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Hobby Drama

2018.06.07 01:53 sand500 Hobby Drama

The most interesting subreddit about things you're not interested in. Come here for writeups about drama in various hobbies, interests, and fandoms over the years.
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2013.11.08 15:59 DestructiveReaders

Writing Feedback: we will tell you the good, the bad, the ugly, and the horrible of your writing. RDR ~ Colorfully Destructive.
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2013.02.11 19:09 foolman89 God of High School

A subreddit dedicated to the God of High School webtoon & anime series.
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2024.06.07 22:44 Quandale_Dinglex Was convinced I was a perfect fit for a career in recruitment, trying not to lose hope

Just want to start this off by saying, I have already been offered a role as a recruitment consultant. I was due to start this Monday. Smashed the interview, got a call back the same day essentially along the lines of we don’t usually make offers this quickly, but we were really impressed etc. I was on top of the world, as you can imagine.
However, there were a few major red flags (which I can’t go into detail about because they’re very specific and would immediately give away my identity, they just started to give me MLM/pyramid scheme vibes) that caused me to withdraw my acceptance of the offer a I really didn’t feel comfortable working for the company. I and everyone I spoke to about it thought I was doing the right thing, given what happened, and I was sure I’d get snapped up by another company right away. I’d even had a couple of first interviews/ initial phone calls on the back burner.
Fast forward to today, I’m 2 more interviews down. One was on Wednesday, I really wanted the job - a final stage interview where I had to give a presentation, even the interviewer said he was very impressed with it, but the rest of the interview was over 2 hours long, I can’t remember all of it and I keep overthinking. I think overall I did well. Still waiting for an outcome.
The second one yesterday, I was convinced I’d absolutely smashed it out the park - I didn’t really want the job but thought it’d be good interview practice, but was 99% sure I’d get an offer. I then get a (short, blunt and frankly bloody rude) email today to say ‘sorry, we’re not progressing’. Less than 24 hours after the interview no less. This has made me think what did I do or say that was so wrong for them to reject me that quickly? It’s made me start to think maybe I’m going for the wrong industry - should I keep trying for a role in recruitment or have a think about other avenues? I was so convinced it was a perfect fit for my personality and skills but I’m not sure anymore. Advice?
submitted by Quandale_Dinglex to Recruitment [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:44 big14know_wtfgoingon [FS][CAN] 🔴MEGA POST🔴G4LLERY D3PT G0YARD GUCCl REDWAVE ESS3NTlALS CHR0ME ❤️s ] 0FF WHlTE B4PE BRBRRY 🔴

FREE GIFT

ACCESSORIES

TOPS

BOTTOMS

SHOES (no box)

submitted by big14know_wtfgoingon to QualityRepsBST [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:44 Hungry_Lime_6034 Debt Relief Program and let go of CC journey.

Hi guys. I wanted a community opinion/advice/suggestions. So, some while ago I had posted about my CC debt asking if there is a way I could pause my payments and come back and pay them later.
Today I am approaching to ask, if anyone knows about National Debt Relief (NDR), if it is a legit company, if it legitimately works. Also, they do ask to cancel all CC's and not being able to apply for anything for a few years till the debt is paid off, which to me does sound fair and needed as I do feel, if I have that flexibility on myself, somewhere or the other I will find a reason to spend. But in the long run is it worth it.
I have CSP for almost 9 years now and that is one of the biggest debts with the highest interest rate. If I were to go with NDR, they will possibly get me to pay a lower balance to chase. Would this ruin the relationship permanently for me, so that I won't be able to get a chase CC ever in future? Or would it be just fine after a few years.
Lastly, I am approaching this debt relief route just because I don't see any other route to get out of this hole, especially considering IT job market being in the dump and me being in there with it. I started my CC journey with a lot of aspirations and dreams, but things didn't exactly go as planned, I took hard hits and piled up the bills. Letting this go seems the best route for me, but I am open to suggestions and advice from you guys. I know you guys really speak harsh truth out and clear, and I am willing to take it all and open to it in general.
P.S or JK: Plus, I know Mark Cuban says in one of the videos, never carry CC's so that is another inspiration to end CC journey :P
submitted by Hungry_Lime_6034 to CreditCards [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:44 EoMustang Color correction advice?

Color correction advice?
Can anyone give me advice on how to cancel out the red tone to my hair. I dyed it brown a while back but my hair turned more red than brown. I’d like to just be closer to my natural hair and hate the demarcation line. I can I get a toner that would cancel out the red? Just can’t afford a stylist right now and really hating my hair.
submitted by EoMustang to haircoloring [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:43 Nazgull1979 Pitboss Austin XL... what a garbage tier smoker..

I cant even begin to put my anger into words. Today was the last straw, this thing going back. 700 bucks for this thing and my old $300 electric smoker ran circles around this thing.. all day, every day, no questions asked.
First off, right from the jump, the pellet box was beat to hell.. bad sign. Lots of reviews saying the same.. pellet boxes just smashed. LED Display "cooks" itself to the point it wont display any numbers.. oh great way to monitor and control the settings.. just amazing design... /facepalm
BUT the real rip is the "Smoker" isnt a smoker.. at all. It doesnt "smoke" crap.. I had 2 pork shoulders on for 16 HOURS at 185 degrees with a P setting 2.. (about a min and a half between pellet dumps..)
Besides turning the meat red (from the rub) Not one millimeter of bark has formed. Nothing. Not even the HINT to the START of bark.. after 16 HOURS?!
My electric smoker had a full beautiful bark after like 5 hours tops.
Ive been trying to get this thing to actually SMOKE the meat for a month now. Im fed up and sick of it.
What an absolute trash tier product.
submitted by Nazgull1979 to pelletgrills [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:43 Yasherets Insufficient space in condo parkade

(Calgary) I have a very frustrating issue that I'm currently dealing with. My parking spot (that I own and pay for) is at the end of the parkade, meaning that there is a wall to my left (pic included). My condo board has decided to place bike racks in the space behind my parking spot. I currently have a small car and with several movements and a risk of scratching my car on the bikes behind me, I can back out of the parking space.
There are two bike racks and I have tried moving them in an L shape toward the back wall so that I'd have more space (when this initially happened, they were in that L configuration for over 6 months and everything was fine). However, someone, presumably from the condo board, has started moving them back, ignored my notes saying that I need that space, and stated that I have enough. I've emailed the condo manager and they have responded with the same thing, refusing to give me space.
As I said, I currently have a small car and can back out with difficulty but I'm planning on buying a new car within the next few months which will be undoubtedly larger. Looking for advice for what to do.
Pics: https://imgur.com/a/CoMeZrd
submitted by Yasherets to legaladvicecanada [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:43 KyleKKent OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 026

