS - From JewelryJack who’s up their with SurvivalSource as best CH jewelrly seller IMO. Brand new and never used.
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Ultraboost$ 4D White/Green - 8.5 Mens (Fits 8.5-9 Mens) - Bought a while ago from deadlink, used around 3 times and in amazing condition.
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N1ke Spartan Green Dunk Low - 8.5 Mens - Top tier batch from Uncle Lin, only worn a few times. Paid around 135 shipped, take for a steal.
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Fe@r of God Eternal Cav Suit Jacket - Fits Large (Length: 79cm / Chest: 61cm / Shoulders 54cm) - Brand new with tags. Retail goes for like $1.2k and shown (non-pocket version) HERE. Too big for me so sadly have to sell but quality wise suit jacket is a nice quality and everything is super clean. Fits long so like a trench coat style but overall perfect for the office.
L0uis Vuitton Waterfront Slides White - Fits Men Size 9 (Insole: 10 Inches - Brand new and never used, best batch out.
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Lem@ire Jacket i795 Black Dispatch Jacket - XXS (Fits Boxy Medium) - Such a beautiful jacket to wear for more formal events. Bought this for the office but I have a jacket that fits really similar (Botteg@ Venett@ Jacket) so deciding to sell this beauty. For the size chart please press HERE, as you can see it fits like a boxy medium.
Retail G@llery Dept Drive Thru Shirt Cream - Medium - Have owned both rep and retail, got the opportunity to buy from a family member for a really good price. Selling for 250 retail right now, have detailed pics attached and feel free to legit check. Selling for an absolute steal.
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Balenciag@ BB Dynasty Sunglasses Black/Gold - One Size - Accurate engravings and amazing quality. Brand new and I have a personal pair that I wear daily.
2024.01.14 20:31 jimmythecollector [FS] [USA] Sunday Specials - Arc't3ryx Grotto Beanies, Ma1son Marige1a Zip-Up Jacket, Chr0me Heart$ Pendants/Rings/Bracelets, Rayb@ns/0ff-White/Pa1m Angels/Ba1enciaga Sunglasses, 0FF-White Oil Painting Sweater, K1th Tees, C@Rhartt Carpenter Cargos, F0G Shorts & Suit, N1ke Dunks, EE, & More! 🏷️💥🔥
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Balenciag@ BB Dynasty Sunglasses Black/Gold - One Size - Accurate engravings and amazing quality. Brand new and I have a personal pair that I wear daily.
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Pa1m Angels Sunglasses Black - (QTY: 3) - One Size - Brand new and few pairs remaining. Solid pair of shades, my brother wears these in his rotation in sunny Cali weather.
0ff-White Cady Cut-Out Rectangle Sunglasses Black - One Size - Brand new and few pairs remaining. Solid pair of shades, my brother wears these in his rotation in sunny Cali weather.
Chr0me Hearts x CDG Beanie - One Size - Brand new with tags.
47’ Trucker x4 Hat Bundle Deal - Adjustable Band - Each lightly worn, each costs on average 15 a piece. Take for a steal! Breathable and light for working out or active usage.
0ff-White Rectangle Sunglasses Black - (QTY: 3) - One Size - Brand new.
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F0G Essentia1s x TMC Black Shorts - Medium (Adjustable Waist 28-34in & Length: 46cm) - Brand new with factory tags on. Has nice 3M shine to logo.
F0G Essentia1s Gray Shorts - Medium (Adjustable Waist 28-34in & Length: 47cm) - Brand new and only tried on. Has nice 3M shine to logo.
Arc't3ryx Black Grotto Beanie - (QTY: 1) - One Size - Brand new with tags. Fits most heads. Extremely soft and warm for the colder weather.
Arc't3ryx Cream Grotto Beanie - (QTY: 2) - One Size - Brand new with tags. Fits most heads. Extremely soft and warm for the colder weather.
Arc't3ryx Black Torque Beanie - (QTY: 2) - One Size - Brand new with tags. Fits most heads. Extremely soft and warm for the colder weather.
K1th “New Goals” Soccer Tee - Fits Medium - Only tried on, high quality batch but Deadlink. Selling cause I have too many black tees but has amazing print/blank.
Chr0me H3arts Cross Rings - (QTY: 3) - Size 9 (Fits Most Middle/Index Fingers for Average Build / See Images for Measurements) - Has been lead tested. Really nice weight to it and I’ve been wearing my personal one for a few months now and has held up on par with my SurvivalSource batch which is the best seller out. I’ve personally used it in water without tarnish/discoloration but as precaution I wouldn’t get wet still.
Retail Vintage N1ke 3M SilveRed/White Windbreaker - TTS Large - Lightly worn. In amazing condition and repels water really well.
Ray Allen Seattle Sonics Mitche11 & N3ss Jersey - Fits Small-Medium - Never used and best batch from Terry.
$35 + SHIPPING
Chr0me H3arts Cross Pendant - (QTY: 3) - One Size - Has been lead tested. Really nice weight to it and I’ve been wearing my personal one for a few months now and has held up on par with my SurvivalSource batch which is the best seller out. I’ve personally used it in water without tarnish/discoloration but as precaution I would avoid water still as it’s only been a few months.
Chr0me H3arts Tiny-E Cross Bracelet - (QTY: 1) - 8.5 Inches - Has been lead tested and comes with a drawstring bag. Really nice weight to it. Posted photos compared to my SS batch, seems to be a bit larger and weight is slightly lighter but other than that it’s pretty on point. Added video to show how it is disconnected from clasp, you need to push down on top part of clasp to release it.
Chr0me H3arts Link Chain Bracelet - (QTY: 2) - 8.25 Inches - Has been lead tested and comes with a drawstring bag. Really nice weight to it.Added video to show how it is disconnected from clasp, you need to push down on top part of clasp to release it.
Double “LA” Brown Trucker Hat - San1Juan - Adjustable Snapback - Used a few times, light stain from storage but should come out with wash. Retail was 60 so take for a steal.
Chr0me H3arts Dagger Pendant -(QTY: 3) - One Size - Has been lead tested and comes with a drawstring bag. Really nice weight to it and I’ve been wearing my personal one for a few months now and has held up on par with my SurvivalSource batch which is the best seller out. I’ve personally used it in water without tarnish/discoloration but as precaution I would avoid water still as it’s only been a few months.
R@yban Clubmaster Matte Black - One Size - Brand new with stickers. Has UV protection but can’t confirm polarization.
Repre$ent “Patron of the Club” Green Shorts - Fits Medium (Waist Size 28-34) - Adjustable Drawstring so fits many waist sizes, print is amazing on shorts and I can’t tell a difference with retail.
Ultraboost$ Oreo 3.0 - 10 Mens (Fits 9-9.5 Mens) - Best batch out from Lin. Used quite a bit but flash really accentuates flaws, they look solid IRL.
N1ke Dunk High Spartan Green - Fits 8.5 Mens - Like New Condition and H12 batch which is batch out at the moment.
$40 + SHIPPING
Ra1ph Laur3n Blue Cable-Knit Wool Sweater - Fits Small (Length: 62cm/ Chest: 55cm ) - Brand new and never tried on. Fits like a true small and extremely high quality rep, I personally have a few mediums in different colors.
Sa1nt Laur3nt Hawaiian Button-Up - Fitted Medium (Length: 65cm / Chest: 56cm) - Used a few times and has very flattering fit. Material seems to be mixture of silk and a stretchier material, it’s on par with my retail silk button-ups from Tommy Bahama. Small tear on collar but pretty unnoticable while wearing and should be easy fix.
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F0G Essentia1s 3M Silver Windbreaker - Fits Boxy Large (Length: 71cm/ Chest: 73cm ) - Brand new and never tried on. Extremely vibrant 3M and repels water decently after testing a few drops.
Ultraboosts Reign1ng Champs 3.0 Grey - 10 Mens (Fits 9-9.5 Mens) - Best batch out from Lin, now deadlink. Worn for a few weeks, in amazing condition.
Chr0me Hearts Arrow Tip Small Pendant JewelryJ@ck - OOS - From JewelryJack who’s up their with SurvivalSource as best CH jewelrly seller IMO. Brand new and never used.
$55 + SHIPPING
Ultraboost$ 4D White/Green - 8.5 Mens (Fits 8.5-9 Mens) - Bought a while ago from deadlink, used around 3 times and in amazing condition.
Adida$ Nova Retro Sweatshirt - Size Large (Fits TTS/Slightly Oversized) - Bought off Deadlink, extremely comfortable and damn near 1:1. Only tried on and never worn.
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N1ke Spartan Dunk Lows - 8.5 Mens - Top tier batch from Uncle Lin, only worn a few times. Paid around 135 shipped so take for a steal.
N1ke x 0ff-White Dunks University Gold - Size 11 Mens - In amazing condition. Comes with correct box and is a beautiful shoe.
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L0uis Vuitton Waterfront Slides White - Fits Men Size 9 (Insole: 10 Inches - Brand new and never used, best batch out.
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Fe@r of God Eternal Cav Suit Jacket - Fits Large (Length: 79cm / Chest: 61cm / Shoulders 54cm) - Brand new with tags. Retail goes for like $1.2k and shown (non-pocket version) HERE. Too big for me so sadly have to sell but quality wise suit jacket is a nice quality and everything is super clean. Fits long so like a trench coat style but overall perfect for the office.
Retail G@llery Dept Drive Thru Shirt Cream - Medium - Have owned both rep and retail, got the opportunity to buy from a family member for a really good price. Selling for 250 retail right now, have detailed pics attached and feel free to legit check. Selling for a steal.
2024.01.11 03:26 Baxobhillus #truckerlife
 | submitted by Baxobhillus to shid_and_camed [link] [comments] |
2024.01.07 13:21 Bandofbrahs CES prediction contest, anyone?
