Grim reaper flipping off

In past couple months been a worldwind the first supervisor left but that’s okay we had a second one then when customer flip him off he left three weeks after the first one now it just two or three people in copy and print I just usually handle self serve or something simple like laminations or binding but since everybody new and some my associates work three days and I have have the most expierence I always being thrust to situations to fail I have call or text them when I have a problem cause I don’t know what to do I don’t have time for training even now the sales manager left and quit and he help me the most honestly today was extra stressful even with just me and my associate imma hold it down out until December until I get a decent credit score and back him up then put in my two weeks cause I’m exausted mentally

I’m sleep deprived by a few hours and want to be scheduled to sleep at 4-5a.m at leas.I flipped my sleep schedule so I can wake up earlier instead of mid afternoon so been up since 3a.m(currently 8p.m).I get off of in hour at my job but have the day off tomorrow.I still want to eat after I get off work(ate a Deli smoked Turkey sandwich+chicken fried rice the whole time I’ve been at my job).
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Several months ago, I installed some (3) additional LED recessed lights in my year old home’s garage. The install was not without fault as unbeknownst to me, I had sliced a hot wire when remounting the lights on a sharp edge of the junction box. In doing so, I of course tripped the breaker but also fried a motion activated light switch for the lights in the process (related….?) I promptly fixed both the cut wire and replaced the light switch and have not had any issues until the past couple days.
Last night I come home and my motion activated garage lights didn’t come on. I check the panel and see the breaker has tripped. Odd. As far as I can tell, the only thing on this circuit is the garage lights, two interior LED lights (seldom used) and my two sconce lights on the garage exterior. I flipped the breaker only for it to trip again later that night. I kept it off until this morning so I could investigate further. Today I rechecked all my additional lights wiring and did a breaker test which indicated a Ground Fault. I checked the switch I had installed as well and redid the ground connection for good measure and low and behold, the test showed no more Ground Fault. Great! Until tonight. Breaker has tripped again.
The breaker is tripping under minimal load as this is happening only when my garage sconce lights are on (I keep them on 24/7–LED A19 bulbs). So I don’t believe it’s a load issue. However, I am starting to wonder if the immense Florida sunlight on the exterior concrete wall opposite the panel and ambient garage temps are causing this (weak?) breaker to trip. I did the breaker test again tonight and now it is showing a Ground Fault once again.
Thoughts?
TL; DR—Breaker that has never tripped has now tripped twice in the last two days with nothing changing in terms of Load or anything else. Could heat on the wall opposite of the panel + garage temps be causing this?

Hello!
We had a brand new Carrier system installed in August 2021. It was working fine up until yesterday. I noticed in the evening that it was off. I’ve checked the following:

• Circuit breaker not flipped
• Disconnect not switched on the unit/fuse thing is plugged in
• Thermostats are working (I can hear it “clicking” on) + they’re set to cool and temp is lower than what it is inside

Not sure if this is anything but we have a zoned system, and the panel there has a red light lit up that says “pump term” - no idea what that means. I checked the manual for it but there’s nothing that mentions “pump term”.
I’ve reset everything and turned everything off and back on that I can think of. I’ll call an HVAC guy tomorrow, but they’ll likely not be able to swing by until later in the week. Anybody that can help out would be greatly appreciated!
EDIT: I also wanted to add that the unit is doing nothing. No buzzing, no indication at all that it’s trying to kick on.

I'm a newcomer to Ableton having switched off of Reaper, how would one do this in arrangement view?

We are relocating and building a new home which is estimated to take 12-14 months (next July). We’re selling our home for the down payment and are not exactly sure of best path forward.
We know if we sold now we could make a nice chunk but would then be in a rent back situation (which would limit buyers) and run the risk of property values continuing to rise and losing out on thousands.
Flip side and probably the obvious answer: we sell closer to move time and assume property values remain about what they are now or higher. Worst case would be the home doesn’t sell in time and something goes sideways on the mortgage side but we could qualify (barely) with this as a rental. Not ideal especially with ~7% rates.
Gut says hold off & sell in the spring but the cynic in me is intrigued by the sell now safe bet scenario. Thoughts? I assume someone out there has been in a similar position?

So. We got the angel care bath for my son which worked great until he started trying to roll and sit up in it. We basically just switched to putting him on a towel with like a small layer of water thst doesn't even cover the towel bc we were so sick of trying to keep him in that thing.
The issue is, he can't sit up fully unassisted yet and even if he could he does this thing where he flings himself backward. I am getting SO ANNOYED ringing out a damn towel every night and trying to dry off a towel or having to wash them frequently or they smell like musk obviously. And frankly h le hates it when we lay him in there and I'm sure he's getting cold doing this.
So, does anyone have a solution?! Your favorite seat? I'm hesitant to buy yet another 40 dollar thing for this bath but even when he does sit up fully unassisted I doubt I'll want him in the bath without support for a while.
I saw the hack to flip the angel care tub but again he pushes his legs and leans back a lot and without proper back support ik he'll hurt himself or ill be constantly having to wrangle a wiggly 6 months old who's trying to jump or roll or get to his belly.
So, idk anyone have any solutions I can look into?! Save me lmaoo

It was a grey morning. Rain didn't fall so much as it misted across the world, immediately saturating anything unlucky enough to be out in it without seven layers of waterproofing. I was watching it through a window, from a warm, dry office, sipping at something that contained a multiple of the recommended daily intake of caffeine when my phone rang. I refreshed my queue and immediately saw the job.

ME: "Hey {Scheduler (S)}, you're ringing about the job at {nearby site}?"
S: "Yes, it's just come in as URGENT, can you go look?"

I looked at the unrelenting rain outside once again. Well... it is what they pay me for.

ME: "Yes, I'll go. However, as it's five to twelve, I'll have to work through my lunch, so please mark my end time for today as 3:30, not 4:00."
S: "Oh wait, {Other Tech (OT)} has just marked this job as OTHER CONTRACTOR with a note that it needs to be passed to another company."
ME: "{OT} is wrong, the fault description clearly indicates a total network failure, not a failure of the single unit that is OTHER CONTRACTOR's responsibility. Don't let him close it, send it directly to me instead - I'm already on my way."

I hung up the phone, pulled on my jacket and flipped up the hood. It was time to go to work.
The site, fortunately, was close by, and I was there in a matter of minutes. I hadn't been to the site in about six months or so, and when I walked in, it was to a sea of new faces. One of them, however, recognized the logo on my shirt, and approached me as soon as I got inside.

New Supervisor (NS): "Thank God you're here, I don't know what's wrong, we can still authorise {equipment} but none of the {other equipment} is working!"
ME: "Okay, let me run some tests here and we'll see wait I can figure out."

I approached the Point of Sale computer, and initiated a test. COMMS ERROR. Okay, I'll try a different test. TRANSMISSION ERRROR. What about a different POS? COMMS ERROR. Okay, time to move up the network tree.