~First~
For Newest England
...? The man simply smiles at her for a bit. She has no idea what to say or expect.
“Tea?” He asks her.
“What?”
“Tea? It’s a hot drink, locally produced actually.” He says and she blinks.
“I haven’t heard of it before.” Shelly says and he sighs.
“One of many tragedies upon this world. Although it’s likely one of the few that you yourself are not personally aware of or impacted by.” The man says. Something prickles at the back of her plating. Right in the joints. Her mother always taught her to pay attention to that, and her mother didn’t raise a fool.
“You’re real name isn’t Wettsworth, is it?”
“Very well spotted. I knew there was something to you.” He compliments her. Not actively confirming her suspicion while also answering the question completely.
“Who are you?”
“I am a very concerned citizen. This beautiful world is in the grip of four squabbling tyrants that failed to properly break off from The Gavali Empire. The Empire itself is ludicrous in many of it’s policies and would have brought about it’s own destruction by now if not for the fact that only a single small laneway connects these systems to the wider galaxy and therefore isn’t anyone’s real concern.” The man says and her eyebrows climb up and she sits back a little to re-evaluate him.
Her old training kicks in and she scans him. He’s armed. There are multiple expanded spaces on him and they’re all deep enough that there could be anything in there. The man could suddenly invert things and she’d find herself fighting someone in full power armour.
“Ah, good you’re paying proper attention. So as we wait for...” He begins before turning to the upcoming waitress. “I’d like the menus now please, and some more hot water and another mug if you’d be so kind. I’d like to share what I’m drinking with my friend here.”
“Oh! Of course... uhm... is your friend...”
“She’s here for a business proposition. One I think she’ll like. Thank you.” He says throwing the waitress a wink and she blushes brightly before rushing off. He then takes a sip of his drink and regards Shelly again. “Would it make you feel more comfortable if I were to hand one of my weapons over? I assure you it will work for you as well as me, it’s not bio-coded like The Imperial Army Munitions.”
“How do you know that?” She asks and then frowns a little as he clearly scans the area, and then turns on a signal jammer while he leans forward.
“Because I mean to take this world from The Empire. Permanently.” He states softly and her eyes widen in shock. He then leans back and deactivates the jammer.
“Who are you?”
“Me? I’m your new best friend madam patriot. You want the best for your beloved homeworld? That’s me. I mean to take it.”
“How?”
“With ease. However, the how’s and why’s of my conquest are not of concern to you. Nonono, the concern to you my dear is what happens after.” He says.
“What comes after?” She asks as the Waitress returns with the menus and gets a dazzling smile from the very handsome but clearly very dangerous man. The girl outright skips back to get the hot water and mug.
“Defending, rebuilding, growing. I need people who love Lavaron down to the depths of their being and those with the knowledge and skill to support it by my side. Those that merely have knowledge and skill are easy to sway with a properly padded paycheck, but a patriot? Someone motivated by love? Well, that’s a bit more tricky, but equally as important. If not more so.”
“Is it? I was told that I was an archaic fool pining for a yesteryear that never happened.”
“Without bonds to hold a community together it shatters, those that told that to you did so with only ill intent of that I can assure you. Why, as an avowed patriot myself, I dare say I find the company of other such patriotic souls a comfort.”
“And what are you patriotic to?” She asks before the Waitress comes back and promises to come back in a few minutes. She’s sent away with a goofy smile as the man offers an early tip for such prompt and exceptional service. “Why are you buttering her up like that?”
“She’s going to remember nothing about today but that it was the day a very handsome man made her feel like a queen and paid her like one. She won’t remember you beyond the most vague details when pressed.” He promises her and her eyes shoot back and forth as she puts it together. This man IS a spy of some kind. He IS up to something and he’s playing the people around him like puppets to dance exactly how he wants them to and to see what he wants them to see and nothing else.
“And why is this so important?”
“When planning sedition some privacy is needed.”
“Out in the open? Like this?!”
“Yes.” He says. “Everyone is so busy with their lives that they won’t do more than ogle me for a moment and then move on. However your apartment is bugged and while I could do something about that, I doubt you want me to go through your personal effects and ripping out the walls to get them all.”
“Okay, that’s my limit. What do you want from me.”
“I’m going to wipe out the Vatras and when I’m done.”
“That’s the sort of thing you say when the signal jammer is ON.” She snaps at him.
“Only if the jammer doesn’t work by sending out a very, very aggressive worm program to strategically erase my voice from any recording.”
“And if they get around it?”
“I like excitement.” He says with a smirk and a sip of his drink.
“And why do you want me? I was a middling officer at best at the very height of my career. My troops were only a few steps away from being ceremonial, and would have been if we had the budget for it.”
“True. However you and your troops had a very important trait in common. Patriotism.” He says before turning and smiling at the waitress. “Hello again dear woman, that’s a lovely trick you’ve done with your hair.”
“Oh is it? I couldn’t... I mean... uh... order. Your order please!”
“Certainly, my friend and I both think the Galri Salad looks exceptional.” He says and she nods before taking both menus and leaving with a spring in her step. “It takes so little to make a public place outright private.”
He pulls out a small case and rather it being a weapon or anything, it’s filled with a series of small perforated cloth bags. He tosses one into the mug that had been brought for Shelly and then pours the hot water that had arrived onto it.
“What’s that?”
“What drew me to your world, so you best be grateful for it.”
“Grateful? I don’t even understand who or what you are. Or what this is.”
“Tea. One of your local plants is an evolutionary sibling to something found on my homeworld. Something so valuable that empires, fortunes and lives have been lost in it’s pursuit. In ancient times it was the drink of rebels and plotters, in more classical times it was the drink of the well heeled and dignified. Now it is the drink of nations, a uniting force across disparate languages, peoples and creeds.”
“Well, I suppose with a history like that I can hardly refuse.” Shelly says before a hint of paranoia has her swap mugs with him.
“Oh, fresher tea! Delightful.” The man says taking a sip. “That wouldn’t work either way. I’m human. You’ll have to look very hard for something that’s awful enough to make me die from it.”
With a sigh she trades the mugs back. It was a pointless gesture then. But it does raise another question. As if she didn’t have an entire legion of them. He grip on the mug tightens in frustration and she looks him plain in the face.
“Just spill it. What do you want?” She demands and he holds up a finger before The Waitress arrives with their salads. She delivers with a little spin and he offers light applause before giving her another bit of a pre-tip and she skips away.
“I want you to reactivate your soldiers. I want you to re-vet them to ensure they’re still patriots. I’ll supply you with weapons, equipment and a safe place to muster. I’m taking this world, but to hold it I need people willing to fight and kill for it. I want Lavaron to be the next part of the British Empire and like all our colonies, former and current, I want it to thrive. I want it strong, I want it wealthy. I want it to be a crowning jewel that shines brighter than it’s star.” He explains before pointing up towards the noonday sun.
She just stares at him. He smirks and then picks up his utensils to start eating. After a few moments he gives her an odd look. “I didn’t buy that salad for the looks Shelly, eat.”
“... Are you insane?” She asks him.
“No, I’m very good. But as I get some things moving, I need to start others.”
“And I’m part of your master plan?”
“Your name is pencilled in, your attributes are inked in.”
“Pardon?”
“Oh dear, excuse me. Pencils are a writing implement and Ink is as well. Pencil markings can be erased, Ink cannot. So, while you yourself are not my only option, I’m only choosing from people with a deep love of this world and a desire to protect it.” He says. “So if you don’t feel like your up for helping your world become everything you dreamed of and shaping history...”
“Stop the sale.” She says and he quiets down. She points at him. “You, a man. A single man. A foreigner, a stranger, an alien who has likely been on this world for less time than I’ve been between jobs. You think you can just come here and make everything better? What kind of hubris do you have to think that all our issues are easily solved? Do you have any ideas how powerful the Vatras are? Do you have any idea what The Empire’s stance on them are?”
“Each Vatras has an army that has at minimum a million people strong. They command trillions in credits worth of resources casually and each has a long history of slamming down on rebellion and uprisings with enough force that several lakes on Lavaron are in fact the filled in craters where there used to be towns. And with all that power, The Empire thinks of them as an amusing annoyance and their policy is that they can have their fun, but if they try to spread their silliness then they’ll be broken all the way down to the atomic level under laser barrage.” He explains and she nods. “I’ve already started to work onto all four of them. The fun thing about strong, paranoid opponents, is that they’re easily pointed to each other.”
“... what?”
“Shelly. I’m not asking for blind faith. I’m not asking you to throw your life away.” He says before pulling out a piece of paper and pen before writing down an address and a time. “All I’m asking is a second little date for you to see exactly what I’m going to do for you and Lavaron.”
“I see.” She says and considers for a few moments. Someone like this was dangerous. Very, very dangerous. If they can’t live up to their boasting then they’ll kick the Vatras into a frenzy. If they DO succeed then the rest of The Gavali Empire will slam down.
“I see, and what happens if I don’t like what I see?”
“No one will believe you, and by the time anyone does everything you know will either be out of date or painfully obvious. So I’m not concerned.” He says and she just narrows her eyes at him.
“You’re awfully certain of that.”
“I am completely certain, but if you feel the need to push against it, by all means do so. But please understand that an opportunity like this is once in a lifetime. Do you want to heal Lavaron?”
“Of course I do, but I question whether a single man is capable of such.” She replies and he nods.
“Well, you have the time and place. If you want more of a show, arrive early.” He offers. “Still, I think we’ve gotten as far as we can today. You know where to be if you want some evidence. Otherwise... well you can go back to a fruitless job search.”
She takes the paper from him and frowns. It’s dated for tomorrow evening.
•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•
She arrives two hours early. Not like she has anything to do. And it’s not like she won’t be aware of anyone accepting her applications if she gets an answer.
In the distance she can see a great deal of commotion kicking off. Security forces are being suddenly hit by a building they were checking before an army gets involved. Then another branch of it comes in and before anything can happen one of the vehicles veers away from the rest and then seems to fade away from sight.
At a distance that cloaking is exceptional, but up close it’s clear that there’s something approaching. Something that lands next to her and a door opens in the clearly distorted air. “Come in please.”
She enters and finds several tied up and unconscious Blythe troopers and Wettsworth in the pilot’s seat.
“These ships don’t have a cloaking function.”
“No, but the trinity of drones I stuck to each side do. Now you’re a little too early and things aren’t quite finished, but if you’d be so kind as to strap yourself in as the show kicks off.”
“What are you doing?!”
“Why fight four big enemies, when they can fight each other to your benefit?” He asks simply. “By the by, you never told me what you thought of the tea.”
“Needed some sweetener.”
“Jam and cream perhaps?” He offers.
“Maybe. So... what do you want to show me?”
“Beyond the battered and beaten forces of the Vatras? I’ve stolen enough older munitions to arm your unit thrice over. With this safe haven being compromised it’s being abandoned. And they’re going to grab all the wrong things in their abandonment.”
“What’s the thing they should grab?”
“The map and keycards to the nearby old military bases. They’re collecting dust and little else in there. And while the equipment in there is not to Imperial Standard, Imperial Standard is is merely a mild weight upgrade and biocoding. There’s enough in there to give a serious fight to any of the four Vatras, let alone the winner after they’ve had a free for all.”
“And what do we do about the defence stations that can turn their cannons onto the world and slaughter the people!?”
“I am going to handle that.”
“How?”
“Subversion, destruction and outright theft.”
“How do you steal an entire space station?”
“Do you want a breakdown of my intended operation, or do you want the punchy retort?”
“The real answer.”
“So are you in?”
“...”
“The plan is need to know, and you only need to know if...” He begins before one of the ships finally opens fire and things above them descend into a quick flurry of violence before they break off. “Almost, they’re still too aware of the The Empire nearby and not quite angry enough at each other yet. Still, this is a good step forward.”
She considers for only a second more. He just got the Vatras to fight each other and is blatantly stealing from them. If she reports him and somehow gets him arrested she’ll maybe get a pat on the head and a job offer. But if he is serious... if he can keep this up... “Fine I’m in, if only to curtail the damage as best I can. How are you taking over an entire space station?”
She’s learning to fear that smirk.
~First~ Last
submitted by KyleKKent to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:43 Trash_Tia Every graduation day, my friends and I were brutally murdered by a woman in a black suit.

