Desperate Car Wife: A Journey in the Making (part.7)
My husband's next "victim" .... A golden brown 1997 Chevy K/1500 Extended Cab
I had a feeling he'd buy this truck at some point... A buddy of his owned it and he would always make comments and cash offers whenever he saw the truck. About 3 or 4 years later my hubby finally got his wish! I still remember the night we brought it home... Unfortunately, that same night, during the wee hours, some delinquent teens went around the neighborhood and were keying cars down our street! He parked it on the street since he had planned to wash it first thing.... Hub was up early the next day, so excited to have his new baby; ready to give her a good wash and start marking his "territory" with that good 'ol "JB Treatment".. We walked out and discovered the truck had been keyed all the way from the driver's side door to the rear fender!! I can't describe how super p@##ed off he was without using a list of colorful words, but I'm sure y'all can imagine... I'm just glad I was there to help calm him down; to this very day I truly feel that had he given into his anger, he would've gone off his rocker, and that day would've been much like that famous line from Liam Neeson in Taken!! But after about an hour of watching what looked like a crazy man, pacing back and forth, looking over and over at the nearly 7' long scratch, while cursing up a storm, he managed to calm down "somewhat" and immediately ran down to AutoZone... $150 later, he had what he needed to make it as invisible as possible. It was deep in spots; the entire scratch had passed through the top coat and in some areas it was all the way to the base paint :(
Over the next year, he went over the entire body with a clay bar, compound buffed, then waxed and polished... She was easily a 10 footer for sure! Eventually he found some wheels and bought matching tires.. (He has a thing about mismatched tires LOL) She was lookin' like a pretty nice truck, so shiny and new, nearly flawless on the outside.
Side Note: I remember one night, not too long after he finished all that hard work, we were bbqing at our friend's house; the one who sold us the truck. It was well after midnight when we were finally ready to leave, (hubby was highly intoxicated), I ended up having to pull the truck out first because a huge bush was on the other side where he had backed in too close and couldn't open the passenger side door. Well he was too drunk and way too tall to try to climb over the center console thru the driver's side, so he wanted me to pull the truck out and he'd just hop in. I was like "there are branches sticking out of the bush and I think I might scratch the truck"... I insisted my hubby just pull it out a little and then I'd take over. (if anyone was gonna scratch it, I'd rather it be him!) To give some insight: there was another car parked on the driver's side, giving me very little room to work with... But he refused and said he'd guide me.. Famous. Last. Words!!!! As soon as I started to pull away, I heard scraping sounds!!!! I stopped and was sooo upset because I knew it would happen! I thought for sure he would be so p@##ed at me for scratching it! I had tears, I felt so bad!! He had just finished getting that truck looking new again and the hours of labotime spent doing so... I couldn't stop sobbing, even when he, surprisingly, wasn't mad at all!! He actually blamed himself because he made me move it.. I blame the alcohol for his chill response!!! After repeated "sorry's" and "it's okay's".. we get home and he grabs his container of Mother's compound and starts buffing out the scratch.... Next morning I looked at the spot and to my excitement, the scratch was gone... it didn't go through the top coat!! Couldn't even tell that there was ever even a scratch!!!! \Wipes sweaty forehead* What a relief that was!*
Next came the.......... you got it! The Sound system! \ insert smirky laugh here LOL **
A slimbox would just not do.. he tried, but at this point in his obsession with bass style audio, he wanted more bass. Well for those of you that don't know, more bass means not only bigger subs and bigger boxes for those subs, you also need higher quality tweeters and mids with their own amp system plus crossovers, a powerful amp just for the bass, bigger batteries (yes, that's plural), a bigger alternator, fuses galore, expensive wiring , etc... Not only is that crazy expensive to do, but it also required him to eventually remove the bench seat. I had no clue to all of this till I started going with him more often to the car audio shops. Needless to say, I was not a happy wife when it came to the price tags... I was perfectly happy with decent sound and a small sub, but something so crazy loud wasn't that big of a deal to me, however, our bank account would say otherwise LOL ... it wasn't my daily driver, so I didn't really care other than the costs for everything... he just could never be happy with the sound and continuously changed out the subs, boxes, decks, you name it... he did it more than once over on everything! So that was the first strike to this truck and I... (I know it sounds a bit harsh for a 1st strike, but I wanted a nice family vacation, not bigger and bigger subs... Remember my "limits" motto??)
I liked driving it around town, though the driver's seat was broken in the upright position, so I had to drive with a pillow behind me. (Strike 2!!) It never bothered him because he's so dang tall, and I rarely drove it as it was, so the seat wasn't a priority... Then I took it on the freeway, the steering became very loose. I don't know how to describe how it felt to me, other than it felt like it was severely out of play... My hubby never seemed to have the same issue and always would reassure me that "it's just how the truck drives''... So he hasn't messed around with the steering column at all. Well, I don't trust it or feel safe in it, so I refuse to drive it. I have had to take it on the freeway a couple more times since then and I still hate driving it... it still felt way out of whack for me; taking curvy turns was the worst, I couldn't even keep it centered in my lane! Nerves shot and blood pressure at its highest.... Strike 3!!! I absolutely hate driving that truck!!! She is a pretty thing after a good waxing, but that's as far as I take a liking to her...
$10k later, including a rebuilt tranny and 2 DIY transfer case replacements, the truck is nearly perfect in my husband's eyes.... but then the poor thing falls to vandalism once again! :( :( :( Only this time it was 2 slashed tires and a broken windshield! This time we filed a police report! But of course nothing ever came of it, unfortunately.... It was easy to replace, but costly and getting no justice after being vandalized twice (parked in the driveway the 2nd time), left us feeling sour and foul mouthed.... Now we have cameras on the driveway and street! Regardless of the vandalism, there's always something needing to be replaced it seems... this truck feels like a money pit in my mind... strike 4...
Special Note: If you have found or follow me on Twitter (DsCarWife) and come here to read my posts... I have a little treat tweet coming! Stay Tuned!
Part. 8 coming soon

