"The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic." -G.K. Chesterton
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The moon setting in the west marked the end of another day for the folk in the city of Duskwall, and Monty was glad to be out on one of his evening walks.
He had all he needed for such an activity; the discreetly-armored clothes on his back, the trusty knife and pistol on his belt, and the wits in his head. His walk took him from the industrial district of Coalridge where machines belched smoke and noise and workers labored to keep the Imperium's production needs met, to the many-hued vice dens of Silkshore where any imaginable vice or illicit product could be found if one knew how to look and who to ask. From the views of the Spark Wall that kept out the legions of ghosts from the Deathlands, to the park that was lit with trees than glowed with light both eerie and comforting. He saw many people on his wanderings that night; a Bluecoat patrol he had narrowly escaped, a thief he knew well and claimed several favors from, a crew of Railjacks that had helped him with smuggling operations on the trains in days not long past, and many others, for he was a well-connected man with a finger in many pies and an ear to many grounds.
As he wandered, he thought, for he found it claiming and focusing to walk through the city, following no path and pursuing no errand. The Crows had collapsed, following one daring heist too many, and had cast the Crow's Foot, the city's most crime-ridden district, into war as the scavengers convened to pick up the pieces and fill the power vacuum. The Crows had been the uncrowned kings and queens of the city's underworld, which meant in the end that they fell with the force of a dying leviathan, tearing asunder the web of grudges and favors they had woven and throwing the city's underworld into chaos.
Monty knew he had a responsibility to his own crew, and he intended to make something of them out of all this. They had been getting by, starting from the bottom, subsisting on the crumbs and scraps that fell their way when the big players were done with the feast of the day. But with the old powers fallen, the field had been leveled and untold hordes of wealth and power were up for grabs. Monty planned to see that his crew prospered, for they were his friends, his comrades, his dear confidants for whom he would match through fire and lay down life and limb.
As the night grew from young to full, Monty had gotten his thoughts in order, and walked back to his crew's lair. It wasn't much, but it serves them well enough, and if Monty had his way, it would be expanded before the year was out. He stopped to get some chicken and greens, wanting to treat the crew with something more than simple eel pie and rice portage. When he got to the crew's lair, he gladly took up his role as the cook, and began making dinner, chatting all the while and enjoying the company of friends.
When dinner was served, goat cheesecake was in the oven, and beer was being poured, Monty looked at all the crew with his trademark grin; the one that said he had a plan and something very worth noting was about to happen.
"Boys and girls, Crow's Foot's gone to shit and back, things are starting to heat up all across the city, and if you're all with me, we're gonna use all that to take our place as top dogs and be living like kings by this time next year."
He leaned back in his seat, and raised a glass of Skovland beer that tasted like mulling spices and the far-off promise of victory."
"But first, a toast, to the beginning of something big."
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Hi there! Thanks for reading :D
I find myself driven, as of late, to indulge my love for the Blades in the Dark TTRPG and for written roleplay, so why not do both at the same time? Two good things at the same time are usually guaranteed to be even more gooder, except well-mixed drinks and life-saving surgery, but my point stands in general.
I'd like to do a story of a small, low-down criminal gang rising in the ranks of the underworld in the Victorian, gothic-steampunk/dieselpunk, occultish city of Duskwall. The setting is rich and there's a lot of detail to go into, so it's impossible to give a truly comprehensive pitch while keeping it simple, but if I had to summarize this setting in three sentences, it would be as follows:
"The sun vanished from the sky a thousand years ago, alongside the Gates of Death shattering and allowing ghosts and occult magic into the world. The city is a mashup of London, Paris, and Venice, in roughly Victorian times with a hefty helping of steampunk/dieselpunk/electropunk technology al-la Dishonored meets The Order 1886. The city is home to a lot of criminals, with a thriving, complex underworld that has recently been thrown into chaos due to the toppling of its most powerful gang, and in which our characters will take part."
If that setting intrigues you, then I'd be happy to explain more! Also, no knowledge of the setting is needed, I plan to play a character in the gang who is knowledgeable about the setting and its people so I can be a guide both in the story and out. My basic plan is that we'd each plan a few characters in the gang, as well as create the gang itself together.
If anyone is curious, I'm male, 24 years of age, and from the EST time zone. I've been roleplaying for about half my life and playing Shadowrun for 6 or 7 years, so while I'm not a grandmaster of either, I think I know enough about both to create an awesome story with someone who wants to work with me. I'd be happy to send a writing sample to anyone who wants to verify that for themselves. I can usually crack off at least a few posts a week; I try to go for one or more a day as much as I can, with moderate success since my job is taxing and I sometimes don't have the energy to write much. But I'll always do my best to keep up, since this is one of my favorite hobbies and I love this setting a hell of a lot. I can generally put two or three good-sized paragraphs in my post, sometimes more depending on what's going on. I'd also like my partner to be interested in planning out the story from the start, since this is your story too if you decide to play it out with me.
I'd ideally like somebody who can match my average of 2 or 3 paragraphs, who is 20 or over, who writes in 3rd person, and who communicates openly; otherwise, I'm open to writing with anybody I vibe with, :). Come one come all; if you're interested in this prompt (and please include the word "Machiavellian" in your message to let me know you read it all), then I'm interested in talking more with you about it. I can't address every detail or question someone might have in this post, so if you have any questions or comments, PM me here and I'll be glad to answer them.
I hope to hear from you soon! :D

Part 51
At sunset on the third day, we set up camp on a tall ridge overlooking the city. As the sun was still low in the sky, I looked out over the glittering ruins. We had appeared right around the center of it, and it was about a day's walk from there to the edges in any direction.
We were west of the city. To the east, the skyline got lower and lower and the buildings further apart until it turned into a rotting, sprawling suburb. To the north, it ended at a large lake whose wooded far shore was visible about thirty miles distant. The water around the docks was speckled with the rusted remains of sunken ships, parts protruding above the surface. At the southern edge, the mess of tall skyscrapers gave way to a band of low, sprawling industrial buildings that wedged up to a cliff face.
Forty miles in diameter, or thereabouts. A forty mile diameter mass of towering skyscrapers, crumbling and rotting away. Glass still occupied many of the windows, glittering like stars as they reflected the setting sun behind us.
The narrowest point was half again as wide as the longest distance through New York City. And that wasn't counting the suburbs or industrial sector. And it was much taller. The tallest building still standing was, according to the marks on my rangefingers, about twenty-five hundred feet tall. And I suspected that it wasn't the tallest building originally. The piles of rubble around the bases of some of the runners-up were significant. And there were a lot of runners-up.
I did some math in my head. Assuming twenty-five percent more population density, owing to the taller buildings, taking into consideration the size of it, there had to be upwards of forty million people living there. A little larger than Tokyo, I thought. Plus another two or three million in the suburbs. Which was impressive, to be sure. What was more impressive was the similarly-sized cities, peeking above the mountains to the south, behind the low, wooded hills on the other side of the lake, and behind us. I hadn't gotten a good look at the city behind us, but it seemed to be about twice the size of this one.
Just within eyesight of the hill I stood on, peering around, I could see the former homes of somewhere around two hundred million people. Half the population of the US. That was the impressive part.
Footsteps behind me announced Avarisa's approach.
"Camp's set," she said. "What are you looking for?"
I shook my head slowly. "Nothing in particular. Just surveying the area. How many people lived here?"
"Um," she said, rubbing her chin. "In this world, I think seventeen billion, just before the war. Kvenland had a total population of six billion. Norumland had eight billion, but it was much larger."
"So most of the population lived in only two nations?" Avarisa nodded. "There were seventy three nations in total, but Kvenland and Norumland dominated this world."
"And they're all dead," I said.
"Not all of them," Avarisa said. "I read about several trips other gods had taken here. There's a few thousands transplants, mostly from Earth, but also survivors of some of the other worlds. They're on the other side of this planet, though. There's another populated region, about seven hundred miles to the south. There's maybe three hundred thousand, scattered over an area of about two hundred and fifty thousand square miles. Then some scattered pockets, a few hundred to a few thousand all over the place. About two or three million."
"That's a lot of dead people," I said. "Dead in a war that wasn't even theirs to fight." Avarisa looked like she might want to object to that, but she didn't say anything.
I heard more footsteps. I glanced back, expecting Kathy, but instead, I saw Spectre approaching. She was in a physical body, not the usual apparition. With a real body, she actually had some color in her cheeks and some life in her eyes. It made her look younger, around Aaina's age.
"Kathy wants to know if you want beef ravioli or chicken and pasta in vodka sauce."
"Ravioli," both Avarisa and I said at the same time. She met my eyes and smiled briefly. The raviolis were the best of the camp foods we'd brought.
Instead of heading back with her answer, she walked up to stand next to us. Her torn, rotted dress fluttered in the breeze, the stained white fabric a stark contrast to the jet black hair that flowed around above it.
"It's about a day's walk from where we came through to any edge of the city," she said. "So Ixy should be around the edge, right?"
"That's assuming he's in this world," Avarisa said. "There's hundreds of portals in the city proper that lead to other worlds, if you have the magic to open them."
"He's got to be in the Sixteenth World," I said.
"Why do you say that?" Avarisa asked.
"Because that's how this works," I said. "We're here on information from Fulla. She gives her secrets out as clues that we have to follow to get the answers we really want. And when you look at her, magically, while she's doing this, you can see that the way she puts her messages together is very similar to the way an oracle's visions congeal. Which means that it's a probabilistic clue with a narrative structure."
"I don't get it," Spectre said.
Avarisa did. She answered for me. "Most of the portals are to the Sixteenth World. And the Sixteenth World is a giant mystery, which is right up Fulla's alley."
I made a so-so gesture. She was right, but for one of the wrong reasons. Magical thinking was so very different from the rational, critical thought I'd spent so much time and effort developing in school, but it was quite useful at times. And though it still felt a little weird to engage in it, I'd learned to turn in on at times. Avarisa was, like Sarisa, a very rational thinker.
"You're right about the number of portals, but wrong about it being up Fulla's alley," I said.
She gave me a skeptical look. "It's not that Fulla likes mysteries, but that it's a mystery that I only learned about as a result of following her clues."
"Ahhh," she said. "Narrative. As opposed to thematic, which was what I said." I nodded. "And you're sure it's the one, and not both," she continued, making me look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Themes matter, Jerry," she said with a self-satisfied smirk. I shrugged. "Fair enough," I said. She was probably right, which was something I should bear in mind.
I looked back at the city in front of us, then pulled out the map we'd found. It was on a plastic-like material, thin and foldable like paper. Avarisa had been the one to find it, and after playing with it a while, she'd figured it out. It was tech, not a simple printout. Pinching the creases flattened them out, then squeezing the outermost of four small circles at the bottom left made the light-grey sheet fill with a diagram of the city below. I squeezed the third circle, then handed the sheet to Avarisa.
"Mark all the portals you know about that lead to the Sixteenth World," I said. She took it, and began to press the tip of her finger to different spots, marking them with a red dot.
"I don't know all of them, but like you said, it's almost certainly going to be one of the ones I do know."
I waited for her to mark about a dozen spots, then draw a circle around one near the far end of the city.
"I think this is the most likely one," she said.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"It leads to a place where..." She trailed off, her face flashing through a pained expression and back to a neutral mask.
"What's wrong?" I asked. I tried to fill my voice with the usual levels of concern it would have when asking that question in response to that look, but like everything else I've said in the past few weeks, it came out cold and harsh. I couldn't even work myself into being upset about that, so I just waited for her to answer.
"Sarisa... I told you that she gave me memories of our time together, until you met Inanna," she said, speaking slowly as if this was a grave admission.
"I made it sound like those were the only memories I had, but she... She gave me others, including one in which I accompanied Tientus to the Sixteenth World, mere days after what calamity befell it. This portal leads to the place where we first appeared on that trip."
I nodded and looked at the map. "That will be more than a day's walk. We should probably fly. I don't want to camp in those ruins again."
The previous night, we'd camped in the city, as we had the night before. Only this time, we were attacked. A pack of unusual, canine animals had come sniffing around, likely drawn by the scent of our dinner. Magical alarms woke Kathy and I as they entered our small camp, and when we emerged from the tent to investigate, they animals attacked. We were forced to kill three of them before the others fled.
Of course, that wasn't what made the choice for us. Instead, as the seven or eight remaining animals fled into the night, we'd heard a roar, followed by more of the same yelping and growling we'd heard as we fought them off. It didn't last long. The ensuing crunching sound was very reminiscent of Ixy, but when I'd put in the buttplug and flown off to check, I'd found a rancor, instead.
Yes, like the rancor from Star Wars. The resemblance was shocking. a bipedal animal with short, stubby legs, a powerful upper body, long arms with clawed hands and an enormous, forward-thrusting head with massive, fanged jaws. The only way in which it differed was the brown-and-gray coat of fur the thing wore. The coat was thick and full, reminding me of a bear's fur. It also blended in with the surroundings quite well.
I returned and we shifted our camp to the base of a large satellite dish on top of a thirty-story building that looked less likely to collapse than others nearby. This morning, I'd examined the dog-like creatures.
They reminded me of a thylacine. They had stripes on the back ends of their backs. Their rear legs had the same short thighs and long, thick calves as thylacines, and like the rancor, they had thickly muscled forelimbs and chests. During the brief fight, we had seen them open their jaws almost ninety degrees, a sight which is uniquely unsettling, even though they didn't pose much of a challenge to us. They had the same smooth, almost cat-like faces, narrow muzzles and distinctly dog-like noses as a thylacine, with subtle cranial ridges.
I'd seen videos of thylacines moving about, and read descriptions. One thing I recalled was that they were not particularly fast nor agile, a feature that clearly did not apply to the animals we'd fought off. They had moved lightning fast and struck like snakes, snapping bites and slinking away.
In any event, we had decided that since the ruins were the homes of several dangerous predator species, it would be best to to move outside of the city. With the map Avarisa had found, we could plan our forays better, in any event.
"I can't fly," Avarisa said. I turned to her, a look of disbelief on my face. "Kathy can fly, and she's about the least talented flyer of all of us."
"I'm going to tell her you said that," Spectre said with a little smile. I tried to smile back, really, I did. But my lips didn't twitch. "She knows. She's possessed of enough talent in other areas that she shouldn't be insecure about it."
Spectre's smile faded. She'd been trying for a little levity, which I appreciated, so I put an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.
"I've tried," Avarisa said. "I can't. I can levitate, but once I'm in the air, I can't seem to make myself move around. It feels like I should be able to, but I just can't. I think Sarisa did it. On purpose."
"I could check, with the right circle and tools, but I don't have the tools in hammerspace," I said. "But that can wait. I'll carry you when it's time to fly."
"Won't that slow you down?" she asked. I shrugged. "Not enough to matter. I'll most likely have to stay close to Kathy in any event. We should still be able to make it there before nightfall, tomorrow. We'll leave the camp here, unless we encounter more predators. If we do, we'll bring the camp and set it up on top of one of the buildings again.
Avarisa had assured us that there were no winged predators in this region that would pose any threat if they caught us unaware. I trusted her, because I'd seen the library she had been reading back at the gods' camp. It wasn't the Library of Souls, but it was nonetheless extensive. And I knew she read lightning fast. Like a speed reader, except she absorbed everything she read.
"Come on, I'm getting hungry," Spectre said. All three of us turned and walked down to the small copse, just off the peak of the hill, where we'd made camp. To my surprise, there was a second tent,a small pup tent, on the other side of the fire from the one we'd been sharing until this point. Kathy was busy heating up beef ravioli in a camp pot. She looked up as we approached.
"I found a pup tent buried in hammerspace. Might be a little less crowded in there with just two of you."
I nodded, taking one of the folding seats set around the fire. I produced a pair of plates, with utensils fitted into slots on their underside and handed one to Avarisa as she sat. Spectre made a circuit of the fire, then leaned down to speak quietly to Kathy.
"I'm going to go now," she said. Kathy smiled at her. "Will you tell Lya what we're up to?"
Spectre nodded. "Of course. I'll keep her company. She's working all week and coming home to an empty house."
"She'd appreciate that. I would, too," Kathy said. She kissed Spectre, to my surprise, not on the cheek, but on the lips, and the spirit vanished.
I didn't say anything about the kiss. Just because it surprised me didn't mean it interested me.
After a few minutes, Kathy doled out the food, producing her own plate at last. We ate quickly, washing it down with little plastic barrel-shaped containers of what tasted like watered-down koolaid. I kept several cases of them, pre-chilled, in hammerspace, mostly for my younger children, but.... I wanted them gone. Used up. So we drank them, three or four at a meal. It was tastier than water.
After we ate, the sun had fully set, so I cleaned up, scrubbing the plates with sand and then rinsing them in a stream at the base of the hill, and then we retired to our tents. Avarisa and I in mine, Kathy in her pup tent. I set my magical traps and alarms and then sat there for a bit, Avarisa laying on her side, next to me.
None of us had bathed since we got here. And though it was cold out, we'd been on our feet all day, every day. I could smell myself when I paid attention, and I could feel the grime and sweat built up under my clothes. I had a camp shower in hammerspace, and I sat there and considered whether it was worth retrieving, setting up, and heating up some water for.
"Would you like a shower?" I asked Avarisa after a few minutes. She lifted her head and eyed me.
"Fuck yeah," she said. "I feel like I've got a second skin, right now."
"You'll have to either share one with me, or we'll have to heat up two full pots of water over the fire. That'll take a while."
"We can share one, if you're okay with that," she said, her voice sounding a little strange.
"Okay," I said. I stood and unzipped the tent, stepping out.
"Kathy, I'm going to set up a camp shower, if you want to use it when I'm done," I said in a normal voice, knowing she could hear me through the thin material of her tent.
"Just leave it up, I'll use it in the morning," she said.
"Okay."
I retrieved it from hammerspace. It was a folding metal and fiberglass frame. It had a large bladder with a hook at the top to tie a rope through, to hoist it. There was a plastic plate that the bladder rested on, angled so as to make it easy to slide in and out of place. It had a hose at the bottom that connected to a shower head that could be used to spray yourself down, or hung just below the plastic plate. There was a tarp that wrapped around the whole thing for some privacy. The whole thing was packaged in a large pot.
I pulled the assembly out of the pot and began to set it up. It didn't take long at all. Once I had the frame assembled and wrapped in the tarp, the hard part begun. I carried the bladder down the hill to the small creek and filled it about 3/4 full of water. Using a bit of paracord through the hood, I hoisted it on my back and brought it back. I flung the free end of the paracord over a tree branch that looked capable of taking the weight, then grabbed the pot and headed back to the stream to fill it.
Lugging it back, I placed it on the cooking rack over the fire while Avarisa added some more fuel to build it back up. We then had to wait for the water to boil, which took about fifteen minutes. When that was done, we opened the bladder again, the mouth forming a large funnel, and poured in the boiling water. I tested it after we emptied the pot, and it was nice and warm.
"Okay, get undressed," I said as I hoisted the bladder up. It slipped up the plastic platform and I reached up to close the gate to hold it in place. I tied off the paracord (the gate alone wouldn't take the weight) and the quickly stripped as Avarisa stood next to the door, waiting for me. We had to move quickly, because the chilly air would cool the water quickly. The bag was not insulated, but rather a thick, black plastic so that one could use the sun to warm it over the course of a day.
I stepped in, producing two bars of soap from hammerspace and I opened the valve to spray both of us down with warm water. Once we were thoroughly wet, I closed it and handed Avarisa a bar. We soaped up quickly, the night chill getting to us.
Once we were thoroughly soapy, we ran the water to rinse again, then I sent the soap back and produced a combination shampoo and conditioner. We sudsed up our hair and rinsed off again. About two thirds of the water still remained in the bladder.
"Want to just enjoy the soak?" I asked. She nodded, so I left the valve open. She pressed against me, both of us sharing in the cascade of water. I watched the top of her head, and when she put her hands on my hips and looked up, I met her eyes.
"This is nice," she said.
"Yeah," I responded.
Flashes of memories swept through me. Aaina, when we first brought her home, afraid to be alone, needing me or Inanna in the shower with her. Sara and Junior, joining me for my showers once they were steady on their feet because it was just easier to bathe them that way, when time mattered. Normally, we let them play in the bath, but I'd scrubbed them down a few times in the shower.
And of course, those memories all gave way to the countless showers I'd shared with Inanna. It may come as a surprise, but most of the time, we simply helped each other get clean, and then got out. We had fooled around in the shower many times, of course, but that wasn't the norm. The falling water could be a distraction, whereas the possibility of getting clean and then fooling around as soon as we got out was almost always there.
Without even thinking about it, I put my hands on Avarisa's hips and pulled her into me. She didn't hesitate or resist, stepped forward and running her hands up my sides. I bent down and kissed her, and she quickly moved a hand to the back of my head, pulling me in, clinging to me.
We kissed for a long moment. It wasn't until I grew chilly and realized that the water had given out that I drew back. She rested one hand on my shoulder while the other slipped around to my front, to grab me.
"Are you sure?" she asked quietly. I shook my head. "Don't make me question myself," I said. "I just want to stop thinking."
She nodded, then met my eyes.
"I just finished my period," she said. "Yesterday was the last day. Tamp down on your fertility, Jerry, and I can all but guarantee you that I won't get pregnant."
I nodded. I lifted her up in my arms and carried her to the tent.
The next morning, I was woken by Kathy holding my pants, which I'd left draped over one of the folding chairs last night, peeking through the flaps of the tent. "Seriously?" she asked.
I blinked away the blurriness and focused on her. It took me a second to recognize what I was seeing, and another to put the pieces together in my mind.
"Shit," I muttered. "Sorry."
"It's your own clothes that have ants in them," Kathy said. "And hers."
I pulled Avarisa's arm off of me gently and slipped out of the sleeping bag. "I'll get it," I said.
"Good, I'm going to refill the shower. I already got a pot boiling. You two can start breakfast while I'm showering."
She handed me the pants and pulled her head out of the opening. Checking them, I could see that there were, indeed, tiny ants crawling all over them. I sighed and summoned clothes from hammerspace, then retrieved my stuff from the pockets and transferred it over. I walked out and picked up all the clothes we'd left out.
The ants had gotten into all of them.
I brought them down to the creek, passing Kathy as she walked back with the bladder three quarters full of water. She shook her head slowly, not saying anything as we met and then parted. I rinsed all the clothes out, letting the little ants get swept away in the current. When I returned to string up a paracord clothesline and hang them to dry, I could see Avarisa's silhouette in the morning glow, moving around inside the tent. I climbed in.
"I left my clothes out there," she said.
"Here," I said. I pulled a t-shirt, a hoodie sweater and a pair of pants from hammerspace. "These should fit. I don't have any underwear, though."
"I normally don't wear a bra," she said as she pulled the clothes on. "Going commando will be a new one, though..."
She finished dressing and we both went out to make breakfast. Kathy was in the shower, singing quietly as she scrubbed off. I got a good scramble going, eggs, cheese, bacon and potatoes, along with fried naan bread. When Kathy was finished, she toweled off and immediately sat down, not bothering to get dressed. We ate quickly, and I let Kathy get a large portion than the rest of us, because she seemed to need it.
When we were done, Kathy summoned clothes and I made a harness out of paracord.
"We're going to fly to the first portal, it's more than a day's walk," I told Kathy. She stared at me for a second.
"Shit, Jerry, you'd better stay close to me and help me with the landings," she said. I nodded. I intended to do just that. When I had the harness ready, I had Avarisa put on her armor, and then I secured her back to my chest, adding a few lines of paracord from her plate carrier that passed between her legs to be sure. I had her pad them out with one of the still-damp towels, which she giggled and protested over the chill about. I asked her to imagine her body weight all on the paracord lines between her legs, though, and her protests ended. The giggles continued for a few minutes, though.
Thus secured, we layered more magic over to the camp to ward off any curious animals and took off. Kathy wobbled a lot during the flight, but she managed to keep up with me, just fine. It took about two hours to reach the spot. I took Kathy's arms, reaching around Avarisa to do so, and we settled down on the ground in front of what looked like a high-end clothing store.
The clothes on the mannequins had all rotted away, and green mold coated the glass windows, making the insides dim. The doors were locked, so I smashed the glass out of one of the windows and we stepped in.
Avarisa led us to a wall, where I pulled down some shelves. Once clear, I touched the keys in my pockets mentally and a section of the wall shimmered. It seemed to fade from view, showing a desolate cityscape not too different from the one we were in. We all stepped through.
"Welcome to the Sixteenth World," Avarisa said, her voice a little choked. I wondered what memories Sarisa had given her that caused this.
We were in a much smaller city than before. Only four skyscrapers stood, each one immaculate except for the layer of dust dulling the windows. Lower buildings surrounded them, all looking to be made of concrete. The last city had brick and even a few wooden structures, but this place all seemed to be made of the same, light gray concrete. Streets, sidewalks and buildings alike.
Piles of rust stood here and there, the remains of vehicles left exposed to the elements for hundreds or thousands of years. And bodies.
In the last place, the bodies had been skeletons, mostly partial bodies, many with signs of being worried by the local fauna. Here, there were mummies.
I could see dozens of them, including at least one in every pile of rust. Desiccated corpses, clad in sun-bleached fibers that still kept their shape. I recognized T-shirts and button-down shirts, sundresses and skirts, pants and shorts. Avarisa wandered off, towards a smaller, one story building with a line of bushes in front. I followed her gaze to see a curious site.
Most of the vegetation was brown, but intact. Leaves still clung to tree and bush limbs, grass still lay across the ground. But where she was moving, there was a circle of... I'm not sure how to describe it.
The bushes in front of the building simply melted away as they approached the circle. Bushy brown limbs gave way to bare limbs, which gave way to shattered, sparse limbs, which gave way entirely. The grass grew sparse, and then faded out into dark, rich soil.
Right at the center of the circle lay two small skeletons.
Scraps of rough fabric still clung to their limbs. They were both small, young children, I thought. And they had no flesh left on them. Unlike every other corpse, these had been subjected to the process of decay.
"What happened?" I asked.
Avarisa knelt at the edge of the circle, staring at the remains in the middle. When she spoke, her voice cracked with grief.
"When Tientus first learned of what happened here, she grabbed two children. She brought them here, as guinea pigs, to see if whatever happened affected them. They hadn't done anything to displease her, they were just... The first humans she saw when she went looking, I think. She brought them here. Nothing happened, so I took them and was going to bring them home, but..."
She sobbed once, her shoulders hitching.
"She stopped me. Made me leave them, because she didn't want to wait the thirty seconds it would take me to bring them home. They died so that she wouldn't be inconvenienced in even the mildest way.
"These two children, whose names are long lost, they're the inspiration for the war. Because of them, I began creating the spell to strip a god's divinity. Because of them, I reached out to Astoram, who had always been at odds with the other elder gods, and secured his aid."
Kathy and I stood behind her, looking at the two small skeletons and listening to her words. When Avarisa stopped talking, we remained in place, thinking about the death and destruction that had resulted from the casual murder of two children.
"This is pretty heavy," Kathy said after a while. I nodded.
"Yes, it is," I said.
We must have stood there, reflecting on the bodies for ten minutes, when a sound came to us from the distance. All three of our heads came up and turned in the direction it had come from.
"Was that..." Kathy said. I nodded.
"Ixy's roar," I said.