ME: "Okay, I need to check in the office. Is it unlocked?"
NS: "Yes, sure. Dude, do whatever you need to, I don't care, just make it work!"
ME: "That's what I'm here for!"

So, into the office. Typical small independent store, there is a computer, a router, and one or two other pieces of equipment to make our systems actually work. A moment or two with that ping proved that all of our equipment was online and communicating with each other, but not the outside world. A router problem, perhaps? The site used a CISCO RV042, reasonably reliable - although if memory served, this one was about two years old, having replaced an identical predecessor when it completely failed. So, can I ping the upstream router? Can I even find an address for the upstream router? I managed to get access to the Cisco's web interface, but I had no luck - it was like the upstream router didn't exist, despite the cable showing link lights. In desperation, I returned to the outside world to get a known good network cable from my vehicle - but no joy, replacing the cable between the routers did not restore network traffic. I hadn't expected it to work, but it was worth ruling out. Reboot the Cisco. Reboot the upstream router.
Nothing.
W. T. F.
Well, there's an idiom that gets used when you find yourself looking at a Gordian knot of networking cables underneath a dusty desk in a dirty back office: when in doubt, tear it out! I disconnected everything from the upstream router (taking note so I could reconstruct it to the state it was in when I arrived, at least). I rebooted the Cisco, the upstream router, even the ONT, with nothing connected. Then I started rebuilding the network. ONT to upstream router, upstream to Cisco, and- we're back online, pings are pinging. Everything is working again!
So, rebuild the network. Find the offending unit. First cable connected - no change, everything continues working as normally. Pings are unaffected. Second cable - still no change. Wait, is everything going to continue to work and I'll have no idea why it failed? Last cable - total network failure, pings failed, everything offline! Disconnect the cable! What the hell is this, and why does it kill EVERYTHING when it gets connected?
Trace the cable, unravel the Gordian knot. The cable leads to a Power over Ethernet adapter, which then leads to a circular white disc. It reminds me of a Wireless Access Point that we installed for another customer a couple of years ago; that one was configured via the cloud, so someone somewhere needed to have the access to make changes.

ME: "Hey NS, it looks like this is the source of your problems - whenever it's plugged into the network, we lose everything."
NS: "What even is that thing?"
ME: "I think it's a Wireless Access Point, it probably provides customer wifi?"
NS: "We don't do customer wifi here. Let me ask {Old Supervisor (OS)}."
ME: "I thought OS left?"
NS: "Yeah, but they still answer my calls when I have problems."

I hope that they're still being paid to be the on-call knowledge base, I thought loudly.
After a moment, the answer came back via text message: THAT WAS INSTALLED WITH THE NEW DIGITAL SIGNS BECAUSE THEY NEED INTERNET ACCESS. Okay, I think. If this IS a wifi access point, what could have happened? Could someone have configured this to distribute the same address range as our equipment? What happens when a DHCP distributed address clashes with one set by Static IP? Well the DHCP server would be advertising that it has a route to that specific address, right? Whereas the static IP has no such advertisement. So when the DHCP distributes the address, it would be... like... the device with the static IP couldn't communicate at all with anything upstream.
Exactly like the symptoms when I arrived.
So, how do we fix it?

ME: "Hey NS, has anyone reset the power to this?"
NS: "No, why would we? That wasn't having any issues..."

If I power cycle this AP, chances are that it will reset it's internal DHCP server, so the available addresses will be distributed from the start of the range again - and thus not include the address of the Cisco router. I turned it off. I turned it on again. I reconnected the network cable.
And everything continued to work, and all was right in the world. The rain stopped, the sun came out from behind the clouds, and a glorious rainbow smiled down from the skies. Well... the rain stopped, at least.

NS: "You know, I thought you weren't taking this seriously when you arrived, because you never stopped smiling."
ME: "NS, I started out in the Navy, fixing the combat systems that allow the ship to actually defend itself - if I was not fast enough, not good enough, then the whole ship could sink and hundreds of lives lost - not just my co-workers, but my close personal friends, my 'brothers from other mothers' - my family of choice, rather than coincidence."
ME: "Then I moved to the civilian world, and started working on fire alarms and life safety systems. My boss once screamed at me 'WHAT WILL YOU TELL THE CORONER WHEN IT DOESN'T WORK AND PEOPLE DIE?' He didn't appreciate my response of 'I told my boss that I needed more time, more training, and most importantly more people because we're chronically under-staffed, and YOU did nothing about it!'"
ME: "So yes, I was smiling, because at the end of the day? No one would die if we couldn't fix this. The only thing that was ever actually at risk here was someone else's money."

I climbed back into my vehicle and checked for any further messages. There was one, from OT.

OT: "Sorry, Gambatte is correct, I didn't read the fault description closely enough. Please send the job to him ASAP."

I hit reply, condensed the fault description to the barest of bare bones, and sent it back. My tablet pinged a response almost immediately.

OT: "WTF? I would never have found that!"

It's nice to have your skills recognized and acknowledged sometimes.

Despite being ADHD-PI, I always thought I was quite good at being social and yet my conversation ability is still rubbish. My biggest strength is probably my humour, so I thrive in bigger groups where I can join a conversation with a quick joke or anecdote before promptly sitting back again. On the flip side I’m very bad at holding conversation, so small groups get very awkward very quickly. The main reason is that my mind just goes blank. We could be discussing a topic I’m familiar with, but no ideas, thoughts or experiences come to minds so I have nothing to say. I don’t think it’s anxiety causing this blankness, because it doesn’t feel that way (although I’m not great at recognising anxiety, so could be wrong).
Part of the reason, I’m sure, is boredom. I often find myself being bored by what the other person is saying. Either they’re taking too long to get to a simple conclusion or they’re discussing something that has no relevance/interest to me. I’m aware that this in itself is probably a symptom and I try very hard to mask this boredom so I don’t come off as rude. But even when pretending to be interested, I can’t come up with responses that are convincing enough, and this is where the long awkward pauses come in. Sometimes I think I could direct the conversation in something I would be interested in, but again I blank and then I all of a sudden don’t even know what would interest me.

1) Ancient Egypt; sand; dusty; golden; arid; I want to smell like a desert that hasn't seen rain since who knows when.
2) Jungle; wet; mud; humid; waist-deep murky river crossings; no floral scents but that's all that comes up when I search for tropical/jungle scents. I want to smell like I'm in the midst of an old-time expedition through the tropics dressed in all tan/khaki basically.
3) Death/The Pale Horseman; foreboding; ominous; dementor; energy vampire; hash slinging slasher; grim reaper; gut-wrenching; creeps; ghost; poltergeist; intense sadness; spooky; evil; sorrowful; I want to smell like all the happiness in the world has been drained out.
4) Pirate; ocean brine; high seas; Pirates of the Caribbean; foreboding; trading port; heavy fog; I want to smell like my final destination is Davy Jones's locker, like my place is on board with Jack Sparrow himself. I don't mind anything musky or smelling like I probably should hit the shower ASAP.
Thank you!