< Ep 4- Part 2
Based on the fourth round of the elimination contest and the results
Spoiler tag only for basic character spoilers.
[Cut to the stage with Chris and Chef sitting at a judges table]
Chris: Alright first up is the Narwhals with Ella, Dakota, and Staci.
Tsumugi: And assistance from Beth!
Chris: Yeah, yeah whatever. Begin ladies.
Sayaka: [to herself] Here goes nothing. Please don't let me die of embarrassment.
[Sayaka begins to sing one of most popular songs]
Makoto: Oh, I love this one.
Kaede: Makoto, focus on the piano keys please. We're still not ready yet.
[Sayaka starts to dance around the stage]
Chris: Yes, pretty good, though I have no idea what those words mean.
Chef: Seems to be a one woman show so far.
Miu: Don't you worry because this shows about to heat up thanks to me! [she aims her invention]
Chris: Dakota...what exactly is that going to do?
Miu: Don't blink! [She fires at Sayaka as her body erupts into light and smoke. She can still be heard singing. Her old clothes are blown away against the backdrop]
Chris: Flashy and impressive.
Chef: Um please tell me that isn't the girl's clothes over there.
Miu: Wait for it…
[The smoke clears. Sayaka can still be heard singing]
Himiko: Behold, the Ultimate Magician is here now!
Chef: Okay then where is the- Gaagh!
[Sayaka suddenly appears over Chef's shoulder singing to to both of them in a completely different outfit]
Miu: Yeah, sing it girl! [Miu aims again and fires]
Chris: Agh! Dakota, not in my eyes please! Ugh, Chef, give me something to clear my eyes.
Himiko: Here you go. [She's now in Sayaka's place next to them holding a handkerchief]
Chef: Are these the girl's other clothes now?! [Referring to the clothes blown into his face]
Miu: Look, I can't control where they go to alright. Just enjoy the show you two!
[Another burst of smoke and Sayaka's back on stage. This process repeats a few more times with Sayaka disappearing and reappearing all over the stage every time in a new outfit and Himiko in her place until Sayaka finally finishes her song]
Sayaka: *pant* *pant* So what did you think?
Miu: Yeah, pretty impressive right?
Chris: Well, while I couldn't understand any of the words being sung, I will say I did appreciate the theatrics of it all.
Chef: Though, I could've done without all the girl's clothes strewn everywhere.
Chris: We give it a 4 each so an 8/10 for the Narwhals. Not a bad start. Rhinos are up next with Sugar, Katie, and Geoff.
Gundham: Are you sure you can handle knives?
Peko: Of course, like he said they're just tiny swords right…
Hiyoko: You just better not hit me! *Deep breath* Let's do this.
[The music begins and Hiyoko begins dancing her traditional Japanese dance]
Chris: Again with the Japanese songs. You don't see us going around playing songs that scream we're Canadian.
Hiyoko: Just shut up and pay attention!
Chef: I'm a little curious what the hamster boy is doing over there.
Kazuichi: Okay Peko, you're up. Just aim for the spots Mukuro already hit in the backdrop.
Peko: Very well. [She throws the first knife. It flies past Hiyoko but not without her having to dodge a bit]
Hiyoko: I said watch it, you klutz!
Peko: I got this, okay…[throws three more all just barely hitting their mark and missing Hiyoko]
Chris: Okay extreme traditional dancing huh? Not bad…
Gundham: Go now my Dark Devas! [Maga-Z and San-D make it onto two of the knives and start posing. Cham-P slumps onto the lower knife as Jum-P springs off of him onto the higher one.]
Chef: Interesting use of the little rodents.
Kazuichi: Okay Peko, bring it home with a few more.
Peko: Wait, where do I throw them?
Kazuichi: Um…I don't know Mukuro was just going to throw them to give more platforms for Gundham's hamsters to dance around on but we didn't get that far in practice. Just anywhere I guess.
Peko: Alright….[to herself] just don't hit Hiyoko or the hamsters. Hgghh!! [She throws the next knife and it flies to much to the right, slicing the sleeve of Hiyoko's kimono]
Hiyoko: Ahh! My sleeve! [The knife sails passed and straight towards Cham-P. He tries to jump out of the way and ends up falling off the knife and sending it clattering to the ground. This sends the rest of the Devas in a panic as they leap off the backdrop and onto Hiyoko] AGGHHH! No, get off me you filthy rats!
Sonia: Hiyoko, be careful don't hurt them!
Hiyoko: No stop! Get out of there!!! [She tries to keep dancing but is convulsing around, continuing until the music finally stops] *pant* *pant* [Her kimono tattered and loose from flailing so much, the Devas climb their way out and run back to Gundham]
Gundham: Be still my Devas, everything is alright now.
Hiyoko: Uggghhhh!!! Your stupid hamsters ruined my performance!!
Chris: *ahem* Well it definitely wasn't good. What do you think, Chef?
Chef: I liked the part with the knife throwing around the little brat. But other than that it's a two for me.
Chris: A two for me as well. So that leaves the Rhinos with a final score of 4/10. Octopi you're up next.
Peko: I'm sorry, I guess I'm not the best at knife throwing.
Aoi: Don't worry, Peko, we don't blame you. When we lose we know exactly who to blame.
Byakuya: I wonder who you could be referring to.
Hiyoko: Can I vote Gundham's stupid hamsters off the island instead!?
Gundham: Over my mortal body.
[Cut to the Octopi backstage still trying to work out their instruments]
Chris: [off camera] Come on, Octopi. Hurry up, we don't have all day.
Kaede: No, we can't do this, they're not ready.
Akane: Look on the bright side we probably can't fail worse than the Rhinos.
Kaede: I know but it's still going to be pretty embarrassing. Byakuya's right it's impossible to expect anyone to match our talent this quickly.
Taka: Wait, Kaede, that's it. We just need to reverse that thinking. Instead of them matching you two, how about you two match them?
Ibuki: Um, Izzy's a little confused at what you mean about that, Topher.
Taka: Listen up you two [whispers to Kaede and Ibuki]
Kaede: Huh, oh…oh my that might actually work.
Ibuki: Absolutely, we can make this rock hard!
Makoto: Wait, you didn't tell us what you're even doing.
Taka: There's no need. You two just go up on stage and play like you normally do.
Nagito: So poorly?
Taka: The girls will handle the rest and let your luck carry us to victory. Now go, Chris is waiting!
[Cut back to Chris and Chef at the judge table]
Chris: Finally, it seems like the Octopi are ready. Looks like we have a musical performance by Sky, Cody, Harold, and Izzy. Should be interesting at least.
[Stage opens with Makoto on the piano and Nagito on the bass guitar. Both begin playing simple melodies still rather amateurly]
Chef: This is the best they can come up with when it comes to talent?
Chris: I know, I feel like I'm back at my middle school talent show.
[Suddenly Ibuki bursts onto the stage shredding her guitar to Nagito's melody but in a way where it blends in with hers.]
Chef: Huh, that doesn't sound half bad. Could do without the piano though.
[Then Kaede slides in next to Makoto and does a musical scale matching the simple keys Makoto's playing]
Chris: Woah, what the?
[The stage immediately erupts into a complete harmony of guitar and piano. It turns into a rock ballad as Ibuki's guitar takes center stage only giving a moment to breathe as Nagito plays his simple melody as a solo and Ibuki takes back over]
Akane: This is actually working!
[Next Kaede takes center stage as her fingers dance gracefully over the keys purposely missing the notes that Makoto's melody is satisfying and taking the moment final moments to play one of her favorite classical pieces]
Chef: *sniff* It's beautiful.
[The grand finale has Ibuki and Kaede do a musical showdown, each playfully hitting back at each other with their own song. At one point stopping their playing to let Nagito and Makoto play their tunes against each other before finally jumping back in and finishing the set off with a big loud cacophony of noise. Ending on a complete silence after Kaede does one final slam on the keys and Ibuki one final power chord.]
Ibuki: Oh yeah, how was that for you!
[Octopi burst into applause and cheers. The four performers take a bow.]
Chris: I've got to admit that was mighty impressive. To not only blend guitar and piano but also those two's terrible playing is, dare I say it, extremely talented. It's a five for me.
Chef: *sniff* Huh, what?! Oh yeah a five from me as well. Man, that piano song reminded me of my childhood with Mama. What was that again…Debut…no Daberry?
Kaede: That was Debussy. It's one of my favorites.
Chef: Yeah, that was it! Man, that brings back memories.
Chris: Well I have to say it looks like we have a clear winner with a perfect 10/10 the Octopi win this competition. Of course we still have the Lions left. While I doubt they can match that we'll see if they at least don't come in dead last. It can't be any worse than the Rhinos, am I right?
[Cut to Lions backstage]
Mahiru: Well, Chihiro, are you able to fix it?
Chihiro: Sorry, film cameras aren't really my specialty. I'm going to need more time and maybe some help from Miu.
Kaito: Great, then who's going to perform with Angie and Nekomaru now?
Mondo: We still have Kirumi, right? She said she’d be of assistance.
Angie: Never fear Tyler and Brick. For Atua has answered my calls for help and has determined that Mike shall be our new performer, Nyahahahah!
Hajime: What, me?!
Angie: But of course, Atua senses great power inside you, and so you'll be perfect. Plus you must have great trust in Atua. More So than Tyler.
Hajime: But I…what am I supposed to do?
Mondo: Don't look at me man, Angie's in charge here.
Angie: Just follow my lead and let the beauty of making art and Atua guide you.
Nekomaru: Also make sure to catch everything I throw at you.
Angie: Let's begin. Places everyone!
[Cut back to Chris]
Chris: Alright, last up we have the Lions with Angie, Lightning and Courtney.
Celeste: Actually a change in plans Chris, as Mike will be taking Courtney's spot.
Chef: Mike? Does that guy even have a talent?
Chris: Well, we'll see. It's showtime!
[The stage opens and Angie and Hajime are in front of a pile of mud. Hajime's staring awkwardly at the audience]
Chiaki: Go, Hajime.
[He waves at Chiaki, but is immediately cut off by Nekomaru jumping on stage]
Nekomaru: All right team, ready and….. create! [He immediately starts throwing artists' tools at the pair in a rhythm. Hajime attempts to catch each one and passes it to Angie who is busy forming the mud.]
Angie: Hi, hi, hi, keep it up Mike and Lightning. This mud dries quickly!
Hajime: Agh, I'm going as fast as I can! Woah, there.
Nekomaru: Time to speed things up then. OVERDRIVE!!!
Hajime: [to himself] Dear Atua, please no.
[The strange dance continues of tools being thrown and just as quickly discarded, as Angie works faster building up her mud creation until finally it looked to be completed]
Chris: Hold on a sec…….
Angie: Aaaaannnnd…Wah Lah! How do you like it, Chris? [Angie turns to reveal a life size sculpture of Chris smiling down at his human counterpart]
Chris: It's beautiful! That's an immediate five from me! This is going to make a fabulous camp centerpiece.
Hajime: *pant* *pant* Are-are we done?
Kaito: I think we actually won this.
Kokichi: Of course, haven't you seen any underdog story? You always come from behind and claim victory.
Angie: Hmmm….ah not quite yet. Atua has shown me one more improvement. Lightning, I need a pretty rock over there by the seashore. Hurry, before the sculpture hardens.
Nekomaru: You got it!!!
Hajime: *pant* W-wait, Angie. I think we've done enough, we really shouldn't push it.
Angie: Nonsense Mike, Atua has spoken that this masterpiece will not be complete without it.
Hajime: B-but-
Nekomaru: I GOT IT! HAJIME, HEADS UP!!! [He launches the rock straight at the stage]
Hajime: Oh no-HGGGHHH!! [He catches in straight in his gut]
Mondo: Wow, he actually caught it. Pretty good for a-
Mahiru: Hajime, look out behind you!
[Hajime stumbles backwards from the impact and bumps into the sculpture, ultimately knocking it over and smashing on the ground]
Kokichi: Ooooh, that's not how those stories go. Maybe they really are fictional lies.
Kaito: Go Kirumi. [He pushes her on stage as she calmly walks over and begins cleaning up the rumble]
Hajime: Ugghhh. I've *cough* got it.
Angie: Oh my! On second thought it probably wouldn't have helped anyway. Chris seems different now.
Chris:................
Kaito: So uh Chef. You heard Chris. He already gave us a five so how about you?
Chef: Well it is impressive but ultimately you didn't have coordination to work as a team but I'd still give a three. Mostly for the maid girl's diligence.
Mondo: So, that still gives us an eight tied with the Narwhals then?
Chris: Nope! Uh uh, I retract my rating! For building up my hopes and dreams, and firmly crushing it. You get a Zero! Lions I'll be seeing you at the campfire ceremony immediately! Actually…let me mourn my losses first.
Angie: Well, this is not how Atua saw this going at all, but a very impressive display, Mike.
Hajime: Uh, yeah sure.
[Cut to the campfire ceremony]
Chris: Lions, you know why you're here. So let's just get this over with! In fact you probably already know who the bottom three are so in order is Cameron, Tyler, Brick, Blaineley and Courtney. You're all safe. [The donuts are chucked at them]
Mondo: Woah, watch the hair, man!
Chris: Celeste, Max, and Trent are also safe with one vote each.
Ryoma: Wait, someone actually voted for me? [He looks over at Celeste]
Celeste: What? I told you I would. No need to stare at me like that.
Chris: And looky here, surprise surprise it's the final three dream smashing performing losers. The first one safe is…….Mike.
Hajime: Well, that's a relief.
Chris: And the last one to receive a jelly donut is…………..
………….. Lightning.
Nekomaru: Thank you, I promise not to let you down again, team!
Angie: Oh my…what is this?
Chris: This is you not getting a donut, Angie, which means you're out of the competition. Serves you right for getting my hopes up!
Angie: Atua definitely did not see this coming-woah!
Chef: Yeah, yeah, blame whatever God you want girly. Time to go.
Angie: Bye-yonara my friends. I hope we stay in touch. Visit my island someday!
[Confessional]
Mahiru: Look it wasn't because of Angie's reliance on Atua that we voted her off…..okay maybe it was. I mean seriously we could've won if her God didn't demand that final addition. Maybe it was for the best.
[End]
[Confessional]
Kaito: Finally! That's one incompetent leader off our team. Maybe these guys will start relying on others for a change. Like me!
[End]
Chris: Quite the shake up as we lose our first team leader. Will the Lions be able to work as a team without her. I mean who else are they going to listen to....Tyler?
Kaito: Hey, I heard that!
Chris: Find out next time on Total Drama Triple D of Danganronpa Despair Disaster.

