Sams nip slip
Hentai SFW
2020.11.07 11:07 Boddup Hentai SFW
Although its called Hentai SFW you might encounter some NSFW that is allowed just no hardcore scenes, all else goes images or scenes depicting hentai.
2011.07.29 15:27 Discussions, Reviews and Upcoming News on Scary Cinema
Welcome to /horrorfilms - a place where all horror movies from the Silent Era, Golden Era, New Hollywood Era and Modern Era can be discussed.
2018.05.08 12:55 smoopys CelebsComplete
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2024.05.21 21:46 Responsible-Poem-516 Terminal ferret - am I euthanized too soon? (TW - Pet death)
I have a 7.5 year old baby with adrenal disease and two liver masses, one which is pressing on a lobe. Inoperable, and terminal.
He has good days and bad days. On the good days, he's almost normal. You wouldn't be able to tell that he is dying from liver cancer, except that he is only awake for 1-2 hrs out of the day instead of the typical 4-6. When he's up, he runs around for a max of 10 minutes, uses the bathroom, then goes to sleep.
But when he is having a bad day, he doesn't eat. He no longer drinks, either, I mix wet food with electrolytes and water and give it to him all together. On bad days I need to force feed him. On bad days he vomits. On bad days he loses control of his bowels and bladder, to the point where the puppy pads covering the floor of his 6' by 8' enclosure is nearly saturated with his feces and urine within six hours. And yes, it's a lot of output.
He also seems panicked on bad days. Cage raging every moment he is awake and not out of his enclosure. He never used to do this. (He gets 6 hrs of outside time a day.) He seems to want to be around me a lot more. I'm guessing he is in pain. But he still wants to run around and explore - he just won't play. NO war dancing. Not for a few weeks now.
He was diagnosed seven months ago. I was happy to have that extra time with him. But now - I really hate to say it - I want to nip things in the bud BEFORE it gets bad. His ALC liver values are so high the machine can't read it - multiple vets have run into this problem with him. When he first crashed, he was all yellow and his bilirubin was over 1,000 units.
We don't want him to know what it's like to have a seizure. We don't want him to lose the use of his back legs. We don't want him to crash again. We've been supplementing with Milk Thistle and prednisone, but that can only buy us time for so long. And it's been a long time.
But today, he's been having a good day. It's so hard when they flip back and forth like that.
We made the appt for next wednesday. My fear is that the Lap of Love vet will turn us down for euthanasia, and that he will have to have an emergency or a crash before they will do it. We don't want that. What we want is to see him slip away at home while he is comfy, after having a wonderful party where he gets to eat all the things he wasn't allowed to eat before and explore all the places he wasn't allowed to explore and chew on all the rubber things. We want him to feel safe, cozy, and loved instead of having to feel sick and scared and on the way to the emergency vet in the car, which he HATES.
We don't want him to know what it's like to have a seizure, or to know what it's like to lose function of his back legs, or to ever have to crash and be jaundiced again.
Tell me ... am I doing this too soon? Do you think the vet will turn us down?
submitted by Responsible-Poem-516 to ferrets [link] [comments]
He has good days and bad days. On the good days, he's almost normal. You wouldn't be able to tell that he is dying from liver cancer, except that he is only awake for 1-2 hrs out of the day instead of the typical 4-6. When he's up, he runs around for a max of 10 minutes, uses the bathroom, then goes to sleep.
But when he is having a bad day, he doesn't eat. He no longer drinks, either, I mix wet food with electrolytes and water and give it to him all together. On bad days I need to force feed him. On bad days he vomits. On bad days he loses control of his bowels and bladder, to the point where the puppy pads covering the floor of his 6' by 8' enclosure is nearly saturated with his feces and urine within six hours. And yes, it's a lot of output.
He also seems panicked on bad days. Cage raging every moment he is awake and not out of his enclosure. He never used to do this. (He gets 6 hrs of outside time a day.) He seems to want to be around me a lot more. I'm guessing he is in pain. But he still wants to run around and explore - he just won't play. NO war dancing. Not for a few weeks now.
He was diagnosed seven months ago. I was happy to have that extra time with him. But now - I really hate to say it - I want to nip things in the bud BEFORE it gets bad. His ALC liver values are so high the machine can't read it - multiple vets have run into this problem with him. When he first crashed, he was all yellow and his bilirubin was over 1,000 units.
We don't want him to know what it's like to have a seizure. We don't want him to lose the use of his back legs. We don't want him to crash again. We've been supplementing with Milk Thistle and prednisone, but that can only buy us time for so long. And it's been a long time.
But today, he's been having a good day. It's so hard when they flip back and forth like that.
We made the appt for next wednesday. My fear is that the Lap of Love vet will turn us down for euthanasia, and that he will have to have an emergency or a crash before they will do it. We don't want that. What we want is to see him slip away at home while he is comfy, after having a wonderful party where he gets to eat all the things he wasn't allowed to eat before and explore all the places he wasn't allowed to explore and chew on all the rubber things. We want him to feel safe, cozy, and loved instead of having to feel sick and scared and on the way to the emergency vet in the car, which he HATES.
We don't want him to know what it's like to have a seizure, or to know what it's like to lose function of his back legs, or to ever have to crash and be jaundiced again.
Tell me ... am I doing this too soon? Do you think the vet will turn us down?
2024.05.21 21:06 CampingWorld What Are The Best RV Trips for Beginners?
There’s a lot to learn when you’re new to RVing. After purchasing your RV and equipping it with the right gear, the last thing you want is to feel overwhelmed trying to select where to camp. So we asked the question: what are the best RV trips for beginners?
Of course, we have our own opinions, but we wanted to see what the RV community felt. We asked experienced RVers which destinations or campgrounds they would recommend for beginners. With over 150 replies, here are the top five answers:
Because we don’t know where home is for you, we organized this list of the best RV trips for beginners and organized them by region.
Park Features:
Park Features:
Park Features:
Park Features:
Park Features:
Park Features:
Want to add your advice to our poll? Click below to join the conversation!
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=776034604566862&id=100064809877965&mibextid=WC7FNe
Which destinations would you recommend for first-time RVers? Share your tips in the comments below.
submitted by CampingWorld to campingworld [link] [comments]
Of course, we have our own opinions, but we wanted to see what the RV community felt. We asked experienced RVers which destinations or campgrounds they would recommend for beginners. With over 150 replies, here are the top five answers:
- Somewhere close to home
- State parks
- Good Sam Campgrounds
- Your backyard
- National parks
Why Stay Close to Home on Your First RV Trip as a Beginner?
The overwhelming majority of experienced RVers recommended sticking to somewhere close to home as a beginner. Their reasons were practical:- You know where to go (home or familiar stores) if you forget supplies.
- You’re not far from your community if you need help.
- If something breaks down, towing your RV back to your house won't take long or cost too much.
- You do less driving and more time getting familiar with your RV.
- You won’t hurt your wallet on gas expenses if you overpack (which most first-timers do!)
Which Locations Make For The Best RV Trips for Beginners?
We collected specific recommendations for those who want to venture out while staying close to home. These came directly from experienced RVers nationwide who were willing to share their favorite destinations for RV newbies.Because we don’t know where home is for you, we organized this list of the best RV trips for beginners and organized them by region.
The Best RV Trips for Beginners in the Northeast
Bayley’s Camping Resort – Scarborough, Maine
Park Features:- 512 full hookup sites
- 75’ pull-thru sites
- 44’ back-in sites
- Weekly entertainment schedule
- Recreation facilities
- Pools, restaurants, camp stores, and an arcade
Kennebec River Campground – The Forks, Maine
Park Features:- Six secluded RV sites with electric hookups
- Full restaurant and brewery with deck seating
- Swimming pool and hot tub
- Bathhouse with hot, running water
- Easy access to the Kennebec River
- Base camp for whitewater rafting, snowmobiling, and other Maine adventures
Gettysburg Battlefield RV Resort – Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Park Features:- 250 RV sites
- 60’ maximum RV length
- Battlefield reenactment grounds, Olympic swimming pool, and stocked fishing pond
- Game room, general store, and ice cream parlor
- Canoe, kayak, and paddle boat rentals
- Themed activities, nature trail, and laundry facilities
Quechee / Pine Valley – Hartford, Vermont
Park Features:- Full hookup RV sites (30 and 50 amp service)
- 85’ maximum RV length
- Off-leash dog park and activity field
- Bike, canoe, and banana bike rentals
- Heating swimming pool (open 5/27 to 9/5)
- Saturday hay rides, playground adventures, and family fishing at the pond
Cherrystone Campground – Cape Charles, Virginia
Park Features:- Open seasonally from 4/1 to 10/31
- 181 full hookup 30 amp sites (87 wateelectric only 30 amp sites)
- 121 full hookup 50 amp sites
- Private beach, beach entry pool, and two Olympic-sized pools
- Lazy river, mini golf course, and four fishing piers
- Daily shuttle service into Downtown Cape Charles
Holiday Trav-L-Park – Virginia Beach, Virginia
Why They Recommended: “The place is pretty big (but tight, please know HOW to drive). It has seven pools, a bar, a restaurant, laundry, concerts, and a little trolley that will take you to the beach for even more entertainment.”Park Features:
- 700 RV sites (full hookup and wateelectric only)
- Wooded, partly shaded, or open site locations
- Maximum RV length varies by site type
- On-site laundromat, Safari Cafe, and eight tiled comfort stations
- Trolley from the cafe to the beach and beyond
- Dog park, bike path, and convenience store
Virginia Beach Holiday – Virginia Beach, Virginia
Why They Recommended: “They just put in a lazy river and a brand new pool. It’s state-of-the-art!”Park Features:
- Full hookup sites with 50, 30, and 20 amp compatibility
- 45’ maximum RV length
- Two heated pools, a lazy river, and a splash pad
- Trolley stop for exploring the nearby Virginia Beach waterfront
- Community bonfire, dog park, and electric vehicle charging station
- Bicycle, golf cart, and pedal cart rentals
New River Gorge Campground – Lansing, West Virginia
Park Features:- Full hookup RV sites (30 and 50 amp)
- Views of ponds, sunsets, and nightly firefly displays (seasonally)
- Catch-and-release fishing
- Hiking and biking trails, swimming, and kayaking nearby
- Nearby rock climbing, rafting, and horseback riding
The Best RV Trips for Beginners in the Southeast
Wind Creek State Park – Alexander City, Alabama
Park Features:- 586 campsites with wateelectric hookups
- 157 waterfront campsites and 268 full hookup sites with sewer
- Two laundry facilities at the marina and a bathhouse
- Archery range, fishing, and mini golf course
- Boat rentals, horseback rides, and zipline canopy tours
- Sunday services, swimming area, and outdoor pavilions
Everglades Isle – Everglades City, Florida
Park Features:- 59 full hookup RV sites (30 and 50 amp)
- Concrete pads (waterfront and inland) with daily trash service
- Clubhouse laundry facilities and complimentary Wi-Fi
- Luxury clubhouse with drinks, food, billiards, movies, and more
- Fitness center, office space, and veranda seating
- Lounge area, salon, and spa
Orlando / Kissimmee – Kissimmee, Florida
Why They Recommended: “Orlando has the best prices all year round! It’s in close proximity to Universal Studios, Disney, Disney Springs, lots of attractions, several grocery stores, and restaurants. Target even ships deliveries there.”Park Features:
- Full hookup RV sites with 134’ maximum RV length (30 and 50 amp)
- Bike rentals, mini pocket park, and access to the public bus service
- Dog park, outdoor pavilion, and fitness center
- Heated swimming pool, hot tub, and sauna (open year-round)
- Electric vehicle charging station and taxi service
- Jump pad and playground for the kids
Fisheating Creek Outpost – Palmdale, Florida
Why They Recommended: “The lots have much more space than most parks. You are not three feet from your neighbor.”Park Features:
- 18,000+ acre wildlife management area
- 48 full hookup RV sites (5 of which are ADA-accessible)
- The swimming area at Depot Lake
- Large pond with two islands near the Camp Store
- Canoe rentals and Riverside Cafe (open seasonally)
- Large screened recreation area with central bathhouse
Big Lagoon State Park – Pensacola, Florida
Park Features:- ~75 campsites (some RV or tent, some tent-only, some RV-only)
- 40’ maximum RV length
- Swimming, boating, fishing, and paddling
- Biking, stargazing, and geocaching
- Access to the Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail
- Boat launch, playground, and amphitheater
Jetty Park Campground – Port Canaveral, Florida
Park Features:- 358 total sites (variety of water-only and wateelectric hookups)
- Bathhouses and communal fire pits.
- Views of rocket launches from Canaveral Air Force Station
- Shuffleboard courts and horseshoe pits
- Daily arrivals and departures of cruise ships and submarines
- Camp store and nearby fishing pier
Smith Ridge Campground – Campbellsville, Kentucky
Park Features:- 80 campsites (62 with water and electric hookups)
- Flush toilets, showers, fire rings, and potable water
- Kid’s playground and easy access to miles of hiking trails
- Frisbee golf course, boat ramp, and swimming beach
- Fishing pier, marina, and picnic areas
Mountain Stream RV Park – Marion, North Carolina
Park Features:- 44 full hookup sites (30 and 50 amp)
- 45’ maximum RV length
- Access to Buck Creek along two edges of the campground
- Five miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway
- Dog park, kid’s playground, and outdoor pavilion
- Camp store and bathhouse with showers and toilets
North Myrtle Beach RV Resort – Little River, South Carolina
Park Features:- Oversized full hookup sites and a fully-stocked camp store
- Views of the nearby Intracoastal Waterway
- Swimming pool with a slide and splash pad for the kids
- 60-slip boat dock with observation deck
- Live music every weekend during the summer
- Food and drinks on the water at the Tiki Bar and Grill
Myrtle Beach State Park – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Park Features:- 140 standard water and electric campsites
- 138 full hookup sites
- All sites are located about 300 yards from the beach
- 30-40’ maximum RV length
- Beach access for pets and bikes is restricted to certain time periods (see site for more info)
- Nearby access to birding, fishing, swimming, hiking, biking, horseback riding, and more
PirateLand Family Camping Resort – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Park Features:- 748 full hookup sites
- Access to free Wi-Fi and daily trash pickup at each site
- Gated entrance with 24/7 patrol crew
- Eight climate-controlled bathhouses with toilets and showers
- Fully stocked camp store, outdoor chapel, and laundry facility
- On-site water park with Olympic swimming pool, lazy river, and more
Ocean Lakes Family Campground – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Park Features:- 859 full hookup sites with free Wi-Fi
- 649 concrete pad sites with 45’ maximum RV length
- 19 total beach accesses
- Three-acre family fun center with game center, mini golf, swimming pool, and more
- Volleyball, shuffleboard, and basketball courts
- Nearby Ocean Lakes Nature Center Discover Lab with more than 10,000 shells and fossils
Anchor Down RV Resort – Dandridge, Tennessee
Park Features:- 170 concrete full hookup sites
- All sites at least 50’ long by 18’ wide (sites differ by type and location)
- Basketball, gaga ball, pickleball, and volleyball courts
- Boat, jet ski, and golf cart rentals
- Leash-free pet park, beach area, and campground cafe
- Saltwater kiddie pool and large pool with waterslide (open Memorial Day to Labor Day)
Cherokee Dam Campground – Jefferson City, Tennessee
Park Features:- 44 total sites (39 with water and electric)
- Views of the lake and mountains from nearly every site
- Sites require a two-night minimum stay
- The use of a water pressure regulator is highly recommended
- Nearby access to swimming and birdwatching
- Large public boat ramp nearby
Melton Hill Dam Campground – Lenoir City, Tennessee
Park Features:- 61 total sites (35 with water and electric)
- Sites require a two-night minimum stay
- Two bathhouses with showers and flush toilets
- Designated swimming area
- Canoe and boat ramp access
- Free dump station access
Camp Margaritaville RV Resort and Lodge – Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Park Features:- Full hookup concrete campsites
- Complimentary Wi-Fi and cable TV
- Nearby Fin City Entertainment Center with arcade, bowling, billiards, and more
- Nearby pool recreation area with water slides, lazy river, and kid zone
- Pet park, camp store, and kid’s playground
- Live entertainment, breakfast buffet, and barestaurant
Little Arrow Outdoor Resort – Townsend, Tennessee
Park Features:- Luxury and standard full hookup RV sites
- Luxury sites with outdoor sink and cabana
- Standard sites with paved patios and fire rings
- 24/7 coffee lounge with playroom and movie/book exchange
- Zero-entry pool with grottos, hot tub, and splash pad
- 1-2 miles of quiet, peaceful hiking trails
The Best RV Trips for Beginners in the Midwest
Sycamore Springs Park – English, Indiana
Park Features:- 30 and 50-amp sites with a 55’ minimum site length
- Full hookup, wateelectric, and primitive camping available
- Free firewood and fire pits on all sites
- Modern restrooms and shower houses
- Family-friendly camping with no alcohol allowed on the grounds
- Fishing, hiking and picnicking available
Lake Rudolph Campground and RV Resort – Santa Claus, Indiana
Park Features:- Open season 5/1 to 10/31
- 146 full hookup 50-amp sites
- 110 full hookup 30-amp sites
- Gem mining, golf cart rentals, and take-out dining
- Swimming pool, dog park, and water park
- Free shuttle service to the theme park and water park
Grand Haven State Park – Grand Haven, Michigan
Park Features:- 48-acre park with Lake Michigan to the west and the Grand River to the north
- 174 paved campsites
- Steps away from the beach and the river
- Scenic views of the Grand Haven pier and two lighthouses
- Boardwalk along the Grand River for fishing or walking
- Accessible playground, picnic area, and modern restrooms
Otsego Lake State Park – Gaylord, Michigan
Park Features:- 155 campsites (split between the North and South campgrounds)
- Half-mile sandy beach with designated swim area
- Kayak, paddleboard, and canoe rentals for day-use
- Nearby access to the Iron Belle Trail for hiking, biking, and snowmobiling
- Fishing pier and boat launch
- Designated beach area for metal detecting
Itasca State Park – Park Rapids, Minnesota
Park Features:- 223 drive-in campsites in two campgrounds (160 electric-only)
- 60’ maximum RV length
- Seasonal dump station available in the Bear Paw Campground
- Interpretive exhibits and year-round naturalist programs
- Two-hour excursion boat tours of Lake Itasca
- Nearby restaurant and cafe (open seasonally)
Silver Dollar City Campground – Branson, Missouri
Park Features:- Full hookup sites (30 and 50 amp)
- Picnic table and fire ring at each site
- Kid’s playground and swimming pool (open 5/28-9/5)
- Nearby theme park, water park, and dinner cruises
- Clubhouse with supplies and an air-conditioned lounge with Wi-Fi
- Complimentary shuttle service into Silver Dollar City
Lake Mcconaughy State Recreation Area – Brule, Nebraska
Park Features:- Seven developed campgrounds
- Reservable and first-come, first-served campsites
- Reservable beach camping in 17 designated zones
- Reservations required 5/20 to 9/10
- Archery range, swimming, and playground
- Boating, fishing, and hunting
Mt. Gilead Holiday – Mt. Gilead, Ohio
Park Features:- 150 acres of walking trails
- Dog park, playground, and fishing ponds
- Golf driving range
- Zero-entry swimming pool (open 5/26-9/4)
- Golf course rentals, sand volleyball, and ‘The Bonfire Bar’
The Best RV Trips for Beginners in the South
The Woodlands RV Resort – Heber Springs, Arkansas
Park Features:- 71 full hookup sites
- Five minutes from beaches, boat ramps, restaurants, and a golf course
- Easy access to hiking and biking trails
- Swimming pool, playground, and fishing pond
- Bathhouse, laundry room, and dog run coming soon
Sarah’s Seaside RV Oasis – Grand Isle, Louisiana
Why They Recommended: It’s the most laid back!Park Features:
- Full hookup sites (30 and 50 amp)
- Family and pet-friendly
- Walking distance from restaurants, shopping, and bars
- Renowned for nearby world-class fishing and birdwatching
- Seasonal events like holiday decorating contests, seafood boils, movie nights, and more
The Best RV Trips for Beginners in the Southwest
Mather Campground – Grand Canyon Village, Arizona
Park Features:- 327 primitive campsites with fire rings, a cooking grate, and a picnic table
- Flush toilets and drinking water spigots throughout
- Free dump station at Camper Services nearby
- Generators not permitted in Pine Loop (sites 265-319)
- Easy access to a paved walking and biking trail leading to overlooks and the visitor center
Tucson Lazydays – Tucson, Arizona
Park Features:- 360 full hookup sites
- 73’ maximum RV length
- Pet-friendly sites, dog park, and dog wash available
- Two swimming pools, a hot tub, and a sauna (open year-round)
- Mini golf, bike rentals, workout room, and more
Caballo Lake State Park – Caballo, New Mexico
Park Features:- Seven full hookup sites
- 98 water and electric (30 amp) sites
- 10 water and electric (50 amp) sites
- Three boat docks and two boat ramps
- Playgrounds and visitor centers with interactive exhibits for the kids
- Fishing, swimming, hiking, horseback riding, and more
The Best RV Trips for Beginners in the Northwest
Coloma Resort – Coloma, California
Park Features:- 43 full hookup sites
- 45’ maximum RV length
- Sewer hookups are available at off-river sites only
- Calendar of naturalist-led activities available (summer months only)
- Exclusive riverfront access with nearby kayaking, tubing, and rafting
- Swimming pool and children’s playgrounds
- Wireless internet throughout the campground
- Max Height: 13' 6
- Max Weight for 2 Axle vehicles: 12 Tons (24,000 pounds)
- Max Weight for 3 Axle vehicles: 19 Tons (38,000 pounds)
Arrowhead RV Park – Cascade, Idaho
Park Features:- 116 full hookup sites
- Easy access to the Payette River for fishing or paddling
- Shuffleboard and horseshoe pit for family entertainment
- Communal firepit on the edge of the river
- Recreation room with books, board games, and movies
St. Mary / East Glacier – St. Mary, Montana
Why They Recommended: “Beautiful views right from the park!”Park Features:
- 75’ maximum RV length
- 30 and 50-amp sites
- Large hot tub, pool, and sauna (seasonally)
- Kayak rentals and easy access to the Lower St. Mary Lake & River
- Dog kennels and dog walking service (for when you want to explore nearby Glacier National Park)
Cape Blanco State Park – Port Orford, Oregon
Park Features:- 52 electric hookup sites with water
- Easy access to wildlife viewing, fishing, and horse trails
- Beach access and hiking trails
- Flush toilets and hot showers
- Lighthouse and Hughes House for historical tours
Seven Feathers RV Resort – Canyonville, Oregon
Park Features:- 182 full hookup sites
- 60’ maximum pull-thru size
- 55’ maximum back-in size
- Hotel and casino across the street
- Indoor heated pool and hot tub
- Fitness and media centers
Want to add your advice to our poll? Click below to join the conversation!
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=776034604566862&id=100064809877965&mibextid=WC7FNe
Which destinations would you recommend for first-time RVers? Share your tips in the comments below.
2024.05.21 20:56 javergb Yas slip nip
 | submitted by javergb to u/javergb [link] [comments] |
2024.05.21 16:55 CDown01 Eagles Peak Pt.7
Previous Part
“I knew it, I knew he’d pull something like that!”