The past week of CES tweets left us a lot to chew on. Might as well play Nostradamus. I've made a list of the key questions raised. Give it a try, if you're up to it. Playing for bragging rights.
Make predictions for each of the following categories mentioned in Luminar PRs:
Hesai has promised an announcement of the next big thing in Lidar Monday. What will it be?
My guesses, and I fully expect to go 0 for 4, but whatever:
submitted by Bandofbrahs to lazr [link] [comments]
Make predictions for each of the following categories mentioned in Luminar PRs:
- Tech milestone(s)
- Industrialization milestone(s)
- New Developments with Key Partners (definitely plural)
- Unique vehicle collaboration with a leading OEM.
- What is this "Lidar: Back to the Basics" session?
Hesai has promised an announcement of the next big thing in Lidar Monday. What will it be?
My guesses, and I fully expect to go 0 for 4, but whatever:
- Tech milestone--Iris+ C phase complete? I have no idea on this one.
- Industrialization Milestone(s)--SOP has started with Volvo! (please let me be right)
- New developments with key partners--okay, a lot of partner events, so I believe there will be several:
- Partner #1: Nvidia--I'm swinging for the fences here. I haven't heard jack or shit about Hyperion in forever, and, let's not forget this is an entirely new field for Nvidia, which is really just a chipmaker. They've got deadlines and have to save face. Therefore, my prediction is that Nvidia will be incorporating all or part of Luminar's Sentinental into Hyperion.
- Partner #2 Scale--I've never understood what they are doing together, so I'm going to say they are announcing a joint software product of some kind.
- Partner #3 Polestar--Luminar to be made standard on the Polestar 3! (Again, swinging for the fences).
- Partner #4 Volvo--SOP is here (yeah, I'm recycling this one).
- Partner #5 Mercedes--Nothing new except the release of some model names and general advancement of readiness.
- Partner #6 Plus--Although I think they could be on the verge of winning Navistar or Scania or some other truckers, I'm going to say not yet. So my prediction will be some newly integrated joint offering.
- Partners #7 and 8--Kodiak and Gatik--no new developments
- Unique vehicle--Lordy, no idea. The VW ID Buzz? Could be way off, as Omer swears they are stealing it from Luminar at CES.
- Lidar: Back to the Basics--general information for the press.
- Hesai announcement on Monday--Hesai will announce an FMCW lidar, made entirely from Aeva intellectual property.
2024.01.02 05:24 tastefulrobin New Year, Same Me
My New Year’s Resolution is to be free.
I only have one day to achieve it, and it’s almost over.
I don’t have a lot of time left, and I’m running out of options. I locked my captor down in the basement, but that door won’t hold him for much longer. If I don’t find a way to stop him… well, that’s really not something I want to think about right now.
What I want to think about is going on a hike with Melissa. We had always talked about going to the Smoky Mountains, but never got around to it. It was just a few hours away, but something always came up anytime we tried to plan a trip. I guess we both assumed that there would be time to do it later.
Well, she could have went on a hike there for all I know. A lot can happen in seven years, after all.
My captor must have had a sick sense of humor beyond what I could imagine, because the first thing I saw when I stumbled out of the cabin were the Smokies, far away in the distance. The snow-covered peaks rose far above the earth, and yet the sun perched even higher in the sky, a bright yellow disc whose rays stung my face and scalded my pale skin. When all you can see is a ten-foot-tall box for years on end, you start to believe the entire world is only ten feet tall. The sight of such a beautiful landscape caused me to fall to my knees and cry and vomit at the same time.
I have no clue where I am. If I pick a direction and run I could probably reach a road before nightfall, probably find a car to pick me up. I could also call 911 with my phone right now; if I get up on the roof near the northeast corner of the cabin, I have a single bar of signal. I could tell the police where I am, what happened to me.
But I know it wouldn’t matter.
That’s why I’m posting here. I need to tell my story if I have any hope of rescue. If I tell anyone else what happened, they will just write it off as a schizophrenic patient having a psychotic episode or some two-bit writer trying to conjure up some cheap thrills. But I’m hoping you will believe me.
I need you to believe me.
Please.
My name is Liam Hensley, and I’m 33 years old. I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. I have an excellent job working as a civil engineer. I’m happily married to the love of my life and my high school sweetheart, Melissa. I have a beautiful six year-old daughter, Jenny. For the last seven years I’ve been held captive against my will.
My captor’s name is Liam Hensley.
Lots of people have innocuous New Years Resolutions. Some people want to lose weight. Some people want to get a girlfriend (or a boyfriend). Some people just want to find happiness.
I wouldn’t say I fit into those categories until 2016 rolled around. I graduated UT in 2015, and I got a job at a local engineering firm, Thompson, right out of college. I was going steady with Melissa, and we were talking about getting married and starting a family. My wealthy grandfather (an odd but nice man) had recently passed and left me a tidy inheritance, along with some of his personal collection of strange and wonderous items.
I was smart, successful, and doing great by any metric. I was proud of myself. I thought I could handle anything the world threw at me. Maybe I could, if I didn’t let my pride (and the bottle) get the better of me.
What started as a few beers at parties turned into a few beers after work, and then some whiskey shots in the morning to chase after my hangovers. I began to alienate the people around me. Coworkers, friends, family, even my Melissa. After I got wasted no one was safe, and Melissa was around me the most. We’d shout and holler at each other until our voices got raw and then we’d cry and have sex and go to sleep.
By December 2016 I had been late one too many days and snapped at one too many people that my job had enough of me, and they cut me loose. I retreated into my apartment and refused to leave, except if it was to buy liquor. Melissa begged me to go to rehab, get a job, do something other than sit and drink and watch TV, but I ignored her. No one bothered me in my room. I could drink all I wanted, do whatever I wanted, when I wanted; plus, I still had quite the sum of cash from my grandfather. His curios were all around my apartment: a stuffed head of a lion with a voice box inside, an authentic set of oracle bones from the Shang dynasty, and my favorite, a mirror set in an oak cabinet from Colonial America. Melissa hated that mirror; she always told me shadows darted across her face unlike any other mirror she looked in. I told her she was imagining things.
I’m not sure when she left. I just remembered not noticing her come back that night on December 31st, 2015. My lowest point. My floor was a sea of beer cans and whiskey bottles which I stumbled around on, drunkenly calling out her name. As I lurched towards the bed (hoping she was just under the sheets ready to surprise me) I tripped over a Buffalo Trace Bourbon bottle and slammed against the oak cabinet. The last thing I saw before I passed out was my surprised expression in the mirror.
The throbbing in my head woke up; it felt like my skull had been cracked open and my brain was herniating through it. I raised my head and was greeted by my true self. My fleshy red face stared back at me, eyes cratered into black pits. A nasty wound sat on the crown of my head, and blood clung to the cabinet and mirror. I felt dizzy looking at the mirror. I thought I could see strange shadows flitting across my face, and my eyes looked at me with a hard intelligence that my drunken self should not possess.
I became dimly aware of the TV behind me playing. “All right folks, the Ball is about to drop in one minute! If you have any New Year’s Resolutions better make ‘em now, or else you’ll have to wait till next year!”
I had a moment of clarity, looking at myself in the mirror. I was a good for nothing drunk. I’d let myself go, lost my wife, lost my job. I was worthless. I would cry, but I was too numb to feel anything.
“10, 9, 8!” Joyous shouting from people all across the globe echoed from behind me, and a bitter jealousy and hatred suddenly rose up inside me. What did I do to deserve this? I had worked hard at my job and I certainly wasn’t abusive. I didn’t deserve to get fired and my girlfriend leave me, and I didn’t want to hear other people being happy. It wasn’t fair!
“7, 6, 5!” My reflection in the mirror seemed to goad me. Those shadows danced across its face, and the countenance shifted. It was still my face, but different. Thinner, with a mischievous smile and eyes which radiated charm, humor, and self assurance, and something else I couldn’t place but unnerved me.
This was who I wanted to be.
“4, 3, 2!” My head wound throbbed, and the room seemed to grow hot and cold at once. The me in the mirror looked pointedly at me, asking a question I already knew the answer to.
“For my New-w Ear’s Revolution, I w-want too bee a new person” I slurred out to the mirror.
“1!” My nerves lit on fire all at once, and the room began to spin. I grabbed at the table for leverage but my hands slipped on the blood and I began to tumble towards the ground, directly into the now broken bottle of Bourbon trace. My eye was about an inch away from the jagged glass when I felt something catch me. It lifted me back up and sat me down on the bed. I glanced around the room, looking for who caught me. My eyes flashed to the mirror, and a shiver ran down my spine.
There were two figures in the mirror. Both Liam Hensley, but the one crouched behind me on the bed had that same mischievous smile I saw earlier, and in his eyes I finally caught what I missed.
Malice.
I became transfixed on the mirror as I watched my body began to seize up, violently jerking back and forth. Spittle began to form on the corners of my mouth, and I could see the blood pouring from my head wound as the other me reached for it and—
I woke up with a gasp, and my hand flew to my hand. I winced as I made contact with a knot nearly the size of a golf ball with a gritty texture from caked blood. I looked around the room slowly. The room was still as messy as I remembered it, and I could see the bourbon bottle I broke last night on the floor. My gaze slowed as I got closer to the mirror, and my heart began to beat faster. As I finally forced myself to look in the mirror, I saw my terrified reflection staring back.
My shoulders slumped in relief, as did the figure in the mirror. That part had been a dream, at least. There was no blood on the cabinet or on the mirror. I got up and carefully picked my way over to the mirror, studying my reflection intently.
I tilted my head to the left. The reflection leaned its head to the left.
I raised my right arm. The reflection lifted its right arm.
I gave a full tooth smile. The reflection bared its teeth back at me.
