Alright Apes,
I was out walking my dog, ready to get back home to go to sleep, and then it happened. I did one last check of superstonk to get my dopamine hit that is our community and well, I got more than I asked for. Now I have too much energy to sleep because I am so fucking hyped for what I found. So here I am.
This beautiful post popped up at nearly midnight my time.
When it said watch in reverse, I had mixed emotions because one of my favorite post was the one with the opening to the White Stripes glitch mob remix. Go watch the video if you haven’t already. That’s one of my favorite songs for very personal reasons and the idea that GME was about to unleash something that caused a glitch was very exciting to me. I wanted that to be the foreshadowing that RK left us with.
But I like every other GME theory I read, it consumes me. I’m obsessed. So what the heck, let’s go watch everything in reverse.
Lucky for me I realized very quickly that when you go to the X iphone app and watch the latest video in full screen, you can just swipe up to see the next video. So, the next hour of my night was planned out.
That was an hour ago. I am so hyped about what I saw that I’ve decided to sit down and write out the my whole interpretation of what I saw. I don’t have answers for every single post but there does seem to be a theme that matches the theory that these are meant to watch in reverse.
Buckle up.
One last things before I get started. I think DFV has been here all along. I think he has read all of the DD and I think he made his memes with all of that in mind. I highly doubt he knows anything for sure but is just a fan of the DD. Just like I am. And there is one DD I fell in love with from the first moment I read it. I think he did too and this is his thesis. He has read all the tea leaves and doesn't think anyone has put it together like he has so he is sharing his interoperation of the DD, the market conditions, and the news and is going to do one last DD himself.
Ok. Here we go.
Oh, and this is not financial advice.
Ok. Here we go for real.
ET: This might actually be him saying goodbye for now. Hopefully not forever (still kinda sad we never got a ET 2).
Horse Gift: Not sure how to interpret this one. Maybe foreshadowing that he found (or was gifted) the GME bull thesis and at that point, he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing for a bad things. “We’ll see”
Coldplay Backwards: GME had to pull back for him to find the right time to get in.
Forest Running: And then it started running.
Original Sheet Music: Then he started meme. The memes were “MIRACULOUS”.
My favorite post – The White Stripes Glitch Mob video intro: Seriously, if you haven’t watched the video, go now. It’s hype af. This is the video that marks the Jan 2021 glitch. The sneeze.
MIB Kitty: And then GME became RK’s galaxy.
That’s not a Knife: He was the memelord at this point but shorties wanted his gains.
Westworld’s Bernard: Then the bear thesis’ started coming out but we can’t see what we are programed not to see. We were already programed at this point thanks to the bulleproof bull thesis.
Ocean’s Gang in Prison: And then we got thrown in a prison together when so many people bought at high prices.
Beavis and Butthead: We were obsessed with Cohen at this point. We hung on to every tweet. Sex for Dummies was a very popular one. Lot’s of theories popped up with this tweet.
A Few Good Men: DFV visits Congress!
Elaine Dancing: Is this him celebrating his gains and/or not getting thrown in prison?
Aladdin: They tried to take his gains away?
Truman > Mourinho’s In Big Trouble: He was gagged.
ASIP In Therapy: RK went to therapy and found he loved making memes and GME?
Newman: Talking about his experience as his new life as the United States GameStop memer and all the requests he was getting for memes.
Eddie Murphy: Chronicling his time as a memer
SNL The Shooting AKA Dear Sister: Not sure on this one.
Steve Wilkos: RK is ours and we are going to stick beside him
Succession: RK was reading so much about how he was the villain
Borne: More struggles with his identity as the GameStop memer and deciding what to do next.
CNBC > .50: Why does everyone hate RK?
The Dude: Not sure on this one.
Garden State: foreshadowing the jam that he’s about to get into this his next (older) posts
Every Everywhere All at Once: more foreshadowing.
Stand by Me: There’s a game of chicken going on. Shorts vs HODLers?
School of Rock: Reminding us what where here for. This journey isn’t going to be perfect but it’s Rock and Roll.
TeddyBears – Punk Rocker: He has both hands off the wheel now but he’s still along for the ride.
You Can’t Stop What’s Coming: Self-explanatory with likely last-minute cameo of the Chicago (where was Citadel founded?) BEARS thanks to the world’s most famous coke rat market manipulator.
Sicario 2: He’s asking us if we are ready to be the “villain” with him.
Flip Mode: If you really want to party with the Kitty, show him what you got (make some more memes people!!!)
The Shining: Our view of RK at work making his memes for the past 3 years.
500 days of Summer: Talking about why he does what he does. Because it’s going to last forever (more foreshadowing).
Luca: Him laughing at us not knowing everything. Just forget about it if you don’t understand, he has more for you.
Signs 1: This is where things get interesting. This is where we start seeing the signs. Connecting dots. We found something legit in all the DD.
Signs 2: The signs all pointed to GameStop. It’s all about GameStop and what they are going. Nothing else matters.
Signs 3: Are we the aliens? All of our best DD writers talking to each other were some of my favorite moments over the past 3 years. [There are theories about what these signs said and I will go back and fill that in later, I’m getting sleepy]
Signs 4: He is asking us if we believe the DD.
Signs 5: RK is one of us. Assuming we are the Aliens in these signs videos, he is telling us he is one of us.
The Modern Animal: We need to get a little crazy if we are going to take on the big city (NYC? Wall Street?)
Broad City: We made our own language. Memes. SuperStonk is a place for best friend with time to shoot.
GooseBumps: I THINK THIS IS WHERE WE ARE TODAY. RK is letting his briefcase of memes open and warning bears.
Everyone’s favorite Boss: Here some the SIGNS (memes for those who are not keeping up). He is going to his us ONE MORE TIME.
Pay Attention: NOW FUCKING PAY ATTENTION because he isn’t going to do this again.
Kill Bill: It’s time to fight and we are bad asses.
JigSaw + Kansas City Shuffle: Are you ready for the game? Because GameStop has you covered. Everything up to this point has been the inciting incident and catalyst of the Kansas City Shuffle. There is a very short scene where he says, “are you watching closely”? I saw a comments days ago that I can’t find and the very high level paraphrased version is that scene is from the Prestige and all of those hats were a result of him cloning himself. I think that represents the synthetics that plague our market. (I will find that comment that explains it better and go back to watch the movie myself and update this).
Shawshank: RK is telling us all it really takes is pressure and time to break out of their prison. While he was in prison, he went back to get his financial education. We also need an activist (investor, RC). There is a lot more nuance we can try to extrapolate form this one. I’ll save that for later.
Radiohead Karma Police: They have run the price down far enough. They have been leaking gas this whole time. It’s time for the match to be lit.
Neo: This is where Neo figures out how to work the matrix. The market is fake and everyone is mad. We all know it. When it comes to the market, we all took the red pill, and we see it for what it is.
Bullet Scene: Might need some help deciphering this one. I think it’s about how we (maybe not us but the general public) perceive the market. We see cause and effect but that’s now how it works. I think he is telling us that we don’t fully understand the market but our instincts are right and we just feel it. I think we as a community have that instinct.
Fury: Every boss is going to feel like the last one. They are going to pound us with misinformation, price manipulation, and anything else they can come up. But they are just taunting us to whoop some ass.
Trueman Show: They are going to hit us with everything they have but HOLD ON!
Me, Myself, & Irene: Them tanking the price is going to change how we feel and who we are.
Red Right Hand: Might need some help with this one too. The red hand man is stalking someone and the other person can’t do anything about it? Not sure who is who here.
Beat Saber: Might need some help with this too. Is he calling all freaks to show up because we are about to go to war?
Keith and Jake SNL: Everyone thinks Keith is crazy lol
Seinfeld: Calling out the memestock docs for being stupid. He had to some back and tell everyone to “Shut Up Bitch”
Shut Up Bitch: He delivers his best line to the people making him out to be a Vilian.
Coffee Mug Breaks: He is asking us to convince him to do it again.
Bane: RK is saying everything is going as planned.
Oceans (again): RK has been waiting for this time and it was all part of the plan.
Snoop: There was so much drama at GME. People had to be fired because they were someone dressed up as something else. Moles?
Spiderman: It’s time for Keith Gill to become Roaring Kitty again.
Pizza Slices: Guy on the left is a shorty. He is getting mad with how popular things got with the thesis and how many people bought.
Missy Elliot ft Luda: Giving us confidence that he has a worldwide audience and he is about to kill all the rumors.
In Love with RC: He is telling us that RC is the right guy. Don’t doubt him.
Guardians: Everyone already knows who is in charge. Stop fighting to be in charge.
CNBC again: Some of the misinformation actually said RK is in charge. He is not. He is busy drawing dicks (memes).
Oceans (again): I think he is saying that no one person is in charge. It took everyone to give GME all that money. Or maybe it AVOCADO-IN-MY-ANUS all along?
Breaking Bad: His side still hasn’t been told?
Fight Club: RK finally accepting he is DFV
Nice Guy: He is still a nice guy despite what people are saying.
Day and Night: I think he is talking about his struggles day and night over the last 3 years.
Dave: He could’ve ignored it all but he couldn’t stand it. He’s about to keep it real with us.
Star Wars: help me fill in the blank on this one.
Ozarks: help me fill in the blank on this one.
Grim Reaper: The hedgies are trying to figure out what is going on with GameStop. They are I a holding pattern and will be coming with more hitman when what happens in the rest of the tweets goes down.
*******This is where shit gets real********
The Prestige: Alright. Put your tinfoil hat on tight. Here is my interpretation of this one. The magician makes something disappear, but the audience wants to be fooled so we are not actually looking for the secret. So, when something disappears we don’t clap because it’s not as impressive. But as soon as it comes back, the fights is on**~. I think the NFT marketplace is going to come back~**. But I think it’s going to come back as something else. I think they built the blockchain infrastructure for something other than the NFT marketplace. That is when shit is going to go crazy. Don’t believe me, keep reading.
Brand New GME: They finally embrace what everyone has been calling them. They show up one day looking sexy as fuck and blow everyone’s minds.
Prisoner: And now the prisoner (GME’s true price) has true FFFRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM.
The fallout: The hedgies are going to beg us to sell our shares at 14 grand but the nature of us is pure CRAZY. We all knew who was calling on the phone.
Parking Lot Killer: That is who was calling. They are coming for the bears.
Requel: And just like that the requel begins production.
Old Computer Game: Now the question is, with this brand new, sexy af version of GME are we selling or are we staying? I think it’s going to be so fucking amazing we “>Stay”
Kittyman: When this all goes down, RK will return again.
How did they do it?: GME (or we?) seems stupid but apparently whoever it is really good at paperwork and the RK is so happy he’s doing backflips.
What do they need to do it?: They are going to need all of us and the target is up. HODL.
Kingsman: Shorties will then be locked in the room with us and they are going to come in fierce numbers.
The Town: They need our help we can’t ask questions but we have some sick ass rides to get there with.
Morning Affirmation Cat: Help me with this one. I’m tired.
Troy: Sick ass scene. GME just needs to land the killshot.
Pikey Reaction: They pulled the price back so far that it’s a loaded spring and when the shots are fired, it’s going to be raining money. Now “come hang so we go out with a bang”. Does he have your attention now?
Stop Fighting: NOW we can stop fighting.
Pirates of the Carrabin: The Pirate comes back from the dead (NFT Market Place?) and GME presses the red button to go into hyperdrive. This solidified my theory.
Tombstone: It’s not for revenge. It’s for something bigger. It’s a reckoning. Maybe a Glass Castle?
Standoff: Now that the red button was pressed, we have all the shorties in a stand off. But it doesn’t matter because the result of the red button is going to destroy it all? DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION NOW?
Avenger Initiative: We have to do it together. It’s not just one person.
Sherlok Holmes: When GME says run, RUN! And remember what it’s running for. You monther, father, children, sisters, and brothers. The DOG DAYS are over.
Drive: We think were all good here right? It’s all over. Guess again. We are going to have every governmental agency coming after us and our gains. We are going to be on the run.
Bloody Blade: Help me with this one.
But First: The overture. This will be how it starts. We must go backward to unlock the secret. Once we do, the dragon wakes up and it’s game on for the game of thrones. We are going to break the wheel.
Still Here: It’s done when we say it’s done. This tweet closes with the song from the whole days evil cept being blown up with green fire. Sick.
Thanos: This was the actual first tweet just like the ET was the actual last tweet. He has read all the tea leaves and doesn't think anyone has put it together like he has so he is sharing his interoperation of the DD, the market conditions, and the news and is going to do one last DD himself.
Hope you were sitting up in your red chair and paying attention.
Apologies for any typos and poor formatting. I've never made a post like this and I'm too tired to figure all of that out. I'll come back tomorrow and clean it all up with that and fill any gaps you guys help me out with.

