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Wings of Freedom - Part 12
2023.05.28 17:52 Cheesypower Wings of Freedom - Part 12
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Even almost a week later, Yegel was still soaring on the hope from that day. A weight on his eyes that he'd never even noticed had been lifted, leaving him more alert and awake, the whole world more vibrant and colorful.
Of course, the morning after had brought clarity- and an additional helping of stress. Having had the time to calm down and examine it, he was realizing that the fact he now saw humans as people was dangerous- especially with such an important and dangerous screening coming up. If he accidentally sympathized too much in one place, or had a reaction that he would never have had before...
...He still couldn't bring himself to regret it though. Even the fading of his emotional high hadn't erased what felt like an important revelation- that he no longer thought of humans as predators with interesting quirks, but as real, actual people, with true empathy and sapience. They were still predators, still alien in ways he couldn't understand- but now, that didn't feel like the same kind of impenetrable barrier that it used to be.
Still, now he had to be even more careful going forward- regardless of it being the truth, nobody else would believe him about a predator species being fully sapient and civilized. If anything, trying to convince anyone would get him institutionalized- and he was already fighting far too hard to keep himself out of those nightmare-makers for as long as he could manage. At least with humanity being extinct, the topic was unlikely to come up, but he hadn't made it this far in life without preparing for even the unlikely.
Caution was still warranted though, and so he'd been spending his time preparing and watching the manifests for incoming ships- so when he saw a group of scowling figures approaching him from behind at lunchtime, it was less of a shock and more the realization of inevitability.
Exterminators. Just what he needed to deal with today.
Sighing quietly, he fought down the rising panic and instinctive urge to run, and instead pretended not to notice the approaching officers- running never did any good, and trying to fight back or protest would lead to... retaliation.
Their timing was just the worst though- he'd been looking forward to having lunch with his friends, and taking a chance to decompress and relax. He'd been meticulous so far this week at maintaining his stress- other than his newfound indulgence in forbidden predator media- so it wasn't like he was scrambling to calm down. However, he really could use every bit of patience and composure he could get.
The grasping hands roughly pulling him out of the lunch-line, however, clearly didn't care about that, immediately starting to goosestep him through the cafeteria, regardless of the whispers and stares now coming their way.
"Lieutenant Yegel," a vaguely-familiar voice barked harshly as he was shoved forward, "your presence is required immediately. You are coming with us."
A bit late to give him a warning, wasn't it? Especially since he wasn't resisting in the first place. It was just theater to them- reciting something because they were supposed to, despite the outcome having already been determined. It was better to just not antagonize them-
"You know," he couldn't stop himself from saying, "If you wanted a date, you could have just a-"
A massive fist slammed into him, burying itself beneath his ribcage. The words died in his throat as all his air was forcefully expelled, his talons leaving the ground as he bent double over the grey three-toed paw.
"Quiet, predator," the Takkan ground out, slowly removing his forelimb from where it had been buried in Yegel's gut. "you'll only talk if our boss deigns to let filth like you waste our air, got it?"
Wheezing in reply, Yegel fought to try and recover the air that had been forcefully driven out of him, the exterminators yanking him by his wings and dragging him onwards. Perhaps it was good that he hadn't eaten yet- nothing there to have upchucked other than the vile spittle now burning at his tongue.
Guess he must be a new transfer, Yegel thought offhandedly, glancing up to see them approaching a familiar eating area. That would be a useful distraction from the main threat. Fighting down the pain through bitter familiarity, Yegel did his best to relax his feathers and his mind- he'd need all of it for this next mental sparring match.
Ornate doors covered in intricate patterns were thoughtlessly slammed open as the Exterminators dragged him into the private eating area, the shift between industrial flooring and soft, luxurious padding making his dragging talons catch on the delicate textiles. Vibrantly detailed paintings hung amidst sprawling vines imported from Nishtal, cast in cool, fluorescent light that made their rich colorings shimmer as he was dragged by. Even the tables and chairs were carved in the old Krakotl fashions, padding clearly intended for nesting rather than the utilitarian perching of the seats in the mess-hall.
It wasn't perfect though- spots of dull gray industrial walls poked through gaps between the wood, and the carpet was peeling in places, revealing the dirty standard flooring beneath. Despite the valiant attempts, any further inspection made it clear that this was all inserted after this area had already been built- a veneer of elegance plastered over a crude, utilitarian base.
Unfortunately, he did not get the chance to indulge in the comfortable seating, instead receiving a sharp blow between his wings that pushed him to the ground, heavy feet planting themselves on his back and neck to pin him to the ground. Iron grips continued holding his wings, pulling them painfully above his back, where they felt moments away from getting dislocated. Dragging in a rasping breath, his eyes roved to the two exterminators now aiming their flamethrowers at him, a young krakotl female whose adult patterns hadn't even fully come in yet, and a grim-eyed Gojid with distinct scarring, who at least looked somewhat professional as opposed to his partner's obvious anger and twitching trigger.
"Oh, fer Intala's sake," a familiar wheezing voice groaned in exasperation. "Can't trust you Grucknut-heads with anything, can I?"
The Krakotl tottering into the room was puffing what rough, stringy feathers he had left in irritation, a walking cane thunking on the floor as he hobbled over to a table decorated in a carving of two krakotl in flight- though from this angle, it looked more like they were plummeting to the ground. The skin around the geezer's eyes was wrinkled and gathered into such heavy bags that he seemed to be squinting at all the world around him- though Yegel certainly didn't miss the cold, calculating glint buried deep within his eyes.
"Off!" He barked, clacking his way over to where Yegel was pinned, angrily thumping his cane against the very confused Exterminators pinning him down. "Off him, you nut-skulled lunks! Bad enough you can't remember simple instructions, now you make me correct your messes meself? Off I say!"
In the face of the irate elder, the befuddled Exterminator's grips on Yegel loosened, finally letting his wings fall slack enough to make his chest stop feeling like it was stuck in an industrial compressor. Gratefully sucking in air as his rapidly-bruising side twinged, he looked up to find the his crotchety savior kneeling next to him, one wing resting on his cane as he creakily settled into a crouch.
"Sorry about the fuss," he wheezed, flicking his tail angrily at the young krakotl who had been moving forward indignantly. "Ask them to invite somebody to mealtime, and they go and pull this." A shaking wing reached out, offering it's grip to Yegel. "Up you come, boy. I'll not have you eating off the floor like some animal."
Yegel eyed the shaking hand, before planting his wings on the ground, fighting through the pain until he'd pushed himself onto his talons through his own strength. A glimmer of something oily flashed behind the old man's squinting eyes as he watched the display, snorting in amusement when Yegel reached out and pulled the Elder to his feet instead.
"Wasn't much of a request," he commented, carefully ignoring the angry shuffling of the people he knew had flamethrowers trained on him. "I don't suppose you're just wanting to make another sales pitch, are you Geezil?"
"Hah!" the old man barked, toddling over to a cushioned seat, "Always so blunt, Yegel. Straight to business, every time!" The younger krakotl female stepped forward, gently helping the grumbling man into his seat, where he sighed and immediately settled back into the cushions. "Ah, don't worry, got more to say than the usual this time- but first, got a special something for our meal."
With a flick of his wing, he signaled several servers to quietly enter the room, carrying a wide array of dishes and platters that were quickly and efficiently distributed to the relevant tables- both for the old man and Yegel, and even for the other exterminators, who glanced warily between the food, Yegel, and the officer watching everything with a hawkish stare. None of them seemed brave enough to decide what to do- or to stop Yegel as he began moving forward.
Yegel carefully pulled out his own perch, keeping his own movements slow as he settled into the admittedly-luxurious seating. Commander Geezil, the one in charge of the base's Exterminators- and probably one of the oldest individuals still serving within that institution's ranks. He'd heard the rumors about this being an unofficial forced retirement- storing him someplace out of the way when they couldn't make him quit- but he'd come to know the old man too well to believe it. He'd chosen this post himself- and Yegel still couldn't figure out why.
"Sir," the young krakotl started, giving Yegel the stink-eye from across the table, "I must ask what you are doing- you are well aware that he's-"
"Accused, girl," the codger interrupted, frilling his feathers derisively, "by a bitter fleet commander with a record of incidents from his troops longer than his crew-lists- and a penchant for lashing out at those he thinks insulted him." Seeing her shrink back at his harsh tone, his tattered feathers smoothed back down, a shaking wing reaching out and gently patting her shoulder. "Ah, it's politics, grand-daughter- a vile game of inflated egos and pointless posturing. It's like a courtship dance with a Duerten- unpleasant, filled with angry words, with a result that's unpleasant regardless of success or failure- but if you try to skip out, you're liable to lose an eye or worse, hehe."
"Still," she insisted, though much more hesitantly now, her eyes not quite as harsh as they flicked over at him, "with a list of incidents this long, however justified, you must admit it is a clear sign of a violent, unstable nature. If he were to suddenly lash out..."
"I've personally reviewed each incident," the commander snorted, swirling an eating utensil through the bowl in front of him. "Didn't find a single one where he were in the wrong. Besides, were we really concerned about his mind, we got a perfectly good doctor right on-base." His gimlet eyes turned to Yegel, the corners of his beak turned up in a smirk. "You're familiar with her, of course?"
"Indeed," Yegel admitted, keeping his wings at his side despite the tightening of his stomach as the smells of the meal assaulted him. Everything the old man was saying was already known between them- and while it might be simply for the benefit of his new underling, Yegel knew better than to assume there wasn't a different, less obvious purpose. "I've been screened by her multiple times- just like the doctors back on Nishtal, got clear marks across the board."
Her expression was twisted, clearly unwilling to accept that but unable to think of an adequate rebuke for it. "All the same," she started, shifting her wings to roll the fuel tank for her flamethrower from side to side, "I'm uncomfortable with this- it's dangerous to be eating with a predator, especially alone. Just because we're in the room doesn't mean we'll be able to react in time."
The old man's features wrinkled as he scowled, beak half-open, when Yegel jumped on the opportunity. "Actually, I agree," he stated, taking a bit of mischievous glee in the way their expressions popped in shock. "I would feel much safer if someone was sitting with us, to keep me safe."
Beak dropping open, her gaping expression twisted between shock and indignation as she choked at such blatant disrespect- but whatever retribution she thought to unleash was cut short as the old krakotl burst into loud, wheezing laughter, his bony wings thumping against the table as he howled in glee, making the dishes rattle dangerously. His laughter echoed through the room, to the visible discomfort of every other exterminator, half of them sinking back down from where they'd half-risen from their seats.
"Cheeky to the last, you are!" he barked, clutching his chest as he giggled dry, crackling chortles. "Ah, you have a point- best you sit with us, my dear- get introduced with- with this handsome young fella. Yegel, this is Lialu, daughter of my firstborn, and as you can see, the unfortunate inheritor of the branch up his bum." Kalina squawked indignantly, raising a wing as if to smack his shoulder in retribution, but her eyes flicked to Yegel as she paused, slowly settling back into a tense at-ease stance. "You might be working together someday- and if things go well, maybe a little more than that, hehe!" The sour twisting of her cheeks showed exactly what she thought of that idea.
"I'm flattered," Yegel droned dryly, "but I think if she hasn't even gotten her adult patterns, then that's far too dangerous for me."
"As if I'd be interested in such a disgraceful troublemaker in the first place!" she snapped right back, wings half-raised in a gesture of disgust. "tarnishing my career so early would be pointless- and I have no interest in such distractions anyways!"
"Bah, you're fourteen already, better that you start looking for a partner now," the geezer griped, ignoring the way she rolled her eyes uncomfortably. "This work's dangerous, girl- you can't plan for the future as if it's guaranteed, or else you'll find you've missed out." His eyes went a bit glassy and unfocused, staring off into the walls in an melancholic reminiscence. "Regret's a heavy thing to bear, and the years are never kind..."
The two younger krakotl shifted uncomfortably as silence fell, glancing between each other uncomfortably as he lapsed into old memories only he could see. Yegel was silently thankful for the break- these gaps in the old man's train of thought were the only thing that made these conversations manageable.
Unfortunately, Yegel's stomach decided to interject by gurgling it's frustration at being empty, snapping the greying elder out of his thoughts as his gaze snapped across the table. Yegel fought back the urge to flinch, if only barely- and even that was enough for the old man's eye to sparkle with something that made Yegel's skin crawl beneath his feathers.
"Ah, I've been distracting you with my yammering, haven't I?" the Head Exterminator apologized, gesturing grandly towards the array of filled dishes. "Go on, eat up boy- you've got a busy day ahead of you after all!" His wrinkled wing-hand receded from gesturing, and patted the young female on the shoulder. "You too, grand-daughter- gotta keep your calorie intake up to maintain those muscles- gear's heavy, and always getting heavier!"
Whatever his tone and attitude might have suggested, Yegel already knew that it wasn't a request. Gritting his beak, he delicately scooped up a bowl of thick, viscous algae, and methodically poured some into his beak.
Silty and clinging to his tongue, Yegel knew intellectually that this was a high-quality blend- that the consistency and density of the meal spoke of great care taken in the growing, filtering, and preparation of this dish- completely unlike the usual clumpy, soil-tainted slop served in the cafeteria. It was the sort of dish that must be incredibly expensive, even ignoring how far they were from anywhere of any importance- a culinary treat most on the base would have fought fiercely for a chance to try.
Yet as he consciously swallowed it down and discreetly clinked the bowl down on the table, all his tongue could taste was ash and flamethrower-fuel.
"Good, isn't it?" Geezil prompted as his grand-daughter also set her own bowl back down. "Straight from Nishtal, that is, grown properly in the pools, instead of them techno-vats they got on this here base. Reminds me of when I met Laila, you know- or rather, when I first worked up the gumption to ask for her time..." The old man chuckled to himself, his eyes staring off into the distance once again. "Stars, she was beautiful- and me a strapping young lad, straight from academy- big-headed from training, yet a fumbling mess with the other sex. Took me far too long to even make a pass, and longer still to make it official- kept finding excuses, when I really was just scared she'd say no!"
Yegel suppressed the urge to sigh, and found himself sharing a commiserating look with the exterminator who clearly had been through this rambling story almost as often as he had. Maybe he'd entertain the idea of bonding with her over it, if only he wasn't painfully aware of how strongly she and her friends wanted to reduce him to a pile of charred carbon. At least he wasn't suffering alone.
"You know, we got some side-eyes because of our difference in age- I was a fresh recruit, and she had been in the service for twelve years," Geezil confided absentmindedly, a dreamy expression on his face even as his granddaughter blanched and leaned away. "Ah, but we made it fine, found our happiness- and you should too!" he shifted, refocusing on his two unwilling guests. "Ten years made no difference, and you've a difference of what, five years? Not even that!"
Yegel inhaled deeply, letting his chest fully expand as he held back the surge of emotion that would certainly have worn through the elder's patience if let loose. Releasing the air in a deep sigh, he wrangled himself back into a restrained, controlled frame of mind. "Is trying to play matchmaker with your grand-daughter the only reason you arranged this meeting, sir? Because I stand by my utter lack of interest in her."
"Ah, you know it's not, you stiffneck," the old man grumbled, shifting around in his seat as he picked through his own spread of food. "You're a perfect fit for the corps, and we both know it. You got enough fire in you to want to fix the rot in society when you see it, and a good head on your neck as well- just gotta give you the training to aim it right, if you know what I'm saying." His cane reached out and tapped Yegel on the side jovially- and Yegel winced as his bruised ribs ignited in fiery pain, unable to stop a strained hiss from escaping his beak as he bent in place from the automatic tightening of his muscles.
Immediately, the entire room fell deathly still. Where once the silence had been uncomfortable but tolerable and interspersed with the inane sounds of clinking dishes, now it was an oppressive, choking claw squeezing around everyone's neck, unbroken by even a single breath of air.
"Barum." Geezil's flat, quiet statement whipped out through the stillness, a single cracking note that made the Takkan flinch in his seat. There was no waver in the old bird's voice now, only a cold, hard surety that made Yegel's feathers itch. "I was very explicit in my instructions. Was I not?"
"The- the predator resisted!" Barum tried to protest- though the waver in his voice clearly made it more of a plea. "With how dangerous he's proved to be, I had to-"
"Dangerous?" the drawled interruption made the hulking, thick-skinned exterminator flinch back from the dull-feathered bird barely half his size. "I see no injuries on any of you. There has never been an injury from officers bringing him in to me. I... was quite clear about wanting him brought here unharrassed." A single beady eye bored into the towering gray alien, making him shrink into himself under it's heat. "Do I lie?"
"S-sir please!" Sweat glistened on the Takkan's thick grey hide as he cowered back, his seat clattering to the floor as he stumbled. "It- I apologize, I swear I thought it was necessary! It won't happen again, sir! Please!"
Yegel knew what was coming next- the tightening of Geezil's beak and raising of the feathers on his back were a sure sign of how furious the old man was. All he had to do was sit back quietly and let it play out, and it would be both a distraction that bought him time, and retribution for the unnecessary blow he had taken- and was probably going to need to see the doctor for after this- if he was in a position to visit her, of course. Geezil's eyes were hard and cold, focused on his subordinate- getting between him and the subject of his ire would only earn him trouble... and yet, as Geezil's beak opened, he simply couldn't stop himself.
"While this is all quite engaging," Yegel interjected, refusing to flinch back as every eye in the room snapped towards him, Kalina's expression one of open shock while Geezil's screwed up in barely-contained fury, "but you said there was more to this meeting than making another recruitment pitch to me, yet all you've actually given besides that was an attempt to get me to go out with your grand-daughter." His confidence faltered as wrinkled eyes tightened, glaring holes into him, but he rallied himself and carefully considered his next words. "While your... repeated offers are actually quite flattering, I am quite happy with what I have managed to make for myself, without accepting favors or handouts- from anyone."
Geezil hummed to himself, maintaining his glare as the silent room held it's breath, before his jaw twitched upwards into a satisfied smirk, his eyes glinting as the granite in them faded into a smug satisfaction of having found what he was looking for. The entire room relaxed as he leaned backwards in his perch, Barum falling to the floor and trying to muffle the sounds of his heaving for breath. The gentle clinking of dishes and silverware once more filled the room in a very deliberate attempt at making noise, covering up the previous tension with artificial ease. Kalina was giving Yegel a look- not the pure disgust from earlier, but something confused, as if he were a particularly perplexing puzzle-game, or a problem that had suddenly reached an unexpected solution.
"You really can't help yourself, can you," Geezil noted approvingly, glancing over at his grand-daughter's reaction before nodding at Yegel- and making a jerking motion at Barum, who gulped and pulled himself off the floor, quietly hurrying his way out of the room. "So, I uh..." the light in his eyes faded, his beak clacking shut as he rapped his talons against his perch. "I, uh, huh... hmmm. There was, actually something else... Bother me, where were we? I can't remember..."
"I believe," Yegel commented dryly, fighting to keep his own breathing even, "That I was once again saying how content I am with my current position, and that even this doctor being imported just for me isn't enough for me to leave everything behind and run into the Exterminator Corps."
"Ah, right, right," he nodded, snagging on to the lead Yegel had thrown him, before pausing and looking out over the room. "I do respect what you've managed on your own," he finally admitted, setting his bowl to the side, "But this time... this doctor, he's not exactly playing fair. This is politics, the nasty sort- where he's going to do everything he can to make you disappear. Unless, of course..." reaching into his own pouch, he shakily produces a holopad that he slides over to Yegel, displaying a series of documents- and a prominent line for signatures. "You take an alternative. Sign up, and it'll be our own docs who do your eval- and you'll clear their tests just fine, I think. Might not be your ideal career path- but I'm loathe to let such a promising young man get screwed by Old-Molts with thin egos and sharp talons."
Yegel's first instinct was to push the pad away, to reject it like he usually did- but now, he paused, expression screwed up in conflict. A part of him was tempted- severely tempted- to accept- the part of him that was still terrified of the looming threat, that wanted to run somewhere-anywhere- and hide until this whole twisted situation just went away.
Was he being selfish, rejecting an offer like this? Wouldn't the right thing to do be to accept and guarantee he stayed alive, like Jelliba and Kallik so desperately wanted? Why take the risk, when safety was right here, just a signature away- something that would guarantee him the chance to see what Jelliba's final design would look like, to see Kallik climb through the ranks like Yegel knew he someday would? Was it pride that stayed his talons, or was he simply afraid of change?
"Seriously?!" his granddaughter hissed, clearly taken aback, unaware of Yegel's silent internal debate as she rounded on her grandfather angrily. "That's why he's here? So we can just ignore his entire history of warning signs, just because you like him? With a record like his-"
"-He'd fit right in," he finished for her, eyes narrowed in a disappointed glare that had her beak snapping closed as she shrunk back into her perch. "I know you ain't seen most of it, Lialu, but most of our recruits aren't exactly got glistening feathers. Heck, lots of our older recruits got worse on their record! It's half the point of the training regimen, to file down the burrs in their talons, make something useful from them."
File down the burrs... Was he really willing to accept what that entailed? What parts of himself would he need to sacrifice, if he went down this road? What would he become, on the other side of whatever training they had in store for him?
Would he still be Yegel?
Inhaling deeply through his beak, Yegel grasped the pad, which felt far heavier than it should... and gently slid it back over to Geezil.
"If I accepted now, that would practically be an admission of being sick," Yegel breathed, his heart pounding heavily within his chest. "I... am going to see this through- I will pass this evaluation, no matter what he throws at me- and then!" Finally, he looked Geezil in the eye, firming his own resolve as he squared his shoulders. "Then, and only then, will I consider your offer."
Geezil watched on, the burning tongues of some dark flame flickering behind his ancient eyes. When Yegel stood strong, his feathers crinkled into an amused display, even as he shook his head in mock disappointment. "Ah, you really are a fine young lad," he sighed mournfully, rapping his cane against the table. "Are you sure? The doctor arrived only an hour ago in port- this is your last chance, before we have to take you to your evaluation. And without anyone having requested the extra security of one of my officers, why, this might be the last time we see each other!"
Ah. So that was the old geezer's game. Yegel pushed down the rising surge of fear, quivering in his perch as he forced himself to meet the elder's gaze. "Then I'll go ahead and invite you myself- I'm more than happy to have an audience to me proving my innocence."
The old bird's beak twisted into an ugly grin. "I am sure you do. Lialu, go ahead- consider this a learning experience for the future, hmn? Now, I won't waste any more of your time- so off you go!"
The scraping of seats being pushed out was all the warning Yegel got before he was grabbed and pulled from his seat. "Hey, hey, gentle with him, you hard-headed brutes!" Scoffing, Geezil pushed himself back in his seat, glaring at his Exterminators as Yegel was unceremoniously dropped.
"So, you planned this all out in advance, didn't you?" Yegel guessed, pushing himself to his feet- and wincing as his side twinged in pain, reminding him of the rapidly-swelling bruise.
"Dunno what you mean," Geezil denied in faux apology, as his granddaughter gaped between the two of them, clearly lost on what was happening. "Figured you needed a chance to make the right choice- or failing that, a decent last meal." Waving his wing in disappointment, he gestured towards the door- which Yegel found himself getting rapidly pushed towards. "Good luck, lad- I hope to see you again someday!"
"Don't worry, sir," Yegel snapped back, shouldering away from his escorts and refusing to look back. "I'll be back sooner than you think."
The doors slammed shut behind his escorts, reflecting the young female's confused, conflicted gaze as she strode alongside him- Yegel felt a moment of pity for the young girl, who the geezer had clearly thrown into the deep end on purpose. Hopefully she caught onto the game soon, otherwise she'd end up as somebody's tool- though maybe it was already too late for that.
Stomach roiling at the thought of what lay ahead, Yegel couldn't help the feeling of regret for not taking the escape offered to him- sure it wouldn't be ideal, but he owed it to the people most important to him to make sure he stuck around a little longer. Why he'd rejected it... he couldn't quite put it into words, only a feeling that it would have been... wrong, somehow.
The cafeteria murmured again as he was led through the mealtime crowd, catching the panicked gazes of his friends across the room. Kallik was halfway out of his seat before Yegel carefully gestured back, tapping his wing against his throat- and watching his friend slowly settle back down, Kallik's eyes growing focused as he turned and strode towards a different exit, vanishing into the distance as Yegel was dragged through a set of doors out into a cold, grey hallway.
Clenching his gullet, he carefully felt out around Kallik's gift- safely stored within his throat. The creeping tendrils of terror within his mind were growing stronger, but he chose to have faith in his friend- and resolved to make sure his efforts were not wasted.
He'd find a way through- he just had to keep moving forward.
///
one week earlier...
Once he'd had the chance to compose himself, Yegel returned to his viewing- he wanted to see what happened next, after such a massive shift in the struggle now that Eren had actually earned them a victory.
Despite that, Armin's narration pointed out that too many lives had been lost for any celebrations to be in order- a sentiment that Yegel understood, but... well, he wasn't as surprised to to see it from the humans anymore. Imagine, it wasn't long ago that he'd have been expecting them to revel in the carnage like other predators, uncaring of the toll in lives- yet here they were, deeply affected by the loss of so many friends and comrades, and instead of being baffled by it, Yegel completely understood their response.
Oh, and they'd taken advantage of their unique situation to even capture two of the smaller titans, presumably for study- which, given Eren's sudden new powers, was probably something that needed more study than initially presumed. Thankfully the restraints seems pretty extensive, so hopefully they could keep the monsters contained- but still, imagine being the poor soul tasked with keeping them locked down! Hopefully it wouldn't take long for them to get what they needed and dispose of the creatures.
Of course, with victory came the morbid task of cleaning up the aftermath- and not in the way anyone else in the Federation would believe if he told them. Gathering up bodies as respectfully as they could, instead of devouring them on the spot? He'd be hard-pressed to convince anyone he was telling the truth!
Wait... Marco?!
When did Marco die?! Yegel thought he'd gotten away after saving Jean! Maybe it was in the push to get Eren to the gate? Geez, and Jean was the one to find him- Marco had been so supportive of him, despite Jean's fear and self-doubts, always willing to give a word of encouragement and affirm Jean's place as leader... and now he was gone, with Jean being forced to help the cleanup crew's by giving Marco's details...
The female doctor brought up something Yegel hadn't considered- that the reason for the urgency of their cleanup was because of the risk of an epidemic breaking out. The dead had been left too long, and now there was a risk of a secondary disaster if the humans didn't hurry. Yegel had never really considered something like that- meat was meat to predators, wasn't it? The Arxur never seemed to mind eating bodies they stumbled across, so he'd somehow assumed that diseases like that weren't a concern for predators.
Just another area where the humans proved their difference from the greys, he supposed.
Thankfully, the camera hadn't focused on Marco's corpse for too long, so Yegel was able to contain his urge to gag, focusing in on Jean and his emotional response- and how expressive human faces were, even when covered by face-masks to protect themselves from germs and contamination. Of course that was when the scene shifted to Sasha and Connie, helping to clean up a massive ball of... flesh... that apparently titans upchuck when they're too full, since they don't actually have a digestive track... and a closeup showed a human mouth inside, still opened in a silent scream...
Yes, hello wastebin, been a moment since we last met, how have you been? Don't mind me, just emptying my stomach again!
...Yegel didn't like Sasha- she was clearly the most "predatory" of the humans- but at least here, the disgust and horror on her face showed that there were lines even she wouldn't cross.
Even Annie, the stoic female who never seemed to show emotion, was shaken- standing over a body, apologizing over and over again, before Reiner pointed out that contrition did the dead no good, and that they needed a proper burial. So the humans buried their dead? That was kind of similar to Gojid traditions for honoring the dead, burying them in vast family crypts.
But, why did the scene shift to a fire burning? What were they-
Oh.
So that's what those grey flakes that had been falling everywhere were. Yegel had kind of been wondering about that.
So, they didn't even have time to give proper burials to everyone.
That...
Yegel forced himself to take a deep breath, rubbing the sides of his head as he exhaled. He'd say it was similar to Krakotl death rites, purifying the body to drift through the divine winds of Nishtal, to be carried away to Intala's realm, but... in this context, it clearly must have been desperation and urgency rather than a matter of respect.
...Intala, please watch over them.
...Thankfully, the perspective then shifted back to Eren- who was now locked up in a cell deep underground, and chained to a bed. Understandable precautions- his powers were clearly still volatile, and the last thing the humans needed to deal with was a rogue titan wandering around.
Commander Erwin and Captain Levi were outside his cell, watching him. Erwin asked if he had any questions- which, well, Yegel obviously had several, but Eren was still disoriented from waking up. Which made sense, given how much using his power seemed to take out of him- he must have been exhausted after carrying that boulder for so long.
Erwin proceeded to ask about the key that had held such importance- and the secret that was apparently hidden beneath Eren's house. Eren confirmed, and Levi scoffed about how it must suck to have your dad and your memories MIA at the same time- unless it was just a cover story. Which- was a reasonable concern, but... was that what Yegel sounded like to other people?
At least Erwin confirmed that they knew Eren had no reason to lie- and proceeded to ask Eren what he wanted- what his intentions were. After all, to reach the cellar, they'd need to seal the breach in the other wall like they'd done in Trost- which required Eren's special power. Apparently they'd even conjectured that the Colossal and Armored titan must be like Eren- titans piloted by people?! Which did make sense- the Bad Humans probably had an easier time developing and using titan powers, since they weren't trying to fight or resist their predator instincts. That also would explain their motive- killing all the good humans would mean the bad humans would win, and be able to rule as dominant predators like the Arxur did.
...Was there a group of good Arxur once, that lost their own fight with the Arxur Yegel knew?
NO. No, that was impossible- there was no way the greys had ever had anything good within them- they were monsters through and through! Good Arxur? Ridiculous- just because humans were an insane enigma that broke every rule as if they were intentionally trying to didn't mean the same applied to other predators!
Unless of course, the good Arxur had all been killed-
No. NO. Yegel was not going down that path of madness! He was not!
...
...Erwin expanded on his statement, saying that was why he asked Eren's intentions- because Eren could save "us," presumably meaning the good humans. Eren initially said he didn't know- but then his past, his memories, all flooded through his head- his inner voice angrily declaring that he would stop this with his bare hands! When Levi pressed for an answer, Eren looked up with a downright deranged grin- and declared that he wanted to kill all the titans- every last one.
So that's how Eren turned out different- he'd aimed his instincts towards the monsters, and become obsessed with wiping out the titans, instead of wanting to consume humans like every other titan did. That said something about Eren's mental fortitude- and why he still had difficulties with his power. Actively twisting your instincts like that must cross a few wires, leaving him needing to actively learn things instead of simply doing what came naturally.
Levi seemed to like that answer, a gleam entering his eyes as he approached Eren's cell and announced that he'd take responsibility for him. Not that he implicitly trusted him, but that he trusted his abilities to kill Eren if necessary. He offered Eren congratulations, officially welcoming him as a new member of the Scouting Corps- and told Erwin to let the higher-ups know.
And then announced that, despite this meeting, Eren wasn't out of the woods yet- as he was going to stand trial, where they'd need to argue against him simply being killed.
Because of course it couldn't be that simple.
submitted by Cheesypower to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]
Even almost a week later, Yegel was still soaring on the hope from that day. A weight on his eyes that he'd never even noticed had been lifted, leaving him more alert and awake, the whole world more vibrant and colorful.
Of course, the morning after had brought clarity- and an additional helping of stress. Having had the time to calm down and examine it, he was realizing that the fact he now saw humans as people was dangerous- especially with such an important and dangerous screening coming up. If he accidentally sympathized too much in one place, or had a reaction that he would never have had before...
...He still couldn't bring himself to regret it though. Even the fading of his emotional high hadn't erased what felt like an important revelation- that he no longer thought of humans as predators with interesting quirks, but as real, actual people, with true empathy and sapience. They were still predators, still alien in ways he couldn't understand- but now, that didn't feel like the same kind of impenetrable barrier that it used to be.
Still, now he had to be even more careful going forward- regardless of it being the truth, nobody else would believe him about a predator species being fully sapient and civilized. If anything, trying to convince anyone would get him institutionalized- and he was already fighting far too hard to keep himself out of those nightmare-makers for as long as he could manage. At least with humanity being extinct, the topic was unlikely to come up, but he hadn't made it this far in life without preparing for even the unlikely.
Caution was still warranted though, and so he'd been spending his time preparing and watching the manifests for incoming ships- so when he saw a group of scowling figures approaching him from behind at lunchtime, it was less of a shock and more the realization of inevitability.
Exterminators. Just what he needed to deal with today.
Sighing quietly, he fought down the rising panic and instinctive urge to run, and instead pretended not to notice the approaching officers- running never did any good, and trying to fight back or protest would lead to... retaliation.
Their timing was just the worst though- he'd been looking forward to having lunch with his friends, and taking a chance to decompress and relax. He'd been meticulous so far this week at maintaining his stress- other than his newfound indulgence in forbidden predator media- so it wasn't like he was scrambling to calm down. However, he really could use every bit of patience and composure he could get.
The grasping hands roughly pulling him out of the lunch-line, however, clearly didn't care about that, immediately starting to goosestep him through the cafeteria, regardless of the whispers and stares now coming their way.
"Lieutenant Yegel," a vaguely-familiar voice barked harshly as he was shoved forward, "your presence is required immediately. You are coming with us."
A bit late to give him a warning, wasn't it? Especially since he wasn't resisting in the first place. It was just theater to them- reciting something because they were supposed to, despite the outcome having already been determined. It was better to just not antagonize them-
"You know," he couldn't stop himself from saying, "If you wanted a date, you could have just a-"
A massive fist slammed into him, burying itself beneath his ribcage. The words died in his throat as all his air was forcefully expelled, his talons leaving the ground as he bent double over the grey three-toed paw.
"Quiet, predator," the Takkan ground out, slowly removing his forelimb from where it had been buried in Yegel's gut. "you'll only talk if our boss deigns to let filth like you waste our air, got it?"
Wheezing in reply, Yegel fought to try and recover the air that had been forcefully driven out of him, the exterminators yanking him by his wings and dragging him onwards. Perhaps it was good that he hadn't eaten yet- nothing there to have upchucked other than the vile spittle now burning at his tongue.
Guess he must be a new transfer, Yegel thought offhandedly, glancing up to see them approaching a familiar eating area. That would be a useful distraction from the main threat. Fighting down the pain through bitter familiarity, Yegel did his best to relax his feathers and his mind- he'd need all of it for this next mental sparring match.
Ornate doors covered in intricate patterns were thoughtlessly slammed open as the Exterminators dragged him into the private eating area, the shift between industrial flooring and soft, luxurious padding making his dragging talons catch on the delicate textiles. Vibrantly detailed paintings hung amidst sprawling vines imported from Nishtal, cast in cool, fluorescent light that made their rich colorings shimmer as he was dragged by. Even the tables and chairs were carved in the old Krakotl fashions, padding clearly intended for nesting rather than the utilitarian perching of the seats in the mess-hall.
It wasn't perfect though- spots of dull gray industrial walls poked through gaps between the wood, and the carpet was peeling in places, revealing the dirty standard flooring beneath. Despite the valiant attempts, any further inspection made it clear that this was all inserted after this area had already been built- a veneer of elegance plastered over a crude, utilitarian base.
Unfortunately, he did not get the chance to indulge in the comfortable seating, instead receiving a sharp blow between his wings that pushed him to the ground, heavy feet planting themselves on his back and neck to pin him to the ground. Iron grips continued holding his wings, pulling them painfully above his back, where they felt moments away from getting dislocated. Dragging in a rasping breath, his eyes roved to the two exterminators now aiming their flamethrowers at him, a young krakotl female whose adult patterns hadn't even fully come in yet, and a grim-eyed Gojid with distinct scarring, who at least looked somewhat professional as opposed to his partner's obvious anger and twitching trigger.
"Oh, fer Intala's sake," a familiar wheezing voice groaned in exasperation. "Can't trust you Grucknut-heads with anything, can I?"
The Krakotl tottering into the room was puffing what rough, stringy feathers he had left in irritation, a walking cane thunking on the floor as he hobbled over to a table decorated in a carving of two krakotl in flight- though from this angle, it looked more like they were plummeting to the ground. The skin around the geezer's eyes was wrinkled and gathered into such heavy bags that he seemed to be squinting at all the world around him- though Yegel certainly didn't miss the cold, calculating glint buried deep within his eyes.
"Off!" He barked, clacking his way over to where Yegel was pinned, angrily thumping his cane against the very confused Exterminators pinning him down. "Off him, you nut-skulled lunks! Bad enough you can't remember simple instructions, now you make me correct your messes meself? Off I say!"
In the face of the irate elder, the befuddled Exterminator's grips on Yegel loosened, finally letting his wings fall slack enough to make his chest stop feeling like it was stuck in an industrial compressor. Gratefully sucking in air as his rapidly-bruising side twinged, he looked up to find the his crotchety savior kneeling next to him, one wing resting on his cane as he creakily settled into a crouch.
"Sorry about the fuss," he wheezed, flicking his tail angrily at the young krakotl who had been moving forward indignantly. "Ask them to invite somebody to mealtime, and they go and pull this." A shaking wing reached out, offering it's grip to Yegel. "Up you come, boy. I'll not have you eating off the floor like some animal."
Yegel eyed the shaking hand, before planting his wings on the ground, fighting through the pain until he'd pushed himself onto his talons through his own strength. A glimmer of something oily flashed behind the old man's squinting eyes as he watched the display, snorting in amusement when Yegel reached out and pulled the Elder to his feet instead.
"Wasn't much of a request," he commented, carefully ignoring the angry shuffling of the people he knew had flamethrowers trained on him. "I don't suppose you're just wanting to make another sales pitch, are you Geezil?"
"Hah!" the old man barked, toddling over to a cushioned seat, "Always so blunt, Yegel. Straight to business, every time!" The younger krakotl female stepped forward, gently helping the grumbling man into his seat, where he sighed and immediately settled back into the cushions. "Ah, don't worry, got more to say than the usual this time- but first, got a special something for our meal."
With a flick of his wing, he signaled several servers to quietly enter the room, carrying a wide array of dishes and platters that were quickly and efficiently distributed to the relevant tables- both for the old man and Yegel, and even for the other exterminators, who glanced warily between the food, Yegel, and the officer watching everything with a hawkish stare. None of them seemed brave enough to decide what to do- or to stop Yegel as he began moving forward.
Yegel carefully pulled out his own perch, keeping his own movements slow as he settled into the admittedly-luxurious seating. Commander Geezil, the one in charge of the base's Exterminators- and probably one of the oldest individuals still serving within that institution's ranks. He'd heard the rumors about this being an unofficial forced retirement- storing him someplace out of the way when they couldn't make him quit- but he'd come to know the old man too well to believe it. He'd chosen this post himself- and Yegel still couldn't figure out why.
"Sir," the young krakotl started, giving Yegel the stink-eye from across the table, "I must ask what you are doing- you are well aware that he's-"
"Accused, girl," the codger interrupted, frilling his feathers derisively, "by a bitter fleet commander with a record of incidents from his troops longer than his crew-lists- and a penchant for lashing out at those he thinks insulted him." Seeing her shrink back at his harsh tone, his tattered feathers smoothed back down, a shaking wing reaching out and gently patting her shoulder. "Ah, it's politics, grand-daughter- a vile game of inflated egos and pointless posturing. It's like a courtship dance with a Duerten- unpleasant, filled with angry words, with a result that's unpleasant regardless of success or failure- but if you try to skip out, you're liable to lose an eye or worse, hehe."
"Still," she insisted, though much more hesitantly now, her eyes not quite as harsh as they flicked over at him, "with a list of incidents this long, however justified, you must admit it is a clear sign of a violent, unstable nature. If he were to suddenly lash out..."
"I've personally reviewed each incident," the commander snorted, swirling an eating utensil through the bowl in front of him. "Didn't find a single one where he were in the wrong. Besides, were we really concerned about his mind, we got a perfectly good doctor right on-base." His gimlet eyes turned to Yegel, the corners of his beak turned up in a smirk. "You're familiar with her, of course?"
"Indeed," Yegel admitted, keeping his wings at his side despite the tightening of his stomach as the smells of the meal assaulted him. Everything the old man was saying was already known between them- and while it might be simply for the benefit of his new underling, Yegel knew better than to assume there wasn't a different, less obvious purpose. "I've been screened by her multiple times- just like the doctors back on Nishtal, got clear marks across the board."
Her expression was twisted, clearly unwilling to accept that but unable to think of an adequate rebuke for it. "All the same," she started, shifting her wings to roll the fuel tank for her flamethrower from side to side, "I'm uncomfortable with this- it's dangerous to be eating with a predator, especially alone. Just because we're in the room doesn't mean we'll be able to react in time."
The old man's features wrinkled as he scowled, beak half-open, when Yegel jumped on the opportunity. "Actually, I agree," he stated, taking a bit of mischievous glee in the way their expressions popped in shock. "I would feel much safer if someone was sitting with us, to keep me safe."
Beak dropping open, her gaping expression twisted between shock and indignation as she choked at such blatant disrespect- but whatever retribution she thought to unleash was cut short as the old krakotl burst into loud, wheezing laughter, his bony wings thumping against the table as he howled in glee, making the dishes rattle dangerously. His laughter echoed through the room, to the visible discomfort of every other exterminator, half of them sinking back down from where they'd half-risen from their seats.
"Cheeky to the last, you are!" he barked, clutching his chest as he giggled dry, crackling chortles. "Ah, you have a point- best you sit with us, my dear- get introduced with- with this handsome young fella. Yegel, this is Lialu, daughter of my firstborn, and as you can see, the unfortunate inheritor of the branch up his bum." Kalina squawked indignantly, raising a wing as if to smack his shoulder in retribution, but her eyes flicked to Yegel as she paused, slowly settling back into a tense at-ease stance. "You might be working together someday- and if things go well, maybe a little more than that, hehe!" The sour twisting of her cheeks showed exactly what she thought of that idea.
"I'm flattered," Yegel droned dryly, "but I think if she hasn't even gotten her adult patterns, then that's far too dangerous for me."
"As if I'd be interested in such a disgraceful troublemaker in the first place!" she snapped right back, wings half-raised in a gesture of disgust. "tarnishing my career so early would be pointless- and I have no interest in such distractions anyways!"
"Bah, you're fourteen already, better that you start looking for a partner now," the geezer griped, ignoring the way she rolled her eyes uncomfortably. "This work's dangerous, girl- you can't plan for the future as if it's guaranteed, or else you'll find you've missed out." His eyes went a bit glassy and unfocused, staring off into the walls in an melancholic reminiscence. "Regret's a heavy thing to bear, and the years are never kind..."
The two younger krakotl shifted uncomfortably as silence fell, glancing between each other uncomfortably as he lapsed into old memories only he could see. Yegel was silently thankful for the break- these gaps in the old man's train of thought were the only thing that made these conversations manageable.
Unfortunately, Yegel's stomach decided to interject by gurgling it's frustration at being empty, snapping the greying elder out of his thoughts as his gaze snapped across the table. Yegel fought back the urge to flinch, if only barely- and even that was enough for the old man's eye to sparkle with something that made Yegel's skin crawl beneath his feathers.
"Ah, I've been distracting you with my yammering, haven't I?" the Head Exterminator apologized, gesturing grandly towards the array of filled dishes. "Go on, eat up boy- you've got a busy day ahead of you after all!" His wrinkled wing-hand receded from gesturing, and patted the young female on the shoulder. "You too, grand-daughter- gotta keep your calorie intake up to maintain those muscles- gear's heavy, and always getting heavier!"
Whatever his tone and attitude might have suggested, Yegel already knew that it wasn't a request. Gritting his beak, he delicately scooped up a bowl of thick, viscous algae, and methodically poured some into his beak.
Silty and clinging to his tongue, Yegel knew intellectually that this was a high-quality blend- that the consistency and density of the meal spoke of great care taken in the growing, filtering, and preparation of this dish- completely unlike the usual clumpy, soil-tainted slop served in the cafeteria. It was the sort of dish that must be incredibly expensive, even ignoring how far they were from anywhere of any importance- a culinary treat most on the base would have fought fiercely for a chance to try.
Yet as he consciously swallowed it down and discreetly clinked the bowl down on the table, all his tongue could taste was ash and flamethrower-fuel.
"Good, isn't it?" Geezil prompted as his grand-daughter also set her own bowl back down. "Straight from Nishtal, that is, grown properly in the pools, instead of them techno-vats they got on this here base. Reminds me of when I met Laila, you know- or rather, when I first worked up the gumption to ask for her time..." The old man chuckled to himself, his eyes staring off into the distance once again. "Stars, she was beautiful- and me a strapping young lad, straight from academy- big-headed from training, yet a fumbling mess with the other sex. Took me far too long to even make a pass, and longer still to make it official- kept finding excuses, when I really was just scared she'd say no!"
Yegel suppressed the urge to sigh, and found himself sharing a commiserating look with the exterminator who clearly had been through this rambling story almost as often as he had. Maybe he'd entertain the idea of bonding with her over it, if only he wasn't painfully aware of how strongly she and her friends wanted to reduce him to a pile of charred carbon. At least he wasn't suffering alone.
"You know, we got some side-eyes because of our difference in age- I was a fresh recruit, and she had been in the service for twelve years," Geezil confided absentmindedly, a dreamy expression on his face even as his granddaughter blanched and leaned away. "Ah, but we made it fine, found our happiness- and you should too!" he shifted, refocusing on his two unwilling guests. "Ten years made no difference, and you've a difference of what, five years? Not even that!"
Yegel inhaled deeply, letting his chest fully expand as he held back the surge of emotion that would certainly have worn through the elder's patience if let loose. Releasing the air in a deep sigh, he wrangled himself back into a restrained, controlled frame of mind. "Is trying to play matchmaker with your grand-daughter the only reason you arranged this meeting, sir? Because I stand by my utter lack of interest in her."
"Ah, you know it's not, you stiffneck," the old man grumbled, shifting around in his seat as he picked through his own spread of food. "You're a perfect fit for the corps, and we both know it. You got enough fire in you to want to fix the rot in society when you see it, and a good head on your neck as well- just gotta give you the training to aim it right, if you know what I'm saying." His cane reached out and tapped Yegel on the side jovially- and Yegel winced as his bruised ribs ignited in fiery pain, unable to stop a strained hiss from escaping his beak as he bent in place from the automatic tightening of his muscles.
Immediately, the entire room fell deathly still. Where once the silence had been uncomfortable but tolerable and interspersed with the inane sounds of clinking dishes, now it was an oppressive, choking claw squeezing around everyone's neck, unbroken by even a single breath of air.
