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2023.06.05 00:27 Intercosmic_Dragons Their Mom Made Us Break Up. Should I Move On?
Important info: The state I live in has an age of consent of 17 years old, and our Romeo and Juliet laws allow people ages 14-17 to date others no greater than 3 years older than them.
I'm gonna try to keep this as concise as possible, but it's still a rather long read.
My ex (17nb) "Forrest" and I (20f) met almost a year ago at work. Both of us were really nervous to talk to one another, but once we finally did, we hit it off instantly. We became best friends at work. A few weeks later, they asked for my Instagram (no flirting, I mostly just sent them memes). About 5 months after we met, I admitted I liked them. They said they like me too, and that the only reason they never brought it up was because they didn't know how I'd feel about the age gap.
I also initially felt weird about it when I learned that they weren't 18 (they look older than they are. Most people think they're 18), but I always knew it was a legal gap. And I didn't think about them in a sexual way. I let them know that I told my best friend about the age gap, and since she was okay with it, I felt comfortable telling Forrest that I like them. Despite the fact that I'm a few years older, Forrest felt safe with me, especially knowing I'm asexual (I don't feel sexual attraction. So we wouldn't engage in intercourse unless they wanted to).
About a month after that, they asked me to be their girlfriend. The relationship was extremely healthy. We of course had our issues, some major and some minor, but we always managed to work things out. We loved one another deeply (which we admitted before we even started dating), and always tried our best for one another. We worked together as often as possible and texted and face-timed often. Both my friends and theirs agreed that we were good for one another. Even my therapist said we were healthy for one another and that we had a good future together. They've absolutely improved my quality of life. I was going to list ways they've made my life better, but once I got to number 17, I figured it was just going to make this unnecessarily longer.
Because I'm a bit older than Forrest, I always made sure to be very careful to not give in to the inherent power imbalance. They wore the pants in the relationship. If I ever asked them if they wanted to do something and they said "no" or even hesitated, I would immediately drop it and move on to something else. If they would reluctantly agree, I'd say, "No, you don't want to, so we're not doing it." I made sure they knew that they owed me nothing.
Initially, their family was suspicious of me. Their best friend got into contact with me to keep a close eye on me, but soon realized I had absolutely no bad intentions with Forrest. I met their sister, and her opinion of me changed from "She's trying to gr**m you," to "Is she autistic?" (Not what I was expecting, but definitely preferable.) I was under the impression that their mom liked me, and when I asked Forrest to tell her about the relationship, they said they couldn't because she was suspicious of me, so I dropped it (I also later learned that their sister was still suspicious of me. Just less?).
Eventually, they were put into a tight position, and told their family that I had a boyfriend. I wasn't a fan of lying about that - which they were aware of - but they thought it was best (although, I did come up with the lie a few months prior, in case they felt like they needed to use it. We were just really hoping they wouldn't). A few weeks ago, we were messaging, and I guess their mom was looking at their phone and saw that I had called them a pet name. She went through our messages (which had been nothing but wholesome for at least a week, so she had to have been searching for incriminating evidence) and discovered that we had fornication. Although we were 17 and 19 at the time we were dating, their mom thought the age gap was too big and that I had gr**med Forrest.
Their mom messaged me asking me to refrain from contacting Forrest again or else she would talk to our boss (who doesn't know we dated, but knows I care about Forrest and their safety) and call the police (again, the relationship was legal. She was just trying to use a scare tactic). I was blocked from that Instagram account. A few minutes later, I got a message from Forrest's best friend telling me she was "so sorry" and couldn't talk to me anymore for Forrest's safety. Followed by, "Thank you for everything, Intercosmic_Dragons." I then received a text message from Forrest saying, "We're breaking up. Thank you for everything. I love you."
Needless to say, I was devastated. I went and told my best friends, and they told me I should try and see if I could fix things. I told Forrest I'd wait for them to turn 18 (as was the original plan anyway. We just got a bit impatient), and we could try again. They messaged me from their 2nd account saying they couldn't come back because it devastated their mother that they had lied. They told me not to wait for them, as they wouldn't be coming back. Their mother thought I gr**med them. I asked if they felt like I gr**med them to which they responded, "No. I haven't felt pressure or the need to give myself to you ever. I initiated everything. You've been nothing but good to me. I would do this running the risk to being caught 10x over." I asked if their mom was making them quit their job and they told me she wasn't and that they hoped to see me at work. They sent another "I love you" message and then blocked me from that account as well.
I at least didn't want to be labeled as a gr**mer, so I went through our messages and found a lot of evidence that I never tried to hold any power over them. I'd even go as far as to say that many of my messages were anti-gr**ming, rather than just an absence of gr**ming. I texted their number and told them I had evidence that I never gr**med them. They asked what evidence, and I sent them a plethora of screenshots. To my dismay, they had already been showing their mom those screenshots for days to try and clear my name, but she wasn't listening. Their mother's response was essentially, "I don't care that it was legal or that you felt safe with her. You're a child." Forrest told me that unless it was about work, I was not to contact them anymore because "the consequences are still at large."
I thought they were upset with me and held some sort of grudge against me for reaching out, but it seems like they were more worried about their mom's reaction. A few days after we broke up, I had to go away for about a week for undisclosed reasons. They noticed I wasn't answering messages in the work group chat and asked our mutual friend to check on me. The next time we worked together, they were very chatty and playful with me. At one point, I asked if they were okay and they said yes. I could tell they were lying, so I asked them if I could hug them. They held me for a long while, and didn't want to let go. It seemed like they almost started crying. I asked, "You know it's not your fault, right?" to which they replied, "I'm just really sorry about everything." Any time I asked them questions about the situation (I was broken up with very abruptly, so I didn't have much information about what happened), they'd get really sad. If I called them a platonic nickname instead of a pet name, I'd watch their heart break. I've asked if we could be friends in the future, to which they replied, "My mom wouldn't like that..."
They've contacted me (we're supposed to be nc unless it's work related) to wish me a happy birthday, reply to my story on Instagram (my 2nd account and their 2nd account still follow one another), and send me a random funny picture. We broke up about 3 weeks ago, and they've also said a few things recently which make it very apparent that they're still extremely hurt about the fact that we broke up.
Hopefully, this gives you guys enough insight on why I'm at a crossroads here. All of my friends (including our mutual friend) still tell me that they'll come back when they're the age of majority. Not a single one of them has told me, "Move on. You'll find someone better in the future." Every single one of them has told me they'll come back. Forrest's best friend thinks I was good for them and didn't want us to break up (and I'm sure we all know that your best friend will usually be the first to tell you if they think someone isn't good for you). If I say something like "It sucks that I have to move on," my best friend just replies with, "No, you don't have to." A couple of my friends have been in similar situations when they were younger, and told me they're just making this rash decision to never come back because they're still under their parents' roof and in an emotionally heightened state. But Forrest tells me that they won't come back because they could never let me and their mother meet again. It's very evident that they miss me a lot, but I know that they can be extremely stubborn, especially when it comes to pleasing their loved ones.
Every person I've talked to about it says they'll come back. But the one person who doesn't believe that is the one person who gets to make that decision. I was hoping for some outside advice. Should I listen to my friends and hold out hope for them (while working on myself and focusing on my own life, of course) or should I listen to Forrest and start moving on?
TL;DR: My ex's mom made us split up. My ex says to move on, but it's clear they're not moving on. My friends all tell me not to move on, but I know my ex can be stubborn. Who should I listen to?
Edit: Tried to clarify confusing language
submitted by Intercosmic_Dragons to BreakUps [link] [comments]
I'm gonna try to keep this as concise as possible, but it's still a rather long read.
My ex (17nb) "Forrest" and I (20f) met almost a year ago at work. Both of us were really nervous to talk to one another, but once we finally did, we hit it off instantly. We became best friends at work. A few weeks later, they asked for my Instagram (no flirting, I mostly just sent them memes). About 5 months after we met, I admitted I liked them. They said they like me too, and that the only reason they never brought it up was because they didn't know how I'd feel about the age gap.
I also initially felt weird about it when I learned that they weren't 18 (they look older than they are. Most people think they're 18), but I always knew it was a legal gap. And I didn't think about them in a sexual way. I let them know that I told my best friend about the age gap, and since she was okay with it, I felt comfortable telling Forrest that I like them. Despite the fact that I'm a few years older, Forrest felt safe with me, especially knowing I'm asexual (I don't feel sexual attraction. So we wouldn't engage in intercourse unless they wanted to).
About a month after that, they asked me to be their girlfriend. The relationship was extremely healthy. We of course had our issues, some major and some minor, but we always managed to work things out. We loved one another deeply (which we admitted before we even started dating), and always tried our best for one another. We worked together as often as possible and texted and face-timed often. Both my friends and theirs agreed that we were good for one another. Even my therapist said we were healthy for one another and that we had a good future together. They've absolutely improved my quality of life. I was going to list ways they've made my life better, but once I got to number 17, I figured it was just going to make this unnecessarily longer.
Because I'm a bit older than Forrest, I always made sure to be very careful to not give in to the inherent power imbalance. They wore the pants in the relationship. If I ever asked them if they wanted to do something and they said "no" or even hesitated, I would immediately drop it and move on to something else. If they would reluctantly agree, I'd say, "No, you don't want to, so we're not doing it." I made sure they knew that they owed me nothing.
Initially, their family was suspicious of me. Their best friend got into contact with me to keep a close eye on me, but soon realized I had absolutely no bad intentions with Forrest. I met their sister, and her opinion of me changed from "She's trying to gr**m you," to "Is she autistic?" (Not what I was expecting, but definitely preferable.) I was under the impression that their mom liked me, and when I asked Forrest to tell her about the relationship, they said they couldn't because she was suspicious of me, so I dropped it (I also later learned that their sister was still suspicious of me. Just less?).
Eventually, they were put into a tight position, and told their family that I had a boyfriend. I wasn't a fan of lying about that - which they were aware of - but they thought it was best (although, I did come up with the lie a few months prior, in case they felt like they needed to use it. We were just really hoping they wouldn't). A few weeks ago, we were messaging, and I guess their mom was looking at their phone and saw that I had called them a pet name. She went through our messages (which had been nothing but wholesome for at least a week, so she had to have been searching for incriminating evidence) and discovered that we had fornication. Although we were 17 and 19 at the time we were dating, their mom thought the age gap was too big and that I had gr**med Forrest.
Their mom messaged me asking me to refrain from contacting Forrest again or else she would talk to our boss (who doesn't know we dated, but knows I care about Forrest and their safety) and call the police (again, the relationship was legal. She was just trying to use a scare tactic). I was blocked from that Instagram account. A few minutes later, I got a message from Forrest's best friend telling me she was "so sorry" and couldn't talk to me anymore for Forrest's safety. Followed by, "Thank you for everything, Intercosmic_Dragons." I then received a text message from Forrest saying, "We're breaking up. Thank you for everything. I love you."
Needless to say, I was devastated. I went and told my best friends, and they told me I should try and see if I could fix things. I told Forrest I'd wait for them to turn 18 (as was the original plan anyway. We just got a bit impatient), and we could try again. They messaged me from their 2nd account saying they couldn't come back because it devastated their mother that they had lied. They told me not to wait for them, as they wouldn't be coming back. Their mother thought I gr**med them. I asked if they felt like I gr**med them to which they responded, "No. I haven't felt pressure or the need to give myself to you ever. I initiated everything. You've been nothing but good to me. I would do this running the risk to being caught 10x over." I asked if their mom was making them quit their job and they told me she wasn't and that they hoped to see me at work. They sent another "I love you" message and then blocked me from that account as well.
I at least didn't want to be labeled as a gr**mer, so I went through our messages and found a lot of evidence that I never tried to hold any power over them. I'd even go as far as to say that many of my messages were anti-gr**ming, rather than just an absence of gr**ming. I texted their number and told them I had evidence that I never gr**med them. They asked what evidence, and I sent them a plethora of screenshots. To my dismay, they had already been showing their mom those screenshots for days to try and clear my name, but she wasn't listening. Their mother's response was essentially, "I don't care that it was legal or that you felt safe with her. You're a child." Forrest told me that unless it was about work, I was not to contact them anymore because "the consequences are still at large."
I thought they were upset with me and held some sort of grudge against me for reaching out, but it seems like they were more worried about their mom's reaction. A few days after we broke up, I had to go away for about a week for undisclosed reasons. They noticed I wasn't answering messages in the work group chat and asked our mutual friend to check on me. The next time we worked together, they were very chatty and playful with me. At one point, I asked if they were okay and they said yes. I could tell they were lying, so I asked them if I could hug them. They held me for a long while, and didn't want to let go. It seemed like they almost started crying. I asked, "You know it's not your fault, right?" to which they replied, "I'm just really sorry about everything." Any time I asked them questions about the situation (I was broken up with very abruptly, so I didn't have much information about what happened), they'd get really sad. If I called them a platonic nickname instead of a pet name, I'd watch their heart break. I've asked if we could be friends in the future, to which they replied, "My mom wouldn't like that..."
They've contacted me (we're supposed to be nc unless it's work related) to wish me a happy birthday, reply to my story on Instagram (my 2nd account and their 2nd account still follow one another), and send me a random funny picture. We broke up about 3 weeks ago, and they've also said a few things recently which make it very apparent that they're still extremely hurt about the fact that we broke up.
Hopefully, this gives you guys enough insight on why I'm at a crossroads here. All of my friends (including our mutual friend) still tell me that they'll come back when they're the age of majority. Not a single one of them has told me, "Move on. You'll find someone better in the future." Every single one of them has told me they'll come back. Forrest's best friend thinks I was good for them and didn't want us to break up (and I'm sure we all know that your best friend will usually be the first to tell you if they think someone isn't good for you). If I say something like "It sucks that I have to move on," my best friend just replies with, "No, you don't have to." A couple of my friends have been in similar situations when they were younger, and told me they're just making this rash decision to never come back because they're still under their parents' roof and in an emotionally heightened state. But Forrest tells me that they won't come back because they could never let me and their mother meet again. It's very evident that they miss me a lot, but I know that they can be extremely stubborn, especially when it comes to pleasing their loved ones.
Every person I've talked to about it says they'll come back. But the one person who doesn't believe that is the one person who gets to make that decision. I was hoping for some outside advice. Should I listen to my friends and hold out hope for them (while working on myself and focusing on my own life, of course) or should I listen to Forrest and start moving on?
TL;DR: My ex's mom made us split up. My ex says to move on, but it's clear they're not moving on. My friends all tell me not to move on, but I know my ex can be stubborn. Who should I listen to?
Edit: Tried to clarify confusing language
2023.06.05 00:22 DirectedbyOwls Ghosted first and blocked later - A play in two acts
Hi everyone.
I’ve been lurking in this subreddit for a few weeks now, reading your stories and trying to find a sense to what happened to me. I have to say, I had little to no idea that ghosting was so widespread, and that in general it’s not viewed as a big deal (well, mostly by the ghosters); whereas in reality it messes with your mind and it leaves you in a such a deep state of hurt. Some of the stories here a such a rollercoaster of trauma, and I am truly sorry that you had/have to endure that. The only thing I can do is to wish you all the best.
So, I think I’m ready to share my experience. It’s not much of a vent, rather a question of “can someone please explain to me what the hell happened?” The TL;DR version of the story is as follows: “A guy I liked ghosted me, and months later he blocked me after I sent him a message wishing him happy birthday." Ghosting 101, I’d say; sharp, pointy and painful.
Anyway if you have ten minutes to kill, here is the long version of the story. It’s a gay story, but I guess that sexual orientation plays just a marginal role in this tale.
I used to have this friend, with whom I was very close. We, both in our thirties, had the same hobbies and interests, and we would meet regularly to have some nice quality time (as friends. Let me just stress this for the sake of clarity: we’ve never been physical). We trusted each other, and I was feeling blessed for this friendship: you know, it’s so damn hard to find people that you can rely on when you’re an adult.
Back in January 2022, however, I realise that I am starting to have feelings for my friend. For a few weeks I try to shoo the thought away, telling myself that it’s just a crush and that it will naturally wane in due time, probably even sooner than expected. Weeks pass, though, and the feelings grow deeper: this is not a crush, I truly like my friend. I realise that I cannot keep my feelings hidden any longer, and I take the decision to tell him; I know that he’s not into me, or I would have picked up some hints every now and then in all these years that we’ve known each other; but I know that telling him about my feelings anyway is the best and most honest thing to do. Otherwise I can already picture the scenario of him starting to date someone, completely oblivious of my feelings for him, and me pretending that everything’s fine and that I’m happy, while in the meantime I am being taken over by this jealousy demon, chewing me from the inside piece by piece.
So, we meet for lunch together on a Saturday in March 2022, and I tell him. His reaction is… good, I’d say. He doesn’t look angry, or disgusted. He is surprised at the news for sure, as he tells me that he was not expecting this. Unfortunately he cannot return the feelings: he only sees me as a friend, and that’s it. Alright, I take the hit. It hurts, but at least I came clean. And my friend seems to appreciate the honesty. Before we leave, my friend asks me if we can remain in good terms: he tells me he’s afraid I may start to hold a grudge against him because I was rejected. I assure him that this won’t be the case, and that I will always treat him like the good friend he’s been to me. He then gets close to me, hugs me tight, tells me “Goodbye, love”, and leaves. I remain standing there speechless for a few minutes; like, what makes you think it’s a good idea to hug the guy who has feelings for you? You just rejected me, don’t give me false hopes! After a while I tell myself that maybe he didn’t know how to say goodbye, and that was his clumsy way to tell me that he’s fine with the whole situation. So I start walking home, ready to begin my mourning period. It will hurt, but I will get over him.
As I said, we were close friends. That means, we would text each other regularly, whether to share funny memes, or to discuss the last episode of a tv show we were both invested in. In the following days after my confession, I try to keep the same routine: if I see a funny meme or some breathtaking pictures of Scottish landscapes (he loves the Highlands), I send them to him. He seldom replies, though, and when he does, it’s always a curt and distant reply. I ask him if everything’s ok. He tells me that actually he’s not comfortable with the whole situation of me having feelings for him. This hurts, again. But I understand. Maybe we should take some time apart. So I tell him not to worry, to take all the time he needs and that I won’t be bothering him until he feels comfortable enough to talk to me again.
I stop texting him, and he also goes silent.
On an evening in May 2022, after two months since we last texted each other, he sends me a message out of the blue, telling me that he just saw a person who looks like me at the airport in Madrid. I stare at this message, and I am quite puzzled to be honest. There is no “how’s it going?”, no “long time no see!”, just a random “I saw somebody who looked like you”. I decide to reply by throwing a stupid joke in the vein of “Oh damn! That means that my clones have escaped the lab!”. He laughs at the joke, and he starts chatting with me like old times. We go on for about half an hour, until it’s time for him to embark on the plane. I like this chat that we’re having, I have even forgotten that he hasn’t even said “hi”. Besides, he sounds extremely cheerful, like he’s happy to be talking to me; the complete opposite of the way he was a few months prior. Before he turns off the phone once he’s inside the plane he texts me “Sleep well! And let’s catch up for a coffee in town soon”.
That last text warms my heart like nothing else could. Does it mean that he’s now comfortable again with the whole situation? Or maybe, does it mean that… he has also realised that he has feelings for me? I can’t wait to know. I reply to him that I’d be glad to have coffee together, and that we can meet on a Saturday when he’s available. By the time I hit “send” his phone is already turned off, but yeah, it doesn’t bother me: he’ll read it when he lands. That night I go to sleep with a smile on my face.
Days pass, weeks pass, one month passes and I don’t hear anything from him. I don’t like this feeling of being stuck in such an ambiguous situation, so I decide to ask him. Are we still up for that coffee? He replies, confirming that we can meet the following weekend. However, I realise right away that he is using an extremely formal and distant tone, a tone that he has never used with me in all the years we’ve been friends. He’s bluffing, he doesn’t want to meet. I call his bluff, in an indirect way: I text him “Wow, you’re so formal!”, and with that message I actually mean “We’ve been friends for years, don’t you think I know you? It’s obvious you don’t want to meet. Come on, don’t play with me, be honest!” However, he replies that he’s always been like that, and that he’ll let me know for the coffee.
And that was basically the last time I heard from him. He never texted me back, and we never had that coffee together.
What I don’t understand, even now after more than one year has passed, is the following. After I was rejected, I never expected anything from him. I was sad, for sure, but this wasn’t my first heartbreak: I knew that I had to mourn for a while, until I was ready to pick myself up again. I didn’t need any pity from him, and for sure I never asked him to feed me false hopes. So why did he reach out, took the initiative all by himself without any input from me, and ask me to meet for coffee? Especially because he knows me: he knows that I expect people to keep their word.
And then he disappeared. For good. This has left me devastated. Tens of times more than the rejection. Because I do understand that there’s nothing you can do if you don’t like someone back. It sucks, but you have to accept it. But inviting someone, of your own free will, and then disappearing like that, I don’t get it. Honestly, I don’t understand what would make you act like that. I truly wish somebody would give me a rational explanation for this behaviour. At least it would give me some sort of closure and I could finally put this chapter of my life behind me.
The epilogue of this story reaches levels of absurdity that you can only find in some trashy gay fan-fiction, I guess. It’s November 2022, and it’s my friend’s birthday. He hasn’t texted me one single time since June, when he said we would let me know when to meet for coffee. Anyway, I’ve always celebrated his birthday, and even though I’m doubting whether sending him a text is a good idea, considering that he hasn’t contacted me for mine the month prior, in the end I tell myself that a message would make him happy. After all, it’s a way of saying “Hey, today is your birthday and I wanna let you know that I thought about you.”
So I send him a quick Happy Birthday text. He replies hours later, thanking me, but with that same formal and distant tone he had in June. I realise that he did not appreciate my birthday wishes at all. Oh well, no good deed goes unpunished, I tell myself. Anyway, it’s late, so I turn my phone off and I go to sleep. The next morning I realise that my friend has blocked me on Whatsapp. And on Instagram. Even on LinkedIn. He has erased me completely from his life. To be completely honest, this hurt less than the ghosting. It sucked, a lot, but at least it made me realise that the guy I was having feelings for is still emotionally immature, despite his age. Since November I haven’t tried to contact him (well, why would I at this point?) and I have no idea of what and how he is doing.
But still, that ghosting hurt, and it still does. Does any of you have a rational explanation for it? I’d truly appreciate your feedback. And thank you so much for having read this massive wall of text until the end.
submitted by DirectedbyOwls to ghosting [link] [comments]
I’ve been lurking in this subreddit for a few weeks now, reading your stories and trying to find a sense to what happened to me. I have to say, I had little to no idea that ghosting was so widespread, and that in general it’s not viewed as a big deal (well, mostly by the ghosters); whereas in reality it messes with your mind and it leaves you in a such a deep state of hurt. Some of the stories here a such a rollercoaster of trauma, and I am truly sorry that you had/have to endure that. The only thing I can do is to wish you all the best.
So, I think I’m ready to share my experience. It’s not much of a vent, rather a question of “can someone please explain to me what the hell happened?” The TL;DR version of the story is as follows: “A guy I liked ghosted me, and months later he blocked me after I sent him a message wishing him happy birthday." Ghosting 101, I’d say; sharp, pointy and painful.
Anyway if you have ten minutes to kill, here is the long version of the story. It’s a gay story, but I guess that sexual orientation plays just a marginal role in this tale.
I used to have this friend, with whom I was very close. We, both in our thirties, had the same hobbies and interests, and we would meet regularly to have some nice quality time (as friends. Let me just stress this for the sake of clarity: we’ve never been physical). We trusted each other, and I was feeling blessed for this friendship: you know, it’s so damn hard to find people that you can rely on when you’re an adult.
Back in January 2022, however, I realise that I am starting to have feelings for my friend. For a few weeks I try to shoo the thought away, telling myself that it’s just a crush and that it will naturally wane in due time, probably even sooner than expected. Weeks pass, though, and the feelings grow deeper: this is not a crush, I truly like my friend. I realise that I cannot keep my feelings hidden any longer, and I take the decision to tell him; I know that he’s not into me, or I would have picked up some hints every now and then in all these years that we’ve known each other; but I know that telling him about my feelings anyway is the best and most honest thing to do. Otherwise I can already picture the scenario of him starting to date someone, completely oblivious of my feelings for him, and me pretending that everything’s fine and that I’m happy, while in the meantime I am being taken over by this jealousy demon, chewing me from the inside piece by piece.
So, we meet for lunch together on a Saturday in March 2022, and I tell him. His reaction is… good, I’d say. He doesn’t look angry, or disgusted. He is surprised at the news for sure, as he tells me that he was not expecting this. Unfortunately he cannot return the feelings: he only sees me as a friend, and that’s it. Alright, I take the hit. It hurts, but at least I came clean. And my friend seems to appreciate the honesty. Before we leave, my friend asks me if we can remain in good terms: he tells me he’s afraid I may start to hold a grudge against him because I was rejected. I assure him that this won’t be the case, and that I will always treat him like the good friend he’s been to me. He then gets close to me, hugs me tight, tells me “Goodbye, love”, and leaves. I remain standing there speechless for a few minutes; like, what makes you think it’s a good idea to hug the guy who has feelings for you? You just rejected me, don’t give me false hopes! After a while I tell myself that maybe he didn’t know how to say goodbye, and that was his clumsy way to tell me that he’s fine with the whole situation. So I start walking home, ready to begin my mourning period. It will hurt, but I will get over him.
As I said, we were close friends. That means, we would text each other regularly, whether to share funny memes, or to discuss the last episode of a tv show we were both invested in. In the following days after my confession, I try to keep the same routine: if I see a funny meme or some breathtaking pictures of Scottish landscapes (he loves the Highlands), I send them to him. He seldom replies, though, and when he does, it’s always a curt and distant reply. I ask him if everything’s ok. He tells me that actually he’s not comfortable with the whole situation of me having feelings for him. This hurts, again. But I understand. Maybe we should take some time apart. So I tell him not to worry, to take all the time he needs and that I won’t be bothering him until he feels comfortable enough to talk to me again.
