Costco gas stations near me

Each post is one facet of a person who cannot be contained in a few words, but we try. We all try.
I'm my face the few words today would have to do with the fine line between bravery and stupidity of charging my phone while taking a bath. If I were to add a few more words I'd discuss how high temperature of 80 and low temperature of 60 is nearly perfect.
But neither of those actually tell anything about me. Often a person's character can be judged by their friends, but sometimes not. Often a person can be judged by how they handle this stress or that stress, but sometimes not.
I'd rather be judged by treating people the same whether I've just met them or been friends a while. I want deep sharing and connection. I want to share mutual friends. I want a long term friendship that grows into sometimes neither of us want to live without.
Edit: just remembered, I was told my last post gave off dating vibes, so this is my reminder that I'm not looking to date.
I also only want a few friends, but to collect everyone like Pokemon. If we don't get along that's cool. If you don't like my friends, that's cool. If we end up only connecting for a week, that's cool.
But I prefer long term, dozens of messages a day kind of communication.

i've been thinking about this for a while. my family is always complaining about how i don't get out enough. i go out at least once a week and interact with people outside my household. i also have made it a goal to talk to my friends over text (i moved countries so they've turned to online friends) for a little bit every day since that doesn't take nearly as much energy as other types socialising. i feel like this is more than enough? i could do more but i don't feel the need to at all. plus, i don't really have any friends irl yet and i only plan to try make any next year when i'm in uni. i do stay home all day most days. wednesday nights i go out for dinner, weekends i go to a local market. it's a good routine for me. but it seems like my family wants me to be more "normal" what ever that means. anyways, i'd like to know how often you guys generally socialise with people in person or online.

I am tired of these guests lashing out all their anger on me by the fault of others. I understand you are angry, and that you are also a diamond member, and that you have a son who owns 2 hotels and runs it way better than we do. I work night shift, and these people come down angry at me when maintenance fails to resolve an issue, or a manager did not provide a thoughtful resolution. I recently got a part time job to fill my weekends and was not familiar with the area. A guest asked me where the nearest cheapest gas station is, I took a while to google map it and the guest had the audacity to say I am terrible at my job, and I should know where everything is as a diamond member should have perfect service, also reminding me he writes reviews. Like, ok I don't give a shit even if you were the queen of england, I tried my best. Today, an old lady was telling me all the problems with her room during her 4 day stay, and how we have not resolved it. Understandable, but talking in such a rude way and lashing out at me is not going to make me want to help you. She also told me "We have had 3 rooms and you have taken so much money from us". Bitch I wish I was, but all the earnings go to the owner you flaccid monkey. Sorry if I am a bit aggressive with this post, just a bad couple of days lately.

My boyfriend of two years, 21m, comes from a very loving and middle class family. While I, 23f, appreciate his parents raised him well and turned out to be the greenest flag of all the people I did not have similar upbringing as him and I’m looking for advice how to tell him in not looking forward to starting a family yet, or even in the next few years. My birth dad and mother weren’t all happy together due to personality clash from different cultural upbringings and wealth, leading to divorce. And my step father who at first was happy and well with my more similar background mother ended up in the same situation as my birth dad due to his verbal abuse. I am currently working on myself through television dramas and past friendships stories to cope and hopefully do better without taking any of my three parents examples to my now relationship with my boyfriend. The one big problem we’re facing is he wants to have kids to start a family in the near future, maybe around 2-5 years from now, while I haven’t had a month or sometimes a few weeks without an argument at home. I am very lucky and grateful to my boyfriend who insists on listening to what happened or how he can help me distract myself from thinking about my family too much but I can only say so much. I cant tell him all the details since I don’t enjoy reliving the fights afterwards. My boyfriend now seems pretty bummed out when someone jokes about marriage or his relatives having kids. Would greatly appreciate any advice how I can tell him ill be ready someday, just not too soon.
tldr: I don’t know how to tell my boyfriend I want to start a family when I am sure I can handle guiding a child, and moving past my trauma of arguments.

Hi all,
Had a strange experience with a pest control guy in my local area and I’m looking for some advice on if I’ve been screwed.
I live in Western Australia and had a company from the local area visit my property to bait my house for rats in the roof.
I was a fool and did not shop around, and fortunately the Eftpos machine ran out of power mid payment, so I currently am not out of pocket.
He attempted to charge me $700 total. This included for baits in the roof ($275) and as per his suggestion 5 x bait stations (82.50 each) for outside. He suggest 7-10 stations but I wasn’t keen due the cost.
The whole visit lasted no longer than 45 minutes & after he left I Googled the bait stations (Protecta Sidekick) which I found only cost ~$15 from retailers, he assured me they were far superior to the Bunnings brand and was the reason for the cost.
I also have a large dog and he shared no concerns about them being able to get into the outdoor bait stations, the stations were not secured at all and when I opened one I discovered that they were not locked and only contained about 4 small sachets of bait, instead of the typical much larger wax baits I’m used to seeing.
I called a more reputable company after the visit and they quoted $20 for outdoor stations and advised they would never recommend outdoor baits with large dogs around as they are tamper resistant, not tamper proof.
I’m quite confident this bloke has tried to take me for a ride and I’m yet to pay him what’s he’s owed. I did return the bait stations after I discovered his massive overcharging but he’s demanding his remaining $275. I asked him to provide a bill so that I can check what’s he’s done and pay him the next day but he was extremely difficult about doing this and demanding immediate on the spot payment, he did finally leave after calling Police, but not for a good 10 minutes of me requesting a bill and insisting I wasn’t confident in the service provided and needed time to check.
Does any of this work sound legit and the guy deserves payment or should I be the one fuck over a conman for once?
Cheers for your help.

This is from a short movie called "The Attendant" where he plays a very sweet and socially awkward gas station attendant.

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coming from an adc/supp main in diamond tier (nearly master)
there really isn't much to discuss here other than my opinion that i find adc spammers in every other lane really annoying. i used to not mind a few vayne/lucian/varus etc in solo lanes (both br lane and mid) every once in a while. but now there's just too many of them. way too many. since the 4.2 patch, there's been a lot of adc spammers in solo lanes, which i guess is due to the introduction of the new adc items. while it's good that 7/10 of them can stomp the laning phase, almost all of them don't know how to further that lead and snowball to the mid to late game. it's really annoying to see the 6-1 jhin br lane run down one lane to another stealing farm and cs while his enemy jax who's 0-4 gets to freely push our towers, most times leaving us with only an inhibitor in one lane before the 10 minute mark. to add more to this, it seems to me that they can't really add value to teamfights the way a bruiser, tank, or mage solo laner can, in terms of control and damage absorption among other factors.
apart from that, i also find it annoying that players just abuse the new items even when it doesn't really work to their advantage. specifically the immortal shieldbow. in my games, i always see stuff like senna, or heck even kayn running shieldbow.