End of Episode

"show that the human form of the FOXP2 gene increases synaptic plasticity and dendrite connectivity in the basal ganglia. These results partly explain the enhanced capability of cortico-basal ganglia circuits in the human brain that regulate critical aspects of language, cognition, and motor control." Foxp2 Language Evolution
Cell FOXP2gene -(https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31081-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982216310818%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)
Enk(Ea)i- twin Serpent , the creator of mankind was the Genius-Scientist who tries twice to create a civilized man, until Ninmah tells him that they must add their likeness. Thus creating the perfect Man. It is when he put speech in their mouths that Enlil is enraged claiming they make too much noise,as you'll see this was the 1st cataclysm.Enki is the protector and teacher of mankind. He is essentially a god of civilization, and it was natural that he was also looked upon as the creator of man, and of the world in general. Enki Teachings
SacredTexts After his involvement with the original genetic experiment, his compassion for the plight of the Homo sapien (Man the Wise) his role shifted his role from genetic engineer to that of a freedom fighter. Because of the Romans(Enlils offspring) ancient text were edited, altered ,the Garden of Eden describes Enki & Ninti creating humanity at Ea’s headquarters. The House of the God of Water,Wisdom, fertility, known as the Great Serpent, the Garden was his 'den'. Naturally, humanity Would be born in Ea-Den. You will see from the text cited here, that it was Enki who created & then immediately fell in love with his creation. He earned & embraced the nickname of "Trickster', because being the wisest he tricked the other "Authorities"(Elohim- or Council of Rulers) for humanity’s sake.
"The bodies of Adam and Eve were overlaid with a horny skin that was as bright as daylight, like a luminescent garment".
In Ancient India this is also the description given of the Serpent people, benefactors & genetic engineers of humanity. (Bioluminescent i.e. they spontaneously emit light due to a chemical reaction in their body. This would explain the so-called “jewels of the Naga” that illuminates the netherworld. Bioluminescence is found in many deep sea fishes and other marine organisms like jellyfish, algae, bacteria etc., who emit light from their bodies that make the seas glow and glitter. This occurs due to the presence of a light-emitting molecule called luciferin, which produces light when it reacts with oxygen. Many organisms also produce the catalyst luciferase,
In both Sumer & the Jewish text we see the key role of the woman, who did nothing wrong, quite the contrary it is she who breathes the soul or psyche into man. Bit Shimti - "House where the wind of life is breathed in" - Ninmah is the proud mother the "essence" of the blood of a young Anunnaki male was mixed with the egg of a female hominid. The fertilized egg was then inserted into the womb of a female Anunnaki. When, after a tense waiting period, a "Model Man" was born, Ninmah held the newborn baby up and shouted: "I have created! My hands have made it!"[
Enki boasted, “A Civilized man I have brought forth. A new kind of Earthling from my seed has been created, in my image and after my likeness. From seed they from food will grow, from ewes sheep they will shepherd. For Gods, and offspring henceforth shall be satiated.“
In Genesis, it is understood that the Serpent speaks,and was of equal footing wth "God". We saw in the Nag Hammadi, and other ancient texts from around the world. He was also most notable, because he stood on 2 feet like man, and was even taller. The Sumerian term Annun-Aki meant 'tall ones', the height of the Serpent was equal to that of a camel. Chap 3 of Genesis the argument is given that man can't be one of US. He must not be allowed to eat from the tree & live forever". Even here you see they're brothers.
"Enki, the Lord of abundance, of trustworthy commands, The Lord of wisdom, who understands the land, The leader of the gods, Endowed with wisdom, the Lord of Eridu"...
It has always been Enli, the archons who aim to "destroy mankind in his psychological function". Later, it's Enlil who tries to force the other Authorities to keep the secret from mankind.
"Come, all of us, and take an oath regarding the killing Flood!" But as all the others took the oath, Enki resisted firmly. "I refuse. Why will you bind me with an oath?" he asked, "Am I to raise my hand against my own humans?" Meanwhile, our father Enki understands the importance of love and kindness to the raising of consciousness, he acts with kindness in defending humanity and dealing with all the life on the planet.
Ninmah The Ninhursag , an mother of humanity is shown with humanity at her breast.The priesthood of Sumer & Egypt were Dolichocephalic, like mother. the Serpent Cults today still maintains the pure bloodlines that were mandated after the deluge.)
She was the goddess of the stony, rocky ground, the hursag. The H symbol, i described at all the sacred "navel' sites, especially Göbekli Tepe, Puma Punku, has the same meaning. The serpent always represents spiritual wisdom, life and healing. The first symbols of serpents were attributed to Enki or NU.DIM.MUD (Nudimmud), "He Who Fashions Thing and then Ninhursag.("Whose House Is Water") . Nag hammadi-Origin of our World
The text describes Ninti 'let fall a droplet of light, it flowed onto the water, and immediately a human being appeared, being androgynous. That droplet she molded first as a female body. Afterwards, using the body she molded it in the likeness of the mother, which had appeared. This was Eve of Life namely, the female instructor of life. Her offspring is the creature that is lord. Afterwards, the authorities called it "Beast", so that it might lead astray their modelled creatures. (The interpretation of "the beast" is "the instructor". For it was found to be the wisest of all beings.)"
"Then each of them cast his sperm into the midst of the navel of the earth fashioned man with his body resembling their body.His modelling took place by parts, one at a time. And their leader fashioned the brain and the nervous system. Afterwards, he appeared as prior to him. He became a soul-endowed man"
"when the Authorities (Yahweh) had saw Adam/Eve transgressed their rule it came upon them an earthquake and a great threat, to see the result of the help that was give. Their eyes were blinded by him so they were not able to do anything to him. They merely cursed him, since they were powerless. And everything that they created they cursed. There is no blessing from them. Good cannot come from evil."
"Since that day the authorities knew that truly there was something stronger than they. They would not have known except that their commandment was broken. They brought a great envy into the world only because of the immortal human."
Enki possessed the secret of me, 'culture, civilization', which is the genius of progress in knowledge to lead humanity. He invented civilization for the people and assigned to each his destiny. He created order in the cosmos. He filled the rivers with fish. He invented the plough and the yoke so that farmers could till the earth with oxen. In the most recent thread you see each ruler from Egypt to Pharoah carries the plough, the Serpent Priest would assist the Pharoah who was in charge of a successful harvest. "Master Servant " was the Pharoah
"Enki made the grain grow. He is the father of all plants.” Of course he wanted his children to eat from the Tree of knowledge, With the Tree of Knowledge humans had the chance to figure out everything on their own in time, to be as equal or better than him, as any parent wants for there child. . Had they eaten only from the Tree of Life, they would live but not have been more the wiser.
Why should acquiring knowledge be a sin?" (the original sin) and comparing it to modern day observations ought to wake you up to the fact that you live within societal system that was engineered by the members of "God" to empower themselves while keeping those who live within it ignorant
The sacred waters of knowledge had a double meaning, it represents both the creationof the human body(mostly water) & it is talking about the water carried by the Sages in places like La Mana, Ecuador. This water has amazing healing properties, it is apart of ritual today in the Llanganates for visiting initiates. Indigenous elders working with the scientific community have had fascinating results. Electrum Water Hiv nanoparticles Silver "he interaction of nanoparticles with biomolecules and microorganisms is an expanding field of research. Wis. In this work, we demonstrate that silver nanoparticles undergo a size-dependent interaction with HIV-1, with nanoparticles exclusively in the range of 1-10nm attached to the virus"
The Dogon call our Master Teachers, The Monitors, Nummo also meanw 'to make one drink'(water of wisdom). The Hebrews termed these Watchers as nun resh’ayin, meaning “those who watch.” In the Greek this is translated as gigantes or giants, a race that even the 907 B.C. writer Hesiod featured as being monstrous (due to their serpentine aspect no doubt). Now we can understand the role of the giants 2 seen across the world of ancient script in respect to the presence of the Watchers.
The Apkallu, these priest of Enki i wrote about in the last thread, the genetic, archaeologicalevidence has shown R1b-V88 & R1b-M269 were associated with agriculture, cattle domestication, metal working, language, geopolymer construction, everywhere a Pyramid or Navel was Built the Mende/Yoruba & the Austro-Melanesian Pacific Islander Ghost Hominids dna dna is found. The Aunu/Anu people migrated across the globe. Göbekli Tepe The human ummânū is attested in the Uruk List of Kings and Sages, while other references to bird-apkallū are legion
The purādu-fish apkallū is principally attested in Berossus.These seven were each advisers for seven different kings and therefore result in two different lists, one of kings and one of apkallu. Neither the sages nor the kings in these lists were genealogically related however. Apkallu and human beings were presumably capable of conjugal relationships since after the flood, the myth states that four apkallu appeared. These were part human and part Apkallu, and included Nungalpirriggaldim, Pirriggalnungal, Pirriggalabsu, and Lu-nana who were only two-thirds ApkalluKundalini is the spiritual energy or life force present in every human being, located at the base of the spine.
They were believed to have apotropaic qualities, guarding the home from evil.Sages FigurinesThe three types of apkallū are portrayed, with the human ummânū at far left, the Nisroc bird-apkallū type in the middle, and the antediluvian purādu-fish type at far right.3 Apkallu
Remember that it was the woman who was Pharoah, her consort became king. Egypt, like most of the most sophisticated ancient civilizations were ruled by women. Ninhursags the Goddess of the stony, rocky ground that masons use to spiritually ascend higher, the H at Göbekli Tepe & Puma Punku represents mother. 'As above(ninmah), So below(Enki)'. The underworld was never a negative place before the Romans. The Pyramid, the Great house was the Woman's house. Sumerian text speak of the foundation being the stone & the water just as the Pyramid text of Saqqara. The Sumerian E.KUR - "House Which is Like a Mountain." Pyramid was put under the patronage of Ninharsag.in hymns shes recognized as mistress of the "House With a Pointed Peak" - a pyramid. CoffinText 313:Horus says "I created my Eye in flame, I made my Eye a living serpent". Remember, the serpent he saw was bipedal, always. As Robert Monroe reported in the Gateway Experiments.
"House bright and dark of Heaven and Earth, for the rocketships put together; E.KUR, House of the Gods with pointed peak; For Heaven-to-Earth it is greatly equipped. House whose interior glows with a reddish Light of Heaven, a beam of energy of creation which reaches far and wide; Its awesomeness touches the flesh. Awesome ziggurat, lofty mountain of mountains - Thy creation is great and lofty, men cannot understand it"
'House of Equipment, lofty house of Eternity: Its foundation are stones [which reach] the water; Its great circumference is set in the clay. House whose parts are skilfully woven together; House, the rightness of whose howling The Great-Ones-Who-See-and-Orbit brings down the rest . . . Mountain by which Utu ascends. [House] whose deep insides men cannot penetrate . . . Anu has magnified it.
In the Testament of Amram 2 men who resembling Living Serpents were seen fighting over him in his dream-vision. Even in ancient Text later we see "battles of the Gods', but in the very beginning We see the genius, Enki described as a kind, amicable child ONLY gets aggressive when his brother comes to harm his creation. Most importantly, Enlil & his realized he was powerless when Humanity had Enki by their side. So, his campaign was to disconnect us from that knowledge starting with the Bible & the Inquisition, they killed,raped, burned all of the knowledge that had allowed mankind to thrive.. then stashes the rest away, keeping it from the people. Dagon Catholicism
-In Egypt Ptah as Ea/Enki (Sumer he's also a cthonic diety "The Artful Creator") and Ra as his Firstborn son.
After Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninmah had fashioned the black-headed people, Vegetation that is fruitful they multiplied in the land... In the Edin they placed them..
The descendants of Ham ("He Who is Hot" and also "The Dark-Hued One").... correspond to the African nation-lands of Nubia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Lybia as the core nations of African resettlement, again beginning with the topographically higher areas..They were the Dogon, Hopis ancestors.. The ancient Chinese or Bak tribesmen which dominate China today called the Elamites KASHTI. Moreover, in the Bible the Book of Jeremiah (xlxx,35), we read "bow of Elam". It is interesting to note that both Khaltam-ti and Kashti as the name for Elam, agrees with Ta-Seti, the ancient name for Nubia located in the Meroitic Sudan. Sumerians Had Dolichocephalic skulls Genetic Evidence for convergent evolution SE AsianElamites-Mandig](http://olmec98.net/ElamPersians.png) Semitic speakers of Akkad and the non-Semitic speakers of Sumer were both sag-gig-ga or "blackheads".Elamite language, is closely related to the African languages including Egyptian and the Dravidian languages of India. Alchemy as Taught by Children of Enki
Antediluvian Kings of Sumer were known as Kings of Kush".the major Kushite tribe in Central Asia was called Kushana. The Kushan of China were styled Ta Yueh-ti or "the Great Lunar Race". Along the Salt Swamp, there was a state called Ku-Shih of Tibet. The city of K-san, was situated in the direction of Kushan, which was located in the Western part of the Gansu Province of China.
Here we find the divine decrees presented by Enki to Inanna are those referring to lordship, godship, the exalted and enduring crown, the throne of kingship, the exalted scepter, the exalted shrine, shepherdship, kingship, the numerous priestly offices, truth, descent into the nether world and ascent from it, the music From the tree in the Mesopotamian depiction hang two pieces of fruit. To the right of the tree is the half-moon symbol of Ea; to the left is the planet symbol of Anu.
Lastly the pineal gland(pine cone). In India it is a stick of bamboo with seven knots… which represents the spinal column with its seven centers or chakras… It also indicated the spinal cord…while the serpents were symbolical of the two channels called in Eastern terminology Ida and Pinagala; and the fire enclosed within it was the serpent-fire which in Sanskrit is called kundalini." Even the natural behaviors of the pine cone have an esoteric meaning:
"as it ripens, the pine cone slowly opens to release its mature seeds."
This process is symbolic of the expansion of consciousness that accompanies the opening of the pineal gland and the awakening of the Third Eye. The metaphor is a valuable and stimulating mental lesson of an esoteric phenomenon that cannot otherwise be seen or explained since it occurs inside the brain..
The One sure way, and what's been happening wthin the last century especially is to keep knowledge away from the human race. If we as a collective are so ingrained in our beliefs, how can we ever be open to new ideas pertaining to the nature of reality?