"Barum." Geezil's flat, quiet statement whipped out through the stillness, a single cracking note that made the Takkan flinch in his seat. There was no waver in the old bird's voice now, only a cold, hard surety that made Yegel's feathers itch. "I was very explicit in my instructions. Was I not?"
"The- the predator resisted!" Barum tried to protest- though the waver in his voice clearly made it more of a plea. "With how dangerous he's proved to be, I had to-"
"Dangerous?" the drawled interruption made the hulking, thick-skinned exterminator flinch back from the dull-feathered bird barely half his size. "I see no injuries on any of you. There has never been an injury from officers bringing him in to me. I... was quite clear about wanting him brought here unharrassed." A single beady eye bored into the towering gray alien, making him shrink into himself under it's heat. "Do I lie?"
"S-sir please!" Sweat glistened on the Takkan's thick grey hide as he cowered back, his seat clattering to the floor as he stumbled. "It- I apologize, I swear I thought it was necessary! It won't happen again, sir! Please!"
Yegel knew what was coming next- the tightening of Geezil's beak and raising of the feathers on his back were a sure sign of how furious the old man was. All he had to do was sit back quietly and let it play out, and it would be both a distraction that bought him time, and retribution for the unnecessary blow he had taken- and was probably going to need to see the doctor for after this- if he was in a position to visit her, of course. Geezil's eyes were hard and cold, focused on his subordinate- getting between him and the subject of his ire would only earn him trouble... and yet, as Geezil's beak opened, he simply couldn't stop himself.
"While this is all quite engaging," Yegel interjected, refusing to flinch back as every eye in the room snapped towards him, Kalina's expression one of open shock while Geezil's screwed up in barely-contained fury, "but you said there was more to this meeting than making another recruitment pitch to me, yet all you've actually given besides that was an attempt to get me to go out with your grand-daughter." His confidence faltered as wrinkled eyes tightened, glaring holes into him, but he rallied himself and carefully considered his next words. "While your... repeated offers are actually quite flattering, I am quite happy with what I have managed to make for myself, without accepting favors or handouts- from anyone."
Geezil hummed to himself, maintaining his glare as the silent room held it's breath, before his jaw twitched upwards into a satisfied smirk, his eyes glinting as the granite in them faded into a smug satisfaction of having found what he was looking for. The entire room relaxed as he leaned backwards in his perch, Barum falling to the floor and trying to muffle the sounds of his heaving for breath. The gentle clinking of dishes and silverware once more filled the room in a very deliberate attempt at making noise, covering up the previous tension with artificial ease. Kalina was giving Yegel a look- not the pure disgust from earlier, but something confused, as if he were a particularly perplexing puzzle-game, or a problem that had suddenly reached an unexpected solution.
"You really can't help yourself, can you," Geezil noted approvingly, glancing over at his grand-daughter's reaction before nodding at Yegel- and making a jerking motion at Barum, who gulped and pulled himself off the floor, quietly hurrying his way out of the room. "So, I uh..." the light in his eyes faded, his beak clacking shut as he rapped his talons against his perch. "I, uh, huh... hmmm. There was, actually something else... Bother me, where were we? I can't remember..."
"I believe," Yegel commented dryly, fighting to keep his own breathing even, "That I was once again saying how content I am with my current position, and that even this doctor being imported just for me isn't enough for me to leave everything behind and run into the Exterminator Corps."
"Ah, right, right," he nodded, snagging on to the lead Yegel had thrown him, before pausing and looking out over the room. "I do respect what you've managed on your own," he finally admitted, setting his bowl to the side, "But this time... this doctor, he's not exactly playing fair. This is politics, the nasty sort- where he's going to do everything he can to make you disappear. Unless, of course..." reaching into his own pouch, he shakily produces a holopad that he slides over to Yegel, displaying a series of documents- and a prominent line for signatures. "You take an alternative. Sign up, and it'll be our own docs who do your eval- and you'll clear their tests just fine, I think. Might not be your ideal career path- but I'm loathe to let such a promising young man get screwed by Old-Molts with thin egos and sharp talons."
Yegel's first instinct was to push the pad away, to reject it like he usually did- but now, he paused, expression screwed up in conflict. A part of him was tempted- severely tempted- to accept- the part of him that was still terrified of the looming threat, that wanted to run somewhere-anywhere- and hide until this whole twisted situation just went away.
Was he being selfish, rejecting an offer like this? Wouldn't the right thing to do be to accept and guarantee he stayed alive, like Jelliba and Kallik so desperately wanted? Why take the risk, when safety was right here, just a signature away- something that would guarantee him the chance to see what Jelliba's final design would look like, to see Kallik climb through the ranks like Yegel knew he someday would? Was it pride that stayed his talons, or was he simply afraid of change?
"Seriously?!" his granddaughter hissed, clearly taken aback, unaware of Yegel's silent internal debate as she rounded on her grandfather angrily. "That's why he's here? So we can just ignore his entire history of warning signs, just because you like him? With a record like his-"
"-He'd fit right in," he finished for her, eyes narrowed in a disappointed glare that had her beak snapping closed as she shrunk back into her perch. "I know you ain't seen most of it, Lialu, but most of our recruits aren't exactly got glistening feathers. Heck, lots of our older recruits got worse on their record! It's half the point of the training regimen, to file down the burrs in their talons, make something useful from them."
File down the burrs... Was he really willing to accept what that entailed? What parts of himself would he need to sacrifice, if he went down this road? What would he become, on the other side of whatever training they had in store for him?
Would he still be Yegel?
Inhaling deeply through his beak, Yegel grasped the pad, which felt far heavier than it should... and gently slid it back over to Geezil.
"If I accepted now, that would practically be an admission of being sick," Yegel breathed, his heart pounding heavily within his chest. "I... am going to see this through- I will pass this evaluation, no matter what he throws at me- and then!" Finally, he looked Geezil in the eye, firming his own resolve as he squared his shoulders. "Then, and only then, will I consider your offer."
Geezil watched on, the burning tongues of some dark flame flickering behind his ancient eyes. When Yegel stood strong, his feathers crinkled into an amused display, even as he shook his head in mock disappointment. "Ah, you really are a fine young lad," he sighed mournfully, rapping his cane against the table. "Are you sure? The doctor arrived only an hour ago in port- this is your last chance, before we have to take you to your evaluation. And without anyone having requested the extra security of one of my officers, why, this might be the last time we see each other!"
Ah. So that was the old geezer's game. Yegel pushed down the rising surge of fear, quivering in his perch as he forced himself to meet the elder's gaze. "Then I'll go ahead and invite you myself- I'm more than happy to have an audience to me proving my innocence."
The old bird's beak twisted into an ugly grin. "I am sure you do. Lialu, go ahead- consider this a learning experience for the future, hmn? Now, I won't waste any more of your time- so off you go!"
The scraping of seats being pushed out was all the warning Yegel got before he was grabbed and pulled from his seat. "Hey, hey, gentle with him, you hard-headed brutes!" Scoffing, Geezil pushed himself back in his seat, glaring at his Exterminators as Yegel was unceremoniously dropped.
"So, you planned this all out in advance, didn't you?" Yegel guessed, pushing himself to his feet- and wincing as his side twinged in pain, reminding him of the rapidly-swelling bruise.
"Dunno what you mean," Geezil denied in faux apology, as his granddaughter gaped between the two of them, clearly lost on what was happening. "Figured you needed a chance to make the right choice- or failing that, a decent last meal." Waving his wing in disappointment, he gestured towards the door- which Yegel found himself getting rapidly pushed towards. "Good luck, lad- I hope to see you again someday!"
"Don't worry, sir," Yegel snapped back, shouldering away from his escorts and refusing to look back. "I'll be back sooner than you think."
The doors slammed shut behind his escorts, reflecting the young female's confused, conflicted gaze as she strode alongside him- Yegel felt a moment of pity for the young girl, who the geezer had clearly thrown into the deep end on purpose. Hopefully she caught onto the game soon, otherwise she'd end up as somebody's tool- though maybe it was already too late for that.
Stomach roiling at the thought of what lay ahead, Yegel couldn't help the feeling of regret for not taking the escape offered to him- sure it wouldn't be ideal, but he owed it to the people most important to him to make sure he stuck around a little longer. Why he'd rejected it... he couldn't quite put it into words, only a feeling that it would have been... wrong, somehow.
The cafeteria murmured again as he was led through the mealtime crowd, catching the panicked gazes of his friends across the room. Kallik was halfway out of his seat before Yegel carefully gestured back, tapping his wing against his throat- and watching his friend slowly settle back down, Kallik's eyes growing focused as he turned and strode towards a different exit, vanishing into the distance as Yegel was dragged through a set of doors out into a cold, grey hallway.
Clenching his gullet, he carefully felt out around Kallik's gift- safely stored within his throat. The creeping tendrils of terror within his mind were growing stronger, but he chose to have faith in his friend- and resolved to make sure his efforts were not wasted.
He'd find a way through- he just had to keep moving forward.
///
one week earlier...
Once he'd had the chance to compose himself, Yegel returned to his viewing- he wanted to see what happened next, after such a massive shift in the struggle now that Eren had actually earned them a victory.
Despite that, Armin's narration pointed out that too many lives had been lost for any celebrations to be in order- a sentiment that Yegel understood, but... well, he wasn't as surprised to to see it from the humans anymore. Imagine, it wasn't long ago that he'd have been expecting them to revel in the carnage like other predators, uncaring of the toll in lives- yet here they were, deeply affected by the loss of so many friends and comrades, and instead of being baffled by it, Yegel completely understood their response.
Oh, and they'd taken advantage of their unique situation to even capture two of the smaller titans, presumably for study- which, given Eren's sudden new powers, was probably something that needed more study than initially presumed. Thankfully the restraints seems pretty extensive, so hopefully they could keep the monsters contained- but still, imagine being the poor soul tasked with keeping them locked down! Hopefully it wouldn't take long for them to get what they needed and dispose of the creatures.
Of course, with victory came the morbid task of cleaning up the aftermath- and not in the way anyone else in the Federation would believe if he told them. Gathering up bodies as respectfully as they could, instead of devouring them on the spot? He'd be hard-pressed to convince anyone he was telling the truth!
Wait... Marco?!
When did Marco die?! Yegel thought he'd gotten away after saving Jean! Maybe it was in the push to get Eren to the gate? Geez, and Jean was the one to find him- Marco had been so supportive of him, despite Jean's fear and self-doubts, always willing to give a word of encouragement and affirm Jean's place as leader... and now he was gone, with Jean being forced to help the cleanup crew's by giving Marco's details...
The female doctor brought up something Yegel hadn't considered- that the reason for the urgency of their cleanup was because of the risk of an epidemic breaking out. The dead had been left too long, and now there was a risk of a secondary disaster if the humans didn't hurry. Yegel had never really considered something like that- meat was meat to predators, wasn't it? The Arxur never seemed to mind eating bodies they stumbled across, so he'd somehow assumed that diseases like that weren't a concern for predators.
Just another area where the humans proved their difference from the greys, he supposed.
Thankfully, the camera hadn't focused on Marco's corpse for too long, so Yegel was able to contain his urge to gag, focusing in on Jean and his emotional response- and how expressive human faces were, even when covered by face-masks to protect themselves from germs and contamination. Of course that was when the scene shifted to Sasha and Connie, helping to clean up a massive ball of... flesh... that apparently titans upchuck when they're too full, since they don't actually have a digestive track... and a closeup showed a human mouth inside, still opened in a silent scream...
Yes, hello wastebin, been a moment since we last met, how have you been? Don't mind me, just emptying my stomach again!
...Yegel didn't like Sasha- she was clearly the most "predatory" of the humans- but at least here, the disgust and horror on her face showed that there were lines even she wouldn't cross.
Even Annie, the stoic female who never seemed to show emotion, was shaken- standing over a body, apologizing over and over again, before Reiner pointed out that contrition did the dead no good, and that they needed a proper burial. So the humans buried their dead? That was kind of similar to Gojid traditions for honoring the dead, burying them in vast family crypts.
But, why did the scene shift to a fire burning? What were they-
Oh.
So that's what those grey flakes that had been falling everywhere were. Yegel had kind of been wondering about that.
So, they didn't even have time to give proper burials to everyone.
That...
Yegel forced himself to take a deep breath, rubbing the sides of his head as he exhaled. He'd say it was similar to Krakotl death rites, purifying the body to drift through the divine winds of Nishtal, to be carried away to Intala's realm, but... in this context, it clearly must have been desperation and urgency rather than a matter of respect.
...Intala, please watch over them.
...Thankfully, the perspective then shifted back to Eren- who was now locked up in a cell deep underground, and chained to a bed. Understandable precautions- his powers were clearly still volatile, and the last thing the humans needed to deal with was a rogue titan wandering around.
Commander Erwin and Captain Levi were outside his cell, watching him. Erwin asked if he had any questions- which, well, Yegel obviously had several, but Eren was still disoriented from waking up. Which made sense, given how much using his power seemed to take out of him- he must have been exhausted after carrying that boulder for so long.
Erwin proceeded to ask about the key that had held such importance- and the secret that was apparently hidden beneath Eren's house. Eren confirmed, and Levi scoffed about how it must suck to have your dad and your memories MIA at the same time- unless it was just a cover story. Which- was a reasonable concern, but... was that what Yegel sounded like to other people?
At least Erwin confirmed that they knew Eren had no reason to lie- and proceeded to ask Eren what he wanted- what his intentions were. After all, to reach the cellar, they'd need to seal the breach in the other wall like they'd done in Trost- which required Eren's special power. Apparently they'd even conjectured that the Colossal and Armored titan must be like Eren- titans piloted by people?! Which did make sense- the Bad Humans probably had an easier time developing and using titan powers, since they weren't trying to fight or resist their predator instincts. That also would explain their motive- killing all the good humans would mean the bad humans would win, and be able to rule as dominant predators like the Arxur did.
...Was there a group of good Arxur once, that lost their own fight with the Arxur Yegel knew?
NO. No, that was impossible- there was no way the greys had ever had anything good within them- they were monsters through and through! Good Arxur? Ridiculous- just because humans were an insane enigma that broke every rule as if they were intentionally trying to didn't mean the same applied to other predators!
Unless of course, the good Arxur had all been killed-
No. NO. Yegel was not going down that path of madness! He was not!
...
...Erwin expanded on his statement, saying that was why he asked Eren's intentions- because Eren could save "us," presumably meaning the good humans. Eren initially said he didn't know- but then his past, his memories, all flooded through his head- his inner voice angrily declaring that he would stop this with his bare hands! When Levi pressed for an answer, Eren looked up with a downright deranged grin- and declared that he wanted to kill all the titans- every last one.
So that's how Eren turned out different- he'd aimed his instincts towards the monsters, and become obsessed with wiping out the titans, instead of wanting to consume humans like every other titan did. That said something about Eren's mental fortitude- and why he still had difficulties with his power. Actively twisting your instincts like that must cross a few wires, leaving him needing to actively learn things instead of simply doing what came naturally.
Levi seemed to like that answer, a gleam entering his eyes as he approached Eren's cell and announced that he'd take responsibility for him. Not that he implicitly trusted him, but that he trusted his abilities to kill Eren if necessary. He offered Eren congratulations, officially welcoming him as a new member of the Scouting Corps- and told Erwin to let the higher-ups know.
And then announced that, despite this meeting, Eren wasn't out of the woods yet- as he was going to stand trial, where they'd need to argue against him simply being killed.
Because of course it couldn't be that simple.
2023.05.28 05:00 Kazevenikov Cryptid Chronicle - Chapter 30
A special thanks to u/bluefishcake for the wonderful original story and sandbox to play in.
A special thanks to my editors LordHenry7898, RandomTinkerer, Swimming_Good_8507, CatsInTrenchcoats, and KLiCKonthat.
And a big thanks to the authors and their stories that inspired me to tell my own in this universe. RandomTinkerer (City Slickers and Hayseeds), Punnynfunny (Denied Operations), CompassWithHat (Top Lasgun), CarCU131 (The Cook), and Rhion-618 (Just One Drop)
Hy’shq’e Ay Si’am (Thank you noble friends)
Chapter 30: A Promise Kept
Kalai stepped off the shuttle to the Vaida’s headquarters and into a running tackle-hug from Sitry. “Oh Kalai, I could kill you right now! You got to see the Great Barrier Reef in person, you bitch!” Sitry’s cheerful voice was muffled from where she was still buried in her chest. Kalai staggered backwards a pace or two, happy to be back from her whirlwind adventure around Earth with her father.
Naranjo and Papa Rhaxiid were there on the platform to welcome her back too, but their welcomes were more sedate.
“Not to mention you got out of work for half our damn trip. Ugh, it’s so not fair!” Naranjo huffed as Kalai gave him a sisterly hug.
Papa Rhaxiid reached up and chucked her chin before turning to lead the way back inside from the forested platform. “Welcome back, sweet-sprout, we’ve missed you. Come on, we’ll get you settled again and off to work. There’s quite a bit you need to catch up on if you want your credits.”
The chuckles from the twins behind her were full of sibling malice, but she knew how to shut the pair of them up. “Papa Rhaxiid? I’ve got the paper on Biodiversity in the Reef you asked for, along with the dissection report and stomach content analysis of the tuna we caught. I want to put the finishing touches on it and do a final proofread first before I send them to you.” The man turned and gave her a warm smile as they entered the building.
“Good, why don’t you go take your things back up and say hello to Andy? I’ll give you an hour and a half to get freshened up, then I want you to report to Aquarium 12 with Dr. Sor’ansa. You can put your snorkeling practice to work there.” Papa Rhaxiid walked the three of them to the residential elevator. “I’m heading back to my office. Andy’s been requested by Maetro Pae’ella to work the kitchens for something called ‘Bison burgers'. Apparently it’s a type of indigenous bovine that the eastern Bands raise. That and something from Europe called ‘French Fries’.”
Kalai couldn’t help but get excited as she and her siblings piled into the elevator back to their little shared apartment. Sure the food she’d had all over the place was good, but so far nothing had been able to compare to Andy and his Salishian cooking.
“Nerd, I can’t believe you cheated and did work on your vacation." Naranjo broke the silence of the elevator after a little bit and stuck his tongue out at her.
“Spit to windward, you vain little weed. Don’t hate me because I’m awesome.” Kalai’s riposte caused Naranjo to fold his arms and huff. Sitry simply ambushed her with an ear flick.
The elevator door opened to their floor before Kalai couldn’t bear the silence from Sitry any longer. “So, did you bag him yet, you lucky bitch?”
“No she hasn’t!” Naranjo’s singsong mockery of his sister interrupted Sitry’s response. “Papa hasn’t let Sitry even NEAR Andy without one of them around!”
“Rub it in, you snitch, besides, he did kiss me first,” Sitry preened happily as she playfully shoved Kalai’s shoulder.
Kalai pretended to stumble and almost caught Sitry’s foot, but she was just a hair too slow. “Yeah, and then you gave him a black eye, you clod.”
“Will you let it go? It was an accident!”
“It’s not even the only one he got either." Naranjo’s interjection stopped her right in front of their door.
“Wait, what? Who hurt him this time?” Kalai let her bag thunk to the floor as she turned to look accusingly between Sitry and Narny.
Sitry folded her arms and her ears twitched back as she shot a dark look at their door. “He ‘fell down’ yesterday while out at one of the Hatcheries we gave to the Hwatcoms. Mrs. Toloui nearly had a fit! She said she could smell another human on him and that he was covered in blood!”
Narny nodded primly as Kalai tried to process what they were telling her. “WHAT? Did she call out the militia? Track down whoever hurt him?”
“No, and he refused treatment and insisted that no one did it to him! When papa tried to talk to him, Andy said some stupid human macho shit about pain healing and birds liking scars. I don’t know, sometimes humans… they’re frickin’ insane!”
The door shot open and there stood Andy. His left eye was an angry puffy yellow and blue mess, and there were three points on his lips where a dark cinnabar line marked a crack. Kalai and her siblings stood in wide eyed shock at his sudden appearance and the only sound was the music emanating from the common room behind him.
Andy looked up and down at the three without saying a word. He cocked an eyebrow and snagged Kalai’s bag before any of them could react and cleared the doorway for them.
Kalai sputtered at the impropriety but Naranjo and Sitry just shrugged and walked in after Andy. “Femboys, am I right?” Narny whispered to Kalai as he passed. Kalai followed behind and was greeted by the white fluff-ball, Puck, who hopped up and down, whining for attention. She bent down and started scratching his ears and back. While Puck rubbed up against her hands, Andy settled back down at the table where his omnipad was hooked up to a keypad. Her heart started to sink a bit and Kalai shot Sitry a jealous look before the music came to a sudden halt and Andy interrupted the beginnings of her pity party.
“Ok, Kem’ira, I got the pics now and I’m telling you to declare yourself to the farmers first! I guarantee if you tell them you’re with the new DNR and you’re there to kill all the Scotch Broom in their pasture lands, they’ll stop trying to shoot you for trespassing!”
Kalai’s mood jumped up a bit. It’s not that he doesn’t care to see me, he’s in a meeting!
“No, no I’m not coming out to talk this over with them, I’ve got my own work to do! Either you start talking to folks like I showed you how, or ask the militia to give you one of their armored catsuits to wear under your uniform… Uh-huh, good luck." Andy hung up on the call and leaned back as Puck scampered over and hopped up in his lap.
Andy rubbed his temples before shaking his head. He seemed to relax a bit and Puck slid off to follow Sitry to the kitchen. Andy looked over and gave Kalai a happy smile that made her flush. “Welcome back! So how was the land down under? That tuna was fan-frickin’-tastic, if you aren’t sick of seafood I’ll do something fancy with it tomorrow to celebrate your coming back. Can’t tonight though, I got volun-told to be head chef tonight and I… Oh damnit! I’m late! Come to dinner, burgers and fries Indian style tonight. Gotta run!” With that, Andy went dashing out the door with Puck barking and scrambling along after him.
Kalai felt her heart sink back down again, as he left. “Andy I-” She started but he was gone.
“Yeah, it’s been like that for the whole week. The only time we get to hang out is dinner.” Sitry commiserated as she took Kalai’s bag into their room. “On the other hand, we might get to catch up during the family meal tonight.”
The dinner was delicious, though a bit weird. It tasted alright, but there was a certain aftertaste on the sandwich that just didn’t sit right with Kalai. She just couldn’t put her finger on it. The french fries more than made up for it though, and Mama Sakalbi had to hold a science trivia contest to see who got the last little handful.
Kalai and Narny were already silently plotting with each other for their revenge against their sister who had won and refused to share the last few matchsticks when Andy finally joined their table. He was sweaty and he smelled of woodsmoke and french fries. Kalai jumped up and offered him a seat next to her with a nervous smile. He took it gratefully and seemed to sag a bit as he gulped down a glass of water.
“Andy, I think you may be finding your calling as a culinary ambassador,” Mama Aftasia beamed. “A toast to the chef!”
Andy gave a shy smile and looked down as Kalai and the rest of the family gave a hearty ‘Here, here!”
“It’s a simple enough recipe; it’s just using bison instead of cow, that’s all, and I don’t know anyone who’d turn down hand cut fresh fries. It’s kind of hard to screw up.”
“Young man, you are speaking to a woman who found a way to take cold water and dried wumpa flakes and wind up with a Class-4 fire. Cooking has always seemed like ‘blight mysticism’ to me, and these foods? These flavors? Nothing short of a Greenwood miracle in my opinion." Mama Aftasia continued her praise of Andy, which only caused him to shrink even lower in his seat.
“To be honest, I like your salmon better,” Kalai said, and the whole table went silent. Kalai held her ground though, and was rewarded with a tired but genuine laugh from Andy that brought him back out of his shell.
“You know, I do too. My Clan were fisherpeople, not buffalo chasers.” Andy gave Kalai a cheeky grin, which she returned happily, her heart glowing. Mama Aftasia and Mama Sakalbi both blinked in bemusement at Andy’s statement while Sitry just giggled.
“Speaking of which, Andy, I received a call from Elder Alex Hwatcom.” Papa Rhaxiid’s change of subject instantly perked Andy up, and he stared silently, waiting. “He extended an invitation to our family to attend his family gathering this Friday-”
“Alex said that? He used those words?” Andy shook his head in shock as he interrupted Papa Rhaxiid. The table went quiet and everyone held their breath as they looked between the two men.
Papa Rhaxiid adopted as good an impression of the human Elder as he could. “I’d like to extend an invitation for you and your family to be guests at our family gathering this saturday up at the White… something… lodge-”
“The White Ram Lodge?” Andy sat forward, interjecting again as the color drained from his face.
“Yes, that’s the one! I asked if we could bring anything since the last time they hosted us they put on that wonderful spread. He said if we could bring a few salmon for the family, that would be wonderful.”
Andy leaned back and took another sip of ice water before holding the glass to his blackened eye. “Alex Hwatcom… just invited you… to a gathering… and he told you to ‘bring a few salmon’? Do you realize what a huge honor this is?”
Rhaxiid looked from his wives to his children with mild concern. “Um, I thought it was only dinner, but your reaction tells me there’s more significance to this than I originally thought. I was thinking about our stocks of adult Sockeye, but then I remembered in his story how important King Salmon are. Of course, I’d like to defer to you for the choice since you know these animals and the cultural expectations with this invitation better than we do.”
Andy was silent for a moment before he put the glass down. “I’d recommend a ‘hard no’ to all your clone stock!” Now it was the Vaidas’ turn to be shocked, as each of Kalai’s Erbian family’s jaws dropped in synch. Before anyone could say anything, Andy continued, “You need to bring wild-caught. Farm-raised salmon wouldn’t… well we can tell, and you can taste the difference between them. We need to go fishing!” Kalai leaned towards Andy slightly as he lowered his head and started mumbling to himself. She was just able to make out what he was saying to himself as Mama Sakalbi and Mama Aftasia began whispering to each other. “...need to get the Gillnetter out of storage, check what’s running and select the mesh. I’m gonna need a deckhand too.”
Kalai reached a hand out but stopped short of touching him. “Andy?”
He popped up and spoke for the whole table to hear. “I need a shuttle to the mainland and a waiver against the fishing ban. I’ve got to get my boat and the drum ready for sea ” Rhaxiid and Aftasia sputtered in confusion, but Mama Sakalbi had a shadow fall over her, and her ears pulled back.
“Do you mean to say you want to go out on the water? Risk the ecological balance for… dinner?”
Andy looked Sakalbi dead in the eye and gave her a firm nod. “Why don’t you come out and see how we did this before you got here. Think of it as a chance to see the way we’ve fished for the last hundred or so years, and then I can explain the way we used to fish before that.”
The offer snapped Rhaxiid out of his confusion and he brightened. “A learning experience? Wonderful, we’ll make a day of it!” His hands shot out to grab both his wives’ and Kalai could feel the vibrations in the floor from where he was excitedly tapping his feet.
“If you don’t mind hard, smelly work. Uncle Willy always called it ‘the worst desk in the prettiest office.' It’ll be a bit cramped, but I’ve got room on the boat for a few guests and observers; four I think would be ok. She’s a working boat, not a pleasure cruiser,” Andy explained. That sent the whole lot of them excitedly talking among themselves.
Kalai was about to lean in to talk to Mama Aftasia, but Andy caught her attention first. “I don’t suppose you’d want to go back out on the water, given you just got back from pleasure-boating-”
Kalai’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest. “I wouldn’t miss it for my own colony planet!”
--------------------
Kalai stood on the pier, bundled in her thermal sailor’s coat. It was still dark and the wind blew from the north in a cold little morning breeze. Kalai took a deep breath and reveled in the smell of the fresh sea air. The soft chattering of Mama Sakalbi’s teeth broke the silence. “It’s a bit chillier than it said it was going to be.”
“The water always does that. It’s never as warm as the lubbers say it’ll be,” Papa spoke as he handed her back her thermos of hot chocolate.
Papa stood next to Kalai and nudged her with his elbow. Even in the dark, Kalai could see him smile up at her and jerk his head at the shivering Erbian. He was also wearing a thermal sailor’s coat, and his hands were stuffed in his pockets to keep them warm, just like Kalai’s. “Landswoman,” he whispered to her and the two of them shared a knowing smile. It was strange, but welcome when she'd told Papa about her upcoming day fishing with Andy, and he’d politely requested to join them. Papa Rhaxiid had graciously given his spot up to accommodate her birth father. Narny was all for it until Andy had explained what they were going to do, but then surrendered his challenge to the fourth guest space, not wanting to go anywhere NEAR anything that could see him come face to face with a Lion’s Mane Jelly. Sitry had done a happy little dance when she found out, but only yesterday had come down with Thistle Fever, and was bundled off to bed by her parents. It left Kalai, Mama Sakalbi, and Papa to accompany Andy on his fishing trip.
The water brushed against the shore behind them quietly. In the gloom, Kalai could just barely make out the outline of the nearest island mountain, but only because the stars had disappeared behind it. It was almost four in the morning, but Kalai had managed a catnap on the shuttle to the empty little lot that had been the boat launch. Aside from the water, the world was silent. Even the breeze made almost no noise and a sense of peace surrounded them. Everything was so calm, Kalai felt like she didn’t have a care in the world.
In the distance, a low rumbling sound of a motor rose from being almost imperceptible to a rolling drum of thunder. From around the point, two green floating lights sped through the darkness, and a spotlight turned on. The beam of light moved jerkily until it came to rest on the pier where they were standing and Kalai started waving her arms. Sakalbi’s omnipad rang, and Andy’s voice shouted over the speaker and the background noise for them to shine a light on the edge of the pier to help him park the boat.
Kalai and Papa moved closer and turned their omnipad flashlights on and waved them as the boat swung gracefully around and glided in alongside them. Kalai caught the rope that flew over the railing of the boat and she heard more than saw Andy moving around on the deck as she tied off on one of the mooring cleats. Several lights clicked on and the deck was bathed in light enough for Kalai to get a clear view of the boat they’d be spending the day on.
Andy hadn’t lied. Kalai saw that this little vessel was a working boat with no frills at all. When he’d told her they’d be going fishing, she’d envisioned something like the charter boat papa had taken her on out of Nantucket. Sporty, fast with a nod to comfort and function. This was not that at all. A giant wheel as wide as Kalai’s outstretched arms that looked like a sideways spool of thread was secured to the deck amidships and dominated the deckspace. Wrapped around it was a fluorescent green tangle with a line of oblong white and yellow corks and rope. There was a covered hatchway sitting behind the drum in front of the raised step to the enclosed cabin. Two large windows let the light out to two children’s bunks, a little table with a booth seat and a raised captain’s chair in front of the helm and engine controls. Andy shut down the engine and that peaceful stillness returned.
“Oway there!” Kalai called, “ship oway! Request permission to come aboard.” Kalai gave the traditional greeting of a Shil’vati sailor.
“Permission granted! Anyone need a stepstool?” Andy finally stepped into the light and Kalai got a look at him. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and the same bright orange coveralls she’d seen the fishmongers wearing on their date.
“I wouldn’t mind a hand, Mr. Shelokset.” Papa He’osforos braced a foot on the railing of the boat and Andy pulled him up.
“Just call me Andy, Doc, and welcome aboard. Jackie should be along any minute now with the day’s groceries, and the cabin’s out of the cold. You can get yourself set wherever you find comfortable.” Papa nodded and disappeared around the other side of the wheel moving towards the bow.
Kalai helped Mama Sakalbi into the boat next, and she quickly ducked into the cabin that took up the entire stern section save for a little ledge that ran along the outside. Andy gripped Kalai’s hand and she smiled as he pulled her deftly aboard. The boat rocked a little on its mooring, and Kalai almost fell into Andy, who wordlessly put his arms around her waist to catch her as she lost her balance. She flailed for a moment before she steadied herself against him.
“Gotcha,” Andy smiled, and Kalai could see him flush almost as much as she could feel herself doing as their noses almost touched. Those big dark brown eyes surrounded by white orbs drew her in and she felt she could lose herself in them. Kalai started as Andy danced her around him and moved her towards the cabin door.
“It might be a little cramped for you in there, but the Mary Jean wasn’t built for pleasure boating, she’s a working girl. Sit tight, I gotta check a few things in the back.” Andy patted the railing affectionately before he hopped up and scooted along the outside of the cabin towards the stern. Kalai couldn’t help the little longing groan that came out as he left her there on the little tiny quarterdeck. Her heart was hammering in her chest as half formed fantasies danced at the edges of her mind.
“I saw that, little minnow.” Papa’s voice was soft, but his tone and the sudden broken silence nearly gave her a heart attack.
Kalai could only stammer as her father stared at her with a cocked eyebrow. A thump from the cabin window behind saw an amused Mama Sakalbi daintily sipping at her thermos with her ears twitched forward in interest, staring out at her. “Papa I… he-”
Papa moved carefully around the covered hatchway to stand next to her, leaning back against the cabin window and heaved a sigh. “I must say I’m surprised. This lovely man’s got good clean lines and is very well cared for. It speaks well of his Skipper.”
It took a full minute for Kalai’s brain to process that he was talking about the boat and not Andy. “And the way Andy brought him in smooth in near complete darkness? It gives me confidence in his abilities.”
Kalai breathed a silent sigh of relief and exasperation. Although she was happy to be spending more time with her father, bringing him on what she’d hoped would be a sailing date wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind for ‘family time’. He wants me to find a nice young man and spend time with him on a boat, but the first chance I get Papa decides to clam-jam me.
From up on shore, the sound and lights of a large human vehicle screeching to a halt heralded the last of their party to arrive. Kalai heard the clomping footsteps coming down the pier and moved to the railing to lend a hand.
“Ahoy Mary Jean! Raggedy Andy, you there?” Kalai stared with wide eyed surprise to see a human female, loaded down with plastic bags and sporting two human weapons on her shoulder. The two of them locked eyes, and while Kalai didn’t understand everything the girl shouted in surprise, she had caught and understood the phrase, “What the fuck?”
“Easy now, they’re my guests, and the one inside is the boss!” Andy appeared on the pier instantly before either Kalai or the woman could react further.
“Ya didn’t tell me we were having pur-” The woman glared at Kalai and her father. She had switched to Vatikre thankfully, but her tone was hostile as she dropped everything but her weapons. “I mean, hwun’eetums, aboard. A gal could get the wrong idea pretty quick in the dark when there’s no warning.”
“Knock it off Jackie. Let’s get the grub aboard and shove off.” Andy picked up some of the bags and took the guns as Kalai offered a helping hand over the railing. “Oh, Kalai, this is Jackie. Jackie? Kalai. That’s her dad over there, Doc He’osforos. He saw and treated Kay Tee a few years back.” Andy jerked his head towards the direction of Kalai’s father as she held out a hand to the human girl. On a quick inspection, she appeared to be about the same age as her and Andy. She had a round face and was about as dark complected as Andy was. She was shorter, only a few inches taller than Papa, but when Jackie grabbed Kalai’s hand to hop up onto the rail, she could feel the strength and the compact muscle hidden by the baggy sweatshirt and pants.
“Wait a minute, did you say Mini-Me over there saw Kay Tee? You’re fuckin’ with me!” Jackie stumbled a bit as she hopped down onto the deck with a loud thunk and advanced on Papa who shrank away at her advance. “You saw li’l Kay Tee? Where the fuck is he? Is he alright? Is he still fighting the good fight?”
“Last I saw, yes, he was ‘fighting the good fight.’” Papa looked over at Andy with a slightly worried expression. Andy smacked the girl in the back of the head, causing her to flinch and she opened the door to the cabin for Andy to go inside.
Jackie rubbed the back of her head and laughed. “Well that’s a little bit of alright, innit? Maybe today’s gonna be a good day after all!”
“Jackie, get suited up and get on the bow. I need a good pair of eyes on the roller horns,” Kalai heard Andy shout from the cabin, followed by a whole lot of thumping and banging from cabinets being opened and closed.
“You got it, ol’ man. We going to your place or mine?” Jackie sidestepped in and opened a tiny little closet and pulled out a set of rain gear that was identical to what Andy was wearing. Kalai collected herself and stood in the doorway next to her father as they both leaned in.
“Mine; Chuck said the Yaw’much are running from the South. We’ll do a set nor’west of Lummi in the Rosario and see if we can get some Fraser Kings,” Andy replied as he turned the engine back on and the vessel roared to life.
“Chuck? Isn’t that one of your cousins? I didn’t know he could keep track of the movements of Salmon, may I ask how he does it?” Mama Sakalbi perked up as she pulled a set of earplugs out of a pocket and inserted them.
Andy prevaricated a bit, looking from Jackie back to Sakalbi then to Kalai and Papa. “I’d rather not answer that-”
“Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law!”
Jackie began singing a human song, and Andy threw her the dirtiest of looks as she finished getting into the orange coveralls. Mama Sakalbi sputtered as Andy shrugged apologetically.
“Make a hole!” Jackie called, and she and Andy came back out as Kalai and Papa made room for them. Andy hopped back onto the dock to cast off while Papa ducked into the cabin.
“Can I help?” Kalai offered as Andy shoved the vessel off and leapt the gap over the black water below.
“You want to be useful? Come forward! I could use an extra set of eyes!” Jackie called back, and Kalai felt a slap on her shoulder from the boisterous human woman.
------------------
Andy stood at the helm, watching Jackie and Kalai as he leaned to get a better view of them past the Net drum. The bow was lifting up again, and the gentle little swells became like speed bumps, jostling them up and down in a predictable bouncing rhythm.
“Are you sure you couldn’t slow down, Andy? It’s a bit rough, don’t you think?” Sakalbi was hanging on to the table and her thermos with a worried expression on her face.
“I could, but we’ll miss the morning set. We want to bomb out the buoy right when the tide changes. If we’re lucky, then we’ll get around seventy or eighty by slack tide this afternoon and call it a day.”
“How do you know where to fish?” Dr. He’osforos was making a good show of standing and maintaining his balance with his hand on the booth.
“Well, there’s two ways you know. The first is you fish the spots your family’s fished since time began. Every family has about two or three different secret spots that we know there’s fish in, and we’re pretty defensive about their locations. The second is by smell. Right now it’s the tail end of the King season, and you can smell them in the water.” Andy turned and saw the incredulity etched on the faces of the two aliens.
“No, I’m serious! King Salmon slime is really pungent, and you can smell them when they’re close to the surface. We get to the fishing spot and take a deep whiff. If we smell them, we’ll set the nets.” Andy laughed at the disbelief on their faces as the GPS on his omnipad beeped and he turned to sail around the last buoy and head for the fishing ground.
“I’ve never noticed that in any of the Kings we’ve raised-”
Andy suppressed a laugh as they caught a larger swell as they left the lee of Lummi Island. Andy reveled in the feeling of weightlessness as the deck rose up and fell out from underneath their feet, leaving everyone suspended for a moment in midair before falling back down. A massive spray of water rose and washed over the deck, drenching Kalai and Jackie, who were still forward. “Cloned and farmed Kings don’t have that same smell. Wild ones smell and taste different, I’m telling you!” Andy pulled back slightly on the throttle as they climbed the next swell. “Brace!” he called as they climbed and fell once again.
There was a look of fear on Sakalbi’s face as she gripped the table for dear life, but to Andy’s surprise, the Doctor looked completely unfazed, and was handling the rise and fall of the deck like an old salt. “You look like you’ve done this before, Doc.”
“I’ve done a stint or two at sea before,” he spoke, in the same tone Andy would have used when trying not to sound too confident, and Andy smiled.
“Kalai keeps talking about loving the sea and sailing. Did you teach her to sail?”
“Yes, me and her mothers. When they were home, we would take the family yacht out in the Vaascon Straits and sail around the Occidiens. Kalai practically spent all her early childhood on a sailboat.”
“And almost every waking moment on one in Junior Academy. I swear you couldn’t dig her out with a trowel when she wanted to go sailing,” Sakalbi managed to add in a word as the boat slowed, and the dramatic rise and fall of the deck slowed with it.
“What about you, Mr. Shelokset, did your father teach you to sail too?”
“I was too young before he passed. My Great Uncle Willy taught me after I came home, and Grandma took me out to the family fishing sites when she wasn’t busy with the Council. For the first two or three years after they let us come home, fishing was the only way to feed our families, but the Militia and the Cambrians would try and sink our boats or arrest us whenever we tried to go out.”
“And that’s why you’re so good at maneuvering your vessel in the dark with no instruments?” Mrs. Vaida had folded her arms, and her voice twinged with that imperious tone she’d had when they’d first met.
Andy huffed a dry laugh. “I did what I had to for me and my people and to survive, Ma’am. I don’t like breaking the law or dodging lasers and gunfire, but there’s a lot of poor families that need to eat.”
The GPS beeped, and Andy gave Mrs. Vaida a slightly defiant look to counter her furrowed brow. “We’re here,” he said as he threw the engine in neutral and opened the cabin door.
Andy walked out and took a deep breath, but all he could smell was the net and the exhaust from the engine. “HEY JACKIE! WE SMELL MONEY?” Andy yelled out as he took stock of the sky. The first signs of sunrise were chasing all but the morning stars away and a light fog was rolling in from the north.
“FUCK YEAH I CAN SMELL ‘EM, ANDY! LET’S BOMB OUT AND GET BREAKFAST GOING!” Jackie looked slightly manic as she smiled brightly. Kalai, on the other hand, looked wet and miserable as she shivered, arms wrapped around herself. Andy gave his cousin a disgusted look as he pieced together what had happened. Every deckhand learned when to duck behind the raised bow and the roller horns that guided the nets so as not to get a faceful of spray when cutting through a swell. It was also a classic hazing trick for Senior Deckhands to let Junior Deckhands learn this the hard way.
Andy moved forward to stand in front of the two of them. Kalai was trying to squeeze her coat dry, but Andy knew it wouldn’t do much good until the sun came out. Jackie at least had the sense to look a little remorseful. “Kalai, why don’t you go sit in the cabin and get out of that wet coat. It’s cold enough out here even for us-”
“No way, Andy. Junior deckhand Kally here wants to impress you and get her dainty soft hands dirty! She’s been bragging about being a sailorwoman and wants to learn to fish ‘your way!” Jackie gave Kalai’s shoulder a wet slap as the poor alien woman went blue. Out of cold or embarrassment, Andy couldn’t tell.
All Andy could do was shake his head and huff. “Ok then! Secure the buoy and sling on my mark. I’ll get us in position!” Andy couldn’t help but chuckle as he heard Jackie start ordering Kalai about. Andy went back into the cabin and looked in the closet/bathroom to see if there was anything hanging up that he could give Kalai. There was only the one rain slicker and a few of Andy’s old sweaters from when he was a lot smaller. Well, looks like I’ll just be cold today. He quickly stripped out of his sweatshirt and grabbed the slicker before throwing a switch on the main control. Dr. He’osforos and Mrs. Vaida threw him quizzical looks as he went back outside wearing less than when he came in. He was down to a sleeveless shirt and his coveralls, and the morning breeze cut right through him and he braced his jaw to keep it from chattering.
“We’re ready to go- Andy, why are you practically naked from the waist up?” Kalai was staring wide eyed at him as he approached her and Jackie was on the bow. Jackie had everything ready; the buoy line was strung through the horns and ready to toss out. A giant orange and blue beach ball sized float hung at the end of the line to mark the end and make it easier to pick up later.
“Trade me your coat for these. If Jackie’s putting you to work, you’ll need these to keep warm.”
“I’m alright, I can-”
“I’m the Skipper of this boat, and I’m ordering you to take off that wet coat and put these on; and Jackie?” Andy gave his cousin a long and piercing look. “Give her the elbow gloves, not the halfsies.”
The scoff and the muttered Salishian profanities meant he’d read the next prank she’d had in mind right. She was planning on giving her the cloth gloves with only the palms and fingers coated in rubber. While perfectly fine for fishing, Andy knew they tended to get soaked through very quickly and did nothing to keep jellyfish stingers and fish slime off your hands. Kalai sputtered for a moment before she complied gratefully and she accepted the dry clothes and rain slicker.
Andy saw Jackie give him a strange look before looking back at Kalai, but he paid it no mind. He walked back to the controls on the drum and switched off the hydraulics, placing the mechanism in neutral. “SLING IT!” Andy called as he took the small jerry rigged steering wheel and threw the boat in reverse. Kalai jumped as the line started unspooling the net into the water at a rapid pace.
Andy set an ‘S’ bend in the quarter mile long net, zigzagging backwards until they came to the end of the line. Andy stopped the boat as Jackie tied off the other large buoy and tossed it over the side, unstringing the cork-line from the roller horns in the process. He pulled hard over and put a bit of distance from the net before shutting the engine down. The line of white and yellow corks marking the net bobbed lazily with the swells as silence settled over the water again. The waves rocked the boat gently as Andy found his sea legs again.
“Alright, I’ll get breakfast going. Jackie, Kalai? Post the watch for seals,” Andy called as he walked back into the cabin to fire up the tiny little gas stove.
Sakalbi, having found the confidence to stand at last, poked her head out of the cabin and stood on by the hatch to the fish hold. “Seals? Why would you need to watch for seals?”
Andy grit his teeth and looked over from where he was cracking open and scrambling eggs. “They’re the spawn of Satan and we hate their guts!” Andy bit out. Jackie came back and pulled the two shotguns and a pair of binoculars from the closet. Andy reached over to a side cabinet and pulled out a box of shells for them. Both his boss and the Doctor’s eyes got wide.
“Seals are the enemy of our blood. Were it not for the invasion, our unending war against these vermin would continue to this day!” Jackie growled as she loaded one for herself and rested the other on Andy’s seat at the helm.
The look of growing horror on Sakalbi’s face towards their facetious declarations caused Andy to chuckle a bit, before launching into an explanation. “We’re not fans of the species because they’ll wait until a fish gets caught in the net and then they’ll steal it, costing us a fish AND ripping a big hole in our nets that we then have to take time to repair. We use the shotguns and buckshot to give them a nice welt and convince them not to hang around, because they’ll wait up on the surface and watch the buoys, just like us. A single seal can and will take between five and ten fish. The worst is when they start getting full, they’ll just bite out the bellies of a salmon in the net. We can’t really do anything with that fish once it’s ‘seal-bit’. So yes, as fishermen, we hate them.”
“Learned opportunism in apex predators as a response to human activity… I think I’ll go see this behavior for myself!” Sakalbi practically rushed out the door towards the bow where Jackie was sitting on the roller horns explaining to Kalai how to spot the bastards, leaving Andy alone in the cabin with the Doctor while he cooked breakfast for them all.