I stop texting him, and he also goes silent.
On an evening in May 2022, after two months since we last texted each other, he sends me a message out of the blue, telling me that he just saw a person who looks like me at the airport in Madrid. I stare at this message, and I am quite puzzled to be honest. There is no “how’s it going?”, no “long time no see!”, just a random “I saw somebody who looked like you”. I decide to reply by throwing a stupid joke in the vein of “Oh damn! That means that my clones have escaped the lab!”. He laughs at the joke, and he starts chatting with me like old times. We go on for about half an hour, until it’s time for him to embark on the plane. I like this chat that we’re having, I have even forgotten that he hasn’t even said “hi”. Besides, he sounds extremely cheerful, like he’s happy to be talking to me; the complete opposite of the way he was a few months prior. Before he turns off the phone once he’s inside the plane he texts me “Sleep well! And let’s catch up for a coffee in town soon”.
That last text warms my heart like nothing else could. Does it mean that he’s now comfortable again with the whole situation? Or maybe, does it mean that… he has also realised that he has feelings for me? I can’t wait to know. I reply to him that I’d be glad to have coffee together, and that we can meet on a Saturday when he’s available. By the time I hit “send” his phone is already turned off, but yeah, it doesn’t bother me: he’ll read it when he lands. That night I go to sleep with a smile on my face.
Days pass, weeks pass, one month passes and I don’t hear anything from him. I don’t like this feeling of being stuck in such an ambiguous situation, so I decide to ask him. Are we still up for that coffee? He replies, confirming that we can meet the following weekend. However, I realise right away that he is using an extremely formal and distant tone, a tone that he has never used with me in all the years we’ve been friends. He’s bluffing, he doesn’t want to meet. I call his bluff, in an indirect way: I text him “Wow, you’re so formal!”, and with that message I actually mean “We’ve been friends for years, don’t you think I know you? It’s obvious you don’t want to meet. Come on, don’t play with me, be honest!” However, he replies that he’s always been like that, and that he’ll let me know for the coffee.
And that was basically the last time I heard from him. He never texted me back, and we never had that coffee together.
What I don’t understand, even now after more than one year has passed, is the following. After I was rejected, I never expected anything from him. I was sad, for sure, but this wasn’t my first heartbreak: I knew that I had to mourn for a while, until I was ready to pick myself up again. I didn’t need any pity from him, and for sure I never asked him to feed me false hopes. So why did he reach out, took the initiative all by himself without any input from me, and ask me to meet for coffee? Especially because he knows me: he knows that I expect people to keep their word.
And then he disappeared. For good. This has left me devastated. Tens of times more than the rejection. Because I do understand that there’s nothing you can do if you don’t like someone back. It sucks, but you have to accept it. But inviting someone, of your own free will, and then disappearing like that, I don’t get it. Honestly, I don’t understand what would make you act like that. I truly wish somebody would give me a rational explanation for this behaviour. At least it would give me some sort of closure and I could finally put this chapter of my life behind me.
The epilogue of this story reaches levels of absurdity that you can only find in some trashy gay fan-fiction, I guess. It’s November 2022, and it’s my friend’s birthday. He hasn’t texted me one single time since June, when he said we would let me know when to meet for coffee. Anyway, I’ve always celebrated his birthday, and even though I’m doubting whether sending him a text is a good idea, considering that he hasn’t contacted me for mine the month prior, in the end I tell myself that a message would make him happy. After all, it’s a way of saying “Hey, today is your birthday and I wanna let you know that I thought about you.”
So I send him a quick Happy Birthday text. He replies hours later, thanking me, but with that same formal and distant tone he had in June. I realise that he did not appreciate my birthday wishes at all. Oh well, no good deed goes unpunished, I tell myself. Anyway, it’s late, so I turn my phone off and I go to sleep. The next morning I realise that my friend has blocked me on Whatsapp. And on Instagram. Even on LinkedIn. He has erased me completely from his life. To be completely honest, this hurt less than the ghosting. It sucked, a lot, but at least it made me realise that the guy I was having feelings for is still emotionally immature, despite his age. Since November I haven’t tried to contact him (well, why would I at this point?) and I have no idea of what and how he is doing.
But still, that ghosting hurt, and it still does. Does any of you have a rational explanation for it? I’d truly appreciate your feedback. And thank you so much for having read this massive wall of text until the end.
2023.06.05 00:17 JomarOliveras1414 the titles and channel names looks like this now... Or is it just me?
 | submitted by JomarOliveras1414 to youtube [link] [comments] |
2023.06.04 23:48 Quaffiget Dead Space 2 Weapons Tier List
What's this, a weapon tier-list more than a decade after the game is published?
Yes.
I have Dead Space on the brain and I misspent many hours of my young adulthood on this game, so please suffer through my autism rant. My truth yearns to be told. I've stress-tested solo runs of every weapon back in the day and ran them through the Transit Hub fight as a testing ground to learn all the mechanics. And it needs escape after being penned-up for a decade. I love this franchise.
What's surprising about Dead Space 2 is that most of the guns are actually viable and fun. So even guns lower down on the list can comfortably beat the game if you know what you're doing. And there are very few actual truly bad weapons.
That said, here we go:
#1 Pulse Rifle (S-tier)
Best gun in Dead Space 2. Blasphemy. I know, I know, I love Plasma Cutter as much as the next guy, but after many many many playthroughs in Hardcore and Zealot, I have to narrowly award this the best gun.
Plasma Cutter is almost as good as the Pulse Rifle, but Pulse Rifle has a grenade launcher. So it has a built-in panic button that can just delete Necromorphs in a hurry. And like the cutter, has infinite range, fast reload, good damage and ammo capacity.
With the Cutter, I just leave it on horizontal cutting 100% of the time and never interact with the alternate fire mode. So the simple fact that there is a nuclear option on the Rifle puts it over.
You can animation cancel the Pulse Rifle to interrupt the burst to only fire one bullet. You do this by starting the firing animation then dropping the ADS midway. So you can always get pinpoint precise one-bullet shots doing this.
It's a bit hard to pull off under stress, but it's a great way of saving ammo if you have time to pick shots or just don't want to waste ammo on smaller and weaker targets. (The children Necros, for example.)
#2 Plasma Cutter (S-tier)
This needs no explanation. Plasma Cutter is the gold standard by which the other guns in this game are measured by. You can solo the entire game with this weapon and it's entirely self-sufficient and versatile in every situation.
While Plasma Cutter doesn't have a real "alt fire" mode, Stasis more than makes up for it. So that's not a real problem. And even so, it's an excellent gun if you position correctly. You don't really need "shotgun" support because the Cutter really is just that strong on its own.
#2 Javelin Gun (S-Tier)
The Javelin is just straight-up the superior version of the Seeker Rifle in every way. There's no tunnel-vision from scoping. It has pinpoint accuracy, high damage and high rate of fire. You can just kill Necromorphs by double-tapping Necromorphs in the chest. Weaker types just die in one-hit when fully upgraded. Also, it's ammo is stupidly cheap.
On top of that, its alt-fire mode electrifies the last javelin you fired and then detonates it. So it's also an AOE explosive. You can also animation-cancel javelins to get them to detonate prematurely by firing another spear off.
Basically: This gun is just about spamming death spears without caring about cutting off the limbs mechanic. If one spear doesn't kill it, then two or three will. Who cares? High ROF and cheap ammo. If you somehow have terrible aim, don't worry, just buy more.
The only reason it isn't higher on this list is because it has a low magazine capacity and its just a bit awkward to deal with swarm enemies. But it's still an S-tier gun. It's entirely self-sufficient and can deal with any situation in the game.
#3 Force Gun (A-Tier)
I'm dropping this gun down to A-Tier for a couple reasons.
First, it's not entirely self-sufficient. There are a few cutscene events where this gun will not do any damage. So you're forced to complement it with other weapons as companions to get through those parts.
Second, it has inferior range to every gun in S-tier. It's still very good range. It just isn't theoretically infinite.
But all that aside, it's a very comfy space shotgun. The primary fire zones enemies in your face and the secondary fire is a large blast that goes up to a good distance and does good amounts of damage. It's very forgiving and bypasses the need to aim at specific limbs. Counterintuitively, the primary fire is the utility while the secondary is the actual damage.
There is a bit of a charge delay to fire off the secondary, but I haven't found this to be a real drawback in actual stress-testing in gameplay. It's an easy weapon use to get excellent results.
#4 Flamethrower (A-Tier)
Yes. Flamethrower is a weapon players have been sleeping on. Yes it's better than everything lower on the list. Mald. Like the Force Gun, this weapon excels in medium to close ranges.
And by medium range, it's further than you think. The mistake most players (and myself) have made is that you underestimate its reach. It goes out a good distance so you need to fire a little early.
It like the Force Gun and Javelin gun doesn't care about aim. Just wash it over everything in reach and you will stunlock everything to death in a pretty short amount of time, even in Zealot. It's very good at zoning and controlling everything in reach. It has high capacity so you don't feel it's "wasted" on weaker enemies.
The alt-fire also throws a fire bomb canister as an AOE explosive. And it will pretty much one-shot most enemies. That said, it's strictly just a worse version of the the Pulse Rifle grenade because it doesn't detonate on impact, bounces for a bit and is a bit slow to fire and reload. Still, it's nice that you have the option.
Another downside is that it's not self-sufficient in all cut-scenes so you will have to companion it some of the time.
#5 Seeker Rifle (B-Tier)
This gun is extremely fun to use, but has a high skill ceiling to get the same results as better guns. You have to just completely change your playstyle altogether to solo-run the entire game with this.
It's good in all situations theoretically, but really really hard to master. It has a medium rate of fire, low magazine cap and high damage. You can just body shot enemies to death because it does so much damage. The ROF is just low enough that you really can't make too many mistakes.
I've figured my way around this by just keeping the Seeker Rfile on full-magnification. I only pull up ADS when I'm ready to acquire a target rather than tunnel-visioning at all times. It's definitely a weird mentality to approach the game, but it taught me to start doing that on other guns since it's easier to maintain peripheral vision if you're not hard-scoped all the time.
#6 Line Gun (B-Tier)
It's just a worse Plasma Cutter.
Sorry, I want to like it, but I don't. It's theoretically self-sufficient in all situations, but its rate-of-fire is painfully slow and its alternate timed explosive is extremely awkward and slow to place. On paper, it sounds like a great weapon, but the details of its implementation suck.
It has a higher skill ceiling for worse results than any other gun above this one. There are a lot of situations where Necromorphs slip in between the pacing of my shots. And that's no accident. Every gun above this one can basically just stagger stunlock enemies with a high rate-of-fire, then follow up the stuns with more precise killing shots at a low investment in time/cost.
You cannot miss with the Line Gun. You have to be perfect to never take damage. And its high damage and forgiving width doesn't justify how clunky it is overall. It's a good gun held back by a few major flaws.
Keep in mind, I just listed two guns that are pretty much AOE weapons and are braindead to the point of never needing to aim. And here? You have a slow gun you have to aim. And on top of all that, those other guns just have better alternate fire modes.
The more precise guns higher up on this list don't need to be precise all the time. You can just hammer the chest of a Necromorph to stunlock it then slowly creep your shots over to a killing shot. Just that barrage of shots will kill faster than you think.
#4 Ripper (C-Tier)
So take all the complaints I had so far and apply it to this gun.
The primary fire only zones a tiny space in front of you. The Flamethrower and Force Gun far outclass it here. It also has a very low damage over time effect and you can lose the sawblade if you're hit by an enemy.
So yeah, you lose your defensive zoning if you're hit. The number of times I've had an enemy just jump past my sawblade to hit me is too numerous to count. This is not an issue with the other short-range guns.
It's alt fire is theoretically mid-ranged projectile. Just inferior in every way to every other gun above this one. Line Gun sweeps a larger area without any projectile drop off. Javelin has high ROF, pinpoint accuracy and raw damage. Flamethrower just blankets a cone that you can sweep back and forth while stunlocking anything caught by it. Force Gun has better AOE hitscan coverage.
This gun is the most overrated gun in the Dead Space fandom. It's a fun gun but it's just a security blanket for bad players. A crutch. I almost want to put it lower on the list out of spite, but it's technically viable without wanting to pull out all your teeth.
Oh and it's not self-sufficient because it won't work in all cutscenes. Just to add insult to injury.
#5 Contact Beam (D-Tier)
It's just a worse version of the Seeker Rifle and Javelin.
Yes it one shots enemies. But has a longer charge time than the Force Gun, which does pretty close to the same damage in most situations. The difference is the Force Gun barely needs to be aimed.
Seeker Rifle can basically pop off two shots in the same time. Javelin could hurl out 2-3. The Pulse Rifle probably can just more cost-efficiently spam grenades at everything.
Its alternate fire is just garbage. Again it one-shots in an AOE, but who cares? It locks you into the animation to execute and you will and can take damage during it. Stasis is just better in most situations.
Oh and all the ammo is expensive. There's just no point to this gun. Spamming Javelins is way cheaper and does more damage.
Yes, I know I angered the Contact Beam fanboys. I don't care. Your gun is slow and tacky and you're bad at the game. The Seeker Rifle has its faults, but it forces me to play the game like a Zen archer. The same can't be said about the Contact Beam.
#6 Rivet Gun (F-Tier)
This is the DLC weapon. Again, fun for meme runs, but it's just a bad gun. It has a high rate-of-fire and high capacity but somehow does less damage and is less forgiving than the Ripper or Plasma Cutter. It's like the worst combination of every weapon.
The alternate-fire mode is wonky and inconsistent with its physics. Basically it explodes all the nails you've already shot into an enemy, but even this doesn't guarantee a kill. While other alternate fire modes just don't need all this set-up to instantly delete enemies.
#7 Detonator (Worst Gun)
Okay, in fairness this gun isn't supposed to be a primary weapon. I think its intent is to be this minelayer gun that you can use to prep the battlefield.
It's just bad at that too.
The Detonator basically sets lasers in a line. It fires projectiles if anything trips those lasers. Also I think it explodes? It's been awhile since I played the game, much less used this weapon. I just remember hating it.
It will explode if you manage to hit it perfectly on an enemy. But if you miss it'll just latch onto wherever it lands.
So you can't theoretically use it as a direct fire weapon. But it's hitbox is small and you'll miss a lot. And it won't guarantee a kill even if you do land the shot.
As a trap, it just isn't practical. You could spend the entire game mining every vent. But this is boring and unfun. Not every vent will spawn an enemy. And even if it does, the lasers are so precise and finicky that you can't guarantee that an enemy will trip it, let alone die instantly from tripping one.
You'll have to metagame to even use the weapon properly and it'll still suck.
submitted by Quaffiget to DeadSpace [link] [comments]
Yes.
I have Dead Space on the brain and I misspent many hours of my young adulthood on this game, so please suffer through my autism rant. My truth yearns to be told. I've stress-tested solo runs of every weapon back in the day and ran them through the Transit Hub fight as a testing ground to learn all the mechanics. And it needs escape after being penned-up for a decade. I love this franchise.
What's surprising about Dead Space 2 is that most of the guns are actually viable and fun. So even guns lower down on the list can comfortably beat the game if you know what you're doing. And there are very few actual truly bad weapons.
That said, here we go:
#1 Pulse Rifle (S-tier)
Best gun in Dead Space 2. Blasphemy. I know, I know, I love Plasma Cutter as much as the next guy, but after many many many playthroughs in Hardcore and Zealot, I have to narrowly award this the best gun.
Plasma Cutter is almost as good as the Pulse Rifle, but Pulse Rifle has a grenade launcher. So it has a built-in panic button that can just delete Necromorphs in a hurry. And like the cutter, has infinite range, fast reload, good damage and ammo capacity.
With the Cutter, I just leave it on horizontal cutting 100% of the time and never interact with the alternate fire mode. So the simple fact that there is a nuclear option on the Rifle puts it over.
You can animation cancel the Pulse Rifle to interrupt the burst to only fire one bullet. You do this by starting the firing animation then dropping the ADS midway. So you can always get pinpoint precise one-bullet shots doing this.
It's a bit hard to pull off under stress, but it's a great way of saving ammo if you have time to pick shots or just don't want to waste ammo on smaller and weaker targets. (The children Necros, for example.)
#2 Plasma Cutter (S-tier)
This needs no explanation. Plasma Cutter is the gold standard by which the other guns in this game are measured by. You can solo the entire game with this weapon and it's entirely self-sufficient and versatile in every situation.
While Plasma Cutter doesn't have a real "alt fire" mode, Stasis more than makes up for it. So that's not a real problem. And even so, it's an excellent gun if you position correctly. You don't really need "shotgun" support because the Cutter really is just that strong on its own.
#2 Javelin Gun (S-Tier)
The Javelin is just straight-up the superior version of the Seeker Rifle in every way. There's no tunnel-vision from scoping. It has pinpoint accuracy, high damage and high rate of fire. You can just kill Necromorphs by double-tapping Necromorphs in the chest. Weaker types just die in one-hit when fully upgraded. Also, it's ammo is stupidly cheap.
On top of that, its alt-fire mode electrifies the last javelin you fired and then detonates it. So it's also an AOE explosive. You can also animation-cancel javelins to get them to detonate prematurely by firing another spear off.
Basically: This gun is just about spamming death spears without caring about cutting off the limbs mechanic. If one spear doesn't kill it, then two or three will. Who cares? High ROF and cheap ammo. If you somehow have terrible aim, don't worry, just buy more.
The only reason it isn't higher on this list is because it has a low magazine capacity and its just a bit awkward to deal with swarm enemies. But it's still an S-tier gun. It's entirely self-sufficient and can deal with any situation in the game.
#3 Force Gun (A-Tier)
I'm dropping this gun down to A-Tier for a couple reasons.
First, it's not entirely self-sufficient. There are a few cutscene events where this gun will not do any damage. So you're forced to complement it with other weapons as companions to get through those parts.
Second, it has inferior range to every gun in S-tier. It's still very good range. It just isn't theoretically infinite.
But all that aside, it's a very comfy space shotgun. The primary fire zones enemies in your face and the secondary fire is a large blast that goes up to a good distance and does good amounts of damage. It's very forgiving and bypasses the need to aim at specific limbs. Counterintuitively, the primary fire is the utility while the secondary is the actual damage.
There is a bit of a charge delay to fire off the secondary, but I haven't found this to be a real drawback in actual stress-testing in gameplay. It's an easy weapon use to get excellent results.
#4 Flamethrower (A-Tier)
Yes. Flamethrower is a weapon players have been sleeping on. Yes it's better than everything lower on the list. Mald. Like the Force Gun, this weapon excels in medium to close ranges.
And by medium range, it's further than you think. The mistake most players (and myself) have made is that you underestimate its reach. It goes out a good distance so you need to fire a little early.
It like the Force Gun and Javelin gun doesn't care about aim. Just wash it over everything in reach and you will stunlock everything to death in a pretty short amount of time, even in Zealot. It's very good at zoning and controlling everything in reach. It has high capacity so you don't feel it's "wasted" on weaker enemies.
The alt-fire also throws a fire bomb canister as an AOE explosive. And it will pretty much one-shot most enemies. That said, it's strictly just a worse version of the the Pulse Rifle grenade because it doesn't detonate on impact, bounces for a bit and is a bit slow to fire and reload. Still, it's nice that you have the option.
Another downside is that it's not self-sufficient in all cut-scenes so you will have to companion it some of the time.
#5 Seeker Rifle (B-Tier)
This gun is extremely fun to use, but has a high skill ceiling to get the same results as better guns. You have to just completely change your playstyle altogether to solo-run the entire game with this.
It's good in all situations theoretically, but really really hard to master. It has a medium rate of fire, low magazine cap and high damage. You can just body shot enemies to death because it does so much damage. The ROF is just low enough that you really can't make too many mistakes.
I've figured my way around this by just keeping the Seeker Rfile on full-magnification. I only pull up ADS when I'm ready to acquire a target rather than tunnel-visioning at all times. It's definitely a weird mentality to approach the game, but it taught me to start doing that on other guns since it's easier to maintain peripheral vision if you're not hard-scoped all the time.
#6 Line Gun (B-Tier)
It's just a worse Plasma Cutter.
Sorry, I want to like it, but I don't. It's theoretically self-sufficient in all situations, but its rate-of-fire is painfully slow and its alternate timed explosive is extremely awkward and slow to place. On paper, it sounds like a great weapon, but the details of its implementation suck.
It has a higher skill ceiling for worse results than any other gun above this one. There are a lot of situations where Necromorphs slip in between the pacing of my shots. And that's no accident. Every gun above this one can basically just stagger stunlock enemies with a high rate-of-fire, then follow up the stuns with more precise killing shots at a low investment in time/cost.
You cannot miss with the Line Gun. You have to be perfect to never take damage. And its high damage and forgiving width doesn't justify how clunky it is overall. It's a good gun held back by a few major flaws.
Keep in mind, I just listed two guns that are pretty much AOE weapons and are braindead to the point of never needing to aim. And here? You have a slow gun you have to aim. And on top of all that, those other guns just have better alternate fire modes.
The more precise guns higher up on this list don't need to be precise all the time. You can just hammer the chest of a Necromorph to stunlock it then slowly creep your shots over to a killing shot. Just that barrage of shots will kill faster than you think.
#4 Ripper (C-Tier)
So take all the complaints I had so far and apply it to this gun.
The primary fire only zones a tiny space in front of you. The Flamethrower and Force Gun far outclass it here. It also has a very low damage over time effect and you can lose the sawblade if you're hit by an enemy.
So yeah, you lose your defensive zoning if you're hit. The number of times I've had an enemy just jump past my sawblade to hit me is too numerous to count. This is not an issue with the other short-range guns.
It's alt fire is theoretically mid-ranged projectile. Just inferior in every way to every other gun above this one. Line Gun sweeps a larger area without any projectile drop off. Javelin has high ROF, pinpoint accuracy and raw damage. Flamethrower just blankets a cone that you can sweep back and forth while stunlocking anything caught by it. Force Gun has better AOE hitscan coverage.
This gun is the most overrated gun in the Dead Space fandom. It's a fun gun but it's just a security blanket for bad players. A crutch. I almost want to put it lower on the list out of spite, but it's technically viable without wanting to pull out all your teeth.
Oh and it's not self-sufficient because it won't work in all cutscenes. Just to add insult to injury.
#5 Contact Beam (D-Tier)
It's just a worse version of the Seeker Rifle and Javelin.
Yes it one shots enemies. But has a longer charge time than the Force Gun, which does pretty close to the same damage in most situations. The difference is the Force Gun barely needs to be aimed.
Seeker Rifle can basically pop off two shots in the same time. Javelin could hurl out 2-3. The Pulse Rifle probably can just more cost-efficiently spam grenades at everything.
Its alternate fire is just garbage. Again it one-shots in an AOE, but who cares? It locks you into the animation to execute and you will and can take damage during it. Stasis is just better in most situations.
Oh and all the ammo is expensive. There's just no point to this gun. Spamming Javelins is way cheaper and does more damage.
Yes, I know I angered the Contact Beam fanboys. I don't care. Your gun is slow and tacky and you're bad at the game. The Seeker Rifle has its faults, but it forces me to play the game like a Zen archer. The same can't be said about the Contact Beam.
#6 Rivet Gun (F-Tier)
This is the DLC weapon. Again, fun for meme runs, but it's just a bad gun. It has a high rate-of-fire and high capacity but somehow does less damage and is less forgiving than the Ripper or Plasma Cutter. It's like the worst combination of every weapon.
The alternate-fire mode is wonky and inconsistent with its physics. Basically it explodes all the nails you've already shot into an enemy, but even this doesn't guarantee a kill. While other alternate fire modes just don't need all this set-up to instantly delete enemies.
#7 Detonator (Worst Gun)
Okay, in fairness this gun isn't supposed to be a primary weapon. I think its intent is to be this minelayer gun that you can use to prep the battlefield.
It's just bad at that too.
The Detonator basically sets lasers in a line. It fires projectiles if anything trips those lasers. Also I think it explodes? It's been awhile since I played the game, much less used this weapon. I just remember hating it.
It will explode if you manage to hit it perfectly on an enemy. But if you miss it'll just latch onto wherever it lands.
So you can't theoretically use it as a direct fire weapon. But it's hitbox is small and you'll miss a lot. And it won't guarantee a kill even if you do land the shot.
As a trap, it just isn't practical. You could spend the entire game mining every vent. But this is boring and unfun. Not every vent will spawn an enemy. And even if it does, the lasers are so precise and finicky that you can't guarantee that an enemy will trip it, let alone die instantly from tripping one.
You'll have to metagame to even use the weapon properly and it'll still suck.
2023.06.04 23:33 Just4TheSpamAndEggs No idea how to feel better
I am constantly miserable. I'm just functioning. But, I have no one, which is making this all worse. I really, badly, just need a chance to vent and get it all out. Please don't comment if you are just going to make me feel worse. No comments at all are fine. I just need to get it out.
My life has been unfortunate. It could have been worse. It could have been better. But for many many years now it has just been nothing but stress, disappointment, and frustration. I have reached a point where I no longer have anything to get me excited for the future, nothing to look forward to, this is just my life now and I'm trying to figure out how to be okay with that.
Years ago my children were still young and sweet. They loved me. Every time they saw me they were happy and I was a good and active mom. I went back to school. I did well in school. I started working outside the home again. I wasn't in phenomenal shape but I was at least average and could do this like take my kids to the pool. I had such high goals and dreams for myself. I knew I just had to work hard and I was ready! I have always had strong work ethic.