I came over Friday and did my usual lawn care that I’ve been doing for 13 years, we got lunch relaxed under the shade of her porch and I explained everything to her.
She got quiet which when it comes to my grandmother she’s never at a loss for words.
She admitted she suspected something was going on with me as I have a lot of trans and queer friends, and my hair has gotten longer and I seem to regularly shave
She told me it’s going to be a bit of an adjustment for her, she’s going to mess up with my name she admitted that but she’s happy to meet her granddaughter.
Y’all I nearly cried

I’ve tried a different sub but couldn’t figure out how to make my post work so I am trying it here.
I have tried to be as clear as I can without rambling so if it sounds insincere, that might be why.
This is written on my phone and I am not a native English speaker.
I (23NB, AFAB) met my best friend (22F) back when we were 4 and 5 thanks to our small public elementary school having mixed grades. While we didn’t click at first, our mothers befriending each other had us spent more time together and we quickly became best friends.
Around the time we were 7/8, her parents put her and her little sister in a religious elementary school and we only saw each other outside of school. Until then we were inseparable but after that I believe we started slowly growing apart. Regardless of this, she has been there for me during the worst moments of my life and supported me through them.
Whenever it’s just the two of us, it’s still like it used to be. We talk and have fun and I could tell her anything. But whenever someone else gets added into the mix, it’s like I’m a background character. And as an introvert, I can’t just butt in or something so I just stay quiet, smile and nod when I need to and wait until the person leaves or I can go home. She often invites me to go somewhere she was already going to and I don’t know if it’s because she wanted to spend some time or if she just doesn’t want to be alone. I am also usually the one that sends the first text and carries the conversation and at some point I just kinda stopped putting in so much effort.
I have also grown hesitant to tell her everything. I had to really test the waters so to speak before I had to guts to tell her that I like girls and I haven’t ever told her that I am non-binary.
I am going back forth between distancing myself from her and reaching out to hang put because I miss her. I’ve even spoken to her last summer about how I had trouble with some of her behavior, like what I mentioned above but also talking shit behind others’ backs towards me. I had hoped that it would get better and for a while it seemed to go well!
I (sorta naively?) lend her about €500 during that time because she needed it and I’ve slowly been getting it back bit by bit. She originally said she’d give it back to me as €50 a month but she missed two months now, “because of some trouble with the bank [which was true, but only lasted a day] and she simply forgot this month.” I don’t truly mind it because I know that I’ll get it back eventually, but it does irritate me because I know for a fact that she has that money, she just keeps spending it on who knows what.
I’ve tried to be hopeful that this can work out and I can keep the person who used to feel like a sister to me in my life, but yesterday I started to question if it was worth it at all. My mom and I were over to hang out with her and her mother (and her baby brother) and we went out to go to the grocery and retail stores near her with her brother. Out of nowhere she told me that this other girl was also coming, who in turn invited her mother and little sister? And I was basically ignored for the entire time they were there.
Once done we returned to her home and had dinner. I asked a few times if she’d like to go hang out in her room so we could actually talk, but she didn’t want to until much later. Once we were finally there, she showed me some gifts she was planning to give her colleagues once she quits and after that she was mostly on her phone, texting with her boyfriend.
I feel kinda immature about the entire idea of letting the friendship basically die out. As if I’m an attention seeker or something. But I just don’t like the person she has become. I know that growing apart is simply a part of life, but I also don’t to loose someone that is/was so important to me while growing up.
So basically, should I keep trying to salvage this or should I stop reaching out once I have my money back?
TLDR: my best friend and I have grown apart, should I fight for this friendship or let it go?

I got PRF under my eyes for the first time on Thursday. Eyes were puffy as expected afterward for 2 ish days but now they are no longer swollen and left behind is almost a blueish tint under my eyes which I did not have before (I got PRF as a preventative measure and for creepy skin — I never really had issues with dark circles thankfully. Eyes had started to hollow a bit because I’m 32 now but it was slight and I was told to avoid fillers at all cost because I don’t have a lot of volume loss and the risks outweigh the benefits.)
Now I’m a bit worried these new dark circles will become permanent. Did anyone else have this affect? Did it go away over time? All I hear is how prf has brightened people’s under eyes and helped with skin texture under there…I never imagined it would be the reverse for me and give me a black eye…I have really fair skin so it’s very prominent at the moment.
I don’t have any bruising at the injection site points…but maybe this is an under the skin eye bruise because my eye isn’t used to having lots of liquid injected there? I get Botox sorta near there under the eyes regularly but it never bruises so idk.