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Cover

41 – Too Easy

There were many ways to access the CARF. Some of them were proper, controlled and regulated, while others were less conventional and reserved only for situations that needed them. Others still were totally secret, known only to a handful of people. The one that the Cromwell-Grassman family decided to use, which was deemed the safest, required them to go through the Quadrangle. Which, considering that the Quadrangle was entirely under PsyOps control, went a long way towards explaining just how unsafe and risky the other methods were.
They had opted to move together for the most part, resorting to splitting up only when strictly necessary. It didn’t matter if they needed to break their covers this time around either, because they were going to redo the whole thing another time anyway after Albert rewound time with the Hazegem. This was a trial run, to figure out the extent of the measures set in place by the rogue operatives and the response of whatever form of hierarchy was still functioning as it was before most of the command structure got compromised.
The trip by car took a couple of hours. It could not be skipped, however, since the teleportation device Albert got from the System was still in the process of being studied, and also because he had never been to the Quadrangle himself. He sat in the rear seat of grandpa’s yellow sports car, feeling like he was on one of those family trips he remembered from his childhood but never managed to recall quite well enough. The ‘adults’, if one wants to define them that way even though Albert was an adult himself, were discussing ways to access the security measures of the Quadrangle without triggering the alarms, and making a list that would be then sent to him via text message. This way it could be preserved through time travel.
As they did so, he fiddled with the piece of junk that once was the PTD, or the teleportation device. He had no dreams of repairing it in the two hours he had, but any headway he made here was less work he would have to do later, and one never knows when yet another piece of magic could come in handy. Eventually though the Quadrangle was finally visible at the horizon, and Albert lost all interest in fixing the small circular device.
“That’s the Quadrangle?” He asked, excited. “Holy shit.”
“Oh yeah, kid.” His grandpa replied from the driver seat. “Pretty cool, eh?”
Indeed, it was like he was seeing something straight out of a science fiction movie. The Quadrangle had tall, black walls that sported a multitude of tiny windows, probes and antennae, balconies and small structures that seemed to grow out of the concrete without rhyme or reason. As they got closer, Albert realized that the structure itself was not made of concrete, but of a strange composite material that was sleek and shiny under the rays of the morning sun. Then, the structure faded from view as the family ditched the road and ventured towards a deep gorge in the desertic landscape.
Admittedly, it wasn’t much of a desert. The rains of the last few days had meant that all the greenery – plants and flowers whose seeds had been dormant in the ground for years – had bloomed and the later frost had sealed the verdant carpets of plants into a tomb of ice. The road was not well maintained at all, but Lloyd’s skilled driving meant that they reached their destination without much delay.
There were two guards standing before a steel door built in the side of the rock at the bottom of the gorge. They wore standard military uniform, their mimetic patterns adapted to the desertic landscape painting big targets of the men standing amidst the greenery and the ice. Before the car was even close, in fact, and before they could even take out their weapons, they were shot with deadly precision by Samantha poking out of the passenger window, and dropped to the ground.
“Huh,” Albert’s mother hummed, examining the weapon in her hands with interest. “Your enhancing magic really did a number on this thing. I’m impressed.”
Albert smiled, proud of his work. He had turned a simple tranq gun into a veritable assault weapon-slash-sniper capable of putting down targets from impressive distances. It cost him a lot of mana, but his regeneration was high enough that he could refill his pool in less than an hour.
“Okay. Onto the door. Usually there would be a passcode, but if we use it, they will know we are here. I’ll take care of disabling the security, Lloyd you stand watch. Albert, you do… stretching or whatever, but be ready.”
As soon as Mother gave the signal, Albert approached the door with heavy steps. His feet sunk into the ground slightly, and his body struggled to carry the heavy steel bar he took from the trunk of the car even with [Strengthening] at full power. Once he was close enough, he inhaled and charged. The thick metal bar was like a sieging ram, hitting the door with incredible force. It only took a handful of hits, and a lot of sweat on Albert’s part even in the arctic temperatures for the hinges to finally give way, and another good hit sent the door sprawling open.
Albert rushed in, right as a smoke grenade exploded at his feet, hiding him from sight. He barreled through in the accelerated speed of [Bullet Time], the shield granted to him by his ring shimmering around him to keep the smoke out, until he felt that he had seen enough and disappeared. When he reappeared from teleporting out of the tunnel, all the targets he had painted for his mother and grandfather to shoot were already down.
“Good work.” Samantha said. “Let’s go.”
***
“Don’t kill them!” The man shouted, looking at the screen. It was surrounded by other screens, all black from when the video feed was cut. “Wound them. Tire them out. But don’t kill them. I want her for myself.”
“But sir, your orders—”
“Ha! You obey me, not them.” The man said. “Your orders are the orders I give you. Nothing else. You understand?”
Beside the man, another man covered from head to toe in small trinkets made of brass and glass stood a full head shorter than him.
“Let’s go,” PsyOps said. “We have stuff to do before she arrives at the CARF.”
***
Getting to the Quadrangle was the easy part, really. It was once they got there that things became suddenly a lot more difficult. The improvised team had to traverse at least two full sides of the structure undetected, reach the secret access point to the CARF, and then hack it as to make it work without a code. Fortunately, a strange event happened as soon as they emerged from the service tunnel they used to reach the structure.
“A notification. From… the Quadrangle itself?” Samantha said, a bit shaken.
She pulled out her phone and looked at the live video feed of the room they were. There were squares painted around their heads, displaying their name and designation, all marked as friendlies. There was a square for Albert too, but instead of being green it was black with white borders, and there was no designation at all. It was disconcerting, considering that they were sure they had cut the feeds when they hacked the cameras, but even more unsettling was the message that came with the video.
>I can help you reach ACCESS:CARF#03
“Is that the Quadrangle itself speaking to you?” Lloyd asked, peeking at the footage on the phone. “Never happened to me. Lucky you.”
Samantha frowned. “Never happened to me neither, before now. I was the one talking to it, not the other way around.”
“Should we trust it?” Albert said.
Lloyd shrugged. “I say yes. We get a redo in case it was a trap.”
Thus, the hard leg of the journey became unexpectedly easy. They navigated through the complicated and dizzying maze of corridors following the instructions of the all-knowing sovereign of the place, who instructed them on which routes to take, when to stop and hide, and when to shoot their way through. No alarms were triggered during the whole journey, and although Samantha never felt quite at ease at the thought of the unexpected helper, nothing happened to make her think that she was being played.
However, things were looking a bit too easy for her tastes. And she knew full well that there was no such mission as a perfect mission. PsyOps and SpaceOps were completely missing from the picture too, which was very suspicious. Something was bound to go incredibly wrong.
***
“Albert, if you ever need to rewind, rewind back to this moment. If you do that we’ll see you disappear before our eyes and then teleport in, right?”
“Yes, that’s how it looks from the—”
Silence.
“Shit.”
One full minute passed. Then two. Then three. Neither Samantha nor Lloyd dared move a muscle.
“He rewound.”
“Yes.”
“Why is he not reappearing?”
“He’s not supposed to reappear here. It’s not how rewinds work.”
“But he should have teleported here as soon as he finished rewinding.”
“Yes.”
“But he hasn’t.”
“He hasn’t.”
“Which means…”
“Something’s wrong.”
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Hi all,
End of september I am going with my partner to Sri Lanka for 3 weeks (minus travelling days).
I am excited for what Sri Lanka can offer, but I would like some others advice.
We learned that we enjoy our holidays the most if we don't rush, and also have a few different sleeping arrangements (instead of packing every other day!). We are not looking for parties, but we like nice views and relax.
We want to stay at these 3 locations for around a week each. Do you think it's ok? Or mabye better to split f.e. Ella with some days in Kandi or something else?
- Sigiraya (exploring cultural triangle, national park)
- Ella (hills/nature, waterfalls, train ride, tea plantation, view points)
- Unawatuna (beach, galle, relaxing, too bad Yala is closed)
​
Bonus question: is a non heated swimming pool in Ella nice? Weather sites say daytime 18 degrees, others say 30... If it's 25+ degrees I think it's nice to dip in a pool!