So Friday I was doing my planned long brick. I was halfway through my ride when I got a flat. Luckily I was close to home and decided to walk back and just do a longer run. I have SPD clips so walking in the shoes isn’t usually too bad. I was less than a half mile from home when I got the flat. Within minutes I started to get a blister on my heel and decided to take my shoes off. Ended up with giant blisters on the balls of my feet and can barely walk right now. Two weeks out from my B race and 5 weeks out from my A race.
Last year I burned my hand in the oven flipping fish and couldn’t swim for at least a week.
What are everyone’s odd injuries during training?

This is a throwaway account. Also, I have never actually posted on reddit so I apologize if this is not the right format or if I miss anything.
I (21M) am from a small college town but I'm in a big city for the summer. I woke up this morning with a really bad back ache and decided that I wanted to get a massage. Now, I do this all the time in my college town but since I just got here I searched around for the cheapest one I could find. I ended up finding this asian massage parlor with pretty good ratings for only 40 dollars.
I should have known the moment I got there that this place was sketch because it was behind a grocery place and when I first walked in they asked me if I was paying in cash and seemed surprised when I said card. Usually in my college town I don't take off my underwear but these people insisted on me taking off all my clothes. I did so and covered myself fully with the towel. The lady walked in and started my massage. It was pretty normal and underwhelming, wasn't really helping my back. It was going okay and I was mentally thinking "aight this is why it was 40 dollars" until she started removing my drapes. I was obviously uncomfortable and kinda just froze (I should mention I am much less "sexually mature" than other guys my age and have never really done anything before). Eventually she lowered it below my butt and then a few minutes later the towel was completely gone and she seemed to be constantly aiming to work on my butt and even between my legs all the way up so that she would touch my genitals every once in a while. She kept on rubbing the upper part of my inner thigh and up to my genitals. I was completely frozen and (I think) visibly shaking. She kept on going and touching me in places I didn't want her too and I was too frozen to say anything. Then she asked me to flip over and held up the drape I flipped over and she covered me completely again and I began to relax. She started massaging my legs and just kept on slightly touching my genitals. I was really uncomfortable and was trying to nudge her away. Anyway at the very end she said to me in broken english, pointing at my genitals, "I will do that for extra tip". I said no way and she left the room and I got dressed. When I got out of the room she started haranguing me for a tip. I originally said 10 dollars (25% more than generous) but she wouldn't stop till I made it $22. At that point I wanted to leave so bad I just paid and left as soon as I could.
I feel so guilty because I basically (inadvertently) paid a prostitution place. I feel disgusting in so many ways. As I said I am not very sexually mature and this is effectively the first time my genitals have been stimulated and I can't believe that it was at some sketchy alley massage place. I want to throw up. Am I can't stop thinking that I should have gotten up and left when she started touching me in areas I didn't want her to or said something and I can't figure out why I didn't. Am I overthinking this? Now that it has been a few hours I am starting to worry that maybe I could even be in legal trouble. This place is most certainly illegal in California and I inadvertently funded them. Was I assaulted? I don't know what to do.
tldr: massage place touched me in places I didn't want them to and exposed my whole body, I am shaken and feel violated

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/UaLSOnF
Additional pictures: https://imgur.com/a/tI7ErW0
Hey guys, got some more random shit I’d like to trade or sell.
I’d prefer to get rid of everything in one go, but I can split.
Throw trade offers, I just want some of this stuff gone, if whatever you have sounds cool enough I'll take it. I like AKs/ARs but again, i'll trade for anything.
Send it Sunday stuff:

1. 2x ZWILLING Enfinigy Personal Blenders ~ $65 each
2. Funko lot ~ $65
3. Razer gaming peripherals lot ~ $55

Actual Gun stuff:

1. BelOMO PK-06 ~ $250
2. Zastava/Yugo Hanguard ~ $25
3. AK74U Sling ~ $25
4. AK74U Drop Case ~ $25 (Take both the sling and drop case for $40)

​
Descriptions:

1. Personal Blenders - I heard these are good, I know nothing about them, theyre brand new. If I cant get rid of them here I'll list 1 on amazon and keep the one I opened for the pictures, I feel like these are good for Protein powder, I'm starting a lil fruit garden so I'll probably use to make smoothies or something. Current amazon price is $85 so I listed here $20 lower.
2. Funko! lot. - Im not into funko IDK why I have these.. If youre into these IG you'd want them. I priced everything out individually on ebay and came up w total value around $190 so Ig if you wanted to flip them individually you could. If pricing is off lmk, again im not into Funko (contents:1x POP! Jar Jar Binks - 624, 1x POP! R2-D2 & R5-D4 (exclusive 2 pack), 2x POP! Ace W/ Wanted poster - 1291, 2x POP! Snake-Man Luffy 1266, 2x POP! Yelena - 1303) Comes with original packaging.
3. Razer gaming peripherals - Priced everything out on Amazon and got around $240, IK a lot of this stuff is obsolete or just overall not good, so I'm not asking nearly $240 (Contents: 2x Razer Deathadder, 3x Razer Kraken X Lite, 3x Razer Gigantus Medium Mouse pads)
4. PK-06 - Got this in a trade, Don't know much about it but it works perfectly, 2x brightness settings and 3 different reticle options, I was told it was worth around $300 on ComblocMarket. When you google PK-06 all you find is Escape from Tarkov videos, ig these were good on EFT at one point so if you want to build a EFT gun this would be a cool optic option. Overall in good/very good condition (see pics)
5. Handguard IDK what this is, ik its for a yugo pattern AK but it looks like it was stained, IDK if this is a new or old production handguard set though. Has some weird writing on the side (I'm assuming writing is in Serbian)
6. AK74U drop case and sling - Buy both for $40. I got these for my m92 zpap but sadly they dont really fit. I have to take the muzzle device off of my m92 to get it to fit into the drop case, and the sling is a little too small for my liking. Sling currently has a QD sling swivel on it, which wont be included.