But, everything has been an unfortunate series of events ever since with very little happiness in between. My career and school goals were totally derailed. Originally my husband was studying for an additional certification that would have made major changes for us. But, he decided to "let me" have my time in school instead. He ended up having a bad accident and was bedbound or close to it for many years afterward. It became impossible for me to finish my original career path and school AND work AND keep up with the kids, house, pets, yard, etc. So, I settled for a lesser certification and not an additional degree so I could focus on family.
I found a job that I was in love with. They made me think I was going to go so far. Constantly told me I was their "star employee". I loved my position. But, I quickly started to see the overturn rate, that management gossiping a lot, and that it was a toxic environment to work in. I still tried. I tried SO hard. I was a great employee. I really wanted to prove that I could be the employee tough enough to take it and still shine. But when someone else at work grabbed me "as a joke" and then I was belittled for going to management about it and told I encouraged it? It was time to quit. Really, I don't think my mental health has ever recovered from my time there.
I quit my job. I went to work in a different type of environment hoping it would give me a positive change. I hated it. LOATHED it. I was good at it but I hated every moment of it. After my husband was walking again and able to help with the kids I brought up going back to school. I shifted my focus since my health won't let me work the way I used to. I worked really hard... only to find that my chosen degree won't get me anywhere in my state. Due to all my state guidelines I basically do not have a degree that relates that anything I would be happy doing.
Currently, I went back to work at the place I was last content. I can't stretch as far as saying, "happy". Those days still had struggles. It isn't the same. I know I eventually need to find another job but I have no idea where to look or what to do. I feel like I can't find anything and whatever recruiters are contacting me for pays terrible and I know I would be so unhappy doing. I have 0 direction. No idea what to do. I can't work part-time forever.
My kids are growing. They don't want to spend time with mom anymore unless I'm giving them money or taking them somewhere. I try to have fun and joke around with them like we used to and they just get irritated with me now. I lost all my friends. How could I not? It has been years since I have been able to go do "fun" things. My responsibility level was too high. I have no one to talk to. I used to call one of my parents but now they are dying so that really isn't an option and also another huge source of stress.
My physical and mental health are greatly deteriorating. It is getting harder and harder to just live day to day. I'm a robot just completing actions with no real goal. Once my husband was healthy I encouraged him to get out and about since he was stuck for so long. I was worried about the quality of his life. He is back working out, has lost a tremendous amount of weight, he is buying himself new name brand clothes, has new hobbies, goes out with friends, and has continued to recieve raises and promotions at work on a steady basis. Although, admittedly he hates his current position. But, constantly reminds me of interviews or offers he has from other countries and the significant salaries that will go with it.
I try to open up to him about how I'm feeling and he gets mad. He gets frustrated with me. He snaps or yells and tells me to stop making him feel guilty for having a life. That I CAN go out. I CHOOSE not to. Even though I keep trying to remind him that I don't have any friends to do things with. He throws out names of people that I barely know, haven't spoken to in years, or his friend's wives like they would just immediately accept me. If I'm frustrated about work he tells me to just suck it up and find a position, get experience, and figure the rest out later. That he makes enough money anyway so I can take the pay cut. Or when he's really mad, "God, you need help."
I have put on weight. I look disgusting. Most days I'm embarrassed to even be seen in public because I have just let myself go so bad. I panic having to go to events, especially with people I know, trying to seem "normal" at events puts me in a depression for days. I have managed to only have to go places once or twice a year. Mainly just things like funerals. I can't stand that people can just look at me and know that I am a failure in life. I don't want people to ask me how I'm doing, how is school (I didn't tell anyone I graduated because I'm embarrassed by my degree), how is my marriage, how are my kids, how is work? I don't have a good answer for any of it. I just try to do the basic hugs and hello and then find a way to put myself back in a corner and try not to be noticed or put the focus on the other person.
My house is falling apart and I'm struggling to keep up with the home repair but we can't afford to have other people come fix stuff. My mind just isn't good. I can't take most medications because of my health issues. I take what I can. I take supplements. My job is physical. I'm trying to get back into working out but my family is always around and I'm too embarrassed to work out in front of them. I cook healthy meals. I have leftovers available. I have a music Playlist that I listen to that helps me get through my emotions or at least let's me cry because I fight crying so much. My sex life is definitely going downhill. He has a million excuses why when I can tell the reason is just that he is sick of me.
I'm tired. I'm sad. I'm hopeless. I have 0 idea what to do. Therapy does not work for me. I have tried it so many times and it routinely makes me feel significantly worse than better. I have tried to join groups to make friends and just end up with creepy dudes wanting to talk and within 5 lines it is just sex. I try to plan going out but can't find anyone to go with. Any time for "hobbies" is spent doing home repair.
Like... what do I do? How do I get back having hope this will get better? I know things aren't getting better from here. At the age that I'm at in not going to magically become more pretty. Even if I do exercise I'm never going to be "thin". No, I can't go back to school again. We physically cannot afford it again. I can't force my children to spend time with me. I can't fault my husband for being sick of being stuck with the ugly, depressed, burr of a wife he has stuck to him, which is why I encourage him to go do things away from me. I can keep chipping away at my house, but that is just chores. I'm basically just trying to fix it up well enough to sell. I listen to Hz frequency music for mood elevation. I try to watch funny animal videos or save funny memes.
I don't know what to do. I'm just lost. I'm just tired of being me.
submitted by Just4TheSpamAndEggs to Advice [link] [comments]
My life has been unfortunate. It could have been worse. It could have been better. But for many many years now it has just been nothing but stress, disappointment, and frustration. I have reached a point where I no longer have anything to get me excited for the future, nothing to look forward to, this is just my life now and I'm trying to figure out how to be okay with that.
Years ago my children were still young and sweet. They loved me. Every time they saw me they were happy and I was a good and active mom. I went back to school. I did well in school. I started working outside the home again. I wasn't in phenomenal shape but I was at least average and could do this like take my kids to the pool. I had such high goals and dreams for myself. I knew I just had to work hard and I was ready! I have always had strong work ethic.
But, everything has been an unfortunate series of events ever since with very little happiness in between. My career and school goals were totally derailed. Originally my husband was studying for an additional certification that would have made major changes for us. But, he decided to "let me" have my time in school instead. He ended up having a bad accident and was bedbound or close to it for many years afterward. It became impossible for me to finish my original career path and school AND work AND keep up with the kids, house, pets, yard, etc. So, I settled for a lesser certification and not an additional degree so I could focus on family.
I found a job that I was in love with. They made me think I was going to go so far. Constantly told me I was their "star employee". I loved my position. But, I quickly started to see the overturn rate, that management gossiping a lot, and that it was a toxic environment to work in. I still tried. I tried SO hard. I was a great employee. I really wanted to prove that I could be the employee tough enough to take it and still shine. But when someone else at work grabbed me "as a joke" and then I was belittled for going to management about it and told I encouraged it? It was time to quit. Really, I don't think my mental health has ever recovered from my time there.
I quit my job. I went to work in a different type of environment hoping it would give me a positive change. I hated it. LOATHED it. I was good at it but I hated every moment of it. After my husband was walking again and able to help with the kids I brought up going back to school. I shifted my focus since my health won't let me work the way I used to. I worked really hard... only to find that my chosen degree won't get me anywhere in my state. Due to all my state guidelines I basically do not have a degree that relates that anything I would be happy doing.
Currently, I went back to work at the place I was last content. I can't stretch as far as saying, "happy". Those days still had struggles. It isn't the same. I know I eventually need to find another job but I have no idea where to look or what to do. I feel like I can't find anything and whatever recruiters are contacting me for pays terrible and I know I would be so unhappy doing. I have 0 direction. No idea what to do. I can't work part-time forever.
My kids are growing. They don't want to spend time with mom anymore unless I'm giving them money or taking them somewhere. I try to have fun and joke around with them like we used to and they just get irritated with me now. I lost all my friends. How could I not? It has been years since I have been able to go do "fun" things. My responsibility level was too high. I have no one to talk to. I used to call one of my parents but now they are dying so that really isn't an option and also another huge source of stress.
My physical and mental health are greatly deteriorating. It is getting harder and harder to just live day to day. I'm a robot just completing actions with no real goal. Once my husband was healthy I encouraged him to get out and about since he was stuck for so long. I was worried about the quality of his life. He is back working out, has lost a tremendous amount of weight, he is buying himself new name brand clothes, has new hobbies, goes out with friends, and has continued to recieve raises and promotions at work on a steady basis. Although, admittedly he hates his current position. But, constantly reminds me of interviews or offers he has from other countries and the significant salaries that will go with it.
I try to open up to him about how I'm feeling and he gets mad. He gets frustrated with me. He snaps or yells and tells me to stop making him feel guilty for having a life. That I CAN go out. I CHOOSE not to. Even though I keep trying to remind him that I don't have any friends to do things with. He throws out names of people that I barely know, haven't spoken to in years, or his friend's wives like they would just immediately accept me. If I'm frustrated about work he tells me to just suck it up and find a position, get experience, and figure the rest out later. That he makes enough money anyway so I can take the pay cut. Or when he's really mad, "God, you need help."
I have put on weight. I look disgusting. Most days I'm embarrassed to even be seen in public because I have just let myself go so bad. I panic having to go to events, especially with people I know, trying to seem "normal" at events puts me in a depression for days. I have managed to only have to go places once or twice a year. Mainly just things like funerals. I can't stand that people can just look at me and know that I am a failure in life. I don't want people to ask me how I'm doing, how is school (I didn't tell anyone I graduated because I'm embarrassed by my degree), how is my marriage, how are my kids, how is work? I don't have a good answer for any of it. I just try to do the basic hugs and hello and then find a way to put myself back in a corner and try not to be noticed or put the focus on the other person.
My house is falling apart and I'm struggling to keep up with the home repair but we can't afford to have other people come fix stuff. My mind just isn't good. I can't take most medications because of my health issues. I take what I can. I take supplements. My job is physical. I'm trying to get back into working out but my family is always around and I'm too embarrassed to work out in front of them. I cook healthy meals. I have leftovers available. I have a music Playlist that I listen to that helps me get through my emotions or at least let's me cry because I fight crying so much. My sex life is definitely going downhill. He has a million excuses why when I can tell the reason is just that he is sick of me.
I'm tired. I'm sad. I'm hopeless. I have 0 idea what to do. Therapy does not work for me. I have tried it so many times and it routinely makes me feel significantly worse than better. I have tried to join groups to make friends and just end up with creepy dudes wanting to talk and within 5 lines it is just sex. I try to plan going out but can't find anyone to go with. Any time for "hobbies" is spent doing home repair.
Like... what do I do? How do I get back having hope this will get better? I know things aren't getting better from here. At the age that I'm at in not going to magically become more pretty. Even if I do exercise I'm never going to be "thin". No, I can't go back to school again. We physically cannot afford it again. I can't force my children to spend time with me. I can't fault my husband for being sick of being stuck with the ugly, depressed, burr of a wife he has stuck to him, which is why I encourage him to go do things away from me. I can keep chipping away at my house, but that is just chores. I'm basically just trying to fix it up well enough to sell. I listen to Hz frequency music for mood elevation. I try to watch funny animal videos or save funny memes.
I don't know what to do. I'm just lost. I'm just tired of being me.
2023.06.04 23:15 patio_himself Question for a First Timer attending a match
Hi all,
I am from America and have never been to a European soccer match, and me and my wife will be doing our honeymoon in Spain (Barcelona and San Sebastian). I want to catch a game and was wondering which city's team would be better to attend in regards to atmosphere. I don't have any allegiance to any team, but I do tend to like the smaller teams with that have a more intimate fan base (at least that's how it is here in the USA).
Is Barcelona going to be too commercialized? In my mind i'm comparing them to the Dallas Cowboys, one of the most popular teams with the largest stadiums etc. I was reading that fans from the Basque region are very proud of where their from, which I really like, so was thinking maybe that would be better for me.
Any advice would be much appreciated! Also, can you purchase alcohol at the games?
submitted by patio_himself to LaLiga [link] [comments]
I am from America and have never been to a European soccer match, and me and my wife will be doing our honeymoon in Spain (Barcelona and San Sebastian). I want to catch a game and was wondering which city's team would be better to attend in regards to atmosphere. I don't have any allegiance to any team, but I do tend to like the smaller teams with that have a more intimate fan base (at least that's how it is here in the USA).
Is Barcelona going to be too commercialized? In my mind i'm comparing them to the Dallas Cowboys, one of the most popular teams with the largest stadiums etc. I was reading that fans from the Basque region are very proud of where their from, which I really like, so was thinking maybe that would be better for me.
Any advice would be much appreciated! Also, can you purchase alcohol at the games?
2023.06.04 22:45 peachslushy Boyfriend (22M) ghosting me (22F) because of depression?
Can't edit title but for clarity: Boyfriend's the one whose depressed. I'm okay at the moment. :)
For added context: He has never been formally diagnosed with depression although he does have ADHD and is not medicated.
I (22F) have been dating this guy (22M) for about 4 months now. He has been feeling extremely down since early May after he got rejected from his dream university. He always did really well in school so I think this was a pretty big blow to his ego. He let me know that he's been feeling crappy and won't be able to reply as quickly or as often. I also understand that he's busy applying for other universities in the meantime so I have just been quietly supporting him (telling him I love him everyday, asking if he needs me to get him food or snacks, letting him know that I'll be here anytime he wants to reconnect etc.).
The trouble comes when I see him online playing League of Legends with his boys all day (like 12 whole hours of gameplay). I myself have BP so I can empathise with the idea that when depressed, it can be easier to "escape" and use things like social media actively while simultaneously ignoring people in real life, I'm just disappointed because it's been a little over a week now of not hearing from him at all. He would usually message me at least once every 3 days to let me know how he's holding up. I was (left out of upset from him ignoring me for this long) also in their discord channel and seeing him text them and voice-call them while ignoring me really sucked. He has also been online on Telegram all throughout this depressive episode. I asked him about it a little while before he ghosted me and he sent me a screenshot of his Telegram chat log immediately. I guess to reassure me that he's only consistently talking to me and his LOL friend. Another thing is that before he ghosted me, he let me know that he wanted to meet me on his next available day. Last thing I said was something like "hey just checking if you still wanna meet? its okay if you don't feel up to it" and absolutely no reply. I was surprised because while I don't mind if he doesn't reply my random rambles (like memes and stuff), he always replies when I ask him about active plans...
The absolute last thing he told me was that he loves me but he just needs time.
We did meet in person about a week before he stopped replying me. He was as affectionate as always, maybe even a little more. He was already gaming pretty heavily but he was pause every once in a while to cuddle with me or ask me if I'm okay, sit me on his lap, pat my head or hold my hand while gaming. He did tell me before I went to his place that he'd be more withdrawn but I reassured him that I understood and still wanted to see him because I miss him. He hugged me for awhile and kissed me a few times before I left, telling me that he'd try to message me more.
I'm just really confused as to what he wants. A big part of me doubts that he would be the kind of guy to just end things without some sort of closure but I guess I could be wrong. He has told me before that he tends to get tunnel-vision because of his ADHD and therefore blocks other stuff out to focus on his fixation of the moment. I'm not sure if this is what's happening right now though as he's usually very attentive to discussions about our relationship, regardless of the ADHD. Another thing is that he's probably leaving for school in either July or September. Before the depression, he always maintained that he wanted to do long distance (I was the one that was hesitant) but I don't know anymore.
I was thinking of dropping by his place to ask him what is going on but I don't know when he'll be awake since his sleep schedule is so irregular right now (waking up at like 7pm, gaming till 1pm on some days). I did tell him before he ghosted me that I felt he was becoming really distant and that it was making me sad. I wanted to face-time him about it to clear the air but he said he was tired and hadn't shaved in a while so he didn't want to. He just kept apologising and told me it was him and not me. :( I've tried to call him 4 times now.
TDLR: Boyfriend recently got rejected from uni, says he's in a rut. Not replying me at all for over a week while being online and gaming with friends. Doesn't pick up my calls. Don't know what to do anymore. Freaking me out because he has to leave the country either in a July or September to go to university, I don't know where we stand.
submitted by peachslushy to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
For added context: He has never been formally diagnosed with depression although he does have ADHD and is not medicated.
I (22F) have been dating this guy (22M) for about 4 months now. He has been feeling extremely down since early May after he got rejected from his dream university. He always did really well in school so I think this was a pretty big blow to his ego. He let me know that he's been feeling crappy and won't be able to reply as quickly or as often. I also understand that he's busy applying for other universities in the meantime so I have just been quietly supporting him (telling him I love him everyday, asking if he needs me to get him food or snacks, letting him know that I'll be here anytime he wants to reconnect etc.).
The trouble comes when I see him online playing League of Legends with his boys all day (like 12 whole hours of gameplay). I myself have BP so I can empathise with the idea that when depressed, it can be easier to "escape" and use things like social media actively while simultaneously ignoring people in real life, I'm just disappointed because it's been a little over a week now of not hearing from him at all. He would usually message me at least once every 3 days to let me know how he's holding up. I was (left out of upset from him ignoring me for this long) also in their discord channel and seeing him text them and voice-call them while ignoring me really sucked. He has also been online on Telegram all throughout this depressive episode. I asked him about it a little while before he ghosted me and he sent me a screenshot of his Telegram chat log immediately. I guess to reassure me that he's only consistently talking to me and his LOL friend. Another thing is that before he ghosted me, he let me know that he wanted to meet me on his next available day. Last thing I said was something like "hey just checking if you still wanna meet? its okay if you don't feel up to it" and absolutely no reply. I was surprised because while I don't mind if he doesn't reply my random rambles (like memes and stuff), he always replies when I ask him about active plans...
The absolute last thing he told me was that he loves me but he just needs time.
We did meet in person about a week before he stopped replying me. He was as affectionate as always, maybe even a little more. He was already gaming pretty heavily but he was pause every once in a while to cuddle with me or ask me if I'm okay, sit me on his lap, pat my head or hold my hand while gaming. He did tell me before I went to his place that he'd be more withdrawn but I reassured him that I understood and still wanted to see him because I miss him. He hugged me for awhile and kissed me a few times before I left, telling me that he'd try to message me more.
I'm just really confused as to what he wants. A big part of me doubts that he would be the kind of guy to just end things without some sort of closure but I guess I could be wrong. He has told me before that he tends to get tunnel-vision because of his ADHD and therefore blocks other stuff out to focus on his fixation of the moment. I'm not sure if this is what's happening right now though as he's usually very attentive to discussions about our relationship, regardless of the ADHD. Another thing is that he's probably leaving for school in either July or September. Before the depression, he always maintained that he wanted to do long distance (I was the one that was hesitant) but I don't know anymore.
I was thinking of dropping by his place to ask him what is going on but I don't know when he'll be awake since his sleep schedule is so irregular right now (waking up at like 7pm, gaming till 1pm on some days). I did tell him before he ghosted me that I felt he was becoming really distant and that it was making me sad. I wanted to face-time him about it to clear the air but he said he was tired and hadn't shaved in a while so he didn't want to. He just kept apologising and told me it was him and not me. :( I've tried to call him 4 times now.
TDLR: Boyfriend recently got rejected from uni, says he's in a rut. Not replying me at all for over a week while being online and gaming with friends. Doesn't pick up my calls. Don't know what to do anymore. Freaking me out because he has to leave the country either in a July or September to go to university, I don't know where we stand.
2023.06.04 21:35 FroyoRound Meme: The Movie (DreamWorks Animation)
The director Tim Johnson was pitched an animated feature fantasy comedy based on the internet memes, which the plot would focus on a nerdy teen who got sucked inside a computer to a world inhabited by internet memes as they got invaded by a dastardly computer virus and his minions.
submitted by FroyoRound to moviepitches [link] [comments]
2023.06.04 21:24 Old_Hearing_2881 Is there any way to retrieve an account after it has been disabled for cp. (Longer post)
As the title says, is there any way of getting my account back after this. My situation is unique, or at least I haven't read anything similar here . I'm laying it all out, so here it goes:
My computer was left unattended at a larger get together and some "friends" (group that tagged along with a friend) that were sitting in that room essentially being the djs, decided to send pics they new would get flagged. I heard a commotion a while later and came in to see scurrying around my lapctop and some ppl leaving.long story short they sent the content and got instantly flagged with the disabled message. They claim they didn't know it was a permanent ban, at this point I don't care.
What I know so far is that they were "drunk", got the images from a telegram group thst shared messed up stuff and was looked into and shut down (no idea who had access or what was actually sent, but this group made the news in my country as a lot of ppl joined it and it became a thing on the news -hence how they go into it) .They thought it would be a "joke" to send it on Facebook.
This happened almost a year ago. At first it sucked and I was like whatever it's just Facebook. I continued to live my life - school and work. However, as time went on the realization of what this meant slowely set in. I have been marked for something that is actually extremely serious which I didn't do
I have to say that before this I didn't realize how serious this ban was, as it was so far out of my reality. Like a war, forced slave labour u hear reports about, or those crazy messed up videos u hear about. What I mean to say here is you associate it to terrible things when you hear it, but you don't really realize how bad it is until you read up on it. (The sick ppl who actually make or seek out such content and the lengths they go through for something so sick) To me it was just a disgusting dark corner of the internet that never crossed my mind. As time with the ban progressed I read up on it and watched documentaries about it (some british guy or STH on yt)The idea of now being included into that group has slowely registered. i am honestly fuming and disgusted that such content existed , let alone was flagged on MY account.
I have since distanced myself from that group completely and even the friend they came with. So far nobody wants to tell me who actually sent the content or thought up the idea.
I am now left with the consequences of that. A decade of memories, messages with loved ones (some of who have passed away), life achievements, images and videos, all old connections, plus awkward conversations where I explain this to ppl (honestly, it's terrible and u feel judged by just saying why the account is down -guilty or not) And worst of all, there is potential legal trouble, which honestly never crossed my mind until I got on this sub.(honestly I am happy I did as it helped me realize how serious this is) I am prepared to stand my ground and literally give the name of anybody and everybody present that day, should it come to that. I honestly pray it doesn't because it is STH I don't even want to be associated with irl.
Given all that, I need to ask if there anyway for me to prove to Facebook/ Meta that I wasn't the person who sent the video. Do I have to make a police report and maybe send that. Call out the ppl who sent it and potentially take this to court or sth. Would that even help overturn the decision.
Could I get into contact with sbdy on fb and possibly explain this. I am skeptical about this as I see ppl have a hard time recovering their account even if it was a hack. Is there a way to rub this stain of my digital presence.
I know some ppl will roll their eyes at this, i prob would to if I just read it on a Reddit post. But i honestly have no history or association with such content.
Ps - As far as previous flags/reports, I had 1 for a meme that was flagged 3 years after it was posted. This meme was a screenshot of insta , so it wasn't something messed up. I will just say it was related to sbdy from ww2.
Previous history might affect the decision to overturn. Other than this my account was clean for over 10 years. It was used for mostly university groups, reaching out to ppl, and organising a night out. I say this to show that there was no previous suspicious activity. ( I have had it for over a decade, why would I all of a sudden use it to send such content)
This is a pretty long read, and if anybody got this far. I thank you for hearing out my situation.
I hope anybody has some advice on what steps to take next. This is the only community I have found that could help. I hope this brings me one step closer to retrieving my account.
submitted by Old_Hearing_2881 to u/Old_Hearing_2881 [link] [comments]
My computer was left unattended at a larger get together and some "friends" (group that tagged along with a friend) that were sitting in that room essentially being the djs, decided to send pics they new would get flagged. I heard a commotion a while later and came in to see scurrying around my lapctop and some ppl leaving.long story short they sent the content and got instantly flagged with the disabled message. They claim they didn't know it was a permanent ban, at this point I don't care.
What I know so far is that they were "drunk", got the images from a telegram group thst shared messed up stuff and was looked into and shut down (no idea who had access or what was actually sent, but this group made the news in my country as a lot of ppl joined it and it became a thing on the news -hence how they go into it) .They thought it would be a "joke" to send it on Facebook.
This happened almost a year ago. At first it sucked and I was like whatever it's just Facebook. I continued to live my life - school and work. However, as time went on the realization of what this meant slowely set in. I have been marked for something that is actually extremely serious which I didn't do
I have to say that before this I didn't realize how serious this ban was, as it was so far out of my reality. Like a war, forced slave labour u hear reports about, or those crazy messed up videos u hear about. What I mean to say here is you associate it to terrible things when you hear it, but you don't really realize how bad it is until you read up on it. (The sick ppl who actually make or seek out such content and the lengths they go through for something so sick) To me it was just a disgusting dark corner of the internet that never crossed my mind. As time with the ban progressed I read up on it and watched documentaries about it (some british guy or STH on yt)The idea of now being included into that group has slowely registered. i am honestly fuming and disgusted that such content existed , let alone was flagged on MY account.
I have since distanced myself from that group completely and even the friend they came with. So far nobody wants to tell me who actually sent the content or thought up the idea.
I am now left with the consequences of that. A decade of memories, messages with loved ones (some of who have passed away), life achievements, images and videos, all old connections, plus awkward conversations where I explain this to ppl (honestly, it's terrible and u feel judged by just saying why the account is down -guilty or not) And worst of all, there is potential legal trouble, which honestly never crossed my mind until I got on this sub.(honestly I am happy I did as it helped me realize how serious this is) I am prepared to stand my ground and literally give the name of anybody and everybody present that day, should it come to that. I honestly pray it doesn't because it is STH I don't even want to be associated with irl.
Given all that, I need to ask if there anyway for me to prove to Facebook/ Meta that I wasn't the person who sent the video. Do I have to make a police report and maybe send that. Call out the ppl who sent it and potentially take this to court or sth. Would that even help overturn the decision.
Could I get into contact with sbdy on fb and possibly explain this. I am skeptical about this as I see ppl have a hard time recovering their account even if it was a hack. Is there a way to rub this stain of my digital presence.