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Good morning everyone. Just a few quick things.
Sorry to those of you on Reddit. I messed up the tags for Part.3 of Chap.150 and it didn't send notifications out from the bots. I went ahead and reuploaded the chap so hopefully, you got it then.If not here and you missed it, here is part 3 of chapter 150.
One, thanks to all of you who have filled out the survey. And to those of you who haven't and still want to, make sure you do so because I will cut the survey off on the 19th.
Link=https://forms.gle/bpqSdg2aEHBGnLKY7
Two, as I mentioned at the end of the last chap, I am taking a small break to recoup and get everything fixed up for the recap of Vol.6. I shall see you again on Thursday the 23rd for the Side Stories and for the final week of double posting.
I think the Side Stories are pretty fun this time, as we get some action, adventure, and behind-the-scenes events. As well as checking in on some others :D
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this epilogue as we are going to get some action with our old friends in Hades Squad.
---
Year 2517, floating somewhere in Federation deep space.
“Heimdall, I don’t mean to question orders, but is something like this actually possible?” Apollo asked as he settled into his harness.
“Yeah, they are keeping us in the dark about this new tech. I don’t really like that,” Hephaestus added.
“And it almost killed you! What the hell is that, huh? They just expect us to—”
“Relax, Artemis, everyone. It’s as they say. I had the same concerns, but Suárez cured all my worries. I saw it with my own eyes. And the tech is being kept on the down-low for reasons just like this. Besides, we might all be freedom fighters and allies in this war, but we are still just soldiers,” I told them, wagging a finger at them.
“So it’s possible to rip a ship out of warp?” Apollo asked, his blue eyes piercing into me.
I nudged Va'cot. “Well, you tell them, won’t you?”
Va'cot nodded slightly. “The Council was working on anti-warp technology for many years, but as far as I’m aware, it never left the initial stages. They lacked any reliable power source to affect ships,” she said in her usual toneless voice.
“But now things are different, huh?” Artemis mused.
She’s right. Things are different now, and we experienced that firsthand.
The anti-warp tech was the real deal, and it nearly took my life. We got our first taste of it on the raid on that space station. I got hit by multiple bullets, and they all left nasty wounds that took an extended amount of time to heal. It was like they left a lingering curse on me or something like that.
It turned out it had to do with these new crystals the Federation found, and we managed to capture one on that very station. That’s why they were so hellbent on blowing it to kingdom come. They resembled the crystals everyone used for warp travel, but these new crystals were… different.
The crystals used in warp drives came in a myriad of bright colors and sizes. Some were as large as a man, and others could even get as big as a bear. It just depended, and as far as we could tell, the color never mattered, and the size just indicated how big of a ship it could move. Those were the only fundamental differences.
But these new crystals were pitch black and smaller, no longer than a finger. But they exuded some kind of sickening aura. The second they busted it out of its containment, I wanted to vomit, which was a new experience for me. The thing felt perverse and wholly wrong, like an evil artifact of some type.
But I’ll be damned, evil, god-given, whatever its power was, the thing was powerful. Two finger-sized crystals were enough to rip a ship out of warp, something that I wasn’t able to believe ‘till I saw it with my own eyes.
When I sat on the bridge of the Stormpike and watched a frigate get pulled out from warp, suddenly, I felt as if I had witnessed a significant change in the way of the galaxy, and I was glad the Council never got their hands on the technology. While in the warp, it was thought that a ship was untouchable until it came out from its warp point.
And it’s not like warping around was omnipotent. It had its limits, and everything had a cost. But regardless…
It’s a shame we only have ten crystals in total. We have no idea where the Federation got them or how many they have in stock, but we think it’s only a few, and they don’t seem to know about pulling ships out of warp yet. And we are sadly already down six. And two of them are about to be used to pull this mission off.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter if we know how it works,” Artemis said, shrugging her shoulders. “If it gets me face to face with that old hag so I can rip her arm off and beat her to death, then that’s all that matters.”
There was a moment when none of us said anything. Typically it would be best to…steer away from that kind of talk before a life-or-death capture mission, but I felt that everyone was of the same mind. I think, given a chance, everyone would do what Artemis was thinking.
Well, maybe not Va’cot. She’s a good girl when she isn’t trying to slice someone’s throat.
“Now, now. You know we can’t do that,” I chastised half-heartedly. “If you killed her then everything would be for naught, Artemis.”
Artemis clicked her tongue. “Fine, one swift kick to the ribs oughta do it. I promise I won’t break her in half.”
I just chucked wryly. “What you don’t know is that we already lost life to get this information. I’m sure that person is rolling in their grave right after hearing you.”
Artemis begrudgingly nodded in agreement. “But is all of this information accurate? It’s so little, and we were not able to confirm it. Right, Heimdall?” Apollo argued.
I sighed internally but also couldn’t help but remark on just how much everyone had changed. Once upon a time, it was unthinkable for any of these people to question the validity of a mission. Sure, some gripes or questions needed to be answered for clarity, but outright skepticism?
Twenty years ago, that was unthinkable. Guess it all changed because of him, huh?
“Our ever lovely Suárez personally guaranteed that the mole was a trustworthy source. It’s taken us all this time just to find a single trace of her after the war, so this is all we’ve got. It’s now or never,” I explained.
Everyone nodded to themselves and relaxed a bit. It’s not like it would have changed anything, whether the mole was suspicious or not. We’d been waiting for an opportunity like this for over a decade by that point.
”Besides, I’m running out of time,” I muttered quietly to myself as I closed my cybernetic hands.
I had lost the use of both my arms the previous year. Every part of my body ached, and getting up in the morning was becoming more of a challenge with every sleepless night I went through. That was another thing: sleep.
I didn’t have to sleep all that much compared to a normal Human. Back in the day, I could go weeks without even a wink of sleep and still be right in the ol’ mind. But as the sand of my youth trickled down the hourglass, I’d wanted to sleep more than ever.
Getting old sucks. Suárez told me that I only had a few more years, even if I stopped what I was doing and retired for good. Not that I have any plans of doing so. I’m in too deep to go back to AJS and plant flowers with the kids again…
Well, it is what it is—just another mission.
I stood up from my seat and looked out at the four people in my squad. “As all of you already know, this mission is both critical and dangerous. We have forty minutes to succeed, thirty minutes for the warp drive to warm up after taking the ship out, and ten to extract. That also includes the time it takes for their comms to come back on and send a signal.”
I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck. “I don’t need to remind you that we are far from any kind of backup. If we miss that forty-minute deadline, the two cruisers are to leave without us, and we are to sabotage the enemy vessel and go down with it”
Everyone nodded a single time. “Our primary goal is to secure the doctor alive by any means necessary. If things turn for the worse, we are to eliminate her along with the ship. The mole couldn’t give us concrete details on her security, but it shouldn’t be a surprise. We are expecting at least two squads of Gen 3s on a frigate, along with marines. The old doctor moves fast and light these days, which is good for us.”
“This isn’t going to be a walk in the park. We may have the element of surprise, but that will only last so long. In order to save time, we are aiming for the center of the ship while another squad will hit the lower decks. We split up and cover as much ground as we can on the upper floors and take the escape pods so we can get scooped up by our friendlies…” I trailed off.
Everyone just watched me in silence, so I just sighed and sat down. “What’s the point? Everyone already knows what to do,” I groaned.
I felt Va’cot’s pink eyes staring at me, so I turned to look at her. She nodded quickly and gave me a thumbs-up. I chuckled to myself and gave her one back.
At least somebody appreciated my recap.
Just then, the hue of the hull changed into a soft yellow. That meant it was time to get ready. Like the well-oiled machines we all were, we donned our helmets, grabbed our weapons of choice, and locked ourselves into our harnesses. The time for conversation was over, and it was now time for action.
In just a scant five minutes, the area was bathed in an ominous red light. “Readings indicate an inbound warp jump. Warp point being formed,” the ships onboard AI mono voice echoed.
It could have been a minute or an eternity before the cold metallic voice rang out once more. “Target acquired. Launching in three…two…one.”
The engines roared to life as I was thrown into the back of my seat. Even with my harness, I shook like a madman as the ship rocketed off toward its target. It was always a weird thing, being in a metal coffin about to smack into another metal coffin in the middle of empty space.
The only bright side was that it took the enemy's ship a few moments to fire at us. Thankfully it was standard procedure to power down weapons in warp jump as there was no need to waste power, and it took some time for even small-caliber point-defense systems to come online. And all we needed was those few moments.
Boom.
Crash.
Everyone rocked in their seats as the Tiger rammed into the enemy ship and burrowed its way through the hull using its plasma shield as a ram. Eventually, everything stopped, and the harnesses were quickly released. We stacked up at the front, and the room was bathed in bright green light as the gangplank smashed down.
We were in a long hallway, and my eyes immediately locked on a figure. He had just missed being crushed by the gangplank and looked up at me with teary eyes. I never heard what he tried to say as I crushed his skull under my weight.
Bolter fire thundered off as we mowed down hordes of people frantically leaving their rooms. We had landed in a barracks, and nearly all the hostiles were unarmed besides a handful with pistols. I watched a round ricochet off Hephaestus’s helmet, only for him to turn slightly and reduce the offender’s head into a pink mist.
We made short work of anyone who was still left breathing, and our squad split. I took Va’cot and headed toward the bridge while the others moved on to the ship’s armory and ammo storage. There was no conversation between us, we knew what needed to be done, and we all went about our tasks diligently.
Va’cot and I cleared room after room, hoping to score a lucky break, but all we ended up finding were those attempting to arm themselves or those hiding in their bunks. We didn’t have time to execute every single sailor, but a quick shredder grenade into each room was enough to paint the walls red.
The sound of heavy boots on the floor echoed in the distance, and I gave Va’cot a signal to cloak herself and hide in the doorway. Two figures, both towering over six feet tall and clad in sleek black armor, raced down the hallway with bolters at the ready.
Unfortunately for one of them, they got too close to Va’cot, and she deftly swung her plasma sword. The air hissed with plasma fire, and she cleanly separated the Death Commando’s head from his shoulders. Unfortunately for us, the second wouldn’t be so easy.
I fired two rounds, hoping to hit center mass and a leg, but the commando was quick on the reaction. He threw his body into a doorway and returned fire. It was only thanks to our new Elunari-equipped plasma shields that those bolter rounds didn’t cave in my chest.
The rounds tried to force their way through the shield, only to detonate harmlessly on the outside. My shield hummed from the strain, and I went into the adjacent room. I flicked my visor’s heat sensor on, a new tool courtesy of the Coalition, and I tried to track the Death Commando, but no dice. His armor was far too well shielded thermally to be seen through a thick metal wall.
But his gun’s barrel wasn’t.
I took aim and shot through the wall, tracing the barely visible smear of red. My shots seemed to be missing until Va’cot tossed a plasma grenade into the door. I watched as the small ball of red fire grew in my vision into a miniature sun until it exploded.
The blast rocked the room and kicked up dust, and I wasted no time in reloading and sending more rounds at the target’s last known position. I ceased my fire, reloaded, and counted to ten, waiting for any heat signatures or noises, but nothing came.
We checked and cleared the room, both enemy combatants were dead, but there was no time for celebration. We immediately went back to our search, and when we stepped into the hallway, a hail storm of gunfire barraged us. Rounds clanked and bounced off our armor harmlessly and the two of us returned fire.
The squad of unfortunate souls was reduced to nothing but their legs as rounds burrowed into their chests and exploded. “Marines and Death Commandos engaged. Two combatants neutralized,” I radioed.
I checked the status of the rest of my squad, and they were all green, as was our friendly squad. There were quick flashes of acknowledgements, and Apollo’s voice filled one of my ears. “Marines have been engaged, no Death Commandos,” he said quickly.
Huh, does that mean she is on the bridge after all? It was considered to be less likely, considering she is a researcher. Well, let’s find out.
Va’cot and I wordlessly continued our slaughter, meeting only the bare resistance of marines and crew members. Eventually, power flicked out on the ship, and the bulkhead doors slammed closed. But we planned for that as well.
We had plenty of pre-made charges to blow all the way to the bridge if need be. I quickly placed the charge and—
Boom.
Huh?
I stared in surprise. The bulkhead door was dented inward, but it still remained standing. Considering that we had the schematics, we knew very well what was needed to blow through these doors. We even added a bit more just in case something like that occurred, but to think they reinforced them that much.
“This means we are in the right place,” Va’cot said through our system firmly as she sliced the near-broken door with her sword.
“That’s one way to look at it,” I responded.
It took a bit longer than we had planned, but we eventually arrived at the door to the bridge. The place was sealed shut, and I had to plant multiple explosives to even dent the thing. It was also a problem that we hadn’t run into anyone since the doors started dropping.
“They are either all in here, or we are going to get ambushed when we—”
My words were cut off as the door opened slightly, and a storm of bolter and rifle fire smashed into us. My shield whined and flickered from the intensity, and we were forced to find cover only for grenades to be tossed at us.
The fragmentation grenades exploded and peppered us with shrapnel but left us mostly unharmed. I ended up taking a piece to the fingers in between my armor plates, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. I looked over at Va’cot, and she had a nice long gash in her visor. One of the pieces must have slipped through her shield and cracked it.
“From the pattern of fire, there is one bolter deep, one on the right and one on the left,” I said.
Va’cot nodded her head. “I will eliminate the one on the right.”
“I’ll aim for the left, and we both get the center,” I said back to her.
Our conversation ended just like that, and I immediately set the charges off on the now-closed bridge door. A powerful shockwave rolled past us, and the lights flickered on and off, and the warship rocked from the force. Va’cot tossed plasma grenades, and I threw in shredder grenades before entering, making short work of the crew and marines.
The flurry of hell we sent in was our cover, and we relied on our shields for any blows. I trusted Va’cot fully, so I didn’t bother checking if she was going to be okay. I swept my side, and it was clear with the bodies of dozens of marines and crew members ripped to the shreds. I found a Death Commando still standing on the left, albeit seriously injured but alive and with a gun raised.
The third generation had the lowest tolerance to Ambrosia of all the generations, but regardless of tolerance, if enough of the stuff was pumped into their veins, they were still dangerous. Despite missing an arm, he wielded his bolter from the hip and fired at me.
The shots impacted my shield, and I sent immediate rounds back to him. And he didn’t have a shield. Most of my shots bounced off his armor or didn’t penetrate deep enough for an injury, but one of them hit him in the neck. He dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes as the round burrowed through him.
They just don’t make them like they used to. The Gen 3s are just so fragile compared to us. Too Human.
Va’cot was in a similar state as she had taken out her target, and a quick scan showed the middle Death Commando had perished before we entered. The room was now quiet, filled only with the groans of dying Humans. We moved quickly.
I turned heat vision on and confirmed five signatures hiding in the panic room. The door was locked up like a vault safe and was well hidden behind a panel. It was meant for situations like this, but it only worked if the boarders didn’t know of its existence.
“Cut it open. We can’t risk explosives now,” I ordered.
Va’cot set to work, and I finished off any survivors before standing guard for her. “Va’cot and I have secured the bridge. One Death Commando squad was eliminated. Doctor Octario has not been found, and we are breaching the panic room.”
“The lower floors are clear, no Death Commandos or targets. Planting charges on warp drive,” an AI voice said through comms.
It must be a species that doesn’t speak English leading the lower floor squad, interesting.
“We are under heavy fire. Resistance is concentrated at the armory. Requesting backup,” Apollo said calmly.
“We’ll be there in a moment,” I told him. “Va’cot, status?”
“Five Humans, three males, and two females. No elderly females in the safe room,” Va’cot radioed.
“Then let’s move to Apollo.”
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
We made sure to raise the bulkhead doors and destroy the systems as well as any communication units before racing through the halls back to our squad. Resistance was minimal, only stragglers who had managed to arm themselves from their deceased comrades. However, the sounds of heavy gunfire could be heard as we approached.
We made it to a hallway that was a literal blinding flash of light. Sadly, scanning for life forms wasn’t possible because of the metal used by the Federation. However, we could see the positions of our squad mates. They were pinned down in adjacent rooms by gunfire.
“They are stalling for time. We have ten minutes, Sir,” Va’cot stated.
Yeah, I know…damn. To think she would be toward the armory. How annoying.
“Squad two, can you place charges on the lower deck at the junction to the armory?” I asked.
“Affirmative. Two minutes for placement,” the synthetic voice said.
“You heard them, return fire and keep them busy,” I said into my helmet.
I received the affirmative, and we continued to trade fire. There was no way for us to press forward safely. Even if we maxed out plasma shields and used external shields, we would succumb to this kind of concentrated fire. They even had a heavy bolter in place, which would make quick work of us if we were to rush forward blindly.
“Hey! What if those explosions kill that hag or blow us the hell up?!” Artemis growled into her helmet as she blew the head off a marine that peaked in too far with her railgun.
“We can’t be passive because we are running out of time. If the explosions kill her and ignite the ammo, so be it. Remember why we are here,” I told her firmly.
Artemis said nothing for a moment before sending a few more shots. “Yeah, I know! I just want my chance!”
“Charges are placed,” the voice called out.
“Do it now.”
Boom.
A quick shock wave rolled past us and rocked the ship, only for a fire wave to snake down the hallway. The gunfire was momentarily halted, only to be replaced by the agonizing screams of dying Humans, which didn’t last long. Instead of waiting for the wave to fizzle out, we all pushed through it with Hephaestus at the front.
The walls were scorched black, and the entire floor had been blown inwards. There were no survivors. We had to skate by on the edges to avoid dropping to the lower floors, and we quickly pushed through the junction. There was only token resistance left until we reached a sturdy vault-like door made of black metal.
Hephaestus peeked through the thick glass and ducked down before a round echoed off the metal. “There are people in there, two Death Commandos and a handful of crew members. And so is she.”
“Target located. She is holed up in the armory,” I radioed in.
“Understood. Warp drive charges are set. We are prepping for extraction and shall take the furthest escape pods from you. There are less than ten minutes remaining, Commander,” the synthetic voice said.
Yeah, I know…damn this is gonna be a pain.
“Well, it looks like the ammo didn’t cook. Sucks for her,” Artemis spat.
“No explosives. We’ll kill her for sure. We have little time. Do we retreat?” I asked them.
Four heads turned to me, and they all looked at each other and then back at me. “I have no plans of going back now,” Apollo said firmly.
“Aye, aye, I’m with him,” Hephaestus agreed as he moved to cover us.
Artemis was already back to cutting a hole in the door. “You already know my answer. This is what I signed up for. Either I’m killing her, or she is coming with us, no in-between.”
I looked at Va’cot, but all I could see was the reflection in her blue visor. “I would like to help everyone,” she said with a nod.
“Well, then it’s settled, I guess. Let’s nab her,” I said with a chuckle and shrug.
“Don’t worry. These bastards are dead. I don’t need explosives to kill them,” Artemis stated with conviction.
“Then we will cover you,” I said as I nodded to Va’cot.
“Hey, big guy! I’m gonna need you to rip this door off in a minute. Can you do it!?” Artemis yelled, purposely letting her voice out through her helmet and into the room.
“Yeah, probably,” Heph said with a shrug.
Artemis never stopped working on the door as she clicked her tongue. “Probably?! What the hell are we feeding you for, huh?! You can’t be that big for nothing!”
We all fired down the hallway as a few stragglers attempted to ambush us. Artemis’s yells must have forced them out of hiding and given them some false hope. Nevertheless, we made short work of them.
“Now then…time to die,” Artemis mumbled to herself as she sat on her butt and forced her railgun into the hole.
Her weapon came to life and crackled with red lightning. The air around her whizzed with power as she fired off two thunderous shots in quick order and pulled the rifle out.
“Both the DCs are dead. Just the grunts left,” Artemis said as she made room for Hephaestus.
The giant of a man dug his hand into the door frame and began to yank. It was impressive, to say the least. Those doors were meant to stop the explosion of ammo being cooked off, yet he was ripping them off the hinges slowly but surely.
“There are five minutes remaining,” Va’cot stated in her toneless voice.
“You’re—not—helping! Va’cot!” Heph said through gritted teeth.
“If I were to stand there, I would only get in the way. You are too big,” she stated.
That was… rhetorical, well, whatever.
Rip.
Hephaestus’s muscles bulged, and the door started to pry open. Once he got enough of a purchase, he forced his entire hand into it and peeled the door back like a can of sardines and tore it straight off the hinges, tossing it down the hall with ease.
“Damn, that hurt,” Hephaestus grumbled as gunfire bounced off his armor.
A few quick shots and the rest of the combatants were eliminated. The only people left were the cowering crew in the corner and a lone elderly woman in a dirty blood-splattered lab coat standing tall before us.
She glared at us with eyes that said she was more annoyed than anything. It was almost like she was a mother that came home only to see something disappointing. It made me want to punch her in the throat.
The first to reach her was Artemis. Her leg moved so swiftly that I nearly missed it, and I didn’t even have a chance to stop her. Doctor Octario rocked to the side like a bow and was launched like an arrow into the wall and was promptly knocked unconscious.
“That was for the Commander,” Artemis said, her voice cold and devoid of even rage.
There is a big difference between thinking and doing things, Artemis! But I have no time to complain!
“Grab her, and let’s move. We are running out of time,” I ordered calmly.
Apollo instantly injected the doctor with a syringe and tossed her over his shoulder before I could even finish the sentence. Time was not on our side, and we ran as fast as our legs could take us to the nearest escape pods.
We ignored the marines attempting to block our way with bolter fire, and we piled into a pod that was not meant for this many people or even people of our sizes. Hephaestus was the last in and the poor guy barely fit, but the second he cleared the door, I smashed the button to launch us.
“Stern side! Launching now!” I barked into the radio.
Our bodies rocked violently as the pod jettisoned into the void of space. I peeked out the front glass and saw multiple warp points forming in the inky blackness. The distress signal was sent. And an entire fleet was descending on us. But a shadow quickly loomed over us, and we were jostled again, caught by our friendly ship.
“We are reeling you in, Hades Squad! Get ready for a warp jump the second you get inside!” the captain yelled at us.
“Wait! We are packed in here like sardines. We are screwed if you jump!” Artemis yelled back.
“Too bad! We are jumping, soldiers! You’ll live!” he yelled back.
Damn, this is not going to be fun. I’m going to need a new spine after this. Well, mission accomplished, I guess.
​

Next

Hi everyone, it’s my second time in Japan and I can’t wait to explore both the parts I missed out in my previous trip and the different cities across Hokkaido. I’ll be going with two other family members on this trip.
Day 1, 20 May, Saturday

• 6:45am: Arrival into HND from Singapore
• 8:30am: Check In Airbnb, next to Tokyo Skytree (if Early Check In not possible, leave luggage at Oshiage Station Coin Lockers)
• 10am: Taito Sightseeing Center + Kaminarimon Gate + Nakamise Shopping Street + Senso-Ji Temple
• Asakusa Kagetsudo Melonpan + Sukemasa Coffee
• 1pm: Tonkatsu Toyama Lunch
• 2pm: Sumida River Walk
• 3:30pm: Tokyo Skytree
• 5pm: Kura Sushi Oshiage Dinner
• 6:30pm: Night Photo-taking at Senso-Ji and Jukken-bashi Bridge

