DC or Chicago
I’m a 25 year old single Black woman. I just accepted a job offer for $150k base that will require out of state relocation (also covered by the company). The location options are Austin, Chicago, D.C., Nashville or Sacramento. I need to let HR know my first choice soon, and I’m stumped. I am only seriously considering either D.C. or Chicago, amd I’m looking for great food and nightlife, a good black dating scene, and walkability. I’m from the Midwest, so Chicago is closer to home but I have community in either city. The main pro for D.C. is the milder weather (I’d love to be done with Midwest winters), while Chicago is a little more affordable.
I’d like to live in or as close as possible to neighborhood with other young professionals and good food options. The only caveat is that I have a 75 pound pitt mix. She’s friendly but can appear intimidating and sometimes gets too excited when we see other dogs/she’s over stimulated, so I’d like something with a private entrance. My dream would be a townhouse (nothing huge) with a small, private fenced back yard. I’m open to renting or buying, I’ve seen some properties like what I’m looking for in the DC area for $325k - $450k (max budget $450k), I’m just not sure if they’re in safe areas and I’ll be a single woman living alone.
So, I’ll leave it to you all: D.C. or Chicago?

Hi all!
My boyfriend and I want to live together soon. He has asthma and allergies, which worsen SIGNIFICANTLY around my kitty. As in, after one night he is wheezing, sniffling, and his eyes are burning.
I’d rather avoid having to have us pay for allergy shots. What all do you recommend?
Currently I am planning on a bigger HEPA air purifier, cat-allergen reducer food mixed into my cat’s diet, bi-weekly vacuuming with a HEPA vacuum, consistent brushing, and using the Allerpet dander remover.
I’m desperate for anything else I can possibly do. Any tips?

Hello fellow narcoleptics!
I'm officially 2 months on Lumryz. For context, I was prescribed Xyrem in 2018, switched to Xywav in (I believe) 2020, and just began Lumryz 2 months ago. I'm going to try my best to be brief as I go over all of my thoughts on it and how it has affected me/how it compares. For reference I take 7.5g packets.
tldr: taste is fine, works faster and for longer, bedwetting biggest symptom, mental state on it improved.

1. Taste

I was warned by my doctor that Because it is like a sand mixture that you mix with water, the experience is pretty gnarly. I will say that the texture is very strange, but if you just swallow it without swishing it around in your mouth, you can kind of get past that. I have always mixed my medication with water mixed with crystal light lemonade mix. I highly recommend this it's super easy and makes the taste much more bearable. But honestly it just tastes salty. Not too bad.

1. Effectiveness

I knew before I started Lumryz that it is very fast acting. Especially compared to the Xywav which, after taking it for so many years, had lost its potency and it would takes HOURS for me to settle down into sleep. My doctor said that Lumryz usually helps people fall asleep within 30 minutes, and because I have a high tolerance, I would probably conk out at just under an hour. The first night that I took it I started to feel extremely heavy within just 30 minutes. I was awake, but HEAVILY impaired, miles beyond what I used to feel on Xywav. I think at around 1 hour 15 mins I was out. Now, at the 2 month mark, I would say it takes 45 minutes to start to feel it, and I fall asleep between one to two hours, depending on how tired I am. so much faster than the Xywav!

1. Side effects (after taking)

First Time
The first week I took Lumryz was crazy. It made my body feel incredibly heavy and I also felt mildly dizzy but not in a nauseating way. The second night I had spilled juice on my floor and got down to wipe it up and fell asleep on the floor in what must have been minutes! I woke up a couple hours early in a crazy delirious state, for a couple seconds LITERALLY having no idea if I was at home or in my dorm room (which I was in). And I am not talking like forgetting for a couple seconds, I literally looked around and saw my dorm room but was convinced it was my bedroom at home and even that I could hear my parents talking down the hall. It was insane. I got into my bed though and went back to sleep and woke up fine.
Bedwetting
The worst side effect of the Lumryz for me (in the beginning) was the bedwetting. Even if I would pee right before taking it, it's like every other night my bladder would just empty (thank god for free laundry at my school...) I asked my doctor and he said that once my body was more used to the medication, I should stop bedwetting so frequently. He was right! After a month the bedwetting had stopped. Im sure that it will happen again someday, as I am sure other people on Xywav/Xyrem and Lumryz would agree with, but it isn't happening so frequently. To anyone switching to Lumryz, I would recommend going to sleep with a maxi pad on for the first couple of weeks.
Dreams
My dreaming has been so strange on Lumryz. It's too much to detail here in this already long post, so I think i'll do a separate post about this because there's a lot to break down.
Hunger and Nausea
My nausea has been about the same being on Lumryz vs Xywav. I have been prescribed Zofran for about as long as i've been on my narcolepsy meds. Next, the hunger. I know all of you Xywav takers know about how insatiably hungry you get on that medication, how you'll break into any nook and cranny, searching for any morsel of food. This was another main reason why I switched to Lumryz. The extreme hunger is definitely not the same as when I was on Xywav. It is not anywhere near as intense. I still get a bit hungry on it though, and this is probably heightened by the fact that I eat dinner at 6 PM and take my medication for sleep at 11 PM. I'm sure that anyone would get hungry after five hours. I would recommend eating a large snack about an hour before. If I'm going to bed with a more full belly, I usually don't get so hungry.
Staying asleep
Not only has Lumryz helped me fall asleep faster, but I also usually stay asleep for longer. For the past week or so, I've been waking up at anytime between 4 and 5 AM, but I'm able to fall asleep again within 30 minutes usually. I think this waking up is exacerbated by consuming food after taking Lumryz. I'm also more likely to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer if I have gotten physical activity that day. I have MDD, so it's common for me to not do much other than sit around for a whole day. However, when I get exercise, my sleep is so much better.
Mental Health on Lumryz
Another huge negative side effect I would experience while on Xywav was a fucked up mental state. Xywav would amplify suicidal or depressive thoughts for me, and it would be really bad if I was already in a bad mood. Though Lumryz works similarly, I do usually fall asleep much faster so the thoughts don't have time to get too bad. Lumryz usually makes me more confused than suicidal though.
Okay, that's mostly it. Feels free to ask me any questions you want.

I’m a single 25 year old Black woman. I just accepted a job offer for 150k base that will require out of state relocation (also covered by the company). The location options are Austin, Chicago, D.C., Nashville or Sacramento. I need to let HR know my first choice soon, and I’m stumped. I am only seriously considering either D.C. or Chicago. I’m looking for great food and nightlife, a good black dating scene, and walkability. I’m from the Midwest, so Chicago is closer to home but I have community in either city. The main pro for D.C. is the milder weather (I’d love to be done with Midwest winters), while Chicago is a little more affordable.
I’d like to live in or as close as possible to a neighborhood with other young professionals and good food options. The only caveat is that I have a 75 pound pitt mix. She’s friendly but can appear intimidating and sometimes gets too excited when we see other dogs/she’s over stimulated, so I’d like something with a private entrance. My dream would be a townhouse (nothing huge) with a small private fenced back yard. I’m open to renting or buying, I’ve seen some like what I’m looking for in the DC area within my budget, I’m just not sure if the area is safe.
So, I’ll leave it to you all: D.C. or Chicago?