Something seemed wrong. Small things. Subtle things. The way the reflection seemed to just slightly tilt more than I felt my head move. The way its lips curled ever so slightly back. That glint in its eyes, that malice, I remembered foggily.
I shook my head; I was probably just mildly concussed. There are no such thing as a spirits after all, and if there was something in that mirror then why didn’t it just kill me last night? It was probably my own guilt getting to me.
That thought made me wince. There was nothing supernatural about the mirror, but this experience had been the kick in the ass I deserved. I didn’t need a magic mirror to be a new man. I was going to do it myself.
Jan 1st 2016 was the day my life got back on track. I spent the morning cleaning up my pigsty of my apartment, and by the time I was done the garbage bag pile nearly reached the ceiling. As I cleaned, I felt something tickle my nerves when my back was turned to the mirror. I’d turn around to see my reflection staring back, those same strange shadows dancing across my face.
The next step was filling out job applications for the engineering firms who were hiring. I struggled with writing anything other than engineering notes; I normally just had Melissa write the applications for me. But this time the words flowed freely from my mind, and it only took me a few hours to finish a dozen applications. I felt confident and happy. I wasn’t even craving alcohol that much.
My fingertips prickled, and I realized someone was watching me. I scanned the library, but nothing stuck out to me. A few old ladies in the corner reading some romance novels, a desk clerk playing on her phone, and a shabby man who looked homeless sitting beside the computer section with his head in his hands, a bouquet of bright red roses beside him. I was pondering why he might have the roses when I saw my voyeur; out of my peripheral vision I could see my reflection in my phone, staring directly at me.
I watched the roses for a time, keeping note of my reflection. I couldn’t make out fine details in the periphery, but that mischievous smile and malicious grin burned in my eyes, clear as daylight. My reflection turned to stare at the roses, and I realized that I would need some sort of gift to woo Melissa back. And roses were her favorite flower, I was pretty certain. My hands went down to feel my pockets. Emptier than a bottle of Jack Daniels on a Thursday night.
I scanned the room again to make sure no one was watching me.
Later that night I showed up on Melissa’s parents doorstep. It was rainy and dreary and I had a bouquet of roses in one arm, like a bad romance movie. I rang the doorbell for 15 minutes, but no one answered. Eventually I sat on the steps and stared at the water pooling on the concrete below me. My reflection looked back at me, seeming perfectly normal this time. Maybe there was just some trick of light with glass, and that’s why I thought some spirit was stalking me.
My reflection winked at me.
I shot up, but before I could react the door slammed into my backside. I turned around to see Melissa glaring at me, tears streaming from her face like the rain outside.
“I’m surprised you left the apartment.” Melissa said resentfully. She tried to put on a hard face, but I knew her heart must be breaking like mine was in that moment.
“I… I brought you flowers.” I held up the roses weakly. They sagged from the weight of the rain on them.
Melissa’s face blanched. “I hate roses. I got an infected wound from them a few times gardening, and my arm would get red and puffy over the week.” Melissa glared at me. “I’ve told you that before, Liam. Maybe if you’d just listened to me, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
She moved to slam the door, but I caught it with my feet. Wincing in pain, I dropped the roses and they fell into the muddy yard.
“Ow. Both physically and metaphorically.” I said, my words flowing smoothly and naturally. “You’re right Melissa. You’re right about everything. I treated you poorly and didn’t act like a man should at all. You’ve been nothing but helpful and supportive to me, and I’ve repaid you with disappointment and awfulness.”
Her eyebrows shot up. She’d never heard me talk like this. I’d never heard me talk like this. I could feel a presence in the back of my head, and I saw my reflection in the water again. It was mouthing my words, a split second before me.
“I know that our relationship has gone to shit over the past year, and I know it’s all my fault. You’re right; if I had paid more attention to you I would have known you didn’t like roses. But I knew just how badly I messed up when I woke up this morning and I didn’t smell you next to me, feel your soft hair; I realized you meant everything to me, and I had to get you back. I’ve cleaned up the apartment, filled out job applications, and tomorrow I’m going to go to a doctor about detoxing. I know that I don’t deserve you, but I want you Melissa, so badly. I won’t be mad if you say no, but I’m never going to stop thinking about you. Come to my apartment if you want to talk, or at least see how clean it is.”
With that, I spun around and walked back to my car. I didn’t know why, but it felt like the right thing to do. In the glass I could see Melissa’s shocked face and my own giving me a congratulatory grin.
Melissa did come later that night and we talked and cried and had sex. It was some of the best sex we had since the beginning of our relationship; I made sure to pleasure her, and words of praise and adoration floated from my lips to her ear as I lightly tugged on her earlobe with my teeth in between. By the time we were done she was utterly exhausted and fell asleep in minutes. I was tired too, but there was something I had to do first.
I walked over to that strange mirror. My reflection wasn’t even trying to mimic me anymore; it leaned against the cabinet door, regarding me with curious eyes.
“Hey man, I don’t know what the hell you are, but I just gotta say thank you. That was you helping me earlier today, right?”
The reflection nodded, a small smile forming on his lips.
“Wow. Well, thanks. I feel like a new person already.”
The smile grew wider and wider until it became unnervingly large, like the Chesire Chat.
I backed up from the mirror. The reflection took a step forward.
“Hey come on, there’s no need to—”
I could feel my voice shift in that moment, turning deeper, richer; just like the voice I always wanted.
“—Panic, Liam. You are a new person.”
I tried to speak, but my body didn’t respond.
“That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it Liam? That’s what you wished for last night, right at the very beginning of a year.”
The reflection in the mirror raised his right arm and with rising horror I felt my own arm move in sync.
“And now it’s almost been a full day since your wish, Liam.” He flashed the watch at me; 11:59 PM. “So that means it’s almost time to fulfill your wish.”
I tried to stumble towards my bed, to fall onto Melissa and get her attention. My rogue arm grabbed the cabinet’s ledge before I could fall, and after struggling to move forward I raised my left leg to kick the bed. It didn’t respond.
I heard my own voice laughing, softly at first, then rising in pitch and intensity.
“Don’t try to fight it, Liam! You wanted this! I’m helping you!”
My body dragged itself over to look directly in the mirror, and I could see Melissa began to stir. Yes! Just a few more seconds and she’ll see me…
My body planted itself in front of the mirror and started to lean in until my nose touched it. I was looking into my double’s eyes and I could see the hate inside them. Hate for me, hate for Melissa, hate for the world, hate that he was trapped inside the mirror. I had to snap out of it, had to break his control…
“Liam, what’s going on?” Melissa asked behind me.
Hearing her voice snapped me out of it. I stumbled backwards and tripped over my unexpected momentum. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, taste the iron where I bit my tongue.
“Honey, you were right about that goddamn mirror. I know it sounds weird, but need to throw it out, right now.” I stood back on my feet, wincing. “If nothing else because it doesn’t go with the couch.”
She gave me a faint smile. “It’s okay babe. I’m proud of you for quitting, but it can be really dangerous if you do it cold-turkey. We need to get you to the doctor right now if you’re having hallucinations.”
I stared at her nonplussed. “They’re not hallucinations. Can’t you see the guy in the mirror behind me? The one who just tried to kill me, probably?”
A tear formed at the edge of her eyes. “I love you too babe.” She went in for a hug, and I leaned in too, bewildered but wanting comfort.
Melissa’s form passed through me as if she wasn’t there. I jumped back, and my body went through my bed.
Melissa smiled and nodded, looking in front of me. “Of course I can drive you to the ER. Just let me get changed.”
As she walked away, I looked into the mirror with a sinking heart.
My reflection was there, and his back was turned to me, watching Melissa gather clothes and go to the bathroom. When she was gone he turned towards me, a smirk on his face.
“What. Did. You. Do.” I hissed at him.
He walked up to the mirror. “I can’t read lips yet, so I don’t know what you asked me. Maybe you didn’t even ask me a question; maybe you just said: “FUCK YOU!”, or something else uncreative. That’s something else I’m better than you at by the way; your idea of a romantic soliloquy is probably asking for a one-night stand. Oh, and bringing your girl the one kind of flower she hates.”
“Let me out damn it!” I yelled, banging my hand against the mirror. To my surprise it was solid, the only thing solid that I had touched here. But it was like punching a brick wall, and the glass would not even crack.
“Hmm. No. I like being on this side.” He walked closer, until his face was only a foot from the mirror.
“Besides, I’m a much better Liam than you ever were.”
“I’ll stop you. I’ll find help. There has to be a way out of here!” I turned and begin to sprint to my hallway door.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”
Not heeding his advice my body phased through the door, and the earth fell out from under me as I careened into a formless mist.
My body fell for a year through that mist. Have you ever been so sick that you feel nauseous for stretches of hours and days? I don’t understand how it worked, but the feeling of tumbling over and over again through nothingness caused my stomach to bubble with every second of existing. I constantly retched, but I had nothing to throw up. I didn’t become hungry or thirsty or tired; it was like I was suspended in time. Tumbling through the abyss endlessly, with no purpose or direction.
I panicked. I cried. I cursed God and Melissa and the world. I became deeply depressed. Then I started to look around. I thought the mist around me was a formless expanse, but that wasn’t entirely correct. There were little pockets every now and then; windows into the real world, it would seem. I would catch brief flashes of them; a desert extending as far as the eye could see, a raging snowstorm on a mountain, and once the face of a smiling woman. That was a good day.
Then, I hit the bottom.
Or rather, I hit something. The force of the impact knocked me out, and when I woke up I was in so much pain I couldn’t even move. After a year of not experiencing pain, every single nerve fiber experienced overwhelming agony at once. I saw glimpses of walls, I think; it was hard to tell since I passed in and out of consciousness. Then I felt the pain vanish in an instant.