I hope this is an acceptable outcome in the end...
(Please tell me whether or not this chapter seems believable... I want it to be as authentic as possible. Thank you) :)
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Memory Transcription Subject: Tarva, Governor of the Venlil Republic
Date [Standardized human time]: November 4, 2136
…..
No…
NO…
I will not stand by and watch as I let Meier lose himself. I cannot wait to address Meier…
I will speak… and he will listen all the same
I walk with haste as I burst open the door to the landing pads. The ambassadors call me back in fear of what might happen, but I won’t listen to them. I won’t listen to myself, instincts will not control me to keep from making the right choice. This must be done, for us, and for Meier…
I quickly close the distance between us and surprise him as I speak up to gain his attention. “Meier”, I said his name with conviction.
He jerked up and turned around in surprise, before quickly changing to a more hostile stance as I approached, He stood still as I stepped forward… His eyes showed anger at my presence…
“What is it now Tarva?” he asked with annoyance…
“You are going to come back inside now… there is much more to discuss and I REFUSE to let you walk off this planet until it’s addressed!”
“Wha-?! You dare to threaten-”
“INSIDE now!”
He flinched at my tone of voice, before grumbling as he stared down at me with a predator gaze like the one before… I didn’t flinch… He brought his face closer to mine and looked into my eyes as I did all the same.
There were still people beyond the fence along the perimeter that stared at us in horror. They feared the worst with me face to face with the human like I was.
“Curious… fine…”
Meier stood straighter as he began to walk back into the building. I followed closely behind him. He tensed as I was so close, I knew that Meier would never let himself become this monster he now was. I need him to see the light, and guide us. We need humanity to be the good people I know they can be.
We re-enter the main room where the rest of the ambassadors stood in anticipation for what might happen. It was safe to say we were preparing for the worst.
“What could you possibly want to talk about now?” Meier spoke with even more annoyance than before.
I sighed before looking him dead in the eyes. “Meier, I know you are hateful of us, but we need to have a serious discussion on how to help you.”
Meier seemed taken aback by my reason for having him return to the chamber for discussion, “Excuse me? You? Help me? Is this some kind of Joke!?” He was very much offended by my choice of words. I gestured to the rest of the ambassadors.
“Meier… all of us here all agreed that we would be willing to seek you out and allie with you… to help you rebuild from the destruction that befell earth-”
“You wouldn’t NEED to do any of that if it wasn’t for you LEAVING US TO DIE TO BEGIN WITH! You act as if I can just overlook the entire fact that everything of significance that my people had wasn’t snapped away in an instant because of Federation influence FILTH that refused to listen and heed our calls for peace! You think I can simply ignore the death of billions of innocents?”
…
“Meier”, Cupo spoke up, which earned Meiers attention right quick, he looked directly into the Mazics eyes. “We all left the federation to seek to better understand humanity… to grow better for your sake. The same way you have for us.”
Meier simply gawked at the Mazic, “You really expect me to believe ANY of that? You think yourselves better than any other lifeform for being ‘predatory’ in nature. You have been raised to hate us and I KNOW that you will turn on us and stab you in the back just like you have before!”
I can’t take this… “ELIAS!!! I can’t sit back and watch as humanity becomes the monster we all fe-”
“SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!!!” Meier’s voice began to break, as a tinge of pain from it all came to be present unlike before. “YOU DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING GOOD FROM US!!! YOU’VE BEEN NOTHING BUT A BURDEN UPON US ALL!!! NOTHING BUT A MENTAL NIGHTMARE!!! YOU’RE ALL DISGUSTING AND I HATE ALL YOU’VE DONE TO ME!!!”
“YOU ACT AS IF WE DON’T HATE IT AS WELL!!!”
I was beginning to lose myself in my anger. I was growing Tired of this monster that assumed control of the Meier that I knew and cared for. I need him back, we need him back, even if I have to claw my way through this broken psyche one inch at a time I will make that happen…
“WHAT THOSE COWARDS HAVE DONE TO YOU IS UNFORGIVABLE!!! I MEAN THOSE THAT WERE AT YOUR SIDE AS WELL AS THOSE THAT ATTACKED YOU!!! YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE HATEFUL OVER THE FEDERATION BUT I CAN’T SIT BY AND WATCH YOU BECOME JUST LIKE THEM!!!”
This statement shocked Meier, he seemed taken aback by the idea, anger was ever present, but it wasn’t as prominent as it once was… just like the federation, he would deny being anything like them, just like they would all deny being anything like Arxur.
He seemed to gasp, stuttering to look for the right words. For once, I see a genuine sense of fear in his eyes… a fear of realization. He shook his head as he looked off to the side lost in thought.
“Look”, the Duertian spoke up, earning both of our attention. “Meier you’re letting yourself get lost in rage the same way the extermination fleet was lost in fear…” The Tilfish joined in, “And like us, we don’t want you to ultimately do something you would regret… like we have… it’s horrible what has been done… and if we do need to die to make you feel better? Very well then…”
Cupo joined in the effort as well, “I know under the guise of this monster that has been made of you? There is still that wonderful human that I know everyone can rely on…”
The monster was beginning to break, but Meier was not yet freed, the monster stepped back, “No, NO! All of you hate humans! You’re just trying to lure us into a sense of ease so you can lower our guard and leave ourselves prone to a surprise attack! I will not be weak for you to take advantage of me!!!”
…
“Meier… none of this is your fault.”
Meier looked at me with a look in his eyes of confusion, of shock; he definitely wasn’t expecting me to say that.
“You… are the best leader humanity could ever ask for; and I know that no matter which part of you wins over the other, you will make the choice that will ultimately lead to the prosperity of your people…”
He stared at me, speechless. His mechanical eyes conveyed so much emotion… If only I could see them without his mask. His eyes were sporadic, they looked out at the ambassadors, they felt equal concern for him, a few even had tears in their eyes. They have every right to be suspicious, to be hateful… but it’s all a collective agreement that we must help them, to save both them and ourselves. If we have to be subjected to the torment they wish to inflict…
As Meiers eyes darted around the room, he glimpsed over at the television along the wall… and quickly returned his gaze to the reflection he saw. He remained still, before moving closer to really get a good look at himself. I-... I’m close to finally freeing Meier, he’s hiding deep in the recesses in the mind, behind that monster that has been made of him…
“Meier… I know we can, and will, save humanity from itself… just give us the chance to prove that we want to be better…” I said with compassion. The monster was still there however, and it spoke, “You deserve the monster you filth made of me…” His voice, I could hear him choking up, I could practically feel his tears pouring down his face…
“But a wonderful person like you doesn’t deserve to be that monster… I will not abandon you to this fate… I promise.” My words seemed to have quite the effect… Other ambassadors say this is the time to speak up as well. “We will not abandon you” was the phrase uttered by each ambassador one by one, each with their own flair and expression.
…
Meier looked down at his hands, and began to breathe at an accelerated rate his eyes went to express utter… Horror.
He practically wailed in emotion as Meier finally woke from the depths, He held tightly to his face as he fell to his knees, his extra robotic heads were flailing about all the while… before they began to bite away at Meier’s exosuit… We all stood in horror and awe, Meier was freed from his rage, but he ultimately found himself in the body of a monster.
…
Oh this poor man…
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There is nothing more harmful to the body, spirit, and soul than the serrated fangs of regret. As of May 6th, 2023, I am haunted by regret. No matter how much I have grown, and how much I have learned, I am still being followed by a looming shadow of pain and sorrow. Today I heard a story from a man who died, passed over to the Great Spiritual, and came back. During a relatively routine surgery, nothing too invasive, a nurse made an error when adjusting the pressure of blood moving throughout his body and consequently, stopped his heart. Stricken with panic and fear, the nurse ran through the halls screaming “I killed him! I killed him!”
At this point, the man spoke of his spirit leaving the body, and just became an observation of the surgery. Whilst watching his own surgery, he was joined by an unknown humanoid figure. We can safely assume this is some form of Psychopomp, and a silent one at that. Once it was time to move on, he was instructed to never look back, and follow the figure. With agreeance, he then found himself in a beautiful plot of land, surrounded with flowers that were more plentiful and vibrant than one could ever imagine. Then, a white cloud accumulates.
The man looked into this cloud and proceeded to watch his life over again. Every moment since the point of birth was observed. Every joyous occasion. Every gut-wrenching, horrific tragedy. Every perfect kiss. Every accomplishment and mistake. It was at this point in the story that I began thinking about when I am in that situation. I sit here at this computer with puffy eyes because I know now, for certainty, that I don’t want to look into the cloud. I am ashamed of the life that I lead. Cowardly, emotionally stunted, and so mentally burdened with regret and fear that every day is an obstacle course of stabilization just to do the bare necessities.
I worry about meeting the psychopomp. Silent as they may be, I still worry about the looming energetic disappointment that they will understandably exude. I worry that all of my regret will eat and consume my very being until I am digested and expunged from this vessel into worthless remains. Caput mortuum. As such, I will allow myself this room to speak of my regret, so that it may go through that process instead.
I regret my anger as a child. It made me cruel, and bitter. Even to those who wanted nothing but to help me and care for me. I regret not showing my father how much he means to me. No one deserves to hear those three words moreso than him. I regret never tapping into my ambition. The severe lack of drive and motivation have stifled amazing opportunities for me countless times. I regret not being the partner I should have been. The anger from childhood persisted, and as such, I became a source of worry and frustration for her rather than a source of support, love, and safety. I regret not being able to bring my family back together after making the already-present schism worse. I regret not being more open with my singing, even though it is an aspect of life that I am incredibly passionate about.
All of this is to say, I don’t have to carry around regret. I never did, and I never have to again. I will be keeping the story I heard today in mind for as long as I need to for it to sink in and cement into my mind. Life is unpredictable, it’s short, and it’s brutal. However, all of what we experience has a purpose, and it is always for our betterment. It is so we can smile at the psychopomp. It is so we can smell the flowers in the perfect meadow and experience all the wonder it has to offer. It is so we can reach into the cloud to feel the freedom inside with bliss.
The purpose of Life is to Live.
The purpose of Regret is to stop you from Living it.

A friend of mine at work invited me out to Belmont shores (Long Beach, CA) and gave me a trainer kite a few weeks ago. I’ve been trying to find a way into the sport since and have been taking in as much information as possible. I just found this subreddit and was hoping you all could help a newbie out with a few questions:

• I’ve seen a kiteboarding “wiki” referenced here but don’t see it as a sticky. Maybe I’m blind but can someone link it for me?
  
• Any recommended videos or instructionals that are key?
  
• I’m trying to do this on a budget (first baby on the way). Any advice on how to get a decent kit that isn’t going to get me killed (I’ve heard some of the older kites are sketchy) and isn’t going to break the bank? Most other sports I’ve played have been a relatively low barrier to entry money wise. Spending this much cash on a setup is new to me.
  
• Any help on what kind of gear I should be looking for to start with? I’m in Oceanside CA, so I’ll probably be between mission bay in San Diego and Belmont Shores mostly.
  

I’m coming over from a decent amount of surfing (few years), skating and quite a lot of trick kite flying when I was a kid. I feel like it’s going to be a fun sport to get into and I’m really excited. The trainer kite was a lot of fun and I did fly my buddies 9M from 11-1 a bunch to get some practice on the first day.
Thanks a ton in advance for any help and advice! Hope to be out there shredding (is this a kiteboard term lol) with you all soon!