This is a throwaway account. Also, I have never actually posted on reddit so I apologize if this is not the right format or if I miss anything.
I (21M) am from a small college town but I'm in a big city for the summer. I woke up this morning with a really bad back ache and decided that I wanted to get a massage. Now, I do this all the time in my college town but since I just got here I searched around for the cheapest one I could find. I ended up finding this asian massage parlor with pretty good ratings for only 40 dollars.
I should have known the moment I got there that this place was sketch because it was behind a grocery place and when I first walked in they asked me if I was paying in cash and seemed surprised when I said card. Usually in my college town I don't take off my underwear but these people insisted on me taking off all my clothes. I did so and covered myself fully with the towel. The lady walked in and started my massage. It was pretty normal and underwhelming, wasn't really helping my back. It was going okay and I was mentally thinking "aight this is why it was 40 dollars" until she started removing my drapes. I was obviously uncomfortable and kinda just froze (I should mention I am much less "sexually mature" than other guys my age and have never really done anything before). Eventually she lowered it below my butt and then a few minutes later the towel was completely gone and she seemed to be constantly aiming to work on my butt and even between my legs all the way up so that she would touch my genitals every once in a while. She kept on rubbing the upper part of my inner thigh and up to my genitals. I was completely frozen and (I think) visibly shaking. She kept on going and touching me in places I didn't want her too and I was too frozen to say anything. Then she asked me to flip over and held up the drape I flipped over and she covered me completely again and I began to relax. She started massaging my legs and just kept on slightly touching my genitals. I was really uncomfortable and was trying to nudge her away. Anyway at the very end she said to me in broken english, pointing at my genitals, "I will do that for extra tip". I said no way and she left the room and I got dressed. When I got out of the room she started haranguing me for a tip. I originally said 10 dollars (25% more than generous) but she wouldn't stop till I made it $22. At that point I wanted to leave so bad I just paid and left as soon as I could.
I feel so guilty because I basically (inadvertently) paid a prostitution place. I feel disgusting in so many ways. As I said I am not very sexually mature and this is effectively the first time my genitals have been stimulated and I can't believe that it was at some sketchy alley massage place. I want to throw up. Am I can't stop thinking that I should have gotten up and left when she started touching me in areas I didn't want her to or said something and I can't figure out why I didn't. Am I overthinking this? Now that it has been a few hours I am starting to worry that maybe I could even be in legal trouble. This place is most certainly illegal in California and I inadvertently funded them.
tldr: massage place touched me in places I didn't want them to and exposed my whole body, I am shaken and feel violated

I'm thinking of a comic I initially saw here on Reddit. It was a dark ish style comic where someone was talking to a dark creature that could have been the grin creature. They are discussing safety measures that are put in place for a learning child. It went something like this:
Person: well, what happens if the child touches the stove and there's no protective shield to stop them from touching it? What happens if they receive a terrible injury or are burnt for life?
Grim reaper: well, then they will learn a valuable life lesson.
... The stove thing may have been something else, like keeping guns around or something. But the last panel was definitely (literally) the grim reaper coldly explaining that the worst case scenario to happen to the victim would result in a valuable lesson being learned.

I'll take just about anything for them - caps, junk, scrip, boiled water (not purified), ultracite .45, coffee, any chems, any booze or (non-spoil) foods, probably other stuff I'm not thinking of... I don't know, toss an offer if you're interested in any of them. (note - some of these are currently in my vendor (at non-filthy prices) so they could sell there first - if you want something but aren't available for awhile I'll cancel the vendor sale and stash it until you're available, but I likely won't be keeping this list updated as things sell) alien blaster poison mag x6 alien corpse operating bed alien jack'o'lantern alien stash box x3 alien tube x10 animatronic clown asteroid bos knight/soldieofficer uniform balloon arch x4 barbed wire fences x8 behemoth boss plushie x10 bouquet of star balloons brahmin plushie x2 camo backpack x2 cave cricket tube x2 chally the moo-moo backpack circus cage trailer classic jack'o'lantern condemned notification sign x4 crowd bench seats cultist backpack fashnact balloon/ribbon/flag junk (already dropped most of it as useless, but if you're new or missed it or something...) fire station bell x2 full pumpkin rack x4 grafton monster lamp grim reaper vault-boy cutout 1/2 empty pumpkin rack x2 1/2 full pumpkin rack happy jack'o'lantern human tube 1 x3 human tube 2 x3 insurgent hat insurgent outfit x3 junkyard fountain marine arms/legs/torso/tactical helmet/wetsuit mobster jack'o'lantern molerat wind chime x10 musket stack monument neon light diner clock x3 nuka girl area rug x15 nuka launcher model nuka-cola clock x4 old man winter effigy x3 open neon sign power fist princess castle pink sleeping bag pumpkin rack raw cement barricade red rocket gas pump wall light x3 red rocket gas station lamp x8 red truck ceiling light x6 ripper rust eagle banner safari gorilla backpack x2 shielded lining bos underarmor shishkebab t-45 helm / right arm / right leg t-51b chest / helm / left leg TV aquarium tattered curtains x10 treasure hunter outfit x2 treasure hunter hat vault boy jack'o'lantern vault door jack'o'lantern vault-tec jack'o'lantern vintage water cooler x4 wall mounted fan x4 winter icicle lights x5 yao guai tube

This is a throwaway account. Also, I have never actually posted on reddit so I apologize if this is not the right format or if I miss anything.
I (21M) am from a small college town but I'm in a big city for the summer. I woke up this morning with a really bad back ache and decided that I wanted to get a massage. Now, I do this all the time in my college town but since I just got here I searched around for the cheapest one I could find. I ended up finding this asian massage parlor with pretty good ratings for only 40 dollars.
I should have known the moment I got there that this place was sketch because it was behind a grocery place and when I first walked in they asked me if I was paying in cash and seemed surprised when I said card. Usually in my college town I don't take off my underwear but these people insisted on me taking off all my clothes. I did so and covered myself fully with the towel. The lady walked in and started my massage. It was pretty normal and underwhelming, wasn't really helping my back. It was going okay and I was mentally thinking "aight this is why it was 40 dollars" until she started removing my drapes. I was obviously uncomfortable and kinda just froze (I should mention I am much less "sexually mature" than other guys my age and have never really done anything before). Eventually she lowered it below my butt and then a few minutes later the towel was completely gone and she seemed to be constantly aiming to work on my butt and even between my legs all the way up so that she would touch my genitals every once in a while. She kept on rubbing the upper part of my inner thigh and up to my genitals. I was completely frozen and (I think) visibly shaking. She kept on going and touching me in places I didn't want her too and I was too frozen to say anything. Then she asked me to flip over and held up the drape I flipped over and she covered me completely again and I began to relax. She started massaging my legs and just kept on slightly touching my genitals. I was really uncomfortable and was trying to nudge her away. Anyway at the very end she said to me in broken english, pointing at my genitals, "I will do that for extra tip". I said no way and she left the room and I got dressed. When I got out of the room she started haranguing me for a tip. I originally said 10 dollars (25% more than generous) but she wouldn't stop till I made it $22. At that point I wanted to leave so bad I just paid and left as soon as I could.
I feel so guilty because I basically (inadvertently) paid a prostitution place. I feel disgusting in so many ways. As I said I am not very sexually mature and this is effectively the first time my genitals have been stimulated and I can't believe that it was at some sketchy alley massage place. I want to throw up. Am I can't stop thinking that I should have gotten up and left when she started touching me in areas I didn't want her to or said something and I can't figure out why I didn't. Am I overthinking this? Now that it has been a few hours I am starting to worry that maybe I could even be in legal trouble. This place is most certainly illegal in California and I inadvertently funded them.
tldr: massage place touched me in places I didn't want them to and exposed my whole body, I am shaken and feel violated