Dr. He’osforos sat down heavily in the booth and pulled out his omnipad. “I’ve had a word with my friend in the Interior. She’s pulled the warrant for your brother, and I’ve withdrawn the charges I filed.”
Andy froze and turned around slowly. The only sound was the sizzle and pop of the eggs and chorizo that he’d added to them in the skillet. “You mean… it’s done? He can come home?” A wave of light headed euphoria swept over Andy and he swayed with the gentle rocking of the boat. “I will pay you back, Doc-”
The doctor held up his hand and stopped Andy. “We’ll call it even, but there’s something… I was able to get my hands on this,” Andy watched as the doctor swiped something towards his omnipad and it dinged. “What is it if I may-”
“Are you really asking an Indian to tell you a story? Because it’s going to be a long one if you are.” “I’m Sevastutavan, young man; we invented long stories.”
Andy froze and stared at the screen of his omnipad. The Vatikre was heavily accented, and Andy had a bit of trouble with the unfamiliar accent, but centered in the frame in a hospital room, sitting in a wheelchair, was a Salishian boy. Andy blinked in surprise as he stared at the screen. “Is that-”
“I am Ikw’is’hi’ehlah, and this bearer is… of the Orca Clan Sheloksets. I drove our Haida enemies onto the rocks and took many heads when they attacked our winter village on Orcas Island. I signed the Treaty with the Great White Father and I fought against the slavers of the south-”
Andy wanted to grab the omnipad but the smell of overcooking eggs brought his attention back to breakfast and Andy stirred and scrapped the food quickly, trying to save it.
“I asked her for any materials she could give me on your brother. Pictures, recordings, anything. This is what she gave me. It's the last known recording of your brother during an interrogation conducted by a Navy Commissar prior to his escape. It seems he made friends with a Pod of Deaths Head Commandos. Quite a bit of the recording has been redacted, but… there are portions of it where he talks about his family and his history. I thought you might like to have it.”
Andy hurriedly pulled out paper plates and a slice of bread for everyone and scooped a heaping portion of the chorizo eggs onto them. He handed the doctor his before leaning out the cabin door. “Slop’s on, come and get it!”
Andy sat down after moving the shotgun out of the way and started the video over again as the three women came back to grab their plates and lost himself watching his brother start telling his story.
“What’s that?” Andy heard Kalai ask over his shoulder, and he paused the video.
“That’s my brother! That’s Kay Tee!”
“Holy shit, what?” Jackie nearly shoved Kalai into Andy as she jammed her bread slice down her gullet and crowded in to see the screen.
Andy started the video over a second time and they watched in silence. “God, that brings back memories. Back when mom was still alive and before we broke up the warband. I can’t believe that slippery little punk ghosted a pod of Commandos for two fucking years! Holy shit, that’s badass!”
Before Andy could say anything, Sakalbi started coughing and brought the binoculars up. “Uh, Andy? Jackie? What do we do about sharks?”
Jackie looked at Andy in confusion. “Sharks? There’s nothing but Dogs around here.”
“Well those are shark fins and they’re charging the net!” Sakalbi pointed and Andy looked up to see dorsal fins charging the center of the net.
Andy looked at Jackie and spoke the same words in tandem, “Oh shit!”
First:
https://www.reddit.com/Sexyspacebabes/comments/yz0u3h/the_cryptid_chronicle_chapter_1/
Previous:
https://www.reddit.com/Sexyspacebabes/comments/13nh0oe/cryptid_chronicle_chapter_29/
Next:
To be posted 6/4/23
submitted by Kazevenikov to Sexyspacebabes [link] [comments]
A special thanks to my editors LordHenry7898, RandomTinkerer, Swimming_Good_8507, CatsInTrenchcoats, and KLiCKonthat.
And a big thanks to the authors and their stories that inspired me to tell my own in this universe. RandomTinkerer (City Slickers and Hayseeds), Punnynfunny (Denied Operations), CompassWithHat (Top Lasgun), CarCU131 (The Cook), and Rhion-618 (Just One Drop)
Hy’shq’e Ay Si’am (Thank you noble friends)
Chapter 30: A Promise Kept
Kalai stepped off the shuttle to the Vaida’s headquarters and into a running tackle-hug from Sitry. “Oh Kalai, I could kill you right now! You got to see the Great Barrier Reef in person, you bitch!” Sitry’s cheerful voice was muffled from where she was still buried in her chest. Kalai staggered backwards a pace or two, happy to be back from her whirlwind adventure around Earth with her father.
Naranjo and Papa Rhaxiid were there on the platform to welcome her back too, but their welcomes were more sedate.
“Not to mention you got out of work for half our damn trip. Ugh, it’s so not fair!” Naranjo huffed as Kalai gave him a sisterly hug.
Papa Rhaxiid reached up and chucked her chin before turning to lead the way back inside from the forested platform. “Welcome back, sweet-sprout, we’ve missed you. Come on, we’ll get you settled again and off to work. There’s quite a bit you need to catch up on if you want your credits.”
The chuckles from the twins behind her were full of sibling malice, but she knew how to shut the pair of them up. “Papa Rhaxiid? I’ve got the paper on Biodiversity in the Reef you asked for, along with the dissection report and stomach content analysis of the tuna we caught. I want to put the finishing touches on it and do a final proofread first before I send them to you.” The man turned and gave her a warm smile as they entered the building.
“Good, why don’t you go take your things back up and say hello to Andy? I’ll give you an hour and a half to get freshened up, then I want you to report to Aquarium 12 with Dr. Sor’ansa. You can put your snorkeling practice to work there.” Papa Rhaxiid walked the three of them to the residential elevator. “I’m heading back to my office. Andy’s been requested by Maetro Pae’ella to work the kitchens for something called ‘Bison burgers'. Apparently it’s a type of indigenous bovine that the eastern Bands raise. That and something from Europe called ‘French Fries’.”
Kalai couldn’t help but get excited as she and her siblings piled into the elevator back to their little shared apartment. Sure the food she’d had all over the place was good, but so far nothing had been able to compare to Andy and his Salishian cooking.
“Nerd, I can’t believe you cheated and did work on your vacation." Naranjo broke the silence of the elevator after a little bit and stuck his tongue out at her.
“Spit to windward, you vain little weed. Don’t hate me because I’m awesome.” Kalai’s riposte caused Naranjo to fold his arms and huff. Sitry simply ambushed her with an ear flick.
The elevator door opened to their floor before Kalai couldn’t bear the silence from Sitry any longer. “So, did you bag him yet, you lucky bitch?”
“No she hasn’t!” Naranjo’s singsong mockery of his sister interrupted Sitry’s response. “Papa hasn’t let Sitry even NEAR Andy without one of them around!”
“Rub it in, you snitch, besides, he did kiss me first,” Sitry preened happily as she playfully shoved Kalai’s shoulder.
Kalai pretended to stumble and almost caught Sitry’s foot, but she was just a hair too slow. “Yeah, and then you gave him a black eye, you clod.”
“Will you let it go? It was an accident!”
“It’s not even the only one he got either." Naranjo’s interjection stopped her right in front of their door.
“Wait, what? Who hurt him this time?” Kalai let her bag thunk to the floor as she turned to look accusingly between Sitry and Narny.
Sitry folded her arms and her ears twitched back as she shot a dark look at their door. “He ‘fell down’ yesterday while out at one of the Hatcheries we gave to the Hwatcoms. Mrs. Toloui nearly had a fit! She said she could smell another human on him and that he was covered in blood!”
Narny nodded primly as Kalai tried to process what they were telling her. “WHAT? Did she call out the militia? Track down whoever hurt him?”
“No, and he refused treatment and insisted that no one did it to him! When papa tried to talk to him, Andy said some stupid human macho shit about pain healing and birds liking scars. I don’t know, sometimes humans… they’re frickin’ insane!”
The door shot open and there stood Andy. His left eye was an angry puffy yellow and blue mess, and there were three points on his lips where a dark cinnabar line marked a crack. Kalai and her siblings stood in wide eyed shock at his sudden appearance and the only sound was the music emanating from the common room behind him.
Andy looked up and down at the three without saying a word. He cocked an eyebrow and snagged Kalai’s bag before any of them could react and cleared the doorway for them.
Kalai sputtered at the impropriety but Naranjo and Sitry just shrugged and walked in after Andy. “Femboys, am I right?” Narny whispered to Kalai as he passed. Kalai followed behind and was greeted by the white fluff-ball, Puck, who hopped up and down, whining for attention. She bent down and started scratching his ears and back. While Puck rubbed up against her hands, Andy settled back down at the table where his omnipad was hooked up to a keypad. Her heart started to sink a bit and Kalai shot Sitry a jealous look before the music came to a sudden halt and Andy interrupted the beginnings of her pity party.
“Ok, Kem’ira, I got the pics now and I’m telling you to declare yourself to the farmers first! I guarantee if you tell them you’re with the new DNR and you’re there to kill all the Scotch Broom in their pasture lands, they’ll stop trying to shoot you for trespassing!”
Kalai’s mood jumped up a bit. It’s not that he doesn’t care to see me, he’s in a meeting!
“No, no I’m not coming out to talk this over with them, I’ve got my own work to do! Either you start talking to folks like I showed you how, or ask the militia to give you one of their armored catsuits to wear under your uniform… Uh-huh, good luck." Andy hung up on the call and leaned back as Puck scampered over and hopped up in his lap.
Andy rubbed his temples before shaking his head. He seemed to relax a bit and Puck slid off to follow Sitry to the kitchen. Andy looked over and gave Kalai a happy smile that made her flush. “Welcome back! So how was the land down under? That tuna was fan-frickin’-tastic, if you aren’t sick of seafood I’ll do something fancy with it tomorrow to celebrate your coming back. Can’t tonight though, I got volun-told to be head chef tonight and I… Oh damnit! I’m late! Come to dinner, burgers and fries Indian style tonight. Gotta run!” With that, Andy went dashing out the door with Puck barking and scrambling along after him.
Kalai felt her heart sink back down again, as he left. “Andy I-” She started but he was gone.
“Yeah, it’s been like that for the whole week. The only time we get to hang out is dinner.” Sitry commiserated as she took Kalai’s bag into their room. “On the other hand, we might get to catch up during the family meal tonight.”
Kalai and Narny were already silently plotting with each other for their revenge against their sister who had won and refused to share the last few matchsticks when Andy finally joined their table. He was sweaty and he smelled of woodsmoke and french fries. Kalai jumped up and offered him a seat next to her with a nervous smile. He took it gratefully and seemed to sag a bit as he gulped down a glass of water.
“Andy, I think you may be finding your calling as a culinary ambassador,” Mama Aftasia beamed. “A toast to the chef!”
Andy gave a shy smile and looked down as Kalai and the rest of the family gave a hearty ‘Here, here!”
“It’s a simple enough recipe; it’s just using bison instead of cow, that’s all, and I don’t know anyone who’d turn down hand cut fresh fries. It’s kind of hard to screw up.”
“Young man, you are speaking to a woman who found a way to take cold water and dried wumpa flakes and wind up with a Class-4 fire. Cooking has always seemed like ‘blight mysticism’ to me, and these foods? These flavors? Nothing short of a Greenwood miracle in my opinion." Mama Aftasia continued her praise of Andy, which only caused him to shrink even lower in his seat.
“To be honest, I like your salmon better,” Kalai said, and the whole table went silent. Kalai held her ground though, and was rewarded with a tired but genuine laugh from Andy that brought him back out of his shell.
“You know, I do too. My Clan were fisherpeople, not buffalo chasers.” Andy gave Kalai a cheeky grin, which she returned happily, her heart glowing. Mama Aftasia and Mama Sakalbi both blinked in bemusement at Andy’s statement while Sitry just giggled.
“Speaking of which, Andy, I received a call from Elder Alex Hwatcom.” Papa Rhaxiid’s change of subject instantly perked Andy up, and he stared silently, waiting. “He extended an invitation to our family to attend his family gathering this Friday-”
“Alex said that? He used those words?” Andy shook his head in shock as he interrupted Papa Rhaxiid. The table went quiet and everyone held their breath as they looked between the two men.
Papa Rhaxiid adopted as good an impression of the human Elder as he could. “I’d like to extend an invitation for you and your family to be guests at our family gathering this saturday up at the White… something… lodge-”
“The White Ram Lodge?” Andy sat forward, interjecting again as the color drained from his face.
“Yes, that’s the one! I asked if we could bring anything since the last time they hosted us they put on that wonderful spread. He said if we could bring a few salmon for the family, that would be wonderful.”
Andy leaned back and took another sip of ice water before holding the glass to his blackened eye. “Alex Hwatcom… just invited you… to a gathering… and he told you to ‘bring a few salmon’? Do you realize what a huge honor this is?”
Rhaxiid looked from his wives to his children with mild concern. “Um, I thought it was only dinner, but your reaction tells me there’s more significance to this than I originally thought. I was thinking about our stocks of adult Sockeye, but then I remembered in his story how important King Salmon are. Of course, I’d like to defer to you for the choice since you know these animals and the cultural expectations with this invitation better than we do.”
Andy was silent for a moment before he put the glass down. “I’d recommend a ‘hard no’ to all your clone stock!” Now it was the Vaidas’ turn to be shocked, as each of Kalai’s Erbian family’s jaws dropped in synch. Before anyone could say anything, Andy continued, “You need to bring wild-caught. Farm-raised salmon wouldn’t… well we can tell, and you can taste the difference between them. We need to go fishing!” Kalai leaned towards Andy slightly as he lowered his head and started mumbling to himself. She was just able to make out what he was saying to himself as Mama Sakalbi and Mama Aftasia began whispering to each other. “...need to get the Gillnetter out of storage, check what’s running and select the mesh. I’m gonna need a deckhand too.”
Kalai reached a hand out but stopped short of touching him. “Andy?”
He popped up and spoke for the whole table to hear. “I need a shuttle to the mainland and a waiver against the fishing ban. I’ve got to get my boat and the drum ready for sea ” Rhaxiid and Aftasia sputtered in confusion, but Mama Sakalbi had a shadow fall over her, and her ears pulled back.
“Do you mean to say you want to go out on the water? Risk the ecological balance for… dinner?”
Andy looked Sakalbi dead in the eye and gave her a firm nod. “Why don’t you come out and see how we did this before you got here. Think of it as a chance to see the way we’ve fished for the last hundred or so years, and then I can explain the way we used to fish before that.”
The offer snapped Rhaxiid out of his confusion and he brightened. “A learning experience? Wonderful, we’ll make a day of it!” His hands shot out to grab both his wives’ and Kalai could feel the vibrations in the floor from where he was excitedly tapping his feet.
“If you don’t mind hard, smelly work. Uncle Willy always called it ‘the worst desk in the prettiest office.' It’ll be a bit cramped, but I’ve got room on the boat for a few guests and observers; four I think would be ok. She’s a working boat, not a pleasure cruiser,” Andy explained. That sent the whole lot of them excitedly talking among themselves.
Kalai was about to lean in to talk to Mama Aftasia, but Andy caught her attention first. “I don’t suppose you’d want to go back out on the water, given you just got back from pleasure-boating-”
Kalai’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest. “I wouldn’t miss it for my own colony planet!”
--------------------
Kalai stood on the pier, bundled in her thermal sailor’s coat. It was still dark and the wind blew from the north in a cold little morning breeze. Kalai took a deep breath and reveled in the smell of the fresh sea air. The soft chattering of Mama Sakalbi’s teeth broke the silence. “It’s a bit chillier than it said it was going to be.”
“The water always does that. It’s never as warm as the lubbers say it’ll be,” Papa spoke as he handed her back her thermos of hot chocolate.
Papa stood next to Kalai and nudged her with his elbow. Even in the dark, Kalai could see him smile up at her and jerk his head at the shivering Erbian. He was also wearing a thermal sailor’s coat, and his hands were stuffed in his pockets to keep them warm, just like Kalai’s. “Landswoman,” he whispered to her and the two of them shared a knowing smile. It was strange, but welcome when she'd told Papa about her upcoming day fishing with Andy, and he’d politely requested to join them. Papa Rhaxiid had graciously given his spot up to accommodate her birth father. Narny was all for it until Andy had explained what they were going to do, but then surrendered his challenge to the fourth guest space, not wanting to go anywhere NEAR anything that could see him come face to face with a Lion’s Mane Jelly. Sitry had done a happy little dance when she found out, but only yesterday had come down with Thistle Fever, and was bundled off to bed by her parents. It left Kalai, Mama Sakalbi, and Papa to accompany Andy on his fishing trip.
The water brushed against the shore behind them quietly. In the gloom, Kalai could just barely make out the outline of the nearest island mountain, but only because the stars had disappeared behind it. It was almost four in the morning, but Kalai had managed a catnap on the shuttle to the empty little lot that had been the boat launch. Aside from the water, the world was silent. Even the breeze made almost no noise and a sense of peace surrounded them. Everything was so calm, Kalai felt like she didn’t have a care in the world.
In the distance, a low rumbling sound of a motor rose from being almost imperceptible to a rolling drum of thunder. From around the point, two green floating lights sped through the darkness, and a spotlight turned on. The beam of light moved jerkily until it came to rest on the pier where they were standing and Kalai started waving her arms. Sakalbi’s omnipad rang, and Andy’s voice shouted over the speaker and the background noise for them to shine a light on the edge of the pier to help him park the boat.
Kalai and Papa moved closer and turned their omnipad flashlights on and waved them as the boat swung gracefully around and glided in alongside them. Kalai caught the rope that flew over the railing of the boat and she heard more than saw Andy moving around on the deck as she tied off on one of the mooring cleats. Several lights clicked on and the deck was bathed in light enough for Kalai to get a clear view of the boat they’d be spending the day on.
Andy hadn’t lied. Kalai saw that this little vessel was a working boat with no frills at all. When he’d told her they’d be going fishing, she’d envisioned something like the charter boat papa had taken her on out of Nantucket. Sporty, fast with a nod to comfort and function. This was not that at all. A giant wheel as wide as Kalai’s outstretched arms that looked like a sideways spool of thread was secured to the deck amidships and dominated the deckspace. Wrapped around it was a fluorescent green tangle with a line of oblong white and yellow corks and rope. There was a covered hatchway sitting behind the drum in front of the raised step to the enclosed cabin. Two large windows let the light out to two children’s bunks, a little table with a booth seat and a raised captain’s chair in front of the helm and engine controls. Andy shut down the engine and that peaceful stillness returned.
“Oway there!” Kalai called, “ship oway! Request permission to come aboard.” Kalai gave the traditional greeting of a Shil’vati sailor.
“Permission granted! Anyone need a stepstool?” Andy finally stepped into the light and Kalai got a look at him. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and the same bright orange coveralls she’d seen the fishmongers wearing on their date.
“I wouldn’t mind a hand, Mr. Shelokset.” Papa He’osforos braced a foot on the railing of the boat and Andy pulled him up.
“Just call me Andy, Doc, and welcome aboard. Jackie should be along any minute now with the day’s groceries, and the cabin’s out of the cold. You can get yourself set wherever you find comfortable.” Papa nodded and disappeared around the other side of the wheel moving towards the bow.
Kalai helped Mama Sakalbi into the boat next, and she quickly ducked into the cabin that took up the entire stern section save for a little ledge that ran along the outside. Andy gripped Kalai’s hand and she smiled as he pulled her deftly aboard. The boat rocked a little on its mooring, and Kalai almost fell into Andy, who wordlessly put his arms around her waist to catch her as she lost her balance. She flailed for a moment before she steadied herself against him.
“Gotcha,” Andy smiled, and Kalai could see him flush almost as much as she could feel herself doing as their noses almost touched. Those big dark brown eyes surrounded by white orbs drew her in and she felt she could lose herself in them. Kalai started as Andy danced her around him and moved her towards the cabin door.
“It might be a little cramped for you in there, but the Mary Jean wasn’t built for pleasure boating, she’s a working girl. Sit tight, I gotta check a few things in the back.” Andy patted the railing affectionately before he hopped up and scooted along the outside of the cabin towards the stern. Kalai couldn’t help the little longing groan that came out as he left her there on the little tiny quarterdeck. Her heart was hammering in her chest as half formed fantasies danced at the edges of her mind.
“I saw that, little minnow.” Papa’s voice was soft, but his tone and the sudden broken silence nearly gave her a heart attack.
Kalai could only stammer as her father stared at her with a cocked eyebrow. A thump from the cabin window behind saw an amused Mama Sakalbi daintily sipping at her thermos with her ears twitched forward in interest, staring out at her. “Papa I… he-”
Papa moved carefully around the covered hatchway to stand next to her, leaning back against the cabin window and heaved a sigh. “I must say I’m surprised. This lovely man’s got good clean lines and is very well cared for. It speaks well of his Skipper.”
It took a full minute for Kalai’s brain to process that he was talking about the boat and not Andy. “And the way Andy brought him in smooth in near complete darkness? It gives me confidence in his abilities.”
Kalai breathed a silent sigh of relief and exasperation. Although she was happy to be spending more time with her father, bringing him on what she’d hoped would be a sailing date wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind for ‘family time’. He wants me to find a nice young man and spend time with him on a boat, but the first chance I get Papa decides to clam-jam me.
From up on shore, the sound and lights of a large human vehicle screeching to a halt heralded the last of their party to arrive. Kalai heard the clomping footsteps coming down the pier and moved to the railing to lend a hand.
“Ahoy Mary Jean! Raggedy Andy, you there?” Kalai stared with wide eyed surprise to see a human female, loaded down with plastic bags and sporting two human weapons on her shoulder. The two of them locked eyes, and while Kalai didn’t understand everything the girl shouted in surprise, she had caught and understood the phrase, “What the fuck?”
“Easy now, they’re my guests, and the one inside is the boss!” Andy appeared on the pier instantly before either Kalai or the woman could react further.
“Ya didn’t tell me we were having pur-” The woman glared at Kalai and her father. She had switched to Vatikre thankfully, but her tone was hostile as she dropped everything but her weapons. “I mean, hwun’eetums, aboard. A gal could get the wrong idea pretty quick in the dark when there’s no warning.”
“Knock it off Jackie. Let’s get the grub aboard and shove off.” Andy picked up some of the bags and took the guns as Kalai offered a helping hand over the railing. “Oh, Kalai, this is Jackie. Jackie? Kalai. That’s her dad over there, Doc He’osforos. He saw and treated Kay Tee a few years back.” Andy jerked his head towards the direction of Kalai’s father as she held out a hand to the human girl. On a quick inspection, she appeared to be about the same age as her and Andy. She had a round face and was about as dark complected as Andy was. She was shorter, only a few inches taller than Papa, but when Jackie grabbed Kalai’s hand to hop up onto the rail, she could feel the strength and the compact muscle hidden by the baggy sweatshirt and pants.
“Wait a minute, did you say Mini-Me over there saw Kay Tee? You’re fuckin’ with me!” Jackie stumbled a bit as she hopped down onto the deck with a loud thunk and advanced on Papa who shrank away at her advance. “You saw li’l Kay Tee? Where the fuck is he? Is he alright? Is he still fighting the good fight?”
“Last I saw, yes, he was ‘fighting the good fight.’” Papa looked over at Andy with a slightly worried expression. Andy smacked the girl in the back of the head, causing her to flinch and she opened the door to the cabin for Andy to go inside.
Jackie rubbed the back of her head and laughed. “Well that’s a little bit of alright, innit? Maybe today’s gonna be a good day after all!”
“Jackie, get suited up and get on the bow. I need a good pair of eyes on the roller horns,” Kalai heard Andy shout from the cabin, followed by a whole lot of thumping and banging from cabinets being opened and closed.
“You got it, ol’ man. We going to your place or mine?” Jackie sidestepped in and opened a tiny little closet and pulled out a set of rain gear that was identical to what Andy was wearing. Kalai collected herself and stood in the doorway next to her father as they both leaned in.
“Mine; Chuck said the Yaw’much are running from the South. We’ll do a set nor’west of Lummi in the Rosario and see if we can get some Fraser Kings,” Andy replied as he turned the engine back on and the vessel roared to life.
“Chuck? Isn’t that one of your cousins? I didn’t know he could keep track of the movements of Salmon, may I ask how he does it?” Mama Sakalbi perked up as she pulled a set of earplugs out of a pocket and inserted them.
Andy prevaricated a bit, looking from Jackie back to Sakalbi then to Kalai and Papa. “I’d rather not answer that-”
“Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law!”
Jackie began singing a human song, and Andy threw her the dirtiest of looks as she finished getting into the orange coveralls. Mama Sakalbi sputtered as Andy shrugged apologetically.
“Make a hole!” Jackie called, and she and Andy came back out as Kalai and Papa made room for them. Andy hopped back onto the dock to cast off while Papa ducked into the cabin.
“Can I help?” Kalai offered as Andy shoved the vessel off and leapt the gap over the black water below.
“You want to be useful? Come forward! I could use an extra set of eyes!” Jackie called back, and Kalai felt a slap on her shoulder from the boisterous human woman.
------------------
Andy stood at the helm, watching Jackie and Kalai as he leaned to get a better view of them past the Net drum. The bow was lifting up again, and the gentle little swells became like speed bumps, jostling them up and down in a predictable bouncing rhythm.
“Are you sure you couldn’t slow down, Andy? It’s a bit rough, don’t you think?” Sakalbi was hanging on to the table and her thermos with a worried expression on her face.
“I could, but we’ll miss the morning set. We want to bomb out the buoy right when the tide changes. If we’re lucky, then we’ll get around seventy or eighty by slack tide this afternoon and call it a day.”
“How do you know where to fish?” Dr. He’osforos was making a good show of standing and maintaining his balance with his hand on the booth.
“Well, there’s two ways you know. The first is you fish the spots your family’s fished since time began. Every family has about two or three different secret spots that we know there’s fish in, and we’re pretty defensive about their locations. The second is by smell. Right now it’s the tail end of the King season, and you can smell them in the water.” Andy turned and saw the incredulity etched on the faces of the two aliens.
“No, I’m serious! King Salmon slime is really pungent, and you can smell them when they’re close to the surface. We get to the fishing spot and take a deep whiff. If we smell them, we’ll set the nets.” Andy laughed at the disbelief on their faces as the GPS on his omnipad beeped and he turned to sail around the last buoy and head for the fishing ground.
“I’ve never noticed that in any of the Kings we’ve raised-”
Andy suppressed a laugh as they caught a larger swell as they left the lee of Lummi Island. Andy reveled in the feeling of weightlessness as the deck rose up and fell out from underneath their feet, leaving everyone suspended for a moment in midair before falling back down. A massive spray of water rose and washed over the deck, drenching Kalai and Jackie, who were still forward. “Cloned and farmed Kings don’t have that same smell. Wild ones smell and taste different, I’m telling you!” Andy pulled back slightly on the throttle as they climbed the next swell. “Brace!” he called as they climbed and fell once again.
There was a look of fear on Sakalbi’s face as she gripped the table for dear life, but to Andy’s surprise, the Doctor looked completely unfazed, and was handling the rise and fall of the deck like an old salt. “You look like you’ve done this before, Doc.”
“I’ve done a stint or two at sea before,” he spoke, in the same tone Andy would have used when trying not to sound too confident, and Andy smiled.
“Kalai keeps talking about loving the sea and sailing. Did you teach her to sail?”
“Yes, me and her mothers. When they were home, we would take the family yacht out in the Vaascon Straits and sail around the Occidiens. Kalai practically spent all her early childhood on a sailboat.”
“And almost every waking moment on one in Junior Academy. I swear you couldn’t dig her out with a trowel when she wanted to go sailing,” Sakalbi managed to add in a word as the boat slowed, and the dramatic rise and fall of the deck slowed with it.
“What about you, Mr. Shelokset, did your father teach you to sail too?”
“I was too young before he passed. My Great Uncle Willy taught me after I came home, and Grandma took me out to the family fishing sites when she wasn’t busy with the Council. For the first two or three years after they let us come home, fishing was the only way to feed our families, but the Militia and the Cambrians would try and sink our boats or arrest us whenever we tried to go out.”
“And that’s why you’re so good at maneuvering your vessel in the dark with no instruments?” Mrs. Vaida had folded her arms, and her voice twinged with that imperious tone she’d had when they’d first met.
Andy huffed a dry laugh. “I did what I had to for me and my people and to survive, Ma’am. I don’t like breaking the law or dodging lasers and gunfire, but there’s a lot of poor families that need to eat.”
The GPS beeped, and Andy gave Mrs. Vaida a slightly defiant look to counter her furrowed brow. “We’re here,” he said as he threw the engine in neutral and opened the cabin door.
Andy walked out and took a deep breath, but all he could smell was the net and the exhaust from the engine. “HEY JACKIE! WE SMELL MONEY?” Andy yelled out as he took stock of the sky. The first signs of sunrise were chasing all but the morning stars away and a light fog was rolling in from the north.
“FUCK YEAH I CAN SMELL ‘EM, ANDY! LET’S BOMB OUT AND GET BREAKFAST GOING!” Jackie looked slightly manic as she smiled brightly. Kalai, on the other hand, looked wet and miserable as she shivered, arms wrapped around herself. Andy gave his cousin a disgusted look as he pieced together what had happened. Every deckhand learned when to duck behind the raised bow and the roller horns that guided the nets so as not to get a faceful of spray when cutting through a swell. It was also a classic hazing trick for Senior Deckhands to let Junior Deckhands learn this the hard way.
Andy moved forward to stand in front of the two of them. Kalai was trying to squeeze her coat dry, but Andy knew it wouldn’t do much good until the sun came out. Jackie at least had the sense to look a little remorseful. “Kalai, why don’t you go sit in the cabin and get out of that wet coat. It’s cold enough out here even for us-”
“No way, Andy. Junior deckhand Kally here wants to impress you and get her dainty soft hands dirty! She’s been bragging about being a sailorwoman and wants to learn to fish ‘your way!” Jackie gave Kalai’s shoulder a wet slap as the poor alien woman went blue. Out of cold or embarrassment, Andy couldn’t tell.
All Andy could do was shake his head and huff. “Ok then! Secure the buoy and sling on my mark. I’ll get us in position!” Andy couldn’t help but chuckle as he heard Jackie start ordering Kalai about. Andy went back into the cabin and looked in the closet/bathroom to see if there was anything hanging up that he could give Kalai. There was only the one rain slicker and a few of Andy’s old sweaters from when he was a lot smaller. Well, looks like I’ll just be cold today. He quickly stripped out of his sweatshirt and grabbed the slicker before throwing a switch on the main control. Dr. He’osforos and Mrs. Vaida threw him quizzical looks as he went back outside wearing less than when he came in. He was down to a sleeveless shirt and his coveralls, and the morning breeze cut right through him and he braced his jaw to keep it from chattering.
“We’re ready to go- Andy, why are you practically naked from the waist up?” Kalai was staring wide eyed at him as he approached her and Jackie was on the bow. Jackie had everything ready; the buoy line was strung through the horns and ready to toss out. A giant orange and blue beach ball sized float hung at the end of the line to mark the end and make it easier to pick up later.
“Trade me your coat for these. If Jackie’s putting you to work, you’ll need these to keep warm.”
“I’m alright, I can-”
“I’m the Skipper of this boat, and I’m ordering you to take off that wet coat and put these on; and Jackie?” Andy gave his cousin a long and piercing look. “Give her the elbow gloves, not the halfsies.”
The scoff and the muttered Salishian profanities meant he’d read the next prank she’d had in mind right. She was planning on giving her the cloth gloves with only the palms and fingers coated in rubber. While perfectly fine for fishing, Andy knew they tended to get soaked through very quickly and did nothing to keep jellyfish stingers and fish slime off your hands. Kalai sputtered for a moment before she complied gratefully and she accepted the dry clothes and rain slicker.
Andy saw Jackie give him a strange look before looking back at Kalai, but he paid it no mind. He walked back to the controls on the drum and switched off the hydraulics, placing the mechanism in neutral. “SLING IT!” Andy called as he took the small jerry rigged steering wheel and threw the boat in reverse. Kalai jumped as the line started unspooling the net into the water at a rapid pace.
Andy set an ‘S’ bend in the quarter mile long net, zigzagging backwards until they came to the end of the line. Andy stopped the boat as Jackie tied off the other large buoy and tossed it over the side, unstringing the cork-line from the roller horns in the process. He pulled hard over and put a bit of distance from the net before shutting the engine down. The line of white and yellow corks marking the net bobbed lazily with the swells as silence settled over the water again. The waves rocked the boat gently as Andy found his sea legs again.
“Alright, I’ll get breakfast going. Jackie, Kalai? Post the watch for seals,” Andy called as he walked back into the cabin to fire up the tiny little gas stove.
Sakalbi, having found the confidence to stand at last, poked her head out of the cabin and stood on by the hatch to the fish hold. “Seals? Why would you need to watch for seals?”
Andy grit his teeth and looked over from where he was cracking open and scrambling eggs. “They’re the spawn of Satan and we hate their guts!” Andy bit out. Jackie came back and pulled the two shotguns and a pair of binoculars from the closet. Andy reached over to a side cabinet and pulled out a box of shells for them. Both his boss and the Doctor’s eyes got wide.
“Seals are the enemy of our blood. Were it not for the invasion, our unending war against these vermin would continue to this day!” Jackie growled as she loaded one for herself and rested the other on Andy’s seat at the helm.
The look of growing horror on Sakalbi’s face towards their facetious declarations caused Andy to chuckle a bit, before launching into an explanation. “We’re not fans of the species because they’ll wait until a fish gets caught in the net and then they’ll steal it, costing us a fish AND ripping a big hole in our nets that we then have to take time to repair. We use the shotguns and buckshot to give them a nice welt and convince them not to hang around, because they’ll wait up on the surface and watch the buoys, just like us. A single seal can and will take between five and ten fish. The worst is when they start getting full, they’ll just bite out the bellies of a salmon in the net. We can’t really do anything with that fish once it’s ‘seal-bit’. So yes, as fishermen, we hate them.”
“Learned opportunism in apex predators as a response to human activity… I think I’ll go see this behavior for myself!” Sakalbi practically rushed out the door towards the bow where Jackie was sitting on the roller horns explaining to Kalai how to spot the bastards, leaving Andy alone in the cabin with the Doctor while he cooked breakfast for them all.
Dr. He’osforos sat down heavily in the booth and pulled out his omnipad. “I’ve had a word with my friend in the Interior. She’s pulled the warrant for your brother, and I’ve withdrawn the charges I filed.”
Andy froze and turned around slowly. The only sound was the sizzle and pop of the eggs and chorizo that he’d added to them in the skillet. “You mean… it’s done? He can come home?” A wave of light headed euphoria swept over Andy and he swayed with the gentle rocking of the boat. “I will pay you back, Doc-”
The doctor held up his hand and stopped Andy. “We’ll call it even, but there’s something… I was able to get my hands on this,” Andy watched as the doctor swiped something towards his omnipad and it dinged. “What is it if I may-”
“Are you really asking an Indian to tell you a story? Because it’s going to be a long one if you are.” “I’m Sevastutavan, young man; we invented long stories.”
Andy froze and stared at the screen of his omnipad. The Vatikre was heavily accented, and Andy had a bit of trouble with the unfamiliar accent, but centered in the frame in a hospital room, sitting in a wheelchair, was a Salishian boy. Andy blinked in surprise as he stared at the screen. “Is that-”
“I am Ikw’is’hi’ehlah, and this bearer is… of the Orca Clan Sheloksets. I drove our Haida enemies onto the rocks and took many heads when they attacked our winter village on Orcas Island. I signed the Treaty with the Great White Father and I fought against the slavers of the south-”
Andy wanted to grab the omnipad but the smell of overcooking eggs brought his attention back to breakfast and Andy stirred and scrapped the food quickly, trying to save it.
“I asked her for any materials she could give me on your brother. Pictures, recordings, anything. This is what she gave me. It's the last known recording of your brother during an interrogation conducted by a Navy Commissar prior to his escape. It seems he made friends with a Pod of Deaths Head Commandos. Quite a bit of the recording has been redacted, but… there are portions of it where he talks about his family and his history. I thought you might like to have it.”
Andy hurriedly pulled out paper plates and a slice of bread for everyone and scooped a heaping portion of the chorizo eggs onto them. He handed the doctor his before leaning out the cabin door. “Slop’s on, come and get it!”
Andy sat down after moving the shotgun out of the way and started the video over again as the three women came back to grab their plates and lost himself watching his brother start telling his story.
“What’s that?” Andy heard Kalai ask over his shoulder, and he paused the video.
“That’s my brother! That’s Kay Tee!”
“Holy shit, what?” Jackie nearly shoved Kalai into Andy as she jammed her bread slice down her gullet and crowded in to see the screen.
Andy started the video over a second time and they watched in silence. “God, that brings back memories. Back when mom was still alive and before we broke up the warband. I can’t believe that slippery little punk ghosted a pod of Commandos for two fucking years! Holy shit, that’s badass!”
Before Andy could say anything, Sakalbi started coughing and brought the binoculars up. “Uh, Andy? Jackie? What do we do about sharks?”
Jackie looked at Andy in confusion. “Sharks? There’s nothing but Dogs around here.”
“Well those are shark fins and they’re charging the net!” Sakalbi pointed and Andy looked up to see dorsal fins charging the center of the net.
Andy looked at Jackie and spoke the same words in tandem, “Oh shit!”
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To be posted 6/4/23
2023.05.27 23:15 Mortimer_Whimsiwick World Hunger Games: 17th Hunger Games: Pregames
The parade was about to commence and all of the tributes gathered in the holding tunnel to prepare themselves. The District 6 entourage arrived at their chariot on time and walked down the tunnel. Jack was surveying the competition and felt intimidated by the career tributes up front. The side eye given by Andrei (2) and the vacant, empty stare of Vista (3) certainly didn’t help matters. He complained about the nut costume looking similar to Olivine (1)’s ballerina costume while Cat commented on the tightness of her bolt costume. Phoebe assured them that they were more than the costumes and just had to deal with them. She added that if the costumes are poorly received, that would be all the comeuppance Sasha needed.
Thankfully, Sasha wasn’t present, having passed out drunk an hour ago. Morrana met them at the chariot and advised them to play into the absurdity of their costumes. Cat said she had some ideas and asked what Jack thought. Jack wasn’t listening as he was watching some more tributes enter the tunnel. He shuddered at the sheer size of Wolvthorne (7) and chuckled watching Wren (5) slap her district partner Terry (5) and get reprimanded by her mentor Ashley Chen (victor of the 13th Hunger Games). However, he was perplexed by the arrival of the District 4 tributes coming from the opposite direction. Cat snapped him back to reality and asked what was going on. He pointed towards the District 4 tributes and swore one of them looked familiar.
Gill led his mentees down the tunnel to their chariot. Pearl was overwhelmed by the mix of emotions displayed on the tributes’ faces. She felt sorry for little Logan (11), who was struggling to hold it together. She glanced at the tall John (9), who yelled “What are you looking at!” at her. Mortimer, who was ignoring everyone at that point, asked if he had a problem. The two were about to butt heads, but Gill and Tris Plummer (victor of the 8th Hunger Games) pulled the two apart. The three arrived at their chariot and reunited with Minerva. She asked the two if they were ready to which both said yes. In a sudden change of character, Mortimer thanked Minerva for the tattoo work, describing her new addition as “worthy of the Kraken”. Pearl asked if she could get a sneak peek before the show to which Mortimer obliged. When he opened his shirt, he happened to look up behind him and spot Wolvthorne (7) giving Mortimer a hard stare. He didn’t hear Pearl and Gill’s compliments to the stylist as he returned the stare.
Gill snapped him out of it, reminding him not to make enemies too early. Mortimer simply pointed him out, asking his mentor if he looked like the Wharf Village troublemaker Adrian Carrack if he was buff. Gill squinted and annoyedly said, “Wow. The resemblance is uncanny.” Pearl said she lived in the Anchor Square, but claimed the name sounded familiar. Gill explained he was one of the bad apples he mentioned earlier. He was described as a tall muscular ginger boy with freckles and three front teeth missing. Mortimer commented how he would occasionally steal from the more affluent families as well as his boat and constantly hit on his girlfriend while also giving himself credit for two of the missing teeth. Pearl recalled Adrian’s identity, claiming to have seen him skulking around both the Slippery Shell and The Brine, guessing that’s how Gill knew of him. Mortimer commented how he wouldn’t mind killing Lionel (1) in the games as well, but Gill warned him not to antagonise him during training.
The parade finally began and the tributes’ chariots rolled out. Surprisingly, the District 1 sported elegant ballroom costumes Ulysses Blanco himself considered mediocre, but gave props for Olivine and Lionel (1) trying to sell it. He was greatly impressed with the District 3 costumes, which resembled smartphones but considered the despondency of the tributes’ faces a buzzkill, commenting on Shoya (3)’s flimsy hand waving. When District 4 was revealed to the world, Pearl and Mortimer stood proud and strong as the audience ate up their outfits. Pearl waved her hand and flipped her hair around, wowing the audience with her grace. Mortimer twirled his fake trident in the air and tipped his crown to the ladies in the audience. Suddenly, Mortimer ripped his shirt off, exposing the newly polished Kraken tattoo with a new open treasure chest tattoo on his chest with the tentacles attached as if holding it. The crowd went wild for the art etched on his skin, even more so when Pearl leaned against him and pointed at the Kraken.
Soon enough, the District 6 chariot rolled out and reception towards Cat and Jack’s costumes were mixed at best. At first, Cat and Jack simply smiled and waved but weren’t receiving much love. Suddenly, Cat asked Jack to trust her and to get on his shoulders. Jack hesitantly relented and allowed her to climb on. The audience were confused at first, but noticed the bolt costume perfectly lined up with the nut costume as if it was being inserted in the other. Jermaine Blanco admitted they utilised their painfully mediocre costumes well. However, at the end of the parade, the title of Blanco Fashion Magazine’s Best Dressed was awarded to District 8 for their bright and colourful mix and match outfits.
In the District 4 apartment, Minerva felt slightly dejected by her loss but was reassured by Pearl that the audience still enjoyed her work. Gill poured her a drink and ordered some Capital cake. Mortimer thanked Minerva for the improved look of his tattoo, wishing his girlfriend Meridia thought of it sooner. He caught himself after blurting this out. Everyone had confused looks on their faces. Pearl deduced Meridia was the one who drew the initial tattoo. Mortimer’s silence confirmed this, Gill exclaiming, “I knew it!” Mortimer felt embarrassed and stormed off to his room, Minerva yelling that she had good steady hands. Pearl asked Gill how her partner could ever nab a girl with his sullen and abrasive attitude. Gill knelt down and explained that Meridia is the only girl who was kind to him and only one he let in. Gill further explained that she assisted in taking care of Mortimer’s father and usually spent time with him after work hours, despite her father’s protests. Before Pearl could ask more questions, the Capital cake arrived. Pearl walked to Mortimer’s door and apologized for putting him on the spot, asking him to come and join them. After several minutes, he obliged.
Two stories above them, the District 6 entourage returned to see a disheveled Sasha standing in the middle of the room. She blamed Morrana and Phoebe for the near disastrous parade performance. Jack insisted this was all her fault, accusing her of laziness while Cat simply stood with her fists balled up. Sasha raised her hand, but Cat was quicker and slapped Sasha clean across the face. Cat yelled at Sasha, going into detail of how much at fault she was over the preceding events, citing Jack’s laziness point and bringing up her alcoholism. She praised Morrana for stepping up to care for them, give them advice, and make them feel at home. All this while Phoebe watched on with a proud smile on her face. Cat finished it all off by declaring they will be more than happy to complain about her any chance they got. Sasha didn’t dare to try again as Phoebe and Jack stepped closer to Cat. Sasha snatched a whiskey bottle and left the room, crying “Good riddance you little brats!”
Everyone applauded Cat’s bravery and Phoebe ordered some room service. Cat and Jack sat down on the couch with some fruit punch and discussed the parade. Jack claimed to have seen the District 4 male before, during the fated smuggling operation he was arrested for. Cat asked if he thought the boy recognized him, but Jack was unsure. He didn’t want an alliance with him, claiming he appeared untrustworthy. Cat shrugged and pointed out he was able bodied and would be a more viable option compared to Districts 1 & 2. She suggested they approach and talk to them during training after they watch them for a bit. Jack hesitantly agreed. With a new plan in order, everyone in the District 6 apartment relaxed and enjoyed the remainder of the day.
The next morning, all of the tributes dragged themselves out of bed to prepare for their training session. There was an incident at the penthouse apartment when Jassy (12) tripped over her partner Neutron (12) and slammed her head on the floor. Her mentor Andrew “Corpse” Beckford (victor of the 10th Hunger Games) put a bandage on her head and gave her aspirin. As soon as everyone gathered in the training room, Training Master Feldman gave the routine rundown and twirled his water cannon. All of the mentors gathered in the mentors lounge at the corner of the room, conversing with each other. When he was listing reasons for him to use it, he noticed Horace (10) concealing a middle finger directed towards him. Feldman sprayed him and warned all tributes of offending him. He eventually dismissed the tributes.
Jack and Cat both gravitated towards the survival station and began working together in the shelter building section. The two spent the first hour crafting a tent while simultaneously surveying their surroundings. A half hour before lunchtime, they were quizzing themselves in the plant identification section. Cat was spying on Carnelia (11), who had successfully started a fire, taking in her technique. She had to avert her eyes as soon as the muscular Laurel (7) began staring her down from the second fire station. She asked Jack if he found any potential allies, claiming District 7 was off the table after Laurel’s disapproval of her watching the same tribute. Jack claimed he had only been watching the District 4 male, finally learning his name to be Mortimer. He explained he had now recognized him as part of the District 4 crew who had smuggled Tobias Stephens and some warmweed into their district. Cat asked if he did anything noteworthy, but Jack shook his head saying he was quiet and strangely the only one not immediately putting his hands on the contraband. Cat asked where he was, volunteering to talk to him. Jack pointed at the chemistry station, where he was spotted using a dropper of glowing green liquid on a petri dish. Cat admitted to being surprised by someone as big as him spending time in that particular station.