Ten minutes into graduation, my friends were already dead.
Ten elephants.
I was soaking wet, my dress glued to me.
Nine elephants.
Forcing myself into a run, I tripped over my heels.
Eight elephants.
Fuck.
Seven elephants.
There was no point in counting, but counting felt normal.
Six elephants.
Counting felt like I was going to escape.
Five elephants.
Survive.
Noah’s blood painted my face.
He still felt alive, warm, swimming in my vision. I could still see cruel silver being plunged into his chest, rivulets of red pooling down his lips and chin.
Four elephants.
Noah told me to run, so here I was…
Three elephants.
Running.
Forcing myself to breathe, I swiped blood from my eyes.
Two elephants.
Twisting around, I scanned the empty school hallway for movement.
One elephant.
Annalise’s brains dripped down my face.
I was picking pieces of her skull from my hair, tiny pearly splinters stuck to me.
Annalise was sucked down the pool drain, her body mincemeat on my dress.
Her grisly remains were floating on the surface, painting illuminated water in a striking, almost breathtaking red.
Noah was sliced apart right in front of me.
They were dead.
Slamming my fists into each classroom, my shriek caught between my teeth.
Help me.
The lights were off, which meant she was close.
Reaching the end of the hallway, I could hear laughter and familiar whoops coming from the auditorium.
The class of 2015 were graduating and I was going to fucking die.
The main entrance was locked, barricaded from the outside.
Taking two steps back, I slipped out of my heels, kicking them off.
The classroom at the end of the hall was open, spilling warm light that coaxed me forward, hypnotised by the illusion of safety. With no choice, I staggered toward it and pushed the door open.
Stepping directly into warm entrails squelching between my bare toes, I had to bite back a cry. Mari hung upside down above me, her body swaying back and forth, strung up like meat to the slaughter. The girl had been gutted straight through her designer Diana mini, her glistening remains sparkling under unearthly light. Mari’s eyes were still open, lips parted as if to warn me.
For a dizzying moment, I was paralysed.
A door banged shut, running footsteps, heavy panting breaths.
“Fuck!” a familiar accent cried out.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
I could hear him slamming his hands into classroom doors.
“I need… I need help!”
The voice should have been comforting, but I was already seeing an opportunity to hide myself.
Swallowing barf, I leapt over glistening red entrails and dropped onto my hands and knees, crawling under a desk, gagging my own panting breaths.
The door swung open, and I buried my head in my arms, risking a peek.
Isaac Redfield stumbled through the door, immediately falling to his knees, his head buried between his legs.
He was sobbing, choking on breaths suffocating him. Issac looked helpless, hopeless, before his gaze caught mine.
I thought Isaac was dead.
The last time I saw him, he was being violently dragged into the janitor's closet. I could see where he'd narrowly missed being butchered, a gaping hole ripped straight through his suit jacket.
He was covered in the remnants of Noah, grisly scarlet turning him into more of a canvas than human, thick brown hair hanging in wide, almost unseeing eyes barely penetrating mine.
Isaac pressed a finger to his lips, his voice bleeding into a shaky breath.
”Don't… say… a… fucking word”.
The door opened, two familiar boots stomping through.
Issac twisted around, forcing himself to unsteady feet.
I could only see her slick black shoes.
The woman pivoted on her heel and started towards Isaac.
“Ahh, fuck,” his hiss broke out into a sob.
I watched him do a little dance backward in an attempt to distance himself. But he was just backing into a corner, staggering over himself.
His hand shot out, blindly grasping for a weapon, a chair leg, but her boots continued, stomping towards him.
Isaac tried to throw himself past her, but she was so fast, reaching out and grabbing the boy by his neck, her fingers pulverising. His arms flew up to peel her hands from his throat, but she was choking him. When Issac’s arms went limp, she slammed him into the window, and my body coaxed me to move, to run. Isaac was half conscious, spluttering blood, his head hanging.
Run.
But I couldn't.
I watched, my hand suffocating my screams, as she lifted him into the air, his feet dangling, his breaths coming out in choking pants. I saw the silver glint of her knife, and then the streak of scarlet painting the wall behind him.
I heard the exact moment the blade went in.
Isaac’s panting breaths became wet gurgles, his dangling legs going limp.
The slow stemming puddle of red accumulating across marble snapped something in my mind. I forgot how to run, to move my legs, to even breathe.
When Isaac’s body hit the ground with a meaty smack, I shuffled back, but the scarlet pool followed me running wet and warm under my fingers. I could see where his throat had been slashed open.
Isaac’s head was turned at an angle, his dead eyes staring directly at me.
I was trying to feel for a pulse when the desk I was hiding under was kicked aside. There she was when I dared lift my head. The woman in the black suit.
She resembled a shadow with a human face, dark blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, brandishing a pinstripe suit.
I watched her brutally murder my friends, one by one, no mercy, no I'm sorry, or even an explanation.
She butchered Annalise in the swimming pool, gutting Noah and Mari, and now Isaac.
Her expression was vacant. There was no motivation behind her killing them.
If there was, she would have worn the face of a psychotic serial killer, thirsty to spill blood.
She would have laughed as they ran, revelled in their fear and the startling inevitably of their own demise.
But she didn't.
Instead, the woman in the black suit stalked after them. She never stopped, never faltered, until they were all dead.
Until their breaths were thinning, their blood staining her hands.
The woman did not smile when she wrapped her hands around the curve of my neck and slammed me against the wall.
I saw stars going supernova, trying to suck in oxygen, her relentless grip tightening.
Black spots speckled my vision, and I was half aware of the ice-cold prick of silver sinking into my flesh. She was slow. Slow enough for me to count each of my lingering breaths, watching my own blood soak the front of my dress.
When she dropped me, I landed on my stomach. But there was no pain.
It felt like dreaming, choking on words that wouldn't come out.
Weird, I thought, my eyes flickering.
I counted ceiling tiles, dizzily, a slow spreading darkness pricking at the corners of my vision.
Last time, Isaac died first in the swimming pool.
Noah managed to stab the bitch in the back, only for her to chase him to the main entrance, gutting him on the spot.
The woman in the black suit loomed over me, while I focused on breathing.
Only for her to deliver one last fuck you blow to my head.
My vision contorted, and I sunk into the ground.
Straight into oblivion.
That spat me back out.
“Bonnie!”
I was numb to my mother’s voice.
I used to wake up screaming, my hands around my throat clawing for wounds that were no longer there.
Now I was somewhere between acceptance and losing my fucking mind.
For a while, I didn't move, lying on my back and considering suicide.
I never had the guts to actually go through with it though.
Being murdered is one thing, but actually doing it yourself is another.
“Bonnie!” Mom’s voice was louder, and I mocked her words.
“Get up! Sweetie, I made your favorite! Chocolate chip pancakes!”
I paused, counting elephants.
I had mastered the ability to perfectly mimic her tone.
“And don't forget to thank Mrs Benson for that beautiful dress! You know she really wants you to attend graduation!”
Mom was right. I couldn't afford a decent dress, so my teacher offered.
But after being hacked apart, drowned, bisected, choked, and having my throat slit in different variations, I can't say I was thrilled to wear it. The dress was ruined every time, reduced to tatters clinging to me.
Rolling over in bed, I pulled my phone from my nightstand.
Always the exact same notification illuminating my home screen.
GRADUATION DAY!! :)”
I fucking hated that notification.
Unknown number flashed up on screen.
“Hello?” I mumbled.
“How'd you die this time?”
Isaac Redfield's voice was muffled slightly. I think he was brushing his teeth.
“My throat was slit,” I said. “You?”
“You should know,” I heard him spit. “I mean, you did watch me fucking die.”
“That wasn't my choice.”
He spat again. “Does the woman in the black suit seem….familiar to you?”
I wasn't sure if he was screwing with me.
“Yes.” I said, dryly.
“No, not like that,” Isaac groaned. “I mean, don't you, like, recognise her? I swear I've seen this woman before.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I revelled in the slow passage of time.
7am to 8am was my favourite part of the day. I used to freak out, trying to leave town and find the best hiding place. Now, I just lay down and vibed.
There was something both terrifying and yet weirdly peaceful about knowing whatever happened, I was going to die.
“Dude, I've definitely seen her.”
I rolled onto my face. “Is that before she started brutally killing you in a never ending groundhog day, or after?”
Isaac paused, and I buried my head into my pillow. “Um, both?”
“Both?”
He was either going crazy or onto something.
I wasn't counting on the latter.
Isssc’s deaths were the most brutal. I wouldn't be surprised if the trauma had knocked something loose in his brain.
“Yeah.” his laugh was nervous, more of a splutter. Throughout our situationship, I had come to know his laughs well.
I knew his fake laugh, his trying not to cry laugh, his trying not to laugh laugh. I even knew his I’m losing my fucking mind, I'm going to die laugh.
But I didn't know his real laugh.
“Does that sound crazy, or…?”
Instead of answering him, I ended the call.
At breakfast, I could still taste my own blood.
Mom hovered over me, blonde streaks of hair hanging in her face.
Dressed in her fluffy pink bathrobe, my mother should have been a comfort.
However, I was yet to forget the seventh loop when I broke apart and told her about what was happening.
Mom immediately called the doctor, convinced I was having a psychotic break.
He said there was nothing wrong with me and let me go to school.
Where I was murdered.
Again.
That time, she didn't kill us individually, instead forcing us on to our knees and bleeding us out, one by one. I think I became desensitised to death, to everything, when I was forced to watch Mari choke on her own screams, her head forced forwards, a blade brutally protruding through her.
*Don't forget to thank Mrs Benson for the dress, honey,” Mom said, refilling my juice.
I nodded, struggling to swallow pancake mush.
A sudden knock on the door woke me up.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
For a moment, I was frozen, my hands squeezing around my glass, before a familiar head of brown curls appeared.
Isaac Redfield, barely awake, still in his pyjamas.
Following suit, Mari Cliffe and Annalise Chatham.
Isaac went directly into the refrigerator hunting for food. Annalise took an uncertain seat at the table, and Mari stood with her arms folded, her wide, frenzied eyes drinking in my kitchen.
Isaac Redfield was the British exchange student who nobody could understand at first, his accent rocketing him up the high school hierarchy. The guy was also known for dealing candy, and getting into unnecessary arguments with teachers. Alongside Isaac, Mari Cliffe, captain of the girl’s soccer team, and Annalise Chatham, our school’s version of horse girl, were unlikely friends.
They used to be strangers, kids I’d pass in the hallway.
After being brutally killed together in a never ending graduation day cycle, we had become surprisingly close.
When we were hiding in the janitor's closet, Isaac spilled to us that he hated the idea of college.
He wanted to travel the world.
Mari was crushing on one of her teammates.
Annalise actually hated horses.
Isaac was secretly scared of Bill Nye.
I had a thing for clowns I wasn't going to go into.
It started as a confessions thing, four strangers pouring our hearts out to each other.
We shared theories.
Isssc was convinced we were actually dead, and this was hell.
Mari suggested we were in some kind of prank show.
I voiced my theory, which was, yeah, we were dead. I was sure we had died on graduation day, and this was fate’s way of giving us companions in the great beyond. Still though, I wasn't sure why fate wanted us to be brutally killed.
Then, there was the mystery of our killer.
The woman in the black suit, our own personal angel of death.
“Morning,” Isaac greeted me with a sleepy smile, running his hands through his hair. He ignored my Mom’s wide eyes. “Thanks for leaving me to die.”
I thought back to him crouched in front of me, his face splattered in Noah, index pressed to his lips. Don't move.
“You told me not to move.” I said through a mouthful of pancakes.
Issac’s lips curled. “Yeah, because I was expecting you to move your ass.”
The boy helped himself to my pancakes, shovelling them down with maple syrup.
I wasn't used to the others actually coming to my house. That never happened. We either met up at school, or were killed before we even saw each other. I knew Isaac was secretly pissed.
It wasn't the first time I had thrown him under the bus. Still, I was yet to forget him ‘accidentally’ drowning me nine graduation days ago.
He said it was an accident, but I definitely felt him shove my head under the water so he could make a run for it.
“There wasn't enough room under the desk,” I told him pointedly, gesturing to my mother, who I think was still trying to register three strangers walking into her kitchen unannounced. Mom had been vocal about me finding friends since freshman year, but I don't think she was expecting these friends.
Mari was well known around town, our girl’s soccer team dominating the local gazette.
Annalise’s father was the principal of our school. She was also the 2014 pageant winner.
Isaac was more infamous, especially for his ‘candy’.
“What?” Isaac shrugged, shooting my Mom a grin. “It's not like she's going to remember me, anyway.” he offered her a two fingered salute, “Sup, Mrs Haverford.”
To prove his point, Isaac straightened up, grabbed my phone, and threw it in the microwave.
Mari chucked a banana at his head.
“We get it.” she said with an eye roll.
“You don't need to resort to blowing things up every single time.”
Isaac responded with stubborn British noises, but she was right.
On our third graduation day, Isaac thought we could kill the woman in the black suit by blowing her up with science equipment.
Instead, he blew himself up, leaving the rest of us to her mercy.
Mom seemed to snap out of it, her smile broadening.
“Oh! You didn't tell me you were bringing friends over!” Mom immediately entered mother mode.
“Do you kids want breakfast?” she asked them, her voice high, almost shrill.
Narrowly avoiding my mother pulling out baby pictures, I coaxed her out of the kitchen. The last thing she said, before I shut the door on her face, was, “Don't forget to thank Mrs Benson for the–”
When we were alone, Mari took centre stage, hoisting herself onto the counter.
The girl was a natural leader, so of course she was our spokesperson.
Mari absently ran her hands through strawberry blonde hair.
“We tried your idea,” she nodded to a sick looking Annalise. “We tried running, and that crazy bitch still got us.”
Annalise wrapped her arms around herself, avoiding Mari’s gaze. “It was a suggestion. I didn't think she was that fast.”
“I still think she's a sleeper agent,” Isaac muttered into his glass of juice.
Mari raised a brow. “Okay, but why would a sleeper agent go after five random high school students?”
He shrugged, his lips curving into a smile.
“Maybe it was an order.”
He dragged out the latter word, so it sounded more like, “Ordahhhhhhhh.”
“But who made the order?” Annalise spoke up.
I nodded. “The government, or the shadow government don't go after high school kids.”
Isaac leaned forward, comfortably resting his chin on his fist. “Soo, what do we do now? If we can't beat whatever this thing is, what do we do?”
Die.
That is what we did.
For ten consecutive graduation days.
I woke up. I ate breakfast (pancakes and orange juice), I went to school, and I was murdered.
I was hacked apart, burned alive, drowned, impaled, and beheaded.
And nothing worked.
Our plans to run failed.
We tried to get to the roof, but she was always there waiting for us.
The latest loop, I was actually hopeful.
Isssc’s plan to lure her to the downstairs gym was going well, and it was the first time I'd survived past 3pm.
It was an adrenaline rush. 3pm had never looked so fucking beautiful.
The plan was simple.
Annalise, Mari and me standing in plain sight the whole time, and Isaac luring our killer to the downstairs gym.
When I got the confirmation text that Issac had trapped the woman in the closet, the three of us continued our plan, which was to set off the fire alarm, and alert the police of the intruder.
Informing the police was impossible initially, because she was always one thousand steps ahead of the five of us.
But Isaac had captured her.
We were in the clear.
That's what I thought.
When we pushed through the doors into the gym, however, Isaac’s cry froze me in place.
“It's a–”
His voice collapsed into panicked muffle screaming.
I took two steps, before I saw his figure running towards me.
Behind him, the woman in the black suit.
Another stumbled step, and he was being dragged back, a hand over his mouth. I didn't think our killer had enough intelligence to turn our own plan back on us, transforming Isaac into a lure for us.
I could see the apology in his frenzied eyes before she sliced her knife through his skull. I didn't even get a chance to mourn him. Isssc flopped onto the ground, rivulets of red pooling down his face. For a second, I was transfixed, hypnotised, by what she had done to him. The back of his head spewed blood like a geyser, a gaping hole splitting the back of his skull open.
I couldn't move, already wanting to surrender.
I shuffled back on my hands, already screaming, wailing like an animal.
10.
I counted elephants, just like my mother told me.
9.
My gaze was glued to Isaac, whose body was still twitching.
8.
His glassy eyes, scarlet trails running down his face.
7.
The woman was fast, waiting for me to try and run.
6.
5
4.
I was on my knees, and the door was so far away.
“Just breathe, honey.” Mom used to tell me.
“Keep counting elephants.”
Mari’s scream rattled in my ears.
I remember ice cold arms wrapping around my waist, the sensation of something sharp. I didn't feel the pain, only wet warmth running down my face. It felt like rain. Annalise’s crying was enough of an anchor, but my vision was already going foggy. I wasn't sure where the fatal wound was, though I guessed it was my head, just like Isaac.
The woman in the black suit floated in front of me like a spectre.
Once again, her fingers wrapped around my neck, swinging me like a toy.
“Bonnie!”
I was aware of Mari’s thundering footsteps coming toward me.
Suddenly, pain.
Pain like I had never felt, pain that puppeteered my body, wrenching my head back, my lips forming an O.
Part of me could still feel it, the blade digging deep into my skull.
She twisted it, and I screeched, my mouth full of pancake mush.
Again, this time clockwise, and I felt my body go numb, my head hanging.
I could hear the sound of my skull splintering apart.
The woman in the black suit didn't just want to kill us.
She wanted to make us fucking suffer.
Reality contorted, and I was back in bed at home, screeching into my pillows before my body could hit the gym floor.
I think that was when I started to lose my mind.
I began to distance myself from the others, like we were strangers again.
The woman in the black suit hunted me down to the girls bathroom where I was hiding, drowning me in the toilet bowl.
Then, she came straight into my house when I refused to go to school, suffocating me with my stuffed rabbit.
Luckily, Isaac and Mari forced their way in.
Isaac was stabbed in the stomach, and Mari, impaled by a fucking hairbrush.
I had no idea you could be impaled by a hairbrush.
Isaac’s lifeless body dropped onto mine.
His expression almost made me laugh, like he was mid eyeroll.
Hysteria crept up my throat, days, months, years, centuries, of the same fucking day finally catching up to me.
I was shrieking with laughter when I was bludgeoned straight through the mouth.
“Bonnie!”
7am.
This time, I rolled onto my side, spewing up the taste of blood.
"Get up! I made your favorite! Chocolate chip pancakes… “
Mom’s voice felt and sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
Swiping stale barf from my chin, I took one look at my graduation dress and burst out laughing. Then I tore the thing to shreds, stuffing the tattered remains in my bedroom drawer.
Mom appeared when she wasn't supposed to, hovering in my doorway.
In her hands was a laundry basket, but looking inside, it was filled with flour and eggs.
Mom’s smile was wide. I wondered if she was having a mental breakdown.
“Bonnie, did you remember to say thank you to Mrs Benson–”
I cut her off, swallowing a shriek. “For the dress,” I said. “Yep. I’m going to.”
That day, I stepped into school wearing a curtain and crocks.
“That's not a good idea,” Isaac stood behind me, wearing his usual tux.
His smile was weak. I think he'd stopped with the fake optimism.
Now, I was seeing the real him.
Real Isaac was kind of an asshole, but real subtle about it.
“Do you really want to die wearing a curtain? How are you going to run?”
I glimpsed a knife stuck in his belt. “Are you planning on being the hero?”
“Nope.” he shot me a sickly smile. “It's to defend myself.”
Four hours later, the two of us were sprinting down the hallway.
I wielded Isaac’s knife, Isaac stumbling with a head injury I didn't dare look at.
Issac narrowly missed drowning, managing to claw his way out of the pool. I didn't see him hit his head on the side when our killer threw herself on top of him, but I did hear the sickening crack of his face hitting stone tiles, all of the breath being violently knocked from his lungs in a strangled, “Oomph!”
She tried to drag him into the water, only for him to kick her in the face.
Mari was dead, half of her torso in the swimming pool.
Annalise was hiding, but I didn't have hope for her.
“You said we might be able to drown her!” Isaac, soaking wet and pissed, tried each classroom door, with all of them being locked as usual. He twisted around to me, his lips set in a silent cry.
His head was bleeding, bad, a scary looking gash in his forehead.
I was watching a single thick rivulet running down his face when he shoved me.
“Why did you push me into the pool?”
It was payback.
For him drowning me 176 Graduation days earlier.
“You falling into the pool was a distraction.” was all I could choke out.
He didn't believe me. I could tell by his eyes, twitching lips trying not to smile.
“You have a really bad head injury,” I whispered, tugging him into a power walk.
I realized the guy had some serious confusion when Issac laughed.
“I know,” he slurred, “I feel kinda…dizzy.”
I thought he was going to burst out laughing again, when familiar stomping boots brought us both to a sobering halt.
Issac slammed his hand over his mouth, his eyes widening. He slowly moved the two of us back, his clammy fingers entangling with mine. “Fuck,” he muffle whispered. “Did she hear us?”
When the booted footsteps got louder, we had our answer.
Pushing Isaac into the next open classroom, I catapulted myself into a sprint, cold hands suddenly gripping my shoulders and tugging me backwards.
“Shhh. It's me.”
Noah Locke.
He distanced himself after being sliced apart right in front of us. Noah was the quiet kid, a short and stocky boy with reddish hair and glasses. I wanted to ask where the hell he'd been, when I glimpsed the kitchen knife in his fist.
Noah’s smile was sickly. “Do you trust me?”
He pulled us into a classroom, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Isaac’s cries followed us, and I resisted covering my ears.
“I'm sorry,” Noah said, before slitting my throat.
This time, it was fast.
I fell.
Down.
Down.
Down.
I waited for Mom’s voice to wake me up, but when consciousness did come over me, I wasn't in bed. I had zero idea where I was, only the sensation that I was floating. Opening my eyes, I was inside a glass tank, suffocating in a thick goo-like substance, my hair spread out around me in a halo.
When I panicked, my body jerking awake, warm hands wrapped around me, pulling me out.
I hit open air, my lungs expanding, and I hacked up blood streaked water.
Noah helped me sit, the two of us leaning against my tank.
He was soaking wet, his skin glistening with that foul smelling solution.
I took a second to drink in my surroundings.
A large room filled with human-sized tanks.
Reaching to the back of my neck, I gingerly prodded at what felt like an incision. I stood up slowly, my gaze already finding the tank next to mine.
Mari.
The girl was suspended in water, her eyes closed, lips parted peacefully.
“They tried to escape a while ago,” Noah murmured, his gaze glued to another tank.
Isaac.
His cheeks were a sickly pallid colour, eyes closed. There was something attached to the back of his head.
“But they're in the school,” I managed to get out. “I was just with Isaac!”
“You were with a null version of Isaac,” Noah didn't look at me. “The one who kept leading you to your death, even if it seemed accidental. He was playing you.” he buried his head in his knees.
“The real Isaac figured this wasn't real a long time ago.”
“Real Isaac?”
“Yeah. The one you've been with is more of a copy of him,” Noah sighed, leaning his head against Mari’s tank.
He spat out slime, adjusting his glasses.
“Think of him more as a shell, empty of his mind. This Isaac follows orders like an NPC. He had the guy’s memories and traits, but he was just a program.”
Too much information at once.
“I don't understand.”
Noah tipped his back, groaning. “You don't need to.”
He got to his feet. His eyes were dark, hollowed out caverns I couldn't recognise. “I'm sorry,” Noah said again, wrapping his hands around my neck and pinning me into one of the tanks.
Just like the woman in the black suit, Noah pressed enough pressure for me to suffer.
When he slammed my head against the tank, I felt my body shut down.
I could still feel him, his fingers squeezing the life out of me.
Darkness came soon after.
Swirling oblivion that swallowed me up, and then spat me out.
This time, I spluttered awake, cuffed to a bed inside a white room.
Surrounding me were fifteen gurney like beds.
“I don't know how deep we are,” Noah’s voice startled me.
The boy stood over me, this time dressed in shorts and t-shirt.
“What?” I tried to jump up, but I was strapped down.
“Miss Benson.” his voice broke. “She didn't want us to graduate, so she put us under.” he swiped at his eyes, gulping down sobs. Noah slumped down onto my bed. “I thought I could wake us up by killing ourselves instead, but we’re stuck.” I noticed the scalpel in his hand.
“The last thing Isaac told me was that we had to get back to the surface.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “But I don't know how deep this thing goes.”
Tugging against the velcro straps pinning me down, I held my breath.
“Deep?”
“Yeah.” he spluttered. “We’re pretty far under.”
With a heavy breath, he drew the blade across his own throat with just enough precision to keep himself breathing.
Deep red spotted the blanket, and the boy broke down.
“I can't wake us up,” Isaac whispered, grabbing a pillow and pinning me to the bed. I tried to shove him off of me, but he put all of weight onto me, laughing.
“Do you hear me, Isaac?” His hysterical cry followed me into the dark.
“I can't fucking wake us up!”
Death didn't feel like death at this point.
Like drowning, and then finding the surface.
Only to be pulled back into suffocating depths.
Plunging through nothing, empty space with no bottom, no surface.
Endless nothing that expanded, continuing.
Noah’s sobs collapsed into white noise and I felt my writhing limbs go still.
Once again, I waited for my Mom’s voice.
For Graduation Day.
Instead, I awoke with a shriek, strapped to a chair, my hands bound to Noah’s.
“I'm sorry for suffocating you with a pillow.”
He didn't sound apologetic.
This time, we were inside a glass building.
Above us, the sky was pitch dark.
“Where are we?”
“I have no idea,” Noah muttered. “I've never been this far.”
My gaze followed an odd looking bird through the skylight. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, she always takes me back to the start,” he said. “Graduation Day.”
Noah got free easily, tearing himself from his restraints.
The knots around my wrists were impossible. “So, you've been here before?”
“No.” he stumbled. “Isaac has.”
The boy dropped onto his hands and knees, picking up a single shard of glass.
“Isaac said he found a room with a skylight,” Noah murmured, sliding the point between his fingers. His gaze found the ceiling. “Then he went deeper, and his consciousness never came back to us. Mrs Benson sent a mindless fucking copy in his place.”
He got to his feet, the shard clenched in his fist.
“So, if I'm right… Isaac woke up, and Mrs Benson must have restrained the real him.” Noah stepped in front of me.
“And… like Isaac, we will wake up…” His frenzied eyes found mine. “Right?”
I wasn't thrilled with the idea of dying again, but anything to wake myself up.
“Do it.”
He nodded, and I felt the prick of the blade spike my skin.
“Wait.”
Noah stepped back, cocking his head. “What?”
“Why would Mrs Benson do this?” I demanded. “She didn't want us to graduate school, so she did all of this?”
Noah shrugged, playing with the shard between his fingers. “Why else would she do this?”
He pressed the shard into my neck.
“Wait.” I hissed out.
Noah’s frown was patient. “What now?”
“What if this is the real world?” I whispered. “We’ll be killing ourselves. For real.”
Noah’s lips pricked slightly. “Does this world look real to you?”
Before I could reply, he slashed my throat open.
I waited for the reset.
For the sensation of blankets wrapped around my head, and my mother’s voice.
Instead, my body was stiff, my eyes glued shut.
“Bonnie Haverford?” the voice was a low murmur. “Honey, can you hear me?”
There was something stuck in my arm, a sharp, cruel thing pinning me down.
“I did say she was awake, but nobody believed me.”
The British accent was almost a fucking melody.
Prying my eyes open, a figure was looming over me. It was a woman with a kind face, her expression soothing.
A paramedic.
I couldn't make out what the tag on her uniform said, though.
Around me, I could see my classmates wrapped in blankets being escorted to the door. There were fifteen or so futuristic looking pods, and I was lying in one, a plastic mask suffocating my mouth. Isaac stood next to the paramedic, a wary smile on his mouth.
The guy had a scary bandage wrapped around his head.
“Bonnie, right?”
This version of him didn't remember getting to know me.
Isaac pulled me to a sitting position, ignoring the paramedic’s sharp hiss of, “Please leave her where she is!”
A man dressed in white tried to throw a blanket around him, and he shrugged it off.
“I'm fine,” Issac muttered, gingerly prodding his head wound. “I won't be if you keep asking if I'm okay. Jeez.”
Ignoring the adults, he wandered over to the pod in front of me and pulled a half conscious Noah to unsteady feet.
Noah staggered, half lidded eyes finding mine. His smile was sickly.
It worked.
The two of them hugged, Isaac burying his head in the crook of the boy’s shoulder.
I wanted to talk to Noah, but the paramedic seemed pretty insistent that I stayed still so she could check me over.
I was barely aware of my surroundings when I was crawling into the back of an ambulance.
Reality felt wrong, like I was still stuck, still reliving the same day over and over.
But my town was real.
I dazedly watched traffic flying by, the sky darkening.
Time was moving forward again.
The world resumed, and graduation day had been and gone.
14 days to be exact.
Mrs Benson had us trapped for 14 days, and yet to me, it felt like a century.
Mom was at the station, immediately pulling me into a hug.
She put me under house arrest for a week, sentencing me to my room.
According to Mom, our teacher turned herself in.
Apparently, forcing her students into a slasher movie simulator was ‘tugging at her heart’.
I spent most of the summer lying in bed watching Disney movies.
Mom made me breakfast. Eggs and soldiers, just like when I was a little kid.
I was absently dipping my toast soldiers in egg, when she dropped an envelope in front of me. “If you want to testify, sweetie,” Mom had resorted to using her baby voice again, “But remember, you don't have to. It's your choice…”
Mom’s voice faded when I picked up the envelope, opening it up.
My name was printed on the front.
EINOOB DROFREVAH.
I blinked. “They printed my name upside down.”
Mom was behind me, frying more eggs.
“Hmm?”
In the time it took for the envelope to slip from my hand, I was only aware of one thing.
The woman in the black suit was standing in the doorway, her fingers wrapped around an axe. Noah was in front of me one minute, his eyes wide, lips parted in a scream. “It's not–”
The woman was quick to grab him, one hand going over his mouth, the other pressing the blade to his adam’s apple.
Real.
In one singular jerking movement, the boy’s blood was splattering my face, clouding my vision.
The woman in the black suit did not kill me.
She picked Noah up, threw him over her shoulder, and walked away.
“Did you remember to thank me for buying your graduation dress?” Mom asked, handing me a plate of fried eggs.
Her voice, though, felt too close.
Warm breath tickling my cheeks.
“Bonnie, are you listening to me? Did you remember to thank me, sweetheart?”
Reality was far more cruel than dream.
Reality was being unable to move, unable to breathe. It was like coming up for air, but at the same time, I was drowning. The real world was so cold, and yet warm wetness dripped down my chin. I was strapped to a metal table, something plastic lodged down my throat.
Through blurry vision, I could see my body.
I could see that my hair was so much longer, almost down to my stomach.
But there was something wrong.
Prickles of ice slithered down my spine, curls of panic setting my body into fight or flight.
At first, I thought I was in the emergency room.
Except this place didn't have doors.
The walls were sickly green, a bunker transformed into a sicko’s dungeon.
My body resembled a pin cushion, or a little girl’s idea of a doll.
When my eyes found my stomach that was barely being held together by fresh stitches, my mind started to come apart.
Noah was wrong.
Everything that has happened to me, to us, was real.
Being beheaded, ripped apart, sliced into.
Mrs Benson was just good at putting us back together.
My arms were skeletal, wires protruding into my veins.
I could see where I had been cut open, my paper thin hospital gown stained scarlet.
I couldn't count elephants.
Across the room, beds lined the walls.
On them was what was left of my classmates, mangled flesh still strapped down. Some of them had been cut into, severed apart, while others were attached to tubes, wires sticking into their spine and the back of their heads.
The floor was stained, writhing body parts and slithering entrails dried into yellowing tiles.
In the corner of my eye, Mari’s head was hanging open, the pinkish grey of her brain visible through the pearly white of her skull. She was still alive, still twitching in her restraints, plastic tubes full of fluid being fed directly into her head. When a thin river of red slid down her temple, I averted my gaze.
Barf was already in my mouth, splashing into my mask.
Annalise had tubes stuck to her, one eye scooped out, her pretty face mutilated.
Issac.
He was covered with a white sheet, a startling smear of scarlet where his head was supposed to be.
I could see his wrists still strapped down.
Mrs Benson stood in my line of vision, though I did see Isaac’s fingers curl slightly.
My teacher didn't speak when I shrieked through my mask, straining against velcro straps.
Mrs Benson’s smile was the one I used to like.
She lit up our classroom, like sunshine.
“Why don't we count elephants together, hmm?”
I found myself nodding, trusting the sunshine smile.
“One.”
Mrs Benson straightened up.
“Two.”
She strode over to Noah’s bed, replacing his blood soaked pillow with a fresh one, adjusting the tube in his mouth and planting a kiss on his forehead. I could see red dots marked across his skin, circled around his eyes.
“Three.” I found myself saying with her, my thoughts dancing.
Mrs Benson turned to me, her lips breaking out into a grin.
“That's right! Count with me, Bonnie.”
I closed my eyes, swimming in the drugs filling my body.
I was being pulled back down.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine…
Sinking through the ground, colours flashed in my eyes.
“Bonnie!”
Mom’s voice startled me awake, a raw cry choking through my lips.
Graduation Day was the same.
Mom made me breakfast.
Pancakes and orange juice.
I went to school wearing my graduation dress.
Isaac walked straight past me, running to catch up with his friends.
Mari ignored my attempt to call out for her.
Annalise ducked her head, hurrying to empty out her locker.
“Hello.”
Noah was standing behind me.
I could have cried.
But when I turned to talk to him, to tell him we were still trapped, his smile was wide, eyes glassy. In his arms was our yearbook. He handed me a pen.
“Do you mind signing it?” Noah chuckled. “I've got everyone but you.”
He opened it up onto the first page.
“It's Noah, by the way!”
Behind him, I glimpsed a familiar shadow, a woman striding towards me.
The lights above flickered, and I could already taste blood in my mouth. Noah didn't even flinch when I dropped the yearbook and stumbled into a run.
His smile was vacant, empty.
Just like he said.
An NPC.
I was already running for my life, and he kept talking to thin air.
When the woman in the black suit sprinted past him, his smile broadened.
“And you are?”
submitted by Trash_Tia to Odd_directions [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:42 Warm-Copy799 Urethra pain