(Apologies to anyone who reads this in full. But this joke is hideously long on purpose. It's effects are best if you actually sit someone down and tell it to them. I took up my workmates entire lunch break with this and he hasn't spoken to me all evening.)
There are one hundred priests of an unspecified religion. They have arrived dressed in the symbols of their faith in a new land to spread the word of their 'Superbook'. This could be any land, France, Egypt, Feudal Japan, the Toronto Film Festival, any land. Absolutely any land you can imagine, Gondor, Pangaea, 1992 or your own home and surrounding lands which are unique to you.
Upon arriving in this strange new land they learn that the people here have no knowledge of Superbook. They decide that the best way to spread the word is to construct a building as a symbol of the new faith. So they purchased some basic tools and set to work gathering wood for their shrine. As there were one hundred priests in their prime the shrine was constructed in under a week.
It was a basic thing. The sort of shrine you would look at and say "that's pretty shit. Did children build this? You didn't tell me there were feral children around.". A central trunk with a roughly carved deity symbol nailed to the top stood in a forest clearing. A few rows of log seats encircled it and around the edges stood a few tall torches burning incense.
The priests stood back and looked proud over their creation, happy that they could begin spreading the words and illustrations of Superbook. It was suggested by one of the priests that "Hey we should go for a drink to celebrate our success!" to which exactly half of the priests thought would be a good idea. So fifty of the priests headed down to the local pub where they spent the night drinking whatever beverages Superbook allowed.
Upon returning from their celebrations the priests were greeted by a horrifying sight. "Have I got beverage in my eyes!?" one of the priests was heard to say "or has something destroyed our shrine!?". The priest was correct, before them lay the ruins of their primitive shrine, a tangle of wood and limbs all set ablaze by the incense torches.
How exactly all fifty priests who remained at the shrine managed to perish as the single tall, thin structure collapsed remains a mystery to this day. As the priests stood in shock staring and mourning over their lost friends, one of them turned to notice something that looked out of place. As he squinted he could make out on the horizon a figure all in black, speeding away on an unspecified vehicle. It could be a motorbike, a sports car, a horse and carriage, a horse without a carriage, absolutely any vehicle you can think of, a bicycle, a unicycle, a pangolin, or a petrol powered pangolin.
But it was too late, the man disappeared over the horizon. As the remaining priests gathered their thoughts, one of them suggested that they should not be discouraged, and that their fallen friends would want them to rebuild the shrine in memory of them.
The priests agreed and set about building a new shrine! bigger and better than the first to remember this tragic day. They quarried stones, they cut down trees and they sewed curtains, nice curtains, I mean REALLY nice curtains, with tassels and everything. It took the fifty priests a few weeks to complete but eventually they were able to stand back and admire their new creation.
It was a quaint chapel on the hill. The sort of chapel you would look at and say "hey look at that quaint little chapel, and oh damn check out those nice curtains!". A trodden dirt path led to the entrance of a small stone structure, inside was the picture of simplicity and modesty. A few rows of pews on a polished wooden floor, and an altar stood in front of a patchwork deity symbol.
As the priests admired their new chapel, they remarked that yes, their fallen friends would be happy with this. One of the priests suggested that they visit a local theme park to celebrate this day. Exactly half of the priests agreed, they spent the day riding deity approved rides, gambling deity approved amounts of money and not riding deity condemned rides.
Upon returning from their celebrations the priests were greeted by a horrifying sight. "Have I got deity approved theme park snacks in my eyes!?" one of the priests was heard to say "or has something destroyed our chapel!?". The priest was correct, on the hill lay a pill of stone rubble, limbs and silky smooth curtain tassels.... which was all on fire for some reason.
As the priests stood staring in horror over their lost friends, one of them turned to notice something that, yes, upon the horizon he could just make out the man in black speeding into the distance. But it was too late, he was gone. As the remaining priests took care of the dead in the way decreed by Superbook, one of them suggested that this should not be the end, and that their fallen friends would want them to rebuild the chapel in memory of them.
The priests agreed and set about pillaging neighbouring villages for building supplies. They gathered glass, mixed cement, smelted iron, mined for gold and expanded their quarry. They didn't just rebuild the chapel, they built a fully fledged church! The sort of church that when you refer to it like "Oh it's up by the church", people would know what you are talking about and benefit from your informative directions. It had taken the twenty five priests six months of labour but there it stood. A paved path led through an iron fence, protection against and would-be-church-destroyers and towards an imposing stone structure. Stain glass windows adorned the front complete with deity symbols, the pews could seat a thousand and a golden forged Superbook sat upon the altar.
The twenty five priests patted themselves on the back and said a prayer for the lost friends. One priest suggested that after six months they deserved a celebratory meal to mark the occasion. Twelve priests agreed whilst the rest stayed to rest, content in the safety of their shiny new iron fence. The twelve priests spent the evening at a nearby Italian restaurant, because everyone is allowed to eat Italian food.
After an evening of scoffing increasingly abstract pasta shapes the twelve priests returned to their church. One of the priests was heard to say "Have I got tagliatelle in my eye!? Or has someone knocked down our church!? AGAIN!" The scene that greeted them was one of sorrow and anger. Sorrow for their dead friends, crushed under heaps of stone and glass. Anger at their dead friends, for placing so much faith in an iron fence. Yet more anger at the figure they could see vanishing over the horizon.
At this point you are probably thinking that these priests are idiots, that surely they can understand the pattern by now that building a church plus staying in the church equals death. You would also think that after the previous events they would not believe that the solution would be to build a bigger church.... as this in no way addresses the problem at hand. You may think that surely he can't just keep rambling on like this and that he will wrap this up soon, after all we have figured out the pattern of the joke and we know where it is going anyway.
So one of the priests, suffering from long term memory loss, suggested that to honour their friends they should build a new monument to their faith. The others, after giving him concerned looks, figured they had come this far and, resigned to their fate, they agreed. The priests then spent the next five years ravaging the lands for resources. They felled forests, flattened hills and drove the critically endangered Pentapus to extinction to use their tears for cement (its like an octopus but it only has five arms... and only has five eyes.)
After a further five years of construction, they were finally able to stand back, crane their necks high, and admire their creation. This was a truly great achievement. This was now a cathedral, the sort of cathedral that architecture student congregate around. The sort of structure that everyone for miles around would refer to as "That massive f***ing monstrosity made of tears" and there would be weird rumors like "at night I've heard that you can hear the pentapusses crying from inside the walls". Whether these rumors were true or not, it was an impressive building. The size of an aeroplane hangar. It had an attached aeroplane hangar. It was the first cathedral built with a solid steel support structure and, for added protection, a moat and barbwire fence surrounded it.
The priests had been at the whole 'building monuments for the Superbook' for many years now and were getting old and tired. One of them suggested that they should take a trip to a local spa for a day of relaxation after this great achievement, "after all..." he said "page 69 of Superbook does proclaim in giant text, 'Thou shalt spa'". Five other priests, who probably had better survival instincts, agreed and the six of them took off. Six remained content in their reinforced structure, even taking shifts to keep watch for added security.
The six who left spent the day wallowing in mud, having cucumbers placed on various body parts and being generally as un-energetic as possible. They were also pleasantly surprised to find that their local infamy granted them free access to all the spas facilities. After they had left in their own time and the spa owner barred the doors shut behind them they headed back to their church.
"Have I still got cucumber in my eye!?" one of the six said as their home loomed on the horizon, "or has someone destroyed our church!?"
The priest was correct. As they approached and crossed the moat they found a towering pile of rubble. There was an eerie silence as they glared at the destruction, picturing their dead friends somewhere inside. The silence was only broken by the sound of the man in black speeding off over the horizon and the joyous cries of Pentapus souls being freed.
The sight of the man in black filled one of the priests with rage. He turned to the others and said "Hey I know what we need to do!" ... The others agreed before he had chance to say what it was.
The priests set about gathering more resources. After the ten years it took them to gather this, they were surrounded by a scorched barren earth. They had felled all the trees for twenty miles, flattened the earth, hunted all life to extinction (I mean all life, even worms... they took all the worms and used them to lure down all the birds. Then they trained the birds to help lift heavy objects for them. Then they ate the birds. Then they made a monument to remember the birds. Then they... didn't really put much effort into maintaining it and it ran into disrepair... the end), drained lakes and sucked clouds from the sky somehow.
It took a further ten years for the small group of ageing priests to complete their construction. For the sake of this story four of the priests died during a slave bird rebellion that was later crushed. Mainly because I can't think of many more advancing stages of church besides going into ghost churches or space churches, though those would be awesome.
Their creation could barely be called a church.Yes it was built in the shape of their deity symbol and inside were super mahogany (like regular mahogany only more awesome) pews and a diamond pulpit, but to all other purposes this was a fortress. The entire structure was titanium, standing thirty stories high. It was surrounded with laser fences, laser moats full of lasers, and atop the building were placed a cluster of guns which shot bullets which were also made of lasers. There were immense speaker systems built into the walls which issued threats as well as religious good will messages to all who approached. It was the sort of church that you wouldn't say anything about... because the church would know what you said and rain lasers upon you.
The doom of the man in black was built. But they needed bait. The two old priests drew straws to decide who would stay. The priest who left made it known that he would be leaving for a day on the beach.
He spent his day pretending to sunbathe, pretending to build sandcastles and pretending to dip his toes in the water. Until he heard a commotion in the distance. He raced back towards his fortress with a smile on his face, the sort of smile you would have if the person who has killed ninety eight of your closest ninety nine friends had been killed. When he could peer over the next horizon however, his smile vanished. All he could see in front of him was a smoking heap of titanium and misfiring lasers. As he peered through the smoke he could make out the man in black making his escape.
Something inside him had told him that this would happen and this time he was prepared. He knew there was no sand in his eyes... he had only been pretending to touch the sand. He ran behind a nearby bush and hopped aboard his Super Priesty Priest Scooter and gave chase.
Through the desolate lands he chased the man, gaining ever so slowly until after hours, to the priests surprise, the man had pulled over. The priest pulled up and approached the man, his face red with rage.
"HAVE YOU BEEN KNOCKING DOWN OUR CHURCHES!?" The priest roared.
And the man replied
"...... no....... "

I have a bunch of pdf files that I am wanting to extract only the text in the "body" of the file. I am wanting to accomplish this so that I may try using some of the self hosted LLMs adding the data as inference to be able to get additional insights. A lot of the pdf files I own are fairly busy and add additional noise to the extraction. For example, page numbers, headers, footers, etc.
I have done some research and came across a post where someone mentioned one might be able to do this using something like pdftotext and setting the x,y, width, and height, to create a crop area. This seems like an interesting idea, but I am not sure how to get the exact coordinates, and while I am assuming I would only need to set it once for an individual pdf document, as all the pages should be the same, I would need to change the settings each time I load a different document.
I tried googling for a possible program with a UI that might help do this but got many different results of products and got all kind of results of products that are used for extracting multiple fields in forms, which I don't know if they would fit this use case.
My question, does anyone know of a good product that is free, or not very expensive, that I can load a pdf file into it, and use my mouse to just draw a box on the page and it will extract the text found within that region on every page in the document?
Thanks for all your help!

If I remember correctly, Shadow ran off when I was seven. The story I always heard about how he came into our lives was that my dad brought him home from a coworker who had tried to train him up as a hunting dog. Apparently Shadow didn't display the correct instincts. It makes sense — he was a husky / labrador mix, so he leaned a little bit into the willful side of his lineage.
Everyone else remembers Shadow as the prototypical family dog: loyal, loving, protective. But I have different memories.
Even though Shadow was a family dog, it was pretty clear from early on that he was most strongly connected to me. The thing is, I was always afraid of him.
He'd follow me all around the house nudging me this way and that if I wasn't doing what he wanted. I didn't want to be alone in my room with him, but he always managed to corner me in there, and wouldn't leave when I told him to.
More than once I'd do something bad and I'd swear it was because he told me to do it. I'd always chalked it up to my childhood imagination, but I remember specifically once when I was maybe five years old and my sister was standing at the top of the stairs he told me to push her down.
"No. I won't," I said.
My sister who was a few years older said, "Won't what?"
Then Shadow stared at me and I heard his gruff voice speaking. "If you don't push her down the stairs I'm going to go into her room tonight while she's sleeping, and I'm going to rip her throat out."
My sister didn't get seriously hurt, but she did take on quite a few bruises, and I think that's when our relationship started to deteriorate. It's never really recovered.
I got in a lot of trouble, rightfully. And my parents kept a better watch over me for quite a while. Of course they didn't believe me when I told them Shadow made me do it. Who would?
"You're going to bang your head against this shelf until your parents come to check on you," the dog told me.
"I don't want to."
"I can hear them downstairs right now. I can smell their blood. Do you know how easy it would be for me to kill them? Maybe I'll kill your mom first. Everyone will think you did it since they all think you're a little serial killer already. Then, after someone takes you away, I'll kill your father."
I nearly knocked myself out banging my head against the cabinet.
Shadow liked to come with us on errands. Everyone that saw him said he was the most beautiful dog. “Majestic,” they say. “Gorgeous dog that one,” or “Where did you get him? I’d love to have a dog like that.” And to be fair, he was always the perfect dog for everyone else: calm, well mannered, came when called.
We'd be at the ice cream shop and all the teens working there would crowd around him to give him pets and a complimentary bowl of whipped cream.
When they praised him he’d look over at me with his beautiful, dichromatic eyes — one blue, one brown — as if to say, “See, nobody will ever believe you.”
Nobody believed me about anything.
I guess when I was young I would tell really fanciful stories about when I used to be an adult. I had this whole life built up with a whole other family and career in the post office, and once I told my parents about it enough I think they decided that I was simply one of those kids who couldn't tell reality from imagination. They got mad at me with how long it went on.
My mom tells me once, specifically, I'd awakened her sobbing saying "The bad man. He kiwwwed me. He bwoke in the house and kiwwwed me with a gun."
Apparently she had to be up early for work that morning, so she was especially angry. "It's just a dream, silly bug," she said, practically dragging me back to my room.
I was a little older when I started hearing the babies crying outside. Not every night, but maybe once every couple weeks. I'd awaken in the middle of the night, afraid. Then I'd hear it, a baby crying outside.
My mom threatened to lock me in my room at night if I didn't stop waking her up every time I had a nightmare. And where had that dog gone, she thought if he was in the room I'd feel protected and wouldn't have to wake her up every time I had a nightmare.
I was at brunch with my mom recently when the topic came up about how I was always so imaginative as a child, and she filled me in on some information I wasn't aware of. When I was being awakened by those crying babies there had actually been a string of child abductions in our city that have gone unsolved to this day. Apparently it drove a bit of a satanic panic in our community that escalated until a mob from a church tried to burn down the house of a comic shop owner who sold dungeons and dragons materials.
My mom always thought that I'd heard some snippets of the news and decided to make up a story about it.
That's also part of why they were so thankful for Shadow's connection to me. They knew as long as he was by my side nothing bad could happen to me.
Then one day he just disappeared.
I was about seven years old and hadn't heard him speak for months, and he seemed less and less interested in me.
My mom drove around searching every night for weeks. We put up fliers on posts and fences, called the pound repeated, and did everything we could to find him. But he was just gone.
My family thought someone probably grabbed him from our yard since he was such a gorgeous dog.
From then on I'd had a more or less normal childhood.
I'd forgotten all about him.
Then he showed up inside my house today. I was walking upstairs to check on my son who was napping in his crib, and there he was in the room, gazing at my child.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
It's definitely him. I even found an old family photograph and compared it to him. But how can a dog be nearly forty years old, and how did he find me after all these years?
My wife thinks I'm overreacting. It's just some dog that happens to look exactly like him. But the way he was looking at my son, that everyone always thought was protective, it's the same exact way he used to look at me.
I think there is something evil in that dog, and I don't want my son raised with an animal like that.