Jack asked if her therapy skills told her anything about the other tributes. Cat made only two observations: Ryetta (9) was most likely the weakest tribute and Wolvthorne (7) was arguably the most dangerous. Jack asked how they would find allies to combat him. Cat suggested she talk to Mortimer. Jack objected at first, but Cat pointed out how he must be skilled at chemistry, otherwise he wouldn’t be there at the station. She added that from a therapeutic standpoint, she found him fascinating and difficult to read. Jack relented and also made clear his intentions to practice camouflage. She told him to look after himself and then walked over to Mortimer. Jack stayed put for a few more minutes before transitioning to the camouflage station. He first attempted a tree background and had trouble with the intricate details of the bark. He tried a few more times and slammed his fists in the wall in frustration. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see Ryetta (9). She offered to show him some tricks to which he begrudgingly accepted. She worked with him until he was able to successfully blend in with the tree.
The first station Pearl set her roots in was the aquatic station. She started off by swimming laps, enjoying the solitude of being the only tribute there. While she was timing her breaths, Andrei (2) walked into the station and slipped into the pool. Pearl didn’t notice his presence at first, but was able to pick up his splashes as he freestyled towards her. Pearl didn’t want to be alone in the station with a career, so she climbed out of the pool and discretely went to the craft table to practice fishing lures. As she fashioned a makeshift fishing pole, she watched Andrei as he struggled to keep form. He hit his head on the pool’s tiled wall while doing the backstroke. Pearl involuntarily giggled to herself, but unfortunately for her, Andrei heard her. He hopped out of the pool and marched towards her, asking if anything was funny. She muttered out a meek apology before trying to leave. He followed her at first, but was dissuaded when he noticed Feldman watching from the mentors lounge with his water cannon visible. Andrei backed off while Pearl retreated to the plant identification simulator. Coincidentally, she arrived seconds after Jack had left, so she had the entire station to herself. She excelled at the memory simulation for an hour, but was unable to surpass Carnelia (11)’s high score. During lunch break, she visited Gill and began to converse with him about training. Gill told her she was off to a good start, but urged her to choose a weapon to try. Pearl didn’t feel safe going to any weapon station with the careers nearby, notably Andrei. She decided to find Mortimer and ask him to accompany her. Gill said it was a good idea. He commented on how strange it was that he hadn’t approached the weapons station either.
Mortimer’s day was relatively uneventful. He started off in the newly implemented yoga studio doing some stretches on the mat. He paid no heed to the confused looks of some of the tributes and mentors but was surprised and relieved to have Peggy (8) join him in the studio. She tried asking for an alliance, but he silently rebuffed her. After a relaxing stretching routine, Mortimer made his way to the chemistry station. He spent the next few hours at this station, brewing some experimental potions. He also used his time analyzing Olivine (1) and Nikita (2), both of whom were in the archery station. When Wolvthorne (7) entered the axe throwing station, Mortimer diverted his scanning eyes to him. He watched his masterful target practice all the while inching his way closer to his first successful healing potion. Suddenly, he heard, “Who are you looking at?” Mortimer nearly dropped his flask and looked up to see Cat standing on the other side of the table. Embarrassed and annoyed by the surprise, he asked what she wanted. Cat guessed he was watching Wolvthorne, claiming to not blame him as she considered him the greatest threat as well. Mortimer was confused by the out of left field accurate assumption and told her to mind her own business. Cat apologised and made her intentions clear to him. She asked for an alliance with her and Jack, commenting how he had seen him before. Mortimer found Jack in the corner of the camouflage station and stared back down at his work. He guessed he told her about the “exchange program” the two districts had. Cat confirmed this. She also relayed Jack’s description of his demeanour and hesitance to gorge on warmweed. Mortimer simply stated he wasn’t a junkie. Cat defended herself, “I didn’t say that. I mean, based on the station you’re in, I assume you know how to separate the SHC and the TBA.” Mortimer stared at her with wide eyes, asking how she knew that. Cat introduced herself and said she was a therapist working under Phoebe’s tutelage. She asked if they could have an alliance, arguing that they could be a great team against Wolvthorne and their careers. Mortimer was surprised for a moment, but refused the offer, claiming that trusting people in a death game was for fools. Cat put her hands up and apologized for bothering him and to find her if he changed his mind. Before she left, she said, “By the way, I recommend boiling the moldroot before mixing it with the plasma.”
Mortimer continued his attempts at a healing potion, each time met with failure. He sat annoyed with himself for a few moments. He then recalled Cat’s suggestion and decided to try it. He was surprised to see the finished potion successfully clear the training dummy’s discolored skin. He sat in disbelief for nearly an hour when Pearl walked up to him. She came to check on him, asking what he learned. Mortimer showcased his successful healing potion, choosing to neglect Cat’s recommendation. Pearl asked if he could accompany her to the weapons station because she wanted to practice a weapon and didn’t feel comfortable going by herself. Mortimer groaned and relented, replying how he needed to pick up the trident anyway. The two spent the remainder of the training session in the trident section, with Mortimer giving Pearl some pointers on the proper swing. He became aware of Cat entering the sword station next door and waving to him. He ignored her and continued to instruct Pearl. The two sparred with each other after the proper stance was established. It took until the final five minutes of training day before Pearl was able to nab her first win.
The next day, the training assessments began. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm cut off the power as Lionel (1) entered the assessment room. The Capital’s finest technicians were in a scramble to fix the power while Lionel proceeded to showcase his swordsmanship. The fix was predicted to take longer than expected, so Head Gamemaker Grimstone was ordered to commence with the assessments as planned and simply have the activities and scores be announced later on. It wasn’t until three hours before the tribute interviews that all of the scores were announced. The highest score was 11, which was awarded to Wolvthorne (7) for his deadly axing skills and brute strength. Lionel (1) and Nikita (2) both scored 10 for their swordsmanship and archery skills respectively. Mortimer scored a 10 as well for his trident skills and his unexpected chemical gifts. Pearl nabbed a 5 for her lackluster attempts at the trident, but impressive underwater breath holding time. Jack scored a 6 for his camouflage skills and decent shelter construction. Cat surprised the gamemakers by scoring a 7 for her impressive campsite construction and decent 7/13 sword duel score.
Back in the District 4 apartment, Gill Henderson congratulated Mortimer for his high score, making him a Powerful Pina Paradise. Pearl felt dejected over her low score, but Gill assured her that what mattered is that she tried her best. He also disclosed that Dolan (D4 tribute of the 12th Hunger Games) had a lower score of 3. The three began discussing the interviews and Gill asked them what they would say. Pearl suggested she disclose some waitress stories and maybe divulge some behind the counter secrets. Gill appeared satisfied by this answer, but reminded her to continue playing into her cuteness like at Darius Dock. Mortimer begrudgingly asked if sob stories were really necessary, admitting his life wasn’t as interesting. Gill argued that it was interesting, reminding him of his smuggling pastime. He warned him that both hosts are provided information by the Capital’s top journalists and peacekeepers. Mortimer said, “So, my personal life will no longer be personal.” Gill sadly confirmed and suggested he use his life story to his advantage and lean into the fact he was caught smuggling. Mortimer admitted how as much as he didn’t want to, he had no choice as he knew the importance of sponsors. He dismissed himself to his room to change. A stunned Gill asked Pearl why the sudden change in character. Pearl recalled spotting Cat talking to him, but was too far away to hear their conversation.
Phoebe was happy her tributes scored very well for her district and ordered Capital cake for them. Jack felt relieved for his 6, but expressed how nervous he was for the interview. Phoebe did remind them this was their last chance to make an impression before the arena. Jack complained how easy it would be for Cat as she had a bounty of therapy stories to pull from. Cat told him to not sell himself too short as he did have his girlfriend to talk about. Jack felt better hearing this. He changed the subject, asking if she convinced Mortimer of an alliance. Cat said he rejected the offer but had a strong feeling he would reconsider. When asked to elaborate, Cat explained how she corrected his healing potion and how it led him to a 10. She theorized that behind the standoffish persona was a smart and compassionate man who needed help in more ways than one. Phoebe patted her on the back, claiming to have taught her well. Jack cautiously hoped she was right as he wasn’t planning on confronting the careers or Wolvthorne (7) by himself. Cat jokingly responded, “When all else fails, just do what Oslo did. There will be no lions to stop you.”
The three ate a light dinner before Morrana arrived with their new outfits. She told them the great news of her promotion to Hunger Games designer after Sasha’s suspension from the Hunger Games fashion industry after drunkenly admitting to neglecting her duties. The four celebrated with some fruity nonalcoholic drinks. Jack excused himself and went to the bathroom. He pulled his tiny contraband pouch from his shoe and contemplated taking it. Against his better judgement, he swallowed its contents and flushed the pouch down the sink before rejoining the others.
The interviews came later that evening. Artemis and Luther were giving their opening monologue, quipping back and forth. Luther kept his fingers crossed for this year to give them their next Golden Victor. Artemis played off this, revealing there to be a newly erected council of gamemakers and President Rain himself who would together discuss whether the victor is Golden Victor material. The first round of interviews started off as normal. District 1’s tributes were strong if not slightly cocky. Andrei (2) bragged about his swordsman skills and said he couldn’t wait to cut down certain tributes. He refused to elaborate, claiming it to be a surprise. Vista (3) was a nervous wreck, rattling on about her job of scrapping tech, thus making the audience uncomfortable and wishing the interview over.
The Juicy Tidbits podcast revealed a notable backstage story that took place during the opening monologue. Pearl walked back and forward nervously backstage, prompting Cat to go over to her and assist her in calming her nerves through breathing exercises, introducing herself as a friend of Mortimer. Jack felt immense relief as he had been avoiding her and Phoebe once the warmweed started to kick in. Mortimer skulked in the background picking at the appetizers, watching the interaction with fascination, shutting down Ryetta (9) when she tried talking with him. Fortunately, Cat's breathing exercises worked so when Shoya (3) was applauded, Pearl was ready to jump on to the stage, nearly doing so before she was introduced.
When Capricorn Luther introduced Pearl, she pranced onto the stage wearing a flowing blue dress that started with darker shades at the top with them becoming lighter as they descended down the dress. Artemis complimented the design of the dress, Pearl returning the favor by praising her zebra print dress and Luther's antelope suit. Artemis wondered where her manners came from, calling her the nicest tribute from District 4. Luther attributed this to her waitress job and asked how long she had been working. Pearl explained she waited tables for The Brine ever since she was eleven, assisting her parents in pulling in more customers of her age demographic. Artemis asked whether they find themselves rivalling the Slippery Shell, despite not selling liquor. Pearl confirmed The Brine was labelled as a liquor free zone, which is why it came close to their high revenue. She commented on the lengths her parents went to keep her from the negative influence of alcohol. She went on to share some lighthearted waiting stories, most of them comedic by nature. The audience were entranced by Pearl’s youthful spark and fascinated by the ongoings of the restaurant business in the districts. Luther asked Pearl what she felt about her partner, remarking how he seemed like an interesting character. Pearl agreed he was different from the teens she interacted with, but still regarded him as a good man. She said he could’ve easily snapped at any time, but showed restraint, telling her there was a misunderstood soul under there who needed help in more ways than one. Artemis opened her mouth but caught herself and closed it. A couple analysts spotted this and speculated that she nearly repeated the controversial question she gave Mihika (D10 female tribute) the previous year. Luther thanked her for her time and wished her luck, dismissing her to moderate applause.
Artemis appeared excited to interview the next guest. She described him as a mystery man sporting a sexy frontal tapestry. Mortimer entered the room wearing a seagull grey three piece suit with a capri tie and his once wavy hair gelled and combed back. Audience members noticed an ever so slightly upbeat step in his walk as opposed to his slow trudge. Artemis welcomed him to the stage, saying he made quite the entrance at the train station. Mortimer quipped, “While it wasn’t my choice, I’m still happy to entertain.” Luther decided to get to the point and bluntly asked why his girlfriend Meridia was the only person he interacted with in District 4 besides his father, whispering to the audience she was the one who etched the tattoo. Mortimer said she followed him around for a couple weeks, asking to help him and he let her as he started to fall for her. Artemis remarked, “Makes me sad that her father and half of District 4 thinks you’re a hoodlum.” Mortimer retorted that enough people have screwed him over for him to share common courtesies. Luther diverted the topic to his impressive training score, wondering where his chemistry skills came from. Mortimer said, “Before you bring it up, I will say it outright” admitting to assisting in the smuggling of fish and hooks across the Orkney Stretch in exchange for warmweed, joking “Getting caught wasn’t the highlight of my day either”. He assured everyone he didn’t ingest the drug himself, but learned to separate the SHC (medical component) from the TBA (psychoactive compound) through trial and error, feeding the SHC to his father to relieve his pain. Artemis read a document, stating his father Edward Beckett was a former Faroe Island Base engineer who fractured his back in a work accident and was medically discharged. Luther asked what he would do if he won the games. Mortimer pondered over this and declared he would give his father the proper care he needed and prove to Meridia’s father and all of District 4 he was more than a delinquent with a chip on his shoulder. Artemis said she was rooting for him, dismissing him to rapturous applause, cementing him as a new favorite.
After a mediocre interview with Terry (5), Artemis and Luther welcomed Cat to the stage, using her full first name Catalina. Cat revealed herself, wearing a sparkling amber dress with laced high boots, tiara, and a pair of glasses she specifically requested. As she sat down, she told everyone to call her Cat. Artemis first asked what the glasses were for, Cat playfully saying they made her look smart. Luther brushed past the “How is the Capital?” pleasantries and brought up her job back home. Cat explained to the audience she was a therapist working at her mentor’s Kento Rehabilitation Centre under her tutelage. She considered Phoebe an amazing role model and attributed her people reading skills to her. She even added how her games inspired her to practice the sword. Artemis asked her to tell them something about Phoebe nobody else knows. Cat disclosed that Phoebe’s platinum blonde hair is in fact natural, despite the rumors spread in District 6 and the Capital. She proceeded to highlight her occupation by relaying some patient stories, choosing to not reveal any names for confidentiality purposes. Audience members noticed she never portrayed her patients in a negative light, understanding her compassion for the lowly members of District 6’s society. Artemis commented how her initiative and compassion must attract some cute boys. Cat mentioned how she regrets never asking out one of her coworkers. Luther said she could do so if she wins. Cat made clear she would receive her therapy licence and improve the rehabilitation centre first before worrying about “relationship quarrels”. Artemis remarked, “Go get the bag sis!” Luther dismissed Cat to great applause, many calling her a dark horse.
Jack was the next to be called onto the stage. He stumbled out from under the curtain wearing a basic black and white suit and buckled shoes with the golden chain and top hat being the standouts. While wandering onto the stage, he nearly fell forward but fortunately caught himself. He sat on the chair and told Artemis and Luther to call him Jack. Artemis remarked how much a coincidence it was for two tributes in a row to have nicknames for themselves. Luther appeared slightly suspicious of Jack being unable to keep his head still, noticing it slowly nodding back and forth. He asked him about his life back home, bringing up his refinery work in the hovercraft warehouse. Jack simply stated, “It gets hot in there.” The audience was put off by his demeanor and began to whisper amongst themselves whether he was high despite his previous moments of clarity. Artemis, who was also having second thoughts, diverted to the topic of his girlfriend Tyre. Jack tiredly said she was the only light in his bleak existence. He called out his parents for always being absent and leaving him to his own devices to go get high on warmweed. Luther asked if this was the reason he smuggled warmweed to the Orkney Stretch with the older kids before getting caught. Jack bitterly said someone had to put food on the table, catching his drooping head while saying that statement. Artemis expressed her hopes that he could make it back to Tyre and be together. Jack gave her a death glare and told her he didn’t believe she cared whether he died or not. He boldly stated that if she wanted him to be with Tyre so badly, then he wouldn’t have been reaped in the first place. The second he finished that statement, he threw up all over her shoes, narrowly missing Luther’s. The crowd began booing him and calling for his death in the games. Luther quickly dismissed the boy as he was carried away by peacekeepers. A quick investigation unearthed the flushed pouch and a blood warmweed count (BWC) of 0.05%.
The rest of the interviews went along swimmingly, with Wolvthorne (7) becoming a Capital favorite. Things also became emotional when Mishti (10) cried about missing her pet dog. While Head Gamemaker Grimstone expressed his hopes for a successful games, the tributes returned to their apartment.
Gill congratulated Pearl and Mortimer on their interviews, favorably comparing them to the previous year. Pearl had hopes this would translate to more sponsors, but Gill told her there was no guarantee and it was up to the Capital. Mortimer responded, “Where have I heard that before?” Gill was slightly offended and asked what he meant. Mortimer said he did nothing to help his dad after his accident on the Faroe Island Base. Gill claimed he tried, but he didn’t have jurisdiction outside of the application process. He added that he did offer him independent compensation out of his own pocket but was angrily turned away. Pearl added how her father also wanted to help, calling Mortimer arrogant and selfish. Mortimer tried to object, but Gill warned him to be careful of his words. He claimed to know more about what he’s going through than anyone, citing his former Azores Island Base employed father, once disapproving father-in-law, and self-bestowed status de facto man of the house as proof. Gill then declared, “I admit I haven’t endured the same trials as you, but don’t you dare say I don’t have even a hint of what is going on inside that head. I know exactly who you are, boy! Because you’re me!” Mortimer and Gill stared each other down for what felt like an eternity, the latter standing in absolute shock and silence before responding with, “What a pair we are.” He stormed off into his room and never came out for the remainder of the night. Pearl asked if he would be okay, Gill answering that he’s done all he could for him. Pearl thought there was still hope for him, remembering that he didn’t shut his girlfriend Meridia out.
Back in the District 6 apartment, Phoebe was berating Jack for lying about having warmweed. She revealed he made an absolute fool of himself and was now the least liked tribute of the year. Jack, who was now in withdrawal, tried to apologise in between puking fits. Phoebe said he destroyed his chances of sponsorship and hoped he didn’t ruin Cat’s. Cat pleaded with her to calm down and knelt beside Jack. She patted his back as he returned the last of his dinner. When he was finished, he apologised to everyone and expressed how difficult it was to stave off warmweed. Phoebe’s demeanour softened and assured him she understood more than anyone. Cat told him that regardless, she will be more than happy to fight by his side in the arena. Jack thanked her before retiring to the bathtub. Phoebe expressed her worries about him experiencing withdrawal in the arena. Cat said that he had something she didn’t in her games: someone to watch over him. The two embraced, Phoebe saying she will miss her terribly if she doesn’t make it. Cat promised she would fight her hardest to ensure one of them would make it out. The two were unaware of Jack listening in from behind the cracked door of his room.
The next morning, all tributes were escorted to the holding rooms located in the underbelly of the arena. This year’s arena attire consisted of dark lycra suits with the district numbers on the right breast with black plimsolls for their feet. When Minerva entered Pearl’s holding room, she spotted her staring at her teal blue district number. Minerva assured her everything would be alright and that she believed in her. Pearl shrugged, saying it would be nice to give the Capital another fourteen-year-old victor. Minerva exclaimed, “That’s the spirit!” reminding her she had an excellent ally to help her along. The two gave a final embrace before Pearl entered her tube. Mortimer was visited by Gill and the two were silent for half of the allotted two minutes. Mortimer said he thought everything over and admitted that they were in fact very similar. He commented how he probably should have at least accepted his help. Gill expressed how glad he was for them to have worked things out, commenting how the two could’ve been good friends. Mortimer swore he would try to win, but asked him to promise to kick Adrian Carrack’s ass for him. The two shook on it and Mortimer stepped into his tube.
Phoebe visited Cat in her room, stepping in to see her doing breathing exercises. The two immediately embraced, both shedding some tears. Phoebe lamented not having her good friend let alone her best therapist leaving her. Cat promised she would use everything she taught her to bring herself and Jack to the end. She added that she had someone else who will help her out, hinting at Mortimer. Phoebe promised to take care of her patients and keep an eye on her brother. Cat thanked her and stepped into the tube but not before she said “Avskedslärare’, which in the old Swedish tongue translated to “Goodbye teacher”. As for Jack, he was visited by Morrana. He seemed resigned to the fact Phoebe didn’t visit him, saying he didn’t blame her. Morrana assured him she would’ve come if it were allowed. Jack lamented his newfound infamy, stating how he would have to do something great to redeem himself. Morrana told him he had nothing to prove and that he should focus on trying to win regardless of what other people thought. Jack sighed and thanked her for trying, but he remained unconvinced. He promised to do right by Cat and help her make it to the end. He hugged Morrana, thanking her for stepping up. He stepped into the tube. When all tributes were in the tubes, they all rose into the arena.
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Thankfully, Sasha wasn’t present, having passed out drunk an hour ago. Morrana met them at the chariot and advised them to play into the absurdity of their costumes. Cat said she had some ideas and asked what Jack thought. Jack wasn’t listening as he was watching some more tributes enter the tunnel. He shuddered at the sheer size of Wolvthorne (7) and chuckled watching Wren (5) slap her district partner Terry (5) and get reprimanded by her mentor Ashley Chen (victor of the 13th Hunger Games). However, he was perplexed by the arrival of the District 4 tributes coming from the opposite direction. Cat snapped him back to reality and asked what was going on. He pointed towards the District 4 tributes and swore one of them looked familiar.
Gill led his mentees down the tunnel to their chariot. Pearl was overwhelmed by the mix of emotions displayed on the tributes’ faces. She felt sorry for little Logan (11), who was struggling to hold it together. She glanced at the tall John (9), who yelled “What are you looking at!” at her. Mortimer, who was ignoring everyone at that point, asked if he had a problem. The two were about to butt heads, but Gill and Tris Plummer (victor of the 8th Hunger Games) pulled the two apart. The three arrived at their chariot and reunited with Minerva. She asked the two if they were ready to which both said yes. In a sudden change of character, Mortimer thanked Minerva for the tattoo work, describing her new addition as “worthy of the Kraken”. Pearl asked if she could get a sneak peek before the show to which Mortimer obliged. When he opened his shirt, he happened to look up behind him and spot Wolvthorne (7) giving Mortimer a hard stare. He didn’t hear Pearl and Gill’s compliments to the stylist as he returned the stare.
Gill snapped him out of it, reminding him not to make enemies too early. Mortimer simply pointed him out, asking his mentor if he looked like the Wharf Village troublemaker Adrian Carrack if he was buff. Gill squinted and annoyedly said, “Wow. The resemblance is uncanny.” Pearl said she lived in the Anchor Square, but claimed the name sounded familiar. Gill explained he was one of the bad apples he mentioned earlier. He was described as a tall muscular ginger boy with freckles and three front teeth missing. Mortimer commented how he would occasionally steal from the more affluent families as well as his boat and constantly hit on his girlfriend while also giving himself credit for two of the missing teeth. Pearl recalled Adrian’s identity, claiming to have seen him skulking around both the Slippery Shell and The Brine, guessing that’s how Gill knew of him. Mortimer commented how he wouldn’t mind killing Lionel (1) in the games as well, but Gill warned him not to antagonise him during training.
The parade finally began and the tributes’ chariots rolled out. Surprisingly, the District 1 sported elegant ballroom costumes Ulysses Blanco himself considered mediocre, but gave props for Olivine and Lionel (1) trying to sell it. He was greatly impressed with the District 3 costumes, which resembled smartphones but considered the despondency of the tributes’ faces a buzzkill, commenting on Shoya (3)’s flimsy hand waving. When District 4 was revealed to the world, Pearl and Mortimer stood proud and strong as the audience ate up their outfits. Pearl waved her hand and flipped her hair around, wowing the audience with her grace. Mortimer twirled his fake trident in the air and tipped his crown to the ladies in the audience. Suddenly, Mortimer ripped his shirt off, exposing the newly polished Kraken tattoo with a new open treasure chest tattoo on his chest with the tentacles attached as if holding it. The crowd went wild for the art etched on his skin, even more so when Pearl leaned against him and pointed at the Kraken.
Soon enough, the District 6 chariot rolled out and reception towards Cat and Jack’s costumes were mixed at best. At first, Cat and Jack simply smiled and waved but weren’t receiving much love. Suddenly, Cat asked Jack to trust her and to get on his shoulders. Jack hesitantly relented and allowed her to climb on. The audience were confused at first, but noticed the bolt costume perfectly lined up with the nut costume as if it was being inserted in the other. Jermaine Blanco admitted they utilised their painfully mediocre costumes well. However, at the end of the parade, the title of Blanco Fashion Magazine’s Best Dressed was awarded to District 8 for their bright and colourful mix and match outfits.
In the District 4 apartment, Minerva felt slightly dejected by her loss but was reassured by Pearl that the audience still enjoyed her work. Gill poured her a drink and ordered some Capital cake. Mortimer thanked Minerva for the improved look of his tattoo, wishing his girlfriend Meridia thought of it sooner. He caught himself after blurting this out. Everyone had confused looks on their faces. Pearl deduced Meridia was the one who drew the initial tattoo. Mortimer’s silence confirmed this, Gill exclaiming, “I knew it!” Mortimer felt embarrassed and stormed off to his room, Minerva yelling that she had good steady hands. Pearl asked Gill how her partner could ever nab a girl with his sullen and abrasive attitude. Gill knelt down and explained that Meridia is the only girl who was kind to him and only one he let in. Gill further explained that she assisted in taking care of Mortimer’s father and usually spent time with him after work hours, despite her father’s protests. Before Pearl could ask more questions, the Capital cake arrived. Pearl walked to Mortimer’s door and apologized for putting him on the spot, asking him to come and join them. After several minutes, he obliged.
Two stories above them, the District 6 entourage returned to see a disheveled Sasha standing in the middle of the room. She blamed Morrana and Phoebe for the near disastrous parade performance. Jack insisted this was all her fault, accusing her of laziness while Cat simply stood with her fists balled up. Sasha raised her hand, but Cat was quicker and slapped Sasha clean across the face. Cat yelled at Sasha, going into detail of how much at fault she was over the preceding events, citing Jack’s laziness point and bringing up her alcoholism. She praised Morrana for stepping up to care for them, give them advice, and make them feel at home. All this while Phoebe watched on with a proud smile on her face. Cat finished it all off by declaring they will be more than happy to complain about her any chance they got. Sasha didn’t dare to try again as Phoebe and Jack stepped closer to Cat. Sasha snatched a whiskey bottle and left the room, crying “Good riddance you little brats!”
Everyone applauded Cat’s bravery and Phoebe ordered some room service. Cat and Jack sat down on the couch with some fruit punch and discussed the parade. Jack claimed to have seen the District 4 male before, during the fated smuggling operation he was arrested for. Cat asked if he thought the boy recognized him, but Jack was unsure. He didn’t want an alliance with him, claiming he appeared untrustworthy. Cat shrugged and pointed out he was able bodied and would be a more viable option compared to Districts 1 & 2. She suggested they approach and talk to them during training after they watch them for a bit. Jack hesitantly agreed. With a new plan in order, everyone in the District 6 apartment relaxed and enjoyed the remainder of the day.
The next morning, all of the tributes dragged themselves out of bed to prepare for their training session. There was an incident at the penthouse apartment when Jassy (12) tripped over her partner Neutron (12) and slammed her head on the floor. Her mentor Andrew “Corpse” Beckford (victor of the 10th Hunger Games) put a bandage on her head and gave her aspirin. As soon as everyone gathered in the training room, Training Master Feldman gave the routine rundown and twirled his water cannon. All of the mentors gathered in the mentors lounge at the corner of the room, conversing with each other. When he was listing reasons for him to use it, he noticed Horace (10) concealing a middle finger directed towards him. Feldman sprayed him and warned all tributes of offending him. He eventually dismissed the tributes.
Jack and Cat both gravitated towards the survival station and began working together in the shelter building section. The two spent the first hour crafting a tent while simultaneously surveying their surroundings. A half hour before lunchtime, they were quizzing themselves in the plant identification section. Cat was spying on Carnelia (11), who had successfully started a fire, taking in her technique. She had to avert her eyes as soon as the muscular Laurel (7) began staring her down from the second fire station. She asked Jack if he found any potential allies, claiming District 7 was off the table after Laurel’s disapproval of her watching the same tribute. Jack claimed he had only been watching the District 4 male, finally learning his name to be Mortimer. He explained he had now recognized him as part of the District 4 crew who had smuggled Tobias Stephens and some warmweed into their district. Cat asked if he did anything noteworthy, but Jack shook his head saying he was quiet and strangely the only one not immediately putting his hands on the contraband. Cat asked where he was, volunteering to talk to him. Jack pointed at the chemistry station, where he was spotted using a dropper of glowing green liquid on a petri dish. Cat admitted to being surprised by someone as big as him spending time in that particular station.
Jack asked if her therapy skills told her anything about the other tributes. Cat made only two observations: Ryetta (9) was most likely the weakest tribute and Wolvthorne (7) was arguably the most dangerous. Jack asked how they would find allies to combat him. Cat suggested she talk to Mortimer. Jack objected at first, but Cat pointed out how he must be skilled at chemistry, otherwise he wouldn’t be there at the station. She added that from a therapeutic standpoint, she found him fascinating and difficult to read. Jack relented and also made clear his intentions to practice camouflage. She told him to look after himself and then walked over to Mortimer. Jack stayed put for a few more minutes before transitioning to the camouflage station. He first attempted a tree background and had trouble with the intricate details of the bark. He tried a few more times and slammed his fists in the wall in frustration. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see Ryetta (9). She offered to show him some tricks to which he begrudgingly accepted. She worked with him until he was able to successfully blend in with the tree.
The first station Pearl set her roots in was the aquatic station. She started off by swimming laps, enjoying the solitude of being the only tribute there. While she was timing her breaths, Andrei (2) walked into the station and slipped into the pool. Pearl didn’t notice his presence at first, but was able to pick up his splashes as he freestyled towards her. Pearl didn’t want to be alone in the station with a career, so she climbed out of the pool and discretely went to the craft table to practice fishing lures. As she fashioned a makeshift fishing pole, she watched Andrei as he struggled to keep form. He hit his head on the pool’s tiled wall while doing the backstroke. Pearl involuntarily giggled to herself, but unfortunately for her, Andrei heard her. He hopped out of the pool and marched towards her, asking if anything was funny. She muttered out a meek apology before trying to leave. He followed her at first, but was dissuaded when he noticed Feldman watching from the mentors lounge with his water cannon visible. Andrei backed off while Pearl retreated to the plant identification simulator. Coincidentally, she arrived seconds after Jack had left, so she had the entire station to herself. She excelled at the memory simulation for an hour, but was unable to surpass Carnelia (11)’s high score. During lunch break, she visited Gill and began to converse with him about training. Gill told her she was off to a good start, but urged her to choose a weapon to try. Pearl didn’t feel safe going to any weapon station with the careers nearby, notably Andrei. She decided to find Mortimer and ask him to accompany her. Gill said it was a good idea. He commented on how strange it was that he hadn’t approached the weapons station either.
Mortimer’s day was relatively uneventful. He started off in the newly implemented yoga studio doing some stretches on the mat. He paid no heed to the confused looks of some of the tributes and mentors but was surprised and relieved to have Peggy (8) join him in the studio. She tried asking for an alliance, but he silently rebuffed her. After a relaxing stretching routine, Mortimer made his way to the chemistry station. He spent the next few hours at this station, brewing some experimental potions. He also used his time analyzing Olivine (1) and Nikita (2), both of whom were in the archery station. When Wolvthorne (7) entered the axe throwing station, Mortimer diverted his scanning eyes to him. He watched his masterful target practice all the while inching his way closer to his first successful healing potion. Suddenly, he heard, “Who are you looking at?” Mortimer nearly dropped his flask and looked up to see Cat standing on the other side of the table. Embarrassed and annoyed by the surprise, he asked what she wanted. Cat guessed he was watching Wolvthorne, claiming to not blame him as she considered him the greatest threat as well. Mortimer was confused by the out of left field accurate assumption and told her to mind her own business. Cat apologised and made her intentions clear to him. She asked for an alliance with her and Jack, commenting how he had seen him before. Mortimer found Jack in the corner of the camouflage station and stared back down at his work. He guessed he told her about the “exchange program” the two districts had. Cat confirmed this. She also relayed Jack’s description of his demeanour and hesitance to gorge on warmweed. Mortimer simply stated he wasn’t a junkie. Cat defended herself, “I didn’t say that. I mean, based on the station you’re in, I assume you know how to separate the SHC and the TBA.” Mortimer stared at her with wide eyes, asking how she knew that. Cat introduced herself and said she was a therapist working under Phoebe’s tutelage. She asked if they could have an alliance, arguing that they could be a great team against Wolvthorne and their careers. Mortimer was surprised for a moment, but refused the offer, claiming that trusting people in a death game was for fools. Cat put her hands up and apologized for bothering him and to find her if he changed his mind. Before she left, she said, “By the way, I recommend boiling the moldroot before mixing it with the plasma.”
Mortimer continued his attempts at a healing potion, each time met with failure. He sat annoyed with himself for a few moments. He then recalled Cat’s suggestion and decided to try it. He was surprised to see the finished potion successfully clear the training dummy’s discolored skin. He sat in disbelief for nearly an hour when Pearl walked up to him. She came to check on him, asking what he learned. Mortimer showcased his successful healing potion, choosing to neglect Cat’s recommendation. Pearl asked if he could accompany her to the weapons station because she wanted to practice a weapon and didn’t feel comfortable going by herself. Mortimer groaned and relented, replying how he needed to pick up the trident anyway. The two spent the remainder of the training session in the trident section, with Mortimer giving Pearl some pointers on the proper swing. He became aware of Cat entering the sword station next door and waving to him. He ignored her and continued to instruct Pearl. The two sparred with each other after the proper stance was established. It took until the final five minutes of training day before Pearl was able to nab her first win.
The next day, the training assessments began. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm cut off the power as Lionel (1) entered the assessment room. The Capital’s finest technicians were in a scramble to fix the power while Lionel proceeded to showcase his swordsmanship. The fix was predicted to take longer than expected, so Head Gamemaker Grimstone was ordered to commence with the assessments as planned and simply have the activities and scores be announced later on. It wasn’t until three hours before the tribute interviews that all of the scores were announced. The highest score was 11, which was awarded to Wolvthorne (7) for his deadly axing skills and brute strength. Lionel (1) and Nikita (2) both scored 10 for their swordsmanship and archery skills respectively. Mortimer scored a 10 as well for his trident skills and his unexpected chemical gifts. Pearl nabbed a 5 for her lackluster attempts at the trident, but impressive underwater breath holding time. Jack scored a 6 for his camouflage skills and decent shelter construction. Cat surprised the gamemakers by scoring a 7 for her impressive campsite construction and decent 7/13 sword duel score.
Back in the District 4 apartment, Gill Henderson congratulated Mortimer for his high score, making him a Powerful Pina Paradise. Pearl felt dejected over her low score, but Gill assured her that what mattered is that she tried her best. He also disclosed that Dolan (D4 tribute of the 12th Hunger Games) had a lower score of 3. The three began discussing the interviews and Gill asked them what they would say. Pearl suggested she disclose some waitress stories and maybe divulge some behind the counter secrets. Gill appeared satisfied by this answer, but reminded her to continue playing into her cuteness like at Darius Dock. Mortimer begrudgingly asked if sob stories were really necessary, admitting his life wasn’t as interesting. Gill argued that it was interesting, reminding him of his smuggling pastime. He warned him that both hosts are provided information by the Capital’s top journalists and peacekeepers. Mortimer said, “So, my personal life will no longer be personal.” Gill sadly confirmed and suggested he use his life story to his advantage and lean into the fact he was caught smuggling. Mortimer admitted how as much as he didn’t want to, he had no choice as he knew the importance of sponsors. He dismissed himself to his room to change. A stunned Gill asked Pearl why the sudden change in character. Pearl recalled spotting Cat talking to him, but was too far away to hear their conversation.
Phoebe was happy her tributes scored very well for her district and ordered Capital cake for them. Jack felt relieved for his 6, but expressed how nervous he was for the interview. Phoebe did remind them this was their last chance to make an impression before the arena. Jack complained how easy it would be for Cat as she had a bounty of therapy stories to pull from. Cat told him to not sell himself too short as he did have his girlfriend to talk about. Jack felt better hearing this. He changed the subject, asking if she convinced Mortimer of an alliance. Cat said he rejected the offer but had a strong feeling he would reconsider. When asked to elaborate, Cat explained how she corrected his healing potion and how it led him to a 10. She theorized that behind the standoffish persona was a smart and compassionate man who needed help in more ways than one. Phoebe patted her on the back, claiming to have taught her well. Jack cautiously hoped she was right as he wasn’t planning on confronting the careers or Wolvthorne (7) by himself. Cat jokingly responded, “When all else fails, just do what Oslo did. There will be no lions to stop you.”
The three ate a light dinner before Morrana arrived with their new outfits. She told them the great news of her promotion to Hunger Games designer after Sasha’s suspension from the Hunger Games fashion industry after drunkenly admitting to neglecting her duties. The four celebrated with some fruity nonalcoholic drinks. Jack excused himself and went to the bathroom. He pulled his tiny contraband pouch from his shoe and contemplated taking it. Against his better judgement, he swallowed its contents and flushed the pouch down the sink before rejoining the others.
The interviews came later that evening. Artemis and Luther were giving their opening monologue, quipping back and forth. Luther kept his fingers crossed for this year to give them their next Golden Victor. Artemis played off this, revealing there to be a newly erected council of gamemakers and President Rain himself who would together discuss whether the victor is Golden Victor material. The first round of interviews started off as normal. District 1’s tributes were strong if not slightly cocky. Andrei (2) bragged about his swordsman skills and said he couldn’t wait to cut down certain tributes. He refused to elaborate, claiming it to be a surprise. Vista (3) was a nervous wreck, rattling on about her job of scrapping tech, thus making the audience uncomfortable and wishing the interview over.
The Juicy Tidbits podcast revealed a notable backstage story that took place during the opening monologue. Pearl walked back and forward nervously backstage, prompting Cat to go over to her and assist her in calming her nerves through breathing exercises, introducing herself as a friend of Mortimer. Jack felt immense relief as he had been avoiding her and Phoebe once the warmweed started to kick in. Mortimer skulked in the background picking at the appetizers, watching the interaction with fascination, shutting down Ryetta (9) when she tried talking with him. Fortunately, Cat's breathing exercises worked so when Shoya (3) was applauded, Pearl was ready to jump on to the stage, nearly doing so before she was introduced.
When Capricorn Luther introduced Pearl, she pranced onto the stage wearing a flowing blue dress that started with darker shades at the top with them becoming lighter as they descended down the dress. Artemis complimented the design of the dress, Pearl returning the favor by praising her zebra print dress and Luther's antelope suit. Artemis wondered where her manners came from, calling her the nicest tribute from District 4. Luther attributed this to her waitress job and asked how long she had been working. Pearl explained she waited tables for The Brine ever since she was eleven, assisting her parents in pulling in more customers of her age demographic. Artemis asked whether they find themselves rivalling the Slippery Shell, despite not selling liquor. Pearl confirmed The Brine was labelled as a liquor free zone, which is why it came close to their high revenue. She commented on the lengths her parents went to keep her from the negative influence of alcohol. She went on to share some lighthearted waiting stories, most of them comedic by nature. The audience were entranced by Pearl’s youthful spark and fascinated by the ongoings of the restaurant business in the districts. Luther asked Pearl what she felt about her partner, remarking how he seemed like an interesting character. Pearl agreed he was different from the teens she interacted with, but still regarded him as a good man. She said he could’ve easily snapped at any time, but showed restraint, telling her there was a misunderstood soul under there who needed help in more ways than one. Artemis opened her mouth but caught herself and closed it. A couple analysts spotted this and speculated that she nearly repeated the controversial question she gave Mihika (D10 female tribute) the previous year. Luther thanked her for her time and wished her luck, dismissing her to moderate applause.
Artemis appeared excited to interview the next guest. She described him as a mystery man sporting a sexy frontal tapestry. Mortimer entered the room wearing a seagull grey three piece suit with a capri tie and his once wavy hair gelled and combed back. Audience members noticed an ever so slightly upbeat step in his walk as opposed to his slow trudge. Artemis welcomed him to the stage, saying he made quite the entrance at the train station. Mortimer quipped, “While it wasn’t my choice, I’m still happy to entertain.” Luther decided to get to the point and bluntly asked why his girlfriend Meridia was the only person he interacted with in District 4 besides his father, whispering to the audience she was the one who etched the tattoo. Mortimer said she followed him around for a couple weeks, asking to help him and he let her as he started to fall for her. Artemis remarked, “Makes me sad that her father and half of District 4 thinks you’re a hoodlum.” Mortimer retorted that enough people have screwed him over for him to share common courtesies. Luther diverted the topic to his impressive training score, wondering where his chemistry skills came from. Mortimer said, “Before you bring it up, I will say it outright” admitting to assisting in the smuggling of fish and hooks across the Orkney Stretch in exchange for warmweed, joking “Getting caught wasn’t the highlight of my day either”. He assured everyone he didn’t ingest the drug himself, but learned to separate the SHC (medical component) from the TBA (psychoactive compound) through trial and error, feeding the SHC to his father to relieve his pain. Artemis read a document, stating his father Edward Beckett was a former Faroe Island Base engineer who fractured his back in a work accident and was medically discharged. Luther asked what he would do if he won the games. Mortimer pondered over this and declared he would give his father the proper care he needed and prove to Meridia’s father and all of District 4 he was more than a delinquent with a chip on his shoulder. Artemis said she was rooting for him, dismissing him to rapturous applause, cementing him as a new favorite.
After a mediocre interview with Terry (5), Artemis and Luther welcomed Cat to the stage, using her full first name Catalina. Cat revealed herself, wearing a sparkling amber dress with laced high boots, tiara, and a pair of glasses she specifically requested. As she sat down, she told everyone to call her Cat. Artemis first asked what the glasses were for, Cat playfully saying they made her look smart. Luther brushed past the “How is the Capital?” pleasantries and brought up her job back home. Cat explained to the audience she was a therapist working at her mentor’s Kento Rehabilitation Centre under her tutelage. She considered Phoebe an amazing role model and attributed her people reading skills to her. She even added how her games inspired her to practice the sword. Artemis asked her to tell them something about Phoebe nobody else knows. Cat disclosed that Phoebe’s platinum blonde hair is in fact natural, despite the rumors spread in District 6 and the Capital. She proceeded to highlight her occupation by relaying some patient stories, choosing to not reveal any names for confidentiality purposes. Audience members noticed she never portrayed her patients in a negative light, understanding her compassion for the lowly members of District 6’s society. Artemis commented how her initiative and compassion must attract some cute boys. Cat mentioned how she regrets never asking out one of her coworkers. Luther said she could do so if she wins. Cat made clear she would receive her therapy licence and improve the rehabilitation centre first before worrying about “relationship quarrels”. Artemis remarked, “Go get the bag sis!” Luther dismissed Cat to great applause, many calling her a dark horse.
Jack was the next to be called onto the stage. He stumbled out from under the curtain wearing a basic black and white suit and buckled shoes with the golden chain and top hat being the standouts. While wandering onto the stage, he nearly fell forward but fortunately caught himself. He sat on the chair and told Artemis and Luther to call him Jack. Artemis remarked how much a coincidence it was for two tributes in a row to have nicknames for themselves. Luther appeared slightly suspicious of Jack being unable to keep his head still, noticing it slowly nodding back and forth. He asked him about his life back home, bringing up his refinery work in the hovercraft warehouse. Jack simply stated, “It gets hot in there.” The audience was put off by his demeanor and began to whisper amongst themselves whether he was high despite his previous moments of clarity. Artemis, who was also having second thoughts, diverted to the topic of his girlfriend Tyre. Jack tiredly said she was the only light in his bleak existence. He called out his parents for always being absent and leaving him to his own devices to go get high on warmweed. Luther asked if this was the reason he smuggled warmweed to the Orkney Stretch with the older kids before getting caught. Jack bitterly said someone had to put food on the table, catching his drooping head while saying that statement. Artemis expressed her hopes that he could make it back to Tyre and be together. Jack gave her a death glare and told her he didn’t believe she cared whether he died or not. He boldly stated that if she wanted him to be with Tyre so badly, then he wouldn’t have been reaped in the first place. The second he finished that statement, he threw up all over her shoes, narrowly missing Luther’s. The crowd began booing him and calling for his death in the games. Luther quickly dismissed the boy as he was carried away by peacekeepers. A quick investigation unearthed the flushed pouch and a blood warmweed count (BWC) of 0.05%.
The rest of the interviews went along swimmingly, with Wolvthorne (7) becoming a Capital favorite. Things also became emotional when Mishti (10) cried about missing her pet dog. While Head Gamemaker Grimstone expressed his hopes for a successful games, the tributes returned to their apartment.
Gill congratulated Pearl and Mortimer on their interviews, favorably comparing them to the previous year. Pearl had hopes this would translate to more sponsors, but Gill told her there was no guarantee and it was up to the Capital. Mortimer responded, “Where have I heard that before?” Gill was slightly offended and asked what he meant. Mortimer said he did nothing to help his dad after his accident on the Faroe Island Base. Gill claimed he tried, but he didn’t have jurisdiction outside of the application process. He added that he did offer him independent compensation out of his own pocket but was angrily turned away. Pearl added how her father also wanted to help, calling Mortimer arrogant and selfish. Mortimer tried to object, but Gill warned him to be careful of his words. He claimed to know more about what he’s going through than anyone, citing his former Azores Island Base employed father, once disapproving father-in-law, and self-bestowed status de facto man of the house as proof. Gill then declared, “I admit I haven’t endured the same trials as you, but don’t you dare say I don’t have even a hint of what is going on inside that head. I know exactly who you are, boy! Because you’re me!” Mortimer and Gill stared each other down for what felt like an eternity, the latter standing in absolute shock and silence before responding with, “What a pair we are.” He stormed off into his room and never came out for the remainder of the night. Pearl asked if he would be okay, Gill answering that he’s done all he could for him. Pearl thought there was still hope for him, remembering that he didn’t shut his girlfriend Meridia out.
Back in the District 6 apartment, Phoebe was berating Jack for lying about having warmweed. She revealed he made an absolute fool of himself and was now the least liked tribute of the year. Jack, who was now in withdrawal, tried to apologise in between puking fits. Phoebe said he destroyed his chances of sponsorship and hoped he didn’t ruin Cat’s. Cat pleaded with her to calm down and knelt beside Jack. She patted his back as he returned the last of his dinner. When he was finished, he apologised to everyone and expressed how difficult it was to stave off warmweed. Phoebe’s demeanour softened and assured him she understood more than anyone. Cat told him that regardless, she will be more than happy to fight by his side in the arena. Jack thanked her before retiring to the bathtub. Phoebe expressed her worries about him experiencing withdrawal in the arena. Cat said that he had something she didn’t in her games: someone to watch over him. The two embraced, Phoebe saying she will miss her terribly if she doesn’t make it. Cat promised she would fight her hardest to ensure one of them would make it out. The two were unaware of Jack listening in from behind the cracked door of his room.