Looking for some help or advice :(
Male 31
So I was first diagnosed with hsv2 after having sex with a girl then we met again about 2-3 weeks later and whilst having sex I felt a pain so i checked and it was like two slightly raised red bumps that looked like ulcers . So I went and got a swab test that came back hsv2 Positive
First of all I didn’t suffer any urethra pain they was just tiny little ulcers that hardly formed properly And was quite manageable abit of time later I started to feel constant burning in the urethra and just constant unsettlement like I can feel my bladder or a constant feeling of needing the toilet . And this has carried on for a couple years now . Iv Tryed loads of different anti virals mostly using valacyclovir acyclovir and a topical that I found on the herpes website
I Havnt constant foamy bubbley dark urine and when looking in the tip of the urethra it’s like a white shiny liquid/discharge and looks like it’s swollen the top of the urethra so all sides of the tube are touching it doesn’t seems the sores ever fully develop and they are very tiny the ones around the forskin
Is this hsv2 effecting my urethra and causing me constant inflammation and constant discomfort ??
Why has this only eased of at times but the feeling is there ?? Are my outbreaks that frequents that’s why it feels they Havnt gone down ??
And if it hsv2 effecting the uretha how do I stop or calm this pain ?!
Any help would be appreciated Thankyou inbox is open any information on symptoms drop messege
submitted by Warm-Copy799 to HSVpositive [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:42 TJB_Physiques Fatherhood and fitness