I want to be hopeful and optimistic but the vast number of online disappointments make it difficult. Here are some things I don't want. Please don't contact me if you are not interested in reading the post. or do not want to talk long term and would be planning on ghosting me or disappearing within 1-2 days.
I am someone who is quite a sweet and effortful person. I would love an online connection with someone similar to me and have good, intellectual conversations and also share some laughter and affection. Affection can light us up and make us happy. (Even platonic connection is fine.) I like giving and receiving affection in the form of cute, little nicknames for each other, checking up on each other, asking about each other.
Of late, I have been watching a lot of couple pranks on YouTube. They teach me a lot about couple dynamics (what kind of dynamics are healthy and what are toxic). It would be nice to have someone to discuss these kinds of dynamics with. Sometimes I like those pranks where one pretends to be angry and the other kind of comforts them. It would be nice if we could enact that sometime.
I hope my words sail to some worthwhile eyes on the winds of destiny.
I have grown wary of superficial connections, no effort replies and even abrupt ghosts.
I would like someone with whom I can exchange sweet words with. I am quite a romantic person and I was more so as earlier. A lot of responsibilities were thrust upon me with time, but I have rediscovered that side of myself. I would love to have a pretend romance with an online companion - where we pretend like we are long lost soul mates and trade fiery words of sweet passion for each other.
But, that is completely optional. I am fine with a wholesome, platonic connection as well.
If you've reached this far, it's because of some happy confluence of my words, the Reddit algorithm and fickle fortune.
Our meeting seemed to dangle so much on fate, it's only fair we pay our dues. Give it our best shot. Do justice to the matchmakers of heaven - The directors of this romance.
I'm on the quest for a sweet companion. Someone with a good heart. Kind and empathetic - Like my own. The good person at the end of the romcom when the attractive antagonists lose their allure.
I love bonding with someone through heart to heart conversation. Through exchanging genuine care and concern. Through passionate exchange of our interests and hobbies. Through clockwork logging of our daily lives. Through mindful curiosity in each other's interests. Through mutual preference for glitter over gold, depth over deception, charm over carelessness and symphonies over superficiality.
The conversation starts out with pleasantaries and outward introduction of our demographic information - the most rudimentary. The most formal. Gradually, the outer layers crack and a mild joke cuts across the mask and we're another layer deep. Common or different tastes in art are the usual social custom for making new acquaintances.
Soon, our conversation flows like a roaring river eliciting deep intellectual and emotional responses from both of us.
We're discussing prized memories and cherished fantasies of the future. Chalking out hypotheticals and admiring the other's world views. Pretty soon, we're suddenly bare and feeling a strong bond by virtue of what we've shared.
Small silences punctuated the conversation. These silences were not awkward. It was a comforting waterfall of connection. It was the silence that followed from both of us knowing and enjoying the bond created by our hearts.
I loved the feeling of ending a conversation with a stranger on the first day with the feeling you've known them for years. I harboured romantic beliefs that such a connection must be the byproduct of a relationship in a previous life !
Here are a few things about me -

• I love staying at home.
• I do not drink or smoke and don't like going to noisy pubs. Although there are times when friends or office parties are conducted there, it's something I just tolerate.
• I love reading. I am interested in programming, Mathematics, Chess, Science, Psychology, Geopolitics, Space, Literature (fantasy particularly or late but I like all kinds) and Self Help (Productivity and Positive Psychology) - and a lot more ! I'm generally intellectually curious and a lifelong learner.
• I love following updates on things I'm passionate about and sharing them regularly. I love following podcasts and blogs and videos on them and sharing and discussing them. I also love explaining a new thing I have learnt as it helps me understand it better.
• I tend to be positive and look at the brighter side of life usually. But I also like sharing the problems I am going through and like listening to your's.
• I love animals. I have a lot of pets. I am also quite close to my family and am surrounded by my loving pets (5 dogs and 4 cats). I recovered from dengue last month and they were always around me all the time. It felt very good.
• I love putting in effort into messages and writing effortful messages and generally use complete words and not much abbreviations. I love crafting a symphony of text.
• I am usually quite calm and supportive and remember things that are told to me in conversation. I like getting emotional and expressive and am soft hearted and sensitive. I am also quite mature and enjoy talking to similarly mature people.

Do not reach out to me if you're just bored, did not read the post, don't like anything about me or my profile or don't know what you want or don't want to invest in having a good connection or don't even have the intention for talking for a few weeks. I am already quite hurt at repeated ghosting so please do not even reach out to me if you intend to ghost by tomorrow or next week.
Here's what I would like from us

• Genuine interest, care and empathy for each other - Making each other a priority though we are strangers at first. That's part of the excitement in jumping head first into this ! That does not mean we do not respect each other's busy schedules or commitments. I'm looking for something really genuine.
• Regular effortful messages, and remembering things the other says
• I love sharing or explaining anything new I learn, whether it is a blog post, podcast, video, book or a general thought that came through my mind. It would be great if you love listening to good explanations and are interested in such things. I'd also love it if you too like sharing blogs or podcasts on topics that you are interested in but it's not necessary.
• I also love self improvement and sharing progress or motivation as we are doing things towards our goals and dreams.
• I love voice calls as I love the sound of voice. I would love it if you are someone who is excited at having regular voice calls (2-3 times a week) or at least exchanging voice messages at times !
• We don't need to have similar taste in art (music, TV shows, movies). I am open to learning about new kinds of interests and new subcultures !
• Openly sharing our thoughts on the bigger ideas and arcs of life and also venting about the smaller frustrations
• Being excited at receiving messages from the other person every time we light each other's phones up.
• [Optional] Some online romance where we sometimes say things to each other that make us blush like our first crush. A little romance to brighten each other up. Though this is completely optional. Sometimes sharing sweet, romantic messages with each other and maybe even doing this on voice calls too.

Also would be nice if we can just share photos so we can visualise what we look like as I like sharing photos when I go somewhere. I just like getting this out of the way. It doesn't matter to me what you look like, but I do like to know whom I'm talking to make us blush like our first crush. A little romance to brighten each other up. Though this is completely optional. Sometimes sharing sweet, romantic messages with each other and maybe even doing this on voice calls too.
Also would be nice if we can just share photos so we can visualise what we look like as I like sharing photos when I go somewhere. I just like getting this out of the way. It doesn't matter to me what you look like, but I do like to know whom I'm talking to.

Introduction

Keeping your home comfortable year-round hinges on a well-functioning HVAC system. Whether it’s a scorching summer day or a chilly winter night, your HVAC system ensures you stay cozy. But what exactly makes up this vital system? Understanding the key components of HVAC systems can help you maintain them better and make informed decisions when issues arise.

Thermostat

Definition and Function

The thermostat is the control center of your HVAC system. It regulates the temperature by switching the heating or cooling system on and off as needed to maintain the desired comfort level in your home.

Types of Thermostats

Programmable Thermostats

Programmable thermostats allow you to set different temperatures for different times of the day and days of the week. This customization can lead to significant energy savings.

Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats take it a step further by learning your schedule and preferences. They can be controlled remotely via smartphone apps, providing convenience and even more energy savings.

Importance of Thermostat Placement

Proper placement of the thermostat is crucial. It should be located away from direct sunlight, drafts, and heat-producing appliances to ensure accurate readings and efficient operation.

Furnace

Definition and Function

The furnace is the heart of your heating system. It heats the air that is then distributed throughout your home via ductwork.

Types of Furnaces

Gas Furnaces

Gas furnaces are common and efficient, using natural gas to produce heat.

Electric Furnaces

Electric furnaces are less efficient but are a good option in areas where gas is unavailable.

Oil Furnaces

Oil furnaces are less common but are used in some areas. They require regular maintenance to ensure efficiency.

Efficiency Ratings for Furnaces

Furnace efficiency is measured by the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating. A higher AFUE rating indicates a more efficient furnace, which translates to lower energy bills.

Heat Exchanger

Definition and Function

The heat exchanger is a critical component that transfers heat from the combustion process to the air that is distributed throughout your home.

Importance in HVAC Systems

A well-maintained heat exchanger ensures efficient heat transfer and prevents dangerous gases like carbon monoxide from entering your home.

Evaporator Coil

Definition and Function

The evaporator coil is located inside the indoor unit of your HVAC system. It absorbs heat from the air inside your home, cooling it down before it is circulated back into the living space.

How It Works with the Furnace

In cooling mode, the evaporator coil works in conjunction with the furnace blower to circulate cool air. In heating mode, it helps to distribute warm air produced by the furnace.

Condensing Unit

Definition and Function

The condensing unit is the outdoor component of your air conditioning system. It releases the heat absorbed by the evaporator coil to the outside air.

Components of a Condensing Unit

A condensing unit typically includes the compressor, condenser coil, and a fan. Together, these components work to expel heat from the refrigerant, allowing it to cool down and cycle back into the indoor unit.

Refrigerant Lines

Definition and Function

Refrigerant lines are the conduits that carry refrigerant between the indoor and outdoor units of your HVAC system.

Types of Refrigerants

Common types of refrigerants include R-22 and R-410A. R-22 is being phased out due to environmental concerns, while R-410A is the more eco-friendly alternative.

Importance of Proper Refrigerant Levels

Maintaining proper refrigerant levels is crucial for the efficient operation of your HVAC system. Low refrigerant can cause poor cooling performance and damage to the compressor.

Ductwork

Definition and Function

Ductwork is the network of ducts that distribute heated or cooled air throughout your home.

Types of Ductwork

Sheet Metal Ducts

Sheet metal ducts are durable and commonly used in many HVAC systems.

Flexible Ducts

Flexible ducts are easier to install and are ideal for tight spaces but may be less durable.

Fiberglass Ducts

Fiberglass ducts are insulated and help in noise reduction but can degrade over time.

Importance of Duct Sealing

Properly sealed ducts prevent air leaks, improving the efficiency of your HVAC system and reducing energy costs.

Vents and Registers

Definition and Function

Vents and registers are the outlets through which conditioned air enters the rooms of your home.

Types of Vents and Registers

There are various types, including floor, ceiling, and wall registers, each designed for optimal air distribution based on their placement.

Importance of Proper Vent Placement

Proper vent placement ensures even distribution of air, avoiding hot or cold spots in your home.

Air Filter

Definition and Function

The air filter removes dust, pollen, and other particles from the air before it is circulated throughout your home.

Types of Air Filters

Fiberglass Filters

Basic filters that provide minimal filtration and are inexpensive.

Pleated Filters

More efficient than fiberglass filters, capturing smaller particles.

HEPA Filters

High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters capture nearly all airborne particles, providing the best air quality.

Importance of Regular Filter Replacement

Regularly replacing your air filter ensures clean air and helps your HVAC system run efficiently, preventing strain on the components.

Blower Motor

Definition and Function

The blower motor moves air through the ductwork and into your home.

Types of Blower Motors

Single-Speed Blower Motors

These run at one constant speed, offering less control over air flow.

Variable-Speed Blower Motors

These adjust speed based on your HVAC needs, improving efficiency and comfort.

Return Air Ducts

Definition and Function

Return air ducts bring air back to the HVAC system for reheating or cooling.

Importance in Air Circulation

Proper return air flow ensures balanced air pressure and efficient operation of your HVAC system.

Humidifier

Definition and Function

A humidifier adds moisture to the air, improving comfort and air quality.

Types of Humidifiers

Bypass Humidifiers

These use the furnace blower to distribute moisture.

Fan-Powered Humidifiers

These have their own fan to add moisture to the air, offering more efficiency.

Benefits of Using a Humidifier

Humidifiers can alleviate dry skin, reduce static electricity, and improve overall indoor air quality.

Dehumidifier

Definition and Function

A dehumidifier removes excess moisture from the air, preventing mold growth and improving comfort.

Types of Dehumidifiers

Refrigerative Dehumidifiers

These cool the air to remove moisture, similar to air conditioners.

Desiccant Dehumidifiers

These use a desiccant material to absorb moisture from the air.

Benefits of Using a Dehumidifier

Dehumidifiers help maintain a comfortable humidity level, protect your home from moisture damage, and improve indoor air quality.

Air Handler

Definition and Function

The air handler circulates air throughout your HVAC system.

Components of an Air Handler

Air handlers typically include a blower, filter, and sometimes heating or cooling elements.

Conclusion

Understanding the components of your HVAC system is key to maintaining a comfortable and efficient home. From the thermostat to the air handler, each part plays a vital role in heating and cooling your living space. Regular maintenance and proper usage can ensure your system runs smoothly for years to come.

FAQs

What is the most important component of an HVAC system?

While every component is crucial, the thermostat is often considered the most important as it controls the overall function of the system.

How often should HVAC components be serviced?

It's recommended to have your HVAC system serviced at least once a year to ensure all components are working efficiently.

Can I replace HVAC components myself?

While some minor tasks like changing air filters can be done by homeowners, most HVAC component replacements should be handled by professionals to ensure safety and proper installation.

What are common signs that an HVAC component needs replacement?

Common signs include unusual noises, reduced efficiency, higher energy bills, and inconsistent heating or cooling.

How can I improve the efficiency of my HVAC system?

Regular maintenance, proper use of a programmable thermostat, sealing ducts, and ensuring proper insulation can significantly improve the efficiency of your HVAC system.

Introduction

Keeping your home comfortable year-round hinges on a well-functioning HVAC system. Whether it’s a scorching summer day or a chilly winter night, your HVAC system ensures you stay cozy. But what exactly makes up this vital system? Understanding the key components of HVAC systems can help you maintain them better and make informed decisions when issues arise.

Thermostat

Definition and Function

The thermostat is the control center of your HVAC system. It regulates the temperature by switching the heating or cooling system on and off as needed to maintain the desired comfort level in your home.

Types of Thermostats

Programmable Thermostats

Programmable thermostats allow you to set different temperatures for different times of the day and days of the week. This customization can lead to significant energy savings.

Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats take it a step further by learning your schedule and preferences. They can be controlled remotely via smartphone apps, providing convenience and even more energy savings.

Importance of Thermostat Placement

Proper placement of the thermostat is crucial. It should be located away from direct sunlight, drafts, and heat-producing appliances to ensure accurate readings and efficient operation.

Furnace

Definition and Function

The furnace is the heart of your heating system. It heats the air that is then distributed throughout your home via ductwork.