The next morning, all tributes were escorted to the holding rooms located in the underbelly of the arena. This year’s arena attire consisted of dark lycra suits with the district numbers on the right breast with black plimsolls for their feet. When Minerva entered Pearl’s holding room, she spotted her staring at her teal blue district number. Minerva assured her everything would be alright and that she believed in her. Pearl shrugged, saying it would be nice to give the Capital another fourteen-year-old victor. Minerva exclaimed, “That’s the spirit!” reminding her she had an excellent ally to help her along. The two gave a final embrace before Pearl entered her tube. Mortimer was visited by Gill and the two were silent for half of the allotted two minutes. Mortimer said he thought everything over and admitted that they were in fact very similar. He commented how he probably should have at least accepted his help. Gill expressed how glad he was for them to have worked things out, commenting how the two could’ve been good friends. Mortimer swore he would try to win, but asked him to promise to kick Adrian Carrack’s ass for him. The two shook on it and Mortimer stepped into his tube.
Phoebe visited Cat in her room, stepping in to see her doing breathing exercises. The two immediately embraced, both shedding some tears. Phoebe lamented not having her good friend let alone her best therapist leaving her. Cat promised she would use everything she taught her to bring herself and Jack to the end. She added that she had someone else who will help her out, hinting at Mortimer. Phoebe promised to take care of her patients and keep an eye on her brother. Cat thanked her and stepped into the tube but not before she said “Avskedslärare’, which in the old Swedish tongue translated to “Goodbye teacher”. As for Jack, he was visited by Morrana. He seemed resigned to the fact Phoebe didn’t visit him, saying he didn’t blame her. Morrana assured him she would’ve come if it were allowed. Jack lamented his newfound infamy, stating how he would have to do something great to redeem himself. Morrana told him he had nothing to prove and that he should focus on trying to win regardless of what other people thought. Jack sighed and thanked her for trying, but he remained unconvinced. He promised to do right by Cat and help her make it to the end. He hugged Morrana, thanking her for stepping up. He stepped into the tube. When all tributes were in the tubes, they all rose into the arena.
2023.05.27 20:02 Utexan Feeding issues
We have two pups: one older (14, f) and one younger (5, m). They get along great most of the time but mealtime had become a weird mess.
The older one was always a good eater, no real issues. The younger sometimes showed disinterest. Now they both are just completely out of sync with meals. The younger one will hardly eat at mealtime. He might sniff or he might ignore his bowl completely. He'll move away from the bowl and lie down and just watch the older one eat. A lot of times if he does eat he'll wait for the older one to finish and then eat... Sometimes only if she makes a move for his food.
The older one will eat more regularly but will sometimes just sniff around and walk away and sit down. Sometimes she'll lose interest and head for his bowl. Sometimes he lets her eat his too.
It's also different when my boyfriend feeds him versus when I do. They seem to eat more regularly with him.
Things we've tried: (what haven't we tried!) For the younger one: Different food Different bowl Tossing the food piece by piece Feeding by hand Slow feeder Sniff mat Food toppers Pouring the food on the ground Feeding off a plate Making him work (perform commands) for it Pretending to cook it Pretending to eat it Picking it up within a few minutes if he doesn't eat
For the older we've tried similar things, though she's more reliable. In the past few days she's taken to wanting her food poured out on the kitchen rug.
There have certainly been tummy issue or stressful days when one of us is away, but this is more frequent than that. And they usually will take treats just fine, so it's not an illness issue.
What has worked for anyone else? Should we talk to the vet or an animal behaviorist? It seemed like something we could fix but it's just a mystery every meal and the solution is always different.
submitted by Utexan to Dogtraining [link] [comments]
The older one was always a good eater, no real issues. The younger sometimes showed disinterest. Now they both are just completely out of sync with meals. The younger one will hardly eat at mealtime. He might sniff or he might ignore his bowl completely. He'll move away from the bowl and lie down and just watch the older one eat. A lot of times if he does eat he'll wait for the older one to finish and then eat... Sometimes only if she makes a move for his food.
The older one will eat more regularly but will sometimes just sniff around and walk away and sit down. Sometimes she'll lose interest and head for his bowl. Sometimes he lets her eat his too.
It's also different when my boyfriend feeds him versus when I do. They seem to eat more regularly with him.
Things we've tried: (what haven't we tried!) For the younger one: Different food Different bowl Tossing the food piece by piece Feeding by hand Slow feeder Sniff mat Food toppers Pouring the food on the ground Feeding off a plate Making him work (perform commands) for it Pretending to cook it Pretending to eat it Picking it up within a few minutes if he doesn't eat
For the older we've tried similar things, though she's more reliable. In the past few days she's taken to wanting her food poured out on the kitchen rug.
There have certainly been tummy issue or stressful days when one of us is away, but this is more frequent than that. And they usually will take treats just fine, so it's not an illness issue.
What has worked for anyone else? Should we talk to the vet or an animal behaviorist? It seemed like something we could fix but it's just a mystery every meal and the solution is always different.
2023.05.27 04:50 Internal-Willow-8046 How to help fear aggression in a 6 month old puppy
A little context about my puppy, her name is BB, she came from a horrible, poorly managed shelter. She was only 6 weeks old when I adopted her which is still way to early for a puppy to be away from her siblings and I know the shelter got her when she was 4 weeks old meaning she wasn’t weaned properly either. The shelter kept her in a small metal cage with no blanket or toys, just a bowl of water, and diarrhea sitting in the back of her cage. She was covered in diarrhea and absolutely terrified of everyone and everything. I was originally going to the shelter to look at older dogs but after seeing the conditions she was in I just couldn’t leave her. The shelter was absolutely horrible, the didn’t even screen me to see if I would be a get pet parent they basically just gave me my puppy. So of course that resulted in her having some severe trauma. And after doing a dna test on her I learned she came from a horrible breeder too. So obviously all of this resulted in her being fearful of everything which then led to dear aggression. She snaps at people or dogs that come to close to her. I love BB so much, she means the world to me. I spend so much time training her (positive reinforcement only, she’s never even heard me raise my voice) and trying to socialize her with other dogs and people that I know and trust (I NEVER let them pet her or acknowledged her at all because that’s overwhelming for her, I just want her to be able to ignore people), I always do very slow introductions. But absolutely nothing seems to help, unfortunately it’s gotten to the point where I can only take her on walks at the dead of night and with a basket muzzle. With me she’s is the sweetest most amazing dog there is, but everything else is just so terrifying. I did do training with her but classes were to overwhelming for her so I need to save up money to do private training. In the mean time though is there anything else I can do to help her? She means everything to me and it hurts me so much to see her so scared
submitted by Internal-Willow-8046 to Dogtraining [link] [comments]
2023.05.26 23:00 endofy863 My new dog is throwing up his food
I adopted a dog about 3 months ago and was given some Hills dry dog food to give him. He seemed to like it but would eat very fast and throw up sometimes. I got him an insert to go in his food bowl to slow him down which seemed to help. I also switched to the Hills tiny bites instead of the larger size. He still throws up every so often though. Sometimes he will go for several days without doing it but then throw up for 2 or 3 days-no change to his diet or lifestyle. Is this common for dogs or should I try another food?
submitted by endofy863 to AskVet [link] [comments]
2023.05.26 19:32 MajnaBunny Legion of monster: Sanguine ... 31
Down the rabbit hole of the Bureau we go to see what horrors and wonders lie hidden upon and within the earth unearthed by an alien invasion...
Story connects My Moral Grey Area and useSilent_Technology540 and his Legion of monsters stories.
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Legion of monsters: Sanguine … 31 the House of Dealan
Pilotpriest, Future is dead
Arthur and his wives had been informed of the dress and … armament requirements that would be needed for their foray below and when he saw what the girls unveiled, he visibly winced.
Of course, there was some confusion in his disdain for their armour but Arthur insisted and within the hour they had travelled out to a place almost literally round the corner from the houses of parliament.
As he approached the old stone arch with its thick wrought iron door Arthur suddenly remembered the particulars of mixing Shil’vati and confined spaces.
“Um, I'm sorry but it slipped my mind that this place is underground.” He said, chuckling as his wives all gave him a cold disapproving look.
Arthur knew that just banging on the door would not open it so he pursed his lips and whistled the tune of the nursery rhyme pop goes the weasel while resting his hand on a very specific glassy green stone beside the doorway.
The clunk of a door deeper down the passage opening made him smile to his wives to reassure them that everything was okay.
As the chains rattled on the other side of the door, he heard the guard’s deep breath and several deep sniffs at the air, there was a deep animal growl, Arthur without meaning to swallowed dryly at what he knew was about to emerge.
The door swung open showing it to be a literal foot thick slab of metal, but from behind it stepped a man who emerged from his stoop in the hall to stare down at Arthur and look level eyed at his wives.
The man appeared Jamaican by descent by his predominant skin colour and hairstyle of dreadlocks, his face was mottled with vitiligo across his cheeks and brow speckling his brown skin with splotches of white, those eyes were brown but tinged yellow around the iris and his nails were thick and pointed claws.
This was a werewolf in human form, one that was not too shy about its inhuman traits being plain to see.
“Is master Ancetto in?” asked Arthur politely.
The doorman leaned over to be eye level with Arthur looking him in the eyes then looking past him to the four shil’vati behind him.
“Sebastian, they are my wives and I am looking to ensure they are well protected.” Stated Arthur.
Standing up straight the wolf in a man’s form smiled broadly displaying his fanged teeth as he then said in a deep Jamaican accent.
“Sooooh, da boy aboot town haz finally found someone’s dey is confortable with… doh-nah stress he is in, shall ah call da gent as well?” he asked smiling down at him.
Arthur nodded, and the guard looking over him to the four shil’vati women he smiled wider saying.
“Ladies, Welcome mahster Ancetto the artifaycer is down deez stairs mind your eads, dis tunnel wah made by shortah people dan us.”
As the guard turned Arthur let out the breath he was holding.
Gly’nrie and Imizael cast him an odd look.
“It’s okay I was just worried that he might turn us away is all, they are very particular about who they allow in past the doors.” Said Arthur as he followed the giant guard down the well-lit old stone stairs.
As they reached the bottom, they entered a room with much taller ceilings panelled with wood but also lined with hooks to take the coats of guests, the guard went back upstairs and could be heard locking the door behind them.
Coming back down he bowed slightly saying.
“You be da first sheel-vahti’s ever to be in-vye-ted to this place lay-deez we strictly insist that only trusted wehl known customah’s can introduce uthars to dis place, Arthur noh dah mahsters wohk very well, he wearin one of our suits right now he is.”
Another door opened and out came a well-dressed thinly built gentleman who looked almost totally albino, paper white skin and hair on a balding head, his eyes were only the faintest grey as only his glasses sharp red metallic frames applied any colour to his strictly monotone black and white attire.
“Master Gwydion, I trust that these people are both the ones you contacted me about and that they are well within the rules I insist upon?” asked the well-dressed man as he narrowed his gaze at Arthur.
“Master Ancetto, these are my wives!” said Arthur with a hint of sharpness in his voice but he held out a hand gesturing to each in turn.
“From left to right Viscountess Shal’endra Isilynor, Baroness Gly’nrie Xyrcaryn, Duchess Imizael Balcyne, and Marquess Miralana Umegwyn … we are expected to perform a diplomatic duty somewhere very, very dangerous and were told that it would be considered unseemly to arrive at said event in anything less than full battle armour.” Said Arthur politely.
The last time he had been here was being fitted for several suit’s both business and otherwise with armoured enhancement by Sir Philip and even then, it had been made plain that this was not a bureau establishment and that it served the needs of very special elite clientele of all types and strived for absolute neutrality.
“Battle armour for a diplomatic duty?” said Master Ancetto with a hint of a smile.
Arthur sighed, rubbing his brow.
“We have been invited to the investiture of a kind of lord before a council of similar lords in a very strange place I only recently learned existed, the lord in question is a former bureau agent called Sanguine.” said a blushing Arthur.
Master Ancetto smiled for the first time in front of Arthur, the corners of his mouth drew back very wide exposing fangs, his eyes, once milky grey, turned a startling sky blue as he rose a foot from the ground floating mid-air.
“You are attending the investiture of a lord of the depths?” said the now floating master Ancetto before a shocked Arthur.
“Yes.” Arthur replied nervously realising very quickly the signs of a grey stood before him.
“Then it is good that YOU came here to me, I was born of the depths and until recently I was exiled… recent changes have altered this… I have to say you are going to see wonders I long to see again, I am jealous but my duties tie me to this place a while longer.” Said the grinning telepathic vampire in front of them.
Leading them through another door they found themselves in an armourer’s workshop equal to any in imperial space they had seen with both power armour and lighter armoured garments being worked upon by a plethora of people both grey and rather obviously cyborgs.
The man performing servo maintenance on the power armour had multiple mechanical limbs extending spider-like from his back and even a multi-lensed prosthetic eye on his right-side which swivelled all three mechanical eyes to look at these new arrivals.
“As you can see, we create all manner of attire from heavy powered armour,” remarked master Ancetto as he gestured to the spider mechanic as he resumed his work, “to the finer and more flexible protection.” He said gesturing to a suit not unlike Arthurs which was having flexible polymer armour inserts applied.
“But this is all what one would consider as commonplace for the surface world.” He said as a black cube floated up beside him then, morphed into a suit of insectile armour around the body of master Ancetto… “You will be needing finer attire in the depths.”
IIIIIIIIIIIIII
Ixion OST, Across the void
Bellaluna watched as one of the Sanguine’s sparred with Zilyana.
One of the older one’s was sat beside her at her table sipping tea as they perused the options available from master Ancetto’s armourer’s.
They were sat within a glass roofed garden, the environment inside was absolutely not one you would ever see on the surface of earth, the dark red barked trees throbbed with bioluminescence between their scaled bark as their shimmering jewel like obsidian crystal leaves tingled and rang like crystal glass windchimes as they swayed in the breeze created by the room’s climate controls.
This was what the Ancetto clan called their hidden jewel, a garden made of depth’s native plants and a few insects in its center was a sparring ground for customers to acquaint themselves with their armour’s properties.
Bellaluna examined the possibilities available and found that many options were familiar to her thanks to the prevalence for noble families to outfit their daughters with Exo armour.
Only these suits were not the nine to ten feet tall armoured behemoth suits she knew, these were skin tight suits of biopolymer synthetic muscle synchronized directly to the user’s nervous systems through either telepathic or cybernetic means.
They self-repaired and maintained themselves and acted as a combination of life support system and power armoured combat body glove amplifying the wearers speed endurance and reaction times by a factor of two while allowing Exo levels of raw strength and physical power.
All while incorporating multiple strange biological systems requiring specialised “bio-ports” to be installed to allow the suit to interact symbiotically with its wearer's anatomy allowing it to sustain the host without water or food in the depths for months by recycling their sweat and waste.
Setting everything to its most basic Bellaluna took stock of what she could estimate to be the bare bones of a basic depths soldier.
It was an army of five-to-six-foot bio-armoured soldiers able to live for months without food water or resupply all while being able to jog at speeds near to that of Terran cheetahs, go toe to toe against Exo’s in hand to hand while being faster and smaller, and be able to self-triage when wounded, as the suit was designed if a limb was severed to seal the wound and assist its host in growing a new limb?
And that was the basic model.
“Sanguine?” she asked getting the attention of both the fully grown man beside her and the boy sparring with Zilyana.
“Got you!” exclaimed Zilyana proudly as she held the blade near Sanguine 1898’s neck.
Chink ! ….. That sound made Zilyana’s eyes drop to find a blade poised to do something drastic to her crotch.
“Shit.” Was all she could say to that.
Then the boy did something that made her freeze in shock, he leaned his cheek against her blade and without a single sign of pain opened an inch deep gash up on his cheek.
Then moving away from the blade, he pressed his fingers to the side of the wound pulling it open so she could see into it as with a mental effort he made the flesh seal and mend, the sight making her shudder in revulsion.
1898 nodded, sighing before he said.
“Flesh sculptors and their ilk are infamously capable of surviving decapitation, for next time if you are poised to cleave one open young Zilyana, have something like an incendiary grenade ready to shove deep inside the wound when you do as in their haste to heal, they will seal the flesh around it creating a much worse wound when the grenade detonates.” Said the boy clone in an aloof tone.
Zilyana snarled in offense but a faint growl from the older Sanguine beside Bellaluna caught her attention, and reminded her that yes this was but a boy in front of her, but it was also the weakest part of Sanguine and as such the least challenging one for Zilyana to fight.
“What did you want Bellaluna?” asked the older clone 818 beside her returning his focus to the interior mistress as the two in the ring resumed their practice.
Handing him her omni-slate she asked.
“Is this a good approximation of the basic depths soldier?”
Sanguine perused the screen with his eyes, the faint smirk on his face and the raising of an eyebrow told her that he had found her assumption amusing.
“For scav teams and tunnel runners yeah, proper city patrol wear,” he tapped several options then showed her the screen again, “this.” He said, showing a much heavier suit.
Bellaluna took back her slate and looked over the selections that Sanguine had put in, several options were highlighted as needing special licenses to acquire but the resulting armour was closer to power armour to her eyes with heavy plate armour requiring extensive mechanical articulation and amplified muscular systems bringing it closer to being something between an Exo and the baseline bio armour she had chosen.
“This is for the police?” she said with some incredulity.
“That bio-suit you showed me in terms of ease of acquisition akin to a basic Kevlar vest,” he said then handed her his slate, “For proper military assaults you would want the depths call a nomad suit which is what’s on that slate.”
Looking down at what was on her slate the resulting suit was much sleeker than the heavily plated police suit but the price was close to ten times more and resulted in a matte black suit heavier than the basic bio-suit but the list of extras said a lot.
Full NBC countermeasures rated for minimum two years survival time in contaminated environments under a mixture of biological toxic and radiological hazards.
In-built bio-support allows the suit to digest inedible substances to sustain its host, including the extraction of oxygen from ingested materials and water to allow the host to survive in environments with minimal to no atmosphere for extended periods.
In-built suit support mind and thus also its own barriers to allow it to shield itself, which required either the host be psychic or the installation of a neural symbiote on the hosts spine to ensure the suit can always remain in contact with the host.
Integrated pig plasma pulse guns in the bracers, retractable monofilament blades and claws and reinforced synth muscle and armour allowing for nearly four times the power of a police suit.
Bellaluna could feel her eyebrows going higher and higher, you could almost say she suspected them of trying to emigrate over her scalp to flee down her neck.
“How fucking dangerous is it down there?” said Bellaluna with a noticeable squeak in her voice at the shocking details of this virtual Exo that the depths considered a standard line solider.
Sanguine again smiled but it quickly faded away as he said.
“You sent salvage expeditions to Mars, full marine detachments, all manner of advanced digging equipment even tried to use some orbital fire to blast your way down below the surface.” He stated staring at her intently, this was not a question, this was a statement.
“Tiamat’s children are nothing if not tireless, so I will only say on that matter that they are not cruel, any trespasser would have died quickly, cruelty is a trait only found in the more human breeds of tyrant bio-forms.” He remarked with a melancholy smirk.
“Most if not all of them are a misguided bureau attempt to domesticate and weaponize things commonly found in the various bio-domes residing below, there are all manner of different environments across the universe preserved down there.”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a packet of settock nuts judging by the picture on the packet, which were something native to the shil’vati home-world, only these were in a packet daubed in a language she did not recognise.
“You call them settock nuts, I grew up calling them Kalzee and eating them as part a traditional meal in the depths called Ahrical,” the look of confusion on Bellaluna’s face spurred him into expanding his description, “The basic sauce is kind of a sweet red gravy like what you would expect of the human sweet and sour chicken, like a lot of grey cooking it has finely ground up iron rust powder mixed in the sauce but you can get it without.” Bellaluna’s face became more confused.
“The meat and nuts are simmered in this sauce on a low heat over several hours till cooked, then the sauce left to cool overnight, the next day sliced fresh fruit and vegetables are added and mixed with the cold sauce, its eaten with Sahsan a kind of salty cone shaped biscuit bread about cob or bun size that I would describe as halfway between naan bread and a tortilla with a soft inner side and a crispy outside that’s like a tortilla,” he remarked.
“You use the bread like a spoon to scoop up the Ahrical eating both as you go, it’s only the non-psychics down there that use cutlery.” He said smiling as he pointed to one of the Ancetto armourers sat eating his evening meal in the garden, a chunky reddish soup using small cones telekinetically to scoop up the bowls contents.
“Ahrical?” she asked Sanguine.
“No, that's something more common up here, beef bolognaise with pasta shells, but the bread is Sahsan.” He replied.
It was at this point that the small packet of settock nuts leapt off the table and an old man in a finely crafted suit of chitinous armour snaffled half the bag greedily.
“Kalzee,” he said with a blissful voice through a half full mouth as he savoured the nuts, “Can we have more of these brought up with the armour material shipments, I would pay their weight in gold for more of these.” Said an uncharacteristically uncouth Master Ancetto as his escorting cadre of four shil’vati and a single male human customer looked at him oddly.
Sanguine laughed before pointing to Bellaluna and saying.
“Sahngah those nuts grow on the shil homeworld,” he said to the old grey armourer, “they’re a common snack food, they sell in the vending machines on their bases.” He said with a toothy grin.
Master ‘Sahngah’ Ancetto looked to Bellaluna expectantly saying.
“You have Kalzee on your world?” he said with an odd intensity.
“Settock nuts,” said a bemused Bellaluna, “commonly roasted and put in bags with salt and spices.” She said seeing the old man’s eyes light up during her explanation.
Then the master looked at Sanguine and said rather excitedly.
“Mahak-sa Sanguine, do you know of any other foods they have that I might recognise?” he asked the seated clone 818.
“Mahak-sa?” said the lone confused human that had been accompanying the old master armourer.
Sanguine rose from his seat and approached the human smiling, he was well aware of this human, and what he really was under his genteel appearance.
“You must be Arthur Gwydion,” he stated crossing his arms and staring oddly intensely into the human’s eyes, “Mahak-sa is an honorific, a title it means that I am in essence I am a king, khan or emperor of one of the cities or domains of the depths, at least I will be officially soon.”
Arthur to his credit caught on quickly.
“So, you’re that Sanguine, the one who we are to escort down there as part of the delegation.” He said, taking a slight step back with what looked to be a nervous smile.
Sanguine 818 all six foot eight of him stared down at Arthur, his red on blue eyes glinting from his ashen white face, his grin framed by his white beard.
The dragon’s boon had brought more of the wolf out in him resulting in him being taller and more muscular with snow white hair on cream white skin… that this also caused slight grey speckling on the roots of his changed black horns was a little odd.
“Mahak-sa Sanguine Nah’gratha Mourdin, Grandson of the Ancient of Ahrama’geidahn Aihbael Nah’gratha Mourdin who is brother to the Gorr Mah’kjan,” he said seeing the evident confusion.
“Gorr Mah’kjan means the god king of the depths Kain Reish Mouridin, the one who swept the dead sea crater clean with a wave of reanimated dead.” Said Sanguine with a little hint of a smirk.
The way all five of them froze in apparent fright like a deer in headlights at that detail summoned a chuckle out of Sanguine.
Still for all his amusement his mind’s full attention was elsewhere, dealing with more important matters than this.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Darktide OST, Main theme
Tanis was a male Exo pilot in the shil’vati military which was a rarity but also, he was a single male pilot without a wife bound to him which was even rarer and his team were part of the support Exo’s of the local insurgent suppression unit tasked with keeping Massachusetts relatively calm and maintain it as a yellow zone.
It had begun as a raid of a suspected insurgent base at a mansion in a small town called Innsmouth, the brief had mentioned something about a cult, add in the area according to the marines muttered rumors being oddly infamous for lots of sightings of strange mutant fish monsters apparently, sightings which the incumbent regional government apparently had suppressed prior to the empire’s arrival for reasons unknown.
As they struck the marines storming in it quickly became apparent to her that more was going on, her unit commander Searsa kept switching comms channels, obviously their noble captain had been keeping details from them as shortly after the marines stormed in the shrill screams and shouts of ghastly horror filled the open coms as echoing the las-fire took up a cadence only heard during moments of sheer extremes, frantic fully automatic the fall back of the desperate and terrified.
The sounds of Las-Fire rattled out from inside the mansion punctuated by screams and strange gurgling roars as the unit commander started shouting into her coms, the words muffled and unintelligible under her Exo Armour's closed visor.
“What the fuck is making that noise?” Tanis asked and the commander whirled on him, a rebuke plainly mere moments from utterance.
Only for the screams and las-fire to stop, this shifted everyone's attention to the mansion’s doors.
Whispered chants oozed out of the air hissing and uttered in barely pronounceable mantras, the very shadows around them seemed to move with odd sinister momentum.
Then the mansion's doors slid open and a sea of darkness lay within, Tanis could feel something writhing within that inky depth but his ears alerted him to an odd silence.
Turning he beheld a true nightmare, monstrous things half fish half human assailed the marines in total silence, their screams and las-fire completely silent all sound lacking as marines were eviscerated and monsters devoured them alive.
Turning Tanis opened fire and in an instant all the riotous noise of the world came back.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” bellowed his commander in shock as the sudden return of sound snapped her out of whatever fugue had gripped her.
The rest of the unit took moments longer to regain their senses, moments enough for one of the monsters to grab a hold of a team mate called Kaunt, the monsters skin rippled under shredding las repeater fire but still it heaved and tore open her armour to thrust its maw inside to get at the pilot.
Tanis acted stepping forth he drove his armour’s fist flat like a blade into its ribs and with a sucking squelch tore out its insides before pushing it off Kaunt, but she was already dead.
Turning he hosed down a mass of swirling something that moved out of the corner of his eye and bellowed to his commander.
“We need to move!” but she stood visor open staring at him like she was drunk as a swirling tendril of shadows curled round her and touched her face, Searsa a woman barely a year older than himself let out a strangled groan as before Tanis’s horrified eyes the years passed in seconds and she withered away inside her armour.
The other women were similarly dumbstruck and barely moving, snaking shadows binding their feet as they stood immobile and insensate.
“DEMON!” roared a man’s voice and a blast of blinding white light rocked the mansion's doorway.
Around them had appeared soldiers clad in silver armour carrying blades that crackled with eldritch energy and guns that spat globs of blinding light that left after images in Tanis’s vision.
Thanks to Tanis’s cursory examination of this world’s history, he recognised something of these warrior’s armour and stylings, these were knights? And if their armour and cruciform symbology was anything to go by these were some forms of paladins.
There in the doorway one of them struggled with a figure that was as much a shadow as it was possibly a human being, snapping lightning exposed their struggles amidst that living darkness inside the house.
Tanis did the only thing that seemed to make sense after all of this he levelled his repeater on that shadow and fired.
Pulsed laser fire was swallowed by the darkness but a hissing roar of anger emerged, its attention shifted to Tanis and he felt something horrifying reaching for him but the paladin was on it fast cleaving down through its skull with one blade while another was driven into its chest.
In one lurching moment the shadows dispersed leaving the paladin stood blades pinning a withered old corpse.
Across the battlefield that had been the mansion's lawn the monsters broke and fled running back towards the mansion as the marines and what little of the Exo’s snapped from their fugue and opened fire on their fleeing assailants.
But then the ground heaved and rumbled, the paladins leapt back as the mansion collapsed into a chasm that had apparently been below it?
A shuddering growl rumbled in the air and ripples of that same unnatural darkness oozed out from the pit now exposed as up from it rose what to Tanis’s shocked eyes was a miniature black hole.
An orb of utter darkness as a big as a small ship tore free of the ground swirling mist like shadows cloaked it as the monsters hurled themselves towards its surface their flesh as they got close liquifying and becoming an orbiting ring of wailing meat around the orb which spat jets of steaming ichor out towards them.
One jet swallowed up a group of marines near Tanis and in moments their armour and flesh just dissolved leaving behind steaming bones.
“EVADE! … PULL BACK … EVADE!” roared Tanis and what little of his fellows not still gripped in fugue obeyed and fled, but the paladins stood their ground.
He saw some carrying large egg-shaped things tangled in roots towards the orb, his ponderings answered as he saw one hurled at the ominous thing, it crackled with energy as it drew close sticking to its surface there was a howling shriek as more were hurled onto its surface.
Finally, as it orbited with dozens of these things stuck to its surface the blasted orb just dropped back into its hole whatever dark power once animating it spent.
Still the paladins did not rest, more of those egg-like things were brought forth as well as lengths of massive chains as big as those you would anchor a ship with their surfaces etched with symbols that seemed to make Tanis’s eyes itch as he looked at them.
As they swarmed into the chasm Tanis could hear shrieking wails and screams that shook him to his core, moving to the chasms edge he stared down to see that they were chaining up and binding this thing lashing it to a frame they were building around it with the kind of haste one expects only with plentiful practice.
“All units form up and arrest those men!” bellowed the voice of their noble captain across the comms, turning Tanis surveyed the remnants of their force, barely a handful remained, many were horribly mauled by either the monsters or being caught by the acidic sprays, many more were simply catatonic in shock and were either stood or sat staring into empty space as if still entranced by the dispersing fugue.
The rest were rushing about trying to tend to the wounded or take stock of what the hell had just happened, even the Exo’s pride of the shil’vati military were stumbling broken and still in shock.
“I said Arrest those men!” bellowed the captain now outside of her mobile command unit pointing to the nearest paladin.
Tanis coughed as he stifled a laugh at the looks of incredulity passing across the marines, they knew that they had just been saved by these knights and the look of hesitation was evident everywhere Tanis looked.
“I SAID!” she roared, only for a bolt of lightning to snap out and reduce her in an instant to just a greasy smear of cooked meat and tattered armour.
One of the paladins was floating towards the MCU, his armour crackling with electricity as his eyes glowed like small suns through the slits of his visor.
The armoured vehicle peeled open under invisible forces and her command staff were plucked out and thrown to the ground beside the still steaming remains of the captain.
“Your captain was commanded by her own betters to stand aside and leave this matter to us, and she ignored this, her officers knew what they were facing and thought themselves prepared.”
As one of the captain’s lieutenants snapped off several bolts of las-fire at the floating paladin from her side arm they impacted a bubble of energy around him, the shots fizzling to nothing.
In a flash he hurled towards them the first he touched his fingers to her brow and she just evaporated in a spray of blue, ducking and twirling out of the way of the seconds wild firing she erupted into flames with a gesture.
The third tried to shoot herself, the pistol aimed up at her own skull swatted out of her hand in the last moment telekinetically the paladin clapped his hands together and the woman officer simply imploded.
Number four the one who had shot at him when he had been floating dropped her pistol.
“You were her sister trusted by the generals and admirals to keep your hot-headed sister in line.” Snarled the paladin as he produced an omni-slate from his armour.
“This is a warrant of execution for this woman, signed by six of this world’s ruling nobles… In ancient times when warriors failed so severely on this world they were made into a severe example, some were even given the honour to hurl themselves on their own swords to answer for their shame.” Said the paladin.
He removed his helm revealing a snow-white face with luminous blue eyes and black curved horns on his brow, as a long mane of startling white hair whipped about in an eldritch breeze.
“I am not as merciful to those who defy me!” he hissed as his mouth opened far too wide for a human revealing a set of very sharp canine teeth more akin to the mouth of a dog or very large cat.
He shot forward driving his fist into her guts folding the officer in half as she shot off her feet showing the force of the blow.
She begged, she pleaded but no one tried to help her as this supernaturally empowered man beat her savagely finally ending her by driving his thumbs into her eye sockets.
Tanis had been inching closer by the minute as he and everyone else watched this sentence be passed, the warrant and its signatures visible on their head up displays for every marine around them.
Finally, as Tanis drew close enough, he popped open his visor and simply asked.
“Who the fuck are you, and what in the deep minders barnacle ridden salty clam hole is going on?”
The paladin turned to him revealing a youthful if angularly gaunt face which smiled.
“I am Sanguine 984 hunter of demons and monsters,” he said with obvious mirth, “to you this will be one of the most confounding and horrible days of your life…… to me it’s just another FUCKING Tuesday doing my job.” He said as the other paladins pulled that dark orb out of the chasm by the chains, that faint agonised whine now a faint whisper, the very sight of that thing made Tanis’s eyes twitch.
“HEY!” barked the one calling himself Sanguine, to focus their attention on him, “not a good idea to stare at it like that, just try and ignore it until the transport arrives, staring at it will fry your brain cells and make you a mindless shell.” He said gesturing to one of the catatonic marines.
With that the paladin took a rag from his pocket and started to wipe the blood and viscera from his gauntlets saying.
“Stare too long causes brain burn, hollows you out, nothing left of your memories or mind, just a still breathing corpse with enough brain not turned to mush to keep the organs ticking but little else.”
Tanis looked to the many catatonic marines staring blankly into space, a cold horrified dread welling up inside at the sight of the living dead around them.
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submitted by MajnaBunny to Sexyspacebabes [link] [comments]
Story connects My Moral Grey Area and useSilent_Technology540 and his Legion of monsters stories.
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Legion of monsters: Sanguine … 31 the House of Dealan
Pilotpriest, Future is dead
Arthur and his wives had been informed of the dress and … armament requirements that would be needed for their foray below and when he saw what the girls unveiled, he visibly winced.
Of course, there was some confusion in his disdain for their armour but Arthur insisted and within the hour they had travelled out to a place almost literally round the corner from the houses of parliament.
As he approached the old stone arch with its thick wrought iron door Arthur suddenly remembered the particulars of mixing Shil’vati and confined spaces.
“Um, I'm sorry but it slipped my mind that this place is underground.” He said, chuckling as his wives all gave him a cold disapproving look.
Arthur knew that just banging on the door would not open it so he pursed his lips and whistled the tune of the nursery rhyme pop goes the weasel while resting his hand on a very specific glassy green stone beside the doorway.
The clunk of a door deeper down the passage opening made him smile to his wives to reassure them that everything was okay.
As the chains rattled on the other side of the door, he heard the guard’s deep breath and several deep sniffs at the air, there was a deep animal growl, Arthur without meaning to swallowed dryly at what he knew was about to emerge.
The door swung open showing it to be a literal foot thick slab of metal, but from behind it stepped a man who emerged from his stoop in the hall to stare down at Arthur and look level eyed at his wives.
The man appeared Jamaican by descent by his predominant skin colour and hairstyle of dreadlocks, his face was mottled with vitiligo across his cheeks and brow speckling his brown skin with splotches of white, those eyes were brown but tinged yellow around the iris and his nails were thick and pointed claws.
This was a werewolf in human form, one that was not too shy about its inhuman traits being plain to see.
“Is master Ancetto in?” asked Arthur politely.
The doorman leaned over to be eye level with Arthur looking him in the eyes then looking past him to the four shil’vati behind him.
“Sebastian, they are my wives and I am looking to ensure they are well protected.” Stated Arthur.
Standing up straight the wolf in a man’s form smiled broadly displaying his fanged teeth as he then said in a deep Jamaican accent.
“Sooooh, da boy aboot town haz finally found someone’s dey is confortable with… doh-nah stress he is in, shall ah call da gent as well?” he asked smiling down at him.
Arthur nodded, and the guard looking over him to the four shil’vati women he smiled wider saying.
“Ladies, Welcome mahster Ancetto the artifaycer is down deez stairs mind your eads, dis tunnel wah made by shortah people dan us.”
As the guard turned Arthur let out the breath he was holding.
Gly’nrie and Imizael cast him an odd look.
“It’s okay I was just worried that he might turn us away is all, they are very particular about who they allow in past the doors.” Said Arthur as he followed the giant guard down the well-lit old stone stairs.
As they reached the bottom, they entered a room with much taller ceilings panelled with wood but also lined with hooks to take the coats of guests, the guard went back upstairs and could be heard locking the door behind them.
Coming back down he bowed slightly saying.
“You be da first sheel-vahti’s ever to be in-vye-ted to this place lay-deez we strictly insist that only trusted wehl known customah’s can introduce uthars to dis place, Arthur noh dah mahsters wohk very well, he wearin one of our suits right now he is.”
Another door opened and out came a well-dressed thinly built gentleman who looked almost totally albino, paper white skin and hair on a balding head, his eyes were only the faintest grey as only his glasses sharp red metallic frames applied any colour to his strictly monotone black and white attire.
“Master Gwydion, I trust that these people are both the ones you contacted me about and that they are well within the rules I insist upon?” asked the well-dressed man as he narrowed his gaze at Arthur.
“Master Ancetto, these are my wives!” said Arthur with a hint of sharpness in his voice but he held out a hand gesturing to each in turn.
“From left to right Viscountess Shal’endra Isilynor, Baroness Gly’nrie Xyrcaryn, Duchess Imizael Balcyne, and Marquess Miralana Umegwyn … we are expected to perform a diplomatic duty somewhere very, very dangerous and were told that it would be considered unseemly to arrive at said event in anything less than full battle armour.” Said Arthur politely.
The last time he had been here was being fitted for several suit’s both business and otherwise with armoured enhancement by Sir Philip and even then, it had been made plain that this was not a bureau establishment and that it served the needs of very special elite clientele of all types and strived for absolute neutrality.
“Battle armour for a diplomatic duty?” said Master Ancetto with a hint of a smile.
Arthur sighed, rubbing his brow.
“We have been invited to the investiture of a kind of lord before a council of similar lords in a very strange place I only recently learned existed, the lord in question is a former bureau agent called Sanguine.” said a blushing Arthur.
Master Ancetto smiled for the first time in front of Arthur, the corners of his mouth drew back very wide exposing fangs, his eyes, once milky grey, turned a startling sky blue as he rose a foot from the ground floating mid-air.
“You are attending the investiture of a lord of the depths?” said the now floating master Ancetto before a shocked Arthur.
“Yes.” Arthur replied nervously realising very quickly the signs of a grey stood before him.
“Then it is good that YOU came here to me, I was born of the depths and until recently I was exiled… recent changes have altered this… I have to say you are going to see wonders I long to see again, I am jealous but my duties tie me to this place a while longer.” Said the grinning telepathic vampire in front of them.
Leading them through another door they found themselves in an armourer’s workshop equal to any in imperial space they had seen with both power armour and lighter armoured garments being worked upon by a plethora of people both grey and rather obviously cyborgs.
The man performing servo maintenance on the power armour had multiple mechanical limbs extending spider-like from his back and even a multi-lensed prosthetic eye on his right-side which swivelled all three mechanical eyes to look at these new arrivals.
“As you can see, we create all manner of attire from heavy powered armour,” remarked master Ancetto as he gestured to the spider mechanic as he resumed his work, “to the finer and more flexible protection.” He said gesturing to a suit not unlike Arthurs which was having flexible polymer armour inserts applied.
“But this is all what one would consider as commonplace for the surface world.” He said as a black cube floated up beside him then, morphed into a suit of insectile armour around the body of master Ancetto… “You will be needing finer attire in the depths.”
IIIIIIIIIIIIII
Ixion OST, Across the void
Bellaluna watched as one of the Sanguine’s sparred with Zilyana.
One of the older one’s was sat beside her at her table sipping tea as they perused the options available from master Ancetto’s armourer’s.
They were sat within a glass roofed garden, the environment inside was absolutely not one you would ever see on the surface of earth, the dark red barked trees throbbed with bioluminescence between their scaled bark as their shimmering jewel like obsidian crystal leaves tingled and rang like crystal glass windchimes as they swayed in the breeze created by the room’s climate controls.
This was what the Ancetto clan called their hidden jewel, a garden made of depth’s native plants and a few insects in its center was a sparring ground for customers to acquaint themselves with their armour’s properties.
Bellaluna examined the possibilities available and found that many options were familiar to her thanks to the prevalence for noble families to outfit their daughters with Exo armour.
Only these suits were not the nine to ten feet tall armoured behemoth suits she knew, these were skin tight suits of biopolymer synthetic muscle synchronized directly to the user’s nervous systems through either telepathic or cybernetic means.
They self-repaired and maintained themselves and acted as a combination of life support system and power armoured combat body glove amplifying the wearers speed endurance and reaction times by a factor of two while allowing Exo levels of raw strength and physical power.
All while incorporating multiple strange biological systems requiring specialised “bio-ports” to be installed to allow the suit to interact symbiotically with its wearer's anatomy allowing it to sustain the host without water or food in the depths for months by recycling their sweat and waste.
Setting everything to its most basic Bellaluna took stock of what she could estimate to be the bare bones of a basic depths soldier.
It was an army of five-to-six-foot bio-armoured soldiers able to live for months without food water or resupply all while being able to jog at speeds near to that of Terran cheetahs, go toe to toe against Exo’s in hand to hand while being faster and smaller, and be able to self-triage when wounded, as the suit was designed if a limb was severed to seal the wound and assist its host in growing a new limb?
And that was the basic model.
“Sanguine?” she asked getting the attention of both the fully grown man beside her and the boy sparring with Zilyana.
“Got you!” exclaimed Zilyana proudly as she held the blade near Sanguine 1898’s neck.
Chink ! ….. That sound made Zilyana’s eyes drop to find a blade poised to do something drastic to her crotch.
“Shit.” Was all she could say to that.
Then the boy did something that made her freeze in shock, he leaned his cheek against her blade and without a single sign of pain opened an inch deep gash up on his cheek.
Then moving away from the blade, he pressed his fingers to the side of the wound pulling it open so she could see into it as with a mental effort he made the flesh seal and mend, the sight making her shudder in revulsion.
1898 nodded, sighing before he said.
“Flesh sculptors and their ilk are infamously capable of surviving decapitation, for next time if you are poised to cleave one open young Zilyana, have something like an incendiary grenade ready to shove deep inside the wound when you do as in their haste to heal, they will seal the flesh around it creating a much worse wound when the grenade detonates.” Said the boy clone in an aloof tone.
Zilyana snarled in offense but a faint growl from the older Sanguine beside Bellaluna caught her attention, and reminded her that yes this was but a boy in front of her, but it was also the weakest part of Sanguine and as such the least challenging one for Zilyana to fight.
“What did you want Bellaluna?” asked the older clone 818 beside her returning his focus to the interior mistress as the two in the ring resumed their practice.
Handing him her omni-slate she asked.
“Is this a good approximation of the basic depths soldier?”
Sanguine perused the screen with his eyes, the faint smirk on his face and the raising of an eyebrow told her that he had found her assumption amusing.
“For scav teams and tunnel runners yeah, proper city patrol wear,” he tapped several options then showed her the screen again, “this.” He said, showing a much heavier suit.
Bellaluna took back her slate and looked over the selections that Sanguine had put in, several options were highlighted as needing special licenses to acquire but the resulting armour was closer to power armour to her eyes with heavy plate armour requiring extensive mechanical articulation and amplified muscular systems bringing it closer to being something between an Exo and the baseline bio armour she had chosen.
“This is for the police?” she said with some incredulity.
“That bio-suit you showed me in terms of ease of acquisition akin to a basic Kevlar vest,” he said then handed her his slate, “For proper military assaults you would want the depths call a nomad suit which is what’s on that slate.”
Looking down at what was on her slate the resulting suit was much sleeker than the heavily plated police suit but the price was close to ten times more and resulted in a matte black suit heavier than the basic bio-suit but the list of extras said a lot.
Full NBC countermeasures rated for minimum two years survival time in contaminated environments under a mixture of biological toxic and radiological hazards.
In-built bio-support allows the suit to digest inedible substances to sustain its host, including the extraction of oxygen from ingested materials and water to allow the host to survive in environments with minimal to no atmosphere for extended periods.
In-built suit support mind and thus also its own barriers to allow it to shield itself, which required either the host be psychic or the installation of a neural symbiote on the hosts spine to ensure the suit can always remain in contact with the host.
Integrated pig plasma pulse guns in the bracers, retractable monofilament blades and claws and reinforced synth muscle and armour allowing for nearly four times the power of a police suit.
Bellaluna could feel her eyebrows going higher and higher, you could almost say she suspected them of trying to emigrate over her scalp to flee down her neck.
“How fucking dangerous is it down there?” said Bellaluna with a noticeable squeak in her voice at the shocking details of this virtual Exo that the depths considered a standard line solider.
Sanguine again smiled but it quickly faded away as he said.
“You sent salvage expeditions to Mars, full marine detachments, all manner of advanced digging equipment even tried to use some orbital fire to blast your way down below the surface.” He stated staring at her intently, this was not a question, this was a statement.
“Tiamat’s children are nothing if not tireless, so I will only say on that matter that they are not cruel, any trespasser would have died quickly, cruelty is a trait only found in the more human breeds of tyrant bio-forms.” He remarked with a melancholy smirk.
“Most if not all of them are a misguided bureau attempt to domesticate and weaponize things commonly found in the various bio-domes residing below, there are all manner of different environments across the universe preserved down there.”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a packet of settock nuts judging by the picture on the packet, which were something native to the shil’vati home-world, only these were in a packet daubed in a language she did not recognise.
“You call them settock nuts, I grew up calling them Kalzee and eating them as part a traditional meal in the depths called Ahrical,” the look of confusion on Bellaluna’s face spurred him into expanding his description, “The basic sauce is kind of a sweet red gravy like what you would expect of the human sweet and sour chicken, like a lot of grey cooking it has finely ground up iron rust powder mixed in the sauce but you can get it without.” Bellaluna’s face became more confused.
“The meat and nuts are simmered in this sauce on a low heat over several hours till cooked, then the sauce left to cool overnight, the next day sliced fresh fruit and vegetables are added and mixed with the cold sauce, its eaten with Sahsan a kind of salty cone shaped biscuit bread about cob or bun size that I would describe as halfway between naan bread and a tortilla with a soft inner side and a crispy outside that’s like a tortilla,” he remarked.
“You use the bread like a spoon to scoop up the Ahrical eating both as you go, it’s only the non-psychics down there that use cutlery.” He said smiling as he pointed to one of the Ancetto armourers sat eating his evening meal in the garden, a chunky reddish soup using small cones telekinetically to scoop up the bowls contents.
“Ahrical?” she asked Sanguine.
“No, that's something more common up here, beef bolognaise with pasta shells, but the bread is Sahsan.” He replied.
It was at this point that the small packet of settock nuts leapt off the table and an old man in a finely crafted suit of chitinous armour snaffled half the bag greedily.