Help! Prior to fatherhood I was very into keeping fit - playing football regularly, lifting multiple times a week, roughly tracking my food (either actually tracking or mentally doing so) to hit a protein and calorie target. My twins are 9 weeks old now. I need advice, help, or just insight into how you fit dad's make it work.
For context I work full time (leave at 645am and return at 5/530pm). As soon as I'm home it's all hands on deck to get through feeds, feeding ourselves, and then getting to bed usually by 9/10.
Please share your experiences of parenthood and fitness. I've noticed the lbs start to creep onto my frame, and I've never been overweight or barely even had a belly. I want to be in shape, and I don't want to let myself slip like I see other parents do (no judgement, just what I want for myself).
How can I build gym back into my routine. I have a gym at my workplace, but also have enough equipment at home to make-do.
Thanks in advance, I look forward to reading your experiences/advice/feedback.
Ty :)
submitted by TJB_Physiques to daddit [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:42 Warm-Copy799 Urethra pain

Looking for some help or advice :(
Male 31
So I was first diagnosed with hsv2 after having sex with a girl then we met again about 2-3 weeks later and whilst having sex I felt a pain so i checked and it was like two slightly raised red bumps that looked like ulcers . So I went and got a swab test that came back hsv2 Positive
First of all I didn’t suffer any urethra pain they was just tiny little ulcers that hardly formed properly And was quite manageable abit of time later I started to feel constant burning in the urethra and just constant unsettlement like I can feel my bladder or a constant feeling of needing the toilet . And this has carried on for a couple years now . Iv Tryed loads of different anti virals mostly using valacyclovir acyclovir and a topical that I found on the herpes website
I Havnt constant foamy bubbley dark urine and when looking in the tip of the urethra it’s like a white shiny liquid/discharge and looks like it’s swollen the top of the urethra so all sides of the tube are touching it doesn’t seems the sores ever fully develop and they are very tiny the ones around the forskin
Is this hsv2 effecting my urethra and causing me constant inflammation and constant discomfort ??
Why has this only eased of at times but the feeling is there ?? Are my outbreaks that frequents that’s why it feels they Havnt gone down ??
And if it hsv2 effecting the uretha how do I stop or calm this pain ?!
Any help would be appreciated Thankyou inbox is open any information on symptoms drop messege
submitted by Warm-Copy799 to Herpes [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:42 zach_link512 [For Sale] RSD, VMP, Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews Band, Flatbush Zombies, Vince Staples, Ice Cube, DJ Critical Hype and plenty more! PRICE$ UNDER DISCOGS

Grading Rubric:
* ***PLEASE PM ME ALL OFFERS. I WILL NOT RESPOND TO ANY OFFERS WITHIN THE COMMENTS**\*
Singles
submitted by zach_link512 to VinylCollectors [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:40 Dicerson1 Air Hard - Part 1