Types of Furnaces

Gas Furnaces

Gas furnaces are common and efficient, using natural gas to produce heat.

Electric Furnaces

Electric furnaces are less efficient but are a good option in areas where gas is unavailable.

Oil Furnaces

Oil furnaces are less common but are used in some areas. They require regular maintenance to ensure efficiency.

Efficiency Ratings for Furnaces

Furnace efficiency is measured by the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating. A higher AFUE rating indicates a more efficient furnace, which translates to lower energy bills.

Heat Exchanger

Definition and Function

The heat exchanger is a critical component that transfers heat from the combustion process to the air that is distributed throughout your home.

Importance in HVAC Systems

A well-maintained heat exchanger ensures efficient heat transfer and prevents dangerous gases like carbon monoxide from entering your home.

Evaporator Coil

Definition and Function

The evaporator coil is located inside the indoor unit of your HVAC system. It absorbs heat from the air inside your home, cooling it down before it is circulated back into the living space.

How It Works with the Furnace

In cooling mode, the evaporator coil works in conjunction with the furnace blower to circulate cool air. In heating mode, it helps to distribute warm air produced by the furnace.

Condensing Unit

Definition and Function

The condensing unit is the outdoor component of your air conditioning system. It releases the heat absorbed by the evaporator coil to the outside air.

Components of a Condensing Unit

A condensing unit typically includes the compressor, condenser coil, and a fan. Together, these components work to expel heat from the refrigerant, allowing it to cool down and cycle back into the indoor unit.

Refrigerant Lines

Definition and Function

Refrigerant lines are the conduits that carry refrigerant between the indoor and outdoor units of your HVAC system.

Types of Refrigerants

Common types of refrigerants include R-22 and R-410A. R-22 is being phased out due to environmental concerns, while R-410A is the more eco-friendly alternative.

Importance of Proper Refrigerant Levels

Maintaining proper refrigerant levels is crucial for the efficient operation of your HVAC system. Low refrigerant can cause poor cooling performance and damage to the compressor.

Ductwork

Definition and Function

Ductwork is the network of ducts that distribute heated or cooled air throughout your home.

Types of Ductwork

Sheet Metal Ducts

Sheet metal ducts are durable and commonly used in many HVAC systems.

Flexible Ducts

Flexible ducts are easier to install and are ideal for tight spaces but may be less durable.

Fiberglass Ducts

Fiberglass ducts are insulated and help in noise reduction but can degrade over time.

Importance of Duct Sealing

Properly sealed ducts prevent air leaks, improving the efficiency of your HVAC system and reducing energy costs.

Vents and Registers

Definition and Function

Vents and registers are the outlets through which conditioned air enters the rooms of your home.

Types of Vents and Registers

There are various types, including floor, ceiling, and wall registers, each designed for optimal air distribution based on their placement.

Importance of Proper Vent Placement

Proper vent placement ensures even distribution of air, avoiding hot or cold spots in your home.

Air Filter

Definition and Function

The air filter removes dust, pollen, and other particles from the air before it is circulated throughout your home.

Types of Air Filters

Fiberglass Filters

Basic filters that provide minimal filtration and are inexpensive.

Pleated Filters

More efficient than fiberglass filters, capturing smaller particles.

HEPA Filters

High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters capture nearly all airborne particles, providing the best air quality.

Importance of Regular Filter Replacement

Regularly replacing your air filter ensures clean air and helps your HVAC system run efficiently, preventing strain on the components.

Blower Motor

Definition and Function

The blower motor moves air through the ductwork and into your home.

Types of Blower Motors

Single-Speed Blower Motors

These run at one constant speed, offering less control over air flow.

Variable-Speed Blower Motors

These adjust speed based on your HVAC needs, improving efficiency and comfort.

Return Air Ducts

Definition and Function

Return air ducts bring air back to the HVAC system for reheating or cooling.

Importance in Air Circulation

Proper return air flow ensures balanced air pressure and efficient operation of your HVAC system.

Humidifier

Definition and Function

A humidifier adds moisture to the air, improving comfort and air quality.

Types of Humidifiers

Bypass Humidifiers

These use the furnace blower to distribute moisture.

Fan-Powered Humidifiers

These have their own fan to add moisture to the air, offering more efficiency.

Benefits of Using a Humidifier

Humidifiers can alleviate dry skin, reduce static electricity, and improve overall indoor air quality.

Dehumidifier

Definition and Function

A dehumidifier removes excess moisture from the air, preventing mold growth and improving comfort.

Types of Dehumidifiers

Refrigerative Dehumidifiers

These cool the air to remove moisture, similar to air conditioners.

Desiccant Dehumidifiers

These use a desiccant material to absorb moisture from the air.

Benefits of Using a Dehumidifier

Dehumidifiers help maintain a comfortable humidity level, protect your home from moisture damage, and improve indoor air quality.

Air Handler

Definition and Function

The air handler circulates air throughout your HVAC system.

Components of an Air Handler

Air handlers typically include a blower, filter, and sometimes heating or cooling elements.

Conclusion

Understanding the components of your HVAC system is key to maintaining a comfortable and efficient home. From the thermostat to the air handler, each part plays a vital role in heating and cooling your living space. Regular maintenance and proper usage can ensure your system runs smoothly for years to come.

FAQs

What is the most important component of an HVAC system?

While every component is crucial, the thermostat is often considered the most important as it controls the overall function of the system.

How often should HVAC components be serviced?

It's recommended to have your HVAC system serviced at least once a year to ensure all components are working efficiently.

Can I replace HVAC components myself?

While some minor tasks like changing air filters can be done by homeowners, most HVAC component replacements should be handled by professionals to ensure safety and proper installation.

What are common signs that an HVAC component needs replacement?

Common signs include unusual noises, reduced efficiency, higher energy bills, and inconsistent heating or cooling.

How can I improve the efficiency of my HVAC system?

Regular maintenance, proper use of a programmable thermostat, sealing ducts, and ensuring proper insulation can significantly improve the efficiency of your HVAC system.

Introduction

Keeping your home comfortable year-round hinges on a well-functioning HVAC system. Whether it’s a scorching summer day or a chilly winter night, your HVAC system ensures you stay cozy. But what exactly makes up this vital system? Understanding the key components of HVAC systems can help you maintain them better and make informed decisions when issues arise.

Thermostat

Definition and Function

The thermostat is the control center of your HVAC system. It regulates the temperature by switching the heating or cooling system on and off as needed to maintain the desired comfort level in your home.

Types of Thermostats

Programmable Thermostats

Programmable thermostats allow you to set different temperatures for different times of the day and days of the week. This customization can lead to significant energy savings.

Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats take it a step further by learning your schedule and preferences. They can be controlled remotely via smartphone apps, providing convenience and even more energy savings.

Importance of Thermostat Placement

Proper placement of the thermostat is crucial. It should be located away from direct sunlight, drafts, and heat-producing appliances to ensure accurate readings and efficient operation.

Furnace

Definition and Function

The furnace is the heart of your heating system. It heats the air that is then distributed throughout your home via ductwork.

Types of Furnaces

Gas Furnaces

Gas furnaces are common and efficient, using natural gas to produce heat.

Electric Furnaces

Electric furnaces are less efficient but are a good option in areas where gas is unavailable.

Oil Furnaces

Oil furnaces are less common but are used in some areas. They require regular maintenance to ensure efficiency.

Efficiency Ratings for Furnaces

Furnace efficiency is measured by the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating. A higher AFUE rating indicates a more efficient furnace, which translates to lower energy bills.

Heat Exchanger

Definition and Function

The heat exchanger is a critical component that transfers heat from the combustion process to the air that is distributed throughout your home.

Importance in HVAC Systems

A well-maintained heat exchanger ensures efficient heat transfer and prevents dangerous gases like carbon monoxide from entering your home.

Evaporator Coil

Definition and Function

The evaporator coil is located inside the indoor unit of your HVAC system. It absorbs heat from the air inside your home, cooling it down before it is circulated back into the living space.

How It Works with the Furnace

In cooling mode, the evaporator coil works in conjunction with the furnace blower to circulate cool air. In heating mode, it helps to distribute warm air produced by the furnace.

Condensing Unit

Definition and Function

The condensing unit is the outdoor component of your air conditioning system. It releases the heat absorbed by the evaporator coil to the outside air.

Components of a Condensing Unit

A condensing unit typically includes the compressor, condenser coil, and a fan. Together, these components work to expel heat from the refrigerant, allowing it to cool down and cycle back into the indoor unit.

Refrigerant Lines

Definition and Function

Refrigerant lines are the conduits that carry refrigerant between the indoor and outdoor units of your HVAC system.

Types of Refrigerants

Common types of refrigerants include R-22 and R-410A. R-22 is being phased out due to environmental concerns, while R-410A is the more eco-friendly alternative.

Importance of Proper Refrigerant Levels

Maintaining proper refrigerant levels is crucial for the efficient operation of your HVAC system. Low refrigerant can cause poor cooling performance and damage to the compressor.

Ductwork

Definition and Function

Ductwork is the network of ducts that distribute heated or cooled air throughout your home.

Types of Ductwork

Sheet Metal Ducts

Sheet metal ducts are durable and commonly used in many HVAC systems.

Flexible Ducts

Flexible ducts are easier to install and are ideal for tight spaces but may be less durable.

Fiberglass Ducts

Fiberglass ducts are insulated and help in noise reduction but can degrade over time.

Importance of Duct Sealing

Properly sealed ducts prevent air leaks, improving the efficiency of your HVAC system and reducing energy costs.

Vents and Registers

Definition and Function

Vents and registers are the outlets through which conditioned air enters the rooms of your home.

Types of Vents and Registers

There are various types, including floor, ceiling, and wall registers, each designed for optimal air distribution based on their placement.

Importance of Proper Vent Placement

Proper vent placement ensures even distribution of air, avoiding hot or cold spots in your home.

Air Filter

Definition and Function

The air filter removes dust, pollen, and other particles from the air before it is circulated throughout your home.

Types of Air Filters

Fiberglass Filters

Basic filters that provide minimal filtration and are inexpensive.

Pleated Filters

More efficient than fiberglass filters, capturing smaller particles.

HEPA Filters

High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters capture nearly all airborne particles, providing the best air quality.

Importance of Regular Filter Replacement

Regularly replacing your air filter ensures clean air and helps your HVAC system run efficiently, preventing strain on the components.

Blower Motor

Definition and Function

The blower motor moves air through the ductwork and into your home.

Types of Blower Motors

Single-Speed Blower Motors

These run at one constant speed, offering less control over air flow.

Variable-Speed Blower Motors

These adjust speed based on your HVAC needs, improving efficiency and comfort.

Return Air Ducts

Definition and Function

Return air ducts bring air back to the HVAC system for reheating or cooling.

Importance in Air Circulation

Proper return air flow ensures balanced air pressure and efficient operation of your HVAC system.

Humidifier

Definition and Function

A humidifier adds moisture to the air, improving comfort and air quality.

Types of Humidifiers

Bypass Humidifiers

These use the furnace blower to distribute moisture.

Fan-Powered Humidifiers

These have their own fan to add moisture to the air, offering more efficiency.

Benefits of Using a Humidifier

Humidifiers can alleviate dry skin, reduce static electricity, and improve overall indoor air quality.

Dehumidifier

Definition and Function

A dehumidifier removes excess moisture from the air, preventing mold growth and improving comfort.

Types of Dehumidifiers

Refrigerative Dehumidifiers

These cool the air to remove moisture, similar to air conditioners.

Desiccant Dehumidifiers

These use a desiccant material to absorb moisture from the air.

Benefits of Using a Dehumidifier

Dehumidifiers help maintain a comfortable humidity level, protect your home from moisture damage, and improve indoor air quality.

Air Handler

Definition and Function

The air handler circulates air throughout your HVAC system.

Components of an Air Handler

Air handlers typically include a blower, filter, and sometimes heating or cooling elements.

Conclusion

Understanding the components of your HVAC system is key to maintaining a comfortable and efficient home. From the thermostat to the air handler, each part plays a vital role in heating and cooling your living space. Regular maintenance and proper usage can ensure your system runs smoothly for years to come.

FAQs

What is the most important component of an HVAC system?

While every component is crucial, the thermostat is often considered the most important as it controls the overall function of the system.

How often should HVAC components be serviced?

It's recommended to have your HVAC system serviced at least once a year to ensure all components are working efficiently.

Can I replace HVAC components myself?

While some minor tasks like changing air filters can be done by homeowners, most HVAC component replacements should be handled by professionals to ensure safety and proper installation.

What are common signs that an HVAC component needs replacement?

Common signs include unusual noises, reduced efficiency, higher energy bills, and inconsistent heating or cooling.

How can I improve the efficiency of my HVAC system?

Regular maintenance, proper use of a programmable thermostat, sealing ducts, and ensuring proper insulation can significantly improve the efficiency of your HVAC system.

Introduction

Keeping your home comfortable year-round hinges on a well-functioning HVAC system. Whether it’s a scorching summer day or a chilly winter night, your HVAC system ensures you stay cozy. But what exactly makes up this vital system? Understanding the key components of HVAC systems can help you maintain them better and make informed decisions when issues arise.

Thermostat

Definition and Function

The thermostat is the control center of your HVAC system. It regulates the temperature by switching the heating or cooling system on and off as needed to maintain the desired comfort level in your home.

Types of Thermostats

Programmable Thermostats

Programmable thermostats allow you to set different temperatures for different times of the day and days of the week. This customization can lead to significant energy savings.

Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats take it a step further by learning your schedule and preferences. They can be controlled remotely via smartphone apps, providing convenience and even more energy savings.

Importance of Thermostat Placement

Proper placement of the thermostat is crucial. It should be located away from direct sunlight, drafts, and heat-producing appliances to ensure accurate readings and efficient operation.

Furnace

Definition and Function

The furnace is the heart of your heating system. It heats the air that is then distributed throughout your home via ductwork.

Types of Furnaces

Gas Furnaces

Gas furnaces are common and efficient, using natural gas to produce heat.

Electric Furnaces

Electric furnaces are less efficient but are a good option in areas where gas is unavailable.

Oil Furnaces

Oil furnaces are less common but are used in some areas. They require regular maintenance to ensure efficiency.

Efficiency Ratings for Furnaces

Furnace efficiency is measured by the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating. A higher AFUE rating indicates a more efficient furnace, which translates to lower energy bills.

Heat Exchanger

Definition and Function

The heat exchanger is a critical component that transfers heat from the combustion process to the air that is distributed throughout your home.

Importance in HVAC Systems

A well-maintained heat exchanger ensures efficient heat transfer and prevents dangerous gases like carbon monoxide from entering your home.

Evaporator Coil

Definition and Function

The evaporator coil is located inside the indoor unit of your HVAC system. It absorbs heat from the air inside your home, cooling it down before it is circulated back into the living space.

How It Works with the Furnace

In cooling mode, the evaporator coil works in conjunction with the furnace blower to circulate cool air. In heating mode, it helps to distribute warm air produced by the furnace.

Condensing Unit

Definition and Function

The condensing unit is the outdoor component of your air conditioning system. It releases the heat absorbed by the evaporator coil to the outside air.

Components of a Condensing Unit

A condensing unit typically includes the compressor, condenser coil, and a fan. Together, these components work to expel heat from the refrigerant, allowing it to cool down and cycle back into the indoor unit.

Refrigerant Lines

Definition and Function

Refrigerant lines are the conduits that carry refrigerant between the indoor and outdoor units of your HVAC system.

Types of Refrigerants

Common types of refrigerants include R-22 and R-410A. R-22 is being phased out due to environmental concerns, while R-410A is the more eco-friendly alternative.

Importance of Proper Refrigerant Levels

Maintaining proper refrigerant levels is crucial for the efficient operation of your HVAC system. Low refrigerant can cause poor cooling performance and damage to the compressor.

Ductwork

Definition and Function

Ductwork is the network of ducts that distribute heated or cooled air throughout your home.

Types of Ductwork

Sheet Metal Ducts

Sheet metal ducts are durable and commonly used in many HVAC systems.

Flexible Ducts

Flexible ducts are easier to install and are ideal for tight spaces but may be less durable.

Fiberglass Ducts

Fiberglass ducts are insulated and help in noise reduction but can degrade over time.

Importance of Duct Sealing

Properly sealed ducts prevent air leaks, improving the efficiency of your HVAC system and reducing energy costs.

Vents and Registers

Definition and Function

Vents and registers are the outlets through which conditioned air enters the rooms of your home.

Types of Vents and Registers

There are various types, including floor, ceiling, and wall registers, each designed for optimal air distribution based on their placement.

Importance of Proper Vent Placement

Proper vent placement ensures even distribution of air, avoiding hot or cold spots in your home.

Air Filter

Definition and Function

The air filter removes dust, pollen, and other particles from the air before it is circulated throughout your home.

Types of Air Filters

Fiberglass Filters

Basic filters that provide minimal filtration and are inexpensive.

Pleated Filters

More efficient than fiberglass filters, capturing smaller particles.

HEPA Filters

High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters capture nearly all airborne particles, providing the best air quality.

Importance of Regular Filter Replacement

Regularly replacing your air filter ensures clean air and helps your HVAC system run efficiently, preventing strain on the components.

Blower Motor

Definition and Function

The blower motor moves air through the ductwork and into your home.

Types of Blower Motors

Single-Speed Blower Motors

These run at one constant speed, offering less control over air flow.

Variable-Speed Blower Motors

These adjust speed based on your HVAC needs, improving efficiency and comfort.

Return Air Ducts

Definition and Function

Return air ducts bring air back to the HVAC system for reheating or cooling.

Importance in Air Circulation

Proper return air flow ensures balanced air pressure and efficient operation of your HVAC system.

Humidifier

Definition and Function

A humidifier adds moisture to the air, improving comfort and air quality.

Types of Humidifiers

Bypass Humidifiers

These use the furnace blower to distribute moisture.

Fan-Powered Humidifiers

These have their own fan to add moisture to the air, offering more efficiency.

Benefits of Using a Humidifier

Humidifiers can alleviate dry skin, reduce static electricity, and improve overall indoor air quality.

Dehumidifier

Definition and Function

A dehumidifier removes excess moisture from the air, preventing mold growth and improving comfort.

Types of Dehumidifiers

Refrigerative Dehumidifiers

These cool the air to remove moisture, similar to air conditioners.

Desiccant Dehumidifiers

These use a desiccant material to absorb moisture from the air.

Benefits of Using a Dehumidifier

Dehumidifiers help maintain a comfortable humidity level, protect your home from moisture damage, and improve indoor air quality.

Air Handler

Definition and Function

The air handler circulates air throughout your HVAC system.

Components of an Air Handler

Air handlers typically include a blower, filter, and sometimes heating or cooling elements.

Conclusion

Understanding the components of your HVAC system is key to maintaining a comfortable and efficient home. From the thermostat to the air handler, each part plays a vital role in heating and cooling your living space. Regular maintenance and proper usage can ensure your system runs smoothly for years to come.

FAQs

What is the most important component of an HVAC system?

While every component is crucial, the thermostat is often considered the most important as it controls the overall function of the system.

How often should HVAC components be serviced?

It's recommended to have your HVAC system serviced at least once a year to ensure all components are working efficiently.

Can I replace HVAC components myself?

While some minor tasks like changing air filters can be done by homeowners, most HVAC component replacements should be handled by professionals to ensure safety and proper installation.

What are common signs that an HVAC component needs replacement?

Common signs include unusual noises, reduced efficiency, higher energy bills, and inconsistent heating or cooling.

How can I improve the efficiency of my HVAC system?

Regular maintenance, proper use of a programmable thermostat, sealing ducts, and ensuring proper insulation can significantly improve the efficiency of your HVAC system.

Once the grisly hunt had ended, we waited until the hunters were over the hill and gone. As we sat in the Reina del Cielo, we processed everything. Not only were the Pullman-Seldano people here and messing up the place, but were going as far as to commit wanton murder on the wildlife. “Ok, guys,” Calderon said, breaking the tense silence. “I know that was awful to see - and take it from me, I’ve seen some shit across the world, all kinds of shit done to animals - but we’ve got to keep going. What if they come back?” We reluctantly agreed, and off we went, initially silently as we feared there may still be some people in the area. We continued northwest along the Yaku River, and as another hour ticked by, we found ourselves at yet another tributary. This time, the one that connects the Yaku, Utjawi, and Kasike Rivers. “Hold on, we gotta do a quick reorientation along the current here,” Calderon announced as he started to prevent the plane from drifting off down the wrong river. But then, as we started our cross, an explosion shook the water, and we were briefly tossed up into the air, landing back down with a tremendous splash. “What the hell? What was that?”
Then the whole river system started to shake, the water bashing against and spilling onto the shores like an overflowing bathtub. As this happened, over the sound of roaring, agitated water came the sound of stone crumbling. Then, as Calderon tried to maneuver to where the river continued to our northwest, one of the hydrofoils made contact with the shoreline, and we were briefly stuck. Once the hydrofoil was dislodged, then our whole right side began to sink, and we saw that the shoreline was collapsing, sand and silt falling into a large space below. With our left side in the air and the water pushing us, we found ourselves falling downward. We fell surprisingly not far down, only about 15 or 20 feet down. We landed in a pool of brownish water, and as the river water and falling sand and silt above followed us down, we looked around to see just what kind of cavity we fell into. Surprisingly (or perhaps not, at this point), it was manmade.
We had landed in a large tunnel dug into the bedrock. The ‘river’ we landed in seemed to be a stream of dirty runoff following the main path of the tunnel route next to us. The end behind us led on into blackness, and the end in front of us was shut away by a steel gate. 30 feet away sat a large vehicle next to stacks of steel crates. This vehicle resembled a massive bulldozer, with several clawed metal arms tucked on the side, giving it a somewhat insectoid appearance. The main blade was divided into two parts, which resembled enormous metal claws then they did a bulldozer blade. As my eyes wandered around the area, I noticed that the vehicle was restrained by chains, with a small sign nearby reading in big red letters: “OUT OF ORDER.” We reluctantly disembarked the plane to assess the damage, and while it wasn’t severe, it was yet another blow that stopped our progress. We had resigned ourselves to our little inconvenient fate when we heard a snarl above us. Looking up and peering over the edge was the head of a toothy gulper. The aquatic dinosaur clearly took an interest in us, and even though it seemed to be deciding whether or not to follow us down, the river made its choice for it, the water shoving the animal down with us, thankfully next to the plane instead of on top of it.
The enormous animal flopped around upon landing and tried to go for us. Running back inside the safety of the plane, we were shoved into the rock wall to our left, and Calderon and Missy aimed weapons at the creature, but didn’t fire yet. As this happened, the toothy gulper tried to wrap itself around the plane. “What are you waiting for? Fire!” Mary Ann yelled. Missy shook her head. “Not yet, it has to line up.” Mary Ann looked confused, approaching Missy’s station. “Now?” Missy shook her head. The creature was now bearing down on our right wing, its elongated body lining up to around the gate. “Now!” Missy exclaimed, and the electrical guns fired. The toothy gulper was shot backwards, flying back at great speed as it’s enormous body collided with the gate, bringing it down with a loud clash. With this came the sounds of further objects clattering. As the dust cleared, the path ahead was shown to be dimly lit, with a row of weak yellow lights along the ceiling. Shelves collapsed as tools and other objects rolled out into view. One of these was unlike the others: a yellow crystal that caught the light as it rolled out, with bits of stone still stuck to it. Then the appearance of the crystal made sense. Viracochite. This was a mine. And the smoking gun? The label on the vehicle not far away, and logo proudly emblazoned on various tools and other items spilling out? Pullman-Seldano.

And feel like an idiot for letting it affect me negatively. This was not a relationship, and I never even met them. We only talked for a few weeks. Yet I feel triggered and sad- which is ridiculous. We started talking online, and stayed up for hours the first night. Then from that point on we stayed up talking for 5 ish hours every night. We had the same taste in music and books, similar past times, conversation just flowed so well and I could have discussions with them that my friends irl aren’t really interested in. We ended up both sharing our real life identities, and opened up about a lot of personal things.
Then we had a minor disagreement, and they said they weren’t upset, we’re okay, and then abruptly ended things by just saying saying it was nice to meet you, bye! I apologized for my part in the disagreement the next day, although I think they definitely had a part in it too. No response.
It’s been almost a week now, and I know I have to move on and stop thinking of this stranger. I’m unemployed right now, and know the only reason I’m engaging in this behaviou this fixated on them is because I’m not fulfilled or busy enough day to day. It’s just a rare feeling for me to meet someone I have so much in common with and can talk to for hours. And I feel so confused about what could have happened to make them jump ship so suddenly. On one hand, we were strangers and they don’t owe me anything. At the same time, we shared very personal things with each other and talked for hours every day for weeks. Very strange feeling to have someone suddenly enter your life and exit it just like that.
I’m definitely going to learn from this and not divulge information/connect with someone like this again. It was against my better judgement at the time and it’s so embarrassing. I guess most likely thing that happened is they found someone else they enjoyed talking with, and didn’t need the connection anymore. I feel so pathetic for caring. But I feel hurt and confused, going around in my head about what went wrong.

For anyone who commented or chimed in on my last post, I thought I'd pass along a brief update.
To summarize: Since my (31M) wife (30F) returned from a work trip last July, she has cared more about her looks than she used to, is more protective of her phone, and may have dropped hints of doing things in bed that we haven't done together (I explained in the other posts about "Never Have I Ever"). Recently, right before another work trip, she bought very sexy thongs that aren't what she normally would wear.
On the advice of several commenters from the last post, I hired a PI to look into her work trip. While she was away, I also went and got myself tested and arranged to take some time off from work when she came back, in case the PI found anything out and I needed to make some major life choices.
I am relieved to say that nothing incriminating came up on her work trip. I know that doesn't mean something didn't happen on other trips, but it does mean that there is nothing definitive from this trip she was so excited about.
Regarding my tests, I didn't test positive for anything. Also, the results weren't delivered in a letter. So to those of you who said the letter I thought I saw might not have been test results, you could be right after all.
This week, once she returned from her trip, I checked out her routines going to the gym and going for long walks after work. I felt gross using my time off from work to sneak around, but without evidence from the trip, I wanted to check on things myself.
I found nothing. She worked out alone at the gym and just listened to music and briefly sat in the park during her walk.
Her change in behavior still feels weird to me, but I don't have any concrete evidence to confront her with, and I still want to try to give her the benefit of the doubt. When I recently asked her again about some of her behavior, she said that her turning 30 made her want to focus more on staying fit and beautiful, hence her going to the gym a lot and caring about her looks more. She didn't have much to say about being glued to her phone other than that she is just as protective as anyone else would be.
Coming up empty on several searches for evidence, I would like to know does anyone have any other suggestions on where to look? We don't have the same cell phone plan, so I wouldn't be able to easily check on those logs. I also did confirm that she does not have any dating apps downloaded or incriminating messages (at least that weren't deleted) on her phone.
TLDR: I didn't get anything incriminating from searches into my wife's work trip, gym routine and walks after work. Her behavior still feels strange, but I have no concrete evidence of infidelity. Any suggestions on what to do next?