So recently I saw a movie called "The Tale" , really a hard movie to watch but very good movie. It triggered me a little bit as it's about the sexual abuse a woman edured during her childhood from a famous medalist. Through all the movie , I thought about my uncle for several times.
It's a weird feeling I have always had since little. When I was a child I would have a very good relationship with him and my cousin. My cousin was like my little brother and we would always play together every week during summer and a lot of the times my uncle would play with us. The thing is , i cant remember my uncle doing anything bad to me but I remember him saying weird comments on my appereance from time to time like how pretty I was becoming, and that I was very beautiful. It's not anything bad itself but it was the way he would say it, it was unpleasant because it didn't sound like a familiar, genuine way of saying to a child that she is pretty but more with a sexual tone, as if he was actually complementing me as a woman. Those comments I would received them since I was 6 years old into my late teens. After that,he began having trouble with alcohol and stopped coming to family meetings and I stopped going to his house because my dad and him gad a big argument. My cousin also, he is 21 now and has drug problems. I havent seen him since I was 16 and now I am 24.
Recently , in a family meeting, my uncle actually came , he was a little bit drunk ( all my relatives hate this). He saw me and told me something like "Wow Laura, you've become such a pretty woman. If I was not your uncle, maybe I would think about..." then stopped talking because one of my relatives went into the room. I remember him saying similar things too when I was a teen.
As you can see, I cant remember anything specific from my childhood that tells me that he did something but my body gets unconfortable when he is near and I have always sensed something. I also used to sleep a lot in my uncle's house. Maybe I am paranoid but could it be the case that I dont remember anything but something could have happened? And if it's the case, how can I explore more if it happened? Just for the record, I also have a lot of problems when it comes to sex. I have a hard time liking it and I am very anxious but when I was a teen I became hypersexual for male validation or who knows, even thought I never had an orgasm and still cant when I'm with someone else.I have never gane to therapy because i dont have tje money.

Yesterday I had two Chinese women sign up for a surf lesson. During the check-in process, I asked if they could swim/tread water. They said they weren't the strongest swimmers, but that they could hold their head above water. Perfect, that's all we need them to do.
I get the boards ready, and they ask if they can have life jackets. I tell them "No, if you need a life jacket you don't get to surf. Are you comfortable going out in deeper water, can you swim?" Again they said they could swim. I should have questioned them more, but I figured maybe surfing with life jackets is a thing in China and they just had certain expectations.
I take them to a very gentle reef break, maybe 40 ft from shore. The normal surf spot we take people is wayyy further out in the ocean, but I didn't trust these two to start out there. In retrospect - good thing I made that call.
I push them on a few gentle waves, they try to stand up but don't make it very far. After every wave, they carefully lay back down on the board instead of jumping off into the water.
Finally, one of them manages to stand all the way up on her surfboard! I give a congratulatory cheer, and watch as she falls backwards into the water. Her head doesn't come up. I can see her arms flailing under water. This bitch is straight up drowning, 10 ft from shore. I paddle over to her as quickly as possible, and get her on my board. Not once did she try to swim towards her surfboard, or the shore. She had no swimming ability whatsoever.
She's laying on my board, panting for breath, when I realize "there's no way the other woman knows how to swim either. If that hoe falls off her board while this one's on my board, she's straight up going to drown." so I try to coax the wet rat off my board and back onto hers. She isn't budging, so I swim both boards the 10 ft back to shore, and leave her on the beach. I paddle out to the other wahine and tow her back to shore as well. It turns out she didn't even notice that her friend was drowning, and was upset that I was ending their session early.
I just can't wrap my head around their course of action. I don't know how to swim. I am going to book a surf lesson. I am going to lie about being able to swim. I am going to stand up on a surfboard in deep-ish water. Like Jesus christ, do people have no self-preservation instincts anymore? Is the assumption that the world is so idiot-proof that you can go surfing without being able to keep your head above water?
Funny thing is; despite almost drowning, despite not standing up on any waves, despite not even going more than 40 ft from shore - they still chose to pay $50 for photos (no tip, of course).
Rant over. Anyone else have stories of exceptional stupidity witnessed in the water?

Let me start with a backstory, after about a year of being together my gf developed a eating disorder, though she didn't know that yet and took her confusion out by spending less time with me and more and more time with a fuckboy she met on while being out with her friends. Although she says that they never fucked or anything I can't take her words seriously and I'll get to why that is later. After some time she picked up vaping from this friend and stated nagging on me to try it out. Eventually I did and I now have a strong nicotine addiction, although I don't vape anymore I use snus which is safer but it still bums me out that I have something which I can't let go because of some guy she spent more time with than me. I also found out at the time that she had sent half naked pictures to some other guy online who lived far away from us. She said that it was because she had body issues and needed affirmations even though I told her every day how beautiful she was.
After about 1,5 years of dating she decided that she wanted to try weed. Since I was afraid that if I didn't smoke with her she'd smoke with someone else who might take advantage of her being high. I ended up smoking 4 times with her until she had a terrible experience and wanted to stop which I was happy to hear.
After 2 years of dating she had to enter a specific treatment for her eating disorder which caused her to yet again become distant. She said it was because she thought I treated her too good and she felt like she didn't deserve me. But I never took that as the real reason and she never said that there was something wrong about me. This caused me to have panic attacks every single night she was with this fuckboy because I was afraid of being cheated on. This also caused me to research steroids because I came to the conclusion that I wasn't attractive enough because she hadn't given me any reason as to why she acted like she did.
She eventually got over everything and blocked this fuckboy and moved on.
About a month ago she said to me before school that her friend was buying a HHC vape and what I thought about it. I told her to not under any circumstances hit that vape. Well guess what happened she ended up so high that she couldn't even walk and I hade to skip school and pock her up. She developed psychosis and yet again has mental problems. She also has this thing where whenever she's sad about something she gets mad and rejects my ways of showing love. I started talking to one of my friends gf's about it and it turned out that she's having problems with her bf too and we showed each other support and care until eventually we both confessed our feelings for one another. So I thought about the whole situation with my gf and based on how she's treated me I decided to have a break from her and try things out with this other girl. I feel like an asshole towards her and even though I thought I wouldn't miss her, seeing her cry and having prepared notes on what to say made me reconsider.
What would you do in my situation?

Hey guys, I'm looking to plan a beach vacation to a place where I can hopefully try out / learn surfing, as well as just enjoy being in the waves (boogie boarding, body surfing, etc). Too many beautiful beach locations just have flat, boring water, and I'm sick of it (looking at you, Florida!)
I know there are a lot of awesome spots out there, but I'm specifically looking for a place where I can have the full beach vacation expiration, just with awesome waves too!
My criteria:

• Upscale & developed, with fancy hotels, restarauntts, and bars.
• Walkable.
• Good waves for a beginner surfer, right at the main beach, with surfing lessons.
• Lush scenery, ideally with hills, cliffs, or mountains (not flat).
• Warm, clear water

So far, Waikiki Beach in Hawaii is the only option that's been on my radar... but it's bit crowded for my liking. Are there other places I should be looking in to? Maybe in Asia or the Carribean.

Hello, I am a rather hairy male with close to ideal skin/hair color combo for IPL, and I wanted to try it to reduce the intensity of my body hair. Right now I trim it but wanted something with less maintenance and more natural looking.
I just found out you are supposed to shave the whole treatment area, which I don’t really want to do mostly because it will immediately grow back and be prickly afterwards. Also it might look weird for all my body hair to be totally gone one day. So I was wondering if IPL can work with some short hair still present, albeit maybe less effective, or will it not work at all and/or possibly be dangerous?
If it is fully necessary to shave before use, I’m wondering whether IPL will even be good for my use case? I was hoping I could just do IPL on myself with body hair and that the hairs would gradually become smaller and thinner. I haven’t done a full body shave but I imagine the prickliness after is pretty bad so having to do that every week seems worse than my current situation.