The strange creature draws its weapon, and every Florb in the room freezes. We've all seen just what this terrifying device is capable of firsthand when it used it to slay the Grobulan pirates who had boarded our vessel. It was a massacre, their screams still echo in my mind. I could do nought but watch in bloodied horror as their bodies simply detonated in a shower of blue fluid. And the noise... the horrible horrible noise. One would expect a weapon of such terrifying power to be matched by an equally powerful roar, but this one's report is far more fluidchilling. Almost silent, except for a high pitched whine as its motors spin to unfathomable speeds within fractions of a second- delivering its lethal payload at a fraction the speed of sound itself yet despite this, the projectile is almost entirely silent. At least until impact. Never did I think a soft 'plink' could instill such fear within me. But when it is accompanied by such death... how could it not? And the plink was only when it missed and struck a nearby object instead! I dare not describe the noise of a direct hit, suffice to say it is the stuff of nightmare.
At the least, it certainly appears fearsome. Ergonomically designed, seeming to my eyes to be tailored to the creature's unique physical composition. One end is flaired into a flat shape which it braces against what it has informed me during my earlier medical operation to be its 'shoulder'. No doubt to handle the certainly vicious recoil such a mortifying tool must produce- though it gives no physical signs of such recoil during firing, I can only assume its physical strength must be beyond measure. The main body of the weapon is as black as the void, which makes its surface difficult for my eyes to truly discern- not that I believe my mind could handle whatever arcane horrors must make up its mechanical composition. What is all too easy to see, however, is the other end of it. Bright orange, as the surface of a lower main sequence star- appropriate, given its sheer power. One could liken it to the force of a star itself, and though such a likening would yet be metaphorical I could think of a few who may yet truly believe it if they bore witness to its effect.
"Take me back. Now." The room's translator intoned with mechanical apathy. It was a rushed job, and certainly imperfect- intonations and inflections are always the most difficult thing to encode into a translator so sometimes when a new one pops up it doesn't know what to do with it and just goes flat. This is the first time it's used this particular tone, but we all knew exactly what it intended, given that it now points the weapon of our salvation against us. As the captain pleaded with it to reconsider her offer, I thought back to how this mess began...
I am aboard the FLB Bright Future. An exploratory vessel plying the deepest reaches of unexplored space on a mission to discover valid hyperlane anchor points. Ours is a most vital task, for without the anchors, travel on the scale necessary to support intragalactic infrastructure was simply impossible. And without such infrastructure, new sources of valuable chemical resources could not be tapped to support the growth of the Florbus Combine. It is a long mission, as traveling without a hyperlane is a task of many years even with the most powerful warp engine. Folding spacetime from within the bubble is a monumental and extremely energy intensive task, which is why we need the anchors. With an exorbitantly large external structure, a self-stable bubble can be formed with relative ease around other objects, and from there a smaller engine can focus instead on pushing it- though the bubble will break on its own eventually, which limits how far a given vessel can travel, and cannot be broken from within; thus necessitating a different anchor at the destination. Further still spacetime bubbles of any sort are extremely sensitive to gravitational forces, which makes sense of course as gravity is essentially a fluctuation within spacetime itself. Thus, the 'hyperlane' was born. Areas of the galaxy where such fluctuations are either weak enough to be ignored, or predictable enough to be utilized for ever faster travel.
And so, the task of exploratory vessels such as the Bright Future is twofold. To ply the depths of unexplored space, analyzing the gravitational patterns and identifying prime locations for Hyperlane anchors. Far enough away from the next nearest to be cost effective, as simply building an anchor in every single star system is out of the question, but close enough to minimize the risks of unwary vessels overestimating their distance and ending up trapped in the depths of the void. Though most vessels do have a warp engine, most commercial organizations rely upon the anchors so greatly that such engines are often only barely strong enough to guide a bubble formed by an anchor. It is rare for a non-specialized vessel to be capable of self-bubbled travel, especially since such an engine is often extremely expensive to fabricate and to power. Nearly 90% of the Bright Future's fusion drive is dedicated to the task, necessitating minimal life support functions and stasis pods when in use.
I am the lead medical officer of the FLB Bright Future, Plorp Ruffaloo. Yes, yes, hold your awe. I am well aware of the nobility of my name, but I care little for such things. I refuse to ride upon my father's coat-tentacles, which is why I volunteered for such a common position instead of seeking the employment of cutting edge research facilities. Besides, I always felt that the best research is that done outside of a stuffy and controlled laboratory. Science is exploration, of a sort, if one is not adventurous in their pursuit of it than any discovery they make is bound to be pedestrian or extraordinarily slow to achieve. Out here, I get to study the anatomies of new and exciting creatures discovered upon the worlds we encounter. The array of life is truly astonishing.
Which is why I am currently utterly flabbergasted at the sight before me. Never in my days have I encountered a creature so... perplexing. Preliminary examination reveals that it's body is, astoundingly, supported by some kind of rigid internal structure, not unlike the hollow structures inside of Freeanas, that my medical scanning equipment cannot penetrate. However, by my reckoning I would need a vessel-grade device to create rays powerful enough to examine the internal structure of these supports, it is as if the thing is made of some manner of rock or crystal! What on Florbulus could drive such an adaptation? I do understand that the gravity of the world upon which it was discovered is significantly higher than average for life bearing planets, but surely this is too much?
"What could these creatures being doing, to necessitate such internal durability..." I mused to myself. I jumped when Hark Manyfred responded, I had forgotten he was here still, "From what I saw, doc, fighting a war."
My cephalus paled. A war? So then the long-distance scanners were true? This is an intelligent species? I suppose I should have gathered from the relatively obvious artificial accoutrement it came with but, well, I was more focused on the gaping wound in one of its limbs at the time. When lieutenant Manyfred brought the creature in, it appeared to have been struck by some kind of object- a small piece of lead, which was astonishingly almost flattened. For such a material to deform so severely, whatever sent it flying must have been extraordinarily powerful. I struggled greatly to perform surgery, even the creature's flesh seems to be supernaturally durable. I had to make use of a laser cutter typically reserved for cutting through military armor just to create an opening large enough to fit extraction tools through. It took the strength of I and all three of my attending to ply the object free from its form- as it appeared to have been lodged inside one of those very dense supporting structures.
As I recalled this, it all suddenly made sense. A high gravity planet, intelligent, with extremely dense internal structures, and fighting a war. This is a soldier! Heavily augmented with some kind of organic implant. The lead must be... dear gods, a weapon? Fashioned specifically to tear through flesh with ease, if its saw-blade shape is anything to go by. Or perhaps... could the lead have deformed after impact with the structure, rather than having been shaped? If that was the case then its original shape... some kind of pointed volume? Aerodynamic... it was FIRED*? They use lead projectiles as a weapon? I must make a report of this, the captain will want to-*
*"*Ugh... my head..." IT SPEAKS? Actually, wait, that must be the translator. The ship is equipped with embedded translators in each room to save the burden of carrying a computational box on the person, though the fact that its working already must mean...
*"*Dr. Tryn? I take it you have already deciphered their language?" I call over my communication device.
"Yes, Dr. Ruffaloo," Dr. Tryn began, he is the ship's communications officer, a Freeana, and also an expert in xenolinguistics for exactly this situation- first contact, "Once we entered orbit I had discovered that the strange EM waves were, in fact, not due to the local star. But rather artificial constructions! A massive communications network scaling the entire planet, though nowhere beyond it except for what appear to be a handful of very small orbital outpo-"
"Yes, yes, Dr. Tryn. I understand you're excited. But if you truly wish to study their language more, I believe you would have better luck speaking with our guest," I know him too well, and frankly was not eager to handle initial outreach with a patient who had just awoken from such a horrendous wound. I did not need to keep my device on to know that his assistants were plugging their auditory cavities to protect themselves from his excited shrill.
In barely 2 minutes, Dr. Tryn burst through the doorway in an exhausted huff. Thankfully the patient didn't seem to take notice of where exactly it was just yet, its oculars have yet to unshield themselves. I prepared to greet my colleague but he seemed disinterested in me, as I should expect.
"Arghcke Thee Awoken?" I heard, which caused me to realize that I was actually awake and not at home in bed. Fuck. I've gotta get up, that asshole could still be- "OW!" Shit, the gunshot, I must-
Where the hell am I. I'm pretty sure I was just at an airsoft field, in the middle of a match when some psycho brought his dad's real fucking gun instead. Bastard even painted the damned thing's barrel and made sure to hide it. What the fuck was he thinking? But right now I'm looking at... a... what the hell is it? It looks like a cross between a fish and a bird. It's got feathers, and what looks like a beak. But then its shiny, and has big 'ol fish eyes and weird looking neck-gill thingies, like Abraham from Hellboy. Next to it is.. an Octopus? But its huge*, like three times the size of a person. And also wearing a doctor's outfit. What the actual-*
Ow. I'm reminded that I was just shot in the leg. Even the slightest movement hurts like hell, but when I looked down I couldn't see an entry wound. Or any blood for that matter, nor did it feel like I had shards of thigh bone stabbing me from the inside. It was just... really sore.
*"*Me Cogitates Its Wakefulness, Medical Officer Tryn," The Octopus spoke. It spoke. Holy shit these are aliens. Holy shit. Fuck. Uh, oh no? Oh yes? I don't know, actually. I mean, they don't seem like the 'take me to your leader and prepare for anal probing' type... They apparently even bothered to fix my leg and, presumably, save me from that gun toting maniac. Looking around I see they even brought my stuff with me, though it's locked up in some kind of transparent locker. Not that an airsoft M4 would be particularly useful against an advanced alien species. Their words are weird, but the fact that I can hear anything even remotely coherent means they have some kind of translation thingy going on. Though either its really bad or they do just have a strange manner of speaking. Is... no way is this actually first contact? That would explain the crappy translation, at least, it would mean they've had hardly any time at all to decipher my language. I should try...
"Uh, yes? I am awake. Uh, hi?" I make my best attempt at a greeting, but they all jump back when I raise my hand in a lazy wave. Oh yeah, first contact, shit. Can't make any sudden movements, in fact they probably- OH JESUS THAT'S A SHARK. YEP. THAT IS A GOD DAMN SHARK PERSON RIGHT THERE.
Ohkay. Ohkay. Calm down. Aliens. Yes. Just aliens, maybe its a nice shark person? Maybe he's a doctor- no. He's definitely got some kind of weapon. Vaguely gun shaped, but strangely very round like a banana. But with a lightshow on the side of it. A laser maybe? Anyways, yes, he must be the guard. Makes sense. New species, no clue what they're capable of. Far as they know I got retractable claws or acid spit or something. No sudden moves, or King Shark over there might rip me in half or... distingrate me with that fancy gun, I guess.
The bird-fish, I think the Octopus called it Medical Officer Tryn? But the Octopus is the one wearing the outfit... ohhh bad translation, right. Medical Officer is probably an attempt to translate Doctor? Which means the bird-fish is a Doctor, but not necessarily a medical one. Or maybe he is and doctor's just dress like that and the Octopus back there is a nurse or something. Anyways, the Doctor seemed to fiddle with something in the wall, and then spoke again, "There, that should be better. I always forget to account for the more common bands. Now, I would ask if you are awake again, but I think that much is obvious. Greetings! I am Doctor Ooliueaette Trynishidianafore. But my colleagues often refer to me a Dr. Tryn, I am the communications officer. This is Doctor Plorp Ruffaloo our shipboard medical professional, and the one behind you is lieutenant Hark Manyfred, the on who retrieved you from your endangered state. We are currently aboard the FLB Bright Future, which is a spacefaring exploratory vessel under the command of the Florbus Combine. I hope you do not mind, but I took the liberty of exploring the rudimentary communications systems of your world, and discovered quite the interesting stock of conceptual fictions! I've not yet poured through them all, but I believe you are well familiar with most civilized structural concepts."
The bird-fi, er, Dr. Tryn seemed... happy? I couldn't be too sure, whatever is doing the translation appears to be attempting to mimic tone and inflections but, well, I guess its still a bit too new at this. In any case, I think the doctor here is excited. Also the Shark guy is the one that saved me? Cool. Wait, he said he looked through our 'rudimentary communications systems'? Oh dear god no, he's seen the internet. This could be bad.
"Listen, uh, what you saw on the internet, just know that it alot of, uh, well not really true stuff. I mean, its not the best image of humanity-" I began, when the doctor interrupted me
"Oh! Don't worry too much! As I said I've yet to pour through most of what I recovered, and when I performed my initial sweep I had yet to fully flesh out the translations. Currently I only have saved information related to a few keywords. This isn't my first first contact, you know! I'm well aware of how.. shall we say, odd some species' public communications networks can be. To protect myself from whatever horrors may have been conjured by nascent- what did you say, humanity? I was very conservative in my retrievals. In any case, there will always be time later to do a more thorough exploration when sufficient context has been gained."
Oh thank god. I raised a hand to my chest, only to notice that it was incredibly easy. Far too easy, in fact. As if I weighed almost nothing...
Oh day! What a joyous day! First contact! It has been so many years since the last one, I had begun to lose hope that I would see another in what time I have left. I could not help but sing a joyous song on the way, though for the sake of our new guest I had to restrain myself before entering. There is no telling if they are sensitive to sound, I would not want to accidentally deafen a brand new species! I am so very pleased to know that the translation is working correctly, it won't be long before it's heard every possible phoneme and intonation. Perhaps in just a few days we'll be able to converse as if we shared the same native tongue!
Not to mention, they are remarkably calm! Normally first contact can be a rather hectic affair, filled with songs of fear or anger. But not this one! It seems I was correct in my observation that his people have long since theorized spaceflight, and even the possibility of alien species. I was afraid for a moment that the fictions I'd discovered were obscure resources known to only a few, or perhaps they are and he is one of those few. In any case, this is looking to be a very smooth first contact! Those are the best, as it gives me the greatest amount of time to converse for the sake of improving the translator and truly exploring the depths of their culture and history in the most engaging way possible: conversation!
*"*Now! What do your people call you- actually, first, do your people also utilize individual-specific names, or titles?" A beginners question, but an all-too-important one. A great deal of cultural differences can arise from something so seemingly small as the usage of names.
"Ugh, yes, we have names. Mine's Duncan. Duncan Euler, no not that- oh, you... probably wouldn't know who Euler was. Anyways, yeah. That's my name." It spoke, the words did come off a little flat in the translator but I could hear the subtle variations that the translator couldn't overwrite! Wonderful! Their species seems to make use of intonations and inflections, and the name, two names, a first and last. Just like most species, lending further creedence to Metacognitive Binomial theory. I'll have to make a note of that later, for now...
"And what is it you do, Duncan Euler? I mean to say, your profession or trade? For what societal purpose do you serve?" Another quite important question, by knowing the station of the subject we know what their perspective of their own society might be. Naturally you cannot learn all there is to know from a single individual, especially in more fracturous societies where so little as a place of birth can be the difference between ancestral hatred or familial piety.
"I believe he is a soldier, Dr. Tryn," Dr. Ruffaloo spoke up, which does annoy me somewhat. I understand his desire to hasten things stems from his people's general anxiety towards prolonged contact, but seriously! Long, drawn out conversations are the best. He should know how rude he is being!
*Duncan spoke up now, thankfully, "*Actually, no, I-"
BOOM. The entire vessel is suddenly rocked by what sounds like some kind of explosion. I and the others are tossed to a far wall with agonizing force, I feel as several of my hollow bones shatter from the impact. The pain is excrutiating. It cannot end like this! I had too much to live for! I wasn't... done... talking......
----
Fuck. That was loud, and painful. Not really in the "oh no all my bones broke" sort of way, but more like tripping on something and then faceplanting sort of way. Except I fell backwards, into the wall, and although I didn't feel anything break, that doesn't mean nothing did. At the very least I'm gonna have one hell of a bruise on my back. This, at least, confirmed my suspicions. I bounced off that wall like a superball, gravity on this ship is really weak. Walking is going to be a bitch and a half. Though given the explosion I don't think walking is going to be my main worry, what hell is happening?
"HULL BREACH DETECTED," A drone of a voice rang out, must be some kind of ship board AI? "SEALING CABINS. SEAL SUCCESSFUL. REPRESURR-" BOOM. Another explosion, but smaller this time- I was able to catch myself just fine. I look over to where the other are and- oh god. Dr. Tryn is... jesus. Like a bird that flew into a window at full speed. I guess.. I mean he does look like a bird, so I guess he had hollow bones. Which means that first explosion must have... I'm gonna be sick. He seemed so nice, too. Thankfully the Sharkman and the Octopus seemed to have taken that a little better, squishy bodies I guess probably helps with shock absorption.
"INTERNAL BREACH DETECTED. INTRUDERS DETECTED. RED ALERT. RED ALERT. INTRUDERS-"
I get the point, and immediately begin shutting out the AI voice. Of course this happens. Textbook sci-fi. First contact interrupted by some kind of violent enemy. What is it? Soldiers? Don't tell me they came out here as explorers in the middle of some kind of Galactic warzone? No, that doctor seemed far too smart for these aliens to be naive. Must be Pirates, or maybe Mercenaries of some kind. The only question then, is why? What value could an Exploration ship hold for Pirates? Well, stupid question I guess. He also said "under the command of the Florbus Combine". Military ship. Military ships have military weapons. Of course pirates would want something like that if they got a chance, and I guess these ones decided a first-fucking-contact was theirs.
I go for the locker with my stuff, I doubt an airsoft gun is going to be helpful against space-age technology but you never know. Maybe I can use it to make a distracting noise, or maybe they won't be able to tell it isn't a real weapon and I can do some kind of bluff with it. Worst case, it's heavy- real metal. I liked the heft, and I'm sure a pirate's face probably won't. The Octopus and the Sharkman seemed to still be recovering, I guess it hit them a bit harder than I thought. But I didn't have any kind of medical expertise, especially for alien anatomy, so I didn't really bother to check on them. I smashed the glass window of the locker they put my stuff in- wasn't about to bother fiddling with some kind of locking mechanism and risk activating something.
It... didn't hurt? Its not actually glass, just some kind of thick transparent film. Really easy to break through, in fact. Tore like some kind of gel. Eh, whatever. Got my airsoft gun, wielding it as seriously as I could so any pirate that saw me might think its real and think twice before starting a gunfight. I glanced over at the Octopus, I think its name was Dr. Ruffaloo? Funny name. Its color changed, it was a shade of blue before but now its a sort of maroon color. Its.. I think those are its eyes, are locked on me. I guess it saw me get my stuff, was it really that surprising though? It wasn't exactly made of anything- oh dear god.
Light gravity, weak security locker. Someone fucking died from that toss. Is... is this a space orcs thing? Am I some kind of like, monster beast to these people? Noooo, no way. That mother fucker over there is a SHARK for fucks sake and bit like a tank to boot, ain't NO WAY I'm stronger than him. It must not have been a secure locker, I mean what kind of security locker is fucking transparent? Yes, that's it. Doc Oc over there is just scared cuz my little act is a bit too good- he did say he thought I was a soldier, so to him I'm a trained killer getting ready for my morning commute. The fake military fatigues certainly help, I think. I call out to King Shark, er, Hark Manyfred I think his name was?
*"*Hey, Big Guy get up. Alexa up there said we got intruders. I don't know what that disco banana you got does, but if its what I think it is we're gonna have to throw a party for the uninvited guests."
He just groaned, then looked up at me confused. Too much metaphor I guess, translator must've garbled it.
*"*Pick up your weapon and get ready for a fight." I corrected.
He just nodded, and seemed to take a similar stance as mine. Good, glad to know 'lieutenant' wasn't a mistranslation. At least someone here is professionally trained.
-----
I could scarcely believe my oculars. This, 'Duncan' individual just tore through a security locker as if it were made of primitive writing scrap. Not to mention the detonation, he was thrown to the wall as all of us and stood up from it like nothing happened. Even lieutenant Hark was rendered unconscious for a few moments, my brain has no functions for losing consciousness so I was sharply aware of everything that transpired. Dr. Tryn even... he... he may have been an annoying colleague, but he was a good friend. What am I going to tell his mate? I... I have to avoid thinking about it, for now. Right now we have bigger problems. If those intruders were willing to toss the vessel that fiercely, our lives are certainly the least of their concerns. Dr. Tryn was far from the only Freeana on the ship, and there's no telling how much more viscious the impact was in other parts of the vessel.
The creature, or rather, Duncan, spoke something but the Translator failed. That impact must have jumbled it a bit. What it said next, however, was crystal clear- redundant computer must have come online.
"Pick up your weapon and get ready for a fight," It said. So it IS a soldier, I knew it. Then that strange device it holds must be a weapon of some kind. Dear lord... don't tell me it fires lead projectiles like the one I extracted from it? I must warn him, if he fires something like that aboard this ship it could rip a hole to the void, or puncture a vital fuel reserve. The ship has systems for handling such occurences, but they can only do so much- especially if other events have already activated them.
*I began, "*Please! Do not use that weapon aboard this vessel! Such a heavy projectile will surely-"
"Oh, uh, yeah, don't worry about it. It's not real. Just a toy." It said. A toy? So... it isn't a soldier? Oh no... this is not good. That leaves Hark as the only one here capable of defending himself, and if a firefight breaks out in my medical facility it could severely damage the equipment and leave me unable to treat the wounded.
*"*Lieutenant! You must fight outside of this chamber! If any of my equipment is damaged in a fight, it could turn out poorly for us all!" He simply grunts and nods at me. Grobulan fighting instinct must have kicked in already, he cannot speak. It likely takes all of his willpower just to avoid turning on us- but it is precisely his extreme degree of self control that earned him his position upon this vessel, and indeed in the Florban military in general despite his people's reputation. In fact, if my suspicion is correct, Grobulan pirates tend to be very keen on explosive weaponry when it comes to naval combat. For exactly the reason that it turns the insides of any vessel struck into a bloody mess, perfect for activating their instincts and turning them into some of the most terrifying fighters in the galaxy when they inevitably board. And judging from the screams coming from the hallway, I'd say my suspicions are terribly, terribly correct.
We're all going to die.
-End of Part 1-
submitted by Dicerson1 to humansarespaceorcs [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:38 UmpireProud8598 This game is real devilish