“Kalzee,” he said with a blissful voice through a half full mouth as he savoured the nuts, “Can we have more of these brought up with the armour material shipments, I would pay their weight in gold for more of these.” Said an uncharacteristically uncouth Master Ancetto as his escorting cadre of four shil’vati and a single male human customer looked at him oddly.
Sanguine laughed before pointing to Bellaluna and saying.
“Sahngah those nuts grow on the shil homeworld,” he said to the old grey armourer, “they’re a common snack food, they sell in the vending machines on their bases.” He said with a toothy grin.
Master ‘Sahngah’ Ancetto looked to Bellaluna expectantly saying.
“You have Kalzee on your world?” he said with an odd intensity.
“Settock nuts,” said a bemused Bellaluna, “commonly roasted and put in bags with salt and spices.” She said seeing the old man’s eyes light up during her explanation.
Then the master looked at Sanguine and said rather excitedly.
“Mahak-sa Sanguine, do you know of any other foods they have that I might recognise?” he asked the seated clone 818.
“Mahak-sa?” said the lone confused human that had been accompanying the old master armourer.
Sanguine rose from his seat and approached the human smiling, he was well aware of this human, and what he really was under his genteel appearance.
“You must be Arthur Gwydion,” he stated crossing his arms and staring oddly intensely into the human’s eyes, “Mahak-sa is an honorific, a title it means that I am in essence I am a king, khan or emperor of one of the cities or domains of the depths, at least I will be officially soon.”
Arthur to his credit caught on quickly.
“So, you’re that Sanguine, the one who we are to escort down there as part of the delegation.” He said, taking a slight step back with what looked to be a nervous smile.
Sanguine 818 all six foot eight of him stared down at Arthur, his red on blue eyes glinting from his ashen white face, his grin framed by his white beard.
The dragon’s boon had brought more of the wolf out in him resulting in him being taller and more muscular with snow white hair on cream white skin… that this also caused slight grey speckling on the roots of his changed black horns was a little odd.
“Mahak-sa Sanguine Nah’gratha Mourdin, Grandson of the Ancient of Ahrama’geidahn Aihbael Nah’gratha Mourdin who is brother to the Gorr Mah’kjan,” he said seeing the evident confusion.
“Gorr Mah’kjan means the god king of the depths Kain Reish Mouridin, the one who swept the dead sea crater clean with a wave of reanimated dead.” Said Sanguine with a little hint of a smirk.
The way all five of them froze in apparent fright like a deer in headlights at that detail summoned a chuckle out of Sanguine.
Still for all his amusement his mind’s full attention was elsewhere, dealing with more important matters than this.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Darktide OST, Main theme
Tanis was a male Exo pilot in the shil’vati military which was a rarity but also, he was a single male pilot without a wife bound to him which was even rarer and his team were part of the support Exo’s of the local insurgent suppression unit tasked with keeping Massachusetts relatively calm and maintain it as a yellow zone.
It had begun as a raid of a suspected insurgent base at a mansion in a small town called Innsmouth, the brief had mentioned something about a cult, add in the area according to the marines muttered rumors being oddly infamous for lots of sightings of strange mutant fish monsters apparently, sightings which the incumbent regional government apparently had suppressed prior to the empire’s arrival for reasons unknown.
As they struck the marines storming in it quickly became apparent to her that more was going on, her unit commander Searsa kept switching comms channels, obviously their noble captain had been keeping details from them as shortly after the marines stormed in the shrill screams and shouts of ghastly horror filled the open coms as echoing the las-fire took up a cadence only heard during moments of sheer extremes, frantic fully automatic the fall back of the desperate and terrified.
The sounds of Las-Fire rattled out from inside the mansion punctuated by screams and strange gurgling roars as the unit commander started shouting into her coms, the words muffled and unintelligible under her Exo Armour's closed visor.
“What the fuck is making that noise?” Tanis asked and the commander whirled on him, a rebuke plainly mere moments from utterance.
Only for the screams and las-fire to stop, this shifted everyone's attention to the mansion’s doors.
Whispered chants oozed out of the air hissing and uttered in barely pronounceable mantras, the very shadows around them seemed to move with odd sinister momentum.
Then the mansion's doors slid open and a sea of darkness lay within, Tanis could feel something writhing within that inky depth but his ears alerted him to an odd silence.
Turning he beheld a true nightmare, monstrous things half fish half human assailed the marines in total silence, their screams and las-fire completely silent all sound lacking as marines were eviscerated and monsters devoured them alive.
Turning Tanis opened fire and in an instant all the riotous noise of the world came back.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” bellowed his commander in shock as the sudden return of sound snapped her out of whatever fugue had gripped her.
The rest of the unit took moments longer to regain their senses, moments enough for one of the monsters to grab a hold of a team mate called Kaunt, the monsters skin rippled under shredding las repeater fire but still it heaved and tore open her armour to thrust its maw inside to get at the pilot.
Tanis acted stepping forth he drove his armour’s fist flat like a blade into its ribs and with a sucking squelch tore out its insides before pushing it off Kaunt, but she was already dead.
Turning he hosed down a mass of swirling something that moved out of the corner of his eye and bellowed to his commander.
“We need to move!” but she stood visor open staring at him like she was drunk as a swirling tendril of shadows curled round her and touched her face, Searsa a woman barely a year older than himself let out a strangled groan as before Tanis’s horrified eyes the years passed in seconds and she withered away inside her armour.
The other women were similarly dumbstruck and barely moving, snaking shadows binding their feet as they stood immobile and insensate.
“DEMON!” roared a man’s voice and a blast of blinding white light rocked the mansion's doorway.
Around them had appeared soldiers clad in silver armour carrying blades that crackled with eldritch energy and guns that spat globs of blinding light that left after images in Tanis’s vision.
Thanks to Tanis’s cursory examination of this world’s history, he recognised something of these warrior’s armour and stylings, these were knights? And if their armour and cruciform symbology was anything to go by these were some forms of paladins.
There in the doorway one of them struggled with a figure that was as much a shadow as it was possibly a human being, snapping lightning exposed their struggles amidst that living darkness inside the house.
Tanis did the only thing that seemed to make sense after all of this he levelled his repeater on that shadow and fired.
Pulsed laser fire was swallowed by the darkness but a hissing roar of anger emerged, its attention shifted to Tanis and he felt something horrifying reaching for him but the paladin was on it fast cleaving down through its skull with one blade while another was driven into its chest.
In one lurching moment the shadows dispersed leaving the paladin stood blades pinning a withered old corpse.
Across the battlefield that had been the mansion's lawn the monsters broke and fled running back towards the mansion as the marines and what little of the Exo’s snapped from their fugue and opened fire on their fleeing assailants.
But then the ground heaved and rumbled, the paladins leapt back as the mansion collapsed into a chasm that had apparently been below it?
A shuddering growl rumbled in the air and ripples of that same unnatural darkness oozed out from the pit now exposed as up from it rose what to Tanis’s shocked eyes was a miniature black hole.
An orb of utter darkness as a big as a small ship tore free of the ground swirling mist like shadows cloaked it as the monsters hurled themselves towards its surface their flesh as they got close liquifying and becoming an orbiting ring of wailing meat around the orb which spat jets of steaming ichor out towards them.
One jet swallowed up a group of marines near Tanis and in moments their armour and flesh just dissolved leaving behind steaming bones.
“EVADE! … PULL BACK … EVADE!” roared Tanis and what little of his fellows not still gripped in fugue obeyed and fled, but the paladins stood their ground.
He saw some carrying large egg-shaped things tangled in roots towards the orb, his ponderings answered as he saw one hurled at the ominous thing, it crackled with energy as it drew close sticking to its surface there was a howling shriek as more were hurled onto its surface.
Finally, as it orbited with dozens of these things stuck to its surface the blasted orb just dropped back into its hole whatever dark power once animating it spent.
Still the paladins did not rest, more of those egg-like things were brought forth as well as lengths of massive chains as big as those you would anchor a ship with their surfaces etched with symbols that seemed to make Tanis’s eyes itch as he looked at them.
As they swarmed into the chasm Tanis could hear shrieking wails and screams that shook him to his core, moving to the chasms edge he stared down to see that they were chaining up and binding this thing lashing it to a frame they were building around it with the kind of haste one expects only with plentiful practice.
“All units form up and arrest those men!” bellowed the voice of their noble captain across the comms, turning Tanis surveyed the remnants of their force, barely a handful remained, many were horribly mauled by either the monsters or being caught by the acidic sprays, many more were simply catatonic in shock and were either stood or sat staring into empty space as if still entranced by the dispersing fugue.
The rest were rushing about trying to tend to the wounded or take stock of what the hell had just happened, even the Exo’s pride of the shil’vati military were stumbling broken and still in shock.
“I said Arrest those men!” bellowed the captain now outside of her mobile command unit pointing to the nearest paladin.
Tanis coughed as he stifled a laugh at the looks of incredulity passing across the marines, they knew that they had just been saved by these knights and the look of hesitation was evident everywhere Tanis looked.
“I SAID!” she roared, only for a bolt of lightning to snap out and reduce her in an instant to just a greasy smear of cooked meat and tattered armour.
One of the paladins was floating towards the MCU, his armour crackling with electricity as his eyes glowed like small suns through the slits of his visor.
The armoured vehicle peeled open under invisible forces and her command staff were plucked out and thrown to the ground beside the still steaming remains of the captain.
“Your captain was commanded by her own betters to stand aside and leave this matter to us, and she ignored this, her officers knew what they were facing and thought themselves prepared.”
As one of the captain’s lieutenants snapped off several bolts of las-fire at the floating paladin from her side arm they impacted a bubble of energy around him, the shots fizzling to nothing.
In a flash he hurled towards them the first he touched his fingers to her brow and she just evaporated in a spray of blue, ducking and twirling out of the way of the seconds wild firing she erupted into flames with a gesture.
The third tried to shoot herself, the pistol aimed up at her own skull swatted out of her hand in the last moment telekinetically the paladin clapped his hands together and the woman officer simply imploded.
Number four the one who had shot at him when he had been floating dropped her pistol.
“You were her sister trusted by the generals and admirals to keep your hot-headed sister in line.” Snarled the paladin as he produced an omni-slate from his armour.
“This is a warrant of execution for this woman, signed by six of this world’s ruling nobles… In ancient times when warriors failed so severely on this world they were made into a severe example, some were even given the honour to hurl themselves on their own swords to answer for their shame.” Said the paladin.
He removed his helm revealing a snow-white face with luminous blue eyes and black curved horns on his brow, as a long mane of startling white hair whipped about in an eldritch breeze.
“I am not as merciful to those who defy me!” he hissed as his mouth opened far too wide for a human revealing a set of very sharp canine teeth more akin to the mouth of a dog or very large cat.
He shot forward driving his fist into her guts folding the officer in half as she shot off her feet showing the force of the blow.
She begged, she pleaded but no one tried to help her as this supernaturally empowered man beat her savagely finally ending her by driving his thumbs into her eye sockets.
Tanis had been inching closer by the minute as he and everyone else watched this sentence be passed, the warrant and its signatures visible on their head up displays for every marine around them.
Finally, as Tanis drew close enough, he popped open his visor and simply asked.
“Who the fuck are you, and what in the deep minders barnacle ridden salty clam hole is going on?”
The paladin turned to him revealing a youthful if angularly gaunt face which smiled.
“I am Sanguine 984 hunter of demons and monsters,” he said with obvious mirth, “to you this will be one of the most confounding and horrible days of your life…… to me it’s just another FUCKING Tuesday doing my job.” He said as the other paladins pulled that dark orb out of the chasm by the chains, that faint agonised whine now a faint whisper, the very sight of that thing made Tanis’s eyes twitch.
“HEY!” barked the one calling himself Sanguine, to focus their attention on him, “not a good idea to stare at it like that, just try and ignore it until the transport arrives, staring at it will fry your brain cells and make you a mindless shell.” He said gesturing to one of the catatonic marines.
With that the paladin took a rag from his pocket and started to wipe the blood and viscera from his gauntlets saying.
“Stare too long causes brain burn, hollows you out, nothing left of your memories or mind, just a still breathing corpse with enough brain not turned to mush to keep the organs ticking but little else.”
Tanis looked to the many catatonic marines staring blankly into space, a cold horrified dread welling up inside at the sight of the living dead around them.
Next
2023.05.26 12:00 joslemmons Free For All Friday - Open Discussion Thread
This thread is designed for weekly Off-Topic Discussion in /Panthers.
Talk about your plans for the weekend, other teams, your dog, your job, whatever.
Nothing is off limits. Well, except NSFW pictures of jcoxrocks' mom, but that's just because of reposting rules.
Try to avoid controversial topics such as politics, religion, etc. Sub rules on harassment and/or hate speech will still apply (unless the discussion is regarding the New England Patriots or people who drive slow in the fast lane.)
This thread will occur every week for your enjoyment but please, do not forget that the Falcons blew a 25 point lead in Super Bowl 51.
submitted by joslemmons to panthers [link] [comments]
Talk about your plans for the weekend, other teams, your dog, your job, whatever.
Nothing is off limits. Well, except NSFW pictures of jcoxrocks' mom, but that's just because of reposting rules.
Try to avoid controversial topics such as politics, religion, etc. Sub rules on harassment and/or hate speech will still apply (unless the discussion is regarding the New England Patriots or people who drive slow in the fast lane.)
This thread will occur every week for your enjoyment but please, do not forget that the Falcons blew a 25 point lead in Super Bowl 51.
2023.05.26 04:22 AgreeableCheetah29 🦴 Slow Feeder Dog Bowls: A Smart Feeding Solution - BrightMindWiki
 | submitted by AgreeableCheetah29 to u/AgreeableCheetah29 [link] [comments] |
2023.05.26 03:06 Proletlariet Smallville Superman Saved
Respect Superman, The Man of Steel
Born Kal-El of Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lara sent him to Earth to save him from his doomed planet. Found by Johnathan and Martha Kent, Clark Kent was raised to help others and use his powers for good. Starting out as an opportunistic hero, the trials he went through gradually turned him into Superman, the world's greatest hero.
Name(s): Kal-El, Clark Kent, The Blur, Superman
Family: Jor-El (Biological Father), Lara (Biological Mother), Johnathan Kent (Adoptive Father), Martha Kent (Adoptive Mother), Kara Zor-El/Kara Kent (Paternal Cousin), Kon-El/Conner Kent (Clone), Zor-El (Paternal Uncle), Lois Lane (Wife)
Appearance: Red-Blue Blur The Blur, version two Superman suit, version two
- Feats will have a S followed by a number than a E followed by a number in the gif name. So S5E11 means the feat came from season 5 episode 11.
- Comic feats will come from what series or issue they came from which can be found here
- Bolded feats are the best feats are in a category (in my opinion)
Super Strength
Physical/LiftingSuperhuman
- Smashes Greg into concrete and throws Greg across a factory S1E2
- Overpowers Tina, throws her hard enough to break a tombstone, then throws her into a tree S1E4
- At age five he could easily lift 500 pounds S2E1
- Moves a pool table at super speed S2E4
- Throws a man through a warehouse roof and into a RV S4E5
- After Jed pulls Clark underground, he tunnels through the Earth and beats up Jed S6E9
- Tosses Brainiac through a barn and a well S7E15
- Overpowers Kara and later on catches her punch S7E2/E4
- Shatters a block of ice after being frozen S11V2
- Clark is capable of easily moving or lifting cars: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
- Casually lifts a generator. Later on he easily tosses it S1E9
- Spins a Ferris wheel S3E7
- Overpowers a car crusher S3E10
- Smashes through a wall and catches a falling elevator S5E19
- Overpowers Conner S10E16
- According to Martha Clark can bench press a tractor - flashback S1E12
- Eric Summers (who has stolen Clark's powers) flips a truck casually S1E12
- Flips a mobile home S2E1
- Overpowers Byron, who was strong enough to down a helicopter S2E5
- Throws a rock high into the air, lifts a large tree, and then smashes into the ground hard enough to crater it
- Lionel in Clark's body lifts a tractor S4E6
- Superior to Maxima who tossed a car a couple hundred feet into the air S8E4
- Stops a plane from crashing into the Daily Planet S9E21
- Lifts a helicopter S10E4
- Overpowers a truck pulling down a large metal tower then fixes said tower S2E18
- Tosses a tractor miles away. He failed at first because of a solar flare S3E5
- Overpowers a helicopter and rapidly tugs it towards him S5E6
- Stops a runaway train S9E1
- Moves a loaded Semi-Truck S9E3
- Lifts the Daily Planet globe S10E1
- Stops a mag-lev train S11V6
- Saves an airplane S10E22
- Lifts a large cargo ship S11V2
- Stops a falling space craft S11V4
- Tosses a golem made from the Washington Monument S11V5
- Throws a Green Lantern ring past the moon S11V7
- [Pushes Apokolips away from Earth](8j99zq) S10E22
- The feat was noted as being accomplished with ease in Guardian. However it was later noted by Lois and Superman himself that he was high on adrenaline when he preformed the feat V1 & V8
- While at first Apokolips was shown to be similar to Saturn in size, every single follow up appearance has shown it to be closer to Mars in size. So while still impressive, it seems the original size was lowered.
- Kicks Walt through a window and slaps him over ten feet into a wall S1E3
- Casually tosses a gate then punches a stone slab in half S1E4
- Kicks a metal door off of its hinges S1E7
- Palm strikes Sean hundreds of feet into the air S1E5
- Elbows Jeff multiple feet into metal pipes that bend on the impact S1E10
- No sells a baseball bat swing and punches Kyle ten+ feet into a door S1E11
- Karate chops logs in half S1E13
- Punches through the ground and into a coffin S1E20
- Shatters a wooden wall S2E3
- Easily defeats multiple people in a bar fight S2E4
- Shakes a train car S2E19
- Hits Jeremiah with a tree hard enough to break the tree S3E20
- Hits Greg through a brick and concrete wall ~S2E20
- Clashes with Brainiac which shakes the Fortress of Solitude and overpowers him. For reference the Fortress is extremely large S5E8
- Knocks out Lois with a finger tap S5E16
- Rams Titan into a concrete pillar which destroys part of an area and it. Later on he overpowers Titan and smacks him into the ground which shakes the arena and punches Titan into the air with enough force to shake the arena again when he lands S6E17
- Punches Bizarro hard enough to shake a dam and later on they clash hard enough to shake the dam and break a part of it S6E22
- Punches Bizarro through a tree and into a electric tower S7E1
- Punches Bizarro through a dam and into the atmosphere S7E1
- Him and (an enhanced) Lana having sex causes earthquakes S7E7
- Punches Zod pretty far S9E21
- Destroys a window with a thunderclap and later on blow an entire group of apes away with one S11V1/V3
- Throws Cyborg Superman through a wall and punches him through multiple buildings S11V1
- Slams Batman into a concrete wall then body slams him through three thick concrete floors S11V2
- Destroys a truck S11V3
- Black Racer and Superman impacting each other creates a massive light explosion and cause earthquakes when hitting each other S11V3
- Throws Hades from outer space into the Earth S11V5
- Shatter a bunch of windows from the shockwaves of his headbutt S11V6
- Makes a big shockwave when he goes all out against the Omega Monitor S11V9
- Crushes a lock S2E13
- Rips off the roof of a car S1E1
- Casually bends a metal pipe S1E7
- Rips off a metal cover S1E9
- Casually bends multiple steel bars S1E9
- Rips off a hydraulic line and rips apart metal to save Ryan S1E16
- Bends a metal pipe around a man at super speed S2E20
- Stops a falling elevator by grabbing onto a pipe S3E14
- Overcomes the pull of the Phantom Zone S5E1
- Crushes coal into diamond S5E12
- Bends a metal vault door S7E6
- Bends part of a bus roof S8E2
- Crushes a rocket after out-flying it S11V1
Super Speed
Vaguely Fast/FTE- Outruns a bus to school S1E1
- Saves Johnathan from falling onto a bunch of blades S1E2
- Runs and grabs a empty bowl before a teenager hurls S1E8
- Cleans up after a house party S1E8
- After throwing a safe onto a car he runs from the fifth floor of a building to in front of Sam S1E9
- Saves Lex and takes down a gunman without either noticing Clark's movements S1E14
- Catches up to a speeding truck
- Catches Kenny and Johnathan before they hit the ground
- Temporarily outruns an explosion to save Pete S2E13
- Steals a vial at FTE speeds S3E15
- [Moves so fast an entire stadium full of people cannot register his movements and saves Chloe](iszk92) S4E7
- Creates a vortex to get rid of a fire at FTE speeds S4E9/S10E1
- Outruns a energy beam S4E19
- Saves a child from a meteor S4E22
- Runs down a building to save Santa S5E9
- Saves Graham from being hit by a truck S5E20
- When view from a real time PoV he's completely FTE S6E16/S7E16
- Contemplates saving Lex as a canister flies at his face, then actually saves him S6E18
- Saves an actor from a car while both were falling S7E5
- At age 8 he runs to the local library and back before Chloe turns around S8E9
- Saves Cat from an exploding car S10E2
- Moves Cat across Metropolis before she can take a picture S10E5
- Saves Green Arrow from a rocket S11V1
- Grabs a casual Impulse S11V3
- Clark can easily catch and react to bullets: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
- Clark can dodge bullets: 1, 2, 3
- Clark can outrun bullets: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
- Saves Impulse from an electric trap that would trigger if he stopped running for even a millisecond S6E11
- Moves a armored van out of a building without a camera registering the event S10E15
- Runs 425 miles pretty quickly S2E8
- Moves so fast rain slows down to a crawl S2E21
- Runs from Smallville to Metropolis and catches a bullet before it hits Lex S3E3
- Throws a bomb into a well after its detonator is activated but before it explodes S3E15
- Runs across Smallville to save Lana from a bullet after it had been fired S3E16
- Runs from Kansas to the Amazon Rainforest before a storm can end
- Runs from Smallville to Metropolis in around five seconds S5E5
- Outruns the explosion of a bunch of C4 S5E11
- Slaps a bullet after running across a room, outruns a electric bolt of energy, all while moving FTE to two humans S6E15
- Comparable to Bizarro who flew up a building and tossed a piece of C4 in under a second S7E9
- Saves Lois from an exploding rocket S10E7
- Catches dozens of bullets S11V2
- Saves men from an exploding tank S11V5
- Comparable to Brainiac who Lionel claimed can move at near-light speeds S5E8
- Runs from Kansas to Honduras in under ten seconds S5E17
- Runs from Smallville to Vermont and back in under three seconds S7E4
- Moves so fast electricity looks frozen from his view S7E20
- [Runs from Metropolis to Campo Grande in a couple minutes](eoyvzh) S8E3
- Outruns the light of a camera flash S8E7
- Runs from Smallville to the North Pole and does it again later on S8E20/S10E17
- Runs from London to Metropolis in seconds S10E14
- Jumps 10+ feet to slam dunk a basketball S2E3
- Leaps to the LuthorCorp building from the Daily Planet which was over 200 feet away S2E12
- Jumps on a truck S4E16
- Jumps on a flying ICBM S5E3
- Jumps to the top of the Fortress of Solitude S5E12
- Jumps across a couple of streets with Lois S6E13
- Leaps tall buildings in a single bound: 1, 2, 3
- Jumps out of a city with Doomsday and smashes it into a geothermal plant S8E22
- Flies from Smallville to Egypt S4E1
- Saves Lana S7E5
- Clark sees his future self contain a nuclear detonation by flying around it S10E4
- Flies from orbit to ground multiple times in seconds S11V1
- Flies from Metropolis to Mexico without Lex noticing S11V3
- Flies across the United States twice in seconds S11V5
- Flies to a Green Lantern ring which moves pretty fast S11V7
- Flies to Parallax who was located in another space sector, which are typically multiple solar systems or galaxies apart. S11V7
- Martian Manhunter who flew from Earth to the Sun in seconds S8E1
- Supergirl who can rapidly fly into outer space and flew from [Kandor back to Earth](5mujsw) within two years (Krypton is 23 Galaxies away from Earth) S7E15/S10E3/S8E8
- Bizarro who flew from Mars to Earth in a short amount of time S7E10
- Swims fast to save Troy S2E6
- Gets ahead of Aquaman S5E4
Invulnerability
Blunt Force- Completely fine after being hit by a car through a road railing S1E1
- The car was moving at 60 miles per hour
- Fine after being rammed through concrete by a truck S1E1
- Greg hits him across a factory S1E2
- Greg is strong enough to flip cars
- Gets hit with a metal rod hard enough to be sent through a tombstone S1E4
- No sells a bus smashing into him S1E9
- Byron slaps him dozens of feet into a shed, destroying it S2E5
- Falls hundreds of feet onto the ground and is fine S2E9
- A boulder shatters when it hits him S2E10
- Gets pounded on by Eric while possibly weakened by Kryptonite and later tanks him smashing a concrete slab on his head S2E20
- Withstands Holly's acid touch which can eat through steel and takes a building collapsing on top of him
- Knives shatter when they hit him, overpowers four men, jumps out of an airplane and lands on the ground with no damage
- Falls over sixty stories into a generator, slams the ground hard enough to shake a underground complex, then gets rammed through concrete column S3E2
- No sells a car smashing into him at 80 MPH S3E8
- No sells a giant slab of concrete smashing into him S4E17
- Tanks a tractor being smashed into him S5E21
- Zod tackles him miles away, rams him into the ground, throws Superman into a tree, smashes him into a boulder, pounds on him for a bit, then throws him through a forest S6E1
- Aldar tosses Clark into a crane but it doesn't harm him S6E8
- Titan hits him multiple times with enough force to shake an arena and break a concrete pillar S6E17
- Gets punched through two pillars S6E21
- Bizarro rams into him hard enough to shake a dam, punches him into a generator, and off-screen delivers a hit that effects the surrounding area S6E22
- Gets smashed through a thick concrete pillar by an amped Bizarro S7E1
- Sent flying through a forest by Kara S7E2
- Sent through a concrete wall by Faora and falls on a van S8E8
- Punched through a building by Doomsday S8E22
- Punched through multiple skyscrapers and punched into the ground by Cyborg Superman S11V1
- After being weakened by red sunlight he gets punch across concrete by Batman and gets hit with a large explosion S11V2
- Withstands multiple attacks from Doomsday 2.0. This fight damaged New Krypton which is a planet sized ship S11V4
- A wood chipper can't break his skin S1E1
- A grain harvester's blade bends when he falls on them S1E2
- A knife shatters when it hits him. Also a strength feat S1E6
- While weakened by kryptonite a spiked mace shatters when it hits him S1E10
- Superman is shown to be bulletproof on multiple occasions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
- A chainsaw shatters when it hits him S1E19
- An ax shatters when it hits him S2E7
- Blocks multiple sword swings from Trent who previously chopped through a tombstone S4E2
- Scissors break trying to cut his hair S4E8
- A close range car explosion doesn't do much to him S1E2
- A explosion that destroys a shed doesn't harm Clark S1E18
- No sells a truck explosion while inside the truck S1E21
- Unharmed from an explosion
- Tanks a point blank dynamite and blasting cap explosion
- Tanks a point blank explosion that turns people to ash and damages a building
- Survives a point blank explosion from his ship S2E23
- A explosion that destroys a semi-truck doesn't phase him S3E2
- Shields a man from an explosion that destroys a barn
- Survives Evan's death explosion. Previously one of his explosions made a 30 foot crater S4E20
- Survives the shockwave of a nuclear weapon and orbital reentry S5E3
- Plastique's explosion wave bounces off of him. Previously her explosion destroyed a bus and shook a city block S8E2
- No sells a point blank dynamite explosion S9E4
- Survives explosion that destroys a military base while weakened by Kryptonite S10E9
- Shields Lex from a city collapsing explosion S11V6
- Survives a monitor ship exploding. As a note Monitor tech can harm Superman S11V6
- Resist Jeremy's electric pulse. Also a speed feat S1E1
- His electric shocks are capable of throwing people multiple feet away and cracking glass
- Withstands a lightning bolt S1E12
- Immune to Walt's fire powers S1E3
- Survives Walden's energy blasts S2E22
- Nam-Ek and Aethyr's heat vision doesn't notably hurt him and previously that easily destroyed helicopters, cars, and made some pretty large craters S5E1
- Withstands Baern's energy blast, which previously disintegrated a human S6E6
- An electric stun-gun that can instantly stop a person's heart doesn't effect Clark S6E15
- No sells Conner's heat vision which can burn through barns S10E16
- No sells Supergirl's heat vision. Supergirl can down massive ships with her heat vision S11V4
- Withstands blasts from Eclipso who can destroy airplanes and helicopters with its beams S11V8
- When he regains his powers he rapidly heals from a cut S1E12
- Rapidly heals from Tyler's touch. Tyler can rapidly turn humans into ash piles by touching them S1E17
- Rapidly heals after being thrown into a blast furnace while weakened by Kryptonite. Also a strength and durability feat S2E20
- Heals from a bullet wound when kryptonite is removed S3E3
- Once a blow torch destroys his kryptonite-blinded eyes, he begins to regenerate new eyes S3E10
- Comes out of the scare toxin, which is something no one else was capable of doing without an antidote S4E10
- His hands rapidly heal after being cut S6E3
- [Rapidly heals after being stabbed through the chest by a giant spike](g8il8w) S6E3
- Once Kryptonite is removed from his presence he instantly heals a massive chest wound S7E19
- [Heals from deep burn wounds](m3qz7h) S10E6
- Heals after being stabbed in the heart S11V7
- When Clark gets his future read both people see him outliving everyone else around him S1E6/S3E12
Heat Vision
- Heats up Lois and Jimmy S7E17
- When he first unlocks his heat vision he lights a screen on fire, lights part of the Talon on fire, and when practicing with his powers he lights a scarecrow on fire S2E2
- Vaporizes a bullet S2E2
- Easily lights a truck on fire S2E18
- Destroys a police car S3E1
- Melts a section of asphalt S3E7
- Vaporizes a bullet before it hits Lana
- Melts part of a water tower while in super speed S3E21
- Downs a helicopter S4E2
- Lights a bunch of hay bales on fire S4E6
- Heats up a bunch of vials to 1,000 degrees Kelvin S4E10
- Counters a man who can turn into sand S4E12
- After Lana gains Clark's powers she vaporize a vampire. Later on its mentioned by Chloe he can incinerate humans S5E5/E10
- Cuts a small hole in Chloe's shoulder S6E15
- Kills a giant monster S11V5
- One shots a bunch of Manhunters S11V7
- Overpowers Wes' force field. An earlier model of the same super-soldier took the equivalent of a mini-nuke to breach S6E21
- Vaporizes a tidal wave while in super speed S7E1
- Destroys two skyscrapers S9E13
Super Breath
- Blows a barn door seven miles away S6E2
- Causes an air draft in the Daily Planet S6E2
- Blows a steel vault door off of its hinges S6E2
- Blows out a fire S6E2
- Blows away some clouds S6E2
- Destroys a wall S8E5
- Causes a snow storm over Oregon S9E17
- With Zod he freezes Metallo S9E17
- [When Lois gains Clark's powers she stops a flood off screen](t17sm8) S10E20
- Stops fuel fire on a space shuttle S11V1
- Instantly freezes a man and a group of soldiers S11V2/V4
Super Senses
Telescopic Vision- Finds Lana in the woods S3E4
- Zooms in on a earring S4E9
- With a telescope he sees two comets collide S4E16
- Zooms in on a person's hand S10E14
- Scans an entire base S11V5
- Sees a falling pod from orbit S11V9
- When trying to find Jeff he taps into the ultraviolet spectrum S1E10
- After fully unlocking his powers he can see in the Gamma and Infrared spectrum S11V1
- Has thermal vision S11V2
- Sees Tina's skeleton system S1E4
- Sees through Pete's skin. Then looks through concrete walls and metal pipes the girl's locker room S1E4 NSFW
- Sees through a locker and a backpack S1E4
- Looks through a safe S1E9
- Looks through a vault door S1E13
- Zooms in on a wooden beam to find a bullet S2E13
- Scans Cyborg's body S5E15
- [Limits] His X-Ray vision is incapable of seeing through dense material like lead: 1 2
- Hears Chloe's conversation while on the opposite side of the school and his parents talking while in another building S3E10
- Hears Lois and Lucy's conversation in the back of a semi-truck while on a bridge S4E16
- [Hears Graham's heartbeat](2dyzve) S5E20
- [According to Clark him and Kara can hear things for miles](156w1f) S7E2
- Can detect Kara's voice when a computer couldn't after a dozen tries S7E20
- Hears a bomb tick at the roof of the Daily Planet while on the ground floor S8E14
- Can hear a dog barking from ten miles away S8E15
- Hears Chloe screaming in Edge City when he's in Metropolis S8E22
- Heard Lois' speech in orbit S11V1
- Can tell if a person's lying from their heartbeat S11V2
- Listens to the Earth while in orbit S11V6
- Can apparently hear Tectonic Plates shifting S11V8
- Does some quick math S1E5
- Chloe notes he has a freakishly good memory S1E10
- Chloe says he has never forgotten anything S7E10
- Can rapidly learn langues and is shown to know Hindi and Japanese
Resistances
Physical- Resist Sean's heat drain S1E5
- Sean can freeze fire and humans with his heat drain
- Immune to Geoff's powers which can paralyze people with a touch S4E13
- Immune to Brendan's powers which turn people to wax S4E21
- Withstands the bleed which destroys anything it touches S11V8
- Resists being rebooted by Blue Bleed energy S11V9
- Resist Bob Rickman's handshake S1E11
- [Bob Rickman can make people kill themselves with his power](euqr6)
- Ryan can't read Clark's mind S1E16
- Desirée can't control Clark with her pheromone powers S2E2
- Is immune to Chloe's powers which forces everyone to tell her the truth S3E18
- Psimon can't read his mind S11V3
Skill
- Throws a bowling ball through a wall and into a man's chest S1E16
- Sinks a basket from a pretty far distance S2E3
- Throws a football at a wooden bucket from pretty far away S4E6
- Throws a knife into Brainiac S5E22
- KO's a shadow man with a tire S8E6
- Knocks a man out with a can S9E12
- After training with Jor-El he learned Martial Arts S9E1
- After training with Jor-El he won't kill humans by sleeping with them S9E15
Weaknesses
- Kryptonite
- Red Sun Radiation: Energy in the red sun spectrum can weaken and eventually depower Clark, since his body cannot process its low energy into his super powers.
- Magic: Superman has no resistances to magic, meaning he's can be effected as easily as a normal person by it.
2023.05.25 23:27 namistejones Free dog
 | Hello submitted by namistejones to PitBullOwners [link] [comments] We are looking to surrender our 11month old. Pitbull terrier Bolt. He is neutered and tagged, house broken. Has taken a PETSMART 6bweek training course. Bolt comes with medium wire cage, toys, slow feeder water bowl. Shot record is uploadable. |
2023.05.25 23:25 namistejones Free dog
Hello
We are looking to surrender our 11month old. Pitbull terrier Bolt. He is neutered and tagged, house broken. Has taken a PETSMART 6bweek training course. Bolt comes with medium wire cage, toys, slow feeder water bowl. Shot record is uploadable.
submitted by namistejones to DecaturGA [link] [comments]
We are looking to surrender our 11month old. Pitbull terrier Bolt. He is neutered and tagged, house broken. Has taken a PETSMART 6bweek training course. Bolt comes with medium wire cage, toys, slow feeder water bowl. Shot record is uploadable.
2023.05.25 23:13 endofy863 My new dog throwing up his food often
I adopted a dog about 3 months ago and was given some Hills dry dog food to give him. He seemed to like it but would eat very fast and throw up sometimes. I got him an insert to go in his food bowl to slow him down which seemed to help. I also switched to the Hills tiny bites instead of the larger size. He still throws up every so often though. Sometimes he will go for several days without doing it but then throw up for 2 or 3 days-no change to his diet or lifestyle. Is this common for dogs or should I try another food?
submitted by endofy863 to DogAdvice [link] [comments]
2023.05.25 22:40 mrgoalie Trip Report: (5/14-5/21) - 7 days of parks for 6 people
Past few years, when our kids are done with their homeschool studies, we've jetted somewhere for a good week long vacation. We've done WDW with 2 kids in 2013, 3 kids in 2014, and 4 kids in 2018. 2019 we did a "California Adventure", with a few days in LA and a day at Disneyland, and then a NorCal stint to visit family. 2021 we jetted down and did a few days in Clearwater, and then Legoland, and then re-visited Legoland and Universal in December that year. We decided on WDW for 2023 mostly because all the shows were reopened - and we hate trying to battle lines and people the entire time. Didn't do a of reading up on this trip, other than for Genie+.
Couple of things we did differently than on other WDW trips:
1) We made the decision to stay off-site and rent a car. We have done a ton of traveling in the last few years, and my side consulting hustle has exploded in demand in the last couple years as well. Sleeping 6 at a WDW property is not cheap, and we typically only use the room to sleep, not to lounge and relax in during the day. In previous years, we were sort of frustrated with WDW transportation as well. Our previous stays were at Pop Century and Caribbean Beach, which typically had long wait times for transportation both to and from the parks, and the bus stops felt like the furthest away from the park entrance.
2) This would be the first trip we've made without a stroller. In our 2019 Disneyland day, that was done on a whim and we didn't bring a stroller with us, and decided not to rent one for the day and see how it went.
Our typical strategy for keeping things affordable and maximizing our time is to be at the park at rope drop, and then eating one meal that we kept in our backpacks, and another meal in the park. My kids rage in age from 14 down to 7. We decided in advance to do Genie+ for every single day other than our last day.
May 14 - Travel Day
We took a new airline out of our city, Avelo. Total cost with checked bags ended up being about $110 round trip per person. Airport is about 5 minutes from our house, and we breezed through TSA not only because we had precheck, but it's a small airport, so there was about 2 people in front of us when we got to security. We boarded early and took off early because everyone was checked in at around 6:15pm. Arrived in MCO 30 minutes ahead of schedule, picked up our Turo rental, and headed to the Home2 suites we booked on points near the outlet mall and the south I-Drive corridor. Headed to Walmart to pick various grocery items needed for the week. Avelo really was great, and we walked in not expecting much, but the service was really friendly, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
May 15 - Epcot
We originally scheduled to do Epcot first because we didn't think we'd get in on time with the budget airline, or be able to breeze through check-in at the hotel. Originally, we thought we'd be getting groceries and entering the park closer to 10-11a, but instead, we were able to rope drop the park. We got boarding group 16 for Guardians, so we walked there first. Guardians is easily one of the best themed roller coasters I've ever been on 10/10. Enjoyed the entire thing from the standby line to the ride itself. Went and did Mission: Space, made me a little motion sick, my oldest daughter sat out with claustrophobic feelings. Our lightning lane for Remy was right after we got off Guardians, so we booked it back to France to do that. Again, fantastic ride, loved the new ride tech they're using now. Then we double backed to Canada and decided to do the family friendly "eat around the world", so we got a small poutine to share, and watched Far and Wide. Stopped in the UK to visit Mary Poppins for a quick second, got some chips, and then headed back to France for a crepe, and we watched the Beauty and the Beast sing-along. Stopped in Morocco for a kebab, and then got some teriyaki chicken in Japan. Headed to the US section, listened to the choral group, and sat through the animatronic show - and fell asleep a few times. Celebrated with a funnel cake. Then headed to Italy for some gelato, got a pretzel in Germany, and then our lightning lane was good for Frozen. Finished that, got some kind of dessert roll from Norway, and then went to the China pavilion for potstickers, meeting Mulan, and the 360 movie. Went into Mexico, rode the 3 caballeros, and concluded with some tacos and churros. Headed over to the Seas to do the Nemo ride, Turtle Talk, let the kids look at the fish, then went over to Soarin'. We were getting pretty tired at that point, so we scouted a spot outside of the Canada pavilion and sat down for about an hour. Got some glow stuff out that we brought with us, and let the kids do mad-libs and DIY pictionary for the balance of the time. Watched the fireworks and headed back to the hotel. Just over 9 miles of walking that day.
May 16 - Magic Kingdom
Woke up early, got group 36 for Tron, and booked a lightning lane for Peter Pan's flight. Ended up buying an ILL for Mine Train, and rope dropped Space Mountain at the last second - original plan was to rope drop Mine Train, but the ride was down early, so we had to change up our plan. By then my oldest daughter was having a slight anxiety attack over the change, so we did a time-out and did the carousel of progress to hopefully give her a little time to reset. That did not work, and she had a full on anxiety attack as we were entering the virtual queue for Tron. I ended up jumping out of line with her to sit with her, and get her hydrated and some food in her. That helped, and we waited for the rest of the family to finish. Once they were off, they all headed to Laugh Floor, while I went through the Tron line solo. As a lot of other people have commented, the theming for the ride was really well done, but I felt the ride itself was a disappointment because it was too short. I met everyone for our LL for Peter Pan. Walked across to It's a Small World, and then watched Philharmagic. Did a standby line for Enchanted Tales, and then our ILL for Mine Train was next. From there, we did a LL for the Ariel meet & greet, and then rode the Little Mermaid ride in the standby line. Rode the train over to Adventure Land, rode Big Thunder on LL, and then headed over to Magic Carpets, and then the Tiki Room. Got a LL for Pirates. Ate dinner at Pecos Bill's. Walked towards Tomorrowland via Haunted Mansion, then hit the teacups, and then divided and conquered as I took my older kids back to the Laugh Floor, while my younger ones did the speedway. By then our LL for Jungle Cruise was active, so we did that and then went over to Mine Train to walk on it twice while the fireworks were going. Closed out the day heading over to Winnie the Pooh, sat and let the throng of people go down a bit, and headed out of the park around 10:45. Around 11 miles walking total for the day.
May 17 - Hollywood Studios
Another early day. Got a LL for Slinky Dog, and rope dropped Rise, waited about 30 minutes total. Amazing experience all around. Walked up to Toy Story land and did swirling saucers, and then the LL for Slinky Dog. Got a LL for Toy Story Mania, but the track went down for maintenance as we were about to get on (more on that later). Decided to use the freebie LL for Smuggler's Run. Again, amazing experience. Took a break for lunch and blue milk. Went to the Frozen Sing-along, where my daughter decided to yell "puddle", got a LL for Runaway Railway and then went over to Star Tours, and then MuppetVision. By then we realized that technically we used our LL for Toy Story Mania, but never got on the ride, so we visited customer relations, and explained the situation, and they tossed a Toy Story Mania LL back on our party's plan. We took an ice cream break, and headed over to the Indiana Jones show. My wife wanted to do the Edna meet and greet, so we did that, and then finally got on Toy Story Mania. Most of my family concluded the day with dinner at Woody's Lunchbox, and one more trip on Smuggler's Run. One of my older daughters stuck with me in the park until about 9:15 jumping between Rise, Smuggler's, bounty hunting, and Toy Story mania. Another 11 miles walking for the day.
May 18 - Hollywood Studios (Day 2)
Rope dropped Slinky Dog on this day, hopped over to Toy Story Mania, and then went back to Slinky Dog. Swirling saucers, and then TSM again. Took a AC break in the Walt Disney movie, and then went over to the BB8 and Darth Vader meets. Then walked back over to Star Tours, and Smuggler's Run before having lunch at Mama Melrose's. Then did the Beauty and the Beast show, and then the Lightning McQueen racing school show. Had a LL for Runaway Railway, so walked back to the main portion of the park. By then, we wanted to kill time for a little bit, so we exited, and took the skyliner to Epcot and then came back to Hollywood Studios. Re-entered, did Star Tours, and then walked onto Rise. Then walked onto Smuggler's Run and was told that we got a top score by the cast member (didn't get a picture of the score). By then weather was a concern, so we went out and watched the projection show in the rain, rode Runaway Railway again, and then took an ice cream break while Fantasmic was cancelled for the first show, and then waited until about 10:15p until they called the 10:30p show. 10 miles of walking.
May 19 - Magic Kingdom (Day 2)
With all the rope dropping, we opted for a late start on this day. Booked a LL for Peter Pan's flight, and then got into the park around 10:15a, and headed back there. Did It's a Small World right after. Opted to go back onto Little Mermaid, and then got a LL for the FoF parade and had lunch, so we didn't have to fight for seats. Went back to Philharmagic, then did Big Thunder. Took the train over to the splash pad, rode Tron, and then walked to Pinocchio Village Haus for dinner. After that, we did our LL for Jungle Cruise, and then camped out for the fireworks while a subset of kids and my wife went on Space Mountain. Watched the fireworks and headed out. 7.6 miles walked.
May 20 - Animal Kingdom
We never have done either Avatar ride, so we rope dropped Flights (also amazing), and then Navi River. Walked up to Africa for the Lion King show - one of our favorites, and then a LL for the Safari, also one of our favorites. Walked the gorilla trek halfway before we were turned around for work being done. Most of the family went on Kali River Rapids, while I waited, and then we did Everest twice. Took a break for lunch, and then went to the Nemo show, another one of our favorites. Walked back to Africa for one more safari, then called it a day with dinner at Flame Tree BBQ. Went back to the hotel to do laundry and swimming. Ended up taking one of our kids to Disney Springs to hit World of Disney to pick up something that she was eying. 10 miles walked.
May 21 - Epcot (Day 1.5)
Checked out of our hotel, rope dropped Soarin, and then headed to the Seas for Turtle Talk x2, and some fish watching. Did the Joy and Vanellope meets, and then had lunch at Connections before heading out to MCO. My wife did a couple loops of World Showcase buying up some Christmas ornaments for the tree. 5 miles walked.
Overall thoughts
We had a pretty ambitious schedule, and no real huge hiccups. All of our kids really did well and there was minimal complaining about the heat after day 3. Parks were not very busy, and felt dead at times. Confirmed with many CM's that it was very slow that week - Star Wars land was almost a ghost town after 6pm both days we were there. Genie+ really enabled us to make more use of our time, and we got a ton of value for it. However, the ability to NOT be able to select a time further out in the future caused a lot of unnecessary walking and juggling of return times. We often would book one farther out in the future and hit low standby line time rides, but then once we got the first two out of our way, we would just book one and use it pretty much right away. In a way, the system is a lot more fair, and is closer to the MaxPass that Disneyland had when we visited, but we wish we could have the same Genie+ rules apply, but schedule a return time further ahead in the day. We would end up using it on rides that really didn't need LL, just to push our time forward for a ride that you wanted to use LL for that wasn't offering a return time that worked with what we were planning. The regular genie "service" was a joke and we never used it. For a family that has always used Disney on-site transportation, we were shocked at how much time was saved by driving our own vehicle. And by being in the park early, we got great spots and could be in our car about 5 minutes after leaving the park.
