We booked 6 nights with a superhost couple months prior to our arrival. We were excited about the place as it is a rare find, in a great location and has 4.9 stars from 200+ reviews. When we arrived, our baby started having a fever in the evening. While trying to rest, we could hear the neighbours talking pretty clearly in our bedroom and realize we were dealing with paper thin walls. It was waking our baby up despite using our white noise machine.
While trying to take care of our baby throughout the night and deciding when to take her to emergency in a foreign language country, our baby was crying on and off. She was generally easy to console. The longest she cried for was about 5 minutes and the neighbours banged on our wall really loudly which scared us and got our baby even more upset. After the incident, my husband and I had a lot of anxiety and felt scared that she would cry and whenever she was crying. And on top of it, her fever was getting worse despite medication. We realize we cannot stay here and decided to leave the next morning, urgently looking for other accommodations because of the anxiety we felt.
We communicated the incident to the host and expressed that we felt unsafe and uncomfortable, and we would be checking out. I even extended an apology to her neighbour. She suggested we take our baby to the living room when she cries to let her cry it out because no neighbours would hear us there. This doesn't align our parenting style as babies will cry at night and we let her practice within reasonable time frame to console herself when she's not sick. Since she was sick, we were by her side the whole time consoling her so we were doing our best. To do what she suggested, we would need to be sleeping in the living/kitchen area on a sofa bed. The house rules does have silent hours starting from 10pm to not make any noise. But we dont consider baby crying as noise. Where we are from, her crying would not be heard through walls and noise would be from tv, music, loud bass etc.
After taking the garbage out, and taking her to emergency, I finally was able to file a ticket to airbnb. Rather than canceling using the cancel policy, which would provide us with a 50% refund for any remaining days, I tried to negotiate a refund cost of 4 nights. Host didn't respond until the next day so I reached out to airbnb for mediation.
The host sent a lengthy message saying they cannot accept it because we could still stay at her place as long as we respect her silent hours. She continued saying that the neighbours must be uncomfortable too with the crying since they have work the next day. And there is no other way of letting us know that the crying is disturbing them. Basically, as we took it, condoning the banging. No matter what I said, she didn't understand how uncomfortable we felt with the banging and insisted that we could still stay there, and offers no additional refund.
Airbnb tried to speak with the host on our behalf but they refused to alter the cost. We actually canceled the second leg of our trip and the second host at least kept it open with an option to provide us further refund despite their cancelation policy. Other companies we dealt with gave us the same thing as courtesy. I tried several times with airbnb but the host refuse to provide us additional refund. The place is not cheap and we lost so much money because of her paper thin walls. We honestly would not have booked her place if we had known that her walls are thin and our baby cries would be a disturbance to her neighbours. There are other accommodations and 4 star hotels at similar price point at the location. Finally, we just canceled so at least we got a little bit of our money refunded. If I had known this, I wouldn't have bothered asking airbnb to mediate and got an extra day of the partial refund throug cancelation policy.
With the paper thin walls, and how the wall banging was addressed, would this experience warrant a 1 star review?
Technically, they did nothing wrong because they are following the rules. She was responsive throughout and dealt with all my questions quickly. The only other thing is their place is infested with mosquitoes but mosquitoes are common where we are vacationing.
She will probably give us a 1 star review in return saying we disrespected their silent hours and left the pots by the sink even though we paid for a hefty cleaning fee.
(House rule is to leave the place like we found it. Despite wanting to take our daughter to the emergency, we tried to clean the place as best we could, took the garbage out per host request, cleaned our dishes and the only thing is that we left the pots by the sink to dry. I know these are typical things you do at an airbnb but I suspect we will get 1 star review because of it.)
After this experience, we will never use airbnb again so yes, I guess her 1 star review wouldn't matter.
But if a place doesn't meet your expectation, is there anything that can be done to get money back? Because from our experience, it seems to fall entirely under the hosts discretion. So what is the purpose of airbnb customer service?

Been looking into doing a 10/22 build. Brownell's and Foxon are in my price range but both have bad reviews about loose barrel fitment. Also the Brownell's is out of stock. Don't know if the fitment problem is just with factory Ruger barrels or aftermarket barrels.
Just wondering if anyone here has used one for a build.

I’m a separated mom of 2 and I’m currently working as a house cleaner on the days I don’t have the kids for income. I basically charge $50 an hour which usually comes out to be $100 a house, the average size house takes about 2 hours to clean. My rates are rather low, I take pride in my work.
A women calls for a quote and her house is substantially larger then most (4 bedroom 3 full bath) she informs me she has 2 children in elementary school, and that her home is a new build. I told her my rates and that it usually takes 2 hours to clean a house. I figured since she went out of her way to mention it was a new build, that the house couldn’t be that messy.
I show up and she has not one, but 2 large dogs (one was a black lab, one was like a German Shepard) I knew she had dogs when I showed up to the house because the lawn was covered in shit piles. I asked her if she could crate her dogs because they can’t be underfoot when I clean, she responded “I would NEVER crate my dogs THATS ABUSE” so I asked if they could go outside or in the basement? And she was equally as disgusted about putting them in the basement and she tied them up outside.
This house was absolutely covered in dog hair, it was in every bed, on the couch, and every rug was covered with it. It took me 1 hour just to vacuum the hair alone. The dog hair was literally in my mouth when I was cleaning.
I cleaned the house to the best of my ability for 2 hours and told her going forward it will be more money due to the 2 dogs she has. She freaked out and said that I saw her house and how “nice it was” and now I’m trying to up-charge her. I said no, I saw your house and noticed you have two huge dogs, I told her it took me an hour just to vacuum hair and that going forward it’s going to take me 3-4 hours to clean her home appropriately.
She asked if I up-charge people if they have multiple kids? I said no because children usually don’t shed.
It ended on bad terms, and she said she was going to leave me a bad review.

SAs someone who has:

1. Completed all quests
2. Completed Badum quests
3. Unlocked Everything (Factions all 20)
4. Have 285/285 with gear and guns
5. Have around 8m - 10m Kmarks
6. Am at best average at straight up PvP, most of my success is from playing smart and cautious (making moves at the right time, rotating and repositioning in fights, coordinating with my team, counting shots, etc)

These are the following things that I have observed about the game, but more specifically after patch 3.4:

1. Most of my time playing the game is spent PvPing in duo and trio squads, helping out some of my friends do their quests, or just going around solo gathering cables for letium drills, doing data drives for dungeons, or farming pistons and aluminum for oil, or just doing jobs for scrips
2. Having 10m sometimes but nowhere to spend it on since my stash is perpetually full means that I have to sell perfectly fine guns such as Flechettes and Advocates to buy Kors and Brutes just to keep my money down so I can pick more stuff up to sell and not waste K-Mark rewards from jobs.
3. There has been a significant rise in cheaters after the patch. Before the patch, there were at best 1 cheater every 4 or 5 raids. Now it seems that there are cheaters almost every other raid, and raids without cheaters are either empty or full of white gear guys doing what white gear guys do.
4. Dungeons somehow outclass Lab Keycard rewards. I understand that they are not the same thing, but I have over 800 hours this season, not once have I found a Lab Keycard. Good thing I opened the Lab keyroom just before it got nerfed.
5. Due to all the end-game content being around the north-western part of Crescent Falls, the south-eastern part of the map is empty. The only people I ever find there are either white gear guys questing, or cheaters who ape for my brute that ran from Starport Warehouse.
6. Matchmaking is still not fixed. I still get trios in my Crescent Falls/Tharis raids despite being a solo. (I literally see their drops, no they are not teaming)
7. Before the patch, I had to forge around ~125x before completing the 10 Slags I need for Badum. After the patch, I have managed to get 5 slags in less than 20 forges, and got 2 slags back to back just a few raids ago. The drop rate may be slightly higher than intended, but the sample size of my personal experience may not reflect the actual statistics.
8. Tharis is dead. As someone who actually enjoys Tharis Island, it's frustrating to have my favorite map nerfed to the ground that no one ever comes there anymore except for some white gear warriors looking for a comeup or just mining Tharis Iron, or those who are there to farm slags. It's a shame, because currently, Tharis is the only map that is actually almost free of any cheaters because of the level requirement to unlock the map in the first place(Most cheaters get banned before unlocking it, and the cheaters that actually play on Tharis are most likely retail cheaters meaning they are legit players but decided they needed an edge to play the game)
9. I've been randomly getting disconnected from the raid, with my gear just vanishing, then immediately dropping back into the same raid naked. Sometimes, this happens over and over again, until I can find respite from a stranger who mercy kills me or until I exit to station which I usually do.

Now what exactly can be done about the game? I will enumerate suggestions that directly mirror the points that I have made above.
​

1. The end game loop is absolutely terrible (wow, 103,127th time this has been said on the sub, i know). The game is absolutely in need of some content especially for end game players. PvPing is absolutely the only real thing that can be done, and while that is fun, why not just play other shooters that go straight to the point like Apex? Jobs are mostly tedious and annoying to do, and it does need either an update or a rework. A global leaderboard would also be cool, as we saw several people actually playing the game just to get on the howlerbuster boards.
2. The money cap seems like a band-aid solution to a bigger problem. With the current economy of increased ammo and repair costs, more items added into the item pool, and no more permanent insurance, below average players are having a hard time keeping a steady economy in the station whereas successful players still are successful. I personally never really had a hard time hitting the money cap over and over again, the harder thing to do is actually keep my stash from overflowing. I thought the approach to season 3 was to make it easier for newer players to get into but the current system hard gatekeeps casuals while barely doing anything to sweats. Something they could do is just to add a high-roller lobby where you cannot insure gear, and the lobbies cost Kmarks to drop into or even aurum, and is locked with gear requirement so you know you will be fighting people in gear. This also means that if you die, you do not get anything back, and that what you paid for to get into the raid is also gone. (An immediate effect of this implementation might be that we would get almost empty lobbies in regular and high roller instances due to the players being further split into separate buckets but this change alone would bring back so many of the sweats who stopped playing the game back, and the casuals could actually just finish their quests)
3. Nothing to say about cheaters really, but a few hours into the patch, guys were flying everywhere once again despite " 3.4.0 containing various backend improvements and tweaks to the anti-cheat formula and Yager adding new systems to the game to help detect and prevent the kinds of cheats we have found to be the most common ". I understand that 10 devs vs 1000 cheat makers is a tough battle, but certain measures to make reporting and banning cheaters can be done. Adding a death cam that can only be played after either the whole squad is dead, or the enemy squad is dead is one thing that can be doable, many other games have this feature. And before anyone starts going, "well, you can't do this because you can drop in the same lobby if you drop back down again and now you know where the enemy is", just make it so that players have a 15-minute cooldown per instance of the map which aligns with the time it takes for gear to despawn. That way, even the information you receive from the death cam is irrelevant 15 minutes later, and is only really useful for reviewing deaths and as evidence for cheating. Sure, you can get a lucky 5-headshot beam with a Kor on someone but 12x in a row in the same raid? That's an easy ban if anything.
4. Key rooms are massively underwhelming right now. Community Room? Here's a green creature mod for your smg. What's that purple keycard you got there? - Oh, it's an Overgrown Keycard. That's 3 Circuit Boards, 21 Basic Light Ammo, and a white backpack. I've gotten 5,000 Overseers Office Keycards, but 1 Basecamp Armory Key, please explain how this is possible? Back in Season 1, key rooms were heavily utilized(as they should). Base Camp Luggage Room was always open, so was Armory in Jungle. Garage in Greens? Good luck. Hell, even Community Room was worth the trek because Loose House was there as well. I've since sold all my keycards early into the season as I have found it utterly useless and I have better luck picking up high tier weapons and armor just running around Tharis Island. Something clearly should be done here, the Lab Keycard during the start of Season 3 was perfect - it was hard to get up there, it's an extremely rare card, and it can be only used once. The loot was god tier, but that's assuming you can evac with it. And almost everyone only really got one shot at opening it, but I suppose that was too good because now all you ever really get is 3 PKR Maelstroms and a blue set. Sidenote: Puzzle Rooms are also really bad. They really are only for the reactors, and the weapon crate is a bonus, but the process of completing the puzzle, especially solo, is way too much of an ask for so little of a reward. The only puzzle really worth doing is the one by greens prospect since it can be done solo in 15 seconds, but even then you get shot as soon as you start doing it.
5. South-eastern side of the map of Crescent should get some love. Add something there that would actually make players want to go there, or at least make them decide which side of the map they should go to. As of now, all the high-gear players go Warehouse/Pinnacle due to the large open areas which make it ideal for fights, versus the thick jungles of Favela that has dense foliage and full of cliffs where you die if you slip off of. Sure missions take you there, but everyone eventually completes their missions and its off to Pinnacle most of the time from hereon out. Buffing Community Key will not pull players there since keys are single use, and I understand the dungeon is there but let's face it, not many people enjoy doing the dungeon in the first place, be it easy as it was back then or how it is now.
6. Fix matchmaking. That is all. Please.
7. Whatever this is, keep it the way it is. Don't find out oh, the drop rate was increased to 30% instead of increasing it by 3% and reverting it back.
8. Add gear lock to Tharis. That's it, plain and simple. There should be some risk to Tharis, and on the opposite side of the stick, there should also be reward. What is the point of ammo being more expensive, repairs being more expensive, money being harder to keep, if I can just keep dropping back in to Tharis with just a white backpack, mine for 5 minutes and evac with 30-50k worth of Kmarks in Tharis Iron? Imagine doing that for an hour, that's an easy 300k right there. Just about the same amount you get from completing a letium drill, but with no investment, no risk, just sacrificing your sanity for the sake of money. As it stands, in order to add 5% less fauna damage and 5% less damage from storm strikes to my shield and stamina regen during storm on my backpack, I have to fight 6 free loadouts ratting in and around Tharis without gaining anything yet risking everything.
9. I understand ping limit, server issues, yada yada yada. Just make it so if you go poof, let our teammates pick our shit up. PLEASE GODDAMNIT. This is so dumb. I've lost countless loadouts to this dumb mechanic of being booted out of the raid, and now just to add insult to injury I get dropped back in but naked over and over again. What spaghetti code is this where you fix one thing and 12 other things become broken. Just please drop our shit, let some rando pick it up and have a nice feeling picking up a kor and purple set. I don't care. JUST DROP OUR SHIT PLEASE and thank you.