Was the only thought running through my head as I watched Keith get forced into the truck outside. I was scared for Keith and I was angry, that kind of anger you feel in the pit of your stomach. Not at Keith though, my fury was directed at myself for freezing again. I just sat in the window and watched him get taken. Headache or not I should’ve done something, anything! Instead I just sat there and watched, powerless as always. My first instinct was to go running back home, maybe Frank and Stein could help somehow. Imagine my surprise when I walked in the door and they were looking for me. Well maybe I wasn’t to surprised, I hadn’t told them I didn’t plan on coming back home when I left yesterday.
“Bianca! We were just going to come looking for you, Keith had this idea and… are you alright?”
Frank asked, concern covering his face like a shadow. I must’ve looked like a mess, and the hot wet feeling on my face told me I’d started crying at some point on my way over as well.
“Are you ok? Did something happen?”
Frank repeated in his best fatherly voice. I could barley stammer out the words.
“Keith… gone… they took him.”
My babbling was enough though, realization shown on both their faces. Stein said something to Frank that I couldn’t hear then they nodded to each other.
“He was almost spot on with the timing. Well we best start getting around to do our part then.”
Stein said in his usual uncaring and mildly haughty manner. I don’t know why but it really boiled my blood this time. Keith was gone and he’s just moving on with things?
“Does no-one care about what just happened?! We agreed to look out for him and what did we do? Nothing!”
I screamed at no-one in particular. Those two just gave me a look like I was a misbehaving child.
“We’ve done what we could Bianca, besides Keith is the one who suggested what we’re about to do next.”
Frank stated, in an even and calm tone that made me stop and realize how ridiculous I was acting. Freaking out wouldn’t get us anywhere, even though I really wanted to. So I took a deep breath and stepped back for a second to collect myself.I hated to admit it but in a way their cold, calculating, order of operations approach would probably help here. Those two would never crack under pressure like me. While they didn’t talk about it, I’m sure they’d seen far worse working with the government.
Stein was rushing around looking for car keys when I came back into the kitchen. Frank however, stopped what he was doing to come over to me. I held up my hand to stop him when he opened his mouth to say something.
“No, you don’t have to try and convince me, I’ll come with you. What was Keith’s plan anyways? What did he put you guys up to?”
I asked, much calmer than before but still a little on edge. I couldn’t help but to feel at least a little responsible for what happened to Keith. I know it wasn’t my fault but I came with him for a reason. As much fun as last night had been I wasn’t taking it seriously. I should’ve stayed up to watch for Shaoni, maybe looked around for something she left when she was there before. Regardless, I had to be better next time.
“Keith thought that maybe someone from the reservation a little while outside town may have heard legends about Shaoni. She’s the Thunderbird, that’s an important figure in their stories and legends. Being so close to where she had been sleeping for years he thought there might be a connection. So he asked us to go out and ask around.”
Stein answered me before Frank had a chance to, walking into the room and tossing a jacket my way.
“And put this on, its cold out there.”
It was actually funny how often Stein tried to care and actually came off as so much colder. Almost like he was doing it because he had to, not because he actually cared about me.
“Don’t mind him, he’s just stressed with everything going on lately.”
Frank explained, trying to comfort me. He was right of course, but it didn’t change the fact that it still rubbed me the wrong way.
Ten minutes later I was in the car headed out toward the reservation. It wasn’t a very eventful ride and the pine trees didn’t make for great scenery, I’d seen it all before anyways. Frank and Stein were quiet the whole time and we couldn’t find Rocco before we left. Part of me wondered where he was and part of me didn’t want to know. This gave my mind time to wander and I found myself thinking my life before meeting Frank and Stein. It was weird, I usually tried not to think about it at all but something had brought those memories roaring back. Probably due to Keith asking about it the other day. No-one ever seemed to care about that, my past that is. Every now and then I’d get bored and wander around town. Someone might come up to me and talk but not like Keith did. The only real questions they asked were usually something along the lines of “What’re you doing tonight?” And other variations of that. They were usually looking for something I had no interest in. Sometimes it wasn’t entirely their choice to talk to me. I’d just use my powers simply to have a conversation with someone. Keith actually cared about me though, at least I think so.
A loud honk broke me out of my trance, we had arrived on the reservation. The improvised trailer park we’d arrived in wasn’t much to look at. A dog or two ran around the cluttered ground, free from any sort of leash. An older car missing most of the front end sat raised on a few blocks of concrete. The trailers themselves were run down and rusted. Despite the sorry sight of the place three men sat around a fire, laughing and generally having a great time. The trio looked up as we walked over, recognition passing over their faces. We must’ve looked out of place here in our shiny SUV and Frank and Stein’s three piece suits. Those two were always overdressed when they went out. The only place they fit in was the lab and they seemed more than fine with that.
“Stein! Is that you?”
Exclaimed the man on the left, standing to meet us. He looked happy to see Stein, though I had never seen the guy before in my life. Which meant he must’ve been a friend from before I knew Stein.
“My friend! How have you been? Have you had any difficulties with your… condition.”
Stein replied, cutting his eyes at the other two men like he didn’t trust them.
“They know old friend, no need to beat around the bush here.”
He had to have some supernatural abilities, that’s the only way Stein knew anyone. The question was, what was he?
The man’s name was Sam, Frank told me as we joined the men at the fire. I asked him for more, like what he meant by condition but he wouldn’t budge. Condition usually meant supernatural but a lot of them just looked like normal people. I’m sure everyone has some picture of a succubus in their head and I’m… not that. So I couldn’t even begin to guess at what Sam’s “condition” was.
“So what brings you out here Stein? I hate to say it, but I never expected to see you again.”
Sam said, trying to be as friendly as possible while ultimately telling Stein he didn’t really want him here. He didn’t feel nervous, that much I sensed for sure. No, it was fear that drove him to try and push Stein away, but what did he have to be afraid of?
“I assure you I’ll be gone before I overstay my welcome. I just have a few questions I’d like answers to. It’s entirely possible that you know nothing as well, in which case I’ll be gone even sooner. But you wouldn’t lie to me just to see me gone, now would you?”
Stein almost threatened, some of the friendliness slipping out of his voice. There was more going on here than what I could see or even sense. I’ve got a really good sense of what people are feeling at any given time but the context of those feelings can get lost on me. Sam was feeling fear, way too much fear for the situation. Maybe he knew what Stein was going to ask but I couldn’t tell for sure. I looked to the two scientists, cutting my eyes from Frank to Stein trying to see if they wanted me to step in and calm them down.
“Stein… I can’t… if she knew I talked to you she’d come here. The things I’ve done… what you helped me stop doing. She wouldn’t see it that way if she came here… she would…”
Sam blubbered out, completely losing his composure before Stein raised a hand and cut him off.
“She? You mean Shaoni, we’re aware of what’s going on. We still do have some questions about her though, ones I hope you have answers to.”
At the mention of her name all three men shot up, so I stepped forward. Frank protested but he was to slow to stop me. It’s difficult to describe how I can make people do what I want, these days I just kind of will it to happen and it does. I can force an emotion, or a feeling onto someone else by imagining it myself and projecting it onto them. Frank and Stein think it has something to do with pheromones my body produces. These pheromones can induce certain emotions or feelings if I want them too. In this case I wanted these men to feel tired, cooperative, compliant, and that’s just what they became. Just as soon as they tried to stand they buckled to their knees. I was pushing a little to hard so I eased up a bit, I didn’t want to just put them to sleep or something. Sam got back to his feet and sat down in his chair as the others did the same.
“I’d like to know about Shaoni, The full story, as much as you know.”
I commanded more than asked Sam as he just nodded towards me, a vacant look in his eyes.
“Where should I start exactly little lady?”
Sam asked me, his tone a mix of nervous and compliant.
“I want to know what you know about her, all of it, then we’ll go.”
I answered, trying to ignore the looks Frank and Stein were giving me. They knew I was taking a risk, he didn’t want to share what he knew so I was forcing it out of him. He wanted to tell me now but it wasn’t really “him”. I was in his head, and while he wasn’t going to fight me on anything now, I was sure a part of him was screaming deep down. Fighting desperately to keep his mouth shut to avoid the consequences of telling me anything. I tried not to think about what I was doing to him as Sam began his story.
“Well to start her name wasn’t always Shaoni, It’s hard to keep one name when you’ve lived as long as her. Her name meant “Stormcaller” as near as it translates to your language. She was an elder in a long forgotten tribe in what you know as Canada today. She was renowned for her ability to over see trials and solve debates among her people, always able to set right apart from wrong. The exact name and place of her tribe have been lost to the ages but I do know that it was wiped out. As the story goes the tribe met its end at the hands of “explorers”, all save for Stormcaller were killed. She fled far into the forests and eventually stumbled upon four spirits, the original Thunderbirds. At this time they were still great spirits, created by Nanabozho. Those spirits took pity on Stormcaller, allowing her to live with them in the four corners of the world. With them she learned many things, how to fight, how to think as only a spirit can, and most of all she sharpened her already formidable sense of justice. That need to see justice done, and the proper sense to see what was right from what was wrong is what lead the chief of the Thunderbird spirits to bind itself to her, giving her the powers she’s said to have today, letting her exist as spirit and man made one.
The other Thunderbird spirits eventually followed this example, choosing representatives of their own, each representing an Ideal: Courage, so that our people would never falter in the face of adversity. Solidarity, so that, divided as they may be at times our people were one at heart. Duty, so that our people would never forget their place in the world and the customs and traditions we upheld. Finally there was Justice to lead them all, so that no wrong would be left to stand, and so that one among the ideals would keep the rest in check. These four formed a council that watched over our people for many years.
As imperialism grew in the world and more crimes were committed against their people this council became more and more warlike. Often Stormcaller, now simply known as Justice spearheaded these actions. She sought to right the wrongs committed against her people and hold all responsible accountable for their actions. In accordance with her duties as the embodiment of justice for our people. This war of hers would prove to be her downfall, every day her sense of justice became more absolute, more black and white. She stopped consulting the council to help guide her decisions, believing she and she alone knew what was best for her people and fellow ideals. One thing that changed when the Thunderbird spirits bound themselves was their immutability. As a spirt nothing could harm them, they were eternal, they were and always would be. But once they had become one with a man they could be ended, They would live forever but man’s mortality meant they could be killed unlike before. Something Justice would learn for herself in time.
As her warlike nature grew, Justice began to involve the ideals in open conflict with those who sought to take their peoples land and desecrate their way of life. Eventually Solidarity fell in battle, and those who saw him fall learned of the greater forces at play. These people sought to learn the truth of the power the had seen from Solidarity and doubled their intrusions into sacred land, searching for answers. Suddenly the hunters had become the hunted, perhaps if Justice had not clung so tightly to her convictions everything would’ve ended differently. Instead Justice doubled down on her pursuit to right every wrong she could lay her eyes upon, spurred on by the death of Solidarity. Eventually Courage fell and so to did Duty, only hardening Justice’s resolve. It was only when she revealed herself to her people one day and they fled from her, afraid of what she would do. Afraid that they to had committed some wrong that she sought to right in her own violent way. This reception forced Justice to realize what she had allowed herself to become. Justice had become Vengeance, lost in anger for wrongs she could never hope to right she had lost herself, becoming something else entirely.
She shed her name, her duties, her people and disappeared into the world. Watching what would come for her people broke her. She had lost what she sought to guide and guard, let the people the Thunderbird spirits sought to protect so long ago fall to ruin. Her need to see justice done never left her, but what was once a raging inferno became nothing more than a spark. If she came across one that had escaped justice, hidden their tracks or found a way out she would know. She would right the smaller wrongs of the world in her own way, stoking what remained of the flame within and finding her own purpose in the world. Eventually she would take on a new name, Shaoni, why I do not know but it is what she choose. Her sense of justice was still absolute, she saw no shades of grey just right and wrong. But the scale of her judgment was reduced, no longer would she try and right every wrong the world had to offer but only those she could reach. The world is a dark place though, and sometimes a lesser evil can ease pain. Shaoni didn’t see lesser evil as something she could abide and so her judgements often left more pain in their place. She grew weary of her pursuit once again, seeing how little she had changed and how much pain she had brought. She chose to settle down and remove herself from the world. Shaoni would never be able to die, not from the passing of time. She could remove herself from the equation in a cave not to far from where we stand now.”
Sam’s story hurt to listen too, in some ways it only seemed like Shaoni did what she thought was right. Yet time and time again she failed to see shades of grey, and that cost her everything. It made me think of who I was years ago in a way, not that I was some all powerful spirit thing like her but still. What would Shaoni think of the person I was? How would she judge me for my actions before I meet Frank and Stein? I certainly wasn’t a saint, but did that mean I couldn’t be better? I shook my head, now wasn’t the time to think of things like that. I stopped forcing Sam to answer my question, leaving him to his own devices. There was always some lingering effects after I… did my thing. I’m not sure how exactly it felt for them but I don’t imagine it was pleasant. Realizing you weren’t really in control of yourself has a way of causing issues for a person. Sam seemed to be shaking it off pretty well though, I’d seen worse things happen after I’d finished with someone, like Keith losing hours of time sitting in the kitchen. Playing with emotions can cause stress in the brain, especially since I’m forcing an emotion or feeling on them. More than once I’d seen someone left with uncontrollable swings in mood or a complete lack of emotion or feeling of any sort because of me. I hopped that wasn’t going to happen again here.
“Bianca what was that!”
Frank complained, finally breaking free of the spell the situation had cast over him. He ran over to the other two men that hadn’t gotten up from their chairs like Sam. Worry crashed over me like a wave as I realized why Frank sounded so concerned. One of the men was seizing on the ground, his body shaking violently as spasms coursed through him, had I done that? Sam was in a blissfully ignorant sate, he just sat in his chair watching the fire, unaware of what was happening to his friend. Frank and Stein leapt into action, holding the seizing man on the ground. Stein pulled off his belt and placed it in the mans mouth, trying to keep him from biting himself. My eyes were fixed on the third man who lay motionless on the ground. I took small steady steps toward him, hoping against hope that I could find a pulse. As I got closer I realized his chest was rising and falling. He was alive but who knew what he was going through right now. I felt distant, Frank was yelling something at me but I didn’t catch a word. I had to do it right? I had to make them tell us what they knew, it could help Keith right?
“What did you do to them?”
Sam asked me, apparently free of the aftereffects of my influence. I snapped my head to the side and watched him take a threatening step towards me. I backed away, afraid he might do something rash. I shouldn’t have done that, Stein could’ve convinced them on his own.
“What did you do to them? What’s wrong with them?”
Sam asked again, his voice growing more desperate. Stein picked that moment to appear at my side.
“Sam they’ll be ok just give them a minute. She didn’t mean to hurt you or your friends, just let it go. I’m helping her the same way I helped you, she’s not always in control.”
Sam softened a little bit at that but he was still wary of me. What Stein said was a lie, I had control of my abilities most of the time these days but Sam didn’t know that. Frank walked over to where we were standing with a relieved look on his face.
“They’ll be alright, they just need rest. What about you, are you feeling alright Sam?”
Frank asked, nodding towards him. Sam didn’t answer but it was plain to see he was doing far better than his friends.
“I’d like you all to leave.”
Sam ordered, putting his metaphorical foot down. Whatever favor he owed Stein didn’t matter anymore, he wanted us out. People were beginning to come out of some of the other trailers, gawking at the scene in front of them. As the three of us were leaving Sam said one more thing,
“Stein, this makes us even.”
He growled in an even but angry tone. You could just tell he was staring daggers at us the whole way back to the SUV. I turned back for a moment and I could’ve sworn his skin was wriggling and changing. Like he was just barley holding back something. What concerned me even more was what he felt, not anger or worry, but fear.
The ride back was less than pleasant. You know that feeling when you’ve done something wrong but no one really wants to address it yet? Yeah, that’s what was going on here, the air was practically electric.
“We needed him to talk…”
Stein cut me off immediately, shouting,
“Sometimes you don’t need to help! Look… I know you meant well but you can hurt people with that power of yours. I’ve never seen it that bad before but then again you’ve never done it to a group of people that long. Who knows what longterm consequences it might have. Just… be more careful in the future.”
Stein wasn’t as angry as he tried to appear, part off him was even relived, maybe because I had been the one to handle the situation instead of him.
“I know, I know its just… Keith is stuck out there at that mine with her, I couldn’t leave with nothing.”
I agreed, He was right, it was a risk but how could I have just let it be? No-one else was going to look out for him so that fell on us now. As much as I hated having to force things out of people I was good at it, really good. Despite how I felt about what I could do to people that was the easiest way to get Sam to speak back there.
“Where did this whole drive to help Keith come from anyways? A few days ago you talk him into watching the house and throw some money, our money, at him for the trouble. I’ve seen you do that a few times before with others so you could come with us when we went to stock up on things. Regardless of our misgivings surrounding your methods. So it didn’t go that well this time and he found out about you and us. Something like that was bound to happen eventually. What I can’t picture is why you go out of your way to help him. I don’t personally have any issue with you jumping to his defense. Its not too hard to understand why someone would, considering his situation. But for you, well it seems out of character for you.”
Frank chimed in with a question of his own. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it hurt to see him so surprised that I’d consider helping another person.
I never answered Frank’s question, I thought about it a lot the rest of the way back though. Why was I so intent on helping Keith? All my life I’d done things just to survive, even when I was really young I had to find a way to get by on my own. Sure I had my mother but she had her hands full with her own life. She didn’t have much after my father left and did everything she could to make ends meet. I just tried to stay out of her way and help where I could. I never complained when she forgot to make dinner, or when there just wasn’t food around the house. I’d just go without or take what I needed from someone else. Even back then I knew it was wrong but I always had looks on my side. Combine that with pity and not a lot of people would say no to the cute hungry kid. After Brooke, I only had myself and I just kept doing what I needed to. This was different though, I didn’t have to help Keith but I wanted to help him all the same. I didn’t get around town much and I always felt like I just existed around Frank and Stein. With Keith I wasn’t just this thing lying around the house, I was a person, a friend even. That was it, the first time it really clicked for me, Keith was my friend, not because I had wanted him to be or because I made him think he was. No, he was actually there for me and it was all his choice. I didn’t have to puppet him around myself, he actually wanted to be there. I didn’t have to wonder if it was just me and everything I could do pulling him in. For the first time in years someone had actually cared enough to ask about me, Frank and Stein never really did because they knew how much it hurt. Keith didn’t know how much it hurt to talk about but still. I needed to actually talk about all that happened to me with someone who listened for real.
Coming to that realization only made me want to do something stupid. Like run up to that mine and try to get Keith out of there myself. But that’s exactly what it was, stupid. If we wanted to get Keith back we’d need something better than just me. We’d need a real plan, one I’d just started thinking of. There was something else eating at me to. Keith had offered to take some burden from Shaoni back in Imalone, I had an idea what it might be and it scared me. If I was right well, Keith was in more danger than we all thought.
When we pulled back into the driveway Tuck was waiting at the door.
“Where’ve Y’all been?! I been lookin’ for ya damn near all afternoon! Somein’ happened o’re at Keith’s place, He’s gone. I cain’t find that “lab assistant” of yours neither.”
Tuck said hurriedly, his southern accent that he usually tried to hide seeping out into his words.
“We know, it was those trials he told us about. I presume he told you as well then?”
Stein informed him as he got out of the car and marched towards the door, barely making eye contact. Stein had an idea, I could read it all over him. He got this way when he was away from home and wanted too test something, once he was back there was no standing between him and his lab.
“Yeah, the kid told me something like that. Would explain where all those people were goin’ to. Couple of the regulars in town, ones I know look up to that damn bird, left this morning headin’ towards the old mines.”
Tuck spoke to no one in particular, nodding to himself as if to check off the fact that Keith disappearing and people leaving town were two related things.
“Why don’t you come in then, you might be able to help out with the situation. We just learned a few things about this… “damn bird” of yours. I really would’ve appreciated if you told us about that years ago. Perhaps you’d like to tell us what you know of the Thunderbird in the lab?”
Stein ordered rather than asked, pointing to the door for no more than a moment before continuing on his march to the basement. Frank and I filed in after them but I didn’t join them in the lab.
I looked around the house for Rocco but couldn’t find a trace. It wasn’t like him not to leave some trail of destruction in his wake. Well hidden or not, we usually found evidence of whatever he was up to but this time there was nothing. I had no clue where he’d gotten off to, maybe I was better off not knowing. After I gave up I joined the others in the basement, to their surprise I actually had decided to make an appearance. Frank and Stein were a little rattled at first but soon went back to their work. Tuck just beamed at me proudly, like he knew something I didn’t. We set about comparing notes on Shaoni, and separating fact from fiction based on Frank and Stein’s many years working with the supernatural. It was… nice, in a family bonding kind of way. Keith had brought us all together, gave these scientist a new problem to solve. Gave Tuck a chance for some kind of justice for the friends he’d lost in the mine collapse all those years ago. For me, he’d brought me together with the family I’d fallen in with. Strange as they were, this was my family, or at least the closest thing I had to it. I had to help, not just for Keith but for them. I’d been a burden, scared to go outside, hateful of what I could do despite using it to make life easier for myself. Worst of all I’d been stuck in my own head, I’d gone through awful things, done awful things, used my body and my charm to get through life. I’d been every bit as evil as Brooke had been to me. I did everything he’d done to me to others, only it was so much easier for me to do it. I hate myself for it, maybe I always would, but I couldn’t let that stop me now. I had to set all that aside and be there for the people in my life, I had to be a person again, not just hope everyone would treat me like one.
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“I knew it, I knew he’d pull something like that!”
Was the only thought running through my head as I watched Keith get forced into the truck outside. I was scared for Keith and I was angry, that kind of anger you feel in the pit of your stomach. Not at Keith though, my fury was directed at myself for freezing again. I just sat in the window and watched him get taken. Headache or not I should’ve done something, anything! Instead I just sat there and watched, powerless as always. My first instinct was to go running back home, maybe Frank and Stein could help somehow. Imagine my surprise when I walked in the door and they were looking for me. Well maybe I wasn’t to surprised, I hadn’t told them I didn’t plan on coming back home when I left yesterday.
“Bianca! We were just going to come looking for you, Keith had this idea and… are you alright?”
Frank asked, concern covering his face like a shadow. I must’ve looked like a mess, and the hot wet feeling on my face told me I’d started crying at some point on my way over as well.
“Are you ok? Did something happen?”
Frank repeated in his best fatherly voice. I could barley stammer out the words.
“Keith… gone… they took him.”
My babbling was enough though, realization shown on both their faces. Stein said something to Frank that I couldn’t hear then they nodded to each other.
“He was almost spot on with the timing. Well we best start getting around to do our part then.”
Stein said in his usual uncaring and mildly haughty manner. I don’t know why but it really boiled my blood this time. Keith was gone and he’s just moving on with things?
“Does no-one care about what just happened?! We agreed to look out for him and what did we do? Nothing!”
I screamed at no-one in particular. Those two just gave me a look like I was a misbehaving child.
“We’ve done what we could Bianca, besides Keith is the one who suggested what we’re about to do next.”