I'm finishing up U World, I had done some of the AAMC Materials, but I'm still gonna grind through that by the start of next week.
Have 3 AAMC FLs under my belt, 503, 502, 501
I haven't taken an FL for a few weeks, and so far, I have been trying to drill content I kept on missing with YouTube, Review sheets, and U World. For example, I didn't know any metabolism pathways for those past exams, which kept coming back to bite me.
Im a pencil/paper typpa person, so Im thinking I keep drilling Anki, doing U World, watching YouTube and adding to my review sheets.
P/S cant lie I've been slacking so I can address my weaknesses in B/B and C/P.
Been doing mix of timed and untimed practice, however, should do more timed since that is an issue for me on exams.

I’m a 25 year old single Black woman. I just accepted a job offer for $150k base that will require out of state relocation (also covered by the company). The location options are Austin, Chicago, D.C., Nashville or Sacramento. I need to let HR know my first choice soon, and I’m stumped. I am only seriously considering either D.C. or Chicago, amd I’m looking for great food and nightlife, a good black dating scene, and walkability. I’m from the Midwest, so Chicago is closer to home but I have community in either city. The main pro for D.C. is the milder weather (I’d love to be done with Midwest winters), while Chicago is a little more affordable.
I’d like to live in or as close as possible to neighborhood with other young professionals and good food options. The only caveat is that I have a 75 pound pitt mix. She’s friendly but can appear intimidating and sometimes gets too excited when we see other dogs/she’s over stimulated, so I’d like something with a private entrance. My dream would be a townhouse (nothing huge) with a small, private fenced back yard. I’m open to renting or buying, I’ve seen some properties like what I’m looking for in the DC area for $325k - $450k (max budget $450k), I’m just not sure if they’re in safe areas and I’ll be a single woman living alone.
So, I’ll leave it to you all: D.C. or Chicago?

Hey Legends and Giga Chads out there.
One of the crypto OGs, thedude0ne has created his own memecoin, but its not just your ordinary memecoin, but a movement aiming to revolutionize how we share and trust information online. Imagine the crypto version of a lie detector mixed with the fun of your favorite dog memes.

So, What's Truth Inu All About?

Truth Inu started as a fun, transparent dog-themed memecoin, but we've got bigger goals. Inspired by figures like Elon Musk who are vocal about misinformation, we're here to be the beacon of transparency in a sea of sketchy news.

The Journey So Far

We've built an amazing community that's about more than just making money. You all have been key in laying down the foundation for promoting truth and transparency. Our meme game is strong — the transparent dog coin isn’t just for laughs, it stands for honesty and openness in the crypto space. Sharing fun memes and random truths with $TRUTH is central to our strategy. Let’s make truth-telling viral and fun!

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Chart: dexscreener.com/ethereum/0xCF4C91ECaFc43C9F382DB723Ba20B82efa852821

I’m SO CLOSE to planting my newest native beds but I’m stumped on the sociability level of some species I want to include. There don’t seem to be any lists online ranking species from very well-behaved to very aggressive spreaders. That got me thinking… maybe we could collectively come together and share a tentative ranking?
In short, plant sociability was studied by Richard Hansen and Friedrich Stahl and they apparently published a list in their (now out of print and virtually impossible to find?) book Perennials and Their Garden Habitats:

• 1: behaved, grows singly
• 2: grouped or tufted, creeps a little
• 3: small patches, spreads moderately but won’t take over
• 4: large patches, spreads liberally but coexists with other species
• 5: great crowds or pure populations, dominates an area

I know from experience some rankings. Like that Baptisia spp are typically a 1 while Canada Goldenrod are a 5. But I’m really limited in my knowledge, considering how many natives there are out there.
Which brings me here. Since there are so many experienced gardeners and native plant enthusiasts in this subreddit, I thought you might all want to share your personal observations and conclusions?
To be clear, I know there are no straightforward answers. Plants behave differently under different conditions — stick a cup plant in shade or cattails in a dry spot and they won’t spread like crazy. So maybe we could consider some middle ground, like part-to-full sun and medium-moisture clay soils for mixed grass prairies in the central Great Plains?
Open to any comments, thoughts and feedback! And more than happy to read through any indexes/plant lists you’ve come across, so please share those resources if you can, too!

While searching for obygyns, I came across Dr Diana Wang. Went through the reviews and saw mixed reviews. A lot of negative reviews on huge wait times, rude staff, the process being rushed etc. Can anyone share their experience with the Dr? Also, any obygyns that you will recommend around domain area?