After not playing for 2-3 weeks my friends got in my head with their soccer bets. We usually dont share the details but since the season started everyone got a bit excited. After depositing a bit of my crypto saved (since i cant gamble using my id in my country cause i excluded myself).
Got lucky again bringin 300 to 1200 with a couple of hands and insane luck but been trough it a bunch of times and lost it all before. This time i tried to pay closer attention how i am going to lose it all. It was either cash out with 800 in profits and order a pair of shoes i wanted a long time but i think 180 on shoes is a bit much or i will play until i hit 800 and withdraw with 500 to add to my crypto wallet again.
I was going up and down from 850 to 1200 before betting bigger hands in blackjack and big money on the side bets since thats how i got the 800 profit at first. 100-200 dollar hands going up and down until i get good sidebets and decent cards to double, ofcourse i doubled them both and the dealer pulled the first 21.
Angry and annoyed i want to get that (imaginary) 600 i would win if the dealer pulled anything other than 20 or 21. Soo i played 200 again wich i lost and brought me to 800, my supposedly mark to withdraw but since i lost half my profit in 2 hands while it took me an hour to get it i couldn’t withdraw.
Lost 200 and then played to hands of 250 and the dealer pulled another 21. I immediately wanted to deposit 500 dollars so i could potentially get it back to 1100 but then i would again only have 500 profit so i would need 1600 but the first 1100 got hit of extreme luck back to back so i would pull me trough the night and i have to get up real early tomorrow.
So i wrote this instead to clear my mind and thinking back of it i should feel stupid for depositing 300 at first but much more stupid for wanting to add 500 to my loss already. And i know damn well that if i had lost the first 300 i would also want to add so money so as i have said before i my post: the only way to win at ur gambling addiction is to just not gamble, either ur win and its not enough or u lose and u want it back. The only times i have found a little joy with gambling and the profits where does times i had something urgent to do during my win streak. I would withdraw all and spend some immediately ofcourse but 1 or on occasion 2 days later i would always deposit back most of the winnings of yesterday for feeling bored or wanting to win the expenses back. I lost it all and most if the times even more then i had deposited that day.
This game is devilish no matter what ur religion or ur believe is, ask ur self to be a decent human for once and dont indulge in this vice anymore. U already know that no scenario will leave u satisfied or happy for deposit the original bet. I am certain that a lot of people (including me) if given the luck of turning ur money 100 times back, like making 10.000 with 100, will lose it mostly or all in the very same session. Best case scenario u buy a couple of things and will lose it in a week since its probably ur whole financial loss u made at gambling so its not really your own anymore. I would even know how to tell it to someone or put it to good use.
submitted by UmpireProud8598 to GamblingRecovery [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:37 Warm-Copy799 Urethra pain hsv2

Looking for some help or advice :(
Male 31
So I was first diagnosed with hsv2 after having sex with a girl then we met again about 2-3 weeks later and whilst having sex I felt a pain so i checked and it was like two slightly raised red bumps that looked like ulcers . So I went and got a swab test that came back hsv2 Positive
First of all I didn’t suffer any urethra pain they was just tiny little ulcers that hardly formed properly And was quite manageable abit of time later I started to feel constant burning in the urethra and just constant unsettlement like I can feel my bladder or a constant feeling of needing the toilet . And this has carried on for a couple years now . Iv Tryed loads of different anti virals mostly using valacyclovir acyclovir and a topical that I found on the herpes website
I Havnt constant foamy bubbley dark urine and when looking in the tip of the urethra it’s like a white shiny liquid/discharge and looks like it’s swollen the top of the urethra so all sides of the tube are touching it doesn’t seems the sores ever fully develop and they are very tiny the ones around the forskin
Is this hsv2 effecting my urethra and causing me constant inflammation and constant discomfort ??
Why has this only eased of at times but the feeling is there ?? Are my outbreaks that frequents that’s why it feels they Havnt gone down ??
And if it hsv2 effecting the uretha how do I stop or calm this pain ?!
Any help would be appreciated Thankyou inbox is open any information on symptoms drop messege
submitted by Warm-Copy799 to HSVpositive [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:37 wanryavka 36 [M4F] MN/Midwest - Lonely ginger looking for love