Ok so listening to the off-topic section talk about werewolf etc made me think if there was a werewolf "hero" in Overwatch. I'm reminded of the wolfbats (again) that were in Phara's voiceline and even without knowing what they look like created a moveset. It'll be a simple damage like Reaper or Tracer.
Tag: Renfield
Name: Experiment #262-007+(controlled by Operator X)
Background: An underground back-alley experiment on mind control that seems to have worked on a series of wolfbats. And now "released" onto the field for more intelligent (mental resistanced) test subjects to test his mental bands on.
Health- 275
Passive: Wall Crawl- Thanks to sharp claws he can run up vertical walls (like Hanzo)
Primary/melee- Claw swipe (8 hp per swipe) quick swipes with his claws similar to Reinhardt but faster at 1 swipe a second
Secondary Carnivore- Take a literal chunk of the enemy's health (20hp) out with your teeth giving you 20 hp back (30 hp if it kills enemy)
Ability 1: Pounce- Spread your wings catching an updraft( 8m) and glide to your prey for a tackle (15 hp) that knocks down enemy for a second allowing for more attacks
Ultimate Headband- leap on an enemy and attach a mind control band like the one on Renfield where they will remotely attack others on their team. Depending on the health is how long the band will last. After death, it will last 30 seconds(120 hp) before expiration if not destroyed. Near death lasts for 15 seconds, half life for 10 seconds, light damaged 5 seconds, no damage 2 seconds