Willing to bundle for the items I want.
GT: MADDL007
——Weapons for trade——
AA/50crit/25 Plasma Rifle
AA/50crit/25 Crossbow {mule}
B/50crit/15crit Thirst Zapper
B/E/Break The Dragon 3% Explosive 419 Range (Legacy) {mule} [high end apparel bundle or armor from my want list only please]
B/50crit/15crit The Fixer
B/50crit/15crit Handmade {mule}
B/50crit/15crit Handmade {mule}
B/50crit/25 Handmade [high end apparel bundle or armor from my want list only please]
B/E/1A Handmade {mule}
B/50crit/25 Radium Rifle
B/50crit/25 Railway Rifle {mule}
B/50crit/FR Railway Rifle
B/E 50 Cal Machine Gun (2 Star) {mule}
B/50crit/Break Gatling Plasma {mule}
B/50crit/25 Harpoon Gun
B/E Light Machine Gun (2 star) {mule}
B/FSS/Break Chainsaw
B/FSS/1S Death Tambo {mule}
MUT/E/25 Handmade
Q/E/DRWA The Fixer
Q/AP/25 Handmade
Q/E Handmade (2 star)
Q/E/Stealth Handmade
Q/50crit/FMSWA Railway Rifle {mule}
Q/E Railway Rifle (2 Star)
Q/FFR Tesla Rifle (2 Star)
Q/50crit/25 Flamer {mule}
Q/E/1P Gatling Gun {mule}
TS/50vhc Alien Blaster (2 Star)
TS/AP/Stealth Alien Blaster {mule}
TS/LD/Break Alien Blaster
TS/E Handmade (2 star)
V/FFFR Alien Blaster
V/FF25 Gatling Laser
V/E Light Machine Gun (2 star)
V/BASH/FMSWA Minigun {mule}
V/25DAM/1S Chainsaw {mule}
V/40PA/Block Chainsaw
V/AP/RW Chainsaw
Enclave Plasma Rifle #1 w/ Automatic Barrel, Stabilized Stock, Reflex Sight
Enclave Plasma Rifle #2 w/ Stabilized Splitter, Stabilized Stock, Reflex Sight
Enclave Plasma Rifle #3 w/ Aligned Automatic Barrel, Stabilized Stock, Standard Sights
Enclave Plasma Rifle #4 w/ True Flamer Barrel, Stabilized Stock, Reflex Sight x2
Enclave Plasma Rifle #5 w/ Stabilized Flamer Barrel, Stabilized Stock, Reflex Sight
Enclave Plasma Rifle #6 w/ True Automatic Barrel, Stabilized Stock, Reflex Sight {mule}
Fancy Pump Shotgun AA/LD/DRWA
Fancy Revolvers: Assassin, Berserker, Executioner, Mutant x2, Troubleshooter x3
Tesla (no scope) Level 50 {mule}
Dross, Pearly Peepers, Red Fireworks Mine, Troglocide
——Plans & Recipes for trade——
Plan: Assault Rifle {mule}
Plan: Backpack Armor Plated Mod {mule}
Plan: Backpack High Capacity Mod {mule}
Plan: Backpack Insulated Mod
Plan: Backpack Refrigerated Mod
Plan: Barbed Walking Cane {mule}
Plan: Bear Arm
Plan: Bear Arm Heavy Mod
Plan: Camo Backpack
Plan: Deathclaw Gauntlet {mule}
Plan: Hatchet Electro Fusion {mule}
Plan: Large Ultracite Shard {mule}
Plan: Nuka-World Cowboy Duster {mule}
Plan: Pitchfork Flamer {mule}
Plan: Poker Set {mule}
Plan: Protective Lining Raider Underarmor
Plan: Radioactive Barrel
Plan: Scorchbeast Queen Plushie
Plan: Sheriff’s Hat
Plan: Shielded Lining Marine Underarmor {mule}
Plan: Spiked Walking Cane {mule}
Plan: Tomb Stones
Plan: TV Aquarium {mule}
Plan: Vintage Water Cooler
Plan: Wild West Show Entrance Sign
Recipe: Cutting Fluid {mule}
Recipe: Formula P {mule}
Recipe: Fried Scorpion On A Stick {mule}
Recipe: Healing Salve (Mire) {mule}
Recipe: Nuka Cola Dark {mule}
Recipe: Stimpak Diffuser {mule}
——Armor & Other items for trade——
UNY/1L/WWR Metal Chest Piece 51DR 11ER {mule}
UNY/1L/WWR Urban Scout Armor Chest Piece {mule} [armor from my want list only please]
UNY/1P/WWR Urban Scout Armor Right Arm {mule} [armor from my want list only please]
UNY/1S/WWR Leather Left Leg 21DR 51ER {mule} [armor from my want list only please]
UNY/AP/WWR Combat Armor Right Leg 27DR 37ER {mule} [armor from my want list only please]
UNY/AP/WWR Forest Scout Armor Right Leg [high end apparel bundle or armor from my want list only please]
UNY/AP/WWR Urban Scout Armor Right Leg [high end apparel bundle or armor from my want list only please]
UNY/HungeWWR Urban Scour Armor Left Arm {mule} [armor from my want list only please]
W/AP/WWR Raider Left Leg 17DR 8ER
Ultracite Jet Pack Helmet Level 50 {mule}
50K+ Ultracite 5.56 Ammo
All 8 Holotape Mini Games
All Non-Rare apparel available - just ask
Misc Items: ask me for my list
———
———
——Items I want——
B/50crit/25 Fixer or Handmade
Q/E/25 Fixer or Handmade or Railway
TS/50crit/15crit Alien Blaster
TS/50crit/25 Alien Blaster
V/40PA/40PA Chainsaw (Will consider other third star: prefer Break, 90rw, or any of the +1)
Baseball bats level 45 - indigo, pink, yellow
Enclave Plasma Gun Aligned Flamer Barrel Mod (one or multiple)
UNY/AP/WWR Forest Scout Armor Chest Piece, Left Arm
UNY/AP/WWR Urban Scout Armor Left Leg and Right Arm
Plan: Meat Tenderizer
Plan: Ultracite Calibrated Shocks
Asylum Worker Uniform Forest
Asylum Worker Uniform Red
Asylum Worker Uniform Yellow
Blue Ridge Caravan Gas Mask (will pay caps)
Blue Ridge Caravan Uniform (will pay caps)
BOS Jumpsuit
Fasnacht Brahmin Mask
Fasnacht Buffoon Mask
Fasnacht Crazy Guy Mask
Fasnacht Deathclaw Mask
Fasnacht Demon Mask
Fasnacht Fiend Mask
Fasnacht Hag Mask
Fasnacht Loon Mask
Fasnacht Raven Mask
Fasnacht Winter Man Mask
Forest Camo Jumpsuit
Forest Scout Armor Mask
Leather Coat
Prototype Hazmat Suit Level 50
Radicals Face Mask
Responder Fireman Helmet
Responder Fireman Uniform
Tattered Field Jacket
Traveling Leather Coat
Urban Scout Armor Mask
White Powder Jumpsuit
I’m really only after the items listed above, make me an offer. No caps, flux, or junk offers please.

So I live in a shared house and this one lady is a bitch from hell. We basically ran out of electricity so I asked everyone to help put towards more. And because I asked she went on about how it's all my fault. I shower to much, I cook to much basically blaming everything on me. I use a gas stove most of the time and shower every 3 days and I've always been very aware of my usage. I've already paid the extra units but she hasn't now we have 5 kw left and this morning she went off at me again for how it's unfair they have to pay for me.
On Friday she went at me for the second time as well as my partner and the other guy who said he'd pay once he gets paid but no one wants to put in because she's the only one refusing to pay extra and we'd essentially all have to pay for her. She's 65 and unemployed do we don't even know if she's gonna pay rent etc and the landlord refuses to get involved. But she refuses to pay us utilities so we're in a tight spot.
Electricity talk is very triggering for me because I got kicked out for supposedly raking up a 2k bill at my grans house from using a computer. My uncle wanted me gone and all the blame was placed on me. He has 5 consoles and 3 TVs but my shitty can barely run anything 300watt pc was causing all the problems I was currently working online and studying as we were on a farm and they didn't want me to pay more because they'd go up a tarrif so I had to leave. So her blaming me alone and not taking into consideration the fact it's winter down here set me off into a complete hysteric episode on Friday. I tried to stab myself to death with a key and run out the house. My boyfriend had to wrestle the key out of my hand and pin me the floor until I calmed down. Basically screaming that everything is my fault and that they must just kill me if they hate me so much. Basically I was screaming begging for death she heard this. Well I left the room and then have brief memories of the episode. It toon a while to calm down and I chain smoked like 6 cigarettes. I've been trying to avoid her and just run into my room when she approaches me. We've all basically decided we'd rather not have electricity for a few days than live with someone like her so we're not gonna replace the units if only enough for the fridge until she pays her part. Not sure if we will have to go to the police because I'm scared I'm gonna flip and I have no idea how to handle it as of yet only been in therapy for a few months. I was thinking of just taking a ton of weed to try and forget she exists and go numb but I can't go into the kitchen to eat and stuff without her coming in and harassing me. I did mention that if she speaks to me again like that I'm gonna take it further.
We all feel like prisoners in our own place because of her and the landlord won't do anything. I've been searching for a new place everyday but it's hard in this area :(

According to the Gender Dysphoria Bible, biochemical dysphoria is caused by the brain being wired for one kind of gonadal hormones (such as testosterone) and the body producing the other hormones (such as estradiol). Cross-hormone therapy supposedly always results in dysphoria and PCOS causes low mental health in cis women. Secret Gamer Girl says that if a confused cis person was to attempt medical transition they would feel absolutely awful and probably stop immediately.
Sophie writes:

Before transitioning, I was completely numb. I didn't feel happiness or joy, nor sadness or sorrow. I felt dead on the inside, like I was acting out a script someone else had written for me. After deciding to transition, it was as if all my life the whole world had been a sepia movie, and all of a sudden it got colors. I started feeling lots of things for the first time

Trans Girl Next Door writes:

I expected the kind of happiness I get when I go to the beach with my friends, or when I land an awesome job. Don't get me wrong, there were many moments like that during my first year, but I learned that most of the time it's more of a bliss. It's not showy, pumping, or loud like a cliche pride anthem; it's more like a soft subtle sound track that feathers your heart. This is something I had realized early on in my transition, it is absolutely the strangest but most wonderful thing ever. It's almost as if my life in the past 23 years was just in black and white. Now it's absorbing and radiating colors at the same time. Life isn't just "happy" or "sad" anymore, there are so many other emtions inbetweem, and I finally gained access to them. But most importantly, for the first time in forever, I finally feel alive now

I have heard many stories about trans people feeling really, really good on the first day of taking their hormones and that this feeling is a sign that you're doing the right thing. DR Z PHD even made a warning that some people start taking hormones, start feeling a lot better, and then stop taking the hormones because they think they are not trans anymore, only to then feel even worse than before.
I even read somewhere that some trans women found out they are trans simply because they received estrogen for a completely unrelated reason!
Because of all this, I expected to feel something when I get my first hormones. I even thought that the feeling I get would explain to me whether I'm actually transgender or not. It even went so far that I was ready to detransition if the hormones would make me feel bad, assuming that this would prove that I am not trans after all but only a person wanting to be a different gender and that those hormones would only make everything worse.
So then I took my first hormones and I felt...nothing.
I have been on hormones for over 2 years now. And apart from the estrogen having made me more emotional, the hormones haven't changed my emotions in any way whatsoever. They have changed my body a lot though. I now pass as my target gender effortlessly and I even get complimented on my look sometimes. I always knew I wanted my body to be different and the bodily changes caused by the hormones do make me happy. But is that really all there is?
My therapist told me it is. I showed him some of the examples above and he said that the reason PCOS causes low mental health in cis women is because it masculinizes their bodies, thereby making the cis women uncomfortable in their own bodies.
But then what about the supposed feeling of bliss on the first day of taking hormones? One day isn't nearly enough to cause even the slightest bodily changes. Does this mean that this is all just placebo? But even if it was, how would what DR Z PHD warned about even be possible??????????