Day 2, 21 May, Sunday

• 8am: Ueno Park + Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (quick 30 min look inside at 09:30 am)
• 10:30am: Akihabara GiGo Arcade + Super Potato Shop + Yodobashi Akiba Mall
• 12pm: CoCo Curry Akihabara Lunch
• 1pm: 2k540 Aki-Ora + Radio Kaikan + Kanda Shrine
• 3pm: Odaiba Unicorn Gundam Statue + Rainbow Bridge Observation Deck + Statue of Liberty (till Sunset)
• 6pm: teamLab Planets Tokyo
• Matsuya Oshiage Dinner

Day 3, 22 May, Monday

• 7am: Tsukiji Outer Market Breakfast
• 8:30am: Tokyo Station + Marunouchi Ekimae Square
• 9:30am: Your Name Stairs (Suga Shrine)
• 10am: Shimokitazawa (Bocchi the Rock) Sightseeing: Village Vanguard + Shelter Music Club
• 11am: Shiro-Hige Cream Puff Factory
• 11:30am: Tokyu Plaza Omotesando + Sakura-tei Harajuku Lunch
• 2pm: Cross Shinjuku Vision (3D Cat) + Kitamura Camera Store
• 1 Hour Free Time Slot
• 4pm: Shibuya Sky
• 5pm: Miyashita Park
• Dinner at Yakiniku Like Shibuya
• 7pm: Shibuya Parco + Tokyu Hands + Mega Donki + Uniqlo Shibuya

Day 4, 23 May, Tuesday

• 10:30am: Store some Bags at NRT T2 JAL ABC
• Depart NRT T3 for CTS
• 3pm Arrival into CTS
• JR Hokkaido Info Desk (Reserve Return Trip Ordinary Seats on Hokuto Line to Hakodate, 25 May 7am Train)
• 4:30pm: Check In Airbnb, near Odori Station
• 5:20pm: Sapporo Beer Museum (maybe too rushed?)
• 7pm: Susukino Junction
• Dinner at Ramen Yokocho

Day 5, 24 May, Wednesday

• 8am: Otaru Sankaku Market + Otaru Canal + Denuki Koji
• 9am: Sakaimachi Street + LeTAO Pathos Dessert
• Lunch at Yabuhan Soba
• 2pm: Head back to Sapporo + Sapporo Station Sightseeing?
• 5:30pm: Mt Moiwa Ropeway + Cable Car
• Sunset at Mt Moiwa
• Dinner at Soup Curry King Tanuki Koji

Day 6, 25 May, Thursday

• 7am: Travel to Hakodate by Hokuto Train Line
• 11:30am: Goryokaku Tower + Goryokaku Park + Rokkatei Goryokaku Dessert Shop
• Lunch at Lucky Pierrot Goryokaku
• 2pm: Mt Hakodate Ropeway + Mt Hakodate
• 3pm: Hasegawa Store Bay Area + Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses
• 2-3 Hour Free Time Slot
• 7pm: Head back to Sapporo by Hokuto Train Line

Day 7, 26 May, Friday

• 7:30am: Maruyama Park + Hokkaido-jingu Shrine
• 10am: Check Out from Airbnb
• Drop Off Luggage at JR Sapporo Station Coin-Lockers
• 10:45am: Odori Park + Sapporo TV Tower
• 11:15am: Sapporo Clock Tower
• 11:30am: Former Hokkaido Government Office
• Lunch at Nijo Market
• 5-6 Hour Free Time Slot
• 5pm: Pick Up Bags from JR Sapporo Station + Head to Chitose Airport
• 10pm Arrival into NRT
• Sleep in Airport Terminal? 9h Capsule Hotel?

Day 8, 27 May, Saturday

• 9am: Pick Up x2 Baggage at NRT T2 JAL ABC
• 9:30am: Head to HND T3 to drop off rest of Luggage at HND T3 JAL ABC
• Lunch at Gyukatsu Motomura Ueno
• 1:30pm: Tokyo National Musuem
• 3:30pm: Mori Art Museum
• 5:30pm: Starbucks Reserve Roastery Meguro
• 6:30pm: Head back to HND + Dinner at Ramen Setagaya
• 11pm Flight

Questions:

• Any ideas or suggestions to make my schedule more efficient – to make the most of my 8 Days in Japan? I know the schedule is a bit all over the place, especially the last 2 days. I tried to keep all the locations close to one another.
• For Hokkaido, are the Sakura still blooming when I head over there (23-26 May)? If not, I’m inclined in removing visiting Maruyama Park altogether.
• Is it possible to sleep in Narita Terminals? I did the same in KIX in my previous trip but I don’t see much chatter about sleeping inside NRT. If that’s not possible, I’m considering the 9h Capsule Hotel.
• Any suggestions for different places for meals or dessert?

I am not the OP, this is a repost!
​
NOTE: The posts were slightly edited to add paragraphs and make them easier to read.
Trigger warning: Cheating
​
Original post, on relationship_advice (March 12th 2023).
M 32 Cheating Fiancée F 31
Let me start from the beginning here. Yesterday I met my fiancée at our wedding venue for our 4 month out meeting to finalize details. We drove to the venue separately because she was leaving straight from work. Towards the end of the meeting she let me know her friend was dropping off her rental car and needed a ride home and asked if it would be ok. I said yes thinking nothing of it as it wasn’t that far from our home and I know her friend well.
I get home and tried to get in touch w her for the next 3 hours. No answer. At approx the 1:30 mark I texted her friend and asked if she had made it to her ok. I was very worried. My fiancée ends up coming home and says sorry it took longer than expected she hung out with her friend for a bit before leaving. Ok no biggie just lmk next time please. Her friend gets back to me a few minutes later and says “sorry I couldn’t make it to the venue didn’t see your fiancée tonight.” I asked her why she would say this and she said she didn’t know she can’t control what her friend says and walked outside. I’m sketched out af by this point.
I have never done this but I looked at her phone records (yes I did and don’t regret it). I saw that when she went outside she called her friend that had texted me right after she went outside. I also saw an hour long call with a number I didn’t know on the way to the venue. I asked her what rental place they went to and multiple other questions. She had quick answers and they seemed legit. I thought maybe I’m crazy here I need to chill and sleep on it. This morning I asked her to please see the text from her friend asking her to pick her up and I would apologize for questioning her the previous night. She said no.
I said when I caught up to you yesterday on the way to the venue I saw you were on the phone who was that? She said oh that’s the friend I picked up later on. That’s when I knew for a fact she was lying. I said I looked at her phone records and knew that wasn’t true. She then changed her story to say oh I needed to meet up w a coworker to discuss a patient. Who is the coworker and why couldn’t you discuss that over the phone? I need to show him the techniques in person his name is Michael. Ok I am sketched out beyond belief at this point we never lie to each other. I asked to see the texts with Michael. She said wouldn’t let me see. I said why not if there’s nothing to hide. Are you having an affair? Do you not want to be together anymore? She pauses and proceeds to tell me all the things that are wrong with me. I work too much I don’t spend enough time w her don’t listen.
I’m astonished at this point all of this is news to me. I put two and two together at this point I know something sketchy is going on. I again ask to see the texts. It took about a half hour of convincing to see these texts and they were crazy. Sexual in nature and talking a lot of shit about me. Also how she wanted to be with him and how they’re essentially in love. She started this job 1.5 months ago (he is her coworker). He is also 15-20 years older and divorced w multiple kids. I have been financially supporting her for the last few months as she got back on her feet and was working extra so she wouldn’t have to pick up a part time job. We own a house which we both live in with 3 dogs and a horse. Sorry for the novel I am beside myself right now. I did not see this coming and we were going to get married in 4 months. Any advice would help.
UPDATE:
As an update, I was finally able to sit down with her tonight and go over this. Again, she came in trying to blame me for what she did. Trying to justify the cheating and lying as a direct result of my lack of communication and listening. She said she wouldn’t have had to start talking to this guy if I had been listening better. I spend too much time in the office working and don’t dedicate enough time to her. I tried to explain that I was putting in extra hours to try and support her and the family financially while she was struggling so she wouldn’t have to get a part time job. She said she would have rather gotten a part time job which makes no sense to me. She was under the impression that because this was short lived (one week she say) and “they only made out once” that we could move past this.
When I brought up the texts where she was trashing me and talking sexual with him she deflected hard and I got nowhere with that. I told her that I’m not the reason that this is happening. She went too far and should have communicated with me or thought about the implications first. That I can never trust her again and this is all because of her actions. Whether she wants to try and justify this as my fault is up to her. At the end of this part it got a bit calmer - I said listen we just really need to figure out the house we own jointly and the three dogs. We came to the conclusion that Either I stay and buy her out or we sell and get new places. The dogs - one of us will get one the other two tbd.
So that’s where this left off tonight and will continue to keep you all posted on progress. Curious what you all would do about the house. Financially I can support it alone but it is nearly 3k square feet and 5 acres of land which was bought solely to have her horse. She is taking the horse when she leaves and boarding it at a barn.
​
Notable comments:

Jesus, I'm so sorry. Small consolation I know, but better now than after the wedding. Better now than after potentially starting a family. [link]

​

Standard cheater victim-blaming. Don't let her pin this on you, OP. YOU DESERVE BETTER.
Cancel all vendors, notify invited guests, lock down your credit, or shared finances.
Are you sure AP is divorced? He may be lying to your STBX, or she may be lying to you. Either way, it sounds like she cheated down and screwed up royally.
It sucks, but it's better to know now than 10 years down the road. I'm sorry you got blindsided like this, and I hope it gets better soon. [link]

OOP replies:
I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and for the advice. I have no idea if he is truly divorced and honestly don’t want to know more about the guy. The saddest thing about this is my dogs love each other and will most likely be broken apart. Agree better to know now

​

Her attitude about being caught tells you everything you need to know. Blaming you for her shitty behavior shows that she has no character and would make an awful partner. [link]

​

First of all, implement the 180 and gray rock method.
The financial support for her should stop immediately.
You will need a lawyer to deal with the house and ask them how you can legally leverage the HR angle in your negotiations.
She has shown her true colors and is acting horrible. That relationship will crash and burn, and she will then start begging to come back.
Sending strength! [link]

​

Yeah do not marry this woman. Surely this isn’t still a consideration is it? [link]

OOP replies:
Not at all my friend. You all have been super helpful in reinforcing this

​
Update post, on relationship_advice (March 12th 2023).
UPDATE: M 32 Cheating Fiancée F 31
Day 3: I was able to sit and have a 3 hour conversation with her tonight. We talked about our relationship and what lead to what occurred. It started with her telling me what I did wrong in our relationship, lack of communication, spending too much time working and on my phone. I don't disagree with any of these things. My mindset behind working so much was support of the family. I run an e commerce business on the side and am a one man customer service center and deals happen 24 hours a day. I am never not on the clock. I could have certainly been better about setting my phone aside and responding to people the next day. The lack of communication was on both ends and a prime example of this is the fact that I was unaware she was unhappy with any of this. It was never communicated to me. She said she felt I would have gotten upset if she told me but never gave me the chance to work on it. I am not a perfect person by any means and many times I do or say things that are misinterpreted by her as rude.
An example of this is a week or two ago I was trying to help her with a budget with her financial problems to try to set up a plan to get her on track. To note - I work in the financial industry and do this for clients all the time. She had mentioned that she owed me maybe $1,000 and she would get that back to me next paycheck. I said something like I think its a little bit more than that lets go through the transfers I have made to our joint account. It ended up being over $5,000. My purpose for doing this was not to make her feel bad but to realize how much I have been contributing. She took this as me trying to humiliate her. Was just trying to help and maybe my timing was off. She told me I have been too focused on money lately but I was only trying to make sure we were going to be ok. We still had quite a bit to pay for the wedding and my budgeting mentality was on overload trying to make sure we had enough.
The fact that she keeps trying to justify what she did by attributing that as a direct correlation to my flaws really bothers me. She keeps telling me that she is surprised I would throw away 7 years of a relationship away like this. I keep having to remind her that I didn't throw it away - she did with her actions. She told me that I told too many people too quickly and we could have resolved all of this between us. She also said that she wouldn't have had to talk to someone else if I was a better listener and communicator.
I have finally determined the extent of the affair which I actually believe based on the texts that I read. They began talking 1-2 weeks before via text. I don't know if they had met up before outside of work but this time around he had asked her to the park to play basketball and talk. She met up with him and they ended up making out. I truly believe it didn't go further than this YET. BUT, it would have in the near future I am sure. She says he is not her boyfriend. She also took off tonight and I have no idea where she is at - assuming with him or a girl friend.
It is an awkward living situation but I am hoping this resolves in the near term. I do think she wants me to get back with her and try to repair that. I think that the the main issue was a lack of communication that manifested for a long time. We got into a routine, lived our boring simple life and meanwhile this problem was never discussed and grew over time. She acted out instead of talking to me and also lied to my face/talked a lot of shit about me behind my back. She can be very sneaky and I don't think I can fully trust her again. Obviously this would be the easiest thing to do but I don't think I would ever be truly happy.
Understanding the root cause has helped me feel better. If nothing else, it will allow me to address my personality flaws/communication issues and see things from another perspective. I started hitting the gym today and will keep a routine going. I also plan on picking back up on studying for my CFP designation. I took the week off of work to focus on my mental health.
Today I called the wedding venue and officially cancelled the date. We were able to get some money back but lost a bit unless the date can be resold to another couple (unlikely). I also spoke with her parents again to keep them apprised. They live far away and I am sure are worried sick. I continue to let them know everything is fine and calm and they don't need to worry about their daughter.
I did some research and with interest rates where they are today I will not be able to find a comparable house for the mortgage I pay for this (can barely find an apartment for less nowadays). I think my best option is to try and buy out her share and have her find an apartment. She seems agreeable at this time. We will have an appraiser out to assess value and see what half of the equity would be and if that is doable for me.
My questions to you all are: Does this change your mind at all about the situation? Am I handling this properly? If not, what should I be doing different?
​
Notable comments:

At this point - I would stop giving her the platform to tell you that her cheating is 'because of you.' It's not. She chose to cheat. Instead of being an adult and having adult conversations in an adult relationship, she chose to cheat. The moment any of that shit escapes her lips - shut it down. She doesn't deserve to have your ear. She's hoping that if she says it enough, you'll start to believe it. Shut it down. 'Conversations are hallmarks of a relationship. You chose to cheat. It's over.' Rinse. Recycle. Repeat as necessary (personally, I'd be done with any conversing).
I hope the house thing works out. [link]

​

You have so many things that you need to get over before this relationship can be recovered. So in no particular order you have the following to consider.
- She is trickle truthing you and the chances that she is still not being honest with you are high. The simplest way to put it is the time honored axiom that "kids kiss, adults fuck". Unless she can be completely honest with you - even knowing that it may hurt you to know the truth - any trust you have in her will be non-existent.
- She has leapt straight into DARVO (Deny, attack, reverse Victim and Offender). This is sadly a classic cheaters move and you can see this quite clearly in trying to pin the blame for her actions on you. Sorry but you didn't magically hand her a card saying "please cheat on me, I'm a bad fiance". She did this of her own accord, for her own reasons and because even though she knew it was wrong, she did it anyway. None of this is on you.
- Even when the chips are down and your engagement is in the balance, she chose him over you and continues to choose him over you. At a time when you would expect that she would pull out all stops to be with you, she has decided - for whatever reason - to continue seeing him. Anyone in her position who feared the loss of their partner would be bending over backwards to show you that she is not who you think she is. Sadly, she has done the exact opposite and is doing all in her power to drive you further apart.
- She doesn't want you to "throw away 7 years of a relationship away like this" but isn't that exactly what she is doing by her actions? What did she expect would happen if she hooks up with a guy she has just met at the expense of the person she is supposed to marry? Sorry but no, she has thrown away 7 years, not you, her.
- Her lack of honesty to your face is now being backed up by a complete lack of respect for you. How someone can go from "yes I will marry you" to "nah, you never made me happy and this new guy I just met can" is not the way to build a life of joy and happiness on. Hell, if it was a house any right minded civil engineer would condemn the building before the foundations had a chance to dry. The foundations of this relationship are now in the realm of a sand pit in a swamp.
- The sum result of her blaming you has you now questioning your role in her affair. This is by design and is something that all cheaters do when faced with the consequences of their actions. She wants you to blame yourself so that you can play her game of "pick me". Now that you no longer wish to play she'll easily move onto the new guy and will not give you a second thought. For now.
As you say, you have taken action and have cancelled the wedding and stopped your engagement. You are handling this properly and you need to make it clear to her that once the sole thing keeping you together is dealt with - the sale/transfer of the house, that she will be out of your life forever.
So are you throwing away 7 years? No, you had it thrown away for you and you are just sweeping up the mess left behind by her actions.
For now, keep all communication between you restricted purely to the asset split. Tell her absolutely nothing about your plans, what you are doing in your life, etc. She lost that right when she did what she did. And if she tries to fill you in on what she has been doing, just pull her up with the simple phrase "I no longer care what you do, it's no longer my business."
"Understanding the root cause has helped me feel better."
But please also understand that there are no "root causes" for why she did what she did. That is all on her, on her own personal flaws in her character and morals and you had absolutely nothing to do with it. As you said yourself, she is very sneaky and this is just who she is.
So get your agreement done asap and even if you take a small loss and end up with a few months of eating ramen to pay her out, you will end up ahead.
And then once it's all done, start working towards being as indifferent to her as you possibly can be. [link]

​
NOTE: Please remember the brigading rule and refrain from reaching out to OP or comment on the original posts.
​

Friendly reminder that I am NOT the OP, this is a repost.

Hi all,
This happened in England, London.
I've been told by citizens advice and the police that this is a civil matter.
I've found an ad for a car on Facebook marketplace and arranged to view it. The MOT was expiring so they agreed to put a fresh MOT on the car. I met them at the MOT garage. It passed MOT with 2 minors. I then test drove the car to their flat (may not have been their fixed address). Did some further inspections and asked questions. Then the logbook and then I handed over the cash/ banked transferred part of it.
​
I then drove it for no more than 5 minutes down the road and the check engine light came on and the car was shaking randomly when idle. I then called and texted them immediately to let them know and asked to return it. They said don't worry it's been parked for months, the light would go away in a day or two. But, I didn't agree with this and insisted on taking it back but they refused. I then took it to the MOT garage to ask how it passed in the first place. They informed me that there was no light on the dash when they did the MOT and it's very, very likely that they wiped the car dashboard and then MOT'd it, and then the light would re-appear shortly after. They told me to get my money back. They also did a further check and noticed the car was in fact category D. This was not disclosed in the Facebook marketplace listing and they lied about the car not being in a crash when I asked about a scratch in the front bumper.
The mechanic then said the seller had been at his garage the week before trying to MOT a really messed up car but he didn't MOT it for him. So it very likely that he is illegally dealing cars. The mechanic said he'd be willing to give a statement to the police/ in court if I needed.
​
I then looked deeper into their facebook profile and noticed they used a fake name, the name didn't match the log book they gave me. I'm not sure what the law is around that but can they legally sell a car that is not theirs? They lied and said they bought the car 4 months ago but the last log book owner held it for 7 years, so that can't be true. They also had another facebook listing that was an obvious scam as it was a 7 bed 5 bath house in central London for £2.4k a month.
​
They texted me saying the car was perfectly fine when I test drove it and drove it off so they won't refund me. But if I had know they had wiped the car and the light was on before buying coupled with the fact that the car was cat D and they concealed it, I would never have bought it.
​
The police and citizens advice said I can take them to court but I believe they gave me a fake name and address so what can i do in this situation? Can I text them to formally let them know I'm taking them to court and need their full name and address? If so, what if they don't reply?
​
I've learnt my lesson, i'm not going to view cars on my own ever again. I'm a bit of a car novice. I'll HPI check before viewings and I'll have a mechanic thoroughly inspect the car before buying.
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Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.
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Thank you.