In kindergarten (sorry I'm from singapore so we follow British but if im not wrong its like 5-6 years old) I already accepted Christ into my life. But my mom is a "I hate Christians!!" kind of person so I didnt dare to tell her anything. I didn't really have a good relationship with my mom cos to her studies are everything and she made me (until now) think that I'm never good enough. And I was only in primary school thinking my mom doesn't like me. I'm worthless, I want to kms. I made plans to grab the knife from the kitchen, jump off and things like that. Eventually I resulted to scratching my own skin cos I feel most pain when it's right at the nerve uk.
My whole life was until the end of primary school (12) was only to do things to make my mom happy. I wouldn't mention a word about Christianity to her. And when my mom was out at night, me, my dad and my sisters would worship. The moment the door opens, I scramble into the room. This also make me walk far from God and I would curse, swear and stuff. One day in P6, the last year of primary school (12 years old) I thought "Hey, I'm Christian so why am I swearing? Isn't this a sin?" So I stopped cursing. Of course, my mom wouldn't want me going around cursing but I didn't really do it for her, but rather for God. But I still didn't want to tell her about it.
When I graduated from Primary school, in Secondary (Sec) school, I finally got to bring my phone to school (13 years old), but my mom still could track me. Anyways I got to listen to some worship songs my dad sent to me and because I didn't have a music player downloaded and wasn't allowed to download any apps, I would listen through the WhatsApp audio player thing😭😭 on the way home. Usually on Sundays whene my mom isn't home,my dad would bring me to church. Then of course my mom would find out and scold me and this continued until sec 2 (14).
In Sec 3 (15 years old), I had whole control of my phone so I would listen to worship music on the way home. One day in, my dad brought me to church. My mom saw my location and immediately got mad because she knew where my dad's church is and also because my older sister attends service too and my mom was not happy. Since then, I was afraid to go to church. My mom even cornered me one day and made me promise not to go to church or I can forget calling her my mom. I kept crying that night and never dared to go to church (mind that i dont even cry often).
But towards mid year(?) I just decided ok Imma go to church. She can get angry but it won't really stop me. Because I got to know God through worship songs and now I wanted to know him more.
I regularly started praying in the morning on the way to school. Eventually my prayers became a ritual and dry. I felt no emotion and no pull towards God. Only on days when I was really upset/angry then I would feel Him comforting me. One day I really wanted to be the captain in my CCA (it's like after school activities but still part of school programs) and I didn't get it. I was so upset I cried on the way home because I actually put in so much effort into it. Then I became vice captain so ig that counts.
Anyways I became really upset and got frustrated because I didn't prove myself enough. I had so low expectations of myself, got depressed again, but I couldn't vent it out because I couldn't hurt myself anymore after learning my body is a temple of God. So I got super frustrated. I prayed for guidance decided to free up my Saturdays I went to church. Youth services for Secondary school students were on Saturdays and not Sundays so yeah. Towards like October last year I cleared up my Saturdays so I could go more regularly to church, and my mom was defo not happy AT ALL that I went with my own initiative. She ignored me for several weeks and of course I felt lonely and all buy eventually I felt okay because she doesn't even know me sooooo.
I'm still trying to patch up my relationship with her. Honestly, it's so strained I don't know what to do. I've prayed that she would accept Christ everyday but uhh nothing. This doesn't mean I don't believe in God if not this would not exist
One day I was fellowshipping with my dad. Why we did that is because of a long story that would be saved for another day.
But this is the part where it's important
Previously I had dreams and I shared with my dad because he is more experience in deciphering gifts and stuff (I'm sorry if you don't believe in gifts but I do!) And he told me to pray about it because I somehow knew these dreams had meaning and relation to God. A number of dreams had direct inference to God. I did pray about it, and also asked God along these lines; "God, give me guidance. I have strayed and I know. Lord please let me understand, and let me also be close to You. I want to know You, and I know, I haven't read the word. Lord, motivate me to read the scripture, and while reading let me also understand the dreams I have been having my whole life."
I can't remember what I said exactly. The one 9f the church sermons on one week talked about how God is not far, but we are far. And I felt that that was for me. Then one day my dad said to me and my older sister "I don't care you have to download the Bible rn" so I downloaded it but did nothing with it. Finally, one day I was late for work (yes I worked when I was 15 because I actually want an electric guitar) and it was New Year's Eve. My colleague texted me saying she'd pick me up and I said and quote "Isokkk I walk over" (me) ... "Give me your block" (colleague) "Omd tyyy" (me)
Part of me didn't want her to fetch me because it would be troubling her. But I don't know why I waited and was thinking "bruh I could've reached by now but she's late" but I just waited. I was wearing full white that day. And this woman must've thought I was going to church because it was a Sunday morning.
And she asked "Hello, are you going to church?"
I said "oh no no, I have church at night because it's countdown service. (basically the youth services brought our church service from Saturday 4pm to Sunday 8pm because we wanted to countdown service together)"
She said," Oh! So you're Christian! Do you read the Word often?"
I blushed because so many signs and I haven't read a single word. "No," I was so embarrassed
She continued "I used to be a teacher, a lecturer in a University (if im not wrong) There is a website called 7 minutes with God. It was originally created for Harvard students because they were busy and didn't have time to spend time with God." Then I couldn't hear what she said because she was talking so fast. All I knew was she was summarizing the website and encouraged me to read it.
I read it like on January 2nd this year on the way to school ( I'm 16 this year!!! But not 16 yet because as I said, it's not my birthday yet or anytime soon)
I was so inspired that I kept on reading the Word and devoted mornings to not only prayers (that I allowed God to guide me and not just pray for the sake of praying) but also for reading the Word!
See, when I prayed to have motivation to read the Word more, God gave me the sign THREE TIMES which I did not pick up until the 3rd sign, the lady. The first time during the sermon I was like "Yes God, I will do it!" but did nothing. The second time when my dad asked me to download the app version of the Bible, I said "Yes God, this is the sign!" and did not do anything. I got discouraged because my dad thinks I'm funny and wouldn't take my words seriously omd 😭. But the third time, God literally sent a random woman I don't know and told me to read. And I read, praise God!
this is the part where it relates to the meme
Because when I went to the shower I kept laughing because I thought of this meme. I didn't read the word or get touched because it was a coincidence. So coincidence? I think not! It's a miracle ❤️❤️❤️
I finished Mark and the New Testament, I'm currently at John right now.
Just now, after a meeting with my cell group (a small group for easier prayers etc in church), I was listening to worship music, and my grumpy dad was like "GO AND SHOWER" liek chill brou. So I went to the toilet with my headphones on and sat on the floor and just continued listening to worship music. Then my dad sent in the family group chat (just me, my older sister and him, my mom got mad and left) an article about this man called Patrick Lee/Bezalel. He is a local artist faithful in Christ
But reading halfway I kept crying because I was so touched (again I do no lt cry, but I related so much I cried even though nothing had to do with me, but it was like my mother's story where she had a hard of stone towards God) and then my phone went flat 😐 So I risked it and ran out to get my charger but thank God (like actually) my dad didn't scream like he would. Then I sat at the toilet floor and continued reading. Tears kept flowing down my face because Patrick Bezalel's story was such a miracle, and God kept giving him signs that God existed! And removed the layer of stone that surrounded the man's heart and made it soft and open to God again!
After that I continued worshipping God and was listening to worship music (yes in the toilet because I literally have 0 privacy because none of my parents think I need it). I kept crying because the songs were so related. Can you imagine? It went in this order:
1.Presence,Power,Glory 2.Hosanna 3.Promises 4.Holy Forever
Again, coincidence? I THINK NOT. It was so planned, like it was in my playlist for so long and I haven't really thought much about it. Tears kept streaming down and kept going and through sobs I silently prayed to God
"Oh my dear God you have been so so good to me, and so faithful to me Lord. You have guided me, guided my heart and nothing has gone wrong in Your hands Lord. I've been through the turning point I've prayed for. You have sent people, songs and my family members to come after me to open up to You Lord. Lord, I was having a CG (cell group) meeting and something just touched my heart. I am now sitting on the toilet floor and typing this, because Lord you have made a way to touch my heart, guide me through a prayer that came deep down from inside of me Lord, thank You for providing. Thank You God for the miracles You have did in my life, and all that I prayed for has came through Lord. The turning point I prayed for was when that lady had spoken to me about how to set aside time for You and the Word. Lord let me not forget this incident, this turning point, this miracle Lord. Let me put my trust in You Lord, and let You take my hand and let my life be walking next to You faithfully Lord. Lord I pray that I would not waver, and I would not take my eyes away from You. Even when I am crossing and walking toward You on water in the sea, let my eyes be on You, and the works You have done for me, and not be distracted by the worls around me, but to keep my eyes on You diligently Lord. Lord, I am a sinner, and now, I was, for You have sent Jesus Christ, Your Son, to die on the cross for me. Lord, I believe in You and I want to accept You in my life Lord, no matter what situation I am in. Lord, let people around me see Your love, joy, and faithfulness in me, and not let them see the girl I was before. Let them see change, and the love and desire I have for You, Lord. Let them see Your greatness, Your goodness and You. I thank You for everything You have done, and in Jesus's name, I pray that I will walk faithfully alongside You, and will not fail to continuously pray and worship You God. Thank You Lord for the miracles, for this turning point. Thank You God for guiding me, and let me be the branch that bears fruit, and let me be the branch that has life only through Jesus, Who is the vine, Who the reason I live Lord, Who is the reason I have life. Praise the Lord! Amen!"
This is the first time I prayed for so long and every one word was truly from deep down fron the depths of my heart. I couldn't stop crying. I really couldn't and I can't emphasize more that I don't cry often! Either it hurt me so much or that God moved my heart. This time was tears of joy.
I hope this could inspire someone out there, because in another prayer I prayed for those who needed God, even if I didn't know them.
Pray. Pray and ask God to help you seek Him. One thing I learnt from a sermon is the fervency in your prayers. I didn't mean to add this in but I suddenly saw this note I wrote on 25th February.
Title: fervency in prayer Fervency: being excited about something keen on something
At the heart of revival is the spirit of prayer • pray fervently • pray with faith
"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed"
To be fervent in prayer is to pray tenaciously despite our struggles
Hopefully this helped someone out there, inspired you and is one of your signs to start giving your life to Him! It is actually proven 1 in 3 people are Christians. Isn't our goal to have this faith to reach all four corners of the world? It could sound impossible in the past, but now there is social media, anyone could read and realize "Hey God is actually with me!"