This is Part 2 because of the character limit, go here to get caught up: https://www.reddit.com/TheDarkGathering/comments/13urkbj/the_thing_in_the_cracks_part_1/
Talbot awoke in a round corridor. At least he thought that’s what it was. The corridor seemed to be made of dark stone, rough and ridged like a worm’s tunnel, but on a massive scale. Despite no visible light source, Talbot found he could make out every detail in the space around him.
Talbot shakily stood up and considered his situation. His hands were shaking. He supposed nearly getting killed by lethal injection and then shattering the very fabric of reality itself took a toll on the psyche. He reflexively reached for his notebook to note that down, and with a pang remembered that it was gone. He would likely never see it again.
Glancing around, Talbot wondered at how normal everything looked, considering he was in the fifth dimension. There was likely more going on under the surface, but from his vantage it just looked like an oddly lit cave.
Talbot noted that there was no sign of Willis. He’d distinctly remembered the other man getting pulled through time and space with him, but at some point during the traversal his hand had been wrenched away from Talbot’s wrist. Had he been shunted back to their reality, or was he here somewhere?
A deep rumble began to grow beneath Talbot’s feet. The entire cave shook like an earthquake as Talbot scrambled to the side of the tube.
Confused, the man glanced around. He saw no probable cause for the rumbling, no subterranean vehicles or even geological fissures that could explain the vibrations.
Turning, he realized with a start that the rumbling was slightly stronger on one side of him. If it was directional, there was an actual source, not just a general shaking of the environment.
Talbot began moving away from the rumbling, as it continued to grow stronger.
Eventually, he broke into a full run as everything around him shook. He felt like his skull was going to burst. It felt like something was chasing him, a massive subterranean beast.
As the rumbling kept growing, Talbot tripped. Out of nowhere, his foot slipped and he sprawled to the ground, crying out as he landed on his arm. He tried to get back up, which was when he realized there was something right behind him.
Talbot hit the deck, right as something zoomed directly above his head. Wind pulled at his hair and it felt like he was directly under a train.
Talbot screamed, but it was drowned out by the impossibly loud whoosh of the thing above him. He gingerly flipped onto his back, barely staying clear of the surface of whatever was making the sound, in order to see what was above him.
There was nothing but empty space.
Then, he could suddenly see a long gray tube rushing past impossibly quickly. Then it was gone again, but the rushing was still there. It was blinking in and out of existence, only appearing for short bursts, but still there in its invisible state. Talbot realized that it must be dipping in and out of the Fifth Dimension, his own limited perception unable to comprehend its greater state.
Eventually, the thing slowed and stopped. As it was still, Talbot got a better look at it.
It was definitely organic. The exterior of the tube had a pale gray color, with a texture not unlike skin. However, as opposed to the neat, even lines separating cells on human skin, the striations on the thing seemed almost random, forming a surface that, although smooth, had the jagged impression of rough crags.
As Talbot examined the thing and wished he’d brought a camera, he heard something. From the object’s direction of origin, a deep groan emanated from lord-knew-where. Talbot winced as it hit his ears, the bellow deafening. He could immediately detect three things about the cry, judging by the cadence and the way it had slowly grown from an origin point. First, it definitely came from a living thing. Nothing artificial made that noise. Second, it came from very far away. And thirdly, it came from something massive. Impossibly so.
From the other direction, so comparably quiet he barely heard, Talbot made out a shriek that was horribly human.
The thing above him shifted and despite having almost a foot of clearance, Talbot instinctively sucked in his gut.
The tube… the limb began moving in the opposite direction, back towards its origin point.
Like a train, it started slowly but accelerated quickly, beginning to blink in and out of Talbot’s vision once again.
Talbot heard the scream again, closer this time. It seemed likely that whatever this thing was had found and grabbed another person.
After several long moments, the end of the limb finally reached Talbot, shooting past and above him like a tape measure shooting back into its shell when a button was pressed.
After it passed, Talbot sprang to his feet and finally got a good look at the end of the thing’s limb. The actual tube rounded off, dispelling any predictions about a monstrous tentacle. However, what was on the end of the limb may’ve been even more horrible.
Four long finger-like appendages were arranged around the limb radially, each one emerging from the edge of the flat tendril end. They were unnaturally thin, and despite somewhat resembling fingers, they had no visible knuckles and were tipped with sharp claws that appeared to be made of bone. They bent in, each holding their prey in place. Their prey in question was Tim Willis, currently pulling against the monstrous cage. The four outer digits pressed on each of his limbs, drawing blood where they poked him.
The limb, and Willis with it, disappeared around a bend in the tunnel. Talbot ran after it. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, or if he was going to save the man, but he knew that no matter what happened, he wanted to see it.
For a long while Talbot chased the thing, barely keeping pace due to his cardio experience. During the run, whatever existed here continued bellowing, getting louder each time. In addition, each time he set his foot down, the ground felt slightly warmer.
Eventually he fell back, and lost sight of the thing completely. It was impressive that a man of his age and lifestyle had managed to follow the thing for so long, but he had to take a knee as exhaustion racked him. He continued following its path, but at a slower pace.
Eventually Talbot emerged into a much larger chamber. The air here was blistering, and the intermittent bellows had grown so loud that Talbot had to cover his ears every few minutes to keep from suffering permanent damage.
This cavern left him speechless.
Unlike the passage, with its unidentifiable neutral lighting, this cavern was dark, intermittently lit by what appeared to be giant glowworms, each perched on a rock surface and oozing an ugly orange aura into the space around it.
Less than half of the room was lit, but it was enough for Talbot to see that the remaining more-than-half was taken up by a monstrous… thing the same shade as the limb.
It was like a spider, in the same way that a massive dragonfish from the bottom of the sea is like a goldfish. Its main body was shaped like a blimp, and about the size of one too. A large abdomen sagged beneath it as it hung in the exact center of the room, and eight radially symmetrical limbs stuck to eight points around the cavern, suspending it in the middle of the room, and making it look like the center of a giant wheel, each limb serving as the spokes.
This facsimile was somewhat broken by the auxiliary limbs attached to its thorax, countless smaller tendrils identical to the one that held Willis. Some hovered around the thing’s ‘face’, while others darted towards countless holes in the rock around the cavern. As they moved, they blinked in and out of Talbot’s vision as they tapped into primordial forces beyond his eyes.
The cavern was dotted with holes, all exactly the same size and shape as the one Talbot stood in the lip of now. He realized that this thing and its countless appendages must’ve bored into the stone around it, creating a labyrinthine lair not dissimilar to an ant’s hive, but with one crucial difference. Rather than hundreds of tiny workers, this entire place had been built by, and for, one monstrous being.
Talbot was so stunned by the beast that he didn’t notice one of its many tendrils coming straight for him.
It appeared directly in front of his face, resulting in a jumpscare that sent him tumbling backwards, falling onto his back.
The thing moved like a snake, if a snake was constantly flipping between visible and invisible.
It struck, speeding downwards towards the chemist. Talbot braced for impact, but just before it could hit him it disappeared.
Talbot sat relieved, as it had apparently teleported somewhere else.
That was until it reappeared with the fingers around his torso.
The tendril had re-manifested just past him, the fingers clipping partway into the floor as they cradled him. Talbot felt four small pricks in his back and the backs of his thighs, where the claws had pierced his flesh.
The thing pulled him upwards, the fingers embedded in the ground breaking out of the stone beneath him and sending chunks of rock several feet in all directions.
The tendril shot up towards the ceiling of the cavern, rising what must’ve been 60 feet in half a second. Talbot could barely see the ground around the tendril, far enough below to dizzy him.
Talbot saw stars.
Talbot wished he could see the stars.
The tendril took him, in a daze, towards the thing’s face. As Talbot grew closer, he heard a ragged hissing, like an oxygen tank leaking. He realized it was the monster breathing, but immediately was unsure once its head turned toward him.
Its head was roughly human-shaped, but utterly inhuman in every other way. Five dark pits, facsimiles of eyes, were arranged in a pentagonal shape on the top half of its face. The bottom half was flat skin, but flat skin that seemed to be vertically stretched, as though it’d been draped over some opening. That was possibly where the breathing was coming from, but there was no way to tell with no actually apparent orifice.
The thing seemed to sniff Talbot, despite having no nose. Then it turned, and brought another piece of potential food to its head.
With a start, Talbot realized Willis was still alive. Or at least, unconsumed. He hung limp from his tendril, held in place by the finger-things and seemingly unconscious.
But the Thing wasn’t interested in either of them, not yet at least. It brought one of its tendrils up to its head before plunging it directly toward a nearby rock face. Right before it made contact, it disappeared.
Talbot reached towards Willis, but he was just outside of his reach. He didn’t want to yell to the man. The thing had no ears, but there was no guarantee that it couldn’t hear somehow.