I was in the passenger seat of the car. Or rather, halfway inside the passenger seat of the car. I adjusted my body and I realized that I could hover where I wished; I just couldn’t touch anything.
I turned to the drivers side to see my double looking in the mirror.
“That looked painful. I honestly would have helped you if I could, but I was stuck where you were.”
I looked at him with a hollow expression.
He cleared his throat. “All right, now I do feel a little bad. Let me explain something to you. I don’t know why, but that mirror is a connection between your world and mine. I’m your reflection; everything you aren’t. When you wished for that deal and put your blood on that mirror, that opened up a doorway. But, it takes time to open. It closes too; each January 1st I get sucked back in there, and you take my place.”
I begin to feel a speck of anger rise in my mind.
“You’re not from there though; you can only exist in where the mirror projects. Which means if you don’t play nice, I’m going to lean you against the wall of the storage closet and forget about you until next year.”
I slammed my feet against the mirror. My double grinned.
“All right. Closet it is.”
Closet it was for a week. In a way, sitting in the closet was worse than tumbling through the air. When I was tumbling I felt awful every second, but at least I felt something. Sitting in the storage closet alone in the dark with only my own thoughts as company was as close to hell as I will ever come to in this life. When the door opened and my double raised an eyebrow I said nothing, only cast my eyes to the floor.
My double put the mirror in his bedroom and opened the shades and left the TV on while he was gone to work. Melissa nagged him about that, but he insisted. Their relationship was going well; she had fallen pregnant sometime in the past year and was due soon. Sometimes she would go into the bedroom during the day and I’d watch her from the mirror, listening to her talk to the baby. It was a girl, and they were going to name her Jenny. We had never discussed baby names, but this was something I would pick. I’d talk to her from the mirror; I know she couldn’t hear me but I’d like to pretend.
As 2018 approached my double said goodbye to Melissa and put the mirror in my car. He threw a blanket over it so I couldn’t see where we were going. We drove for a few hours until I heard the car come to a stop, and I could hear a door creak open and him slowly descend a flight of stairs. When he removed the blanket I saw I was in a small room with two padlocked doors on either side.
My double closed the first door and locked it, then opened the second door. As the mirror was taken into the second door I realized it was much smaller, barely a foot wide. My double grinned.
“Impressed? It’s a cabin I snapped up recently. I added some modifications, to make sure you couldn’t escape.”
He pressed something on the padlock and it beeped.
“That’ll lock it down for 24 hours exactly. I’ve left you some pizza, some candy, some books, oh, and a playboy magazine I found on the drive down. Go nuts.”
I felt strange and light-headed. I blinked, and then I was my own body. In the real world.
I immediately fell to my knees and put my face against the cold concrete. To feel coldness again! I dived for the pizza and began to gobble it up greedily, hardly stopping to chew. I felt my doubles eyes on me. Watching me. Mocking me. That same anger at being held captive for two years rose up in me all at once, and I threw myself at the glass walls that the mirror and my double were hiding behind.
Like the mirror, I bounced off the glass walls. They were bulletproof no doubt, and an inch thick. Even if I cracked them, it would take too long to entirely break them, at which point my double would be in control and he could simply replace it.
He was laughing at me, I could tell. Why would he give me small freedoms like an open window if he took such great enjoyment in punishing me? Was it because he wanted me constantly tipping over the brink of insanity?
No matter. I scanned the room and I realized he had made a mistake. A cheap ceramic plate lay on the floor, pizza sauce smeared into it. I broke the plate into three long pieces and began to saw at the padlock.
For ten long hours I sawed back and forth, slowly wearing down the cheap metal lock. I would glance back from time to time to see my double’s terrified face; why he had gone with bulletproof glass and settled for a cheap electronic padlock was beyond me, but maybe we both shared that same sense of pride. My pride had caused me to be exiled from my world, and now ironically it would allow me to come back.
Finally, the lock broke and I sprinted out of the cabin. I ran, my feet punctured by small rocks and body cut up from thorns. I ran until the sun was long since gone and I reached a road, and I ran down that road until a truck appeared on the edge of my vision.
I frantically waved my arms at the driver as he approached. I must have quite the sight; a crazed barefoot man wandering on the highway miles away from civilization in the dead of night. Still, to his credit he picked me up.
His name was Jeff, and he told me that the nearest town was about an hour away. I told him about my wish, about the double, about my family; it was so wonderful to talk to another human after all those years alone! He definitely thought I was missing a few screws and would probably turn me into the looney bin once we got into town, but I was okay with that. As long as I was as far away as possible from that mirror.
After a lull in the conversation, I turned my head outside the window to see the trees flashing by, lit up one by one before they were swallowed whole by the night. Almost out of instinct, I checked the rearview mirror to look for cars behind me.
My reflection was climbing from behind the backseat, his mouth locked in a snarl and his eyes radiating hatred. His hand shot out and grabbed me by the head, and I felt a surge of cold and warmth run over my body. I screamed and began to flail like a man possessed, and Jeff shouted at me as the truck swerved wildly in the night. I tried to resist with all my might but the double commanded my body to lean closer to the mirror and—
I was back inside the cabin. I screamed and pounded at the mirror. I was so close. Why, why, why? How could he have gotten me through the truck mirror? Does that mean I can’t look at any mirror for the rest of my life? How can I live like that when nearly everything we do involves some sort of screen?
After a while I calmed down, and then there was nothing to do but wait. I waited for a long time, wondering if the truck had crashed, if my double had been killed, and what would happen if my double was killed. A reflection can’t exist without a physical object, but what happens when a physical object is placed in a reflection?
I don’t think I’ll ever get to know the answer to that question, because my double did reappear a month later. He brought a newspaper article about the bizarre crash and death of a trucker in Tennessee.
“His death is on your hands.” The double said coldly. “After we crashed he was caught in the burning wreckage. He pleaded with to pull him out, but I just stood there and watched him die.”
He tapped his finger to a line on the paper. “Because of your insolence, Jeff’s children don’t have a father anymore.” He looked at me directly in my eyes. “Do you want your child to be without a mother?”
That broke me. Beyond the pain of falling through an endless expanse, beyond the horror of being in the dark alone, the idea of him killing Melissa brought an incomparable amount of pain to me.
From there, I became a shell of myself. I watched my double install reinforced steel doors with outside access to prevent me from breaking out again. After he was gone I sat and dreamed of my future with Melissa if I wasn’t trapped inside the mirror. I created, ended, and rebuilt entire worlds in my mind. It wasn’t ideal, but after a time I began to accept it. Occasionally my double would come back and pin clippings on the wall. Clippings about Jenny and her accomplishments, pictures of them on family trips, even an employee of the year certificate once.
I think these little ornaments were meant to torture me, and they certainly did for the first year or so. But gradually, I began to appreciate seeing my daughter grow up. I watched her laugh at her birthday parties, be the star hitter in softball, and play board games with Melissa and my double. It was touching to see her grow and mature. Gradually my anger, my jealousy, my bitterness began to evaporate. I was just happy my daughter and wife were happy.
Around that time, the pictures started to slow. Jenny and Melissa seemed less happy in the photos, and I thought I even saw a bruise behind Melissa’s eyebrow once. My double became more agitated, travelling to the cabin once every month to hurl insults and abuse at me. One night in a drunken rage he tore up all the clippings in the room.
“Who the hell do you think you are! You think you can influence me! Me! Well I’ll show you! This year is gonna be your goddamn last year on Earth, fucker! I’m gonna rig a bunch of grenades to blow up your goddamn innards once it hits five minutes past midnight on January 1st. You’ll have 5 goddamn minutes to evaluate your stupid goddamn life and realize just how much a piece of shit you are and how much everyone hates you, MOST OF ALL ME!”
That’s when it clicked. He was my reflection. I had lost my anger, my bitterness, my jealousy, but that only meant that he gained them. And I couldn’t do a thing to stop him.
Yesterday, my double stumbled into the basement, drunk again. He staggered back and forth, muttering to himself as he tried to jury rig the grenades to explode. I desperately thought of something, anything to do to stop him, but even in his drunken state he managed to finish the device. He opened the door and shuffled up to the mirror, his face a twisted grin and hateful eyes.
“I should have known I couldn’t be the new Liam until the old one was gone. Enjoy hell, fucker.”
He raised his middle finger at me and brushed against the glass in the process.
I felt a shiver run up my spine. It wasn’t quite midnight, but it was close. I could feel myself almost ready to take control of his body, but there was still a minute left; plenty of time to shut the door and activate the bomb’s timer.
I reached deep within myself. I focused on my calm, and I thought about his rage. I imagined two ends of a magnet flying together, connected through an invisible bond across space.
My hand twitched. The doubles hand twitched.
Quick as a flash, I used my arm in the physical world to grab the mirror. My double screamed and stumbled back, but I pressed the mirror to my body’s legs and they began to respond to my commands. He raised his fist to smash the mirror but I jerked it to the side and his fist hit concrete. As he howled I pressed the mirror up to his face and—
I was holding the grenades in one hand, and the mirror in the other. I carefully sat the grenades down and placed the mirror back on its ledge. I sighed when I realized the timer hadn’t gone off yet. When I looked in the mirror I saw the double screaming obscenities at me.
I was sure to flip him off as I closed the door behind me.
And now we’re caught up. Like I said, it’s impractical to say I won’t ever look at a mirror again. Unless I cut out my own eyes I’ll run into one eventually, and besides I’m not even sure not seeing would solve the problem.
No, I’m afraid I have to do something more drastic. My double was trying to break the mirror earlier, but I sense that he did that just so I wouldn’t have control. I think if he breaks it we’ll both die; why else would he bother with the grenades if he could have just smashed the mirror anytime? Still, I’d rather smash the mirror then let that monster roam free.
But there may be another way. This whole thing started with a New Year’s Resolution made right at midnight. Maybe I can fix it with another. I just need to figure out what it should be. One more hour left until midnight. One more hour to decide.