More misery bird? More misery bird. Really miserymaxxing with these fics I have going, but hey, this one is not that miserable actually! Krekos is back and ready to be dense and downcast, but maybe not quite miserable? Read and see!
Big thank you to NoP community for being great and supportive of my endeavors!
Also, obviously, big thanks to SpacePaladin15 for creating this universe and allowing fanfiction well to flow free!
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Memory transcription subject: Krekos, Krakotl Refugee
Date [standardized human time]: May 6th, 2137
I stare at the foul creature before me. Normally staring at something directly head on like that would be too predatory for me to do, but after nearly dying of bread yesterday, I didn’t feel patient enough to be gentle. The creature stared right back, though in a much more natural, prey-like way, tilting its head slightly as it looked back at me with one eye and let out a long bwok.
“Are you doing this now? Really?”, I ask, knowing full well it cannot respond.
Well, it can, if another bwok it made is any indication. Of course, translators aren’t yet advanced enough to translate non-sapient speech, but the intention behind sound is intuitively clear. It’s telling me to back off. Well, I tried the diplomatic approach at least.
Raising my wing I begin sliding the bird out of its nest, careful to keep any delicate joints out of its reach. It started clucking in upset indignation, struggling back and even trying to peck at me, but after realizing that I will not relent, it hopped out of the box and rushed out of the cattle house, revealing a single dead egg in the nesting box.
With relief, I finally pick up the last egg and head back to leave them at the house. Turns out that while Reginald didn’t forget to both lock them up yesterday and let them out today, he did neglect feeding them both times, as well as collecting the harvest. So when I was driven back here in early morning, the first thing I did was making sure they were taken care of. I can’t say the horrid birds looked in any way hungry, but the moment I poured the feeding grain for them, they attacked it with more viciousness than I’d expect of an actual predator. And yet only thirteen were present at the feeding, as the one that’s usually the target of flock’s ire remained in the cattle house yet again, Reginald leaving it to it, being unaware of its undesirable habit of trying to hatch dead eggs.
With eggs delivered, I flew my way to my usual spot atop the cattle house and could finally relax. The loner beast first made its way to feast on the scraps of the grain that other birds already all have had their fill of, so I wasn’t too concerned. Instead I tried to reflect on the morning I had so far.
Waking up at the hospital did make me momentarily panic before I remembered the precluding events. Not that I could properly panic, feeling the most starved I’ve been my whole life, and too weak to try flying out of the window. Thankfully, the breakfast they provided was actually well made with krakotl needs in mind, algae soup alongside a few slices of bread, this time without any horrid human ideas like putting eggs in there. Eggs! Turns out they put eggs in some kinds of bread! That’s how I got sick! Eggs! The thought of what I consumed even now made me queasy, and it definitely made breakfast a much less appetizing affair than it would have been without that knowledge, but back then the hunger won over the disgust.
Lena did keep her promise and came to pick me up extra early. Her being a staff member at the hospital gave her some extra privilege, I assume, hence why I was released without any forms needing to be filled out personally. She did have important business today too, which probably explained the earlyness and urgency of her driving me back to her house.
That did not mean I escaped her ire, however. While I couldn’t pinpoint anything to identify the man, as Bob was apparently a common name, that offered me bread, we did come to understanding that he was likely either unaware of the nutritional contents of it, or of extent to which the Cure-induced allergy would be affecting a krakotl. Yet, Lena seemed much angrier at me for failing to take any precautions. Turns out that was the purpose of medicinal injectors, epipens as humans call them, that were provided to me. I was supposed to have them on me in case I accidentally ingested contaminated food. Nobody told me that, I was just handed them back when I first received the necessities at the refugee camp and I had no clue what they were for. Then she also berated me for eating random food from strangers and ignoring bad flavors. Turns out that brioche bread isn’t actually bitter at all, and that was my body reacting to an allergen in it. Reaction that I unwisely elected to ignore, to further ire of my host. By the end, several new rules of my stay here were made, including not eating things I don’t know and always having at least one epipen on me. Thankfully, these rules would be ones I’d start following even without them being established, so I won’t have to concern myself with being kicked out over accidentally breaking them.
As if following the rules will be enough to make them like you.
Trying to distract myself from thoughts of yesterday’s incident, I focused my attention on the flock. All birds accounted for, so at least I knew that my absence did not result in the predator coming to snatch one of them. I do not wish to insult my hosts, but Reginald is far from most attentive people in matters unrelated to his job, and I am not sure the birds were watched at all while I was out. Speaking of, my scannings of surrounding treelines revealed no sign of the predator today. Perhaps it departed to hunt elsewhere, or maybe it ventured too close to a more populated area and exterminators dealt with it.
Actually, did human exterminators work similar to Federation ones? I knew for a fact they had them, although they seemed like a market of private organizations if advertisements are anything to judge by. Still, what methods do they use? I know humans oppose fire, and do not believe in predatory taint, but surely they have measures to protect themselves? They are, by self-admission, far from the best natural predator, and I doubt Earth’s non-sapient predators would just leave humans be. Maybe I should call one of those human exterminator agencies and call them in to deal with that predator? I haven’t told Lena or Reginald about it, as I didn’t want to bother them, but it could pose a serious threat to the cattle, but maybe that’s the way I could resolve it without involving them?
I have not done nearly as much research into human culture and lifestyle as I should have, considering that I’ve lived on Earth for over half a year now, but the sheer width of the topic always overwhelmed me the moment I opened internet search app to the point where I just closed it right away.
And you expect to start studying again with that attitude? You’ll flunk out even from this primitive predator education course.
Extra loud call from the flock made me refocus my attention on them, but it was nothing. Just the loner getting pecked extra hard and lashing out against assailants, causing a small aimless stampede as all the birds ran around in circles, puffing up at one another. The assailants now looked a lot more like victims. I could understand those birds more than I could humans at least. The loner bird is clearly an odd one out. It’s the only one repeatedly trying to hatch unfertilized eggs it lays, and it seems to always avoid the rest of the flock. Humans may deny the existence of Predator Disease, but they can’t deny that prey and predator both can and will sometimes behave in unnatural ways that may threaten the herd's safety. Or pack’s, in case of humans. Birds must know on instinctual level that the loner’s behavior is unnatural and are attempting to combat the Predator Disease on instinctual level. And since that is natural, I still will not interfere in this, unless the loner bird actually becomes a threat to others or will start getting too injured. The first time I attempted to pick one of the birds up was the only time for a good reason, as I have learned their viciousness all too well.
DING-DING
The sudden loud ring startled me enough that I nearly tumbled off the roof. Who would be coming over now? Lena and Reginald have left together and shouldn’t be back until afternoon, and they’d never use the bell. That means someone must be here for them. But wouldn’t they warn anyone to not come over? Especially with their plans for today.
With nobody to answer these questions, I had no choice but to go and discover the answer myself, flying up and over the house, towards the entrance gate. The moment I passed the house roof, I already saw a familiar silhouette. It was the human child from a few days ago.
Thankfully, Lena’s insistence on me carrying an epipen at all times meant I also carried my satchel at all times too, so I didn’t have to go grabbing my holopad, and took it out. But before I could even launch the translator TTS app to type out a greeting, the child was already hopping in place with excitement.
“Mr. Krekos! Hi! I came over to visit!”, she exclaimed, showing off her teeth in an unnerving expression of human joy. I simply tried to avoid that and focused on the pad, typing out my response.
“Hello, Rosie. Why are you here?”
The question was genuine, as the child was not carrying any more of that honey substance from last time.
“I just came over to visit you! Is that okay? Are Mr. and Ms. Vince okay with it?”
Visit... me? Why? While I was confused, I did instinctively type out a reply.
“They did tell me visitors are allowed as long as there’s no trouble when I first moved in.”
And before I could type a followup message asking her why she’s here, she already let out a joyous roar and ran past me.
“Can I see the chickens?”, she asked, and not waiting for an answer, rushed past the house and towards the cattle yard.
“Wait! You’ll scare them!”, I yell after her, but of course without a translator she can’t understand me as she runs like she already knows where to go.
And indeed she has, quickly rushing up to the open field where the birds were grazing. Thankfully she didn’t start chasing them, instead just approaching the flock from a distance and swaying in place, watching them with what I assume was some sort of predatory excitement at the sight of prey. Maybe that’s where the contained hunting instinct of human children showed themselves? In chasing small birds? I was still more subdued, considering she stopped shy of causing a small stampede, but still.
“Grandpa used to take me with him! He helped watch this farm until Mr. and Ms. Vince moved in. I like chickens! I think they’re cute.”, the child told me innocently as she kept swaying and watching as the beasts grazed upon insects of the pasture.
That revelation was... interesting. I suppose it makes sense that between the original owner of this land dying in the bombings and Lena and Reginald moving in, it would be unattended. With nobody to feed and watch over those things, they would be long dead for sure. And it was Rosie’s grandfather... Speaking of. I typed out my words.
“Does your grandfather know you’re here?”
She seemed to get a weird look as she stopped her excited swaying, fiddling with her hands instead. Looks like I asked the correct question.
“...he knows I am out visiting neighbors.”
That did not answer my question. I squinted at the human child, and she dipped her head as she continued.
“...he doesn’t know I’m here specifically. Or that an alien even lives here...”, she explained, her tone suddenly more sullen.
I couldn’t help but squint at that, and it appears that my expression was readable enough that even a human could see the suspicion, as she continued.
“I’m sorry... But if I told grandpa, he’d tell me I’m forbidden from talking to you, like he forbade me from talking to hedgehog people in town... But I want to talk to you! You’re nice and you’re a space bird!”
The child was actually working around the rules established by her guardian to come see me. I don’t know if I should be glad or concerned. Clearly, the man is anti-alien in his opinions, and I’d rather that kind of man not know about how close he lives to one. At the same time, I’d rather not encourage a child for lying to their guardian in order to meet a stranger they know they aren’t allowed to interact with... So I just took the middle path with my next message.
“I see. What did you want to talk to me about then?”, TTS speaks for me.
Her stiffened body language disappears, replaced again with earlier excitement.
“I wanna know more about space! And aliens! It’s all so cool but grandpa says it’s all dangerous because mom and dad died. But it’s not! The hedgehog people were nice, and you’re nice too!”
I wasn’t sure about that logic, but my self-preservation told me I shouldn’t try convincing her to go confessing. Instead I focused more on her chosen topic.
“I am not sure I am the best person to ask about space. I am not a scientist or traveler.”
“But you’re from there! You know way more than me. I don’t even know what you are called. And there’s gotta be cool things out in space!”
I let out a sigh. I suppose it’s childlike curiosity at its finest. So unfamiliar with mundane that it is a wonder. I remember being like that about becoming a doctor.
And then you let your teacher die.
I quickly tapped on the pad.
“Okay, I can answer questions, but I may not know everything.”
The noise that came out of the girl was like a squeal of a panicked dossur as she started hopping and spinning in place.
“Yes! Yes! Thank you, Mr. Krekos!” Sudden movement did cause me to recoil a bit, which in turn caused her to cease her happy flailing and adjust her little dress. “I dunno where to start though... Hm... What are you?”
...for all my trepidation about not knowing answers, I should have anticipated that the questions she asks will be rather age-appropriate and on the same level as we learn in our first school classes. At least I won’t disappoint her then.
“I am from a species called ‘krakotl’. We’re avians, as is obvious. Our home is...” dead, gone, reduced to glass and ash by our own hubris “...was Nishtal. A beautiful planet...”
Thankfully she did not question my hesitant pause. Instead she just nodded along.
“What about the hedgehog people? I already know venlil, but they’re the only ones I know name of.”
Hedgehog people in town she mentioned earlier. The only species I could think of that could be seen there would be the gojid. I have no clue what hedgehogs are, but probably some creature with visible similarity to them.
“They are called ‘gojid’, and they’re from gojid Cradle. Both of our species are... well, used to be known for our might and protecting other species of Federation.”
I am not sure if that’s something to brag about, considering... everything. But I didn’t want this child to get brought down with depressing regrets of our species. Let her know something nicer instead. She clearly lost a lot, but there’s still joy left in her. I wouldn’t want to be the one to ruin that.
“Cool! What about other people? I wanna know more!”
And so I went on, telling her about various species, although I mostly focused on ones in this new human-led union, only mentioning kolshians and farsul beyond that. It’s weird explaining to a child what a tilfish or a harchen looks like, but thankfully my holopad isn’t just a method of communicating with implant-less children. With access to interstellar web, I could easily pull up pictures of various alien species to show to her, even if she struggled to believe that some of them were even sapient purely based off of looks. With how varied species in Federation are, and how some of us admittedly aren’t too far physiologically from our more primal ancestors.
Among other topics, she asked me to tell her interesting things, which I didn’t know much of. I told her about Venlil Prime’s tidally locked status, a rarity among habitable planets, much less homeworlds for species. I told her about the unique architecture of Mileau, designed to accommodate both species of regular size and dossur themselves. I told her about Colia medical academies, some of the most beautiful medical facilities in the galaxy.
I wish I was more well-travelled, but I just wasn’t. My whole life, I never left Nishtal until the extermination fleet took me despite my protests. That may have been what saved my life...
Not that I, of all people, deserved it...
“Hey! Stop that!”
I flinched as I heard the child yell, but quickly realized that it wasn’t directed at me. Instead, Rosie was rushing down towards the chicken flock, breaking up the fight in which the loner was being pecked by a few larger chickens. As the human child approached, the birds stopped their infighting and scattered in different directions, crowing in loud panic and discontent. On instinct, I found myself rushing towards the child, forgetting about translation entirely.
“What are you doing?! Don’t touch them!”
I didn’t want her to hurt the cattle accidentally, and I didn’t want her to get hurt by the angry birds in return. But, it seems like the moment the birds scattered, she was satisfied with her actions and turned back to me, wearing another one of her happy smiles.
“Sorry, Mr. Krekos, I just saw chickens being mean. Bad chickens.” She explained.
I was baffled. Why would she interfere like that? When I tried that back when I was just starting, that got me pecked! But with her, the birds just scattered. What if they pecked her?
I took the pad out again and started typing quickly.
“That was dangerous. Why did you do that? What if they attacked you? Why are you even interfering in their natural dynamics?”, questions flowed out of my pad with an artificial human voice.
The girl simply giggled.
“They’re chickens! They aren’t dangerous. They don’t peck that painful and I’ve been scratched worse before. And I have to stop it because bullying is wrong.”
Then she actually noticed that the one that was being attacked wandered close. She casually approached it from behind, the blind spot and just reached down and grabbed it, picking the bird up. I was ready to rush to help the bird when...
“Mwah! There, all better.”
She did a human ‘kiss’ on the back of the cattle bird’s neck before releasing it, the surprise of it causing it to rush off. I knew what kisses were, I’ve seen enough of them between Lena and Reginald, but I believed they were gestures of intimate affection, not... what was even that?
It seems Rosie noticed my confusion as she explained.
“You gotta kiss it so it heals better! That’s what mom taught me.” The child displayed that smile of hers shamelessly. With how much I was being exposed to it, it almost wasn’t unnerving anymore. Still, it was interesting to learn that kisses are seen as something that helps wounds. I guess some species do have saliva with mild antiseptic properties, wouldn’t be too out there to assume humans are the same. And if that’s the case, maybe that’s how the kissing tradition started? Exchange of protective fluid between lovers?
“I see. I did not know that.” I responded before letting my puffed feathers relax. Okay, this whole ‘watching a human child’ thing is turning out to somehow be even more stressful than I expected at first.