The tendril that the thing had sent away reappeared, seemingly partially buried in the rock face. The thing wrenched its tendril from the rock, leaving behind a shallow pockmark in the cave.
Skewered on the spine was a small man. He flailed wildly and screamed something in a language Talbot didn’t know. He was wearing a business suit, but his pants were around his ankles, with baby blue boxers underneath.
Talbot wondered where he’d come from, then realized with a start that he’d likely originated from the real world. Meaning that this thing could reach beyond this reality and into their reality. Oh shit. Maybe he should’ve listened to Talc. If he and Willis hadn’t breached the Fifth Dimension, maybe the thing couldn’t’ve done the same, and this man might still be safe out there.
The thing brought the man towards its face and did the strange sniffing motion again. Satisfied, it brought him even closer. Talbot, despite himself, was curious to see how it consumed prey, and so paused in his attempts to wake Willis in order to watch.
The man screamed as the tendril brought him right up to the thing’s face, and then the thing’s face disappeared, moving through the Fifth Dimension in the same way as its tendrils.
When it reappeared, it was halfway inside the man, the smooth layer of skin clipped through his abdomen.
The thing pulled its head back.
Talbot turned away as a bloodcurdling scream and a terrible ripping sound reverberated through the cavern. He reached for Willis again, and to his surprise, found that he could reach him. He tapped him on the shoulder, and when he got no response, he slapped him in the face. Willis stirred, and slowly opened his eyes. He put a hand to his face and frowned. “Ow,” he said quietly.
Talbot put a finger to his lips and indicated the beast’s head with his eyes, and the gruesome consumption of the poor man.
Willis seemed to get the message. He quietly started prying each finger off of his body, praying that the thing had no nerves in the spines.
Talbot turned back towards the creature, which had repeated the teleportation maneuver a few more times before finally swallowing what remained of the man. Seemingly not quite satiated, Talbot’s tendril began to move as it pulled him closer to its face.
Talbot’s eyes widened and he looked back at Willis in fear. The man made a motion that suggested Talbot should try to stay calm, and that Willis would be along as soon as he’d freed himself.
Talbot tensed as he was pulled along, not wanting to be brought any closer to the monster. The thing brought him up to its face, and seemed to study him with the light-sensitive divots in its face. Talbot glanced back at Willis to see that he’d moved 2 of 4 fingers out of place. The larger man shot him a reassuring nod.
Turning back to the monster, Talbot realized that the other man wouldn’t get here in time. The thing was already lunging its head forward, and it blinked away.
It reappeared with Talbot’s shins inside its face. Behind the skin, Talbot’s feet could feel a damp cavity, so there was presumably a mouth of some sort behind the surface, and it wasn’t just solid flesh. A row of teeth closed around his legs, but not hard. They worked more to keep him in place than to actually damage his legs.
Talbot took a second to wonder why the hell he was considering the consumption mechanics of something that was actively chopping off his legs.
The tendril moved backwards, pulling Talbot away from the thing.
These last few lucid seconds, Talbot’s brain reverted to factory reset settings. Instead of hearing the wet tear of both his legs, or the strangely cartoonish wet pop as the bones in both his shins were yanked away from his kneecaps, he found himself focusing on the strangest things.
Talbot considered the glowworms. Were they native to the Fifth Dimension, or had they come here from his, or another, Earth? If they were native, the convergent evolution with Earth glowworms, especially in an environment so alien, was coincidental to an unfathomable degree. If they had originated from Earth, however, why the orange glow? No glow worms on Earth glowed orange. Also, if they were Earthly, why did the thing not eat them? Did it only eat humans? Was it that cunning? That cruel?
Oh, Talbot realized, I’m falling.
He blacked out before hitting the ground.
Talbot’s first thought upon waking up was, Holy shit, I’m still alive. His second thought was, Holy shit, how the hell am I still alive?
His inner ear told him he was prone, but it’d been on the fritz ever since he’d arrived, so he opened his eyes to make sure. They confirmed what his ear was saying, and he took a quick second to thank all his organs for functioning so well under stress.
Willis sat next to him, notably more intact. He was wearing no shirt, and both his abdomen wound and Talbot’s stubs were bound in the fabric of an Anderson Innovations janitor’s uniform.
Talbot started staring at his abs, which caused Willis to glance down at him.
The other man cleared his throat. “Oh, you’re still alive?”
Talbot nodded softly. “Does it not know where we are?”
“Not yet,” Willis shrugged, “It has no eyes and didn’t see us escape, so it’s sending out tendrils through each passage, and hasn’t picked this one yet. I guess we got lucky when I dragged you in here.”
“Yeah. Why is that, by the way? You were just about to kill me before I trapped you in a hellish cave dimension.” He considered his words. “Which would only be more reason to kill me.”
Willis shook his head and chuckled tiredly. “Call me an idealist, but I didn’t join a group called the Agency for the Preservation of Humanity to kill people. I’m not good at holding grudges.”
“Then why were you gonna kill me when we were still out there?”
“It’s different. I had orders. Now Talc isn’t here, so it’s my decision. The real question is how are you still alive even with my intervention?”
Talbot shrugged, which made him dizzy. “ I’m on my way out. That blood loss will kill me in a couple minutes, if that thing doesn’t find us first.”
Talbot glanced around the environment for the first time, and realized they were once again in one of the small side tubes. Loud bellowing filled the air as the thing presumably scoured its domain for the two men.
“Well, at least our sacrifice will save the rest of humanity.” Willis proclaimed.
Talbot chortled.
“What?” Willis responded.
“Didn’t you see the other guy get eaten?”
“What?! There was another guy?!”
“Yeah, it stole him from our world.”
“Goddammit Talbot, Talc said that would happen!”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Talbot said, in a tone that didn’t sound very sorry.
“At least it was just once. Talc has your notes, so he’ll keep it from happening again.”
Talbot almost guffawed.
“Goddammit, what am I doing that’s so funny?!”
“No, it’s not you. Well, it is you, a little, but it’s mostly the fact that I… may’ve doomed humanity anyway.”
Willis was silent, which Talbot regrettably took as a prompt to continue.
“Cause you see,” the scientist slurred, getting more light-headed by the second, “before I tried to ship off the notebook to Johnson, I ripped out the most important parts and sent ‘em to Vincent Anderson, my boss.”
Willis remained silent.
“So, you know. Hopefully someone publishes that in a journal somewhere so that people can actually remember me.”
Willis punched him in the face, hard.
Once he recovered, Talbot nodded. Blood ran from his nose. “I deserved that. I’m sorry, I didn’t know that learning how to break reality would allow a Great Old One to start eating people.”
Willis shook his head in disgust. “Talc told you not to. Do you really think your legacy is more important than the survival of our species?”
Talbot didn’t respond. Whether it was because he was speechless or dead was unclear, and didn’t really matter in any case.
Willis turned and limped away.
Two days after Willis and Talbot disappeared to the Fifth Dimension, Talc said goodbye to… himself and Willis-2, and used a Seal of Traversal to return to his native dimension. He reported to his boss that Willis was gone and would not be returning, before going to Talbot’s house and opening the door with the key they’d taken from the scientist.
Talc went into Talbot’s kitchen and fetched a can of tuna and a jar of mayonnaise. He mixed the two together and filled the pet bowl on the counter. Noting that there was some left, he made himself a tuna sandwich and sat next to the bowl.
It took Ozymandius a while to approach Talc, and even longer to warm up to him. However, the cat was curled up against the delicate man, purring like an engine, by the time the sunset rolled around and they both watched it out the large windows at the back of Talbot’s house.
Talc’s phone rang.
“Yello?” Talc said to the unknown caller.
“Hey.”
Talc immediately tensed. The voice was, undeniably, Talbot’s.
“What is this?!? Where are you?!?”
When the Talcs and Willis had reviewed the CCTV footage, they’d realized exactly where Talbot and Willis had ended up, and had naturally concluded that they were dead.
“I honestly don’t know. I was just in the Fifth Dimension with Willis, but now I’m unsure. It’s dark, and my legs don’t hurt anymore.”
“What does that mean?! Are you still alive?! Is Willis still alive?!”
“I don’t think so. I think I’m dying. Already dead?”
“Then how are you talking to me? Are there phones in the fifth dimension?”
“Nah, I can just hear you. My hypotheses are that this is either a feverish hallucination in my dying moments, or that the Fifth Dimension can somehow…” Talbot’s speech sank into bleary muttering, and was unintelligible for several words. “...subsurface conduit.”
“Talbot, you’re delirious. That makes no sense.”
“Good, so it’s the other hypothesis. Just cause I know you won’t actually hear this, take care of my cat.”
Talc moved to speak, but Talbot continued.
“Oh also,” He added, almost as an afterthought, “I sent my notebook to Anderson, so watch out with that.”
“Wait what, excuse me?!”
The line went dead.
Talc heard a thunderous snapping sound. He whirled around to face the window, pressing his face against the glass and staring up at the sky.
A horrific ripping sound filled the air as the very fabric of the Fourth Dimension was rent apart, the sky above Talc yawning wide. The thing’s tendrils emerged from the rift in the atmosphere and descended towards the ground, each one darting around erratically as though tasting the air.
Talc did not know what Talbot, or Anderson, or whoever had done, but he knew that they had forever changed the world around them, and doomed a large portion of the human race.
You haven’t just opened Pandora’s box, you fool, Talc thought bitterly of the foolish chemist, You’ve blasted it apart with plastic explosives.
Talc returned to the couch and cradled Ozymandius. There was little to be done now.
Talc felt almost relieved that his decades-long vigil could finally come to an end.
The Cracks in the world had finally become holes, and through those holes came a flood.