I don't really want this to go viral or anything but sincerely just want to put all in one place all the things I know about the situation because I don't think it's with people I know irl....
TDLR: true off my chest, my mom is almost certainly emotionally cheating on my dad based on what he's told me and I know way too much about this situation.
My mom was the typical housewife when I was growing up, very young mom to another guy whose out of the picture entirely; I literally can't even remember the dude's face.
My real dad met her when she was still young, single mom and he still fell for her. He loves her so much. His devotion is really boundless for his family; he was a kind of typical dad when I was growing up, working long hours to move up the corporate ladder, make money to get the four of us out of an apartment and into a house. Us older kids, we were his kids, no doubt about it, even when they had two more kids.
He wasn't perfect. He got angry when he dealt with shitty clients all day and came home to a chaotic household. He would get mad/sulky if I didn't great him at the door. He spanked the boys. He broke the glass table once, when he was really angry.
At the time, obviously, my mom was the stay at house mom, cooked and cleaned.... With hindsight, I think her child rearing could've really used some work. We were left alone a lot, her still in the house, but working on finishing school. We were put into after school activities to keep us engaged, but she never really played with us or gave us activities like I feel a stay-at-home mom should. She let me tell her about her day, but she never really engaged with what I said to her, just listened. Maybe she didn't listen.
I remember one time she had a college class and I can't even remember how old I was.... maybe 4? But she left me outside the class as it got dark, because she knew I was a good kid and wouldn't go anywhere.
They were probably too young for this many kids, or maybe even kids at all. Us older kids definitely contributed to raising the other two, we'd babysit on date nights, etc. Not often. But enough.
But my parents eventually made their way to a couples therapist. things got a lot better, for a few years. My dad worked on his anger issues, mellowed out a lot, and they became all about the love languages and how to love each other and us well.
When I moved out for the first time, things seemed good. They seemed stable at least.
But now, 6 years later things have felt.... Weird. What I type below is a mix of things I saw and things my dad told me.
With hindsight, my mom definitely has taken up a lot more space for herself. She works a lot of hours and put the youngest two into a LOT of extracurriculars. The youngest, she said, should be well rounded with their extracurriculars.
Sports. Music. Scouts. She wanted to put him in an art or language class to be "well-rounded". I personally feel like she just doesn't want to raise the kid after school. They're left home alone A LOT. As in, I will call them in the afternoon and they're home alone because everyone else is at work, or the gym or whatever.
I worry for that one.
During last Thanksgiving, my dad said my mom is starting to "blossom". She's always been an introvert, never had many friends, has been a touch judgemental, and stayed off social media. But now she's making work friends, engaging with the community and totally leaving my dad and the kids behind to some degree. She never invites anyone, they have to ask.
But he wants her to grow. He wants her to have friends, so he encourages it.
He starts stepping up around the house; with the pandemic, he became able to work from home half the week, so he does, he drives the younger kids when they need it, manages the house, even learned to cook.
My mom makes a new friend. A guy.
And she's had guy friends before. But my dad says the majority of her texts are with him. She's now on social media.... Posting things for him.
When they go to family events and things, she text him pictures of the events and pictures of herself... Nothing sexy as far as I'm aware, but I can't think of a single guy friend she'd be texting photos of herself unless he's gay and she's looking for fashion advice (he's not gay). And she always seeks him out.
My dad told me this, basically crying. This is the moment I think she may be emotionally cheating.
How can you spend all your time thinking about someone your not with, talking with them almost 24/7 unless you're intensely emotionally invested?
I personally fuck with the LGBTQ+ community, I think my mom is demi and this is so very very close to cheating, as close as you can get without touching.
SHe meets this guy a lot without my dad.
So my dad begs her to go back to couples therapy with him, and she does.
She puts up the boundary that my dad is not allowed to interfere with her friends, that he's just being overly jealous. The therapist poses the thought to my dad "if she decides to cheat on you, there's nothing you can do". The boundary, she told me. The words, my dad told me.
Obviously that hurts.
My dad asks her if she's in love with him (my dad). And she says no.
Obviously my dad is so hurt by this, but their time is up and they have dinner plans with friends.
My dad does not want to go. He begs her not to go.
She makes him go.
She makes him go put on a happy face with their friends when she just probably broke his heart.
I was there that night, for the holidays at that point. I sat with my dad, put a shoulder to his. I didn't know the details of it all, but I saw my dad texting their therapist and saw when he came home and it wasn't good.
When we get home, my mom says "so what do we want to do, family movie? Game night?" I balk. What the fuck is she talking about? Why doesn't she give a shit about my dad, someone she's spent twenty years with who's never shown her anything but devotion?
I say no, and entertain my siblings while my parents go upstairs and talk? for literally 3 hours.
I get called in when I'm getting ready for bed, trying to ignore anything coming from their room.
My mom promises it's nothing crazy, they're not getting divorced.
What?
I just want to go to bed at that point.
The next day, my mom takes me out, explains some of her side of the story but never elaborates on how she hurt my dad so much , just saying he's not allowed to interfere with her friends. I don't ask about that guy.
She says "your dad asked a question that he didn't want the answer to. He got upset when I answered honestly, because you know I'm always honest"
She's a snob and judgemental of emotions so I just stop asking questions.
My dad is trying so hard to keep it together guys.
He has all these tools from dealing with his anger issues, hes's meditating, he's taking complete care of the youngest kids, as best as he can.... He once told me he was scared to lose my mom (like, her dying) because he'd have no idea how to take care of the kids. I kind of think that's what happened.
He's no longer himself. He's quiet. He's very thoughtful. He's so self-controlling.
All this, changing almost everything of himself and she says nothing. He asks her for acknowledgement, a thank you and she says "You should be changing for you, not for me"
I am almost scared for him.
On mother's day, he did everything to make it special for her. He encouraged the younger kids to make her breakfast, take her out for the day, she got to go to the spa with her lady friends.
She never thanked him. She never thanks him for his support.
He finally realized that it's a fight. someone has to give in, either her, just SEE him, or he's going to give up someday.
How do I feel about all this?
I might hate my mom. She's a shitty partner, and not a very good parent right now either. I think regardless of how she views it, she is putting this one guy on a pedestal over everything else in her life. I think she is just waiting for my dad to give up.
Part of me wants to tell him, that she's stubborn as al hell and she's not gonna give up. I think he knows it.
But he loves her so much, and I don't think I should know even half of any of this, but I've seen too much. I know too many things that I'm not allowed to tell anyone.
should I encourage him to tell her that even if she doesn't see this coming to a divorce, that's where it's heading? Should i encourage him to divorce her?
Should I explain to him what emotionally cheating is?
God, the youngest kids. They're the ones suffering the most of this and I don't even know if they know it.
I wish every conversation I had with anyone in that household doesn't have me standing there with the question on the tip of my tongue; "do you know this is going to end and painfully?"
I wish I could see my mom as a good mom again. I wish I could see my dad a whole person again.
Thanks for reading and while this is a true off my chest, god I'd probably take any advice.

So it’s been a few years since this happened. I won’t say this was my first time ever dealing with a crazy boomer, nor was it my first time dealing with a racist.
But it was by far the most direct and unsolicited example of racism that I have ever experienced.
So it was 2020. I had just quit my previous job a week prior due to demanding to much for the pay.
So I found myself in need of another job.
Started filling out apps hours at a time.
Found a local guy who needed a window washer of his all business.
Simple job, simple hours.
5:30am till $12:30pm, clean a maximum of 25 windows each per location, about 3-6 locations a day. And it payed a steady wage that was an improvement for me at the time.
The guy was overall very nice, very friendly, basically came off as much of a Non-boomer as a baby boomer can be without loosing the label entirely.
Or So it Seemed…..
Day 1: arrive to his house at 5:30, lets me in his house and says I can take a seat until he’s ready to go.
The first 🚩 reveals itself.
What is it you might ask is gonna drive a boomer to pay me to sit on my ass in his house? For what ended up by 30 minutes?
Fox & Friends
Had no idea what the show was at first, but quickly figured out knowing Fox News in a. General sense at the time.
On the way to the first stop, I think to myself “do I really wanna work for this guy? This guy? I guess it is just a tv show(how naive in hindsight). Would I be a bitch for quoting over a tv show?”
I push past these thoughts and just try to get to work.
He shows me how to clean the windows. I go about my day listening to music via my earphones, the rest of the day goes on without incident.
Day 2: arrive at his house again at 5:30, yet another showing of Fox & Friends.
This time I knew what they were discussing, and knew it was bullshit. I had read up on the topic previously for other reasons.
I use this opportunity to probe the boomer for his reactions.
He gives the exact type of response you’d think, but nothing too batshit. Stating annoying and selfish, but not overtly bigoted.
Next we go to our first 2 stops, get done pretty quick.
My earphones died on me. So no more music for the rest of the day. Gotta actually “enjoy” the presence with the boomer.
The second 🚩 Reveals itself.
That’s when out of nowhere he exclaims “oh we gotta change the channel” and changes the radio station quite rapidly.
I do not remember the channel nor the program. But they said directly “and we’re back with Fox News “——“. I’ll admit I was annoyed at this point with my music dead, it getting hot out, and didn’t wanna hear more droning on from Fox News. Sue me.
The day goes on from there. My annoyance begins spinning my head in circles.
I should just quit! It’s only been 2 days?
But this guy sucks! But don’t all bosses Suck?
I’m gonna hate it here if I stay! you’ll look like a bitch if you quit early!
On and on, back and forth. For hours.
It’s now 12:30pm, we are wrapping up our last stop. So old rich ladies gigantic England like era house. Way too many windows, each with the grids so it’s like dozens of tiny separate windows.
Literally I’m still questioning myself the very moment the third 🚩 Shows itself.
We both walk over to his truck with the supplies. Load everything up.
I am now standing across the trucks cab from the boomer. Both doors open, just prior to actually getting in the truck.
There are 3 young boys riding bikes through the neighborhood. 1 Black, 1 White, 1 IDK Mix.
They pass right by us.
The White kid was the one of the 3 boys playing music from a Bluetooth speaker in the basket of his bike.
It was some brand of Rap music. Idk not really my genre. But it wasn’t egregious or swearing.
The boomer Looks backward over his shoulder, then back at me as the boys pass.
“Why you gotta play that kinda of shit kid…….What Color are you???? did you Forget……”
To say I was Blown away by those words in That order. Would be a Frighteningly gross understatement.
So I glossed over the moment entirely, realizing I had no idea were in Wisconsin I was exactly and he was my ride home.
That was far more than I had ever asked for, but it was a definite “Fuck this Shit, I’m Fucking Out!”
So the moment we got back to his house, and my car was within reach.
I grabbed my stuff, and headed towards it.
He said “well that was a mostly good day, I’ll see you tomorrow”
I defaulted to polite Worker training to exit the situation. Thinking I wouldn’t be payed if I made a scene. So merely replied with “actually I don’t believe this job is for me, so I think I’m done”
Nothing else of not happened from there. I know this might not be the most thrilling story, but It was still pretty crazy to say I’ve lived through a crazy boomer story. And figured I’d share, people seem to mildly enjoy the story in real life when I tell it. I did my best to type this in a way to make it slightly more entertaining read, so I hope that came off well.