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Gotta love Adams mom being an ace!
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Here is the link to the master-post.
Krill was mildly uncomfortable, and so was Sunny.
They had all been invited to what the humans described as a "black tie" event on mars, mostly for political delegations, rich sponsors, a couple of famous people, and the occasional member of the UNSC or the GA. Most of the GA reps were Rundi, since they tended to like this political sort of thing.
There was at least one Tesraki, who had made the executive decision to come, since he saw financial opportunity in getting to know some rich humans.
Sunny had been invited to stand in for the Drev counselor, who could not attend due to some issues back on Anum. Dr Krill and Dr. Katie had been invited to attend the event in case medical personnel were required for any reason.
Adam was the only one who had been invited for himself.
The black tie event had been sent by way of a physical letter which Adam had called, "Excessively pretentious." in a day and age where everything was sent electronically.
The fact they had managed to get a letter to him out in the middle of space in the first place was pretty impressive.
Sunny hadn't really known or cared what all of this meant, but Adam had been nervous and very serious about the dress code. Despite thinking the entire thing was pretentious, that didn't stop him from immediately sending away for his mother's help.
Sunny was, of course, encouraged to wear ceremonial formal armor to the event.
Krill was keeping very close track of this odd human behavior, constantly asking questions as Adam was preparing himself.
"Why don't you just wear a regular suit?"
"Because that would be a social faux pas."
"A what?"
He sighed,
"I don't know, it's french or something. I think it's a ballet term. It just means it would be a social screw up and people would totally judge me for it."
"They would judge you for wearing the wrong thing?"
Krill wondered curiously, Adam nodded,
"That is the point of these parties, and has been for the last two and a half thousand years. These parties are honestly just the biggest pissing contests where people try to out dress each other in subtle ways, and the old people who know what they are doing make fun of the new people for having no idea how to do it properly."
Krill looked interested,
"How fascinating. So, it is a way to show your status subtly?”
"Oh yes. Status is a big deal. It started to go out of style for a while, but this whole adherence to dress code has come back with a vengeance in the last few years. The fashion world has seen an upheaval in pretentiousness, and celebrities have been laughed out of parties for trying to be avant-garde."
"To be what?"
"Sorry, pretty sure that's also french too? It means new, interesting, or out of the ordinary usually to make a statement."
Sunny leaned in a little,
"And they expect an air force commander to know how to properly dress for black tie?"
"They don't, which is why they invited me. I am supposed to make others look good by looking bad myself. Of course, I also make them look good by being invited in the first place. Of course, joke's on them because I have a secret weapon on my side..."
He patted the front of his shirt,
"Thank you mother."
"I am now confused."
Adam waved a hand,
"Yeah, I know, It's pretty stupid…”
"I thought you recently decided that you like dressing up?"
The human turned in place a couple of times in front of the mirror, trying to get a better view of himself,
"Correction, I have always enjoyed dressing up – got that from my mom – what I don't enjoy is the pissing contest that comes along with it.”
"What is that?"
"Bow tie."
"You look like someone's Christmas present."
He adjusted the bow tie,
"Well than someone is getting a sexy as fuck Christmas present now aren't they?"
He said and winked at Sunny, while buttoning up the front of the 'waistcoat' and pulling on the jacket.
When he was done, the two aliens had to admit that he really did stand out, all in black, black pants, black tuxedo jacket, cuff links, black tie, black waistcoat, and a purple/blue carnation threaded through the buttonhole on the lapel.
His shoes were almost as reflective as the mirror behind him.
"How do I look?"
"Like a goofy idiot, but the suit wasn't going to change that."
He lifted a finger to flip Sunny off.
"Not very dapper of you."
Katie said from the doorway.
They looked up to see Katie, who had also commissioned a dress from Martha, and honestly made Adam look a little plain.
"Ready to go?”
"As ready as I will ever be."
[…]
Krill kept a shrewd eye on all the strange human protocols.
As far as dressing up went, Krill could immediately see who the “In-crowd” included. Most of those people understood the rules Adam had laid out for him, wearing the proper evening attire, where those not in the “in” wore clothing that approximated the rules, but missed them on several occasions.
The way the evening was set up was a little bit more like a “ball” as Adam described, being announced as they were walked in, and then ordered them to mingle with the crowd. Adam and Katie got a few glances from the “in-group” who seemed surprised that a simple ship captain would know anything about formal evening attire.
Sunny just found the entire thing hilarious.
All of this subtle dressing up to impress each other?
If Drev held balls, instead of dancing they would probably just beat each other to death.
But here, there were a lot of subtle clues and hints that went right over her and the Doctor's heads, while Adam seemed to know what he was doing.
As they walked in waiters offered Adam an alcoholic drink, while Krill received sugared water, and Sunny a rather strange tincture that was generally just water with plant flavoring... It was pretty good though, so she didn't complain.
They were met on arriving by the event coordinator, whose eyes opened wide when she saw Adam, pausing and holding out a hand.
Due to the conflated and rather twisted nature of black tie events in the future, Adam took the hand, and bowed a bit, lowering his head, a strange area between the less formal handshake and the more formal kiss on the hand, which was also not a thing in societies post WWIII
"Commander, I... you look..."
She trailed off, even to Sunny it was clear the woman hadn't expected him to know anything.
He smiled icily at her.
Krill leaned in in fascination.
This was one of the most intriguing parts of humanity. The polite way in which they were totally rude to each other.
"Well thank you. My mother has a Ph.D in the information age and a masters in historical fashion."
That shut the woman up and she politely dismissed herself, walking away with a straight back.
Adam smirked,
"Her dress isn't the right length for an evening event."
"I thought she coordinated the event?"
Sunny muttered,
"She couldn't coordinate herself out of a paper bag."
He winked at Sunny and Krill,
"You can't out-dress the son of a historical fashion expert. Simply not possible, my mother even used the correct materials."
He tugged lightly at his jacket.
Dr. Katie had disappeared on entry, leaving the three of them to wander about the room as Adam pointed out the other important people.
There were a few military commanders, Rundi, and the aforementioned Tesraki.
There were at least five major political leaders, and even larger handful of actors who had their hands in charities or political causes related to the event.
Adam was only halfway through his first drink, when he was waylaid by one of the younger actors.
Even Sunny could tell straight off that he was not dressed appropriately.
He had clearly tried very hard, but his efforts were in vain.
While everything looked alright from a distance, up close something was wrong about everything. The material of his jacket, the style of his shirt, the type of pants, the lapels on the coat, and even the patterned pocket square, which should have been a solid color but wasn't.
He was joined by another group of men, who then began some pretentious conversation about noticing how Adam was new to these sort of events. The way they spoke made it pretty clear they had no idea who he was or what the proper dress code was either.
Adam smiled and didn't say anything.
"And what do you do for a living?"
One of them asked,
"Simply an UNSC representative."
"Ah that explains a lot."
They glanced down at him with pointed looks.
The conversation continued. Sunny wondered why Adam didn't just shut them all up by telling them exactly who he was, but Krill had a theory that Adam was just playing with them as a human way to build up the moment so that he could socially crush them.
As humans do, their conversation wandered until it eventually moved around to the UNSC and other related topics.
One of the men nodded knowingly,
"I am somewhat knowledgeable on the subject myself."
Adam raised an eyebrow.
"Are you?"
"Well yes, I have a brother in law who flies shuttles and planes for the UNSC. Tell me, what is your opinion on the D-4 class engine on a F-90 darkfire. I honestly think they are rather overpowered for what is being asked of them."
Adam frowned,
"The darkfire doesn't have a D-4 engine. That is a warp classification which-"
The man raised a hand,
"No no. I heard my brother in law talking about it. Personally, I think they should have just kept the jet engines they would have been plenty enough power to make it into orbit.”
The commander's face scrunched in confusion as he shook his head,
"No, it's a fusion engine, and the jet engine can't fly in the upper atmosphere because there is no lift-"
"Look, Adam, was that your name? I generally tend to know what I am talking about. The darkfire jet engines would have plenty of power to make it into atmosphere…"
"But it’s a jet engine which implies it is for a plane and not for a rocket-"
The guy cut him off again and continued to ramble onward about how he took some engineering classes in college and would know what he was talking about. Since Adam Joined the UNSC and didn't go to college, that he probably didn't know anything at all, or at least that is what they said in not so many words.
Sunny was getting a bit annoyed and would like to have squished the guy, but Adam just shook his head at her.
She stayed silent and grumpy as the other men continued to correct Adam on knowledge of his own favorite aircraft.
*"My brother owns a spaceship with a class E warp core.”
One of them boasted. Adam rolled his eyes,
"There is no such thing-"
"My brother owns the craft, I am pretty sure I know what I am talking about. It's one of the most powerful cores in the galaxy."
"Um, I don't think…"
"Yes, the E is more powerful than the A. A ship like the Harbinger or the Enterprise would only make it part of the way across the galaxy but the-"
He kept going.
Adam looked like he was dying, but why didn't he say anything?
It was just then that someone appeared from the crowd.
Sunny recognized a political figure they had met at GA summits on occasion.
He raised his glass and stepped into the group,
"Ah commander! I am glad to see you could make it."
The group of men glanced at each other in confusion.
Adam nodded,
"It's good to see you too counselor."
He motioned to the group,
”We were just having a fascinating discussion on warp engines."
"Oh yes?"
He turned to look at the men,
"Than I am sure the commander has also told you about his escapades as a darkfire pilot."
The satisfaction Sunny got from watching their faces was priceless, almost orgasmic.
She could tell from the look on Adam's face that he was feeling similarly,
"Well, no we had not made it to the subject…”
"I was just going to explain to them how the duel E 20 engine has both a jet engine and a fusion engine. The jet engine for flying in atmosphere and the Fusion engine for moving out of atmosphere considering that the jet engine is not powerful enough to lift the craft without air buoyancy."
Sunny was laughing on the inside.
"Ah yes. I seem to recall a discussion along those lines. Tell me commander, what about the Harbinger's engine is it a class A-1."
Adam nodded,
"Could potentially get you to the other side of the universe if you asked her. The classification system is A-D 1-4 on each, so my ship has one of the most powerful engines mankind has ever bothered to build."
He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the other men, who were beginning to slink away.
Sunny chirped in pleasure.
The rep nodded as they left,
"I heard the futility of your conversation from the other side of the room."
"Thanks for the help. I was dying inside."
The two men laughed and took their drinks.
Krill was very pleased with his examination on how humans subtly tried to one up each other with their dress and understanding of certain topics, though it seemed odd to him that someone would claim to be an expert when it was, in fact, their brother or brother in law who knew about the subject and not them.
But he supposed that was the social nature of humanity.
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Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

I am a medium-deep skin-toned POC ( South Asian woman ) and a couple of months ago,I had an in-person color analysis and I was typed as a Bright Spring. I did a secondary virtual color analysis this month with a different person and got typed as a True Winter!
I don’t feel comfortable posting photos of myself here but I just found it interesting that two people could come up with essentially opposite findings (I know lighting has a lot to do with the virtual analysis results…but my in-person was on a kind-of cloudy day/the analyst had to use her own light so there are many variables involved in both). My in-person even said that blue was my WORST color and to steer clear of most blue shades,meanwhile the true winter palette is all about the blues.
Specifically with undertone though with those usual “tests” , I have conflicting thoughts because I can wear gold/silver but I think gold is slightly more flattering. However,I think true white looks better on me than cream.
Is there anyyyy overlap in these palettes? Any thoughts on why the results are so different? Sorry if it’s really impossible to chime in without photos/draping,just wanted to see what people think!

I (20 F) am forcing my bf (22 M) to meet me. So we met on a dating app a friend of mine made me the profile, and found this boy really randomly, and frankly I didn't put too much effort in the beginning cause I felt like he was another player or something like that like the previous ones. Plot twist he was not and we started talking, he is really cute and very intelligent, it's really a pleasure to talk with him. He lives 2h train away from me so it's not like we can see each other every day but in 3 months we're in a relationship, we met only one time for 2 days, basically when we got together, (it was after 2 months we started to know each other, and yes I stayed by his place the night so you kinda know what happened💀, but was really pleasurable and I wasn't forced in to do something I didn't want to) but I kinda had to force him to meet cause he would always bring on some excuses or he would say that some day we'd get the chance to meet and shit like that, I may understand why, he is really insecure about his strabismus of Venus, and other things I frankly don't give a shit about, but I understand feeling insecure with ur body being a plus size girl. So now it's 3 months we are in a relationship and we are in contact every day but every time I suggest to see each other he would always put on excuse, some are true like he is very busy (it's his last year of university and has to wright a small book for his degree and has to deal with 5 other exams, all of this before August). What frankly pisses me of is that I don't think in 3 months he doesn't have a single day off to see each other... I'm trying to stay still and don't be an ass but this really gets on my nerves, and i even tried to talk about it with him and he really seems to care but I feel like I am not important enough, (I'm going to university myself so I know how hard it can be) What should I do?