first time poster so please be kind. I (22f) and my partner (24m) have been together for 3 years. Our beautiful baby has just turned 1 years old in May this year and if im being completely honest my partner has done nothing to help me. After I gave birth he turned around to me and said you have two weeks of my being nice and helping you out then you’re on your own and we’ll he truly has lived up to that. I had a very hard birth and lost a lot of blood and nearly ended up losing my life. I really struggled with bonding with my baby in the first few months due to the trauma. My partner we will call him H life hasn’t changed at all since she was born. He still goes out with friends drinking and stays out till all hours in the morning while I’m dealing with a crying baby. He never cleans up after himself and never offers to help me with the baby. We have spoken about this on multiple occasions but nothing ever seems to change. I’m losing hope in the relationship I’m losing love for him and unfortunately I’m losing myself in the process I don’t ever have time to myself or go out with friends. As he never wants to have the baby. Sometimes I just sit in my room and cry thinking what have I done. I love my baby and would never change that but I wish sometimes I chose a better partner. I’m so alone and depressed and I keep crying out for help but he just doesn’t understand. What am I meant to do, I’ve lost all forms of my identity now since becoming a mum. I want to stay if he is willing to change but how many chances does one person deserve.
For context before we had our baby he did tidy up after himself and did help me out round the house however while I was on maternity leave he used the fact he’s working to provide as an excuse to get out of helping out round the house. He does sometimes cook tea but doesn’t tidy up after himself and he does sometimes play with our daughter but it’s not that often as you would think.