Over the past few years I've considered getting officially diagnosed with whatever is wrong with me. But getting diagnosed costs money, lots of it. Something I don't really have, because I don't have a job. My partner has offered repeatedly to get me diagnosed, but I'm worried about getting the run around and having this drag out. I've heard that ADHD CPTSD Autism Anxiety and Depression can all be confused for each other, either on their own or sandwiched together.
I know for sure I have CPTSD, I grew up literally living on the street sometimes, my parents were alcoholics and drug addicts who beat each other up, etc. So I already know that might screw things up. I know for sure I have anxiety, I've taken meds for it in the past when I had insurance. I don't think I'm depressed. I have been before, but it was something that came and went and was entirely because of my life at the time. I actually feel really great lately, in terms of my overall attitude about things. But I know that some of my current symptoms might look like depression on paper (I forget to eat, shower, sleep in, etc). I'm looking to get assessed for ADHD specifically (because that's what it feels like to me personally), but at this point I feel like a bucket of mixed up paints. It could be anything. (also, an aside, I know "cptsd" isn't an actual thing, but I hate saying ptsd, as I've been belittled for it in the past and saying it feels like vomit on my tongue, ptsd, cptsd, whatever).
There are people in my life that belittle me and make me feel worthless for not being where they're at, and it always feels like "If they only knew what I'm dealing with." but *I* don't even know what I'm dealing with. It's frustrating. The only thing that would be MORE frustrating would be spending $600, thinking I'll finally have answers, and then get something like "Sorry, there's too much going on with you, I dont have an answer". Any insight on how likely that vague answer would be? Because honestly, I don't think I can take sudden disappointment like that right now, I'd really like to know ahead of time.