I know some ppl will roll their eyes at this, i prob would to if I just read it on a Reddit post. But i honestly have no history or association with such content.
Ps - As far as previous flags/reports, I had 1 for a meme that was flagged 3 years after it was posted. This meme was a screenshot of insta , so it wasn't something messed up. I will just say it was related to sbdy from ww2.
Previous history might affect the decision to overturn. Other than this my account was clean for over 10 years. It was used for mostly university groups, reaching out to ppl, and organising a night out. I say this to show that there was no previous suspicious activity. ( I have had it for over a decade, why would I all of a sudden use it to send such content)
This is a pretty long read, and if anybody got this far. I thank you for hearing out my situation.
I hope anybody has some advice on what steps to take next. This is the only community I have found that could help. I hope this brings me one step closer to retrieving my account.
2023.06.04 19:31 xtremexavier15 TSROTI 4 (pt 1)
Toxic Rats: Geoff, Scott, Leshawna, Sammy, Trent
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Katie, Molly, Scarlett, Dave, DJ
Episode 04: Finders Creepers
"Last time, on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" Chris opened over a stock shot of the camp, the recap montage starting off with a clip of the contestants racing off towards the side of Mt. Looming Tragedy. "Twelve bumbling buffoons battled it out in a brutal buffet of bombastica," Chef was shown gleefully dropping ice blocks on the climbing campers, catching Geoff and Scott but narrowly missing Molly and almost catching Anne Maria.
"Why all the 'B' words?" B was shown demonstrating his couch invention created from junk, "Because, B proved he was a brave and brilliant improviser who scored big time for his team!" B used an ice pick to poke holes onto a shard of ice and placed it on top of the castle, directing the sun beam towards the Maggots' base and melting it effectively. "Until his bitter teammate Scott allowed brainy Molly to botch it on purpose and B got the boot," Molly threw a snowball onto the shard, melting the castle and B was shown being flung into the night.
"And now," Chris said, popping up in front of a shot of the full moon in a cloudy sky with a lit candle in his hand, marking the end of the recap montage, "tonight's challenge is about fear." He made a devilish look. "And everyone knows fear is a dish best served, in the dark!" he said in an exaggeratedly spooky manner, an eerie sound playing as he laughed evilly. "Huh?" he stopped suddenly, the camera pulling back to reveal Chef standing next to him...dressed like a showgirl with lots of peacock feathers. "Chef!" the host said in annoyance.
"Wardrobe was all out of vampire costumes," Chef explained as the series's capstone then began to play.
"It's all scary!" Chris said, walking off to the left. "Other than that," he scowled and gestured back toward his off-screen assistant. "Right here! Right now!" he resumed his usual demeanor. "On Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!" He adopted his spooky tone as he finished the title, and ended with another evil laugh.
XXXXX
Frogs and crickets chirped and croaked, joined by an owl's hoots as the episode opened on a shot of the full moon. The camera panned down to the cabins as the sound of snoring was added to the nighttime mix, and the scene cut inside to the girls' side of the Maggots' cabin where Anne Maria and Katie were sleeping peacefully in the bunk they shared. Dave and DJ were also shown sound asleep on the boys' side, and the scene cut to the Rat boys to show Geoff also sound asleep.
The camera cut next to show Sammy waking up with a yawn. She stretched her arms out for a few good seconds and fell right back to sleep...until the sudden shrill wail of a blow horn pierced the air.
"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Chris hollered from off-screen as the scene cut back outside, the blowhorn continuing even over the panicked shouts of the campers.
The camera briefly cut to a close-up of the blowhorn still blowing, then over to the Maggots' cabin as they ran outside fully dressed – first Katie screaming "What's happening?!"; then DJ just screaming; then Scarlett yelling out "This is unethical!"; then Anne Maria just hollering; and then finally Dave coming out, calling out "I'm wide awake!"
The Rats were shown next, Scott grunting "Me first!" as he shoved Geoff down the stairs and slid down the railing; Leshawna quickly running after him; Sammy screaming at the top of her lungs; and Trent coming out last at around the same time while screaming.
They assembled nervously in the common area between cabins, where Chris – wearing a pair of heavy earmuffs – finally eased up on the blowhorn. "Glad you all could make it," he grinned as he took off his headgear.
Molly soon arrived later. "Is there an attack or what?" she asked her teammates.
Katie shot her a quick glare. "Of course not, but why would you care about anything but yourself?"
Confessional: Molly
"Olay, yes," Molly moaned. "I left my teammates behind, but that was because I wanted to win the challenge first. I was always taught to focus on one thing before moving on to the next, and that's what I did." She grew concerned. "I don't see any problems with that."
Confessional Ends
"I hope you're all ready," Chris continued, "'cause it's challenge time!" He stepped to the side as Chef rolled up a large widescreen television on a wheeled cart. It was currently displaying an aerial map of the island with several additional colored icons – six bright green skulls scattered around the island; three yellowish envelopes over the campfire pit, the western edge of the campgrounds, and deeper into the forest; and a large purple spider in the middle of it all.
"We're gonna do a challenge?" Anne Maria wondered. "In the middle of the woods? At night?"
Confessional: Anne Maria
"Doesn't Chris know that we need our hours of sleep?" Anne Maria criticized. "I haven't even done my hair."
Confessional Ends
"Your challenge," Chris continued as though there'd been no interruption, "a scavenger hunt for three creepy souvenirs. Your locations? A haunted forest," he walked across to the other side of the television, "a scaaary pet cemetery, and an extra spooktastic cave. First team to each location gets a special clue," he said, the camera zooming in as he pointed towards the westernmost letter icon on the screen. "But watch out for booby traps," he added jovially as he moved his finger to one of the skulls, "I really went to town with them, heheh." The campers were shown watching warily.
"So move fast," the host added, "and stick together. You'll be penalized for each player you lose!"
"Umm, what's with the giant spider?" Sammy asked.
"Oh yeah," Chris answered as the shot zoomed in on the icon in question, "there's some kinda gigantic mutated spider sorta running around loose on the island."
The cast immediately started to voice their fears and protests.
"A huge, humongous spider is on the loose?!" DJ hugged Katie out of fear.
"I guess so," Katie said frightfully, but was secretly enjoying DJ hugging her.
The shot zoomed in on Dave in particular as he looked around, moaning "Oh no..." in annoyance.
Confessional: Dave
"Ever since I was a kid, I've never been a huge fan of spiders," Dave admitted. "They leave messy webs everywhere they go, and it takes me a long time to clean them up in places like my uncle's attic or my aunt's basement." A spider soon crawled down on a string. "This is gonna be unpopular, but I'm not a huge fan of Spider-Man because of my dislike of spiders." The spider hissed after hearing the criticism, making Dave flinch.
Confessional: Leshawna
"I may seem fearless on the outside, but spiders are one of the few things I'm terrified of," Leshawna said nervously. "Anything with eight legs is frightening enough."
Confessional Ends
"And since I want to keep things fair for both teams," Chris continued, "I decided to bring back an eliminated contestant for the Rats."
"It's so good to be back here!" the familiar voice of Sierra was heard, becoming more recognizable when she ran next to Chris.
"Sierra! I haven't introduced you yet!" Chris snapped at her.
"If I waited any longer, the episode would've been past the usual 22-minute runtime," Sierra explained. "I'll just go join the Toxic Rats and save you the trouble of doing so since I've rejoined."
Chris watched the fangirl run up to the contestants in annoyance. "Long story short, Sierra is the returnee." Chris regained his smile, and the dramatic and almost heroic tune started playing again. "There's nothing to fear but mortal terror itself! Talk soon," he added impishly, sounding his blowhorn once again.
The twelve campers ran off towards the woods.
\
The footage flashed ahead to another shot of the full moon over the forested hills of Wawanakwa, an owl hooting as the scene cut down to ground level. The logo of the Toxic Rats appeared in the corner of the screen just before the team itself did, running up and stopping in front of a tree with a loudspeaker set up in its branches.
"We're in first place! Sweet!" Geoff cheered just before the loudspeaker whined into activity.
"Welcome to the Haunted Forest!" Chris announced over it, the shot panning downward to show the six Rats gathering around a small crack in the ground. "Your clue can be found at the base of this tree!" Sierra reached into the hole...and screamed in pain as something metallic snapped inside the hole.
"Inside a bear trap," Chris finished his announcement with a laugh.
Sierra withdrew her hand from the hole, the trap clamped down firmly on her arm – though she was at least clutching a note in her hand. "Here! Read the clue," she said, passing it to a mildly shocked Sammy. Just as she was about to read it, the sound of approaching footsteps distracted her and her teammates.
"Bad news guys," Anne Maria commented from the six Maggots. "They have the clue."
"Even with a team advantage they still managed to beat us," Katie reminded them.
"We can let the opposing team have their clue," Scarlett said, looking back towards her teammates. "I have another plan," she said, running ahead with her teammates in tow.
\
The shot cut to the Maggots as they stopped at a clearing further along the trail. "So what's the plan?" Katie asked the girl in front.
"Find a place to hide so we can follow the Rats and their clue to our first souvenir," Scarlett answered. "Into that bush!"
The Maggots dived and painfully tried to hide in a thorn bush.
"Be quiet," Dave hissed, "They're coming."
"Inside a knot is a nest," Sammy read as the scene cut to the Rats. "Your souvenir lives with a pest. Find Polaris to travel northwest? Polaris is the North Star."
"The North Star is right there, so this way's northwest! There's a path!" Trent declared. He ran off, the rest of his teammates following suit.
"Now we follow!" Scarlett declared as the rest of her teammates came out of the bush.
\
The Rats' logo reappeared as the footage skipped ahead again to them running along through the woods.
"Inside a knot is a nest," Geoff muttered to himself as the shot zoomed in on him. "Hey Sammy, what was the rest of that poem again?" he called back without taking his eyes off the path ahead.
When he didn't get an answer he immediately skidded to a stop. "Sammy?!" he yelled in rising panic, and looked back to see nobody behind him.
The shot cut back to show that the rest of the Rats had stopped in their tracks. "What? Did we lose the mouse?" Scott asked.
Geoff gulped. "We get a penalty for each player we lose, right?" he asked nervously.
"And there's a spider crawling around, right?!" Leshawna said in panic. The shot cut outward as he did so, showing a large purple spider crawling down through the shadows of the forest trees.
"We're looking for a knot with a nest, right?" Scott looked off to the right; the camera quick-panned over to a large tree with a noticeable hollow knot in the trunk with the hints of a nest inside; a few green and red marks had been spray-painted on the bark under it.
"There it is!" Leshawna said, immediately rushing towards it.
"But what about Sammy?" Trent asked his team.
"We'll look for her after we get the souvenir," Sierra assured him.
Leshawna started climbing up the trunk as the rest of her team ran up to join her, and soon began to root through the tree hollow with one arm.
Suddenly, a large eye opened up inside the hollow and stared directly at Leshawna. She screamed, and several squid-like tentacles reached out of the tree's other hollows. One quickly grabbed her around the neck and held her up, while another gave her a few wet slaps then poked her in the eye.
"My eye!" Leshawna yelped in pain and terror. In response the tentacle tightened its grip, and Leshawna began to choke.
"What do we do!?" Sierra yelled in panic.
Geoff looked around, then bent down and picked up a handful of small rocks. "We can throw these stones at the octo guy!"
"Good idea!" Scott said as he and his team picked up rocks of their own and began throwing them at the creature, but they seemed to be hitting Leshawna more than the mutant squid-tree monster. Eventually, the thing just raised its captive up even higher, then slammed her down onto the ground and hissed at the others.
"RUN!" Geoff shouted, turning to flee as a tentacle shot towards them, forcing them to scatter.
Unfortunately, Trent was unable to get away in time and was lifted up by the leg. Trent cried in pain as the mutant began to punch him in the stomach with a curled-up tentacle.
The sounds of pain and wet punches caused Leshawna to get frustrated. "No way am I gonna get pushed around or let a squid attack my teammates!" she declared, getting back on her feet and climbing up the tree-squid's trunk while it was distracted. "Quit buggin' us!" she cried as she punched the mutant in the eye.
The beast bellowed in pain, dropping Trent and retracting into its tree. As soon as he got back up, a strand of spider's webbing shot down from above, sticking on to his head and pulling him away from the floor.
Leshawna reached into the knot once again, quickly and triumphantly pulling out a brass key. "And that's how I roll!" she called down to her teammates.
She dropped down to the forest floor, and landed in front of Geoff, who grinned when he saw it. "We got the key, Trent." Geoff received no response as Scott rejoined.
"Trent?!" Leshawna yelled out in concern. "Where are you?!"
As she panicked, the shot changed to a perspective further away, and the footage switched to an infrared shot of the four Rats.
"Guess he's gone," Sierra sighed sadly. "On the plus side, we found the key."
"We lost two players!" Leshawna said. "Shouldn't we go and look for them?"
"Knowing Chris, he probably has them trapped someplace else, so I'm not too worried right now," Scott brushed it off.
"You've got a point there," Geoff agreed.
Just then, the six Maggots arrived on the scene.
Scott was the first to notice them. "No luck here," he quickly said with faux disappointment, "Do you want to see if Sammy and Trent saw anything better over there?" he looked back and asked Sierra, Leshawna, and Geoff.
"Absolutely. It's not just the three of us," Sierra caught on before they turned and ran off.
"I see something!" Katie pointed off to the camera's right – the direction of the squid-tree. "Team colors!" The camera briefly cut over to the knot in question, with a focus on the marks below it in the two teams' colors.
"Excellent eye, Katie," Scarlett complimented while DJ ran to the tree.
"I'm not just a phone addict, y'know," Katie laughed a bit.
"I got the key, everyone," the camera cut to DJ who was in the tree's hollow and holding out a key. He threw the key in front of Dave and Molly.
"Way to go, DJ!" Molly said.
"Now you want to support us," Dave snarked at her. "Where was that when I was frozen?"
"Are you still mad about that?" Molly groaned.
"Of course we are," Katie snorted.
"You don't just leave your teammates behind," Dave lectured.
"Whatever happened happened," Anne Maria got in between them. "Let's focus more on the challenge and less on squabbling right now."
Confessional: Anne Maria
"I'm here to start no fights," Anne Maria confessed. "What Molly did was messed up, but they can scold her after the challenge."
Confessional: Molly
"Thank you, Anne Maria," Molly let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, someone who won't ride on me for my choices!"
Confessionals End
"You're right, Anne Maria," Dave sighed. "We shouldn't waste anymore time fighting."
As Dave bent down to pick up the key, however, a line of spider silk shot down from the treetops, wrapped around Molly, and pulled her up out of sight.
DJ regrouped with his team. "They said they saw something far away, so maybe-" he paused and looked behind his teammates. "Wait, where's Molly?"
The other four looked behind them and gasped. "Oh no, Molly's got taken by the spider!" Dave cried out.
"What do we do now?" Anne Maria griped.
Scarlett sighed. "Not to sound apathetic, but I think we're gonna have to continue on without her."
"Are you sure about that?" Katie questioned.
"I'm sure we can catch up to wherever she's being taken to," Scarlett waved off her concern.
"Well, I hope so," Katie said as she and the team exchanged nervous looks.
Confessional: Dave
"I don't see Molly in the best light right now, but that doesn't mean that I want her to be taken away," Dave began to shudder. "Especially by a spider."
Confessional Ends
"Why are we running so slow when we're in a challenge?" Geoff said as the scene moved back to him, Sierra, Scott, and Leshawna running through the forest. "We won't beat the other team at this rate."
"Relax, I know what I'm doing," Scott conversed with him.
Confessional: Scott
Scott was whittling another piece of wood with his shark tooth. "I'm heading us back into last place where we belong. Another elimination ceremony for the Rats and it's bye-bye Geoff! Or Sierra. I can't decide."
Confessional Ends
"C'mon, let's rock this! With years of exercise and partying, I've got energy to burn!" Geoff said, snatching the key from Leshawna and jogging ahead. The three followed him, but the camera kept its focus on Geoff as he passed a tree stump, then a rock; then stepped on a mysterious clump of dirt… which exploded and sent him flying.
Leshawna, Sierra, and Scott stopped immediately, the shot showing Sierra and Leshawna being shocked and Scott showing delight as Geoff got launched from one land mine to the next off-screen.
During this, however, a line of spider webbing was shot onto Sierra's leg. It quickly wrapped around it and tugged Sierra away from her team.
The camera finally cut back to Geoff, singed and groaning on the ground in an awkward but still holding the Rats' key. The Maggots approached him moments later. "Sorry that had to happen, doll!" Anne Maria comforted as she ran past Geoff.
Scott and Leshawna came to Geoff's need. "You gonna be alright?" Leshawna helped him up.
"I'll walk it off," Geoff tried to remain cool headed.
"Thanks, focus boy," Scott said.
"I don't want to strain my calves," Geoff added.
"We should leave in a few minutes just to make sure we catch up to the other team," Leshawna said. "Sierra just got captured, and I don't want us sticking around here."
\
The scene cut to the lantern-lit cemetery. The camera panned left across its headstones and crosses, several of which were pet-themed, to the entrance as the five remaining Mutant Maggots arrived, huffing and puffing from their run.
"Welcome to the Wawanakwa Pet Cemetery!" Chris greeted them over the loudspeaker.
"We're first. Nice!" Dave said.
"What's the clue?" Anne Maria asked Scarlett.
The camera cut in close as she opened the lid to a small coffin in an open grave, revealing a ragged piece of paper within bearing a list of numbers: 5 in the first row; 5 in the second; 5 in the third. Notably, while most of the numbers were plain black there were three 6s and the 18 were all an eye-catching red. "Three 6's is normally not a good indication of luck," Scarlett said with a nervous look.
"Let's fan out and look for numbers!" DJ said as the perspective cut back to its usual sideview.
"By ourselves?" Anne Maria asked.
\
"I'm in a creepy cemetery in the middle of the woods looking for three 6s. It's no big deal," Anne Maria said warily as she backed through the graveyard. "Good news is, there aren't any owls hooting around. I think I'm safe," she told herself, pausing to smile. "Now, let's see if I can find any numbers..."
She turned around and started examining the nearest headstone, and the shot cut to a view from afar, the footage switching back to infrared. The monster serving as the camera's viewpoint blinked, and when it opened its eyes it had gotten much closer to the jersey girl, and had extended four sharp limbs with tiny claws on the end towards her...
Anne Maria's scream echoed through the cemetery, quickly catching the attention of Katie, DJ, Scarlett, and Dave as they looked up in shock. "Anne Maria?" Dave asked out in concern, the footage quickly skipping ahead to show all four arriving at the location the tanned young lady had been snatched from.
"I could've sworn she was just here," Dave said in confusion.
They all gasped. "Where'd she go?" Katie asked in mild terror.
"I'm just as concerned as you all are," Scarlett started, "but like what happened with Molly, we should move along and hope to catch up with them."
"I know you're trying to be reasonable," DJ said, "but you're rubbing me off the wrong way."
"Yeah, it's like you don't care about what could happen to our teammates," Dave told her.
"I'm just used to not expressing my emotions on occasion," Scarlett told her team members. "Thank you very much."
\
The scene flashed to the Rats, where Scott and Leshawna were next to grimy coffins propped upright against a couple statues.
"Find the souvenir, hide the souvenir, lose the game…" Scott went in to unlock the coffin, but was interrupted by Fang bursting out of the coffin with a menacing grin.
"AAAAHHHHH!" The devious ran away screaming when Fang moved to chase after him.
Geoff was looking at a grave that was open. "This grave smells like french fries. Weird, but I'm not complaining." He got shoved in thanks to Scott running away from Fang.
The camera followed Scott as he ran past two open graves, one of which with a mound of dirt in front of it.
The mutant shark followed his quarry, but when Scott leapt over the mound of dirt, Fang tripped over it. The shark fell into the open grave and growled.
"Why does this graveyard smell like fries?" Katie wondered aloud, following a scent as she walked through the cemetery. She soon came to the pit Geoff was in. "Maybe it's coming from there."
"Hello? Anybody? I need someone to help me down here!" Geoff called out.
Katie backed away a bit. "Did that hole just talk?"
"It's me. Geoff!" Geoff tried to denounce her belief.
"Oh right," Katie sighed in relief. "You're the guy with the cowboy hat."
"That's right," Geoff confirmed her statement. "I fell down this hole, and I'm covered in grease right now."
"So that explains the smell," Katie realized.
"Can you get me out of here?" Geoff begged her. "Grease doesn't mesh well with my shirt."
"I would, but I have to help my team right now," Katie declined. "One of your teammates could get you out. Bye," she left the scene.
"This sucks," Geoff whined, unaware of four maggots coming by the grave. As soon as they saw the grease and Geoff, they jumped in and attacked him, making him howl in agony.
\
The scene cut to Chris, who was watching feeds of both teams on a trio of monitors and laughing hysterically. "Will anyone make it to the spooky cave?" he turned and asked the camera, holding a covered cup with a straw in it. "And if so, how can they possibly make it all the way to the finish line? Less brain, more pain, when we return!" he said, finishing with a sip of his drink.
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(Commercial Break)
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submitted by xtremexavier15 to u/xtremexavier15 [link] [comments]
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Katie, Molly, Scarlett, Dave, DJ
Episode 04: Finders Creepers
"Last time, on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" Chris opened over a stock shot of the camp, the recap montage starting off with a clip of the contestants racing off towards the side of Mt. Looming Tragedy. "Twelve bumbling buffoons battled it out in a brutal buffet of bombastica," Chef was shown gleefully dropping ice blocks on the climbing campers, catching Geoff and Scott but narrowly missing Molly and almost catching Anne Maria.
"Why all the 'B' words?" B was shown demonstrating his couch invention created from junk, "Because, B proved he was a brave and brilliant improviser who scored big time for his team!" B used an ice pick to poke holes onto a shard of ice and placed it on top of the castle, directing the sun beam towards the Maggots' base and melting it effectively. "Until his bitter teammate Scott allowed brainy Molly to botch it on purpose and B got the boot," Molly threw a snowball onto the shard, melting the castle and B was shown being flung into the night.
"And now," Chris said, popping up in front of a shot of the full moon in a cloudy sky with a lit candle in his hand, marking the end of the recap montage, "tonight's challenge is about fear." He made a devilish look. "And everyone knows fear is a dish best served, in the dark!" he said in an exaggeratedly spooky manner, an eerie sound playing as he laughed evilly. "Huh?" he stopped suddenly, the camera pulling back to reveal Chef standing next to him...dressed like a showgirl with lots of peacock feathers. "Chef!" the host said in annoyance.
"Wardrobe was all out of vampire costumes," Chef explained as the series's capstone then began to play.
"It's all scary!" Chris said, walking off to the left. "Other than that," he scowled and gestured back toward his off-screen assistant. "Right here! Right now!" he resumed his usual demeanor. "On Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!" He adopted his spooky tone as he finished the title, and ended with another evil laugh.
XXXXX
Frogs and crickets chirped and croaked, joined by an owl's hoots as the episode opened on a shot of the full moon. The camera panned down to the cabins as the sound of snoring was added to the nighttime mix, and the scene cut inside to the girls' side of the Maggots' cabin where Anne Maria and Katie were sleeping peacefully in the bunk they shared. Dave and DJ were also shown sound asleep on the boys' side, and the scene cut to the Rat boys to show Geoff also sound asleep.
The camera cut next to show Sammy waking up with a yawn. She stretched her arms out for a few good seconds and fell right back to sleep...until the sudden shrill wail of a blow horn pierced the air.
"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Chris hollered from off-screen as the scene cut back outside, the blowhorn continuing even over the panicked shouts of the campers.
The camera briefly cut to a close-up of the blowhorn still blowing, then over to the Maggots' cabin as they ran outside fully dressed – first Katie screaming "What's happening?!"; then DJ just screaming; then Scarlett yelling out "This is unethical!"; then Anne Maria just hollering; and then finally Dave coming out, calling out "I'm wide awake!"
The Rats were shown next, Scott grunting "Me first!" as he shoved Geoff down the stairs and slid down the railing; Leshawna quickly running after him; Sammy screaming at the top of her lungs; and Trent coming out last at around the same time while screaming.
They assembled nervously in the common area between cabins, where Chris – wearing a pair of heavy earmuffs – finally eased up on the blowhorn. "Glad you all could make it," he grinned as he took off his headgear.
Molly soon arrived later. "Is there an attack or what?" she asked her teammates.
Katie shot her a quick glare. "Of course not, but why would you care about anything but yourself?"
Confessional: Molly
"Olay, yes," Molly moaned. "I left my teammates behind, but that was because I wanted to win the challenge first. I was always taught to focus on one thing before moving on to the next, and that's what I did." She grew concerned. "I don't see any problems with that."
Confessional Ends
"I hope you're all ready," Chris continued, "'cause it's challenge time!" He stepped to the side as Chef rolled up a large widescreen television on a wheeled cart. It was currently displaying an aerial map of the island with several additional colored icons – six bright green skulls scattered around the island; three yellowish envelopes over the campfire pit, the western edge of the campgrounds, and deeper into the forest; and a large purple spider in the middle of it all.
"We're gonna do a challenge?" Anne Maria wondered. "In the middle of the woods? At night?"
Confessional: Anne Maria
"Doesn't Chris know that we need our hours of sleep?" Anne Maria criticized. "I haven't even done my hair."
Confessional Ends
"Your challenge," Chris continued as though there'd been no interruption, "a scavenger hunt for three creepy souvenirs. Your locations? A haunted forest," he walked across to the other side of the television, "a scaaary pet cemetery, and an extra spooktastic cave. First team to each location gets a special clue," he said, the camera zooming in as he pointed towards the westernmost letter icon on the screen. "But watch out for booby traps," he added jovially as he moved his finger to one of the skulls, "I really went to town with them, heheh." The campers were shown watching warily.
"So move fast," the host added, "and stick together. You'll be penalized for each player you lose!"