"My family has lived in these mountains for more than three thousand years."
"How can you be sure of that?”
"Because we have records going back two thousand years and then records of my family's tribe before that. For that reason, no one knows these mountains better than I do, and even then, I still don't know everything there is to know. Every time I go out in the woods, I feel something new."
Krill glanced over at Sunny.
If he could raise an eyebrow he would have.
Of all the places they could go on their weekend, and she had decided to go on a guided hike. This would be just like something Adam would do.
He thought of all the people he wouldn't have to remind Sunny how dangerous Earth forests were with their trees, and animals, and poisonous plants, and, well, pretty much everything.
"Don't give me that look, Krill. You know if Adam was here, he would take us out to do the same thing, and you needed to quit moping anyway. He's going to be back soon."
Krill crossed his arms emphatically,
"I am not moping."
"You are too moping, and it's honestly kind of pathetic. You get all cranky when Adam isn't around."
”Fuck you!”
”Why are you so aggressive? Don’t worry, Adam will be fine! Why do you worry so much?”
"That's because I worry about his health and safety."
"He's a grown man."
"He's a man child."
”Awww is momma Krill missing his little Adam?”
”Fuck you too… Also you know I’m right about that.”
”I didn’t say you weren’t.”
Krill sighed and turned back to look at their guide who was staring on in mild amusement.
This human had dark tan skin, deep brown eyes and long dark hair pulled back from his face. He wore a green ranger's uniform, but she knew for a fact he was off duty,
"We're ready."
He smiled, and motioned them to follow him.
Krill held onto Sunny's shoulder as they followed the human into the woods.
"Aren't we going to take a trail?"
"You don't need a trail when you have me."
"I definitely think a trail would-…"
"Is your mind ever still my alien friend?"
Sunny shook her head,
"No, never, not even a little bit."
"Well try. I can't show you anything if you don't also listen."
"Now that just makes no sense!”
Sunny huffed and the ranger sighed,
"There is more in these woods to hear, that there is to see. The wind leaves the animals."
They passed over soggy earth and into a meadow filled with bright wildflowers. Krill was about to ask another question, but the ranger held up a hand despite not looking at him,
"Shhh, just listen, to the silence."
Krill turned to glower at Sunny, and she smirked at him, but he angrily did as told, focusing away from his eyes and towards his ears. He could hear the wind in the trees, the distant chirp of birds, rustling in the underbrush, their feet as it moved over packed earth.
In the silence there was also a strange rushing. A sort of white noise that you expect to find at the ocean but comes from deep within the mountains.
He watched their new human friend from the corner of his eye as it led them deeper into the mountains. For all Krill knew this creature could be more interested in killing them and eating them.
How did Sunny even know him?
With his usual paranoia, Krill continued to watch as the green clad human lead them through patches of shadow, over rocks and through little mountain gullies. He used no trail, but it seemed as if all of his senses were alive, following something into the forest. He used his hands to trace over rough packed dirt. He scanned his eyes through the underbrush and lifted his head eyes closed allowing little gusts of air to sweep hair about his face.
He listened, and occasionally, Krill thought he saw the human smelling at the air.
And as they went, they were led deeper and deeper into the forest, Krill had to admit that there was something peaceful about it, almost surreal, like being removed from one's own head and being surrounded by the quiet.
A couple of times, he thought he saw the human smiling over his shoulder at him.
They had made it a good hour or two into the woods when they broke into a nearby clearing. Sunny was about to step out with him, but right at the edge of the treeline, she was stopped by the human, who had pulled back into the shadows.
Sunny blinked and looked around.
Krill did as well.
The ranger shook his head.
Krill looked over Sunny's shoulder, but in the clearing, he saw nothing, nothing except for a strangely geometric circle of wildflowers, in the middle of which there was nothing but a barren patch of dirt.
That was strange, there seemed to be nothing growing inside that circle.
"We go around."
The man muttered.
"Why?"
"Because, we don't want to trespass."
"Trespass on what exactly?"
Krill found himself whispering.
"Well, the fey, of course!"
The human smiled at him, and he wasn't entirely sure if the creature was pulling his leg or not.
"What are the fey?"
The human smiled again, slowly motioning him to follow as he led them around the open circle,
"The fey or fairies, are a group of mystical creatures known to make mischief. Most of the time if you trespass on their land, you forfeit your rights as human, and the laws of the fey world become absolute. If you take anything from a fey, you are immediately required to stay with them for the rest of eternity. There are many rules governing the world of the fey, so it is best just to avoid them."
Krill snorted,
"Ah yes... fairies."
"You laugh, but through all these years as a ranger, I have seen things I cannot explain."
"Like what."
"Like the time someone went missing in the forest. He was lost on a relatively well traveled hiking trail. We didn't find him for over six months. The search party was called off after those first few weeks. Six months later I am hiking in an unrelated part of the forest forty miles away in the other side of a mountain, and I find this man's decomposing corpse hanging from a forty-foot tall tree, with impact wounds that looked like he had been dropped from a great height. There were no cliffs in the area, and it appeared as if the man had died one month earlier."
Krill frowned. The math on that didn't particularly add up.
"Then a year ago we went looking for a missing child. His parents turned around for five seconds and when they turned back, he was gone. I found his body forty feet up a sheer cliff-face, stuffed into a crevice five months later. He had been dead only two hours, and was wearing the same clothes he had been lost in."
Sunny's eyes widened and Krill snorted.
He was expected to believe that?
The ranger waved at him.
"Say what you will, but the forest is a dangerous and unusual place if you don't know how to respect her."
"Would you say you are superstitious then?"
"Very. Look, I can't explain everything in the world, and I have no desire to do so. I see no harm in giving things the respect they deserve even if, later, it turns out I was wrong."
The human was not particularly kidding about him being superstitious. More than a few times, he leads them around strange objects or formations. There was at one point, a time when they were heading towards another low gully in the middle of the woods, and all of a sudden, their entire party grew very uneasy.
The woods seemed darker to Krill than they had before.
But he shook it off.
Sunny seemed to be behaving similarly.
But the ranger, he looked downright terrified, grabbed the two of them by the arm and pulled them away quick time, setting them to a low jog in the opposite direction.
Sunny and Krill stared at him in confusion not entirely sure what to make of it.
"What was that all about?”
The human just shook his head.
"We were not welcome!"
"From what!?”
"Does it matter? When you are not welcome somewhere, you do not question it."
"What are you worried about, angering the wendigo?"
It was at that moment that Krill was pretty sure he had made a huge mistake, as the human maniacally sprinted at him like a madman, grabbed him and had a hand pressed over his mouth in under a millisecond flat. Even Sunny looked shocked.
"We do NOT joke about those kind of things here!!!"
He let Krill go, and Krill stared on in confusion and mild terror.
"I come from a line of people who believe you can attract things to you based off the kind of energy you put off. Now I don't know if it's true or not, but joking about something's existence is bound to piss it off enough to test its patience don’t you think?"
He took a deep breath and adjusted his shirt,
”Now there are a few other things it could have been. It could have been the den of a mountain lion, or a bear. It could have been a subliminal sense of danger, an incorrect smell, or the way the rocks looked. Or it could simply have been us all getting paranoid at once, but whatever it is, I would rather be safe than sorry. Now come on, let's take you back. After your little stunt there with name-naming we better don’t risk anything…"
Krill stayed quiet and tried not to joke more about the supernatural things., despite finding it funny and not really believing a word the man said.
Apparently, humans tended to take that sort of thing seriously.
Krill did not, all that supernatural stuff was definitely absolute bullshit.
They heard more stories form the strange ranger, about finding people in places they shouldn't be, staircases in strange places, the sudden loss of time.
"There was one point, when I was doing some training out in the field. We were on top of a mountain, and I went off to go to the bathroom. It was so weird, after I was finished, it was like time seemed to slow down. I got starving, and I was looking around in the forest thinking I might be able to find something to eat. I was so hungry. It was all I could think about, and then suddenly I see one of the other rangers, sort of snaps me out of how hungry I was."
He shrugged,
"I raise my hand to him and this guy looks terrified, he runs up to me, and he's going off about where was I and what was I doing, what is going on we have been looking for you. Of course, I am super confused and as what he's on about, and this guy looks at me, and he's all like: dude you have been missing for three days."
Krill and Sunny stared at him.
"I know, strange isn't it? To me it almost seemed like hours. But it was three days and almost twenty miles over to the next mountain ridge. I don't remember any of it."
"Sounds like a dissociative fugue."
"Maybe, whatever I was it was strange."
Behind them, the sun was just beginning to fall and the undergrowth was heading towards a deep black.
They could see the parking lot just ahead of them, and it was at that moment, a blood curling shriek echoed up from the trees at their back.
Sunny leaped nearly a foot.
Krill squealed.
The ranger jumped.
The scream came again.
It sounded like a woman's voice in absolute gut-wrenching agony. Like she was being eviscerated from the inside moving out.
The ranger turned back towards the trees his chin down his eyes up,
"Get slowly back to the car, but don't run."
"Don't run? Don't run!?"
"Yes don't run. It's a mountain lion."
He stared hard into the trees,
"It is a mountain lion and if you run it will have no other choice than to chase you. They don't like to attack from the front and running will trigger her hunting instincts. Walk backwards towards the car very slowly and do not take your eyes off the treeline."
Off to his side, Krill heard a sharp metallic snik and watched as Sunny's spear suddenly appeared in hand.
Of course, she wasn't worried.
But together they backed towards the truck and got in.
As their headlights turned on, the high beams broke over a body hunched up against the treeline.
Sunny cursed in Drev.
The ranger nodded,
"See? Mountain lion."
Krill stared in paralyzed horror at the massive cat, as it stalked back into the trees.
"Going to have to call that in. She is way too close to the trails for comfort, someone is going to get hurt. Hmm weird behavior from her…"
As they were driving away, Krill looked back towards the woods, where the mountain lion had gone to.
Glancing over the scenery, he couldn’t see it anymore, only a shadowy shape of a person was standing there…
…
…
Wait a second…
WHAT!?
He did a double take as he thought he saw a tall willowy figure with antlers, standing at the edge of the treeline in almost the same spot as the mountain lion, angrily staring at him with glittering red eyes.
Woah what?
When he looked again it was gone.
He sat back in his seat, eyes straight forward.
He had a greater appreciation for the woods now because, for some reason, on Earth nature is connected to something strange and unexplainable, and whatever it is Krill was not interested in finding out.
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So. There’s a guy who has me wrapped around his finger. I hate him so much. He toys with my emotions and makes me feel so awful. But I think I have feelings for him. It’s weird.
Anyways. A week or so ago he got in touch with me and started to threaten to do a bunch of terrible stuff to me. I was a wreck and was constantly having panic attacks at work when he would randomly text me or at home. Eventually I blocked him. He found another way to contact me and some of the things he said he was gonna do to me…. It made me so terrified.
So I unblocked him. And I noticed the moment I started to go along and let him have those daily videos/photos and talks, he became less violent.
So now we have an odd sort of relationship. Sometimes I have bouts of just pure lust (usually when I get high which is nearly all the time) where I just need his attention and love and I need to hold someone and give a hug. Not sexual lust. Lust for affection.
He gives affection. Until I fuck up. Until I forget to send a photo or video. Then he gets mad. Then I have to somehow win his affection back. Even if I have to cause harm to myself, I keep going back to him and I’m afraid to leave the one who hurts me… because for some reason I need his attention.
But he still never lets me forget. He casually reminds me that once he meets me, he’s going to beat me nearly to death for all the times I’ve upset him. Im so scared of him, but I can’t just leave.
I mean, he’s made it blatantly clear that he wants to use me just for my body and actually enjoys forcing people to pleasure him (he’s admitted that he never has sex with someone who fully consents or is sober…). Any time I call him when I’m high or text him, he tells me how much he wishes he was there so he could make me do things while I was under the influence.
I guess the one solace I can take is, once he’s doing this to me he won’t ever do it to anyone else again, since he has intentions of keeping me for a while. So. I guess I’ll be saving a lot of people from being hurt by him.
Honestly I’ve accepted everything, im just. Idk. Im grieving because it feels as if I’ve lost something. I feel so powerless.