Frank stated, in an even and calm tone that made me stop and realize how ridiculous I was acting. Freaking out wouldn’t get us anywhere, even though I really wanted to. So I took a deep breath and stepped back for a second to collect myself.I hated to admit it but in a way their cold, calculating, order of operations approach would probably help here. Those two would never crack under pressure like me. While they didn’t talk about it, I’m sure they’d seen far worse working with the government.
Stein was rushing around looking for car keys when I came back into the kitchen. Frank however, stopped what he was doing to come over to me. I held up my hand to stop him when he opened his mouth to say something.
“No, you don’t have to try and convince me, I’ll come with you. What was Keith’s plan anyways? What did he put you guys up to?”
I asked, much calmer than before but still a little on edge. I couldn’t help but to feel at least a little responsible for what happened to Keith. I know it wasn’t my fault but I came with him for a reason. As much fun as last night had been I wasn’t taking it seriously. I should’ve stayed up to watch for Shaoni, maybe looked around for something she left when she was there before. Regardless, I had to be better next time.
“Keith thought that maybe someone from the reservation a little while outside town may have heard legends about Shaoni. She’s the Thunderbird, that’s an important figure in their stories and legends. Being so close to where she had been sleeping for years he thought there might be a connection. So he asked us to go out and ask around.”
Stein answered me before Frank had a chance to, walking into the room and tossing a jacket my way.
“And put this on, its cold out there.”
It was actually funny how often Stein tried to care and actually came off as so much colder. Almost like he was doing it because he had to, not because he actually cared about me.
“Don’t mind him, he’s just stressed with everything going on lately.”
Frank explained, trying to comfort me. He was right of course, but it didn’t change the fact that it still rubbed me the wrong way.
Ten minutes later I was in the car headed out toward the reservation. It wasn’t a very eventful ride and the pine trees didn’t make for great scenery, I’d seen it all before anyways. Frank and Stein were quiet the whole time and we couldn’t find Rocco before we left. Part of me wondered where he was and part of me didn’t want to know. This gave my mind time to wander and I found myself thinking my life before meeting Frank and Stein. It was weird, I usually tried not to think about it at all but something had brought those memories roaring back. Probably due to Keith asking about it the other day. No-one ever seemed to care about that, my past that is. Every now and then I’d get bored and wander around town. Someone might come up to me and talk but not like Keith did. The only real questions they asked were usually something along the lines of “What’re you doing tonight?” And other variations of that. They were usually looking for something I had no interest in. Sometimes it wasn’t entirely their choice to talk to me. I’d just use my powers simply to have a conversation with someone. Keith actually cared about me though, at least I think so.
A loud honk broke me out of my trance, we had arrived on the reservation. The improvised trailer park we’d arrived in wasn’t much to look at. A dog or two ran around the cluttered ground, free from any sort of leash. An older car missing most of the front end sat raised on a few blocks of concrete. The trailers themselves were run down and rusted. Despite the sorry sight of the place three men sat around a fire, laughing and generally having a great time. The trio looked up as we walked over, recognition passing over their faces. We must’ve looked out of place here in our shiny SUV and Frank and Stein’s three piece suits. Those two were always overdressed when they went out. The only place they fit in was the lab and they seemed more than fine with that.
“Stein! Is that you?”
Exclaimed the man on the left, standing to meet us. He looked happy to see Stein, though I had never seen the guy before in my life. Which meant he must’ve been a friend from before I knew Stein.
“My friend! How have you been? Have you had any difficulties with your… condition.”
Stein replied, cutting his eyes at the other two men like he didn’t trust them.
“They know old friend, no need to beat around the bush here.”
He had to have some supernatural abilities, that’s the only way Stein knew anyone. The question was, what was he?
The man’s name was Sam, Frank told me as we joined the men at the fire. I asked him for more, like what he meant by condition but he wouldn’t budge. Condition usually meant supernatural but a lot of them just looked like normal people. I’m sure everyone has some picture of a succubus in their head and I’m… not that. So I couldn’t even begin to guess at what Sam’s “condition” was.
“So what brings you out here Stein? I hate to say it, but I never expected to see you again.”
Sam said, trying to be as friendly as possible while ultimately telling Stein he didn’t really want him here. He didn’t feel nervous, that much I sensed for sure. No, it was fear that drove him to try and push Stein away, but what did he have to be afraid of?
“I assure you I’ll be gone before I overstay my welcome. I just have a few questions I’d like answers to. It’s entirely possible that you know nothing as well, in which case I’ll be gone even sooner. But you wouldn’t lie to me just to see me gone, now would you?”
Stein almost threatened, some of the friendliness slipping out of his voice. There was more going on here than what I could see or even sense. I’ve got a really good sense of what people are feeling at any given time but the context of those feelings can get lost on me. Sam was feeling fear, way too much fear for the situation. Maybe he knew what Stein was going to ask but I couldn’t tell for sure. I looked to the two scientists, cutting my eyes from Frank to Stein trying to see if they wanted me to step in and calm them down.
“Stein… I can’t… if she knew I talked to you she’d come here. The things I’ve done… what you helped me stop doing. She wouldn’t see it that way if she came here… she would…”
Sam blubbered out, completely losing his composure before Stein raised a hand and cut him off.
“She? You mean Shaoni, we’re aware of what’s going on. We still do have some questions about her though, ones I hope you have answers to.”
At the mention of her name all three men shot up, so I stepped forward. Frank protested but he was to slow to stop me. It’s difficult to describe how I can make people do what I want, these days I just kind of will it to happen and it does. I can force an emotion, or a feeling onto someone else by imagining it myself and projecting it onto them. Frank and Stein think it has something to do with pheromones my body produces. These pheromones can induce certain emotions or feelings if I want them too. In this case I wanted these men to feel tired, cooperative, compliant, and that’s just what they became. Just as soon as they tried to stand they buckled to their knees. I was pushing a little to hard so I eased up a bit, I didn’t want to just put them to sleep or something. Sam got back to his feet and sat down in his chair as the others did the same.
“I’d like to know about Shaoni, The full story, as much as you know.”
I commanded more than asked Sam as he just nodded towards me, a vacant look in his eyes.
“Where should I start exactly little lady?”
Sam asked me, his tone a mix of nervous and compliant.
“I want to know what you know about her, all of it, then we’ll go.”
I answered, trying to ignore the looks Frank and Stein were giving me. They knew I was taking a risk, he didn’t want to share what he knew so I was forcing it out of him. He wanted to tell me now but it wasn’t really “him”. I was in his head, and while he wasn’t going to fight me on anything now, I was sure a part of him was screaming deep down. Fighting desperately to keep his mouth shut to avoid the consequences of telling me anything. I tried not to think about what I was doing to him as Sam began his story.
“Well to start her name wasn’t always Shaoni, It’s hard to keep one name when you’ve lived as long as her. Her name meant “Stormcaller” as near as it translates to your language. She was an elder in a long forgotten tribe in what you know as Canada today. She was renowned for her ability to over see trials and solve debates among her people, always able to set right apart from wrong. The exact name and place of her tribe have been lost to the ages but I do know that it was wiped out. As the story goes the tribe met its end at the hands of “explorers”, all save for Stormcaller were killed. She fled far into the forests and eventually stumbled upon four spirits, the original Thunderbirds. At this time they were still great spirits, created by Nanabozho. Those spirits took pity on Stormcaller, allowing her to live with them in the four corners of the world. With them she learned many things, how to fight, how to think as only a spirit can, and most of all she sharpened her already formidable sense of justice. That need to see justice done, and the proper sense to see what was right from what was wrong is what lead the chief of the Thunderbird spirits to bind itself to her, giving her the powers she’s said to have today, letting her exist as spirit and man made one.
The other Thunderbird spirits eventually followed this example, choosing representatives of their own, each representing an Ideal: Courage, so that our people would never falter in the face of adversity. Solidarity, so that, divided as they may be at times our people were one at heart. Duty, so that our people would never forget their place in the world and the customs and traditions we upheld. Finally there was Justice to lead them all, so that no wrong would be left to stand, and so that one among the ideals would keep the rest in check. These four formed a council that watched over our people for many years.
As imperialism grew in the world and more crimes were committed against their people this council became more and more warlike. Often Stormcaller, now simply known as Justice spearheaded these actions. She sought to right the wrongs committed against her people and hold all responsible accountable for their actions. In accordance with her duties as the embodiment of justice for our people. This war of hers would prove to be her downfall, every day her sense of justice became more absolute, more black and white. She stopped consulting the council to help guide her decisions, believing she and she alone knew what was best for her people and fellow ideals. One thing that changed when the Thunderbird spirits bound themselves was their immutability. As a spirt nothing could harm them, they were eternal, they were and always would be. But once they had become one with a man they could be ended, They would live forever but man’s mortality meant they could be killed unlike before. Something Justice would learn for herself in time.
As her warlike nature grew, Justice began to involve the ideals in open conflict with those who sought to take their peoples land and desecrate their way of life. Eventually Solidarity fell in battle, and those who saw him fall learned of the greater forces at play. These people sought to learn the truth of the power the had seen from Solidarity and doubled their intrusions into sacred land, searching for answers. Suddenly the hunters had become the hunted, perhaps if Justice had not clung so tightly to her convictions everything would’ve ended differently. Instead Justice doubled down on her pursuit to right every wrong she could lay her eyes upon, spurred on by the death of Solidarity. Eventually Courage fell and so to did Duty, only hardening Justice’s resolve. It was only when she revealed herself to her people one day and they fled from her, afraid of what she would do. Afraid that they to had committed some wrong that she sought to right in her own violent way. This reception forced Justice to realize what she had allowed herself to become. Justice had become Vengeance, lost in anger for wrongs she could never hope to right she had lost herself, becoming something else entirely.
She shed her name, her duties, her people and disappeared into the world. Watching what would come for her people broke her. She had lost what she sought to guide and guard, let the people the Thunderbird spirits sought to protect so long ago fall to ruin. Her need to see justice done never left her, but what was once a raging inferno became nothing more than a spark. If she came across one that had escaped justice, hidden their tracks or found a way out she would know. She would right the smaller wrongs of the world in her own way, stoking what remained of the flame within and finding her own purpose in the world. Eventually she would take on a new name, Shaoni, why I do not know but it is what she choose. Her sense of justice was still absolute, she saw no shades of grey just right and wrong. But the scale of her judgment was reduced, no longer would she try and right every wrong the world had to offer but only those she could reach. The world is a dark place though, and sometimes a lesser evil can ease pain. Shaoni didn’t see lesser evil as something she could abide and so her judgements often left more pain in their place. She grew weary of her pursuit once again, seeing how little she had changed and how much pain she had brought. She chose to settle down and remove herself from the world. Shaoni would never be able to die, not from the passing of time. She could remove herself from the equation in a cave not to far from where we stand now.”
Sam’s story hurt to listen too, in some ways it only seemed like Shaoni did what she thought was right. Yet time and time again she failed to see shades of grey, and that cost her everything. It made me think of who I was years ago in a way, not that I was some all powerful spirit thing like her but still. What would Shaoni think of the person I was? How would she judge me for my actions before I meet Frank and Stein? I certainly wasn’t a saint, but did that mean I couldn’t be better? I shook my head, now wasn’t the time to think of things like that. I stopped forcing Sam to answer my question, leaving him to his own devices. There was always some lingering effects after I… did my thing. I’m not sure how exactly it felt for them but I don’t imagine it was pleasant. Realizing you weren’t really in control of yourself has a way of causing issues for a person. Sam seemed to be shaking it off pretty well though, I’d seen worse things happen after I’d finished with someone, like Keith losing hours of time sitting in the kitchen. Playing with emotions can cause stress in the brain, especially since I’m forcing an emotion or feeling on them. More than once I’d seen someone left with uncontrollable swings in mood or a complete lack of emotion or feeling of any sort because of me. I hopped that wasn’t going to happen again here.
“Bianca what was that!”
Frank complained, finally breaking free of the spell the situation had cast over him. He ran over to the other two men that hadn’t gotten up from their chairs like Sam. Worry crashed over me like a wave as I realized why Frank sounded so concerned. One of the men was seizing on the ground, his body shaking violently as spasms coursed through him, had I done that? Sam was in a blissfully ignorant sate, he just sat in his chair watching the fire, unaware of what was happening to his friend. Frank and Stein leapt into action, holding the seizing man on the ground. Stein pulled off his belt and placed it in the mans mouth, trying to keep him from biting himself. My eyes were fixed on the third man who lay motionless on the ground. I took small steady steps toward him, hoping against hope that I could find a pulse. As I got closer I realized his chest was rising and falling. He was alive but who knew what he was going through right now. I felt distant, Frank was yelling something at me but I didn’t catch a word. I had to do it right? I had to make them tell us what they knew, it could help Keith right?
“What did you do to them?”
Sam asked me, apparently free of the aftereffects of my influence. I snapped my head to the side and watched him take a threatening step towards me. I backed away, afraid he might do something rash. I shouldn’t have done that, Stein could’ve convinced them on his own.
“What did you do to them? What’s wrong with them?”
Sam asked again, his voice growing more desperate. Stein picked that moment to appear at my side.
“Sam they’ll be ok just give them a minute. She didn’t mean to hurt you or your friends, just let it go. I’m helping her the same way I helped you, she’s not always in control.”
Sam softened a little bit at that but he was still wary of me. What Stein said was a lie, I had control of my abilities most of the time these days but Sam didn’t know that. Frank walked over to where we were standing with a relieved look on his face.
“They’ll be alright, they just need rest. What about you, are you feeling alright Sam?”
Frank asked, nodding towards him. Sam didn’t answer but it was plain to see he was doing far better than his friends.
“I’d like you all to leave.”
Sam ordered, putting his metaphorical foot down. Whatever favor he owed Stein didn’t matter anymore, he wanted us out. People were beginning to come out of some of the other trailers, gawking at the scene in front of them. As the three of us were leaving Sam said one more thing,
“Stein, this makes us even.”
He growled in an even but angry tone. You could just tell he was staring daggers at us the whole way back to the SUV. I turned back for a moment and I could’ve sworn his skin was wriggling and changing. Like he was just barley holding back something. What concerned me even more was what he felt, not anger or worry, but fear.
The ride back was less than pleasant. You know that feeling when you’ve done something wrong but no one really wants to address it yet? Yeah, that’s what was going on here, the air was practically electric.
“We needed him to talk…”
Stein cut me off immediately, shouting,
“Sometimes you don’t need to help! Look… I know you meant well but you can hurt people with that power of yours. I’ve never seen it that bad before but then again you’ve never done it to a group of people that long. Who knows what longterm consequences it might have. Just… be more careful in the future.”
Stein wasn’t as angry as he tried to appear, part off him was even relived, maybe because I had been the one to handle the situation instead of him.
“I know, I know its just… Keith is stuck out there at that mine with her, I couldn’t leave with nothing.”
I agreed, He was right, it was a risk but how could I have just let it be? No-one else was going to look out for him so that fell on us now. As much as I hated having to force things out of people I was good at it, really good. Despite how I felt about what I could do to people that was the easiest way to get Sam to speak back there.
“Where did this whole drive to help Keith come from anyways? A few days ago you talk him into watching the house and throw some money, our money, at him for the trouble. I’ve seen you do that a few times before with others so you could come with us when we went to stock up on things. Regardless of our misgivings surrounding your methods. So it didn’t go that well this time and he found out about you and us. Something like that was bound to happen eventually. What I can’t picture is why you go out of your way to help him. I don’t personally have any issue with you jumping to his defense. Its not too hard to understand why someone would, considering his situation. But for you, well it seems out of character for you.”
Frank chimed in with a question of his own. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it hurt to see him so surprised that I’d consider helping another person.
I never answered Frank’s question, I thought about it a lot the rest of the way back though. Why was I so intent on helping Keith? All my life I’d done things just to survive, even when I was really young I had to find a way to get by on my own. Sure I had my mother but she had her hands full with her own life. She didn’t have much after my father left and did everything she could to make ends meet. I just tried to stay out of her way and help where I could. I never complained when she forgot to make dinner, or when there just wasn’t food around the house. I’d just go without or take what I needed from someone else. Even back then I knew it was wrong but I always had looks on my side. Combine that with pity and not a lot of people would say no to the cute hungry kid. After Brooke, I only had myself and I just kept doing what I needed to. This was different though, I didn’t have to help Keith but I wanted to help him all the same. I didn’t get around town much and I always felt like I just existed around Frank and Stein. With Keith I wasn’t just this thing lying around the house, I was a person, a friend even. That was it, the first time it really clicked for me, Keith was my friend, not because I had wanted him to be or because I made him think he was. No, he was actually there for me and it was all his choice. I didn’t have to puppet him around myself, he actually wanted to be there. I didn’t have to wonder if it was just me and everything I could do pulling him in. For the first time in years someone had actually cared enough to ask about me, Frank and Stein never really did because they knew how much it hurt. Keith didn’t know how much it hurt to talk about but still. I needed to actually talk about all that happened to me with someone who listened for real.
Coming to that realization only made me want to do something stupid. Like run up to that mine and try to get Keith out of there myself. But that’s exactly what it was, stupid. If we wanted to get Keith back we’d need something better than just me. We’d need a real plan, one I’d just started thinking of. There was something else eating at me to. Keith had offered to take some burden from Shaoni back in Imalone, I had an idea what it might be and it scared me. If I was right well, Keith was in more danger than we all thought.
When we pulled back into the driveway Tuck was waiting at the door.
“Where’ve Y’all been?! I been lookin’ for ya damn near all afternoon! Somein’ happened o’re at Keith’s place, He’s gone. I cain’t find that “lab assistant” of yours neither.”
Tuck said hurriedly, his southern accent that he usually tried to hide seeping out into his words.
“We know, it was those trials he told us about. I presume he told you as well then?”
Stein informed him as he got out of the car and marched towards the door, barely making eye contact. Stein had an idea, I could read it all over him. He got this way when he was away from home and wanted too test something, once he was back there was no standing between him and his lab.
“Yeah, the kid told me something like that. Would explain where all those people were goin’ to. Couple of the regulars in town, ones I know look up to that damn bird, left this morning headin’ towards the old mines.”
Tuck spoke to no one in particular, nodding to himself as if to check off the fact that Keith disappearing and people leaving town were two related things.
“Why don’t you come in then, you might be able to help out with the situation. We just learned a few things about this… “damn bird” of yours. I really would’ve appreciated if you told us about that years ago. Perhaps you’d like to tell us what you know of the Thunderbird in the lab?”
Stein ordered rather than asked, pointing to the door for no more than a moment before continuing on his march to the basement. Frank and I filed in after them but I didn’t join them in the lab.
I looked around the house for Rocco but couldn’t find a trace. It wasn’t like him not to leave some trail of destruction in his wake. Well hidden or not, we usually found evidence of whatever he was up to but this time there was nothing. I had no clue where he’d gotten off to, maybe I was better off not knowing. After I gave up I joined the others in the basement, to their surprise I actually had decided to make an appearance. Frank and Stein were a little rattled at first but soon went back to their work. Tuck just beamed at me proudly, like he knew something I didn’t. We set about comparing notes on Shaoni, and separating fact from fiction based on Frank and Stein’s many years working with the supernatural. It was… nice, in a family bonding kind of way. Keith had brought us all together, gave these scientist a new problem to solve. Gave Tuck a chance for some kind of justice for the friends he’d lost in the mine collapse all those years ago. For me, he’d brought me together with the family I’d fallen in with. Strange as they were, this was my family, or at least the closest thing I had to it. I had to help, not just for Keith but for them. I’d been a burden, scared to go outside, hateful of what I could do despite using it to make life easier for myself. Worst of all I’d been stuck in my own head, I’d gone through awful things, done awful things, used my body and my charm to get through life. I’d been every bit as evil as Brooke had been to me. I did everything he’d done to me to others, only it was so much easier for me to do it. I hate myself for it, maybe I always would, but I couldn’t let that stop me now. I had to set all that aside and be there for the people in my life, I had to be a person again, not just hope everyone would treat me like one.
2024.05.21 14:24 Ghost_puff28 Sattuu niin paljon päähän että tuntuisi ÄO laskevan tän tasolme
 | Aloitan sillä että joka nip slip ei ole ok levittää mutta. submitted by Ghost_puff28 to snappisensuroimaton [link] [comments] Chiara sä itse alotit liven, et tarkastanut vaatetustasi. Luulet olevas joku julkkis ja kuka tässä on ees yrittänyt vaikeuttaa sun elämääs kun et itse tee mitään että pääsisit kuntoon. Flexaat että et enään käytä douppia mut silti haet huomioo sillä et ”nYt RaTkEen”. Eli olet huomio huora Sulla ei ole syömishäiriötä ja miksi valitat että susta puhutaan redditissä kun itse olet tehnyt itsestäsi some persoonan Tämä ei ole loukkaamista vaan rakentavaa palautetta, jonkun on pakko puhkasta toi kupla |
2024.05.21 11:44 Secret-Warning5819 nipple slip boobs show compilation boobs,nip slip live
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2024.05.21 03:33 Slight_Midnight6235 Small boobs and tummy part 3 Added bonus: stretch marks and back rolls
 | I recently bought the front tie bikini top from Lou Swim. While it does pull my boobs closer together, they’re so wide set that it’s hard to bring them closer. And… I never thought I’d say this… i shoulda went up a size. My boobs are almost too big and i feel like I’m gonna have a nip slip 😅 but it’s still comfortable and i feel sexy! submitted by Slight_Midnight6235 to smallbooblove [link] [comments] Even though i feel like i might have a nip slip, this top is the most comfortable I’ve ever felt in any sorta swimming suite. There aren’t any weird gaps and the padding isn’t removable. It’s like it forms to your boobs. It’s okay to have small boobs, a belly, stretch marks and back fat. We aren’t all skinny with small boobs. Some of us have some extra fluff to us (nothing wrong with being skinny! All bodies are beautiful!). And yes, i am going to wear this out in public. The two places i plan on wearing it to, I’ll never see those people again. Idgaf what others think! I am debating on finding different bottoms. I ordered them off Amazon. The color in the pic advertised on Amazon was closer to the color of the top. Not a 100% sure yet! |
2024.05.21 03:25 EmberinEmpty Keeping my meat machine running is exhausting.....
I know and do all the things and tricks. Dear god, I have all the visual prompts and reminders and systems in place, and even a LOVELY wife who reminds me of the things I need to do to survive. But like GOD. Why does it require SO MUCH.
Keeping this meat machine running is becoming a whole full time job. For context I have ADHD, ASD, Ehlers Danlos (Accompanied by bouts of Dysautonomia and POTS), and PMDD/PME meaning my PMS phase is EXTRA cooked turning me into a deep-fried werewolf half the month. Oh and i'm trans-nonbinary and have undergone top surgery and low dose testosterone....
So first off there's the BASICS OF LIFE eating breathing sleeping, homeostasis. WELL SOMETIMES MY BODY WONT DO IT AND I HAVE TO STEP IN.
Gotta feed myself every day multiple times a day. Sometimes body won't tell me i'm hungry until its too late. Repeated alarms get ignored /cause me misophonia and rage.
Gotta decide what to eat every time.
Gotta be mindful about getting good nutrition.
Gotta hope i haven't lost a safe food for some unknown reason wherein the sight smell idea and texture makes me suddenly go from pleasure to gagging.
Gotta have variety tho. Brain won't eat the same thing every day so there has to be a variety of "safe food" b/c ASD and "dopamine food" b/c ADHD available.