Ethical Anarchy
Every 1 million years, we vote on whether or not to keep Ethical Anarchy as a system.
Ethical Anarchy is a system based on the individual adoption of law. The only ground political contracs are the no killing, destruction or attempted destruction contracts, nor claiming ownership of the property except Simeon. A final ground ethical contract states that penalties for all crimes may be taken in blindness, pain, time or money. Simeon is immune.
Before, countries operated based off violence and war. Now they use money, lotteries and anti money to get better results. People had no real influence over the state. Even in democracies, the wisdom of the crowd was lost to bad education.
Ethical Anarchy has rules that distinguish it from old governments.
Law is individually adopted and enforced nonviolently.
People individually adopt laws that only apply to acts done against their person or property.
The "government" only has the power to keep you off of public property, not kill you. It has jurisdiction over the environment and streets. Any law enforced with prison, fines or anything else must be approved by a majority of the public in a referendum via ethical contract. There is no death penalty for anything other than murder, and that is decided individually or locally per star system, where life in hell or death are options in the death penalty referenda.
There is a judicial anarchy and rules for trials and appeals. Anyone can serve as a justice elector, but only has as much judicial power to share as people who vote for them. It takes a minimum of four votes to become a judicial elector, however a new ethical contract may decide. To have a trial, determine the size of judicial pool and how many judges you want. Judges are randomly selected from the drawn jurisdiction pool. Both victim and defendant pick half the applicable districts and can strike one of the other’s. They must also select a common language for the trial, if not then the language spoken by the most people on that planet will be chosen automatically.
Judges are rated by both the public and official rating services, or collections of rating services elected by the public that have a higher vote rate. Victim and defendant both rate judges after the trial. Highest rating judges are automatically selected. Appeals require you to bring in more judges.
There shall be one judge seat per 10,000 people judges serve a 10 year term. Each judge elected during phase 1 gets 1000 judicial points per vote they receive and bids on available judicial seats. Alternately, they can vote directly for candidates to fill each seat and use approval voting.
Good vs. Evil is replaced with left vs right as a main dichotomy and driving force in society.
Law enforced via warrant contracts.
All have authority to act in situations that require someone to act when they can
Land points used as money.
No force, just subvention as a means to enforce laws.
No destruction or death for anything other than murder, trespassing, breaking of ethical contracts and violating the bill of rights. This list may not expand without the 7/8ths consent of congress and the public in a referendum.
​
Media and Education Funding would be done via congressional grant with the president possessing a line-item veto.
Economy, Land Ownership and Integration.
​
All must work or go to school. Distributaries fund schools and set standards for payment for taking different subjects or completing assignments. Individuals in space get paid to go to school, and must use this money to pay for entertainment , food and gaming access. The more and better assignments you do , harder classes you take or tutoring you complete, and better grades you get, the more money you earn.
Money must be used by all to pay land taxes, food taxes, and identity theft and reputation damages insurance among other things.
Licenses to sell food, access or traverse a bounded area, peak, trade, warp, park, live in a home, eat in space cost money, and must be paid each time a service is used. There shall be at least two licenses to sell food issued per star system, and all must be distributed via auction. The final number of food licenses must be determined by outlawry congress, and limited to no more than 90% of the population. Transferable eating licenses are to be sold by multiple providers in packs of 50, with each 50-pack being auctioned off.
Money may also be earned by interacting with the human economy: Creating, Buying and selling books, ideas, media, or online shopping, design, data entry, or any other digital or creative service. Drones may also be rented and space vacations sold. All earth money earned by working an ordinary job is matched at a rate set by the tax property assessor.
All entertainment must be paid for and original creators, be they people or being, be paid for rights to view, copy or share their work. Beings must purchase entertainment licenses from original creators by accosting movie studios or otherwise remunerate them. Copyrights in space last a minimum of 200 years, with the final amount being decided by ethical contract.
Money supply:
A UBI of $1000/month must be given to all individuals, and a circulating money supply of 4x extra must be distributed via work, grants, school and lotteries. The UBI must be funded through taxation of all income and is the only government expenditure besides game funding. Earth money is convertible into space money. On earth, space money can be used to pay for church expenditure, spirit cards and media.
In space, earth money can be used to pay for media and buy land for kingdoms.
Land Ownership
All land must be assessed a land tax by property assessors- general elected y the oubic using RRV, and each property asessor having the power to assess properties proportional to their vote share. Simeon and the body public at large, represented and effecting their will via congress, own the property.
Land value tax is not to be not less than 1% or land value per year, used to fund UBI.
All must send their taxes to a local galactic treasurer elected by all in a galaxy, who runs a census and distributes the money minus their salary equally to all. They must state their salary upfront before election and take no more than that amount from the tax haul to pay themselves. Nonpayers get their property claims ignored and their property sold at auction with the money going to everyone else.
Land must be leased for a time specified in a contract, during which the land rentnever goes up. Whoever offers the highest rent per month wins. Permanent land ownership is forbidden.
Any group of 10 or more contiguous landowners may agree to bound their neighborhood and charge tolls for access or traversal to nonresidents. All must pay except those egressing and giving notice. Rates shall be regulated by ethical contracts. Control zones one galaxy wide must be established.
Kingdoms
Gods must fund kingdoms with people money earned from followers, businesses and ventures on earth. No space-earned money can be used to build your kingdom other than what was earned via congress.
License to operate planet-based currency exchanges may be given out or auctioned, with the method to be determined by ethical contract.
Policing
Police forces must enforce centralized law that an absolute majority of the population selects. There would be a monopoly on police funding, but decentralized forces may be able to do police work. Police consumer cooperatives may be established to compete, selling no more than 20 percent of stock to non owners.
All police forces must be organized as consumer police cooperatives, with a minimum of fifty members. unless a majority of a star system's residents choose to allow private police. Everyone must join one, and police cooperatives may self-defend or contract with external agencies for defense, serving as buyer's coops. All members of police coops must vote on police chief leading the department and sign a thirty year security contract.
Cooperatives will compete to provide property insurance and security to members. Any group of fifty or more people can start a security force and be legal to buy weapons. All security cooperatives are funded by the people they serve and everyone must join one.
Anyone who is properly trained can do policework in ethical anarchy. Any person can make an arrest after attending free or paid police education. Police would be able to enforce orders of outlawry on the population. Only trained police officers could make arrests. Police forces would operate independently and be able to outlaw rogue agencies after a trial, where agencies representing a ¾ majority of the public could convict and shut down a police force.
Police services would partner to respond to calls and trade tokens. If police force a responded to a call from someone in police force b, then police force b would need to respond to one call from police force a in the future.
No cooperative may be created excluding customers from a segment of the population and compete to hire centrally trained and licensed police officers. No limit on police licenses given out may be issued.
Police Coordinator
Elected by the police chiefs of all forces one vote one police force, most votes wins. The police coordinator is elected by all cooperative leaders in a system, sector, galaxy and universally. Cooperatives decide who votes for them. Additional funding may be given to cooperatives based on membership.
Central Police Chief
Chosen by Jungle primary FPTP.
No special power to kill, just right to evict trespassers from public property and transfer to rison.
CPC appointed officers would accompany those seeking to arrest individuals for a bounty to make sure rogue agencies couldn't make false arrests. A court established by congress or ethical contract could outlaw an agency found to be in breach of local guidelines for operation, like extortion.
Funding
Services would be funded via warrant contract. Contributors to essential charities a majority of the public likes, like educational and health services would band together and refuse to buy, sell or admit people who traded with those who didn't contribute. Alternatively, they could simply charge them more. This works for the military too. For business owners, they would pay personal income taxes or their personal homes and property would not be protected and crimes against them would not be investigated.
Prison and Outlaws
All prisons could be run either privately or publicly by the highway police. All would be funded via warrant contract. Regulations for prisons and police would be created by congress.
Who may outlaw? Only a democratically elected judge or their delegates chosen by an absolute majority of people in any given area. This implies a two stage election w/runoff. FPTP with runoff if no candidate receives an absolute majority should be used.
Higher levels of government might offer veto and safe harbor to an outlawry notice.
Who can arrest?
Anyone if someone is a suspect. And there’s the issue.
​
President is elected every two weeks via approval voting and can serve up to ten years in a row before they must resign. The president must maintain a high approval rating and keep their coalition energized to stay in power. Politics would be fun. Debates would be held all over the place. Approval voting means you could vote for as many people as you wanted. The president would have the power to..
Appoint prosecutors, one fifth of judges to the supreme court and lower courts,
They may veto congress and the results of referendums, pardon criminals and commute sentences. They may also appoint the heads of agencies open during their term. Terms of heads of agencies are decided by congress.
President appoints theme leader, and may create as many positions as they need for their administration.
Kudzumi
​
Tax collection. Taxes, I'd they exist would be collected socially via warrant contracts. Nonpayers would be refused service at businesses or be charged higher prices because taxpayers would band together and refuse to patronize businesses that didn’t. It’s far more likely that nontaxpayers would pay extra.
Congress
Everyone has a right to create a party for congress and collect the votes of nonvoters, gathering petitions from those who want to give their votes to a party for a given length of time, say, 2 weeks to 5 years.
Congress would consist of a single unicameral legislature with 1 seat per 10000000 people. Parties would be elected. Uninterested voters may be able to give their votes to a party or congress as a whole as mentioned. Congress would establish agencies, tribunals and provide oversight. They could impeach and remove a president from power. They would also hold contests..
Congress could make rules enforceable by deprotection, outlawry or confinement to home or building with a simple majority. Congress could not force, but relies on society and local governments to implement its will. It could also withhold funding.
A good ethical anarchistic congress can..
Congresses have the ability
To fund, subsidy, To mint To tax gods and people.
To create universal educational and other requirements for bounty hunters and police.
To establish by law and have Thaos enforce a land, wealth, and income tax and any other tax they so desire. To grant To establish roads and prisons and other infrastructure To imprison with simple majority To kill with unanimous consent minus the person accused or their representative. The required majority may not be lowered. To regulate the use of force in society. To regulate the dichotomy To raise an army, navy and police forces to suppress insurrection and false claiming. To budget and law the economy and work trade, investment and businesses To create banks To license and control businesses To establish copyrights, trademarks and register or renumerate original ideas. To establish themes and technology taxes To fund games and prizes on game shows. To rate To establish mediations To regulate advertising and media. To spread the word and issue proclamations and directives to lower congress and attach democratically decided (by congress) stipulations.
To kill with the 99% approval of all members in each house of congress minus the representative(s) of the person effected and their locale or home district.
To outlaw and deprotect with a majority.
Congress may refuse to fund or give grants to businesses for any reason, including effusing to require a person to follow congressional law, which might be approved or rejected as a package.
To create all laws assistant and just to serve these ends.
Police and Security Districts
Are drawn by the president or people in referendum, and the map must be approved by congress. Everyone voting in one may select the police chief.
Collective Action
Collective action gets accomplished voluntarily through collective action contracts or labor lotteries where you get paid to sign and remain on-call.
Terror and Ethical Anarchy
Voluntary monitoring of Extremist views and voluntary censorship and reporting via individual anti-terror contract, no sig, no job, you are looked at suspiciously.. And do not serve.
War and Military
People who donated to the military and businesses woohol supported it would refuse to hire noncontributors. The goal is for everyone to support the military, so those who did not support it could not buy houses
Education funding
Would occur via warrant contract, lottery or Human Capital Contract or the nominal budget
Would be funded using all kinds of things, including Human Capital Contracts and Diverse Microinvestment
All constitutions must respect and not violate the full bill of rights in the original constitution listed here.
The constitution that gets the most Thaos verified signatures in two weeks in th is chosen for four hundred weeks. No person may stop signatures from being gathered.
Forms of government are chosen every hundred weeks.
Border Control
Access to zones in ethical anarchy would be established via a pay to enter system or free at the community's request.
Nominalism pays
Political problems come from guns your guns. How deserving are polticians to decide how they are used?
Discrimination. Discrimination is bad. How can an ethical anarchy handle discrimination when local majorities support it? Ethical anarchy can do just as well as a democracy does when businesses discriminate. All it takes are smart warrant contracts. Businesses need supplies from all over to function. Those who refuse to hire or serve an underpriveleged minority can lose when other businesses boycott their suppliers or charge them extra. This will force them to go out of business or stop discriminating. Customers who support discriminatory businesses can be charged extra when they shop elsewhere, as may workers or owners.
This makes gathering and arresting suspects easy even en masse as they do it themselves. People who refuse to turn themselves in for questioning are most likely guilty, so crime solved itself. The less crime, the more resources there are to solve the little crime that exists, making us better at it. Everyone could be investigated eventually, and road cameras or overhead blimps could surveil the territory.
Ethical Anarchy
Weapon, Tool stores and gun stores would be required to record all buyers.
Any underhanded purchases would be caught by a double sting system. Purchases without proper identification would result in shutdowns and sentences. Gun store owners would be rewarded for reporting people who attempted to buy guns without the proper identifying info. They would have their property seized, sold and go to jail.
As for gun store owners, they would have their businesses, personal property and possibly lives taken if an unauthorized buyer successfully bought a gun. They would go to jail for life at the very least.
To operate without violent mobs burning down the store, gun stores would work with local police and advertise the fact in the window. No person would try buying a gun without valid ID.
All transfers of guns and lost or stolen guns and other weapons must be reported. Or else you go to jail or pay. However, any time you have a gun to someone who used it in an aggressive shooting you would be fined.
Gun safes and checkups would be handled by the gun store so they didn't get taxed.
Deterring crimes. More stings may occur than crimes. The media may report this. And report on successful stings. This would replace most bad news. Anyone could participate in or start a sting operation.
Ask are you buying a gun for someone else? And do some stings. Asking to or offering to straw purchase would be crime.
Refusing to allow mediators in to your house to search or arrest would be seen as suspicious.
Voluntary Congress and Fun
Ethical Anarchy can be made far far better with a universal basic income and voluntary congress. Congress would pay you a stipend of four hundred dollars every month as long as you obeyed all laws it passed. There may be a requirement to obey several dozen laws or so on and stop receiving money if you refuse until you turn yourself in.
Another way to run it is t are incentivize people to sign ethical contracts individually from a central fund and use reciprocal democracy to fund laws. This just means politicians get paid based on how many votes they Recieve, giving them an incentive to vote well.
Contracts and Enforcement
All contracts notarized by a congressionally authorized individuaal could be considered valid In reality. And thus enforced.
Penalties for Murder
Economic imprisonment is the best way forward, rather than prison.
For murder, a person would be burned for three times as long as they and the victim had been alive in addition to modern slavery. They would be chained to a work facility, weighted and fed by their employer or get food subsidies for authorized food. They would have ninety percent of their wages or more taken and the rest used to buy time away from fire. While prison costs money and resources, and death takes them away, this creates them. When not at work or in the bathroom, the prisoner slave would be blindfolded.
They could also be burned.
Why ethical anarchy? A story.
Democracy is better than dictatorship, but it's still rule by the few chosen by the mostly uneducated. Democracy is bad on rights. If the government can kill you, it has too much power. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat. Ethical Anarchy is excellent on rights because everyone only has power over their own property and bodies, not yours. Collective property like air, water and roads are managed publically through democracy and local congresses. Your stuff is managed by you.
Individual property is managed and well taken care of by people.
But at the same time, collective property accessible by those paying for it's upkeep will be managed by an elected manager.
Anyone who wants to access collective property may if they pay a fee. Only those who pay may enter or use it. Stewards are chosen by paying members or a central authority.
The author suggests that property upkeep be auctioned off to the lowest cost highest quality firm via contract.
Democracy works sometimes, but other times it doesn't. Imagine if we democratically decided what to eat for dinner instead of letting people make their own choices. In ethical anarchy, personal rights and freedom win every time because the system is built off of it. Ethical anarchy protects the smallest minority of all, the person.
Unified police training
Voluntary Congress and Fun
Ethical Anarchy can be made far far better with a universal basic income and voluntary congress. Congress would pay you a stipend of four hundred dollars every month as long as you obeyed all laws it passed. There may be a requirement to obey several dozen laws or so on and stop receiving money if you refuse until you turn yourself in.
Another way to run it is to incentivize people to sign ethical contracts individually from a central fund and use reciprocal democracy to fund laws. This just means politicians get paid based on how many votes they Recieve, giving them an incentive to vote well.
Contracts and Enforcement
All contracts notarized by a congressionally authorized individual could be considered valid in reality. And thus enforced. n issue may be having congress deenforce certain contracts with a 2/3 majority.
Lottery
Lotteries can be used to enforce law by providing inspiration to obey rather than force.
Captain of Police chosen by Daily approval voting.
Consumer Safety
And now, for the piece de la resistance, consumer safety. The chief of justice would run an agency tasked with listing all business service providers that were up to snuff. Nobody would shop at a business that didn't have the seal. Lying about approval would be grounds for a raid and closure of the business. All businesses would be required to have insurance to cover loss and damage before they opened up in a city. God may also regulate it. This would be regulated by deprotection. The list of ethical contracts you and your business have signed enabling the consumer safety authority to investigate you would be publically displayed.
To be approved, grocery stores would only carry merchandise from approved businesses. Any business not approved would be allowed to warn