Hello there!
I'm Marty, a 36-year-old from the upper Midwest region of the US. I'm here hoping to meet someone who's looking for a committed relationship and interested in starting a family someday, as having kids is something that's important to me.
A little about me:
If you'd like to see some SFW pics, check out my profile.
I'm looking to chat with single women ~28 to 36 from the US who are interested in getting to know each other. Drop me a message with a corny joke, the latest book you read, or just tell me a little about how your day went! I'm very laid back with a sarcastic sense of humor.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
submitted by wanryavka to r4r [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:36 drshizz23 Falsely Banned

I just got banned on the last mission of final shape with 1.2K hours on steam. Im not sure why ive been banned I have never cheated in any game EVER I've also never been toxic with anyone. The only thing i can think of that could have possibly triggered anti cheat is runelite in the back round or vanguard anti cheat and battle eye anti cheat conflicting.
PLEASE HELP
submitted by drshizz23 to destiny2 [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:34 DefiantRate2852 Foot drop toe pain

I woke up this morning, got up to use the restroom and fell over due to numb foot. I was able to get back up and walk on it right after. it felt like pins and needles with blood flow returning to foot. Night before my big toe on same foot had a weird random pain from the tip to my bunion. (No redness or swelling) I went to ER just to get checked out. Had mri (w/o contast) the dr said he didn’t see anything to cause concern, but when you google “foot drop” a lot of scary “MS” or “ALS” articles pop up. I guess I’m just loooking for some peace of mind
submitted by DefiantRate2852 to u/DefiantRate2852 [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:33 KingdomOfNerdz [M4F] Eye of Oblivion (an Elder Scrolls roleplay)

Disclaimer: I am 18+ and all participants must be 18+. NO exceptions!
14 of Rain's Head, Year 159 5E
It has been long since the Last Dragonborn defeated Alduin. Skyrim and her people live without fear of the dragon menace, and any dragons that remain live in seclusion on top of the mountains. The worship of Talos had been legalized and Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak has long since joined the great feasting in Sovngarde, but the Stormcloaks still live on, with many still wearing their colors. The Empire has given up any hope of regaining Skyrim, though the Aldmeri Dominion still claim they will take the country back one day.
Windhelm is now being governed by Ulfric's descendant, Tarren Stormcloak. He governs the city with ideals not dislike his great ancestor, but for the sake of not being overthrown, he publicly displays more than just tolerance for those who aren't Nords. The Gray Quarters are more spacious now, and many families of Dunmer residing there. Tarren is viewed as a better Ulfric in many regards, though it is merely a facade.
Skyrim was finally at peace... for a time.
Tarren had just retired to his bed, exhausted from a long day in which he helped his people and hunted. With a quick clap of his hands, he summoned his chamber maid, a beautiful woman whom he did not know the race of. It mattered little to him, as he must show "love" to all the people of Skyrim, not just the Nords. He gently caressed her cheek as she came to bed with him, a loving gesture that one would expect from a husband to his wife, not a Jarl to his servant. In truth, he cared little for this woman, viewing her as little more than someone to have fun with. Of course, he knew better than to come out an say it.
He began to pull her in closer, intending to savor a kiss before indulging in love, when a scream could be heard from outside. Said scream was followed by several more, then the shattering of plates and breaking of wood. The young Jarl's concern grew, and he began to raise from the bed. "Stay here," he instructed as he left the bed to approach the door.
The young woman watched her Jarl from the bed, confusion and worry on her face. The anticipation grew with each passing second until the door itself jumped at him, nearly being broken open. Immediately, Tarren ran back to the bed, grabbing the chamber maid by the arm and pulling her off the bed. He hurriedly pushed her into the large closet and closed the door most of the way. "Stay in here," he commanded, looking into the woman's eyes through the cracked door, "and don't come out until I come for you!"
Just as the Jarl closed the door, the woman could hear the bedroom door burst open. "Foul creature!" Tarren growled as the unsheathing of a sword could be heard. "I'll send you back to Obliv-"
The Jarl's words were cut off, and all that could be heard was the sound of a blade gliding through flesh. A thud was next heard, along with footsteps, as the young woman cowered into the corner of the closet. What sounded like sniffing could be heard a moment later, then a voice spoke, but it was not Tarren Stormcloak. The voice sounded distorted, foreign, evil. "Another, in there," it said, getting closer with every syllable. The door began to creek open, and the young woman closed her eyes tight.
"FUS-RO-DAH!!!"
The ancient words of the dragon's tongue echoed in the bed slave's ears, followed by the sound of glass shattering and the yells of whatever spoke first. A mere moment later, the door swung open to show a different man with a broad chest, sword in hand. He was older than the Jarl, likely in his forties. His long blonde hair, which covered the left side of his face, had a few grey hair, and his crystal blue eye showed wisdom. His physique was more chiseled than the Jarl's as well, covered by a red shirt with chain mail underneath. His trousers were black, but spots of blood could easily be seen. On his feet were boots made of what seemed to be bones, and from displays she'd seen as a girl, the young woman could tell the bones were from a Dragon.
Without a word, the man grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, looking her in the eye with a look of intense focus and seriousness. "If you want to stay alive, woman, you'll stay close to me!"
 *
So that was a really long intro.
Hey! So, this is an idea I've had for about a month now, and I was originally just gonna make it a fanfiction or something, but I decided to make this a roleplay idea. As you may have guessed, this will be a Skyrim based roleplay, taking place long after the Last Dragonborn defeated Alduin. Many aspects of the world are the same, but with new people and much more danger. The basic gist is that Jyggalag, the Daedric Prince of Order and Logic, has regained much of his power and has decided to attempt to do what Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon failed to do: enter and take over Tamriel. And it is up to two heros to gain the Artifacts of the other Daedric Princes to stop him!
As you may have guessed, I'd like for your character to be a former chamber maid, or just a regular servant if you want, of the current Jarl of Windhelm. He race, Backstory and powers are up to you. My character is a Nord who trained with the Grey Beards for twenty years to master the Way of the Voice. He's an excellent fighter and archer, but is hopeless in the fields of magic. We can discuss characters further in the DMs.
I usually roleplay on Kik, but for longer, more detailed plots like this, I prefer to use Discord. Feel free to message me on whichever you prefer.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Kik: bartender365 Discord: gamertagtony#7699
submitted by KingdomOfNerdz to roleplaying [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:32 lonelygem Brand new relationship and anxiety every day

In my life I've had several brief, tumultuous, and unhealthy relationships/situationships but no long term stable ones. I have been in a relationship officially for less than 1 week. While we are together everything is great but when he is not here and not actively texting me I become anxious that he is going to ghost me or end things. He isn't allowed to text at work unless he's on break. I also under normal circumstances hate texting and don't actually really want to be texting back and forth all day long with anyone.
This has been happening every day. While he is here he talks about the future (like the next few weeks/months) like I will be around for it and he agreed to bring me to a doctor's appointment next week so I don't think he is imminently planning to break up with me but I don't know. On our first date he asked me to promise I wouldn't ghost him and I told him I wouldn't, I'd tell him why if it wasn't going to work out, and he promised the same. Last night when we were saying goodbye he was very affectionate until I asked if I could stay at his house tomorrow. He said yes but seemed more subdued after that, but it could have been that he was just tired and trying to leave. He could have said no to that question I wasn't trying to force him to let me stay there I just thought it'd be nice.
Then this morning I sent him a few texts about my doctor's appointment and he was giving one word answers. He said he was sleepy so I suggested we could talk later on his break which should have been nearly 2 hours ago. Nothing from him. I sent him some snapchats of bread I was baking. I'm so anxious right now.
And as I'm typing this he literally sends me a snap smiling and saying he's glad I'm having fun making bread but you know the point stands. This happened yesterday and the day before and the day before that.
I am hoping that as we get past the 2-6 weeks mark my other relationships failed I will feel like this less. Should I be open with him about my anxiety even though we just got together or is it going to drive him off? I told him about some of my other mental health issues and he isn't gone yet but I'm worried asking for reassurance constantly will make him feel smothered and probably doesn't help the anxiety in the end anyway. Should I just use coping skills at home by myself/talk to my therapist next week instead? And if anyone looks at my post history this is not the guy I was posting about in the limerence sub this is a new guy who is so much more emotionally available. It doesn't feel like limerence because this guy seems just as into me as I am into him, we moved pretty fast but it seems to be working for us? But the anxiety is driving me nuts anyway
submitted by lonelygem to relationshipanxiety [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:32 defidefi [WTS] Aventus, DHP, Back to Black, Intoxicated, Hacivat X, 40 Knots, PdM, BR540 EDP, Nishane, Le Labo, YSL Tuxedo, Designers & More! (Decant)

*If you are on mobile, scroll to the right for prices**
Pictures of some of the bottles & atomizers.https://imgur.com/a/WQAUpoq
Frag 3ml 5ml 10ml
Amouage Reflection Man $8.50 $12 $21
Armani Code Absolu $4 $6 $10
Armani Code Parfum $6.50 $9.50 $15
Creed Aventus F000212 $10.5 $14 $25
Chanel Allure Homme Sport Eau Extreme $6.50 $9.50 $15
Dior Homme $11 $15 $28
Electimuss Imperium $8.5 $12 $21
Guerlain L'Homme Ideal EDT $4 $6 $10
Guerlain L'Homme Ideal Extreme $6 $8.50 $14
Kilian Back to Black $11 $15 $28
Kilian Intoxicated $11 $15 $28
Le Labo Another 13 $11 $15 $28
Le Labo Lavande 31 $11 $15 $28
Le Labo Rose 31 $11 $15 $28
Le Labo Santal 33 $11 $15 $28
Mancera Cedrat Boise $4 $6 $10
Mancera Red Tobacco $6 $8.50 $14
Maison Francis Kurkdjian BR540 EDP $11.50 $15.50 $29
MM Replica Jazz Club $7 $9 $15
MM Replica Matcha Meditation $7 $9 $15
Montblanc Explorer $4 $6 $10
Nishane Ani $9.50 $13 $23
Nishane Hacivat $9.50 $13 $23
Nishane Hacivat X $10.50 $14 $25
Nishane Wulong Cha $9.50 $13 $23
Parfums de Marly Carlisle $10 $13.5 $24
Parfums de Marly Greenley $8.50 $12 $21
Parfums de Marly Haltane $10.50 $14.50 $26
Parfums de Marly Layton $8.50 $12 $21
Parfums de Marly Layton Exclusif $10 $13.5 $24
Parfums de Marly Percival $8.50 $12 $21
Roja Dove Creation-E / Enigma Parfum Cologne $12 $16 $28
Tom Ford Beau De Jour $8.50 $11 $19
Tom Ford Oud Wood $10.50 $14 $25
Xerjoff 40 Knots $10.50 $14.50 $26
YSL Tuxedo $10.50 $14.50 $26
30ml Glass Atomizer Shipped:
Creed Aventus $80
Le Labo (if in stock) $85
Nishane Ani/Hacivat/Wulong Cha $72
MFK BR540 EDP $86
submitted by defidefi to fragranceswap [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 22:32 HumanSizedOwls Fairly new here and I have questions

Fairly new here and I have questions
  • How do you go back to a location you’ve visited to continue you’re exploring? For example I’ve only explored 18% of finchie forest.
  • My finch says it’s feeling curious with question marks next to it, am I suppose to do something about that???
  • Kinda confused on the friends part of the app, (here’s my code tho cuz I still like friends 1YY9FYMMQ7) I like that you can’t send people custom messages, things could get weird otherwise, but when will my friend leave my room? Lol, I invited her to stay but I’m feeling anxious on how to get rid of her…
submitted by HumanSizedOwls to finch [link] [comments]

http://activeproperty.pl/