coupleadvice #long-distancecouple

'After being resuscitated, a woman, is now stalked by a creature that can only move if you look away from it'.
It began twelve weeks ago. The night Scott, my childhood sweetheart and husband of five-years confessed that he’d had a drunken one-night stand on his bachelor party in Europe. The apparent guilt had consumed him for the past five-years, and his sudden urge to be truthful was due to the fact we were due to get married this same year.
His words hit me like a freight train, and the urge to vomit washed over me like a tsunami. I stormed out of the house, our house that we’d bought together twelve-years prior. I felt like the world had swallowed me whole, and in a way, it had.
I was struck with a throbbing chest pain that rapidly spread down my entire right side. The pain intensified, taking my breath away, and I stumbled into a tree to steady myself as I felt my body about to faint.
Then darkness.
The next thing I remember, was waking up in a dark and dismal forest, devoid of colour. The air was dry and had a distinctive, malodorous smell, like rotten meat or that of a decaying carcass. But worst of all, was a terrifying feeling that I’d never experienced before, and one that I pray I’ll never feel again.
The feeling of absolute hopelessness.
The sky was dull and cloudless, and was ripped apart by soundless, ferocious lightning that illuminated the bleak landscape I found myself in. I felt like I’d been wandering for hours, maybe even days when I came across a decaying cave. Animal bones crushed beneath my feet as I made my way towards it.
As I approached the cave, the putrid smell grew with intensity causing me to retch, and I was violently sick, bringing up my own stomach bile. The entrance was made of crumbling stone and was completely opaque. I threw a small stone into it and heard it ricocheting down the stone steps and off the walls. The silenced lighting strobed the area, and I was able to glimpse into the cave and see a few descending steps.
Then, two yellow reptilian-like eyes flashed in the darkness.
I stumbled backwards, and just as the lightning struck, I was forcefully thrown by an unseen force. The lighting flashed continuously, accompanied by a gale-force wind, tossing me around like a rag doll. My eyes remained fixed on the cave, and I crippled in terror, as a pale, gangly hand reached around the crumbling stone. Another flash hurled me hard against a tree, and suddenly -
I woke up in the back of an ambulance with paramedics hovering over me with a defibrillator, and two words that sent a cold and grotesque shiver through my spine.
“Welcome back”.
Welcome back? Back from where? What was that place? That thing in the cave? How long was I gone?
Hundreds of questions raced through my mind, but none of which I had the answer for. Not yet anyway.
“You died in the back of that ambulance” the doctor said as I lay in a bed in the ICU.
The room tilted as I tried to digest what the doctor was telling me. I felt like I was in a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. I’m thirty-years old, I eat healthily, and I run four times a week, how could this be happening to me?
My scans revealed I’d inherited a faulty gene and developed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and suffered a cardiac arrest. I spent the next seven-weeks in the ICU and told nobody of the dark forest and the creature with the yellow eyes. Just the thought of that place was enough to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
My mother practically moved into the hospital. Fussing over me like mothers do. She blamed herself for my condition, even though her scans were clear, meaning that I inherited the faulty gene from my absent father.
My husband Scott came on the first day, but I asked him for space. I needed some time to heal and process everything that had happened, about both my condition, and his infidelity. Although he kept that promise, he would call my mom every day to check on me, to make sure I was okay.
I wasn’t.
Not because of my condition, but for something else.
I’d started to see something.
I wasn’t sure what it was at first. It started as a tiny dot in my peripheral, nothing more than a spec on my retina. Of course, I had my eyes checked, but all results came back clear, as did the results for my visual cortex.
Days later, what started as a dot in my peripheral began to grow.
The first time I saw it, I was at my doctor’s office. He had left me alone for a moment whilst he consulted with my surgeon. It was dark outside and the sound of heavy rain pit-a-patting against the glass was hypnotic. I stared out of the window, watching as a small handful of people came in and out of the hospital.
Then, my eyes were drawn to an ominous silhouette at the far end of the parking lot. I couldn’t make out any distinguishing features due to the minimal light, but there was something there, standing deadly still in the shadows.
A car horn broke my reverie, a man was getting into his truck in the lot and must have pressed the horn by accident. I turned back to the silhouette, and it was in a completely different position.
It had moved.
It was standing eerily still again, but like it had frozen mid-walk. I could just about make out its elongated limbs, like it’s arms and legs had been stretched out.
The doctor returned momentarily, startling me. He’d gotten my scans, and everything was how it should be.
“Good news, you should be okay to be discharged in a few days” he said.
That was great news, I was so ready to get out of the hospital. I turned back to the window in curiosity, but whatever I saw had gone.
I didn’t think about it again until the night before I was going home. It was late and most of the patients were sleeping. My room is situated at the end of the hall, so I get a clear view of it through my observation window. I wasn’t quite ready to go to sleep and was watching something on my iPad.
Suddenly, there was a putrid odour wafting in through my open door. The same unmistakable smell that I’d experienced in that ‘other place’. Two nurses walked past my room, neither showing any signs that they too could smell it. I covered my nose and mouth to try and stop me from heaving.
Then, my eyes drifted to the observation window, and to the corridor.
It was here again. The silhouette.
At the far end of the hall. Completely still, with its back pressed up against the wall. But I could see it. It was tall and skinny, and had either feelers or tentacles stretched up against the wall like an ink spill. Its daunting yellow eyes stared straight at me.
I saw another nurse walk up the hall and straight past it, like it wasn’t there. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe visual hallucinations were a symptom of what I’d been through, or maybe it was a side effect of the many meds I was taking. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“There’s nothing there, there’s nothing there, it isn’t real” I whispered to myself.
I opened my eyes and, it hadn’t gone.
It had moved closer.
Halfway down the hall. It had dropped onto all fours like a large dog. Starring straight at me. Its long tentacles spread across the floor and up the wall.
I was absolutely petrified.
I moved over to the window, tentatively. The smell that resonated from this creature was overpowering. I watched it for a few moments, until a nurse walked past the window, startling me. And, like before, when I looked back, it wasn’t there. It was as though I’d imagined it. I climbed back into bed, but I didn’t sleep a wink that night.
The next morning, my mom came to pick me up. I left with a suitcase of medication and instructions on how and when to take them. I didn’t tell my mom or anyone at the hospital about my hallucinations. I was worried If I did say something, the doctors wouldn’t let me leave.
I had decided to stay at my mom’s until I was ready to talk with Scott. He brought a box over with some essentials, like my comfy clothes, pyjamas, and my own toothbrush as I’d been using a cheap store bought one up to now. He was sorry, and it was clear he hadn’t been sleeping. He said he’d wait for me until I was ready to talk. I missed both him and our home so much, but I just wasn’t ready to talk about it. Not yet.
My mom suggested that I go into town, see the locals, get some fresh air into my lungs. She offered to drive me, and then we would meet back up at the car after an hour.
Whilst in town, I noticed a poster for the yearly travelling fairground in a storefront window. I have fond memories growing up of this fair. It’s where Scott and I shared our first kiss. We were halfway round the Ferris wheel, when it started to rain. He covered us with his jacket, and then he kissed me. This was the moment I knew I’d fallen in love with him. I was flooded with happy emotions, and it felt right that I text Scott.
“I’m ready to talk, I’ll be at the place where we shared our first kiss at 8 tonight, Chloe x”.
He replied almost instantly.
“I’ll be there, thank you x”.
After a quick smile to myself, I went for a walk through the local market. It was bustling with energy. Vendors selling local, fresh produce, handmade furniture, bakeries, and plenty more.
After browsing the stalls, I was hit with that smell. That horrific, nauseating smell. And I felt the hairs on my arms prickle up.
I knew it was here. Somewhere. Observing me.
My eyes narrowed as I scanned the area. I weaved in and out of the locals looking for it. Paranoia struck me like lightning. I was bumping into people as I went. All eyes had now turned to me. I burst into tears, sprinted back to the lot and leaped into my mother’s car.
I was sitting in the passenger seat crying my eyes out. I looked out of the window and saw my mother rushing back to the car shouting my name. Someone must have told her about my freak out.
I looked out of the opposite window and, IT WAS THERE, standing on top of a vehicle several cars over!
“GET AWAY FROM ME” I screamed.
My mother whipped open the door.
“What is it? What happened?” she replied.
She couldn’t see it. Nobody could. I told her that I’d had a panic attack. I hadn’t been around people outside of the hospital for a few months and I felt overwhelmed. She knew I wasn’t being truthful, but it’s the only answer I could give.
That night I decided to go ahead and meet Scott at the fair. When I saw him waiting for me by the Ferris wheel, my heart felt hole again, if only for a moment. We got our tokens and went on the wheel. We talked as we went round, about how sorry he was and how much of an idiot he’d been, which I agreed with.
Everything was going well until I saw the creature again. Standing on top of the ghost house attraction. Watching me.
I kept my eyes on the figure whilst grabbing Scott’s arm.
“Do you see it?” I asked with a shaky voice.
“See what?” he replied.
“It’s standing right there, on top of the ghost house”.
I could see him squinting to look, but I knew deep down that he wouldn’t be able to see it, because only I could.
“Sweetheart, there’s nobody there, look at me” he replied, calmly.
“I can’t” I said solemnly. “If I look away, it’ll move”.
“Chloe, look at me, there’s nothing there” he said, as he grabbed my chin and turned my face towards his.
“No! it’ll move” I screamed.
I quickly spun round, my eyes darting back to the ghost house, but it wasn’t there. I looked around, anxiously, Scott looking on with worry.
“Shit, where is it?” My anxiety palpable.
I looked down, and it was at the bottom of the Ferris wheel. It had moved inhumanly fast. I screamed and almost fell out of the carriage, but Scott held onto me.
“Hey, hey, I got you, what is it?” he said, desperately trying to keep hold of me.
I stood up in a panic, rocking the carriage, Scott tried to hang onto me, but it was too late, and I plummeted twenty feet to the ground.
The last thing I remember, was Scott screaming for an ambulance.
I was fortunate enough to only suffer a sprained wrist and a slight concussion. My doctor wanted to keep me in overnight for observations, which I reluctantly agreed to.
I decided to confide in Scott. I told him everything. From the cave in the forest to this creature that’s stalking me. This monstrous entity that must have crawled out of the pits of hell. And worst of all, it’s getting closer to me.
He could see that I was terrified, and instead of trying to explain away what I was experiencing, he just held me. And, for the first time in a long time, I felt safe. We spent hours just holding each other. He offered to stay the night, to stay awake in the chair whilst I got some sleep, but I couldn’t have him doing that.
After Scott left, I managed to get a few hours rest. I woke up just after two AM and grabbed my bottle of water from the nightstand. That’s when I noticed the door was closed, even though I specifically requested it to stay open.
And then, there was that horrendous smell. I knew it was close.
It was in the fucking room.
It was crouched down in the corner on all fours, blending into the darkness, watching me. I desperately tried to scream but no sound would come out.
Keeping my eyes on it, I slowly climbed out of the bed with my back pressed firmly against the wall. I knew it couldn’t move if I didn’t look away. I side-stepped along the wall towards the door.
I started to manoeuvre around a set of drawers, knocking something off that caught my eye for a millisecond. But that’s all it took. It was now standing on its two legs.
It must have been eight-feet tall with outstretched limbs. A streak of moonlight illuminated part of it’s pale-blue face. Its yellow eyes glistened in the light. Its slimy tentacles spread up the wall and onto the roof.
I kept my back to the wall and kept moving. I made it to the door, grabbed the door handle, but it was fucking locked. I kicked the door, but nobody could hear me.
I could see the key for the door on the table in my peripheral. I fumbled around on the table without looking. I grabbed everything but the key. I knew I had to look to find the key.
I quickly glanced to my left – Saw the key – Looked back, and the creature was point-blank in front of me. Reaching out for my throat, its black, curved talon had pierced my neck and blood trickled down.
Somehow, I managed to scream and within seconds two orderlies had barged through the door. All they found was me, alone with blood trickling down my neck. I barged straight past them and ran as fast as I could out of the hospital.
I ended up running all the way home. I banged as loud as I could on the door, forgetting that it was almost three-thirty in the morning. Scott answered the door in his pyjamas with a worried look plastered across his face.
I told him what had happened at the hospital whilst he bandaged my neck.
“See, this is proof that what I’m seeing is real, this is physical proof, you believe me, right, you have to?” I barked.
After a momentary pause, he replied:
“Yes, I believe you. I believe... I believe you’re seeing something”.
I registered the pause, and the hesitation in his voice. He didn’t believe me, and I didn’t blame him.
After talking for a few hours, I had calmed down enough that I told Scott to get some sleep. He was reluctant to leave me, so he took a nap in the chair. I grabbed my laptop and searched the web for anything related to what was happening to me.
There’re thousands of incidents across the world relating to haunted houses, demons, cults, and possessions, but none that was specific to the entity that was stalking me.
Every time I heard a sound, a car outside or a floorboard creek I jumped. I was a nervous wreck. I went into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. I looked out of the window into the darkness, expecting to see it watching me. But it wasn’t.
I went back into the room, and –
IT WAS THERE!
I dropped the glass, and it shattered on the floor. Scott leaped from the chair.
“What, what is it?”
I couldn’t speak. My lips were glued shut. I slowly raised my hand and pointed at it. It was standing at the far end of the room. I kept my eyes on it the entire time. Scott rushed over to me.
“Hey, Chloe, there’s nothing there sweetheart, whatever you’re seeing isn’t real”.
He headed towards it.
“NO, SCOTT, PLEASE DON’T!” I pleaded, as I grabbed his arm.
He shrugged it off and marched over to it.
“There’s nothing here, I’m going to prove it to you” he said.
He cocked his arm back and swung his fist, only his arm stopped mid-swing.
HE HIT THE FUCKING CREATURE!
I moved to grab Scott and stood bare foot on the broken shards of glass, cutting my feet, I screamed out, and for a split second, I looked down.
And that’s all it took.
When I looked up, the creature had already grabbed Scott and folded him in half like a piece of paper. The sound of his spine breaking echoed through the room. Scott laid dead on the floor, his eyes widen open and looking at me.
I screamed and backed away into the kitchen. I slammed the door shut and ran to the rear door. It was locked and I’d left my keys in my bag in the front room. I noticed Scott’s cell on the countertop, so I grabbed it and ran down into the basement.
I shut the door and pushed the spare fridge in front of it. And then I hid in the corner. Crouched down beside the washing machine.
Which is where I am now. Hiding. Crying. I can’t call anyone because Scott’s cell doesn’t have a signal down here, which is why I’m recording this message on his cell in the hopes that someone will hear my story.
I can hear it now, moving around upstairs. It knows my eyes will be watching the door, so it’s looking for another way in. I’m so scared.
I’m the reason Scott’s dead. My true love. And I’ll never forgive myself for that. The thought of that is far worse than anything that monster can do to me.
Oh God, it’s here!
The old fucking laundry chute! Goddammit!
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!?!
It’s watching me with those horrifying yellow eyes.
I can’t keep running because it’ll find me.
And I won’t put anyone else in danger.
It’s me that it wants.
Scott I’m so sorry, I love you so much.
And Mom, I love you so much.
I’m going to close my eyes now.
Three.
Two.
One.
Thank you for reading.

My mom was 30 when this happened. She had a habit of jogging late at night in the only forest in our hometown which is also a huge tourist attraction. The forest has a long track and is illuminated by street light so you can see everything in front and behind. But sides are completely black when it's dark. It was summer and she was jogging one night as usual. This time she got extremely scared for no apparent reason. She continued jogging for a few more minutes but turned around and saw a pair of jeans in the middle of the track. She immediately went home. A few days later a 31 year old Mexican woman's body was found in that same forest. It was all over the news in all of Balkan countries. It was summer of 2012 and our small, safe country and my hometown will never ever forget this. Stuff like this almost never happens here. My mom literally never went jogging after this. It could have been her. Locals don't go to that forest late at night anymore. And to think the killer should be out in 2027 is fucking insane.