Gotta get groceries then too. But don't shop when you're hungry b/c thats how you blow the budget. It's worse on T b/c T makes me hungry as FUCK especially once we upped my dose( I'm actually going back down b/c this effect is UNBEARABLE. )
Gotta put water ON my body/clothes in the sun b/c I don't regulate my temperature.. I get cold when its less than 65' outside and overheat when its hotter than 78'.
Gotta wear and manage layers of clothing b/c of said inability to regulate temperature properly.
Gotta put water IN my body too but I don't know what thirst even feels like so i have to do it consciously or else I just....won't drink water. Which means....
Gotta keep enough water bottles of the RIGHT TYPE on hand b/c I just WONT drink out of a normal cup. I'll sip but to meet water need it's gotta be those chewy nip coleman bottles. don't ask me why maybe it's the mouthfeel ????
Gotta take drugs to regulate my HBP b/c i've got POTS. We actually suspect hyperadrenergic POTS b/c I respond well to Guanfacine and Clonidine and watesalt intake wasn't changing it.
Gotta take ALL MY MEDS EVERY DAY SAME TIME. Even with the autoreminder I miss it a lot especially if I flip it and forget to unflip it. or drop the batteries etc.
But if I take the POTS meds then the side effect is that if I forget the meds for even a DAY my body gets rebound effects which debilitate me worse than the POTS itself. So I stop taking the meds regularly and only take them as needed when I'm having more symptoms than usual.
Which is fine and dandy 2 weeks out of the month but the other 2 weeks .....fuck me.
Gotta batten down the hatches every month for werewolf week Because I have PMDD!! And I get POTS symptoms real bad during luteal phase b/c my body decides i'm a topsy tervy WEREWOLF???? and wants to crawl out of my skin. do all the drugs and bite my leg off/harm myself. So then i'm flippy, brain foggy, agitated anxious sensory overwhelmed and brutally insomniatic for 1-2 weeks EVERY MONTH.
Gotta remember tho take the gabapentin it really helps during wolf week. Whoop one more med to manage.
Gotta go to the pharmacy everywhenever. B/c of course they don't pill pack, or autoship and you take 2 controlled meds which must be picked up in person.
Now you might wonder....well why are you still having luteal phases if you're trans and on T? WELL B/C MY OVARIES JUST WONT QUIT. I'm in the male range for Testosterone even when I was at "low dose". My estrogen level is in the guttenearly undetectable but my body JUST KEEPS CYCLING. I even took nuvaring for 6 months no change. and I've tried two types of combo birth control and one makes me sex-repulsed/depressed and the other made me dysphoric and suidcidal. So now we're trying the POP. I don't think it'll work.... But its something to try. Also gotta take topical E for my hoo-ha b/c ....well I don't want atrophy. But that one seems to be treating me okay.
Gotta take my T shot every week and the topical finasteride every day. But T relieves my gender dysphoria significantly, reduces a lot of my PMDD SI/RAGE symptoms, and T is fantastic because it increases my muscle mass which reduced my joint slippage reducing pain? All good right?
Gotta see a derm b/c you're having a scarring alopecia flare up! But then that pesky scarring alopecia comes back. I had it before T, I actually had low T levels back then and i've been on finasteride my whole transition. It seems to run in my family. I've been symptom free for 7 years but something this year restarts the inflammatory process (probably surgery). Typical treatment is topical steroids and topical minoxidil. I have THREE cats. I will not kill my cats for my hair.
Gotta take the minoxidil now too. So they put me on oral minoxidil (and topical steroids). Which lowers my BP great but increases my HR not great. Now i'm constantly anxious about my HR my BP whether i'm fine or normal or having an episode or need to stop my treatment or restart it.
Gotta take more meds and see my GP. Great.
Gotta massage those top surgery scars every night. B/c mobility matters! Adhesions are bad. And the hEDS makes me scar like a weirdo. (hypertrophic and atrophic O.o) plus I want tattoos.
So lets assume i've managed the baseline physiological needs. Fed my body, watered my soul, sacrificed my cats to the three headed god of bendy elbows. Not having insomnia so bad the tech at your sleep study goes ....."is it always like this for you?".
Well then there's the psychological needs and problems.
Gotta take the ADHD meds or I literally won't get out of bed, will doomscroll for hours and watch my life fall apart.
Gotta take the SSRIs or else the crippling rumination, depression and obsessive body checking behaviors interrupt my life.
Gotta take Buspirone otherwise the SSRIS make me unable to orgasm and obliterates my sex drive. Thankfully my spouse's has also lowered these days due to her own meds so it's not causing conflict in the relationship like it used to. Sex is the only place in my life where I haven't experienced trauma and it's important to me personally as well for all the reasons.
Gotta work**.** Thats all i'll say there. b/c that is its own laundry list.
Gotta to do my accounting, pay bills etc.
Gotta do hygiene every single day 2x a day.
Gotta watch what I eat b/c i'm severely sensitive to gluten which limits eating out. So it's harder to do fun things with people/go out to eat with friends or order take-out.
Gotta remember to call/text my friends.
Gotta remember to call/text my father.
Gotta see all the fucking drs about all my fucking medical issues. Schedule and attend the appointments. Yes we hit our OOP MAX EVERY YEAR.
Gotta work out or else risk physical decompensation with increased joint subluxation or dislocations. And also for my MH/because I love acrobatics/aerials. I started decomping after surgery and the pain was atrocious and the injury cycle was beginning. I forgot just how fast the slipping happens.
Gotta attend to my loved ones. my wife and her needs, and my dog and my 3 cats.
Gotta clean the house, gotta wash the sheets, gotta treat the folliculitis infection I gave myself shaving, gotta tidy up after my hyperfixation projects and keep tidying my special interest projects.....
Gotta find/eliminate all the mold bombs regularly. b/c i'm horribly allergic to mold. So you know all the cups of coffee I didn't finish, hidden bowls of half eaten food lost under a shirt, or accidently left in on a bookshelf or in a bathroom, or orange peels dried too slowly or fruit in the fridge left a day too long....
Gotta get my blood drawn again for the 7th time this year.
Gotta schedule more medical tests.
Gotta let the ASD gods rule the weekend and worldbuild for 11 straight hours b/c I may be a sexless angelic demigod but hey at least I ENJOY my special interests again.
All this so that I don't fall apart. So I can get up, work, earn money, make friends, enjoy my special interests , care for myself and my wife and my cats and my dog , and hopefully live on past 30 without succumbing to either my demons or the inevitable progressive worsening of my physical disabilities.
Some days I just wanna be sedated.
submitted by EmberinEmpty to AuDHDWomen [link] [comments]
Keeping this meat machine running is becoming a whole full time job. For context I have ADHD, ASD, Ehlers Danlos (Accompanied by bouts of Dysautonomia and POTS), and PMDD/PME meaning my PMS phase is EXTRA cooked turning me into a deep-fried werewolf half the month. Oh and i'm trans-nonbinary and have undergone top surgery and low dose testosterone....
So first off there's the BASICS OF LIFE eating breathing sleeping, homeostasis. WELL SOMETIMES MY BODY WONT DO IT AND I HAVE TO STEP IN.
Gotta feed myself every day multiple times a day. Sometimes body won't tell me i'm hungry until its too late. Repeated alarms get ignored /cause me misophonia and rage.
Gotta decide what to eat every time.
Gotta be mindful about getting good nutrition.
Gotta hope i haven't lost a safe food for some unknown reason wherein the sight smell idea and texture makes me suddenly go from pleasure to gagging.
Gotta have variety tho. Brain won't eat the same thing every day so there has to be a variety of "safe food" b/c ASD and "dopamine food" b/c ADHD available.
Gotta get groceries then too. But don't shop when you're hungry b/c thats how you blow the budget. It's worse on T b/c T makes me hungry as FUCK especially once we upped my dose( I'm actually going back down b/c this effect is UNBEARABLE. )
Gotta put water ON my body/clothes in the sun b/c I don't regulate my temperature.. I get cold when its less than 65' outside and overheat when its hotter than 78'.
Gotta wear and manage layers of clothing b/c of said inability to regulate temperature properly.
Gotta put water IN my body too but I don't know what thirst even feels like so i have to do it consciously or else I just....won't drink water. Which means....
Gotta keep enough water bottles of the RIGHT TYPE on hand b/c I just WONT drink out of a normal cup. I'll sip but to meet water need it's gotta be those chewy nip coleman bottles. don't ask me why maybe it's the mouthfeel ????
Gotta take drugs to regulate my HBP b/c i've got POTS. We actually suspect hyperadrenergic POTS b/c I respond well to Guanfacine and Clonidine and watesalt intake wasn't changing it.
Gotta take ALL MY MEDS EVERY DAY SAME TIME. Even with the autoreminder I miss it a lot especially if I flip it and forget to unflip it. or drop the batteries etc.
But if I take the POTS meds then the side effect is that if I forget the meds for even a DAY my body gets rebound effects which debilitate me worse than the POTS itself. So I stop taking the meds regularly and only take them as needed when I'm having more symptoms than usual.
Which is fine and dandy 2 weeks out of the month but the other 2 weeks .....fuck me.
Gotta batten down the hatches every month for werewolf week Because I have PMDD!! And I get POTS symptoms real bad during luteal phase b/c my body decides i'm a topsy tervy WEREWOLF???? and wants to crawl out of my skin. do all the drugs and bite my leg off/harm myself. So then i'm flippy, brain foggy, agitated anxious sensory overwhelmed and brutally insomniatic for 1-2 weeks EVERY MONTH.
Gotta remember tho take the gabapentin it really helps during wolf week. Whoop one more med to manage.
Gotta go to the pharmacy everywhenever. B/c of course they don't pill pack, or autoship and you take 2 controlled meds which must be picked up in person.
Now you might wonder....well why are you still having luteal phases if you're trans and on T? WELL B/C MY OVARIES JUST WONT QUIT. I'm in the male range for Testosterone even when I was at "low dose". My estrogen level is in the guttenearly undetectable but my body JUST KEEPS CYCLING. I even took nuvaring for 6 months no change. and I've tried two types of combo birth control and one makes me sex-repulsed/depressed and the other made me dysphoric and suidcidal. So now we're trying the POP. I don't think it'll work.... But its something to try. Also gotta take topical E for my hoo-ha b/c ....well I don't want atrophy. But that one seems to be treating me okay.
Gotta take my T shot every week and the topical finasteride every day. But T relieves my gender dysphoria significantly, reduces a lot of my PMDD SI/RAGE symptoms, and T is fantastic because it increases my muscle mass which reduced my joint slippage reducing pain? All good right?
Gotta see a derm b/c you're having a scarring alopecia flare up! But then that pesky scarring alopecia comes back. I had it before T, I actually had low T levels back then and i've been on finasteride my whole transition. It seems to run in my family. I've been symptom free for 7 years but something this year restarts the inflammatory process (probably surgery). Typical treatment is topical steroids and topical minoxidil. I have THREE cats. I will not kill my cats for my hair.
Gotta take the minoxidil now too. So they put me on oral minoxidil (and topical steroids). Which lowers my BP great but increases my HR not great. Now i'm constantly anxious about my HR my BP whether i'm fine or normal or having an episode or need to stop my treatment or restart it.
Gotta take more meds and see my GP. Great.
Gotta massage those top surgery scars every night. B/c mobility matters! Adhesions are bad. And the hEDS makes me scar like a weirdo. (hypertrophic and atrophic O.o) plus I want tattoos.
So lets assume i've managed the baseline physiological needs. Fed my body, watered my soul, sacrificed my cats to the three headed god of bendy elbows. Not having insomnia so bad the tech at your sleep study goes ....."is it always like this for you?".
Well then there's the psychological needs and problems.
Gotta take the ADHD meds or I literally won't get out of bed, will doomscroll for hours and watch my life fall apart.
Gotta take the SSRIs or else the crippling rumination, depression and obsessive body checking behaviors interrupt my life.
Gotta take Buspirone otherwise the SSRIS make me unable to orgasm and obliterates my sex drive. Thankfully my spouse's has also lowered these days due to her own meds so it's not causing conflict in the relationship like it used to. Sex is the only place in my life where I haven't experienced trauma and it's important to me personally as well for all the reasons.
Gotta work**.** Thats all i'll say there. b/c that is its own laundry list.
Gotta to do my accounting, pay bills etc.
Gotta do hygiene every single day 2x a day.
Gotta watch what I eat b/c i'm severely sensitive to gluten which limits eating out. So it's harder to do fun things with people/go out to eat with friends or order take-out.
Gotta remember to call/text my friends.
Gotta remember to call/text my father.
Gotta see all the fucking drs about all my fucking medical issues. Schedule and attend the appointments. Yes we hit our OOP MAX EVERY YEAR.
Gotta work out or else risk physical decompensation with increased joint subluxation or dislocations. And also for my MH/because I love acrobatics/aerials. I started decomping after surgery and the pain was atrocious and the injury cycle was beginning. I forgot just how fast the slipping happens.
Gotta attend to my loved ones. my wife and her needs, and my dog and my 3 cats.
Gotta clean the house, gotta wash the sheets, gotta treat the folliculitis infection I gave myself shaving, gotta tidy up after my hyperfixation projects and keep tidying my special interest projects.....
Gotta find/eliminate all the mold bombs regularly. b/c i'm horribly allergic to mold. So you know all the cups of coffee I didn't finish, hidden bowls of half eaten food lost under a shirt, or accidently left in on a bookshelf or in a bathroom, or orange peels dried too slowly or fruit in the fridge left a day too long....
Gotta get my blood drawn again for the 7th time this year.
Gotta schedule more medical tests.
Gotta let the ASD gods rule the weekend and worldbuild for 11 straight hours b/c I may be a sexless angelic demigod but hey at least I ENJOY my special interests again.
All this so that I don't fall apart. So I can get up, work, earn money, make friends, enjoy my special interests , care for myself and my wife and my cats and my dog , and hopefully live on past 30 without succumbing to either my demons or the inevitable progressive worsening of my physical disabilities.
Some days I just wanna be sedated.
2024.05.21 00:24 Bulky-Bathroom2390 I'm in a really bad spot right now and could use advice badly
I've been having a really rough few days and have been talking alot to my girlfriend and my freinds about this. Last Wednesday I let my cat Raven outside wearing a harness since she's been expressing interest alot in wanting to go inside. She's three years old, fixed and has never been outside except to the vet in a carrier. I took her outside just on the porch being very gentle and encouraging with her since she's a very sensitive cat and is prone to being overly stimulated fast.
Went well then a few days later I tried it again. She got alot more bolder and actually got into the yard to explore. About ten minutes in she starts growling at me and hissing whenever I look at her. She got even more mad when I had to tug the harness a few times to dissuade her from going underneath the porch. This continued more and she eventually slipped outta the harness and ran off. I tried coaxing her with treats slowly and taking it slow but she just saw me as a threat because she was scared. After a half hour I had the dumb thought to grab her with a towel which made it way worse and she freaked out and ran inside.
Ever since she's been constantly aggressive towards me and has been trying to attack me. I looked up advice online to give her space and again be kind with her. She just kept on growling them rushing me and even tried attacking one of my freinds when they came over. It definitely seems like the aggressive behavior is mostly directed at me though which I can't blame her too much. It's been three days now and I have her cooped up in my bedroom and I've had to call outta work. I've tried calming cat treats, talking to her through thr door, cat nip, and calling vets and shelters and haven't gotten much support there accept for an appointment in four days which feels too long since I just don't feel safe anymore in my home.
I love this cat so much but I feel like I just need to get her out of my house. My long distance girlfriend says I shouldn't kill her and should just release her which I feel like would be more cruel. She says the cat will at least have a chance but I know she won't have a high chance due to strays and her only knowing living inside her whole life. Obviously I know I sound like a monster but I'm at of loss what to do. Local shelters told me no one will take her in since she's aggressive so it's not like I could rehome her.
submitted by Bulky-Bathroom2390 to CatAdvice [link] [comments]
Went well then a few days later I tried it again. She got alot more bolder and actually got into the yard to explore. About ten minutes in she starts growling at me and hissing whenever I look at her. She got even more mad when I had to tug the harness a few times to dissuade her from going underneath the porch. This continued more and she eventually slipped outta the harness and ran off. I tried coaxing her with treats slowly and taking it slow but she just saw me as a threat because she was scared. After a half hour I had the dumb thought to grab her with a towel which made it way worse and she freaked out and ran inside.
Ever since she's been constantly aggressive towards me and has been trying to attack me. I looked up advice online to give her space and again be kind with her. She just kept on growling them rushing me and even tried attacking one of my freinds when they came over. It definitely seems like the aggressive behavior is mostly directed at me though which I can't blame her too much. It's been three days now and I have her cooped up in my bedroom and I've had to call outta work. I've tried calming cat treats, talking to her through thr door, cat nip, and calling vets and shelters and haven't gotten much support there accept for an appointment in four days which feels too long since I just don't feel safe anymore in my home.
I love this cat so much but I feel like I just need to get her out of my house. My long distance girlfriend says I shouldn't kill her and should just release her which I feel like would be more cruel. She says the cat will at least have a chance but I know she won't have a high chance due to strays and her only knowing living inside her whole life. Obviously I know I sound like a monster but I'm at of loss what to do. Local shelters told me no one will take her in since she's aggressive so it's not like I could rehome her.
2024.05.20 23:25 MythyDragonwolf [Dragon Soul] -- Chapter 1 (Modern-Fantasy Magic Adventures)
Snow blew around Sam, piled up to his knees, as he stood at the foot of the mountain and looked toward the summit. Something was calling him. He didn’t know what it was, but his mother had long told him that if the spirits wanted to tell him something, show him something, it was best to heed them. He pulled his cloak tighter around him and trudged forward.
There were no paths, but somehow Sam knew where he was going. There was a passageway on the other side, halfway up. Dug into the mountain, cut through the ice. Nobody would have ever made it this far up. Sam wasn’t sure how he made it this far.
“Samael Et Therun… I wait for you,”
The voice spoke again, and Sam shook his head. In front of him was a tunnel, a lightless hole. He could turn around, right now. Part of him wanted to. There was always that fear of the unknown. But still, his heart told him to proceed. So he did. One foot went into the tunnel, and then the other…
And then he slipped. The passage hid a slippery slope that grew steeper as it went. And so Sam fell in darkness. After what felt like minutes, he saw something below, a light that grew closer and brighter until he was finally deposited onto the floor of a dome-shaped chamber.
Sam struggled to his feet, legs shaking while he tried to find his footing on the ice. But then he realized – the ice wasn’t slippery. In fact, it felt as sturdy as anything he had ever stood on before. And there was light shining from the ice crystals which made up the room. Something different was going on here.
“Samael Et Therun… you have come.”
“Call me Sam, please,” he responded to the strange voice as if it was anyone else.
“As you wish,” was its reply, and that response made Sam blink. He looked toward the center of the room, where a large pile of ice spires lay. But the ice soon shifted. It moved, changing shape and forming something else. Something straight out of myth.
“A dragon?” Sam asked softly once it finished. ‘Dragons didn’t exist’, his father would say. ‘Flights of fancy have no place in our world’. Though Sam never quite understood that. Magic ran off imagination and logic together, so why would one be less important than the other?
“Indeed. My name is Chyriss. I have waited for you,” the dragon bowed its head, the mirror-like ice on its body reflecting Sam’s face. His blue eyes were wide in surprise, and – had he forgotten to brush his hair? His white locks were all over the place…
No, not time to think about that, he thought to himself while shaking his head. “Okay, dragon – Chyriss, sorry.” It was rude to ignore the dragon’s name after she was nice enough to use his. “Why have you waited for me?”
“The great darkness is returning,” Chyriss said, its long tail swaying back and forth. “The battle from long ago is about to play out once more. You mortals are not prepared.”
Sam frowned. “What are you talking about? This sounds like something out of myth.”
“What was once the truth will become myth, given enough time has passed. Who decides what parts of history are real, and what is fake?” A chuckle seemed to echo around the room. “We have long since been forgotten. But we remember.”
Chyriss was smiling. Sam didn’t know how he knew, he could simply feel it. “So, a darkness is coming. Assuming you’re right, how could we not be prepared? If we assume that all myths are real, we still have progressed far beyond where we would have been back then.”
“There is not enough time to explain.” There was worry behind the strength in Chyriss’ voice. “We dragons seek those destined to wield our power. Our scales. To become the dragon souls tasked with the protection of our world.”
“I’m… not special, not like that. I’ve never used magic, I don’t–”
“You doubt yourself. It is understandable, given your age. But believe me when I say that you are the one I have been waiting for. Please. Accept my scale. The world may depend on it.”
That brought Sam to a pause. “May? Am I the only one? The only, what did you say, dragon soul?”
“The only one for me.”
“For you?”
Chyriss bowed her head in a nod. “Yes.”
Sam looked down at the icy floor. “I… accept.”
“Say the words please.”
“I will take your scale. I will protect the world.”
Chyriss smiled once again and bowed her head. “Thank you. Now, it is about time for you to return. Please, hold out your hands.”
Sam did as he was asked. “Return?” he asked, though he did not get a response. Chyriss had lowered her head and seemingly pulled a scale off her body. She reached out and dropped the scale into Sam’s outstretched hands. Power surged through his body–
And then he woke up.
*******************************************
Sam gasped as his eyes opened. For a moment he just laid there, his eyes staring up at the bunk above him. Then he rolled to his side and grabbed his phone, tapping the screen to turn it on. “Only three-thirty? Geez…”
“What’s up, babe?”
Sam sighed softly and shook his head. “Weird dreams, don’t worry about it.”
Caleb closed his textbook and turned his chair to face Sam. “You saying that makes it clear I need to worry. Besides, you were moaning in your sleep – and not the good kind. C’mon, what’s up?”
Sam’s eyes met Caleb’s dreamy emeralds and he smiled. “Can’t hide anything from you. But really, it was just a weird dream. Dragons and scales. That’s all.”
“Scales?”
“Well, just the one, really. She said something about a great darkness. I don’t know, I don’t remember much. It was a dream, after all.”
Caleb sighed and ran a hand through his smooth, silky black hair. “I need to hear whatever you remember, okay?”
“Why?”
“I’m working on my magicology midterm essay, you know. I chose the myth of the dragons.”
“So?”
Caleb looked down at the floor. “I had a dream like yours, I think. I’m trying to use my research to corroborate what was said.”
“You…” Sam paused, eyes wide. “Okay. So, I was walking up a mountain. Very tall, lots of snow. I didn’t feel cold, though. Ended up under the mountain, in front of a dragon. Chyriss, she said her name was. She talked about a darkness. Said I would use her power to save the world.”
Caleb had been nodding along as Sam spoke. “Okay. Mine was similar. But it was a volcano. The fire dragon Dystrat he said.” There was a long pause before Caleb spoke again. “I don’t have enough material here to figure it out. And it’s late. Well, early. C’mon. I have a free period in the morning, I’ll check the library first thing after breakfast.
“I don’t know if I can sleep after that…” Sam sighed and shook his head.
“Who said anything about sleeping?” The smirk on Caleb’s face made Sam’s face go a deep red. “I’ve been up all night. I want some time with my wonderful girlfriend.” Caleb stood and made his way to the bed, leaning in and giving Sam a gentle kiss on the lips which was happily reciprocated. But then Sam pulled back to meet Caleb’s eyes.