Ethical Anarchy
Preamble
In times, we have sought to create the most free, most fair, most joyous and happy society. Praise be to God, our journey is complete. We have lived through and seen dictatorship, the weakness of democracy and ineffectiveness of anarchy. We resolve to choose none of the preceding and avoid repeating the errors of the past. We the people of Paelia, Karine, Nara, Rallfallamine, Pellend, Cassini, Section, Trace and Ledder along with surrounding states combine to form an Ethical Anarchy, and name our new country Ethica, in honor of said system as developed by our founder and freemaker Simeon Burks.
Remembering the many just who died to ensure our liberty and freedom during the transition and war for congress,
All honor and glory be to, amen.
We establish a new state based on Non destruction and
Legislature
The legislature for ethical anarchy shall consist of the people and a bicameral Congress for outlawries.
The people shall freely adopt ethical contracts as they wish, with a fifty one percent majority of the public being sufficient to send power to an ethical contract. Once powered, violators of an ethical contract may not access, traverse or use public property. They must also submit to tribunals and punishments described in the ethical contract although they may not have signed. Until powered, ethical contracts only bind people who sign them.
No person may be forced to sign an ethical contract, but individuals and groups may require the adoption of certain ethical contracts for entrance, or membership. Failure to ratify an ethicalrecal contract is valid cause for firing or dismissal from a group.
The legislature shall have the power to outlaw a person or create reasons for outlawry with a fifty one percent majority in addition to the public. Members of Parliament shall have the right to broadcast ethical contracts to all on a monthly ballot. The legislature controls ballot access. The legislature may make any law with any penalty except death with a fifty one percent majority. Acceptance of law is mandatory to travel on public property. Congress shall regulate police divergence, arrests and academies. Congress may regulate the economy and choose an economic system with a simple majority.
There shall be 454,000 seats distributed daily proportionally by party. The party getting the most votes selects the president.
The upper house (House of Gods) consists of 16,000 seats, and approves all judicial appointments, or regulations on god (not taxes) and standards for becoming one by a simple majority. Otherwise, legislstion needs only the first house. Thaos reserves a third of this house. It is elected by personal, national and local gods, each getting a vote number equal to the number of people supporting them, be they followers or voters. 40 year terms. The house of gods may block a lower house bill for up to 2 years or until the next election and regulate contests and coregulate space commerce. It, along with Chaos shall publish reports rating gods. It may rule on questions of the day and issue pronouncements via the figure.
The upper house shall select a yearly figure, chief distributary and person of the year. The same person may win up to two times in a row.
The vote gods possess in this house is cumulative. Gods choose a virtual district 1-sixteenthou and must stick with it for three elections.
Ethical contracts may only bind a person and their property, never third parties who did not sign unless the contract is mutual or about children, who may be considered collective property.
Ethical contracts must be voluntarily signed without coercion, although pressure and incentives can be used.
The legislature consists of a Congress for force that determines legitimate reasons for using force. No person has a unqualified legal right to use force, only valid and invalid reasons. Only a majority of people in both Congresses or the mediations it establishes may determine if a particular use of force is valid.
Ethical contracts are enforced using warrant contracts, blacklisting, boycott and exclusion from the use of public property if a contract is mutual. They may also specify other penalties.
When a person who has not signed an ethical contract acts against someone who has not signed it, the person not signing is indemnified unless the contract was powered with a majority vote, in which case the person breaking the contract is subject to legal action.
Ethical contracts cover acts done against signing people on public property, the private property of signers and the private property of nonsigners if signers are there, but not the private property of nonsigners if no signers are around.
Simeon has a prenalty of twenty million at 999 nonbinillion cubed providing immunity from all nonmurder crimes.
The territory allows no individual or group destruction or government issued a death penalty. If someone is outlawed nobody may protect them and they may be hurt or killed by any person.
Outlawry may only be used in cases of murder and for people failing to report to arrest, questioning, or prison.
Executive
The leader of the day selected by the largest party possesses the right to unilaterally appoint judges of the day and police chiefs. They may make any policy or appointment, subject only to veto by the guardian council and standing council. They may be impeached and removed by a 4/5 vote of either. Policies and appointments may last 1 day. The same person may be reelected 5,200 times in total, and for 1400 days in a row. Every two years we elect a special Leader of the day who serves a two year term. This person serves as a long term planner and appoints or oversees the election of visionaries at local discretion.
Guardian council is a 10,000 member council of randomly selected citizens who pick the highest numbers minus the top 4000. As selects. Standing council is all interested citizens who voluntarily join. They can block any action of the leader by majority vote as may congress.
The Congress may create congressional agencies and staff them at it's discretion.
A Standby Emergency Director shall be selected via mass petition. The person with the most votescollected in 4 days wins a three month term. Voters may vote for as many candidates as they want. The SED shall have the power to coordinate and lead emergency response if Congress declares a state of emergency for up to six months. The same person may win twelve times.
Law Enforcement
Every level of government is to elect a chief of police coordination and emergency response to oversee investigations and arrests and choose watchers.
If someone is listed as an outlaw by a congressionally established mediation or Congress itself, any person may make an arrest and Recieve a reward if the subject is captured alive. There will be a fine if the subject is killed during arrest unless watchers oversee the arrest and verify it was conducted lawfully in accordance with congressional rule
Prison
Prisons are public, private and mixed. They are to be regulated by law. Refusing to voluntarily go to jail to await a trial or sentencing is automatic outlawry.
Warrant Contracts
Warrant contracts, or pledges not to trade with people who trade with other people
Security
The people shall elect a monthly minister of security via petition. The person with the most signatures by the end of the month wins the position. The Minister of Security shall oversee regionwide defense and intelligence.
LSDD is Provisional Minister of Security until a new one is elected.
Security Districts to elect local police chiefs are drawn by the Minister of Security. Police chiefs elected every three months.
Naos is part of the security plan. XDD must be made programmed to resurrect chaos.
Judicial
Daily judges elected by leader of the day service all typical cases. Every second year, the second leader of the day appoints two year justices who serve as a court of appeals. Judges must be allowed to complete cases they start regardless of whoever appointed them's term being up.
Everyone is entitled to nine appeals before they go to Naos or a religious court.
The lower house of congress shall create an act organizing the supreme court (s) and visionaries. Congress shall create cours in addition to the 11 member Supreme Court. They shall approve or reject supreme court nominees by the Emergency Director.
For Ethical Anarchy Territory, As shall Staff the thirty five member supreme court.
The supreme court is the final arbiter of appeals for all cases on or in the territory.
There shall be sixteen districts throughout the land, each of equal population. District map drawn and approved by Chaos and Force Congress. God's compete over districts courts and the right to organize or sponsor police departments.
Property and Land
Chaos registers property. Simeon owns the land and caretakes it for Ethical Anarchy.
No person may be kept on a persons territory by force.
World and Environment
Simeon owns Naming rights. The environment the constitution may regulate is defined as any public or private property that flows into and intermixes with public property. (i.e, air and water) The public may regulate activity in and on such.
Ballots and Information
Individuals may create ballot listing services compiling a list of ethical contracts for readers to sign. The parliament regulates fraud and valid signature collection. It is not the government's responsibility to gather and list all Ethical contracts in one place.
The government may establish signing houses for people to sign notarized ethical contracts free of compulsion and mandate their use. Alternatively, they may send people who were listed as signing an ethical contract a notification.
Money and Minting
Simeon owns the minting and Economic system. Money must be used to pay taxes, buy a $10,000 weekly travel pass, land, play games and view media, but land and travel expenses. Simeon shares the mints with Congress. You earn money by attending school and going to parties or by playing sports. School attendance pays up to 15,000 weekly with good grades paying more.
Permanent Seats in Congress
Simeon Satan Narissa Shan Sitch Saddeus Entamion
Thaos reserves thirty percent of Seats in Congress
Chief Visionaries
Tiara and Vivian
Each selects 1/3 of Visionaries who serve at their leisure.
Visionaries serve a minimum of fifty years and promote and demote people in government positions and can recall elected and judges officials, comment on ballots, create themes
3 CommentsAwardShareSaveComment as Equal-Upstairs-213 CommentMarkdown ModeSort By: Best📷📷level 1Equal-Upstairs-213·just now
Kingdom funding
1ReplyShare📷level 1Equal-Upstairs-213·just now
Proxies.
Police chief
oathkeepers, forgeries, lotteries figure of the day, rolling agenda. strategist,
Figures of the day, month and year elected every so often.
President elected every four months
distributaries and contests chief chosen by president.
Figure: 1/3 popular vote 1/3 congress 1/3 presidential college every 4540 years.
Media grants, advertising distribution, education regulations.

Law: Treaurer of ethical anarchy with power to distribute UBI and set sschool salaries elected by all via JUngle primary FPTP with runoff if someone fails to receive a majority.
Law: Interpreting Ethical Anarchy is the responsibility of Simeon, RHo and Sitch and fmy mother and father and Entenny. They may clarify and add addendums to law.
1ReplyShare
RIder
Land Works like what? Asessor rrv
Maps and districting?
A territory may be split when..
Game based
Vote games for outlawry congress and elected congress. % of territory captured equals percent of senate seats you get. Outlawry senate.