Background: My pug, Bolton, is almost 3 years old and has some anxiety. He was a covid pup and we did our best to socialize him but he is definitely the most anxious (also smartest) pug we’ve ever had (he’s our 4th). We travel a lot and 9/10 he joins us. He flys very well, when we can take the crate we do and sleeps in there in many different houses. Where we don’t have the crate we bring his bed and he’s fine in that in a separate room.
The Bad Habits: He barks when someone new is coming into our home. He may randomly lunge at someone on a walk (esp if they try to pet him too quickly). He occasionally howls at odd hours (3AM but doesn’t have to go out) or if I’m in a room and he’s alone in the living room. He doesn’t always sleep well - in or out of the crate he howls.
The Good Habits: He never has food aggression - I can play with his earls/tail while he’s eating. His only goal in life is to sit on your lap. He trains well with “time outs.” For example, he went through a phase where he would steal dishtowels for attention so we would put him in the bathroom for 2-5 min which he doesn’t like. Once you’ve met him and he likes you, he’ll remember you and always like you. He’s incredibly loving and smart.
The issue: My husband and I travel a decent amount. For the last couple years, we’ve had a good friend who Bolton knows very well look after him while we’re gone. That friend recently moved away and many of our other friends have gotten dogs themselves so we started looking into local sitters. We used Rover since we heard good reviews from friends. I chose one person based on her price/experience/availability. We did a meet up at a dog park and Bolton loved her, she seemed great, all good. It went terribly. Apparently right after we left Bolton howled at the door for awhile. She kept feeding him treats (he is very food motivated) despite us telling her max one treat a day. When he first started staying with another sitter he had trouble sleeping and she eventually let him sleep in the bed with her (which we do not do). With the new sitter, despite being in bed or the crate, he howled and cried all night. I thought at least the crate would give him a safe space but he wouldn’t calm down. After less than a day we had friends pick him up who he knows very well and he stayed at their place. Then he was sick from the treats and howling all night at their place as well (despite having been there many times and knowing them and their dog). I hate that we put him (and them) through this. I realize we were wrong to leave him for 3 nights with someone new. I thought because they had met before/got along, she had good reviews and he had his crate he would be okay.
Possible solutions: - We’ve already reached out to trainers and looking to set that up - We have a Rover sitter stay in our home which we don’t like as much because we don’t know them well and availability is hard to match the same person all the time - We’re thinking of setting up trial days where Bolton stays with someone just one night while we’re in town (vs this was a 3 night trip where we left him) - We could have someone come just to feed/take him out but similar to staying in our home we’re not crazy about people coming in and the other aspect is he loves being a lap dog so he would be lonely

So far seeing all the cheap 94.5 platform hate, and watching old videos, heres my idea for a counter to the 945 menace
this is what it would do
20 HE mats, 100 Bmats, 10 per crate Deal 600 Continuous "Heavy Incendiary" damage in an area like gas [+100% Damage to Vehicles, MG Pillboxes, AT pillboxes, Increased chance to set fire to T1 and T2 bunker pieces, Cannot set T3 Bunker pieces on fire] Can Permanently Disable Cannons of Vehicles, Field guns and Emplacements by Getting in the gunner seat and Reload the Thermite grenade inside the breech, Can only be Fixed in a Garage or Construction Yard, It can also permanently Disable Stationery Vehicles,
An option to also "stealthily" Disable Cannons by "Reloading" In front of the muzzle, once fired. will "Flower" the barrel, disabling the turret or the gun. also a small chance [10%] to catastrophically Destroy the vehicle regardless of size, dealing damage in a 4 meter radius [damage is calculated by the Shell damage x the shell amount]
Tldr : Something like this https://youtu.be/1QgXuhv7-54?t=407
What u guys think?

I just randomly felt like writing down how I play just in case any other solos wanted some ideas since these days I feel like I'm consistently having good wipes and always stacked. Keep in mind these strats are made only for if you're playing solo and just trying to get blueprints on a high pop server. Obviously there are better ways if you have the man power.
So here are my main strategies as a solo for how to consistently get stacked:

1. Trio servers are by far the best solo experience you can have imo (Rusticated US Trio being my favorite).
2. At the start of wipe the very first thing I do is go to fishing village and do the fishing rod quest and fish until I have a small boat. Then I loot every tool crate on the way the way to my desired base location. Doing this stacks you up on bows, cross bows, pickaxes, salvaged picks, hatchets, sometimes a jackhammer as well as enough scrap for a tier 1 right off the bat.
3. I usually base in between a fishing village and one of the oilrigs (highly prefer small oil) and if that isn't ideal then I base in between a fishing village and underwater labs. Basing directly on the water is imo the easiest way to get ahead as a solo.
4. If it is force wipe then I will fish until I have enough scrap for a submarine and some torpedos to counter the first cargo off wipe since people are less likely to buy a mini to the first cargo. Theres a 50/50 chance they leave first cargo with a mini but I have gotten some pretty insane starts doing this. You just trail cargo until they drop down with the rhib and resurface the submarine and torpedo them. This works often enough to where its worth giving it a shot.
5. If you're based near smoil you can take it with very minimal gear as a solo (compound bow, crossy, nail gun). I will fish for a blue card and take smoil with the goal of getting the elite in the blue room and hoping for a gun (this is a force wipe strat and isn't that worth doing if you have bps already).
6. If playing on wipe day on some 500 pop server, going to smoil after someone has already taken it is very ideal because there are multiple crates that respawn decently fast and I would suggest camping smoil for roughly 20 minutes just doing this. I've never done this and not gotten something useful to bp once I get home because the crates respawn kind of fast when the pop is that high. Sometimes you'll get counters but I think this is still worth attempting on bp wipe.
7. A somewhat safe way to recycle as a solo when you are far from outpost/bandit is if the map seed has the harbor that has the recycler that is close to the water. I use submarine to drive up right next to the recycler. You can keep an eye out and if anyone shows up you can quickly loot the recycler and jump down into your submarine. I usually build bases that include a boat base that can fit one small boat as well as one submarine. If you don't have a garage door bp yet just use double doors and take them off and put them back on when you need to enteleave.
8. If the harbor method works well for you it isn't a bad idea to just focus on hitting barrels in the water and recycle until you have a tier 2 or even a tier 3. The fastest I've gotten a tier 3 with this method was 2.5 hours into wipe. If you have the patience you can also fish at fishing village until you have enough scrap for a tier 2/3, I find this really boring and don't usually do it ever but if you're decent at fishing you can expect 600-800 scrap every 40 mins doing this. I say every 40 minutes because that is how long it usually takes to break a fishing rod.
9. On force wipe I'm not too worried about getting raided so half way through the day all i have is a honeycombed 2by2. Since I'm on the water I make a farm base on the water in the snow and this is usually a 1by1 with an airlock and maybe even an extension to the base where i can safely keep a single boat. I bring basically all my tools to this base any jack hammers i have salvaged picks, chainsaws, ect. and just farm until I have enough to make a good sized base.
10. If all has gone well my base will be done and I will attempt to get a minicopter and start planning a raid. The best way to raid as solo is going top down with a mini since it is much harder for people to counter you.
11. While doing all of this you should have a minimum of 2 furnaces at home running metal the entire time you're out of base pretty much have them running 24/7. Use a third one to run sulfur but metal is a priority for a solo on wipe day so you can log off with a strong base. Aim to have a base that costs 24-30 rockets to raid, easily achievable with a bunker.
12. I usually strictly play solo because I really like the difficulty of doing all of this on my own but once I'm established I actually have a discord of like 30ish players I've played with over the years and if I need help with like a raid or something I'll just @ the entire discord and usually have 2 decent players for the trio server lend me a hand even if briefly just for a raid. If you play a similar way to me I recommend making a discord server with people willing to do this. I've played like this for years so it took a while to get a decent number of people who know the drill and will do this with me.
13. If having a bad wipe you can always resort to just farming the ocean barrels and the sunken chests but I find this really boring and just join someone elses wipe if it comes to this. Though, it doesn't usually come to this. Doing this is a super chill rust experience though if you don't mind it.
14. Contest every cargo even if you think there is a low chance of success. I will try to be the first person on and try to loot the elites and just leave if I get anything exceptionally good. If nothing good comes of the elites I will wait at the bottom floor and try to grub someone for a full kit and then leave with it if possible.
15. If you're based near labs I recommend doing the fishing village quest to get a pump shotgun and then go to labs and if anyone shows up to counter I would immediately camp a ladder and wait for them to come up. Its best to bring a shotgun or an smg to labs, a semi rifle isn't that great here. Side tip: you don't need a diving tank to get into labs. Just bring flippers and make sure when you go underwater you are directly above the moon pool, you can do this without taking any damage and it also makes it harder for people to hear you come up.