“You had a dream like mine?” He asked. “Think it means something?”
Caleb chuckled and slid onto the bed, sitting next to his love. They cuddled into one another, both wearing smiles. They were silent for a while, just enjoying each other’s company, before Caleb sighed.
“I don’t know. Magicologists debate about all sorts of things. There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding magic, and we’ve had it since we began to exist. That’s what the majority believe, anyway.”
Sam ran a finger over his wolfman boyfriend’s ear, giggling when it flicked. “Lots of them don’t think that the old myths tell the whole truth. So there’s really not a lot of actual research into dragons on the internet.”
“Any fanon?”
Caleb shook his head. “Yeah, the usual. Stories – books and the like. Nothing that’s been proven to have reliable sources. The library archives might have something not on the internet.”
“Wouldn’t that be a first?” Sam mumbled, rubbing a hand down Caleb’s back to the tip of his tail. “I have professor Archea first period, I can ask her about it.”
“Doesn’t she teach astrology?”
Sam shrugged. “Who knows, the stars might’ve told her something.”
“Celestial magic…” Caleb kissed Sam on the cheek. “Not really what most would call a reliable source. But sometimes, all you need is to believe.”
“Sound like my mother when you say that.”
“Am I wrong?”
Sam simply chuckled and shook his head. “That’s enough. Let’s get some rest. Swordfighting class tomorrow, too, so I need to be ready.”
Caleb closed his eyes alongside Sam, happy to simply snuggle with his partner. “You’re so sexy when you’re training. Wonder what would happen if you chose a devotion… I can barely keep my hands off of you as it is.
“Go to sleep you horndog.”
“You know you love it.”
“I love you more, though."
submitted by MythyDragonwolf to redditserials [link] [comments]
There were no paths, but somehow Sam knew where he was going. There was a passageway on the other side, halfway up. Dug into the mountain, cut through the ice. Nobody would have ever made it this far up. Sam wasn’t sure how he made it this far.
“Samael Et Therun… I wait for you,”
The voice spoke again, and Sam shook his head. In front of him was a tunnel, a lightless hole. He could turn around, right now. Part of him wanted to. There was always that fear of the unknown. But still, his heart told him to proceed. So he did. One foot went into the tunnel, and then the other…
And then he slipped. The passage hid a slippery slope that grew steeper as it went. And so Sam fell in darkness. After what felt like minutes, he saw something below, a light that grew closer and brighter until he was finally deposited onto the floor of a dome-shaped chamber.
Sam struggled to his feet, legs shaking while he tried to find his footing on the ice. But then he realized – the ice wasn’t slippery. In fact, it felt as sturdy as anything he had ever stood on before. And there was light shining from the ice crystals which made up the room. Something different was going on here.
“Samael Et Therun… you have come.”
“Call me Sam, please,” he responded to the strange voice as if it was anyone else.
“As you wish,” was its reply, and that response made Sam blink. He looked toward the center of the room, where a large pile of ice spires lay. But the ice soon shifted. It moved, changing shape and forming something else. Something straight out of myth.
“A dragon?” Sam asked softly once it finished. ‘Dragons didn’t exist’, his father would say. ‘Flights of fancy have no place in our world’. Though Sam never quite understood that. Magic ran off imagination and logic together, so why would one be less important than the other?
“Indeed. My name is Chyriss. I have waited for you,” the dragon bowed its head, the mirror-like ice on its body reflecting Sam’s face. His blue eyes were wide in surprise, and – had he forgotten to brush his hair? His white locks were all over the place…
No, not time to think about that, he thought to himself while shaking his head. “Okay, dragon – Chyriss, sorry.” It was rude to ignore the dragon’s name after she was nice enough to use his. “Why have you waited for me?”
“The great darkness is returning,” Chyriss said, its long tail swaying back and forth. “The battle from long ago is about to play out once more. You mortals are not prepared.”
Sam frowned. “What are you talking about? This sounds like something out of myth.”
“What was once the truth will become myth, given enough time has passed. Who decides what parts of history are real, and what is fake?” A chuckle seemed to echo around the room. “We have long since been forgotten. But we remember.”
Chyriss was smiling. Sam didn’t know how he knew, he could simply feel it. “So, a darkness is coming. Assuming you’re right, how could we not be prepared? If we assume that all myths are real, we still have progressed far beyond where we would have been back then.”
“There is not enough time to explain.” There was worry behind the strength in Chyriss’ voice. “We dragons seek those destined to wield our power. Our scales. To become the dragon souls tasked with the protection of our world.”
“I’m… not special, not like that. I’ve never used magic, I don’t–”
“You doubt yourself. It is understandable, given your age. But believe me when I say that you are the one I have been waiting for. Please. Accept my scale. The world may depend on it.”
That brought Sam to a pause. “May? Am I the only one? The only, what did you say, dragon soul?”
“The only one for me.”
“For you?”
Chyriss bowed her head in a nod. “Yes.”
Sam looked down at the icy floor. “I… accept.”
“Say the words please.”
“I will take your scale. I will protect the world.”
Chyriss smiled once again and bowed her head. “Thank you. Now, it is about time for you to return. Please, hold out your hands.”
Sam did as he was asked. “Return?” he asked, though he did not get a response. Chyriss had lowered her head and seemingly pulled a scale off her body. She reached out and dropped the scale into Sam’s outstretched hands. Power surged through his body–
And then he woke up.
*******************************************
Sam gasped as his eyes opened. For a moment he just laid there, his eyes staring up at the bunk above him. Then he rolled to his side and grabbed his phone, tapping the screen to turn it on. “Only three-thirty? Geez…”
“What’s up, babe?”
Sam sighed softly and shook his head. “Weird dreams, don’t worry about it.”
Caleb closed his textbook and turned his chair to face Sam. “You saying that makes it clear I need to worry. Besides, you were moaning in your sleep – and not the good kind. C’mon, what’s up?”
Sam’s eyes met Caleb’s dreamy emeralds and he smiled. “Can’t hide anything from you. But really, it was just a weird dream. Dragons and scales. That’s all.”
“Scales?”
“Well, just the one, really. She said something about a great darkness. I don’t know, I don’t remember much. It was a dream, after all.”
Caleb sighed and ran a hand through his smooth, silky black hair. “I need to hear whatever you remember, okay?”
“Why?”
“I’m working on my magicology midterm essay, you know. I chose the myth of the dragons.”
“So?”
Caleb looked down at the floor. “I had a dream like yours, I think. I’m trying to use my research to corroborate what was said.”
“You…” Sam paused, eyes wide. “Okay. So, I was walking up a mountain. Very tall, lots of snow. I didn’t feel cold, though. Ended up under the mountain, in front of a dragon. Chyriss, she said her name was. She talked about a darkness. Said I would use her power to save the world.”
Caleb had been nodding along as Sam spoke. “Okay. Mine was similar. But it was a volcano. The fire dragon Dystrat he said.” There was a long pause before Caleb spoke again. “I don’t have enough material here to figure it out. And it’s late. Well, early. C’mon. I have a free period in the morning, I’ll check the library first thing after breakfast.
“I don’t know if I can sleep after that…” Sam sighed and shook his head.
“Who said anything about sleeping?” The smirk on Caleb’s face made Sam’s face go a deep red. “I’ve been up all night. I want some time with my wonderful girlfriend.” Caleb stood and made his way to the bed, leaning in and giving Sam a gentle kiss on the lips which was happily reciprocated. But then Sam pulled back to meet Caleb’s eyes.
“You had a dream like mine?” He asked. “Think it means something?”
Caleb chuckled and slid onto the bed, sitting next to his love. They cuddled into one another, both wearing smiles. They were silent for a while, just enjoying each other’s company, before Caleb sighed.
“I don’t know. Magicologists debate about all sorts of things. There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding magic, and we’ve had it since we began to exist. That’s what the majority believe, anyway.”
Sam ran a finger over his wolfman boyfriend’s ear, giggling when it flicked. “Lots of them don’t think that the old myths tell the whole truth. So there’s really not a lot of actual research into dragons on the internet.”
“Any fanon?”
Caleb shook his head. “Yeah, the usual. Stories – books and the like. Nothing that’s been proven to have reliable sources. The library archives might have something not on the internet.”
“Wouldn’t that be a first?” Sam mumbled, rubbing a hand down Caleb’s back to the tip of his tail. “I have professor Archea first period, I can ask her about it.”
“Doesn’t she teach astrology?”
Sam shrugged. “Who knows, the stars might’ve told her something.”
“Celestial magic…” Caleb kissed Sam on the cheek. “Not really what most would call a reliable source. But sometimes, all you need is to believe.”
“Sound like my mother when you say that.”
“Am I wrong?”
Sam simply chuckled and shook his head. “That’s enough. Let’s get some rest. Swordfighting class tomorrow, too, so I need to be ready.”
Caleb closed his eyes alongside Sam, happy to simply snuggle with his partner. “You’re so sexy when you’re training. Wonder what would happen if you chose a devotion… I can barely keep my hands off of you as it is.
“Go to sleep you horndog.”
“You know you love it.”
“I love you more, though."
2024.05.20 22:36 torchia97 Farm to City Scaredy Cat
Hi all,
My partner and I grew up with dogs, but this is our first time owning one of our own. We are emotionally and financially set up to do proper training, but need some help while we wait for it to start up.
We just picked up our new girl, a 6 month pyrenees mix.
Her temperament is amazing. Not one growl, whine, bark, bite, nip, nothing.
However - she started her life on a farm, with only her family (parents, siblings, horses, and the woman who owns the farm.)
We live in a city and she is absolutely petrified. She has never been on a leash before now. She panicked, freaked, and slipped her collar when we tried to take a potty break on the way home. Caused a heart attack and a half trying to get her back and it was a near miss. She is a skittish little love and not food motivated enough to care about treats.
We have a harness arriving tomorrow now that we have her measurements.
How do we integrate a puppy that had free reign on a farm to a city lifestyle? We are very active and she will have lots of exercise... once we know she isn't going to bolt on us.
Currently planning to give her some major space when we get home, but we feel awful that she's so spooked.
I would love some book recs as well.
Thanks!
submitted by torchia97 to puppy101 [link] [comments]
My partner and I grew up with dogs, but this is our first time owning one of our own. We are emotionally and financially set up to do proper training, but need some help while we wait for it to start up.
We just picked up our new girl, a 6 month pyrenees mix.
Her temperament is amazing. Not one growl, whine, bark, bite, nip, nothing.
However - she started her life on a farm, with only her family (parents, siblings, horses, and the woman who owns the farm.)
We live in a city and she is absolutely petrified. She has never been on a leash before now. She panicked, freaked, and slipped her collar when we tried to take a potty break on the way home. Caused a heart attack and a half trying to get her back and it was a near miss. She is a skittish little love and not food motivated enough to care about treats.
We have a harness arriving tomorrow now that we have her measurements.
How do we integrate a puppy that had free reign on a farm to a city lifestyle? We are very active and she will have lots of exercise... once we know she isn't going to bolt on us.
Currently planning to give her some major space when we get home, but we feel awful that she's so spooked.
I would love some book recs as well.
Thanks!
2024.05.20 17:50 Friendly-Ad5092 i say this for everyone
ROACH if ur gonna "flaunt" ur fake boobs, please do everyone a favor and get u a bathing suit that actually covers them. u are you .004 seconds away from having a nip slip, so on behalf of everyone get u a bathing suit that actually fits😭
submitted by Friendly-Ad5092 to rachelweaversnark [link] [comments]
2024.05.20 13:57 Blibidiblub Subtle Nip slip 2
 | submitted by Blibidiblub to NSFWTiktokLiveSlips [link] [comments] |
2024.05.20 07:26 Automatic-Ganache-25 This woman I know
This woman I know Might grow a halo
This woman's strength is as gentle as divine grace. Delicate yet resilient it grows. It eminates and resonates from her spirit and warms this space. Her mind is powerful, her voice bright. Her rage like a sneeze outright, causing my heart to freeze on sight. Her laugh a breeze that puts me at peace with ease. Just one look can and does bring me to my knees. Her eyes a soft glow. Unmistakable light Her faith deeply overflows. Unfuckwithable might. Her manner is polite her grip upright is like her will is tight Her whip is her tongue and in a fight one slip up and it's a beat down all night A hip with one hand delight she trips all demons apart insight No lip just a prayer that bites from a snip of her spirits flight Like a icebergs tip She amens the last rite and rip. Nothing that feeds off of fright just a light inside no one can nip.
This woman's courage bubbles from a celestial sea It's liquidity and intensity clearly shows. A beacon with such tender propensity the gravity of her kindness black holes.
This woman's spirit has an overwhelmingly nurturing nature. She the reason the devil hates her uncontrollably enduring structure.
This woman's divinity has purity thats irresistibly the opposite of evil an unforgettably flourishing rapture.
This woman's beauty has a hard expression it leaves you with the unmistakable impression that she's gotten used to licking wounds and hounds demons for the sake of every ignorant person clueless and oblivious like me from an Incursion of perversion while I'm head of heels in hells diversion.
This woman I know Might wave tomorrow
submitted by Automatic-Ganache-25 to justpoetry [link] [comments]
This woman's strength is as gentle as divine grace. Delicate yet resilient it grows. It eminates and resonates from her spirit and warms this space. Her mind is powerful, her voice bright. Her rage like a sneeze outright, causing my heart to freeze on sight. Her laugh a breeze that puts me at peace with ease. Just one look can and does bring me to my knees. Her eyes a soft glow. Unmistakable light Her faith deeply overflows. Unfuckwithable might. Her manner is polite her grip upright is like her will is tight Her whip is her tongue and in a fight one slip up and it's a beat down all night A hip with one hand delight she trips all demons apart insight No lip just a prayer that bites from a snip of her spirits flight Like a icebergs tip She amens the last rite and rip. Nothing that feeds off of fright just a light inside no one can nip.
This woman's courage bubbles from a celestial sea It's liquidity and intensity clearly shows. A beacon with such tender propensity the gravity of her kindness black holes.
This woman's spirit has an overwhelmingly nurturing nature. She the reason the devil hates her uncontrollably enduring structure.
This woman's divinity has purity thats irresistibly the opposite of evil an unforgettably flourishing rapture.
This woman's beauty has a hard expression it leaves you with the unmistakable impression that she's gotten used to licking wounds and hounds demons for the sake of every ignorant person clueless and oblivious like me from an Incursion of perversion while I'm head of heels in hells diversion.
This woman I know Might wave tomorrow
2024.05.20 06:40 kong2882 She made it to 1k members can we get a nip slip
submitted by kong2882 to itsameyomama [link] [comments]
2024.05.20 05:48 Automatic-Ganache-25 This woman I know
This woman I know Might grow a halo
This woman's strength is as gentle as divine grace. Delicate yet resilient it grows. It eminates and resonates from her spirit and warms this space. Her mind is powerful, her voice bright. Her rage like a sneeze outright, causing my heart to freeze on sight. Her laugh a breeze that puts me at peace with ease. Just one look can and does bring me to my knees. Her eyes a soft glow. Unmistakable light Her faith deeply overflows. Unfuckwithable might. Her manner is polite her grip upright is like her will is tight Her whip is her tongue and in a fight one slip up and it's a beat down all night A hip with one hand delight she trips all demons apart insight No lip just a prayer that bites from a snip of her spirits flight Like a icebergs tip She amens the last rite and rip. Nothing that feeds off of fright just a light inside no one can nip.
This woman's courage bubbles from a celestial sea It's liquidity and intensity clearly shows. A beacon with such tender propensity the gravity of her kindness black holes.
This woman's spirit has an overwhelmingly nurturing nature. She the reason the devil hates her uncontrollably enduring structure.
This woman's divinity has purity thats irresistibly the opposite of evil an unforgettably flourishing rapture.
This woman's beauty has a hard expression it leaves you with the unmistakable impression that she's gotten used to licking wounds and hounds demons for the sake of every ignorant person clueless and oblivious like me from an Incursion of perversion while I'm head of heels in hells diversion.
This woman I know Might wave tomorrow
submitted by Automatic-Ganache-25 to amaturepoerty [link] [comments]
This woman's strength is as gentle as divine grace. Delicate yet resilient it grows. It eminates and resonates from her spirit and warms this space. Her mind is powerful, her voice bright. Her rage like a sneeze outright, causing my heart to freeze on sight. Her laugh a breeze that puts me at peace with ease. Just one look can and does bring me to my knees. Her eyes a soft glow. Unmistakable light Her faith deeply overflows. Unfuckwithable might. Her manner is polite her grip upright is like her will is tight Her whip is her tongue and in a fight one slip up and it's a beat down all night A hip with one hand delight she trips all demons apart insight No lip just a prayer that bites from a snip of her spirits flight Like a icebergs tip She amens the last rite and rip. Nothing that feeds off of fright just a light inside no one can nip.
This woman's courage bubbles from a celestial sea It's liquidity and intensity clearly shows. A beacon with such tender propensity the gravity of her kindness black holes.
This woman's spirit has an overwhelmingly nurturing nature. She the reason the devil hates her uncontrollably enduring structure.
This woman's divinity has purity thats irresistibly the opposite of evil an unforgettably flourishing rapture.
This woman's beauty has a hard expression it leaves you with the unmistakable impression that she's gotten used to licking wounds and hounds demons for the sake of every ignorant person clueless and oblivious like me from an Incursion of perversion while I'm head of heels in hells diversion.
This woman I know Might wave tomorrow
2024.05.19 15:54 MendUrways Summer time shirt related blues
Every summer the sun comes out and the dudes take off their shirts. And I can't leave my house because I'm reminded that I can't do that in front of anyone. I couldn't even change in front of the other girls in the locker room in gym class, I'd feel obscene.
As a historian, I'm keenly aware men used to only go topless in homo-social situations where it was just men. About 100 years ago men fought for the right to go topless in public beaches, sharing space with women and children. The reason swimsuits were unisex was because 100 some years ago in America obscenity laws were equal for everyone.
Women have spent the past 100 odd years fighting to breast feed in the same spaces men can go shirtless, or anywhere people eat (like restaurants); it was in effort to stop feeding babies in public toilet stalls. Makes sense. Only the so-called female nipple has a practical function to be exposed.
Obscenity laws for our "bottom parts" make sense since they function in private and ought to function in private, whether to evacuate urine/feces or for sexual relations. It is precisely because of these functions the "genitalia" are banned and considered nudity.
Now, if women want to beat the heat, they better work out that booty because swimwear is about showing off the backside cheeks. However, I guess I grew up being told to cover my butt up, so that's not an option I'd do in public. I don't want people staring at my butt.
Meanwhile, even I'm wearing a tight so-called female swimsuit top it shows off the entire shape of my chest leaving nothing to the imagination the dudes walk around topless without the extra layer of spandex-y type material that is really trapping heat and annoying. Sure, should be moisture wicking and stuff, but women's swimwear seems to trap in the heat. Padding is like wearing little miniature winter coats on my chest, on each "boob," which for me draws attention to that area in more ways being topless would not... Does this make sense?
I'm supposed to show off the shape of my breasts while keeping them covered. I'm supposed to wear itty bitty triangles over them and prevent "nip slips"... let alone I'm expected to shave before I go out in public in these skimpy swimsuits which leave nothing to the imagination.
Men, however, get to throw on baggy shorts and they're ready to go. The prep time is nil. Unless he's in speedos no one is seeing the literal shape of his nether regions. I have supposedly no choice unless I put on even more layers. Shorts and shirts, sweltering in the heat, surrounded by topless dudes who I never gave my consent to frolic around me topless.
Used to be I advocated for equal rights and women going topless but now I just think men should cover up. The conservatives are using their children (girls mostly) to protest seeing a topless "boy" (actually trans) in the locker room. Apparently all this time unbeknownst to me girls don't want to see that. But at the pool, beach, playground, park, street, backyard, frontyard, etc, it's unavoidable. It's totally legal. Males can expose themselves outside the locker room all they want.
When do we accept this as... acceptable public behavior? We know it's nudity, but we must pretend not to notice it. Females are not covered up for having breasts, it's for having nipples. Well last time I checked, dudes have nipples. So that's a double standard.
Sure, this comes down to some primal jealousy I have but for all my life I can't enjoy the summer air the same way. I feel defective, not sexy, and why would I want to feel "sexy" in front of the public of all ages? Why should we say it's cool if men go topless because some of them are sexy, this is a family beach. We say we don't want groomers and pedoPh!les around our kids, who are mostly men let's face it, but we allow strangers to walk around our children topless and think it's OK.
If some topless dude sent your young teen a photo of himself topless, he's not being obscene? It's not nudity? I'd say lock that creep out, because if a woman did the same thing she'd be in prison.
It's rude and most dudes I ever met who go topless around kids/women are usually very narcissist and want that power over others. A sort of Look what I can Do but you Can't.... in addition I'm 42 so starting to have those hot flashes. It's impractical for me to wear more clothing but I'm basically indecent all over, from the bottom to the top. It depresses me so much, always has.
Wearing a sundress to air myself out is not helping plus dictating if only I changed what I wore I'd feel less hot in the sunshine. Put the dudes in sundresses too then. See how they like it.
We should all wear wetsuits. This inequitable definition of what is nudity has only resulted in over a century of men feeling superior for the most overlooked reasons --- they can mow the lawn half naked, they can walk down the street half naked, and no one will tell them what to do. The only places practicing good reason are the No shirts No service shopping centers. We should go back to decency laws, that apply to everyone equally. If men want to be topless, go back to the bathhouses where it was acceptable before and usually almost always places for gay men to frequent to "see topless dudes" DUH...
If nobody wants to see me topless, then understand this--- I don't want to see your dads and sons topless around me. Cover up. Show some respect to women/girls. It is at least disrespectful to flaunt and exercise this law around girls/women--- it is at worst abusive and done without remorse. "I don't care about your comfort, only my own".... it teaches misogyny.
But it's "too hot for a shirt!" Stop it. Apparently it's never been hot for me, I must run cold blooded...
End rant.
submitted by MendUrways to u/MendUrways [link] [comments]
As a historian, I'm keenly aware men used to only go topless in homo-social situations where it was just men. About 100 years ago men fought for the right to go topless in public beaches, sharing space with women and children. The reason swimsuits were unisex was because 100 some years ago in America obscenity laws were equal for everyone.
Women have spent the past 100 odd years fighting to breast feed in the same spaces men can go shirtless, or anywhere people eat (like restaurants); it was in effort to stop feeding babies in public toilet stalls. Makes sense. Only the so-called female nipple has a practical function to be exposed.
Obscenity laws for our "bottom parts" make sense since they function in private and ought to function in private, whether to evacuate urine/feces or for sexual relations. It is precisely because of these functions the "genitalia" are banned and considered nudity.
Now, if women want to beat the heat, they better work out that booty because swimwear is about showing off the backside cheeks. However, I guess I grew up being told to cover my butt up, so that's not an option I'd do in public. I don't want people staring at my butt.
Meanwhile, even I'm wearing a tight so-called female swimsuit top it shows off the entire shape of my chest leaving nothing to the imagination the dudes walk around topless without the extra layer of spandex-y type material that is really trapping heat and annoying. Sure, should be moisture wicking and stuff, but women's swimwear seems to trap in the heat. Padding is like wearing little miniature winter coats on my chest, on each "boob," which for me draws attention to that area in more ways being topless would not... Does this make sense?