“Wait, Mr. Krekos, what time is it?” She suddenly asked, looking up at the sky.
“It’s nearly twelve.” I respond, holopad having a convenient clock for local time.
“Oh no! I need to be home soon! Was nice seeing you Mr. Krekos gotta go bye!”
Before I had even a chance at typing out an answer or my own goodbye, the child sprinted away and back towards the entrance. I had to take flight just to keep up, and even then she just turned around, waved her arm at me and then kept sprinting down the road after leaving the gate. I simply offered a small wave of a wing back before locking the gate again. I suppose it is hard to keep track of time without a device or clock nearby...
Well, at least I had the usual peace and quiet now. And learned a bit more about the creatures I was in charge of. I should really try to deal with my aversion to looking things up on the human internet...
Just as I was about to head back out towards the yard, I heard a loud car horn, a familiar one, getting my attention. Lena’s car. There they were, signaling me, probably having spotted me at the gate from afar. Deciding to make use of my presence here, and hoping to avoid needing to explain that I had a surprise visitor earlier, I went ahead and opened the large gate, allowing the car to enter.
Once it was parked in the usual space, the doors opened and three people came out. Lena and Reginald were both looking a bit disheveled, but their faces carried these smiles that seemed wider than ever before. And third person... Was a stranger. A human I knew of, but never actually met. As he exited the car, a large bag in one hand, he just stared at me, standing in the front yard...
“...okay, I expected many things when I was told you guys housed a refugee, but not this.”
Oh no. Oh no, he was not one of the ones that was willing to overlook an invader that partook in bombing of his planet being allowed to walk free, of course, Lena and Reginald were the weird ones like that, doesn’t mean their son won’t be... I felt the panic rising as I realized I’d need to return to the camp. Why was I upset about that? This was supposed to just have been a way to make money, but now I have a free education program. Do I need to stay? No, but... Why?! Why do I not want to leave?
“Ken, you said it’s going to be alright no matter what it is, right? Wanted us to keep it a surprise to meet a new friend?” Lena’s voice. She should have told him, that’d give me time to prepare why didn’t they give me time why.
“No, no problems, just, really surprised, that’s all... uh... hey, buddy, you okay? You’re really... trembly.”
He was approaching me, and instinct took over as I recoiled, before stuttering out my answer.
“I-I’m fine...”
...thankfully translators don’t translate voice cracks. I hope, at least...
“Hey, relax... I have no problem with you being a krakotl, I just didn’t think...” He looks over at Lena and Reginald. “Calm down... I can wear my visor if you want?”
Right. Those things humans use to hide their scary faces from us.
“I... I’m good...”
Why would it last? It almost felt good after all.
There was some emotion I struggled to read on the young human’s face, as he sighed and shook his head.
“I screwed this up, I’m sorry. Let... Let me try again.” He straightened out, and adjusted his clothing, before slowly approaching me and giving me a small smile, no teeth showing. “Hello. My name is Kenneth Vince and I'm son of Lena and Reginald Vince. I was told you’re a refugee they took in to help out. It’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?”
That... snapped me out of it. Right... He was... not upset at my existence. He was just very surprised that Lena and Reginald weren’t. That’s a reasonable thing to be surprised about, considering I was surprised about it to this day. I tried to compose myself as I responded.
“My name is Krekos. I live here as... hired help with the cattle. It’s... nice to meet you?”
The smile on Kenneth’s face widens, though he still refrains from showing his teeth. Instead, he extends a hand towards me. A handshake is a human gesture that I found far from comfortable, but I didn’t want to give him a reason to change his mind on acceptability of my existence, so I took it with a wingclaw. He gently took it and held for a few seconds before letting go and sighing again, turning to his parents.
“You know, I always thought you guys would be empty nesters, but I never thought it’d be that literal.”
That got all three of them laughing, as I just tilted my head in confusion. I was fairly sure there were no empty nests in the house until after I adjusted the attic room for my own accommodations. Still, I took the laughter as a sign that the tense moment had fully passed and let my ruffled feathers slowly rest.
“Let’s head inside. Krekos, we’re having dinner, you’re welcome to join us.” Reginald said, picking up Kenneth’s bag. I tilted my head a little and he followed up with elaboration. “We will be having meat... But there’s still going to be stuff you can eat too. It’s a celebration, so I prepared a bit of everything.”
“Dad, you shouldn’t have!” Kenneth responded with embarrassment.
“None of that! Our son returned from the war, alive and a hero, and we can have a celebration. Krekos, I know you’re still... uncertain about meat so you don’t—”
“I’ll join.”
Wait, who said that? And why did they say that in my voice?
Wait, that was me. Why did I say that?
“That’s great to hear! I’ve got some nice steamed broccoli and some vegetarian fried rice as sides that you’ll enjoy!” Reginald smiled at me and I felt myself shrinking into my feathers. That the humans didn’t notice at least, proceeding into the house instead.
Well, looks like I signed my warrant. At least my bag and my epipen were on me in case something at the table triggers the allergy again. Would be rather unfortunate to have it happen two days in a row.
And that’s how, in just ten or so minutes, I found myself sitting at the dining perch, while humans took seats in chairs, all consuming chunks of roasted flesh and somehow managing to also stuff pieces of equally roasted plants in, and converse with one another. You wouldn’t be able to tell on first look, but despite their mouths being relatively small, especially for a predator, it seems they compensate for it by having those be near bottomless in both hunger and small talk.
I am not sure how I managed to shift my focus away from them consuming animal matter in front of me, however vat grown it might have been, and onto their conversation instead, but I succeeded. I suppose that was just part of me going native around predators. Soon, I’ll be the one feasting along with them before I know it, and snacking on those epipens to not die of it.
Like you could ever be on the same level as humans.
“So, Fahl? That’s where you were sent after the Battle of Earth?” Lena asked.
“Yeah. From what I heard, we got a light posting compared to guys at Sillis or Mileau. The most I had to deal with was some exterminator insurgents.”
That’s right. Since harchen participated in the Extermination Fleet, they were one of those who were occupied by humans during the war. It makes sense that there was at least some ground resistance.
“Honestly, the worst thing out there was the heat. Not the flamethrower kind, the climate. The place was so damn dry and hot. At least exterminators you could subdue or evade. Not so much with the scorching sun!”
I couldn’t resist a small chuckle at the idea of a predator being more afraid of hot weather than flamethrowers as I slowly pecked at the vegetables on my plate. Thankfully it was set far enough aside from any meat dishes that no contamination should occur, but I was still examining pieces before putting them in my mouth just in case.
Seems like reacting was a mistake though, as that brought Kenneth’s attention onto me. He finished chewing latest piece of flesh and pointed a fork at me.
“So, Krekos... Where are you from? Cradle was my guess, but I do know there were refugees from other places like Sillis too.”
That’s a weird question. Isn’t it kind of to be expected for a krakotl to be from our actual homeworld?”
“I’m from Nishtal.”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” Kenneth chuckled, tossing a piece of broccoli into his mouth and swallowing before continuing, “I meant, where did you live? I kind of assumed you were born there, but it’s not like Nishtal had a chance to send refugees out, and if they did, this is the last place they’d be.”
Oh... I caught concerned looks of Lena and Reginald, looking between me and Kenneth from both sides. Not only did they not make him aware that I was a krakotl, they also neglected to mention just how I came by my refugee status... Which was just a legal workaround to grant me asylum without unnecessary complications or establishing undesirable precedent. Legally, I may be a refugee, but practically... I am a defector. Lena and Reginald know that, I told them my story before. And while they were weirdly accepting, Kenneth... Fought extermination fleet here on Earth. Personally.
Still, I wasn’t about to lie. It took a few moments and gathering mental strength to steel myself, and averting my eyes, focusing on the plate of warm vegetables in front of me rather than the human’s anticipating stare before I answered.
“I did live on Nishtal. I... I came with the extermination fleet.” I responded, doing my best to avoid looking at him. I did not want to witness his reaction, for some reason the thought of seeing it weighed heavy on my mind.
“Oh.”
The response was simple, and had no followup. There was no more clinking of cutlery against plates, or chewing. The only thing hanging in the air of the kitchen was silence, weighing down on me. It dragged on and on... until it just got so unbearable I couldn’t take it.
“I-I’m full... Thank you for the meal.” I quickly said, hopping off the perch and stepping out of the kitchen, quickly making my way to the yard and taking flight.
Fresh air of the outside and rush of it as I flew up and gained speed... I missed that. I knew it’s not safe to just fly over other people’s territory, so I corrected my course into doing large sweeping circles over the cattle yard and simply let my wings carry me.
Flying away from any danger is the only thing I’m good for anyway. The only thing I ever do.
I closed my eyes. With them closed and not focusing on my angle it feels like I’m actually flying away from all the troubles. Away from humans who barely tolerate my existence, away from gojid who see me as worse than a predator, away from Earth and all its incorrigible customs, away from horrid cattle, away from constant memories...
Flying feels nice. It may be a bit harder than it was home, but it’s still possible. I heard that on Venlil Prime or Mileau it’s much harder. But here? Just an extra flap of wings for every few paces and you’re just fine, free to soar the skies...
Alone. With no one to ever share it with me again.
Slowly I let my eyes open back to the bleak reality. Greenery of surrounding pastures and woods, bright blue skies and farmhouses dotted about here and there greeted me. I lowered my gaze down, focusing on what’s below. There they were, fourteen brown and black dots spread around the enclosed portion of the farm territory. I am not sure how much time I’ve spent flying in circles and trying to forget things but my wings were feeling a tad sore. Then as I just began slow descent, in same circular motion, I noticed that one of the birds, a familiar one, was being chased by several others. Recounting the morning, I tried putting the knowledge to action, and shifted direction of descent, swooping down. To my surprise, that actually worked, as the moment I got close to the ground, the cattle birds all got much louder and scattered in all directions, including the loner. Who, at least this time, got off unharmed. I suppose such pathetic flightless creatures would fear a flying one much more than they would when I just run up to them...
Swooping at them from the sky like a predator to intimidate them into behaving... Like an arxur warden.
With the fight preemptively broken up, I flutter up to the roof of the cattle house, to my usual position and rested my wings. I didn’t see any movement from the direction of the house, so I suppose the family is still busy unpacking. Since Kenneth joined the military just before the Battle of Earth, and Lena and Reginald only moved here after their actual house in city of New York got destroyed, it’d be the first time the human is seeing what is basically his new home. There was a room set aside for him since before I even moved in, and while there is also a guest room... That one did not have a large enough window to fit through, which did not feel comfortable. So when I asked for a space with a bigger window they only had an attic to offer. They seemed uncomfortable letting me live in a tiny room with slanted roof, but I found such space more comforting than I would have a large room with a window not large enough to fit even one fully spread wing through.
I wonder if Kenneth will need as much renovation as I did? The house is built for humans, but he never lived there before. Will he need to buy a more comfortable bed? Getting a proper nesting setup in place of a bed took a bit of effort, but I figured something out. Human sheets were comfortable enough for such, and sitting perches were thankfully not that hard to get thanks to help from the refugee administration. Maybe that’s the things that Lena went to buy yesterday? Kenneth’s preferred room decor?
I looked up to the sky to see the sun beginning to dim. I am not sure if it was me flying that long, or me losing track of time in my thoughts again, but the sun was beginning to set. I began my usual chores, putting out an evening meal and water for the beasts, and while they feasted, ate some myself. I was a bit hungry, having not properly finished lunch and about to skip dinner, but after the earlier conversation, I’d really rather avoid giving them the opportunity to talk to me.
After the birds had their fill, and by that I mean they emptied the tray as they always do, I let out the call, and they started funneling into the cattle house. The lonely straggler being first to go and hop into its nesting box. I bet tomorrow I will have trouble with getting her out of there again...
I took the moment to gather some eggs the birds left over course of the day, and once that was over and all of them were accounted for, I closed it up. When I flew down over to the house, there wasn’t anyone by the back door thankfully, so I just left eggs there, returned the basket, and returned to my room through the window.
Well, at least I didn’t get nearly killed today... That’s nice I guess?
I was about to check my holopad when there was a knock on the door. I approached and opened it to see... Kenneth. Standing in the doorway.
“Uh, hi, Krekos. I just, uh... Wanted to apologize again. I really wish mom and dad told me everything ahead of time... I just want you to know, I have no problems with you whatsoever, yeah? It’s just. Surprising, I guess, to hear all that. I didn’t think there were any defectors from the fleet at all... Just. Uh, please don’t worry about me?” He offered me a small smile, showing his canines before quickly correcting himself and doing a closed-lip one. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories or make you feel unwelcome.”
I had to take a moment to contemplate his words. Was Lena and Reginald’s weirdness hereditary? He almost reminded me of how Reginald talked to me early on, with constant stumbling over the words, as well as constant reassurances that he is fine with me being here. Couple that with failing to avoid predatory mannerisms like eye contact and smiles like Lena tends to and you get this human. But most importantly and least understandably, there was the general fact of him and them just... welcoming me. I couldn’t understand why. I should be one sorry to them.
“N-No, it’s fine... I’m sorry for... intruding on you and your family.”
“No, no, dude, you’re fine! I mean, hell, I was considering entering one of those exchange programs before the bombings happened, and even after, well, I did my best at Fahl to be the perfect friendly soldier just there to make sure no more bombs drop on my home and not kill or conquer anyone. And then mom told me your story, and I can’t believe it... Just... If you have any issues, feel free to tell me. I’m not one of those racist pricks that are too pussy to even call themselves HF anymore because they know they’ll get their teeth knocked. I get that there aren't good or bad species, just people. And you seem like a decent guy if mom and dad’s judgment is to be trusted.” His smile widened, though it was clear from tension on his face that he had to take conscious effort to keep teeth hidden. “So, what I said earlier stands. Friends, right?”
He extends hand forward, for a second time today. I wasn’t sure if I knew this human long enough to call him a friend... Any human really. But it also seems like human definition of ‘friends’ is anyone they’re cordial and peaceful with. Which is weird. You’d think translators would properly use ‘acquaintance’ for that.
Still... We will be living in the same house now. I can’t just say no, and... I can’t come up with a reason to say no. Even him being a predator and a human is not something I could really say I object to, considering how... mundane that became to me over my time here.
So, with naught on my mind but acceptance of the situation, I extended my wing and grasped his hand with my claw. This time he actually gripped it tightly and moved it up and down, as I saw other humans do occasionally.
“Yeah... I guess that’d be for the best.” I responded, shrugging off the hesitation. Fresh start for a third time, I guess?
The human grinned, forgetting to hide his teeth entirely, but I was ready for it somehow and avoided outwardly reacting.
“Cool! Anyway, I’ll try to get some shuteye early, I couldn’t sleep on the overnight flight home. See ya!”
And with that he left. Well... That meeting went well I suppose?
I returned to my nest and picked up my holopad, returning to what I was doing. And there it was, something I awaited every day. A notification that I was messaged on mailing app. Opening the letter revealed the schedule for the study program. Which... only had one day marked on it. And a note that the rest of it will be figured out ‘as we go from there’. So it’s not a schedule, it’s just a mark for the day of the first meeting.
While a bit underwhelming, it was still exciting. It would be an all-alien class so I wouldn’t have to deal with humans’ incomprehensibility nearly as much, and it would allow me to finally return to pursuing what I actually dreamt of. Even if I wasn’t entirely sure that was precisely what I wanted after everything that happened, it was at least something for me to move towards.
...just two days until start. I wonder if there’s some required reading to prepare?
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Let’s make it aware that there is a job offer scam that lies and take you to Scam Factories and you become a slave, and you may even die. Post here all cases of Disappearance of people who may be associated with this type of scam.