i'm working on a novel and would like to know if anyone could tell me any improvements i could make to the first chapter and prologue
Prologue
The day had started the same way it had for the past two years. The only difference was that I was going home. The hallway was crowded with people walking to and from their classes. Everyone was crowded next to each other so the halls were making the area feel claustrophobic. All the people talking mixed with the summer heat made me feel like I was locked in a sauna. I walked with Preston to the last class we would ever have together and as usual he was smiling. I never got why he always smiled even in situations where people should be sad he still smiled. He knew what today meant for me and he tried to keep light of the situation. I kept my head down away from what was ahead of me. My mind was too clouded about returning to see my family to notice anything in front of me. I walked into another student. It felt like I had walked into a wall. I knew immediately I had walked into tree. I stumble onto the ground and the commotion around me slows down to make room for us. He turned his bulky body around and apologized profusely without saying a word even though I had walked into him. He helped me off of the ground before hurrying down the hall.
“Alexandria, are you doing okay?” Preston said he had tilted his body downward so I had to look down to look him in his eyes. The way he was standing made him look like an idiot but he didn't seem to care. The way he acted made me laugh, which caused his smile to widen.
“I'm doing fine, just got lost in my head.”
“Thinking about how you’ll leave soon,” he said
“Was it that obvious?” He was the only person I told about me being an exchange student. I came to spend high school in Newkinawa and he was the only person I ever hung out with.
“I see what you mean,” he said “Newkinawa is a beautiful place with beautiful people to live in it…myself included”
“You wish,” I say with a smile we continue walking through the hallway “I'm just not excited to go back yet”
After I say that his smile grows wider “So you will miss me after all”
“I wouldn't say that much” I responded whilst smiling.
We had made it to our last class only to see it closed with a sign labeled “Uma incident” Uma was a student known for messing with the chemistry lab and destroying school property in the process. I've never actually met her but Preston says “She's a little weird but still nice”
“Guess class is canceled for today,” Preston remarked with a smile “Wanna go out to the court till the bell rings.”
“Sure let's go” I respond
The place we ate every day was outside. It used to be a tennis court before I moved in. Now they put trees and flowers all over the place. Preston really liked the blue color of the flowers but it just never clicked for me. I look over at Preston and he's staring up at the sky. There are a number of clouds in almost enough to block the sun but it still pokes its rays through and lands on Preston's face. The clouds swim in front of the sun till they block out the sun's light. Preston faces towards me.
“I'm gonna miss you Alexandria” he says
“You know you can just call me Alex,” I replied. I start to smile again. “I'll miss you too!" He smiles toward me again as we get up to leave as the clouds start to clump together and rain slowly falls. As we're walking back to the school there's a loud tearing sound followed by screams as the ground shakes.
The ground tears itself apart as the dirt and stone erupt from the ground. The sky blackens and a pale blue light escapes the earth. Then creatures erupt from the ground in a violent ejection from the earth creating a white pillar diffusing as they reach higher in the air. Some are clawing their way out of the cracks like maggots out of a corpse. People are swept into the updraft screaming for their lives.
The creatures descend like a tidal wave and tear apart any people caught in their path. They storm out of the crack in hundreds as more cracks in the earth form. Me and Preston started running away as people were screaming behind us. A girl running next to us has her legs slashed by a creature. The monster begins to tear open her chest as she chokes on her own blood. The monster shovels her lungs and innards into its decrepit mouth. Me and Preston keep running until we're met at the entrance of the school and we catch the attention of a monster as it begins to savagely rush toward us. The monster resembles ghosts my father told me about. But this one looks monstrously horrific. It floats in the air and opens its mouth so wide it nearly replaces its entire torso; its jaws hold savage teeth each the same old gray color of its body. Its eyes glow a rotten yellow color through the dark. It stretches out its arms showing its giant hands and claws like fingers. It swipes at us leaving a giant claw mark on the door behind us but Preston ducks my body down to avoid the attack. We run around it as the monster swaps its focus to another bystander. Screaming past us. Me and Preston run into the parking lot as people scream around us. We hide next to a car.
“What the hell is happening!?” I yell to Preston. More of the creatures fly over us and swoop down to people like vultures on roadkill devouring the fleeing people.
Preston starts to breathe heavily ”we need to get out of here and someplace safer”. As we were talking one of the monster phases through the car we were hiding next to forcing us to run into the street.
“Lets go to your house till things cool down” i say to Preston through panted breaths
“Wait couldn't we head to your house instead” Preston says.
“Why would that matter your house is closer anyways” i respond
“But-” Preston is interrupted by two creatures swooping above us to grab another person. The two monsters begin to pull the person apart while he writhes in pain before having his flesh be torn in half and having his organs be devoured.
“Come on lets go!!” I say as I grab his hand and run even faster.
By the time we reach Preston's house any living person is gone. On the street are just corpses laying torn and mutilated on the roads and sidewalk. The air in the neighborhood feels cold despite the season being summer. When I walk down the street I can still hear the occasional horrific wail the monsters give off. We move closer to Preston's house and I can see him sweating. He looked more worried than before when the creatures were chasing us and he kept darting his eyes away from his home.
“Preston, are you feeling okay?” he doesn't respond to my question and keeps darting his eyes. He walks slowly behind me and as I reach for the door handle and when I touch it it feels nearly freezing. I wrap my hoodie around my hand and slowly open the door. The house is quiet so me and Preston creep further into his house. The inside is cold and damp as if we were locked in a freezer. The further we move into the house the louder a subtle chewing sound is heard.
“It sounds like rats are eating a dead cow over there” I whisper. Preston continues to stay silent behind me. We slowly walk closer towards the kitchen and the sound gets louder and louder and louder until we reach the room.
We're met with a rancid smell of vomit and blood. My blood starts to run cold and every instinct in my body is telling me to run. I can feel Preston breathing get heavier as we get closer. We turn the corner and see Preston's mom lying on the ground dead with one of the creatures hunched over slurping her intestines. The sight causes me to vomit alerting the monster to our presence. The creature turns around and its mouth turns into a mortifying grin as it flies into Preston's moms body. The corpse begins to rise and spur splashing blood over the kitchen. When the corpse stops spasming it picks itself up from the ground and with glazed over eyes it holds its intestines in its hand and gives us the same grin it did when it was outside her body. The possessed corpse lunges at me and starts to chase me around the kitchen. The body is running into the walls and cabinets spraying its blood and other loose organs around the area as I'm avoiding its assault. The corpse leans over and ejects one of its loose intestines towards me, wrapping me in it. It pulls me towards it so fast I'm flung towards the ground. The corpse limbers over to me and raises its free hand aiming for my head. The creature's deranged smile causes the corpse’s cheeks to tear apart. It places both of its bloodied and demented hands on my face and starts to press my skull into the ground. I struggle to breathe. The room starts to get dark and blood escapes my head.
Until Preston jumps on top of his mothers corpse with a kitchen knife and repeatedly stabs it in the head. The possessed body tries to shake him off but he keeps stabbing, blood gets in on his face and tears start to escape his eyes. The creature violently ejects from the corpse's mouth causing her head to nearly explode and Preston stops stabbing the body. The body falls over in a splash of blood and organs. The monster leaves phasing through the roof leaving Preston crying over his mother's body. As the blood mixes with the tears he collapses to his knees crying. I walk over and hug him as the air around us turns bitter and the chill of death leaves the room and us with it.
Chapter 1 Eclipse
It's been 2 months since the apocalypse started. We've kept ourselves alive by looting grocery stores and houses, we hide from the creatures as we have no way to fight back against them. Preston came up with the idea to call them glanter’s. He’s looking better since we left his family home but I can tell something is wrong with him that he's not telling me. Everytime I ask him about it he tells me it's no big deal. I asked him earlier today and he just told me
“don't worry about it, I'm over it” without even looking at me. Now we're walking through the street and I'm walking behind Preston, I can barely see his head past the giant bag we're both carrying on our backs we use to carry supplies. I look up at the sky and it's still pitch black except for the moon giving us any amount of light. Preston turns around to face me.
“Let's check out that house, it might have some cool stuff in it” he points to a white house to our right. The house is a two story building with steps leading to the front door. There's a generator poking out from the backyard. The driveway is empty save for a couple of dried blood stains and tire marks. It's similar to the other houses in the neighborhood except for a couple broken windows.
“Sure why not” We head over to the house and I see something shining on the side of the house in the corner of my eye. I turn my head to look at it closer but it quickly disappears before I can see it clearly.
“Probably squirrel or something” I mumble to myself. Preston walks up the stairs to the house and I walk up the steps behind him as a breeze blows past my face. Preston tries to turn the door knob but the door is locked. I start to pull out a lockpick I grabbed at the store earlier. I motion towards Preston to move out of the way as I kneel down to pick the lock. It takes me a couple of minutes to unlock the door so I walk inside the house and Preston follows behind me while closing and locking the door. The doorway of the house leads to a dark room so I take a flashlight out of my bag to illuminate the area. Were put into the living room and bookshelves are on the walls and a large TV sat in front of a large black couch with smaller chairs surrounding it. Dust is covering every surface of the room and spiderwebs litter the corners of the walls. The area smells like moth balls and there's a lack of blood anywhere nearby.
“Guess the owners got out before the Glanter’s got in, '' I say to Preston. When he doesn't respond I turn around and he's already looking further into the house. When I find him he's managed to find a flight of stairs that lead to a lower portion of the house.
“I'll check on him later,” I think to myself as I headed towards the kitchen to see if we could restock on food. I walk past a bedroom and remark on how childish it looked. The walls were painted with blue and green stripes and a bunk bed sat on the right wall. There's a chest at the foot of the bed so I walk over and lift the top off of it. The box is layered with children's toys, a multitude of dolls, bears, and figures all jut out of the box. I notice a small robot toy and inspect it in my hands.
The cold metal makes my hand shiver and the sharp body shape makes the robot bigger than my hand. There's red lining around the robot's buttons surrounded by the cold gray of the robot's “skin”. It reminds me of a toy my little brother had. My heart feels heavy as I worry about what happened to my family. If they're alive, dead, or worse…possessed. The thoughts send a chill down my spine but I push them aside for now. I put the toy in my bag and exit the bedroom.
I can see the kitchen is down the hallway so I walk down the hall and enter. The kitchen is pretty clean except for a couple of dishes in the sink and the dust. There's a table seated for 3 people in the center of the room. I start opening the cabinets in search for any food or water. There's boxes of cereal leftover on top of shelves and a mix of chip bags and cookies in neat boxes stationed in the cabinets.
“Score,” I say to myself as I begin to put the snacks into my bag. When the cabinets are empty I look inside the fridge. The inside of the fridge ran out of power so most of the food inside is rotted. There are a couple of bottles of water in the front so I shove those in my bag. There's also a bag of oranges that still seem to be healthy in the back. I grab them and toss them on the table. There's rotten sandwich meat hidden in the drawer of the fridge.it smells like a dumpster outside of a butcher shop. I wrinkle my nose at the smell. I look around the kitchen for any bread with no luck.
I continue to look through the fridge until I hear Preston scream from another room. Immediately I bolt out of the kitchen leaving my bag behind and run towards the lower part of the house. I run down the stairs and nearly trip on the steps. The stairs lead to a big room. There are posters to tv shows and movies I don't recognize. The walls are painted black and there's a bear skin rug on the floor. I notice Preston standing next to a really big TV hyperventilating. I walk over to him and ask him.
“Are you ok? What happened?”
He talks through deep breaths “I… saw a… spider.”
“What?!” I respond in confusion.
“It was really big and I had jumped at my face”
“Sure it was.” I say while laughing “Let's go upstairs there's some food in the fridge we can eat”
“Wait, I think you should check this out.” He says while pointing towards one of the walls. I grab Preston's flashlight off the floor and face it towards the wall. Hanging halfway off the wall is a large map labeled Newkiwana scavenger hunt of 76.
“I think we should take it,” Preston says “You can read a map right?”
“A little but I'm not the best at it,” I say to him “can you read a map?”
“it shouldn’t be too hard it’s mainly pictures any way I'm sure I can figure it out”
I walk over to the wall where the map is hung there are trophies covering tables and shelved in their own personal cases one of them reads “1st place 100-meter swimming competition for 1986 Zack Hemmingway” and another one reads “2nd place 100-meter swimming competition for 1989 Zack Hemmingway”
“Guess this guy really liked swimming,” Preston remarks while staring at a wall of newspaper clippings. All of them are about the same person in swimming competitions. All labeled different things like “a new record for Zack “the dolphin” Hemmingway”,
‘Zach Hemmingway our star plans for the future” all the newspapers are about this kind he has paler skin and a bulky enough build to swim pretty well. Most of the pictures have him coming out of the water in a pool, his long black hair soaked and sitting at his shoulders. Another one has him sitting at a desk over a pile of books and his hair in a knot , “vicious wipeout ends the Dolphins career”, and “ex-swim champ Zack Hemmingway found in a drunken stupor outside strip club.
“Everyone has their own hobbies I guess,” I say as I take the map off of the wall and fold it up. “Sucks what happened to Zack though” I walked over to Preston’s bag and put the rolled map in one of the pockets. I walk back up the stairs and Preston grabs his bag and follows behind me.
We make our way towards the kitchen and Preston starts looking through the fridge for anything to eat. I grab an orange from the table and throw it at his head. The fruit bounces off his head and rolls on the floor. He turns around and grabs the fruit from the floor
“Why did you throw an orange at me?”
“It's the only food we have unless you plan on eating spoiled a sandwich“ He starts to peel it while walking towards the table. We both take a seat and start to eat the oranges from the bag. He plants his feet on top of the table and bites into the fully peeled orange. I grab a water bottle from a bag and start to drink from it as Preston says.
“I saw a dvd player in that man cave downstairs we could watch a movie if it still has power”
“Sure it could be fun.” Me and Preston spend the rest of our time eating until the bag of oranges is emptied and we head back downstairs. Preston grabs the DVD player from under the table and blows the dust off the top of it; he plugs it into the wall as I plop myself onto the couch. He plugs the DVD player into the TV and sits on the recliner next to me. He presses a few buttons on the remote and the TV lights up. I squint my eyes at how bright it is. It's the most amount of light I've seen that didn't come from a flashlight. I notice there's a box filled with DVDs. I pull the box over towards me. I ruffle through the box and see movies like Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2, and Home alone.