I'm supposed to show off the shape of my breasts while keeping them covered. I'm supposed to wear itty bitty triangles over them and prevent "nip slips"... let alone I'm expected to shave before I go out in public in these skimpy swimsuits which leave nothing to the imagination.
Men, however, get to throw on baggy shorts and they're ready to go. The prep time is nil. Unless he's in speedos no one is seeing the literal shape of his nether regions. I have supposedly no choice unless I put on even more layers. Shorts and shirts, sweltering in the heat, surrounded by topless dudes who I never gave my consent to frolic around me topless.
Used to be I advocated for equal rights and women going topless but now I just think men should cover up. The conservatives are using their children (girls mostly) to protest seeing a topless "boy" (actually trans) in the locker room. Apparently all this time unbeknownst to me girls don't want to see that. But at the pool, beach, playground, park, street, backyard, frontyard, etc, it's unavoidable. It's totally legal. Males can expose themselves outside the locker room all they want.
When do we accept this as... acceptable public behavior? We know it's nudity, but we must pretend not to notice it. Females are not covered up for having breasts, it's for having nipples. Well last time I checked, dudes have nipples. So that's a double standard.
Sure, this comes down to some primal jealousy I have but for all my life I can't enjoy the summer air the same way. I feel defective, not sexy, and why would I want to feel "sexy" in front of the public of all ages? Why should we say it's cool if men go topless because some of them are sexy, this is a family beach. We say we don't want groomers and pedoPh!les around our kids, who are mostly men let's face it, but we allow strangers to walk around our children topless and think it's OK.
If some topless dude sent your young teen a photo of himself topless, he's not being obscene? It's not nudity? I'd say lock that creep out, because if a woman did the same thing she'd be in prison.
It's rude and most dudes I ever met who go topless around kids/women are usually very narcissist and want that power over others. A sort of Look what I can Do but you Can't.... in addition I'm 42 so starting to have those hot flashes. It's impractical for me to wear more clothing but I'm basically indecent all over, from the bottom to the top. It depresses me so much, always has.
Wearing a sundress to air myself out is not helping plus dictating if only I changed what I wore I'd feel less hot in the sunshine. Put the dudes in sundresses too then. See how they like it.
We should all wear wetsuits. This inequitable definition of what is nudity has only resulted in over a century of men feeling superior for the most overlooked reasons --- they can mow the lawn half naked, they can walk down the street half naked, and no one will tell them what to do. The only places practicing good reason are the No shirts No service shopping centers. We should go back to decency laws, that apply to everyone equally. If men want to be topless, go back to the bathhouses where it was acceptable before and usually almost always places for gay men to frequent to "see topless dudes" DUH...
If nobody wants to see me topless, then understand this--- I don't want to see your dads and sons topless around me. Cover up. Show some respect to women/girls. It is at least disrespectful to flaunt and exercise this law around girls/women--- it is at worst abusive and done without remorse. "I don't care about your comfort, only my own".... it teaches misogyny.
But it's "too hot for a shirt!" Stop it. Apparently it's never been hot for me, I must run cold blooded...
End rant.
2024.05.19 08:06 Mantis_Shrimp47 The monster in the sand dunes turned my brother into a bird
"You gotta know that there's an art to it, Ezra," Hitch said, cutting another piece of duct tape.
The sleeves of his weather-beaten coat were shoved all the way up his arms, to stop the fabric from falling over his knuckles while he was working, and goosebumps lined his skin. He was strapping a rubber chicken to the back of his truck, over the lens of the shattered backup camera, with the legs pointing down so that they hung a couple inches above the ground. There were dents in the hood from the crash last week, and scratches along the door from scraping into a curb. The chicken, hopefully, would keep him from breaking anything else.
"You can't go cheap," Hitch said. "The cheap rubber chickens only make noise when pressure lets go. That's no good. As soon as I back up into something, I want this chicken to be screaming like it’s in the depths of hell."
“Sure thing,” I said in a monotone, leaning against the side of the truck.
There were scrambled electronic parts piled in the back of the truck, the innards of a radio, a broken computer, tangled wires, a couple loose pairs of earbuds. He found the parts in alleyways or bummed them off his friends for a couple bucks or stole them from the vacation homes that were left empty for most of the year. Then he sold them for a profit at the scrapyard. Hitch had bounced between minimum-wage jobs for a while after high school, spending a couple months as a bagger at the grocery store or as a seasonal worker at the farm two hours down the highway. He'd never stuck with it. At the very least, the scrapyard got him enough money to eat and occasionally spend a night in a motel when he got tired of sleeping in his car.
Hitch pressed the last piece of tape in place and grinned up at me. "I've got something for you, duck."
The nickname came from when I’d broken my leg as a child and waddled around in a cast until it was healed. I hated it with a burning passion, and I glared at Hitch with the ease of twenty-one years of practice. He had a duck tattoo at the base of his thumb that he’d gotten in a back-alley shop as a teenager. He said that he’d gotten it to remind him of me, and the fact that I hated the nickname was just a bonus. It was shaky-lined, with an uneven face, but he loved it anyway.
The handle stuck when Hitch tried to open the door, a consequence of the rust collecting in the crevices of the car and running down the sides like blood from a cut. The car groaned when the door finally popped open, a metal against metal screech that had me flinching away. Hitch dug through the cluttered fast food containers in the passenger-side footwell, eventually coming up with a crinkly paper bag. He waved away the flies buzzing around the opening of the bag and held it out to me.
The last time Hitch had brought me food, I’d gotten food poisoning because he’d left it out in the midday sun for two days. The donut was squished slightly, and the icing was stuck to the bag. I still ate it, grimacing at the harsh citrus flavor. Taking Hitch’s food was an instinct engraved from the days when Dad had given us a can of kidney beans for dinner and Hitch had drank the juice, leaving the beans for me.
I rarely went hungry anymore, three mostly square meals a day and granola in my pockets just in case, but habits didn’t die easy.
These days, Hitch only brought me food when he wanted my help, like when he saw a place he wanted to hit but was worried about doing it alone.
I got in the car, like I always did.
We drove past the cluster of seafood-themed restaurants with chipped paint decks, the beachfront park where there were always shifty-eyed men sitting under the slide, the single room library where all the books had been water damaged in the flood last year. The change was quick as we drove across Main Street, heading closer to the beach. The roads were freshly paved, the concrete a smooth black except where the sun had already started to pick away at it. The three-story homes lining the sides of the street were crouched on elegant stilts, with space underneath for a car or three. Most of the garages were empty, with the lights off and curtains drawn in the house. Come summer, the streets would be swarming with tourists and vacationers, but until then, most of the buildings nearest to the beach were unoccupied.
Hitch stopped as the sun started to go down at a house that was leaning precariously out towards the beach, tilted ever so slightly, the edge of its foundation buried in the shifting sand of the beach. It certainly looked deserted, with an overgrown yard and blue paint peeling off the door in sheets.
Hitch took his hammer out of the backseat, hoisting it over his shoulder. It was two feet of solid metal with rags wrapped around the head to muffle the sound of the hits. Hitch squared up, bending his knees and holding the hammer like a baseball bat. Before he could swing, though, the door creaked open on its own, the hinges squeaking. The house beyond was dark enough that I could only make out general shapes, glimpsing the curve of a sofa to the left, what was maybe the shimmer of a chandelier on the other side.
Hitch lowered his hammer, looking vaguely disappointed that he didn’t get to use it. “That’s…weird as hell.”
“Maybe the deadbolt broke, maybe they forgot to lock it, it doesn’t matter,” I hissed, checking our surroundings for other people again. “Just hurry up and get inside before someone calls the cops.”
Hitch flicked the lightswitch on the wall, and the lights flickered on. They were dim, buzzing audibly and blinking off occasionally. The walls were plastered with contrasting swatches of wallpaper and splattered with random colors. There was neon orange behind the dining table, a galaxy swirl in the kitchen, and on the ceiling there was a repeating floral pattern covered in nametag stickers. Each of the stickers was filled out with The Erlking. Chandeliers hung in every room, three or four for each, and rubber ducks sat on every table. A miniature carousel sat in the corner along with a towering model rocket.
Sand was heaped on every surface, at least a couple inches everywhere. It was piled in the corners and stuck to the walls, and it covered the floor in a thick blanket. Our hesitant steps into the house left footprints clearly outlined in the sand.
Hitch took a cursory look around and headed immediately for the TV mounted on the wall. “Look out the windows and tell me if anyone is coming.”
I shook the sand out of the blinds and pulled them open, then had to brush sand off of the window before I could see anything.
Hitch was quick, practiced at finding and appropriating the things that were worth taking. He came back to me with an armful of electronics and chandeliers, dumping it at my feet before turning to head deeper into the house again.
There was a thump, somewhere upstairs, and then footsteps, slow and deliberate. Hitch froze at the threshold of the room, then ran for the door with me just ahead of him, sand flying out from under our feet.
My hand was almost brushing the doorknob, close enough that I could see the light from the streetlamp outside streaming in through the cracks in the door. My fingers touched the wood and it gave under my touch, becoming malleable and warm. I yelped, stumbling backwards, and the door started to melt. The paint ran down in thick drops, pooling at the bottom of the door, and the wood warped like metal being welded. The soft edges of the door ran into the walls until there was no sign of an exit ever being there.
“Well, well, well,” said a cultured voice with just an edge of snooty elitism. “What do we have here?”
The man was well over eight feet tall, with long black hair covering his eyes. He was wearing a yellow raincoat with holes cut out of the hood to accommodate the deer antlers jutting upwards from his head. There was sand settled on his shoulders and hovering around his head like a halo.
“Who the fuck are you?” Hitch said, inching towards a window.
He smiled, just a little bit, and his teeth shone in the dim light. “I am the Erlking.”
Hitch nodded, and seemed about to respond. I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the window. I could feel sand in the wind roaring against my back as the Erlking growled in anger, the grains scraping harshly against my cheeks.
We were almost to the window when Hitch was ripped away from me, and I came to a startled halt. The sand had formed long grasping arms that pressed Hitch against the floral wallpaper. His wrists were held tight, and as I watched, a sandy hand wrapped around his mouth and forced its way between his teeth. He gagged, and sand trickled out of the corners of his mouth.
The Erlking strolled towards him, not seeming to be in any sort of rush. “You know, I’m not very fond of your yapping.”
He made an idle gesture and the sand wrapped around my ankles, tethering me in place.
“I yap all the time,” Hitch said. “Three-time olympic yapper, that’s me. Best to just let me go now and save yourself some trouble.”
The Erlking tapped a manicured nail against Hitch’s mouth, hard enough to hurt, judging by the way he flinched away. “But why would I ever let you go when I’ve gone to this much trouble to catch you and your sister? It’s so hard, these days, to find people that no one will miss.”
Hitch struggled against the sand, trying to escape and failing. “What do you want with us, then? You just said it, we’re nobody.”
“I’m fae, dear one,” the Erlking said. “I get my power from my followers. And I think that you two will make lovely additions to my flock.”
He flicked Hitch's nose and Hitch gasped. Feathers started to form on his arms, popping out from under his skin in a spray of blood.
Hitch pushed off the wall, using his bound hands as a fulcrum, and his knees crashed into the Erlking’s stomach. The Erlking fell backwards, wheezing, and the sand around my ankles loosened.
Hitch made desperate eye contact with me as feathers shot up his neck and jerked his head towards the window. The message was obvious. Run.
The last thing I saw before crashing out the window and into freedom was Hitch’s body twisting, his arms wrenching into wings and feathers covering every inch of his skin. By the time I landed on the concrete outside, he was a small black bird, held tightly in the Erlking’s hands. The whole building was sinking into the ground, burnished-gold sand piling up over top and streaming from the windows.
Thirty years later, I saw Sam’s Supernatural Consultation and Neutralization written in neat, looping handwriting on a piece of paper taped to the door. The tape was peeling at the corners and the paper was yellowed with age, but there was obviously care put into the sign, in its perfectly centered text and looping floral designs drawn over the edges in gold marker.
I knocked, hesitantly, drawing my woolen coat closer around my shoulders. I’d bought it as a fiftieth birthday gift for myself, and I took comfort in the heavy weight of it over my shoulders.
“Coming!” someone called from within the depths of the office.
There were a couple crashes, and the sound of paper shuffling. Eventually, the door was opened by a young woman with ketchup stains on her shirt and pencils stuck through her hair.
“Hi, I’m Sam, I specialize in supernatural consultation and hunting, how may I help you today?” Sam said, customer-service pep in her voice. She stood in the doorway, solidly blocking entry into the office.
“My name is Ezra, I’m for a consultation. I emailed you but you didn’t respond?” I shifted in place, suddenly feeling awkward.
“Oh! Yeah, I lost the password for the email ages ago. Sorry for the bad welcome, I get lots of people thinking I’m crazy or pulling a prank and harassing me.”
She ushered me into the office, clearing papers off one of the chairs to make room for me to sit down. There was a collection of swords along one wall, all of them polished to perfection, several with deep knicks in the metal which indicated that they’d been used heavily.
“So what can I help you with?” Sam asked again, more sincere this time.
“Thirty years ago, my brother was turned into a bird,” I started. I’d told this story so many times that it barely felt ridiculous to say anymore. I was used to the disbelieving looks, the careful pity. But Sam just nodded along, face open and welcoming.
“I’ve almost given up on finding him, at this point,” I said. “But I saw your ad in the newspaper, and…here I am, I suppose.”
“Here you are,” Sam echoed, smiling. She pulled one of the pencils out of her hair and took a bit of paperwork off of one of her stacks, turning it over so that the blank side sat neatly in front of her. “Tell me everything.”
I told Sam everything, and she wrote it all down, pencil scratching along the paper.
The last part of the story was always the hardest to tell. “I left him there. I ran and I didn’t look back.”
I had been to dozens of detectives and investigators over the years, once the police had dropped Hitch’s case. I’d been to professional offices with smartly-dressed secretaries and met scraggly men in coffee shops. All of them had given me the same look, pity and annoyance all mixed up into a humor-the-crazy-lady soup. Sam, though, just seemed thoughtful.
Sam leaned forward and put a hand over mine, carefully, like she thought that I would pull away. “Sometimes you have to leave people behind.”
I tightened her hold on Sam’s hand and drew it towards me, like I could make Sam listen if only I squeezed tight enough. “But that’s why I’m here. I don’t want to leave him behind.”
“Okay then. I’ll do my best to help you.” Sam agreed, finally. Then she paused, and said softly, “You know…I think I met your brother once. He might have saved my life. He’s certainly why I started in this business.”
“Really? What happened?” I asked.
This is the story that Sam told me, related to the best of my abilities:
It was a new moon, so the only illumination came from the stars gazing idly down and distant porch lights shining across the scraggly brush of the dunes. Sam’s neighbors were decent people who cared about baby turtles, so the lights were a low, unobtrusive red, and the ocean sloshed like blood. Sam walked on the beach almost every night, drawing back the gauzy pink curtains and clambering out her bedroom window. She didn’t often bother to be quiet; her mama worked the late shift and came home exhausted. As long as Sam got home before the sun, her mama would never find out that she paced the shoreline and dreamed of inhaling sand until her lungs became their own beach.
The sky was lightening. The sun would come up soon, and that meant Sam’s time on the beach was over. She needed to get back to her real life, go to her fifth grade class and stop that nonsense, as her mother would say. Her mother loved to say things like that, pushing Sam into her proper place by implication alone.
“She’s a good kid, of course, but she’s a bit…” Her mother would trail off there, usually getting a commiserating expression from whoever she was talking to. Sam always wondered how that sentence would have finished. She’s a bit strange, maybe. She’s a bit intense. She’s a bit abrasive. She’s quiet enough but when Jason tried to steal her pencil in math class, she stabbed him in the hand so hard that the lead tattooed him.
Her mother was better, for the most part. The days of her stocking up the fridge, and leaving a post-it note on the counter, and leaving for days at a time were gone. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen tile where her mother had collapsed and caved her head in, even though the bloodstains had been replaced with new tile.
“Your auntie got an abortion, you know,” her mother had said from her place on the couch, slurring her words. “Pill in the mail and then bam, no more baby.”
She had clapped her hands together to illustrate her point. Her mother jerked forward and grabbed Sam by the wrist, then, staring up at her until Sam met her eyes.
“I love you, you know? But sometimes I wonder…” She settled back onto the couch. “Yeah. I wonder.”
She’d gotten up, then, back to the kitchen. She’d been stumbling, a shambling zombie of a woman. The ground in the entryway of the kitchen was raised, ever so slightly, and her mother went down hard. Her head cracked against the tile, chin first, and she didn’t move.
Sam had been the one to call the ambulance. She had stared at the scattering of loose teeth on the ground while she waited, and considered what her life would be like with a dead mom. Not so bad, she thought, and immediately felt guilty for it.
Her mom was better, now, for the most part. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen floor where she had collapsed. There was still a matchbox hidden under her bed with the gleaming shine of her mother’s lost teeth, two canines and a molar. It was nice, having a piece of her mom to keep. Even if she left again, Sam would still have part of her.
Sam sighed, and turned away from the ocean. As she faced towards the low dunes further up the beach, she saw a sandcastle sitting nestled among them. It was such a strange sight that her eyes skipped over it at first, almost automatically, disregarding it because it was so out of place.
Sam found sandcastles out on the beach sometimes, usually half-collapsed and on the verge of being washed away by the waves, but she had never seen anything like the sandcastle in front of her. It was life-sized, something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Scottish highlands, with spires shooting up above her head and carefully etched out bricks lining each side. The front wall was dominated by an arched set of double doors, twice her height, with a portcullis nestled at the top, ready to be dropped. All of it was lovingly detailed, down to the rust on the tips of the towers and the wood grain of the door. It was made out of wet, densely-packed sand, held together impossibly. It had not been there two hours ago, when she had come to the beach.
There was a bird sitting on the overhang of the door, small and black.
As soon as she took a step towards the sandcastle, the bird shook out its feathers and swooped down towards Sam, landing at her feet with a little stumble.
“Hey, kid, get out of here,” said the bird.
Sam closed her eyes, very deliberately. When she opened them, the bird was still there. Sam considered herself a very reasonable person, so she immediately drew the most logical conclusion. The bird was, she was almost certain, a demon.
“Trust me, you don’t want to run into Mr. Salty, the queen bitch himself,” the bird said.
“Mr. Salty?” Sam inquired, polite as she knew how to be. She edged to the side, trying to get a good angle to kick the bird like a soccer ball.
The bird did something similar to a wince, all its feathers fluffing up then settling back down. “Ah, don’t call him that. He’d turn you into a toad.”
The bird gestured with its head, towards the looming sand structure. “That’s his castle. He’s in there, probably scuttling along the ceiling or some shit because that’s the sort of weirdo he is.”
Sam nodded, encouraging. She pulled back her foot and lined up her shot, the way she’d seen athletes do on TV. She aimed right for its sharp beak and let loose. The bird saw it coming, its beady eyes widening, and it cawed in distress. It flapped away, avoiding her kick only to fall backward into the sand in a scramble of wings.
“What’s your fucking problem?” it squawked. “I was trying to help you!”
“I don’t need the help of a demon,” Sam yelled, trying to remember the exorcism that her mama had taught her once, because her mama believed in being prepared for anything.
“I’m not a demon,” the bird said indignantly.
It was at about that moment that Sam gave up and just decided to roll with it.
“What are you, then?” Sam asked.
The bird shuffled its clawed feet, looking about as awkward as it could, given that it didn’t really have recognizable facial expressions. “Technically I’m a familiar of the Erlking, prince of the fae, but I prefer to be called Hitch.”
“You can’t blame me for assuming, though,” Sam said. “Ravens do tend to be associated with murder.”
“Hey, excuse you,” Hitch said. “I’m a rook, not a raven. Ravens are way bigger.”
“Sure,” Sam said, not really paying attention. Her eyes had caught on the details of the sandcastle, and she was transfixed by the slow spirals of the sand, the strange beauty of it. She found herself stepping towards the great doors, lifting a hand to knock, and as she did, the sand warped in front of her eyes, heaving itself towards her with bulging slowness. The door creaked open before her, revealing a vast, empty room. Just before she stepped inside, she felt a piercing pain in her foot, and she yelped, leaping backwards.
Hitch pecked her again, really digging his beak in. “Don’t be an idiot.”
Sam glared at him, rubbing her foot. About to retort, she finally really took in the room inside the sandcastle, and her words died in her throat.
There was a body just past the threshold of the door, face down and limbs hanging limp at its sides. Long hair splayed out in a halo around its head.
“Don’t,” Hitch warned, suddenly serious. “Just leave, kid, I mean it. I’ve seen too many people go down this road and you don’t want to be one of them.”
Sam ignored him. She made her way across the beach, slipping with every step. The sand felt deeper, piling up around her feet in silent drifts. She picked up the nearest stick and poked the body with it through the door, ready to leap back if anything went wrong, staying firmly outside of the sandcastle.
This close, Sam could tell that it used to be a woman. Her head wasn’t attached to her body. It hadn’t been a clean amputation, either. Her upper body was bruised, with chunks taken out of it, and the bones in her neck hung mangled, not connected to anything.
“Well, I warned you,” Hitch said, defeated. “I did warn you.”
Sam nudged the head with the end of the stick, nudging it over so that she could see the face. Her mother stared back at her, torn to pieces, breath still wheezing from her lungs. She wasn’t blinking, just gazing forward with glazed eyes. Sweat dripped down from her hairline.
Sam screamed and dropped the stick, tripping over herself in her haste to get away.
Her mother’s eyes were wide and pleading, and she was mouthing desperate words at Sam. Her vocal cords were broken to bits, and the only sound that came out was a strained groan.
The head rolled, inching closer to Sam like a grotesque caterpillar.
Her mother gasped for air, torn lips fluttering. Finally, comprehensible words came out. “Help. Help me, daughter.”
“That’s not your mother,” Hitch said, quiet.
Sam knew that. Her mother was sleeping back at home, and anyways her mom had never asked for her help. She had an aversion to accepting charity, as she put it.
“Okay,” Sam said, shaking all over. “Okay.”
She backed away from the sandcastle, not looking away.
“Failure,” her mother hissed as she stepped away. “I never wanted a daughter like you.”
The sun came up over the horizon. The sandcastle, Hitch, and her mom all disintegrated into sand as the light hit them.
The beach, the next night, was almost exactly how I remembered it. The beams of our flashlights sent light bouncing across the dunes, illuminating the waves, and I imagined faces in the foam of the waves.
“I’ve been back here a hundred times. There’s nothing left,” I said.
Sam took the car key out of her purse and pointed it at the sand, adjusting the sword slung over her shoulder in order to do it. The key had belonged to Hitch; Sam had requested an item of his, and it was the only thing I had left. She rested the key on the sand and drew a circle around it, inscribing symbols around the borders.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Sam shrugged. “Not much, really. I’m…I guess you could say that I’m knocking.”
The key laid inert on the sand for long enough that I was just about to give up and go home, admit to myself that Hitch was dead and that I was a fool to believe that Sam could actually help me. Then a building started to take shape, flickering in and out like it was struggling to get away. With a pop of displaced air, the sandcastle settled into existence.