Any suggestions?
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I only have one day to achieve it, and it’s almost over.
I don’t have a lot of time left, and I’m running out of options. I locked my captor down in the basement, but that door won’t hold him for much longer. If I don’t find a way to stop him… well, that’s really not something I want to think about right now.
What I want to think about is going on a hike with Melissa. We had always talked about going to the Smoky Mountains, but never got around to it. It was just a few hours away, but something always came up anytime we tried to plan a trip. I guess we both assumed that there would be time to do it later.
Well, she could have went on a hike there for all I know. A lot can happen in seven years, after all.
My captor must have had a sick sense of humor beyond what I could imagine, because the first thing I saw when I stumbled out of the cabin were the Smokies, far away in the distance. The snow-covered peaks rose far above the earth, and yet the sun perched even higher in the sky, a bright yellow disc whose rays stung my face and scalded my pale skin. When all you can see is a ten-foot-tall box for years on end, you start to believe the entire world is only ten feet tall. The sight of such a beautiful landscape caused me to fall to my knees and cry and vomit at the same time.
I have no clue where I am. If I pick a direction and run I could probably reach a road before nightfall, probably find a car to pick me up. I could also call 911 with my phone right now; if I get up on the roof near the northeast corner of the cabin, I have a single bar of signal. I could tell the police where I am, what happened to me.
But I know it wouldn’t matter.
That’s why I’m posting here. I need to tell my story if I have any hope of rescue. If I tell anyone else what happened, they will just write it off as a schizophrenic patient having a psychotic episode or some two-bit writer trying to conjure up some cheap thrills. But I’m hoping you will believe me.
I need you to believe me.
Please.
My name is Liam Hensley, and I’m 33 years old. I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. I have an excellent job working as a civil engineer. I’m happily married to the love of my life and my high school sweetheart, Melissa. I have a beautiful six year-old daughter, Jenny. For the last seven years I’ve been held captive against my will.
My captor’s name is Liam Hensley.
Lots of people have innocuous New Years Resolutions. Some people want to lose weight. Some people want to get a girlfriend (or a boyfriend). Some people just want to find happiness.
I wouldn’t say I fit into those categories until 2016 rolled around. I graduated UT in 2015, and I got a job at a local engineering firm, Thompson, right out of college. I was going steady with Melissa, and we were talking about getting married and starting a family. My wealthy grandfather (an odd but nice man) had recently passed and left me a tidy inheritance, along with some of his personal collection of strange and wonderous items.
I was smart, successful, and doing great by any metric. I was proud of myself. I thought I could handle anything the world threw at me. Maybe I could, if I didn’t let my pride (and the bottle) get the better of me.
What started as a few beers at parties turned into a few beers after work, and then some whiskey shots in the morning to chase after my hangovers. I began to alienate the people around me. Coworkers, friends, family, even my Melissa. After I got wasted no one was safe, and Melissa was around me the most. We’d shout and holler at each other until our voices got raw and then we’d cry and have sex and go to sleep.
By December 2016 I had been late one too many days and snapped at one too many people that my job had enough of me, and they cut me loose. I retreated into my apartment and refused to leave, except if it was to buy liquor. Melissa begged me to go to rehab, get a job, do something other than sit and drink and watch TV, but I ignored her. No one bothered me in my room. I could drink all I wanted, do whatever I wanted, when I wanted; plus, I still had quite the sum of cash from my grandfather. His curios were all around my apartment: a stuffed head of a lion with a voice box inside, an authentic set of oracle bones from the Shang dynasty, and my favorite, a mirror set in an oak cabinet from Colonial America. Melissa hated that mirror; she always told me shadows darted across her face unlike any other mirror she looked in. I told her she was imagining things.
I’m not sure when she left. I just remembered not noticing her come back that night on December 31st, 2015. My lowest point. My floor was a sea of beer cans and whiskey bottles which I stumbled around on, drunkenly calling out her name. As I lurched towards the bed (hoping she was just under the sheets ready to surprise me) I tripped over a Buffalo Trace Bourbon bottle and slammed against the oak cabinet. The last thing I saw before I passed out was my surprised expression in the mirror.
The throbbing in my head woke up; it felt like my skull had been cracked open and my brain was herniating through it. I raised my head and was greeted by my true self. My fleshy red face stared back at me, eyes cratered into black pits. A nasty wound sat on the crown of my head, and blood clung to the cabinet and mirror. I felt dizzy looking at the mirror. I thought I could see strange shadows flitting across my face, and my eyes looked at me with a hard intelligence that my drunken self should not possess.
I became dimly aware of the TV behind me playing. “All right folks, the Ball is about to drop in one minute! If you have any New Year’s Resolutions better make ‘em now, or else you’ll have to wait till next year!”
I had a moment of clarity, looking at myself in the mirror. I was a good for nothing drunk. I’d let myself go, lost my wife, lost my job. I was worthless. I would cry, but I was too numb to feel anything.
“10, 9, 8!” Joyous shouting from people all across the globe echoed from behind me, and a bitter jealousy and hatred suddenly rose up inside me. What did I do to deserve this? I had worked hard at my job and I certainly wasn’t abusive. I didn’t deserve to get fired and my girlfriend leave me, and I didn’t want to hear other people being happy. It wasn’t fair!
“7, 6, 5!” My reflection in the mirror seemed to goad me. Those shadows danced across its face, and the countenance shifted. It was still my face, but different. Thinner, with a mischievous smile and eyes which radiated charm, humor, and self assurance, and something else I couldn’t place but unnerved me.
This was who I wanted to be.
“4, 3, 2!” My head wound throbbed, and the room seemed to grow hot and cold at once. The me in the mirror looked pointedly at me, asking a question I already knew the answer to.
“For my New-w Ear’s Revolution, I w-want too bee a new person” I slurred out to the mirror.
“1!” My nerves lit on fire all at once, and the room began to spin. I grabbed at the table for leverage but my hands slipped on the blood and I began to tumble towards the ground, directly into the now broken bottle of Bourbon trace. My eye was about an inch away from the jagged glass when I felt something catch me. It lifted me back up and sat me down on the bed. I glanced around the room, looking for who caught me. My eyes flashed to the mirror, and a shiver ran down my spine.
There were two figures in the mirror. Both Liam Hensley, but the one crouched behind me on the bed had that same mischievous smile I saw earlier, and in his eyes I finally caught what I missed.
Malice.
I became transfixed on the mirror as I watched my body began to seize up, violently jerking back and forth. Spittle began to form on the corners of my mouth, and I could see the blood pouring from my head wound as the other me reached for it and—
I woke up with a gasp, and my hand flew to my hand. I winced as I made contact with a knot nearly the size of a golf ball with a gritty texture from caked blood. I looked around the room slowly. The room was still as messy as I remembered it, and I could see the bourbon bottle I broke last night on the floor. My gaze slowed as I got closer to the mirror, and my heart began to beat faster. As I finally forced myself to look in the mirror, I saw my terrified reflection staring back.
My shoulders slumped in relief, as did the figure in the mirror. That part had been a dream, at least. There was no blood on the cabinet or on the mirror. I got up and carefully picked my way over to the mirror, studying my reflection intently.
I tilted my head to the left. The reflection leaned its head to the left.
I raised my right arm. The reflection lifted its right arm.
I gave a full tooth smile. The reflection bared its teeth back at me.
Something seemed wrong. Small things. Subtle things. The way the reflection seemed to just slightly tilt more than I felt my head move. The way its lips curled ever so slightly back. That glint in its eyes, that malice, I remembered foggily.
I shook my head; I was probably just mildly concussed. There are no such thing as a spirits after all, and if there was something in that mirror then why didn’t it just kill me last night? It was probably my own guilt getting to me.
That thought made me wince. There was nothing supernatural about the mirror, but this experience had been the kick in the ass I deserved. I didn’t need a magic mirror to be a new man. I was going to do it myself.
Jan 1st 2016 was the day my life got back on track. I spent the morning cleaning up my pigsty of my apartment, and by the time I was done the garbage bag pile nearly reached the ceiling. As I cleaned, I felt something tickle my nerves when my back was turned to the mirror. I’d turn around to see my reflection staring back, those same strange shadows dancing across my face.
The next step was filling out job applications for the engineering firms who were hiring. I struggled with writing anything other than engineering notes; I normally just had Melissa write the applications for me. But this time the words flowed freely from my mind, and it only took me a few hours to finish a dozen applications. I felt confident and happy. I wasn’t even craving alcohol that much.
My fingertips prickled, and I realized someone was watching me. I scanned the library, but nothing stuck out to me. A few old ladies in the corner reading some romance novels, a desk clerk playing on her phone, and a shabby man who looked homeless sitting beside the computer section with his head in his hands, a bouquet of bright red roses beside him. I was pondering why he might have the roses when I saw my voyeur; out of my peripheral vision I could see my reflection in my phone, staring directly at me.
I watched the roses for a time, keeping note of my reflection. I couldn’t make out fine details in the periphery, but that mischievous smile and malicious grin burned in my eyes, clear as daylight. My reflection turned to stare at the roses, and I realized that I would need some sort of gift to woo Melissa back. And roses were her favorite flower, I was pretty certain. My hands went down to feel my pockets. Emptier than a bottle of Jack Daniels on a Thursday night.
I scanned the room again to make sure no one was watching me.
Later that night I showed up on Melissa’s parents doorstep. It was rainy and dreary and I had a bouquet of roses in one arm, like a bad romance movie. I rang the doorbell for 15 minutes, but no one answered. Eventually I sat on the steps and stared at the water pooling on the concrete below me. My reflection looked back at me, seeming perfectly normal this time. Maybe there was just some trick of light with glass, and that’s why I thought some spirit was stalking me.