“Dude some of these came out just before the world turned inside out” I say to him.
“Really? Let's play one.” He responds. I toss him Terminator 2 and he puts it into the DVD player.
We spend the next couple hours watching movies and laughing together. It's some of our only moments of peace we’ve had since the end of the world and to me it's the most fun I've had yet. We're putting in the next DVD when there's a loud crash outside and the TV shuts off. Preston goes behind it to see if it's still plugged in.
“I think the generator outside is busted” i say
“It seems that way” Preston replies while backing away from the tv” i'm gonna go check it out”
“Don't worry I got it” I say as I hop out of my chair. Preston waves goodbye as I head up the stairs. I make my way back through the hallway leading to the living room and front door. I reach the door and start to turn the knob. I open the door wide as a car speeds down the street. I step out of the door to see what had happened when I hear the screech of a glanter. It cuts through the sky like an unholy opera singer. A group of them fly by and chase the car as I rush back inside the house. I slam the door shut and look through the window as I see a couple of smaller glanters grab and shake the car violently looking for the driver. They tear at it, ripping off doors and breaking the windows. The driver screams as the seats cover with blood and he's ripped out of the car as multiple smaller glanters tear and bite off parts of his body like piranha's until his body is completely devoured. I run back to the man cave to warn Preston about what had happened. I spot him laying in his chair spinning a DVD disc on his finger.
“It's not safe outside right now”
“Why not?
“There's glanter's outside, they just ate a dude in his car”
“Did they see you come inside?”
“I don't think so , they flew off before I went inside.”
“well we're not dead so I'm gonna say they didn't see you. But let's stay here for a couple more hours just to be safe”
“Sounds good i'm gonna go find the master bedroom.” I start to walk back up the stairs to the house
“ Hold on why do you get the master bedroom” Preston says while walking after me.
“Because I'm gonna find it first” I say as I start to run to find the bedroom. He chases after me in pursuit of the bedroom. Me and Preston run around the house looking for the master bedroom. We look through room after room finding closets, the garage, a bathroom and a door leading to a balcony in the back of the house. I manage to run into the bedroom and yell out to Preston.``Found it!!”
He comes walking into the room breathing heavily from the running. We both check out the room. The walls are painted a cream yellow and the bed takes up most of the room's center. The bed has burgundy sheets poking out from its bottom and a quilt with multi-colored floral designs lay sprawled out on top of it. There's a wardrobe built into the wall and a black leather couch sits comfortably on the left wall.
“Dibs on the bed” I say as I jump on top of it. I stretch out on top of the quilt and search for a comfortable part to sleep in.
“Where am I supposed to sleep then?” Preston complains
“You can sleep on the couch it looks soft enough” I respond while pointing towards the couch “I saw some spare blankets in one of the closets”
“Alright i’ll be right back” he mumbles to himself “why do i always get the couch”
“ I'll be right here if you need me,” i call after him. I sit up on the bed and start to look around the room more. I notice the entrance to the wardrobe is cracked open slightly. I hop out of the bed and grab a flashlight from my bag as I walk into the wardrobe. I turn on my flashlight and stare in awe at how many clothes are in there. The room is only half as big as the bedroom but it's still bigger than any closet I've ever had. The wardrobe is full of shirts, dresses, pants, and shoes for men and women. I immediately start to look through the shoes to see if any fit my size. I throw a pair of black high heels behind me as Preston finds me in the wardrobe. He looks around before asking me.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding a new pair of clothes to wear cause I've been wearing the same pair of jeans for waaaaay too long”
“Fair enough. Is there any guy stuff in there?”
“Yeah right there” I hook my thumb behind me to point to the other end of the closet.
“I'm sure they won't mind if we take a couple of things…they're probably dead by now anyways,” Preston says with a slight grin on his face. The way he said made me spin my head to look at him but he was already on the opposite end of the wardrobe looking at suits.
I shake away the thought and continue looking for any pair of sneakers in my size. 40 minutes pass before I walk out of the wardrobe holding a new pair of jeans and a black guns-N-roses t-shirt. I toss the clothes on top of the bed and check to see if the shower in the bathroom still works. I turn the dial and wait for a moment. The shower head chokes a little before water comes pouring out. I reach my hand under the showerhead to feel the water. The water is cold, it causes my hand to shiver when I take it out. I shake the water off and say to myself.
“Good enough” as I start to take off my old clothes and get in the shower. The cold water bounces off my skin, it sends shivers down my spine but I still get the old dirt from the last few months off of me. I step out and see a couple of dry towels hanging off of the door. I grab one and dry my body off and grab another to wrap around my head and dry my hair. I step out of the bathroom and Preston is still inside the wardrobe. I put on my new clothes while his back is turned and walk over towards him when I'm finished.
“Still haven't found anything,” I ask him
He turns around “Nothing yet, the only thing interesting was this coat.” He holds a leather coat up to me. The coat is made of black leather and has a skull covered with blue flames on the back. There's a black shirt inside the coat with a skeleton hand making a thumbs-up embroidered on the front.
“ That's pretty cool, it's better than what you're wearing right now at least” he's outfitted in a blue hoodie with holes on the chest and tears at the sleeves. He also has a shirt with a faded picture of a blue flower printed on it.
“I guess you're right” he gets up from the floor and exits the wardrobe. He lays the clothes on the couch along next to the blanket and pillow he brought into the room.
“The shower works so you can get yourself clean In there,” I say to him
“You know, a shower sounds really good right now.” He gets up from the floor and grabs a pair of pajama pants that were laying next to him. He leaves the wardrobe and enters the bathroom, closing the door behind him. After a moment the water turns on and I hop on the bed to get ready to sleep. I squirm myself into the quilt and rest my head against one of the pillows. I shut my eyes and fall asleep listening to the passive sound of the shower like rain on a car.
I'm in a void. It feels like I'm standing in a puddle of water that reaches to my knees. I wade my way forward looking around for anything in the darkness. In the distance I can see 3 figures l. I moved closer to them and their silhouettes get clearer. I realize they are my dad and brothers. I start to run towards them kicking up water behind me until something grabs my leg. It pulls down violently forcing me under the water without a breath of air. I kick at the thing grabbing me until something grabs my other leg. I look down and see two glanter's each with a monstrous smile on their faces. They stare back at me and one of them tugs my leg harder than before and tears it off of my body. The water around me turns red as the glanter laugh's. The other smiles wider as it starts to fling me around the water forcing any air left in my lungs to be forced out as I scream in pain. The glanter throws me away and I can see my family slowly fade into the distance as I'm flown away.
I struggle to swim back to where I was, one of my legs is missing and the other is broken. The glanter's find me again and I try to get to the surface to escape them. I'm flapping my arms in any attempt to escape as one of the glanter's flies in front of me and grabs my arm. I look at the monster with tears in my eyes as it bites my arm and tears my body away from it. It flings my body away and with my remaining arm I clutch the wound as the water floods into my body leaving me in the void I started in. I look around and the glanter's seem to have left. I turn behind me and see my family again, this time I'm closer than before.
I grit my teeth and drag my body towards them slowly as I leave a trail of blood and tears behind me. I finally reach my family and grab one of my father's shoes. I stare up and he looks at me. His stare causes me to feel cold as a grotesque smile grows on his face. I stare in shock as my brothers each have the same look as my father.
I shoot up from my sleep panting heavily in a cold sweat.
“It was just a dream..just a dream…just a dream” I look at my hands as tears fall into them. I look around the room and see Preston sleeping peacefully on the couch. The room feels frozen in place as a chill runs down my spine. I get out of the bed and walk out of the bedroom. I make my way through the dark hallway and find the entrance to the balcony I saw earlier. I creak open the screen door and head outside. The Balcony is pretty large, about the size of the kitchen in the house. There are some chairs knocked over next to a table and I pick one up to sit on it. I look out into the expanse of the neighborhood, houses lined up next to each other, dozens broken apart by roads, and dead bodies scattered across the roads.
I look up in the sky and sit back in the chair. The sky looks empty except for the moon giving this world its only source of light. Without the moon, we’d be left in darkness. It hangs in the sky alone, no stars, no clouds, nothing but itself, and the void of the sky. I think back about the dream I had. My dad and my brother's all dead and possessed and then they kill me. I start to tear up thinking about it. I try to wipe away the tears but it’s no use. I'm too scared for my family. I don't know where they are if they're alive if they're worried about me I don't know anything! I start to quietly cry into my hands. I don't know how long I'm sitting there until I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn my head to face it and I see Preston. He was smiling and looking at me. I turn away to wipe my tears and he walks next to me.
“I heard you sneaking out of the bedroom so I followed you to see where you were going.” he says “but that's not my question.” he pauses and looks at me “my question is what’s got you feeling so down?” he leans over the railing of the balcony
“It's nothing, I just came out here to clear my head.” I say as more tears escape from my eyes in big slow drops that ride down the sides of my face.
“if you don't feel like telling me you don't have to but i'll be here if you ever change your mind”. He looks up at the moon before turning to face me and his smile widens “I'll always be here with you…trust me I'm not going anywhere”
I stare up at him and wipe away my tears as a smile grows on my face to match his. I get up and stare over the balcony with him. “So where are we heading next?” I say to him, Preston pulls the map we got from the man cave downstairs out from his pocket.
“After I got out of the shower I decided to take a look at the map for anything interesting we could see.”
“Ok did you find anything?” i ask
“I did,” he points at a spot on the right of the map. “We should head to the museum”
“I didn't want to go to a museum before the apocalypse why would i want to go now?'' I ask him.
“Well the best part of museums is the cool stuff right”
“Yeah what about it”
“The only problem is that you could only look at the fossils and armor but you could never take them.”
“So you want to rob a museum?” Prestons eyes light up at the question
“Exactly they might have a really cool sword I could use, or I could sharpen a dinosaur tooth and use that as a weapon, there might be a cursed shield that can summon the dead to fight for you. This opportunity is too good to pass up. We need to go!”
“That does seem pretty cool but wouldn't carrying that stuff weigh us down. What if a glanter is chasing us and we can't run fast enough because of the stuff we took from the museum.”
“We’ll only take things that are light. Even then I could just block the glanter with my newly acquired 2000 year old shield.”
“Fair enough we can go in a couple hours” I yawn and stretch out my arms. “Cause I'm feeling way too tired to walk all the way over there right now.”
“Alright i'm heading back to my couch and THEN we’ll head out to the museum” he leaves the balcony and heads back to the master bedroom leaving me alone on the balcony.
“Thanks Preston I'm not leaving either” I say into the sky. I turn around and walk back inside the house, closing the balcony door behind me. I walk back into the bedroom and Preston is hunched over and holding a flashlight looking at the map. He’s drawing lines through roads and marking X’s in different areas.
“What are the X’s for?” i ask him
“They’re places that glanter’s usually stay around. I'm marking them off so we remember not to go through them, or at least be more cautious.”
“Cool. Did you find where we are right now?” He points to an area where the lines all converge out of.
“Right around here is where the neighborhood ends. So if we follow this path we can make it to the museum in one piece” I pat him on the back and take the map from his hands.
“Get some sleep Preston, we have a full day tomorrow” he grins to himself before laying down on the couch. I put the map back into my bag and hop on the bed to get to sleep. I cover my body in the quilt and roll over facing away from Preston as he falls asleep. I nestle myself into the bed and slowly fall asleep to get ready for the next day.
I'm awoken by Preston shaking the bed I'm sleeping on. My eyes open and the room is foggy, I wipe away the sleep from my eyes and focus my attention towards Preston. He's practically jumping out of his skin with excitement, he's already fully dressed for the trip and shaking the bed with a wide smile on his face.
“Ok ok i'm up the air feels heavy as a groggy feeling fills my body. I wipe my eyes and the room starts to clear up. I turn to face Preston. He's still shaking my bed to wake me up, he’s already fully dressed and nearly jumping out of his skin in excitement.
“Ok ok, i'm up you can stop shaking the bed” i say
“Then get up we’ve got a long walk ahead of us” he says as he stops shaking the mattress. He grabs the map from my bag and points to one of the red lines.
“We're gonna follow this way to the museum. We’ll move past the hotel around the ice skating rink and around the park. We’ll mainly stick to walking through the streets, we might have to go rooftop hopping to avoid any glanter’s if we see them but i'm sure we won’t reach that point.” he explains
“Wait, wait, wait, why are avoiding the skating rink and the park” i ask
“ everytime we go near the park there's weird noises and light coming out of it”
“And why can't we go to the ice skating rink?”
“I didn't think it would be important”
“It couldn't hurt to check it out at least”
“Fine we could make a detour”
“Ok and how do you plan on getting on top of roofs?”
“I'm sure we'll figure it out when we get to it”
“Ok man as long as you’re sure '' I yawn and step out of the bed. Preston starts to put the map in his bag. I walk into the bathroom with my clothes and change out of my pajamas. Minutes later I walk out and see Preston sitting on the couch twiddling his thumbs.
“Finally you're out” he smiles at me before handing me my bag and slinging it over his shoulder. We took a last look inside the kitchen to see if we missed anything. Afterwards we leave for the outside. The cold air bites at my face but Preston walks down the stairs, his face buried in the map. I jog to catch up to him as we both head into the street.
“Hey Preston, could I see the map?”
“Sure” he hands over the map and continues walking. I look at the map and the numerous lines drawn on roads. I look at the corner of the map and notice a small map key with numerous symbols for different areas like a library, school, hospital, and more. There's even a way to tell how far away each location is. The text reads “1 inch=5 miles” I quickly count how far we are from the museum.
“Dude this museum is like 100 miles away.”
“Yep it'll be a long walk, it'll take us a while to get there”
“Did you plan on us walking there the whole time?”
“We might find bikes or something.” he pauses “well i did think we would walk the whole way”
“This is gonna take us weeks to get there!”
“Did you have anything else planned?”
“Well…i guess not but we should still try to find some bikes or something”
“Ok if we see any way to travel faster we’ll take it”
“Alright cool” I hand him the map back and he folds it back up and puts it in his bag. We walk further until we leave the gated neighborhood we started in. Preston takes the map back out and looks at it before he turns right and continues walking. I follow him staring forward at the expanse of the road. The outside of the neighborhood is surrounded by roads all leading to different parts of Newkinawa. We walk past a sign that reads “Coretown 20 miles ahead” I nudge Preston towards the sign and he checks the map again.
“Yep, the museum’s in Coretown. Would you believe the residents were pretty proud of it. Should be a fun place to explore” he says
“Yeah but it’ll take us a million years to get there.” i complain
“Lighten up, I'm sure it will be worth it”. We continue walking down the road slowly making our way to Coretown.