"Umm, what's with the giant spider?" Sammy asked.
"Oh yeah," Chris answered as the shot zoomed in on the icon in question, "there's some kinda gigantic mutated spider sorta running around loose on the island."
The cast immediately started to voice their fears and protests.
"A huge, humongous spider is on the loose?!" DJ hugged Katie out of fear.
"I guess so," Katie said frightfully, but was secretly enjoying DJ hugging her.
The shot zoomed in on Dave in particular as he looked around, moaning "Oh no..." in annoyance.
Confessional: Dave
"Ever since I was a kid, I've never been a huge fan of spiders," Dave admitted. "They leave messy webs everywhere they go, and it takes me a long time to clean them up in places like my uncle's attic or my aunt's basement." A spider soon crawled down on a string. "This is gonna be unpopular, but I'm not a huge fan of Spider-Man because of my dislike of spiders." The spider hissed after hearing the criticism, making Dave flinch.
Confessional: Leshawna
"I may seem fearless on the outside, but spiders are one of the few things I'm terrified of," Leshawna said nervously. "Anything with eight legs is frightening enough."
Confessional Ends
"And since I want to keep things fair for both teams," Chris continued, "I decided to bring back an eliminated contestant for the Rats."
"It's so good to be back here!" the familiar voice of Sierra was heard, becoming more recognizable when she ran next to Chris.
"Sierra! I haven't introduced you yet!" Chris snapped at her.
"If I waited any longer, the episode would've been past the usual 22-minute runtime," Sierra explained. "I'll just go join the Toxic Rats and save you the trouble of doing so since I've rejoined."
Chris watched the fangirl run up to the contestants in annoyance. "Long story short, Sierra is the returnee." Chris regained his smile, and the dramatic and almost heroic tune started playing again. "There's nothing to fear but mortal terror itself! Talk soon," he added impishly, sounding his blowhorn once again.
The twelve campers ran off towards the woods.
\
The footage flashed ahead to another shot of the full moon over the forested hills of Wawanakwa, an owl hooting as the scene cut down to ground level. The logo of the Toxic Rats appeared in the corner of the screen just before the team itself did, running up and stopping in front of a tree with a loudspeaker set up in its branches.
"We're in first place! Sweet!" Geoff cheered just before the loudspeaker whined into activity.
"Welcome to the Haunted Forest!" Chris announced over it, the shot panning downward to show the six Rats gathering around a small crack in the ground. "Your clue can be found at the base of this tree!" Sierra reached into the hole...and screamed in pain as something metallic snapped inside the hole.
"Inside a bear trap," Chris finished his announcement with a laugh.
Sierra withdrew her hand from the hole, the trap clamped down firmly on her arm – though she was at least clutching a note in her hand. "Here! Read the clue," she said, passing it to a mildly shocked Sammy. Just as she was about to read it, the sound of approaching footsteps distracted her and her teammates.
"Bad news guys," Anne Maria commented from the six Maggots. "They have the clue."
"Even with a team advantage they still managed to beat us," Katie reminded them.
"We can let the opposing team have their clue," Scarlett said, looking back towards her teammates. "I have another plan," she said, running ahead with her teammates in tow.
\
The shot cut to the Maggots as they stopped at a clearing further along the trail. "So what's the plan?" Katie asked the girl in front.
"Find a place to hide so we can follow the Rats and their clue to our first souvenir," Scarlett answered. "Into that bush!"
The Maggots dived and painfully tried to hide in a thorn bush.
"Be quiet," Dave hissed, "They're coming."
"Inside a knot is a nest," Sammy read as the scene cut to the Rats. "Your souvenir lives with a pest. Find Polaris to travel northwest? Polaris is the North Star."
"The North Star is right there, so this way's northwest! There's a path!" Trent declared. He ran off, the rest of his teammates following suit.
"Now we follow!" Scarlett declared as the rest of her teammates came out of the bush.
\
The Rats' logo reappeared as the footage skipped ahead again to them running along through the woods.
"Inside a knot is a nest," Geoff muttered to himself as the shot zoomed in on him. "Hey Sammy, what was the rest of that poem again?" he called back without taking his eyes off the path ahead.
When he didn't get an answer he immediately skidded to a stop. "Sammy?!" he yelled in rising panic, and looked back to see nobody behind him.
The shot cut back to show that the rest of the Rats had stopped in their tracks. "What? Did we lose the mouse?" Scott asked.
Geoff gulped. "We get a penalty for each player we lose, right?" he asked nervously.
"And there's a spider crawling around, right?!" Leshawna said in panic. The shot cut outward as he did so, showing a large purple spider crawling down through the shadows of the forest trees.
"We're looking for a knot with a nest, right?" Scott looked off to the right; the camera quick-panned over to a large tree with a noticeable hollow knot in the trunk with the hints of a nest inside; a few green and red marks had been spray-painted on the bark under it.
"There it is!" Leshawna said, immediately rushing towards it.
"But what about Sammy?" Trent asked his team.
"We'll look for her after we get the souvenir," Sierra assured him.
Leshawna started climbing up the trunk as the rest of her team ran up to join her, and soon began to root through the tree hollow with one arm.
Suddenly, a large eye opened up inside the hollow and stared directly at Leshawna. She screamed, and several squid-like tentacles reached out of the tree's other hollows. One quickly grabbed her around the neck and held her up, while another gave her a few wet slaps then poked her in the eye.
"My eye!" Leshawna yelped in pain and terror. In response the tentacle tightened its grip, and Leshawna began to choke.
"What do we do!?" Sierra yelled in panic.
Geoff looked around, then bent down and picked up a handful of small rocks. "We can throw these stones at the octo guy!"
"Good idea!" Scott said as he and his team picked up rocks of their own and began throwing them at the creature, but they seemed to be hitting Leshawna more than the mutant squid-tree monster. Eventually, the thing just raised its captive up even higher, then slammed her down onto the ground and hissed at the others.
"RUN!" Geoff shouted, turning to flee as a tentacle shot towards them, forcing them to scatter.
Unfortunately, Trent was unable to get away in time and was lifted up by the leg. Trent cried in pain as the mutant began to punch him in the stomach with a curled-up tentacle.
The sounds of pain and wet punches caused Leshawna to get frustrated. "No way am I gonna get pushed around or let a squid attack my teammates!" she declared, getting back on her feet and climbing up the tree-squid's trunk while it was distracted. "Quit buggin' us!" she cried as she punched the mutant in the eye.
The beast bellowed in pain, dropping Trent and retracting into its tree. As soon as he got back up, a strand of spider's webbing shot down from above, sticking on to his head and pulling him away from the floor.
Leshawna reached into the knot once again, quickly and triumphantly pulling out a brass key. "And that's how I roll!" she called down to her teammates.
She dropped down to the forest floor, and landed in front of Geoff, who grinned when he saw it. "We got the key, Trent." Geoff received no response as Scott rejoined.
"Trent?!" Leshawna yelled out in concern. "Where are you?!"
As she panicked, the shot changed to a perspective further away, and the footage switched to an infrared shot of the four Rats.
"Guess he's gone," Sierra sighed sadly. "On the plus side, we found the key."
"We lost two players!" Leshawna said. "Shouldn't we go and look for them?"
"Knowing Chris, he probably has them trapped someplace else, so I'm not too worried right now," Scott brushed it off.
"You've got a point there," Geoff agreed.
Just then, the six Maggots arrived on the scene.
Scott was the first to notice them. "No luck here," he quickly said with faux disappointment, "Do you want to see if Sammy and Trent saw anything better over there?" he looked back and asked Sierra, Leshawna, and Geoff.
"Absolutely. It's not just the three of us," Sierra caught on before they turned and ran off.
"I see something!" Katie pointed off to the camera's right – the direction of the squid-tree. "Team colors!" The camera briefly cut over to the knot in question, with a focus on the marks below it in the two teams' colors.
"Excellent eye, Katie," Scarlett complimented while DJ ran to the tree.
"I'm not just a phone addict, y'know," Katie laughed a bit.
"I got the key, everyone," the camera cut to DJ who was in the tree's hollow and holding out a key. He threw the key in front of Dave and Molly.
"Way to go, DJ!" Molly said.
"Now you want to support us," Dave snarked at her. "Where was that when I was frozen?"
"Are you still mad about that?" Molly groaned.
"Of course we are," Katie snorted.
"You don't just leave your teammates behind," Dave lectured.
"Whatever happened happened," Anne Maria got in between them. "Let's focus more on the challenge and less on squabbling right now."
Confessional: Anne Maria
"I'm here to start no fights," Anne Maria confessed. "What Molly did was messed up, but they can scold her after the challenge."
Confessional: Molly
"Thank you, Anne Maria," Molly let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, someone who won't ride on me for my choices!"
Confessionals End
"You're right, Anne Maria," Dave sighed. "We shouldn't waste anymore time fighting."
As Dave bent down to pick up the key, however, a line of spider silk shot down from the treetops, wrapped around Molly, and pulled her up out of sight.
DJ regrouped with his team. "They said they saw something far away, so maybe-" he paused and looked behind his teammates. "Wait, where's Molly?"
The other four looked behind them and gasped. "Oh no, Molly's got taken by the spider!" Dave cried out.
"What do we do now?" Anne Maria griped.
Scarlett sighed. "Not to sound apathetic, but I think we're gonna have to continue on without her."
"Are you sure about that?" Katie questioned.
"I'm sure we can catch up to wherever she's being taken to," Scarlett waved off her concern.
"Well, I hope so," Katie said as she and the team exchanged nervous looks.
Confessional: Dave
"I don't see Molly in the best light right now, but that doesn't mean that I want her to be taken away," Dave began to shudder. "Especially by a spider."
Confessional Ends
"Why are we running so slow when we're in a challenge?" Geoff said as the scene moved back to him, Sierra, Scott, and Leshawna running through the forest. "We won't beat the other team at this rate."
"Relax, I know what I'm doing," Scott conversed with him.
Confessional: Scott
Scott was whittling another piece of wood with his shark tooth. "I'm heading us back into last place where we belong. Another elimination ceremony for the Rats and it's bye-bye Geoff! Or Sierra. I can't decide."
Confessional Ends
"C'mon, let's rock this! With years of exercise and partying, I've got energy to burn!" Geoff said, snatching the key from Leshawna and jogging ahead. The three followed him, but the camera kept its focus on Geoff as he passed a tree stump, then a rock; then stepped on a mysterious clump of dirt… which exploded and sent him flying.
Leshawna, Sierra, and Scott stopped immediately, the shot showing Sierra and Leshawna being shocked and Scott showing delight as Geoff got launched from one land mine to the next off-screen.
During this, however, a line of spider webbing was shot onto Sierra's leg. It quickly wrapped around it and tugged Sierra away from her team.
The camera finally cut back to Geoff, singed and groaning on the ground in an awkward but still holding the Rats' key. The Maggots approached him moments later. "Sorry that had to happen, doll!" Anne Maria comforted as she ran past Geoff.
Scott and Leshawna came to Geoff's need. "You gonna be alright?" Leshawna helped him up.
"I'll walk it off," Geoff tried to remain cool headed.
"Thanks, focus boy," Scott said.
"I don't want to strain my calves," Geoff added.
"We should leave in a few minutes just to make sure we catch up to the other team," Leshawna said. "Sierra just got captured, and I don't want us sticking around here."
\
The scene cut to the lantern-lit cemetery. The camera panned left across its headstones and crosses, several of which were pet-themed, to the entrance as the five remaining Mutant Maggots arrived, huffing and puffing from their run.
"Welcome to the Wawanakwa Pet Cemetery!" Chris greeted them over the loudspeaker.
"We're first. Nice!" Dave said.
"What's the clue?" Anne Maria asked Scarlett.
The camera cut in close as she opened the lid to a small coffin in an open grave, revealing a ragged piece of paper within bearing a list of numbers: 5 in the first row; 5 in the second; 5 in the third. Notably, while most of the numbers were plain black there were three 6s and the 18 were all an eye-catching red. "Three 6's is normally not a good indication of luck," Scarlett said with a nervous look.
"Let's fan out and look for numbers!" DJ said as the perspective cut back to its usual sideview.
"By ourselves?" Anne Maria asked.
\
"I'm in a creepy cemetery in the middle of the woods looking for three 6s. It's no big deal," Anne Maria said warily as she backed through the graveyard. "Good news is, there aren't any owls hooting around. I think I'm safe," she told herself, pausing to smile. "Now, let's see if I can find any numbers..."
She turned around and started examining the nearest headstone, and the shot cut to a view from afar, the footage switching back to infrared. The monster serving as the camera's viewpoint blinked, and when it opened its eyes it had gotten much closer to the jersey girl, and had extended four sharp limbs with tiny claws on the end towards her...
Anne Maria's scream echoed through the cemetery, quickly catching the attention of Katie, DJ, Scarlett, and Dave as they looked up in shock. "Anne Maria?" Dave asked out in concern, the footage quickly skipping ahead to show all four arriving at the location the tanned young lady had been snatched from.
"I could've sworn she was just here," Dave said in confusion.
They all gasped. "Where'd she go?" Katie asked in mild terror.
"I'm just as concerned as you all are," Scarlett started, "but like what happened with Molly, we should move along and hope to catch up with them."
"I know you're trying to be reasonable," DJ said, "but you're rubbing me off the wrong way."
"Yeah, it's like you don't care about what could happen to our teammates," Dave told her.
"I'm just used to not expressing my emotions on occasion," Scarlett told her team members. "Thank you very much."
\
The scene flashed to the Rats, where Scott and Leshawna were next to grimy coffins propped upright against a couple statues.
"Find the souvenir, hide the souvenir, lose the game…" Scott went in to unlock the coffin, but was interrupted by Fang bursting out of the coffin with a menacing grin.
"AAAAHHHHH!" The devious ran away screaming when Fang moved to chase after him.
Geoff was looking at a grave that was open. "This grave smells like french fries. Weird, but I'm not complaining." He got shoved in thanks to Scott running away from Fang.
The camera followed Scott as he ran past two open graves, one of which with a mound of dirt in front of it.
The mutant shark followed his quarry, but when Scott leapt over the mound of dirt, Fang tripped over it. The shark fell into the open grave and growled.
"Why does this graveyard smell like fries?" Katie wondered aloud, following a scent as she walked through the cemetery. She soon came to the pit Geoff was in. "Maybe it's coming from there."
"Hello? Anybody? I need someone to help me down here!" Geoff called out.
Katie backed away a bit. "Did that hole just talk?"
"It's me. Geoff!" Geoff tried to denounce her belief.
"Oh right," Katie sighed in relief. "You're the guy with the cowboy hat."
"That's right," Geoff confirmed her statement. "I fell down this hole, and I'm covered in grease right now."
"So that explains the smell," Katie realized.
"Can you get me out of here?" Geoff begged her. "Grease doesn't mesh well with my shirt."
"I would, but I have to help my team right now," Katie declined. "One of your teammates could get you out. Bye," she left the scene.
"This sucks," Geoff whined, unaware of four maggots coming by the grave. As soon as they saw the grease and Geoff, they jumped in and attacked him, making him howl in agony.
\
The scene cut to Chris, who was watching feeds of both teams on a trio of monitors and laughing hysterically. "Will anyone make it to the spooky cave?" he turned and asked the camera, holding a covered cup with a straw in it. "And if so, how can they possibly make it all the way to the finish line? Less brain, more pain, when we return!" he said, finishing with a sip of his drink.
\
(Commercial Break)
\
2023.06.04 18:58 Keyven17 27/ looking for friend with similar interests / PC 👀▶️
Im looking to meet a good pal to play games with on PC regularly and be good friends in general, I play a lot of different games, right now though ive mostly been playing SMITE, gunfire reborn, RoR, and Dark and darker (when it's back) . I'm mostly on after 5 Mountain time on weekdays but on almost all day on the weekends.
I'm looking to find people to play games like (in no particular order) :
but im down to play a ton of other games too, im probably missing some on that list, I love coop games, I just don't have anyone consistent to play with. Preferably we have more than just one game in common so we aren't just playing one game, and again I may have not mentioned everything so I'm open to other suggestions too.
When it comes to coop progression games I like to both be pretty new to it, I don't like if you already have 280 hours in a coop game and I'm brand new.
I also like watching smash melee tournaments and keeping up with it lol. I can't figure out how to get slippi to work so I can't really play but I'm not very good anyway.
Ideally we'd start off with with playing some non committed games first like risk of rain or gunfire or smite or warzone and then we can move on to real coop stuff 😁
Some games I DON'T play are:
I enjoy banter, dark humor, uh being BASED and lighthearted trolling / trash talking but never to the point where it's super toxic, I have pretty thick skin and I would even say I would enjoy you shit talking me. So ideally looking for someone with a similar kind of vibe. Also be 21+.
Music I like: Cage the elephant, AM, Foster the people, Ok Go, the strokes, MGMT, Brad sucks, alvvays, Nas, YEEZY and other random things (we don't have to like the same music to be friends obviously, just something more about me, if we do that's pretty cool)
Shows: It's always sunny, parks and rec, breaking bad, death note, 30 rock, stranger things, Malcom in the middle, scrubs (again this doesn't matter to be friends, just something extra about me)
Politically I am more left leaning but I don't really care as long as you aren't weird one way or the other.
submitted by Keyven17 to GamerPals [link] [comments]
I'm looking to find people to play games like (in no particular order) :
- smite
- smite ranked (I feel like it's a different game, I'm plat 3)
- Dark and darker (whenever it's around)
- Across the abolisk
- Company of Heroes
- Company of heroes 2
- fight crab
- endless legend
- Parkitect
- phasmophobia (I find it a little boring but I goof around and have fun for a bit)
- risk of rain 1
- risk of rain 2
- Slay the Spire (apparently there is some coop mod so that could be interesting)
- pummel party
- Gunfire reborn
- tabletop simulator
- Zombie Army 4
- Killing floor 2
- Overcooked 2
- Plate up
- Evil west
- Fury unleashed
- We were here
- gloomhaven
- baldurs gate 3
- Orcs must die 3
- Ready or not
- for the king (the rng is so dumb in this)
- remnant from the ashes (except im pretty high level and would like to be around the same level as you and do nightmare difficulty or willing to restart even if we hit it off after a while)
- 7 days to die (I've never played it and ideally neither have you)
- Terraria (I've made it kind of far in it previously but then ppl stop playing u know how it goes so I'd only be willing to do this one after we have known each other for a bit)
but im down to play a ton of other games too, im probably missing some on that list, I love coop games, I just don't have anyone consistent to play with. Preferably we have more than just one game in common so we aren't just playing one game, and again I may have not mentioned everything so I'm open to other suggestions too.
When it comes to coop progression games I like to both be pretty new to it, I don't like if you already have 280 hours in a coop game and I'm brand new.
I also like watching smash melee tournaments and keeping up with it lol. I can't figure out how to get slippi to work so I can't really play but I'm not very good anyway.
Ideally we'd start off with with playing some non committed games first like risk of rain or gunfire or smite or warzone and then we can move on to real coop stuff 😁
Some games I DON'T play are:
- dead by daylight
- Valorant
- csgo
- apex
- OW
- r6
I enjoy banter, dark humor, uh being BASED and lighthearted trolling / trash talking but never to the point where it's super toxic, I have pretty thick skin and I would even say I would enjoy you shit talking me. So ideally looking for someone with a similar kind of vibe. Also be 21+.
Music I like: Cage the elephant, AM, Foster the people, Ok Go, the strokes, MGMT, Brad sucks, alvvays, Nas, YEEZY and other random things (we don't have to like the same music to be friends obviously, just something more about me, if we do that's pretty cool)
Shows: It's always sunny, parks and rec, breaking bad, death note, 30 rock, stranger things, Malcom in the middle, scrubs (again this doesn't matter to be friends, just something extra about me)
Politically I am more left leaning but I don't really care as long as you aren't weird one way or the other.
2023.06.04 16:03 Star_Enha I’m the 2nd viewer!
 | submitted by Star_Enha to JackSucksAtGeography [link] [comments] |
2023.06.04 14:02 Cowboys-Fan Picking a familiar face may pay dividends for the Dallas Cowboys
 | submitted by Cowboys-Fan to realCowboysNation [link] [comments] |
2023.06.04 13:03 BullAlligator [General Discussion] REGIONALS WEEK: Part IV (2023)
/collegebaseball General Discussion Thread - REGIONALS WEEK: Part IV (2023)
— Rules
— Guidelines
— Get Team Flair
— Inline Flair List
— Line Score Template
Regionals Week Games
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29th | 30th | 31st | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
2023 Postseason Top 25
Mean+Median 3-Poll Composite| Rank | Team | Conference | D1B | BWA | USAT | Prev. | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wake Forest Demon Deacons | ACC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 2 | Florida Gators | SEC | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | — |
| 3 | Vanderbilt Commodores | SEC | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | ↑3 |
| 4 | Arkansas Razorbacks | SEC | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | ↑1 |
| 5 | Clemson Tigers | ACC | 3 | 6 | 5 | 8 | ↑3 |
| 6 | LSU Tigers | SEC | 7 | 5 | 6 | 4 | ↓2 |
| 7 | Stanford Cardinal | Pac-12 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 3 | ↓4 |
| 8 | Miami Hurricanes | ACC | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | ↑2 |
| 9 | Coastal Carolina Chanticleers | Sun Belt | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | ↓2 |
| 10 | Virginia Cavaliers | ACC | 11 | 11 | 9 | 11 | ↑1 |
| 11 | Campbell Fighting Camels | Big South | 12 | 10 | 11 | 15 | ↑4 |
| 12 | ECU Pirates | American | 15 | 12 | 12 | 12 | — |
| 13 | Connecticut Huskies | Big East | 10 | 13 | 14 | 9 | ↓4 |
| 14 | Oklahoma State Cowboys | Big 12 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 17 | ↑3 |
| 15 | Dallas Baptist Patriots | C-USA | 18 | 14 | 15 | 16 | ↑1 |
| 16 | Southern Miss Golden Eagles | Sun Belt | 13 | 17 | 19 | 21 | ↑5 |
| 17 | Oregon State Beavers | Pac-12 | 14 | 21 | 17 | 13 | ↓4 |
| 18 | Tennessee Volunteers | SEC | 21 | 18 | 16 | 14 | ↓4 |
| 19 | South Carolina Gamecocks | SEC | NR | 16 | 18 | 19 | — |
| 20 | Maryland Terrapins | Big Ten | 19 | 19 | 25 | 25 | ↑5 |
| 21 | Alabama Crimson Tide | SEC | 22 | 20 | 23 | NR | ↑6 |
| 22 | Indiana State Sycamores | MVC | 23 | 23 | 20 | NR | ↑ |
| 23 | Kentucky Wildcats | SEC | NR | 22 | 21 | 23 | — |
| 24 | West Virginia Mountaineers | Big 12 | NR | 25 | 22 | 18 | ↓6 |
| 25 | Auburn Tigers | SEC | 20 | 27 | NR | NR | ↑1 |
| NR | Duke Blue Devils | ACC | NR | 24 | NR | 24 | ↓2 |
| NR | TCU Horned Frogs | Big 12 | 17 | 28 | NR | NR | ↑ |
| NR | Oregon Ducks | Pac-12 | 24 | 26 | NR | NR | ↑ |
| NR | Boston College Eagles | ACC | NR | 29 | 24 | 20 | ↓9 |
| NR | Texas A&M Aggies | SEC | 25 | 30 | NR | NR | ↑ |
D1B – D1Baseball
CBW – National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association
USAT – USA Today
2023 Division 1 League Champions
| Conference | Regular Season | Tournament |
|---|---|---|
| ACC | Wake Forest | Clemson |
| America East | Maine | Maine |
| American | ECU | Tulane |
| A-10 | St. Joseph's | George Mason |
| ASUN | Lipscomb | Lipscomb |
| Big 12 | Oklahoma State, Texas, & West Virginia | TCU |
| Big East | Connecticut | Xavier |
| Big South | Campbell | Campbell |
| Big Ten | Maryland | Maryland |
| Big West | UC San Diego* | ɴᴏɴᴇ |
| CAA | UNCW | UNCW |
| C-USA | Dallas Baptist | Charlotte |
| Horizon | Wright State | Wright State |
| Ivy League | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania |
| MAAC | Fairfield | Rider |
| MAC | Kent State | Ball State |
| Missouri Valley | Indiana State | Indiana State |
| Mountain West | San Diego State & San José State | San José State |
| NEC | Central Connecticut | Central Connecticut |
| Ohio Valley | Morehead State | Eastern Illinois |
| Pac-12 | Stanford | Oregon |
| Patriot | Army | Army |
| SEC | Arkansas & Florida | Vanderbilt |
| SoCon | Samford | Samford |
| Southland | Nicholls | Nicholls |
| Summit | Oral Roberts | Oral Roberts |
| Sun Belt | Coastal Carolina | Southern Miss |
| SWAC | Alabama State | Florida A&M |
| WAC | Grand Canyon | Sam Houston |
| West Coast | Loyola Marymount | Santa Clara |
2023.06.04 10:56 purelemonaderiver StubHub Dallas Cowboys Tickets Coupon Code
Use the link for StubHub Dallas Cowboys Tickets Coupon Code. The website features a wide selection of coupons, promo codes, and discount deals that are updated regularly for you to choose from and make your purchase more affordable.
submitted by purelemonaderiver to DiscountIrid [link] [comments]
2023.06.04 07:38 JonahDan White box One of One
 | Can't find any info on white box Panini encased items that give an indication on value. Anyone have any ideas or have sold any? I have an Ezekiel Elliott patch auto one of one. Thanks submitted by JonahDan to Panini [link] [comments] |
2023.06.04 04:00 Kazevenikov Cryptid Chronicle - Chapter 31
Thanks and Credits in the Comments Section due to LONG chapter.
Chapter 31: A Whale of a Tale and it’s All True
“IT’S FUCKING J-POD!”