Animal Kingdom was by far the most disappointing park. The theming of each area is always been great, but we felt that there wasn't much there to tie it all together anymore. Park needs a ton of work to become magical. We even felt the rewrites of the Nemo show really actually hurt the show than helped it. The characters on the motor boats was laughable. Always felt that the park was very heavy-handed with the environmental message, but it just felt over the top now.
The rest of the parks were great. We didn't encounter any visitors that were giving CM's grief or generally being stupid, and we made sure to give plenty of kindness to the CM's who often get the short end of the stick. Felt really bad for the Kidcot CM for England who lost her voice, but still engaged with us the best she could, and appreciated us telling her to feel better soon. Had a really poor experience with many of the CM's from France, they were particularly rude and were disengaged. Told my wife maybe that's part of the theming of the French being rude to Americans, but I felt it was unnecessary. Our waitress at Mama Melrose's was absolutely a gem, made sure to keep us hydrated to stay out of heat exhaustion trouble, and brought me a kid's dessert since most everyone else at the table had a kid dessert as well.
submitted by mrgoalie to WaltDisneyWorld [link] [comments]
Couple of things we did differently than on other WDW trips:
1) We made the decision to stay off-site and rent a car. We have done a ton of traveling in the last few years, and my side consulting hustle has exploded in demand in the last couple years as well. Sleeping 6 at a WDW property is not cheap, and we typically only use the room to sleep, not to lounge and relax in during the day. In previous years, we were sort of frustrated with WDW transportation as well. Our previous stays were at Pop Century and Caribbean Beach, which typically had long wait times for transportation both to and from the parks, and the bus stops felt like the furthest away from the park entrance.
2) This would be the first trip we've made without a stroller. In our 2019 Disneyland day, that was done on a whim and we didn't bring a stroller with us, and decided not to rent one for the day and see how it went.
Our typical strategy for keeping things affordable and maximizing our time is to be at the park at rope drop, and then eating one meal that we kept in our backpacks, and another meal in the park. My kids rage in age from 14 down to 7. We decided in advance to do Genie+ for every single day other than our last day.
May 14 - Travel Day
We took a new airline out of our city, Avelo. Total cost with checked bags ended up being about $110 round trip per person. Airport is about 5 minutes from our house, and we breezed through TSA not only because we had precheck, but it's a small airport, so there was about 2 people in front of us when we got to security. We boarded early and took off early because everyone was checked in at around 6:15pm. Arrived in MCO 30 minutes ahead of schedule, picked up our Turo rental, and headed to the Home2 suites we booked on points near the outlet mall and the south I-Drive corridor. Headed to Walmart to pick various grocery items needed for the week. Avelo really was great, and we walked in not expecting much, but the service was really friendly, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
May 15 - Epcot
We originally scheduled to do Epcot first because we didn't think we'd get in on time with the budget airline, or be able to breeze through check-in at the hotel. Originally, we thought we'd be getting groceries and entering the park closer to 10-11a, but instead, we were able to rope drop the park. We got boarding group 16 for Guardians, so we walked there first. Guardians is easily one of the best themed roller coasters I've ever been on 10/10. Enjoyed the entire thing from the standby line to the ride itself. Went and did Mission: Space, made me a little motion sick, my oldest daughter sat out with claustrophobic feelings. Our lightning lane for Remy was right after we got off Guardians, so we booked it back to France to do that. Again, fantastic ride, loved the new ride tech they're using now. Then we double backed to Canada and decided to do the family friendly "eat around the world", so we got a small poutine to share, and watched Far and Wide. Stopped in the UK to visit Mary Poppins for a quick second, got some chips, and then headed back to France for a crepe, and we watched the Beauty and the Beast sing-along. Stopped in Morocco for a kebab, and then got some teriyaki chicken in Japan. Headed to the US section, listened to the choral group, and sat through the animatronic show - and fell asleep a few times. Celebrated with a funnel cake. Then headed to Italy for some gelato, got a pretzel in Germany, and then our lightning lane was good for Frozen. Finished that, got some kind of dessert roll from Norway, and then went to the China pavilion for potstickers, meeting Mulan, and the 360 movie. Went into Mexico, rode the 3 caballeros, and concluded with some tacos and churros. Headed over to the Seas to do the Nemo ride, Turtle Talk, let the kids look at the fish, then went over to Soarin'. We were getting pretty tired at that point, so we scouted a spot outside of the Canada pavilion and sat down for about an hour. Got some glow stuff out that we brought with us, and let the kids do mad-libs and DIY pictionary for the balance of the time. Watched the fireworks and headed back to the hotel. Just over 9 miles of walking that day.
May 16 - Magic Kingdom
Woke up early, got group 36 for Tron, and booked a lightning lane for Peter Pan's flight. Ended up buying an ILL for Mine Train, and rope dropped Space Mountain at the last second - original plan was to rope drop Mine Train, but the ride was down early, so we had to change up our plan. By then my oldest daughter was having a slight anxiety attack over the change, so we did a time-out and did the carousel of progress to hopefully give her a little time to reset. That did not work, and she had a full on anxiety attack as we were entering the virtual queue for Tron. I ended up jumping out of line with her to sit with her, and get her hydrated and some food in her. That helped, and we waited for the rest of the family to finish. Once they were off, they all headed to Laugh Floor, while I went through the Tron line solo. As a lot of other people have commented, the theming for the ride was really well done, but I felt the ride itself was a disappointment because it was too short. I met everyone for our LL for Peter Pan. Walked across to It's a Small World, and then watched Philharmagic. Did a standby line for Enchanted Tales, and then our ILL for Mine Train was next. From there, we did a LL for the Ariel meet & greet, and then rode the Little Mermaid ride in the standby line. Rode the train over to Adventure Land, rode Big Thunder on LL, and then headed over to Magic Carpets, and then the Tiki Room. Got a LL for Pirates. Ate dinner at Pecos Bill's. Walked towards Tomorrowland via Haunted Mansion, then hit the teacups, and then divided and conquered as I took my older kids back to the Laugh Floor, while my younger ones did the speedway. By then our LL for Jungle Cruise was active, so we did that and then went over to Mine Train to walk on it twice while the fireworks were going. Closed out the day heading over to Winnie the Pooh, sat and let the throng of people go down a bit, and headed out of the park around 10:45. Around 11 miles walking total for the day.
May 17 - Hollywood Studios
Another early day. Got a LL for Slinky Dog, and rope dropped Rise, waited about 30 minutes total. Amazing experience all around. Walked up to Toy Story land and did swirling saucers, and then the LL for Slinky Dog. Got a LL for Toy Story Mania, but the track went down for maintenance as we were about to get on (more on that later). Decided to use the freebie LL for Smuggler's Run. Again, amazing experience. Took a break for lunch and blue milk. Went to the Frozen Sing-along, where my daughter decided to yell "puddle", got a LL for Runaway Railway and then went over to Star Tours, and then MuppetVision. By then we realized that technically we used our LL for Toy Story Mania, but never got on the ride, so we visited customer relations, and explained the situation, and they tossed a Toy Story Mania LL back on our party's plan. We took an ice cream break, and headed over to the Indiana Jones show. My wife wanted to do the Edna meet and greet, so we did that, and then finally got on Toy Story Mania. Most of my family concluded the day with dinner at Woody's Lunchbox, and one more trip on Smuggler's Run. One of my older daughters stuck with me in the park until about 9:15 jumping between Rise, Smuggler's, bounty hunting, and Toy Story mania. Another 11 miles walking for the day.
May 18 - Hollywood Studios (Day 2)
Rope dropped Slinky Dog on this day, hopped over to Toy Story Mania, and then went back to Slinky Dog. Swirling saucers, and then TSM again. Took a AC break in the Walt Disney movie, and then went over to the BB8 and Darth Vader meets. Then walked back over to Star Tours, and Smuggler's Run before having lunch at Mama Melrose's. Then did the Beauty and the Beast show, and then the Lightning McQueen racing school show. Had a LL for Runaway Railway, so walked back to the main portion of the park. By then, we wanted to kill time for a little bit, so we exited, and took the skyliner to Epcot and then came back to Hollywood Studios. Re-entered, did Star Tours, and then walked onto Rise. Then walked onto Smuggler's Run and was told that we got a top score by the cast member (didn't get a picture of the score). By then weather was a concern, so we went out and watched the projection show in the rain, rode Runaway Railway again, and then took an ice cream break while Fantasmic was cancelled for the first show, and then waited until about 10:15p until they called the 10:30p show. 10 miles of walking.
May 19 - Magic Kingdom (Day 2)
With all the rope dropping, we opted for a late start on this day. Booked a LL for Peter Pan's flight, and then got into the park around 10:15a, and headed back there. Did It's a Small World right after. Opted to go back onto Little Mermaid, and then got a LL for the FoF parade and had lunch, so we didn't have to fight for seats. Went back to Philharmagic, then did Big Thunder. Took the train over to the splash pad, rode Tron, and then walked to Pinocchio Village Haus for dinner. After that, we did our LL for Jungle Cruise, and then camped out for the fireworks while a subset of kids and my wife went on Space Mountain. Watched the fireworks and headed out. 7.6 miles walked.
May 20 - Animal Kingdom
We never have done either Avatar ride, so we rope dropped Flights (also amazing), and then Navi River. Walked up to Africa for the Lion King show - one of our favorites, and then a LL for the Safari, also one of our favorites. Walked the gorilla trek halfway before we were turned around for work being done. Most of the family went on Kali River Rapids, while I waited, and then we did Everest twice. Took a break for lunch, and then went to the Nemo show, another one of our favorites. Walked back to Africa for one more safari, then called it a day with dinner at Flame Tree BBQ. Went back to the hotel to do laundry and swimming. Ended up taking one of our kids to Disney Springs to hit World of Disney to pick up something that she was eying. 10 miles walked.
May 21 - Epcot (Day 1.5)
Checked out of our hotel, rope dropped Soarin, and then headed to the Seas for Turtle Talk x2, and some fish watching. Did the Joy and Vanellope meets, and then had lunch at Connections before heading out to MCO. My wife did a couple loops of World Showcase buying up some Christmas ornaments for the tree. 5 miles walked.
Overall thoughts
We had a pretty ambitious schedule, and no real huge hiccups. All of our kids really did well and there was minimal complaining about the heat after day 3. Parks were not very busy, and felt dead at times. Confirmed with many CM's that it was very slow that week - Star Wars land was almost a ghost town after 6pm both days we were there. Genie+ really enabled us to make more use of our time, and we got a ton of value for it. However, the ability to NOT be able to select a time further out in the future caused a lot of unnecessary walking and juggling of return times. We often would book one farther out in the future and hit low standby line time rides, but then once we got the first two out of our way, we would just book one and use it pretty much right away. In a way, the system is a lot more fair, and is closer to the MaxPass that Disneyland had when we visited, but we wish we could have the same Genie+ rules apply, but schedule a return time further ahead in the day. We would end up using it on rides that really didn't need LL, just to push our time forward for a ride that you wanted to use LL for that wasn't offering a return time that worked with what we were planning. The regular genie "service" was a joke and we never used it. For a family that has always used Disney on-site transportation, we were shocked at how much time was saved by driving our own vehicle. And by being in the park early, we got great spots and could be in our car about 5 minutes after leaving the park.
Animal Kingdom was by far the most disappointing park. The theming of each area is always been great, but we felt that there wasn't much there to tie it all together anymore. Park needs a ton of work to become magical. We even felt the rewrites of the Nemo show really actually hurt the show than helped it. The characters on the motor boats was laughable. Always felt that the park was very heavy-handed with the environmental message, but it just felt over the top now.
The rest of the parks were great. We didn't encounter any visitors that were giving CM's grief or generally being stupid, and we made sure to give plenty of kindness to the CM's who often get the short end of the stick. Felt really bad for the Kidcot CM for England who lost her voice, but still engaged with us the best she could, and appreciated us telling her to feel better soon. Had a really poor experience with many of the CM's from France, they were particularly rude and were disengaged. Told my wife maybe that's part of the theming of the French being rude to Americans, but I felt it was unnecessary. Our waitress at Mama Melrose's was absolutely a gem, made sure to keep us hydrated to stay out of heat exhaustion trouble, and brought me a kid's dessert since most everyone else at the table had a kid dessert as well.
2023.05.25 16:41 milliwoo Huge List Of What Helps Me Deal
Hey y’all, just wanting to offer a big ol’ list of what’s helping me deal with the day to day reality of raising a puppy. Everything from mental health stuff to supplies to practices etc.
For me:
-Noise cancelling headphones (since this one seems to be really provocative, ETA: they do not and cannot block out the noises my puppy makes. I do not ignore her and am constantly working my way down her hierarchy of needs. What the headphones CAN absolutely do is take the edge off her vocalizations so that I can continue to work patiently with training and correctly responding. My Apple Watch regularly lets me know her barks are coming in at 90+ decibels. I’m pretty noise sensitive and can get startled and overwhelmed by trying to do the right kind of training behaviors when there’s this intensity of noise. So I do my own environmental management so I can do right by my pup and myself and shape her behaviors for a lifetime of delightful companionship. If there are people out there who are also noise sensitive or who can find themselves overwhelmed or frustrated with their vocal puppy, I hope this helps a little!)
-R+ trainer I can text between sessions
-Getting on an anti-depressant with anxiolytic effects
-reminding myself that nothing, including the barking/biting/witching houteething lasts forever
-“hard pants” (jeans, chinos etc) that I don’t care about the dog ripping up
-covered, lace-less slip on house shoes and outside shoes
-Giving myself full permission to feel the whole range of emotions about the dog’s behavior
-unconditional permission to re-home if truly were unable to meet her needs long term
-magnetic treat pouch with waist strap and multiple pockets to wear so I always have “compensation” for good behavior
-upright carpet cleaner
-eco88 pet mess spray (no perfumes or fragrances, effective!)
-streaming camera(s) to monitor crate/pen/puppy proofed area behaviors without being physically present
For Puppy:
-White noise machine near crate
-R+ trainer
-Crate cover
-Spray cheese
-Freezable food toys (my pup prefers Toppls over Kongs) to encourage calming licking and create positive association with crate
-Puzzle feeders (Orbee-tuff Snoop, Bob-a-lot, fleece blanket rolled up with kibble inside and tied in a knot) - our pup hasn’t really eaten a meal out of a bowl …. Ever. Use kibble to train and/or put in feeders.
-So many baby gates
-Harness with both front and back clips
-chew-proof car tether
-back seat hammock/sling
-wide variety of treats (our trainer calls it trail mix)
-FortiFlora probiotic
-Dog bed(s) with washable covers
-Long-lasting chews that don’t upset her stomach (when she was little it was bully sticks, but now she’s a power-chewer and goes through them too quickly, but loves the Yak cheese chews and alligator Whimzees)
-cardboard, lettuce, celery, cabbage to shred
-indoooutdoor, washable, and/or polyester rugs that can take a beating
ETA: a specific place in the fenced back yard to encourage digging
-a hard-sided child’s pool we can put some water in
Solidarity and bon chance!
submitted by milliwoo to puppy101 [link] [comments]
For me:
-Noise cancelling headphones (since this one seems to be really provocative, ETA: they do not and cannot block out the noises my puppy makes. I do not ignore her and am constantly working my way down her hierarchy of needs. What the headphones CAN absolutely do is take the edge off her vocalizations so that I can continue to work patiently with training and correctly responding. My Apple Watch regularly lets me know her barks are coming in at 90+ decibels. I’m pretty noise sensitive and can get startled and overwhelmed by trying to do the right kind of training behaviors when there’s this intensity of noise. So I do my own environmental management so I can do right by my pup and myself and shape her behaviors for a lifetime of delightful companionship. If there are people out there who are also noise sensitive or who can find themselves overwhelmed or frustrated with their vocal puppy, I hope this helps a little!)
-R+ trainer I can text between sessions
-Getting on an anti-depressant with anxiolytic effects
-reminding myself that nothing, including the barking/biting/witching houteething lasts forever
-“hard pants” (jeans, chinos etc) that I don’t care about the dog ripping up
-covered, lace-less slip on house shoes and outside shoes
-Giving myself full permission to feel the whole range of emotions about the dog’s behavior
-unconditional permission to re-home if truly were unable to meet her needs long term
-magnetic treat pouch with waist strap and multiple pockets to wear so I always have “compensation” for good behavior
-upright carpet cleaner
-eco88 pet mess spray (no perfumes or fragrances, effective!)
-streaming camera(s) to monitor crate/pen/puppy proofed area behaviors without being physically present
For Puppy:
-White noise machine near crate
-R+ trainer
-Crate cover
-Spray cheese
-Freezable food toys (my pup prefers Toppls over Kongs) to encourage calming licking and create positive association with crate
-Puzzle feeders (Orbee-tuff Snoop, Bob-a-lot, fleece blanket rolled up with kibble inside and tied in a knot) - our pup hasn’t really eaten a meal out of a bowl …. Ever. Use kibble to train and/or put in feeders.
-So many baby gates
-Harness with both front and back clips
-chew-proof car tether
-back seat hammock/sling
-wide variety of treats (our trainer calls it trail mix)
-FortiFlora probiotic
-Dog bed(s) with washable covers
-Long-lasting chews that don’t upset her stomach (when she was little it was bully sticks, but now she’s a power-chewer and goes through them too quickly, but loves the Yak cheese chews and alligator Whimzees)
-cardboard, lettuce, celery, cabbage to shred
-indoooutdoor, washable, and/or polyester rugs that can take a beating
ETA: a specific place in the fenced back yard to encourage digging
-a hard-sided child’s pool we can put some water in
Solidarity and bon chance!
2023.05.25 16:07 r3crac 5L Automatic Pet Feeder [UK] for 40.99 USD with coupon (Best price in history: 72.79 USD) [Country limited!]
Here is the link: 5L Automatic Pet Feeder [UK]
Coupon code (apply in the cart!): BGcwUK002
Current price is 40.99 USD. The lowest price in my database is 72.79 USD. There're already 0 records in DB. Price monitoring since !
Notes (coupon may work only in selected countries): UnitedKingdom
Damn, coupon doesn't work anymore? Currently best price is here: https://couponsfromchina.com/5l-automatic-pet-feede You can also set price alert there. Have a nice day!
I think it's a nice deal with good discount.
https://couponsfromchina.com/
submitted by r3crac to couponsfromchina [link] [comments]
Coupon code (apply in the cart!): BGcwUK002
Current price is 40.99 USD. The lowest price in my database is 72.79 USD. There're already 0 records in DB. Price monitoring since !
Notes (coupon may work only in selected countries): UnitedKingdom
Damn, coupon doesn't work anymore? Currently best price is here: https://couponsfromchina.com/5l-automatic-pet-feede You can also set price alert there. Have a nice day!
I think it's a nice deal with good discount.
https://couponsfromchina.com/
2023.05.25 14:41 Vic993 Young male cat corners my adult female cat
Hi everyone! I need some advice with the situation going on with my cats: Pedro (5m) and Buffy (2.5y) First of all, I'm not a native speaker so I apologise for any mistakes.
In March me and my partner almost ran over a kitty cat while we were driving home. We took him with us, and we ended up adopting him. The vet said he was 3 months old circa at the time, so now he's around 5 months. He's not neutered yet (here in Italy vets advice to wait at least 6 month before neutering). We did the introduction as best as we could (quarantine for a week - he had ticks and fleas - a room just for him, and a slow introduction to the house and to Buffy). She didn't like him at first but accepted Pedro quite fast. She's not a cuddler though, so not cute pics of them together. I think it's also important to mention that she's a rescue (literally thrown into my granma's garden at 40 days old), and she grew up with my dog. So she may not have the typical cat behaviour.
The issue is: It's been 10 days that Pedro started to play rougher with her. He corners her and starts meowing really loud, and from there the situation usually escalates quickly and they start fighting until I put an end to it. I notice that this happens when we're both at home (checked the security cameras and they usually sleeps all day when we're not there). In one occasion she used claws (she has never ever used claws with my dog) and scratched Pedro's nose.
Why he's doing that? How do we stop that?
Other (maybe) relevant info:
submitted by Vic993 to CatAdvice [link] [comments]
In March me and my partner almost ran over a kitty cat while we were driving home. We took him with us, and we ended up adopting him. The vet said he was 3 months old circa at the time, so now he's around 5 months. He's not neutered yet (here in Italy vets advice to wait at least 6 month before neutering). We did the introduction as best as we could (quarantine for a week - he had ticks and fleas - a room just for him, and a slow introduction to the house and to Buffy). She didn't like him at first but accepted Pedro quite fast. She's not a cuddler though, so not cute pics of them together. I think it's also important to mention that she's a rescue (literally thrown into my granma's garden at 40 days old), and she grew up with my dog. So she may not have the typical cat behaviour.
The issue is: It's been 10 days that Pedro started to play rougher with her. He corners her and starts meowing really loud, and from there the situation usually escalates quickly and they start fighting until I put an end to it. I notice that this happens when we're both at home (checked the security cameras and they usually sleeps all day when we're not there). In one occasion she used claws (she has never ever used claws with my dog) and scratched Pedro's nose.
Why he's doing that? How do we stop that?
Other (maybe) relevant info:
- he tries to steal food from Buffy and Naboo. While the dog manages to keep him away from the bowl, Buffy just lets him eat, so we started to remove the bowls if Pedro is around. This is one of the changes that she may have suffered
- he is a very affectionate cat and is always looking for cuddles. We try to not let Buffy get jealous, but I don't know if we're anywhere near it
- both have their own litter, bowls and bed
2023.05.25 13:03 Salena-Roy How Does a Slow Feeder Bowl Help Regulate a Cat's Eating Pace?
Cats are known for their tendency to eat quickly and gulp down their food. This can lead to various issues like indigestion, choking, or vomiting. A slow feeder bowl encourages them to eat more slowly and take smaller bites, reducing the chances of gulping their food.
A slow feeder cat bowl is designed with various obstacles or patterns inside that create barriers or small compartments for the cat's food. These obstacles slow down the cat's eating pace and make it more challenging for them to consume their food quickly. This pacing ensures that the cat takes smaller, measured bites, allowing for proper chewing and digestion.
Plus, slowing down the eating process gives the cat's brain enough time to register when they are full, reducing the likelihood of excessive calorie intake.
submitted by Salena-Roy to u/Salena-Roy [link] [comments]
A slow feeder cat bowl is designed with various obstacles or patterns inside that create barriers or small compartments for the cat's food. These obstacles slow down the cat's eating pace and make it more challenging for them to consume their food quickly. This pacing ensures that the cat takes smaller, measured bites, allowing for proper chewing and digestion.
Plus, slowing down the eating process gives the cat's brain enough time to register when they are full, reducing the likelihood of excessive calorie intake.
2023.05.25 03:16 Willing_Bumblebee_90 Slow feeders for power chewers
I’ve been looking for slow feeders that are durable and last enough to give my dog some enrichment (usually for when someone else is watching her to tire her out since she can be difficult or for her crate). I normally soak kibble, canned food, and toppers/mix-ins then freeze. Kongs and silicone feeders last about 10mins. Plain food metal bowl is around 5mins. She is SMART so for rubber she normally flips it, bends it if there’s suction/is an insert, or for kongs lightly chews the outside to break up the food inside and get it out easier. For metal, she normally licks the outside to loosen the food or just straight up bites it and gets it all out. Chews don’t last (and make a mess), and I don’t feed anything with hide. The only thing I have found that takes her a while (40+mins) is a frozen plastic slow feeder but she recently figured out that the food comes out easier if you shred the plastic around it.
Are there any feeders you use that will last a while and are durable enough to not be shredded? Not normal silicone or traditional plastic preferably given her history.
I should add I do use a wobbler (doesn’t work for her crate though), still use kongs as needed, and same for silicone feeders. I just want a more reliable option. Belgian mix for reference (hence the chewing and smarts lol). I did a search for old threads with this but couldn’t find what I was looking for.
submitted by Willing_Bumblebee_90 to dogs [link] [comments]
Are there any feeders you use that will last a while and are durable enough to not be shredded? Not normal silicone or traditional plastic preferably given her history.
I should add I do use a wobbler (doesn’t work for her crate though), still use kongs as needed, and same for silicone feeders. I just want a more reliable option. Belgian mix for reference (hence the chewing and smarts lol). I did a search for old threads with this but couldn’t find what I was looking for.
2023.05.25 00:03 reverend-mayhem In need of suggestions for the best way to raise an automatic dog food feeder
Sorry for the long read. I’ve marked where to skip to if you don’t have time for the backstory/context.
My dog was diagnosed with a twisted duodenum a few years back & has since been on a diet of ground up dry food with water added & split into as many meals throughout the day as possible. We found an automatic feeder that cycles through up to six portions, but my baby keeps throwing up fairly regularly for various reasons (one being an arthritis diagnosis of her lower spine making it difficult to defecate, thus backing up her entire system, but we’ve gotten her on pain meds since finding out & it’s been showing promise).
Today the vet tech said pets will often ingest air along with their food leading to some bloating when the food or water bowls are low to the floor & suggested elevating them as much as we can so that eating involves as little bending low as possible. We’ve already elevated her food somewhat with a fixed height structure, but I’d love to elevate it more so that it sits just below her chin.
For our unique feeder…
REQUEST ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄
…I was wondering if anybody had suggestions on platforms/stands that were finely adjustable to get to my dog’s specific height without requiring the food to sit in a bowl?
A lot of Amazon results have only a two or three height adjustments available (no fine-tuning) or have cutouts specifically for bowls or angle the bowls (which is nice, but could send the food spilling out of the shallow portion cups in our automatic feeder).
I was even thinking of just using cardboard boxes, but any food flicked out or water spilled over could threaten their integrity.
I’m not against fashioning my own out of plywood or whatever else I can get my hands on if there’s no existing product to meet these needs, but I wanted to see if anybody has found anything that already existed that would work.
Thanks for giving this concerned parent some of your valuable time.
submitted by reverend-mayhem to dogs [link] [comments]
My dog was diagnosed with a twisted duodenum a few years back & has since been on a diet of ground up dry food with water added & split into as many meals throughout the day as possible. We found an automatic feeder that cycles through up to six portions, but my baby keeps throwing up fairly regularly for various reasons (one being an arthritis diagnosis of her lower spine making it difficult to defecate, thus backing up her entire system, but we’ve gotten her on pain meds since finding out & it’s been showing promise).
Today the vet tech said pets will often ingest air along with their food leading to some bloating when the food or water bowls are low to the floor & suggested elevating them as much as we can so that eating involves as little bending low as possible. We’ve already elevated her food somewhat with a fixed height structure, but I’d love to elevate it more so that it sits just below her chin.
For our unique feeder…
REQUEST ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄ ⌄
…I was wondering if anybody had suggestions on platforms/stands that were finely adjustable to get to my dog’s specific height without requiring the food to sit in a bowl?
A lot of Amazon results have only a two or three height adjustments available (no fine-tuning) or have cutouts specifically for bowls or angle the bowls (which is nice, but could send the food spilling out of the shallow portion cups in our automatic feeder).
I was even thinking of just using cardboard boxes, but any food flicked out or water spilled over could threaten their integrity.
I’m not against fashioning my own out of plywood or whatever else I can get my hands on if there’s no existing product to meet these needs, but I wanted to see if anybody has found anything that already existed that would work.
Thanks for giving this concerned parent some of your valuable time.
2023.05.24 18:31 Icy_Mood4432 Puppy aggression-- long post
Hey y'all! Sorry in advance for the long post. We got our pup at 9 weeks and he is about to hit five months. We've noticed some behavioral changes in the last month or so that I really don't like. Noting that we decided against the six week training program after further research that used an e-collar. We're now getting him started with one-on-one training after memorial day. ANYWAY-- sudden food aggression. Started slow-- when we first got him, I would give him his food and then as recommended to us, take a handful of kibble from his bowl and handfeed it to him and he didn't seem to mind this. Of course now others are saying that sticking your hand in their bowl is a no lol I did lots of talking to him while eating and petting him to avoid food aggression. He then started to ignore me while I tried to hand feed him some kibble while he ate and only EVENTUALLY eat it from my hand. Didn't mind me being near him during feeding. Then a few weeks ago, my fiance got close to him and spoke to him while eating and he let out a low growl. It reoccurred over the next few days. We obviously don't want to eliminate the growl because in the correct circumstances, that is how he needs to be able to communicate. We moved his feeding station to a different spot in the house. I've continued talking to him a bit while he eats and throwing a tasty snack in his bowl while he's eating (trying to create a positive association with us being around during feeding and help him understand that his food is NOT in danger).
Ty if you have read this far. Then, I got a low growl (mouth closed) the other day while he was just laying and I crouched down on the carpet to pet his head. Didn't like it, it was short. He was only exhibiting this behavior over the food originally and we were/are addressing it. Making mental notes. Then in spurts, he's started doing it over sticks etc. while playing outside the last week. Well this morning, my fiance went to take a sharp stick out of his mouth and he whipped around and bit him in the stomach. He is a true landshark ALMOST 24/7. Lot of nipping/biting while playing-- we do all of the redirect, replace etc. for hours if we have to. He's just a pup and wants to have fun! We are all learning. However, this behavioprotectiveness has got to go and I know it'll be easier now that he is still young. Advice on what to do? I know the training will be extremely helpful with overall discipline, but I don't want him to continue to nurture and develop this aggression/guarding.
He's a great dog and we adore him. We have so much fun. Just really don't like what we're seeing. TYIA for any advice!! :)
submitted by Icy_Mood4432 to germanshepherds [link] [comments]
Ty if you have read this far. Then, I got a low growl (mouth closed) the other day while he was just laying and I crouched down on the carpet to pet his head. Didn't like it, it was short. He was only exhibiting this behavior over the food originally and we were/are addressing it. Making mental notes. Then in spurts, he's started doing it over sticks etc. while playing outside the last week. Well this morning, my fiance went to take a sharp stick out of his mouth and he whipped around and bit him in the stomach. He is a true landshark ALMOST 24/7. Lot of nipping/biting while playing-- we do all of the redirect, replace etc. for hours if we have to. He's just a pup and wants to have fun! We are all learning. However, this behavioprotectiveness has got to go and I know it'll be easier now that he is still young. Advice on what to do? I know the training will be extremely helpful with overall discipline, but I don't want him to continue to nurture and develop this aggression/guarding.
He's a great dog and we adore him. We have so much fun. Just really don't like what we're seeing. TYIA for any advice!! :)
2023.05.24 18:00 Unlikely-Alt-9383 I am 53 years old, make $255,000 base (~400K total comp), live in Brooklyn, work as a UX design manager, and this week I accidentally crashed a first date
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement/Investments Balance: $2.6 million, which is still mind-boggling to me, even as I know that with better choices I might have even more. More about that later. $1500 in my HSA, $519,000 in traditional IRAs, about half of that in a Beneficiary IRA from my late mother, $10K in a Roth IRA, $40,000 in my employer’s stock from RSUs, $145,000 in my 401K, $990,000 in an unmanaged taxable account, and $920,000 in a managed one.
Equity: Probably about $500,000. I bought my co-op apartment for $500K in 2008, and put in $120K worth of renovations in 2019. I still owe $251,000 on a 3.75% refi, but it’s probably worth close to $800,000 with the updates and as the neighborhood has continued to gentrify; it was assessed at $720,000 when I took out a HELOC for the renovations. I was able to make the 20% downpayment of $100,000 the co-op required because of the money my mom left me; she was very clear that she wanted to enable me to buy a home, and we’d even discussed her helping with a future downpayment before she passed.
Savings account balance: $60,000 in a HYSA. Some of that is earmarked for quarterly taxes, further renovations, and self-care but I try to always have $30,000 which is about 4 months’ expenses available as an “emergency fund.” I also have a non-high-yield savings account, which has some funds earmarked for my nephew’s bar mitzvah but is mostly used as a transfer point between other accounts until I get my act together and close it: current non-earmarked balance of $2000.
Primary checking account balance: $4800. My first post-grad school checking account required a $2K balance for no fee on ATM transactions, and I still try to keep a $2K balance in checking. I tell myself it’s so nothing ever bounces, but actually it’s a mix of habit and superstition.
Secondary checking account: $9,000. This account is funded mostly from dividends from my REIT shares (see below) and used to pay the co-op maintenance fees. I keep saying I should combine the two accounts now that I could theoretically pay the maintenance out of my take-home instead, but I am lazy!
Credit card debt: None currently. I pay my cards every month, though because it’s not automated I fuck up maybe once a year or so.
Student loan debt: I graduated college with about $12,000 in debt, but my grandparents died while I was in college and my mom paid it off from her inheritance, saying “I got this money when I don’t need it, you should have it now when you do.” My siblings and I plan to pay off my nieces/nephews’ college debt in turn to pay it forward. I didn’t take on grad school debt -- never take out loans to get a humanities advanced degree! -- but I racked up $10,000 worth of credit card debt in grad school because I made so little money. I paid it off with work for an early dot-com while I was still in school.
Anything else that's applicable to you: my siblings and I inherited shares in a private company that later sold off assets and turned itself into a REIT. My mom said “never sell those shares!” and even though that company doesn’t exist anymore, we haven't, and selling private REIT shares is a PITA anyhow.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I've been working in my field for 23 years, my starting salary was $50,000
I was originally going to be a humanities academic, and went to graduate school in the Midwest in the 90s. For most of my 20s, I lived on around $20, $25K a year, eating a lot of beans and rice and sharing a house with lots of roommates. I did a bunch of early digital archive work, so when the web really took off and I realized that I didn’t want to be a professor after all, I had a few skills and some options. It was a big shift, though!
I grew up in the NYC area, but I got my first web job in NYC through the Internet. It was running the website for a magazine. I was 29 and I made $50,000: what one of my still in grad school friends called “grown-up money.” I was able to find a rent-stabilized apartment and live by myself. When my mom, who had raised us with help from her parents, was diagnosed with cancer, I was very glad to be close to home while she fought it into remission.
That job fell apart after a year and a half -- pay attention, it’s a theme! -- because the magazine didn’t really understand what going digital meant and had second thoughts (They have since gone out of business). I saw this coming and had already been networking hard, so I was able, through friends of friends, to land a job doing information architecture for a legacy technology company. That was my first job in UX and really where I count the start of my current career. The starting pay there was $77K, which went up to $85K: I learned they’d started me low because they weren’t sure I could do the job.
Between 9/11 and the dot-com crash I got laid off a year and a half in. Then followed another year and a half of scrounging for freelance work and relying on the occasional help from Mom to get by; according to my records, I was averaging about $40K a year in income.
I had a favorite client -- a small design firm that did very cool stuff -- and I worked hard to stay in touch with them even when they had no work for me. Eventually, that paid off in a longer-term freelance job. I was hoping to get hired there but also actively interviewing when my mom died: she hadn’t told us her cancer had returned until very late. When the design firm offered me a job, I took it, because I knew I would be a mess for a while and they already knew and trusted me and my work.
Starting pay at that job was $80K. I loved it until I hit the glass ceiling, which was unfortunately during the ‘08 recession, so I stayed a little longer than I would have liked. Final pay when I left after 6 years was $115K.
I joined Startup A as their first full-time UX person and design manager. We structured the pay so that while I started at $110K, when they got their B-round funding a few months later, it went up to $120. I got a raise to $130 before I and most of my team got laid off after, yes, a year and a half.
At this point, I knew more people in the NYC UX community so getting freelance work was a bit easier, and I thought about just going freelance for good. I had one great long-term client, let’s call them Client X, that I did most of my work for, and also did some stuff for big name companies. I was making about $120K as a freelancer and doing well.
I got an opportunity that I can’t be specific about, because it’s extremely dox-able, but it was a long-term project that took up 2013 and 2014, into the first months of 2015. It paid $150K/yr, plus I did a little extra work on the side for Client X, an additional $5K/yr. On the long-term project, I was a creative lead, but not a design manager, which was what I wanted to be doing, so when I had a chance to renew my contract, I didn’t re-up. I thought I had a design leadership role lined up, but it fell through, and I fell into a burn-out depression that led me back into therapy and onto meds for the first time.
I kept interviewing for leadership roles and not getting them, and went back to doing work for Client X as well as other freelancing. It didn’t go as well this time. My freelance income in 2015 was $80K and for 2016 it was only $50K. I had to break into my emergency savings.
Client X was falling apart, and I needed a new job, stat. I spoke to a former manager who had followed a similar in-house-freelance-in-house career path, and they told me to look for an individual contributor role rather than a leadership role, and transition once I was inside. So I changed the way I was looking, and eventually opportunity knocked.
In 2017, a professional friend who was at Startup B, in a job I’d applied for and not gotten, reached out and asked me if I would be interested in joining his team. B has a complex enterprise product and he knew I was good at products like that. I asked if there would be leadership opportunities in the future and he said it was a possibility, so I took the job. (I probably would have taken it even if he hadn’t, tbh, I was broke!). It paid $160K, so I felt like I was making progress again.
The professional friend left, I got the lateral move to manager, and I had a fantastic team I really liked. I also had a narcissistic boss, so that job ended in tears a year and a half later. (I really do have a pattern!) My salary was at $168K by then.
Since I started interviewing before I was actually fired, I was pretty far along in the interview process when it actually happened. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t have a long painful job search: in fact a job doing what I’d already been doing, for a large public company, had been posted in an online community I was part of, and I got referred in by someone I didn’t know (but who I am still friendly with now!). I was out of work for only about six weeks.
My starting salary at Company C in 2019 was $202K, with a 15% bonus and $100,000 in RSUs over 4 years. I was so wowed I didn’t even negotiate, though now I realize I still should have. With a promotion and other annual salary increases, my base salary is now $255K, with a 20% bonus. I have gotten RSU refreshes three of the four years I’ve been at this job. Between those and the ESPP discounts, my W2 shows about $400K the last two years.
I should also note that this job is fully remote, and my team is distributed across multiple cities and timezones. My apartment is a two-bedroom, and I use the second bedroom as a guest room/home office.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
My take-home pay is $9100/month. That’s after $7200 in taxes, $2800 into my 401K, $125 into my HSA, $100 for dental/vision/high-deductible medical insurance, $18/month for the company's legal plan, $30 to my commuter plan, and $1600/month into my ESPP.
Any Other Monthly Income: Not monthly but quarterly: The REIT mentioned above pays dividends of about $10K a year, but this year and last there has been an extra payment of $5K. Starting back in the days when I first bought my apartment and could barely afford to make the mortgage payments, I have set this money aside for the co-op maintenance fees.
I also get a 401K match up to $5000, and a HSA match of $1000 from my employer annually.
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: My monthly mortgage payment is $1690, to which I add $140/month in additional principal payment so it’s $1830.
Co-op maintenance (which includes gas, heating, and property tax as well as property management) is $1100.
Co-op insurance: $185/month
Savings contribution: $800/month
Investment contribution: $800/month, plus any RSUs/ESPP shares as they vest: I still have some shares from when I was holding long-term, but now I sell at or close to vest.
HELOC: I took out a $50K HELOC to help pay for the renovation of my kitchen and bathroom in 2019. I’m listing it because I just paid the last of it off a few weeks ago with $10,000 from RSUs. Until then I was paying about $200 a month plus an additional $200 to the principal. It was an adjustable-rate loan so the amount I was paying had gone up to almost 9%, so paying it off ASAP made sense.
Donations. This past year my charitable donations were almost 1% of my W2 AGI, and my goal for 2023 is to reach at least that 1%. My donations include:
Groceries: average $500/month
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $200/month, of which my employer subsidizes $50. I’ve been planning to downgrade but keep putting it off because I don’t want to deal.
Cellphone: I have a corporate-subsidized AT&T plan for $80 with unlimited data. I have been considering switching to Mint: any NYC folks who have it, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Subscriptions: $30/month on Patreon; $28.53/month for an All Access subscription to the New York Times, $10/month for Spotify with bonus Hulu, $21.76/month for Netflix (shared with my siblings). I have annual subscriptions to the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Disney+, FreshDirect, One Medical, a couple of Substacks, Duolingo, and CityMapper. I also have the Lyft All-Access plan because it comes with Citibike membership.
Gym membership: I will be paying $180/month when the gym I joined opens near me, unless I cancel in the first week they’re open.
Pet expenses: My pup is expensive! $40/month for pet insurance; $800/quarter for doggy daycare 2x/week; $40/month for food and treats; $115 every other month for grooming. She also gets boarded once or twice a year while I travel, which is $75/day plus transportation.
Car payment: None! One of the upsides of NYC living. I do budget $75/month for Lyft and most months don’t spend even that much.
Regular therapy: Right now, I am seeing a therapist through a company-provided service. I’m almost out of sessions though and need to figure out next steps.
Cleaning: every other week at $150 per visit. (just raised from $140 when I got a raise)
BONUS QUESTIONS:
Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My mom and my grandparents taught me to save, and to pay my bills on time, but they never taught me to invest: my mom’s idea of teaching me to invest was getting mad that I wasn’t, and telling me I needed to buy a specific index fund without explaining why or how, before there were things like e*Trade. When she died, I was still getting used to making a middle-class living for myself, and I was thrown into this situation where I had money and no idea how to manage it.
Did you worry about money growing up? Do you worry about it now?
Growing up, I was always aware that we needed to be on a budget, that my dad was cheap about giving money to things outside of the basics of child support, and my mom worked two jobs sometimes to make sure we could do extra things like go to camp. My grandparents helped a lot, both on money and on child care, and their Depression-era mentality about money definitely is part of my psyche now: I get stressed when I don’t have a full pantry, even though I live alone!
I get very anxious about money and spending, which is part of the reason I wanted to write this up to be honest. I have almost all of my bills on autopay because before autopay, I would joke that I paid my bills “every other month like clockwork.” Maybe it’s my family, maybe it’s how little money I had for most of my 20s, but I still get freaked out by an unexpected bill, even though there’s plenty of money to pay for it.
Tell us more about those bad financial decisions you referred to earlier?
Mom had bought some bonds with an investment manager she liked, but he had retired, and the person his office assigned us to in his stead really didn’t know what he was doing -- he knew how to sell annuities to senior citizens and that was about it. When we realized this was a problem, we got a referral through one of my siblings’ coworkers to someone else, who unwound our previous mistakes but made new ones. My siblings managed their own money (with or without partners) but I stayed with that financial advisor, who liked selling options and calls. Tl,dr: I missed basic growth for years because he was focused on short-term wins. At a certain point I knew enough to tell him to stop doing that and start focusing on long-term index funds, but I didn’t know enough to pick low-cost ones. The only good decision I made at that time was that I also told him to hold onto the Apple stock he was selling calls on: 12 years later, an investment of $57,000 is worth nearly $500,000.
When I worked at Startup B, I got options, and on the advice of a smart friend, I bought them, selling a little of the Apple stock to cover it. Startup B went public during the final days of the latest tech boom, and for a brief period my $60,000 investment in those options was worth over $3 million (!!). I wanted to be smart about the tax implications of selling my shares so I decided to wait until 2022 to start doing that, and of course the tech market collapsed: shares were down over 80% at one point. They’re better now but still below IPO price. Right now I’m holding on at $800,000 because the company’s basic business model still makes sense, but the regret is real, not to mention that it’s stressful to have nearly half of my holdings in just two companies!
I had stopped working with my previous financial advisor when Startup B went public because it was clear he really didn’t know how to help, and I found a tax-knowledgeable advisor who set me up with something closer to Boglehead strategy.
I have been thinking it’s time to stop working with that third advisor because basically I’m not going to need the help until I’m ready to retire (hopefully not more than 10-15 years from now!) and the fees stress me out, but my general tendency towards avoidance of all things financial is making this hard.
MONEY DIARY
Day 1, Friday:
I wake up before 6 because I’m out of town on a work trip and need to catch an early train home. I did most of my packing the night before so it’s just a little stumbling around the hotel room, leaving a tip for the maid ($20), checking out and getting in an Uber ($16.67, on company card). Not a lot is open at the train station but thank God the Dunkin’ Donuts is, so I get a medium coffee and a blueberry donut ($6.36, on company card). I’m listed as out of office on my calendar and Slack, but I do some time-sensitive work on the train and call it a week.
At Penn, I’m really tempted to take one last eye-wateringly expensive cab ride on the company dime, but I can’t bring myself to do it when it’s a straight shot on the subway instead ($2.75, prepaid on my commuter card). I get home and maybe because I know I’m reporting to you all, I unpack and get everything put away with record speed. I should do these diaries more often!
It’s a beautiful, unseasonably warm day in NYC, and everyone is out. The place I’d been planning to go for lunch is packed, the cafe I tried next was sold out of pastries and sandwiches, even the bagel joint is low on bagels! I finally get a BLT on a brioche roll and a Diet Coke at the bagel joint ($15) and I sit in their street seating and eat and read my library book on my phone.
Finally, the reason why I wanted to eat on this particular corner happens: the van from the dog boarding facility where my pup has been while I’m traveling shows up. My doodle (let’s call her Ada) and I have our little reunion on the street-corner, and then I walk her home. She runs around the apartment making sure everything is right where she left it, and then she eats some food. We have plans tonight so we both take a nap.
My friend K is having a birthday party in an outdoors venue, and I know she will want to see Ada. If I were going alone I would take a Citibike ebike (presuming one was available), because getting there by train from my place means switching trains or taking a bus to the right subway station. But I have great plans to take Ada on the bus/train route! Of course, those plans fall apart after the nap, when I recognize just how beat I am. I get a “wait & save” Lyft to the venue that shows up while I’m still looking for my keys, put Ada in her bag, and we go ($26 including tip). The venue has non-alcoholic frozen drinks, so I get one of those and a fancy grilled cheese ($29.50).
It’s great to see the birthday girl and our closest mutual friend H, who is also a UXer. H and I talk shop for a bit, catch up, and make plans for a day trip to Beacon over Memorial Day weekend. K is one of those people who is always out doing something, going to art shows or playing sports, and has a wide range of friends at her party. One of them is a guy I knew from abortion clinic defense work when I was 22, the year between college and grad school, and who got me some freelance work when I was starting out. We are surprised to see each other but eventually remember that we both knew we each knew K! It’s been a while. We catch up and he tells me about his current job. Someone else mentions his book and so he admits he has published a graphic design book since we last saw each other. He tells me to check out the website because I’ll get a kick out of it. When I get home ($26 again) I buy the book on Amazon ($23.50) to support him.