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my time with it, it is easy to recommend playing Sushi Ben on the PSVR2, provided you are open to a visual novel game that is fully voiced with quality Japanese voice actors and no English audio dubbing available.
It is a VR narrative adventure game where you visit a small seaside town and take on the task of saving a local sushi restaurant from closure which also helps ward off real-estate land grab from the antagonists in the story. Although the focus of the game is the story where you do get to make some dialog choices and can get a game-over (16:54) and then have to repeat from last checkpoint, it also features a variety of mini-games including fishing, table tennis, ghost hunting, stone carving, bug catching, dog walking, archery and more.
Each of these mini-games are short-lived experiences to further the story, so none are built to the depth of stand-alone games and the game even has option to skip all of these and be a story-only-experience. Each mini-game I've played so far has been a good short break from the dialog with decent controls and immersion, so I don't see why anybody would skip these. You certainly shouldn't get this game if you intend to skip through the story sections to get to the mini-games because they are not the star of the game.
The game is using an anime-inspired art style and the character interactions utilize dynamic 3D manga panels that are expressive and entertaining. The game has simple graphics, but looks crisp and clear and running on very high stable framerate with no sign of any reprojection.
I love the soothing soulful atmospheric soundtrack and the story characters are voiced by a cast of seasoned Japanese voice actors (Chiaki Takahashi, Show Hayami, Hideyuki Tanaka, Mamiko Noto, Jouji Nakata) that bring the expressive animations to life with their fantastic voice acting.
The game is using subtle and varied haptics for all varieties of interactions but there will be some cases where it will feel missing or too weak. Overall, it is a good implementation that complements the immersion of the interactivity.
The tutorial of the game has you customize where and how the dialog text will be displayed. It lets you choose the relative position the dialog panels will be displayed, the depth of the panel, and size of the panel (which increases / decreases size of fonts as well). It is important that you get this right for you at this time as it is unclear to me how this can be changed later. Most instructions are given via visual communication panels and while some things may take you a bit to understand, I think it is all intuitive. The key thing is to position the dialog box position and size right for you, understand how your watch tells you where to go next, and how to use the inventory system once that opens up which is also where you will store the map (once you have it).
VR comfort options the game lets you customize includes providing both both snap (default) and smooth turns including turn speed. It also lets you use teleport only or mixed (default) including setting speed of smooth locomotion.
The game has a Platinum trophy and it looks like anybody that plays through and completes the game will end up with the Platinum.
This is a game most interested in being entertaining with its story and characters and it succeed in that for me because I think it had me smiling the whole time as well as laughing on occasion. Somebody else may be put off by the same, but for me it has an endearing quality, and it is a game I look forward to playing to completion.