Kalai watched in shock and awe as the two humans collectively lost their minds, hopping up and down and letting loose a series of high pitched vocalizing as she, Papa, and Mama Sakalbi stared in confusion at the two ecstatic aliens.
Andy turned and ran back to where Kalai and her parents were still staring in amazement and held his hand out, face alight and happier than she’d ever seen him before. “Binoculars! Quick! I want to see who’s out there!” Mama Sakalbi tentatively held them out, and he took them with a nod of thanks before rushing back to the bow. Kalai started as he jumped up on the bow and balanced against the roller horns to spot the black and white whales that were swimming fast towards the net.
“Eyes on Mama Shachi! Look, over there, see her?” Kalai approached cautiously as Andy pointed in the direction of a cluster of porpoising black shapes that were coming nearer.
“Eyes on! I got Grammie Slick out there too; the WHOLE POD’S HERE!” Jackie cut loose an undulating cry and waved her hands as little geysers of water and air shot out from the water on the other side of the net.
Kalai nearly jumped when a miniature version of the Orcas from the clone tank at Headquarters breached the water, leaping almost twice her height into the air before splashing back down in a massive wave.
“Look at that! Butterball’s getting some good air these days!” Andy crowed as he hopped back down from the bow and passed the binoculars to Jackie.
“Butterball?” Mama Sakalbi asked as she and Papa joined them. Kalai stared as the Orcas formed a line and charged at the middle of the ‘S’ bend in the net before diving down in front of it, sending a wave that pushed the corks back. She saw the spouts and the dorsal fins rise again for another charge at the net.
“He’s the baby, only about four years old. Grammie Slick’s taking the family hunting, see how they’re flattening the net out? We’re about to have a great fucking day!” Andy took Jackie’s shotgun and took it back to the cabin as Kalai and her parents crowded the rail.
“What are they doing?” Mama Sakalbi’s question was directed at Jackie and the woman turned to answer with a gigantic smile.
“Herding! See the ones circling around the net?” Jackie pointed to the two dorsal fins that were almost invisible in the fog that was starting to burn off in the morning sun that had started to clear the eastern mountains. “They’ll be starting to round up small schools of salmon once they’re done turning our net into a reef. Right now, they’re running along the line and probably seeing what they have to work with.”
Mama Sakalbi did a double take, “You must be joking, that level of intelligence would almost be-”
“Human?” Jackie interrupted with a smile, “Yeah, that’s our original teachers out there. We learned to fish from them.”
“I was going to say ‘sentient’, but I take your point. What I want to know is, what are they doing?” Mama Sakalbi gestured out at them, with a bewildered look on her face.
“They’re using the net as a sea wall. Thing is, the net’s hard to see in the water, but the fish can feel it. They’ll put their heads into the net, but that doesn’t catch them. They’ll try to swim around it so that’s why we put an ‘S’ bend. That’s where most of the fish get tangled.” Andy returned and picked up the explanation. “See in the center of the line? That fin with the black and white little checkmark behind it? That’s Grammie Slick, the Matriarch. She’s around sixty now, and grew up out here LONG before you all came down. They don’t always do this, but I guess with you all keeping the fishing fleets docked, she saw the net and wanted a big meal for the family. They’re going to keep pushing the net until it’s in the shape of a crescent and herd a bunch of small schools into a big baitball with pickets to keep the fish pinned in the middle. You watch, there’ll be salmon jumping all over in the middle as they school up.”
“That’s when you’ll see them charge up the center and take big old mouthfuls of salmon. It’ll be a smorgasbord for ‘em!” Jackie pulled up Andy’s omnipad and started recording.
“Wait, but you hate seals for competing with you for food, why are you this excited about Orcas who take so much more?” Papa asked as he also took out his omnipad and started recording as the pod of Orcas finished repositioning their net just as Andy described.
“Because they’re using the nets as a reef to trap the fish! See? Look! There they go! The wolves are out scaring every salmon in the area here!” Kalai dug her own omnipad out at Andy’s words and watched as the dorsal fins sank below the waves, with only a faint and fading wake to tell where they’d gone.
“Now watch ‘em set pickets! They’re going to start patrolling the outside of the net. When they get enough salmon in the middle, they’re going to charge. When they do, watch the entire middle section of our corks go under from the salmon trying to get away. They get whole heaping mouthfuls of food and we get a full net!”
Kalai watched the Orcas swimming in circles around the net like Helix Sharks, and felt a pang of fear seeing the big predators that seemed so gentle and inquisitive in the tank. “But what if they get caught in the net?”
Jackie suppressed a laugh before sweeping an arm out at the net. “I’ve never seen that happen before, and I haven’t even heard of it happening before… at least not here in the Salish Sea. All our Orcas grew up around these nets, so they’ll either avoid them or use them like they are right now.”
“I think it’s because they can see them and the fish can’t. Either way, we’re in for a show!” Andy patted Kalai on the back before pushing Kalai and Mama Sakalbi forward.
For a long while, the surface was calm, save for the circling Orcas as they all watched. Then, by degrees, there was movement on the surface of the water as fish the length of Kalai’s arm started to jump and kick in the baitball. Kalai watched, fascinated, as Orcas seemed to appear and disappear along the edges but never approached the middle of the net.
All the fins disappeared from the surface and an eerie stillness settled over the water. Suddenly, the water in the middle of the crescent erupted, with hundreds of fish shooting out of the water and a sudden surge that hit and pushed the corks outward before they sank completely out of sight. Jackie and Andy started vocalizing those strange undulating cries again, raising their fists in the air before shouting something in their language. From as best as Kalai could guess, it was encouragement as the Orcas started breaching and jumping. In those moments, Kalai could catch glimpses of their mouths full of salmon.
Kalai watched as the terrified fish swarmed towards the net, and watched as many seemed to jump over it and swim away as the Orcas gorged themselves on the enormous school of salmon they had trapped. It was an awe inspiring sight to see, and Kalai lost herself in the moment watching the amazing display of symbiotic hunting and fishing between them and the Orcas.
The engine of the boat turning over broke the spell they were all under as Andy moved the boat at a dead slow pace back towards the net. “Alright, let’s haul it in and reset for ‘em! Jackie! Get on the bow with the billhook!” Jackie whooped in agreement and gently pushed passed Kalai to grab a long pole with a small metal hook at the end.
“We’re gonna have to work fast. They’re hungry, and we all want salmon today,” Andy called over the sound of the engine as they approached the giant buoy that marked the end of the net. “Doc! Open that hatch back there and watch your step! Mrs. Vaida, stand clear in the cabin; I want no accidents today, and three on deck’s going to be a crowd with how many fish we’re going to be taking in. Kalai, I want you back in the-”
Kalai shook her head as she put her omnipad away. “I can do it! Let me help!” she was riding the high feeling of watching the Orcas, and seeing Andy and Jackie preparing to go to work while she was to be just a passenger galled her.
Kalai saw Andy give Jackie a look that she couldn’t quite interpret. “Alright, but you’ll work with me picking fish. Jackie, you’re on the Drum; trade places with me!”
Kalai saw Jackie huff and give Andy a piercing look as she handed off the billhook. “Watch out for jellies, they tend to explode,” the native woman muttered to Kalai as she took over at the net drum’s controls. Kalai was about to volunteer to grab the line with the hook, given her longer reach, but Andy had already leaned almost all the way over the side. Kalai had a momentary scare as Andy seemed to dip forward, seemingly in danger of falling overboard, until he seemed to almost levitate himself using his lower legs back into the boat and pulled the line over the roller horns. She stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do when Andy braced a foot against the side and began to pull on the line and feed it back towards Jackie.
“Way, haul away, we’ll hang and haul together! Way, haul away, haul away Joe!”
Though she didn’t understand the words, Kalai knew a sailing song when she heard one and didn’t wait for any instruction. She moved forward opposite Andy and lent a hand, pulling the heavy line in to the cadence of his chant. After two verses, Kalai heard the whine of hydraulics and the slack in the line behind them went taught.
“Stand back! Here we go!” Andy called to her and the line began pulling the net back aboard. Kalai looked back to see that Jackie had wrapped the line around the center pole of the drum, with the wheel turning to pull the line and net in out of the water. A small set of guide poles that moved when Jackie twitched the controls kept the line evenly distributed on the drum as the first corks and the dripping wet net began to appear out of the water.
“Put your hoods up!” Andy yelled at her over the noise of the machines, and demonstrated the motion. “It’ll keep the water, seaweed and Jellies out of your face and eyes, and take this!” Andy tossed her what appeared to be a handkerchief and he mimed the act of tying it around her face like a mask.
“What about you? You’re sleeveless!” Kalai’s voice was slightly muffled from the cloth as she tied it around her face before pulling up both hoods.
Andy didn’t respond, except to grin at her as he leaned out to watch the net coming up out of the water before it got pulled aboard.
From behind her, Kalai heard Jackie start singing another human sailing song. It was a bit fast paced, and Andy joined in for the chorus. On the third time she heard it, she joined in too.
“Blow ye winds in the mornin’, Blow ye winds, high ho! Haul away your running gear, And blow ye winds, high ho!”
“Coming up!” Andy shouted as there were several loud thunks before six large salmon appeared in the giant fluorescent green tangle of the net. The drum stopped, bringing the fish to a halt as Andy pulled on the corkline and scurried his hands back and forth, gathering the net up as he did until he reached the first fish. Kalai watched in awe as he seemed to magically pull the fish from the tangle and shake it out onto the deck. The second one seemed to be resting on top of the tangle and he flipped it over the corkline and shook the fish out onto the deck.
“Just watch these first few. When you get a feel for how I’m doing this, jump in. Until then, slide these beauties back towards the stern. Jackie’ll pitch ‘em into the hold.”
Kalai nodded and watched Andy’s movements intently. It looked like sorcery, with how fast he moved his hands and zeroed in on a fish. As soon as he was done, he’d whistle to Jackie, who kept singing the cadence out to pull more of the net in, only to stop when more fish were pulled up and over the horns.
The song changed twice before Kalai felt confident enough to jump in. She almost got tangled in the net herself trying to pull out her first fish, but Andy gave the net a quick tug and she was free again. Maddeningly, the fish had simply fallen out of the net without any help from her, and she fumed just long enough for Andy to point to one that was closer to her.
“Hoist up the thing, batten down the whatsit! What’s that thing spinning, somebody should stop it! Turn hard to Port! That’s not Port, NOW I GOT IT! Trust me, I’m in control!”
On the second refrain, Kalai managed to dig her first fish out and drop it to the deck. She let out a whoop, and Andy paused for a moment to give her a quick applause.
“That’s one, girl! There’s a thousand left if we’re lucky!” Jackie called out as Andy sang a verse and tackled another fish in the net.
“Keep an eye on the lead line; make sure it doesn’t go over the corks!” Andy called as Kalai ran down her second fish and was about to throw the excess net over the other side. She stopped, and Andy helped her get the fish without tangling the net.
It took until the end of the song for Kalai to find her rhythm, and soon she and Andy were running down fish in the net in a crisp and quick manner. Kalai felt like she could go faster, but Andy had cautioned her to keep pace with the songs, as there was still a lot of net to go. When Kalai spared a glance at the length of net still in the water, she saw that Andy wasn’t kidding. It looked like they hadn’t even really started to reel it all in. Ok, it’s hard work, but so is sailing, and he’s my size so I should be able to keep up with him. If he can do it, I can do it!
“Haul away you rollin’ kings! Heave away, Haul away! Haul away you’ll hear me sing, We’re bound for South Australia!”
Andy was impressed. Kalai had jumped in without complaint, and she was very coachable. He could feel himself start to flag as they were starting to come to the last third of the net, but Kalai’s persistence, even though she was sweatier and more haggard than he was, kept him going.
The pile of salmon was almost as deep as their calves, and the deck was getting slick with fish slime. For that matter, so was Andy. In a momentary lull in the fish coming over the horns, Andy caught a glimpse of himself shimmering with all the scales that had flown off the fish as they scraped against the net to hit the deck, flopping. He took a big gulp of air and Kalai groaned as she straightened up, cracking her back as she twisted and bent to relieve her aching muscles.
Andy groaned a bit and looked back towards the stern. It was getting hard to see over the amount of net they’d pulled back in, but he could see Doc and Mrs. Vaida doing their best to help throw and shove the piles of salmon into the hold. Everybody’s getting their hands dirty today. Andy smiled and heaved a happy sigh. This, this is what I want. Being out on the water and doing good, hard work.
“SHIT, JELLYFISH!” Kalai shouted as she twisted away to hide her face behind her rain slicker hood. Andy blinked just in time as a wet squelching sound sent a spray of disintegrating jellyfish exploding all over the bow as the net bunched up and got squeezed together.
Andy felt it splatter all over his arms, neck, and face, before he felt it start to slide down his shirt to his chest. Almost immediately, he started to feel the burn. His arms, neck, and chest he could stand, but the blossoming pain on his lips, eyelids, cheeks, and most horribly the inside of his nose overwhelmed all his conditioned pain tolerance.
“FUCK!” Andy screamed. “FUCKING FUCKER! RIGHT IN MY FUCKING FACE! GOD FUCKING DAMNIT! FUCK!” Andy only barely avoided bringing his hands to his face. It was a hard fought thing to deny his instinct to try and scrape it off, but he felt his boots loose purchase and his feet slide out from under him. He hit the pile of fish that surrounded him hard. He was aware of Kalai yelling for her father and Mrs. Vaida, while Jackie’s braying laugh carried over everything else.
Andy felt Kalai trying to grab him, but her gloves were too slick to get a grip and all she did was spread the stingers more evenly over his arms. Andy kept his eyes squeezed shut as he heard Jackie start to direct the confused and panicking aliens.
“Hold your breath, cuz, vinegar incoming!”
Andy felt the bitter stinging splash as Jackie poured a steady stream of vinegar out from what he assumed was the giant jug he kept for these occasions underneath the little kitchenette in the cabin. Though nothing about the intensity of the burn changed, in the back of his mind, Andy knew that it was killing the stinging cells.
“Alright, Kally, take that bucket and fill it with seawater from over the side, then dump it on him.”
Andy sputtered a bit and spit as he scrabbled onto his knees. He steadied himself with one hand on the rail beside him and the other which found the corkline. He kept his eyes shut and growled as the burning spread from his hairline down to his navel. A sudden bracing splash of cold water nearly bowled him back over. Without warning, Andy hadn't had time to get a breath and he sputtered and yowled as the water soaked down under his rain gear.
Andy shook his head like a dog, whipping his braid back and forth before daring to open his eyes. “Son of a BITCH!” Andy growled as he got a look at Kalai holding an empty bucket, while Jackie was shoo’ing Mrs. Vaida and Dr. He’osforos away to give him some room.
“Jesus, quit your bawlin,’ you big baby, you’re acting like you’ve never been stung before!” Jackie called back to him as Andy ripped the gloves off his hands and plunged them over the side to clean off the stingers.
“It’s in my fucking nose you horse’s ass!” Andy shouted back as he splashed his face. A few strings of purple stingers fell into the water and Andy reared back aboard. “Ugh, get another bucket of seawater! I can still feel this shit!”
“Andrei, as a medical professional, I advise you to cease work and-”
Andy looked over as Dr. He’osforos spoke but waved him off mid sentence. “I appreciate it Doc, but I’ve had it far worse than this. There’s a brown and yellow bottle in one of the drawers under the bench that says ‘Motrin’. Get me the bottle or enough to tranq a cow, and I’ll go back to work just fine.”
Kalai let loose a piercing scream and Andy looked over just in time to see her rocketed herself backwards, dropping the bucket over the side. The Doctor caught his daughter before she fell into the hold, but he too had a look of fear plastered on his face. Andy and Jackie moved to the side to see what had scared her so badly, and the two of them couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Grammie Slick and two of her daughters were there, sticking their heads out of the water with their mouths open, while Butterball was playing with the bucket.
Jackie laughed and stuck her hand out, rubbing the Orca matriarch on the snout. “Raggedy Andy’s fine, Grammie Slick! He’s just milking it for sympathy from these gullible hwun’eetums!”
“What in the Balance of Nature is going on here?” Mrs. Vaida’s shocked voice caused Andy and Jackie to look at her as she stared dumbfounded at the Orcas that were gathering alongside the boat.
“Oh they’re just saying ‘hi.’” Andy shrugged with a smile, despite the burning.
“More like ‘What the hell, cousins, you still got fish to pick. Quit loafin’ around and get another set in!’”
“Jackie, Motrin… NOW!” Andy growled at her. Jackie blew a raspberry at him before diving into the cabin.
“They’re pretty friendly, if you’d like to be introduced,” Andy held out a hand and motioned for Kalai and her father to step forward. Andy dipped his hand in again to make sure it was clear of any stinging cells, before he gently guided the hesitant Kalai to stick her ungloved hand out toward Grammie Slick.
One of the daughters blew a spout before sliding back under water, but Grammie gave a few clicks before briefly touching Kalai’s outstretched hand. “Kalai, this is Grammie Slick, Matriarch of J-Pod. Grammie, this is Kalai… a purple hwun’eetum.” Andy laughed a bit at the look of incredulity on Kalai’s face and the concern on her father’s.
There was a series of shutter clicks from behind Andy, and he turned to see Sakalbi snapping pictures as fast as she could. Kalai was clearly torn between fear and wonder as she held perfectly still and silent for Grammie, who was letting her touch her before she slid back under the water herself. Andy laughed as several clicks and whistles from the pod reverberated through the hull of the boat and he leaned back in.
“Alright, break’s over,” Andy called as he caught the flying bottle of pills Jackie threw at him. He popped two and swallowed them dry before washing the gloves off and putting them on. The extra rinse would have to wait, and he’d have to tough it out until they got back to shore. His boots squelched as he picked his way through the fish on the deck to get back to his station and nodded for Jackie to restart the drum.
It was another twenty minutes before the last of the net was pulled aboard and they were able to clear away all the fish into the hold. Andy stuck his head in and smiled. In a single set, they’d filled three quarters of it, and they had more than enough fish for the gathering and to feed another ten to fifteen families besides. The spouts and the clicks of J-Pod hanging around the boat, however, told Andy that they wanted their reef back and were still hungry.
Andy ordered them to prep the net for another set and helmed his boat again, only to bomb out in a straight line and let J-Pod take care of the fishing from that point on. Once they’d finished, Andy moved the boat out of the Orcas’ way and stood outside the cabin with Jackie while the three aliens crowded the bow, watching and recording the whales going to work a second time.
“Ok, I think we might get a moment to talk,” Andy muttered to Jackie in Salishian. “New orders from the Council. There’s going to be a raid.”
Jackie sucked in a breath and looked at him, all levity gone. “Cambrians, Militia, or the Dummy Bunnies?”
“Militia and the Interior.”
Jackie whistled softly in surprise as her eyebrows shot up. “Really poking the bear, cuz… When and where?”
“Uncle Willy wants us to hit the Militia Supply Depot out by Tanner on Saturday,” Andy growled quietly as he watched Kalai pointing to Grammie Slick’s dorsal as she swam out on the picket around the net.
“You mean the one close to the Snoqualmish?”
“Yeah. Full raid, we’re to hit it and take any supplies, especially military, that we can and destroy what we can’t. The messier we can make it the better. We’ll meet up with the Resistance on the old Bessemer Logging road by Hancock Creek and they get half for taking the credit. Me and Chuck’ve been assigned to ‘lead’ you.” Andy nodded and tried to flick some of the fish scales off himself, but got nowhere.
Jackie sat down on the rail with a groan before looking back up at him with a smirk. “You mean babysit on overwatch while we do the real work.”
Andy pursed his numb lips together and considered the ramifications of folding his arms on the jellyfish burns that had started to go quiet thanks to the Motrin. “Grandma and the Council want me to ‘get my hands dirty.’” He gritted his teeth in frustration.
“What? I’m sorry, that sentence made zero sense.” Jackie shook her head like she’d just been slapped.
Andy couldn’t keep the frustration and anger out of his tone when he spoke. “Apparently there are doubts about my loyalty to the tribe and whether or not I’ve lost my way.”
Jackie huffed in amusement. “Everyone knows the Council’s fucking stupid, but this is a new level of dumb. You got us land back, you got them to allow you to break the rules to feed our people, they’re fixing the fuck ups on our waterways because of you and they think you’ve gone to the dark side?” Jackie started laughing at the nonsense of the politics.
“Last time we talked, you thought I was playing with fire and-” Andy started to throw back at her before she snorted loudly.
“Results talk, cuz. Three of our Hatcheries returned, and my whole family drawing good money in Imperial Credits? Fuck, even if you had sold out, we need more Clan Heads doing the same thing.” She smiled as she nodded towards their guests on the bow.
“They still don’t trust that I know what I’m doing,” Andy growled as he folded his arms unconsciously and immediately regretted it.
Jackie snorted. “Of course they don’t. You didn’t talk to them or get their permission first. Hell, I’m surprised your grandma didn’t chuck you out on your ear for even suggesting that you should work for the dummy bunnies.” Jackie stretched and hopped up and around Andy to grab a water bottle. “But it’s working out. There’s land being returned, money in our hands, and food about to be on our table. You’re doin’ what a Chief is supposed to do.”
Andy scoffed and started to object. “I’m no Chief-”
Jackie gave his shoulder a slap and grinned evilly as a starburst of pain and burning cut through the painkillers, shutting Andy up mid-protest. “You keep saying you aren’t, but that don’t make it true.” She resumed her seat as Andy fought the yowl of pain back so as not to give her the satisfaction. “I mean, case in point, what are you going to do with all these fish Grammie’s catching for us right now?”
Andy blinked a few times as he regained his composure and thought seriously about his answer. “We’ll pull fifteen for the gathering they got invited to… Then all the fish you can pack into the truck goes to the Exiles. The rest? I’ll call Chuck and get some folks from the Council to claim the rest and distribute it to the families that need it.”
Jackie deepened her voice and adopted a cowboy drawl. “He never eats until he sees the pots are full of meat in the lodges of the widows and orphans-”
“That’s Comanche Law, not Salish, and that’s from a John Wayne movie, you ass.” Andy huffed and Jackie giggled wickedly, flipped him off.
“Still haven’t refuted my point, cuz.” Jackie’s singsong voice caused Andy to glare spitefully at her, until she raised her hands defensively. “Alright, you’re not a Chief. So, Not Chief Tsu’titsi’uqw; you need to get your hands dirty and lead a raid. I’ll scrape up what we need and scout the target. You just meet up with us Saturday night at the Snoqualmish Casino and I’ll put a gun in your hands. Don’t worry, we’ll only get dirty enough to make the Council happy.”
“I’ll be a bit late; I’m escorting them to the Hwatcom Family Gathering on Friday.” Andy took a step back as Jackie stood up and twisted a bit to stretch out.
“No surprise there, grandpa’s an old school traditional Indian. They’re dummies, but they’re trying to do right by us, finally. Again, thanks to you, Chie-” Andy slapped the back of her head hard and growled at her, but she just started laughing, making him even madder.
“Alright, enough. Let’s get on the bow and not look like we’re sketchy Indians plotting to attack an Imperial fort.” Andy snarled, shoving her past him while she just kept laughing.
Andy stomped forward, aware of the wet sounds his boots made as he walked. Kalai turned and smiled at him as he moved to stand beside her and her father. “So how are they doing out there?”
“They just started their attack. This is fascinating! Their coordination, their ingenuity, and adaptation to human activity is astounding! I wish I had brought observation drones!” Sakalbi was glued to the binoculars and holding her omnipad up while she muttered observations into the speaker. Andy was content to watch as the pod put on a repeat performance and the net sagged again until they all came up and started swimming lazily around the net and the boat. All of them except Butterball and one of his older brothers. The two seemed to be getting into a jumping contest.
“He’s feeling a bit hyper. Must be nice to be full,” Jackie commented as the two whales took turns jumping out of the water and twisting in the air. Andy smiled and nodded and felt a hand go to his shoulder. He looked down and saw it was Kalai making eyes at him. Andy hid the grimace at the burn and gave her a wink.
“That one’s getting closer, should we be concerned?” Andy looked over at Dr. He’osforos and Kalai quickly moved her hand as they watched Butterball getting closer and closer with each jump.
Jackie hopped up and straddled the railing as Andy and Kalai shared a concerned look. Jackie hooked a hand around one of the roller horns and peered down into the water. “I don’t think so, I mean he knows we’re-”
The sudden appearance of a flying adolescent Orca only a scant few feet away from the boat right next to the lot of them cut Jackie off. Most of them only had enough time to watch the little playful bastard hang in the air for a moment before he twisted to almost shoulder punch the water as he came back down. Andy had just enough presence of mind to pull Kalai and her father down, and braced himself as the plume of water rose from where Butterball landed.
“Oh shi-” Andy heard Jackie say before water cascaded down on them and drenched them all, sending the boat rocking violently.
It took a moment for Andy to recover and he helped the two Shil back to their feet. “Quick check, is everyone alright?”
“HEY! WHAT THE HELL, BUTTERBALL! GRAMMIE! YOU HAVE A TALK WITH YOUR GRANDSON! HE’S GONNA GET SOMEONE KILLED ONE OF THESE DAYS!” Jackie screamed at the water, shaking her fist.
A camera shutter sounded and a dripping wet Mrs. Vaida stood, wide eyed in fear, staring out over the water.
Andy started laughing at the sight of his boss soaked to the bone, her hair and her fur a dripping mess. “That picture right there? You can title it: ‘Angry Native Woman Yells at Whale.’”
Kalai looked like she was on Krek’s doorstep. Akil’eas knelt next to her as he finished his examination and was looking over the readings on his omnipad. His daughter sat in front of the cabin on the little step, legs splayed out in front of her while she leaned against the railing on the side of the boat. Her father stood next to her as he finished a quick check of her vitals and her viral load.