That's pretty much all. I'm sure I missed a few things but this is all that comes to mind. I consistently get stacked day 1 doing pretty much just all of this.
If you all have other strats for soloing I kind of want to hear them as well.
Edit: It isn't uncommon to get a supply signal from labs/oil so you should grab a diving tank and drive your boat off grid with it and throw it in the water.

It's shooting fish in a barrel, but for some games you really have to wonder if the author ever actually played it, let alone expected others to do so. For your amusement, here's a review of The Spawn of Fashan. Highlights:

• There are ten base stats, three of which are named "Courage."
• You roll for stats after you choose your class.
• There are magical classes, but no rules for magic.
• Attacking requires adding up weapon familiarity, weapon hit modifier (though these are not in the book), the difference in Reflex stats between attacker and defender, a modifier for the target hit location, an exploding die roll, and a hit location-specific armor modifier. Oh, and there are active defense rolls too.
• Damage rolls often require six rolls for the attacker (if the target has armor) and two for the defender.
• Armor and weapons have hit points.

Have you seen anything that comes close? Anything that tops it?

Timestamp:
https://imgur.com/a/kdm1lgS

• Dibs the item and PM/Pay right away.
• PayPal Friends/Fam. Or you pay 3% on top of item for G/S (under 10 flair).
• Ships in 1-2 business days

1) used oem Glock 19 Gen 3/4 barrel, low round count. Polished feed ramp. $50 shipped.
2) used OEM Glock 17 Gen 3/4 barrel with unknown round count. Polished feed ramp. $50 shipped
3) used Swenson Glock 17 Gen 3/4 low round count, polished feed ramp. $40 shipped
4) new Cyelee CT2 green rmr w/ cover and mount. Comes with all paper work. No batteries due to shipping. Great reviews on YouTube for a budget dot. Sells on Amazon for $108+tax..... $85 shipped.
5) Glock 43 holster in fde from Amazon. $19 shipped.
6) new NDZ M&P 2.0 Green base plates (2) $ 20 shipped.
7) Strike Industries emp for Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 Full Size. Adds +6 rounds of 9mm or +5 rounds of 40 s&w. $15 shipped.
8) Ruger AR15 GRIP, No screw. $10 shipped.
9) KAK Micro flash can for 7.62x39 and equivalent. It's barely used, 1 range trip $15 shipped.
10) new Phase 5 red follower for 12 gauge. $ 15 shipped
11) new UTG pic rail for Mossberg 500 $11 shipped.
12) new Magpul Ak47 / 74 MOE in gray. Handguard is for no sling mount, grip is MOE+ $25 shipped for both.
13) new Expo Arms black billet trigger gaurd for Ar15 with barely used Expo Arms ambi safety. $15 shipped.

Bought the Willet at All Star Liquor on the cali/Oregon border. If you’ve been there you know it’s legit despite its humble exterior (looks like a bunch of school portables stuffed together) Great assortment of cheap stuff, single barrel, small batch or local brown liquor. Fantastic selection of large format bottles too (1.75L of Sazerac rye was 53$USD!) The willet, for me was a nice find. I know it gets middling reviews but the toasty Demerara nose and crisp citrus first notes are pleasing to my pallet. Medium mouthfeel and the alcohol is very relaxed….you’d never know it’s 47% The Woodinville offerings have long been a favorite of mine. We picked this rye up from the distillery in Washington and it’s textbook rye. Spicy and peppery on the nose maybe some clove. Balanced, crème brûlée indulgent. Add a little water and maybe a little fruitcake? And I love the lovely copper color!

Started looking at sofas, stumbled into Joybird store in center city Philly and was actually impressed by the options. Came home and saw some nightmare situations on here and other pages about terrible build quality and customer service from 24-18 months ago.
Moved on to CB2, Pottery Barn, C&B, Article, Casterly, etc and they all have terrible reviews on here from the same timeframe. Very similar complaints to Joybird all in the late 2021 to 2022 period. That said, I haven't seen any chatter about them recently, like not much negative or positive. All the negative reviews seem to end with the buyer getting a full refund so I am tempted to give them a chance.
Therefore my question to you all, is Joybird actually that awful, or were they struggling to complete orders in 2021-2022? Have they turned around their issues at all? Anyone have a recent experience or an update on their Joybird purchase?