Total: $140, plus $2.75 pre-paid and $23 on the corporate card
Day 2, Saturday:
Both Ada and I are up unusually early today and it’s a nice day. I get her into a harness, and we head towards Grand Army Plaza. I’m carrying a big FreshDirect bag full of clothes to donate, which slows me down a bit, but we still get there before off-leash hours end and I get a donation receipt.
I drink a La Coulombe canned latte (which I keep for mornings like this) while Ada plays and rolls around in the grass. She’s not usually all that interested in playing fetch, but she will happily wander the paths of the park with me, occasionally chasing a bird or squirrel who can handily outrun her. She’s wearing a new Wild Ones harness that is too big for her -- I make a mental note to look up their return policy.
I take a couple of wrong turns and we spend longer than I’d planned in the park, but it’s hardly a problem to be outside on a nice day. On the walk back, we spot one of our neighbors, who’s set up a stand among the group just outside the Greenmarket. I didn’t know they had a side gig, so I stop to chat with them for a bit, and I buy (let’s call it a soap) for $6.
Back at the Greenmarket, I make a beeline for the Ronnybrook Dairy stand, where I get 6 drinkable yogurts for $2.50 each, which is $1.50 less than the regular price at stores, and even $.50 less than the on-sale price at FreshDirect. I also buy one of their new no-added-sugar drinkable yogurts in a smaller size for $1 ($17 total, including tip). Next it’s to Roaming Acres for their smoked bones for Ada -- the ostrich ones still aren’t in, which are the best, but we get 2 of the bison bones for $26.13. It’s pricey, but they last her for weeks. I also get 2 bunches of Swiss chard for $8, and stop at Bread Alone for a ciabatta roll and a piece of lemon-poppy pound cake. I throw in a loaf of sliced peasant bread because I’m just in the zone by this point ($10.50). The pound cake prevents me from stopping for something else to eat on the walk home, much to Ada’s dismay.
When we get back, I feed her, have the no-sugar-added yogurt and the pound cake, and put stuff away. I also take out her old harness and open the straps as wide as they will possibly go, hoping she can wear it again.
It’s only 11am and I’ve put nearly 9,000 steps on the ol’ pedometer, so it’s time for another nap.
Much of the rest of the day is spent lazing about, scrolling through Reddit and doing the Sunday crossword. I get a notification that my domain name has renewed ($17.17). I make a pasta dish with one bunch of the chard for dinner. We go for a decently long walk after dinner and the harness seems to be fitting her fine. I do my Duolingo practice in bed.
Total $84.80
Day 3, Sunday
Mother’s Day is fraught when your mom is gone and you don’t have kids. I’m happy to hang out in bed till 10:30, and thankfully so is Ada. She’s had a hectic week too! We do our walk and I make two slices of toast from the Greenmarket peasant bread for breakfast.
I call my aunt, my sister with kids, and my female cousin. My cousin and I discuss my BIL’s upcoming birthday party on Saturday, and the logistics of getting to the party in the suburbs. I don’t know what I’m going to do about Ada, either then or next weekend when I have told H I’ll go to Beacon for a day.
It’s a beautiful day, so I figure a shortish afternoon walk or just hanging out outside the local cafe would be nice. I buy the cafe’s iced tea special ($6 including tip) and am ready to stroll or sit, but Ada is not having it and literally pulls me back towards my building. I decide to take the hint, and go home. I measure Ada to pick out a new harness, order one on Amazon that the Wirecutter recommends for small dogs ($18.21), and spend an afternoon reading with a dog on my lap.
For dinner, I order Indian food. I have a Seamless promo, so I get enough for a few meals ($35.60). I clean up a little for the dishwasher repair tech who’ll be coming tomorrow, and watch Succession. I’d forgotten it was going to be the election episode, so I’m completely nerve-jangled at what’s supposed to be bedtime. Walk, crossword, Duolingo, and a little more reading in bed. I finish the book (don’t like it so I won’t mention the title).
Total: $41.60
Day 4, Monday
Before I left for my work trip, the upscale dishwasher I bought for my kitchen renovation stopped working and was throwing an error code in its display screen. I called the manufacturer and scheduled a service call for as soon as possible after I got back, and that was this morning. The technician arrives as I’m coming back from Ada’s morning walk.
I describe the problem to him and he’s unable to reproduce it. He runs the dishwasher for a while, shows me how to restart it when there’s an error, and listens to it run for a bit. He thinks that leaving it unplugged and open while I was away allowed the water that wasn’t draining right before to drain. It’s still a bit noisier than it was before, but I can’t deny that it’s actually working. An expensive lesson in how “have you tried turning it off and on again” almost always works -- $150 for the visit plus half an hour on site. He can’t get through to the office to process my credit card number so I have to write him a check ($260.21).
My first meeting of the day is canceled and my next one, our group leadership meeting, is just me and my boss. We compare notes on our respective travels over the last week -- she twisted her ankle -- and talk about some of the ideas that came out of our meetings. She tells me about the very nice cane she bought at CVS -- a collaboration with the Michael Graves studio, which has done some great stuff for people with disabilities -- and I look it up online. I have a cane I bought when I broke my ankle, and I’ve kept it because you never know, but now I’m tempted to replace it. Oh great, I think, I’m going to make people believe that your 50s are about impulse-purchasing canes!
My team has our weekly sync, and then I have a lot of email to catch up on, mostly bureaucratic stuff. There’s an invite to an event next week featuring an old professional friend: I RSVP yes, because networking is more fun when people you like are involved.
Lunch is some soup I defrosted and the ciabatta roll from the Greenmarket, reheated. In the late afternoon, I have a telehealth therapy session, and afterwards, I take a long walk with the dog. As we head out, we see several of the building’s other dogs, and the pre-schooler who Ada is special friends with. It’s extremely wholesome.
We pass a local restaurant where an old friend is eating outside with someone I don’t know. I catch her eye and we exchange a look, and I’m certain she’s on a date until she gets up and greets me and invites me and Ada to join them. I order the same drink the guy she’s with is having, talk to them both, and I’m relaxing a bit until I ask him how he knows her and yep, it’s a first date. Both of them seem totally fine with having me there, though I don’t stay for another round. I try to pay for my drink and they both refuse. He seems nice, and he liked my dog: if they end up dating I’ll have a funny story to tell.
I go home, heat up a meal I took out of the freezer back on Friday, and have dinner. I’m still a little tipsy so I drink water and eat Trader Joe’s lentil curls till the feeling subsides. I get a notification that a Substack I forgot to cancel just charged me the monthly subscription fee ($6). I cancel it moving forward immediately.
Walk the dog, crossword, Duolingo. In bed, I start a new library book: Scorched Grace, a mystery that got a rave review in the NYT, about a punk queer turned novice nun, investigating an arson at the school where she teaches.
Total: $266.21
Day 5, Tuesday
My super is at the door at 8:30 am, delighting Ada -- they are besties. He has a package that has his name on it but the number of an apartment in the building: a mystery! I point out that the apartment on the address label is not mine, but the same line, a floor down. I joke that he just wanted to come see Ada, who does in turn want to follow him to his next stop. I put on street clothes and take her for her walk.
Coffee and toast for breakfast again. I notice my AmEx payment has cleared, and schedule payments for the two credit cards (Chase and Apple Card) that I pay at the end of the month. I don’t like to set credit cards to auto-pay, because I like to keep an eye on my spending, but I do like to set up payments in advance. I do a little quick math with the help of the iPhone calculator and work out that even with my savings deductions, I should have about $500 extra left at the end of the month. When I have over $1K extra it will go into investments.
My first meeting of the day is with my favorite colleague J, and we catch up on some organizational challenges and talk about next steps on a project that she is leading. I’m really excited about how much positive attention her work has already gotten.
Lunch is some of the Indian leftovers. Then there’s a boring status meeting, and then I have a one-on-one with one of my direct reports. I’m very serious about making sure I do these every week, because I have had so many bad managers who didn’t. He suggests that he try working on something that I was hoping he could work on, so I am thrilled that he volunteered and tell him what a good idea he has.
My team member mentions that he needs some coffee, and I remember that I’m running low on beans. I click over to Fresh Direct and order coffee beans, a 12-pack of Sprite Zero cans, and a bunch of on-sale yogurts to be delivered same-day. ($45.22) I go through so much Sprite Zero. I got spoiled having free soda at office jobs, and now I probably drink 2-3 cans of soda a day at home. I also finalize my CookUnity order for next week, which I think will be a busy one: 8 meals for $91.17.
I have a meeting with the most senior designers across my boss’s organization, and we talk about holding an internal conference to align on a long-term UX vision. It’s an idea that I brought to my boss, though I give my team credit in the meeting, and I’m happy to see her want to invest in it.
Between meetings, I’m scrolling through Twitter and I see an old friend retweet her friend’s GoFundMe for his mom to help her keep her house. I’m moved by it, so I donate $18 (in Hebrew, letters=numbers and the number 18 has the same letters as the word for “life” so 18 or multiples of 18 are typical Jewish donation/gift amounts). Then I see a GoFundMe for a former colleague who has a lot of mental and health issues and is living out of their car. I donate $100 to that one rather than trying to work out the correct multiple of 18. ($120 total including GoFundMe “tips”)
My last meeting isn’t until dinnertime (the joy of working across time zones!) so I have to feed the dog as soon as I’m done. For myself, I heat up the leftover pasta and fry an egg to go on top. I put all the dishes in the dishwasher and set it to run overnight. By the time the FreshDirect delivery arrives, I’ve forgotten I ordered it!
When I check my email there is already a thank-you note from the friend of a friend whose GoFundMe I contributed to. I click over to his fundraiser, which has gone up a bit in the hours since I donated, and then also to my former co-worker’s, which has already met its goal! I scroll through the list of donors, seeing many familiar names. Most of our former colleagues who have donated have given more than I did: $200, $300 and the like. One, who was always prone to extravagant gestures, gave $1,000! I find myself second-guessing myself and wondering if I’m too cheap -- not just in this case but in general.
Crossword, Duolingo, bed. Whether it’s because of my worries or the lack of exercise I’ve been getting after a very active week last week, I don’t sleep well.
Total: $256.39
Day 6, Wednesday
Toast and coffee for breakfast again. I start my day with a few team one-on-ones. Then I have a meeting with other UX managers about our new talent management system: fun stuff. There’s some talk about how it might impact bonuses for next year, which is depressing. I use part of the meeting to buy new jeans, since the ones I’m wearing have the inevitable thigh rip, and while I’m on the Everlane site I see a gorgeous spring coat on sale and add that too ($244.05).
I check my personal email and there’s a pub announcement for a book on leadership from a design press. I meant to pre-order it, but I guess it’s too late! I buy directly from their website because they offer an ebook/print copy bundle, plus I always order directly from small presses when I can ($36.98).
Microwave mac and cheese for lunch. I take Ada out, planning to walk her to her doggy daycare, but about halfway there, she starts pulling emphatically towards home. Again, I take the hint, and we go home so she can sleep. I email them to let them know we will only be in once this week, and apologize for the short notice.
When I get home, I review my order from Saturday for a new harness. It’s not coming until Friday and I could still cancel it, since the old one is working for her again. I decide not to, since she may need a light-weight harness when it’s really hot out. I also check on an order which never showed up, and learn that it got returned to Amazon. I reorder the dog treats and Vitamin D ($26.14).
The afternoon is taken up by a complete clusterf**k at work, where different teams are working on related products and not working together. One of those teams now wants to launch their product in a couple of months, even though it’s a mess. We talk about it in my team crit, since one of my designers has been asked to do a heuristic review of the product. The designer who asks “Two questions. First of all, why?” makes me lolsob. My manager and I spend our entire one-on-one discussing it, agreeing we are hosed (and agreeing that we can only say “hosed” to each other since none of our younger colleagues use the term). My colleague J and I have a “wtf” moment about it in a meeting that’s supposed to be about something else. Lots of Slack messages going back and forth all afternoon as well. It sometimes feels like this job is just one firedrill after another.
I decide to order in dinner: a carne asada bowl and a side of chips and guacamole from Dos Toros ($33.91). The bowl comes without guacamole, and I get a $4.97 credit from DoorDash for my troubles. I give Ada a bunch of the chips.
I show up for my monthly Zoom call with a small group of professional friends and no one else is there. This used to be a monthly after-work drinks thing that my friend H organized. It went online with COVID and it was just easier to keep online, and it’s been a great way to keep in touch with people whose opinions I value. H doesn’t always come anymore but there’s usually at least three of us. I missed the last one myself so I’m hoping this is a one-off.
Instead, I continue reading Scorched Grace (a banger), play with Ada, and then take her for a walk. (Assume that this walk, like all Ada walks, includes chatting with her friends, talking with people who want to pet her, talking with people who she wants to have pet her. She’s a very sociable dog for an introvert to hang out with!)
When I get home, I check the mailroom and there is a package from my dad -- a god-awful sculpture/lamp thing that looks like a cricket. Apparently, it’s made by an old friend of his who’s an artist in a touristy part of the South. He calls it “a gift of the heart” and thoughtfully includes the receipt -- which says “exchanges only.” Sigh.
Evening routine as per usual.
Total: $341.08
Day 7, Thursday
I oversleep and feel groggy all morning. Luckily, Ada is not a morning dog, and she’s still pretty wiped out from her week at boarding: usually she’d be climbing the walls not having been to daycare all week.
Toast and coffee again. Today I mix it up with some of the last of last year’s homemade jam.
More meetings about the clusterf**k and it’s all going to get argued out well above my head. Lunch is the last of the Indian food, plus the last of the Dos Toros chips and guac. It’s international!
An old friend is speaking at a local conference, and had asked if I wanted to be her guest: the invite from the conference organizers finally arrives and I accept. I’m reminded that the two of us had agreed to see Just For Us during its Broadway run (I saw it off-Broadway and loved it!), so I text her to find out when she’s in town. We quickly agree on a night and I buy the tickets ($279 including fees). She’ll pay me back for half, or buy dinner on the night.
I call my dad to thank him for the gift, and we talk about British mysteries on PBS. Dinner is a peppers, onion, and mushroom omelette. I should use the second bunch of chard, especially since I know I’ll be dining out Friday and Saturday, but I’m too tired to be creative.
I spend the rest of the evening tidying up for the cleaner who will come in the morning and then doing the evening routine.
Total: $279
Categorized Expenses for the Week:
Food + Drink: $262.40
Fun / Entertainment: $314.50
Home + Health: $267.21
Clothes + Beauty: $244.05
Transport: $52
Books: $50.48
Dog: $62.34
Other $143.17
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
My week totals out to about $1400, which is more than I would ideally like, but with the dishwasher repair, the Broadway tickets, and buying food for next week via Cook Unity, it doesn’t feel wildly off. I did notice a lot of quasi-impulse buys -- “oh, I just remembered this, need to buy it now!” -- which is something I should be more mindful of. It makes me more confident in my budgeting to know that even when I’m not watching my money I’m spending reasonably (except perhaps too much on Ada? Never!).
I’m still pretty anxious when I have to think about larger financial decisions, but at least about the day to day, I think I’m doing mostly all right!
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Retirement/Investments Balance: $2.6 million, which is still mind-boggling to me, even as I know that with better choices I might have even more. More about that later. $1500 in my HSA, $519,000 in traditional IRAs, about half of that in a Beneficiary IRA from my late mother, $10K in a Roth IRA, $40,000 in my employer’s stock from RSUs, $145,000 in my 401K, $990,000 in an unmanaged taxable account, and $920,000 in a managed one.
Equity: Probably about $500,000. I bought my co-op apartment for $500K in 2008, and put in $120K worth of renovations in 2019. I still owe $251,000 on a 3.75% refi, but it’s probably worth close to $800,000 with the updates and as the neighborhood has continued to gentrify; it was assessed at $720,000 when I took out a HELOC for the renovations. I was able to make the 20% downpayment of $100,000 the co-op required because of the money my mom left me; she was very clear that she wanted to enable me to buy a home, and we’d even discussed her helping with a future downpayment before she passed.
Savings account balance: $60,000 in a HYSA. Some of that is earmarked for quarterly taxes, further renovations, and self-care but I try to always have $30,000 which is about 4 months’ expenses available as an “emergency fund.” I also have a non-high-yield savings account, which has some funds earmarked for my nephew’s bar mitzvah but is mostly used as a transfer point between other accounts until I get my act together and close it: current non-earmarked balance of $2000.
Primary checking account balance: $4800. My first post-grad school checking account required a $2K balance for no fee on ATM transactions, and I still try to keep a $2K balance in checking. I tell myself it’s so nothing ever bounces, but actually it’s a mix of habit and superstition.
Secondary checking account: $9,000. This account is funded mostly from dividends from my REIT shares (see below) and used to pay the co-op maintenance fees. I keep saying I should combine the two accounts now that I could theoretically pay the maintenance out of my take-home instead, but I am lazy!
Credit card debt: None currently. I pay my cards every month, though because it’s not automated I fuck up maybe once a year or so.
Student loan debt: I graduated college with about $12,000 in debt, but my grandparents died while I was in college and my mom paid it off from her inheritance, saying “I got this money when I don’t need it, you should have it now when you do.” My siblings and I plan to pay off my nieces/nephews’ college debt in turn to pay it forward. I didn’t take on grad school debt -- never take out loans to get a humanities advanced degree! -- but I racked up $10,000 worth of credit card debt in grad school because I made so little money. I paid it off with work for an early dot-com while I was still in school.
Anything else that's applicable to you: my siblings and I inherited shares in a private company that later sold off assets and turned itself into a REIT. My mom said “never sell those shares!” and even though that company doesn’t exist anymore, we haven't, and selling private REIT shares is a PITA anyhow.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I've been working in my field for 23 years, my starting salary was $50,000
I was originally going to be a humanities academic, and went to graduate school in the Midwest in the 90s. For most of my 20s, I lived on around $20, $25K a year, eating a lot of beans and rice and sharing a house with lots of roommates. I did a bunch of early digital archive work, so when the web really took off and I realized that I didn’t want to be a professor after all, I had a few skills and some options. It was a big shift, though!
I grew up in the NYC area, but I got my first web job in NYC through the Internet. It was running the website for a magazine. I was 29 and I made $50,000: what one of my still in grad school friends called “grown-up money.” I was able to find a rent-stabilized apartment and live by myself. When my mom, who had raised us with help from her parents, was diagnosed with cancer, I was very glad to be close to home while she fought it into remission.
That job fell apart after a year and a half -- pay attention, it’s a theme! -- because the magazine didn’t really understand what going digital meant and had second thoughts (They have since gone out of business). I saw this coming and had already been networking hard, so I was able, through friends of friends, to land a job doing information architecture for a legacy technology company. That was my first job in UX and really where I count the start of my current career. The starting pay there was $77K, which went up to $85K: I learned they’d started me low because they weren’t sure I could do the job.
Between 9/11 and the dot-com crash I got laid off a year and a half in. Then followed another year and a half of scrounging for freelance work and relying on the occasional help from Mom to get by; according to my records, I was averaging about $40K a year in income.
I had a favorite client -- a small design firm that did very cool stuff -- and I worked hard to stay in touch with them even when they had no work for me. Eventually, that paid off in a longer-term freelance job. I was hoping to get hired there but also actively interviewing when my mom died: she hadn’t told us her cancer had returned until very late. When the design firm offered me a job, I took it, because I knew I would be a mess for a while and they already knew and trusted me and my work.
Starting pay at that job was $80K. I loved it until I hit the glass ceiling, which was unfortunately during the ‘08 recession, so I stayed a little longer than I would have liked. Final pay when I left after 6 years was $115K.
I joined Startup A as their first full-time UX person and design manager. We structured the pay so that while I started at $110K, when they got their B-round funding a few months later, it went up to $120. I got a raise to $130 before I and most of my team got laid off after, yes, a year and a half.
At this point, I knew more people in the NYC UX community so getting freelance work was a bit easier, and I thought about just going freelance for good. I had one great long-term client, let’s call them Client X, that I did most of my work for, and also did some stuff for big name companies. I was making about $120K as a freelancer and doing well.
I got an opportunity that I can’t be specific about, because it’s extremely dox-able, but it was a long-term project that took up 2013 and 2014, into the first months of 2015. It paid $150K/yr, plus I did a little extra work on the side for Client X, an additional $5K/yr. On the long-term project, I was a creative lead, but not a design manager, which was what I wanted to be doing, so when I had a chance to renew my contract, I didn’t re-up. I thought I had a design leadership role lined up, but it fell through, and I fell into a burn-out depression that led me back into therapy and onto meds for the first time.
I kept interviewing for leadership roles and not getting them, and went back to doing work for Client X as well as other freelancing. It didn’t go as well this time. My freelance income in 2015 was $80K and for 2016 it was only $50K. I had to break into my emergency savings.
Client X was falling apart, and I needed a new job, stat. I spoke to a former manager who had followed a similar in-house-freelance-in-house career path, and they told me to look for an individual contributor role rather than a leadership role, and transition once I was inside. So I changed the way I was looking, and eventually opportunity knocked.
In 2017, a professional friend who was at Startup B, in a job I’d applied for and not gotten, reached out and asked me if I would be interested in joining his team. B has a complex enterprise product and he knew I was good at products like that. I asked if there would be leadership opportunities in the future and he said it was a possibility, so I took the job. (I probably would have taken it even if he hadn’t, tbh, I was broke!). It paid $160K, so I felt like I was making progress again.
The professional friend left, I got the lateral move to manager, and I had a fantastic team I really liked. I also had a narcissistic boss, so that job ended in tears a year and a half later. (I really do have a pattern!) My salary was at $168K by then.
Since I started interviewing before I was actually fired, I was pretty far along in the interview process when it actually happened. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t have a long painful job search: in fact a job doing what I’d already been doing, for a large public company, had been posted in an online community I was part of, and I got referred in by someone I didn’t know (but who I am still friendly with now!). I was out of work for only about six weeks.
My starting salary at Company C in 2019 was $202K, with a 15% bonus and $100,000 in RSUs over 4 years. I was so wowed I didn’t even negotiate, though now I realize I still should have. With a promotion and other annual salary increases, my base salary is now $255K, with a 20% bonus. I have gotten RSU refreshes three of the four years I’ve been at this job. Between those and the ESPP discounts, my W2 shows about $400K the last two years.
I should also note that this job is fully remote, and my team is distributed across multiple cities and timezones. My apartment is a two-bedroom, and I use the second bedroom as a guest room/home office.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
My take-home pay is $9100/month. That’s after $7200 in taxes, $2800 into my 401K, $125 into my HSA, $100 for dental/vision/high-deductible medical insurance, $18/month for the company's legal plan, $30 to my commuter plan, and $1600/month into my ESPP.
Any Other Monthly Income: Not monthly but quarterly: The REIT mentioned above pays dividends of about $10K a year, but this year and last there has been an extra payment of $5K. Starting back in the days when I first bought my apartment and could barely afford to make the mortgage payments, I have set this money aside for the co-op maintenance fees.
I also get a 401K match up to $5000, and a HSA match of $1000 from my employer annually.
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: My monthly mortgage payment is $1690, to which I add $140/month in additional principal payment so it’s $1830.
Co-op maintenance (which includes gas, heating, and property tax as well as property management) is $1100.
Co-op insurance: $185/month
Savings contribution: $800/month
Investment contribution: $800/month, plus any RSUs/ESPP shares as they vest: I still have some shares from when I was holding long-term, but now I sell at or close to vest.
HELOC: I took out a $50K HELOC to help pay for the renovation of my kitchen and bathroom in 2019. I’m listing it because I just paid the last of it off a few weeks ago with $10,000 from RSUs. Until then I was paying about $200 a month plus an additional $200 to the principal. It was an adjustable-rate loan so the amount I was paying had gone up to almost 9%, so paying it off ASAP made sense.
Donations. This past year my charitable donations were almost 1% of my W2 AGI, and my goal for 2023 is to reach at least that 1%. My donations include:
- Monthly donations: $10 to the Human Utility (paying water bills for low-income families in Detroit and Baltimore); $15 to WNYC public radio; $5 each to a couple of different not-for-profit publications; $10 to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, $5 to NY Common Pantry every time I order from FreshDirect.
- Annual donations: $250 in museum memberships, $50 to Transportation Alternatives, a local activist organization, $1200 to my synagogue, $100 to the New York Public Library. This year I gave $500 to a center at my alma mater, and have also donated $100 so far to Donors Choose and $130 to City Harvest. The first $2K of donations above $50 are matched by my employer.
- I also volunteer for my synagogue helping events run smoothly, maybe 5-10 hours a year, and having volunteered last year for a Housing Works benefit, I want to do that again.
- I also make small recurring non-deductible donations to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Run for Something, and some local electeds.
Groceries: average $500/month
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $200/month, of which my employer subsidizes $50. I’ve been planning to downgrade but keep putting it off because I don’t want to deal.
Cellphone: I have a corporate-subsidized AT&T plan for $80 with unlimited data. I have been considering switching to Mint: any NYC folks who have it, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Subscriptions: $30/month on Patreon; $28.53/month for an All Access subscription to the New York Times, $10/month for Spotify with bonus Hulu, $21.76/month for Netflix (shared with my siblings). I have annual subscriptions to the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Disney+, FreshDirect, One Medical, a couple of Substacks, Duolingo, and CityMapper. I also have the Lyft All-Access plan because it comes with Citibike membership.
Gym membership: I will be paying $180/month when the gym I joined opens near me, unless I cancel in the first week they’re open.
Pet expenses: My pup is expensive! $40/month for pet insurance; $800/quarter for doggy daycare 2x/week; $40/month for food and treats; $115 every other month for grooming. She also gets boarded once or twice a year while I travel, which is $75/day plus transportation.
Car payment: None! One of the upsides of NYC living. I do budget $75/month for Lyft and most months don’t spend even that much.
Regular therapy: Right now, I am seeing a therapist through a company-provided service. I’m almost out of sessions though and need to figure out next steps.
Cleaning: every other week at $150 per visit. (just raised from $140 when I got a raise)
BONUS QUESTIONS:
Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My mom and my grandparents taught me to save, and to pay my bills on time, but they never taught me to invest: my mom’s idea of teaching me to invest was getting mad that I wasn’t, and telling me I needed to buy a specific index fund without explaining why or how, before there were things like e*Trade. When she died, I was still getting used to making a middle-class living for myself, and I was thrown into this situation where I had money and no idea how to manage it.
Did you worry about money growing up? Do you worry about it now?
Growing up, I was always aware that we needed to be on a budget, that my dad was cheap about giving money to things outside of the basics of child support, and my mom worked two jobs sometimes to make sure we could do extra things like go to camp. My grandparents helped a lot, both on money and on child care, and their Depression-era mentality about money definitely is part of my psyche now: I get stressed when I don’t have a full pantry, even though I live alone!
I get very anxious about money and spending, which is part of the reason I wanted to write this up to be honest. I have almost all of my bills on autopay because before autopay, I would joke that I paid my bills “every other month like clockwork.” Maybe it’s my family, maybe it’s how little money I had for most of my 20s, but I still get freaked out by an unexpected bill, even though there’s plenty of money to pay for it.
Tell us more about those bad financial decisions you referred to earlier?
Mom had bought some bonds with an investment manager she liked, but he had retired, and the person his office assigned us to in his stead really didn’t know what he was doing -- he knew how to sell annuities to senior citizens and that was about it. When we realized this was a problem, we got a referral through one of my siblings’ coworkers to someone else, who unwound our previous mistakes but made new ones. My siblings managed their own money (with or without partners) but I stayed with that financial advisor, who liked selling options and calls. Tl,dr: I missed basic growth for years because he was focused on short-term wins. At a certain point I knew enough to tell him to stop doing that and start focusing on long-term index funds, but I didn’t know enough to pick low-cost ones. The only good decision I made at that time was that I also told him to hold onto the Apple stock he was selling calls on: 12 years later, an investment of $57,000 is worth nearly $500,000.
When I worked at Startup B, I got options, and on the advice of a smart friend, I bought them, selling a little of the Apple stock to cover it. Startup B went public during the final days of the latest tech boom, and for a brief period my $60,000 investment in those options was worth over $3 million (!!). I wanted to be smart about the tax implications of selling my shares so I decided to wait until 2022 to start doing that, and of course the tech market collapsed: shares were down over 80% at one point. They’re better now but still below IPO price. Right now I’m holding on at $800,000 because the company’s basic business model still makes sense, but the regret is real, not to mention that it’s stressful to have nearly half of my holdings in just two companies!
I had stopped working with my previous financial advisor when Startup B went public because it was clear he really didn’t know how to help, and I found a tax-knowledgeable advisor who set me up with something closer to Boglehead strategy.
I have been thinking it’s time to stop working with that third advisor because basically I’m not going to need the help until I’m ready to retire (hopefully not more than 10-15 years from now!) and the fees stress me out, but my general tendency towards avoidance of all things financial is making this hard.
MONEY DIARY
Day 1, Friday:
I wake up before 6 because I’m out of town on a work trip and need to catch an early train home. I did most of my packing the night before so it’s just a little stumbling around the hotel room, leaving a tip for the maid ($20), checking out and getting in an Uber ($16.67, on company card). Not a lot is open at the train station but thank God the Dunkin’ Donuts is, so I get a medium coffee and a blueberry donut ($6.36, on company card). I’m listed as out of office on my calendar and Slack, but I do some time-sensitive work on the train and call it a week.
At Penn, I’m really tempted to take one last eye-wateringly expensive cab ride on the company dime, but I can’t bring myself to do it when it’s a straight shot on the subway instead ($2.75, prepaid on my commuter card). I get home and maybe because I know I’m reporting to you all, I unpack and get everything put away with record speed. I should do these diaries more often!
It’s a beautiful, unseasonably warm day in NYC, and everyone is out. The place I’d been planning to go for lunch is packed, the cafe I tried next was sold out of pastries and sandwiches, even the bagel joint is low on bagels! I finally get a BLT on a brioche roll and a Diet Coke at the bagel joint ($15) and I sit in their street seating and eat and read my library book on my phone.
Finally, the reason why I wanted to eat on this particular corner happens: the van from the dog boarding facility where my pup has been while I’m traveling shows up. My doodle (let’s call her Ada) and I have our little reunion on the street-corner, and then I walk her home. She runs around the apartment making sure everything is right where she left it, and then she eats some food. We have plans tonight so we both take a nap.
My friend K is having a birthday party in an outdoors venue, and I know she will want to see Ada. If I were going alone I would take a Citibike ebike (presuming one was available), because getting there by train from my place means switching trains or taking a bus to the right subway station. But I have great plans to take Ada on the bus/train route! Of course, those plans fall apart after the nap, when I recognize just how beat I am. I get a “wait & save” Lyft to the venue that shows up while I’m still looking for my keys, put Ada in her bag, and we go ($26 including tip). The venue has non-alcoholic frozen drinks, so I get one of those and a fancy grilled cheese ($29.50).
It’s great to see the birthday girl and our closest mutual friend H, who is also a UXer. H and I talk shop for a bit, catch up, and make plans for a day trip to Beacon over Memorial Day weekend. K is one of those people who is always out doing something, going to art shows or playing sports, and has a wide range of friends at her party. One of them is a guy I knew from abortion clinic defense work when I was 22, the year between college and grad school, and who got me some freelance work when I was starting out. We are surprised to see each other but eventually remember that we both knew we each knew K! It’s been a while. We catch up and he tells me about his current job. Someone else mentions his book and so he admits he has published a graphic design book since we last saw each other. He tells me to check out the website because I’ll get a kick out of it. When I get home ($26 again) I buy the book on Amazon ($23.50) to support him.
Total: $140, plus $2.75 pre-paid and $23 on the corporate card
Day 2, Saturday:
Both Ada and I are up unusually early today and it’s a nice day. I get her into a harness, and we head towards Grand Army Plaza. I’m carrying a big FreshDirect bag full of clothes to donate, which slows me down a bit, but we still get there before off-leash hours end and I get a donation receipt.
I drink a La Coulombe canned latte (which I keep for mornings like this) while Ada plays and rolls around in the grass. She’s not usually all that interested in playing fetch, but she will happily wander the paths of the park with me, occasionally chasing a bird or squirrel who can handily outrun her. She’s wearing a new Wild Ones harness that is too big for her -- I make a mental note to look up their return policy.
I take a couple of wrong turns and we spend longer than I’d planned in the park, but it’s hardly a problem to be outside on a nice day. On the walk back, we spot one of our neighbors, who’s set up a stand among the group just outside the Greenmarket. I didn’t know they had a side gig, so I stop to chat with them for a bit, and I buy (let’s call it a soap) for $6.
Back at the Greenmarket, I make a beeline for the Ronnybrook Dairy stand, where I get 6 drinkable yogurts for $2.50 each, which is $1.50 less than the regular price at stores, and even $.50 less than the on-sale price at FreshDirect. I also buy one of their new no-added-sugar drinkable yogurts in a smaller size for $1 ($17 total, including tip). Next it’s to Roaming Acres for their smoked bones for Ada -- the ostrich ones still aren’t in, which are the best, but we get 2 of the bison bones for $26.13. It’s pricey, but they last her for weeks. I also get 2 bunches of Swiss chard for $8, and stop at Bread Alone for a ciabatta roll and a piece of lemon-poppy pound cake. I throw in a loaf of sliced peasant bread because I’m just in the zone by this point ($10.50). The pound cake prevents me from stopping for something else to eat on the walk home, much to Ada’s dismay.
When we get back, I feed her, have the no-sugar-added yogurt and the pound cake, and put stuff away. I also take out her old harness and open the straps as wide as they will possibly go, hoping she can wear it again.
It’s only 11am and I’ve put nearly 9,000 steps on the ol’ pedometer, so it’s time for another nap.
Much of the rest of the day is spent lazing about, scrolling through Reddit and doing the Sunday crossword. I get a notification that my domain name has renewed ($17.17). I make a pasta dish with one bunch of the chard for dinner. We go for a decently long walk after dinner and the harness seems to be fitting her fine. I do my Duolingo practice in bed.
Total $84.80
Day 3, Sunday
Mother’s Day is fraught when your mom is gone and you don’t have kids. I’m happy to hang out in bed till 10:30, and thankfully so is Ada. She’s had a hectic week too! We do our walk and I make two slices of toast from the Greenmarket peasant bread for breakfast.
I call my aunt, my sister with kids, and my female cousin. My cousin and I discuss my BIL’s upcoming birthday party on Saturday, and the logistics of getting to the party in the suburbs. I don’t know what I’m going to do about Ada, either then or next weekend when I have told H I’ll go to Beacon for a day.
It’s a beautiful day, so I figure a shortish afternoon walk or just hanging out outside the local cafe would be nice. I buy the cafe’s iced tea special ($6 including tip) and am ready to stroll or sit, but Ada is not having it and literally pulls me back towards my building. I decide to take the hint, and go home. I measure Ada to pick out a new harness, order one on Amazon that the Wirecutter recommends for small dogs ($18.21), and spend an afternoon reading with a dog on my lap.
For dinner, I order Indian food. I have a Seamless promo, so I get enough for a few meals ($35.60). I clean up a little for the dishwasher repair tech who’ll be coming tomorrow, and watch Succession. I’d forgotten it was going to be the election episode, so I’m completely nerve-jangled at what’s supposed to be bedtime. Walk, crossword, Duolingo, and a little more reading in bed. I finish the book (don’t like it so I won’t mention the title).
Total: $41.60
Day 4, Monday
Before I left for my work trip, the upscale dishwasher I bought for my kitchen renovation stopped working and was throwing an error code in its display screen. I called the manufacturer and scheduled a service call for as soon as possible after I got back, and that was this morning. The technician arrives as I’m coming back from Ada’s morning walk.
I describe the problem to him and he’s unable to reproduce it. He runs the dishwasher for a while, shows me how to restart it when there’s an error, and listens to it run for a bit. He thinks that leaving it unplugged and open while I was away allowed the water that wasn’t draining right before to drain. It’s still a bit noisier than it was before, but I can’t deny that it’s actually working. An expensive lesson in how “have you tried turning it off and on again” almost always works -- $150 for the visit plus half an hour on site. He can’t get through to the office to process my credit card number so I have to write him a check ($260.21).
My first meeting of the day is canceled and my next one, our group leadership meeting, is just me and my boss. We compare notes on our respective travels over the last week -- she twisted her ankle -- and talk about some of the ideas that came out of our meetings. She tells me about the very nice cane she bought at CVS -- a collaboration with the Michael Graves studio, which has done some great stuff for people with disabilities -- and I look it up online. I have a cane I bought when I broke my ankle, and I’ve kept it because you never know, but now I’m tempted to replace it. Oh great, I think, I’m going to make people believe that your 50s are about impulse-purchasing canes!
My team has our weekly sync, and then I have a lot of email to catch up on, mostly bureaucratic stuff. There’s an invite to an event next week featuring an old professional friend: I RSVP yes, because networking is more fun when people you like are involved.
Lunch is some soup I defrosted and the ciabatta roll from the Greenmarket, reheated. In the late afternoon, I have a telehealth therapy session, and afterwards, I take a long walk with the dog. As we head out, we see several of the building’s other dogs, and the pre-schooler who Ada is special friends with. It’s extremely wholesome.
We pass a local restaurant where an old friend is eating outside with someone I don’t know. I catch her eye and we exchange a look, and I’m certain she’s on a date until she gets up and greets me and invites me and Ada to join them. I order the same drink the guy she’s with is having, talk to them both, and I’m relaxing a bit until I ask him how he knows her and yep, it’s a first date. Both of them seem totally fine with having me there, though I don’t stay for another round. I try to pay for my drink and they both refuse. He seems nice, and he liked my dog: if they end up dating I’ll have a funny story to tell.
I go home, heat up a meal I took out of the freezer back on Friday, and have dinner. I’m still a little tipsy so I drink water and eat Trader Joe’s lentil curls till the feeling subsides. I get a notification that a Substack I forgot to cancel just charged me the monthly subscription fee ($6). I cancel it moving forward immediately.
Walk the dog, crossword, Duolingo. In bed, I start a new library book: Scorched Grace, a mystery that got a rave review in the NYT, about a punk queer turned novice nun, investigating an arson at the school where she teaches.
Total: $266.21
Day 5, Tuesday
My super is at the door at 8:30 am, delighting Ada -- they are besties. He has a package that has his name on it but the number of an apartment in the building: a mystery! I point out that the apartment on the address label is not mine, but the same line, a floor down. I joke that he just wanted to come see Ada, who does in turn want to follow him to his next stop. I put on street clothes and take her for her walk.
Coffee and toast for breakfast again. I notice my AmEx payment has cleared, and schedule payments for the two credit cards (Chase and Apple Card) that I pay at the end of the month. I don’t like to set credit cards to auto-pay, because I like to keep an eye on my spending, but I do like to set up payments in advance. I do a little quick math with the help of the iPhone calculator and work out that even with my savings deductions, I should have about $500 extra left at the end of the month. When I have over $1K extra it will go into investments.
My first meeting of the day is with my favorite colleague J, and we catch up on some organizational challenges and talk about next steps on a project that she is leading. I’m really excited about how much positive attention her work has already gotten.
Lunch is some of the Indian leftovers. Then there’s a boring status meeting, and then I have a one-on-one with one of my direct reports. I’m very serious about making sure I do these every week, because I have had so many bad managers who didn’t. He suggests that he try working on something that I was hoping he could work on, so I am thrilled that he volunteered and tell him what a good idea he has.
My team member mentions that he needs some coffee, and I remember that I’m running low on beans. I click over to Fresh Direct and order coffee beans, a 12-pack of Sprite Zero cans, and a bunch of on-sale yogurts to be delivered same-day. ($45.22) I go through so much Sprite Zero. I got spoiled having free soda at office jobs, and now I probably drink 2-3 cans of soda a day at home. I also finalize my CookUnity order for next week, which I think will be a busy one: 8 meals for $91.17.
I have a meeting with the most senior designers across my boss’s organization, and we talk about holding an internal conference to align on a long-term UX vision. It’s an idea that I brought to my boss, though I give my team credit in the meeting, and I’m happy to see her want to invest in it.
Between meetings, I’m scrolling through Twitter and I see an old friend retweet her friend’s GoFundMe for his mom to help her keep her house. I’m moved by it, so I donate $18 (in Hebrew, letters=numbers and the number 18 has the same letters as the word for “life” so 18 or multiples of 18 are typical Jewish donation/gift amounts). Then I see a GoFundMe for a former colleague who has a lot of mental and health issues and is living out of their car. I donate $100 to that one rather than trying to work out the correct multiple of 18. ($120 total including GoFundMe “tips”)
My last meeting isn’t until dinnertime (the joy of working across time zones!) so I have to feed the dog as soon as I’m done. For myself, I heat up the leftover pasta and fry an egg to go on top. I put all the dishes in the dishwasher and set it to run overnight. By the time the FreshDirect delivery arrives, I’ve forgotten I ordered it!
When I check my email there is already a thank-you note from the friend of a friend whose GoFundMe I contributed to. I click over to his fundraiser, which has gone up a bit in the hours since I donated, and then also to my former co-worker’s, which has already met its goal! I scroll through the list of donors, seeing many familiar names. Most of our former colleagues who have donated have given more than I did: $200, $300 and the like. One, who was always prone to extravagant gestures, gave $1,000! I find myself second-guessing myself and wondering if I’m too cheap -- not just in this case but in general.
Crossword, Duolingo, bed. Whether it’s because of my worries or the lack of exercise I’ve been getting after a very active week last week, I don’t sleep well.
Total: $256.39
Day 6, Wednesday
Toast and coffee for breakfast again. I start my day with a few team one-on-ones. Then I have a meeting with other UX managers about our new talent management system: fun stuff. There’s some talk about how it might impact bonuses for next year, which is depressing. I use part of the meeting to buy new jeans, since the ones I’m wearing have the inevitable thigh rip, and while I’m on the Everlane site I see a gorgeous spring coat on sale and add that too ($244.05).
I check my personal email and there’s a pub announcement for a book on leadership from a design press. I meant to pre-order it, but I guess it’s too late! I buy directly from their website because they offer an ebook/print copy bundle, plus I always order directly from small presses when I can ($36.98).
Microwave mac and cheese for lunch. I take Ada out, planning to walk her to her doggy daycare, but about halfway there, she starts pulling emphatically towards home. Again, I take the hint, and we go home so she can sleep. I email them to let them know we will only be in once this week, and apologize for the short notice.
When I get home, I review my order from Saturday for a new harness. It’s not coming until Friday and I could still cancel it, since the old one is working for her again. I decide not to, since she may need a light-weight harness when it’s really hot out. I also check on an order which never showed up, and learn that it got returned to Amazon. I reorder the dog treats and Vitamin D ($26.14).
The afternoon is taken up by a complete clusterf**k at work, where different teams are working on related products and not working together. One of those teams now wants to launch their product in a couple of months, even though it’s a mess. We talk about it in my team crit, since one of my designers has been asked to do a heuristic review of the product. The designer who asks “Two questions. First of all, why?” makes me lolsob. My manager and I spend our entire one-on-one discussing it, agreeing we are hosed (and agreeing that we can only say “hosed” to each other since none of our younger colleagues use the term). My colleague J and I have a “wtf” moment about it in a meeting that’s supposed to be about something else. Lots of Slack messages going back and forth all afternoon as well. It sometimes feels like this job is just one firedrill after another.
I decide to order in dinner: a carne asada bowl and a side of chips and guacamole from Dos Toros ($33.91). The bowl comes without guacamole, and I get a $4.97 credit from DoorDash for my troubles. I give Ada a bunch of the chips.
I show up for my monthly Zoom call with a small group of professional friends and no one else is there. This used to be a monthly after-work drinks thing that my friend H organized. It went online with COVID and it was just easier to keep online, and it’s been a great way to keep in touch with people whose opinions I value. H doesn’t always come anymore but there’s usually at least three of us. I missed the last one myself so I’m hoping this is a one-off.
Instead, I continue reading Scorched Grace (a banger), play with Ada, and then take her for a walk. (Assume that this walk, like all Ada walks, includes chatting with her friends, talking with people who want to pet her, talking with people who she wants to have pet her. She’s a very sociable dog for an introvert to hang out with!)
When I get home, I check the mailroom and there is a package from my dad -- a god-awful sculpture/lamp thing that looks like a cricket. Apparently, it’s made by an old friend of his who’s an artist in a touristy part of the South. He calls it “a gift of the heart” and thoughtfully includes the receipt -- which says “exchanges only.” Sigh.
Evening routine as per usual.
Total: $341.08
Day 7, Thursday
I oversleep and feel groggy all morning. Luckily, Ada is not a morning dog, and she’s still pretty wiped out from her week at boarding: usually she’d be climbing the walls not having been to daycare all week.
Toast and coffee again. Today I mix it up with some of the last of last year’s homemade jam.
More meetings about the clusterf**k and it’s all going to get argued out well above my head. Lunch is the last of the Indian food, plus the last of the Dos Toros chips and guac. It’s international!
An old friend is speaking at a local conference, and had asked if I wanted to be her guest: the invite from the conference organizers finally arrives and I accept. I’m reminded that the two of us had agreed to see Just For Us during its Broadway run (I saw it off-Broadway and loved it!), so I text her to find out when she’s in town. We quickly agree on a night and I buy the tickets ($279 including fees). She’ll pay me back for half, or buy dinner on the night.
I call my dad to thank him for the gift, and we talk about British mysteries on PBS. Dinner is a peppers, onion, and mushroom omelette. I should use the second bunch of chard, especially since I know I’ll be dining out Friday and Saturday, but I’m too tired to be creative.
I spend the rest of the evening tidying up for the cleaner who will come in the morning and then doing the evening routine.
Total: $279
Categorized Expenses for the Week:
Food + Drink: $262.40
Fun / Entertainment: $314.50
Home + Health: $267.21
Clothes + Beauty: $244.05
Transport: $52
Books: $50.48
Dog: $62.34
Other $143.17
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
My week totals out to about $1400, which is more than I would ideally like, but with the dishwasher repair, the Broadway tickets, and buying food for next week via Cook Unity, it doesn’t feel wildly off. I did notice a lot of quasi-impulse buys -- “oh, I just remembered this, need to buy it now!” -- which is something I should be more mindful of. It makes me more confident in my budgeting to know that even when I’m not watching my money I’m spending reasonably (except perhaps too much on Ada? Never!).
I’m still pretty anxious when I have to think about larger financial decisions, but at least about the day to day, I think I’m doing mostly all right!