My reflection winked at me.
I shot up, but before I could react the door slammed into my backside. I turned around to see Melissa glaring at me, tears streaming from her face like the rain outside.
“I’m surprised you left the apartment.” Melissa said resentfully. She tried to put on a hard face, but I knew her heart must be breaking like mine was in that moment.
“I… I brought you flowers.” I held up the roses weakly. They sagged from the weight of the rain on them.
Melissa’s face blanched. “I hate roses. I got an infected wound from them a few times gardening, and my arm would get red and puffy over the week.” Melissa glared at me. “I’ve told you that before, Liam. Maybe if you’d just listened to me, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
She moved to slam the door, but I caught it with my feet. Wincing in pain, I dropped the roses and they fell into the muddy yard.
“Ow. Both physically and metaphorically.” I said, my words flowing smoothly and naturally. “You’re right Melissa. You’re right about everything. I treated you poorly and didn’t act like a man should at all. You’ve been nothing but helpful and supportive to me, and I’ve repaid you with disappointment and awfulness.”
Her eyebrows shot up. She’d never heard me talk like this. I’d never heard me talk like this. I could feel a presence in the back of my head, and I saw my reflection in the water again. It was mouthing my words, a split second before me.
“I know that our relationship has gone to shit over the past year, and I know it’s all my fault. You’re right; if I had paid more attention to you I would have known you didn’t like roses. But I knew just how badly I messed up when I woke up this morning and I didn’t smell you next to me, feel your soft hair; I realized you meant everything to me, and I had to get you back. I’ve cleaned up the apartment, filled out job applications, and tomorrow I’m going to go to a doctor about detoxing. I know that I don’t deserve you, but I want you Melissa, so badly. I won’t be mad if you say no, but I’m never going to stop thinking about you. Come to my apartment if you want to talk, or at least see how clean it is.”
With that, I spun around and walked back to my car. I didn’t know why, but it felt like the right thing to do. In the glass I could see Melissa’s shocked face and my own giving me a congratulatory grin.
Melissa did come later that night and we talked and cried and had sex. It was some of the best sex we had since the beginning of our relationship; I made sure to pleasure her, and words of praise and adoration floated from my lips to her ear as I lightly tugged on her earlobe with my teeth in between. By the time we were done she was utterly exhausted and fell asleep in minutes. I was tired too, but there was something I had to do first.
I walked over to that strange mirror. My reflection wasn’t even trying to mimic me anymore; it leaned against the cabinet door, regarding me with curious eyes.
“Hey man, I don’t know what the hell you are, but I just gotta say thank you. That was you helping me earlier today, right?”
The reflection nodded, a small smile forming on his lips.
“Wow. Well, thanks. I feel like a new person already.”
The smile grew wider and wider until it became unnervingly large, like the Chesire Chat.
I backed up from the mirror. The reflection took a step forward.
“Hey come on, there’s no need to—”
I could feel my voice shift in that moment, turning deeper, richer; just like the voice I always wanted.
“—Panic, Liam. You are a new person.”
I tried to speak, but my body didn’t respond.
“That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it Liam? That’s what you wished for last night, right at the very beginning of a year.”
The reflection in the mirror raised his right arm and with rising horror I felt my own arm move in sync.
“And now it’s almost been a full day since your wish, Liam.” He flashed the watch at me; 11:59 PM. “So that means it’s almost time to fulfill your wish.”
I tried to stumble towards my bed, to fall onto Melissa and get her attention. My rogue arm grabbed the cabinet’s ledge before I could fall, and after struggling to move forward I raised my left leg to kick the bed. It didn’t respond.
I heard my own voice laughing, softly at first, then rising in pitch and intensity.
“Don’t try to fight it, Liam! You wanted this! I’m helping you!”
My body dragged itself over to look directly in the mirror, and I could see Melissa began to stir. Yes! Just a few more seconds and she’ll see me…
My body planted itself in front of the mirror and started to lean in until my nose touched it. I was looking into my double’s eyes and I could see the hate inside them. Hate for me, hate for Melissa, hate for the world, hate that he was trapped inside the mirror. I had to snap out of it, had to break his control…
“Liam, what’s going on?” Melissa asked behind me.
Hearing her voice snapped me out of it. I stumbled backwards and tripped over my unexpected momentum. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, taste the iron where I bit my tongue.
“Honey, you were right about that goddamn mirror. I know it sounds weird, but need to throw it out, right now.” I stood back on my feet, wincing. “If nothing else because it doesn’t go with the couch.”
She gave me a faint smile. “It’s okay babe. I’m proud of you for quitting, but it can be really dangerous if you do it cold-turkey. We need to get you to the doctor right now if you’re having hallucinations.”
I stared at her nonplussed. “They’re not hallucinations. Can’t you see the guy in the mirror behind me? The one who just tried to kill me, probably?”
A tear formed at the edge of her eyes. “I love you too babe.” She went in for a hug, and I leaned in too, bewildered but wanting comfort.
Melissa’s form passed through me as if she wasn’t there. I jumped back, and my body went through my bed.
Melissa smiled and nodded, looking in front of me. “Of course I can drive you to the ER. Just let me get changed.”
As she walked away, I looked into the mirror with a sinking heart.
My reflection was there, and his back was turned to me, watching Melissa gather clothes and go to the bathroom. When she was gone he turned towards me, a smirk on his face.
“What. Did. You. Do.” I hissed at him.
He walked up to the mirror. “I can’t read lips yet, so I don’t know what you asked me. Maybe you didn’t even ask me a question; maybe you just said: “FUCK YOU!”, or something else uncreative. That’s something else I’m better than you at by the way; your idea of a romantic soliloquy is probably asking for a one-night stand. Oh, and bringing your girl the one kind of flower she hates.”
“Let me out damn it!” I yelled, banging my hand against the mirror. To my surprise it was solid, the only thing solid that I had touched here. But it was like punching a brick wall, and the glass would not even crack.
“Hmm. No. I like being on this side.” He walked closer, until his face was only a foot from the mirror.
“Besides, I’m a much better Liam than you ever were.”
“I’ll stop you. I’ll find help. There has to be a way out of here!” I turned and begin to sprint to my hallway door.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”
Not heeding his advice my body phased through the door, and the earth fell out from under me as I careened into a formless mist.
My body fell for a year through that mist. Have you ever been so sick that you feel nauseous for stretches of hours and days? I don’t understand how it worked, but the feeling of tumbling over and over again through nothingness caused my stomach to bubble with every second of existing. I constantly retched, but I had nothing to throw up. I didn’t become hungry or thirsty or tired; it was like I was suspended in time. Tumbling through the abyss endlessly, with no purpose or direction.
I panicked. I cried. I cursed God and Melissa and the world. I became deeply depressed. Then I started to look around. I thought the mist around me was a formless expanse, but that wasn’t entirely correct. There were little pockets every now and then; windows into the real world, it would seem. I would catch brief flashes of them; a desert extending as far as the eye could see, a raging snowstorm on a mountain, and once the face of a smiling woman. That was a good day.
Then, I hit the bottom.
Or rather, I hit something. The force of the impact knocked me out, and when I woke up I was in so much pain I couldn’t even move. After a year of not experiencing pain, every single nerve fiber experienced overwhelming agony at once. I saw glimpses of walls, I think; it was hard to tell since I passed in and out of consciousness. Then I felt the pain vanish in an instant.
I was in the passenger seat of the car. Or rather, halfway inside the passenger seat of the car. I adjusted my body and I realized that I could hover where I wished; I just couldn’t touch anything.
I turned to the drivers side to see my double looking in the mirror.
“That looked painful. I honestly would have helped you if I could, but I was stuck where you were.”
I looked at him with a hollow expression.
He cleared his throat. “All right, now I do feel a little bad. Let me explain something to you. I don’t know why, but that mirror is a connection between your world and mine. I’m your reflection; everything you aren’t. When you wished for that deal and put your blood on that mirror, that opened up a doorway. But, it takes time to open. It closes too; each January 1st I get sucked back in there, and you take my place.”
I begin to feel a speck of anger rise in my mind.
“You’re not from there though; you can only exist in where the mirror projects. Which means if you don’t play nice, I’m going to lean you against the wall of the storage closet and forget about you until next year.”
I slammed my feet against the mirror. My double grinned.
“All right. Closet it is.”
Closet it was for a week. In a way, sitting in the closet was worse than tumbling through the air. When I was tumbling I felt awful every second, but at least I felt something. Sitting in the storage closet alone in the dark with only my own thoughts as company was as close to hell as I will ever come to in this life. When the door opened and my double raised an eyebrow I said nothing, only cast my eyes to the floor.
My double put the mirror in his bedroom and opened the shades and left the TV on while he was gone to work. Melissa nagged him about that, but he insisted. Their relationship was going well; she had fallen pregnant sometime in the past year and was due soon. Sometimes she would go into the bedroom during the day and I’d watch her from the mirror, listening to her talk to the baby. It was a girl, and they were going to name her Jenny. We had never discussed baby names, but this was something I would pick. I’d talk to her from the mirror; I know she couldn’t hear me but I’d like to pretend.
As 2018 approached my double said goodbye to Melissa and put the mirror in my car. He threw a blanket over it so I couldn’t see where we were going. We drove for a few hours until I heard the car come to a stop, and I could hear a door creak open and him slowly descend a flight of stairs. When he removed the blanket I saw I was in a small room with two padlocked doors on either side.
My double closed the first door and locked it, then opened the second door. As the mirror was taken into the second door I realized it was much smaller, barely a foot wide. My double grinned.
“Impressed? It’s a cabin I snapped up recently. I added some modifications, to make sure you couldn’t escape.”
He pressed something on the padlock and it beeped.