Sam banged on the entryway. Nothing happened. She did it again, harder, and scowled when the door still didn’t open.
“We demand entrance, under your honor,” Sam yelled. There was a hard rush of wind, and I gripped Sam’s arm to keep my balance, but the doors cracked open reluctantly.
The inside of the sandcastle consisted of one enormous hall, the roof arching up out of sight. Rafters crisscrossed from wall to wall, and a cobbled path led further into the building, but other than that, it was completely empty, except for the birds. There were thousands of them, perched on the rafters or hopping along the ground. They parted in front of Sam and I, and reformed behind us, leaving us in a small pocket of open space. They were all black-feathered, with sharp beaks and beady eyes.
The Erlking sat on a throne at the end of the hall, lounging across it with his feet up on the armrest. He watched them as they came forward, the soft caw of the birds the only sound.
“I am here to bargain for the life of my brother,” I said, with as much dignity as I could muster, before the Erlking could say anything.
The Erlking ignored her, tilting his head to look at Sam. “I remember you. I almost got you, once.”
Sam glared at him but didn’t respond.
“You want your brother,” The Erlking said to me, and he almost sounded amused. “Then go get him.”
As if by some sort of silent signal, every bird in the room took flight at once, and their cawing made me think of screams. I covered my head against the flapping of their wings, and my vision was quickly obscured by the chaotic movement of them. I found myself on my knees, just trying to escape them.
A hand met my shoulder. Sam urged me to my feet, and together we ran for the edge of the room, where the swarm was the thinnest. We pressed ourselves into the corner and the swarm spiraled tighter and tighter at the center of the room. It went on until there seemed to be no differentiation between the birds, all of them fused together into one creature.
When the chaos died down, the birds had become one mass, with wings and eyes and talons sticking out of its flesh, thrashing and chirping. Human body parts stuck out of it, bulging out from the feathers. It was hands, mostly, with a couple knees or staring eyes. The bird amalgamation had no recognizable facial features, but there was one long beak extending from the front of its head. Most of the body parts were concentrated around the beak, and they peeked out from where the beak connected with muscle, or grew from the tongue, nestled between the two crushing halves of the beak.
It turned its beak down and crawled forward, using the hands to balance. The fingers scrambled over the ground. I was afraid of centipedes as a child, and I felt that same crawling dread when it started moving.
“Holy shit,” Sam whispered, which was rather disappointing, because I had been hoping that at least one of us knew what to do.
The creature turned, a lurching movement that crushed some of the hands underneath it, and started heaving itself slowly towards our corner.
“Better hurry up!” the Erlking called from his throne.
It was blocking the exit, by then. The shifting body of it had moved to block us off. It ambled towards us and I tried to sink further into the corner.
As it approached, getting close enough that I could smell the stink of it, I saw a flash of a tattoo on one of the hands. I leaned in, trying to find it again, like looking for dolphins surfacing in the ocean. And again, I caught a glimpse of a duck tattoo, the tattoo that Hitch had gotten on his hand as a teenager.
I ripped away from Sam’s death grip and ran for the monster.
I fell to my knees in front of it, wincing as I impacted the ground, and reached into the nest of hands. I could feel them tearing at my forearms and ripping into me with their sharp nails, but I kept going. I pressed further in, up to my shoulder in a writhing mass of limbs, aiming for the spot where I had last seen that tattoo.
The hands were tugging at me, wrapping around my back and hair. They were pulling together, trying to draw me completely into the mass of them. I was aware of Sam at my side, anchoring me in place and bashing any hand that got too close with her sword or the sparks that leapt from her hands with muttered words. But I didn’t think it would be enough. They were too strong, and there were too many of them.
I was up to my waist in the hands when something grabbed my palm. I felt the way it clung to me, and the calluses on its palm, and I knew that I had found my brother.
I flung herself back. The hands didn’t want to let me go, and they fought the whole way, but slowly, I made progress. I kept hold of Hitch’s hand in mine the whole time, gripping it as hard as I could. I finally broke free, Hitch with me, and Sam was immediately charging the creature, able to use her sword with much greater strength without being worried about injuring Hitch. She swung it forward, and it sliced through the wrist of one of the hands. It fell without a sound, red sand flowing out of it. It deflated until it looked like dirty laundry, just a piece of limp flesh. The creature shrieked, scuttling away enough that the door was finally accessible. The three of us ran for it, Sam and I supporting Hitch between us.
I looked back as I left and found the Erlking staring right at me.
“Interesting,” he murmured, his voice carrying impossibly across the vast space between us.
The sandcastle collapsed behind us, the great walls falling in on themselves. We were out in the morning sun, the sandcastle disappearing as we watched. Hitch was on the ground in front of me, as young as he’d been thirty years ago, when he was captured. He started laughing, feathers puffing out of his mouth. He laughed until he cried and I hugged him in the way that he’d held me when I was young, in the times when my life had been defined by hunger and fear.
Hitch left, afterwards. He scratched at the pinhole scars covering his body, where feathers burst through his skin, and pulled his long sleeves down around his wrists. He didn’t know where he was going but he told me that he needed time
I had spent thirty years worth of time without him. I wanted to grab my brother by the shoulders and beg him to stay. But he flinched when I hugged him goodbye and he refused to go near sand and he stared distrustfully at the birds chirping in the trees. Hitch needed to go away and I loved him too much to stop him.
I sat out on the beach every morning. I felt the sun on my face and I waited for Hitch to come home.
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The sleeves of his weather-beaten coat were shoved all the way up his arms, to stop the fabric from falling over his knuckles while he was working, and goosebumps lined his skin. He was strapping a rubber chicken to the back of his truck, over the lens of the shattered backup camera, with the legs pointing down so that they hung a couple inches above the ground. There were dents in the hood from the crash last week, and scratches along the door from scraping into a curb. The chicken, hopefully, would keep him from breaking anything else.
"You can't go cheap," Hitch said. "The cheap rubber chickens only make noise when pressure lets go. That's no good. As soon as I back up into something, I want this chicken to be screaming like it’s in the depths of hell."
“Sure thing,” I said in a monotone, leaning against the side of the truck.
There were scrambled electronic parts piled in the back of the truck, the innards of a radio, a broken computer, tangled wires, a couple loose pairs of earbuds. He found the parts in alleyways or bummed them off his friends for a couple bucks or stole them from the vacation homes that were left empty for most of the year. Then he sold them for a profit at the scrapyard. Hitch had bounced between minimum-wage jobs for a while after high school, spending a couple months as a bagger at the grocery store or as a seasonal worker at the farm two hours down the highway. He'd never stuck with it. At the very least, the scrapyard got him enough money to eat and occasionally spend a night in a motel when he got tired of sleeping in his car.
Hitch pressed the last piece of tape in place and grinned up at me. "I've got something for you, duck."
The nickname came from when I’d broken my leg as a child and waddled around in a cast until it was healed. I hated it with a burning passion, and I glared at Hitch with the ease of twenty-one years of practice. He had a duck tattoo at the base of his thumb that he’d gotten in a back-alley shop as a teenager. He said that he’d gotten it to remind him of me, and the fact that I hated the nickname was just a bonus. It was shaky-lined, with an uneven face, but he loved it anyway.
The handle stuck when Hitch tried to open the door, a consequence of the rust collecting in the crevices of the car and running down the sides like blood from a cut. The car groaned when the door finally popped open, a metal against metal screech that had me flinching away. Hitch dug through the cluttered fast food containers in the passenger-side footwell, eventually coming up with a crinkly paper bag. He waved away the flies buzzing around the opening of the bag and held it out to me.
The last time Hitch had brought me food, I’d gotten food poisoning because he’d left it out in the midday sun for two days. The donut was squished slightly, and the icing was stuck to the bag. I still ate it, grimacing at the harsh citrus flavor. Taking Hitch’s food was an instinct engraved from the days when Dad had given us a can of kidney beans for dinner and Hitch had drank the juice, leaving the beans for me.
I rarely went hungry anymore, three mostly square meals a day and granola in my pockets just in case, but habits didn’t die easy.
These days, Hitch only brought me food when he wanted my help, like when he saw a place he wanted to hit but was worried about doing it alone.
I got in the car, like I always did.
We drove past the cluster of seafood-themed restaurants with chipped paint decks, the beachfront park where there were always shifty-eyed men sitting under the slide, the single room library where all the books had been water damaged in the flood last year. The change was quick as we drove across Main Street, heading closer to the beach. The roads were freshly paved, the concrete a smooth black except where the sun had already started to pick away at it. The three-story homes lining the sides of the street were crouched on elegant stilts, with space underneath for a car or three. Most of the garages were empty, with the lights off and curtains drawn in the house. Come summer, the streets would be swarming with tourists and vacationers, but until then, most of the buildings nearest to the beach were unoccupied.
Hitch stopped as the sun started to go down at a house that was leaning precariously out towards the beach, tilted ever so slightly, the edge of its foundation buried in the shifting sand of the beach. It certainly looked deserted, with an overgrown yard and blue paint peeling off the door in sheets.
Hitch took his hammer out of the backseat, hoisting it over his shoulder. It was two feet of solid metal with rags wrapped around the head to muffle the sound of the hits. Hitch squared up, bending his knees and holding the hammer like a baseball bat. Before he could swing, though, the door creaked open on its own, the hinges squeaking. The house beyond was dark enough that I could only make out general shapes, glimpsing the curve of a sofa to the left, what was maybe the shimmer of a chandelier on the other side.
Hitch lowered his hammer, looking vaguely disappointed that he didn’t get to use it. “That’s…weird as hell.”
“Maybe the deadbolt broke, maybe they forgot to lock it, it doesn’t matter,” I hissed, checking our surroundings for other people again. “Just hurry up and get inside before someone calls the cops.”
Hitch flicked the lightswitch on the wall, and the lights flickered on. They were dim, buzzing audibly and blinking off occasionally. The walls were plastered with contrasting swatches of wallpaper and splattered with random colors. There was neon orange behind the dining table, a galaxy swirl in the kitchen, and on the ceiling there was a repeating floral pattern covered in nametag stickers. Each of the stickers was filled out with The Erlking. Chandeliers hung in every room, three or four for each, and rubber ducks sat on every table. A miniature carousel sat in the corner along with a towering model rocket.
Sand was heaped on every surface, at least a couple inches everywhere. It was piled in the corners and stuck to the walls, and it covered the floor in a thick blanket. Our hesitant steps into the house left footprints clearly outlined in the sand.
Hitch took a cursory look around and headed immediately for the TV mounted on the wall. “Look out the windows and tell me if anyone is coming.”
I shook the sand out of the blinds and pulled them open, then had to brush sand off of the window before I could see anything.
Hitch was quick, practiced at finding and appropriating the things that were worth taking. He came back to me with an armful of electronics and chandeliers, dumping it at my feet before turning to head deeper into the house again.
There was a thump, somewhere upstairs, and then footsteps, slow and deliberate. Hitch froze at the threshold of the room, then ran for the door with me just ahead of him, sand flying out from under our feet.
My hand was almost brushing the doorknob, close enough that I could see the light from the streetlamp outside streaming in through the cracks in the door. My fingers touched the wood and it gave under my touch, becoming malleable and warm. I yelped, stumbling backwards, and the door started to melt. The paint ran down in thick drops, pooling at the bottom of the door, and the wood warped like metal being welded. The soft edges of the door ran into the walls until there was no sign of an exit ever being there.
“Well, well, well,” said a cultured voice with just an edge of snooty elitism. “What do we have here?”
The man was well over eight feet tall, with long black hair covering his eyes. He was wearing a yellow raincoat with holes cut out of the hood to accommodate the deer antlers jutting upwards from his head. There was sand settled on his shoulders and hovering around his head like a halo.
“Who the fuck are you?” Hitch said, inching towards a window.
He smiled, just a little bit, and his teeth shone in the dim light. “I am the Erlking.”
Hitch nodded, and seemed about to respond. I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the window. I could feel sand in the wind roaring against my back as the Erlking growled in anger, the grains scraping harshly against my cheeks.
We were almost to the window when Hitch was ripped away from me, and I came to a startled halt. The sand had formed long grasping arms that pressed Hitch against the floral wallpaper. His wrists were held tight, and as I watched, a sandy hand wrapped around his mouth and forced its way between his teeth. He gagged, and sand trickled out of the corners of his mouth.
The Erlking strolled towards him, not seeming to be in any sort of rush. “You know, I’m not very fond of your yapping.”
He made an idle gesture and the sand wrapped around my ankles, tethering me in place.
“I yap all the time,” Hitch said. “Three-time olympic yapper, that’s me. Best to just let me go now and save yourself some trouble.”
The Erlking tapped a manicured nail against Hitch’s mouth, hard enough to hurt, judging by the way he flinched away. “But why would I ever let you go when I’ve gone to this much trouble to catch you and your sister? It’s so hard, these days, to find people that no one will miss.”
Hitch struggled against the sand, trying to escape and failing. “What do you want with us, then? You just said it, we’re nobody.”
“I’m fae, dear one,” the Erlking said. “I get my power from my followers. And I think that you two will make lovely additions to my flock.”
He flicked Hitch's nose and Hitch gasped. Feathers started to form on his arms, popping out from under his skin in a spray of blood.
Hitch pushed off the wall, using his bound hands as a fulcrum, and his knees crashed into the Erlking’s stomach. The Erlking fell backwards, wheezing, and the sand around my ankles loosened.
Hitch made desperate eye contact with me as feathers shot up his neck and jerked his head towards the window. The message was obvious. Run.
The last thing I saw before crashing out the window and into freedom was Hitch’s body twisting, his arms wrenching into wings and feathers covering every inch of his skin. By the time I landed on the concrete outside, he was a small black bird, held tightly in the Erlking’s hands. The whole building was sinking into the ground, burnished-gold sand piling up over top and streaming from the windows.
Thirty years later, I saw Sam’s Supernatural Consultation and Neutralization written in neat, looping handwriting on a piece of paper taped to the door. The tape was peeling at the corners and the paper was yellowed with age, but there was obviously care put into the sign, in its perfectly centered text and looping floral designs drawn over the edges in gold marker.
I knocked, hesitantly, drawing my woolen coat closer around my shoulders. I’d bought it as a fiftieth birthday gift for myself, and I took comfort in the heavy weight of it over my shoulders.
“Coming!” someone called from within the depths of the office.
There were a couple crashes, and the sound of paper shuffling. Eventually, the door was opened by a young woman with ketchup stains on her shirt and pencils stuck through her hair.
“Hi, I’m Sam, I specialize in supernatural consultation and hunting, how may I help you today?” Sam said, customer-service pep in her voice. She stood in the doorway, solidly blocking entry into the office.
“My name is Ezra, I’m for a consultation. I emailed you but you didn’t respond?” I shifted in place, suddenly feeling awkward.
“Oh! Yeah, I lost the password for the email ages ago. Sorry for the bad welcome, I get lots of people thinking I’m crazy or pulling a prank and harassing me.”
She ushered me into the office, clearing papers off one of the chairs to make room for me to sit down. There was a collection of swords along one wall, all of them polished to perfection, several with deep knicks in the metal which indicated that they’d been used heavily.
“So what can I help you with?” Sam asked again, more sincere this time.
“Thirty years ago, my brother was turned into a bird,” I started. I’d told this story so many times that it barely felt ridiculous to say anymore. I was used to the disbelieving looks, the careful pity. But Sam just nodded along, face open and welcoming.
“I’ve almost given up on finding him, at this point,” I said. “But I saw your ad in the newspaper, and…here I am, I suppose.”
“Here you are,” Sam echoed, smiling. She pulled one of the pencils out of her hair and took a bit of paperwork off of one of her stacks, turning it over so that the blank side sat neatly in front of her. “Tell me everything.”
I told Sam everything, and she wrote it all down, pencil scratching along the paper.
The last part of the story was always the hardest to tell. “I left him there. I ran and I didn’t look back.”
I had been to dozens of detectives and investigators over the years, once the police had dropped Hitch’s case. I’d been to professional offices with smartly-dressed secretaries and met scraggly men in coffee shops. All of them had given me the same look, pity and annoyance all mixed up into a humor-the-crazy-lady soup. Sam, though, just seemed thoughtful.
Sam leaned forward and put a hand over mine, carefully, like she thought that I would pull away. “Sometimes you have to leave people behind.”
I tightened her hold on Sam’s hand and drew it towards me, like I could make Sam listen if only I squeezed tight enough. “But that’s why I’m here. I don’t want to leave him behind.”
“Okay then. I’ll do my best to help you.” Sam agreed, finally. Then she paused, and said softly, “You know…I think I met your brother once. He might have saved my life. He’s certainly why I started in this business.”
“Really? What happened?” I asked.
This is the story that Sam told me, related to the best of my abilities:
It was a new moon, so the only illumination came from the stars gazing idly down and distant porch lights shining across the scraggly brush of the dunes. Sam’s neighbors were decent people who cared about baby turtles, so the lights were a low, unobtrusive red, and the ocean sloshed like blood. Sam walked on the beach almost every night, drawing back the gauzy pink curtains and clambering out her bedroom window. She didn’t often bother to be quiet; her mama worked the late shift and came home exhausted. As long as Sam got home before the sun, her mama would never find out that she paced the shoreline and dreamed of inhaling sand until her lungs became their own beach.
The sky was lightening. The sun would come up soon, and that meant Sam’s time on the beach was over. She needed to get back to her real life, go to her fifth grade class and stop that nonsense, as her mother would say. Her mother loved to say things like that, pushing Sam into her proper place by implication alone.
“She’s a good kid, of course, but she’s a bit…” Her mother would trail off there, usually getting a commiserating expression from whoever she was talking to. Sam always wondered how that sentence would have finished. She’s a bit strange, maybe. She’s a bit intense. She’s a bit abrasive. She’s quiet enough but when Jason tried to steal her pencil in math class, she stabbed him in the hand so hard that the lead tattooed him.
Her mother was better, for the most part. The days of her stocking up the fridge, and leaving a post-it note on the counter, and leaving for days at a time were gone. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen tile where her mother had collapsed and caved her head in, even though the bloodstains had been replaced with new tile.
“Your auntie got an abortion, you know,” her mother had said from her place on the couch, slurring her words. “Pill in the mail and then bam, no more baby.”
She had clapped her hands together to illustrate her point. Her mother jerked forward and grabbed Sam by the wrist, then, staring up at her until Sam met her eyes.
“I love you, you know? But sometimes I wonder…” She settled back onto the couch. “Yeah. I wonder.”
She’d gotten up, then, back to the kitchen. She’d been stumbling, a shambling zombie of a woman. The ground in the entryway of the kitchen was raised, ever so slightly, and her mother went down hard. Her head cracked against the tile, chin first, and she didn’t move.
Sam had been the one to call the ambulance. She had stared at the scattering of loose teeth on the ground while she waited, and considered what her life would be like with a dead mom. Not so bad, she thought, and immediately felt guilty for it.
Her mom was better, now, for the most part. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen floor where she had collapsed. There was still a matchbox hidden under her bed with the gleaming shine of her mother’s lost teeth, two canines and a molar. It was nice, having a piece of her mom to keep. Even if she left again, Sam would still have part of her.
Sam sighed, and turned away from the ocean. As she faced towards the low dunes further up the beach, she saw a sandcastle sitting nestled among them. It was such a strange sight that her eyes skipped over it at first, almost automatically, disregarding it because it was so out of place.
Sam found sandcastles out on the beach sometimes, usually half-collapsed and on the verge of being washed away by the waves, but she had never seen anything like the sandcastle in front of her. It was life-sized, something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Scottish highlands, with spires shooting up above her head and carefully etched out bricks lining each side. The front wall was dominated by an arched set of double doors, twice her height, with a portcullis nestled at the top, ready to be dropped. All of it was lovingly detailed, down to the rust on the tips of the towers and the wood grain of the door. It was made out of wet, densely-packed sand, held together impossibly. It had not been there two hours ago, when she had come to the beach.
There was a bird sitting on the overhang of the door, small and black.
As soon as she took a step towards the sandcastle, the bird shook out its feathers and swooped down towards Sam, landing at her feet with a little stumble.
“Hey, kid, get out of here,” said the bird.
Sam closed her eyes, very deliberately. When she opened them, the bird was still there. Sam considered herself a very reasonable person, so she immediately drew the most logical conclusion. The bird was, she was almost certain, a demon.
“Trust me, you don’t want to run into Mr. Salty, the queen bitch himself,” the bird said.
“Mr. Salty?” Sam inquired, polite as she knew how to be. She edged to the side, trying to get a good angle to kick the bird like a soccer ball.
The bird did something similar to a wince, all its feathers fluffing up then settling back down. “Ah, don’t call him that. He’d turn you into a toad.”
The bird gestured with its head, towards the looming sand structure. “That’s his castle. He’s in there, probably scuttling along the ceiling or some shit because that’s the sort of weirdo he is.”
Sam nodded, encouraging. She pulled back her foot and lined up her shot, the way she’d seen athletes do on TV. She aimed right for its sharp beak and let loose. The bird saw it coming, its beady eyes widening, and it cawed in distress. It flapped away, avoiding her kick only to fall backward into the sand in a scramble of wings.
“What’s your fucking problem?” it squawked. “I was trying to help you!”
“I don’t need the help of a demon,” Sam yelled, trying to remember the exorcism that her mama had taught her once, because her mama believed in being prepared for anything.
“I’m not a demon,” the bird said indignantly.
It was at about that moment that Sam gave up and just decided to roll with it.
“What are you, then?” Sam asked.
The bird shuffled its clawed feet, looking about as awkward as it could, given that it didn’t really have recognizable facial expressions. “Technically I’m a familiar of the Erlking, prince of the fae, but I prefer to be called Hitch.”
“You can’t blame me for assuming, though,” Sam said. “Ravens do tend to be associated with murder.”
“Hey, excuse you,” Hitch said. “I’m a rook, not a raven. Ravens are way bigger.”
“Sure,” Sam said, not really paying attention. Her eyes had caught on the details of the sandcastle, and she was transfixed by the slow spirals of the sand, the strange beauty of it. She found herself stepping towards the great doors, lifting a hand to knock, and as she did, the sand warped in front of her eyes, heaving itself towards her with bulging slowness. The door creaked open before her, revealing a vast, empty room. Just before she stepped inside, she felt a piercing pain in her foot, and she yelped, leaping backwards.
Hitch pecked her again, really digging his beak in. “Don’t be an idiot.”
Sam glared at him, rubbing her foot. About to retort, she finally really took in the room inside the sandcastle, and her words died in her throat.
There was a body just past the threshold of the door, face down and limbs hanging limp at its sides. Long hair splayed out in a halo around its head.
“Don’t,” Hitch warned, suddenly serious. “Just leave, kid, I mean it. I’ve seen too many people go down this road and you don’t want to be one of them.”
Sam ignored him. She made her way across the beach, slipping with every step. The sand felt deeper, piling up around her feet in silent drifts. She picked up the nearest stick and poked the body with it through the door, ready to leap back if anything went wrong, staying firmly outside of the sandcastle.
This close, Sam could tell that it used to be a woman. Her head wasn’t attached to her body. It hadn’t been a clean amputation, either. Her upper body was bruised, with chunks taken out of it, and the bones in her neck hung mangled, not connected to anything.