Know The Signs! Have you been trafficked? * Did you apply for the job via Social Media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram), WhatsApp, Telegram or an online platform? * Did you have an online interview? * Have you been promised a job with a company in Thailand? * Were you promised a lucrative salary? * Did you receive a letter of confirmation for your new role? * Did you investigate the company you applied to and are they registered? * Do you have an agent or consultant handling details for you?
How to prevent yourself or someone you know from being trafficked * Never give anyone your passport! * Research the company you are applying to join. For example, check their website, search for them on social media and LinkedIn, check the legal registration of the company. * Ask for references (face to face or virtual) from current employees. * Ensure you received an official letter of offer and check the email addresses match the companies contact information. * Research the visa requirements for working in a foreign country. * Notify your countries Immigration Office of your intention to travel or contact your countries Embassy once you arrive at your destination. * If you are about to cross a river in north-west Thailand don’t, it is likely you are being trafficked into Myanmar.
Could this be your situation? If you or someone you know has been trapped in forced criminality, contact your nearest embassy or email the Global Alms Counter Trafficking Unit at admin@globalalms.com with the details.

This is a post for awareness. Let’s help each other. Only serious comments.
Below are more links to other related posts.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/asia/chinese-scam-operations-american-victims-intl-hnk-dst/
http://chinascope.org/archives/32233
https://youtu.be/m6qFCdHvYuI?si=rs2J71V1XIeFF7we
https://www.reddit.com/Thailand/s/L8OTm9Lvye
https://www.globalalms.com/protection
(My account created recently for privacy/scam concerns)

"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.

The Everest Base Camp (EBC) Trek is one of the most iconic trekking adventures in the world, offering breathtaking views of the Himalayas, a glimpse into the culture of the Sherpa people, and an unforgettable journey through some of the most stunning landscapes on Earth. This trek is not only about reaching the base of the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, but also about experiencing the unique beauty and challenges of the Khumbu region.

The Nature

The trek to Everest Base Camp takes you through a diverse range of landscapes, from lush green forests to barren, rocky terrains. One of the natural highlights is Sagarmatha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is home to a variety of flora and fauna, including the elusive snow leopard and the Himalayan tahr. The park is rich in biodiversity and offers stunning views of snow-capped peaks. The Dudh Koshi River, known for its milky white waters that flow down from the glaciers, is another natural marvel encountered early in the trek.
As you ascend, you will reach Tengboche Monastery, situated at 3,867 meters and surrounded by panoramic views of the Himalayas, including Everest, Ama Dablam, and Thamserku. The area around the monastery is filled with rhododendron forests that bloom in spring, adding a splash of color to the landscape. Another highlight is Kala Patthar, a popular viewpoint at 5,545 meters, providing one of the most accessible close-up views of Mount Everest, along with other peaks like Nuptse and Changtse.

Villages of Khumbu

The Khumbu region is home to the Sherpa community, known for their mountaineering skills and warm hospitality. The trek begins in Lukla, the starting point famous for its small but busy airport, often considered one of the most challenging in the world. Namche Bazaar, the unofficial capital of the Khumbu region, is a bustling market town located at 3,440 meters. It serves as an acclimatization stop with various amenities, including cafes, shops, and internet facilities.
Phakding, situated along the Dudh Koshi River, is often the first stop after Lukla, providing a gentle introduction to the trek with its lower elevation and serene environment. As you progress, Dingboche and Pheriche become important acclimatization points, offering stunning views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. These villages are also centers for altitude sickness prevention and treatment. Gorak Shep, the last stop before reaching Everest Base Camp, sits at 5,164 meters and serves as the launching point for hikes to EBC and Kala Patthar.

Mount Everest

Reaching Everest Base Camp, at 5,364 meters, is the culmination of the trek. Here, trekkers get a close-up view of the Khumbu Icefall and the base camp used by climbers attempting to summit Everest. The sense of achievement upon reaching this point is immense, knowing that you are standing at the foot of the world's highest peak.

Difficulties

The trek to Everest Base Camp is challenging and requires good physical fitness, preparation, and mental determination. One of the primary difficulties is the risk of altitude sickness, or Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), which increases as you ascend. Proper acclimatization is essential, and trekkers should be aware of symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and dizziness.
Weather conditions in the Himalayas can be unpredictable, with sudden changes that can include snow, rain, and cold temperatures, especially at higher altitudes. The physical strain of the trek involves long hours of walking, often on steep and rocky terrain, requiring trekkers to be in good physical condition. As you go higher, the availability of amenities like comfortable lodging, diverse food options, and communication facilities decreases. Basic teahouses provide essential services, but conditions can be rustic.
Organizing the trek involves obtaining necessary permits such as the Sagarmatha National Park Permit and the TIMS (Trekkers' Information Management System) card. Ensuring you have all required documentation is crucial for a smooth journey.

Conclusion

The Everest Base Camp Trek is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that combines the thrill of trekking in the Himalayas with the cultural richness of the Khumbu region. While the journey is demanding, the rewards are unparalleled, offering an intimate encounter with the natural beauty of Nepal and the majestic presence of Mount Everest. Proper preparation and a spirit of adventure are key to successfully completing this incredible trek.

Welcome to the Reverse: 1999 Daily Questions Megathread!

Please use this thread to ask any general inquiries about Reverse: 1999. Also, kindly search keywords under this thread as your questions may have already been answered by other Timekeepers.
Community Guides

• General Community Guide (tierlists, teambuilding, puzzle solutions, etc.)
• Income/Saving Guide
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Cheat Sheets

• 6-star Psychubes
• 5-star Psychubes
• Investment Priority
• Farming Stages
• Resonance Builds, Resonance Costs
• Material Crafting Requirements

Tools

• Planner & Summon Tracker

Wiki Pages

• Reverse: 1999 EN Wiki
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• bilibili CN Wiki

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
Q1. Should I re-roll?

• This depends on how much time you have to dedicate to re-rolling. In general, all three of the beginner banner characters are great, and you have options of doing shortelonger re-rolls, as per this guide.

Q2. Why is my answer incorrect in for the trail puzzle?

• Try to answer with proper letter casing - the answers are case-sensitive.

Q3. When is the daily reset?

• The game resets at 10:00 UTC, please refer to this timer.

Q4. Does pity transfer over to the next banner?

• Yes, pity should transfer over to the next banner of the same type.

Q5. How should I build my team?

• In general, teams consist of a single damage dealer that get supported by support-type characters, but there are many variations. We encourage you to take a look at some of the guides above!

Q6. Can I re-watch the cut-scenes/story?

• From the main screen/lobby, refer to the left icon below the Bank, go to Atlas, then go to the Story Review. This does not currently apply for event stories, unfortunately.

Q7. Are multiple copies of a certain character necessary?

• This will depend on a character-by-character basis. In general, however, there should not be a large importance on getting duplicate copies of a character.

Q8. When should I stop leveling characters?

• Please refer to the investment guide listed above.

Q9. What should I purchase in the Psychube Shop (Thought Elements/Thoughts in Eternity)?

• Do not buy the 5-star psychubes, as we will eventually get enough 6-stars.
• Prioritization order:

1. LF Polarization
2. Englighten I
3. Enlighten II

Q10. What should I prioritize in the Oneric Shop (Oneric Fluid)?

• Prioritization order:

1. Monthy Brief Cacophony
2. Crystal Casket
3. Permanent Brief Cacophony (or Moment of Dissonance to craft Brief Cacophony if needed)
4. Sonorous Knell

Misc Questions
M1. Are macros and auto-clickers allowed?

• No. They are against the game's terms of service; any usage will risk the potential of being banned.

​

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Sober Song #194
Year of the Cat - Al Stewart
​
My mental music video for “Year of the Cat” is a little hazy and blurry, like a fantasy dream or a movie from the 80s on VHS. That’s probably because it has the vibes of both those things. It’s very manic pixie dream girl in its description of the woman who “came in the Year of the Cat”. She’s enchanting, beautiful, spontaneous (“She doesn't give you time for questions / As she locks up your arm in hers / And you follow 'till your sense of which direction / Completely disappears”). She’s described in a lot of nature-based terms, making her sound otherworldly (“And her eyes shine / Like the moon in the sea, she comes in incense / And patchouli”). The other character in the song ultimately pushes aside pedestrian things like catching the bus in favor of hanging out longer with this amazing mystery person (“Well, morning comes and you're still with her / And the bus and the tourists are gone / And you've thrown away your choice and lost your ticket”). I think this type of story is common for a reason: we’d all kind of like to have an exciting stranger sweep us out of our boring lives into something more intense or romantic. It’s a desire to have one beautiful, all-encompassing solution to all of life’s problems. That desire, or rather having it thwarted, can be a drinking trigger if I get too invested. Especially if I am trying to find a person to fill all the gaps in my life. Life is messy and people are fallible, so how could the desire NOT be eventually thwarted? The Year of the Cat is from the Vietnamese zodiac cycle (replaces the rabbit from the Chinese zodiac). Zodiacs and astrology are yet more efforts to feel secure in a chaotic world, a wish to believe that the stars and the years influence human affairs in predictable ways. This song reminds me that neither the stars nor any other person have the power to fix all my problems.
​
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
​
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations!
She'll just tell you that she came
In the Year of the Cat
​
She doesn't give you time for questions
As she locks up your arm in hers
And you follow 'till your sense of which direction
Completely disappears
​
By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls
There's a hidden door she leads you to
These days, she says: "I feel my life!"
Just like a river running through
The Year of the Cat
​
Well, she looks at you so coolly
And her eyes shine
Like the moon in the sea, she comes in incense
And patchouli
So, you take her
To find what's waiting inside
The Year of the Cat
​
Well, morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
And you've thrown away your choice and lost your ticket
So, you have to stay on
​
But, the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the new-born day
You know sometime you're bound to leave her
But, for now you're going to stay
In the Year of the Cat
​
I wish I could stay in the Year of the Cat, but unfortunately, I have to figure out how to get along in the real world. I’m a little resentful about it sometimes, but that’s just because I’m such a fucking Scorpio. IWNDWYT <3

My approach to time is to explore more as others come along. You understand the pursuit of love transforms a person, shaping them with wisdom, allowing them to grow and prosper.
When humans realize they are in a difficult position, they have two choices: continue living in the drama or recognize the impact of their actions on their consumption habits.
Seeking knowledge about yourself brings advantages, although it can disrupt your current reality.
Now you see people filling their lives with love, trying to handle my way of breaking old patterns. Running through this path of self-awareness helps us stay in sync with our world.
This week, my improvements in work and communication have made a significant jump. Tasks that were once difficult are now manageable with effort and organization.
In my tarot practice, after watching some videos, I started listening to music and singing to find comfort. Recently, I've done something amazing for my chakras for the second time.
It's remarkable how aligning with our planet's energies can feel like a wild journey. My process of singing has brought new friends, help, and challenges, but it's improving each time I practice.
As we conclude this letter, remember that searching for understanding and love disrupts reality and prevents us from getting stuck in drama forever.
I no longer question my existence or how I spend my time. Balancing action and relaxation has brought clarity.
My workout routine three times a week has transformed my health. What used to be a strenuous task is now something my friends admire.
I invest a little time in updating my wardrobe. Although I don't spend much money, I now feel the need to visit more stores.
We need to keep pushing the limits of our abilities and grow in our geographical areas. Let's turn the drama of life into a source of strength and growth.

Infinity Girl is a rhythm-action roguelike focused on speed and flow. Everything in the game — every action, every obstacle and every level you encounter — is driven by the beat of the music. Each run is unique, featuring huge procedurally generated maps that you can grind, drift and leap across at incredible speeds.
The game is for fans of rhythm-action games like Hi-Fi Rush, Thumper and Rez as well as roguelikes like Descenders, Crypt of the Necrodancer and Spelunky.
I've been solo-developing Infinity Girl for around 3 years now, and I just released a big new demo. With 7 levels and 3 unique modes, the demo is a mini-roguelike unto itself! It also works great on Steam Deck :-)
Links:

• Steam page with demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1828280/Infinity_Girl/
• Trailer: https://youtu.be/4kGdzcYn9Ic?si=XH9HkqySLr9gKawD

Hope you enjoy the demo! If you do, a wishlist would go a long way in supporting this project.
Thanks! -Adam