“That’ll lock it down for 24 hours exactly. I’ve left you some pizza, some candy, some books, oh, and a playboy magazine I found on the drive down. Go nuts.”
I felt strange and light-headed. I blinked, and then I was my own body. In the real world.
I immediately fell to my knees and put my face against the cold concrete. To feel coldness again! I dived for the pizza and began to gobble it up greedily, hardly stopping to chew. I felt my doubles eyes on me. Watching me. Mocking me. That same anger at being held captive for two years rose up in me all at once, and I threw myself at the glass walls that the mirror and my double were hiding behind.
Like the mirror, I bounced off the glass walls. They were bulletproof no doubt, and an inch thick. Even if I cracked them, it would take too long to entirely break them, at which point my double would be in control and he could simply replace it.
He was laughing at me, I could tell. Why would he give me small freedoms like an open window if he took such great enjoyment in punishing me? Was it because he wanted me constantly tipping over the brink of insanity?
No matter. I scanned the room and I realized he had made a mistake. A cheap ceramic plate lay on the floor, pizza sauce smeared into it. I broke the plate into three long pieces and began to saw at the padlock.
For ten long hours I sawed back and forth, slowly wearing down the cheap metal lock. I would glance back from time to time to see my double’s terrified face; why he had gone with bulletproof glass and settled for a cheap electronic padlock was beyond me, but maybe we both shared that same sense of pride. My pride had caused me to be exiled from my world, and now ironically it would allow me to come back.
Finally, the lock broke and I sprinted out of the cabin. I ran, my feet punctured by small rocks and body cut up from thorns. I ran until the sun was long since gone and I reached a road, and I ran down that road until a truck appeared on the edge of my vision.
I frantically waved my arms at the driver as he approached. I must have quite the sight; a crazed barefoot man wandering on the highway miles away from civilization in the dead of night. Still, to his credit he picked me up.
His name was Jeff, and he told me that the nearest town was about an hour away. I told him about my wish, about the double, about my family; it was so wonderful to talk to another human after all those years alone! He definitely thought I was missing a few screws and would probably turn me into the looney bin once we got into town, but I was okay with that. As long as I was as far away as possible from that mirror.
After a lull in the conversation, I turned my head outside the window to see the trees flashing by, lit up one by one before they were swallowed whole by the night. Almost out of instinct, I checked the rearview mirror to look for cars behind me.
My reflection was climbing from behind the backseat, his mouth locked in a snarl and his eyes radiating hatred. His hand shot out and grabbed me by the head, and I felt a surge of cold and warmth run over my body. I screamed and began to flail like a man possessed, and Jeff shouted at me as the truck swerved wildly in the night. I tried to resist with all my might but the double commanded my body to lean closer to the mirror and—
I was back inside the cabin. I screamed and pounded at the mirror. I was so close. Why, why, why? How could he have gotten me through the truck mirror? Does that mean I can’t look at any mirror for the rest of my life? How can I live like that when nearly everything we do involves some sort of screen?
After a while I calmed down, and then there was nothing to do but wait. I waited for a long time, wondering if the truck had crashed, if my double had been killed, and what would happen if my double was killed. A reflection can’t exist without a physical object, but what happens when a physical object is placed in a reflection?
I don’t think I’ll ever get to know the answer to that question, because my double did reappear a month later. He brought a newspaper article about the bizarre crash and death of a trucker in Tennessee.
“His death is on your hands.” The double said coldly. “After we crashed he was caught in the burning wreckage. He pleaded with to pull him out, but I just stood there and watched him die.”
He tapped his finger to a line on the paper. “Because of your insolence, Jeff’s children don’t have a father anymore.” He looked at me directly in my eyes. “Do you want your child to be without a mother?”
That broke me. Beyond the pain of falling through an endless expanse, beyond the horror of being in the dark alone, the idea of him killing Melissa brought an incomparable amount of pain to me.
From there, I became a shell of myself. I watched my double install reinforced steel doors with outside access to prevent me from breaking out again. After he was gone I sat and dreamed of my future with Melissa if I wasn’t trapped inside the mirror. I created, ended, and rebuilt entire worlds in my mind. It wasn’t ideal, but after a time I began to accept it. Occasionally my double would come back and pin clippings on the wall. Clippings about Jenny and her accomplishments, pictures of them on family trips, even an employee of the year certificate once.
I think these little ornaments were meant to torture me, and they certainly did for the first year or so. But gradually, I began to appreciate seeing my daughter grow up. I watched her laugh at her birthday parties, be the star hitter in softball, and play board games with Melissa and my double. It was touching to see her grow and mature. Gradually my anger, my jealousy, my bitterness began to evaporate. I was just happy my daughter and wife were happy.
Around that time, the pictures started to slow. Jenny and Melissa seemed less happy in the photos, and I thought I even saw a bruise behind Melissa’s eyebrow once. My double became more agitated, travelling to the cabin once every month to hurl insults and abuse at me. One night in a drunken rage he tore up all the clippings in the room.
“Who the hell do you think you are! You think you can influence me! Me! Well I’ll show you! This year is gonna be your goddamn last year on Earth, fucker! I’m gonna rig a bunch of grenades to blow up your goddamn innards once it hits five minutes past midnight on January 1st. You’ll have 5 goddamn minutes to evaluate your stupid goddamn life and realize just how much a piece of shit you are and how much everyone hates you, MOST OF ALL ME!”
That’s when it clicked. He was my reflection. I had lost my anger, my bitterness, my jealousy, but that only meant that he gained them. And I couldn’t do a thing to stop him.
Yesterday, my double stumbled into the basement, drunk again. He staggered back and forth, muttering to himself as he tried to jury rig the grenades to explode. I desperately thought of something, anything to do to stop him, but even in his drunken state he managed to finish the device. He opened the door and shuffled up to the mirror, his face a twisted grin and hateful eyes.
“I should have known I couldn’t be the new Liam until the old one was gone. Enjoy hell, fucker.”
He raised his middle finger at me and brushed against the glass in the process.
I felt a shiver run up my spine. It wasn’t quite midnight, but it was close. I could feel myself almost ready to take control of his body, but there was still a minute left; plenty of time to shut the door and activate the bomb’s timer.
I reached deep within myself. I focused on my calm, and I thought about his rage. I imagined two ends of a magnet flying together, connected through an invisible bond across space.
My hand twitched. The doubles hand twitched.
Quick as a flash, I used my arm in the physical world to grab the mirror. My double screamed and stumbled back, but I pressed the mirror to my body’s legs and they began to respond to my commands. He raised his fist to smash the mirror but I jerked it to the side and his fist hit concrete. As he howled I pressed the mirror up to his face and—
I was holding the grenades in one hand, and the mirror in the other. I carefully sat the grenades down and placed the mirror back on its ledge. I sighed when I realized the timer hadn’t gone off yet. When I looked in the mirror I saw the double screaming obscenities at me.
I was sure to flip him off as I closed the door behind me.
And now we’re caught up. Like I said, it’s impractical to say I won’t ever look at a mirror again. Unless I cut out my own eyes I’ll run into one eventually, and besides I’m not even sure not seeing would solve the problem.
No, I’m afraid I have to do something more drastic. My double was trying to break the mirror earlier, but I sense that he did that just so I wouldn’t have control. I think if he breaks it we’ll both die; why else would he bother with the grenades if he could have just smashed the mirror anytime? Still, I’d rather smash the mirror then let that monster roam free.
But there may be another way. This whole thing started with a New Year’s Resolution made right at midnight. Maybe I can fix it with another. I just need to figure out what it should be. One more hour left until midnight. One more hour to decide.
Any suggestions?
2023.12.31 21:13 ImSlimShaney Was the gang as you imagined?
I stumbled across Neebs Gaming back in 2014/15 through their GTA Mods videos. Never having seen them before, I didn't have faces to put to the voices. Judging by Neebs redneck ass voice I just imagined a short flannel wearing country boy with frayed hair and a trucker cap,, Simon I imagined as a mid 30s regular person, Appsro was almost as I imagined, I saw Thick as some jacked body builder type, idk why and I legit thought Doraleous was black. Then I saw what the boys look like and I was far off. What was your interpretation of looks by their voices before you saw them?
submitted by ImSlimShaney to NeebsGaming [link] [comments]
2023.12.25 02:25 AxstromVinoven Jumper Axstrom - #18 - Clustertruck Gauntlet
Axstrom's Notes
- The list is here, but I use a modified copy with numbers assigned for each gauntlet: jump list
- The draw (2-74) is
- is 58, 37, 8
- 58 is SOMA Gauntlet, 37 is Mad Max Gauntlet, 8 is Clustertruck Gauntlet
- Jumper chooses Clustertruck
- Jump Doc
- Reddit discussion
Build Notes
- Drawbacks - going high here to afford the big ticket ability
- Midnight Highway and Dashboard Meltdown - extra worlds (DLC) - adds time but not really difficulty
- The Longest Road - extra worlds, one for each of my 17 prior jumps - see above
- Shut Up & Drive - go faster - This will increase the chaos but may make some long jumps easier as I'll be surfing a truck with higher momentum when it goes over
- Burma Shave - signs that taunt and act as obstacles - minor difficulty increase
- Jerky Jalopy - Trucks behave eratically - significant difficulty increase, but nothing insane
- Abilities and Perks
- Truckin USA - freebie music
- Leg to stand on - temporary freebie immunity to falling damage
- Double Jump - Should be incredibly useful in this jump, and combine to give me triple jump outside of gauntlets
- Shiny Side Up - more luck, always worth a pick up
- SUPER TRUCK SUPER TRUCK - the big one: time dilation to give me the ability to better time my movements and observe my surroundings, and remains potent (but not always-on) in future jumps
- Items
- Trucker Hat - freebie
- Grappling Hook - This is useful in game, and is one of the few motion abilities that doesn't have a cooldown listed
Jump Notes
- I jump in on the top of a truck, of course
- The first level is easy, even "false sense of security" easy, and I almost get it first try
- But I jump to the ground at the last moment, figuring that I'll never have a better opportunity to get acquainted with the physical elements of this jump, and my abilities within it
- Even without my bodymod enhancements, I would be stronger and more agile in this world, literally able to leap over a car from standing, and able to control my motion while airborne
- With my enhanced strength and reaction time, I can get significantly higher and farther
- The time dilation ability takes some getting used to - understanding what kinds of movement turn it off, and just how much I can move my head to look around without losing it
- Double jump is already familiar, and the grappling hook is surprisingly intuitive
- All told, I must have started this level at least 20 times for practice and training purposes alone
- The first level is easy, even "false sense of security" easy, and I almost get it first try
- The rest of the first world is also fairly simple
- The detailed walkthrough my team put together doesn't quite apply - these courses are longer than those in the game, and specific instructions like "jump to the leftmost truck immediately" don't result in the same outcomes
- They are useful as a guide to what kind of hazards to expect in a given level, though
- I finish out the first world in what must be a few hours, but it seems subjectively longer than that given the time dilation
- As a pleasant surprise, after completing the last level of the Desert world, I'm sent to what appears to be a hotel room, with the bedside clock showing a countdown instead of the current time
- This is a real step up from the spartan, featureless room I had between PUBG matches
- I wonder if that's because of the jump, a kindness from my Benefactor, or related to me - maybe a result of my warehouse purchases?