“Well, I warned you,” Hitch said, defeated. “I did warn you.”
Sam nudged the head with the end of the stick, nudging it over so that she could see the face. Her mother stared back at her, torn to pieces, breath still wheezing from her lungs. She wasn’t blinking, just gazing forward with glazed eyes. Sweat dripped down from her hairline.
Sam screamed and dropped the stick, tripping over herself in her haste to get away.
Her mother’s eyes were wide and pleading, and she was mouthing desperate words at Sam. Her vocal cords were broken to bits, and the only sound that came out was a strained groan.
The head rolled, inching closer to Sam like a grotesque caterpillar.
Her mother gasped for air, torn lips fluttering. Finally, comprehensible words came out. “Help. Help me, daughter.”
“That’s not your mother,” Hitch said, quiet.
Sam knew that. Her mother was sleeping back at home, and anyways her mom had never asked for her help. She had an aversion to accepting charity, as she put it.
“Okay,” Sam said, shaking all over. “Okay.”
She backed away from the sandcastle, not looking away.
“Failure,” her mother hissed as she stepped away. “I never wanted a daughter like you.”
The sun came up over the horizon. The sandcastle, Hitch, and her mom all disintegrated into sand as the light hit them.
The beach, the next night, was almost exactly how I remembered it. The beams of our flashlights sent light bouncing across the dunes, illuminating the waves, and I imagined faces in the foam of the waves.
“I’ve been back here a hundred times. There’s nothing left,” I said.
Sam took the car key out of her purse and pointed it at the sand, adjusting the sword slung over her shoulder in order to do it. The key had belonged to Hitch; Sam had requested an item of his, and it was the only thing I had left. She rested the key on the sand and drew a circle around it, inscribing symbols around the borders.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Sam shrugged. “Not much, really. I’m…I guess you could say that I’m knocking.”
The key laid inert on the sand for long enough that I was just about to give up and go home, admit to myself that Hitch was dead and that I was a fool to believe that Sam could actually help me. Then a building started to take shape, flickering in and out like it was struggling to get away. With a pop of displaced air, the sandcastle settled into existence.
Sam banged on the entryway. Nothing happened. She did it again, harder, and scowled when the door still didn’t open.
“We demand entrance, under your honor,” Sam yelled. There was a hard rush of wind, and I gripped Sam’s arm to keep my balance, but the doors cracked open reluctantly.
The inside of the sandcastle consisted of one enormous hall, the roof arching up out of sight. Rafters crisscrossed from wall to wall, and a cobbled path led further into the building, but other than that, it was completely empty, except for the birds. There were thousands of them, perched on the rafters or hopping along the ground. They parted in front of Sam and I, and reformed behind us, leaving us in a small pocket of open space. They were all black-feathered, with sharp beaks and beady eyes.
The Erlking sat on a throne at the end of the hall, lounging across it with his feet up on the armrest. He watched them as they came forward, the soft caw of the birds the only sound.
“I am here to bargain for the life of my brother,” I said, with as much dignity as I could muster, before the Erlking could say anything.
The Erlking ignored her, tilting his head to look at Sam. “I remember you. I almost got you, once.”
Sam glared at him but didn’t respond.
“You want your brother,” The Erlking said to me, and he almost sounded amused. “Then go get him.”
As if by some sort of silent signal, every bird in the room took flight at once, and their cawing made me think of screams. I covered my head against the flapping of their wings, and my vision was quickly obscured by the chaotic movement of them. I found myself on my knees, just trying to escape them.
A hand met my shoulder. Sam urged me to my feet, and together we ran for the edge of the room, where the swarm was the thinnest. We pressed ourselves into the corner and the swarm spiraled tighter and tighter at the center of the room. It went on until there seemed to be no differentiation between the birds, all of them fused together into one creature.
When the chaos died down, the birds had become one mass, with wings and eyes and talons sticking out of its flesh, thrashing and chirping. Human body parts stuck out of it, bulging out from the feathers. It was hands, mostly, with a couple knees or staring eyes. The bird amalgamation had no recognizable facial features, but there was one long beak extending from the front of its head. Most of the body parts were concentrated around the beak, and they peeked out from where the beak connected with muscle, or grew from the tongue, nestled between the two crushing halves of the beak.
It turned its beak down and crawled forward, using the hands to balance. The fingers scrambled over the ground. I was afraid of centipedes as a child, and I felt that same crawling dread when it started moving.
“Holy shit,” Sam whispered, which was rather disappointing, because I had been hoping that at least one of us knew what to do.
The creature turned, a lurching movement that crushed some of the hands underneath it, and started heaving itself slowly towards our corner.
“Better hurry up!” the Erlking called from his throne.
It was blocking the exit, by then. The shifting body of it had moved to block us off. It ambled towards us and I tried to sink further into the corner.
As it approached, getting close enough that I could smell the stink of it, I saw a flash of a tattoo on one of the hands. I leaned in, trying to find it again, like looking for dolphins surfacing in the ocean. And again, I caught a glimpse of a duck tattoo, the tattoo that Hitch had gotten on his hand as a teenager.
I ripped away from Sam’s death grip and ran for the monster.
I fell to my knees in front of it, wincing as I impacted the ground, and reached into the nest of hands. I could feel them tearing at my forearms and ripping into me with their sharp nails, but I kept going. I pressed further in, up to my shoulder in a writhing mass of limbs, aiming for the spot where I had last seen that tattoo.
The hands were tugging at me, wrapping around my back and hair. They were pulling together, trying to draw me completely into the mass of them. I was aware of Sam at my side, anchoring me in place and bashing any hand that got too close with her sword or the sparks that leapt from her hands with muttered words. But I didn’t think it would be enough. They were too strong, and there were too many of them.
I was up to my waist in the hands when something grabbed my palm. I felt the way it clung to me, and the calluses on its palm, and I knew that I had found my brother.
I flung herself back. The hands didn’t want to let me go, and they fought the whole way, but slowly, I made progress. I kept hold of Hitch’s hand in mine the whole time, gripping it as hard as I could. I finally broke free, Hitch with me, and Sam was immediately charging the creature, able to use her sword with much greater strength without being worried about injuring Hitch. She swung it forward, and it sliced through the wrist of one of the hands. It fell without a sound, red sand flowing out of it. It deflated until it looked like dirty laundry, just a piece of limp flesh. The creature shrieked, scuttling away enough that the door was finally accessible. The three of us ran for it, Sam and I supporting Hitch between us.
I looked back as I left and found the Erlking staring right at me.
“Interesting,” he murmured, his voice carrying impossibly across the vast space between us.
The sandcastle collapsed behind us, the great walls falling in on themselves. We were out in the morning sun, the sandcastle disappearing as we watched. Hitch was on the ground in front of me, as young as he’d been thirty years ago, when he was captured. He started laughing, feathers puffing out of his mouth. He laughed until he cried and I hugged him in the way that he’d held me when I was young, in the times when my life had been defined by hunger and fear.
Hitch left, afterwards. He scratched at the pinhole scars covering his body, where feathers burst through his skin, and pulled his long sleeves down around his wrists. He didn’t know where he was going but he told me that he needed time
I had spent thirty years worth of time without him. I wanted to grab my brother by the shoulders and beg him to stay. But he flinched when I hugged him goodbye and he refused to go near sand and he stared distrustfully at the birds chirping in the trees. Hitch needed to go away and I loved him too much to stop him.
I sat out on the beach every morning. I felt the sun on my face and I waited for Hitch to come home.
2024.05.19 08:01 ledenasvila Official subreddit FantaEurovision league: results 🏆
 | Dear eurovision nation, submitted by ledenasvila to eurovision [link] [comments] I am pleased to announce that all of the data pertaining to our FantaEurovision league has been verified, and the time has come to crown the winner! ParticipantsIn the period of 27th April - 7th May 2024, as many as fifteen Redditors and more than 200 people of unknown origin assembled their teams of five to join our official subreddit league. With 235 teams, we were the 33rd biggest league in this year's FantaESC (total number of leagues: 11.1 thousand!). Thanks everyone for joining!Important: Since our league was public, I don't have a simple way of confirming that a team belongs to someone from this sub and not to some random Ogae Italy member who needed a home for their 4th backup team. This is why the official ranking in this post, including the winner, is made up of Redditors who declared their teams only. The full leaderboard, linked at the bottom of this post, includes all 235 teams. Stats are also based on data from all participating teams. Artists' rankingTop 3; source: Fantaeurovision (@fantaesc) on TwitteX Artists' ranking; source: Fantaeurovision (@fantaesc) on TwitteX With 230 points, this year’s winner Nemo surpassed last year’s highest score of 205 points awarded to Käärijä . Well done, Nemo! Top 5 highest-scoring artists:
eurovision league: statsNumber of teams per artist
Official subreddit ranking
**As I've already written above, this ranking includes only those teams that belong to known Redditors. If you participated in our league with one of your teams and wish to be included in the subreddit ranking, I can still add you in. Just show me your team! 🥳Congrats u/SkyGinge, Eternal Euroglory is yours!Ginge's Ninja's consisted of:
Full leaderboard hereSome fun facts:
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2024.05.19 01:49 RevolutionaryHat7444 DIDNT SUE LANDLORD FOR FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS WHEN THEY WERE NOT UP TO CODE, MONTHS LATER REPAIRS EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE STAIRS.
Hello everyone, I am have been renting a room for 2 years now. The trouble started long before I fell down the stairs and broke my shoulder. About 5 months ago the landlord (lets name him dink), dink decided to to re due the floors in the basement due to water damage in one of the rooms. Dink went with a cheap shoddy repair man, lets call him steve. Steve re-did the whole basement floor and bathroom. I had to move all my stuff out of my room into another room. Only a few months go by and the tiles in my basement room where I live are all seperated. I had to show dink and he didnt understand why the tiles in my room were bascially falling apart. A few weeks later Dink comes by and tells me that (lets call him sam) sam a legit repair man with workers and a company are coming to re due the floor, and do other repairs on the house. Dink tells me not to tell sam that steve did the work. Sam and steve are from the same community and hate eachother. One day Dink comes into my room with sam and shows him the messed up floor. Sam asked who did the floor and why are the tiles separated. Dink tells sam that he did the floor but does not understand why the tiles are like that, my jaw dropped open. Dink lied right to sams face in front of me. A few days ago the repair men show up. They were like animals to say the least. The spray painted the house outside and got spray paint all over the grass as well. They didnt warn me or my roomates that the kitchen was about to be covered in plastic for days so I could not access it. I got up one morning and the kitchen had been like sealed off by plastic. I was really broke at the time but still and had to eat out. Sam's workers also re did the floor in the dining room and living room. They put the whole house into chaos and moved everything around. They were not careful about how they moved are things and damaged my bike and my table in my room. Me and the roommates had to move everything back by ourselves afterwards. They would not flush the toliets after the used them and would not put the seat down either. I had to ask the workers to do this and they still didnt comply. The workers had to re due the whole basement floor again. They woke me up ealry in the morning one day to get started on my room, they made a huge mess of my room. I was put out a second time with my room becasue Dink went with steve who didnt know what he was doing. My mental health was not good at this point and it kept declining. I could not stand that the workers were in my sacred place, my room. So heres the kicker on march tenth I fell down ten steps (the basment steps) and broke my shoulder. I was taken to hospital in the ambulance. I had to take work off for two months, till may tenth for my shoulder to heal. So I lost a lot of wages. The steps were not up to code and there was only one wobbly railing at the time I fell. I was in a lot of pain for weeks and had to use T3s and also have my arm in a sling. Till this day I dont have full range of motion with my right arm and have to go to physio. I confroted Dink the landlord about the stairs and he said it would take hundrends of thousands of dollars to fix the stairs. So i asked the landlord to put up more railings and to buffer the steps with non slip matting. Railings were put up but sams repair men painted all of them so I couldnt use them for a day anyway and risked further injury. The slip matts have been brought to the house but have been laying in the kitchen for two weeks with nothing happening to them. So Dink repaired everything except the stairs. I have also asked the landlord twice if I could have an animal to help with my mental health they have refused twice even though I could have sued them for the stairs. All the other roomates are on board with having a cat. So Im in the process of getting documents for an support animal. Legally they cant refuse me under our provinces law and they cant charge me a damamge depoist. I will be informing Dink soon when I get the proper documents lined up. I have mental health problems and do qualify for this. We will see what happens in the future, thanks for listening!
submitted by RevolutionaryHat7444 to CharlotteDobreYouTube [link] [comments]
2024.05.18 19:01 MoonzyMooMooCow Some feedback after playing the game for nearly 600 hours
Inspired by a post recently, I decided to write my own feedback on the game. Please note that these are my opinions, so you may or may not disagree with some of it and that's fine, I respect that.
Mission effects:
submitted by MoonzyMooMooCow to Helldivers [link] [comments]
Mission effects:
- 50% call-in time should NOT affect extract countdown (1 extra minute is a lot, either in a dog fight, or sitting around doing nothing)
- Bug spore map is fine, until there's a mountain that cut across in the middle of the map with no gap to cross in the middle until you run to the end (which end? u have to find out by walking around it, have fun wasting 5 minutes)
- Fire Tornado is NOT fun and doesn't add anything to the game other than wasting your time when they choose to go on objective or just kill your civilians doing almost nothing to enemies that walks in it.
- Civilians can get stuck on nothing occasionally, if both (or 3) paths are bugged, it's game over, there has to be a fallback for this
- Bugs are fine, but the bot version on this mission is near impossible to clear (without using certain tactics blablabla), more so after factory strider have been added to the spawn pool
- It can get bugged and missile refuse to continue launching, killing the entire mission (suspect it has to do with network instability, especially from network host)
- Bot (when called by smaller bots instead of mission spawn?) can spawn on the helipad or in the compound, this should not happen
Enemies:
General:- Dead bodies should despawn sooner (or based on amount on the screen because defence mission on bots can have enemies piled so high that you can't see or shoot past it, god forbid u get stuck under one)
Bug front:
General (almost every unit):- Should not be able to dig their way up through solid rocks (just remove the dig mechanic, I don't know why it should exist other than bugs digging through solid rock when players stand on top of it by jetpack)
- Nursing Spewer's dead body hitbox does not fit model (after butt have been popped, the hitbox remains, cant walk past)
- Bile Spewer's animation between them raised their butt in the air to suddenly spewing when you are close is non-existent (it's even faster than they running and raising their head to spew, they skip the head raising animation and go straight to spewing)
- Should not one shot players for something that spawns in such numbers
- (still) running too fast
- Too quiet for something that can one shot you out of nowhere (should not one shot)
- Their attack should apply DOT status similar to bleeding (either stim or dive in water to clear), remove the direct damage
- Dead body deals more dmg than being alive
- Does not unstealth after taking damage from Incendiary Shotgun from a distance (they should remain unstealth while taking damage, either from bullets or DoT like fire)
- Their knockback sometimes cause your character to have a long [explicit] roll animation if the ground is not even, which is basically a death sentence when fighting them
- Can call breach without head
- Can track you without their head
- Non-intuitive design where the butt is NOT a weakspot to everything (it's ok if I need 1.5 mag of my shotgun to kill it, but at least give us more option to kill that thing than just AT to the face or explosive dmg to the butt)
- Too quiet for something that can one shot you out of nowhere
- Non-intuitive design where the SHINING OPEN MOUTH during spit animation is NOT a weakspot, but the forehead is (without any indication)
- Bouncing stratagem at the base of most layout
- Requiring certain weapons/stratagems to destroy after buffed (lowering weapon choice is not a good decision) Possible solution: allow hellbomb, or revert the changes. It's really frustrating and NOT FUN to deal with after the changes. Their main role is to obscure the map until players find it, it shouldn't be hard to remove as well (perhaps removing the red marking on the radar to make it harder to locate, instead of making it tougher)
- Stratagem bounce on certain terrain/layout (particularly the two nest on a mountain layout), making placing hellbomb difficult
Bot front:
General (almost every unit):- Should not be able to re-engage infinite distance away after been previously engaged before (should lose aggro ~1 minute without line of sight and revert to their regular scan distance)
- Why isn't Arc weapons doing more damage to bots? It should bypass their METAL armor and deal good damage to them
- Killing the dropship should have more significant impact to the enemies they are carrying/carried
- Revert whatever changes was made last buff
- Limit their rocket firing to x amount of salvos (to reflect their model), can add in (infinite) reload downtime to replenish their rocket (so players have opportunity to fire back)
- Gun firing angle does not fit model sometimes
- Can shoot through wall if they hug the wall (placing the scan further back from their body's hitbox might solve this as it wont be able to phase into the wall and see past it)
- Needs to add more inaccuracy, especially long distance away
- Face hitbox is weird (might be my potato aim but I can miss my shot when I shoot it near point blank)
- Flamethrower variant should not one tap (remove direct damage and just make it deal burning status, burning is already deadly enough)
- Having a VERY small pool of support weapons that can effectively deal with this enemy. One of the worst thing in the game because it's very limiting on what weapon you get to pick IN CASE you see one.
- Too quiet
- Shredder variant turns too fast to be able to reliable target the vents at the back
- Can climb things unreasonably well for something that runs on tracks
- Should not snipe you from 200m away without any warning or prior aggro, limit their scan distance}
- If they do want to snipe, make their dmg fall off with distance as to not get one shot out of nowhere from something you barely see
- Can shoot through wall if their face hugs the wall
- Their cannon turret is a bit too tanky for my liking, for something that already have two deadly MG on the chin
- Limit their spawn per dropship wave to 1 or 2 (especially in defence mission)
- Stratagem bounce issues
- Very hard to locate
- Does the job that it's supposed to do very poorly
- Should have limited enemies on them because you can't use stratagems, sometimes it's easy, but sometimes there's so many devastators on there plus dropship it becomes hell
- Can be deadly when spawned close to Gunship fab, perhaps limit the distance between these 2 sub-objectives
- One taps you out of nowhere sometimes (no one likes getting one tapped from full health)
- It's not red on the map in mission briefing, but you can drop into an extract with Factory Striders etc
Stratagems:
SOS Beacon:- What does this do, exactly? Other than being a free one-time use hellpod dmg for host if they manage to attach it onto enemy
- Sometimes just fly past enemy's head, what's the proxy radius exactly? Should increase radius but only detonate after x amount of clearance from user (can be time or distance based)
- GOATed (esp against bots), nothing wrong with it but it's so fun to use against bots that I just want to put it here.
- Lock-on issues (it's like wanting to sneeze but you can't)
- For something that require lock on and only have 4 shots, it better one shot regardless of hitzone (or make it lock-on to weakspots instead)
- Useless in snowstorm even though I can see the enemy clearly
- Why would it lock on but miss if the target is too close, what's the point of lock-on if the projectile isn't actually locking onto the target
- Needs to lower the CD for something that only targets a single entity
- OR make it one shot every unit in the game (factory strider can be one shot by 380mm, so I don't see why railcannon can't)
- Sometimes does not target enemies in-front of you, attacking you, or the enemies you're shooting, not sure why
- The constant downtime is so bad compared to its counterpart, PLUS it runs out of ammo
- Non-existent health, too soft for something the developer wont let players place at hard to reach places
- Doesn't feel as impactful as other stratagems, other than teamkilling
- Should prevent enemy unit from entering
- Should have infinite health until time is up
- Should just be DRG's gunner shield
- Have problems with plasma punisher (the projectile cannot pass through the shield)
- Needs to work better, enemies should stop firing into/across the smoke or something. I brought smoke to survey mission and smoked the objective, between me and enemies (before the bots drop), I was the one who got smoked instead
Booster:
- Needs to give precise numbers on what EXACTLY each one does (maybe on wiki or something, to prevent people from coming up with nonsense like localisation confusion will create more patrols etc)
- UAV Recon Booster should do something to bug spore map (either reveal the map but not enemies on the map, or enemies nearby but not the map)
- Flexible Reinforcement Budget needs to have more impact to the cooldown time, as it stands it's the worst booster
- Expert Extraction Pilot needs to have more impact to the countdown time, 18s/27s is not good enough for something that does nothing throughout the entire game until the end
- Only a couple booster tends to be taken to missions because the power level of boosters is very different
Misc:
Gameplay:- Stratagem should NOT bounce, let players decide where we wanna call our stuff, make it stick to walls, top of rocks (if players manage to land the stratagem there, why not), and enemies (sometimes you can stick stuff to chargers, sometimes you can't, I never understood why)
- Equipment/Stratagem loadout would be great to have
- Allow players to finish the mission in solo mode if kicked or lost connection, this would greatly reduce the impact of griefing and/or steam's weekly maintainance. You can prevent abuse by giving each mission an ID that can't duplicate reward if same player complete it twice. (just like Super credits that wont be given twice if you pick up the same one from the same mission)
- Enemies should have more ways to be killed and objectives should have more ways to be solved, so people actually can try out more loadouts than feel pressured to play the "meta".
- Patrol spawn rate should increase when we call extraction, not right after we finish main obj. Finishing sub obj is way harder if we finish main obj first (in blitz especially, where you can't choose when the main objective ends if you want to clear everything)
- Supply packs should have an icon on the map
- Icon for dropped items should appear in a larger radius
- Samples, Requisition Slips, and Medals should have uses other than being allowed to be capped (one interesting idea is the ability to purchase extra stratagem slot for operations/missions)
- Tier 4 Ship upgrade felt underwhelming, like it's AH trying to give players something to do while not wanting to reward the players. (the cost-to-impact is horrible to say the least)
- Armors should have more passives and stat variety, instead of the exact same stats and passive but different color
- Armor passive could be swappable (for fashion divers).
- Allow Stimming at any time (for stamina boost even if health is full to run for longer)
- The animation of rolling slowly after falling/diving/knocked back onto un-even ground is long, unnecessary, and annoying
- Allow viewing of Support weapon's stats like primary and secondary
- Allow players to customise weapons (especially the scope)
- Ship Module "Superior Packing Methodology" does not affect weapon backpack that you DID NOT CALL
- Nickname given to Steam friends should not appear in-game, this can cause confusion between players as I see different name and player tag (ie: H2 vs D2) in mission from other players. But indication of the steam nickname should still be given, maybe upon entry. (ie: "dremskiy (HD2 dreamskiy) has joined the lobby")
- Allow sending friend request from party list (I don't know why this isn't a thing)
- Allow viewing of Steam player's Steam profile (and playstation profile for PSN players? I have no idea of the PSN ecosystem)
- Allow host to disband and create a new lobby (to mitigate the current multiplayer bug that might happens if someone leaves, or just so you can change party members without kicking)
- Allow host to set minimal join level for their lobbies (I know, this is controversial, but I'm tired of Lv20s joining Helldive missions. A good portion of them don't know what to do and run around like headless chicken and using up reinforcements. I'm here to enjoy the game, not carry and get frustrated when I get teamkilled or have them bring a big group of enemies into objectives. Everyone has their preference and "standards" when playing. I also know level isn't an indication of actual skill, but the proportion of frustration I've had with low levels vs higher level players is very different. I once had a lv10 matchmake into Helldive difficulty. How is that even possible? Don't they need to clear lower difficulties first? Yeah, they did nothing but die the entire mission)
2024.05.18 10:07 Certain-Target-4801 Subtle Nip slip 2
 | submitted by Certain-Target-4801 to downblousegonewild [link] [comments] |