First Previous
The first thing that Si’feri became aware of was the gentle rocking motions. She hadn’t been held like this since she was a chick, and while it was incredibly soothing, it was still somewhat demeaning. “I’m awake, you can set me down, now,” she said as she opened her eyes to look at whomever was carrying her.
She had to push down a wave of terror when she saw that it was Al’ecs. As much as she knew that the alien would never hurt her, his face was still something that had been dredged up from the deepest of nightmares, and really wasn’t something anyone wanted to wake up to. “I’m up… I’m up…” she said, gently tapping the alien on the shoulder, trying to make it clear that she didn’t want to be held any more.
Al’ecs stopped immediately before he set down the groggy hen. Sir Kev, who had apparently been walking next to Al’ecs, drew closer with a concerned look on his face. “Are you well, M’lady?” Kev asked, holding out a hand to help steady her.
“I’m fine, this has been known to happen from time to time,” she said, before taking stock of their surroundings. They were still in the forest, though they were nowhere near the clearing anymore. She also noticed that Al’ecs still carried her basket, though she had no idea why. “Were we on our way back?”
“I believe so, M’lady. You passed out not long after completing your vision, and Al’ecs picked you up and began taking you towards town. I have merely been following,” Sir Kev said, bowing respectfully. “I hope we did not disturb any after visions or effects you might have been experiencing.”
“You did not. In fact, thank you for doing just that, as we have very little time to waste, and staying where we were would have just delayed us. I need to speak with Tor and Ja’vail as soon as possible, preferable the second we get out, though I already know that that is not going to happen,” Si’feri said before she turned back towards Al’ecs. As she studied the expressionless alien, the warning from the vision seemed to echo in her ears, reminding her of the possible doom that she might have to place on him. With a chipperness she did not feel, her crest perked back up to its original bounciness as she placed a hand on the creature’s upper arm. “Don’t worry, we’ll work through this, okay?”
The creature clearly didn’t understand her, but he seemed to appreciate the sentiment all the same, as evidenced by the way the creature gently placed a hand on her head. Al’ecs tried to say something, but whatever came out of his maw was both far too garbled, and in a completely unrecognizable tongue. Si’feri really had no chance of understanding the creature, but somehow that didn’t matter to her. It was clear to her that Al’ecs was just happy to have someone to interact with, regardless of any actual understanding.
That realization alone was enough to bring the baker to tears. How long have you been alone like this? she thought as the creature slowly removed his hand. He turned around, clearly intent on making his way back to his cave, but stopped when Si’feri reached out and touched his back. He turned back to her, his face as expressionless as the first time she had seen him in her dreams, but that didn’t stop her from seeing past all of that, and into the being that lay underneath the monster.
The face looked far fuller, with an odd set of lips, like those on a dragon or a pig, though neither of those comparisons did them justice. Their corners were turned upwards somewhat, in an expression that, on anything else, would have made the creature more menacing as it bared its teeth. On Al’ecs, however, it was a warm expression, made even friendlier by how the corners of his eyes changed to match. On the top of his head was a shock of reddish orange fur, a small, button-like nose sat in the center of his face, and right above them was a pair of gray eyes that shone with intelligence.
The vision only lasted a second, but in that instance she truly understood just how much Al’ecs had lost. Without even thinking about it, she threw her arms around the alien’s neck, pulling him into a tight hug, though she was mindful not to stick herself on the spikes on the creature’s back. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you home, I promise.”
The creature seemed stunned at this, completely unsure of what to do with his hands. After a few seconds of this, and when nothing terrible happened, he finally seemed to realize that this was very real. He then gently wrapped his arms around the hen, before a shuddering sob racked his body as tears began to flow freely from his eyes again. It didn’t take Si’feri long to realize that the feathers on the top of her head were quickly becoming soaked, but she didn’t care. It was a small price to pay when she considered the fact that the promise she had made was most likely a lie.
After what felt like an eternity of this, the two finally separated, and Si’feri could only watch as Al’ecs awkwardly tried to dry his face with his hands. Not knowing what else to do, Si’feri reached out and took the blanket from the basket the creature was holding before she offered it to him. He took it, but not before letting out a grateful sort of sound. “We’ve got to get going. We’ll be back tomorrow, though, okay?” Si’feri told him as he began patting his face dry with the blanket in his hands.
Despite him not understanding a single word she said, Al’ecs nodded, then proceeded to return the blanket to the basket before he held it out to her. Si’feri gently pushed it back, shaking her head as her crest bobbed in a happy manner. “It’s yours, as well as everything in it.”
Al’ecs just looked down at it, before he turned it upside-down, revealing that he had already eaten everything she had brought him as only the blanket fell out of it.
“I’m thinking that he really enjoyed your cooking, M’lady! So much so, that I think he’s trying to ask for seconds!” Sir Kev said with a laugh.
Si’feri’s crest perked up even higher as she took back the basket, but she still pushed the blanket into his open hands. “Well, why don’t I bring this back to you tomorrow? Filled to the brim, of course. But this is still yours.”
Al’ecs didn’t try to say anything in his garbled tongue, choosing to instead give them one last nod in gratitude before he turned back towards the forest, putting the blanket over his shoulders like a mantle as he walked away.
Si’feri was briefly tempted to bring the alien back to town, but quickly dismissed the idea. Despite night quickly coming, the Town of Jov was still quite alive. Getting the alien anywhere comfortable would require more magic and drake power than they currently had available, not to mention that Al’ecs would most likely spook and run in the event that someone started screaming.
No, it’s better this way, she thought as she watched the alien disappear into the forest.
It wasn’t even ten seconds later when she started having second thoughts. This was further compounded when several knights fluttered from the trees above and landed in front of her, their heads bowed low in respect.
“How long were you up there watching?” she asked them curiously.
“For quite some time, Ma’am. Sir Kev instructed us to stay hidden while the creature was still around,” the knight in front said, not rising from his bow. “I must say, it is an honor to-”
“Leave the formalities for someone who cares,” Si’feri said as she reached out to raise the knight from his bow. “We do not have time for ceremony, nor will such things save us from what is to come.”
“M’lady Siv?”
“Si’feri will do fine, for the time being,” Si’feri said before she turned back to town. She stopped, however, as a thought occurred to her. “How many knights are stationed at the creature’s cave?”
“Four, M’lady.”
She thought about this for a few seconds, before shaking her head. “Better increase it. Two of you should head to the clearing, and provide additional protection. The creature is to survive the night, am I clear?”
“As the rising sun, M’lady,” the leading knight said, rising from his bow. He then turned to his subordinates and clapped his hands together. “Tilvan, Mor, you two provide additional protection. We’ll send more once we get back to town, but in the meantime you and the others are to defend the creature with your lives, understood?”
The two soldiers quickly cut sharp salutes, then took off into the skies. The sight of the two valiant knights disappearing into the night sky did much to relieve the worry that had been building in Si’feri’s heart, but that relief was a fleeting thing. As Si’feri and her escorts traveled back towards town, she couldn’t help but feel her heart fall further and further, and she found herself wondering if it would be enough. * * * “Hey, Genpi, take a look at this, will you?”
Genpi released his magic, deactivating the heat wand in his hand that he had been using to cut through the alien ship. The vessel was made of some kind of metal the dakri had never seen before, and the team in charge of investigating the craft had found it extremely difficult to cut or pull apart the vessel through conventional methods, hence the reason why Genpi was painstakingly cutting into the metal siding of the ship with a heat wand. He had been making good progress, too, or rather, he would have been making progress, if it wasn’t for his colleague’s constant interruptions.
With a disgruntled sigh, Genpi pushed up his black tinted goggles and looked up at the excitable drake, his expression telling the whole world that this had better be worth his attention. “What is it now Penirl?”
Penirl stood about three meters away, in his hands an oddly shaped piece of metal. It was long and staff-like, but had what looked like a stock at one end.
It also looked like it had survived the crash reasonably intact.
“I’m thinking it’s some kind of weapon, but I already ran a detection spell to look for any enchantments, and I didn’t find anything,” Penirl said as he held up the thing for Genpi’s inspection. Penirl then grabbed the weapon by its grip, and held it in front of him like he would a Lightning Rod.
Thankfully, the drake had enough sense not to point it at anyone, otherwise Genpi would have smacked him upside the head right then and there. “Well, don’t just play with it, the higher ups will want to have a look at it,” Genpi said, waving the excitable young drake away.
“What do you think it does, though?” Penirl asked, ignoring Genpi’s instructions. “I’ve already tried the triggering mechanism, but nothing happened.” As if to demonstrate this, Penirl stuck his finger into the hole near the grip and squeezed the rather obvious trigger.
Nothing happened, but that did nothing to lighten Genpi’s mood about the drake playing around with something he didn’t understand. “Stop messing around and get that thing logged and put with the other artifacts,” Genpi said, shooing the drake away.
Penirl looked a little downcast at this, but quickly perked up. “Come on, Genpi! Aren’t you even the slightest bit excited?”
Genpi looked up at the drake before slowly returning his goggles to their old position. “I'll be ‘excited’ when I find out whether or not friends of these things are going to come looking for their lost ship. More importantly than that, though, is if they find the inhabitants of this planet in any way delicious.”
“Oh poo, you really need to lighten up,” Penirl said, sticking out his tongue at the older drake.
If Genpi saw this, he didn't show it, choosing to instead reignite his wand and get back to cutting.
Penirl shook his head in disapproval before he turned and carefully picked his way out of the wreckage of the ship. It didn't take him long to log and store the new discovery, during which he started having the oddest feeling that he was being watched. He looked up and around for a little bit, drawing a confused stare from the hen in charge of the recovered artifacts, but that didn’t matter to him as much. He would never admit it to Genpi, but what the older drake had said earlier had shaken him to the core.
“Are you okay?” the hen with the clipboard asked, her crest lowered ever so slightly in worry.
“Yeah… yeah, I’m fine…” Penirl said before he tried to shake off the feeling.
“Well, if you’re sure, then you probably should be getting back to work,” the hen reminded him.
Penirl nodded, but didn’t say anything as his eyes searched the edges of the crater for a few more seconds, before they moved to the skies above. After a few seconds of finding nothing, he turned and made his way back to the ship and into the depths below.
The hen’s eyes followed him until he disappeared, before she shrugged to herself and muttered about the strangeness of drakes, completely ignorant of the strange area of warped air that hovered just above the wreckage as it silently recorded the activity below. * * * Tor was in a bit of a panic. Lady Siv was one of his closest friends, but that relationship was somewhat marred by the fact that she never came to him with good news. When one coupled this with the fact that Siv had apparently had a vision specifically about the alien survivor, one could understandably see why the small king was distraught.
Nightmarish scenes began playing through his head; vastly superior forces invading his planet, insect-like creatures that could shape-shift infiltrating his forces, and his people rounded up like cattle, being used as weapons like the unfortunate survivor, or even as a source of food.
All of this and more danced through his mind and kept him at his desk as he desperately tried to think of some way out of this hellish scenario. Plan after plan was drawn up, considered, then ultimately thrown away, as he had no way to gauge the strength of his opponents with the information he currently had, but even with his limited understanding, he knew that he and his people would be conquered within a week should the aliens come. If they had the power to send a ship across the vast distance of space, what stopped them from hurling a meteor the size of Tor’s castle at his tiny Diarchy? What about several meteors? What about their own moon?
None of this sat well with the small king. If their enemy wanted, they could annihilate Tor’s little world before the planet’s inhabitants even knew what had hit them.