I'm not particularly a religious person. I never really connected with the idea of believing in a God or a Devil; something like religion never really resonated with me until the night a few of my friends and I explored the Lockwood house.
My mother gave me a laptop this morning; she thought that it might help me cope or whatever so here I am, typing what I remember. I haven't been able to sleep; there's a shadow that stands in the corner of my hospital room at night, and sometimes I hear voices inside my head telling me to do things, and I'm terrified.
No one believes me. They keep stating that my traumatizing experience must have triggered my anxiety. They called it a dissociation or detachment from reality, I think. Whatever. I know that what I saw in that house was real, and what had happened to my friends actually did happen. We just wanted an experience. We never really stopped to evaluate the risks that might come with it.
I guess I'll start from the beginning.
It was Friday morning, and I decided to kill some time in the library across from my high school. The greatest thing about being in a library was the calming atmosphere. I leaned forward on the worn sofa and rolled my eyes as I turned the page.
What? I scoffed. Why is this even a thing someone would think is even remotely attractive?
[ I am a lot to handle, but I can assure you that you'll have fun handling me, love ]
Seriously? I've met drunk perverts hanging outside of bars with better pick up lines than that I thought to myself. I didn't think it could get any cringier until I read the next line.
[ My heart did an unexpected flip, startled by his bizarrely attractive smile ]
I frowned inwardly. You know what you really need instead of a creepy-ass stalker boyfriend? A cardiology consult
"So annoying," I sighed. How is this tripe a best seller?
"What's annoying?"
"Oh, shit." I squeaked. I sat upright and turned around, instinctively about to clog the person when I realized who it was. Harlen leaned up against the wall with a tilted smirk on his face. He stood between me and the fluorescents.
Harlen was a fellow classmate and a friend of Mark's, who was an older guy Albie, and I guess Harlen hung out with. Harlen was a tall, attractive guy with an athletic build, short obsidian hair, and grey eyes. To quote the main character in the novel, Harlen was the kind of trouble smarter girls than I had fallen into with disastrous results and a few regrets.
My cheeks flushed and I closed the book as he cocked his head at me. "Did I seriously scare you?" He joked, but his smile faltered slightly as I glared up at him.
"Dude," I groaned. "Don't sneak up on me like that,"
"What? I didn't sneak," He crossed his arms over his chest in protest. "No sneaking was involved. I just walked over here. And to be fair, this is a library-silence is sacred in a library so technically we're supposed to sneak. We're also the only ones in here right now anyway, so who cares."
My eyes did a pointed sweep of the decidedly empty area before settling back on Harlen's with an unamused glower. "Yeah," I said. "I'm pretty sure the zero other people in here appreciate the deceptive aura of calm. What are you doing here?"
"Well, actually I was doing some research for a paper I'm writing for English." He tightened his grip on his bookbag. "I was told I'd find you here," He explained.
"Why?" I asked. "I didn't tell anyone that I was here."
"I've got my ways of tracking people down."
When he saw my expression, Harlen rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on Kaya. I'm just kidding! Is it really that weird that I happen to be in here the same time as you?"
"I guess not."
"I'll let you get back to reading, then. Oh," He started. "I almost forgot. Meet us down at the Love Triangle for lunch. I found a cool place for us to urbex."
My friends and I loved urban exploring. Most of the time it was exciting and exhilarating. Sometimes it was a challenge; some places were remote enough that you could simply walk in through the front door like a welcomed visitor. Other times we would be forced to climb up over fences or crawl through windows.
There was this one time we decided to check out a drainage tunnel because a few people have sworn they heard ominous laughter coming from it. Water seeped into our clothes and we shivered at the coldness. I remember that I cracked a joke about the movie "IT" when we suddenly heard a loud BOOM right next to our heads. I have no idea what caused the sound, but I doubt that it was anything paranormal.
I was in the middle of stabbing at a large crouton with my fork when Harlen, Albie, and Jessica took their seats at the table.
"Hey, Kaya," Albie said as he sat down beside me. Albie and I have been friends since we were little. He was a skinny black guy with a box fade haircut and light brown eyes. We were neither popular nor unpopular. We were what some people called, "drifters" and, according to Albie, those whose social standings meant that if he made random eye contact with someone in the halls he would probably get a nod back, and maybe even a quick "Hey" or "What's up" If you didn't know us personally you'd likely assume that we were siblings, especially with the way we acted around each other most of the time.
"What took you guys so long?" I asked, pointing my fork in his direction.
"It was my fault. I'm sorry." He grumbled, as he unzipped his lunch bag. "Mr. Wizzner chastised me for like, ten minutes."
"To be fair, You were looking at your phone in class." Jessica said. Jessica was Albie's girlfriend, a petite girl with long blond hair, and hazel eyes. "And that wasn't the only thing,"
Albie sighed. "You're not wrong, but he's kind of an asshat."
"You should use that filter once in a while," Jessica said.
"Oh baby, since when have you known me to have such a filter?"
"Oh please," I scoffed. "You just choose not to use it."
Albie gave me a frown and tossed a baby carrot my way, which I was able to dodge easily.
Harlen cleared his throat as he pulled out his phone. "So, shall we get to it, then?"
The Lockwood house had been abandoned for years now, but a few people who have walked the trail close to the place have claimed they could see the spirits of the family walking around inside, and others had even heard music coming from the house. When they went to investigate, there was no one inside.
In 2010 Ethan Lockwood brutally murdered his wife, Anna Lockwood, and her parents Steven and Isabelle Thompson in the middle of the night. Authorities found Anna's parents dead in their bedroom; both of their bodies were in pieces, and their daughter's body was found in the basement. Anna had multiple blunt force head injuries and what's worse, her eyes and tongue were missing. Ethan's body was found in the living room with a shotgun beside him, and a deep laceration on his neck. People have compared this to the Amityville horror - which was a huge reason we were doing this.
"Get this," Harlen said, as he scrolled down. "There was a survivor - a ten year old boy. He also had a twin brother, but he was never found."
Some have assumed the father killed him and buried his body somewhere on the property, and others have assumed the boy escaped and is probably alive under a new identity. I guess we'll never know.
"Holy crap. What happened to the boy who survived?" I asked.
"I don't know. I guess that part was kept confidential," Albie said. "For the boy's protection I guess."
"Poor baby," Jessica frowned.
"So," Harlen said. "Are you guys up for it?"
◇
We all crawled into Harlen's truck around 6pm and headed to the Lockwood house. Albie took his video recorder and held it in front of his face. "Hey, what's up guys, gals, and nonbinary folks!" Albie spoke with conviction as he stared wide-eyed in the video recorder. "We're going to prove that ghosts are real!"
I rolled down the window and glanced out at the scenery. I laughed to myself when we passed a large cornfield. "Guys, this seriously looks like we're going straight into a modern day horror film."
"It really does," Jessica agreed.
"I can already feel this place, I'm beginning to sweat all over." Albie exclaimed as he turned his camera to the window then back on himself.
"Like something about this place isn't right at all? That's pretty understandable, considering." Harlen said, turning down a gravel road.
"We're gonna recieve a ton of views for this!" Albie smiled. He turned the camera toward Harlen who waved back from the review mirror.
"Dude," Harlen chuckled. "I bet some of these viewers are going to think you're crazy because you're willing to allow something to throw you across the room and-possibly-murder you for content."
We pulled up to the gate in front of the two - story colonial home. There was already a green van parked outside the gate to the property. Mark greeted us at the gate with a colorful bottle of vodka. Mark was an average looking guy in his early 20s with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. He raised the bottle in his right hand with shot glasses in the other.
"Hey, guys," Mark handed each of us a shot glass. "Did you get here alright?"
"Oh yeah. I've driven passed this place a couple of times, I didn't even need the GPS" Harlen said.
"This definitely screams illegal." I commented, pointedly toward the large house.
"Only if we get caught, but this place is abandoned so I doubt we'll get into any trouble with the law." Harlen said.
"I'm giving you alcohol, and you're more worried about "breaking and entering"? Mark laughed.
Albie took his shot of the Three Olives Loopy vodka and made a face. "This tastes like Tucan Sam fucked me."
"Ew," Jessica grimaced.
Harlen and I laughed. Mark only snorted.
After we each had several shots of vodka, we got ready. We each grabbed a headlight in order to keep our hands free, gloves, and disposable face masks and placed them into our backpacks, along with first aid (just in case). Mark had been urbexing for a while, and he was always prepared with supplies just in case anyone forgot to bring something.
"So, what happens if we're not alone in the house?" Jessica asked.
Even though urbex sites are technically "abandoned" that didn't mean you wouldn't run into other people inside like squatters or addicts, and they may not react well to seeing a stranger in their space.
"It's a good thing I brought this along," Mark said. He pushed his jacket aside and revealed a hand gun tucked inside its holster.
"Holy crap, man." Harlen said.
"I can't believe you brought a gun." Albie said.
Jessica and I were speechless. It's a good idea to bring some sort of self defense tool just in case your physical safety is threatened, but bringing something like a gun raises the risk of you accidentally injuring yourself.
"Of course I did. It's always good to carry protection." Mark explained.
A few minutes after, the five of us walked up to the large rusted gate. With a little bit of work, we each slipped through the bars and headed up to the house.
"You know those haunted attractions where people dress up in order to scare the shit out of you, except it's actual demons and they're going to steal your soul!" Jessica smiled beside Albie who threaded his fingers through hers. "It's actually kinda thrilling."
"Awesome," Harlen smirked. "I'm glad you sound so optimistic about it."
"I try to be!"
We stepped up onto the porch, which wrapped around the front of the house. The paint on the door was chipped with age in places. "Are you guys ready?" Harlen asked. "Once we enter this house, we will possibly become vulnerable to any demonic presence that might reside here."
I rolled my eyes. "If I'm in serious danger, I'm getting out. I'll throw myself out the window if I have to."
"I'm on Kaya's team," Jessica agreed. "Team rational."
"What, and risk getting a broken leg?" Albie asked.
"Better a broken leg than having your soul taken by some kind of entity." I replied.
"Alright, guys let's do this." Harlen said. He opened the door and the five of us headed inside.
The front door opened up into a foyer. Straight ahead of us was a staircase that led up to the second floor. There was a spacious living room to our right and a dining room to our left, and from there, an alcove enterance that led into the kitchen. I could tell that this place had been abandoned for years; there was cobwebs and peeled paint on the walls. There were remnants of furniture left ripped, dismantled, and stained which laid disorderly on the floor of the living room, reminding me of death.
This had once been the home of a happy upper-class family, full of life. Now it was replaced by ghosts of the past, vermin, spiders, dirt, and trash. The smell of rot and the taste of regurgitated food made me grimace in disgust.
"Why hasn't anyone fix this place up and put it back on the market?" Jessica asked.
"Who really knows," Albie replied.
"Hello!" Harlen announced as he twirled on his heels. "Are there any spirits here?" I glanced over at Harlen with a look and he shrugged.
"Is this what you guys imagined?" Mark queried.
"Sure, minus the dead bodies," I walked into the living room and spotted a mid century record player console propped up against the wall next to a grand piano. There was a record still on the turntable, "Tonight You Belong To Me" by "Patience and Prudence"
"Hey, come check this out." Out of curiosity I placed the stylus and tried turning it on, not really expecting anything to happen. I jerked my hand away when it began to play.
I quickly took the needle off, a little creeped out. "Holy crap, that scared me."
"That thing still works?" Albie asked, as he inspected the record player. "That song is kinda sweet,"
"No it isn't," Jessica frowned. "It's the kind of song you would hear while being tortured to death."
After we goofed around a little bit, we all decided to begin exploring around the house. Mark started up the stairs and asked if anyone would like to join him.
"I'll join you, man." Harlen said. He gave me a wink before heading towards the stairs with Mark, and I glanced over at Albie and Jessica as they disappeared down the hall.
I was alone.
I walked over to the piano, and carefully lifted the lid up and over to reveal its keys. My fingers traced the lines in between them and pushed down lightly on a few. The deep sounds reverberated around the room.
My eyes drifted up to the small picture frame sitting on top of the piano. I absent-mindedly bit my bottom lip and reached up to grab the frame. My fingers trailed across the picture, leaving an oily impression against the glass that held the picture in place. A family of four stared back at me and I realized that it was Ethan, Anna, and their twin boys. I was so focused on the twins that I almost didn't hear my phone alerting me that I had a new text message.
It was a text from Albie.
From "Albie" at 6:45pm: Meet us down in the basement. I want to show u something.
To "Albie" at 6:46pm: What is it?
From "Albie" at 6:46pm: There's some cool shit down here. Hurry up.
I rolled my eyes and placed my phone in my pocket as I made my way down the hall. I paused at the top of the basement stairs. I could hear Jessica and Albie, the beems from their headlights bouncing around.
"Albie?" I called out.
"Yeah, Kaya, we're down here." He replied. "Come on down. We have something to show you."
"Alright, I'm coming down hold on." I carefully descended the stairs and turned the corner. "So, what did you want to show me-"
My voice died in my throat. It was dark down here, and my friends were nowhere to be seen. I was gripped by a sudden sense of unnease. I stood near the stairs and turned on my headlamp. "Hello? Albie, this isn't funny, dude."
What answered me was silence. Absolute silence. I was alone, or I thought I was until my light fell onto something moving a few feet in front of me. It was an androgynous looking kid around my age with pale skin, shoulder-length black hair, and violet eyes. They wore a long sleeve gothic cloak poncho, over thin black leggings. Their lips pulled back into a malicious grin as they came closer to me. I watched in horror as their eyes rolled to the back of their head and their mouth split open wide, revealing sharp teeth.
They reached out for me and I screamed in terror, my instincs finally kicked in. I bolted up the steps, and stumbled into the hallway. I ran for the front door and tried to leave, but it wouldn't open. What the hell?! that made no damn sense! My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. Suddenly I felt something touch my shoulder. I screamed, ready to defend myself.
"Hey. Hey! Kaya, stop it's me, Albie."
I stopped struggling as my eyes refocused on the familiar faces in front of me. Albie, Jessica, and Harlen stared back at me with confused alarm.
"Are you alright?" Harlen asked. "What happened?"
I shook my head and quickly glanced behind them at the basement door, but there was nothing there. I know I hadn't imagined it! I turned my attention back to my friends. "I saw something down in the basement! I want to leave. Now."
"What are you talking about, Kaya? Hold up, did you see something down there? Holy shit. The ghosts didn't think one of us would see them, but we did. Can you-"
Before Albie can finish his sentence, I roughly pushed him away from me and turned back to the door. "Damnit, Albie! I don't want to be in this fucking house anymore! It won't open! Why won't it open!"
"Seriously, Kaya what the hell?" Albie asked, almost annoyed.
"Just relax, Kaya. Let me give it a try, alright?" Harlen offered, calmly. He grabbed the knob, but it stayed shut. "What the hell?"
"See? I told you it won't open!" I hissed.
"What do you mean, "it won't open" let me give it a try." Albie shoved his way passed us. He motioned for all of us to stand back and we watched as he tried to use his whole body against it.
"M-maybe the door's jammed." Jessica exclaimed. "Let's chill out. The front door isn't the only exit out of this place."
"Jessica's right. Let's try the door in the kitchen." Harlen said. We entered the kitchen and Harlen quickly made his way over to the screen door that faced the forest. He cursed under his breath. "Damnit. Nothing."
"Hold up, guys. Where's Mark?" Albie asked.
Harlen quickly pulled his phone out to call Mark when we all collectively got a text from him. Reminding us that we had set up a group chat for easy contact. Harlen glanced back at me with an odd expression I couldn't name. I opened my texts and a sharp stab of dread settled in my stomach.
From "Mark" at 7:05pm: I'm down in the basement, Harlen. Where r u?
From "Mark" at 7:06pm: Harlen is that u? It's not funny, man.
Harlen texted Mark that we were all in the kitchen. I watched as the three small dots in a text bubble pending before it disappeared and Harlen's cell phone rang. He answered and placed Mark on speaker phone.
"What the hell do you mean you're in the kitchen? I definitely heard your voice down here."
Harlen cursed, and told Mark to make his way to the kitchen. Harlen started toward the basement and we all followed right behind him. Before we could reach the stairs to the basement, however, the door swung shut, the force of it knocked us backwards. We heard Mark's gun go off several times followed by his peircing screams of terror before they were abruptly cut short. In our inebriated panic, I failed at the last second to realize we were all running in different directions.
I remember running up the stairs and locking the bathroom door behind me. My heart pounded painfully against my ribcage as I fumbled for my phone, thankful that it hadn't fallen out of my pocket. I willed myself to control my sobs and called 911, but for some reason my call wouldn't go through.
"Nononono! Fuck, please no." I collapsed against the bathtub and cried into my sleeves. Paranoia nearly consumed me once I thought of my friends and every horrible scenario when I received a text from Albie. I looked at it confused.
I wiped the snot from my face and quickly texted him back. How in the hell was I able to receive his texts when I couldn't get ahold of the cops?
From "Albie" at 7:20pm: Apparently we can contact each other in this house, but our phone's service seems to be cut off from the outside world. Where r u?
What the hell is going on in this place??
To "Albie" at 7:21pm: I'm in the upstairs bathroom. Do u know where Harlen and Jess are?
From "Albie" at 7:25pm: Jess is with me. I don't know where Harlen is.
My stomach dropped, but before I could reply Albie sent another text, and what I read made my blood run cold.
From "Albie" at 7:25pm: There is smthing moving in the hallway outside the room we r in. Stay quiet and keep ur phone on silent. If we need to contact each other use text.
It was around thirty minutes after when Albie replied with another text updating me with their situation. The thing stalking outside their room a while ago was gone now, and it hadn't come back.
From "Albie" at 8:00pm: We're going to make our way to you. Stay where u r
To "Albie" at 8:02pm: Ok. Be careful.
I slowly got to my feet and set my phone down beside the sink and took a deep breath to level my breathing. Suddenly, I heard something pound against the door. I screamed and stumbled backward. "Holy shit!"
"Kaya?" It was Harlen. "Kaya, is that you?"
"H-Harlen?" I collected myself and made my way over to the bathroom door. I walked into the hallway, relieved that I wasn't alone anymore. Harlen was safe, thank God. "Oh my god, Harlen I'm so glad you're-"
I gasped, and I stumbled forward as the door behind me slammed shut. I felt a sudden wave of dread wash over me as my eyes swept up and down the vacant hallway. Whatever was keeping us here tricked me. I quickly tried going back into the bathroom, but it wouldn't open, not only that but I left my phone by the sink. "No! Damnit!" I needed my phone, it was my only way to stay in contact with my friends, and how was Albie going to know where I was? I had two options, I could try and make my way to Albie or find another place to hide.
My heart thudded loudly in my ears as my headlamp bounced off the walls, chasing nothing more than shadows. I stuck close to the wall as I made my way down the hall. From somewhere down the hall, I heard a voice call out. It was Albie's voice telling me to come over to him. I hesitated for a moment. What if it was another trick? It definitely could be since whatever is toying with us was capable of mimicking voices. What if it really was Albie? Regardless, I had to go passed the room if I wanted to find Albie or another place to hide.
"Kaya, we're in here," Albie whispered to me as I got closer to one of the bedrooms. I hesitated before I stepped inside. The bedroom smelled awful, like rotten meat hung out in the sun for too long. My headlamp's light swept the room until it landed on a lone figure lying face-up on the bed.
"...Albie?" I whispered, tentatively. My voice sounded thin, like old paper. The figure on the bed didn't answer, but when I crept closer, I slipped on something wet. I glanced down at the floor. It was blood; a trail of blood led in from the doorway all the way to the bed. "Oh my god!" I screamed. My stomach rebelled and I heaved out my lunch until I couldn't expel anything else.
My throat burned as I wiped my mouth, and my chest hurt from sobbing out his name. Mark laid sprawled on the bed, his abdomen was ripped open and what remained of his entrails spilled over his body like a gory blanket. I stumbled backward, I fell against the door closing it shut. I was about to leave when I spotted the gun tucked under Mark's jacket.
Oh god, this was probably the worst decision ever and the likelihood that this was yet another trick was high, but I needed something to protect myself with. I've watched Mark use it before when we all went camping a year ago, so I kind of knew how to use it. I steeled myself and started toward the bed.
The closer I got the more I can see the damage done to his body; his abdomen and chest cavity were open and hollowed out. The skin looked like it was rolled back, torn and ragged. His sternum was completely gone, a few of his ribs were cracked so they protruded from either side of his body like fangs. Half of his bottom lip looked like it was chewed off and his left ear was missing. I shook my head and tentatively reached out for the gun. Just as I grabbed it, I felt something gooey covered on the grip of the gun.
I yelped and dropped it on the floor. I cursed and bent down to pick it up. Once I did I wiped the substance off with my sleeve with a grimace and made sure the safety was on. I was tucking it into my jacket pocket when something dripped onto my hand. I looked up and saw Mark or what used to be Mark looming over me from the ceiling like Spiderman. His eyes were oily black, his face twisted in an agonized and vengeful expression. Before I could move, he threw himself at me.
Somehow, I managed to dodge him and wrench the door open, hitting Mark as he lunged at me. The blow was hard enough that it sent Mark sprawling across the floor. I rushed out of the room and back into the empty hallway. I took a chance and looked back, but Mark wasn't there.
When I reached the end of the hallway, I felt hands grab me and pull me around the corner. I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand clamped over my mouth, silencing me. Panic cut through my body like a hot blade, and new found adrenaline flooded my system as I twisted and shoved at the person holding me immobile.
"Kaya, stop," Albie hissed. "It's me."
I turned around and my eyes widened with tears as Albie released his hand from my mouth, and Jessica pulled me into a hug as I told them what happened. Albie pointed towards the stairs and motioned for us to follow. Albie led us into the foyer. We heard movement in the basement so as quickly and quietly as we could, we crawled inside a closet across from the living room.
"What are we going to do?" Jessica asked. "We have no weapons!"
"I found this on Mark's body." I exclaimed as I showed them the hand gun.
Albie got to his feet. "ah, crap...I'm going to be right back. I left my camera in the kitchen."
"What? Hell no." I hissed. Splitting up is a terrible Idea! Risking his life for that damn camera? Was he an idiot?
"Just stay here, alright? Kaya, keep that gun out." He said, with no room for an argument. "Whatever this thing is, it can mimic our voices so we'll need a password to distinguish them from us." He took out his phone and typed Last Alliance
After he left, I crawled over to the door and locked it. I sat down next to Jessica who was sobbing. I turned to her and placed my palms to her tear stained face. "Hey, Jess. We'll make it out of here alright? I promise-"
Jessica shook her head and pushed my hands away from her face. "Don't say that shit to me. We're going to die here, Kaya!" She hissed. "Why is this happening? I wanna go home!"
I sat back against the wall and sighed.
Ten minutes later I heard movement coming from outside the room. I quickly got to my feet and placed my hands on the door.
"Last Alliance," Albie whispered, rather quickly. "Hurry up and let me in."
I hadn't even released the door knob when Albie pushed passed me and helped Jessica to her feet without much protest on her end. "Shit, it was him all along."
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"I caught it on camera!" He whispered frantically. "The reason he brought us out here wasn't to-shit-" he was breathing hard. He moved toward me and shoved the camera in my direction. "Here, hold onto it for-" His sentence was cut off abruptly as the thing that used to be Mark drilled his fist into Albie's chest from behind. Albie's eyes widened as his mind had come to the realization at what happened.
Mark dropped Albie's body on the ground and his lips twisted into a manic grin as he examined his blood-covered arm. "He was spying on us," Mark said, but it didn't sound like Mark anymore. His voice sounded like several voices overlapping, fighting for center stage. "He didn't think that we would notice, but we did."
We screamed, and holding onto the camera with one hand I pulled her toward me with the other, quickly. We couldn't save him, and I knew that if we didn't move now we would end up just like him.
Jessica and I bolted down the hallway and back up the stairs. We found an empty room that must have been a personal office at one point, and barricaded ourselves inside. I cursed when I noticed the room we were in didn't have a window wide enough for us to escape through. I sat against the wall beside Jessica who sobbed into her sleeves.
I glanced down at the camcorder which felt heavy in my hand. What did Albie capture on camera that had him so upset? I turned it on and what I saw on the screen made my blood run cold. It was Harlen, the kid from the basement who stood beside Harlen, and the thing that used to be Mark; Harlen was speaking to him, but it was in a strange language that I couldn't understand. After he was finished, the thing that used to be Mark knelt down as if Harlen was some kind of royalty, and that was where the video stopped.
I heard that thing right outside the room we were in. He was telling us that no matter what we did, we were not leaving this place. A few seconds later, he broke through the door, pushing the desk and chairs out of the way with ease. With the force, one of the chairs knocked me to the floor.
He released a sick and twisted laughter, and stalked toward me, eyes filled with malice. Jessica grabbed something heavy from the floor and chucked it at Mark. Mark was startled for a second, and then slowly turned his attention to her. She yelped and frantically swept her eyes around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. He lunged for her and they collided to the floor.
I fumbled for my jacket's zipper for the gun, but I was too late. I watched in utter horror as he ripped into my friend; her screams of terror and agony will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. I pulled myself to my feet, my back bumped into something hard. A metal filing cabinet. Mark turned his attention back on me, but before he could reach me, he tripped over something and he fell to the floor. I shifted, and using my whole body weight, I managed to tip it over. It landed on top of Mark with a sickening crunch of bone and viscera.
I slowly made my way to Jessica's body and collapsed to my knees. I clutched at my own head and screamed until it hurt. At that moment, all I wanted to do was crumble in defeat. My voice had broken into heavy sobs so loud and ugly that I almost didn't hear Harlen's footsteps behind me.
"Kaya, is that you?" He called out to me, his voice full of worry. I was hardly listening to him. This was his fault! Rage spiked through me like a knife to my gut, it twisted and turned until I was all ground beef inside; I had the sudden urge to pull the gun from my jacket and-no, I had to calm down. Maybe if I feigned ignorance, I might still have a chance to escape, however slim that was. He bent down, and I let him pull me along with him without protest. With his eyes forward, I slowly put my hand on the gun.
We were almost to the kitchen when Harlen turned around, and leaned against the wall. "So, you know, don't you."
It wasn't a question. I slowly pulled out the gun, unlocked it, and trained it on him. He stared at me with an unsettling expression, and I could have sworn his eyes were black. I suddenly felt an intense pressure pour down on me. I could feel a miasma of something intense as his eyes bore into mine; my arms trembled with the effort of keeping them aloft. The gun clenched tightly in my hands like a life line. I couldn't faulter. I knew that if I did, even for an instant, Harlen would undoubtedly kill me.
"Oh, don't be like that, Kaya. You're not getting out of this house unless I say so, so let's just chat, hm?"
I shook my head and raised the gun to his chest, and for a brief moment I caught a glimpse of a surprised expression on his face when I pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot reverberated around me. I pulled the trigger again and again, but the gun was empty. I dropped it to the floor, my hands shaking. He glanced down at himself. "Huh. Well, would ya look at that, you managed to get me through the ribs, good job."
I was running before Harlen finished his sentence. However, he wasn't coming after me-at least not yet. Figures. I couldn't leave this place so he had no reason to put much effort into the chase. I stumbled through the house, catching myself on overturned furniture in order to keep my balance as I made my way towards the stairs.
I tripped over something and I caught myself against the wall across from the stairs. I paused for a moment to catch my breath. The house seemed to resonate with his manic laughter. I glanced behind me, and I felt a wave of cold dread as he sauntered toward me down the hall. Hands in his pockets, with an almost amused expression.
"Where do you think you're going, Kaya?" He asked. "Didn't I tell you before?"
The words, "There is no escape" suddenly appeared all over the walls in blood. I cursed, and pushed myself off the wall and bolted up the steps, down the hall, and into one of the bedrooms and quickly closed the door. I looked around at what was once a child's room. There was a twin sized bed in the center of the room, a nightstand across from the closet, and a bathroom.
I spotted a decent sized window and I ran over to it, but it wouldn't open and I cursed when there was nothing around me to break it with. Without any time to come up with a plan, I quickly slid underneath the bed and turned off my headlamp. I immediately cursed at myself again, of all the places to hide I chose the first place any one would look!
I contemplated whether or not to find another hiding place, but before I could move I heard him make his way down the hall singing that creepy ass song. "My honey I know with the dawn that you will be gone, but tonight you belong to me, just little 'ol me~"
The bedroom door opened. I covered my mouth and tried to silence my breathing, hoping to God that he wouldn't find me under the bed. I watched in fear as he closed the door behind him and made his way over to the bed. The bed dipped slightly as Harlen's weight sank onto it. He told me things I didn't want to hear and more. This monster-this demon-slithered into our lives just for all of this to happen.
My eyes widened and I tucked my arms to my sides, the wooden bed frame gave a protest above me as Harlen laid down on top of it. Then he sighed, almost forlorn. "This was my brother's room, you know. Coming back here brings back so many memories,"
Right after he said that I felt something prickle behind my eyelids. I shut my eyes tightly as gruesome scenes appeared inside my head. There was so much blood, and images shown of a young boy in pajamas stalking through the house with an ax in his hands picking off his family members one by one-doing things a normal child his size wouldn't be able to do, but Harlen was anything but normal. I felt bile rise in my throat but I managed to keep it down.
"The final stage of grief is acceptance, Kaya." He said. His cruel voice brought me back to the present. "You have a lot of spirit, I like that. I'm also in a good mood so I'll give you two options: you can either die here or you can come with me. You should be grateful that I'm even giving you an option. So, what's it going to be?"
I opened my mouth and closed it again; what was I supposed to say to something like that? What was going to happen to me if I said yes? If I said no...
A low growl -yes, a growl- rumbled above me and I felt something snag my ankle. I panicked, my fingers tore into the wooden floor as I was dragged out from underneath the bed. I was thrown across the room, pain shot up my back as something bit into my spine. Harlen straightened up and started toward me. I quickly averted my gaze, the panic swarmed all over me like a hive of angry bees.
"Wh-why are you d-doing this?" I asked, my breath hitched between sobs.
Harlen knelt down in front of me. "Hey...hey look at me, Kaya."
Absolute terror gripped me as he forced me to look at him. His features weren't human; the light of the moon highlighted the inhuman planes of his face. Black, spidery thread-like lines creeped around his forehead and right beneath his oily black eyes. His mouth had split open, wider than any human mouth was capable of.
His nails grew long and sharp against my chin. It was mesmerizing, fascinating almost, like watching a lion's face before it tears yours off. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe; my lungs felt swollen and inflamed, my hands came up to my throat as I coughed and wheezed. Was this an asthma attack? No, it was Harlen.
"When I ask you a question, do not answer it with another question do you understand?" He snarled. "You will understand why when you arrive. Now, will it be a yes or a no?"
His features calmed and he looked human again, and whatever power on me broke, it allowed me to inhale sharply. I gasped. I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to rage. Instead, I dropped my hands on my thighs. I wanted to live.
◇
"Kaya, honey" My mom said, as she came into my hospital room, "You've got someone to see you this morning! One of your friends from school, I think."
I placed my book down on the table beside me. She bent down and gave me a kiss on the forehead. "And he's very attractive," She whispered, "It's not every day a tall handsome boy comes to sit by your bedside."
I nodded and gave her a small smile as my chest filled with dread. The doctor informed my mom that I was found in the middle of the woods, unconcious by a young man. She had no idea what really happened to me or what happened to my friends'. Harlen told me that he had ways of covering his tracks so there was no use in telling anyone what really happened. It didn't matter if I did or not because no one would believe me anyway.
Harlen came around the corner with a bouquet of flowers. My mom smiled at him and walked toward the door, "I'll just leave you two alone. What did you say your name was again?"
"My name is Harlen," He said, as he stepped forward. "Harlen Lockwood."
"Nice to meet you, Harlen," She said, smiling back at him before exiting the room.
Harlen placed the flowers on the table and sat down next to the hospital bed, he placed a hand on my thigh. "I'm so glad you're feeling better, Kaya." He said. He gently pushed a loose strand of my hair out of my face and gently tucked it behind my ear. "Remember what we talked about. You will come to me after you are discharged from the hospital,"
I shivered at his touch, and out of curiosity I asked, "What happens if I don't?"
Harlen let loose a dark chuckle. His head dips until his lips skate by the curve of my ear. "Then I'll hunt you down." He whispered to me like it's obvious. "I'll kill you and everyone you care about. I'm capable of all sorts of horrors; things you can't even imagine." I watched as Harlen stood up from the seat.
"Now, I've got a few things to do before you arrive," Harlen said, smiling down at me. He paused by the room's door. "I'll see you soon."
His visit was a few days ago. I've made up my mind; all of those lives are dependent on me. Everything that happened that night was real. I know that most people won't believe me, but to be quite honest I don't care anymore.
[Update] I just got the news I'll be discharged tomorrow.