I stayed at an Airbnb a few weeks ago. When we sat on the couch, it snapped in half. This particular sofa is made to fold in half between the two cushions and has hinges. The host is requesting I pay for the replacement of the sofa, which I’m disputing through Airbnb. The pic the host sent clearly shows there was only 1 leg supporting the center of the couch, where the hinges are located. I found a listing for the sofa and it’s supposed to have two. There are also a number of reviews regarding the legs breaking and the sofa falling apart. Airbnb is requesting I provide a pic of the sofa during my stay where it only has one leg, but before we sat on it. I didn’t take pics of all the furniture upon arrival, so I don’t know what to do. I fear I’m going to be forced to replace it even though I simply sat on it - once. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My boyfriend (32M) and I (31F) have been together for 8 years. We moved into our new apartment in September and right away he wanted a puppy. Since we just moved in, I wanted to still unpack, settle, and get through the holidays as a family in our new place. I had plans to decorate it super cute with holiday decor (he didn't offer to help me) and make a cozy home for us. I told him (very nicely) to wait on the puppy because I wasn't ready just yet. Only because theyre messy, they need attention, and we were so busy with unpacking and organizing. We JUST moved in. Not to mention we were on a very strict budget. He did not agree with me in any way and it ended in a huge fight. The next day I came home from work and saw a crate in the living room and he told me he's picking up the puppy tomorrow. I was so upset that he did that behind my back, I went and stayed with my parents for a couple days. He also spent $1500 on this puppy and put him on a raw food diet and his kibble alone is $150/month. I'll mention too, the puppy is a Cane Corso. Big dog=big stomach=big money spent. Ill also mention that part of the argument was that im allergic to that type of dog and I asked him if we could get one thats hypoallergenic. I get these super itchy rashes and my skin turns red all over. He said that wasnt his problem and that I can take allergy medicine everyday...The puppy is 8 months now, 110 pounds and has ruined our brand new couch (we have the living room closed off), the entire carpet in the apartment is ruined (like I can't walk without shoes, it's that gross) and the walls have chew marks and paint stripped. Of course I love the dog to death because duh. But I still feel really let down and walked over. He thinks I completely forgot about it, but this was a huge responsibility that he put on our family and did not care what I thought or had to say. Also, I asked to not have the dog sleep in our bed because IM ALLERGIC and I was having to change the sheets and blankets every other night plus I wasn't sleeping. He didn't care. I ultimately had to buy a literal seperate sofa for the dog and it's next to our bed. It looks ridiculous.
Is this enough reason for a breakup or should I just suck it up and move past this. Keep in mind, I'm on the lease and we have a son together.
I dont know what to do...

Henry McKenna Bottled-In-Bond

10 Years Old

100 pf

~1/7 Full

Neat, rocks glass

Background - 10-year age stated, single barrel bottled-in-bond from Heaven Hill. That $30 price point was never going to last, nor was the $50. I've been enjoying this as a casual sipper. Since this will likely be my last bottle, it's time for a proper review.
Nose - Not complex, with notes of brown sugar, cinnamon, oak and dried fruits. They meld together for a very nice, albeit subdued nose. After a sip, those same notes are there but the dried fruit comes to the forefront. Again though, very well melded.
Palate - Thicker mouthfeel than you might expect in a 100 pf whiskey. Right off the bat I get powerful oak, something I'd expect in a whiskey 5 years older. Underneath that, the cinnamon and dried fruits from the nose are present, as well as honey. The oak is overpowering, here. I think the other notes would do really well together without the woodiness from the oak dominating.
Finish - On the harsh side. Slightly tannic, the warmth lingers with a lot of astringent notes at the top of the tongue and roof of the mouth. Again oak is at the forefront, here. But the other notes aren't present. A very woody finish, I would have expected it to be more tannic.
Thoughts - An okay casual sipper, with a bit to unpack. However, I'm not sure I want to. The flavors aren't bad, but there are a lot of contrasts and a frankly poor finish. The oak for this bottle is at the forefront, and I don't think that's what the distillers want. There's a very good whiskey behind the oak, I think this barrel would have been better off as a part of a small batch. All that being said, the oak doesn't ruin this whiskey. And it's still totally fine to sip on. If I could find a barrel picked by someone I trust, I think I'd be more willing to drop $50+ on this. Since that doesn't seem to be a thing, I'm not comfortable rolling the dice again.
Rating - 1.5/5
Scale
1 - Mixing-Only
2 - Decent
3 - Above Average
4 - Very Good
5 - Exceptional

A week or so ago I made a post about the crown of my Max barrel and how there are significant machining defects. This little pistol is super inaccurate and I think I found the culprit. Unrelated to that issue, I contacted Ruger regarding return to battery, and they shipped me out a new slide and barrel, which is awesome CS.
I received the new assembly today. Before assembling with new parts i cleaned the barrel and inspected the bore. On my new barrel, I believe I found additional machining defect. I used a soft wooden toothpick to "feel" the areas and they are both recessed and the toothpick catches on the ridges.
I already contacted Ruger and sent them the pictures for review.
The main reason behind my post is just to inform other Max owners. I have read a lot of people are unhappy with the accuracy of this little gun, and I'm wondering how much of those concerns could be due to machining defects. I'm now 2 for 2 on barrels with the little guy. I know it's tiny and it will never be a tack driver, but I never had issues with accuracy out of other mouse guns.