- Either way, I have about 18 hours until the countdown expires, and I assume I'm sent to the next world
- There's not too much to do in the room, but I can review my performance, and there is a loft area with a ceiling high enough for me to practice my jumping a bit, so I practice one-legged jumping which I ended up having to do quite a bit while running
- Forest world and Glacier world pass similarly - I have a share of resets, but ultimately I am able to get through them without much difficulty
- Each world gives me an evening of rest afterward
- Lazer world is where it starts to pick up in difficulty, since the lasers are continuous and not projectiles, I can't just dodge to the right or left of them
- Medieval, Ancients, Science Fiction, and Steampunk are similarly challenging, with different sorts of hazards, but all roughly predictable and in line with the levels from the game
- Midnight Highway and Dashboard Meltdown are also pretty much as expected, but with a bit more polish and challenge to the routes
- I was not prepared for 17 additional worlds
- Generic First Jump world was a bit confusing - with a different gimmick every level
- Ape Escape 3 world was kind of silly and actually surprisingly easy
- Some of the others as well - Twin-Tails world was kind of fun, and Eight Legged Freaks world was silly and kind of scary but not really that hard
- But Castle Crashing the Beard world was awful
- There isn't really 10 levels worth of variations to derive from the source material, so they just ramped up the difficulty, with more flying heads and falling bread, longer beards, and more lasers than laser world
- I was really sick of jumping trucks by the time I got to Hell world
- But Hell world itself was actually not that bad
- Compared to the challenges and gimmicks of my seventeen custom worlds, it was just a matter of luck, and applying my grappling hook wisely
- And as for Truck Satan - he was a bit overrated
- I thought it was going to be awful after the first time I jumped on his head and then was sent airborne and back to a truck
- But it turns out I just needed to hit the button 3 times total, not even in the same attempt
- So I finished the final battle of this world quicker than expected, and was quite surprised to find myself once again in my entrance hall
- According Warehouse Central Control, I was gone a total of 30 days
- But it sure felt a lot longer than that, and for once I was happy to see the filthy cave maze I sometimes call home
Notes on the Jump Doc
- Very nice layout and formatting - the document looks cool but is still easy to read, and the headings and margin words help navigating it
- Descriptions are generally concise, and there is a good notes / Q&A section at the end
- Mostly cool purchaseables, but I'm not really sure what the point of some of them are
- Or how they would apply in other jumps
- The second reward is actually pretty impressive - better than expected
- A lot of the drawbacks seemed a bit too strong for the points they give, but that seems pretty common for gauntlets
- Threat level is Street I guess, and jumper power level is street as well
- Definitely something I'd only recommend to a jumper who has some good physical upgrades in their body mod
18 - Clustertruck Gauntlet Build
Point Summary
Point Total: 1800 CP 1000 (Base) + 800 (Jump Drawbacks)Jump Details
Document name: 18 - Clustertruck GauntletVersion: 1.0
Author: The One-Armed Anon
Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eKmOOeeqVq5fnHIrBHPu-7tezqpvofgU/view
Jump Duration
Years: 0 Months: 1 Days: 0Perks
Double Jump [100/900 CP]Pretty much what the name is on the tin. After the apex of your jump, you can jump again. Only works the one time though, least until you land. Should be enough to get at least a bull dog’s length to another truck-top.
SUPER TRUCK SUPER TRUCK [500/400 CP]
For the duration of this jump, all of the trucks turn red and the world becomes a stark white. From this point onward, the trucks and world around you only move at their natural speed when YOU move. When you stand still, it all inches along - as if being looked at through a slow-motion camera. Post-jump, you can set this ability to work on the world around you for 48 hours of runtime each week. Any hours used are refreshed after a week - no stockpiling.
Truckin' USA (Free)
You didn’t think the only thing you’d be able to listen to would be the roaring wind and the ungodly racket of truck horns? Now you have a radio station accompanying you, one that can be heard by anyone anywhere - that exclusively plays rock and roll music from the 70’s and 80’s.
Leg To Stand On (Free)
Have a boon on the pickle park - because let me tell you. You’re gonna need it. With the amount of ridiculous jumping and nearskydiving you’re gonna need to do to navigate these courses, normal people would be pasted from the fall alone. But fall damage is not your concern any longer - least, not while you’re Clustertrucking. You could fall thousands of feet at terminal velocity, and hit the ground just fine - assuming something didn’t land on you immediately afterwards.
Shiny Side Up [100/300 CP]
I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, driver. You need balance, athleticism, and most of all - a whole heaping lot of luck to make it through this. That’s where this comes in, a small purchase and I can get Lady Luck to give you a kiss - You’ll need it. Now you’ll find yourself just a smidge more lucky on your route to the home twenty, and even after the fact.
Items
Trucker Hat (Free)It’s a trucker hat. Has a little logo of your choice on the front and the brim’s perfect for keeping the sun out of your eyes.
Grappling Hook [100/200 CP]
A... grappling hook. What are you saying that’s not enough? Fiiiine. This grappling hook is always at your beltline, with an automatic reeling system - both for if you fail to latch it on to something, and for if you do, for the reel is backed by weird unexplainable bullshit that will ensure YOU are always pulled to where IT connected. This way, even you bastards that weigh several hundred tons and need to go on a diet can even use the hook.
Drawbacks
Midnight Highway [50/250 CP]You have one more world to traverse through before going to Hell and facing TruckSatan - and that’s Halloween Town. Expect a never-ending storm of explosive pumpkins, swinging bones, bats flying on an errant nosedive towards your truck, and pitch-blackness lit only by torches, jack-o-lanterns, and eerie will-o-the-wisps.
Dashboard Melting [50/300 CP]
Hope you enjoy The Glacier world, because you’ve got another one to run through before reaching Hell. Enjoy more icy roads and slick falls, but with a cheery holiday twist as you’ve entered CHRISTMAS Town. Massive Christmas tree obstacles, strings of lights throwing trucks into a wintery abyss, reindeer-induced pileups and explosions, and a fat red bastard flying around in a sleigh throwing cheery explosives at you while ho-ho-hoing.
Shut Up & Drive [100/400 CP]
Every truck driver has hit the pedal to the floor and the truck roars in response. You’ll find the speed of traffic has increased dramatically - now instead of going highway speeds of about 75 miles per hour (121 kmh for the rest of ya’ll), everybody has hit the gas and now it’s time for almost twice that number. 120 MPH (or 193 KPH) is now the speed you must contest with, as the trucks now continue to fly in a mad dash towards oblivion.
Burma Shave [100/500 CP]
Get used to attempted discouragement. Along with the regular obstacles you will face, you’ll now have road signs popping up everywhere with rude, mocking, and demotivational statements (many of them regarding your ability and skill). As if this weren’t bad enough, more than half of these signs are going to be placed such that they become obstacles in-and-of themselves.
The Longest Road [300/800 CP]
Nine worlds to traverse? Think again. There are now many, many more lands you must travel on the backs of these trucks in order to reach the end. How many? Well... let’s take a look back at how many other worlds you’ve been to prior to taking this challenge. Each land will have obstacles and troubles thematic to where you came from - and hating on you, of course.
Jerky Jalopy [200/1000 CP]
You’re about to start yelling for the maniacs in the cab to go back to driving school, because the already erratic driving skills of the faceless truck drivers? Are about to get a whole lot worse. Brakes will be slammed for no reason, they swerve worse than drunkards, and there will be accidents and pile-ups every few minutes.
Rewards
The ClustertruckThe endless convoy, the herd of trucks you used to traverse these lands. To defeat TruckSatan. To reach these Gates of Valhalla. The herd now sees you as it’s master, and once a day you may summon this horde of radio-blasting, horn-honking trucks to charge forth into the fray. Or into rush hour traffic. Wherever and whenever you prefer.
The Grand Highway
Behold! The road which leads to all levels of existence, the road which parts through Valhalla. I grant you access to this road now - a long interstate high- way on which rides all warriors who seek the open road. Once a day you may call down one of the Grand Highway’s many on-ramps, and use it to travel to any other planes of existence within the specific universe you find yourself (unless otherwise noted). Yes, you can walk or drive on the Grand Highway - but the most preferred method is, of course, Clustertrucking.
Post-Chain, whether you succeed or fail at attaining your Spark, you may use the Grand Highway to reach all universes and planes of existence you have been to before.