Unbidden, the king felt his eyes drawn to a particular book on his shelf. It was one he had read before, quite extensively for that matter, since it had been penned by one of his previous students. The concepts inside were just that, though: concepts. Nothing more than pipe dreams that the imaginative young drake had drawn up during his free time.
With a small grunt, the king held out his hand, while his beak glowed a brilliant golden color. Almost immediately, the book on the shelf took on a similar hue, and flew from its place on the shelf and into the king’s outstretched hand. He didn’t know why the book caught his eye, but something about the problems he faced reminded him of his long dead student. Maybe something about the way the curious drake saw the world would help me. At the very least, it would be a welcome diversion, the king thought to himself as he began to flip through the pages.
It wasn’t long before one of his student’s scrawls caught his eye, and he had to suppress a chuckle at the strange invention the drake had penned. “A wooden, flying golem. I remember that one,” Tor said fondly to himself. “Was supposed to be able to ferry weapons and equipment to soldiers in the field. If I remember correctly, Jovask even made a land-based version for transporting foodstuff. Pity, he never did get the instructions on his golems to work right…”
The king continued to idly flip through his apprentice’s notes and designs, stopping every so often to laugh fondly at what the drake had thought up, and the memories they conjured. There was an automatic arrow golem, a creation designed to do the washing up, and something that would gather flowers for some reason. Each and every creation brilliantly designed, but flawed by the creator’s inability to overcome the inherent weaknesses found in golemmancy.
With a shrug, Tor flipped through the remaining pages, fully intent on putting the book back once he reached the end, but stopped at the final page. On the page was a very strange device indeed. It looked like a random assortment of items, all tied to a central statue made to look like a Nightmare Falcon’s head. Tor remembered this particular invention: it was supposed to be the ultimate telescope, capable of not only gaining information on distant objects, but also able to track them for the benefit of the user. It could even locate invisible objects, if enough information for basic scrying was available.
The only problem was, again, the inherent problem with the school of golemmancy: The more complex the task, the more arcanite was required for the golem to perform said task. In order to get this thing to work, Jovask would have needed a hunk of arcanite the size of a large mountain.
Tor let out a weary sigh as he snapped the book shut. Shame, too. If we had Jovask’s Omniscope, we would at least be able to determine if there were any alien ships in orbit about to destroy us, maybe take a few with us using the sun and moon, but… golemmancy, of all things… he thought as his beak began to glow again. With no small amount of nostalgia, the King of the Dawn returned his former student’s work to its resting place.
“What’s wrong, Tory?”
Tor looked towards the open door of his study, his heart falling at the sight of the Lady Siv. Her crest was just as bouncy as he remembered it, though her dress and occupation seemed to have changed since the last time he saw her. “I see you’ve decided to take up baking,” Tor said as he stood to greet her.
“It was either that or basket weaving, and I felt that the people of Jov needed a baker more,” Siv said as she approached her old friend. “I see that Javy’s been rubbing off on you, as you seem to have grown mopey in your old age.”
Tor felt his crest perk up ever so slightly at that jab. “Hey, if I remember, wasn’t it you who told me that I should start acting my age?” he asked, placing his hands on his hips in mock anger.
“Yes, but I never expected you to take my advice!” Siv said as she rolled her eyes at the king. “It was just one of those things you say to a friend. ‘Act your age.’ ‘Don’t date your mortal enemy.’ ‘Don’t eat all the karro berry pockets.’ Never expected you to actually listen, though…”
They both stared at each other for some time until Tor couldn’t take it anymore and broke down in a fit of laughter. “Oh Siv, it’s been far too long…”
The Lady let out a few chuckles of her own, but the laughter never reached her eyes. Instead, there lurked a profound sadness there, one that made Tor’s laughter disappear as quickly as it had appeared.
“So, my friend, what doom have the spirits pronounced upon us?” Tor asked, his crest falling ever so slightly.
Siv let out a sigh, before slowly walking over to the king’s desk and taking a seat. “It’s bad. Really bad. Before, I’ve given you many ways to avoid fate’s decrees. Until this morning, I had never once seen a doom that had but one escape.”
Despite the hen’s gloomy demeanor, the king’s crest rose as he felt his heart leap in hope. “You mean there’s still a way out?”
Siv let out a weary sigh. “Yes, but it may involve the sacrifice of an innocent, and even then I cannot guarantee that your people will come out completely unscathed.” Siv fixed Tor with a stare that seemed to pierce straight through to his soul. “Are you prepared to hear the doom I would announce against you? Are you prepared for the doom that would swallow your people?”
“I am always prepared for this burden. You know that better than anyone, M’lady,” Tor said as he slowly circled his desk, then sat back down in his chair.
Siv reached into the pouch at her belt and pulled out a single memory crystal. “Then, O King of the Dawn, receive this doom, and turn it away for the sake of the living, and the sake of those yet to live,” she said as she placed the glowing red crystal on the desk.
Without hesitation, Tor reached out and took the crystal and gently prodded it with his power. His mind instantly became scorched with images of depravity and violence: Monsters and fire rained from the sky, and his people were turned into cold, unfeeling machines. Anguish washed over all of his senses, and it felt like he was being turned inside out.
Just as quickly as it had come, however, the feeling vanished. Tor now knew everything Siv had placed inside the crystal. Every torment she had experience now scarred his mind, including the way to annul the whole ghastly future.
“No… You cannot be serious…” Tor said, his voice shaking somewhat as he stared down at the crystal in disbelief.
“I am completely serious, King of the Dawn,” the Lady Siv said as she rose from her chair, stretched out her wings, and cast her gaze straight towards the heavens. “His fate is now in your hands. I pray for his sake and for ours that you will continue to be the wise king you have proven yourself to be.”
With those final words, the Lady Siv disappeared in a flash of fire, leaving behind a whiff of smoke, and a single, green feather.
Tor reached out and caught the feather in his magic before it had touched the ground, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the memento left behind. “Easy for you to say, old friend. You’re not the one who’s going to have to explain this to Ja’vail…” * * * Sir Viar looked up at the sound of flapping wings, his crest perking up ever so slightly as he recognized Tilvan and Mor. “Ho, what are you two doing back here?”
Tilvan, the superior of the two, cut a quick salute the moment he landed. “New orders, sir. We’re to reinforce you and protect the creature with our lives.”
Viar looked at the two, somewhat troubled. “Then shouldn’t you two have stayed with it? We only stayed here because The Lady wished it!”
“We did stay with it, sir,” Mor said, pointing to a particular patch of forest. A few seconds after he spoke, the bushes shook and parted to reveal the monster. It immediately spotted the group of dakri knights at the top of the cliff and gave them a short wave before approaching the ladder to its lair. “It seems to have incredibly accurate senses, and even slowed down for us once it knew that we were following it.”
Viar let out a sigh of relief before fixing the two with a searching stare. “Did either of you happen to hear Lady Siv’s vision?”
Both of them shook their heads, their crests lowering ever so slightly. “No sir. Whatever it was was pretty bad, though,” Tilvan said, watching carefully as the creature climbed its ladder to enter its cave. “I’m not an expert on the mood of The Lady, but I’d say that whatever she saw frightened her.”
Viar folded his wings as he thought about that. It wasn’t a good sign, and it made him wonder just what sort of doom was about to befall their planet. As he pondered the future, one of his drakes, Sir Isal, looked over the edge at the ladder below. “Anybody else wonder why this thing is completely okay with the fact that it’s basically under armed guard? I mean, we tried to stay hidden at first, and you remember how quickly it spotted us.”
“I do,” Viar said with a nod, but seemed to be completely unconcerned about this. “I also know that this thing is extremely intelligent, and we left plenty of clues that we were the ones that pulled it out of the river, including a note.”
Isal looked a little confused. “But if this thing isn’t even from this planet, how would it read it? I don’t think it speaks Midlander.”
Viar shook his head. “No, it doesn’t. Which was why the note was only pictures, not Midlander, Sunrise, or Nightmare. We’re trying to talk with it, not confuse it.”
“But how can we be certain that it understands pictures the same way we do? How can you be sure that it can even see in the same spectrum of light?” Isal asked, his skepticism clear on his face. “For all we know, this thing can’t see the charcoal marks on the paper, or even at all. I mean, it doesn’t exactly have irises.”
Mor looked a little confused. “If it can’t see, then how is it able to navigate so easily? I mean, it never got hit once by the undergrowth of the forest.”
“I’m thinking it probably uses echolocation, like how the Nightmare tribe would conduct their ceremonial hunts!” Isal said, his crest rising with excitement. “I’ve been reading up on them, and apparently-”
Before the excited knight could build up any steam, however, Viar cut him off with a single, light thwap to the back of Isal’s head. “Stow it, Isal. It can see, the queen was quite certain of that. In fact, from what I’ve heard from Her Majesty, it’s actually quite remarkable how similar we are on the inside.”
Isal and the other drakes that had been sent to relieve Dorn and his team all perked up at this. “The queen told you that?” they asked in unison.
“Of course she told him that,” Tilvan said, folding his wings. “She also told Dorn the same thing. We’re supposed to be guarding this thing, and how can we do that without a basic knowledge of how its mind works?”
Viar nodded in agreement. “That’s the first thing you need to know when guarding someone. The next one is their habits, but since this thing is still pretty new to all of us, we’re kind of in the dark on that one.”
The other knights all looked to him, as if expecting him to go on, though Viar didn’t look like he wanted to continue this conversation at all. He instead chose to walk back to the fire pit to inspect his gear. Finally, after a few moments of Sir Viar being completely closed-beaked, Isal’s curiosity got the better of him. “Well? How is it like us?”
Viar looked surprised at that. “It what?”
“The creature! We were just talking about it, and you suddenly started doing your best Solar Slave impression!” Isal snapped at him.
Viar shook his head before he drew his sword and began to carefully inspect the edge for any nicks. “It’s not my place to gossip,” he said, as if that ended that.
It didn’t, naturally. If anything, it made the other drakes all the more curious. “You can’t honestly just leave it at that,” Isal said, tapping his claw on the ground.
Viar took a look around at the assembled drakes, before he sighed in defeat. With one quick motion, he sheathed his blade, then reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a folded square of paper. The others all moved behind the senior knight and watched him unfold it to reveal an old-fashioned, black and white photo of a group of dakri, all gathered around the carcass of a dead boar. Isal quickly recognized a much younger Viar in the photo, and by extension, guessed at who the others were. “Your family, I gather? Was that taken during your first boar hunt?”
Viar just looked at it for a while before he folded it and took out his blade and whetstone again. “Yeah, but that’s not important. What’s important is that this thing had its own family and its own life. The queen made it clear that she didn’t understand half of what she saw in the creature’s head, but she did gather this much: It’s incredibly homesick.” The others were quiet as Viar slowly began running the whetstone over the edge of his blade, his hands as steady as a mountain, even as his voice began to crack. “She didn’t tell me much, but from what I’ve heard, I can easily guess why it doesn’t care that it’s under armed guard. It most likely only cares about one thing at this point, seeing as how everything it loves and cares about is forever out of reach.”
Sir Mor looked towards the cliff’s edge, before giving his superior officer a questioning look. “And what’s that, Sir?”
Viar looked up, before he looked back down at his blade, his stare boring into his reflection as he thought about what he had guessed. “It’s an alien, so it’s entirely possible it thinks in a completely different way than us, but I know what I would want, if our places were reversed,” he said, his eyes finally leaving his reflection as he went back to sharpening. “If I were the creature, I would want revenge.”
First Previous
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Hey, sorry about missing yesterday. My babies kept me up all night, and I turned off my alarms to get some sleep during the day, including the one that told me to post a new chapter. What's worse is that I woke up sick, so that's me with egg on my face!
Anyway, here's the links for my books, in case you want to skip the drip-feed and just get right into the meat and potatoes of my story. Thanks for reading, and any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I love to hear how I can improve!
Amazon:
What I've Become
Nightmare of the Past
Google:
What I've Become
Nightmare of the Past