“Unsurprisingly, you’re a bit elevated, but given your numbers over the last week, that’s saying that you’ve come back up to your normal levels.” Akil’eas had been worried. When they’d hauled in the net the second time, Kalai had stayed on the bow with the boy, Andy, while Akil’eas’d stood over the human woman’s shoulder and studied the controls.
Akil’ieas had also pitched in and helped fill the hold, but when he and Sakalbi could no longer stuff them in, they’d given up and stood out of the way. His old friend and colleague had spent the rest of the time recording, either the large predators that continued to circle and play around the boat, or the seemingly inefficient fishing practice of Andy and his people. No wonder he was so big, and his brother had been that strong. It beggared belief that their people worked at that backbreaking pace for so long, but there Andy stood, proud and tall at the end of it, while he and Sakalbi struggled to stay standing.
Akil’eas had to focus on keeping his hands from shaking and retrieved another water bottle for his exhausted daughter. Andy had them moving at a slow pace back towards a different harbor from the one they’d left that morning. They’d stopped briefly at the pier they’d started from to allow Jackie to disembark. The two humans packed all the fish that couldn’t fit in the hold up to Jackie’s truck and filled the bed of it without any help. She drove off with close to a hundred fish.
Now with the deck cleared, Andy told them they were on their way to the harbor most of his Band used. The trip had been slower going than the morning had been, but only because they were riding much lower in the water than they had been.
“King Triton’s farewell,” Kalai muttered looking up. Akil’eas followed his daughter’s gaze up to see a flock of white and gray seabirds calling out loudly as they kept pace with the boat as it headed towards the docks.
“It means work’s almost over. It’s a great sound, isn’t it?” Andy called out from the cabin where he sat at the helm.
Kalai shifted herself with great effort to look around the door to the cabin. “It sounds amazing.”
The smile Andy gave Kalai caused Akil’eas to have a pang of fatherly protectiveness, and only fatigue kept the scowl off his face. “Just wait, we’ll clean a few once we’ve off-loaded to the families. Fresh salmon tonight for everyone, and I’m cooking! Doc, we’d love to have you, too.”
“I’d love to but-”
Kalai grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Trust me, Papa, you don’t want to miss it.”
Akil’eas chewed his tongue for a moment, looking from Andy to Kalai. Sakalbi caught his eye and nodded emphatically. “Alright, if you’ll allow me to help. You must be exhausted.”
Andy beamed at Akil’eas, “You won’t hear me turn down free help.”
“Vaascon fellas don’t have no frills, Haul away, haul away! They’re plain and skinny as a lodthfish gill, And we’re bound away for Vaasconia!”
Kalai sat back and started singing between sips of water. Akil’eas sat down next to her and joined in the chorus for a Vaascon sailing song. It was strange to think that these humans also sang to their sea gods to placate them and coordinate the work. What else could you expect from a sailorman? Some things call to the soul across time and evidently even the gulf space and peoples.
“So heave him up my Turry Turry girls, Haul away, haul away! Heave him up and let the sails unfurl! And we’re bound away for Vaasconia!”
Andy’s voice joining in on the chorus startled Akil’eas and Kalai and they both turned to look back at him.
He gave them another wide grin, “I started learning some of the sail songs after Kalai told me about sailing on Shil.”
“Akil’eas, a word?” Sakalbi motioned with her head towards the bow and offered him a hand up. He followed her to the bow, leaving the two children singing together.
The harbor mouth was coming up fast, and between the noise of the engine and the net drum keeping them out of sight, there was some privacy. “I’ve heard some rumors about your feelings toward humans…” Sakalbi leaned against the railing, giving him the look that every teacher and professor had when questioning a belligerent student. When Akil’eas didn’t answer her, save to throw her back his own look, she continued. “Kalai is quite taken with Andy. It’s been quite a refreshing thing to see her come out of her shell.”
“It’s a vacation romance, nothing more.” Akil’eas felt his stomach clench and couldn’t stop himself from looking back.
“I don’t think so, Akil’eas. This is the first time I’ve seen her so on thorns and thistles around anyone, much less a male. She’s been very keen around him.” The smile she gave him was a bit galling, but he had to admit, he didn’t really know Kalai as well as Sakalbi and her spouses.
“He is… I’m sure he is a very nice young man, but as a fit consort for a soon to be Duchess? No, and I’ve yet to meet a human that is.” The thought of a human becoming the next Duke He’osforos was absurd. Sure there had been the occasional non-Shil Kho-liebhaberin or even the one Duke Aurar’ian He’osforos who was a Triki, but a human? “They’re far too individualistic and self centered to rise to the responsibilities of the Peerage.”
“That’s not exactly as large a sample size as you think it is, Leas. If you had Andy in your class, or on your crew, disregarding the fact that he’s human, what would your read on him be?”
Akil’eas locked his jaw and pursed his lips, defiantly. “I don’t know.”
“Come on, Leas, you’re better than me at reading people, and I’m damn good at it.” He hated how Sakalbi’s eyes flashed and her right ear would twitch when she thought she had the upper hand in an argument. He huffed a sigh and decided to play her little game, just to humor her enough so that she’d drop the subject.
“Dependable, fastidious and competent, judging by the state of his equipment and his boat. Self sacrificing, diligent, hard working, given what I’ve observed today. He’s got a temper, but it takes a bit to get there, and he’s carrying some pretty heavy emotional scars.” He’d not seen very much of Andy, but the old Sailing Master and Professor in him started to come out and assess the boy just as he would any of his students or junior sailors.
“That’s my read, too. Doesn’t sound so individualistic and self-centered to me. Blighted Nature, Leas, from what I’ve learned about him and his people, he broke with several of their traditions and customs to help us. He’s stuck his neck out far further for us than we would have for him and his people, for no other reason than to try and save his homeland. Were he an Erbian on Myr or even back home in Vaasconia, there’d be Groom-War over his hand.”
Akil’eas was a bit piqued about her statement, “What about your daughter? Kalai made no secret about little Sitry mooning after him, and her disapproval of their courtship.”
“She thinks she’s in love, and it very well might be that she is, but Kalai’s disapproval should tell you what it tells me, given your own rather astute assessment of the man.”
“HEY DOC! TAKE THE WHEEL, I GOTTA DRUM US IN!” Andy’s voice cut their conversation short as Akil’eas turned to look back around the drum. Andy waved him back as he slowed their approach to come in. “Take us to Dock 5, straight back and to port.”
“Straight back and to larboard, aye!” Akil’eas rattled off as he traded places with Andy at the helm.
Kalai heaved herself up to stand as Andy grabbed a large leather circle and ran forward to jump up on the bow. As Akil’eas piloted the boat into the harbor and made the turn, he saw a large crowd of humans gathered on the pier and the shore. As soon as they were in sight, he watched as Andy, standing tall, began to drum a beat and vocalize, projecting his voice over the water to those on shore. Akil’eas sputtered a bit in surprise as he guided the boat slowly towards the open mooring.
“That’s their call. His family’s song lets the people on shore know who he is and that he’s friendly.” Kalai looked back at Akil’eas before moving inside the cabin to stand next to her father. “All the families know it, but only he is allowed to sing it. It’s their version of a family crest and coat of arms. Elder Hwatcom taught us about those. There’ll be a reply in a second granting us permission to come ashore.”
There was indeed a response of drumming and singing from the assembly of humans as many started to crowd forward carrying what appeared to be coolers. Andy reappeared and took the controls back and reversed to kill their forward momentum as Sakalbi threw out their mooring lines to the waiting humans. Andy killed the engine and moved quickly out of the cabin to speak in a language that Akil’eas did not recognize. There seemed to be a bit of confusion from those gathered on the dock, but Andy opened the hatch to show the hold full of fish.
“Don’t thank me, thank them. Sockeye and Kings to all comers, courtesy of the Vaidas and the Vaida Warren!” Andy shouted happily in Vatikre as he pulled two giant fish out by their gills and handed them off to the applauding humans.
Sakalbi managed to shoot Akil’eas a smug look before she plunged her hands into the mass of fish and began helping Andy hand them out to the people.
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Possible Late Post Due to Vacation. I will try to post on time, but it may be as late as 6/12/23
submitted by Kazevenikov to Sexyspacebabes [link] [comments]
Chapter 31: A Whale of a Tale and it’s All True
“IT’S FUCKING J-POD!”
Kalai watched in shock and awe as the two humans collectively lost their minds, hopping up and down and letting loose a series of high pitched vocalizing as she, Papa, and Mama Sakalbi stared in confusion at the two ecstatic aliens.
Andy turned and ran back to where Kalai and her parents were still staring in amazement and held his hand out, face alight and happier than she’d ever seen him before. “Binoculars! Quick! I want to see who’s out there!” Mama Sakalbi tentatively held them out, and he took them with a nod of thanks before rushing back to the bow. Kalai started as he jumped up on the bow and balanced against the roller horns to spot the black and white whales that were swimming fast towards the net.
“Eyes on Mama Shachi! Look, over there, see her?” Kalai approached cautiously as Andy pointed in the direction of a cluster of porpoising black shapes that were coming nearer.
“Eyes on! I got Grammie Slick out there too; the WHOLE POD’S HERE!” Jackie cut loose an undulating cry and waved her hands as little geysers of water and air shot out from the water on the other side of the net.
Kalai nearly jumped when a miniature version of the Orcas from the clone tank at Headquarters breached the water, leaping almost twice her height into the air before splashing back down in a massive wave.
“Look at that! Butterball’s getting some good air these days!” Andy crowed as he hopped back down from the bow and passed the binoculars to Jackie.
“Butterball?” Mama Sakalbi asked as she and Papa joined them. Kalai stared as the Orcas formed a line and charged at the middle of the ‘S’ bend in the net before diving down in front of it, sending a wave that pushed the corks back. She saw the spouts and the dorsal fins rise again for another charge at the net.
“He’s the baby, only about four years old. Grammie Slick’s taking the family hunting, see how they’re flattening the net out? We’re about to have a great fucking day!” Andy took Jackie’s shotgun and took it back to the cabin as Kalai and her parents crowded the rail.
“What are they doing?” Mama Sakalbi’s question was directed at Jackie and the woman turned to answer with a gigantic smile.
“Herding! See the ones circling around the net?” Jackie pointed to the two dorsal fins that were almost invisible in the fog that was starting to burn off in the morning sun that had started to clear the eastern mountains. “They’ll be starting to round up small schools of salmon once they’re done turning our net into a reef. Right now, they’re running along the line and probably seeing what they have to work with.”
Mama Sakalbi did a double take, “You must be joking, that level of intelligence would almost be-”
“Human?” Jackie interrupted with a smile, “Yeah, that’s our original teachers out there. We learned to fish from them.”
“I was going to say ‘sentient’, but I take your point. What I want to know is, what are they doing?” Mama Sakalbi gestured out at them, with a bewildered look on her face.
“They’re using the net as a sea wall. Thing is, the net’s hard to see in the water, but the fish can feel it. They’ll put their heads into the net, but that doesn’t catch them. They’ll try to swim around it so that’s why we put an ‘S’ bend. That’s where most of the fish get tangled.” Andy returned and picked up the explanation. “See in the center of the line? That fin with the black and white little checkmark behind it? That’s Grammie Slick, the Matriarch. She’s around sixty now, and grew up out here LONG before you all came down. They don’t always do this, but I guess with you all keeping the fishing fleets docked, she saw the net and wanted a big meal for the family. They’re going to keep pushing the net until it’s in the shape of a crescent and herd a bunch of small schools into a big baitball with pickets to keep the fish pinned in the middle. You watch, there’ll be salmon jumping all over in the middle as they school up.”
“That’s when you’ll see them charge up the center and take big old mouthfuls of salmon. It’ll be a smorgasbord for ‘em!” Jackie pulled up Andy’s omnipad and started recording.
“Wait, but you hate seals for competing with you for food, why are you this excited about Orcas who take so much more?” Papa asked as he also took out his omnipad and started recording as the pod of Orcas finished repositioning their net just as Andy described.
“Because they’re using the nets as a reef to trap the fish! See? Look! There they go! The wolves are out scaring every salmon in the area here!” Kalai dug her own omnipad out at Andy’s words and watched as the dorsal fins sank below the waves, with only a faint and fading wake to tell where they’d gone.
“Now watch ‘em set pickets! They’re going to start patrolling the outside of the net. When they get enough salmon in the middle, they’re going to charge. When they do, watch the entire middle section of our corks go under from the salmon trying to get away. They get whole heaping mouthfuls of food and we get a full net!”
Kalai watched the Orcas swimming in circles around the net like Helix Sharks, and felt a pang of fear seeing the big predators that seemed so gentle and inquisitive in the tank. “But what if they get caught in the net?”
Jackie suppressed a laugh before sweeping an arm out at the net. “I’ve never seen that happen before, and I haven’t even heard of it happening before… at least not here in the Salish Sea. All our Orcas grew up around these nets, so they’ll either avoid them or use them like they are right now.”
“I think it’s because they can see them and the fish can’t. Either way, we’re in for a show!” Andy patted Kalai on the back before pushing Kalai and Mama Sakalbi forward.
For a long while, the surface was calm, save for the circling Orcas as they all watched. Then, by degrees, there was movement on the surface of the water as fish the length of Kalai’s arm started to jump and kick in the baitball. Kalai watched, fascinated, as Orcas seemed to appear and disappear along the edges but never approached the middle of the net.
All the fins disappeared from the surface and an eerie stillness settled over the water. Suddenly, the water in the middle of the crescent erupted, with hundreds of fish shooting out of the water and a sudden surge that hit and pushed the corks outward before they sank completely out of sight. Jackie and Andy started vocalizing those strange undulating cries again, raising their fists in the air before shouting something in their language. From as best as Kalai could guess, it was encouragement as the Orcas started breaching and jumping. In those moments, Kalai could catch glimpses of their mouths full of salmon.
Kalai watched as the terrified fish swarmed towards the net, and watched as many seemed to jump over it and swim away as the Orcas gorged themselves on the enormous school of salmon they had trapped. It was an awe inspiring sight to see, and Kalai lost herself in the moment watching the amazing display of symbiotic hunting and fishing between them and the Orcas.
The engine of the boat turning over broke the spell they were all under as Andy moved the boat at a dead slow pace back towards the net. “Alright, let’s haul it in and reset for ‘em! Jackie! Get on the bow with the billhook!” Jackie whooped in agreement and gently pushed passed Kalai to grab a long pole with a small metal hook at the end.
“We’re gonna have to work fast. They’re hungry, and we all want salmon today,” Andy called over the sound of the engine as they approached the giant buoy that marked the end of the net. “Doc! Open that hatch back there and watch your step! Mrs. Vaida, stand clear in the cabin; I want no accidents today, and three on deck’s going to be a crowd with how many fish we’re going to be taking in. Kalai, I want you back in the-”
Kalai shook her head as she put her omnipad away. “I can do it! Let me help!” she was riding the high feeling of watching the Orcas, and seeing Andy and Jackie preparing to go to work while she was to be just a passenger galled her.
Kalai saw Andy give Jackie a look that she couldn’t quite interpret. “Alright, but you’ll work with me picking fish. Jackie, you’re on the Drum; trade places with me!”
Kalai saw Jackie huff and give Andy a piercing look as she handed off the billhook. “Watch out for jellies, they tend to explode,” the native woman muttered to Kalai as she took over at the net drum’s controls. Kalai was about to volunteer to grab the line with the hook, given her longer reach, but Andy had already leaned almost all the way over the side. Kalai had a momentary scare as Andy seemed to dip forward, seemingly in danger of falling overboard, until he seemed to almost levitate himself using his lower legs back into the boat and pulled the line over the roller horns. She stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do when Andy braced a foot against the side and began to pull on the line and feed it back towards Jackie.
“Way, haul away, we’ll hang and haul together! Way, haul away, haul away Joe!”
Though she didn’t understand the words, Kalai knew a sailing song when she heard one and didn’t wait for any instruction. She moved forward opposite Andy and lent a hand, pulling the heavy line in to the cadence of his chant. After two verses, Kalai heard the whine of hydraulics and the slack in the line behind them went taught.
“Stand back! Here we go!” Andy called to her and the line began pulling the net back aboard. Kalai looked back to see that Jackie had wrapped the line around the center pole of the drum, with the wheel turning to pull the line and net in out of the water. A small set of guide poles that moved when Jackie twitched the controls kept the line evenly distributed on the drum as the first corks and the dripping wet net began to appear out of the water.
“Put your hoods up!” Andy yelled at her over the noise of the machines, and demonstrated the motion. “It’ll keep the water, seaweed and Jellies out of your face and eyes, and take this!” Andy tossed her what appeared to be a handkerchief and he mimed the act of tying it around her face like a mask.
“What about you? You’re sleeveless!” Kalai’s voice was slightly muffled from the cloth as she tied it around her face before pulling up both hoods.
Andy didn’t respond, except to grin at her as he leaned out to watch the net coming up out of the water before it got pulled aboard.
From behind her, Kalai heard Jackie start singing another human sailing song. It was a bit fast paced, and Andy joined in for the chorus. On the third time she heard it, she joined in too.
“Blow ye winds in the mornin’, Blow ye winds, high ho! Haul away your running gear, And blow ye winds, high ho!”
“Coming up!” Andy shouted as there were several loud thunks before six large salmon appeared in the giant fluorescent green tangle of the net. The drum stopped, bringing the fish to a halt as Andy pulled on the corkline and scurried his hands back and forth, gathering the net up as he did until he reached the first fish. Kalai watched in awe as he seemed to magically pull the fish from the tangle and shake it out onto the deck. The second one seemed to be resting on top of the tangle and he flipped it over the corkline and shook the fish out onto the deck.
“Just watch these first few. When you get a feel for how I’m doing this, jump in. Until then, slide these beauties back towards the stern. Jackie’ll pitch ‘em into the hold.”
Kalai nodded and watched Andy’s movements intently. It looked like sorcery, with how fast he moved his hands and zeroed in on a fish. As soon as he was done, he’d whistle to Jackie, who kept singing the cadence out to pull more of the net in, only to stop when more fish were pulled up and over the horns.
The song changed twice before Kalai felt confident enough to jump in. She almost got tangled in the net herself trying to pull out her first fish, but Andy gave the net a quick tug and she was free again. Maddeningly, the fish had simply fallen out of the net without any help from her, and she fumed just long enough for Andy to point to one that was closer to her.
“Hoist up the thing, batten down the whatsit! What’s that thing spinning, somebody should stop it! Turn hard to Port! That’s not Port, NOW I GOT IT! Trust me, I’m in control!”
On the second refrain, Kalai managed to dig her first fish out and drop it to the deck. She let out a whoop, and Andy paused for a moment to give her a quick applause.
“That’s one, girl! There’s a thousand left if we’re lucky!” Jackie called out as Andy sang a verse and tackled another fish in the net.
“Keep an eye on the lead line; make sure it doesn’t go over the corks!” Andy called as Kalai ran down her second fish and was about to throw the excess net over the other side. She stopped, and Andy helped her get the fish without tangling the net.
It took until the end of the song for Kalai to find her rhythm, and soon she and Andy were running down fish in the net in a crisp and quick manner. Kalai felt like she could go faster, but Andy had cautioned her to keep pace with the songs, as there was still a lot of net to go. When Kalai spared a glance at the length of net still in the water, she saw that Andy wasn’t kidding. It looked like they hadn’t even really started to reel it all in. Ok, it’s hard work, but so is sailing, and he’s my size so I should be able to keep up with him. If he can do it, I can do it!
Andy was impressed. Kalai had jumped in without complaint, and she was very coachable. He could feel himself start to flag as they were starting to come to the last third of the net, but Kalai’s persistence, even though she was sweatier and more haggard than he was, kept him going.
The pile of salmon was almost as deep as their calves, and the deck was getting slick with fish slime. For that matter, so was Andy. In a momentary lull in the fish coming over the horns, Andy caught a glimpse of himself shimmering with all the scales that had flown off the fish as they scraped against the net to hit the deck, flopping. He took a big gulp of air and Kalai groaned as she straightened up, cracking her back as she twisted and bent to relieve her aching muscles.
Andy groaned a bit and looked back towards the stern. It was getting hard to see over the amount of net they’d pulled back in, but he could see Doc and Mrs. Vaida doing their best to help throw and shove the piles of salmon into the hold. Everybody’s getting their hands dirty today. Andy smiled and heaved a happy sigh. This, this is what I want. Being out on the water and doing good, hard work.
“SHIT, JELLYFISH!” Kalai shouted as she twisted away to hide her face behind her rain slicker hood. Andy blinked just in time as a wet squelching sound sent a spray of disintegrating jellyfish exploding all over the bow as the net bunched up and got squeezed together.
Andy felt it splatter all over his arms, neck, and face, before he felt it start to slide down his shirt to his chest. Almost immediately, he started to feel the burn. His arms, neck, and chest he could stand, but the blossoming pain on his lips, eyelids, cheeks, and most horribly the inside of his nose overwhelmed all his conditioned pain tolerance.
“FUCK!” Andy screamed. “FUCKING FUCKER! RIGHT IN MY FUCKING FACE! GOD FUCKING DAMNIT! FUCK!” Andy only barely avoided bringing his hands to his face. It was a hard fought thing to deny his instinct to try and scrape it off, but he felt his boots loose purchase and his feet slide out from under him. He hit the pile of fish that surrounded him hard. He was aware of Kalai yelling for her father and Mrs. Vaida, while Jackie’s braying laugh carried over everything else.
Andy felt Kalai trying to grab him, but her gloves were too slick to get a grip and all she did was spread the stingers more evenly over his arms. Andy kept his eyes squeezed shut as he heard Jackie start to direct the confused and panicking aliens.
“Hold your breath, cuz, vinegar incoming!”
Andy felt the bitter stinging splash as Jackie poured a steady stream of vinegar out from what he assumed was the giant jug he kept for these occasions underneath the little kitchenette in the cabin. Though nothing about the intensity of the burn changed, in the back of his mind, Andy knew that it was killing the stinging cells.
“Alright, Kally, take that bucket and fill it with seawater from over the side, then dump it on him.”
Andy sputtered a bit and spit as he scrabbled onto his knees. He steadied himself with one hand on the rail beside him and the other which found the corkline. He kept his eyes shut and growled as the burning spread from his hairline down to his navel. A sudden bracing splash of cold water nearly bowled him back over. Without warning, Andy hadn't had time to get a breath and he sputtered and yowled as the water soaked down under his rain gear.
Andy shook his head like a dog, whipping his braid back and forth before daring to open his eyes. “Son of a BITCH!” Andy growled as he got a look at Kalai holding an empty bucket, while Jackie was shoo’ing Mrs. Vaida and Dr. He’osforos away to give him some room.
“Jesus, quit your bawlin,’ you big baby, you’re acting like you’ve never been stung before!” Jackie called back to him as Andy ripped the gloves off his hands and plunged them over the side to clean off the stingers.
“It’s in my fucking nose you horse’s ass!” Andy shouted back as he splashed his face. A few strings of purple stingers fell into the water and Andy reared back aboard. “Ugh, get another bucket of seawater! I can still feel this shit!”
“Andrei, as a medical professional, I advise you to cease work and-”
Andy looked over as Dr. He’osforos spoke but waved him off mid sentence. “I appreciate it Doc, but I’ve had it far worse than this. There’s a brown and yellow bottle in one of the drawers under the bench that says ‘Motrin’. Get me the bottle or enough to tranq a cow, and I’ll go back to work just fine.”
Kalai let loose a piercing scream and Andy looked over just in time to see her rocketed herself backwards, dropping the bucket over the side. The Doctor caught his daughter before she fell into the hold, but he too had a look of fear plastered on his face. Andy and Jackie moved to the side to see what had scared her so badly, and the two of them couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Grammie Slick and two of her daughters were there, sticking their heads out of the water with their mouths open, while Butterball was playing with the bucket.
Jackie laughed and stuck her hand out, rubbing the Orca matriarch on the snout. “Raggedy Andy’s fine, Grammie Slick! He’s just milking it for sympathy from these gullible hwun’eetums!”
“What in the Balance of Nature is going on here?” Mrs. Vaida’s shocked voice caused Andy and Jackie to look at her as she stared dumbfounded at the Orcas that were gathering alongside the boat.
“Oh they’re just saying ‘hi.’” Andy shrugged with a smile, despite the burning.
“More like ‘What the hell, cousins, you still got fish to pick. Quit loafin’ around and get another set in!’”
“Jackie, Motrin… NOW!” Andy growled at her. Jackie blew a raspberry at him before diving into the cabin.
“They’re pretty friendly, if you’d like to be introduced,” Andy held out a hand and motioned for Kalai and her father to step forward. Andy dipped his hand in again to make sure it was clear of any stinging cells, before he gently guided the hesitant Kalai to stick her ungloved hand out toward Grammie Slick.
One of the daughters blew a spout before sliding back under water, but Grammie gave a few clicks before briefly touching Kalai’s outstretched hand. “Kalai, this is Grammie Slick, Matriarch of J-Pod. Grammie, this is Kalai… a purple hwun’eetum.” Andy laughed a bit at the look of incredulity on Kalai’s face and the concern on her father’s.
There was a series of shutter clicks from behind Andy, and he turned to see Sakalbi snapping pictures as fast as she could. Kalai was clearly torn between fear and wonder as she held perfectly still and silent for Grammie, who was letting her touch her before she slid back under the water herself. Andy laughed as several clicks and whistles from the pod reverberated through the hull of the boat and he leaned back in.
“Alright, break’s over,” Andy called as he caught the flying bottle of pills Jackie threw at him. He popped two and swallowed them dry before washing the gloves off and putting them on. The extra rinse would have to wait, and he’d have to tough it out until they got back to shore. His boots squelched as he picked his way through the fish on the deck to get back to his station and nodded for Jackie to restart the drum.