Co-Authored by me and u/Research-Apart, a big thanks to u/Acceptable_Egg5560 for letting us use Tarlim, and for helping write him
Well that took a while, hope it was worth the wait, the next chapter shouldn't take as long
CW: >! Gore and violence !<
First Previous Next
____________________________________________________________________________________
> Access File: Hybris (9)
[OPENING FILE]
Notice from Department of Extrasolar Records: These records were discovered in a floating black box data recording in the Gliese 832 system. These transcriptions contain the memories of prominent individuals who were directly involved with the events detailed below. The components of the transcription technology used are under review by the Department of Xenotechnology, and any transcriptions found within the data logs will be transferred directly to the Department of Extrasolar Records for further processing.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Memory transcription subject: Tarlim, Venlil Civilian
Date [standardized human time]: April 4, 2143
I don’t know how long I was in hiding for, I just remember hearing the screams of people outside before falling asleep when it all died down. I got up from the floor and peaked out of my closet to see if there was a break in before leaving it entirely. I checked my front door to see if the locks were still locked and, luckily enough, it was still intact. I set out a sigh of relief before walking back to my living room and slumping back down on my couch. I took my medication as I picked up my datapad from the floor, hoping everything that happened earlier was just a bad dream. The first thing I noticed was that my pad spat back an error message. That was strange, the infrastructure was too developed to not have net access in the middle of a city.
Glancing up towards the window, I noticed a strange red hue coming from behind the curtain. I set my pad down on the couch as I got up and walked to the window. I could feel my paws begin to shake as I grabbed the curtains. Anticipating the worst, I hesitantly opened the curtains and peaked outside. It was worse than anything I could have expected: The remains of dead Venlil littered the street below as more continued to pile on. Orange blood coated the surrounding building walls as mutated Venlil ripped apart anyone they got their paws on. One of them eventually came across a mother and child attempting to hide underneath the surrounding rubble. It didn’t hesitate to attack the woman before another mutant came by to try and steal its catch. They fought each other relentlessly, trying to keep her in their grasp. Their claws tore deeply into her skin and muscles as they fought, causing her to scream from the unimaginable amount of pain. She took one last look at her child and yelled at him to run before her throat was torn off.
The child ran for his life, dodging around rubble and mutants and for a brief moment, I thought he might make it! Then a mutant Krakotl swooped down over him, a barbed tendril emerged from its beak and stabbed the pup in the shoulder. Screaming in pain he was lifted into the air as the mutant flew off to Protector knows where. As I swept my gaze across the city, similar scenes played out: survivors ran through the streets, slipping on pools of blood as they were pursued by packs of mutants; doors and windows were smashed to pieces as people looted for supplies; buildings were engulfed in flames as malfunctioning fire traps and improvised weapons were set off; mutants of every conceivable species rampaged through the city, attacking everyone they could find.
I fell to my knees as I vomited from the sight of the massacre outside. The blood, the gore, it was too much! My consciousness was escaping me as my heart pounded in my chest. I was hyperventilating, I was going to die, everything swirled around I was, I couldn’t-
Focus.
Breathe.
Calm.
Forcing the tirade of emotion back I shakely I got back up and looked back outside, only to lock eyes with one of the mutant Venlil. Its head turned to stare at me, its eye solid black with streaks of red running through it. For a moment, we simply stared at each other, before it started to run towards my apartment complex in a strange loping gait. It was picking up speed with every step and soon ran on all fours, galloping over rubble and trappling eviscerated corpses. I stumbled away from the window and ran to my door. There was no spehing way that I was fighting that thing. Right when I unlocked it, I heard the shattering of glass behind me. In the corner of my eye I could see the monster clambering through the window, shards of broken glass tearing at its flesh. I went through the door as fast as I could as it regained its posture. The moment I closed it behind me, I heard a loud thud behind me, signifying the mutant had attempted to lunge at me, ‘How the speh did it reach my window!? I’m four stories up!’ I thought before running down the hallway.
As I ran down through the hallway, I could see the place was in ruin: the walls that lined the hallway were torn and covered in streaks of Venlil blood as the lights above flickered unrhythmically. I zigzagged from door to door, looking for somewhere to hide, but every apartment was locked. I soon heard the bang of a door being knocked off its hinges from down the corridor. I felt my heart pounding, threatening to burst out of my chest at the exertion, but I pushed on. I briefly considered the elevator upon reaching the end of the corridor, but realized power to it was most likely cut. I ran to the stairwell and raced down it as fast as I could, taking two or three steps at a time. I could hear the creature burst into the stairwell as soon as I reached the first floor. That thing was fast, too fast.
I ran through the hallways of the first floor and saw that most of the apartments had already been broken into. The people who used to live here are either dead, mutated, or in hiding. I could feel my legs starting to ache from running so fast for so long, but I couldn’t stop. I could feel my quads beginning to tear underneath my skin as my heart pounded vigorously. I could try to hide in one of the open apartments, but what difference would that make? I would just be waiting to die. I can’t keep running like this, I need something to defend myself with.
As the pain within my legs began to set in, I decided to run into one of the open apartments anyway to escape that thing. Upon entering, I ran through the ruined apartment and went straight into the bathroom to hide. I closed and locked the door as quietly as possible before taking stock of the room. Compared to the rest of the apartment, hell the rest of the complex, it looked disturbingly normal. I looked around for a few moments to see if there was anything I could use in case that thing does find me, but there was nothing. Then I noticed a window looking out onto an alleyway. I went to the window and fumbled at the latch and pushed it open. Quickly crawling my way through, I stumbled slightly as I hit the ground. Looking around, I spotted an abandoned shipping crate sitting against the wall. I shifted my weight and prepared to run when I heard the cracking of splintering wood behind me. I sprinted down the alleyway and slid behind the crate without bothering to look behind me. There was more cracking and splintering and the twisted pants of the mutant. Cautiously peeking around the crate, I saw it stepping out of the window frame. The shattered remains of the window sitting on the floor below it. It stalked down the alleyway towards me, its eyes scanning for any sign of its prey. Ducking back behind my crate, I frantically searched for anything I could use to fight. As I shuffled further behind the crate, I felt my paw brushed against a discarded wrench. someone had likely been performing maintenance on the exterior pipes and the wrench had been left behind. Gripping it tightly, I got myself into a crouching position and prepared to move at a moment's notice…
After a moment of silence, I heard a woman’s voice, “Tarlim, are you there? I heard a window break from around the corner,” she said
My ears peaked up at the voice, could that be…
“Barlen?” I said quietly.
“Barlen, keep your voice down!” I called out, I didn’t want her to get killed.
“Sorry” she replied, more quietly this time.
“There was a mutant crawling around here,” I told her.
“I saw it, it went the other way, it must have seen easier prey,” she responded.
I let out a sigh of relief and slowly got up to my feet, leaning against the crate, the wrench hanging loosely at my side.
“Thank the protector, it’s good to see a friendly face…”
I looked up, and sitting on the crate, was the creature.
“It’s good to see you too,” it said, perfectly mimicking Barlen’s voice.
Its three petaled mouth opened wide before pouncing at me. In a stroke of luck my body twisted and smacked it across the head with the wrench in my hands. It was hit so hard so quickly, I knocked out a couple teeth before it fell limp next to me. I took a few steps back before repeatedly hitting it in back of its head with the wrench in my paws. I don’t know how many times I did it, I just kept going until brain matter was exposed.
When I was sure it was dead, I fell back against the wall and sat down as I dropped the wrench next to me. I could feel my heart beginning to pound from exhaustion as I tried catching my breath.
Thoughts began to race through my mind as I stared at my paws in horror. This thing was not only incredibly fast and agile, but it was also capable of replicating voices. ‘How did it know Barlen’s voice, and how did it know it would work on me?’ I thought for a moment before remembering the press release prior to all of this. They showed a living planet, no bigger than a large moon, sitting motionless in the sky above as it formed an eye. I still remember the feeling it gave me: the horror was so great, I tried to convince myself before falling asleep that none of this was real; all of this was just a bad dream and I needed to wake up, but I knew that wasn’t true. I slowly turned my gaze up towards the sky and saw that thing looking down at us, looking down at me.
What if the reason why the mutant was able to figure out what voice to use to draw me out was because it wasn’t on its own? What if all those infected aren’t senseless monsters, but they were that thing’s puppets. They all bend to its will without question, and I have a reason to believe it can see through their eyes too.
The sound of distant roars quickly snapped me back to reality as I sat with my blood covered paws. Picking up my bloodied wrench, I slowly made my way down the alleyway and out into the street. I could feel my heart screaming in pain at the recent exertion, not once have I ever pushed my body so hard in my life. Carefully peering around the corner of the apartment complex, I scanned the street before me. It was completely deserted and any possible living thing that was here is either dead or in hiding. I took one last look around before leaving the backstreet. Creeping between overturned cars and mangled corpses, I kept my eyes peeled for any more of those mutants nearby. I was in such a fearful state, I could feel my body tense up at every unidentified noise and shadow. Twice I spotted mutants prowling the streets, but I was able to avoid them by staying hidden. Eventually, I circled back to my apartment building after making sure the coast was clear. I kept my eyes peeled and listened closely to my surroundings as I made my way upstairs. I can see all the damage that thing left behind as it chased me. I’m glad I was able to kill that thing when I did because if it had caught me I would be more than dead. I eventually reached my apartment four stories up and looked in from behind the door frame. The room was a mess: shattered glass and ripped curtains littered the floor as my window remained permanently open; my furniture was broken and torn into as everything else beyond the living room remained untouched. I looked in the dining room and saw my pack was still sitting on the table. After checking my bag to see if my pills were still there, I quickly searched for any food and water before making my way back outside. I needed to find somewhere safe.
As I crept through another back alley, I tried to remember the directions for the shelter. We were supposed to memorize their locations in the event of a raid, but I had for some reason not been included in the regular drills. Fortunately, they were not that hard to find, which seemed like a possible design flaw in retrospect. My musings were interrupted when I felt my pad vibrate in my pack. Confused, I reached in and pulled out my pad. I was honestly surprised it was getting a signal now. I looked at the alert and it says as follows:
“This is an emergency message sent to any and all remaining survivors of Dawn Creek and abroad: all emergency shelters within the surrounding cities have been compromised and any surviving Venlil are to find a place to hide and a weapon to defend yourselves with. These creatures are incredibly strong and agile and will do everything in their power to kill you no matter the cost. If you want to survive, you must follow these steps to the word:

1. When it is silent and a mutant nearby, stay still and hold your breath. These things have incredibly sensitive hearing and can hear your breathing from up to six tails (12 feet) away.
2. Stay out of sight and make sure they don’t see you. It is said that all of these creatures are somehow connected telepathically and function as a hive mind. If one of them sees you then they all know where you are.
3. Do not listen to them. If they fail to find you, they will mimic the voices of your close friends or loved ones in an attempt to draw you out. If you hear a familiar voice, do not respond.
4. When faced with a mutant, you must kill or maim them if you want a chance to escape. If you don’t then they will continue pursuing you. These things do not get tired and can chase you for miles without end.
5. If you survive an attack with an infected Venlil and they manage to breach skin or their bodily fluids enter your body in any way, it is recommended that you self terminate for the safety of the herd. It is estimated to take an eighth of a claw before whatever substance in said fluid enters the brain and converts you from the inside out.

May the protector save us all.”
I silently stared at the screen in mute horror after reading the last line. Every shelter in the area had been compromised and anyone taking refuge there was more than likely dead. Just how many died unable to escape as their friends and family were torn apart? The Arxur, on some level at least, killed for food, but these things didn’t do any of that: They don’t eat what they can and leave whoever left is alive to make more meat, they eviscerate any living thing they lay their eyes on in the most painful way possible. To say they’re as bad as the Arxur would be putting it lightly. These things are far worse than anything any species has come across. I looked up at the sky for a moment as I held my pad in my hands. Its eye staring down at us from above as it watches these creatures it has created mutilate my people.
‘If this thing is truly as powerful and dangerous as Tarva says, then just how old is this thing? How many species before us have been mercilessly slaughtered by it without a second thought?’ I thought to myself as I stared at the planet above.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of approaching footsteps from down the road. I felt my heart skip a beat before running to hide behind a turned over car. I pinned back my ears and cautiously looked over the side of the car and saw a small group of exterminators in their suits scouting the area. Not once in my life have I felt so happy to see them. I got out of hiding with my paws up to show I wasn’t infected. Upon seeing me, they put up their flamethrowers on the ready until one of them recognized me.
“Tarlim!? You’re alive!?” One of the Venlil exterminators exclaimed as he took off his mask.
“Treven!?” I exclaimed in response.
‘Of all the exterminators I could have run into, why him?’ I despondently wondered.
“I honestly thought a freak like you would die first. Seems like I was wrong,” Treven said mockingly, “How did you survive anyway?”
My grip on the wrench tightened. Even after everything that had happened, they still couldn’t let go of their prejudices.
“I don’t know. I guess I was lucky,” I replied simply.
Treven scoffed, “Was it the same luck that almost cost me everything?”
I stood silent at his response. I couldn’t believe that after everything he was still acting like this… this… stupid, selfish PRICK!
“Everything we've ever cared about, is gone.” I said, struggling to control my voice.
I spread my paws out, gesturing to the destroyed city around us.
“We’re facing down hordes of biologically impossible creatures controlled and created by an entity unfathomably more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen before!”
I noticed just then that I had been slowly stalking towards him, the wrench trembling in my paw.
“And your main concern is your SPEHING CAREER!?” I shouted.
Even now, this asshole still blames me for something HE did to himself. It was infuriating that this selfish speh was mad at me for losing his job even though they were the ones who almost killed Malcos!
I was about to shout again until one of the other exterminators, a white Venlil, came by and slapped Treven in the back of the head; the blow was hard enough to send him stumbling. Before he was able to respond, his mouth was covered by their coworkers' paw to keep him from speaking. It felt somewhat good seeing Treven put in his place, but I was confused on why. It wasn’t until he moved away from Treven when he decided to stay quiet and marched towards me with an annoyed yet fearful expression in his swaying tail. I was grabbed by the wool around my neck and pulled down to his line of sight before he started loudly whispering.
“Are you trying to get us killed!? We are literally at the ground zero and your shouting might have given away our position!” He quietly exclaimed, “We already had to deal with a horde on our way into the city and lost almost everyone. The six you see used to be a group of over two hundred exterminators!”
My heart sank after realizing what I had done: Not only did I possibly make our presence known, but this small group before me used to be multiple station's worth of exterminators. I was at a loss for words at my cluelessness and kept my mouth shut after I was let go. The Venlil in white soon signaled everyone in the group to continue moving forward and to keep their eyes peeled.
As we continued moving through the streets of Dawn Creek, we eventually heard the crunching of bone and sound of flesh being torn off from around the corner. The noise sent a chill up my spine and was extremely discomforting. I glanced at the exterminators surrounding me and saw them show a more fearful expression than me. If it was true that this group used to consist of a hundred exterminators, then they likely bore witness to seeing their comrades be torn to shreds first hand. Seeing something like that would be hard to live down, especially when the people you love are the ones being mauled to death.
The thought of what these people went through to get here changed how I saw them for a moment. Knowing what he had to witness, I began to rethink how I saw them when we crossed paths. I felt bad for them for a moment until I heard that loud crunch again, but this time it was louder.
The leading exterminator looked around the corner before continuing down the street. It was strange how empty the town was considering it was crawling with infected just a claw prior. They might have found new hunting grounds since this place is absent from life, but considering one of them has already seen me and the group there should have been at least a pawful chasing after us by now. They know we’re all alive, yet refuse to take action. Something is going on and I have a feeling it might pop up soon.
The sound of crunching became progressively louder as we quietly walked. The leading exterminator raised a paw, then slowly peered around the corner where the sound had come from. He stiffened suddenly, his entire body froze up before desperately diving back behind cover. Another exterminator, the mute one I think, grabbed him by the arm before he could collapse. The leader walked up to them, careful to not make any sounds that could attract attention.
“What’s wrong? What did you see?” he whispered to the point man.