It's been just over 8 months since my abusive 16 year marriage ended. He left me because he felt his feelings weren't validated and that I couldn't communicate. I tried. For YEARS I tried. I tried to fix us. I tried to help him fix himself. But when he would start fights for no reason, I ran away. And when I tried to communicate when we weren't fighting, I always got, "Do you really want to do this now?" I couldn't win. I had no chance.
He met Katie on Reddit exactly 2 weeks after he left. He now lives with her. My 15 year old son and I live with my mom and her husband. I'm a 53 year old woman with no job, due to back injury and crippling depression/anxiety. My son has anxiety too, from the abuse he witnessed growing up and from his dad leaving. He is on Prozac, but his anxiety is so bad, he can't leave the house. He hasn't seen his dad since February and only started talking to him again a week ago.
Life is grim. I haven't had a good day since he left. I can't sleep. I can't function. Therapy and meds haven't touched it. His birthday is Tuesday, and every time I close my eyes, all I can see is his face. I know what he did, and I don't want him back. But I can't stop thinking about how lonely and miserable I am...how I have no options, how I'm stranded here because he took my car to Georgia, so I can't even leave this fucking house to meet anyone. He won't even consider giving my car back. Not because he needs it...just because he wants to be able to get off on the fact he took everything from me. He pretends he wants us to work out details of divorce ourselves, but when I tell him what I want (my car back, for him to take his stuff, and child support), he tells me I'm obsessed with him and I need to move on. But I can't because I have no car, no home of my own, nothing but a bunch of shit that reminds me of what I don't have
He was one of my best friends for 18 years before we got together. My other 2 best friends died 8 and 6 years ago. I have no one because he discouraged me having friends because 'all we need is each other'. I'm reminded every single day that I have no friends, and that the man I loved for most of my life and tolerated abuse from because I knew he was mentally ill doesn't give a shit if I live or die.
My mom and stepdad are elderly and need constant help, and I can barely get out of bed every day. I have no self-worth. He made sure of that. And to top it off, when my son came in my room and saw me looking at my DMs, not even chatting with anyone, just checking them, he got mad and asked me if I was gonna start fucking around. If I had destroyed our family, deserted him, moved in with some whore in another state and ignored him for months on end, would I then be the hero he seems to think his father is? It's not fucking fair! I have to deal with this shit on my own.
I don't want to do this anymore. I can't handle it. I've lost everyone and everything, and no one gets why I'm depressed and won't just get over it. No one fucking cares. I'm just done!