I find these fascinating, but have never, ever had anything weird happen to me. I probably wouldn’t believe it happened if I was alone.
I was with my daughter this past Saturday looking at cars for her (suburbs of Chicago). I was not 100% familiar with the area, but had been through many times in my life. We exited the highway at an exit I had driven by dozens of times, and had to take a frontage road about 1.9 miles to the first car dealer we wanted to see. It was down the frontage road about 1.9 miles from the exit, then a right hand turn, then about .25 miles to that first dealer.
We looked at a car at that first dealer, then left to look at a second car at another car dealer a few minutes away that we wanted to compare the first car with.
We left dealer 1, and I took one right hand turn out of their parking lot, and went about .5 miles in the opposite direction of the frontage road we came from, then a second right hand turn, and went about 2.3 miles to the second dealer. All of this travel was in towns, and the 2.3 miles was on a country roads/highways in an upscale, developed area with subdivisions and houses scattered about. There were no weird turns or angles, pretty much straight shot from one to another.
After we left the second dealer, we realized the car we saw at the first dealer was the one we wanted, so we left the second dealer and turned down the exact same road we came down, I know this with 100% certainty, as in zero doubt - it would have been virtually impossible to screw that turn up.
We start driving and I plugged in the address of the first dealer to make certain I don’t miss it - it’s on a busy road with quite a few dealers and didn't want to drive by.
We drive for a couple minutes, and I notice it says almost 7 miles back to the first dealer, and was like WTF is happening, I stopped and checked that I plugged in the address properly - it was accurate. I asked my daughter if she noticed anything or if I was zoned out and did something weird and turned the wrong way. She was also 100% certain we left the exact same way we came and was freaked out that we were so far away. There was literally only one other way to go, and we 100% did not take that wrong way out of the second dealer.
It gets even weirder, the GPS has us tracking toward that same frontage road we exited the highway onto, but about 5.7 miles farther back, like we somehow ended up on that same frontage road, only somewhere near an exit that was before the original one we exited from.
Somehow we ended up almost 4 miles farther down this frontage road than we were when we left the highway to see dealer #1. We kept driving and then saw our original exit, passed it, and drove back to dealer #1 and got her car.
We didn't notice any time loss, weird landscape or anything out of the ordinary, except for somehow being turned around completely and sent back several miles without even noticing. I do not have history saved ion Google Maps so I cannot see if I did something weird, or if there was some anomaly.
After we went left the first dealer with her car, she followed me home and everything was perfectly normal. Could I have been stressed or zoned out and made a wrong turn along the way? Possible, but based on the route I cannot figure out how I could have even done that, and I thought my daughter would have been able to notice if I did that too, but I obviously cannot rule that out 100%.

Salem SWAG is a grassroots pedestrian advocacy group devoted to enhancing the transit experience for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.
We are hosting our quarterly meeting on Saturday, 4/1/2023, at 10:00 am. This meeting will be held at the picnic tables behind Waite & Peirce on Derby Street (at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site). In case of inclement weather, we will reschedule to 4/8/2023 (same time and place).
Meet with other vulnerable road users to discuss ways in which Salem can enhance safety for users of our sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, multi-use paths, and other transit ways. Agenda items for this meeting include organizing walking/cycling awareness demonstrations and identifying action items that we can share with city council and our incoming new mayor.
All are welcome! At our last meeting, we were able to spearhead repair of the pedestrian crosswalk signal at Washington and New Derby streets. We have had attendance from city councilors and members of the Commission on Disabilities in the past and are looking for another robust turnout in April.

Hello! I am planning to visit the national park on the second week of May, and wondering if anyone has any suggestions either Glacier or Teton is better during that time? I have booked the car rental in Kalispell and able to get the good rate vs in Jackson (more expensive)?
Also, any recommendations for the place to stay in Glacier or Teton?
Thanks!

I saw the reflection of the eyes on the metallic “Ozette Lake Camp” sign. It was a pitch black night, but somehow I could see them clear as day. I turned around with a start, terrified that it was a bear or a cougar, but when I shined my flashlight all I saw was a deer staring back at me.
I heaved a sigh of relief, and cursed under my breath. I returned to my task of hastily filling out the campsite registration card so we would not awake to a knock on our car camper when a ranger came through. I slipped it into the metal box, and turned to walk back to my campsite, to find the deer still staring at me.
I had thought my flashlight had scared it stiff, but I realized it had not moved in the five minutes my flashlight had shown elsewhere, and had simply been staring at me the entire time. As I slowly walked back, for some reason I felt compelled not to take my eyes off of it, and I watched as its eyes followed me, until the white orbs retreated into the dark.
I got back to our campsite as my boyfriend James was just finishing dinner. The camp was empty except for us, so we had picked the first site we saw that let us park our SUV to face Ozette Lake, so we could wake up to a nice view. I picked up my bowl of hastily prepared stew, and ate with him in the dark.
He cleared his throat, "You're quiet, what's up?"
"There was a deer at the campsite registration kiosk."
He chuckled a bit "I imagine there's plenty of deer, I saw a whole herd grazing as we were driving up the road to get here."
"This one was different. It was staring at me"
I could hear him slurping his food down quickly, doubtless as anxious for sleep as me. "So what? It was probably frightened."
I gulped. "Yeah, I guess."
He sat his bowl down, and started cleaning the pot he had used. "Anyways, I have the bed in the back of the car setup, let's get to sleep so we can wake up early tomorrow, Sand Point isn't going to hike itself."
With that, we both climbed into bed, locked the car, and went to sleep. It only took five minutes before I heard him snoring. I smiled to myself at how easy he slept, and tried to put the deer out of my mind as I fell asleep.
I woke up with a start. My boyfriend was snoring softly, still fast asleep. Something deep inside told me something was wrong. I looked out the window next to me. It was still dark outside, but the clouds had cleared a bit to reveal a sliver of the moon. In the moonlight I could just barely make out a figure, maybe 20 ft from the car.
It was the deer. The same deer. I couldn't see it very well, and it isn't like I can usually tell two deer apart, but somehow I knew it was the same one. It was still staring at me. I felt my heart beat faster and my stomach churn. Something about this just felt off.
But I thought about what my boyfriend had said. It was just a deer. Maybe I was wrong and it wasn’t even the same deer. It had probably just seen me move inside the car, and was scared. Besides, the doors were locked, I was entirely safe. I did my best to fall asleep quickly.
We woke up to a beautiful orange sunrise on the lake. We got out of the car, and started stretching and preparing breakfast. The camp toilets were out of service for the season, and so we each took a turn at walking the quarter mile to the toilet by the day-use parking to use the restroom.
The hike we had planned started out amazing, a walk on a boardwalk in a beautiful forest, out to a desolate beach with waves crashing over the rocks. My boyfriend and I laughed at my worries about the deer, and somehow in the daylight, all of them seemed to melt away. It all seemed so silly to me.
As we walked the beach, we eventually came upon the giant rocky hill at Sand Point. I was the first of us to manage to scramble up it, excited to see the view of the coast and forest from the top. I took photos in every direction, and breathed in the ocean air. I stared back at the way we came for a few minutes, admiring how beautiful the forest was from above.
Then I saw it.
At the very edge of the trees I could just barely make out a deer. It was staring at me, its head pointed up to see me atop the rock. I started hyperventilating, and looked down at my boyfriend still scrambling up the rock. I told him I wanted to leave. He asked why, and I dodged the question and told him I just wasn't feeling good. He was disappointed at cutting our hike short, but said okay. When I looked back up towards the forest, the deer was gone.
We hiked back to the car quickly, the forest seemed quieter than before, it made me uneasy. I knew I'd have to tell my boyfriend sooner or later why we were leaving, but I didn't want to fight, I just wanted to get home.
I packed up the campsite while my boyfriend made one last stop at the toilet. By the time he came back, our campsite was packed up back into the car, and we set off down the 20 miles of gravel road to get started on the three hour drive back to Seattle.
We arrived home, and as soon as we got in the door I felt better. Life went back to normal, and I started to think I had just been crazy and imagined the whole thing.
Then I got the call.
It was 9:00 PM yesterday when my phone rang, I picked it up to hear a voice on the other end that sounded very tired.
It was the park service. They had gotten my number from my campsite registration, and wanted to interview me. A body had been found in the toilet near the day-use parking lot. I felt my stomach drop as they went on to describe the body, describing my boyfriend down to his birthmark.
I looked towards the kitchen where I could hear him making our dinner. I got up as quietly as I could, and crept out the front door and into my car. After locking the car doors I just sat there in shock, not sure what I should do next. I looked up at my rear view mirror to back out of my driveway.
It was only then that I saw my boyfriend. He standing behind my car, silently staring at me.

I saw the reflection of the eyes on the metallic “Ozette Lake Camp” sign. It was a pitch black night, but somehow I could see them clear as day. I turned around with a start, terrified that it was a bear or a cougar, but when I shined my flashlight all I saw was a deer staring back at me.
I heaved a sigh of relief, and cursed under my breath. I returned to my task of hastily filling out the campsite registration card so we would not awake to a knock on our car camper when a ranger came through. I slipped it into the metal box, and turned to walk back to my campsite, to find the deer still staring at me.
I had thought my flashlight had scared it stiff, but I realized it had not moved in the five minutes my flashlight had shown elsewhere, and had simply been staring at me the entire time. As I slowly walked back, for some reason I felt compelled not to take my eyes off of it, and I watched as its eyes followed me, until the white orbs retreated into the dark.
I got back to our campsite as my boyfriend James was just finishing dinner. The camp was empty except for us, so we had picked the first site we saw that let us park our SUV to face Ozette Lake, so we could wake up to a nice view. I picked up my bowl of hastily prepared stew, and ate with him in the dark.
He cleared his throat, "You're quiet, what's up?"
"There was a deer at the campsite registration kiosk."
He chuckled a bit "I imagine there's plenty of deer, I saw a whole herd grazing as we were driving up the road to get here."
"This one was different. It was staring at me"
I could hear him slurping his food down quickly, doubtless as anxious for sleep as me. "So what? It was probably frightened."
I gulped. "Yeah, I guess."
He sat his bowl down, and started cleaning the pot he had used. "Anyways, I have the bed in the back of the car setup, let's get to sleep so we can wake up early tomorrow, Sand Point isn't going to hike itself."
With that, we both climbed into bed, locked the car, and went to sleep. It only took five minutes before I heard him snoring. I smiled to myself at how easy he slept, and tried to put the deer out of my mind as I fell asleep.
I woke up with a start. My boyfriend was snoring softly, still fast asleep. Something deep inside told me something was wrong. I looked out the window next to me. It was still dark outside, but the clouds had cleared a bit to reveal a sliver of the moon. In the moonlight I could just barely make out a figure, maybe 20 ft from the car.
It was the deer. The same deer. I couldn't see it very well, and it isn't like I can usually tell two deer apart, but somehow I knew it was the same one. It was still staring at me. I felt my heart beat faster and my stomach churn. Something about this just felt off.
But I thought about what my boyfriend had said. It was just a deer. Maybe I was wrong and it wasn’t even the same deer. It had probably just seen me move inside the car, and was scared. Besides, the doors were locked, I was entirely safe. I did my best to fall asleep quickly.
We woke up to a beautiful orange sunrise on the lake. We got out of the car, and started stretching and preparing breakfast. The camp toilets were out of service for the season, and so we each took a turn at walking the quarter mile to the toilet by the day-use parking to use the restroom.
The hike we had planned started out amazing, a walk on a boardwalk in a beautiful forest, out to a desolate beach with waves crashing over the rocks. My boyfriend and I laughed at my worries about the deer, and somehow in the daylight, all of them seemed to melt away. It all seemed so silly to me.
As we walked the beach, we eventually came upon the giant rocky hill at Sand Point. I was the first of us to manage to scramble up it, excited to see the view of the coast and forest from the top. I took photos in every direction, and breathed in the ocean air. I stared back at the way we came for a few minutes, admiring how beautiful the forest was from above.
Then I saw it.
At the very edge of the trees I could just barely make out a deer. It was staring at me, its head pointed up to see me atop the rock. I started hyperventilating, and looked down at my boyfriend still scrambling up the rock. I told him I wanted to leave. He asked why, and I dodged the question and told him I just wasn't feeling good. He was disappointed at cutting our hike short, but said okay. When I looked back up towards the forest, the deer was gone.
We hiked back to the car quickly, the forest seemed quieter than before, it made me uneasy. I knew I'd have to tell my boyfriend sooner or later why we were leaving, but I didn't want to fight, I just wanted to get home.
I packed up the campsite while my boyfriend made one last stop at the toilet. By the time he came back, our campsite was packed up back into the car, and we set off down the 20 miles of gravel road to get started on the three hour drive back to Seattle.
We arrived home, and as soon as we got in the door I felt better. Life went back to normal, and I started to think I had just been crazy and imagined the whole thing.
Then I got the call.
It was 9:00 PM yesterday when my phone rang, I picked it up to hear a voice on the other end that sounded very tired.
It was the park service. They had gotten my number from my campsite registration, and wanted to interview me. A body had been found in the toilet near the day-use parking lot. I felt my stomach drop as they went on to describe the body, describing my boyfriend down to his birthmark.
I looked towards the kitchen where I could hear him making our dinner. I got up as quietly as I could, and crept out the front door and into my car. After locking the car doors I just sat there in shock, not sure what I should do next. I looked up at my rear view mirror to back out of my driveway.
It was only then that I saw my boyfriend. He standing behind my car, silently staring at me.

Someone tried to steal my car this weekend luckily I was not living in my car yet but have been prepping for it. I’ve briefly slept in my car (years ago different car) before and I know all the basics. My car windows are tinted when looking for more window coverage i’ve been looking for subtle options. I know where you should and shouldn’t park. There is nothing obvious in my car but unfortunately it’s a trend to steal Kias….so not sure what I can do at this point.
I do housesitting and petsitting so I mostly would be in people houses but there would be days or possible a week or two in between sometimes where i’d need to sleep in my car.
The people who broke into my car (breaking the window out) had left a replica gun behind (assume when my alarm went off the got spooked dropped it) it was a replica but I didn’t know that for several hours so I was extra freaked thinking if i had been on my car they would have had a gun on me.
The timing sucks I’ve had a rough year and was looking forward to my road life travels but now am anxious about it.
I’m starting to look into used mini vans which is better for car life but I did love my kia especially being a hybrid with all my driving but not sure if i can do car life is my car brand is just a constant target.
Any kia/hyundai owners have this issue?

Saw this on SGWA.org
Looks like permits for hiking are still being issued, but you may not be able to drive to certain trailheads.
​

Operating a motor vehicle on any National Forest System Road within the Mountaintop Ranger District, or on any National Forest System Road within the Front Country or San Jacinto Ranger Districts that is listed in Exhibit A.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1095216.pdf

Welcome to Turn 10

Introduction

Fiatala, unsurprisingly, continues to have happenings on it.
Ether made some giant Sky Whales, big enough for people to live on. He also looked over the Orange eyes left over by Larina and decided to investigate it inside Koldar’s Library. Also did some scans over the Ruins battlefield. Teruna enchanced her forest communion, the form of the Panther. She also threw in some glass for her followers. She also get something from the Subject halls, a Quatali, feathered serpent that can hunt anything down. Tapas created a Demigod, Hamza, of death. He also improves his sphere of life at the Forge. Arthras got busy making a few islands and improving Cultivation, setting up a nation on the island that enjoyed much better trade with the outside.
The War between Runari and Ital had no winners, unless you consider the God of Death collecting his due a victory.
The Pendor Empire prepares assault on the Ral Mountain fort, however is gonna win that, there gonna be a lot of dead. Makes sense, you don’t spend time making a military unless you plan to use it.
Kozilek was alarmed by Unzu, the new island nation stepping up it’s trade game and start launching new ways to get trade going. Making connections to Ral for example.

Links

LOG
Wiki
Map Map with Tiles World map
Civilization Progress Mortals are in Classical Era
Rules

Gods

Ether Of Change and Trickery 2 acts (+2) ss66seeker
Ekstasia Of Medicine and madness 10 acts (+2) KevRedditt
Sanguinarius Of Blood and War 9 acts (+2) StarOfTheSouth
Arthras Of Victory, Strategy and Knowledge 3 acts (+2) Atelle997
Teruna Of Forests and Mysteries 4 acts (+2) WHOSGOTYOURSKINNOW
Nyssa Of Spirits and Hearth 10 acts (+2) smcadam
Balhamut Of Oceans and Monsters 8 acts (+2) CruelObsidian
The Grey Spear Of Curses and Stone 5 acts (+2) DragoneyeCreations
Tapas Of Death, Agriculture and Life 10 acts (+2) TheLoreWriter
Xenagos Of Mercenaries and Mastery 10 acts (+2) Gwydion-Drys

Treasures

Tresure	Hold By / Used By
Koldars Forge
Koldars Library
Font of Creation
Subjects Hall
Bio-Forge
Throne of Command
The Sun Blade	Hold by Balhamut
Scythe of Harvest	Hold by Nyssa
The Ring of Hateful Family	Hold by Nyssa
The Grand Ring	Hold by Ether
Mysterious Amulet	Hold by Teruna
Merinas Spellbook	Hold by Balhamut

Mortal Happenings

Runari – Ital War - The War between Runari and Ital continues on. They are really dedicated on wiping each other out from the jungle.

Events

Event - Ruins During the Great war between Runari and Ital, some ruins is found in the newly shaped land.
Event - Hungry Kraken The Eastern Island enjoyed many years with the Kraken not interfering with their sailing out of Fiatala. Then, one day, a trade ship departed and as soon as it got out of range from the islands the Kraken ate it. A few days later, a Wu Tian trade ship came, and the Kraken ate it. A ship from the south arrived and the Kraken ate it.
The Embassies of both the Ahnk’ra and Wu Tian were very angry.

Prompts

Prompt - GIANT SKY WHALES! How do people react to these giant sky whales swimming around?
[+1 act]
Prompt - Demigods walking More and more demigods now walk Fiatala, how do people react to these walking titans?
[+2 acts]
Prompt - The cities of the Peninsula
Tell me something about the cities of the Peninsula.
[+1 act]

My main uses are ski coaching and mountain biking in the summer. I have old scratched Polarized (non prizm) Holbrooks that I have used without problems for years. Having just purchased the road jades, I noticed this weekend that my cheeks were getting sore from squinting through the glasses. Is this normal for non-polarized glasses, or should I be looking at the snow-specific prizm lenses since they are mostly polarized?
Will probably get a trail lens for MTB in the summer

Our lab at UT Austin is looking for participants for a study we're conducting!
Social interactions are tough -- how do we decide what to do and say? Does it matter if we are interacting with a close friend or a stranger? Funded by the National Science Foundation, our lab at UT Austin is looking for adults (must be 18 or older) to help us answer these questions. You may receive up to $50 in compensation and reimbursement for parking.
We'd love for you to join us! If you are interested in learning more and/or participating, please check out this survey and sign up for a lab session at https://utexas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_80ozgWnkIl7gm2y. Please don't hesitate to contact us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) with any questions!