He simply pointed back towards the crunching sound as his arm shook with fear. The leader’s tail swished in annoyance as he moved to the corner. Curious for myself, I followed closely behind him to take a look at whatever was out of view. He shot me a look of annoyance when I brushed up against him, but he didn’t object to me seeing. We both peered around the building towards the street with my face almost sitting on top of his head. My breath hitched in my throat as I saw what was standing there: feasting on a Mazic in the middle of a trashed shop was a massive, grotesque, monstrosity of a Venlil. It stood over 5 tails [3 meters] tall with tendrils of red flesh that shot through its bare skin. The muscles on its body were so large it seemed like they were on the edge of bursting out of its skin, and its enormous paws looked like it could wrap around my head with ease; its legs looked like they were about to explode from the sheer mass held within them. Not only that, but what separated it from the other infected was its face: it was the only one I have seen so far that didn’t have a split face like the others. This one was different for some reason; regardless, I didn’t want to get this thing's attention.
Placing a paw on the leader's shoulder we made our way back to the rest of the group. One of the exterminators walked up to us.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“There is some kind of super mutant up ahead, we need to find a new route,” the leader whispered back.
“Well where are we going?” I interjected, “all the shelters have been taken out.”
“Before we found you, we sent out a distress signal in hopes anyone will come for us,” The leader responded, “We never got a response so we focused on trying to find a way out.”
“Do any of you have a map so you know where you’re going?” I Inquired
“No, unfortunately. Our pads ran out of power half a claw ago and we don’t have any physical copies, so we don’t know which streets to follow” The leader replied solemnly.
“I lived here for years, so I might be able to help you escape. Just follow me.”
I stepped out from around the corner only to see that the same monster from earlier was now towering over me. I slowly turned my gaze up from its bare stomach and looked at its blood covered face: it bared its large, razor sharp teeth as it stared at me with its circular pupils. I could tell one thing by just looking that it wanted only one thing, to feast.
My heart jumped upon locking eyes with it. I slowly backed away as my whole body trembled with fear. I tried to speak to tell the others, but I was too focused on the beast before me.
“Tarlim? What’s wr-” he cut off, most likely from seeing the creature now stepping out from behind the corner…
Everyone else began backing away after laying their eyes on this thing. Everyone was silent for a few moments until one of the exterminators began running and screaming. When the spell broke, the monster leaned forward and roared at us, causing nearby rocks and windows to tremble from its immense volume. Within a split second, it charged forward with its size hiding its speed; we dove out of the way as it rushed towards the running exterminator. The leader and Mute grabbed their weapons and tried to shoot at the monster, but it wasn’t enough to slow it down. Charging forward at an impossible speed, it soon reached the fleeing exterminator and grabbed the screaming Venlil with its massive paw. With a sickening crunch, it bit down and tore off a chunk of his head. The screams soon turned into senseless noises before it took another bite. His body soon went limp after his brain was completely destroyed. Once he was finally dead, the beast quickly chewed through the rest of the body until there was nothing left. The mutant stood still for a moment, its wet panting the only sound on the empty street. We all stood still ourselves, staring at the monster in horror. Then, swiveling around on its foot, it turned to look at us. Its red pupils glistened with overwhelming bloodlust as it stared from afar. It reared its head back and roared again before charging at us. The rest of our herd showered the creature in a hail of bullets as I frantically looked around for a way out. Spotting an industrial plant down the street, I quickly ran towards it and pried the doors open. The heavy machinery would make it harder for the beast to maneuver, I hoped.
“Quick in here!” I shouted towards the others.
As soon as I shouted, I inadvertently got the creature’s attention. Locking its red pupils on me, it charged towards me. I ran away for dear life into the facility only to feel its paws grab my leg with its vice-like grip. Before I could even attempt to free myself, it threw me across the street like I was nothing. I spun in the air for a few seconds until I landed on top of one of the turned over cars.
Upon impact, I felt some of my ribs break as both glass and torn metal stabbed into my skin. I lifted one of my bloodied arms and saw multiple pieces of glass sticking out of my wool with some of them big enough to go through the bone. I tried to scream out to the others for help, but the pain I felt from just breathing alone was already too much to bear. I looked over at them as they began running away from the scene. I saw the beast get down on all fours before pouncing towards the group with great speed. Despite their distance apart, it was able to close that gap in less than a second. One by one, it killed and tore them asunder with its large, powerful claws and razor sharp teeth until there were only the mute and leader left.
I managed to fight through the pain and get up from the wreckage with blood still dripping from my wounds and flowing down my body. I took a deep breath and shouted as loud as I could in their direction. It stopped what it was doing and looked towards me from afar. It stood on its hind legs and looked at me with a somewhat surprised expression.
“HEY! OVER-” I was quickly cut off from coughing up blood as I fell to my hands and knees, “over here!”
The internal damage done was too severe for me to push myself any further than I already have, but I needed to give the others time to leave. I got myself back up and locked eyes with the mutant.
Right when I did that, it did something strange: rather than run, pounce, or even roar, it quietly walked up to me with its blood covered claws at its side. I was confused about what was happening and I didn’t know how to react. Should I attack, should I run, what could I do that wouldn’t provoke it? Once it was within range, I reacted impulsively and hit it in the face with my wrench. Although I was able to cause a slight bruise, its head didn’t move an inch and the wrench was now destroyed.
‘Oh speh’ I thought for a moment before getting grabbed by my neck and lifted into the air.
I struggled to set myself free as I repeatedly bashed the deformed wrench into its arm. I could feel my windpipe get actively crushed as it slowly tightened its grip. I eventually dropped the wrench and started doing whatever else I could to set myself free: I kicked, clawed, and hit the beast as hard as I could, but to no avail. As I reached the edge of passing out, I heard a voice.
“Tarlim, look at me,” it said calmly with a deep, raspy voice.
I looked around for a moment before hearing it again, but this time it was in front of me.
“I want you to look at me, Tarlim,” it said once again.
I soon realized where it was coming from and who was saying it once I looked at the mutated Venlil. It was that creature who was speaking.
“You did everything you could to try and get out alive, but you failed,” he said serenely “Now you’ll die knowing everyone you ever knew and cared about is gone.”
My eyes widened when it spoke. I tried to respond, but I wasn’t able to say a single word.
“I had fun chasing you and those exterminators, Tarlim, but now it's time to move on.”
Its mouth opened wide, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth layered on top of eachother. My vision was fading rapidly, and my body went limp as I accepted my fate. Just before I completely lost consciousness, I heard the faint roar of a ship's cannon and the crushing force around my neck vanished. I felt like I was sinking through an ocean as I fell to the ground, dull spikes of pain ripping through my shattered body. I tried to look up to see what had happened, but everything was too heavy, too dark
I just
Wanted
To
S l e 3 ppe..4!u
[Subject consciousness lost Memory transcription ended]