Well better late then never.
This time I'mma do this slightly differently than season 22.
For each ep's pastebin link (where one of my pastebin links are used) I'll simply replace the torrents linked with the corresponding episode of Air Disasters.
I'm doing this cause my upload of Air Disasters for this season includes both an audio track for Bill Ratner and Jonathan Aris so you can choose whichever you prefer. However the default audio track is Ratner's narration, you need to manually switch to the Aris narration track in whatever video player you are using. Reason for this being that the Air Disasters rips are higher quality as far as I can tell.
https://acilinks.com/ (Thanks ziogref)
Link to rutracker rips (apparently dual English/Russian audio)
Link to torrents for Season 23 as Air Disasters
Here are direct links to each individual ep's thread.

#	Name	Flight (or registration)
S23E01	Deadly Exchange	Corporate Airlines Flight 5966
S23E02	Mixed Signals (aka Missed Opportunities in the US)	Independent Air Flight 1851
S23E03	Pressure Point	Japan Airlines Flight 123
S23E04	Power Play	Airlines PNG Flight 1600
S23E05	Control Catastrophe	Air Astana Flight 1388
S23E06	Cockpit Catastrophe	Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633
S23E07	Dream Flight Disaster	VH-NOO
S23E08	Deadly Deception	Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 013
S23E09	Delivery to Disaster	Atlas Air Flight 3591
S23E10	Mystery over the Mediterranean	EgyptAir Flight 804

Thanks to everyone who helped in some way to rip and/or distribute the eps for this season.
Enjoy!

I adjusted at first and have been pretty content, but 6 seasons into new era I officially want a change of scenery and bring back themed seasons. Even if it was only every 5th season. Do SOMETHING to mix it up.
Every advantage is a beware advantage. All the "idols" are string beads which are easy to hide and uninteresting to look at. Most people who get idols dont play them. The challenges are officially a taco bell menu (same ingredients diff layering/order), minus the final challenge of 46. I miss the challenges incorporating local food/culture. I miss them having to come up with different relay challenges based on local terrain. I miss reward challenges being visits to local culture (internet age + tourism industry diminished some of what used to make that as magical and I get that). I miss casting that wasnt 100% super happy positive people 🙄. I miss the weather being less unpredictable and how that + shelter (or lack of) could change tribe dynamics.
You can only do so much in the same place over and over and over. Im hoping theres a big shift to 47. It needs it.

Hey Legends and Giga Chads out there.
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We've built an amazing community that's about more than just making money. You all have been key in laying down the foundation for promoting truth and transparency. Our meme game is strong — the transparent dog coin isn’t just for laughs, it stands for honesty and openness in the crypto space. Sharing fun memes and random truths with $TRUTH is central to our strategy. Let’s make truth-telling viral and fun!

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Chart: dexscreener.com/ethereum/0xCF4C91ECaFc43C9F382DB723Ba20B82efa852821