It was another twenty minutes before the last of the net was pulled aboard and they were able to clear away all the fish into the hold. Andy stuck his head in and smiled. In a single set, they’d filled three quarters of it, and they had more than enough fish for the gathering and to feed another ten to fifteen families besides. The spouts and the clicks of J-Pod hanging around the boat, however, told Andy that they wanted their reef back and were still hungry.
Andy ordered them to prep the net for another set and helmed his boat again, only to bomb out in a straight line and let J-Pod take care of the fishing from that point on. Once they’d finished, Andy moved the boat out of the Orcas’ way and stood outside the cabin with Jackie while the three aliens crowded the bow, watching and recording the whales going to work a second time.
“Ok, I think we might get a moment to talk,” Andy muttered to Jackie in Salishian. “New orders from the Council. There’s going to be a raid.”
Jackie sucked in a breath and looked at him, all levity gone. “Cambrians, Militia, or the Dummy Bunnies?”
“Militia and the Interior.”
Jackie whistled softly in surprise as her eyebrows shot up. “Really poking the bear, cuz… When and where?”
“Uncle Willy wants us to hit the Militia Supply Depot out by Tanner on Saturday,” Andy growled quietly as he watched Kalai pointing to Grammie Slick’s dorsal as she swam out on the picket around the net.
“You mean the one close to the Snoqualmish?”
“Yeah. Full raid, we’re to hit it and take any supplies, especially military, that we can and destroy what we can’t. The messier we can make it the better. We’ll meet up with the Resistance on the old Bessemer Logging road by Hancock Creek and they get half for taking the credit. Me and Chuck’ve been assigned to ‘lead’ you.” Andy nodded and tried to flick some of the fish scales off himself, but got nowhere.
Jackie sat down on the rail with a groan before looking back up at him with a smirk. “You mean babysit on overwatch while we do the real work.”
Andy pursed his numb lips together and considered the ramifications of folding his arms on the jellyfish burns that had started to go quiet thanks to the Motrin. “Grandma and the Council want me to ‘get my hands dirty.’” He gritted his teeth in frustration.
“What? I’m sorry, that sentence made zero sense.” Jackie shook her head like she’d just been slapped.
Andy couldn’t keep the frustration and anger out of his tone when he spoke. “Apparently there are doubts about my loyalty to the tribe and whether or not I’ve lost my way.”
Jackie huffed in amusement. “Everyone knows the Council’s fucking stupid, but this is a new level of dumb. You got us land back, you got them to allow you to break the rules to feed our people, they’re fixing the fuck ups on our waterways because of you and they think you’ve gone to the dark side?” Jackie started laughing at the nonsense of the politics.
“Last time we talked, you thought I was playing with fire and-” Andy started to throw back at her before she snorted loudly.
“Results talk, cuz. Three of our Hatcheries returned, and my whole family drawing good money in Imperial Credits? Fuck, even if you had sold out, we need more Clan Heads doing the same thing.” She smiled as she nodded towards their guests on the bow.
“They still don’t trust that I know what I’m doing,” Andy growled as he folded his arms unconsciously and immediately regretted it.
Jackie snorted. “Of course they don’t. You didn’t talk to them or get their permission first. Hell, I’m surprised your grandma didn’t chuck you out on your ear for even suggesting that you should work for the dummy bunnies.” Jackie stretched and hopped up and around Andy to grab a water bottle. “But it’s working out. There’s land being returned, money in our hands, and food about to be on our table. You’re doin’ what a Chief is supposed to do.”
Andy scoffed and started to object. “I’m no Chief-”
Jackie gave his shoulder a slap and grinned evilly as a starburst of pain and burning cut through the painkillers, shutting Andy up mid-protest. “You keep saying you aren’t, but that don’t make it true.” She resumed her seat as Andy fought the yowl of pain back so as not to give her the satisfaction. “I mean, case in point, what are you going to do with all these fish Grammie’s catching for us right now?”
Andy blinked a few times as he regained his composure and thought seriously about his answer. “We’ll pull fifteen for the gathering they got invited to… Then all the fish you can pack into the truck goes to the Exiles. The rest? I’ll call Chuck and get some folks from the Council to claim the rest and distribute it to the families that need it.”
Jackie deepened her voice and adopted a cowboy drawl. “He never eats until he sees the pots are full of meat in the lodges of the widows and orphans-”
“That’s Comanche Law, not Salish, and that’s from a John Wayne movie, you ass.” Andy huffed and Jackie giggled wickedly, flipped him off.
“Still haven’t refuted my point, cuz.” Jackie’s singsong voice caused Andy to glare spitefully at her, until she raised her hands defensively. “Alright, you’re not a Chief. So, Not Chief Tsu’titsi’uqw; you need to get your hands dirty and lead a raid. I’ll scrape up what we need and scout the target. You just meet up with us Saturday night at the Snoqualmish Casino and I’ll put a gun in your hands. Don’t worry, we’ll only get dirty enough to make the Council happy.”
“I’ll be a bit late; I’m escorting them to the Hwatcom Family Gathering on Friday.” Andy took a step back as Jackie stood up and twisted a bit to stretch out.
“No surprise there, grandpa’s an old school traditional Indian. They’re dummies, but they’re trying to do right by us, finally. Again, thanks to you, Chie-” Andy slapped the back of her head hard and growled at her, but she just started laughing, making him even madder.
“Alright, enough. Let’s get on the bow and not look like we’re sketchy Indians plotting to attack an Imperial fort.” Andy snarled, shoving her past him while she just kept laughing.
Andy stomped forward, aware of the wet sounds his boots made as he walked. Kalai turned and smiled at him as he moved to stand beside her and her father. “So how are they doing out there?”
“They just started their attack. This is fascinating! Their coordination, their ingenuity, and adaptation to human activity is astounding! I wish I had brought observation drones!” Sakalbi was glued to the binoculars and holding her omnipad up while she muttered observations into the speaker. Andy was content to watch as the pod put on a repeat performance and the net sagged again until they all came up and started swimming lazily around the net and the boat. All of them except Butterball and one of his older brothers. The two seemed to be getting into a jumping contest.
“He’s feeling a bit hyper. Must be nice to be full,” Jackie commented as the two whales took turns jumping out of the water and twisting in the air. Andy smiled and nodded and felt a hand go to his shoulder. He looked down and saw it was Kalai making eyes at him. Andy hid the grimace at the burn and gave her a wink.
“That one’s getting closer, should we be concerned?” Andy looked over at Dr. He’osforos and Kalai quickly moved her hand as they watched Butterball getting closer and closer with each jump.
Jackie hopped up and straddled the railing as Andy and Kalai shared a concerned look. Jackie hooked a hand around one of the roller horns and peered down into the water. “I don’t think so, I mean he knows we’re-”
The sudden appearance of a flying adolescent Orca only a scant few feet away from the boat right next to the lot of them cut Jackie off. Most of them only had enough time to watch the little playful bastard hang in the air for a moment before he twisted to almost shoulder punch the water as he came back down. Andy had just enough presence of mind to pull Kalai and her father down, and braced himself as the plume of water rose from where Butterball landed.
“Oh shi-” Andy heard Jackie say before water cascaded down on them and drenched them all, sending the boat rocking violently.
It took a moment for Andy to recover and he helped the two Shil back to their feet. “Quick check, is everyone alright?”
“HEY! WHAT THE HELL, BUTTERBALL! GRAMMIE! YOU HAVE A TALK WITH YOUR GRANDSON! HE’S GONNA GET SOMEONE KILLED ONE OF THESE DAYS!” Jackie screamed at the water, shaking her fist.
A camera shutter sounded and a dripping wet Mrs. Vaida stood, wide eyed in fear, staring out over the water.
Andy started laughing at the sight of his boss soaked to the bone, her hair and her fur a dripping mess. “That picture right there? You can title it: ‘Angry Native Woman Yells at Whale.’”
“Unsurprisingly, you’re a bit elevated, but given your numbers over the last week, that’s saying that you’ve come back up to your normal levels.” Akil’eas had been worried. When they’d hauled in the net the second time, Kalai had stayed on the bow with the boy, Andy, while Akil’eas’d stood over the human woman’s shoulder and studied the controls.
Akil’ieas had also pitched in and helped fill the hold, but when he and Sakalbi could no longer stuff them in, they’d given up and stood out of the way. His old friend and colleague had spent the rest of the time recording, either the large predators that continued to circle and play around the boat, or the seemingly inefficient fishing practice of Andy and his people. No wonder he was so big, and his brother had been that strong. It beggared belief that their people worked at that backbreaking pace for so long, but there Andy stood, proud and tall at the end of it, while he and Sakalbi struggled to stay standing.
Akil’eas had to focus on keeping his hands from shaking and retrieved another water bottle for his exhausted daughter. Andy had them moving at a slow pace back towards a different harbor from the one they’d left that morning. They’d stopped briefly at the pier they’d started from to allow Jackie to disembark. The two humans packed all the fish that couldn’t fit in the hold up to Jackie’s truck and filled the bed of it without any help. She drove off with close to a hundred fish.
Now with the deck cleared, Andy told them they were on their way to the harbor most of his Band used. The trip had been slower going than the morning had been, but only because they were riding much lower in the water than they had been.
“King Triton’s farewell,” Kalai muttered looking up. Akil’eas followed his daughter’s gaze up to see a flock of white and gray seabirds calling out loudly as they kept pace with the boat as it headed towards the docks.
“It means work’s almost over. It’s a great sound, isn’t it?” Andy called out from the cabin where he sat at the helm.
Kalai shifted herself with great effort to look around the door to the cabin. “It sounds amazing.”
The smile Andy gave Kalai caused Akil’eas to have a pang of fatherly protectiveness, and only fatigue kept the scowl off his face. “Just wait, we’ll clean a few once we’ve off-loaded to the families. Fresh salmon tonight for everyone, and I’m cooking! Doc, we’d love to have you, too.”
“I’d love to but-”
Kalai grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Trust me, Papa, you don’t want to miss it.”
Akil’eas chewed his tongue for a moment, looking from Andy to Kalai. Sakalbi caught his eye and nodded emphatically. “Alright, if you’ll allow me to help. You must be exhausted.”
Andy beamed at Akil’eas, “You won’t hear me turn down free help.”
“Vaascon fellas don’t have no frills, Haul away, haul away! They’re plain and skinny as a lodthfish gill, And we’re bound away for Vaasconia!”
Kalai sat back and started singing between sips of water. Akil’eas sat down next to her and joined in the chorus for a Vaascon sailing song. It was strange to think that these humans also sang to their sea gods to placate them and coordinate the work. What else could you expect from a sailorman? Some things call to the soul across time and evidently even the gulf space and peoples.
“So heave him up my Turry Turry girls, Haul away, haul away! Heave him up and let the sails unfurl! And we’re bound away for Vaasconia!”
Andy’s voice joining in on the chorus startled Akil’eas and Kalai and they both turned to look back at him.
He gave them another wide grin, “I started learning some of the sail songs after Kalai told me about sailing on Shil.”
“Akil’eas, a word?” Sakalbi motioned with her head towards the bow and offered him a hand up. He followed her to the bow, leaving the two children singing together.
The harbor mouth was coming up fast, and between the noise of the engine and the net drum keeping them out of sight, there was some privacy. “I’ve heard some rumors about your feelings toward humans…” Sakalbi leaned against the railing, giving him the look that every teacher and professor had when questioning a belligerent student. When Akil’eas didn’t answer her, save to throw her back his own look, she continued. “Kalai is quite taken with Andy. It’s been quite a refreshing thing to see her come out of her shell.”
“It’s a vacation romance, nothing more.” Akil’eas felt his stomach clench and couldn’t stop himself from looking back.
“I don’t think so, Akil’eas. This is the first time I’ve seen her so on thorns and thistles around anyone, much less a male. She’s been very keen around him.” The smile she gave him was a bit galling, but he had to admit, he didn’t really know Kalai as well as Sakalbi and her spouses.
“He is… I’m sure he is a very nice young man, but as a fit consort for a soon to be Duchess? No, and I’ve yet to meet a human that is.” The thought of a human becoming the next Duke He’osforos was absurd. Sure there had been the occasional non-Shil Kho-liebhaberin or even the one Duke Aurar’ian He’osforos who was a Triki, but a human? “They’re far too individualistic and self centered to rise to the responsibilities of the Peerage.”
“That’s not exactly as large a sample size as you think it is, Leas. If you had Andy in your class, or on your crew, disregarding the fact that he’s human, what would your read on him be?”
Akil’eas locked his jaw and pursed his lips, defiantly. “I don’t know.”
“Come on, Leas, you’re better than me at reading people, and I’m damn good at it.” He hated how Sakalbi’s eyes flashed and her right ear would twitch when she thought she had the upper hand in an argument. He huffed a sigh and decided to play her little game, just to humor her enough so that she’d drop the subject.
“Dependable, fastidious and competent, judging by the state of his equipment and his boat. Self sacrificing, diligent, hard working, given what I’ve observed today. He’s got a temper, but it takes a bit to get there, and he’s carrying some pretty heavy emotional scars.” He’d not seen very much of Andy, but the old Sailing Master and Professor in him started to come out and assess the boy just as he would any of his students or junior sailors.
“That’s my read, too. Doesn’t sound so individualistic and self-centered to me. Blighted Nature, Leas, from what I’ve learned about him and his people, he broke with several of their traditions and customs to help us. He’s stuck his neck out far further for us than we would have for him and his people, for no other reason than to try and save his homeland. Were he an Erbian on Myr or even back home in Vaasconia, there’d be Groom-War over his hand.”
Akil’eas was a bit piqued about her statement, “What about your daughter? Kalai made no secret about little Sitry mooning after him, and her disapproval of their courtship.”
“She thinks she’s in love, and it very well might be that she is, but Kalai’s disapproval should tell you what it tells me, given your own rather astute assessment of the man.”
“HEY DOC! TAKE THE WHEEL, I GOTTA DRUM US IN!” Andy’s voice cut their conversation short as Akil’eas turned to look back around the drum. Andy waved him back as he slowed their approach to come in. “Take us to Dock 5, straight back and to port.”
“Straight back and to larboard, aye!” Akil’eas rattled off as he traded places with Andy at the helm.
Kalai heaved herself up to stand as Andy grabbed a large leather circle and ran forward to jump up on the bow. As Akil’eas piloted the boat into the harbor and made the turn, he saw a large crowd of humans gathered on the pier and the shore. As soon as they were in sight, he watched as Andy, standing tall, began to drum a beat and vocalize, projecting his voice over the water to those on shore. Akil’eas sputtered a bit in surprise as he guided the boat slowly towards the open mooring.
“That’s their call. His family’s song lets the people on shore know who he is and that he’s friendly.” Kalai looked back at Akil’eas before moving inside the cabin to stand next to her father. “All the families know it, but only he is allowed to sing it. It’s their version of a family crest and coat of arms. Elder Hwatcom taught us about those. There’ll be a reply in a second granting us permission to come ashore.”
There was indeed a response of drumming and singing from the assembly of humans as many started to crowd forward carrying what appeared to be coolers. Andy reappeared and took the controls back and reversed to kill their forward momentum as Sakalbi threw out their mooring lines to the waiting humans. Andy killed the engine and moved quickly out of the cabin to speak in a language that Akil’eas did not recognize. There seemed to be a bit of confusion from those gathered on the dock, but Andy opened the hatch to show the hold full of fish.
“Don’t thank me, thank them. Sockeye and Kings to all comers, courtesy of the Vaidas and the Vaida Warren!” Andy shouted happily in Vatikre as he pulled two giant fish out by their gills and handed them off to the applauding humans.
Sakalbi managed to shoot Akil’eas a smug look before she plunged her hands into the mass of fish and began helping Andy hand them out to the people.
First:
https://www.reddit.com/Sexyspacebabes/comments/yz0u3h/the_cryptid_chronicle_chapter_1/
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https://www.reddit.com/Sexyspacebabes/comments/13tppad/cryptid_chronicle_chapter_30/
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Possible Late Post Due to Vacation. I will try to post on time, but it may be as late as 6/12/23
2023.06.04 03:57 Otakunappy Abdl_irl
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2023.06.04 03:30 Ok_Balance6949 Haha Cowboys fans!!! Big dub for the whole NFL
 | submitted by Ok_Balance6949 to u/Ok_Balance6949 [link] [comments] |
2023.06.04 03:12 heatman2333 Anyone else?
Been another long weekend of reminiscing. And I think what doesn’t get talked about enough is having to act like the person that, in my case 6-7 months which may seem short, doesn’t exist anymore and that sucks. We originally agreed to reach out whenever and I was the last to do so to no response and it’s been almost two months of NC. Countless memes I wanted to send and just wanting to know how things have been going for her. And maybe she’s trying to protect me(she’s the dumper) or she’s already found someone else but we were friends before it got serious too and just to have that back would be great. There wasn’t any hard feelings initially just how she went about ending things so maybe one day we can come back to friendly terms as she’s moving back home later this year so I know there’s no chance of ever getting back together.
submitted by heatman2333 to ExNoContact [link] [comments]
2023.06.04 01:49 Substantial-Ratio-90 Haha Cowboys fans!!! Big dub for the whole NFL
| | submitted by Substantial-Ratio-90 to u/Substantial-Ratio-90 [link] [comments] |
2023.06.04 01:45 Tsukiumi-Chan Subreddit User Survey Part 3: Survey Harder (Your Feedback and questions)
We surveyed users back in late March about their thoughts on the Subreddit. This is part three of that survey. You can read the second part here: https://www.reddit.com/WorldOfWarships/comments/13awh4v/subreddit_user_survey_part_2_electric_boogaloo/. There is a link to the first part in that post. Anyways, let's dig in! Here are the “other thoughts” you guys wanted to share. Well, some of them at least..... (I'm not posting the response that was just "poi")
This concludes the end of our user survey! I would like to thank all the users who took the survey and filled it out with your honest opinions. It helps us a ton! We want to make this subreddit your home for your WoWS fix, and to make it as good as possible, we need to know what you guys think. Thank you for all your detailed comments- they help a ton. A lot of the comments weren't questions, but they help nonetheless.
Happy Sailing! And if anyone wants some, we do have some leftover cookies from the survey. Everyone can grab ONE at the table if you would like. Feel freed to drop your comments and questions below. If you want to know more about something on the survey that I may have missed, want to give some feedback, or just want to talk about something, go ahead!
submitted by Tsukiumi-Chan to WorldOfWarships [link] [comments]
- “I hate subs”. Cool story, bro. I think they’re okay for a lunch, but I’m more partial to a hamburger myself.
- “The CV/Subs are bad posts should be considered as low effort posts. They're mostly just for karma farming” . Personally I agree. I strike down a LOT of these posts for the low effort rule, but I’ll try to be around more to catch as many as possible. There were at least 20 comments that had a similar sentiment.
- We had a lot of people who suggested pinned sticky threads for all kinds of things. I highlighted over that in the last mod post about the survey, but here’s the TL;DR.... It can’t be done with Reddit’s functionality. It’s rare that we have a free sticky spot to give to something. Reddit only gives Subreddits two, because they’re too busy trying to kill off third party apps instead of QoL improvements.
- "Wasn't too pleased that a thread about the Haida auction was removed for the lamest of reasons. Smacked of WG shilling - the discussion was on point about the cost. Mod that was responsible for that should be removed.” You were addressed in modmail, but I did some digging. This was an incident that happened a few months ago (You can go through patchnotes if you really care, I guess). Anyways....your post was removed for being a duplicate. There was indeed another post about the auction... which was removed by a different moderator at roughly the same time. It’s called human error, and it happens sometimes. We’re not machines, we’re just humans. I know that amongst the mod team, we have two EMTs, a farm equipment dealer employee, an IT guy, a volunteer aboard a real life warship museum, and a PR guy for a large company. Those are the ones that I know- I’m sure there are TONS of other cool mod jobs that I don’t. The point is that we’re humans. We all have jobs to put food on our tables. We do this, because we love the community and the game. We’re not going to be as perfect as a salaried person would be, but that’s also why this place is as great as it is. Please be patient with us, and don’t fill our modmail with shouting when stuff like this happens. No moderator will be removed over this issue.
- We did have one user who accused us of being paid shills for Wargaming, because there’s always that one person. I just want to know where the heck my checks are then. Come on Wargaming, I’ve been here for like 5 years. How long do you need to mail a darned check? I could use a new set of tires for my Saab, so hurry it up, will ya? :P
- "Still waiting for you to add those other flag flairs, Tsukiumi-Chan :P”. Please resend the requested flags. I’m sorry, I’ve lost that list a long time ago. I can add flairs, it’s not a problem. I just can’t remember what I needed to make”
- "Tsukiumi-Chan best mod. Ducky_shot worst mod. I don't make the rules.”. Sorry, Ducky_Shot. The people have spoken. I’m number one! Heck yeah! You're like a John Deere and I'm like a Massey-Ferguson up in this joint. I'm just better.
- “The subreddit is fun, a nice place to go when I don’t have time for a game but want to still feel “in it”.” I agree, and I think a LOT of the people here would too. I don’t have a lot of time to play the game anymore- I’m basically a full time workaholic. But, it’s cool to watch someone nail a double strike, or see what changes are coming to the game. It’s a way to be involved and enjoy the game, without having to click a battle button.
- "Have you a moment of time to talk about our lord and saviour tiger 59?” Nope, I do not. Thanks for asking, though.
- "Tsukiumi-Chan deserves a Fujin review, for the memes.”. Thank you, and I agree. After 3,500 battles in it, a review would be nice. But, maybe the friends we made and the torpedoes we launched were the meme all along. Or something like that. I don’t do catchy sayings very well. I just torp things.
- "Thanks for the effort in keeping this community alive. The game may have gone down the shitter since release, but the subreddit has always been a great place for info, guidance, and inspiration to keep playing the game.” We’re glad to be here for you all! There are times that the game and the Subreddit can be trying to our patience, but we’re glad to be here. I remember when I first downloaded WoWS, back after it just left Beta. It’s been a lot of fun along the way, and I hope it will continue to be, for many years to come!
- "The constant, CVs suck, subs ruin the game posts that show up 5 times a week, or more, are getting really, really tiresome. Make a day where everyone can focus on posting why they hate class/ship X,Y,Z and ban such posts for the rest of the week. Call it "moaning Monday, "whining Wednesday" or "frustrated Friday" or something like this." . A weekly thread to complain may not be a bad idea, actually. I’d be interested in seeing what you guys think about the idea. We may have to try that out. You see, stuff like this is why we do these surveys. Oftentimes, you guys come up with ideas that we just wouldn’t even think of
- “Ducky is a lightweight”. I know. Why do you think I was voted best mod by that other guy?
- "NERF SUPERSHIPS, MATCHMAKING +1, -1. DO SOMETHING FOR TIER 1-4, ALLOW THEM TO COMPLETE THE DAILY MISSIONS(BATTLEPASS ETC.)". Like half the responses were stuff like this. I just want to remind everyone again that this is NOT a survey for Wargaming. There’s nothing we can do about in-game stuff. I can nerf superships by playing my Satsuma really badly if you’d like, I guess.
- "What happened to the original sub description? Go back to the one about never having submarines.”. We talked about this for awhile. We felt that it breeds toxicity. Imagine if you’re a casual player who likes playing submarines. Would you want to interact with a place that said that in the description? You don't have to like subs, or carriers, or the color blue as a ship camouflage. But, you need to realize that sub and CV players are people too. They deserve the same respect that anyone else does.
- "Need to have a weekly sticky for advice/general chat. Possibly rotating daily themed stickies like a bragging one to talk about your awesome achievements over the week, or an Ops thread.".Ignoring what I said about stickies earlier, I would like to see more themed threads, personally. I haven’t asked the other moderators about it. The problem is that they take time to make, and we just frankly don’t have the manpower to do it reliably. I can program AutoModerator to do them, but that feels a bit too cold and impersonal to me. Your thoughts? We have tried all kinds of things over the years. Basically: If there’s work involved, it never gets done. I used to help write “Ship of the week reviews”. That worked great until I ran out of ships I knew enough about to spotlight. We tried a video replay of the week feature.... which led to people whining about the ship choice, or the YouTuber who uploaded it, or other things like that. We just couldn’t make everyone happy. We’ve tried working with content creators directly, and many of them would stop submitting after awhile. Basically, if there’s work involved, we will need help. Especially going into fall. I run a custom baling business with my father, so all summer and fall, I pretty much live in the cab of my tractor. I can’t write Reddit posts reliably when I’m doing all that. I wish I could be here more.
- "Overall I think the sub is doing a lot better than for instance the /worldoftanks sub, so the moderation is IMO doing a good job. The overall mood is going to be negative at times because the game is heading in a direction a lot of people don't like, and I don't think that should be censored (and I don't think it is, I'm just saying we shouldn't start). It appears that this subreddit is one of the few places where WG employees can actually get some feedback occasionally and our voices should be heard." . There were about a dozen comments like this. I don’t really have a way to respond to this, but I felt it should be shared.
- We had one person who asked what happened to all the Depeche Mode references I put in the modposts. This is a bit of a silly question, but it’s a good one to end on. We haven’t done that for years. It’s a good reminder that while we may grow and expand, a lot of us have been here for the long haul. That shows how much we care about the game. The moments we’ve cried, laughed, and raged against HE slinging Kurfursts. This is a game after all. Have fun with it! As for your question, don’t worry. We’ll work in more DM references. As for when? It’s just a question of time. What? You can’t be too surprised that I worked one in there. There’s always room for one or two. You can’t overdo it though. You have to get the balance right.
Happy Sailing! And if anyone wants some, we do have some leftover cookies from the survey. Everyone can grab ONE at the table if you would like. Feel freed to drop your comments and questions below. If you want to know more about something on the survey that I may have missed, want to give some feedback, or just want to talk about something, go ahead!